MagnaFarce

Since there's a thread already, I guess I'll ask in here. At one of my local game shops there's a ColecoVision for sale with the power supply, the Atari expansion module, and ten games for $100 (they only have one ColecoVision game in stock, but the other nine I can pick from an entire shelf of Atari 2600 games). Is that an okay deal? I don't really know what they go for. I usually only buy consoles at the flea market, but I've been looking for for a ColecoVision for 2½ years with no luck and I really want one. I just don't want to pay more than I need to.

Man, I found a lot of stuff at the flea market and Savers over the past two days. $5 Dreamcast, $1 GC power supply, $1 Lode Runner, $0.50 Crash Nitro Kart. Got the TV Scoreboard complete with AC adapter and gun for $9.99 at Savers. Got Robotron: 2084 and the Sears Video Arcade II controller together for $5. The Game Boy Advance SP was $20. It's the AGS-101 backlit model. A few 8-bit Atari games, a red Nunchuck controller, and a Ms. Pac-Man plug and play for $12. (Also got an outlet strip, but it's not pictured.) SNES AV cable, NES controller, and an RCA television remote which can be modified to work with certain wireless CED players. All for $5. Two general composite cables, a Playstation AV cable, PSone dualshock, and Sega GT 2002, all for $3. (Also got a USB number pad, but I gave it to my dad to use since I have no use for it at the moment.) Four ties and Duke Nukem 3D Complete Version for $1. I also picked up a couple other things, but I figure this is enough for one post.

I bought some TI-99/4a carts from save2600. Very well packed package. I'm completely satisfied with my purchase.

I have a TI-99/4a on its way, but I don't have any games to play on the thing! I'm looking to get a nice handful of cheap games to play around with.

I had some really, really good finds today at the flea market. Atari Video Pinball unit with an AC adapter and a bonus RF switch which will probably never be used by anyone ever. $5, talked down from $10. Works pretty good, too. Less jittery than the unit I already had, so I'll probably swap the innards so I can have one which looks good and plays well. Got two Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre trays for only $2. I really like these things, so I'm probably going to keep them until the day I die. Got a Genesis arcade stick, a Xbox360 AV cable, and a black Nunchuck for the Wii for $5. The guy I bought these from is really cool and always gives me great deals. Way more chill than some of the other horrible people at the flea market who I've developed a true disdain for. Speaking of people who I have a disdain for, this next batch came from such a person. It's hard to explain, but I hated this woman's attitude and I refused to let her win. I was originally looking to get the Virtual Boy controller with the AC adapter and the game, which she wanted $10 for. I eventually got her down to $8, but was determined to get it for no more than $7 because of her horrible attitude (hard to explain, but it was horrible). Eventually I walked away, gave my friend a tenner, and told him to go in there and try to haggle for it (he's much better at haggling than I am). I told him to try to get down to $7 (so I could beat her), but that if he could get her to $8 to still go for it, so long as she didn't know she was getting those $8 from me (I really didn't want her to feel like she beat me). After a while he came back and said that she wanted $10 for it, or $20 for a pile of stuff, including a SNES. I told him to go for it and switched the ten for a twenty. After a long time he came back, told me that he hated her attitude and that she was being difficult and ignoring him most of the time, and told me that he was able to get all the following for $19: SNES deck, gold N64 controller (stick is pretty tight still), two SNES AC adapters, Virtual Boy controller, Vertical Force game for the Virtual Boy, AC adapter for the Game Boy, and some misc. RF cables. He also got a weird sandwich press thing, just so he could get more out of her. It really sounds petty, but this woman was horrible and we were both intent to not let her beat us. I've never met a person quite so difficult and stubborn at the flea market. We were there a lot later than we would normally go, so we had the opportunity to go through some boxes of stuff which one of the vendors had just left behind. I got a couple of old photo albums of other peoples' families, some sewing templates, and a huge pile of stoner magazines from the '70s. I'm not really into the whole stoner scene, but they looked pretty interesting, and it's hard to say no to something which is free. I also finally had a Craigslist deal go through today. I got a Gamecube Game Boy Player disc in the case and with the manual for $10. I recently got a GC at the flea market for $10 with a GB Player attached, so now I have the complete set. Pretty cool. I also picked up a DIVX disc for fifty cents (because I think the things are cool, even if I can't every use them) and spent a dollar for some table edge guards for my sister since she has a baby now and will eventually need to make the place safe for the little goob.

I'd say emulated just because the GameCube controller is so different and has potential to somehow effect gameplay. If it were through the Super Game Boy on the SNES I'd say original because the SNES controller offers more or less the same button layout and would be almost exactly the same at playing it on the GBA. That's just my opinion, though. I could see arguments for considering both emulation or considering both to be comparable to playing on the original hardware.

Wow. Yeah. I just looked up the US cover and it looks like garbage.

Just had a really nice transaction with Blazing Lazers. I sold him two Nuon controllers for which he paid very quickly, and he even threw in a bit more than we agreed upon to cover Paypal fees. If you're thinking about doing a deal with Blazing Lazers you have nothing to worry about, in my opinion. He is a wonderful human being and an asset to the Atariage marketplace.

Pretty cool. I'll just have to hope my Odyssey2 gets shipped soon.

I'll remember never to buy anything from you. ;(

Yeah, I don't have much experience with repairs yet. It's something that I want to be able to do, though, so I'm trying my hand at some of the extra consoles I have around. I can solder to some extent, so most of the problem right now is diagnosing the problems. I figure the more I fix things the more I'll figure out what the common problems are, and the easier it will be for me to fix things up. Anyway, thanks for all the info! I'll test out some other games and read up on the different components and see if I can fix this thing.

Here's a video of the Intellivision which is not kicking out all the image. I had to run it through my VCR to convert to AV for my capture card, and it got a bit messed up in the process. On the television it was clean. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHIlqx8guJg

I have an Intellivision which outputs a really messed up video, and an Intellivision which puts out a fine video, but doesn't include everything on the screen (e.g. in Pitfall! Pitfall Harry doesn't show up on the screen, but can still be controlled). I also have a Channel F I've had for a while which turns on, but only outputs a coloured screen. This is the system I'm most wanting to fix since I'm doing a panel about obscure/odd game systems at a small video game convention, and I'd like to be able to include the first programmable ROM cartridge system in the presentation. I've included an entirely too large picture of the board in case that would be helpful. I figure the problems on both consoles may be similar in nature since they're both video problems, but I have no experience with diagnosing this sort of thing and honestly don't know where to start. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Bonus: I also have a Atari Video Pinball unit with a jittery paddle. I replaced the old one with a new one from Best Electronics, but it's still jittery, so I'm wondering now if it's something on the board? If you happen to know, I could use the advice. Picture the board included below because I have one handy and it might be useful.

Please do put it up when you've finished it. I would love to hear it.

Really big find today. I went onto Craigslist and did my usual searches. 'Atari': nothing. 'Sega': nothing. '3DO': nothing. Nothing good at all. I don't usually search for 'Intellivision', but I decided to give it a shot today. Boy am I glad I did, because it brought up a huge lot posted two hours before with a lot of good stuff which, for some reason, didn't come up in my previous searches even though it included things which were both Atari and Sega, and were labelled as such. Sega Sega Master System Sega Genesis (2x model one, 1x model three) Sega Saturn (x2) Sega CD model two (this wasn't even mentioned in the post, but when I showed up he said he found it and threw it in the bin) Intellivision Intellivision model one (x2) A bunch of boxed games of various condition NEC TurboGrafx-16 (x2) Core Grafx Atari Boxed Atari Jaguar Misc. Damage done was $200 for everything. The guy I bought it from got it all out of a storage shed he's cleaning out (I assume for some family member) and told me he'll call me if he ends up finding any of the cables or controllers. I'm keeping my fingers crossed he finds a box full of the stuff. I've been looking for a TurboGrafx-16, Master System, and Jaguar for a long time now. This is really exciting for me.

Oh, I agree. I don't open anything sealed I find. I don't really collect games, I just grab the ones which I think would be interesting to play, and if I come across a sealed games I'll either leave it or pick it up and try to sell it to someone who does care about collecting sealed games. Same thing with boxed things. This particular Savers is really out of the way, so I probably won't be back until the next time I hit that particular grocery store next door. I might be landing a really good Craigslist deal here with a Turbografx-16 in a couple hours, though, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that.

My friend texted me today at 11:30am and asked me if I wanted to go to the flea market. Usually I go earlier and won't go to the flea market after 11:00am, but I figured why not? and said I'd join him. We got there around 12:30pm (which is usually when I'd be leaving) and started browsing. I expected a lot of the good stuff have been already sold or packed up for the day, but I found a couple sweet little bits. I got a boxed Okimate 10 printer and a Tomy Tutor 16-bit computer from one guy for a total of $25 (talked down from $40). The printer had the Commodore Plug 'n' Print package (usually sold separately) in the box which is good, otherwise I wouldn't have bought it. I also got a Gamecube power supply for $3 and a really grimy Laserdisc for free. All in all a very good day.

Got some unexpected finds today at Savers. Mixed in with the DVDs was a sealed copy of Veigues Tactical Gladiator for the TurboGrafx-16 for $6.99. As soon as I found that I went straight to the electronics section to see if the console was there, but there was none to be seen. While I was there, though, I found a sealed HPI Stealth controller for the Nuon for $4.99. I looked at the DVD players to see if a Nuon was sitting around, but no luck there either. After looking around some more I found a sealed HPI Warrior controller in the kitchen section, also for $4.99. I've never come across any Nuon or TurboGrafx-16 things in the wild, and I just walked away with a bunch of sealed stuff after going into Savers on a whim before going to the grocery store. Pretty good day.