Zwackery

One of my colleagues has had me guest lecture in her History of Video Games class about Atari and that era of games, but mostly I focused on Atari (with lots of memorabilia), and she had me come back for a second day to let the students actually play some of the games. She requested certain titles - Adventure, Space Invaders, River Raid, Yars' Revenge, Pitfall II, Ms. Pacman, Donkey Kong, and ET - that the book she's having them read specifically mentions, and I rounded it out with a bunch of other common (Combat, Frogger) and very rare titles (Boing!, Glib), but of all the ones I brought the most popular games were Outlaw, Kool-Aid Man, and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Regarding the latter, the students were amazed at the complexity of the game given the time when it was made. It was interesting to see them sit down and attempt to play a game that they thought would be easy (like Vanguard) and realize there was more going on than they expected and that they actually had to read an instruction manual. It was really interesting to see them get super competitive over Outlaw.

All it needs is an Atari Organizer in front of it.

Why can't I find ungodly rare shit like this in basements? What have I done to anger the universe? MUST SACRIFICE MORE JELLY DONUTS TO CTHULHU.

Mine does not have the sticker, although the box is kind of beat up, so maybe it did at one point, but it doesn't look like it.

There's one of the promotional hats on eBay right now. It's not in the greatest shape (writing on opposite side and stains).

This is interesting info. I'm actually working on a chapter for a Routledge book (to be released in 2020) that is essentially all about Star Trek, and my contribution is all about Star Trek board games and video games. Big topic! I love little tidbits like this.

I have had a lot of positive transactions with senorjakehughes on eBay. Add him as a saved seller. He tends to get a fair amount of NOS Activision patches.

For anybody who is near the Research Triangle in North Carolina, the annual East Coast Game Conference is featuring Warren Robinett as one of the keynote speakers for 2019 (his talk is April 17th). It's a really interesting conference that mixes industry professionals with all levels of game studios, designers, academics, and fans. I've been going every year since 2013. The Triangle is home to Epic Games, Red Storm Entertainment, Insomniac East, Imangi, and a bunch of other studios. If you can make it to Raleigh, you may want to check it out.

I think you will be very pleasantly surprised by Boing! and I found it to be the rare case of a rare game that is actually fun to play. Clearly inspired by Q*Bert but with some good innovations.

First Star. One great game and mic drop.

BECAUSE IT IS AWESOME! Next question...

Average US salary in April 1982 = $7.77/hour Adjust for inflation to February 2019 = $21.49/hour A $34.95 game in April 1982 on average hourly wage would take about 4.5 hours to earn. $92.05 in February 2019 dollars on an average hourly wage would take about 4.3 hours to earn. But we know that new console games are around the $60 price point, and with the current hourly wage about $23.12/hour, a video game for a current buyer only takes about 2.6 hours to earn. My point is, you can adjust things for inflation, but the context of hourly wage (and other data) needs to be there to get a better picture of the analysis. And mine is by no means exhaustive or definitive, just throwing another layer of data out there.

Hey gang, got a couple of video cards for sale: 1) EVGA GeForce GTX 970 SC GAMING ACX 2.0 - https://www.evga.com/products/specs/gpu.aspx?pn=8296b494-5d1d-400d-b2e8-d00ccd71e088 This comes out of my gaming PC. Purchased 11/2015 (specifically to play Fallout 4). I split my gaming time between PC, consoles, and handheld, and from looking at my Steam account, I see where this card has approximately 450 hours of gaming done on it (plus regular PC stuff, too). I take good care of my gear (I never overclock anything). It's for sale because I went to a GTX 1070 (overkill for Fallout 76 I know). Price is $90 and that includes shipping. 2) EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Dual FTW w/ EVGA ACX Cooler - https://www.evga.com/products/specs/gpu.aspx?pn=DDAA5397-ACA9-4A35-939D-20E3049FED37 This came out of an office productivity rig I built back in spring 2014. Purchased 04/2014. Works fine, just updated that card to a 1050 Ti. Price is $60 and that includes shipping.

Xenophobe was clearly inspired by the Alien franchise and a totally awesome, fun game to boot. More interestingly, Milton Bradley was reportedly working on a licensed game based on Alien, but the title was switched to The Attack (1981) once Texas Instruments took over publishing duties from Milton Bradley (most likely to avoid licensing fees - if true, this might mark the first instance of a film to game licensing agreement, albeit one that was not used). A prototype of the Alien game by Milton Bradley is supposedly in the possession of former employee Anthony Cote.

In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire... The A-Team. https://youtu.be/Cn6kEsloMdE

I still like Krull the movie as well as the game (2600 and arcade). Plus, I vacation on Planet Krull.

Let's see...I bought 3 of them back on 04 January 2010 from urbanoutfitters.com. Instead of $10 each they were marked down to $3.75. They were made in 2009, so that was the rebranded Atari SA (IESA) time when they were pimping the brand really hard. I believe several stores were attempting to sell them. Not sure about production numbers of anything like that. They are made of plastic and come in one of those cardboard boxes that is basically a frame, allowing for the display of the ornament off the tree, but of course you want to put it proudly and prominently on your tree!

I am not going to wade into the political aspects of the sample - and I am very interested in video game history, so I think that getting creators to document their undertakings is very useful - but what I want to say is that this seems to be a self-published endeavor, and many people could benefit from having a professional editor do what editors do best to their writing.

Super BurgerTime and ToeJam & Earl? SOLD! If they get Math Gran Prix on it, I've died and gone to heaven.

BurgerTime was released for the Intellivision, and then M-Network ported that version to the Atari 2600. Colecovision also had its own release.

I think I actually opened up Mouse Trap first because the CV box was so big and I was sitting around the in the mall (Fair Oaks Mall in Fairfax, VA) with my dad and brother while my mom was shopping so at least being able to open Mouse Trap took the edge off. Interestingly, my parents bought the CV for me in November (11-25-83 was the day after Thanksgiving, so Black Friday) as an Xmas present, so I got it home, played it for an evening, and then it went back in the box until December 25th. I was a reasonably good kid.

Yes, DK was the pack-in, but the store was offering the regular console setup plus a free bonus copy of Mouse Trap. Guess I put MT first as it was actually in its own box.

Yes, my original CV still works, as does the VCS adaptor, all my original carts, and even the joysticks. Original power supply, too!

Posted Yesterday, 4:01 PM Going through some old stuff, I came across this old log book where - for a time during the 1980s - I was documenting what I was purchasing. Not sure why, maybe to keep track of stuff, but it was mostly for my D&D. Near the back of the book, however, I found this page where I had written down some of my Atari and Colecovision purchases. I got my Atari for Christmas 1980 (the store was offering a bonus free copy of Space Invaders with every console purchased, and my parents love bargains), and by mid to late 1984 this is everything I had gotten. Not the biggest collection, but damn I loved those games (and still do). I think I was trying to sell the joysticks to get one of those fancypants Atari Space Age joysticks. So futuristic!

Yes! Plus a lot of other stuff.