4cade

Hey, thanks Chopper! Glad to make your acquaintance. In truth, when it comes to dedicated pongs, I wish I could find a collector that had dozens, maybe a hundred, and just dive in and test each one, making a master list of which models had better or interesting controls & features. But since that's unlikely, I'm working on some other Pong material. Despite it being one of the most recognizable games in history, there's still a lot of un-mined material there about how Pong affected video game history. Right now I'm trying to finish up my doc on perhaps the strangest genre of Pong - the history of MECHANICAL Pong games!

Man, thank you so much! Really appreciate that

Chopper, nice hardware! I've been doing a lot of research on Pong lately for some documentary videos I'm working on, and you've got some prime examples there, glad you were able to tweak and clean and resolve the jitter issues. That Tandy - I got a theory that's a forerunner to the modern day Plug 'N Play, all the hardware is build into the controller!

I've been fascinated with the bizarre selection of controllers for the CDI, which I believe is a byproduct of Phillips licensing the CDI out to different manufacturers - but is there a comprehensive list of them (with pics, and hopefully info) anywhere on the net? I've been googling around and found plenty of lists of the CDI games, but only rando entries on the controllers.

Stern Pinball returned once again to Comic-Con, and had over two dozen pinball machines set up at various locations throughout the con, all set up on free play. There were Star Wars pinball machines in the Star Wars booth, at the Stern booth they had three machines of Black Knight: Sword of Rage, and outside the con they had the Stern Pinball Arcade, with two dozen of their recent machines set up! You can take a look here: https://youtu.be/A9s1z12ay7I

Hey, Blazer! Cool thread, I just started one this week asking the same thing but when I found your thread today, boom - went and ordered an NES power adapter and hopefully next week I'll be APF gaming!

Awesome, can I be #17?

Wow, holy crap. I had NO idea - I assumed it was just one of the USA games re-named to rip off the SW brand. But that is not only an entirely different game from any of the domestic games (am I right on this? Been a year or two since I was deep in Studio research), and actually kind of a pretty innovative type of game considering what I've seen from the other Studio games in USA.

you get the Euro Star Wars game? I've been dying to see some footage of how that plays

I'm interested in getting one from the next batch!

Is this still available?

Thanks, Yellow Lantern. I'll look into that and hope it's not as intimidating as it sounds. (love the profile pic btw) I'm actually starting to brace myself for it not working. But it looks in decend condition; there's some scuffs on the cabinet. Not too much dirt. The contacts looked a little dirty, though I've attached this pic - they don't look too bad I guess, maybe I'll take another look.

More great advice - glad I joined the forum! $15 sounds like a good insurance policy for the investment.

Fantastic, BallyAlley - I actually read your last line first and went and joined the group before I read the rest and saw that you are the one that runs it! Thanks so much for the input. Wow, I'm looking at some of the discussions - you have Bally employees there??? That is so cool. I went through a retro gaming kick in the early aughts, but it was NES/Genesis/Atari - but this month I've picked up an Astrocade and a Fairchild, and I am STOKED to try them out. Can't wait to compare those controllers.

Love it, BallyAlley - you must know your shit with that handle. I actually started another thread asking for advice, BallyAlley - the exact kind of stuff you were suggesting: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/241879-bought-astrocade-any-helpadvice/ I was wondering if I should take any precautions before attempting to test it. It's really amazing the capability of this system; i can only imagine the thing was tanked by: 1. Price point 2. Games (lack thereof) 3. Marketing And I wonder if marketing is more key than many think. I don't know, I think A) it was stupid to name it a home library computer (I'm really shocked that virtually every console went "I'm a computer" and none went "I'm an ARCADE game - for your home!!!!", that latter of which is what kids were looking for), and B) then change the name 4 times? I'm actually researching it for a mini documentary vid I'd like to do on it by end of year. Question - I just realized. Can't I safely test this without doing anything? I don't need a cartridge to test it - so, am I being risky by not opening it up and cleaning everything? could the dust or whatever be an issue for just a test?

Awesome, great advice - my Astrocade is on the carpet right now (not turned on - haven't turned it on yet), so this is really good to know.

Hi, everyone - new-ish member of the site, grew up with an Atari/Pong, but just got back into gaming (and retro gaming) after many years lapse. And what better way than to do so than pick up a Bally's Astrocade! I don't think I ever knew of this when I was a kid, we had a 2600. Anyways, I took a gamble and bought an untested system. It had no RF adapter, so I ordered one and now I have an agonizingly long wait until I get that before I try out my Astrocade. My question to you guys - anything I can/should do. Like should I spray some canned air into it to de-dust it? Looks like that cartridge port exposes the inside all the time. Keep in mind that I am a total newbie when it comes to "working" with these things - I've played many retro consoles, but not experienced like actually fixing or cleaning insides or anything. Would love to hear your input!

Blazing Lazers, that is awesome! Have you gotten this to play? Is there gameplay foogate?

Got it! thanks so much. I just bought an Astrocade off of eBay, so was interested in looking into the multicart. Much appreciated!

save2600 - I can't. I'm new here and the forum won't let me. I've tried a couple times to PM members directly, but I guess I gotta pass initiation or something.

Hey, Kenzre - still selling these?