Ferris

I'm trying to locate an operating Out Run arcade machine from Sega.... I've seen plenty of these to go around, but I'm trying to find the sit-down version that features a small red ferrari that you climb into that moves around during the game. It is the version pictured in the flyer below. If anyone knows of one available for purchase please PM me. Thanks! Justin

Ten years ago I was calling all over the world trying to hunt one of those down. I was on the phone with Atari every day trying to attain one with no luck. I finally found one and offered the guy $100 for it and he was unwilling to sell. Needless to say, ebay came along and opened up a global market where these were more than available. Years ago I would have said these were "rare" or at the very least "hard to find" but today you can find these brand new for $20.00 or less. That's been my experience anyway.

Hey guys - Just won the most BEAUTIFUL 5200 I've ever seen on ebay.... it really looks like it just came from the factory. I've had pretty good luck finding mint CIB 2600's and 7800's in the past but for some reason the 5200 has always eluded me. It's a gorgeous system (even though its big i still love it) it was the first home Atari system to introduce the new Bang & Olufsen inspired "metal strip" design... there's just so much to love about this system I could go on and on. I'm sure I overpaid a bit on this one but it's worth it to me and I accepted that before I bought it. I plan on having Regan Cheng, the 5200's designer, sign the system before I sink it away into my collection. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...ssPageName=WDVW *sigh* I'm in love! Justin

About six years ago Ebivision created a *SPECTACULAR* version of Pac-Man for the 2600.... essentially puting right what once went wrong. From what I remember it was more than a hack of Ms. Pac-Man, it was something they programmed from scratch and it was absolutely gorgeous and for the most part arcade-accurate. IIRC it got a lot of attention at the time although they only produced a few cartridges which were given away as prizes. The game was shown off on the big screen at NWCGE in 1999 to rave reviews. I believe Ebivision made a few changes to the game and released it as Pesco (essentially changing some colors and making Pac-Man a fish.) My question is, does anybody have the ROM to this version of Pac-Man or know of an Ebivision Pac-Man cartridge that is available? I've been trying to find this thing for years and years with no luck... The game is listed here in AA - http://www.atariage.com/software_page.html...areLabelID=1022 And here are pictures of it playing while projected onto a wall - http://www.cyberroach.com/cyromag/15/seattle3.htm

E.T.?? .....booyah!

Well it doesnt have to do so much with when the store was built as it does with when the store was converted over to the new format. Right around 2000 TRU was facing some major losses to Walmart, who could sell toys at LESS than retail because they made money in so many other departments and the Toy dept. was just another way to get parents to come into Walmart to do shopping while the kids go look at the toys. So TRU started planning a turn around and part of this was bringing on board the former CEO of FAO Schwarz (sp*) who brought the whole "world" concept with him. At FAO the store was divided into little areas. A whole corner was just for girls. The middle of the store was for educational toys, etc. whereas TRU was always just a warehouse with one aisle after another. I moved around quite a bit in my life and most of the TRU's I've ever been to up until the turn of the century all had the videogames in the last two aisles on the right side of the store. I'm sure this was pretty standard. Once they started converting the stores they took out the aisle design (although some stores had the "racetrac" design from the mid 1990s) and in turn tried to create "worlds" like at FAO. There was no longer an educational aisle, there was "The Imaginarium" which was a carpeted section right in the middle of the store. You could get everything from Leap Frog to Microscopes and Legos there. The bike aisle and power wheels aisle turned into "Wheels World" which is usually in the back right corner of the store. And thus the video game aisles and slips were combined down into "R-Zone" which is usually in the front right corner of the store. These conversions have been going on for about five years now where the store is either converted or closed. However this may have stopped in the past few months as Toys R Us is being purchased by a group of investors who intend on doing something else with it. Oh yeah, and just for the record...... I miss the slips.

Hey thats really creative!

I'm still rather upset that FB2 will not see Thrust+ ....that's just a real real shame that millions of home consumers wont ever get to enjoy that game, no matter what the reason, it should not have happened.

It's true that Solaris was the "sequel" to Star Raiders.... ...but the bottom line was that artwork was reused because Jack Tramiel was cheap. Why pay for another piece of artwork when an old stock photo left over from the Warner days could be used instead? .......... Also, I used to work at Toys R Us... the slip system in R-Zone was abandoned from 2001-2003 during some store reconfigurations. Sorta sad, I saved a handfull of the old slips.

This has been brought up tons of times before. It was a home-made spray painted system. Creative idea for the John Deere fan, I wouldnt knock it.... I just wouldnt ever call it "official" etc.

See THAT is what I am talking about! Atari was made up of the best and brightest yet they couldn't find a way to impliment the control mechanics that you laid out. It's a simple solution for porting over a 400/800 game. Maybe had they started from scratch to begin with instead of sitting on their lazy rumps tyring to port something they did a few years before they could have come up with such a game. Good thinking!

Now if you could only show us a 7800 Crystal Castles that uses this Trak-Ball next April Fool's Day I'd be happy forever!

Dude that was the BEST Atari story I've heard in years! I read it over the phone to the man responsible for designing the 5200 and he got a kick out of it too. I'd love to meet ole' Barb! BTW, I'd be interested in one of the 5200's if you have any left. Justin

I have a Swordquest WaterWorld which is a 9 i think.... but mine is CIB never opened in absolute pristine shape so I would think that adds to the value a little bit. Who knows. Some of the games valued at 10 are games I would never buy, I value a game like Warterworld that came directly from Atari much more than some game that came from a little third party company in Holland, even if they only made 10 copies. But that's just me.

That's a good point... but like I said, if Atari wanted to get *creative* they could have tackled this head-on. Maybe create the overlay for Asteroids out of a durable mylar or other material that may hold up better. Or maybe use the 5200's two fire buttons as LEFT / RIGHT steering, and only use two of the keypad buttons for FIRE and HYPERSPACE. There were ways around this, but Atari was starting to get lazy. They were lazy to begin with in porting over the 400/800 "been-there-done-that" version of Asteroids to the 5200 to begin with. They were lazy when they did not get creative enough to solve the control issue. And they were lazy when they just said "who needs Asteroids anyway? Ahhh the hell with it!" and gave up. That would be like Nintendo saying "yeah.... programming Mario for Revolution is just too damn hard. Oh well. We give up." It's not as if Asteroids was some unknown title, it was a premiere Atari title! LAZY!

BTW, Nolan was long gone by the time the Cosmos rolled around. It was Al Alcorn that worked on the project. Nolan was off sailing, missing meetings, and running Chuck E Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre at the time the Cosmos was being kicked around (81ish)

I may purchase it for TurboGrafx-16.com museum if there's a good posibility of getting this game published. Looks like a great game!

If they wanted to get creative they should have made a keypad overlay for the 5200 controller that controlled the ship as opposed to the joystick. The keypad could have simulated what was in the arcade. Thrust, hyperspace, left, right and fire. Sometimes I think Atari just got plain lazy with the 5200 though. Porting over 2-year old titles from the 400/800 with no enhancements what so ever is just resting on their laurels.

Why hasnt anybody posted pix of the Pole Position sequence in D.A.R.Y.L. ?? I'd love to see that!

You sir have a PM.

just rape the old bitch and steal her goods.

I would. I'd expect the third flashback unit to top all others. Does that mean a cartridge port and multicards? I doubt it. Who knows.

I'm so thankful curt was able to add new titles to the lineup but it would be nice to see more detail on CoM.... if curt could pull that off in the next 10 days it would be great! After seeing what was done on the 2600 in the late 80s and early 90s with Solaris, etc. and with homebrews like Thrust, I think a great CoM conversion would be possible. Now if we could only get Swordquest AirWorld on the FB3....

Well I realize it was not mass produced but there have been plenty of reproduction cartridges floating around, the best of which was offered here on AtariAge for quite some time. Once you get the controls down its a pretty decent game. A homebrew would always be fun but I'd personally rather play the real deal. I'm sure you can pick one up on ebay or in the forums here for a good price. You can play pretty much play the same thing on any Atari 8 -Bit computer too. And yes, I think the cartridge and controller currently belong to Keita unless they have changed hands in the meantime. I'm prety sure he found it while doing some scavaging at Atari's Lombard warehouse or while at one of the major vendor's but I'm not certain. That would be something for Keita (or whomever the rightful owner of the cartridge is) to explain.

Indeed I do! This is the 5200 Asteroids controller featured alongside the one existing 5200 Asteroids prototype that features a production label. The controller (i believe) was created in-house at Atari as a proposed solution to the analog situation. It would be a pack-in like Track & Field. Ofcourse this was a breadboard controller and had not reached the stage of developing a clean plastic case to match the 5200's mean looks. Justin