Pipercub

How about a Vector special? It could feature all the Atari Vector classics and have a trackball, just an idea for a Flashback 4.

Right on! "Only problem.... each license is anywhere from .25 cents to .50 per license per unit, do the math and the FOB cost will be about $45 which means that the retail cost will be about $85-$90..." This kills me, as the other guy said, they would rather take NOTHING than a reasonable price. I know that the argument of; wouldn't you rather earn .05 a game at 2 million units than nothing, probably doesn't register with them no matter how you explain it.

"I knew that the watch wasn't going to be playable, it was only an animation. Mainly because Curt told me that himself at VGXpo in Dallas. I still want one, though. But I hope that I don't get a used one. I don't want to buy one that somebody's been screwing with, trying to get a game to play on it. I don't want it to have a broken knob." Oh, I am sure there is some other fool out there who would buy a non playable game watch, even if someone else already turned a dial designed to be turned and could not possibly be harmed by such. Given the return ratio I would bet that finding one NIB might be hard.

"No offense, but how exactly did you expect to play it? It's pretty obvious from the Fossil site that it only has two buttons. " Easy, multifunction stems are nothing new, pull to wind, or pull to set and normal for winding etc. I figured that one would pull the stem out to set the time, and normal mode would control the rotation of the ship (or vice verse) and the button would fire, it seemed like a clever solution. Curt, Your shop has had some top notch ideas that have been banged on for no reason. The FB1 was what it was, a product to pave the way for future legacy compatable hardware. I bought one. The FB2 was fantastic and the few minor glitches were way overblown and they didn't stop me from buying SEVERAL and spreading the word. The Rev2 FB2 will also be a must buy for me as soon as I see the shelves replenished. And you can count me in for a few FB3s. However, that does not make this absolute hunk of overpriced crap a good product. It could very well have been built playable and that would have been a killer product. "Pipercub, no harm intended either, just having fun. I'm curious though, what does this have to do with dedicated systems? You've already stated it isn't a game, so it doesn't really fit here either." It isn't a 2600, 5200 etc. and not a computer, and since it is an atari product that is dedicated to a single game (in a way) it fit here best.

I had seen this thing about a year ago and almost decided to order it but somehow never did. Just the other week I ran accross it again and I was very surprised that some of the 2,000 that were imported to the US were still available a year later! I mentioned it to the wife that I might like one for Xmass and forgot about it. She surprised me with it a few days later. Initially I was very impressed because the box looked so nice, as did the bezel styled inner box. I took it out of the box and glanced over the instructions which were pretty much a reprint of the website ad, dial and button annimate and play game.... So I pushed the button and the Asteroids began to move, Ok getting somewhere. I guessed that the watch dial would move the spacecraft and that the button would fire. No combination seemed to work. Read over everything again and no change.... Ok, called Fossil and after 3 people doing nothing more than reading the ad to me, I got ahold of someone else and they said that the watch was a animation only and that there was no playable game. In the course of the conversation he did admit that there was almost a 100% return rate and that he was hesitant to grant a return on this product. I reminded him he didn't have that option and that it was coming back. Now I had to do a logic check here and make sure I wasn't the only guy who misread the ad. I am not a genius but I am a rocket scientist and when I came accross the watch I was at work, in the mission control center, and I showed it to a few other folks (scientists and engineers) who also looked at it and commented on how neat it was that there was a grownup gamewatch that you could wear without undue attention and still play a game here and there. To me, and everyone else that looked at it, animates means a demo, like a attract mode on an arcade machine, and plays means play as in interactive play. There was nothing that clearly stated animation only and no playable game. For $130 I would expect a functional game and not some silly ass animation. What the hell am I going to do with that? Anyway, the POS went back in the box and was at the post office within 15 min of arriving at the house. I hated to dislike a gift from the wife, and I really did my best to explain to her that I didn't want to hurt her feelings, but the boiling rage was something I could not hide. So do yourself a favor and do not buy this POS flashing animation that is NOT a functional game watch.

Actually, it is a POW cabinet converted to a MAME machine with Q*Bert graphics. I didn't want to convert an actual Q*Bert cab. In case you don't know what MAME is, it is a emulator that runs arcade game roms. In short, one machine is now 5,000 something games in one. Since it always uses the actual ROM the quality of emulation is very good. I have all the vertical games on that one, then all the horizontal games on a streetfighter II.

I am trying to formulate a plan for displaying my Atari 2600/5200/7800 systems. I have tanken a look at some of the rare store displays and figured I could make a repro of one of them. I also thought about using a late 70's early 80's 19 inch TV and a vintage TV cabinet. It should also fit in the floor space of a regular Arcade machine or maybe just a little bit more. I don't want to take up the floor space of two machines for this though. How do you display and use your system in a retro style? This is my arcade and where I plan to put it is at the opposite end of the arcade accross from the Defender... www.subarubrat.com/PICS/newarcade1.jpg www.subarubrat.com/PICS/newarcade2.jpg www.subarubrat.com/PICS/newarcade3.jpg www.subarubrat.com/PICS/newarcade.jpg

That is all I see anymore, clothes and cheap glassware. "Won't all of the good stuff be gone by Sunday? Thats the way it is here, when I go garage saling I make sure to hit them Friday or at least Saturday." Sunday morning seems to be the tradition around here, some on Sat morning. Point being I want to hit a few when they happen.

I have a few NES consoles, this is just something else to play with.

I have found ONE thing, an Odessey II, in the last 3 years in local thirft shops. In prior years I found things often but the well seems to have dried up. I am determined to get a Friday paper and start hitting some Sunday morning garage sales.

Flomojo, Know of any good flea markets in the DC NOVA area? I can't find jack. I want to see what I can pick up there since the thrift shops and good will stores have all dried up over the last few years.

Curt, Will you consider ordering a few extra (Or many extra) kiosk decal sets for sale to AA members?

"I've been wondering that since they aquired Atari, they should have direct access to all the schematics, gate descriptions, and layouts of both the 3 chip and 1 chip designs and should be able to replicate those circuits fairly easily. Couldn't they just convert the 1 chip schematic to CMOS?" I might be stating the obvious here, or it may not apply, but in another thread Curt said that the overseas engineers made some unauthorized "corrections" to the chip.

Anyone desoldered the on board ROM and put it on a cart carrier yet to see if it works on a 2600?

That was a (bad) joke in response to Atariboy's post about snatching one in walmart.

So I was in the toy section of wal-mart the other day and right there on the shelf was the last FB2 they had. I tossed it in the cart and went on about my business. When I turned around to get the cat food some SOB snatched the FB2 right out of my cart, if I ever catch that guy.......

"OK enough negative stuff about it, I like the design and the new CX-40b's are great, I felt that they are better than the originals. " My Atari 2600's are all packed and in the moving process, I bought the FB2 and played it a day or so then had to pack it. I agree that the joysticks are great but I didn't stand them side by side. Are they the same size? Parts compatable?

I could go with "stubbies" I suppose as long as it was socket compatable with the 2600 carts and that the new carts worked on the 2600. I already bought several FB2s and they can count on me for a few FB3s if done right.

I don't have any clue how patent law works, but you would think that it would be in both partys interests to have a pay percentage of sales arrangement. That way you could package all the games you want and not have ridiculous flat rates but 5% or 10% here. It seems to me everyone would make out better. I wonder what the problem is with just makeing the slot electrically and mechanically compatable with the 2600 and making the new carts in the same housing. Is the fear that people will buy the carts and not the console? I would buy both. I didn't buy the FB1 and FB2 for the games, I bought them for the console and I would buy the FB3 for the same reason.

I would love to see the FB3 with cart port in a full sized 2600 case, but I would settle for any other classic Atari housing as well. If it came out in an Atari 8 bit computer housing, I would strip it for the PCB and make a portable to retrofit it to some other housing.

Hidden games, Cool! I was sceptical when the flashback came out to pave the way for a promised hardware compatable future product but they did it and although not perfect it is a huge leap from the flashback. I bought both and it is great to see how far they came in one version. Sure I want to see a full sized cartridge based unit and I would buy one if they did of course. As a collector with boxes of systems, many many boxes of cartridges and more than a few Atari arcade games in my home arcade I can spot the same artifacts and glitches too, but I like to be realistic about what to expect from a nolstalgia product made 25 years after the fact. The way I see it they kept their word on a legacy hardware game and I will buy a few of these to support them and hopefully a flashback3 with a cartridge slot is in the future! In fact I need to run get another for my brother for helping me move to the new house next week (more room for a bigger arcade!). -Opened mine up tonight, WOW. Most companies make it as hard as possible to modify or extract extra features. Atari has silkscreened the pinouts right on the board. And a sticker to clairify which jumpers and pins are what. Very NICE. Clearly this board could be used in a future cart based product. I hope we see carts and cart based units soon!

Sweet, will do tonight when I get home. It only does it on some games. So I will snap a few.

The real pisser for me is that when the Atari rolled back out with the 2600 for under 50 bux and I was buying the 2600 games at K&B toys for $1~$5 they also had a table at the front of the store with some Adams for $100 that later sank to like $35. As I recall, it had the printer, computer, keyboard, joysticks and some software/games all in one box. I really wish I had bought one to keep. At least where I lived the 2600 Jr hit the shelves with the under 50 Bux in 1990 at K&B toys. I think the Adams had been hanging around and that time was just convenient to get rid of it. I just recently got a Coleco to go with my Atari and other classic games collections. The carts seem to all have about the same level of development. I had a coleco as a kid and at the time Subrock and Donkey Kong seemed far superior to the 2600. But all my friends had 2600s and the real cool games were on it so I always felt cheated and never really embraced the coleco.

One thing I have always wondered is if the 7800 is truly a peer of the NES? Could the 7800 have featured games of the same graphical quality and length of play as the NES?

I would be tempted to say that the game boy comes close but the LCD was upgraded so it really wasn't the same hardware on the later ones as it was on the earlier ones. The NES sure had huge leaps from the simplistic stuff like duck hunt to the later releases but ultimatly it was all within what the console was intended to be capable of. The 2600 was doing things that were never considered or intended. The Playstation made huge leaps as well from the early games to the later ones and had a long reign, as did the NES.