FujiSkunk

Genny. I'm a sucker for arcade ports, and the Genny had the best of them. Plus, I like Sonic better than Mario.

My understanding is that the folk(s) behind Ebivision were really worried that the Namco lawyers might come knocking on their door, and so decided not to officially release their version of Pac-Man, instead offering a handful of "unofficial" cartridges to those who could beat their game of Pesco, which uses the same game engine. More info about Pesco can be found here. Unlike a lot of homebrewers, Ebivision doesn't want their games freely distributed. AtariAge and others have respected that decision, so right now the only way to get their official releases is to buy them. As for Pac-Man, we'll just have to go without. All is not lost, however. Hacking maestro Nukey Shay took the Pesco code and hacked it back into Pac-Man, throwing in versions of Hangly Man and Pac-Man Plus to boot. You can try out his verison here. His port isn't an exact recreation of Ebivision Pac-man, but it certainly gets the job done.

HEY, DOUBLEDOWN!! (with apologies to the Kool-Aid Man) While we're waiting for him to respond, you can check out his website.

I have a collection of Apple II educational software, with boxes and manuals, that had been sitting in a storage shed with no climate control for about two years. Needless to say, these disks are pretty much dead. I only tested two; both failed. I looked closely at the rest, and decided I didn't want to risk the life of my drive to test them. I'm hoping somebody would like to have the boxes and documentation, or perhaps just legal copies of these programs. The collection is: Merrill Mathematics Computer Assisted Instruction, Version 1.1 - I have the sets for grades 4 (two copies), 5 and 6. Queue Intellectual Software's Learning Parts of Speech - six disks Math Blaster by Davidson - two copies Challenge Math by Sunburst Communications Create with Garfield Shifty Sam Discover Science, 4th Grade by Scott, Foresman Software - no manual ArithmeTickle by Houghton Mifflin Software - Apple II and Commodore 64 "flippy" disk The Computer Connection: A Beginner's Guide to BASIC This software originally came from a school library, and the boxes and manuals had been written on for administration purposes. Also, everything is a little dusty from having been in the storage shed. I'll give this all away to anyone willing to pay shipping. For those living in the U.S., this will qualify for media mail shipment, so the cost should stay pretty low. I can give more details, including pictures, if anybody requests. Thanks for looking!

Yes, all paddles come in pairs. Most paddle games take advantage of this by offering 4-player variations.

Tough call. I had to decide between Mortal Kombat II and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (which isn't on the list). MK2 wins by a hair, only because of the half-finished, bug-ridden versions Midway put out in an attempt to get the game in arcades as quickly as possible. Remember killing babies? Remember performing a fatality, only to be declared the loser afterward? That was funny, when it wasn't surreal. Mortal Kombat 3 (sans Ultimate) wasn't unfinished in an amusing way, it was just unfinished.

I beg to differ. Plug a single-button joystick into your 7800 and then play Pole Position II, Asteroids, or Xevious. All three modify game play if a single-button joystick is plugged in. Pole Position II acts the way LarcenTyler describes. Asteroids converts to 2600-style control, with "down" being hyperspace. And Xevious uses the single fire button for both bombs and shots (regardless of which way the difficulty switch is set).

I own a Game Cube and a PS2. I have no desire to own an X-Box. Maybe if there was some exclusive title that I absolutely had to have, I'd buy one. So far, there hasn't been. Midtown Madness 3 and OutRun 2 piqued my interest, but I decided I could live without them. The fact that I consider Microsoft the most evil of the three companies might also have something to do with it.

(points at Random Terrain) No more drugs for that man.

Some of the early 7800 games were smart enough to know whether a one-button or two-button joystick were plugged in. Perhaps something was flaky about your controller that caused the game to only recognize it as a single-button controller.

Hey, they could build a 5200-in-a-stick, shaped just like the original 5200 stick! Wouldn't that go for a mint!

Best Music: Ballblazer Best SFX: Centipede on the 5200.

idseer, PM sent.

I got my first Lynx for Christmas. It was the year after it launched, if I remember correctly. I had saved up and bought myself a Game Boy, but I had always had my eye on the Lynx. I bought the Game Boy because I was worried the Lynx was going to go the way of the 7800. A year later, the Lynx was still going strong (or so I thought, based on the fact it was still getting shelf space at the local Babbage's), and I was still looking longingly at it. Mom noticed this, and that year Santa left a Lynx under the tree, with a California Games pack-in. I dropped the Game Boy like a hot potato, selling it shortly afterward. Sadly, that Lynx died after a couple of years. Even more sadly, the Lynx finally did go the way of the 7800, and game stores began dumping them. Fortunately, toward the end of that year I found a game store that had one Lynx left in the close-out bin, and it was bundled with four games to boot! I begged and pleaded, and was later delighted to see that Santa had again left a Lynx under the tree. I love Santa. I love my mother.

I guess that makes sense, but doesn't a high reserve also cost a lot extra? 882425[/snapback] Yes, it does. The starting cost is based on the starting bid if there isn't a reserve, and the reserve cost if there is, so they aren't saving anything. Sellers like to use a reserve to get an idea of what something might go for, in case they're worried it will go for lower than what they'd be comfortable with.

It's getting harder, but it hasn't hit "impossible" just yet. Every few months I'll find a small box of stuff to rummage through, usually with one or two things in it worth buying. Let's see, it's been about two or three months since the last 2600 find. I'm due!

For what it's worth, there are universals you can buy that will work on a 2600, unless you're wanting an Atari-branded power supply.

Generally speaking, yes. You will want a TV with an adjustable vertical-hold. Better yet, you will want a TV with automatic adjustment. The colors will also be off, but for most games that won't really matter.

Microsoft's offerings are ports that seem like they were slapped together in Visual Basic using a handful of elements from the arcade games. They aren't bad, but don't expect emulation or perfection.

The same reason why games from American companies don't always make it outside of North America. Some executive looks at some projected sales estimate and decides the expected earnings wouldn't be worth the cost of translations, new packaging, and another marketing campaign, and so on.

When I see one for $5 (or less) at the local thrift, I'll get it. At that point it will be worth it for the novelty of claiming games like Battlezone and Crystal Castles actually were released for the NES.

Centipede got a boost with the female crowd when it was advertised that a woman (Dona Bailey) created the game. There has been plenty of debate since then about how much involvement she really had, but it made for great PR at the time. For what it's worth, when two married friends noticed I had my 5200 out in the living room, the wife asked if I had Space Invaders, mentioning it was her favorite game back in the day.

Oh. Great. So let's rename the thing as Kangaroo II: Mama's Revenge shall we?

The TI-99 (at least the 4/a) A/V port is similar to (maybe the same as) the C-64's A/V port. On the C-64, the video signal is separated into two signals called "chroma" (color) and "luma" (brightness). If you happen to conect only the "luma" signal to a standard composite monitor or television, you'll get only a black and white picture. Assuming the ports on the TI-99 and the C-64 are the same, you should be able to find a third-party A/V cable that will work. Most third-party cables split off into four patch cords, and one of those cables combines the chroma and luma signals into a standard composite signal. A standard C-64 A/V cable (the kind that splits off into three patch cords) probably won't work. Hope this helps.

Eh, I wouldn't lose too much sleep over that one, especially if he listed it as Pitfall II in the auction itself. I always select both the titles and auction bodies when searching on eBay, and I would imagine most other eBayers do the same.