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OldAtarian

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Posts posted by OldAtarian

  1. Posted

    I picked up a JVC TM-A13SU 13 inch Color Video Monitor w/ Audio, CRT for $42 shipped:

    eBay Auction -- Item Number: 3205897745441?ff3=2&pub=5574883395&toolid=10001&campid=5336500554&customid=&item=320589774544&mpt=[CACHEBUSTER]

     

    post-7833-128556366248_thumb.jpg

     

    Its my first tube with PAL/NTSC compatibility. It locks on to the refresh rate automatically and PAL/NTSC is set manually. So, this is the perfect monitor for the NTSC 130xe with PAL Antic that I was trying to use. It is a cube shape much like the 1702s below it in th pic. The 1702 were picked up for $10 each.

     

     

    Below are my TV pickups at local thrifts.

    I had other 13" TV that I picked up like this Toshiba for $20

    post-7833-128556391433_thumb.jpg

     

    or this Advent for $9

    post-7833-128556401283_thumb.jpg

    both have Component inputs.

     

     

     

    I almost got this Phillips 7" TV for $12 but since I could not figure out how to change to the composite video inputs without the remote, I passed on it.

    post-7833-128556437673_thumb.jpg

     

    $42 shipped for a vintage monitor of any description is pretty good. Freight charges are usually more than that which is why I find it very hard to justify buying heavy objects like that that I can't pick up locally.

  3. Posted

    I have an Atari XF551 drive and am considering to 3.5 drive upgrade. I have found a ROM/Firmware upgrade on EBAY, the EBAY AD says you have to:

    1)All you need to do is remove the old OS ROM chip from the PCB, insert this new one

    2)Next fit a 5.25" to 3.5" drive bracket and install the 720K 3.5" disk drive:

     

    My Question is:

    1)Do I have to find a 720K only 3.5 inch drive or will a modern 1.44mb floppy drive work because it is backwards compatible to 720k and I only use 720k disks? Has any one tried this?

    2)Also is there a reason the xf3.5 cannot support the 1.44mb disk format?

    3)I also have a dual floppy drive it has a 5.25hd and a 3.5hd in one half height drive slot, I have heard of people using two drives with the XF551 case is this the style of drive they used, and just had to toggle between the two drives.

     

     

    Best Regards

    venom4728a

     

    NEVER, EVER try to format a HD floppy to single or double density. You are putting your data at risk. This is a problem that comes up in the Mac world all the time when people want to backup their 400k or 800k floppy disks and all they can find are 1.44mb floppies for sale. It doesn't usually work out for very long. Sooner or later you will try to access that floppy and it won't work. Your directory will be scrambled or your data will just be gone. It's hard to find lower density floppies of any size but you really do need them for reliable operation in low density drives.

    • Like 1

  4. Posted · Edited by OldAtarian

    I have what I believe to be a Taiwan heavy. It's the old woodgrain six switch, but it weighs a ton compared to my Darth Vader. I'll have to dig it out for the serial number. I was told heavy's were only made in Sunnyvale so my six switch shouldn't weigh any more than my Darth Vader but obviously that isn't true. Someone also mentioned something to me about the thick rubber grommet around the RF cable but I don't remember what that had to do with it being a heavy or not.

     

    Ok here it is T0009603

  8. Posted · Edited by OldAtarian

    This artical from the LA Times is about a month old and I am surprised that it didn't get mentioned on Atariage, so I figured I'd better break the word.

    http://articles.latimes.com/2010/aug/03/business/la-fi-ct-atari-20100803

     

    Make sure to read all 3 pages... the website doesn't make it very clear that the artical continues.

     

    "It's also building out a licensing program that includes not just consumer products but also movies based on its classic games."

     

    Great. Just we need in 2010, Asteroids and Defender movies. Sigh. Do we have a facepalm smiley?

     

    DoubleFacePalm.jpg

  10. Posted

    Practically nothing of note hardware-wise was developed and released after the 400/800 by Atari under Warner. All of it was based on existing products and the hard work had already been done.

     

     

    You obviously never saw any of the more interesting products being developed in the Atari Labs division, then. Thought controlled video games? Yowzers!

     

    Why do you think I used bold in that sentence? Something sitting on an engineer's shelf is worthless until people can actually buy and use it.

    Many items could have been easily produced if they had just had the guts and foresight to take the chance. People were chomping at the bit for more/new Atari products.

     

    I really wanted to see the 1090 expansion box, CP/M module and a friggin 3.5" floppy drive. Even Commodore had one of those.

  11. Posted · Edited by OldAtarian

    I love the ones who bash the Sega Master System when on paper it should run rings around the NES. It's only the restrictive licensing agreement that Nintendo locked developers into that kept the SMS from kicking the NES to the curb but the NES fanboys won't hear any of that.

     

    Actually, I would consider that a fairer way to "bash" a system, if bashing must be done. "On paper" means nothing. Theoretical or even actual technical specs mean very little when it comes to what was demonstrated in the games that were actually made and are available. With the Jaguar we always hear how "incorrectly" the Jaguar's games were programmed because they relied too much on the 68000, etc., but the reality is we have yet to see a game programmed "correctly" and that apparently takes full advantage of the inherent technology/capabilities. So all a non-technical gamer can base their impressions of the Jaguar and its capabilities on are the actual games. With that said, I'd say the Sega Master System was one of those lucky systems who, despite being an also-ran to a much more popular competitor, was in fact able to show off its full technical potential.

     

     

    The only reason more games weren't available is because Nintendo locked up all the developers into exclusivity agreements. That's the point I was trying to make. If developers had been allowed to make games for the SMS, it would have killed the NES. The NES didn't win because it was better, it won because nobody could make games for the competition.

  12. Posted · Edited by OldAtarian

    To bash ANY system without knowledge of its capabilities is sheer ignorance to which seems to be overabundant these days, and its a shame. Every game, console, computer, ever made has pros and cons. Plus there are tons of people out there who do not realize the sheer capabilities of a system like the Jaguar in its own time. Again to say that an old system that is 15+ years old is weak and underpowered does not realize that it very well could have been the most powerful system in its time. I am not personally a Jaguar owner (maybe one day) but I have taken time to realize its power in its time when other systems were 16 bit the Jaguar was 64 bits strong something that is just now getting realized today in the PC world (within the last few years) MS has yet to go completely 64 bit because even its latest offering windows 7 comes in both 32 and 64 bit flavors.

     

    I love the ones who bash the Sega Master System when on paper it should run rings around the NES. It's only the restrictive licensing agreement that Nintendo locked developers into that kept the SMS from kicking the NES to the curb but the NES fanboys won't hear any of that.

  14. Posted · Edited by OldAtarian

    "mash frogger pitfall pole position 2 baseball missle command cenepede kaboom maze craze indy 500 night driver football tennis donkey konk barnstorm vollyball pac man beazerk circus outlaw stampede jungle hunt spoace invaders olypics et bowling slot racers asteroids"

     

    Wow, amazing. I won't bother with the details, $50, like I want to show up at that house.

     

    Considering there's nothing in there more rare than 4, $50 is too much. $20-$25 would be closer to the mark.

  16. Posted

    For really rare games like that, I usually try to find them on another platform that they weren't so rare on. BBSB was released on A8, C64, Spectrum, Acorn and maybe some others outside the US and not all of them are extremely hard to find or expensive when you do find them.

  17. Posted

    This guy, the Jack Attack marketing genius who once owned the home computer market with the Commodore 64.

     

    jack_tramiel.jpg

     

    Killed Atari video game console production. Tried to do the same with the Atari ST, held off the 7800, reacted too late over NES. 7800 never had a chance when finally released with year old library and technology.

     

     

    I never thought JT was ever really serious about running Atari successfully. My theory has always been that he only bought it to use as a club to bludgeon Commodore to death with after him and his family were ousted from the company.

  19. Posted

    Have you ever woke up one day and decided that you have to change the way you collect games? At one point I was trying to collect every game for the 2600. I knew there would be some I will never get in my lifetime. If I had a game and I saw a better label I would grab it. Even if it was in a collection of 20+ games. Then I got involved in label variations on Atari games. Now, that is really fun.

     

    But, the problem is I live in NYC and am seriously running out of room. I have way more duplicate games than I have in my collection.

     

    Right now I collect for the 2600, Colecovision, Atari Computers, and Intellivison. Today I am going to bang my head against the wall and most likely decide to just collect Atari branded games with all the label variations. Looking at a complete collection of US Games carts gives me no enjoyment whatsoever.

     

    So, who else has made a decision on changing the focus of what they collect?

     

    And who else collects Atari 2600 label variations? To me it's fun getting a lot of say 50 games, going through them and realizing they are loaded with label variations. (I just wish Ebay sellers would stop using Iphones to take the pics and put a date after the games they list.)

     

     

    The only reason you should have duplicates is in the case of label variations or regional varieties of the same game, if your collecting goes that far. If you have 20 copies of Combat with text label and all are identical then you need to be selling or trading the extras away for something that you don't have yet. You also need to seriously consider whether buying that lot of 50 rarity 1-3 games is worth it just to get that one gem rarity 6-7 cart. Do that enough times and before you know it you have hundreds of worthless commons on your hands that are impossible to get rid of. Most people don't have the money to go after the 8-10 rarities, so I wouldn't even bother with those unless you come into a sudden windfall.

     

    What you can also do, if real estate is too expensive where you live to expand to house your collection is to seriously consider moving. How far away can you live from your work and still not increase your living expenses over what you're paying in NYC? You'd be surprised how much bigger accommodations you could afford for moving just 30 minutes outside the city.

     

    Another consideration (and should probably be the first one on your list of considerations) is if you are married or living with someone. Accumulating huge amounts of computer and video game stuff is a hobby that usually does not go over well with spouses, partners, roommates, parents, etc. because of all the space it takes up and the amount of time it keeps you away from things the other person wants you to do, annoying little things like going to work for a living, mowing the lawn, taking out the trash, cleaning the garage, patching up the leaky roof that dumps 50 gallons of water on your spouses side of the bed every time it rains, etc. Unimportant things like that. ;)

  22. Posted · Edited by OldAtarian

    1. Atari kept the VCS in production WAY past it's expiration date which cut into the sales of Atari's future consoles. There should have been a reasonable overlap during the 5200 period but we shouldn't have seen VCS consoles still on store shelves in 1992. Atari should have been encouraging customers to buy it's new machines, not it's old one. It's called planned obsolescence and businesses have been doing it for a hundred years or more but that was apparently lost on Atari.

     

    2. Atari, apparently, didn't spend enough time actually playtesting the controllers. When complaints started rolling in a new controller should have been put out to replace the defective ones immediately instead of them trying to tiptoe around the issue. The spectre of the rotten controllers haunts the 5200 to this day.

     

    3. Atari didn't spend any money obtaining new licenses and kept rehashing their old VCS games to death on every new console they released. The Jaguar was the only system that wasn't dominated by 5-10 year old arcade titles.

     

    4. When Colecovision hit the market Atari had a strong competitor with good, and more importantly, fresh games that they hadn't counted on. The 5200 was intended to better the specs of the Intellivision which itself was already getting old. Colecovision wasn't even on Atari's radar until it was too late.

     

    5. Too many consoles, too many games. There were too many companies competing for a slice of the pie which led to the big crash of 83. Choice is good, but when you have too many choices the pie is divided up into too many pieces and nobody makes any money. The poor quality of some games during that time period also spooked a lot of people from buying games and retailers from carrying them. Anyone with a computer and an EPROM burner could make a game cart, leading to the market being flooded with crap. After the crash they probably felt it wasn't worth keeping the 5200 around (but apparently they felt the outdated VCS was worth keeping around, for another 9 years, ironically since it was the deluge of crap games being dumped onto the market for it that was a major contributor to the crash. Tsk.)

     

    6. Home computers were stealing the limelight from dedicated game consoles. Prices were falling and home computers could do more than play games. They had more memory and better graphics than the consoles of the day so manufacturers switched their focus to them leading to all the many different home computers that came out of the 80's, some were pretty good and others were a disaster. Atari stood to make more focusing on it's computer line than it's game consoles. Most 5200 games had 400/800 equivalents that looked and played just as well anyway so I guess it was thought that ditching the 5200 and pushing the A8 in it's place made more sense than keeping it around.

  25. Posted · Edited by OldAtarian

    The three black boxes stacked on top of each other all say Digital F/X Digital Master EX on them. I'll have to dig the little black box out of storage for a better description.

     

    Edit: Ooohh. I managed to dig out a manual for the Digital F/X stuff and the little black box is what interfaces the 3 bigger boxes to the ST through the cartridge port. I still have no idea how to really use this stuff once I have the time to set it up, though. Anyone care to teach me? (Can I use a Roland MT32 with this stuff?)

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