MAC-42

Now, there's a thought. I'll have to swipe my daughter's Genesis pads and try them out. Normally, I just slap a couple CX40s down on a table. It's a fairly effective approach. @Ripdubski - No, the Genesis pads are just gamepads a la the NES or other systems. Single d-pad on one side, buttons on the other. Very comfy controllers, though.

Ha, nice! My daughter seems interested in this. (She just saw it in emulation; we've just moved it to our multicart.) Thanks again. Aking is on a roll!

I've been playing more 2600 and 5200 games lately. Every so often I'd play 7800 in emulation, mostly stuff I don't have. Which really pulled me back in a big way. Been playing it on the real hardware like crazy the last few days in free moments. I've even decided to pick up a complete set of the original games. They're largely pretty cheap and I can justify them much more readily to my wife. (Heck, I picked up a copy of Galaga for her and Xevious for my daughter. Feed them their favorites, I find, and they'll come along with you. Heh.) I very much want to start picking up the homebrews, too. There are some really extraordinary things being done in that segment these days.

Wow, this is fun! I'd never played this game before. And it's nice to see another fun game on the 5200. Nice work, thanks very much!

Well, yes, that's true. We certainly can. However, as Dauber points out, we have a decent solution in hand; we simply need a way to stabilize the foil dots that we know work. I would be interested in seeing any suggestions, too. I haven't had any problems with mine--my biggest error is getting a drip of glue on the side of the dot facing the flex circuit, preventing a good contact--but it would be nice to have that knowledge just in case.

I picked up a 5200 on eBay last week. Got a good deal on it. It's much nicer than the one I have now, so I'll lose that one and keep this one. There's one question I have, though, if anyone can enlighten me. This new one is a 4-port unit that, right next to the channel switch, has a rectangular hole in it. Inside is a triangular sticker that says "ATMC Made in Taiwan." I don't want to open it, but I wondered if anyone knows what this hole might have been designed for. It's clearly intended to be part of the unit--the hole isn't "after-market" in nature, if you will--but it clearly serves no purpose, and my original 4-port 5200 doesn't have this hole. Thanks for the info.

Oooooh, I've gone and done it. I picked up a nice little set on eBay: A light sixer and a bunch of controllers and games. (Never had a sixer before, so I thought I'd grab one.) Got a pretty nice deal on it, too. But it was truly filthy, so much so that it was setting of my allergies as well as my wife's. (I saw the picture on eBay showing all the muck all over it and showed it to the missus, sounding very Charlie Brown, and telling her that I thought it needed me. Heh.) Anyway, I opened it up to give it the really deep cleaning it needed. All went well...until.... Upon trying to remove the ribbon cable that connects the main board to the board with the switches and RF modulator, my fingers slipped as the cable finally gave way and the pins on each end of the cable bent. Complete carelessness on my part in handling it. I might be able to carefully bend one of the pins with tweezers and gentleness as it wasn't too badly bent out of shape, but the second pin was very badly bent. 90º to one side and a bit backwards. I might get lucky, but I'm afraid to tempt fate. Any suggestions on how to handle this? I don't normally bend pins so spectacularly on the occasions it happens. Thanks.

I had a nice day today, all told. But one of the last things that happened today was a great big cherry on top of it. Gather 'round, children, while ol' MAC-42 tells you a short story (as if!) before (his) bedtime. Pardon my verbal diarrhea in advance, please. My wife works with a woman who, upon hearing about the little gaming area I've set up in our house, was apparently a bit awed. (My stash is in my signature for what it's worth. Small, but I like it.) I just assumed she was a would-be gamer who hadn't yet gotten around to picking up the good old stuff yet. With this in mind, I told my wife to offer her the Vader 2600 that was laying around our place not doing too much. I cobbled together a collection of seven decent but readily available games--Yars', Space Invaders, Berzerk, you know the sort of thing--and offered the lot up for $30. I really couldn't justify adding the old thing to the collection on a long-term basis, sadly; there's only so much room when you have three kids, and you have to make it available quickly. Besides, she sounded like someone who would enjoy it and I didn't feel like gouging such a person. (Not on that day, anyway. Heh.) She about flipped out at the offer, double-checking to ensure that it really included the games and everything. We confirmed it, and she dropped by my wife's cubicle, cash in hand on the spot. I got it boxed up and sent it with my wife to work at lunchtime today. The thing that made my day happened late in the evening. My wife works at a rather large financial institution which has begun its year-end accounting procedures. (I won't see her for more than a couple of hours a day for another month or so on account of the late nights she'll have to work.) She called me on her way out of the office to let me know that she was leaving. When I asked if our buyer was satisfied, she informed me that she was, and that the woman was originally from California. I'm too dumb to make the connection, of course, so my wife had to inform me that she lived around Sunnyvale because her father was an engineer at Atari all those years ago. She was awed, it turns out, by the fact that if you swing my cat by his tail, you'd hit at least one Atari device in my house. My wife didn't know all the questions to ask about her father's employment at the Big A--which division, in what projects, et cetera--but it really didn't matter to me. All I knew was that an Atari 2600 was going home with someone who had a connection to it and would really, really appreciate and enjoy it. And that made me happier than you could possibly imagine. Epilogue: The woman told my wife, in whispered tones that are implied to carry a gentle amount of shame at the admission, that she would like to get a NES in order to play Zelda and the Mario games. I'm willing to sell her mine…but this time, it'll cost her. (I'm not inclined to replace my NES if I get rid of it, so the cost of parting with it in the first place would be rather high. I want a TurboGrafx-16 and a small pile of its games, too, y'see.)

Jay, how does this look? The first item in the upper left of the list. (I'm in a rush to get out to Mass, so this was the result of just a passing glance. Forgive me if I'm overlooking the obvious as to why this is wrong.) http://www.surplussales.com/computeraccess/dbconn-1.html

I'm looking for a Sega Genesis with a pair of controllers, preferably not the model 3 revision. Also looking for copies of Sonic 1 and Gauntlet IV. My daughter enjoys these games and I thought I'd give her the experience of playing them on real hardware. I'm in west-central Florida for the purposes of guestimating shipping. Thanks!

I bought the 5200 SD card and followed up with a second cart less than a week after receiving. This had to be in September, and the turnover was excellent.

I've seen this sort of damage before. Maybe not as extreme as you describe, but yes, I've had the domes crack on my Pro-Lines. Being a cheapskate, this is what got me started installing microswitches in my joysticks. I won't put up with the domes anymore. The two buttons can perform separate functions on 7800 games that recognize them. Otherwise both buttons just behave like the single fire button on a CX-40 joystick.

Just an A8 person coming by to gently troll the 5200 people, I think. It's why I keep my A8 and my 5200 on opposite sides of the room. They don't need to be close enough to take swings at each other. Why? Why!? Who would do that? Enough to make me weep....

@DesertJets - Yeah, the XE keyboard is something, isn't it? Last night I was messing around in the assembler and typoed one little mistake with a variable. Threw all kinds of errors during the assembly and left me baffled until I figured out what was going on. I've thought about picking up the internal keyboard upgrade from Best. That, too, will happen one day. @Synthpopalooza - I bought your album a few months ago and enjoyed it very much. Well done! May I ask what software you use on your 1200XL? I don't have any real talent, but I do like making interesting noises come from the machine.

I would always read about the Atari computers in magazines but never did pursuade the folks, as I say. I was always attached to the XEGS because...well, yes, I loved the pastel buttons. (I most certainly did come of age in the late 80s.) Nowadays, the desire to learn assembly is sort of developing into a desire to actually try to make software. Don't know what kind yet--still swimming my way through the shallow end of my education. But it will come. Oh, and one of these days, I'm going to pick up Lotharek's 1MB upgrade for the XEs. And part of me would like to upgrade the video for 80-column text. I can do word processing in 40 columns, but I know what I'd prefer. Oh, have you shown your daughter the world of BBSing yet? If so, what was her reaction? My daughter was decidedly...unimpressed.

In a discussion somewhere here about owning a 5200 vs. an A8, I laid out what I had in mind for my XEGS and what ended up becoming of it. I wanted an A8, and I bought the XEGS because I wanted it when I was young but couldn't persuade my parents to pick one up for me. (Fair enough, really, as they'd just gotten me a 7800 the year before.) I was originally going to use it as a multipurpose machine, both for gaming and for computing. (Really wanted to learn 6502 assembly on it in particular.) I just never could learn to like it as a gaming machine. And I lucked into a 5200 that I, in essence, ended up getting without cost. I really fell in love with that as a gaming machine. (Yeah yeah, I know, joystick joystick. Heh.) So, the XEGS sort of defaulted to a nearly purely computing role. I do play the occasional game on it--was just playing Mr. Do on it this weekend, in fact. These days, though, it's either the platform I'm using to learn 6502 assembly or the platform on which I'm teaching my elder daughter BASIC. Mostly, I'm having fun using it as a computer in ways I would have liked to as a kid but couldn't. I had an 8-bit computer back then--the Mattel Electronics Aquarius, with no peripherals but the mini-expander. Without a way to save your programs, and with less than 2k of user-available RAM, there wasn't much I could do with it at the ripe old age of 6 or so. It mainly served as a game console...which, given its technical limitations, was a bit of rough going. I have an Aquarius now that has RAM and that I can save things from, but it's nice to see how things were in the more...spacious accommodations offered by Atari.

I had a 2600 (4-woody) when I was young that was wrecked in a flood; my parents replaced it with a 7800. I have a sentimental attachment to both, so I hope my viewpoint isn't tied down to a special attachment to either machine. I'd go with the 7800. Definitely. I decided I wanted one earlier this year to replace my boyhood machine, and within a couple of weeks I found one with joysticks, a trakball, and a pile of 2600 and 7800 games--15 or so, I think, and mostly really decent games, too--for $40 online. Sold the trakball--I've never really liked it--for another $20. Couldn't be happier. If you're watchful, you'll definitely beat the $75 middle-of-the-road that mkiker2089 mentioned. And if you don't feel like waiting, go with bennybingo's advice. I've bought here before and people will take good care of you. 2600 homebrew vs. 7800 homebrew is, really, largely irrelevant due to backward-compatibility. I play 2600 homebrews on my 7800, and I'm now getting into the 7800 homebrews, which are turning into extremely high-quality games as the scene develops. Yes, the 2600 is the original--and yes, I do miss those sticky-outy switches on the woody 2600--but there really isn't any reason, in my opinion, to turn down a well-priced 7800 in its place. Just some thoughts that have been mostly expressed (better) by others already.

You shouldn't keep your 5200. Not at all. It's wretched. If you give it to me, I'll dispose of it for you. Even if the joysticks are broken. Heh. If you really don't like the 5200, then you can probably lose it. I have an XEGS and a 5200, and use them as a "proper" computer and a game console respectively. I think you miss something by gaming on the XEs rather than the 5200, but that's purely personal taste. The ability to play the games isn't too bad on the 8-bits really.

Would you look at that. Perry and Bob, you gents have to be like proud parents with this. Fantastic. And Curt, again, thank you for your persistence and efforts on the XM. It's amazing to think that this old machine that I played with as a youngish lad could see the renaissance that we're looking at now, in the 21st century. We stand on the edge of all the great things we could have had all those years ago. It's great to be a 7800 holdout! :-)

Would it be possible for you to scan these and make them generally available? I think this would be invaluable to the larger community.

Oh, look at those! Fantastic! I will be proud to display one of these babies in my collection.

Verbal diarrhea follows. TL;DR: The purchase of a 5200 as opposed to an A8 computer should be considered with great care, but can produce a worthwhile experience if you have the inclination to feed the beast with a little care and to learn its wicked ways. I came to this game very late, both in terms of the 8-bit computers and the 5200. I longed for an XEGS when I was a kid, but my parents had already just gotten me a 7800 the previous year and there was no way they were shelling out for it. So I picked one up a few months ago. And just a little bit ago I picked up a 5200. It's very interesting, the ways they evolved in terms of their functions once they settled in here. I really tried to like the XEGS as a game console. I really did. But I didn't like having to have a PC--even a little laptop--attached via the SIO2PC on my entertainment center. (It's smallish.) I didn't like having to pick up a DB15 extension cable for the keyboard to be able to play Defender with smart bombs from the couch. (I have little three kids; keeping the console on the floor while I play is asking for trouble. It'd be stomped to pieces before you could say ANTIC as they break the rules and run through the house for the umpteenth time.) And I really didn't care to sit on my couch while programming because...well, the couch is Comfy. And I doze off easily these days, especially on things that are Comfy. I tried putting it on my desk along with my Mac to see how it "felt" to game there. It felt wrong. This puppy needs a TV to game on, at least I feel like it does. (Right now, I'm passing the signal through a converter I had laying around and displaying it on a VGA monitor. I've bought too many pieces of electronic fun this year and my wife will hang me if I buy another TV, so I'm repurposing an old LCD monitor that was collecting dust somewhere.) So, the XEGS stays on my desk, but she's now living her life primarily as a computer for programming. (I'm learning assembly on it at the moment, and teaching my elder daughter some BASIC, too.) I also play around on some BBSes from time to time. The 5200, on the other hand.... I wasn't even aware of it until the late '80s sometime. Somehow completely overlooked it, even when I had heard of the Colecovision and Intellivision. It just was a system that happened to other people. And then I actually picked one up. Oh, baby. This is a gaming machine. Born and bred. As JayBird3rd said above, I look at her and see the outermost system. Best-of-breed hardware for brains on the inside, yes, but it's built for me to play Defender on. (Among other things. I just play a lot of Defender on it.) It fits...barely...where once my 7800 sat. (Said 7800 now sits in a separate unit attached to an old CRT shared with my Aquarius. My childhood machines, together again!) Yes, I've had to do a couple rounds of surgery on the joystick. Actually, initially, it just needed the eraser trick to bring it to life again. Last weekend, it seems the horizontal pot came loose. No big deal, once I remembered in which particular workspace I stowed my superglue. The long and short being that I'd read all the complaints and never really wanted one of these...until the chance to get one "for free" turned up. (Came with three sticks; repaired two and sold them, making the purchase at least cost-neutral.) Why not take a chance in that case, eh? I could even persuade my wife that it was a reasonable proposition! I've developed a philosophy about the 5200. No, it's not for everyone. Either you'll hate the joysticks, or you'll find the time and expense of the upkeep not to your liking, or you just don't have enough space for this monster to sit around your place. Fair enough; those are perfectly reasonable and valid reasons to give this one a miss. But if you have the time to dedicate to it when it's unwell, which doesn't seem to be all that frequent an occurrence, and the inclination to keeping this beast alive, it'll reward you with some very special gameplay. On this temperamental old beast with its rotten joystick, I've placed my highest scores ever on games like Defender, Pac-Man, Missile Command, you name it. (Though I really suck at Super Breakout. I still can't figure out why when I'm only modestly bad on the 2600 version.) So, the talk of it being a terrible gaming machine can't all be valid. It isn't for me, anyway. In any case, I'm glad I have both machines, but they're very distinct machines that serve me in very different ways, though their brains be very similar.

Hadn't checked in for a couple of days. Turns out that there were other developments in the joystick story. Back on Tuesday night I was fiddling around with the arm for the horizontal pot. As I was twisting at it, I started noticing a slight wiggle in the potentiometer. I sighed, gave it a little tug, and sure enough the thing slid cleanly and easily out of its little housing in the joystick. A little annoyance because I couldn't remember which of my storage cubbies held my superglue. Found it, glued it, and things have improved. I think I just have to mess with the pot arm now to put it back to where it was before I started fiddling with it. Car's AC went out. And I live in Florida. So I'll have to wait. Good grief, do I wish I could, though. Playing Missile Command--and Centipede, come to that--on the Trakball would be proper good, though, wouldn't it?