Flack

I got the thumbs up from the wife last night, so it looks like I will be there and will have books in tow! I have a lot of family around the south side of Chicago (Homewood, etc.) so I will most likely be staying down that way and driving over to the event.

I hope so. E-mail sent!

How on earth did I miss an announcement about a Commodore-related event -- especially since I just wrote a book titled Commodork!

Of course a MAME machine isn't the real thing, but the advantage is having access to a lot of games (thousands) in a limited amount of space (one cabinet). If I could only have one, I'd probably keep my MAME cab. I don't know how people could narrow their choices down to one cabinet. Hell, I've had a hard time narrowing it down to 20!

Here's what I've found. I have a lot of programs that I simply can't get to work in DOSBox. Maybe it's due to configuration errors on my part, but I've done everything on some of these older games (especially ones that use weird memory configurations) and they just continually error out. So, I use both. I have DOSBox installed on my laptop and it does take care of most of my gaming needs, but for things that won't work on it I have a 486 dx4/100 that I keep around for the real thing. The best configuration I've come up with is Windows 98. I like keeping Windows on there just for networking simplicity (moving games and files back and forth), but keeping a DOS installation on there as well for true DOS gaming.

Video Game Collector Issue #6 has arrived, and look who's listed among the staff members! ... Check your local game stores for the latest copy, or you can buy them online here.

For OVGE this year I needed a computer monitor to connect to my laptop and face the public. I have no less than a dozen computer monitors out in my garage that I've acquired over the years, from old 15" junkers to 21" monsters that weigh around 100lbs each (they're old ... and big). I decided that none of these would do. Work has spoiled me with flat panel LCD monitors, and I decided I just had to have one. It would take up a lot less space on the trip, be a lot lighter to move around, and after the show I could use it as my main computer monitor at home, replacing a monstrous 21" monitor. [side rant] The day before OVGE, I went to Staples to pick up a monitor. Staples has replaced Best Buy in my life as "the place that never has anything in stock" -- although Best Buy's not any better, so I suppose Staples simply shares the title with Best Buy. When I arrived at Staples I saw lots of monitors for sale, but one really caught my eye -- a ViewSonic 19" widescreen model. The best news was, it was on sale for $219. which was cheaper than even the cheapest 19" regular monitor that they had on display. To make a long story short, of course they didn't have any in stock, so I ended up driving to Office Depot and getting the exact same thing. Staples is basically a great place for me to go window shop and see what I want to buy at Office Depot. [/side rant] I didn't open the monitor before I got to OVGE, and I was surprised that it didn't accept the same resolution that my laptop does, which runs at 1680x1050. I ended up running the display at some funky resolution that kept scrolling the screen around randomly. It worked for the show, and I figured I'd iron out the bugs when I got home. Last night I hooked up the monitor, and I can't get anything to work right. The monitor keeps popping up an error that reads, "this monitor works best at 1440x900". Problem is, neither of my computers offer that resolution (I have two machines running to the monitor through a KVM system). My 3ghz Compaq doesn't even have any Windows 2003 compatible drivers available, and only offers standard video modes meaning all the text on that machine is r e a l l y w i d e. My Dell fares a bit better, but not much. It does offer a couple of letterbox modes, but neither are the 1440x900 the monitor keeps asking for and the text looks a little scrunchy. In retrospect, I think I should have bought a regular aspect (non-widescreen). This is also seriously making me rethink the purchase of a widescreen television anytime soon.

Brad, here are mine: http://www.robohara.com/albums/OVGE_2006/images/s5000208.jpg http://www.robohara.com/albums/OVGE_2006/images/s5000533.jpg http://www.robohara.com/albums/OVGE_2006/images/s5000566.jpg All my pictures from the show are located here: http://www.robohara.com/albums/OVGE_2006 I would like to get copies of everyone else's pictures too!

This is going to end up being pretty god damn expensive if I have to buy two games and two systems to play them on. Stupid Star Wars collecting.

King's Quest III was just remade in all new spiffy VGA glory. http://www.infamous-adventures.com/

One of my favorite stories took place at the Yukon City Dump. Years ago a friend of mine and I went to the local dump to throw away some old fence panels. When we got there, the on-duty attendant showed us a long list of rules explaining what could and could not be dumped. Number 12 or 13 on the list read, "No Live Animals." The reason it's so funny to me is, you know it got added to the list because somebody actually tried it. No one just came up with that rule for the list -- you know that rule was added after a customer with a box of kittens was turned away from the dump. Today was our first official parent/teacher conference at Mason's school. He's been going there a week now, so I suspect the teachers like to give it a week to see where the problem areas (and who the problem children) are. Several of the points of interest throughout the evening were routine. We learned about appropriate clothing and footwear, what types of snacks we should and shouldn't bring, and so on. But then, things kind of got weird. The principal started talking about how it is not a good idea to let your four-year-old walk home from school alone. They also talked about how dropping your kid off at the school an hour before adults arrive is not acceptable. The lady speaking mentioned that while teachers don't arrive until 8:15am, people have been dropping their kids off at 7:30, a time at which only the janitor and the secretary are present. The weirdest part was when they covered cell phone usage rules for Mason's pre-K class. I (along with a few of the other parents) chuckled when they announced this, but the principal assured us that this was a real problem last year. Four-year-old kids were bringing cell phones to class and getting calls from mommy and daddy, checking up on them. It really bothers me when I think about why these rules were added.

Really? I didn't see one at your table. I guess I just overlooked them or something. If I had realised you had one for sale, I would have picked one up to fool around with on the C64 I won from you. No no, I didn't have any there -- I have three at home. I run across them from time to time for $5-$10 loose (no stylus, no cartridge). At one point in the afternoon, Icbrkr offered to let me walk around the show a bit while he watched my table. While he was watching my table, I ran into MegaManFan (MMF) over by Max and Dustin's table. MMF said, "hey, look what I got!" (simulated dialog) and showed me the Koala Pad and a few carts. Then I said, "oh, I should have brought mine. I have like 3 of them at home." That was the only time I saw them. I'm guessing they got put into our island (mine and Icbrkr's, where 98PaceCar and MMF were also hanging out) and probably got mixed into someone else's stuff. It's not really the kind of thing someone would walk off with intentionally; I'm guessing it's just temporarily lost. Oh, and SteveW: I'm embarassed to say that I didn't get a chance to test that C64 out first before raffling it off (since I forgot my monitor). Let me know if everything works on it. If not, I'll exchange it or the drive for another one (I have a few spares of each).

Thanks, I hope you'll enjoy it! Also on my Commodork page (the link in the banner in my sig) I have the entire first chapter of the book online in PDF format as well.

You are right, I did originally miss it. WOW, that's neat! You are also right -- I've never seen (or heard) a C64 BBS like that before! Did you write that software "back in the day", or is it more recent than that? Also, does it require custom software for both the terminal and the BBS, or just the BBS? Either way, that's fantastic!

Not only does it use to joysticks though, its got a vertically oriented monitor.. so you'd have to tilt your head to play Robotron/Smash TV, etc! I can't really think of any other games that use that scheme.. well not overly popular ones anyway. By the late 80s vertical games were mostly the domain of shooters.. and obviously none of those used a 2 joystick configuration! But if you ever come on a deal like that again, pick it up.. play it, and trade it down the road for a standard Jamma cabinet or something else you like. Somebody out there is looking for a Karate Champ and despite its relative low value they can be -hard- to find. Trust me, took me years to get a working Kung Fu Master together. Problem is, that game was converted en masse to other things plus it was mainly a kit game itself. I'd have gladly traded a $200 or $300 Jamma cabinet for one back before I finally got one (for $75). Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. I paid $125 for my Karate Champ in crappy condition (it's in a fairly beat up and painted over Dig Dug cabinet) and would have glagly paid twice that for it, as I'd been searching for one for quite some time.

I'm pretty sure that's what sold most Commodore 64s -- envy. Before I had mine, our family owned an Apple II. It only took a couple of visits to friends houses who owned C64s to convince me I wanted (no, NEEDED) one. One of the things I mention in the book is I remember looking at the graphics on the back of Apple game boxes in stores and seeing "Commodore 64 version shown" written under the pictures. I think that's what finally pushed me over the edge. Changing gears, you should definitely try and make it to one of these shows. There are shows in practically every region of the US, so pick one that's close to you and head out. They are really fun, especially if you can coordinate with some fellow forum members to meet up with you there. I find that the more shows I go to, the less it is about the games than it is about the people and fun.

One that's always bugged me was 720. It has such a unique controller that just simply isn't the same on a home joystick.

Number Six beat me to it. Karate Champ's control panel is unique, so unless you wanted to convert it to a Robotron or a Smash TV or something like that, you were in for a lot of work. The best course of action would have been to buy it, sell it, and use the $100-$150 profit to buy a game you liked better.

Here is my old review of Taito Legends. Hope that helps.

I actually gave one away last weekend at OVGE, and forum member SteveW won it! I would be surprised if you couldn't dig one up through a little thrifting -- I have around a dozen systems and drives out in the garage I've picked up around town for around five bucks each.

I had one for sale at OVGE. It was unopened and still had the $12 price tag on it. I was asking five bucks for it. Needless to say, it came home with me once again.

Sometimes the simplest acts are the ones most appreciated. I gave a kid a couple of free Atari carts (Asteroids and Pac-Man I think) for a 2600 he picked up at OVGE and he acted like they were gold. I also gave a kid a Commodore serial cable for free just because I like the idea of a 14-year-old kid going home and hooking up a Commodore 64.

Last year on my birthday I compiled a list of things I wanted to accomplish before my next birthday. The first item on the list contains three short words: "write a book." Today is my 33rd birthday and as many of you know, I am proud to announce that I completed my goal. Commodork: Sordid Tales from a BBS Junkie is now available. You can currently order the book one of two places: either through Lulu.com or directly through me. If you purchase the book through Lulu you will have to create an account on their site. The price of the book through Lulu is $15 plus shipping. Lulu prints the books on demand, so it will take 3-5 days for them to print your book before it ships. I personally have seven copies of the book left, which I am selling for $15 + $5 for same day priority shipping -- and if you live in or around the Oklahoma City area, you can save the $5 shipping and I will hand deliver the book to you. Let's see Stephen King do that! If you want one of those copies, please e-mail me directly. I accept PayPal, cash, gold dubloons ... you name it. After the current stock I have is sold there will be a second printing. The second printing will contain an ISBN number and will be available through Amazon.com, BarnesAndNoble.com, and several other retailers. Please help me spread the word about the book! For more information, check out http://www.robohara.com/commodork or just visit robohara.com and follow the links. Happy birthday to me!

I went through all my stuff tonight and it's not with my stuff. Hopefully it'll turn up in Icbrkr's stuff -- otherwise, it's possible it got accidentally thrown away or something. I don't know if you remember but at the show I mentioned that I have 3 C64 Koala pads. If yours doesn't show up I'd be glad to mail you one of these. I don't have a kart but I do have the software version of the software.

The 2006 Oklahoma Videogame Expo (OVGE) took place Saturday, August 19th, in the Tulsa, Oklahoma Mariott Hotel. Dozens of exhibitors and hundreds of gamers showed up to support their gaming habits. I was at the show for three reasons: to meet up with old friends, to promote my new book Commodork, and to sell some of my extra games, systems and accessories. Here's my official OVGE review/recap. [ Friday Night - Pre-Show ] I arrived at the Tulsa Mariott around 5:30pm. The first thing I saw was a yellow car painted just like Crazy Taxi with the Trade-N-Games logo on the back window. I was pretty sure I was in the right place. When I walked in the ballroom I ran into Icbrkr and his wife who were already busy unpacking and setting up. Icbrkr moved his car out of "illegal parking" and I moved into his spot. There is no good legal parking anywhere near the front of the hotel; you can either parallel park illegally in front of the hotel, or park in the spots marked "SPA CUSTOMERS ONLY". People did both regularly throughout the weekend. Trade-N-Games' ride. Friday night I wore my "Flack" baseball cap -- it's a black hat my wife bought for me with flames on the bill and FLACK written in large yellow letters across the front. It's great for situations like this where people you've never met in person before are trying to find you. The cap did its job -- before long 98PaceCar, Funk Buddy, and a few other people had found me and introduced themselves. Funk Buddy, 98PaceCar, and Icbrkr. Just as we were all getting ready to head out for a bite to eat, AltairBoy called me to let me know they had just arrived at the hotel. After waiting for them to check in, we took three cars over to Bennigans -- Funk Buddy and me in one, AltairBoy, Pantechnicon, and his son Alex in a second, and Icbrkr, his wife, and 98PaceCar in a third. Icbrkr and co. actually left a few minutes early and reserved a table for the rest of us. Dinner was a blast and it was good to hang out a bit with everyone. I'm thinking we were at the restaurant for over an hour before we convoyed back to the hotel, just down the street. L to R: Funk Buddy, Icbrkr, 98PaceCar, AltairBoy, Pantechnicon, with Pantechnicon Jr. front and center. When we got back to the hotel, more people had shown up. Smitty and his wife (?) were there, along with Jason from Trade-N-Games. The Vintage Stock guys were setting up their large display, and Shawn from Video Game Collector Magazine was busy hanging up posters and setting up his table. Things were shaping up! By this time my wife had also arrived, and she began helping me organize my display, along with cleaning and pricing items, preparing them for sale. I've been told before that the "good stuff" gets bought, sold and traded at these shows long before the doors ever open. While there was certainly tons of cool stuff still available Saturday morning, I saw a ton of merchandise swapping hands Friday night. I made over $200 in sales the night before the show! The public never saw my R.O.B. robots, boxed Atari 2600, SNES w/6 commons, piles of Atari knock-off joysticks, and other items. Around 11pm I went to find a sheet to cover my tables up with. Upon returning I ran into YummySmokedHam, who was setting up his tables. I talked to him, Crossbow, and his friend Vickie until about half past midnight before heading up to the room and crashing. [ Saturday - OVGE ] Mrs. Flack (Susan) surprised me the day before the show with a pair of Commodork t-shirts she had made to help promote my book. With our matching shirts on we went down sometime between 7:30 and 8am. The show starts at 9am, but by 8am people were already lining up outside the doors. I couldn't believe it! Most of the rest of the pre-show time is kind of a blur to me -- I just have images of running cables, hooking stuff up, double checking prices, and so on. Every couple of minutes I would notice a new person had arrived. Oh, there's Phosphor Dot Fossils! Oh, there's AltairBoy! Oh, there's MegaManFan! Oh, there's SteveW! More than any other year, OVGE 2006 seemed like a Who's Who roster from the online forums I frequent. At 9am the doors officially opened and people began piling in. My island consisted of 6 tables -- Icbrkr had three and I had the other three. His wife and my wife hung out inside the island, and some of the other forum regulars like 98PaceCar and Mr. and Mrs. MegaManFan made it their home base as well. There was no shortage of people or conversations in our area at any given time. My front table was set up to promote my new book, Commodork. My attempt at a theme was to surround the book with Commodore items. I had an SX-64 (the "executive" portable Commodore 64) set up playing games, my GP32 sitting out running Frodo (the C64 emulator), and my laptop which was running WinVice. The table went over okay. You never know what people are going to be interested in. I had a lot of people ask questions about the SX-64; some people had heard about them but never seen one, others said they had seen one a long time ago but not one recently. The GP32 got the least amount of attention. A few people asked questions about it, but the Frodo menu system is so complicated that few people were able to get it working without assistance. The laptop running WinVice drew mixed attention. Some people asked about the emulator itself, like how accurate it was, how difficult it was to install, etc. Others focused on the hardware, commenting on the monitor or the joystick (I had my MadCatz PS2 Retrocon hooked up, along with a PS2 to USB adapter). Most of the kids didn't care about any of that -- they just wanted to play games, and play games they did. It was a blast watching Pantechnicon's eight-year-old son Alex play Frogger II, Donkey Kong and Rampage. I kept thinking to myself, I wasn't that much older than him when I began playing some of those same games. In both 2004 and 2005 I had multiple systems hooked up, including one or more modern systems. I struggled with that this year -- my Xbox (which is nothing fancy) usually gets more use than anything else at my tables. In 2004 I had people walk right past all my console copiers (which I would consider somewhat rare) just to get to my Xbox to play Tetris Worlds. In a way I wanted to bring a modern system just to ensure interest in the table, but on the other hand it has always seemed like it attracts a certain demographic to my table that I'm just not that interested in entertaining. In the end I just went with the Commodore stuff, and it worked out for me. My table was not as popular as it has been in years past, but every single person who stopped was into the C64 and I had some great conversations about old computers with both old and new friends. Another worry I had about this year was that neither Digital Press nor Atari Age had official tables set up. Atari Age has been at the past three shows but didn't come this year, and Digital Press was slated to have a presense but ended up not appearing either. I was afraid that people would be disappointed (or worse, might not even come) because of this, but this turned out not to be the case. I did have a few people ask me where both tables were and I just explained the situation to them. It actually kind of worked out -- I'm always worried about tension or awkwardness between the two groups, and there was absolutely none of that there. I brought a few Digital Press items to my table (my t-shirt, my spare Advanced guide and my old Psychopedia) and ended up selling them all very quickly. Anyway, back to games -- and boy, where there games! I saw tons of boxed Odyssey II, Atari, NES and SNES games. The only negative comment I heard was that there didn't seem to be many Dreamcast or Saturn games at the show. I put out a bunch of boxed NES, SNES and PC games for $5 each and sold a few, but I also had a bunch of $1 items including loose common Atari games, C64 disk games, and other odds and ends that sold like crazy. Along with games for sale there were lots of games to play and lots of tournaments to choose from. Brad Prillwitz had his Pepsi/Coke tournament, Game Crazy had a Guitar Hero tournament, Max and Dustin had a Neo Geo tournament ... and there were dozens of other systems sitting around for people to play on. I know Josh Risner had some Dreamcast stuff set up, Icbrkr had a couple of CD32s, a C64, his C-One and other items set up playing games ... I walked around the room a few times and know I still didn't see everything. The back of the room had arcade games, and while I don't think there were as many as there have been in year's past, everything there was quality. Tank II, Star Wars, Joust, Galaga, and Frogger all got massive playtime. Games, games, games. One of the most unique tables this year was AltairBoy's display of Altair computers. As I mentioned before, I've only seen one before in my life and it was in a museum behind bulletproof glass. Not to sound dramatic or anything, but sitting in front of that thing playing Star Trek was probably a once in a lifetime opportunity. I hope lots of people took advantage of the one chance to check it out. Altairs. One thing I have to talk about is my book, Commodork. I took 30 copies of the book with me and sold around 20 of them. Many of them sold to forum regulars that know me, but several went to strangers who just saw what the book was about and picked it up. I've heard back from two or three of them already (my e-mail address is listed in the book) and all the comments have been very positive! Talking to the people is always one of my favorite things to do at these shows, so it was great to meet new friends who share old interests. [ Saturday Night - Post-OVGE ] Around 4:30pm or so, traffic started winding down. Everytime I tried to start packing up early people would run over and buy whatever it was that I was trying to pack up! I sold a 1520 Commodore Printer ten minutes before the end of the show. I took six 20-gallon tubs full of stuff to sell to OVGE this year and came back with two. Not only did that put a lot of cash in my pocket, but it also meant I had a lot less crap to load back into my truck. And by the way, let me just say this -- there is nothing nicer you can possibly do in your life (well, maybe adopt an orphan or something) than helping someone pack up their crap after one of these shows. After a late night the night before and 10 hours of standing and being "on stage" (so-to-speak), I was TIRED. Funk Buddy, 98PaceCar, and several of the other guys stuck around after the show and helped several of us pack stuff up and carry stuff back out to our cars. It is a GREATLY appreciated gesture. Near the end of the show MegaManFan mentioned something about going out and eating Chinese food at one of those Mongolian BBQ places, so around 5:30pm or so we started gathing people together for the post-show dinner. This took much more coordination and patience than one would think. It seemed like every time we got almost everyone together, someone would leave or someone else would have something they needed to do. I'm sure part of it was the fact that I was tired, hungry and cranky by that point in the day, but I was ready to EAT. I think it took close to two hours to get everyone together and ready to leave. Once the caravan did finally kick off, it was worth the wait. Crossbow ride with me, Funk Buddy drove himself, Pantechnicon, son and AltarBoy took one car and Brad Prillwitz along with Mr. and Mrs. MegaManFan took another. A great time was had by all. I had already packed my camera by this point but I know AltairBoy and Mrs. MegaManFan took some pictures that I'm sure will surface before long. During dinner I asked Pantechnicon's son what his favorite part of the show was. After thinking for a minute he replied, "I'd have to say it was destroying the Death Star." Hey, that's a highlight in any kid's life, right? I still had to drive back to Oklahoma City that night, so I broke up the dinner party around 9:30pm. In the five mile trip between the restaurant and the hotel, a huge rain storm came out of nowhere. Winds went from 0 to 60mph in no time. My truck was rocking back and forth in the parking lot, and I decided I would wait at the hotel for a few minutes for the rain to subside. Crossbow and I bolted from my truck to inside the hotel, where employees with walkie-talkies were running around trying to find where all the rain leaks were coming from. In the lobby we ran into Brad Prillwitz who was talking with Mr. and Mrs. MegaManFan, who invited us all up into their room to hang out for a bit. Up there, MegaManFan showed us his booty (don't ask) and Brad graciously handed out Pac-Man-themed scratch-off lottery tickets. I think everybody won a couple of bucks on them but me, so Brad handed me another card. No cash prizes for me on that one, either. Ah well -- I was never that good at Pac-Man, anyhow. The rain eventually passed and I began my 2 hour drive home right around 10:30pm. I rolled into Yukon around a quarter to one in the morning. Me behind the Commodork table. All the pictures I took are located here: http://www.robohara.com/albums/OVGE_2006 Thanks to everyone who came and made this the best OVGE to date. I can't wait for next year!!!