Jump to content
Have You Played Atari Today?
2600|5200|7800|Lynx|Jaguar|Forums|Store  

TrekkiELO

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content Count

    363

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    2

Posts posted by TrekkiELO

  1. Posted · Edited by TrekkiELO

    I disagree that these are complete crap and a waste of money. Sure, they're not exactly the same as the real thing - to the purest. But they're still very cool - and an Atari joystick that looks like the real thing and plugs into the TV with no console and runs off penlight batteries - is still cool, even if it's a little flawed. If you have "too many systems" to have them all hooked up at once, sometimes it's still fun for a quick game of Adventure or Missile Command with minimal hassle. I like them, although I perfectly understand and agree with the criticisms. I've bought them for as little as $3, but $10 is still a good deal and not a complete waste, in my opinion.

     

    Also because of Realsports Volleyball being the TV game exclusive in this unit and I paid $16.99 plus tax for mine, it was worth every penny, except that Adventure easter egg blunder, doh!

     

    Signed,

     

    Rick

  2. Posted · Edited by TrekkiELO

    But the real star of this thing is Gravitar. You see, Gravitar is hard enough to find on the 2600 as it is, but there are no other TV games with this baby on it, not even the Flashback.

     

    Gravitar was on the original Atari 7800 style Flashback in 2004, Realsports Volleyball is an exclusive TV game here!

     

    Signed,

     

    Rick

  3. Posted · Edited by TrekkiELO

    Although it doesn't seem too popular, I actually quite enjoy this game, especially the two player version. It can get quite hilarious... :lol:

     

    I like how Curt used the later prototype binary with the neat title screen vs. the FB2 version. There are other updates to binaries that others have mentioned as well. Maybe it's time for me to update the FAQ.

     

    I to love frogpond, it's one of my more favorite games on the system. Yeah, it's fun and funny as hell, has the setting sun, and actually has an end (where most games just end) Cool to here I'm not the only one that likes this game.

     

    Count me in on this too!

     

    :cool:

     

    Signed,

     

    Rick

    • Like 1

  4. Posted · Edited by TrekkiELO

    :lol: the first game he wanted to play was foot ball.

     

     

    And I was just like "seriously? Football? FUCK that."

     

    He was like "why?"

     

    I (remembering the trauma of playing this "game" as a kid was just like "CAUSE IT SUX!!!" it's just three dudes bolted together kicking a ball back and fourth, it's just pong, minuse the fun and with shitty square ass graphics, it can go fuck itself and die....just DIE and BURN IN HELL!!?!!"

     

    And he's like "but I like football, lets try it"

     

    Anger....RAGE....Language.....more anger.... "Ohkaye god damnit, just to get that piece of shit out of the way"

     

    *hits the button*

     

    :o "WOAH!!! Holy SHIT, what is this?"

     

    Anyhow, I was totally surprised, a psudo 3D perspective, the dudes are actually pretty well scaled, and animated, they all move indipendantly....I don't really understand it, but WOW, that game is the shit, How the hell did I miss this as a kid? Ugg...he still kicked my ass, but that was the fir....er....well....only fun football game I've ever seen on the system (don't care for the other ones on there, just in case you couldn't tell by my above postage :lol: )

     

    This is exactly why it's called Super Football as it absolutely blows away both Football and Realsports Football with its revolutionary 3-D scrolling graphics for a sports game at that time on an Atari 2600!

     

    :cool:

     

    Rick

  5. Posted

    I'll fess up to buying this . . . but you need to read the whole post . . .

     

    I was disappointed that I forgot to pre-order the FB2+, so I asked my girlfriend to check around Seattle to see if any were available. Of course she wasn't able to find any, so I resigned myself to buying a regular FB2.

     

    After I had ordered the FB2, I re-found AtariAge and bought a Harmony Cart to use for the now apparently common cartridge mod. Well . . . surprise, surprise, I find this forum and the listing on Ebay.

     

    I immediately bid $34.99 and (sorry thevnaguy) figured that the premium and $20+ shipping was my stupidity tax for missing the pre-order.

     

    Flash-forward to Saturday and my $24.99 bid was unexpectedly still holding top spot. In fact, it was the only bid??? I signed into Ebay and showed this to my girlfriend. I remarked that someone was going to swoop in at the last minute and buy it for $35.99. Well, apparently, while I was in the kitchen making dinner, she decided to take it upon herself to increase my max bid by just a little bit . . . try $200.

     

    Now, I should explain that while I am a starving college student (willing to skip a weekend at the bar if I could get a FB2+), my girlfriend is a successful young chemical engineer with decidedly less cash flow problems.

     

     

    So, thanks to thevnaguy for putting the FB2+ up for auction, and thanks to my girlfriend for paying me the difference from $34.99. Although now I have a feeling that I will be spending a lot more time in kitchen . . .

     

    Thanks for your story!

     

    You're one lucky guy to find a woman like that, does she have a twin sister?

     

    ;)

     

    http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=thevnaguy&ftab=AllFeedback

     

    So what was the bonus cart you got?

     

    :cool:

     

    Signed,

     

    Rick

  6. Posted · Edited by TrekkiELO

    If you go to the original link for the preorder, the Flashback 2+ is now on Atari's website for sale.

     

    http://www.atari.com...flashback2_plus

     

    It is also advertised on the Atari main page.

     

    I have also noticed that Atari's website now fully sports the classic Atari logo.

     

     

    I guess that means the one I ordered with the cached page will actually come!!!

     

    And it's now ten bucks more @ $39.99 with no free Atari 2600 t-shirt.

     

    Signed,

     

    Rick Vendl II

  8. Posted · Edited by TrekkiELO

    I had one for a little while, KB Toys had them for $10 so I figured "Why not?"

     

    But the chroma noise problems that the NTSC models suffer from proved too much for me =(

     

    http://galaxy22.dyndns.org/dtv/v1/chroma-prob/index.html

     

    Bought mine from QVC when these first came out, then another from KB Toy Works because I thought those intitial ones were defective until reading this article, runs alright for a few minutes without any distortion until they warm up, though that also bothers me, I've still kept the one in my collection and play it sometimes!

     

    Signed,

     

    Rick Vendl II

  10. Posted

    I don't think there's anymore still open in the US. Back in the late 80s, an Asian [i can't remember if they were Korean or Singapore based] investment firm bought up the chain with the plan to expand it internationally. I think there was an effort to mark the first location here in Sacramento as a historical landmark a few years ago. The sign is still up but the business is long gone.

     

    Figures.

     

    Chuck E. Cheese had the best arcades in the area.

     

    This is because Atari Founder Nolan Bushnell bought them from Warner Brothers, but Starcade in Tomorrowland at Disneyland blows everything else away as it's the biggest arcade I went to back then, two levels jamb packed full of classic game machines.

     

     

    I think they finally dropped it in the post 1987 models. That thing sparked so many playground conversations back in the day.

     

    Indeed on both counts.

     

    Got mine as a time share open house free gift, then Commodore's Vic-20 from another, no longer have either though.

     

    I am envious. My grandmother at the time kept receiving time share seminar offers. The first she received was for an Atari 800XL. Of course, she didn't go to that one; she went to the seminar the month later and was rewarded with a Commodore Plus4. This was around circa 1985. That made me rather cross. I had another year to wait before the parents bought a computer [a 1040ST]. Would've been nice to have had the 800XL to mess around with.

     

    The cousins had TI's Defender clone called Parsec. That was nice with the speech synthesizer. I think I picked up Picnic Paranoid from Federated for it [for them] and a couple of other titles.

     

    It was actually a Timex Sinclair 1000, not TI99/4A, sorry about that.

     

    Also, Commodore 64, then Amiga, more affordable and better than Macintrash were my computers before PCs!

     

    Here's a collection of Federated commercials on YouTube:

     

     

    Yep, another trademark, smashing televisions.

     

    :cool:

     

    Thanks again,

     

    Rick

  11. Posted · Edited by TrekkiELO

    There were plenty of my friends then that were massively disappointed that the Atari games we played at Shakey's Pizza

     

    Are those still around? Their pizza, chicken and mojos were to die for, Chuck E. Cheese by Atari Founder Nolan Bushnell was also an awesome arcade/pizza place, but not anymore!

     

    And wouldn't the one year timeline dispute with GCC end with 1985 and not 1986 which was when Atari Corp. ultimately released the 7800? I'm trying to recall when it first appeared in the seasonal Sears catalog. I know my grandmother immediately bought it when it hit the store shelves for $150 and then my parents bought one for my birthday in December of the release year.

     

    January 1986, my parents bought me one shortly after at Toys R Us in San Bernardino, California that still had its original 1984 expansion port underneath.

     

    TI99/4A since my cousins owned one [free from a real estate seminar].

     

    Got mine as a time share open house free gift, then Commodore's Vic-20 from another, no longer have either though.

     

    I wonder if any of the Federated Group IP is still owned by "Atari" or if it was all transferred to defunct Silo since they bought some of the stores.

     

    I remember Silo, they came on the scene when Circuit City did, similar building designs too.

     

    There's a car insurance company in WA/OR that advertises very similar to the old Federated commercials. Look up Vern Fonk on YouTube. Shapoopie!

     

    Sounds cool, will check it out, thanks.

     

    :cool:

     

    Signed,

     

    Rick

  12. Posted

    That is exactly what I was going to say until I'd saw mine set on color.

    You know, now that I look at mine again, it almost looks as if the TV switch is broken or stuck somewhere in the middle:

     

    post-3819-126740373371_thumb.jpg

     

    The artist must have based the drawing on a system sold on eBay.

    :lol: that doesn't bother me to much....but it is funny that the left controller has the cord come out the top (proper) and the right controller has the cord come out the right side :P (I know, it's for symmetry, but still :P )

     

    Speaking of cords, anybody else notice that the actual Atari Flashback 2+ audio/video cable is longer than its predecessor, so you now have more slack!

     

    :cool:

     

    Signed,

     

    Rick

  13. Posted

    zero proof of that other than someone stating they may have seen it at Jack's house many years ago. In our talks with his son Leonard, who's been very forthcoming and honest (and has yet to tell us something we found later to be untrue - in fact quite the opposite) he has stated his father has none of those prizes and never has. In fact, I think it's more likely that either someone at Warner kept it (since they kept ownership of any of the ongoing or open accounts).

     

    Speaking of trustworthiness, one might consider how Commodore originally [allegedly] acquired MOS Technologies back in the day. But that is covered well elsewhere on the net. Or maybe a nice chat with Ted Hoff could shed some light on that trustworthiness too. Or maybe you could ask an old [Greater] Sacramento [Metropolitan Area] Atari dealer - computers and game systems - about how Sam Tramiel tried to hit him up to sell a Sony Playstation to Sam's friend at wholesale when it debuted.

     

    But maybe you are right. Shadoe Stevens must have liberated the sword when Atari Corp. fired him as "Fred Rated" during their wildly successful ownership of the Federated Group.

     

    Man does that bring back some memories, from 1986-1988 my friend and I rode bikes 4 miles one way to the local Federated in Redlands, California just so we could buy their cheap Atari games with our allowances for all their systems we owned.

     

    Wonder if he still has his look alike ventriloquist doll, "Fredrated, uh huh, uh huh. Fredrated, uh huh, uh huh." ;)

     

    That didn't stop Atari from including all 3 on "Atari: 80 Classic Games in One" for the PC and "Atari Anthology".

     

    It was meant to be a joke.

     

    Doh, got it.

     

    :D

     

    Signed,

     

    Rick Vendl II

  14. Posted · Edited by TrekkiELO

    Has anyone else noticed that the console on the shirt is a 4-banger with the Color/B&W switch set to B&W? I did. No biggie, but it's there.

    Well, the shirt is printed in black and white, so I guess that makes sense.

     

    That is exactly what I was going to say until I'd saw mine set on color.

     

    Signed,

     

    Rick Vendl II

  18. Posted

    So why not Video Pinball, then Swordquest: Earthworld, Fireworld and Waterworld?

     

    ;)

     

    Licensing means $$$$

     

    Atari went with only its owned assets on this project. No licenses.

    Also Midnight Magic and Dark Chambers are no wholey owned by Atari, so they aren't used.

    Curt

     

    There's no point in offering the "Sword Quest" games because no matter how well you play, you still won't be able to win the $25k sword because playa hatin' Jack Tramiel has possession of it.

     

    That didn't stop Atari from including all 3 on "Atari: 80 Classic Games in One" for the PC and "Atari Anthology".

     

    Signed,

     

    Rick

    • Like 1

  21. Posted

    I know that it's been mentioned before,but I just want to add to the general "groan".

     

    That was the dumbest boxing job ever! I say "boxing" because that sure wasn't packing :dunce:

    That distributor should be ashamed of themselves for doing that!!

     

    Thank (insert deity here) that the FB2+ was well packaged from the factory...

     

    OK Thanks for listening...

     

    Jason

     

    Seconded, you guys can't say that enough! :thumbsup:

     

    Rick

  23. Posted · Edited by TrekkiELO

    That was precisely why I recommended the change in color on the box to make it easily discernible from the orignal FB2 and there would be no question, plus it also says 2+ on it as well...

     

     

     

    Curt

     

    If it's a FB 2+ it'll be in a black and white themed box, rather than a red and white themed box. I think that's the easiest way to tell without going into tiny details.

    Right, it does in fact say 2+ on it but someone say, shopping for someone else might not notice it, but the black themed box is easily discernible, even when you're in a hurry.

     

    That's really awesome that your name is in the manual, along with Wgungfu and Albert :)

     

    The packing slip to me is a part of my Personal Atari History :thumbsup:

    Oh good, I'm not the only one who saved the packing slip. ;)

     

    Same here. :D

     

    Signed,

     

    Rick Vendl II

  25. Posted · Edited by TrekkiELO

    Over an hour ago via UPS to my front door where I met the driver for it.

     

    It's real, a Flashback 2+ exactly like those pictures posted by Curt earlier in this forum with its box, old ATARI logo, manual, XL 2600 T-Shirt, Sports Arena games Double Dunk, Realsports Boxing, Realsports Soccer, Super Baseball, Super Football, also, both Yars' Return and Lunar Lander are no longer out of adjustment or flicker.

     

    Circus Atari is that new "Top Secret" menu game.

     

    :thumbsup:

     

    Thanks again Curt, Marty et al at Legacy Engineering!

     

    :cool:

     

    Rick Vendl II

AtariAge
Forums
Store
General
Follow AtariAge

Copyright ©1998-2021 AtariAge

×
×
  • Create New...