Skippy B. Coyote

Thank you for the replies you two! If a little yellowing is just the nature of the beast for these computers then I can live with that, it's not a huge deal as long as the computer has been well cared for and works properly. So far it looks like $60 to $80 plus shipping is what I should be aiming to pay for just the computer and power supply without the box, which is just fine by me and a fair bit more affordable than I was imagining they would be. Of course I'd still want to spend a little extra for a composite video cable and a SIO2SD from Lotharek to play all the games I'd want to play, but it's good to know that the computer itself will be affordable. I may find myself in the market for a 800XL sooner than I was expecting.

I've been following eBay listings for a while now and prices seem to be all over the map, so I was just wondering if you guys and gals might be able to offer me some guidance on what a reasonable price I should expect to pay for a tested and working nice condition Atari 800XL with power supply would be? For reference when I say "nice condition" I mean no yellowing of the case, all keys and rubber feet present and accounted for, and minimal scratching on the housing and chrome side keys. Not brand new or like-new, just well cared for and in good shape. I should also note that this isn't a want to buy ad, since it'll probably be some time in late summer or early fall before I'll be in the position to purchase one of these computers, I'm just trying to do a little market research ahead of time to figure out what I should expect to pay.

I swear it's just a coincidence! Whenever I'm not focused on playing through some long game with a story and an ending I always end up bouncing around between random arcade games for a week or two while I try to figure out what to play next. I remember there was one week (I think it was in October of 2015) when I played over 40 different games in a single week. It's like I get gaming ADHD whenever I'm not trying to finish a long game. Edit: Yep, found it! It was week 42 of 2015 that I was thinking of, which was mid October of that year. My household ended up playing 50 different games that week, and that week also happened to have the most games played overall of any week in the history of the tracker.

Thanks to bradd1978 the fun is back, yessiree, with a repaired and working 7800 from Atari! Arcade Centipede (played on Midway Presents Arcade's Greatest Hits: The Atari Collection 1 for PlayStation & Atari Anniversary Advance for Game Boy Advance) - 153 minutes Dragon Spirit (played on Namco Museum 50th Anniversary for GameCube) - 9 minutes Missile Command (played on Midway Presents Arcade's Greatest Hits: The Atari Collection 1 for PlayStation) - 26 minutes Ms. Pac-Man (played on Namco Museum 50th Anniversary for GameCube) - 29 minutes Pac-Man (played on Namco Museum 50th Anniversary for GameCube) - 5 minutes Pac-Mania (played on Namco Museum 50th Anniversary for GameCube) - 4 minutes Pole Position (played on Namco Museum 50th Anniversary for GameCube) - 8 minutes Super Breakout (played on Midway Presents Arcade's Greatest Hits: The Atari Collection 1 for PlayStation) - 24 minutes Tempest (played on Midway Presents Arcade's Greatest Hits: The Atari Collection 1 for PlayStation & Atari Anniversary Advance for Game Boy Advance) - 12 minutes Xevious (played on Namco Museum 50th Anniversary for GameCube) - 17 minutes Atari 2600 Defender Arcade - 22 minutes D.K. VCS - 6 minutes Jawbreaker - 105 minutes Millipede TB - 12 minutes Ms. Pac-Man - 8 minutes New Pac-Man (8k Version) - 12 minutes Pac-Man - 7 minutes Plaque Attack - 90 minutes Pole Position - 77 minutes Tooth Protectors - 52 minutes Venture - 6 minutes Venture II: The Abysmal Abyss - 6 minutes Atari 7800 Centipede - 80 minutes Donkey Kong Junior - 45 minutes Ms. Pac-Man - 59 minutes Pole Position II - 114 minutes Xevious - 41 minutes Game Boy Kirby's Dream Land - 27 minutes Super Mario Land - 50 minutes PlayStation Alien Resurrection - 23 minutes Star Wars: Dark Forces - 55 minutes Total Play Time This Week 1,118 minutes (18 hours 38 minutes) [1,118 minutes eligible] Individual System Play Times This Week Atari 2600: 403 minutes Atari 7800: 339 minutes Arcade: 287 minutes PlayStation: 78 minutes Game Boy: 77 minutes Just when I had decided to give up on any hope of ever having a properly working Atari 7800 system (as my latest system, which was my 4th, suffered yet another problem) and stick to only playing the Atari 7800 via emulation for the foreseeable future, the AtariAge user bradd1978 came through for me and mailed me just the part I needed to get my Atari 7800 working properly again. And so it was that my Atari 7800 system and the majority of it's game library were saved from getting sold off on eBay, and once the system was working properly it saw quite a bit of play time this week. This was a rather unusual week for my household as neither the misses nor myself spent much of any time playing through any long and story focused games, it was almost all arcade games and arcade ports all week long around here. The misses did give Alien Resurrection on the PlayStation one more try but quickly tired of it, then she tried out Star Wars: Dark Forces in it's place and came to the conclusion that she might just be a bit burnt out on first-person shooters for now. For my part in things I did try convincing myself to go back and continue playing through Scooby-Doo! Night of 100 Frights on the GameCube, but I just couldn't really get in the mood for a collect-a-thon 3D platformer this week. I did play through a couple of my favorite short 2D platformers on the Game Boy though! The few outliers aside, this week was pretty much all arcade games and arcade ports for me and the spousal unit. Both the PlayStation and Atari trackballs saw a good bit of use for a variety of games, I spent a fair bit of time playing games for both the Atari 2600 and Atari 7800 High Score Clubs, and I found myself quite surprised by just how well Ms. Pac-Man plays with a GameCube controller's analog stick. I could probably ramble on for half a page or more if I went into detail about all the myriad of arcade games and ports that were played in my household this week, but I think this time around I'll keep my weekly post short and simple by just saying that they were all a great deal of fun, Namco Museum 50th Anniversary for the GameCube has the best quality conversions of arcade games to a home console that I've ever had the pleasure of playing, and that it sure is nice to have a working Atari 7800 again. The 7800 does have my favorite versions of so many classic arcade games, from Centipede to Donkey Kong Junior, Ms. Pac-Man, Xevious, and Robotron 2084; not to mention the small mountain of fantastic homebrew games. Looking ahead to next week I've got no idea what the misses will be playing, but I do know that I'd like to spend some time playing through a few classic titles for the original Game Boy (Super Mario Land 2 in particular) and put the newly refurbished Atari 7800 to good use with some more High Score Club games. Beyond that, who knows! Until next time, take care and happy gaming everyone!

Hello again guys and gals! Since the Game Boy series of systems are portable handheld consoles that most owners will want to take with them out and about, today I thought I'd take a few minutes to talk about what is likely the most important accessory every Game Boy aficionado needs to have in their collection: A carrying case. Before I get into the nitty gritty of what will be a short but rather picture heavy article I should preface it by saying that, long long ago in a state far far away before I got into retro gaming, one of the things I used to do for work was stress test military tactical gear. From vests to belts, pouches and packs, I put a wide variety of gear designed to hold everything from rifle magazines to cell phones and other fragile electronics through their paces to see what would and would not hold up to the kind of abuse that they would undergo in a real life combat situation. That said, I feel like I'm pretty well qualified to discuss today's topic; so let's get started! Pictured above are the carrying cases that I've been using for my three Game Boy systems for the past few years. There's an official Nintendo brand shoulder bag for the original Game Boy, an official Nintendo brand shoulder bag for the Game Boy Pocket / Color, and a Pelican brand belt pouch for the Game Boy Advance SP. I've been quite pleased with the build quality and durability of the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance SP cases that I settled on, as both are constructed out of heavy duty nylon with double stitching on all the seams and ample padding all around to keep the systems safe from drops or just getting bumped around in a backpack. The Game Boy Pocket shoulder bag (which I should note is much better built than the variation that has "COLOR" stitched on the front) comfortably carries a Game Boy Pocket or Color system in the lower front pocket, 6 cartridges retained by elastic straps in the top front compartment, and has plenty of room in a pouch on the back to carry all sorts of accessories. The back pouch on mine holds a Nyko Worm Light, a plastic case containing 4 spare rechargeable AA batteries, a pair of earbuds, a CGB-003 link cable with DMG-14 adapter, and a small notepad and pencil to jot down passwords and high scores. I told you it was a spacious pouch! The Game Boy Advance SP pouch is a bit smaller and simpler, with just enough room for the system in the back pouch and a couple GBA or GB/GBC games along with with a pair of earbuds and a compact Intec brand GBA SP earphone adapter in the front pouch. I've been totally happy with my Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance SP case selections, though I've always felt a little less confident in the protection offered by the official shoulder bag for the original Game Boy. While it does have just as much carrying space as the Game Boy Color shoulder bag it is constructed out of much lighter weight nylon with very little in the way of padding, and the velcro securing the flap the holds the system in the front pouch has never seemed very trustworthy. As far as I could tell it was the best carrying case option out there for the original Game Boy though, so I just accepted it for what it was and tried to handle the bag carefully when I wanted to bring my original Game Boy out and about. However, I recently discovered another option for carrying around an original Game Boy that I think is absolutely awesome and completely blows every other case out there out of the water in terms of build quality and functionality; and that's what I'd like to talk about today. Before I go any further let's just address the 800-pound gorilla in the room and get it out of the way: Yes, it's a fanny pack. You're welcome to call it a "hip pouch" or lengthen the waist strap and sling it over your shoulder if that makes you feel more secure in your masculinity, but there's no denying what it is. On the flip side, it's a fantastically well designed and constructed fanny pack that is quite possibly the best way to carry around an original Game Boy while out and about. Produced by the company InterAct, this case is without a doubt the most over-engineered amalgamation of nylon, padding, and zippers that I've ever seen for a handheld game system. Constructed entirely out of what appears to be 1000 Denier Cordura nylon (the stuff used to make the most heavy duty of military gear), every seam is heavily stitched, all the stress points are bar tacked, and the overall build quality is such that I would have zero apprehensions about literally taking this thing into a war zone. Unzipping the front flap of the pouch you'll find a nice little compartment with loops to secure a set of spare batteries, and enough room alongside for a pair of earbuds; the latter being a necessity for gaming in public spaces. Unbuckling and lifting up the front flap you'll encounter a zippered pouch sized just right to hold two Game Boy games in protective cases, or 4 loose games if you're not too concerned about keeping your cartridge labels protected and pretty. And lastly, the rear zippered compartment of the carrying case is an extremely well padded and soft sided pouch sized to hold an original Game Boy system. When I say "extremely well" I mean that it's padded enough that I would have no concerns about the safety of the system if I accidentally slipped and fell right on top of it with all my weight. While I wouldn't want to put it to the test I'm fairly certain that it could stand up to an actual bomb blast, and I think that's about the best endorsement I could give this carrying case. If you're in the market for a an exceptionally well built case to carry around an original Game Boy and the related essentials for an afternoon of gaming and you can live with the fashion faux pas that is wearing a fanny pack in 2017 then I give the InterAct hip pouch my highest recommendation.

Practice makes perfect! After another hour or so of practice this evening I was able to finish the race in Pole Position II, and do it without crashing even once. I think I'm gonna call it good for the round with this score. Pole Position II (Seaside Track): 68,300

Oh that is awesome! If you ever get any of these laser etched then put me down for 3 of them.

I use a regular old glue stick as well. If it's just a corner of the label that's coming up I'll take a toothpick, scrape just a little dab off the top of the glue stick with it, then apply the glue to the underside of the label with the toothpick. Then once the label is pressed down you can use the clean end of the toothpick to clean up any excess glue around the edges of the label before the glue sets.

!!! Oh man, if you don't win this round with that Toothmaster stick then I don't know what it's going to take. Good luck mate!

Huge thanks to bradd1978 for mailing me a new cartridge connector for my Atari 7800 to get it working again just in time to participate in this round! Pole Position II is one of those "must own" classics for the Atari 7800 and the original Pole Position on the 2600 is one of my all time favorite games for the system, so I was really looking forward to playing in this round. I only had about an hour to spend playing each game today but I'm pretty pleased with my Pole Position II score, even if I wasn't able to finish the race. I did get a bit frustrated playing the original Pole Position though, because my all time high score in that game is 60,260 so I was really hoping I could get over 60,000 again. But alas, it was not to be. Still, with limited time to play the games this round I think I did alright. Pole Position II (Seaside Track): 63,790 Pole Position (B/B Difficulty, Default Settings): 59,110 Bonus: My copy of Pole Position II is one of the 1986 versions with the spring loaded dust cover.

That there is, and I totally love it. Ed's work is absolutely gorgeous, built with top quality arcade parts, and he's an extremely professional guy to do business with. I would recommend one of his controllers to anyone who wants to get the best gameplay experience out of their Atari systems. Before I got my Super Twin 78 my highest score in Robotron 2084 was just over 1,500,000 but after just a couple days of practice with my new controller from Ed I was able to roll the score at 10,000,000, and I've been placing consistently in the Top 5 of the Atari 2600 High Score Club every round since I switched from playing with a Best Electronics gold upgraded CX-40 joystick to the Super Twin 78. No matter how good you might be at video games you're still only as good as your controller allows, and Ed's controllers are built with the best quality real arcade parts for the fastest response timing and minimum muscle fatigue. /endorsement

Thanks for letting me know nads! If I ever manage to get myself a video camera that's even halfway decent I'll probably give it a go, but for now the only recording equipment I have is a point and shoot camera that can only record video for 5 minutes or so before the batteries drain and a really low quality tablet camera that isn't much better in the battery life department. If I can get a reasonable recording setup at some point then I'll definitely check out Twin Galaxies again though.

I'm starting to think that the executive decision makers at Nintendo over the last half a decade or so are genuinely adverse to making money.

You got it. Red vs. Blue 2600 Wars does look like a fun game, but what I'm really looking for is the classic Combat with the only change being that player 2 is controlled by the computer.

Wow! Very cool! I've never submitted any of my scores to Twin Galaxies, since they require a $20 USD fee per score submission and money is usually too tight for me to be spending it on things like that, but it's cool to know that I've topped the official world record. At this point I think I'm done playing Jawbreaker (it's been frustrating the heck out of me and I think when a game stops being fun is when you should stop playing it) but I have been having a really good time with Plaque Attack and Tooth Protectors. Unless someone tops my current Tooth Protectors score I'll probably just stick to Plaque Attack for the rest of the round, and speaking of which... Plaque Attack (B/B Difficulty, Default Settings): 69,370 Your turn now!

Out of curiosity, does anyone happen to know if any talented programmers ever produced a hack of Combat that added in computer controlled A.I. for the second player? Combat is about as classic and timeless as a home video game could be, but it can be tricky to find someone else who wants to play it with you these days so it would be quite cool if there was a way to play against the computer.

I say keep it as well. I live in a two bedroom apartment with my wife and a roommate and we've still managed to make room for a 20" CRT TV for retro gaming. Unless you're down with spending $500+ on a Framemeister and custom video output upgrades for your retro consoles to make them look nice on modern televisions there's just no substitute for a CRT TV when it comes to playing old consoles.

Your logic is impeccable, and now it all makes some kind of bizarre sense. You have earned the most raccoony seal of approval I could find: I haven't entirely given up on Jawbreaker though! I think 90% or so of the time when I die in this game it's because an enemy randomly spawns right on top of me while I'm moving along the sides, but the more I play it the more it starts to seem like there is a pattern to when and where the different enemies spawn; it's just proving really difficult to puzzle out. Every now and then I do have lucky game where I get a decent score, but most of my games seem to end right around the 4,000 point mark just from enemies spontaneously spawning on top of me. Fortunately I had a particularly lucky game this evening where I was able to go quite a while without randomly dying. Jawbreaker (B/B Difficulty, Default Settings): 26,420

I hold quite a few HighScore.com world records (http://highscore.com/profile/?u=3171) but strangely I think the two VCS games that I'm best at are ones that I haven't gone for the record in yet: Millipede and Venture. Both are games that I adore and have sunk countless hours into playing, because they're just so much fun to me.

They actually made a couple different ones. I went for the best padded though slightly less rad looking third party one from InterAct, but if you're not so concerned about padding then nothing says 90's quite like Nintendo's official offering:

I was in need of a compact and well padded case to carry around an original Game Boy, a couple games, and earbuds while out and about; so I swallowed my pride and bought a Game Boy fanny pack today. It may not be terribly fashionable but it was the best option I could find for the job.

Nice! I've been trying to improve my maze game skills, playing about an hour of Pac-Man or Ms. Pac-Man on various systems every week for the past year, but I never seem to get much better at them. I still really enjoy playing Ms. Pac-Man though, so it's alright. I think everyone has certain types of games that they're naturally good at and certain types of games that they're not-so-good at, and maze games definitely fall into the latter category for me. Platformers too now that I think about it.