hookem

I'm going. Was surprised not to see a thread posted about this earlier, frankly. Too bad it's been a couple of years since AtariAge has had a presence there, and it's gotten expensive.. plus less and less of the earlier systems/games, but that's happening with all of these conventions. I'm also going to the Let's Play Expo in Irving on Sunday... not pleased that they scheduled them on the same weekend!

Not counting the non-working ones in disrepair, I currently have: 1 - Atari Heavy Sixer 1 - Sears Heavy Sixer 1 - Atari 4 switch (chrome capped) Promo 2600 1 - Coleco 2600 Adapter (w/Colecovision) 1 - Sears Video Arcade II 2 - Atari 7800s So 7 total. Funny that 6-10 seems to be my sweet spot with collecting things (well, not carts). But guitars, turntables, vintage receivers, vintage computers -- I've got about the same amount of each of those. Slightly too many. Also have the Flashback 2 with all the parts to add cartridge slot, but I never did it...

You might hear from the lawyers for Storage Wars, treading very close to their intellectual property there!

It's an awesome book, I would imagine anyone on this forum who hasn't already read it would enjoy it. Same with his second novel, Armada. I got both signed at the classic game fest in Austin also! It will be interesting to see what happens when the big-budget movie version comes out next year (trailer is already available online). Could spur some interest in retro gaming (and perhaps other 80s stuff).

Wow, less than 2 weeks away and not a single reply to this thread? Is anyone else going? While I'm not thrilled with the ticket prices this year, it's a once-a-year thing for me so the increase doesn't matter that much. Judging by the website and social media, I'm sure it will be well attended, but thin on the older consoles/computers. Still, the vendors always have something of interest from every era, it seems. I'm still kicking myself over passing on some of one of those cheap Atari 800s and XLs there last year. Holding out hope that whomever that vendor was will be back with another stack of old Commodore and Atari 8 bit "untested" machines for cheap.

At some point MK will realize there is more money in the shitstorm story behind the RetroVGS/Chameleon than there will ever be in his Retro mag. I mean, look at this thread. It's just a matter of time, folks. The documentary/book is coming.

Seems like Nintendo entering this market may make it much bigger -- the RetroBit Generations and even the AtGames stuff could actually benefit from it. At least initially. The $40-60 mini retro console market is an established, but small, market that Nintendo could explode, making retailers more receptive to the other options in the category (and if they are smart, competitors will lure them with bigger margins).

The Short Bus Subs food trailers went out of business at the end of last year, unfortunately. I don't know about the other trucks on that spot, but they opened up a new food trailer lot a few blocks away on the same road (Barton Springs), so that might be why they are gone. I don't think the organizers would have been able to get them to close, as it's a very busy road with lots of traffic (foot and cars) not related to the event center across the street. Ah, I should have thought about that. Terry Black's BBQ is right across the street and it's probably my favorite BBQ place in Austin right now. Which is saying something.

Passed by that booth, saw all the "defective" 800XLs and Commodores for $4.99, and figured I'd come back and pick one or two up but didn't... now I'm kicking myself. Some of those looked so clean, I'm not surprised one fired up right away for you. That's fantastic that you got one that worked right away. They scaled up the show pretty seamlessly; it was well run and looked to be great attendance. Definitely looking a little more like a modern "gaming" convention vs. the more clubby "retro gaming" conventions -- lower lighting, flashier, slicker. A little steep on the entrance fees and concessions, but there were deals to be had and you could definitely get your money's worth with all the free stuff to play. 70K sq ft next year is going to be AMAZING... especially with the AtariAge booth there!

Bummer that Atariage won't have a booth... who will show all those attendees that classic gaming pre-NES is still alive and well? I did see that they sold out all exhibitor booths by the first week in June, so that's pretty amazing considering they bumped the size to 45K sq feet. I'll check out Reboot's booth when I'm there, and hopefully Atariage will have a huge booth next year!

Probably the smartest thing I've read from you. Follow MK's lead.

There are discounts to retail USPS pricing if you buy it online through PayPal, eBay, etc... Even if he had gone with the cheaper option (such as a flat rate priority mail), there is a discount. But the discount would be less net money on a lower cost option like the $6 priority mail flat rate. So I'm guessing he wanted to capture the biggest "spread" using the discount, hence picking the higher retail option, in order to pocket $2-3 per transaction on the actual shipping vs. retail amount. That said, I generally don't consider doing something like that a horrible thing. eBay sellers do it all the time. After all, there ARE real "handling" costs that consumers are very averse to seeing itemized, and you can recover a little of that by pocketing the discount. Of course in this context, and considering the product, I totally understand the complaints...

I'm convinced it's this. It was a British thing, cool name, quirky and underpowered, but an awesome looking piece of kit for the time. Like a British sports car of the era plus or minus a decade or two. It's a miracle it could put anything on the screen, but that was just a bonus, really.

Yes, I was thinking 99% match. Could be a different board revision, but I thought their original looked a bit photo-shoppy in the area where the differences were. In particular the inconsistent edge of the longer gold patch, the lack of color variation in the green area where the circuit board writing would be, and the blurry tops of chips: ^^ click to view large version to see what I'm talking about

Assuming you meant "not fraudulently", I agree. And maybe that's what they are doing... certainly it isn't in the same category as the CC at this point. But the image with the multi-tester and the soldering iron, that could be a bit misleading...

I think you are right, this isn't exactly the same board, but looks very close (Linx 7 tablet - http://projectpie46.blogspot.com/2015/07/linx-7-disassembly-partial.html EDIT - Actually, now that I look even closer, I wonder if this is the same board -- but with some photoshopping done to take out the identification on the board below the square camera cutout. The larger white connector recessed from the edge (not visible above, but in the PGS photo) would be for the L-shaped camera ribbon cable.

QFT. I seldom click "play" on embedded podcasts, video recaps, etc in this thread... this earned the very rare play click from me. And it was well worth it.

The packaging of those carts tells a story. No sure what it is exactly. The Goodwills/Half Price Books around here would never individually bag a common 2600 cart. They must have seen them and thought, "old video game stuff is worth a bunch!" Then they would have looked them up on eBay, saw the values, and priced them like they did. Still $1.99 too high. They would have been better off turning the carts in to Albert for cash or AA merch worth auctioning.

Goodwill has tons of them too. Whenever I see something like so prominent in thrift stores and so unused by anyone (like George Foreman grills), I think.... what GENIUS MARKETING!!! Full disclosure - I bought a balance board, new. Never made it out of the box. About a year into ownership, I figured, why take it out? I'll have a pristine video game collectable that I bought new complete unopened in the box (which for some reason, with ALL the thousands and thousands I've spent on new videogame stuff, has NEVER happened before). That delusion went south quickly.

Too bad MK couldn't keep it going a bit longer, he would have had the perfect out: An elaborate, years in the making, April Fools joke!