Fangorn81

Anyone know what is going on under the hood of this thing? Likelihood of adding ROMs? How are breakout and pong included when I don't see any paddle control??

Haha, I think I just figured it out. It looks like that's one of the screw holes and it just has something jammed in there.... Duh.

I was at a vintage/thrift store this weekend and saw a Flashback 2 sitting on the shelf. There was no box or anything, and I already have two working 2600 consoles but I can't resist Atari stuff so I pick it up and give it the once over. I think it was marked at like $35-40 or something dumb so I was ready to move on.... Until I noticed this: Now, I'm no Flashback expert, but I've never seen a joystick with a green LED (or maybe just a light?) on the bottom. It doesn't look like a mod, the hole looks like part of the molded controller...The rest of the joystick had all the same traits as the Flashback joysticks I have at home, threaded removable stick, logo without the word "Atari" under it on the front, but this has me stumped. Plus I can't find anything about it on the forum, or in a Google image search. Is this some kind of unicorn or just a variant I missed in the past few years?

Did this happen? I just came across my Dig Dug design from way back then. I don't remember if I ever got an email or not...I certainly never got to trade any labels! O_o

Well, I hope everyone's rude opinions on what is or isn't art and at what price someone should be allowed to sell something that they created doesn't keep the game's author from answering my question. I think $500 is high, but I also know what it's like to work for countless hours and spend thousands of dollars on something purely for the love of it, and not ever come close to making any money off all your efforts. I created a theme for jailbroken iPhones, which has been downloaded around 14,000 times and i have received ONE donation for $5. I also have never made any money (despite winning awards, and spending around $4000 to make them) from any of my short films. But sometimes you just want other people to enjoy what you have created. I think he has every right to try and get whatever he wants/feels his work is worth. If you disagree that's fair. Not everyone can afford to give things away, and I think the limited run of 20 games is more of an attempt to be able to live off what he does than make his work unaccessable to the masses. I don't see any need to talk crap about someone else's art just because something about it doesn't suit you. The $20 version is definitely fairly priced, and while it may not have a real Atari cart included, at least he's made the experience of his work available to anyone with $20, not JUST the 20 people who can afford the limited edition. I'm sure people willing to buy one of the limited run are aware that they are making an investment in an artist they believe in, as much as they are buying a limited edition piece of artwork. Ok, rant has concluded.

Ian. I am glad you are on these forums! I have been following A Slow Year for a while, waiting for it to be released. I have met with mild disappointment, though, since I would love to have the game on a real Atari cart, but could never afford the $500 limited edition. I understand the logic in it, but it leaves many of us cart-less! Would you have a problem with someone (me) buying the regular CD and booklet edition and paying to have the .bin put on a cart through AtariAge? I wouldn't attempt to replicate the Limited Edition cart labels or anything. I just want to play it properly on a console. Or, perhaps you could release a sort of 2nd tier edition in between the two available now that includes a cart but no fancy leather cases or editions or signature?

Second that.

No, neither the inside of the housing nor the circuit boards, or pin-outs are worked out. This is just sort of a proof of concept rendering. Most likely if this were ever produced, it would end up looking far different. And, what do you mean remote? It is really a "far from necessary" concept. Maybe if the entire 2600 chipset gets fully reverse engineered, and a system-on-a-chip gets produced, we can release a whole new console with S-video & HDMI out, Pause (on the controller), USB joystick ports and controllers with the Select, Reset, B/W and Power switches built in like shoulder buttons (so playing Space Shuttle would actually be feasible without crouching down 2 feet away from the TV). Now that would be cool. But, I'm getting off topic!

As promised:

Now I can't wait to get home so I can play this thing! Looks really great from the screen shots. Awesome.

New renderings coming tonight! Of course, these are still just drawings...and fairly simple ones at that. Just to get the idea across. I like the hard angles, but I totally see why people would want something a bit softer in the hand...

I'd have to say it's a tie between the original Xbox and the Intellivision. Both quite hideous. Contrary to many, I think the TurboGrafix 16, NES, Jaguar and more were designed rather well. I think a good test is to see how well the designs hold up over time. Solid lines, good visual weight, balance between different elements and a nice palette of colors all make many of these machines still look pretty cool today.