madhatter667

Word. I care more about fun, and game story than challenge level. I'll generally play through on easy, or normal. I've got nothing to prove. Especially with Playstation era forward, with some heavily story driven titles.

800XL with 1050 disk drive. Still have it. Parents got it from a neighbor somewhere between '84 and '87 if memory serves. If I had a better idea of what I had then. Lol. I was still a small child though. Still, could have gotten into computers much sooner. Lol. I think we also got the 130XE at the same time. Nothing else after that until around '93 or '94... an Acer...can't remember the exact specs, but IBM PC compatible. Mostly played games on it...

Does playing games on MAME, and dumping in stoopid amounts of "quarters" count?

Played through Knights of the Round just now. It's been a while since I played it last (but got through it all this time)... it's a sidescrolling beat 'em up. Basically Final Fight with a pseudo level system and swords. Lol.

Depends on the game.

Super Mario Brothers 3 (NES/Famicom). I cheat though.

"...when you really think about it, the great majority of those games are still sold way below their original price. Even in Thrifts, on ebay or retro game shops. We keep crying foul when, say, a Megaman 3 costs us 20 bucks, but how much was that sold for back in the 80s?" -Half price for a used item, incomplete, and in less than pristine shape (and likely untested), is not a good deal, a fair price, or anything close to it. Also, I recall games being close to $50, but we were buying them on base, and overseas. The market really isn't the same anymore. I recall back when, I grabbed Link to the Past for SNES for $0.50 from St. Vinnie's. It was one I wanted for a long time (neighbor friend had it), but we never found it in stores. Also, I went to the neighbor's to play it, so why buy it? Lol. A deal like that will pretty much NEVER happen again. Probably the best price paid vs. going price (even then) score I've managed. My NES and SNES collection really boomed between 1999 and 2006 or so. Between thrifts, eBay, and Game Crazy closing out a lot of their old stock... I got a ton of stuff that we just never had the money for when I was younger. Lol. Even paying a premium for the occasional high demand (or actually rare) title (Dragon Warrior 3 cost me $18, but Castlevania Dracula X cost me $65), I was still sitting very pretty in terms of collecting. I kinda miss that, because I would go thrifting with another collector friend of mine, and while we never knew what we were gonna come across, chances were good that we were gonna come across something. We'd hit every Vinnie's and Goodwill between the two towns we lived in. It was fun. The hunt was fun, the time spent together was fun, and the games we turned up were fun. I miss that more than I miss finding games I think.

Thanks for the links. Bookmarked them. I can always load up some of the Monochrome titles to give things a run while looking for a color solution. One thought is getting an scanner box, just to be able to hook up to newer, nicer monitors... but how far can one push the ST for display size anyway? I've played classic consoles on some rather large screens, and I'm just never THAT far away from them when gaming. Lol. While I can link the Best cable to a VGA cable, I ordered a male/male converter for the cable... just more convenient that way. Ordered a Gotek floppy emulator with the HxC firmware, USB interface. Should be fun. More stable than magnetic disks anyway. The debate is to install in the computer, or drop it into an external case? A little more affordable than an Ultrasatan, and since primary purpose is gaming, I figured a floppy drive solution is a good start. Depending on how much I dabble with music making (it can, so I likely will dabble), grabbing an Ultrasatan later for hard disk solution doesn't seem like the worst idea ever, or just keep my eyes peeled for an actual Atari hard disk, whichever happens first.

Lol. That was a pretty good video linked there. It's odd thinking back that it has been a pretty fair amount of time to watch the environment change.

I do more than emulation, so I won't be doing that. Windows still gets the most game love of all the OS out there. Ootake seems like it fires up under Win10 anyway. I'll try that out later, and see if I like it better or not.

I remember Nesticle. Was a pretty good one as memory serves. For NES I currently run FCEUX, unless anyone can recommend a better Win10 compatible that supports USB gamepads. Magic Engine runs on Win10, so I have that for TG16/PCE. I've never gotten rid of MAME. Specifically MAME 32, as I like the graphical interface. Other notables that I have gotten into are BlueMSX (until I can find/afford a real MSX2 machine), Speccy (until I can afford a Spectrum, or build a compatible from a kit)...I like these enough to warrant hardware. I still prefer hardware to emulation, but with say Arcade stuff... it sure takes a lot less space. Lol. I emulate very few systems that I either don't, or didn't own, and it's also something I've dabbled in over the years. I just never took it as seriously as my physical collecting habits. They are two very different beasts.

Ok. I will admit that I know pretty much nothing about this one. It was Atari's last home computer? 32 bit machine? Has a similar form factor to the ST computers. Computers interest me mostly from a gaming perspective. Most anything I need to do on a machine, I've been able to do for a very long time. It's the entertainment factor that keeps me glued. Lol. I know they aren't easy to come by either. I know that Atari computers ended up with a larger following in what is now the EU vs. the United States. I went from playing a couple of games on Atari 8 bits as a kid (on top of 2600, and NES) to an Acer IBM compatible in like 1993. I played a lot of Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, Dawn Patrol (the WWI flight game, not the submarine game), Red Baron, Shadows of Cairn, and Aces Over Europe/Pacific. I liked flight games, and shooters. Is this machine worth holding out for in terms of game availability? Or is this the Atari computer unicorn?

I almost enjoy classic computer gaming more than I do classic console gaming. Seems that computers have always been the master race. Lol. ZX Spectrum/Harlequin... because building my own for NTSC sounds like fun. OR An Atari Falcon. I don't know what I would do with one, but as the last Atari computer, it'd be cool to have.

Ok, so I fired it all up. The good? The ST works (bought it as untested). Boots into GEM. TOS has copyrights for 1986/1987 as dates listed, so I am guessing an earlier version, which I need to cross reference. Is it worth the trouble upgrading to a later version? I know all the chips are socketed, which (should) somewhat simplify this process. I've never upgraded an ST, I just ran them as I got them. My ST mouse also works, which is good. I never got around to fixing my last ST mouse. Lol. The NEC 195VX isn't broken (bought on a gamble). The bad: I get "Out of range" when I switch to color. I get monochrome though. I just signed up for Atari-Forum, so I can get around to adding this bit of information to the wiki. Bottom border is a bit thicker than top border. If I were just using software applications, I'd be good. BUT, I want to game, primarily, and possibly dabble in making some midi/chip tunes on the side... so I will hunt down a 1970 series monitor to match up.

Anyone got any input on the floppy emulators? Looks like there are USB ones, that have Atari ST support as long as you order the correct firmware. They also appear to mount inside the case? It appears to be a bit more affordable than the Ultrasatan, but accomplishes the same overall goal?

Which reinforces the point: SSI, and disability income is next to nothing, and it would be hard to fund a reselling operation on funds that probably don't fully cover the necessities.

Beat Superman (arcade) the other day. A little lack luster. I remember that one being much more fun.

"Yeah, and they're probably collecting from SSI and/or disability income, so they can afford to drive around all day long raiding thrift shops, flea markets, and garage sales for deals." -I think that is n over-estimation of the income levels of those on disability. I have a very close friend on SSI, and he only gets about $600 a month. My mother in law is on disability, and she gets even less. Afford in terms of time? Maybe. Afford in terms of cost (fuel, items to resell etc)? Not as likely.

Splatterhouse Wanpakku Graffiti wasn't a cheap one when I bought it several years ago. I can't imagine that time has been friendly to the price tag. Lol. Worth picking up though. Stupid fun.

"Eternal Darkness. When it pretends to wipe out your memory card... " -Ha ha ha! That game did pull a few good ones. The first time my character got dismembered, I was sitting there "What booby trap did I trigger? WTF?"

Ok, Best Electronics switchable cable ordered. Really hoping that Multisync I picked up can pull off 15kHz.

I updated, and now am getting a lot of "file not found" when I click on games through the menu. Does anyone know of a fix?

Ok, so this isn't all of it. Pictured is my refurbed XEGS from B&C, which has not been cracked out of the cellophane yet. Going to soon though I think. I have an 800XL and 130XE as well, and they are the ones that typically get played... but they are boxed up right now. I kept the XEGS closer at hand, because I'm pretty stoopid happy to have it in my collection. It's pretty minty, and I like keeping nice things nice. Anyways, sharing some goodies, because we all like seeing, and chatting about games, and game related goodies. I don't have the largest collection of A8 carts, but I do enjoy them. Got an Ultimate on the way, and am super excited for it. Fun stuff.

Fatal Frame does bring the creep factor pretty heavily.

Resident Evil 1 & 2, Silent Hill 1 & 2, Deadly Premonition, Alan Wake, Dead Space, Clocktower (though I suck at it).