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Ransom

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Blog Entries posted by Ransom

  1. Ransom

    Putting things in storage

    By Ransom,

    I'm just trying to sort some stuff out in my own mind. There are lots of more interesting things to read on AA. Don't waste your time.
     
    I've recently purchased an N64 and an Odyssey2 and now I'm wondering how to fit them into my existing gaming spaces. The N64 is an easy one, since my wife likes several games on that system. It will be hooked to the TV in the loft. The Odyssey2 poses more of a challenge.
     
    I have no more room for consoles. Both TVs in the game room/library have as many systems hooked to them as space will allow. So my plan is to see how much I like the Odyssey2 and then decide which system to box up and put in the basement. At this point, it seems most likely that it will be the 7800. That's the system I play the least frequently.
     
    Still, I'd like to find some way to avoid boxing up any system. It seems a waste to do that.
     
    On the other hand, I feel it's a waste to even own systems that I don't play more than once or twice a year. That would include the 7800, the Lynx, the NES, and the SNES. The Genesis and Turbografx don't get much play either. Nor does the Jaguar. When it comes down to it, I'm really a pre-crash gamer.
     
    But I'm also a battle-scarred veteran of videogame collecting, and I know that chances are good that I'll regret getting rid of any system. In the 90s, I had most of the systems I have now. Then I ran out of space, found that I wasn't playing them, and got rid of most of my collection. Then about 8 or 9 years ago, I started buying it all up again (we'd moved to a new house and had settled in by then).
     
    So most likely I'll put the 7800 in the basement, perhaps along with one or two other systems. Then I'll have to give them a few years, and see if I have the urge to bring them back upstairs. If not, then maybe it'll be time to sell them.
     
    That's my current thinking on the subject, anyway.
  2. Ransom
    From time to time I like to step back and take a look at how my collection is shaping up. It may be that I find holes in my collection where I need to spend more time finding one or more great games for a system. Or it may be that, like earlier this year, I find that there are several games that I just do not play, and I sell those games off.
     
    At any rate, here's the number of CIB games I have for each of the systems for which I collect:
     
    Atari 2600: 87
    Atari 5200: 39
    Atari 7800: 7
    Atari 8-Bit Computer: 124
    Atari Jaguar: 11
    Atari Lynx: 24
    Colecovision: 20
    Intellivision: 63
    Turbografx-16: 13
    NES: 11
    SNES: 8
    Genesis: 18
    PS: 3
    PS2: 16
     
    Obviously my A8 games collection is still the largest portion of my overall collection. That's because I've been collecting those the longest. I have previously collected and sold off most of the other systems in the 90s. But not the A8. That software has been with me a long time.
     
    I also have a lot of 2600 carts, but that's probably not surprising to anyone since I am after all a member of this website! What did surprise me was realizing I have 63 Intellivision games. I don't play most of them, though, so perhaps that's one group of games that's ripe for pruning.
     
    At this point, I'd like to concentrate on getting more games for the ColecoVision and a few more for the 5200. Those are the systems I enjoy the most right now (along with select Intellivision games). The later systems (NES and beyond) will have to wait their turn.
  3. Ransom
    Atari 2600
    Boxing
    Kaboom!
    Keystone Kapers
    Seaquest
    Adventure
    Basketball
    Bowling
    Dodge 'Em
    Maze Craze
    Space Invaders
    Video Pinball
    Yars' Revenge
    Demon Attack
    Dragonfire
    No Escape
     
    Atari 5200
    Berzerk
    Centipede
    Defender
    Galaxian
    Missile Command
    Pac-Man
    Pole Position
    Qix
    Robotron: 2084
    Space Dungeon
    Star Raiders
    Vanguard
     
    Colecovision
    Carnival
    Frenzy
    Lady Bug
    Looping
    Omega Race
    Pepper II
    Slither
    Turbo
    Up 'N' Down
    Venture
    Zaxxon
     
    Intellivision
    Advanced Dungeons and Dragons
    Bump 'N' Jump
    Burgertime
    Lock 'N' Chase
    Shark! Shark!
    Star Strike
    Tron Deadly Discs
    Utopia
     
    Games you should have somewhere in your collection
    Beamrider
    Choplifter!
    Gorf
    H.E.R.O.
    Montezuma's Revenge
    Spy Hunter
    Tapper
  4. Ransom

    I'm back!

    By Ransom,

    Theme park season is over, so it's time to get back to playing video games. I'm looking forward to getting back in touch with everyone here!
  5. Ransom

    Various updates

    By Ransom,

    The One True Game: The best Rosetta Stone game anyone's come up with is Frogger. So I won't bother with getting Donkey Kong or any of the others for every system. I'll keep an eye out for Frogger, though. I think I'll just need it for Intellivision, Colecovision (if and when), and 5200.
     
    Randomness: I'm looking through my list of 450 or so games, and finding very few games that use randomization of enemies, treasures, powerups, etc. That's so strange.
    But of course many of my favorites do use it: Adventure, Star Raiders, AD&D . . .
     
    One of these days I'll put together a list of all my randomizing games.
  6. Ransom
    It's sometimes very costly to recover from mistakes of the past.
     
    Back when I was trying to keep the number of consoles to a bare minimum, I bought some games for some systems that I never should have. For example, Pitfall for the Intellivision. The game was designed for and works best on the 2600. I should never have wasted the money on the Intellivision version. Same goes for Coleco brand titles for the Intellivison and other systems -- they all look and work best on the Colecovision (which I plan to buy next year). The same can be said of the M network games that are just ports of Intellivison games to the 2600.
     
    So within the next year, I'll be cleaning up my collection by purchasing the original versions of some games like Pitfall, and getting rid of the ones I have for other systems.
     
    One exception I'm considering is to have a copy of Donkey Kong for every system for which it was produced. The only classic (pre-16-bit) system it never appeared on was the 5200. It appeals to me to have a "Rosetta stone" game for all my systems.
     
    Perhaps a better idea would be to choose a different title as my Rosetta stone game, though, since Coleco seems to have deliberately done a poor job on their ports to other systems.
     
    I do already have Defender for the 2600, 5200, and 8-bit. It's also available for the Intellivision and Colecovision. But not, apparently, for the NES.
     
    Hmm. Maybe this would be a good question to throw out to the Atari Age members: what's the best Rosetta Stone game for the classic systems?
  7. Ransom
    There are so many bad ports of games out there.
     
    Take Donkey Kong, Jr. on the A8. It's a pile of poop! The feel is wrong, the colors are wrong, things are squished up too much, and it's incredibly easy to accidentally walk off the side of a platform. It's virtually unplayable, and it's the reason I never liked the game all these years.
     
    Or take the same game on the CV. Again, the colors are wrong. And the sizes of objects is wrong. And the behavior of the beasties is wrong. But at least you don't fall from platforms quite so easily! It's playable, but not really worth the cost (dollars and storage space).
     
    The only good home implementations of this of which I'm aware are on the 7800 and NES. The 7800's has crummy sound, of course, but at least it looks and plays reasonably well. And my recent acquisition of the 7800 version gave me a chance to learn that I'd been wrong about this game all these years. It's actually quite fun.
     
    The NES port is near-perfect, naturally. Some day I'll pick up DK Classics for the NES.
     
    It's a shame that so many games were ported so poorly over the years. And it's shocking that Atarisoft did such a great job on so many platforms, but Atari did poorly on their own platforms! You look at the Atarisoft products for CV, Intellivision, TI 99/4a, and so on, and they're some of the finest games on those platforms. But back home on the A8? Piles o' poop!
     
    All of this is causing me to reevaluate my opinion of the various gaming platforms I own. I've always been fondest of the A8, because it's where I learned to program. But the fact is, Atari seems to have assigned some really poor programmers to the system, way back when. Or it didn't give them the resources they needed. Whatever. I have to admit that, when looked at without the rose colored glasses, the first-party A8 game library is decidedly a mixed bag.
     
    So perhaps the time will come when I go through and cull even my A8 collection. I don't know if I'll ever be able to bring myself to sell my original 400/800 large black box and large silver box games, despite liking most of those games more in their 5200 incarnations, though. It'll be a tough decision.
     
    I still love so many A8 disk-based games. But most of them were better implemented on the Apple ][. So when you get right down to it, the A8 has a few original games (like M.U.L.E.) that are worth keeping, and then a bunch of ports that are of varying quality.
     
    Being disillusioned on something I so fundamentally believed for so many years is disconcerting to say the least. But it's better to go forward with fewer illusions, and make my buying decisions more carefully than I did twenty or thirty years ago.
     
    When I got back into video gaming a few years ago (at which point the only classic systems I still had were the SNES, Jaguar, and A8, along with a large library of A8 software), the way I decided to go about it was to collect systems with little software overlap. I only have so much space, money, and time, so it was important to maximize the amount of fun I could get from each system. So A8, 2600, Intellivision, NES, SNES, Jaguar: logical. Lots of good games for each that never appeared on any other platform. 5200? 7800? Forget it. Very little original software. Not worth it.
     
    But it turns out that at least about the 5200 I was wrong. Many of the games on that console are significantly more pleasurable to play than on any other Atari platform, thanks to the linear tracking joysticks, the wonderful trak-ball controller, and the extra polishing many of the games ported from the A8 library received. Now, playing Centipede, Missile Command, or even Star Raiders on the A8 seems silly. Why limit yourself when you can play a much better version on the 5200?
     
    I'm withholding judgement on the 7800. Obviously it does have a few good games. But whether it's worth keeping around for those few is an open question. Next year I'll try to get Midnight Mutants, Scrapyard Dog, and Food Fight. Then we'll see.
     
    As for the ColecoVision, I still plan to get one next year. The overlap with other platforms is minimal, and where there is overlap, the first-party titles are clearly better on the CV. I'm thinking here of Venture, Lady Bug, and Zaxxon, in particular.
     
    Well, I've gone on long enough for now. Just trying to put my thoughts together. Time to sign off.
  8. Ransom

    Lynx

    By Ransom,

    I brought out the Lynx last night and played some games.
     
    I still enjoy the games I always have, but that's a small minority of the games I own for it. Most of them are not to my taste. I do like Battlewheels, S.T.U.N. Runner, and the classics (Robotron, Asteroids/Missile Command, etc.).
     
    So I'm still undecided as to what to do with this system. Maybe I'll unload a bunch of the games at some point.
     
    The more I think about it, the more appealing it sounds to clear out the games I dislike from all the various systems, but keep all the systems.
     
    But what to do with the games? I hate selling things online, because I have no time to make trips to the post office. And packaging is going to cost me an arm and a leg.
     
    We'll see...
  9. Ransom
    Next year, I plan to buy a Colecovision and perhaps a dozen or so games. There are also a couple of dozen games I'd like to buy for the rest of my consoles next year.
     
    But my game closet is nearly out of room. Yes, the game closet I just reorganized this year, adding 16' of new shelving to it!
     
    The easy thing to do would be to get rid of the Lynx and games. I find it uncomfortable to play. And I have all the boxes, so I could just store it all in the basement for some other time. But it feels wrong to store away an entire system and all its games. If I'm going to do that, then should I even bother keeping it?
     
    Another option would be to go through my entire game collection for all systems and pull out the ones that just don't belong. I did that with a few earlier this year, getting rid of titles like Video Checkers and Video Chess. I'm never going to play those games.
     
    There are quite a few other games that I have no real use for. Star Raiders for the 2600, Pac-Man for the 5200, and even Missile Command for the Atari 8-bit are superceded by versions for other systems. I'll probably never play them again. I could probably come up with another 10 or 20 games that I'll never play for one reason or another.
     
    But, again, I really hate getting rid of anything. What I'll probably end up doing is going through the games with my wife and then getting rid of the ones that are simply no fun at all to us, like Star Raiders for the 2600.
     
    I'd also like to undo some mistakes I made last year, buying a few specific games for the wrong platform. I have no idea why I bought Pitfall for the Intellivison, when I don't have it for the VCS. And I will probably get rid of the Coleco brand games for the Intellivison once I have a Colecovision.
     
    Still, I'll probably agonize over this for the next eight months. It's so painful, once you have a game, to get rid of it.
  10. Ransom
    I remember liking the Atari 5200 just fine the first time around (1982), but this time, I've really been enjoying each and every game I bought for it.
     
    Of course, it was expensive to get the Best Electronics Gold controllers, the trak-ball, and the testing equipment to make sure everything was as good as it could be.
     
    It was also a help that I made sure to buy games that benefited from the controllers. (Plus a few that were never released for the Atari 8-bit computer.)
     
    For example, playing Pole Position on the 5200 is a much better experience than doing so on any other Atari platform. The control is much finer, and having two buttons available is nice.
     
    And playing Missile Command and Centipede with a real trak-ball is just fantastic. A totally different experience!
     
    As I've mentioned before, Star Raiders is also extra nice on the 5200 (and not just because of the minor bug-fixes).
     
    I'm as happy with the 5200 as I've ever been with a classic console. And that surprises me, because I'd avoided it all these years, thinking that my extensive A8 collection obviated the necessity for a 5200. That's not true at all!
     
    You just have to choose your games wisely, and it complements the A8 very well indeed.
  11. Ransom
    This winter, I picked up a Genesis, an Atari 5200, and an Atari 7800. Here's what I learned:
     
    Sega Genesis: Genesis is a very nice game system, even better than I remembered from '89. The arcade style controllers rock, and there are a lot of really good games for it. Oh, and right now, they're all pretty inexpensive -- and it's not hard to find them CIB. Since the boxes are hard plastic, most of the time they're in good shape. And no console modding is needed - all versions do composite out with just the addition of the proper (proprietary) video cable. So, overall, this is a great system at a great price.
     
    Atari 5200: This system is also very nice, just as I remembered from 1982. With Best Electronics' Gold controllers and a trak-ball, plus a well-chosen selection of games, the console really shines. I stuck to games that either benefit from the analog sticks, work well with the trak-ball, or require two or more buttons. All of them work just great. I have absolutely no complaints about the controllers. To the contrary, for these games they're a very nice upgrade from the Atari 8-bit's one-button controller + keyboard. However, the 5200 is an expensive hobby. One can easily spend hundreds of dollars just getting a decent console, 2 good controllers, a trak-ball, and some games. And then there's the tweaking that's necessary to get the controllers just right. But, in my opinion, it's worth the expense and tinkering. I have an absolutely beautiful 2-port console that works wonderfully and gives me uniquely great gaming fun. (And, yes, as others have said, Adventure II alone makes the system worthwhile; but I'd add that the 5200 version of Star Raiders almost achieves that as well.)
     
    Atari 7800: I had one of these in the early 90s. I bought it at a flea market, and bought some games for it. At the time, I thought it was a system with OK games, good graphics, lousy sound, crappy controllers, and a stupidly tight cartridge port. This time around, I bought some of the 7800 game pads and many games for it, but my opinion hasn't changed. Maybe I'm just not finding the right games, but so far this system seems to lack a reason for being. I already have an extensive collection of Atari 8-bit and VCS games, plus a decent collection of 5200 games. This system's only killer app as far as I can see is that it has a couple of decent coop games (Asteroids and Centipede). Beyond that, it seems like a waste of time and money. But now that I have the system, I'll keep it on hand and see if I come across a good game or two for it.
  12. Ransom

    Restoration

    By Ransom,

    I'm sending off my remaining loose carts to Albert today -- eleven VCS carts and two 5200 carts. I hope he's able to turn them into something good! I'd really like to buy about half a dozen games listed in the Atari Age store, but they're all currently out of stock.
     
    Anyway, as I was packing those loose carts for shipping, taping up the box really nice, I was thinking about how much I enjoy restoring old video game stuff. Not just the hardware -- although I do enjoy that quite a bit -- but also the cartridge boxes.
     
    Yeah, I know -- weird, huh?
     
    Sure, I love getting a mint condition box. Or, better yet, an unopened mint condition box. I recently got sixteen of them for the 5200 from Best, and a dozen of them for the 7800 from O'Shea's. (Carefully) opening those old cartridge boxes was great! And they look fantastic on the shelf.
     
    But I also like taking an old cartridge box that's been worn down through use and making it look and work a lot better. For example, if a box flap has been ripped, I'll cut a piece of paper to fit on the inside of the flap, coat the paper with a few passes of a glue stick, and then carefully position the two ripped sides so that once the reinforcing paper is in place, the rip's appearance is minimal from the outside.
     
    Similarly, torn box corners can be repaired. Or even the cartridge holding part inside the box.
     
    Some of my boxes seem to be about half paper and glue! But they look much better on the shelf, and it makes me feel really good to take what to many people might be only fodder for a landfill and restore it to the point that it's useful again. Old cartridge boxes need love, too!
     
    It would be hard for me to decide which part of this hobby I enjoy more -- restoring old hardware and packaging, or playing the games.
  13. Ransom
    Looks like I'll definitely be getting rid of some 2600 carts, thanks to Mirage1972. And over the next year, we'll go through the 400+ games in the closet one by one, play them, and decide whether to keep each one.
     
    But what I really need to do is decide what to do with the stuff in the basement. It's really wasteful to have all that stuff down there. So much of it is Atari 8-bit stuff (hardware and software). Do I really need an XEGM? A MIB XMM801? I mean, can you even get ribbons for those things any more? And even if you could, when am I ever going to print from an Atari again?
     
    Honestly, if I could have any printer for the Atari 8-bit, it would be the 1027 -- if it was somehow magically blessed to work flawlessly forever. Those are just neat printers, and I miss my old one. Too bad the print heads eventually fall apart. And good luck getting replacement ones for them!
     
    I do have the NIB Okimate 10 and a ton of ribbons for it. Since it's a thermal-based system, it should theoretically last indefinitely. I should take it out sometime and test it. If it works well enough, then I should get rid of the rest of the printers. Get them in the hands of people who can actually use them -- or at least appreciate them.
     
    I think having an 800XL, a 1200XL, and a 130XE is plenty in terms of computers. Actually, I should trade that boxed 130XE for a boxed 800XL some day. I really prefer the XL series, so why mess around with the XE stuff? And although the 1200XL is my favorite computer of all time -- and has my favorite keyboard of all time -- the 800XL is best for playing games. It's much easier to insert and remove cartridges from that one than the XE's or the 1200XL.
     
    But what of the boxed 830 acoustic coupler modem I have? And all that other 8-bit hardware? I really should get rid of it all. Maybe keep a few spare disk drives and the Okimate printer. That's all I really need, even if I went nuts and started programming on the 8-bit again: a computer, two disk drives, and a printer. Well, and one of those USB carts or some other way to transfer data to another computer so I could share it on the Internet.
     
    As for software, do I really need all my mint copies of those languages like Pilot and Logo, or the Home Finance set, and so on? I can't see myself going back to the Home Filing Manager for keeping our recipes straight, or using Atari Writer for my next letter to my congress critter.
     
    Sadly, the Atari 8-bit has basically become just another game machine for me. Too bad, because it was so much more to me for so many years. I wrote my first short story, my first program, and my first assembly language program on it. So many firsts for one computer!
     
    At least I can be proud that as late as 1996, I had a complete collection of XL-era hardware and software, all out, plugged in, and ready for use -- and used daily. I went on the Internet (using Flickerterm-80, the 850 interface, a 14.4Kbps modem, and a shell account at a local ISP) for many years with my 1200XL.
     
    But those days are gone...
  14. Ransom

    A busy 5200 day!

    By Ransom,

    I got lots done with the 5200, and played some games as well!
     
    The biggest deal to me was figuring out how to separate the shaft from the ball bearing in the idle assembly of my second-hand 5200 trak-ball. I don't have proper equipment for that, but I know you need some way to carefully and forcefully press the shaft out of the ball bearing (and to put it into another one), all without "mushrooming" the bearing. One morning, it came to me: a drill press vice and a piece of wood with a hole in it large enough to fit the shaft! So I bought the drill press vice (less than $18 at Home Depot, tax included), drilled a hole in a small piece of scrap wood, put one side of the shaft in the hole, and slowly closed the vice. It worked lickety split! Then I tried putting it back together using the same method, and had no problem. Woo hoo! So I'll be ordering 5 ball bearings from Best for $15, and I'll be able to get that second trak-ball running great...and then keep it running.
     
    Next up was the regular 5200 controllers. I'd gotten 2 of the "gold" controllers from Best, but I wanted to get as many of my other four working as possible. So I'd ordered a couple of rev 9 flex circuits and four fire buttons. Using those, I was able to get two working with no problem. Then, recombining parts that were left over, I got one more going. So I have 5 5200 controllers that work! Two should work indefinitely, and the other three can be kept working through cleaning and perhaps buying a few parts. Yee ha!
     
    So now I have a 5200 box in the basement with a working and complete 5200, three controllers in individual zip-loc bags, and a power supply. Soon my second-hand trak-ball may join them, since it seems like you don't really need two of them.
     
    On the 7800 front, I tried out the euro-style gamepad, and that does wonders for game play versus the regular controller. I was having a lot more fun playing Choplifter! and Centipede than I had with the old "Best" pro controller that I had left over from the last time I had a 7800. So I'll be getting another one of those from Best soon, so my wife and I can play Asteroids and Centipede in coop mode.
     
    After all that, I spent some time cleaning up my various messes. The library, where we have our game systems, had its floor almost covered with video games, controllers, consoles, and various bits, pieces, and detritus. Now there are only a few things remaining in there -- the trak-ball I'm fixing, a model 1 genesis that turned out not to be able to play Budokan, the trak-ball box, and a few odds and ends I have yet to find a place for.
     
    So there's still work to do, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, when we'll have everything working, and we'll have tons of games to play together.
     
    Next year: ColecoVision.
  15. Ransom
    I recombined the two broken 5200's into one good one. One had a good motherboard, bottom case, and storage compartment lid (and a smashed case top), while the other had a nice case top but a bad motherboard and missing lid. So I took 'em both apart, cleaned everything up, and then assembled the good stuff into a pretty nice looking console. Since I already had another good one (that I polished up nicely with Novus scratch remover and polish), that makes two -- one to use, and one to store in the big ol' 5200 box "just in case."
     
    The stuff from Best made it to the post office yesterday. They attempted delivery, but since it was insured and no one was home to receive it, they just left a notice. I should be able to pick it all up today. Then, I'll be able to fix up a couple of controllers to store with the spare 5200. And I'll have two brand new gold controllers and a brand new trak-ball. Plus a dozen or so games and some other misc. stuff. Woo hoo!
     
    The conundrum I'm having right now is how to fix the idle wheel in the other trak-ball I own. I can either spend $32 and get an all new set of bearings, shafts, and encoder wheels from Best, or I can spend $12 and just get the ball bearings. But if I do the latter, then I have to find some way to get the shaft out of the existing ball bearing for the idle wheel, then get that axle into the new one. I don't have a press, so I'll have to improvise.
     
    I'm thinking that taking a piece of wood and drilling a hole slightly larger than the shaft would allow me to use a vice to press the shaft out.
     
    It's not that I'm cheap; it's just that I hate 1) to throw things away that are still perfectly good (like the shaft), and 2) storing stuff that I will probably lose track of or never use.
     
    Which reminds me; I have to gather together all my extra stuff and offer it up here on Atari Age. I have a bunch of CIB carts (some still sealed) that are dupelicates, plus other misc. stuff someone else might find useful. It's hard to pursue this hobby without ending up with slightly more stuff than you can use!
     
    Oh, and I'm running out of shelf space for games again. I'm going to have to think long and hard about whether I really want to keep the not-really-fun games such as "Street Racer" any more. There's room to put them in a second row behind the other carts, but I really don't want to do that. It seems wasteful to hold onto something I know I'll never use or get any enjoyment out of, when there might be someone out there who has a real need for it.
     
    My wife and I are going through all the games for all our systems, one by one, playing them. She's never played most of them, having started gaming in the NES era. So perhaps I'll leave it up to her as to what should be done with the games I consider not fun.
  16. Ransom
    My el-cheapo 5200 trak-ball arrived last night (with bonus 5200, power pack, and controller -- all to be used for parts).
     
    I plugged the trak-ball in and....it worked! Well, the buttons all work great, including the keypad and Start|Pause|Reset. The ball did sense all four directions, but it moved very roughly.
     
    So I opened the case and cleaned off the bearings and the ball itself. The corner bearing was the worst of the lot, with rust and crud galore. I cleaned it up, and it does spin very nicely now, but it's still got a rough surface so that's still causing occasional problems. I may replace it once I've cleaned up the rest of the unit and made sure everything else is in good order.
     
    Still, it was very nice to play Centipede with true trak-ball motion last night!
  17. Ransom
    Ran into a little road bump.
     
    It seems the late model Genesis 1s, all Genesis 2's and all Genesis 3's are incompatible with many of EA's early releases. Including one of my favorites, and one of my biggest reasons for owing a Genesis -- Budokan. So now that I have two working Genesis 2's, I have to go hunting for an early model Genesis 1. Oh, and an A/V cable since they have a different port. D'oh!
     
    On the 5200 front, I placed an order with Best Electronics. I included a lot of cartridges in the order, but Brad said he'll only send a title if he has one that looks good. I emphasized to him that I'm not demanding perfect, mint-condition items; I just don't want a box that's so damaged it won't stand on the shelf. So hopefully I'll get some shelf-worthy carts...and a lot of them.
     
    Also picked up a couple of gold 5200 controllers, plus a new 5200 trak-ball. Hopefully it'll all be here by the end of the week, but as usual for this time of year, Brad and his crew are working overtime seven days a week to keep up with orders, so who knows when they'll be able to get to it?
     
    At least I know they always pack everything really well. That's such a hassle with eBay and even a lot of retail places -- getting them to understand that packing something so that it doesn't get ruined in transit is actually a basic part of their job! I've even gotten clothes delivered to me from a high-end clothing retailer that have been grease stained because the plastic bag they were shipped in was ripped open in transit. What a crock!
     
    On the 7800 front, it's been shipped as of yesterday -- nine days after I paid for it. Something about my payment getting lost. Whatever.
     
    On a more upbeat note, I'm really, really pleased with the 5200 console I bought from a charity. The thing is just really great looking, and came in the box with all accessories and even several boxed games. I was able to use the eraser trick to get the two controllers working, and it's been a real pleasure to play. I bought some of the Novus plastic polish and scratch removers, and I plan to go over it carefully and repeatedly, until it looks as close to new as I can get it. Just for the pleasure of doing it.
     
    Restoration is a big part of what I enjoy about this hobby. I love taking something that looks sad and worn, putting some time into it, and ending up with something that looks and works great.
  18. Ransom

    Almost done!

    By Ransom,

    Looks like ColecoVision is about all that's left now.
     
    My collection as it stands is:
     
    Atari 8-bit Computers and 130 games
    Atari 2600 and 88 games
    Mattel Intellivision and 58 games
    Atari Lynx and 54 games
    Sony Playstation 2 and 19 games
    Atari 7800 and 16 games
    Atari 5200 and 14 games
    Atari Jaguar and 14 games
    NEC Turbografx-16 and 14 games
    Sega Genesis and 12 games
    Nintendo Entertainment System and 11 games
    Nintendo Super NES and 8 games
     
    (Nearly all the games are CIB. There are exceptions, but they're mostly home brews and pack-ins. The biggest exception consists of about half the Lynx carts, which came packed in with Lynx consoles I bought for $60 in the closeout days. Yes, I bought a lot of Lynx's back then.)
     
    My current want list holds a few games each for several of the systems above. And, of course, the ColecoVision and some dozen and a half games for it.
     
    But this is a seasonal hobby for me, and spring is near. It's about time to hang up my controllers and head out to the amusement parks. But when I come back to this in November, I'll be able to enjoy all I've added this year, including the 5200, 7800, and Genesis, as well as a few games for the 2600, NES, and SNES.
     
    Next year, I will hopefully get the ColecoVision system and games, plus a few more games for the other systems. Then I'll be able to take the collecting much more slowly. It's been a busy and costly three years, and I've put a lot of time into building this collection and getting it all set up so I can play any system at any time with no more trouble than flicking a couple of switches. And it's been tough sticking to my goal of only buying the games I know I like. But I'm almost there now.
     
    Just one more year...
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