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bcostin

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About bcostin

  • Birthday 10/08/1971

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  • Location
    Westminster, MD
  • Interests
    stuff, things, other things

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  1. Not bad for a complete boxed (and, presumably, working) system. I always preferred the styling of the original 400 and 800 to the later versions. The neighbor kid had an Atari 400 and I've always kinda liked it. I found one a few years ago at the local recycling center for free which really made my day.
  2. I used to love my Okimate. It was the first color printer I owned, and there was nothing quite as cool as seeing those nice, glossy bright colors. Though I recall that banding was always an issue unless you loaded the paper just right. I eventually moved on to a Deskjet 500 when I moved to my Amiga. I think I still have the Okimate around somewhere.
  3. Aww, that's so cute. Perfect for a home without much space for a full-sized cab. I'd probably even leave the side-art intact, just for the additional weirdness factor.
  4. I always wanted a ColecoVision. The Games & Gadgets store had one in their big display of consoles and I'd hang out and watch the older kids play Donkey Kong. Years before that I really wanted an Odyssey 2. A neighbor had one and I loved the Quest for the Rings game. I had a 2600 but my limited selection of games didn't have anything like that. I also remember really wanting an Arcadia 2001, of all things. They were on sale for some incredibly low price at Luskin's, a electronics discount chain back in the day, and I begged my Dad to get me one. He took one look at the screenshots on the box and realized that I'd just be disappointed, so no Arcadia for me. Maybe I'll see one at a yard sale some day.
  5. Yes, it is complicated to get started. After that it just becomes tedious. The good news is that you don't really need to keep up with MAME releases unless there's something new or improved that matters to you. Of course, you may miss that thrill of discovering a newly supported game you've never played before. You can also find reputable people online who will send you a full MAME set burned on DVD. Selling MAME itself or ROM sets is verboten, but most traders only charge for media and nominal shipping costs. It's been a while since I bought a set so I have no recommenations, but perhaps someone else will.
  6. My favorites: Frenzy Pepper II Jumpman Jr. Mr. Do! Gateway to Apshai
  7. Yeah, I saw those at Walmart. Sad, very sad. Not even a nod to making the LCD look LED-ish, like Mattel's reissues. And the web site is, if possible, even sadder. That's the stupidest and most obviously generic Flash intro that I've ever seen. Ack.
  8. Wow, great haul! I've poked around in Goodwill's dumpsters once or twice years ago. I didn't find any Atari stuff but I did come up with some other useful items. Unfortunately they also had thefts of actual donated items and a few dumpster fires set by roving idiots. When the local Goodwill moved to a fancy new location they got one of those enclosed dumpsters that are emptied directly into a garbage truck. And the employees in the back room seem to take great pleasure in smashing anything they don't think will sell before tossing it in, too. If Atari carts are ending up with those guys then they're a lost cause. God forbid that anyone else enjoy "unsellable junk" that Goodwill was given for free.
  9. It's always been one of my favorites too. The 2600 version is, IMHO, a great example of how an arcade port can be modified to fit within the system's limitations without seriously compromising the gameplay.
  10. Not much around here. I visited a once-yearly local flea market this past week. I found an obscure Pong system two years ago, and last year I just missed a 2600 Jr system. I had money this time and was hoping for a similar find, but I saw no videogame stuff at all this year. Not even a grubby Asteroids or a lonely Mario/Duck Hunt. I was amazed. Once in a while a yard sale turns up something interesting. Unfortunately I've been too wrapped with Real World stuff to do much yard sailing this summer. Maybe next year.
  11. The fancy blue stick sold with the Tron games. It was a specially branded version of another controller, I don't remember which. It's a great looking stick, with a handy base where the cord coils and everything. Unfortunately it was much too fragile. Mine broke soon after I got it, and if it didn't look so nice in my collection I doubt I'd have kept it all these years. I'll also second those little triangular Commodore joysticks. They were terrible, too.
  12. I bought one at the local Gamestop. It was the last one they had, and at $10 I couldn't resist. I'll need to fire up my antique version of MAME to compare speed and accuracy, but I like it so far. It's nice to see some less well-known classics finally getting some attention. Qix seems to be the least accurate of the games, which is a pity since it's one of my favorites. Colony 7 is as hard and fast as I remember it being. Phoenix is a little off, but still fun. Space Invaders is, as already mentioned, more like the Anniversary Edition re-release than the original. Lunar Rescue is a hoot, and my stick, at least, seems to have the "woowoo" thruster sound, as it should. BTW, any idea what hardware is running this stick?
  13. Neat little game. I used to have a plastic peg version called "HiQ" when I was a kid.
  14. The Arcadia 2001 has always intrigued me, too. My Dad was an audiophile and back in the 80's he used to enjoy visiting an electronics discounter in Maryland called Luskin's. Once when I went along they had a huge display of Arcadia 2001 systems, which I'd never seen before. It's pretty clear in retrospect that they were liquidating a poorly-selling system, but it was a lot more interesting to me at the time than yet another turntable or cassette player. I bugged Dad to buy me one, but no luck.
  15. I always liked the styling of the Sears Super Video Arcade. I guess it's my twisted 70's genetics. I've only ever seen one in the wild, but $30 seemed like too much at the time so I passed it up. With a fully functioning Intellevision there's not much justification to find another unit on ebay just for the nifty styling.
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