bcostin

I've come across a Colecovision with the power supply hardwired to the console. It's a white connector flush with the back of the console. Aside from that it seems to be standard. A previous owner probably just wired it in for some reason, but I'm curious if anyone else has seen something similar.

Thanks, guys! My wife loves online puzzle and platform games, but she had an videogame-deprived childhood, poor thing. I'm now slowly introducing her to the many joys of Atari. I have high hopes that's she'll come around.

I tied the knot with my lovely new wife last month. A friend of mine at work gathered up a couple boxes of unsorted Atari and Colecovision cartridges, consoles, and accessories as a sort of grab-bag wedding gift. Excluding some duplicates, it came to about 50 individual titles. Out of those there were 30 carts that I didn't yet have in my collection, mostly 3's and 4's. Awesome! Some of the highlights: - Not rare, but lots of fun: Wizard of Wor, GI Joe, and Mouse Trap - Imagic Solar Storm, Trick Shot, and Firefighter - Kung Fu Master. Ok, maybe not a highlight, exactly. But it is scarce. - The Summer Games, Winter Games and California Games trilogy - Sega Thunderground and Sub Scan - Fox Deadly Duck, Porky's, Alien and Mega Force - Spikes Peak / Ghost Manor. My first Xonox cart! And, saving one of the best for last... - Pete Rose Baseball All in all, a great gift.

Very nice! I saw those advertised a while back but I wasn't sure how they'd look in real life (especially since they're a little pricey). I might have to buy a set or two sometime. They'd be perfect on my metal desk at work...

I found an Astrocade and a couple cartridges a few years ago at a yard sale for a couple bucks. Unfortunately the previous owner apparently let the unit overheat, and it's not very reliable anymore. It is a neat little system though, and I was impressed by the quality of the games I tried. It may not have been the most popular system but properly marketed it may have had a future. If I found a working unit and some additional carts in the wild at a good price I'd be tempted, but for now I'm content with emulation via MESS.

Excellent site. Thanks for the link. I was playing on my VIC-20 back in the heyday of the CoCo era and never saw most of those games. Time to fire up the emulator again.

Yup, I love text adventures. HHGTG, Witness, Suspended, the Enchanter trilogy, and, of course, Zork. I have both of the "Lost Treasures of Infocom" collections, and a bunch of the original games (with the awesome original packaging) in C64 or Amiga format from back in the day. I have some game images and a version of Frotz on my PocketPC, too. The somewhat simpler pre-Infocom adventures like Colossal Cave are a lot of fun too. As are latter-day games using the Infocom engine and other parsers. Look up the Interactive Fiction Archive if you haven't been there before.

Very nice! Darn, I've got to start asking people about gaming stuff. It just never occurs to me. All I've found so far this year is an Atari 800XL for $5. Not bad, but no regular gaming booty to keep me in that yard sale mood.

Naming dogs is fun! Quintanaroo Pitfall Harry Quickclaw (yeah, he's a cat, but the dog doesn't know that) Decathalon (sort of rolls off the tongue) HERO (cuz dauchsunds are long, like a hero sandwich. get it?) And my favorite: Communist Mutant From Space

I can see the copyright owner going after a vendor/manufacturer, as they do with other bootleggers. But what could the company do to the owner of such a game, even if they got reported? It's not like Namco is entitled to a cut of the take from the arcade operator. I'm just curious. I don't mean to derail things, so feel free to tell me to shut up and go away.

Wow, that's a sharp looking restoration. I really like Bronze Age games, too. I'm just a state away (MD), if I only had the room for it. I hope it goes to a good home. One that won't turn it into a MAME cabinet.

I also still have mine, an original 6-switcher my dad got us for Christmas 1978. The switches were starting to get gummy when it went into the attic, and it stopped working a few months after I pulled it back out again a couple years later. I still have it in a box down the basement, hoping that someday the blessed Atari Fairy will flutter by and repair it for me.

I agree with NovaXpress about Encounter at L-5. As one of the last games I bought back in the day (from the bargain bin at Games N' Gadgets) I enjoy it. (It's got a cool title, too. L5 is one of the Lagrange Points, one of a the stable orbital positions that would be a good place for a large space station.) Others underrated favorites of mine: Planet Patrol (Gets repetitive, but I always liked the day to night transitions.) Airlock (Another bargain bin buy. Looks terrible, but fun.) Commando Raid (Very Game N' Watch like) Riddle of the Sphinx (Slow, but surprisingly deep.) Dodge 'Em (Can get intense very quickly) Skiing (Maybe not underrated, but doesn't get mentioned much.)

There's nothing wrong with noting the details of your purchases. At least I hope not, since I do the same thing. I have a database on my PDA that I use to keep track of my collection, partly because I'm data obsessive and partly because I have a terrible memory, and would otherwise buy endless duplicates. Along with the other basic information I have a field for price paid, the date I recieved it, and the source, be it a thrift store, yard sale, auction, etc. I seldom record the full details, though. Collectors in other fields do this as a matter of routine in order to establish the provenance, or chain of ownership, for a unique or valuable item. Your average Atari cartridge or game system isn't unique or valuable, but knowing where something came from can still be interesting. If it's any comfort, remember that most of what we know about everyday life in years past comes from people who were obssesive about saving and documenting stuff. Think of it as your contribution to history.

Looks like it's going to be a great game. I'm looking forward to trying this one out. The cartridge mockup looks fantastic, too.

How are the Hershey Park arcades these days? I was last there about three years ago. It was great fun, but there were some games that needed some TLC to bring them back up to their best. I remember leaving a comment that said how much I liked the arcades and that I hoped they'd maintain them.

I walked around the block and hit a yard sale on the next street over. I found an Atari 800XL for $2. Yay!

I hate to say it, but It's probably not worth the trouble. If you really are set on moving it upstairs, then you may want to look into renting a stair-climbing hand truck, or hiring a moving firm that has one available. They're used to move vending machines and such around, so if there's enough room on your stairs they should handle an arcade cabinet. If there's not enough room, then you need to find a friend who's really, really strong and have him carry it.

PM sent.

Many missing commons here, too. No, Canyon Bomber, no River Raid, no Megamania, no Kaboom... Alas, I am but a pitiful, wretched, shell of a man.

Definitely a cartridge. I'd prefer a full featured version with additional options. But I really like Spacewar so I'd probably enjoy the 4K version anyway. I'd certainly be willing to pay a bit more for a fancier version, though.

I don't think your regular Genesis systems will be worth all that much, but I'm sure they'll be collectible someday. They'll probably be some difference in desirability between the original, the later Sega variations, and the last Majesco models.

Ah, the coveted "Double-Wide Sixer", sold in a special promotion exclusively for trailer park residents. Very rare. Over the years most of the original units have been destroyed by tornadoes.

Yeah, they've screwed things up again. If they insist on removing the system-specific categories and breaking everyone's searches then the least they could do is make the result actually useful. Does anyone working at eBay actually sell anything up there? Bidiots still needs to do some work on their site's presentation and general usability, IMHO, but at least they understand and respect their audience.

I always used my own initials, BDC, because they're so convenient to enter with the usual letter-grid arrangement: one over, two over, one back. Yes, I'm lazy.