WolfAmongWolves

Amen to that. I think the New Englanders on this forum have been playing the live version of this game excessively for the past few weeks. Looks like I'll be playing it again this afternoon.

Which beer was it? Maybe not a bad trade at all.

Can't be nobody, because I bought it and it is awesome. Very gripping. I need to shower after every game.

I recently picked up Human Cannonball as part of a lot, and that is definitely a top contender. My heart goes out to all those poor kids whose well-meaning parents put that one under the Christmas tree in '79.

Ah, I see what you mean. That's definitely not the type of seller I had in mind when I made my earlier post.

Why is that necessarily a bad thing? Of course the main purpose of AA is to bring together a large community of enthusiasts who have a real interest in the hobby, share stories, help each other with questions, etc. That's probably why most of us are here and it's what constitutes the "soul" of AA. But even if someone whose main goal is to sell video game stuff joins AA for the sole purpose of listing their wares on Marketplace, I don't necessarily think that that should be discouraged or frowned upon. Who knows, they may have something for sale that another member has been looking for, and they may offer it at a better price than Ebay or the other big sites. It just gives all of us more choices and opportunities to fill those gaps in our collections.

I thought it would be fun (and maybe even cathartic) to start a thread where we can share our personal "biggest Atari blunders", in the broadest sense of the term. This can include collecting mistakes, sales/purchases we ended up regretting, opportunities not taken, game disappointments, etc. Anyway, here's mine; When I was in fifth grade (bout 30 years ago) I persuaded my mom to take me to Kiddie City so I could get a new game for my 2600. I think I was looking for Enduro, because the commercials were on all the time and the game looked great on TV. When we got there, I discovered a bargain bin with games priced at $2.99 each. Realizing that my hard-earned allowance would net me two bargain games instead of one at regular price, I dug through the bin and ended up buying Journey Escape and Springer for a total of about six bucks. I liked both games reasonably well, but they didn't exactly make my top ten. At the time we were trading and loaning 2600 games in school all the time, and a few weeks or months later I loaned Springer to one of my classmates and got Donkey Kong in return. I really loved Donkey Kong. (By now you know where this is going, right?) It turned out that my classmate really loved Springer, so after a few days he asked me if I was interested in a permanent trade. I agreed immediately. I thought I was getting the best deal of my life; I was trading an unknown bargain bin game for an actual ARCADE classic that still retailed for about $20. At the time I couldn't have been happier. Now I wish I could go back in time and kick 11-year old me. I was blissfully unaware of my blunder until about 4 years ago, when my parents asked me to finally clear their attic of all of my "old junk", and I rediscovered my long-forgotten Atari. I got into collecting, and found that Springer was the only rare game that I had owned. It was also one of only two games in my collection that I had ever traded away as a kid, the other one being Riddle of the Sphinx after I had solved it. Needless to say, Riddle of the Sphinx was very easy to replace, but in almost four years of collecting, I have not once come across a CIB Springer in decent condition. Even if I did, it would probably be slightly more expensive than the $2.99 I paid for it back then. As a small consolation I still have the Donkey Kong, though. So, that's my sob story. What are yours?

My favorite variation was game 5 with the smart bombs only. I could play that forever as a kid. I remember always regretting it the next day though, because my thumb hurt like hell.

His message to me started with "If you are the one who gave me four stars for shipping...". I guess he wasn't sure, but was probably able to narrow it down based on the timing of the purchase and the rating.

What was your bad experience? I bought a game from this seller a few months ago, and it went absolutely smoothly. If anything, this seller is overly concerned about his rating. I gave him a positive review with 5 stars in every category except for "shipping costs", where I gave him four stars because the shipping costs were a little higher than what I've seen from some other sellers, but still reasonable. He immediately contacted me and asked why I had only given him four stars, I explained, and that was that.Overall a friendly and successful transaction.

I agree with AtariFriend. I don't see Spike's Peak/Ghost Manor CIB that often, but the last time I saw one on Ebay it sold for about $30.

Atari 2600 > Commodore 64 > Amiga 500 > PC I don't think I'll ever get a modern gaming console. I've tried them at friends' houses, but always get annoyed with those dual joystick controllers with the 12 or so buttons. Who needs Call of Duty when you could be playing Turmoil?

Yes, that's exactly what I... wait, we're talking about a video game?

I think a lot depends on how old we were when we first played these games. The game that gave me the most enjoyment, not to mention the biggest sense of accomplishment, is Riddle of the Sphinx. I was in fifth grade when I got it back in the early 80s, and it blew me away. This was one of the rare adventure games on the 2600 that you could actually beat, and it wasn't insanely non-intuitive and next to impossible like Raiders of the Lost Ark. The manual included riddles that were moderately challenging for a fifth grader, and I still remember the thrill I felt when I finally found that damn staff and was able to complete the game. And speaking of the manual - Imagic outdid itself there and it really adds to the overall atmosphere of the game. It is a bona fide work of art and by far my favorite manual of any 2600 game. Reading it still brings a smile to my face today. "Pharao's heir - be wise, be wily - and beware!" Priceless. My least favorite, like that of most people here, is Firefighter. No challenge, no point. Its only redeeming quality is that a game doesn't last longer than a few seconds.

This is a really interesting discussion. If I think of how I joined this forum, I basically broke all the rules that have been floated in this thread. I had just bought a few lots of common 2600 games on ebay which included a few dupes, and I joined this forum to see whether there was any interest in trading them. My very first post here was an offer to trade games, I did not post any pictures, and I had not filled out the "location" tab in my profile. Luckily, I got a few PMs from friendly members (who all asked for pics, which I was happy to supply) and I concluded trades with two of them that went very well. Thanks in part to this friendly reception I stayed, and since then I've been on these forums several times a week. As you can see from my post count, I'm more of a reader than I am a writer, and my raw post count is not indicative at all of the time I've spent here or of my general interest in this forum. I'm always blown away by members here who have 1,000+ posts; I doubt I'll reach that number in my lifetime. Anyway, the point I'm trying to make as one of the more silent members of this community is that if we decide to set sales/trading rules, they shouldn't be too strict. Bennybingo made a really good point when he said that we should seek to protect both the newbie seller and the potential buyer. Requiring a minimum post count would discourage new members from selling/trading, or as was already mentioned, would just force them to spam up the forums in order to reach critical mass. Also, requiring members to fill in their location on their profiles would prevent all potential members who are sensitive about internet privacy from joining, or they would just provide a fake location. I never disclose my location on any public forums, but if a fellow member sends me a PM asking for it and has a legitimate reason, I'm more than happy to provide it. However, providing at a minimum pics of the actual item for sale/trade should not be a problem for anybody. Now that I think about it some more, wouldn't it actually be good to also to set up common sense reminders for the buyers? If we put together a kind of checklist for the buyer to go through before making a purchase, then each buyer can make their own decision about what level of risk to take in each case without missing any obvious red flags.

Before we get into the technical details of whether and how it coulde be done, I think Andrew's original question was whether there was interest in renting/loaning the BD cartridge in the first place. For my part, I'm a collector as well as a player, so actually owning the game is just as important (or even more important with rare games) than just being able to play the game for a few days or weeks. I wouldn't really be interested in spending money to rent BD (or any Atari game) for a limited time, I prefer to own the games I play.

I'd definitely add Pressure Cooker to the list. I can't think of any other game that is even remotely similar. Fathom had a completely new game concept as well in my opinion.

I traded some 2600 games with stupus and it went very well. Very friendly communication, fast shipping and great packaging. I'm overall very happy with this transaction. Thanks again!

I just thought of another one: Dodge'Em. The second player controls the crash car, which makes for a pretty intense competition.

Definitely. I'm in Massachusetts, but the next time I'm in Minnesota I'll let you know.

Dolphin has an interesting kill screen. It is one of the few Activision titles that offered multiple patches, one of them tied to the kill screen. For reaching 80,000 points you got the "Friends of Dolphins" patch. Once you reach 300,000 points, the game stops and the score is replaced with the word "Amazing". That got you the "Secret Society of Dolphins" patch.

If you have paddles, Video Olympics has several four player games that are a blast. For larger groups, the Epyx titles are good, i.e. Summer/Winter/California Games, even though you'd be taking turns, not playing at the same time. My personal favorite though is Indy 500. That's also a great drinking game; choose the ice track and take a drink every time you careen off the track or crash into the other player. Then work off the buzz with a round of Decathlon .

The falling sound followed by the "splat" when Spiderman hits the pavement. I can feel his pain.

Bump. New games added.

I bought a mint condition boxed copy about five months ago on eBay for $72, so prices seem to have stayed about the same.