Derek

Hi. I have bought yet another joystick. This time it is the Nextech USB Night Gamer. It works with the Atari emulator, but not well, sometimes doesn't respond to say, UP, and goes on the diagonal. It doesn't do anything with MAME. Is it not compatible with MAME? The help line girl didn't know what MAME was, so she was not much help. I am about to return it to Radio Shack if this query doesn't result in a helpful answer. What joystick does work well with MAME - below the pricey ones that closely resemble actual arcade controls. I ain't that rich, though I would like to have one! Thanks, Derek.

What was wrong with the part where I could view my posts and see any responses. It has been replaced by this useless "My Assistant" where it shows me my recent posts, but not links to any responses. I can't check this with daily regularity, so having the site link me to my posts and responses was good and convenient. I can't remember what little niche of the forum a I last posted to. It is several days between visits, with many other things to do. Change this back so we can see who has responded to our queiries without having to remember exactly where we have posted!

Thanks, I think. Care to tell me where this forum is so I can see if someone has something sensible to say. Getting outbid is fine, but instantaneously after six and a half days without a single bid is what I found quite unbelievable. And they were there to continuously outbid me at 2 am. I don't think so. I asked around and found other people who were mysteriously and instantly outbid on things that had seen no activity during their postings. There is something more going on here. If someone bid $20 then the bidding number would not still be one cent with zero bidders. That would be unfair to all to suggest that the bidding was still low. E-Bay couldn't hide a $20 bid on an item and still display the top bid as 1 cent. How would this be an ethical business practice? also, what would they have to gain by pretending the bid was still starting at a cent. Artificially saying that I have been outbid would make many people simply enter a higher dollar amount in effort to get the item, thus more $ for E-bay, as thier take on an artificially jacked to $20 item is surely more than their take on a dollar closing bid. Bottom line, at 2 am there was no one outbidding me endlessly on a 23 year old game cartridge and a couple of 20 year old cds... There just wasn't.

I tried to bid on some Odyssey 2 carts and a kim wilde and a sheena easton cd all of which started off with zero bidders and a one cent starting bid. I was the obviously the first bidder, and immediately after bidding, I was outbid. I re-bid in one dollar increments and each time it went up by one bidder, ME!!! and each time I was outbid. This should have upped the counter by two. After a week of no bids at all, at two in the morning someone was instantly out bidding me on a 1982 cd. Bull shit. This site is so rigged. Any thots people, good experiences with e-bay or foolishness like this.

I found eight odyssey 2 carts, no box, but scratch free for $2.30, tax in at Value Village. They show up on e-bay for $1.25 US plus about $5 shipping each, so buying here seems a deal, though I don't have a machine to play them on. Guess my question is whether ones that show up on e-bay still really work. ($30 US plus shipping price range.) I had one in the early 80's. It came on every time, but this is not like using an Atari. Just buy another Atari if it craps out. I haven't seen anything Odyssey 2 since Mom decided we didn't use it enough and sold it an a yard sale (about 1983) with all the carts for $20. I was so pissed. Just one of the carts cost more than that! I contributed my allowance toward some of the games. Did I get the mere $20? Noooo. Any thots fellow retro gaming community?

I have found a Ms.Pac Man game in a SEGA Astro Fighter type cabinet with a black (blank) marquee. The colors are fine, the screen has no discoloration or wobble. What should I offer them for it. It is my all time favorite game, won't tell them that, but I would be happy to fix it up with a marquee, etc. if I got it. It is in a club on the seedy side of town (needs rescuing!), so would have to be severly de-smoke smelled. They may not be even interested in selling it, but it is so out of place in this dive that I just have to offer something. Suggestions please?

Yes,I did the obvious and Googled it. Sites don't agree whether some of the titles that I think might be better off sold than donated to Community Living when the come calling, are actually worth something. I would like someone to either recommend a site that has rarity and price listing, or just comment on these titles: 1.) Stanley - The Search for Dr. Livingstone, 2.) Batman 2, 3.) Wrath of the Black Mantra, 4.) Kirby's Adventure, 5.) Galaga. Thanks!

Each time I go to play some of my games I have to reset the joystick settings in either the "this Game" or "general" area. The dip switches settings often change themselves back to minimal men/maximum, difficulty as well. The next time I open that game or any other it has forgotten what I changed. What is the good of a general joystick settings area if it forgets what I changed with each and every god blessed game!? The version I am using is MAME32b-036 for Windows. Thanks for any helpful ideas!

Hi. I just got a bunch of carts from a second hand store. There are some less common ones, and ones I think might be rare, I'l have to look at one of the guides on the net. Anyhow, they all were from the same owner. He or she felt it necessary to write their initials "K.F." on every cartridge using what looks to be marks-a-lot type of magic marker. Any ideas on what chemical might remove the initials without ruining the label. I tried paint brush cleaner and it worked to dull the letters, then started to dissolve the label... Thanks. Sincerely, Derek.

Hi all. If I have my mp3 player or my cd burning machine/cd player on pumping out the tunes while playing games on any console, there is fuzziness on the screen that disappears upon turning off the two above mentioned. They are plugged into a different wall (perhaps the same circuit, I don't know, I didn't wire the house) than the game and tv. I'd like to have tunes on while playing games, but without the screen fuzziness. I can't move them farther apart as I only have so much space. Using the stereo to play the radio, or firing up the tape deck don't do this. Moving the game system to the downstairs tv away from the stereo clears it all up. If I wrap tin foil over the screen it diminishes the interference greatly, but as you can imagine that looks so trashy! Any thoughts? Thanks. Derek.

Hi, Derek here. Great site! I've posted a few things and some replies have been quite helpful. Some others who obviously need to get a life have been less amusing... I would like to know if I have any power to delete old posts, as after about two to three days there are almost never any new responses. Seems like a waste of your memory space to me. I have browsed back a year or more on other sections, so I wonder when a clean up of the site takes place? Yes, some questions are of an enduring value, but all that crap where everyone was attacking me don't need to be there anymore, methinks! Thanks, Derek.

I have a Logitech Wingman Joystick with eight buttons, a joystick, and a basically useless directional flat, joypad, I think that's what it is called. It never goes where you think that you are pressing, always irritatingly choosing one of the diagonal directions. My question regards having to unplug and re-insert the damn thing from the USB port every time I use it. It stops responding to a direction, usually moving your game character to the right. I plug it back in again, but once I have to unplug it, it becomes irritatingly unreliable. Any ideas, anyone? Any suggestions for a good joystick, that is, one that works well with MAME, as that is where most of my favorite games come from, would be appreciated! (I am not interested in spending in the Hot Rod price range!) Thanks, Derek.

I am not having much luck with the 5200 emulator called jum52. Most of my roms don't respond to the reset, or start keys (f1 and f2) If they do then the game does not respond to the joystick (calibration always fails) or the keyboard where the keys to go up, down, etc seem to change with each rom. This is the first 5200 emulator that has even tried to run, most refuse to recognize that little 2k file that you need to search for, and thus won't run. Anyone having fun vs. frustration with this emulator? Any thoughts? Thanks, Derek.

It takes a lot of memory to flicker that much. The blockiness and pitiful colors also suck up a lot of memory. Horribly slow joystick response also take up space. Seriously thought, it is heavy as there are extra memory chips involved in making the enemies quite intelligent. I find it far too hard to play as you are so slow and they are constantly blocking any chance you have to try and get the board cleared. That is what is taking all the memory, their irritating intelligence. This is the same reason that Dig Dug has extra memory on board. The graphics still are horrid, flicker, poor colors, but they seem to think.

As mentioned by others, Sears went all out to attract business. All the major systems were up and running with carts attached to metal wires to obviously prevent you from taking the cart. They also had the hand held's such as Donkey Kong and Frogger, Super Cobra, etc. out with batteries in them for trying out. What a fun time. Wish I was 12 again. But time forces me to be 32. At least I can still play the games while listening to the tunes from that time, my favorite time for music, 1983. My hand-held games have all stopped working except for Ms. Pac, and Zackman, a "The Pit" clone which ported quite well. There was also a games store that specialized in D&D stuff. Never interested in that, but hand held Qbert is one that I wish I had gotten to own. They were $40 to $50 then, so I got to choose one for Christmas and was told to not ask for any more. I went with Ms. PacMan. It is still prominently displayed on top of my CD stand. It's nice to have a place to share these memories again. Makes one feel younger and somewhat carefree, at least for a moment! Derek.

I realize that I have a similar question below, I forgot about the machine that has no sound at all. Any ideas on what to test, what to look for inside the machine? It has the best picture of all three systems, so I would really like to have sound on this one. Thanks, Derek.

Hi. It doesn't look like I am missing a decent game, but my copy of Porky's keeps flipping the image up the screen to scroll back around from the bottom, then it holds for a second and does it again. Is this cart toast? No other cart has ever done this (that I have owned.) This one didn't either the first time I tried to play it. I gave up early as the person chasing you after you pole vault to the shower scene is so fast that I couldn't seem to live long enough to figure out what the hell to do. Thanks, Derek.

There have been many games that were disappointing. There are a few that got ripped out of the console and flung across the room in frustration, and the exclusive group that got ripped out and quickly taken to the basement to meet with Mr. Hammer. Coleco's Miner 2049er with its insanely picky steering, and Mario Bros 2. (where to begin about its problems annoying coasting, picky steering, delayed joystick reaction, no continue, etc.) are two that have met that fate in my collection. What has driven others to the point of (potentially regrettable) destruction? Just an interesting, lets you vent, question. Derek.

My question was really the second paragraph about the ending to Laser Volley. Did no one read past the first sentence? Anyway,I got "Espial" for 49 cents. 56 with tax! 56 cents doesn't buy much of anything, but it is more than this flickering abomination is worth IMHO. Who at Tiger thought that this game was done to a releaseable point? They must have been stoned, drunk or both. Incidentally, I got a few of those Xonox double enders for 49 cents too. God bless people who don't know (the value of) what they have. Heh Heh! Xevious came from the same place, at the same price. It does not have the letter P beside the name like my 49 cent copies of Moon Patrol and Joust which do have the P letting me know that they are prototype copies. I find, on game play, that there is no difference from the ones without the P. So, to ask again, does anyone know what the ending to Laser Volley entails? Was I close? Happy gaming, Derek.

I was just wondering if there is a finish to the Atari version of Zevious. It seems to me an endless loop, like Espial only without Espial's endless flickering. Gets my vote for worst port. Glad I only paid 49 cents for it. More importantly, what happens at the end of Laser Volley by Zellers, aka, Laser Gates. I think I was a couple of seconds from finding out with that block with the number 6307 (I think) coming onto the screen for the fourth time when I ran out of "destination", the one at the bottom of the screen. Man I was steamed. I have never gotten that far again, and am not going to waste any more time trying to see the ending. It is probably pretty lame, anyway. Thanks, Derek.

Hi. My 7800 has started to make a snow sound like you hear on the fm dial where there is no station. The actual game sound is still there, but on an equal level with this noise. Other systems hooked up don't have it, thus I know it is the 7800. As this is my back-up system, it is not imperative to fix, but if someone knows what has gone wrong, obviously I would like to fix it! Thanks, Derek.

I have just three carts that want this. They have been collecting dust for about four years, as I have never come across a roller controller. Are they as rare as hen's teeth? Should I just get rid of the three carts? Slither, and two others that I would have to go and look at as I packed them away for that hopeful day that I would find a roller controller. Also, the table top games seem to be commanding the same price as when they were new. I remember quite liking the Frogger and Galaxian, and being kind of disappointed with the Donkey Kong Jr. though in hindsight I realize how hard it would have been to make a decent table top of a game that had specifically different boards, though when I was 12 in 1983, I was simply disapointed with it. Though not by Coleco, I really wish that I still had the Q-Bert tabletop. It was quite good. I have a dead Defender by Entex and Super Cobra which degraded from the startup screen to nothing. Any ideas of whether they can be fixed? I really liked Super Cobra. Never really understood what to do with Defender, as there were such similar pieces on the screen representing different things, it was more confusing than fun. It died in a sound only, then nothing at all fashion. Thanks, Derek.

I can't imagine, other than the pinball cart, that you would have trouble finding any of the others, especially asteroids, missile command and moon partrol, which is perhaps the best 2600 arcade port they every did. Graphics are as expected, but nothing else (really) is missing. Don't give anything rare in trade for your want list as they are all quite common. I have missile command and asteroids duplicates, and have seen a dozen of each that I could had bought if I hadn't had them already. As for the Coleco, when you find a Super Cobra, you will be amazed that all that game, faithful to the original, is contained on that little cartridge. I think it is a great port. One of the absolute best for the Coleco. All the levels are there, with of course, a bit of skimping, but hey! It is a cartridge! Happy gaming! Derek.

These regularly show up at Value Village. They are put out with all the other video game and electronic stuff for $1 Canadian each. However, your crude joke about Ms. Pac Man, my all time favorite game, precludes me from offering you a couple. So go ahead and pay $20 as I assume you have probably done, as it is now August 26th, and I am just browsing.

Hi, What was the Dig Dug Drop? People got hurt during this? I am really curious now. I don't see why anyone would want anything more than a back-up for their playing amusement. Except for rare carts to sell, ex: double ender Xonox carts, there would be no money in having a truckload of Dig Dug carts as it is not that rare. I have to disagree about it being one of the "better arcade ports" It has just as much annoying flicker, poor graphics, missing sounds, slow game play, an inability to dig tunnels without going two rows away, the rocks are squares, and on and on. The 7800 version is good. I have wasted many hours playing it. I find it as close to the arcade as it could be, given it is just a cartridge. For those who don't already know, just press the fire button after the game is over while the characters are parading across the screen to continue from your current level. Happy gaming, Derek.