AussieAtari

Well, I can scratch one item off my wish list - I was successful on bidding for a Vectrex with three games and overalys last night. I'm one happy camper!

A fully working CV is a wonderful thing, mine is the same as SteveW's with the pushing the reset to get things going. I'm always on the lookout for another as a spare and think AUD$20 is about the maximum to pay without games. As for the disk drive, anything ADAM is a worthy collectable to a computer collector, the stuff is pretty rare as it just didn't seem to last all that well.

Realistic - Mint Vectrex, bidding every time one comes up but they are getting so crazily expensive. Ultimate wish - Dr. Who pinball machine, oh baby! I met a guy yesterday who pretty much has his list nailed, single guy with a HUGE shed set up as his own personal gaming and computer museum. Check it out - http://computermuseum.bigpondhosting.com/ All I could say was that his is one lucky bastard!!!!

A bit of an odd selection as they are so different. Ballblazer is excellent and got my vote. I just don't have the time to get back into games like Kings Quest anymore (and if I did, I'd go for Space Quest).

My guess is that with all of the "retro" compilations available for the latest hardware in Japan, and their love of new technology, retro gaming is alive and very well in Japan, just slightly in a different format - more software based than hardware. The magazine is called Retro Gamer and you can get subscriptions to the USA and Canada. The retro scene in Australia is interesting, pretty much everyone had a console and computer in their house (we are a nation of early adopters) and yet not much is available second hand. Either heaps was simply thrown away or is being hoarded and waiting to be unearthed. I hope it is the latter. Prices on eBay.com.au certainly are heading to the sky indicating that the retro collecting scene here is happening. There are active user groups for a lot of the 8 bit computers in Oz and we were spoilt for choice as we had the whole range of UK and USA products, plus some interesting domestic units (Microbee and Dick Smith computers) and Australia and Japan only released units (Sega SC-3000). Retro Gamer is a good magazine and it would be great if it expanded into the games as suggested (strategy, maps etc) or another magazine picked up that task for the retro games.

The junior is a very handy 2600, it's the one that comes out in our living room due to it's size. It's like they are the forgotten 2600 (or maybe just too new) as they are almost given away. I got mine as a "throw in" with a ProLine controller! Would there be enough memory for Impossible Mission?

Have a look on eBay.com.au, some guy has been selling NIB Neo Geo consoles. He had 6 listed last week, some PAL some NTSC.

Hear, hear for the Colecovision. Great to have a contributing writer on the forum, it would be great to see a Vectrex review. I'm already looking forward to your N64 review, although that will get to Oz in about 6 months

Gameport Sidewinder or USB Logitech. The Sidewinder is great for the old MAME games, bullet proof, good weight and accurate.

They do seem to be getting back into the hardware reviews but not to the extent of the "old" mag, I think it is still the best magazine for the retro collector/gamer but things like their ever-repeated market place seem to simply be page filler. Hopefully they will get back into the hardware side of things more as I for one would like to see more articles on the less common 8 and 16 bit home computers and accessories.

Hasn't anyone watched someone playing a driving game with a standard controller? They tend to lean right over when turning corners and jump up and down if there are jumps involved. My wife makes Pole Position into an aerobics exercise the way she plays it! Just as long as the orange thing isn't open at the bottom and the guy is hoping that she will reach in to get the last of the popcorn and find the teenager version of a Kinder Surprise

Sooooo close - I was after my grail last week (mint Vectrex) on eBay Australia and thought I had a good shot but the unit ended up going for over AUD$200! All of a sudden Vectrex's are "extremely rare" and bloody expensive. I'll just have to wait a week or two for another "extremely rare" unit to come up and maybe lower my quality expectations.

"Under the counter" Atari games - gee that almost sounds dirty

I'm not having any luck finding a store on the web who will ship a Flashback 2 to Oz, does anyone here know of any store (with a web shopping site) that will?

It''s no secret I'm a HUGE fan of Klax on the Lynx. I play Donkey Kong on my CV.

A local update for you guys, this from one of our major daily newspapers (www.TheAge.com.au): Screen PlayMonday, July 17, 2006 House of fun no more? The future of one of Australia's oldest and best-known development studios looks grim as its troubled parent company continues to offload its assets. Atari is battling hard to remain solvent, last week selling the Reflections studio and its Driver franchise, one of Atari's most successful properties, to rival publisher Ubisoft. Atari has been searching for a buyer for development studio Melbourne House for at least six months after defaulting on loan payments and having its line of credit withdrawn. Atari's net losses in the last financial year were US$69 million. Melbourne House, originally known as Beam Software, is almost as old as the games industry itself and has produced over 160 games since 1980.

Long live the DC and all those who love them! I'll have to have a look tonight to see if the Oz release DC has the modem inbuilt, although from memory I don't think it does. What are the favourite light gun games and the best gun? I have the Mad Catz gun and it is okay but not brilliant. My local Game Traders has another gun with a D pad on the side and I was curious to know what it was and if it is better?

I am totally with NovaExpress and IPB on this one. United the grammar pedants of the world can stand the slings and arrows fired by those who prefer to dwell in the mediocrity of poor language, and dodge the verbal and physical abuse of those who cannot stand to be corrected on their grammatical shortcomings all of the time (such as my kids and wife ) We don't have barns per se in Oz, but the venerable garden shed often proves to be a trove of treasures to the collector. Only recently I have been the recipient of a Master System and 2600 Woody, both with games and donated to my cause by co-workers who found them in the shed.

I just picked up an arcade stick for my Mega-Drive so I will be joining in on this kick very soon and going back through the titles. I am looking forward to getting into some Super Hang On and Sonic soon. I'm going through an exercise of converting as many of my systems as possible to composite A/V and after the comment on the A/V cable will have a look into converting one of my Mega-Drive consoles. Any info on this would be appreciated.

Space Invaders when it first came out as it was the pack-in and I could not afford to buy another for a while, then Asteroids and then River Raid and a heap of others as I went from school to working in a computer/Video game shop - which was the greatest job at the time. (since when is 16 "little"?)

The best of them all - Klax - doesn't qualify?

Jazz Jackrabbit - now there's a game I had not heard of for a while, great choice! I also wholeheartedly agree with Outrun and Doom, both of which would look great on the Lynx.

Wico bat stick.

N64 replacement stick inserts are often listed on eBay.com.au.

Thanks for all of the replies regarding the video cable, I think I have a Din to 3 RCA plug cable buried somewhere, I'll dig it out and give it a go otherwise I'll build one as per the link from Jaybird3rd. Thanks guys.