Zwackery

I taught English for 5 years, and never told that joke, although my comedy tends to run a bit more into the blue spectrum. Last week, however, I did finish the British bestseller book on punctuation Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss.

I guess lately on eBay I've been noticing that rarity 1-4, and even into 5, stuff is going for a lot less than it has in the past, but that the rarer items are getting more and more pricey. I suppose that demand is up and supply is limited, hence the pricing discrepancy. Of course, this is a general trend and I'm sure there are plenty of exceptions (I can think of two auctions I personally bid on where this is the case). In the early days of collecting, I felt like it was more of a hobby, but once the desire for classic video games crossed over into the "collectibles" category, it attracted an asset element for people who run businesses and/or investments. On one hand, I'm glad that a resource like AtariAge exists because it is a treasure trove of information that I find very valuable. On the other hand, the codification of pricing guides by a select few has had a major impact on the market. I personally can't stand the DP Guide (and yes, I have a copy); at the last swap meet I went to, practically everyone had a copy and referred to it like it was some sort of holy writ rather than a guide (gee, I thought that word was in the title for a reason); it made it hard to negotiate with people, and so individuals who were more flexible got my money. I'm trying to be reasonable and offer a fair market price hoping that the seller will meet me halfway. I'd like to feel like I got a deal, and I want the seller to feel positive about the sale. Back to eBay, I find it a good resource for buying and selling games, but I'm just interested in my own little collection and tend to do okay, as I come pretty close to breaking even with my purchases and sales. When there are certain games I want, I may see what the various "guides" say, and then factor in how much I want something, and what the upper level is. Yes, I've outbid people at the last second by fifteen cents or five dollars, and it has happened to me. It can be a little disheartening if you had your eye on something and don't make the high bid, but I've found with eBay that patience is indeed a virtue, and I've gotten good deals often by waiting months or even years. In particular, I like the saved searches email notification and ability to track stuff in My eBay. Overall, I think you do raise a very important personal point for yourself, and that has to do with how much fun you are getting out of the experience, and if collecting is turning from fun to frustration then maybe you can sit out of the eBay game for a bit and just enjoy what you already have.

I don't know about Belgian prices as reflective of what was available in terms of games and systems. Space Robot looks like a Dimax or Goliath release. I don't know about Pukkmen or UFO Attack, and AtariAge is blank on a listing. Given that Pac-Man was originally called Puckman, it doesn't seem too far off linguistically.

I picked up one for $17 mixed in with 3 other carts, turned around and sold those carts for about $12. The label was in really great shape, except for a small bit of blue ballpoint pen, which came off without any trouble. I think this is a rarity case where the box & docs make a BIG difference in $$$$.

The Atari Age rarity guide for the Jaguar http://www.atariage.com/software_list.html?SystemID=JAGUAR gives Double Dragon V a 4 and Battlemorph a 3. If these are just the games, without box and docs, it will lower their value somewhat.

Yes - validation!

by Atari for the arcade: http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=&game_id=8465

Would someone explain to me why the Starplex controller needs 1 AA battery to power the rapid fire switch (especially when the rest of the controller works without it)? I don't have a whole lot of electronics skills, so I'm just curious.

Like I said, I felt that you had your mind pretty much made up about the whole widescreen vs. fullscreen debate, and your statements - which are largely predicated on uneducated opinion - just prove my point.

I really didn't expect to change your mind, and maybe the majority of films you watch you don't care about image composition, but I think that Orson Welles, Akira Kurosawa, Francis Ford Coppola, Sam Peckinpah, Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Rainer Fassbinder, Leni Riefenstahl, James Cameron, Luc Besson, Lina Wertmuller, Paul Verhoeven, David Cronenberg, Federico Fellini, and John Carpenter (for starters) would completely disagree with what you say. Enjoy your butchered productions.

looks to me like the green checkerboard pattern matches the 1982 Atari catalog (that also doubled as a poster): http://www.atariage.com/catalog_overview.html?CatalogID=62 Note that this scan is very dark. Here's a better pic:

Ah, well, there you go. BTW, if anyone has a PAL version CIB for sale, please PM me. I'm really just after the box and instructions.

I gotta say, as a complete tangent to your overall posting, which I agree with, that the widescreen/fullscreen issue is a pretty significant one to me, seeing as I teach university Intro to Film courses. 1) The original aspect ratio (OAR) of the film is very important, because this is how the film was intended to be viewed (even if the film was shot with the idea of getting trimmed for a television distribution) in terms of image composition. Would you buy a poster or a painting with the edges cut off? 2) Okay, so the whole concept of home viewing comes up with regard to this topic. The majority of televisions right now are 4x3, but more and more widescreen units are being made, and eventually the 4x3 ratio will be abandoned. Now, I'm sure for the next 50 years or so people will continue to buy older, second-hand units if their preference is for the 4x3 ratio (although signals getting upgraded to HD might force the obsolescence on faster). Now, the studios love this. Why? Because you don't want to see those bars at the top and bottom of your screen, but you probably don't want to see bars on the left and right of the image when your fullscreen film is played on a widescreen tv. Now you can stretch that out and distort the image, but it doesn't look so good. So people will then go out and buy another copy of the film, this time in widescreen, and probably in whatever format is popular (HD-DVD, crystals, light cubes, whatever the future holds). However, films that are recorded in widescreen, and particularly in anamorphic widescreen (as opposed to the "matted" widescreen") will have a longer playback life as playback viewing devices (i.e., televisions, monitors, LCD projectors) are being made to prefer this format (by both the studios and the technology companies). Please support widescreen whenever possible. Please surf to here http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/ana...ic/welcome.html for more information.

300-400 games for $150. About fifty cents a cart, not bad. You'd probably be able to put together some mega packs for eBay, and Colecovision stuff has been doing well lately. Have you looked through the whole stash? Might be a couple of carts in there worth your while. If it is just a bunch of common stuff, then I might stay away, but I like the wheeling & dealing of buying used stuff straight from people.

Better make sure that it's an NTSC cart instead of PAL... I've seen quite a few PAL Mean 18s on eBay. Unfortunately, the AA 7800 list doesn't have a rarity listing for the PAL version.

Mean 18 Ultimate Golf is a rarity 7 cart, so that makes it fairly elusive and much in demand.

So if I just want the plain old DVDs, can I still send you $12.95? Because I can print that myself and I've got plenty of spare DVD cases.

I think you'll find Worms was originally an Amiga game ported to PC and then everything else.... inc Jaguar.. I believe it was Team 17? Nick I mean PC as in "personal computer", which is what the Amiga was. I know that some people think PC equals a Windows / Intel configuration, but that is not really accurate. A TRS-80 is a PC, a Mac is a PC, and so on, it's just that PC has erroneously come to indicate a Wintel system.

I just got a package in the mail (consisting of one game) and noticed for the very first time it was stamped, in red, Media Mail Subject to Inspection Hmmm, I've never seen that before...does anyone know if the USPS is starting to crack down on Media Mail abuse? From the USPS website Media Mail is: People have debated back and forth about the classification of video games, particularly cartridge based ones, as "computer recorded media" especially since the old USPS regs allowed them to go as Media Mail but increasingly that seems not to be the case. Thoughts?

Here are some games that I think are worth adding to your Jag collection: Alien vs. Predator - one of the primary reasons why I picked up the Jag in first place. Now a tad dated given the dominance of more advanced FPS, it is still nonetheless a lot of fun to play. Atari Karts - probably not as good as Mario Karts, but it provides some fun for more than one person. Attack of the Mutant Penguins - this game has a fairly steep learning curve, but once mastered it is wacky, surreal fun, and one of my personal favorites. Bashing penguins with frying pans has never seemed so...natural. Brutal Sports Football - I'm not really a fan of sports games, but add in warriors in armor, monsters, and the ability to bomb, stab, and decapitate your opponents, and now we're talking serious football. Great fun, especially for two people. Evolution: Dino Dudes - help the cavemen complete various tasks and advance up the ladder of evolution. Similar to other games where selecting character types is crucial to correctly completing a level, this is a fairly whimsical approach to the genre. Iron Soldier - piloting a mech is fun! Smash buildings and generally blow stuff up. Missile Command 3D - an interesting update to a classic. It takes a bit to get used to the controls, but give it a try and you'll like it. Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure - another update for a classic, or perhaps more accurately it should be regarded as a sequel to a long running title. Primal Rage - the arcade game comes home to your console. Note: requires CD unit. Tempest 2000 - the other reason why I picked up the Jag back in the day. Superb update, engrossing gameplay, outstanding visual effects and soundtrack. Ultra Vortek - I'm not a fan of fighting games much either, but for some reason I really, really like this one. Maybe because you can be robots? Anyhow, a good ol' whompin' time, fun for 1 or 2 players. Worms - one PC port, among many, for the Jag, it provides mindless fun for hours. The Cybermorph pack-in with the Jag is also kinda fun.

FOUND!

According to the auction text, and looking at the picture, the label was already damaged, so he put some tape on it, ostensibly to stop it from ripping, peeling, and so on. Given that it was already damaged, I wouldn't bid on it anyhow (even if I didn't already own the cart ).

I'm a grad student working full-time on a PhD, so I don't make much on my assistantship...but I devote what I can for video games.

Just out of curiousity, how many game cartridges does your collection add up to?