Dolt
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Posts posted by Dolt
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Dang--sorry about that.
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If you ever wanted to 'thank' Jack Tramiel for driving a stake through the heart of Atari back in the day, looks like here's your chance--just posted on CNN:
On Monday, the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, will celebrate the C64's 25th anniversary. Computer pioneers will reflect on the C64's achievements and contribution to the industry. Jack Tramiel, the founder and CEO of Commodore, will attend, along with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and William C. Lowe, father of the IBM PC.
I can just picture a blizzard of whipped cream pies, all arcing through the air in slow motion, as they fly towards the stage...
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Could you post a pic of the ad it's from? I'm curious to see how they used it...
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A co-worker sent me this photo he took at their show in McCarren Park Pool in August--take a look at the video screens...
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It's up to you if you want to use the controversial stuff...
By any chance do you mean... Armor-All?
OH BOY...my all-time favorite thread
I've never before or since seen such a stupid, mean, hysterical for all the wrong reasons flame war as that one. I haven't thought about the Armor All thread in years...good times. -
That sounds at least a little hopeful...
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I have to agree--by and large, my passion for Atari has faded, too.
A lot of that is because I have a 2 year old and I haven't played it around her because she'll wreck the whole collection when she realizes what that bookshelf of boxes and games are. I have an ancient 80s 15" TV that is just for the Atari and as far as she knows, it's broken (i.e. not hooked up to Cable, so it's just static when she turns it on).
I've gone through fallow periods where I haven't played or collected and have always come back, but I'm suspecting I'm 'done'. I have about 400 games and anything 'new' to me would be an investment of $30 or more--which is ridiculous when I don't play it much and I have a toddler to feed. I'd never sell it all, but I don't see it regaining the place in my life it had before in the past. I think I enjoy the history of Atari, the collecting and memories of thrifting more than playing (and for the record, I love games but I really suck at just about all of them--no skillz, as they say). Losing the thrill of finding stuff in the wild--due to the lack of thrift stores, vintage game stores and junk shops, the rise of ebay, and the sheer lack of free time in life--is a big part of it. I loved the hunt, and the hunt is gone. There's no excitement in placing a bid on ebay, just anxiety.
Bummer.
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It's been done. I don't remember where I read it--2600 Connection or here maybe?--but there was a case in the Northwest where someone faked a "damaged" Pittfall III test cart, all the way down to fake acti-plaque on the sticker, and left it in a thrift store, knowing that a rival collector he hated would find it. I don't remember how it resolved but it was damn funny.
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I saw it Friday and really rather liked it--it's short (71 min) but that's the right length, as it felt longer. I don't mean that in a bad way, it just felt like 90 min, and I'd had my fill by that time. I went in with a few qualms--I like video games (duh) but I didn't want to spend $11 just to watch some guy's game, but luckily, it's nothing like that. It's a good, fast moving story with lots of interesting people. I don't see how they're going to turn this into a fictional movie--if they had actors recite the stuff people say in this flick and act like the real people, no one would believe any of it. Truth is stranger than fiction. And yes, you can take your wife/girlfriend to it and they won't be bored to death (that said, I couldn't drag my other half into the theater so I saw it alone).
I went into it having no idea who Billy Mitchell was. People are saying he's the 'bad guy' of the movie, but I didn't really see it that way. He's clearly one of those Type A guys who's used to winning, has a bit of vanity to himself (and don't we all), and maybe has listened to a few too many Tony Robbins-type tapes. None of that's a crime. He does some nice things in the movie like hooking up an old lady with a Q*Bert machine so she can go after the world record. The flick makes a big deal of him not showing up for various contests, but what they never really say--or even imply--is the obvious: After holding the record for 25 years, Mitchell probably wasn't even close to being 'in fighting shape' to play, surprise (and yes, very questionable) video in the middle of the movie or not. I think Mitchell's only real fault in the flick was that he handled a few things pretty poorly without thinking them all the way through first about how it would look to the outside world, but I'm sure it's a different vantage point when you're in the thick of things.
All that said, there's one thing that's really disappointing about this. If I check out video games online, I come here to the 2600 forum, so I'd never been to the Twin Galaxies website before. I went to the TG website for the first time then this weekend, and there is NO MENTION of this movie at all. It's like it doesn't exist. I did a search and there's nothing on the site anywhere. Meanwhile, Mitchell is all over the front page of the site in a variety of places, most noticeably with a new Donkey Kong record that defeats Weibe's, the subtext being that it makes the entire movie out-of-date--although like I said, no mention of the movie.
I bought the big TG book in the late 90s and loved it, spent hours reading the TG history and going through scores, so I was disappointed that they came off looking like Mitchell's stooges for the first half of the movie until Weibe proves himself to them. They clearly see the error of their ways and by the end of the movie, come off as the guys that they came off as in the book--idiosyncratic but good people. But then when I went to the TG website today to find there' no mention of the movie, that Mitchell is all over the front page of the site, and that half an article about Weibe's record breaking score earlier this year is about how they verified his machine was on the up-and-up and did all kinds of things to determine that there was no hanky-panky--yet there's no talk of verifying the machine Mitchell used. I really found the screaming double-standard and sucking up to MItchell to be a bit much.
And that's really disappointing because it really undermines them, I think. If you don't like how you're portrayed in the movie (and the 'wishing it away' lack of mentioning it would seem to imply that), then freakin' address it head on. Put up a page just about the movie and your issues with it. Don't just pretend it never happened--AND fawn all over the 'bad guy.' By the end of the movie, they don't look like stooges anymore, so why go and reinforce that negative image then? Zeesh.
Anyway, good movie--worth seeing if it plays your neighborhood; if it doesn't, put it on your Netflix list, because I wouldn't buy it, but it's definitely worth the rental (and that's a lot cheaper than the $11 I had to pay at Times Square to see it!).
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I'm surprised no one's talking about this one--Sothebys is selling off a ton of old Atari marketing files, artwork, etc. today; there's a New York Times Article on the auction and the auction itself is at Sotheby's site.
Clive
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Like many of us, I have a few rare items, but as for something truly unique, there's these photos:
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Lair/9260/sqfw.html
I found them in an envelope tucked in the corner of a moldy shoebox full of Atari games at a junk shop, close to 10 years ago. When I opened the envelope, I expected to find a few instruction booklets or the typical warranty card for a 2600. My eyes nearly popped out of my head when I saw what they were. I closed up the envelope and bought a few manuals that I actually already had, just so the envelope would be lost in the middle. If the store owner had been curious enough to open it, he wouldn't have known what the pix were of, but he'd know enough to figure out that I really wanted them--and would have jacked up the price from the whopping 50 cents per booklet that he typically charged.
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Oh yea!! It takes a thief aint even getting in here!!
Speaking as the guy who got his Atari collection "stolen" on It Takes A Thief, they cheat for TV. They couldn't get in there if they tried, so your stuff is safe.
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"10 seconds of the Wright Brothers first flight."
There is no video of the event, just one photograph.
Yeah, and I heard they photoshopped it anyway.
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That 'we don't sell 'em' bit sounds to have been from a guy low on the totem pole, who wouldn't dare sell something 'cause he doesn't know what it's worth. Go back when the manager's there and offer $60 (not $100), and when he balks, go up a bit till he says on a whim $100. It'll work.
But, make sure you go back. A local store where I live years ago had a mint sealed Beat 'em and Eat 'em which the guy behind the counter wouldn't sell me--"it's only for display.' I came back a month later and it'd been sold. Lesson learned: Money talks--but only to the guy in charge.
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Best I can tell, ALL Starmasters do this. I have had a lot of them pass through my house over the years, and while they'll all play on my little Atari-only 1980 TV, they won't play on my more recent (ie last 10 years) TV. Don't know why--I just get the roll if they're plugged into the newer set.
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Hate to bum you out, but it's VERY likely that your stand actually was complete with 96 sheets instead of 100. When you print a magazine, the pages are typically printed on to one giant page that is the size of four pages. You print four pages on one side, flip it over and print the opposing four pages on the other side. The one giant piece of paper is then folded in half, then folded in half again, now resembling a magazine. The top fold gets trimmed off, and voila--8 pages of a magazine. This is basically done for all multiple printing, which would include your cards. And, the dead giveaway about your stand is that 96 is a multiple of four and eight, whereas 100 is only a multiple of four. Hate to break it to you, but you ruined your complete stand.
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I did that once--I gave a niiiice set up to the fiance of my wife's best friend about 10 years ago. Then the friend stabbed my wife in the back (friend-wise, not physically!) so they stopped talking, and the fiance-now-husband turned out to be a real a-hole.
Wish I still had that Atari.
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her boyfriend said he got them from a heavy weed smoker so i guess it was weed stains.
It OD'd?
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I go through lulls in terms of Atari, and the one I'm in right now has been going for over a year. There's a few reasons, from changing priorities to lack of free time to an incident that left me pretty disillusioned about the Atari community.
Obviously a bit part is that I just don't play them anymore. I have about 400 different carts, plenty of which are rares I found in the wild, and I now think, after 15 years of collecting that 'the wild' was what kept me into it. Exploring a thrift store or a vintage toy shop was a big thrill if I found something I needed. But now the thrifts are always barren of Atari, or they have one PacMan cart for $9. The vintage toy shops also are bare for Atari, unless you want to drop $100 on a system and 10 commons. I don't have time to explore thrifts anymore anyway, but it's BORING to buy games on eBay, so I haven't done that much either. And, I guess, with a toddler running around the house, even if I did have spare time to play, I have better things to do. She's too young to try and introduce her to games and watches too much Noggin as it is, so I'm more concerned with getting her away from the TV, not sitting in front of it more.
Another a big part of it is that I'm the only active collector I know, in part due to that incident I mentioned. I tried going to a NAVA meeting a few years ago, and it was a really lousy experience. I'm no nerd or creepy-lookin' dude, and I'll modestly say I'm a pretty sociable guy, so I know it wasn't due to me, but man, all two of us who were new people checking it out for the first time were treated like crap, even by one particularly big name collector who, given his rep and style online, you'd expect to be a fun guy to get to know. Nope--if I tried to introduce myself or start a conversation to the regulars, either I got blatantly ignored as if I wasn't even standing there, or I got a terse "whadda ya got to trade?' When they discovered I wasn't giving away free mint boxed Quadruns with a BJ on the side, I was dismissed with a grunt.That's what I got for driving two hours to another state to try and meet some fellow collectors for the first time. By the time I got back home, I was ready to sell off the whole collection if keeping it meant I was going to wind up being a jerk, too. Fortunately, I didn't, but it left me wary of my fellow hobbyists, which is pretty sad.
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bump, since it was updated.
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UPDATED
Good stuff mixed around in here, including a few rare manuals (Threshold, for example). Photos available for all of it, but I don't know how to do multiple pix here, so just email me and I'll send you a photo of whatever you're interested in. Looking at best offers at this point. Everything is Atari 2600 unless otherwise noted:
Boxed CIB:
Star Raiders
Super Breakout
Chopper Command
Circus Atari
Pac Man
Football
Basketball
Towering Inferno (Box, game but no manual)
Indy 500 (Box, controllers, manual but no game)
Empty Boxes:
Outlaw
Slot Racers
Canyon Bomber
Thrust Plus DC Edition (smooshed though)
Loose Games: (* = with manual)
Desert Falcon
Hunt & Score
Airlock
Bermuda Triangle
Bugs
Encounter at L5
Warplock
Space Jockey*
Commando Raid
Word Zapper*
Keystone Kapers
Dragster
Fishing Derby
Freeway
Carnival*
Donkey Kong (2)
Riddle of the Sphinx
Cosmic Ark
International Soccer
Frogger
Space Invaders*
Combat*
Breakout
Asteroids*
Street Racer
ET*
Swordquest: Earthword*
Jungle Hunt
Summer Games
Tape Worm (damaged labels)
Coconuts [tentatively taken]
Loose Manuals, ETC:
Super Challenge Football
Super Challenge Baseball
ET (manual and tip booklet)
Swordquest: Earthword (manual & comic)
Astroblast
Threshold (2)
King Kong [Tentatively taken]
Centipede comic & manual (damaged)
Yars Revenge
Star Voyager
Indy 500 (small black version)
Sneek N Peek
Defender (2)
Phoenix
Atari catalog CO16725-Rev E
Activision catalog Winter 1982
Imagic catalog 700500-1 Rev A
Joyboard--works great.
Texas Instruments games:
Car Wars
The Attack
Adventure
Tunnels of Doom
Parsec
A-Maze-Ing (2 copies)
N-Gage games (both still sealed)
Pathway to Glory
Asphalt Urban GT
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How many Pepsi Invaders were made?
I imagine more Atlantis IIs will turn up over time buried in the bottoms of boxes of commons. Pepsi invaders stands out a little better in the crowd.
My guess is that there are less people who have this game than Pepsi Invaders. I finally have a Game that is a rarity 10 by both Digital Press and Atari Age. So I am definetly stoked. To be honest this was the game I wanted more than any other Atari 2600 game. Most of the very rare game's are not that good. And this one is good.
There were 125 Pepsi Invaders made. And most of those were labeless carts. I really doubt that 125 Atlantis 2 carts were given to people nation wide. In fact I think that there were probably 20 or less cartridges made. Think about it. If you are a kid and enter the the Defend Atlantis contest with a perfect
score and then receive this special cartridge, do you really think that you are mindlessly forget about it. No this would be a treasured item for a long time to come. Now if you are some rich big wig at Coca Cola or in upper level management, my guess is you probably think of it as corny and give it to your son or grandson who would soon forget about it in a couple of years time. As time marches on I am pretty sure that Pepsi Invaders will turn up more and more often and Atlantis 2 will remain more stable.
I beg to differ about the 'mindlessly forget' part. One of the cooler finds I had in the late 90s--which I then shared with the Atari community via the 2600 Connection--was an envelope of photos from the finals of the Swordquest: Fireworld contest. The envelope was jammed in a shoebox covered in dust and crap from someone's basement, along with R1 games. I found the shoebox in a junk store and couldn't believe what I'd found--you can be sure that if I'd been skilled enough to make it to the finals (and I've never completed that @#$%* game in the first place), I wouldn't get rid of it--or let my folks get rid of it either, which may also be what happened. But clearly, it didn't mean that much to the person who made it to the finals; the entire contents of the box looked like crap and had been neglected for years. Maybe it still meant something to the guy, maybe not, but either way, time marches on and this particular achievement of childhood didn't rate high enough for it to even get put in a proper photo album.
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The title says it all--I have 18 of these bad boys for sale, preferably as a group. Together they hold 252 games, or 288 if you do the old '2 games in the manual slot' trick. I was going to put my entire collection on the wall but eventually realized I wouldn't have nearly enough wall space in my small home office for them when I finally got enough libraries. Wish I'd realized that before I spent a year scrounging them up! Since hten, they've been living in a nice, dark, dry finished attic in a smoke-free home, so they look nice, haven't faded and don't stink.
I'm still looking into the shipping costs, but should be able to stop by UPS with them in a day or two for a weigh-in. If you live in the New York City area and want to pick 'em up, you'd be welcome to, or I could drive 'em to you if you live on Long Island. In the meantime, feel free to make an offer!
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About 5 years ago in Brooklyn I found a Greeting Card store that sold some old toys and on top of there front shop they have three BOX Microvision units new for $5 each. I told my self Ill get them later but I never got the time to get there till it was too late now Im living here in TN
Ahhh, that's one of the ones that DIDN'T get away. Around the same time that the used toy shop I mentioned earlier had the loaner cart I didn't get, they also had a boxed Microvision and about 5 loose games for $12, and I simply had to have it. Thanks to ebay, I've created a complete collection of games now (even the European ones if I recall correctly, but it's been a while since I played it). The only bummer is that the box doesn't have the cardboard inserts--it's just a box with everything loose in it.
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New Box Templates For 2600 / Colecovision Carts!
in Atari 2600
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What I'd like to know is what kind of glossy paper are you using? I actually want to know for a non-Atari reason. I have a new book coming out in October, a trade paperback ("Homemade Hollywood"--the first book about fan films), and the publisher is doing a small hardcover run as an alternative for libraries, schools, and so on. The catch is, they're just blank hardcovers with the book name on the spine--nothing special about 'em at all, no images on the cover, nothing. So when I get my hardcover copy, I want to make myself a dustjacket for it. Accordingly, if you've found a fairly durable, glossy paper that I can get at Staples, Michael's, whatever, I'd like to learn about it!
Thanks,
Clive