Turbo-Torch

I bought mine new (white) for $50 bucks after it flopped. That's one failed system that didn't deserve its fate. I even bought the keyboard and used the dial up modem to browse the web back then. The controllers are my favorite for any modern system and the VMU modules are the coolest. Favorite game would probably be Jet Grind Radio...I racked up a lot of hours on that one.

If it was on MAME it doesn't count. Also, I hope that my opinions are getting you worked up to the point of losing sleep. Now babble on.

And I'm glad you realize that. Now go babble on about something else.

The reality is that a rare Beatles album will always be worth mega bucks...MP3s off that album will always be worth zero. All my 5¼" disks filled with games I downloaded off pirate BBSs back in the 80s barely have more value than the used disks themselves. Same goes for any games I download off the net and then transfer to my Atari with an sio2pc and copy to disk. One RARE boxed original game will be worth far more than all those disks combined. Someone can try and point out the flawed logic behind it and cry about how it shouldn't be that way, but that's the way it is and it will NEVER change. Win/Win situation for collectors and gamers. Values stay high on the genuine articles and gamers can still experience the real thing on their real hardware. Bottom of the barrel is emulation. A HD running on modern hardware ranks right up there with one of those all in one Jakks Pacific joysticks. Good for the non serious casual gamer and once bored or a new version comes along, toss it in the trash and move on.

Didn't know they actually made a modem for it. I have the communications cartridge kit and used it with a Hayes modem. It wasn't even capable of handling any local BBS. It did work for accessing the local library computer to search for books. It was a novelty that lasted about 15 minutes. I think the kit was on clearance for $5 bucks.

I have two Xtremes I bought new off eBay really cheap. I think they are pretty damn cool considering when they were released. I used one on the job as a PDA. It also doubled as an MP3 player and a game machine. Someone made a version of Defender for it which is incredible. Same goes for a version of Asteroids. I also found the communication ability interesting. There was an app that brought the US version to foreign standards which greatly increased the range.

The new mazes are really fun and the yellow maze is downright cool looking. A few tweaks such as making the fruit follow the maze and a different start up tune would make it a real winner. Does the fruit still follow the pattern of the original Ms. Pac mazes?

This game is incredible! Is the $10 official ROM available?

I stalled out on collecting about 15 years ago when RGVC fizzled out. Few months ago I saw this game on youtube and was blown away...seriously thought it was a hoax. I joined AA and found out about the Harmony cartridge and immediately ordered one mainly to play this game. Every time I play it, it's a surreal experience...it just shouldn't be possible on a 2600. I really hope it gets finished off one day as it seems to be 95% there. Difficulty appears to stay the same no matter what level. The elevator and mud pie factory screens could be made more challenging with bonus items to collect.

Nice collection. Those Atari Fossil watches are really cool. Are they from the early 80s or a current retro thing?

Another straight off the orginal cassette. Good luck beating this one. Things get crowded after 40K!

I used to play the heck out of the Astrocade at Wards. I can't think of any other stores that offered it in my area. The kiosk had a few games to choose from and Galaxian was my favorite. Another I remember was similar to 2600's Outlaw. That console was YEARS ahead of its time. I never knew anyone who owned one. I've been satisfied with my game collection for at least 15 years but I would love to add an Astrocade to it.

I have never considered the Lynx a failure. It had a lifespan of several years and many great games. Was anyone ever pissed off over having 70+ games to choose from? Did Atari actually lose money on this system? It was an expensive toy with expensive games and a need for batteries. It was the Lamborghini of portable game systems. The Gamboy was the Toyota Corolla, it was affordable in every way so of course it sold more than all the color systems combined at the time. Go back 25 years ago and no one in their right mind would have taken a pea green GB over a Lynx, Game Gear or Turbo Express. It was a Toyota vs. Lamborghini, Porsche and Ferrari. Failure would be something like the Virtual Boy with literally a handful of games. Maybe a year after its release, I bought mine brand new for $20 bucks. There were mountains of them at places such as Walmart, Toys R Us and Babbage's for no more than $25 and they weren't flying out the door at that price either. How much did Nintendo lose on that system? How many consumers initially spent nearly $200 and ended with about 14 games to choose from? Don't know if it is true or not, but I read where Nintendo stooped to forcing stores to take VB stock in order to receive N64 consoles.

Just like in the arcade version, the monsters must not be in the immediate area. I took off for at least 20 minutes and everything was still fine when I got back.

Yep, got that one too.

I just fired up my real pac arcade game and I have no idea what you're talking about. When pac eats a monster in the attract screen, the point value shows and he continues on to eat the next monster. I don't see this jump backward thing you're talking about...are you using an emulator or noticing something that's a fraction of a mm?

I love the fact that the safety spot is in this game!

Fuel becomes an issue after 40K. Once you run out, you're done no matter how many lives you have left. I was happy when the tape deck came back to life. Unfortunately a few cassettes didn't survive the decades...mainly the red label Radio Shack.

I went through all my disks and the closest I found was Cosmic Intruder. I then looked on the shelf and found my original cassette copy I bought new from Radio Shack. Finally a reason to use the cassette deck I spent hours recapping and putting new belts in. How cool is the load screen with the countdown timer! And my high score after playing it for the first time in probably 30 years.

I miss RGVC. The newsgroup auctions were especially fun. I scan it every so often and there are very few signs of life, spammers don't even bother. Although, the Kenneth Martin Dolan guy is still active!

Pac-Man and the 4 switcher didn't exist in '78 (not even the arcade game). It was a pack in but much later in the 2600's life.

Same with my Model III. I wasn't allowed to use it when my parents wanted to watch TV. I heard the Model I was far worse and I remember a magazine article which explained on how to build a Faraday cage for it. Your name sounds familiar...were you on RGVC many years ago?

I mainly use LDOS as it supports my double sided disk drives and has endless features. TRSDOS is very user friendly and probably the best overall choice for someone just wanting to run software. I also have NEWDOS 80 but that's for really advanced users.

Atari Super Pong system which my uncle gave to me in '76 I believe. Still have it in the original box with warranty card. First actual game cartridge would be Combat included with my Atari in '81. First game bought would be Night Driver from Zayre on sale for 19.99. My mom bought my next two games for me at the same time at Toys R US; Flag Capture for $9.99 and Bowling for $13.99. Next was the biggie...Space Invaders which was quite expensive at the time. A stereo store in the mall called PLAYBACK put it on sale for $26.99. Over the next 5 years I ended up with 72 games (I loved the crash) and oddly enough I can remember where most came from and how much they cost. Some notable ones were Popeye at Sears for 9.99 with a $10.00 rebate and MASH at Camelot Music for $2.50 packed with a free MASH T-Shirt and I got a $5.00 rebate...free game, free shirt and $2.50 profit. Anyone else remember PLAYBACK? That was one cool, very dark and mysterious high tech place. My brother-in-law bought his Odyssey 2 there.