DiscoDr.Bones

I picked up one of these few weeks ago and I could not be happier. For me, it was the final step to be able to play all games and demos that interest me on the actual hardware (as opposed to emulation) without having to open anything up. Ctirad was more than willing to answer all of my questions and was great to transact with... if you are at all on the fence, I highly recommend making the purchase... you will not regret it.

I recently did the same thing you are talking about, and as many of the other people in this conversation are... I'm really glad I did. Here is how things played out for me over the course of about 6 months: 4-Port 5200 with a power mod (power goes into console instead of RF box) with controller and 6 common but good games = $130 shipped Atarimax 5200 Ultimate SD Cart = $136 shipped 2 Best CX52 Rebuilt Joysticks = $105 shipped So I am around $370 in and I feel like that is a very reasonable price for access to almost everything 5200 at my fingertips, and it opens me up to actually collect in the future if I was ever to make that choice. I hope you are able to get what you want out of this expedition. --silvahaloone

Thanks Paul. even if it doesn't happen the next time I see you in person, I should be caught up with my outstanding financial commitments by late Aug-early Sep and looking to get a 1050 and whatever related wares there may be.

Awesome, thanks for all the responses. When I do start a disk collection, I'll be sure to pick up these disks whenever I can.

Hi All, I have a question about Atari 8-bit/Commodore (or similar) combo disks… is the program contained on these disks, as a general rule, the same as the program contained on non-combo disks? The reason I’m asking is because I hope to get a floppy drive for my Atari soon and intend to collect some disks that interest me… and I know that someday in the future I’ll do the same with the C64, so I feel like in cases where this option is available it would be the best idea, but I don’t want to do this at the expense of getting a compromised version of a game… if that makes sense? Is there anything else related to this that I ought to know? Thanks, --silvahaloone

Hey Atari 2008, I did have really good luck with the 2 way switch along the lines as my original post. I was able to have two of them tied to one master for the ability to have 4 systems selectable with no perceivable loss in quality... it was when I wanted to add a 5th system that complaints about how crazy it looked and how hard it was to figure out arose. If you are just wanting to switch between two devices, the two-way switch as pictured gets a high recommendation from me.

Hey, since my primary interests are arcade conversions, you will find my list a bit slanted: Pac-Man Arcade Joust Nibbler Deluxe Invaders Frogger Moon Patrol Dropzone (in place of Defender) and if you have paddles, "Castle Crisis" is a must have. In terms of games that are not arcade conversions, some personal favorites are: Miner2049'er (Platformer) Lode Runner (Platformer) Choplifter XE (Shooter) Hardball (SPORT!!) Ballblazer (FUTURE SPORT!!) Boulder Dash (The rocks... they keep falling and exploding...) There are many more. The A8 catalog is among the biggest and most varied I have known... you will find many games of all era genres that you will like.

Hey, thanks Philsan, I actually spend most of my A8 Pac-Man time playing Pac-Man Arcade (and my 7800 Pac-Man time playing "Fast Random Maze Ms. Pacman" via Pac-Man Collection), what I was considering here were the releases from back in the day... I was surprised to learn of the Datasoft releases and was after some information on them. But after finding that control glitch I decided it wasn't worth any more of my time, unless someone knows a compelling reason otherwise.

Hey Paul, I spent a bit more time playing the Datasoft releases (Cassette and Disk) and after a few games, I started noticing some of the control issues mentioned in this conversation: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/161982-pac-man/ I don’t know that I would call any of this game breaking, but it definitely takes it out of contention for collecting a physical copy, as I’m now looking at it as inferior to what I already have. If anyone knows, I would still be interested in what it is going for in the wild, especially since I can’t seem to get any pricing data here or on Ebay.

Hi, Pac Man is one of my favorite games of all time… lately I have been very interested in comparing the official various ports on home consoles/computers, and if there tends to be something distinct about a port, I try to collect a full copy of the game. Right now I’m looking at the 8-bit (the cart that I have is CXL4022) and when compared to my 5200 version, it… doesn’t feel right for reasons I can’t quite put my finger on. It felt slow and choppy I guess. I notice that Datasoft did cassette and disk versions, and trying the Datasoft ATR bridged the gap and included intermissions. I also notice that there is another cart release (RX8022). I did a search on here that resulted in me getting even more confused, as there never seemed to be absolute consensus. So my question is 3 part: Are the two Pac-Man carts the same in terms of the code contained within, and if not, is there any consensus on the differences? Is there any difference between the cassette and disk for the Datasoft release? I can’t seem to find any pricing data on the Datasoft versions. What about would I be looking at in terms of price to find them in reasonable condition? Thanks for the info in advance. --SilvahaloOne

Awesome, it is now the next thing on my want list.

Hey Dave, I want to express appreciation for your decision to do this. I just picked up "Choplifter," one of my favorite games of all time, due to finding this thread. Personally, I would much rather pay the developer an amount that they decide reasonable for a legitimate ROM file to be used in an emulator or flash cart over paying several times that (in many cases) for the cart and materials when, in many cases, what I'm most interested in is showing support for the developers and playing the game. I think you have hit a very good middle ground here and I'm sure I'll be back to pick up more of these games in the not too distant future.

It's an Atari 800XL.

Ha! As much as I would like to try to convince you as such, the NES incident was perpetrated by a child who subsequently taught me to hide anything important when kids are over, the beer spilled on the Intellivision was a legit party, but I'm an alleged "grownup" with a family now, so those are rare and far between.

Thanks a lot for the support, I appreciate it. I have been craving some Lock 'n Chase for months now, but the timing had not been right to fix or replace until very recently. I don't have much experience with the Intellivision library (I have about 12 games, only a couple stinkers though) but am glad I can finally start playing it again and potentially collecting for it as well. Much obliged, --Silvahaloone

Let the record show that it is technically tomorrow:

I think that is what I'm going to do... you guys have convinced me that it's just adhesive, the amount and application of it made me question that though. And if it does blow up, I find an upgraded AV model. I went back and forth for a while as to how I wanted to deal with this... my expectation was that my system was toast and I was starting to look on Ebay, but then I decided to take the time and see if I could fix it myself. I had front loader NES that took a high-velocity package of McDonalds BBQ sauce in the cart bay (that one was not me...) and I was able to clean it... still running strong. I'll try it tomorrow and report back.

No odors that I'm able to discern. As I recall events, it was not powered on when when the incident occurred and has not been powered on in the time since. I remember noting that it took the hit pretty hard and it was going to be a pain to clean, which I think is why it has taken me so long to get to this point. =/

I didn't even try, I would be willing to, especially if I was told that nothing in the pictures looked suspect. The rest of the insides looked surprisingly good, which is why this stood out to me.

Hey, thanks for all the responses. I figured that the issue was RF bleed and that a standard AV switch was going to give me problems, but I also did assume that the boradcast towers were not helping. I'll have to look into your advice GoldenWheels, I do have quite a bit of RG6 around here. This is what I'm looking at now: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Video-Master-Switch-Box-/181773805246?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a529026be

Hi All, This is my first post here on the Intellivision forum. My system (an Intellivision 1 ) was involved an in unfortunate accident years ago (spilled beer on it) and this weekend I decided I would try to revive it, unsure if it was even nonworking. One of the controllers had taken the brunt of the impact, and using a youtube video for guidance, I seem to have been able to take it apart, clean it and re-assemble it just fine. While I had the system open, I was poking around and saw no signs of the sugary goo, but I took a look at what I now understand to be the power supply (??) which is completely on the other side from the main point of impact, and I saw this stuff all over it. It has been a real long time since I have actually taken a look inside a power supply, but I'm pretty sure I don't remember seeing stuff like this. The rest of the motherboard, chassis and stuff look fine. Is what I'm seeing here expected? Do I need to look into replacing this? Thanks, silvahaloone

The information you provide about the brittle wiring is much appreciated, I would not have thought about that. My Best controllers came in yesterday (after I made my initial post) and after a few hours of play, I am very impressed with them. Pac-Man is one of the games for the 5200 that I found unplayable with the controller that came with my system, but last night I was able to get scores that compared to what I can do with the A8 version. I just hope that the controllers hold up. Do it... it's worth the $100 or so for two.

I tried using a standard AV switch box prior to the RCA to F conversion initially, but perhaps because I live so close to the radio and television broadcast towers for my metro area (they are just blocks away) I would get signal but with all kinds of rolling distortion... I double checked that I had everything connected to the same color the whole way through. I also tried several different AV switch boxes that I had acquired though the years with the same result. It was hugely disappointing, because I wanted that to be the solution. Do you remember the brand or anything identifying about the RF switch box that you used to have. Amazon and e-bay are filled with 2 way switches, which is where I'm at now anyway. Thanks!

Hi All, I would like your advice and experience when it comes to switching between multiple RF sources without having to pull plugs each time. As of right now, I have 4 devices, all connected via RCA to coax adapters to an unwieldy network of switches such as shown. I want to add a 5th, but have been told that I need to get things under control before I do this. Experimentation has shown that using an RCA selector prior to the RCA to coax conversion is unsatisfactory, with far too much signal loss/bleed. This was also the case using a switch meant for coaxial digital selection. What other solutions (short of A/V mods, which are planed when finances allow) have you found to be satisfactory? Thanks, silvahaloone