Big Player

My recommendations of the latest batch of homebrews. (I own them all.) Hunchy 2 Fall Down Swoops Crazy Ballon

Looks like the right forum to me. Thanks for posting link to the photos and videos. It takes me back, oh about a month ago.

The holiday cart looks great! I loved that running man demo. It's a good thing I ran out of money and didn't buy every homebrew that I wanted at the Philly vgXpo. It also helps I bought a 5200 there, so now I can buy Adventure II.

At the moment I only own a 2 port but I'm in the process of picking up a 4 port from an AA member. The 4 port got my vote for one reason: Castle Crisis. I can find 3 other people who would play the game with me. The challenge will be finding enough working controllers. I would love to have 4 of those 5200 paddles but my skills with electronics are shabby. It would take me 11 or 12 units to get 4 built properly.

Seems that everyone I know these days is working on their Master's degree. I really should start myself before I get too old. Good luck Andrew!

I don't know, maybe Ebert is like me and just hates modern video games. Here is his four-star review of Tron from 1982. Tron

Why don't you read the entire thread before bumping it. Matzieq said over a year ago he had to put this game aside to work on his university studies. His last log in date was March 19, 2005. This one should go in the unfinished homebrew forum.

Who programmed the 2005 Holiday Cart?

Ditto. I had a Radioshack "pong" unit and was vaguely familiar with the Atari 2600 (VCS) but didn't see it as much more than a glorified pong unit. I had played Space Invaders at an out of the way small-town diner on a family roadtrip and loved it! When I realized it was available for the VCS, it became my first must-have "killer app" that forced me to buy the game system. Thank goodness I had a paper route. 973715[/snapback] I'll third that. Until Space Invaders, I prefered pinball to video games. Before that, I thought the computer would cheat and rip me off. And while the 2600 is my first and favorite system, when it was launched, I had no interest in it or the first generation of games like Combat and Air Sea Battle.

Normally it's a 2600 for me, but since I got a 5200 and Castle Crisis, I haven't been playing much else. I can't believe I had to choose "other" to select the 5200.

I haven't hooked up the 5200 systems yet, it's going to involve some major cleaning. Thanks for pointing out the guy who was selling the systems. The guy was selling mostly modern stuff and I had looked through his stuff on Saturday. I wouldn't have the systems if you hadn't told me about them. Sorry to hear about your 5200.

Okay, here's my list. I finally had time to get it all sorted out. 2600 Spy Hunter Laser Gates Pengo Frogger II:Threedeep BMX Airmaster Shootin' Gallery Thunder Ground Survival Run w/end label Spitfire Attack w/end label Galaxian CIB Adventures of Tron CIB Squeeze Box 5200 2 systems Trackball VCS Adapter Star Wars: The Arcade Game Space Dungeon Astro Chase Countermeasure Berzerk Qix Star Raiders Pac-Man Joust Galaxian Super Breakout Intellivision Swords & Serpents CIB Nova Blast White Water Ice Trek Loco-Motion From the AA Store/Booth Fall Down Swoops Hunchy 2 Crazy Balloon Castle Crisis (Shhh!) 5200 Redemption adapter

It was a great time. I'm glad I made the trip, though there are a few things that could have been done better. I'm still tired after the drive back yesterday and getting caught up at work today and the rest of the week. I'll post more comments on the show later on in the week. I will say that the real reason to go to a classic gaming show is the people. I knew that even if the show had sucked, at least meeting up with the AA members I had met before and the new ones would be worth it. It had been too long since I had attended a classic gaming show. Those pictures Al has posted don't quite capture all the fun we had. And yes, there are a lot more on the way. As far as my haul of classic games? I will inventory all the stuff I bought later in the other thread, but I will say I have never spent more at a classic gaming show. Mike

There were only one or two games from the arcade list that weren't at the show. No Black Widow was a disapointment to me. It didn't bother me greatly that Bubbles wasn't there. Other than those two, I think every other game on the list was there. I, Robot was there. I played that game more than any other. Star Wars, Robotron, Tempest and Quantum all tied for second.

See you too Chris and all the other AA members who will be at the show. This is my last post before I leave. Eight hours of driving all by myself. I have three audio books though, long ones too.

From the vgXpo web site: Here is a list of the arcade games that will be featured at America’s VideoGame Expo # Joust # Robotron # Defender # Stargate # Bubbles # Moon Patrol # Berzerk # Frogger # Asteroids Delixe # Battlezone # Tempest # Missile Command # Quantum # Black Widow # Gravitar # Space Duel # Star Wars # Centipede # Arabian # Dig Dug # Xevious # Crystal Castles # Dragon Spirit # Marble Madness # Indiana Jones # Donkey Kong # Donkey Kong Jr # Pengo # Pac-man # Ms. Pac-Man # Dragon's Lair 20th anniversary # Track and Field # Time Pilot # Tasc/Scan # Eliminator # Zaxxon # Pong # Dominoes # Space Invaders # Tron # Gorf # I,Robot # Please note, this list is subject to change. Well, if the list does change, they better not drop the I, Robot game. I've never seem one in person and I'm a huge Asimov fan. (Okay, I know that the game has almost nothing to do with the book--just like the Will Smith movie. The differnence is the game doesn't suck, at least not in emulation.)

Further thoughts: I love the idea of having the true arcade experience at home, especially in a relatively compact space. My problem is those games drove me away from the arcades in the first place. It's lack of space rather than cost that keeps me from collecting the arcade games that I want. Carry on. I didn't mean to piss on this thread or Neo Geo collectors. I have to remember that there are ones other than just Stinky Dinkins.

After sitting on the fence for a while, I've decided to make the trip. Sadly it looks as though I'm traveling by myself, so I had better stock up on the audio books before I leave. See you there!

Big Player's thoughts on Neo Geo collecting: I didn't pay a quarter to play those games back when they were new, so why the hell would I pay any more now?

If Atari Age doesn't go to the show, I'm not going either. I've read all the stuff about the show and I really can't believe what happened to the show. Phillyclassic was what a classic video game show should be. I figured at least I could socialize with the Atari Age members I've met at the preivous Phillyclassic shows. I though of starting a thread with a VExpo roll call, but is there a point? Is anyone from this site going to be there?

When you have more retro content, be sure to post a link to it here. I didn't realize (or remember actually) that you were one of the Philly 5 organizers. I knew the screen name was familiar for some reason.

Wal-Mart associates have long read your rants on the Internet. They hide all the FB2's whenever you go in the store. The greeter is the key to the whole operation. He looks like your average decrepit old man but he's really retired CIA. Once he says "Welcome to Wal-Mart", the FB2 are quickly hidden behind power ballad and smooth jazz CD compilations. That company is evil.

Great interview. Be sure to post a link to the second interview. Hmmm...I've heard DEE-BRO, De'Bro (as in da bro ), Deb-a-roh (where'd the a come from ), and even Deb-rah Over the years I've just gotten use to it. 948197[/snapback] Good thing I've only typed out your name. I blame Stan. At least I know how to pronounce it now.

Thanks for the kind words. I was really pleased with the way that HSW episode turned out. If do any webcasting, it would be offsite from the show. I will not be doing any panels or webcasting from the vgXpo floor. I am not an "official" part of this event amymore. The new vgXpo staff has done NOTHING to attract special guests as they have been too busy worrying about comic books, action figures, bemani, cosplay, and other inconsequential SHIT that has nothing to do with the classic gaming roots/legacy/tradition of PhillyClassic. When I was approached about doing something to fix that a few weeks ago, I said it was several months too late to make arrangements for me to bring some people in. It is a shame too, as there are a number of "alumni" on the East Coast, but I needed to be extending the invitations during the summer, not four to six weeks before the show. Bill/Ralph are Lenny's guests. Since Lenny arranged for them to be there, I would want to get his "blessing" and make any arrangements through him....assuming there is even any interest for me to do a webcast. Up until a week ago, I wasn't even planning on attending...even though I live in Philly. I was completely disgusted when I saw the reports/reviews from Dallas & D.C. and I had more or less "walked away" from the whole mess. After I had given up on the show, Curt asked me to give him a hand with his Atari Museum exhibit and a Legacy Engineering Group display. Since I am deep into a number of projects for Curt/Legacy Engineering, I agreed to help him for the Philly event. 947260[/snapback] That sucks. It doesn't seem like it would be a Phillyclassic without one of your pannels. And from what you and others are saying, I guess there is a reason why they aren't calling this show Phillyclassic 6. I'll be there but I do hope there are more than 4 booths devoted to classic gaming.

I hope Ralph Baer is able to make it to Philly this year. And I hope that he and Bill Kunkel will be interviewed by Mike Stulir for the Back In Time Webcast. His interview with Howard Scott Warshaw at Philly 5 was great.