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OldAtarian

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Posts posted by OldAtarian

  1. Posted · Edited by OldAtarian

    It's still for sale and $250 is too much. It'll probably still be for sale a year from now unless the seller wises up and lowers the price.

     

    eBay Auction -- Item Number: 3802310203931?ff3=2&pub=5574883395&toolid=10001&campid=5336500554&customid=&item=380231020393&mpt=[CACHEBUSTER]

     

    Once I have some time, I have a number of Spectres. I think 2 or 3 GCRs and 1 or 2 Spectre 128. Once I can test them one day, I will sell a couple at a much fairer price. $250 is crazy! I just need to confirm all of mine have the Apple ROMS in them and then see about getting a System 6.08 so I can test these out. Heck, I even have one of the Translator boxes that I think worked with the Spectre 128 (pre GCR model) that allowed the Atari floppy drives to be read and written to. Don't have a power ac adapter for it though but looks like a neat device. What is interesting on the Translator Box is it has Midi ports on it. Not sure what that meant but maybe you could use Mac Midi apps via Spectre 128 that way?

     

    tj

     

    I think the "translator box" you are referring to is a "Happy Discovery Cart". Like the Spectre GCR, the Discovery Cart required that a cable be run from the ST's floppy port (on the back of the ST) to the appropriate jack on the Discovery Cart itself. This cable allowed the Discovery Cart to vary the speed of the floppy drive's motor, thereby allowing it to process GCR-based floppy formats (such as the Mac's).

     

    The Discovery Cart was also able to duplicate copy-protected discs, as it could vary the speed of the drive and generate disc errors at the appropriate sectors, just as the game-manufacturer's machines would do (normally, an ST's drive cannot copy disk errors, and this was used to determine which disks were copies and which were originals - the originals had the errors).

     

    So, if you have a Discovery Cart there, I don't think those ports you are looking at are MIDI ports. They are ports to which floppy drive cables are to be connected. One cable goes from the computer to the cartridge, and another cable can optionally connect a second disk drive.

     

    No. The early Mac emulator carts couldn't read Mac floppies. You had to copy the Mac stuff to specially formatted floppies that the emulator could read. The Translator One let you read the Mac floppies directly before the Spectre GCR came out. I'm not sure those would be midi ports on it, though. I'm pretty sure those would be floppy ports for connecting your drives to for reading the Mac discs.

  5. Posted

    So,

     

    After some fiddling I got my Spectre 128 to boot into Mac mode again - Joy!

     

    It seems the Spectre software doesnt like the 16mhz Ad-Speed upgrade. When in 16mhz mode the memory shows up double the size and nothing works :(

     

    Anyhow - I have 2 Mac partitions I want to move to my UltraSatan II - any thoughts on how I might accomplish getting the System and other programs moved????

     

    My Mac skills have vanished over the years!

     

    So I'm guessing it probably won't work on a Mega STe, TT or Falcon then since a CPU faster than 8mhz messes everything up. :(

  7. Posted

    Since the software that runs those parts cost millions to develop, I think the article is a waste of space.

    I think the price point is aimed at two things... early adopters and people that might buy a Wii in addition to their 360.

     

    Wii has more games, even though many of them are junk. I doubt anyone is going to turn their nose up at a Wii in favor of a Kinect. The idea is laughable.

  8. Posted · Edited by OldAtarian

    Every company rapes you on their accessories if they can. Just need to find deals and not give them your life's savings.

     

    I was at a Gamestop the other day, a relative of mine got a job there and they had Kinect and all the games for it on a display case and the first thing that came to mind was memories of the Wii and its promotions when it came out.

     

    Completely unappealing and or interesting to me ATM.

     

    The only thing I would buy if I did get a Kinect right now is

    Kinect Sports (I loved Wii sports for what it was and this can only be better)

    Dance Central for the family. Yes I like flailing around like an idiot to Young MC with the girls. (Just Dance for the Wii is quite fun when family is over at the house)

     

    But in no WAY is this worth spending over 100 dollars for me especially since I do have the Wii. The Wii...when hacked...kicks everyone's ass. :D

     

     

    There's a difference between a peripheral and an accessory. An accessory is typically something you need like a controller or memory card. A peripheral is something that adds functionality, but isn't necessary to play all the games, just the ones that require it. Kinect is a peripheral, not an accessory and the history of console peripherals is not good. How many PS2 network adapters do you think sold? How many games required it? How about the PS2 hard drive or the EyeToy? How many Gamecube or Dreamcast broadband adapters are out there? How about the Sega 32X? How many games were actually released for the Intellivision ECS or the Starpath Supercharger? Kinect will go down in history as another thing that seemed like a good idea at the time, but never achieved enough sales for long term sustainability.

  9. Posted

    Frankly, at any price, I don't see this as becoming all that successful. Especially at $150. Perhaps at $99 it would do better, but I doubt it. :?

     

    Yeah.. seems like kind of a risk. $150 is a hefty price tag for something that has yet to prove itself.

     

    And considering the games shown so far all suck.

     

    They also haven't learned, apparently, that game console peripherals don't tend to do well and games that depend on them do even worse. Everyone writing XBox 360 games is going to do so for the bare console because that's the broadest possible user base. Microsoft will probably be the only one releasing games for Kinect. Others may develop games and sell them to Microsoft so that Microsoft is the one that takes the marketing risk, but I doubt very many will strike out on their own with Kinect games and risk losing money.

  10. Posted · Edited by OldAtarian

    I guess I thought that in a free market, if a buyer and seller agree on a price and make a deal, what's dishonest about it? Just because others don't like the deal, it's dishonest? Even if absolutely no Ebay rules were broken?

     

    Exactly what did the buyer and seller do "wrong" as they mutually agreed to a deal and operated in compliance with Ebay rules?

     

    It's dishonest because there was a bidder (me). If the seller was going to end early, he should have consulted with the bidders first. Ebay allows sellers to end early, TO SELL TO THE HIGH BIDDER, which the person offering the side deal was not. I had a bid of $250 in and would have bid higher if necessary to win. The seller did the side deal for 75. If the side dealer had entered a $75 bid he would not have been the high bidder. It's also dishonest because the side dealer had to go through Ebays communication system to contact the seller to make the deal which cheated ebay out of the additional revenue they would have gotten if the listing had been allowed to run. You can't use ebays own messaging system to make side deals that cheat ebay out of fees.

    • Like 2

  15. Posted

    I saw a webpage once where someone managed to install a 68030 upgrade in one but it's a very delicate procedure and not recommended unless you really know what you're doing. STACY parts appear slightly more prone to being accidentally ruined than other ST's for some reason.

     

    There are hard drive upgrades available but you can't use the controller board that comes with the STACY because only a small number of drives are supported.

     

    In general, upgrading a STACY is something you don't want to undertake unless you really know what you're doing, as mentioned previously.

  17. Posted

    On 6/16/2010 I paid eBay user alphagurl76 $127.50 for a GameCube Kiosk. I was planning to buy a house in their area (Indiana) and wanted to come pick it up from them in person. They never responded or provided any information on their location. I was up there looking at homes MANY times and wrote asking them prior to my visits. They responded on August 29th stating that they were in Tennessee apologizing for not responding sooner. I never heard from them again. I pulled eBay user contact info several times but the system failed to deliver their data. I ended up having to call in and have eBay do it manually. Once I was provided their number it was disconnected. They responded today stating that they held the item 45 days and all bets are off. To date I consider that they stole my money. They were informed one last time to produce the item for pick-up or a refund. If they will not, this will be reported to police and FBI internet fraud. They are still an active eBay seller.

     

    AX

     

    I really don't think the FBI are going to send someone out over $127.50. The local police probably won't investigate it beyond writing out a report and sticking it in a filing cabinet. All you can really do is try to get a judgment in small claims court and you have to have proof that you sent the money and proof of everything that was said. Since this was an outside ebay deal, you probably don't have anything official to back you up.

  19. Posted · Edited by OldAtarian

    Why would a proto have QC stamps on it? I would think that QC would only inspect production models before they went out the door and not pre-production prototypes.

     

    And what makes you think it's factory painted with the red? Anyone can open something up and apply paint at some point. I would also think they would be a little more careful about the overspray if it was done at the factory.

  21. Posted · Edited by OldAtarian

    I've got the blue one which is for Intellivision, and the red one which is for Atari. I am looking for the grey one (for colecovision) which I never saw.

     

     

    Hi Crapahute icon_smile.gif

     

    I can't help with the Donkey Kong box you are looking for.

    I have only the image itself from the same brochure as you.

     

    But the picture you have with the 3 versions of the Donkey Kong for ColecoVision, Atari and Intellivision is not the image I have in my big brochure.

    You have 3 boxes, while I instead have 3 cartridges.

     

    Note: On the picture with the 3 cartridges, it is a U.S. cartridge with a U.K. label.

     

    The photo I gave previously is from a brochure of 1984.

     

    Here is what I've got from another brochure of 1983 :

     

    pdkbox2.jpg

     

    In this case, it is a US cartridge...

     

    But it's not a US box. That's a UK box. Here's the US box

  24. Posted · Edited by OldAtarian

    They look pretty cool, but whenever I see something come from Venezuela I wonder if there are another 1,000 or so waiting to be sold.

     

    True that. I would be wary of buying anything with a rarity of 7 or better that they have in stock. They may have enough of them to push the rarity down 2 or more levels and then you're stuck with a common when you thought you were getting a rare, like Ikari Warriors and Motorodeo. Some people are still trying to get the extremely rare prices for them but it's too late because they are R5's at best now and may be even more common than that by the time they empty the warehouse. I'd hold off on buying anything rare that they are currently selling from any seller until then because the price will bottom out.

  25. Posted · Edited by OldAtarian

    Never use surface mail when dealing with international buyers. Always use the fastest method available and make sure you put in your listing that you will not ship any other way. If the buyer doesn't want to pay it, he shouldn't bid on it.

     

    Oh, and you should try to verify the tracking number for yourself. Don't take their word that it is invalid.

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