Cassidy Nolen

Sort of interesting you would mention this. I really remember sort of leaving video games entirely between 84 and 89. There really was not much in the way of increase performance, and I did not get another system until NES during 89. I already had a VIC-20 and a bunch of games. From NES, went straight to TG-16, which, in my opinion, was one of the finest second gen systems. I think in comparison to Sega anything, it beat the pants off of it. Graphics were worlds better than NES, and games like Bonk and R-Type rocked. Still love to play Dragons Curse From there, again, another wait. College we had a SNES and Street Fighter got a lot of play. Sorry, I can't deny we liked it at the time. Now I am just thankful they released it, because so many classic arcade machines were converted, and now years later, I can convert them back. At the time, if they had not been converted, they would be in land fills. Bought a N64 in 96, day of release, and the sickness began. 52 systems later, and a bunch of coin ops, I am hooked. Still cant seem to find a Coleco Telstar Arcade (the only one I am missing).... Cassidy

I got back into consoles after being beat down about arcades for a long while. In the coin op collecting community, if you buy a borken game and sell it fixed for a profit, you are a jerk. I do not understand that philosophy. If you have things to sell, you should be able to do that. I hope no one sees my occasional sale on ebay as a bad thing. When you collect a lot, you are always upgrading. My "downgrades" are still better that none at all for others. Besides, if no one was selling anything, what would we all buy? Cassidy

Why not to Germany? I have shipped things worldwide. I can send a game to the UK or Germany in an envelope from the post office for 4 dollars? Wonder why these sellers won't do it, heck, once I shipped a complete Odyssey to France, and a Discs of Tron Environmental to the UK. Now that is some shipping charges!!!!! Cassidy

Hi all, This is sort of a fun project. I have a whole lot of ROMS laying around (mostly pac man and Space Invaders) after making myself some other carts, so I thought it might be neat to make a cart to use them in. I got a Zero Insertion Force socket and soldered it in place of a rom. I am currently cutting a whole in the front of the cart, so you can access the rom. Then, I plan on doing a label (hey, I paid for that type font, by golly I am going to use it!) and have a Uni-Cart. It only works with ROMS, but I could easily make one that works with EPROMS. I am using liquid nails and hot glue (hot glue for positioning and LN for strength). Just thought I would toss that idea out. Never know what someone might be inspired to do with it next. Cassidy

I use a hairdryer on the label and just lift it off carefully. Put it down on wax paper while you are working, and then heat it and slide it back on. I have had to do that several times, and when I made the Polo carts, I got the old labels off every time that way. Be careful as you pull, and you may not have to remove the whole thing. When I put them back together, I do not put the screws back in either. That way, you can get it open if you need to, and the cases will still be plenty strong to hold the game shut (not like we ride our bikes with them in our pockets anymore!!!) HTH< Cassidy

Must confess, Computer Space is really catchy; for about three rounds. If you play it, well, I think you and I will be the only two on the planet who enjoy it! Long live pixelated rockets and burned in starfields.. Cassidy BTW, John, CGE was so awesome I could not get enough. Nicole and I are planning our honeymoon around it (she is one of the good ones!). I love that feeling of "too much" compared to the normal "thrift store rummaging".

To get stuff out of the grooves, I use q-tips and a cleaner like fantastic or simple green. I just make sure it does not get near any painted areas. I do not know if it will hurt them (like the words or the fuji logo) but I do not want to find out. HTH, Cassidy

Now if I could just get one of you Mindlink owners to sell me one..... Cassidy

Well, Worst one I had was a Skiing (Activision) that one of my students found on his way to school. Whole thing was smashed (was in the street and got hit by a car), but we cleaned it and it worked. I later gave a six switch TeleGames to a student and included that cart in the bunch. Had a Bowling that the label smelled like pee. Had a Kaboom with tape all over the labe. Vanguard with a cigarette hole through the case. Thats about it. For Arcadia I have a naked AND broken (imagine that?) cart. Just cant bring myself to toss it. Cassidy

If you will email me, I will tell you how to safely discharge the tv's flyback and not send you into cardiac arrest. Please, for the sake of our BB guilt, do not hurt yourself. Cassidy Survivor, 27 inch monitor discharged into my hand, left through my toe (now you know why I learned how to do it properly!). Makes you talk funny and drool for a few minutes. Of course, so do Corvettes!

I will probably be wearing my Computer Space T-shirt I had made up for Vegas. Depending if its too cold, might wear the Atari hoodie sweatshirt. Of course, I will be the guy worried sick about pizza covered hands on my Star Wars cockpit. My only complaint last year was people were eating then playing Jeff's and my machines. I had 20 hours of time in a Galaga mini there, not to mention money, and it had pizza sauce on it. Strange. Cassidy Anyway, custom tags would be great. Good idea Tempest. Looking forward to meeting you and the others.

I am really looking forward to formally meeting you guys from the group. I think we should figure a way to identify Atariage BB readers, and put our user names or something on them. Just a thought. Of course, we could all carry bologna sandwiches around (funny how one can bring the level of the group down.... ) Cassidy

You know, The CGE was so overwhelming, you do not know what to get. I was like third in line for a Combat 2, bought it out of "the insanity", and ended up trading it for a sealed Custers Revenge later that day. In retrospect, I should have kept them both, and then jumped in line for the Elevator Action and Ms. Space Fury. However, there were other goodies there, too. Its amazing how you lose sight of sanity in those places. Passed a sealed Coleco Roller Controller with Slither, because he would not come down 4 bucks, and I was out of room for a boxed Astrocade for 20. Cassidy

I do have quite a few games for the 5200, but have never solved the controller question. I have had the coin control sticks, and I even have a masterplay interface. By comparison though, it still is very hard to control. How are the WICO sticks? Is it worth the money for them and a keypad? Then maybe I would do the 5200. Graphics are great and Centipede with a trackball is a hit on the big screen. Cassidy Thanks for the suggestions.

Hello all, Just wanted to put in a plug for Best Electronics. They sent my Road Runner priority mail, and it is perfect. The box looks great, and I paid 18 bucks. What a deal! I now have one of every production game (and a few of the protos I have made) between CX2601-CX2699. Now all I have to do is figure out what to start on next? Any suggestions? Cassidy

Just a note on power supplies for these... The homebrew carts have shocked me a few times when I plug them in (as I am holding both positive and negative at the same time). If you want to completely "discharge" the 2600, while it is unplugged, turn it on, and then back off. Plug in your power adaptor to the 2600, and plug it into the wall. Now just put your cart in and you will be ready to go. Turning it on while it is unplugged empties the filter capacitor on the power supply, and no sparkie-sparkie. Found out the hard way when I made my test board... Cassidy

Junie, I just wanted to put in my 25 cents on your project ideas. I think the custom boards is a great idea, and if you can make them, go for it. My experience has taught me so far, after my very limited run of Polo carts and the whole Atari debacle (in another post), it was just easier to take ten of my ugliest, most common carts and make them anew. In some way, its my belief the cartridge is fulfilling its destiny. Ok, at the risk of going existential, if the cart is ugly (like a beat up old car) rebuilding it to a prized condition and making it the center of attention again is sort of like "hot-rodding" the game. Of course, no one is going to diminish the available ones on the planet appreciably, considering the vast numbers that were created 20+ years ago. As for eproms, I have been working on 25 year old arcade machines for years, and have never once seen an erased eprom. They commonly have dirty connections, but rarely is the data corrupted. I just use little colored label stickers over the window, and make sure I write the program a few times to the chip, resocket it and check the checksum before I make it into a cart. Just for fun, here is a shot of the remaining Polo carts. Thanks again to everybody who helped me make these. It was fun and challenging. Now to figure out F8 better than a rats nest..... Cassidy

If I had the skills that Dutch had, I would work on it myself. How does adding a sequel hurt/lower the value of the original? Episode 1 was a good movie, I personally loved the first three Star Wars more, but it did not hurt the originals in any way. If anything, it drew attention to the "classics" for a whole new era. I do not enjoy the SQ games that much, but I do have them. If Dutch can make the next one, and he has talked to the original creator (which takes guts, by itself-remember, Atari just shot me down), rock on. Behind you all the way, man. If you still have on the 25 for presale, let me know, I am in! Cassidy

I'm in, too. This time I wont be trying as hard to sell stand up games and will concentrate on my 2600 collection. Anyone bringing Odyssey 1 stuff for sale or trade? Cassidy

My SW cockpit was not that hard to move, either. Of course, that is compared to Space Lords or Discs of Tron (both really hard on the body to move). My machine was the find of a lifetime... One of my friends was on his way to lunch one day from work and the traffic got backed up. As he turned into a neighborhood, he noticed what looked like a cockpit game under a tarp in a driveway (he is a game nut, too, btw). He went to lunch and then stopped by the house on the way home from work that night. The fella said the game did not work, he was not sure why, but if he wanted it, he could have it. My friend went over to look under it (now dark outside) and found it was a Star Wars cabinet. He knew how much I wanted one, so he called me and said "get the truck". We got it home, I warmed it up in the garage for a few hours and VIOLA, we got game. All complete, all original, unreal condition. The game had been outside for about two weeks, but there had been no rain. There are not even holes in the coin door areas. Thought you could appreciate that story. If you are coming to Philly Classic, it will be there with me for free play. Now hows that for sharing the wealth?.,... Cassidy

Well, I am amazed how high Lockjaw went, but again, its all in the eye of the beholder. Just as a side note, if anyone needs a boxed copy of Slot Machine or Miniature Golf (another hard to find, albeit not that rare) I do have them. Cassidy Huh, rare games at thrift stores are cool. I would love to find a Tooth Protectors or WW at a thrift store. Can you imagine the excitement of finding a Quadrun somewhere?

Funny that this thread would be on right now. Last night, there was a Biography on Woz on the Biography Channel. I only caught the middle of it, so I do not know what all they would have shown of his Atari days. They did show the tent at the US festival he had with Apple and Atari's hooked up to TVs everywhere. Here is his Bio, not sure how relevant it is to the thread, just sort of neat to see. Cassidy http://search.biography.com/print_record.pl?id=20958

How timely that someone would update my "have you ever paid too much" topic at the same time Lockjaw goes higher than I have ever seen 2600 games go. I know there was a Quadrun sometime back for 1000, but it did not sell (IIRC). This is even more than River Patrol went for over Christmas, and I think that is a much better "playing" game. Couple of thoughts... 1. I used to be a Ford Tech, so if you guys go on the expedition, let me know. I will be the mechanic, and we will find those carts.. 2. As for millionaires; I do not think whoever is bidding is loaded, he probably has been saving up or had some extra for this sort of thing. When my Computer Space looked like I had a shot at getting it, I took out a cash advance on my credit card for it, muscled through months of PB&J for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and had a holy grail. I can assure you it was more than any 800. Someone else might think that is nuts, but if you want it bad enough, get it. We only live once. Cassidy BTW, Since I have been collecting, I have never seen a two player CS on ebay, I have never seen one in the US for public sale, nor have I seen one for under 4000. If I had not gone for it then, I would not have it now...

The trees in Crystal Castles. Man, you gotta be on something to come up with that. Druidian ritual or classic arcade? You decide. Bears, bees, honey, trees and witches...... hmmm. All in what look remarkably similar to ruins (sans the elevators, of course). Cassidy

I am sorry if this is a duplicate of Ebay is nuts posts, but I could not believe it. There is a Slot Machine cart boxed for almost 50 bucks. That is nuts. I have had one on my trade list for months and no one has even offered for it. Strange world. Maybe mine should be up there next week? Cassidy