MagnaFarce

Great day at the flea market yesterday! Four Atari Lynx games (Xybots, Power Factor, Tournament Cyberball [x2]), still sealed but with crushed boxes. $4 Suspect 5.25" floppy game box and feelies (no discs, damn). $1 Aiwa AM-F70 Minidisc recorder with power adaptor and four new 74 minute discs. $17 Two CEDs (Acadamy Award Winners Animated Short FIlms, The Neverending Story). $2 Toshiba HD-A30 HD DVD player (No remote or power cable, but the cable is easy to find). $12.50 My friend also got a hold of a Bell & Howell 16mm camera. $2

I've had some good finds recently at my flea market and at a thrift store in Minnesota while I was visiting. Sony Mavica FD200 Floppy Disc Camera [2002] - $15 I actually bought this on Ebay because someone on Atariage had a post about theirs and it interested me enough to actually buy one immediately instead of just keeping my eye open for one. I got it complete with the box, all the documentation, and a battery charger. The battery I got was dead, but the seller is sending me a new one. On a related note, I got some floppies on Craigslist from an "socialist, anarchist, communist" lesbian, which was interesting. Cassette to 8-Track Adaptor [1975?] - $2 Between my friend and I we have four 8-track players, none of which work. Still, I couldn't pass up this adaptor. I had no idea these existed, though it makes sense that they do. Nishika N8000 (3D 35mm camera) [1989] - $5 I'll probably hack this thing and see what I can make it into. I really don't care much for 3D and there's so many of these cameras around that I don't mind accidentally ruining the thing in the process. It'll be a fun new project. 3M Stocks & Bonds Board Game [1964] - $1 I have no idea how this game plays, but it was a dollar and had everything in the box except the piece of chalk. I mostly got this so my friend can decorate his room with it because he really digs displaying old things from the sixties and seventies. On top of all that I was able to find a few groovy bell bottoms and turtlenecks while in Minnesota. Pictures: http://imgur.com/a/F8sjH#0

It's the same deal in San Jose. I always get the inkling that a lot of the discs at the local flea markets are stolen and I attribute this to why the local Goodwills are extremely protective of their disc-based media.

I didn't think it was humanly possible for Goodwill to have attractive employees! It seems like all the ones I go to are manned by middle-aged minority workers that look like they're only working because it will pay for their next fix.

That doesn't look bad at all! I'm going to look into getting one of these so I can finally have a camera to take with me places.

I've been looking at those things lately. How's the image quality?

I picked up an old Sharp pc-7200 at the flea market today for three dollars. It powers up and the screen displays text, but I am still unsure as to how well it works since I can't seem to find any 5.25" floppy disks around the house. I'll have to keep looking in the attic and the shed out back tomorrow to see if I can't find a couple to try out. Not my picture.

I used buy LaserDiscs whenever I came across them, but now I've got more than a hundred and I've only seen a handful of them. Now I hold myself back and only buy the discs I really, really want, or the ones that look so incredibly bad that they'd be funny.

Really good day at the flea market today! Sega Saturn with Memory Card Plus but with no cables: $5 Nintendo 64 mic connector: $2 11 loose Atari 2600 carts and Robotica for the Sega Saturn with manual: $20 Games: Jr. Pac-Man River Raid (Blue Label) River Raid (Red Label) Kool-Aid Man Adventures of Tron Smurf Rescue in Gargamel's Castle Pitfall Popeye Q-Bert 2 Parker Brothers carts with no labels

Not a thrift find, but definitely an unexpected surprise. I was helping my friend and his roommate move out the other day and they gave me a Fairchild Chanel F and about a dozen games to hold on to for a while. This thing is in supreme condition! The console has a protective plastic cover, still has the original receipts and manuals and hasn't been played since the late eighties, so I'll probably have this thing on my hands for a long time. I'd post pictures, but I don't have a camera.

Bought a Sega Genesis without any of the cords for fifty cents at the flea market today.

Not gaming related, but I found a Betamax recorder with the remote for $19 today at my local flea market.

'Butter F*cker.' It's a nickname I somehow got and I use it for my name whenever it fits. When it doesn't I just go by 'Butter' and name another character 'F*cker' if I can.

Isn't it? I found out about it through Rocky Horror, but I've gotten to a point where I find Shock Treatment superior to Rocky Horror. I enjoy the songs more, I really dig the clothing they wear, and I love how the reality television watching masses are portrayed.

If you were within a reasonable geographic proximity to me I would definitely invite you over to watch it. I go to great lengths to share it with people I befriend. Give that bit a try. It's one of my favourite songs from the film. I just love how they're looking toward material things being advertised to them to better their lives. But, on the actual topic of rabid sports fans; I never got into watching sports and never quite understood why people got so passionate about watching other people exercise. I can understand being really into playing sports, just as one could get very into playing video games, but just sitting there and watching other people do it is odd to me. I admit I have had a history of watching televised South Korean Starcraft tournaments, but even then it was for observing strategies and not for the sole purpose of rooting a certain player on. The only explanation I've figured over the years of watching my own father go from not really caring about sports to becoming a devoted fan of our local Minor League Baseball team is that there is a sense of community with the other fans that makes one feel welcome and wanted. It's something that people can bond over when they would otherwise have nothing to bond over and have little in common with the majority of society.

I highly recommend you see Shock Treatment. It's a fantastic musical with catchy songs about consumerism and ego/fame brought on by appearing on television.

Ooh, Clockwork Orange! That's one of my favourite films. My prize Laserdisc is Shock Treatment (Japanese release), though I also have fond feelings for The Kindred (which has never been released on DVD) and Boogie Nights. I have a fairly large collection, I'd say 100+, but I'm in the process of attempting to sell more than half of them. I got a bunch of Laserdiscs that I have no desire to watch from when I bought my main player.

I've only just started collecting within the last month or so and I'm restricting myself to what I can find at the flea market or thrift stores. I like to buy stuff, so if I didn't hold myself to this rule I'd have no money left. 'Tis the curse of being young and with little money. What's the crown jewel of your Laserdisc collection? I'm sure you've got a favourite or two.

Oh, yes. I use everything. I listen to the records, watch the Laserdiscs, watch reels of Super-8 (though I haven't filmed anything yet), and I have friends that are fond of games that use my systems. I wouldn't buy them if I wasn't going to have them used in some way. There's no point to that.

May I ask a question? Why collect systems if you don't even like playing games? I love technology. I love the history behind these systems and I like how they work. Older technology has always appealed to me because I think it's more impressive and creative, even if it is more primitive. Everything these days is digital and I don't find it fascinating at all. So what if they can make a movie like Avatar? It's not as impressive as a good stop-motion film. The same goes for technology of all kind. To me, CED's and their players are more impressive than Blu-ray discs and players because they've fallen into obscurity and the fact that they play movies off of a disc with a needle blows my mind. I collect old game systems not because I'm a gamer at all. I collect them because of their history and because there are so many people out there that don't appreciate them for what they've done in our recent past to shape society into what it is today, which is the same reason why I collect other old technologies, be it Super-8 cameras, vinyl records, or Laserdiscs. They're a part of the past that I want to be remembered, even if I wasn't there when they were in their glory years. I never really had any gaming systems when I was growing up so I haven't developed a taste for gaming, though I'm sure I'll find at least a few that I'll fall in love with as I continue collecting.

I wouldn't say we have mental problems, but I wouldn't say we're normal, at least in the eyes of the masses. We just really know what we're interested in and we strive to follow those interests, just as everyone else does, but with a less mainstream medium. Those interests even differ between those in the retro gaming community. I, myself, love collecting game systems, but I don't like to play games for the most part. The only game I've ever really gotten into was a Frogger machine at my local nickel-arcade with a broken joystick that wouldn't allow the gamer to move left. That's not weird, right?

Picked up an original SNES with two controllers and all the cables from the only Goodwill within driving distance that doesn't suck for twenty dollars and got a poorly boxed UK Tomb Raider for the Game Boy Colour with the documentation for a dollar from a small thrift. Good day.

My recent finds at the flea market is actually what got me interested in collecting old game systems instead of just watching reviews of them on Youtube. Flea Market: Atari Video Pinball C-380 (2nd white edition) for $10 Panasonic 3DO REAL Interactive Multiplayer for $5 Shopgoodwill.com: Atari VCS six-switch with two joysticks, one paddle, two 'driving' paddles, and twelve boxed games for $45 shipped. Going to hit up the thrift stores again later today!