AussieAtari

This was a tough one, I went for Galaga because, at the time, I thought it was closest to the arcade version. Joust, Ms PacMan and Motor Psycho are my runner ups.

2600 - River Raid 7800 - Joust Lynx - Klax Colecovision - Lady Bug Intellivision - Burgertime Nes - Super Mario Bros 3 SNES - Super Mario Kart N64 - Goldeneye (although Perfect Dark is giving it a nudge) GBC - Colour Bomberman GBA SP - Metal Slug Advance DS - New Super Mario Bros SMS - Alex Kidd Mega Drive - nothing much Game Gear - Super Columns Saturn - Rayman Dreamcast - Worms Armaggedon Mame - Galaga & Elevator Action TI99/4A - Parsec C64 - Impossible Mission Vic 20 - Video Vermin Apple II - Hitchikers Guide To The Galaxy Amiga - Too many great games but not one that really sticks out ST - Same as for the Amiga PC - Sim City & Half Life

Check out www.llamasoft.co.uk

I'm with Kencrisis and I love watching friends who come over, see the Atari, beg for a game and then end up doing the "wave the joystick all over the place because it really makes a difference to what is happening on the screen" dance. Great fun and judging by the reaction of everyone who comes over and plays the older consoles, there is no great age barrier.

I went with Llamatron as I love all Llama games, Battle of Britain is a close second for me.

There is also a song out now that has a River Raid sample in it, when you fly over the fuel dumps, I cannot remember the name so will try to find out this weekend unless someone else knows.

Thre is also a song out now that has a River Raid sample in it, when you fly over the fuel dumps, I cannot remember the name so will try to find out this weekend unless someone else knows.

They may not mention Atari, but you have to include "Space Invaders" by Player One.

Ballblazer - sorry guys but baseball may be a great game but it is not a big sport here in Oz.

The MS stock buy is an example of great lateral thinking! I'd also go back about six years to when Game Traders and the like were almost giving "retro" consoles away with heaps of games. Cheaper than going back to the original release dates. And back to the mid-80's when I got out of selling video games, consoles and home computers and pretty much gave everything away (and there was HEAPS of stuff, a lot of it in prefect condition and rare now), all because I thought a 286 with 64Kb of memory, DOS, CGA and a 20MB HDD was IT - what was I thinking!!! Oh, and I'd go back 9 days and smack the bloke who sold me the fake memory stick in China (and kick myself for thinking "wow, what a bargain - D'oh!). I also totally agree with rescuing the Dr. Who tapes.

I'd have to agree with liveinabin, DS Bust A Move is excellent and a great two player game. We are hooked on Brain Age in our house, although I regressed 20 years last night I would recommend it. Tetris is also a fantastic 2 player DS game. I prefer the heavier DS for games that use all of the buttons, like Resident Evil, it feels more comfortable in my hands without the sharper edges of the Lite.

Spy Hunter, beats Hitchikers due to graphics, sound and the ability for a "quick fix". Hitchikers is bloody funny though.

This is starting to sound like a "conspiracy" thread, but if what you say is right, then silence is definitely golden .

Gee, where do you guys find all of the room? That is my biggest constraint (oh yeah, that and money, and maybe the wife). My list is as per below. I am wanting to add another Colecovision, Intellivision II and Spectrum + along with a Vectrex, 5200 and Apple II to my collection and that should be about it. SteveW - 6 TI99/4A's - I LOVE your style .

Seriously: Dreamcast - although am pretty much maxed out at 180 games Intellivision TI 99/4A Colecovision Sega Mega Drive N64 As opportunity presents as per Wester's reply: C64 Spectrum NES SNES Master System Game Gear And now DS and GBA new as we are getting back into hand helds in my household at the moment. Loved the photo Atariboy2600.

I would love a full speed Dreamcast emulator that would play original (or rips of original) CD Roms, so I can preserve my console as all of the talk about how fragile the DC is has got me worried.

I do agree with NE146 and use my GBA SP for playing GB/GBC carts (my GBC is now living on the shelf unloved) but am having a great time playing ColecoVision games mobile on my GBA SP.

Just for interest, I was in Hong Kong buying games & a Lite last week and there were still plenty of people buying GBASP's (and not that many buying PSPs). I picked up the latest Super SD Flash Cart with a 1Gb mini SD card for HK$840 (AUS$128) which works great in the DS and can fit probably the entire catalogue of GB/GBC roms. The GBA emulator I saw it being demonstrated with was running at full speed on the DS with no visible lag or stutter.

I just bought a DS Lite in Hong Kong where the shops are so set up for selling the units to customers from countries other than Japan that they have replacement power adaptors in boxes almost identical to the Nintendo boxes. The unit is great and the screen is brighter when compared to my standard DS although I find the older DS better to use with games such as Resident Evil as the heavier feel and lack of lip around the edges seems to make the older unti better for games that use a lot of the buttons. I also picked up some of the gamaes you are enjoying in the US that are yet to be released here, such as Super Mario Bros., and am loving it!

Well, I’m back from Hong Kong and China and have the following update in terms of shopping for games and hardware. Needless to say I had a great time and ended up having to buy another suitcase to lug all of my new loot home! The main hardware and software shopping in Hong Kong is in Sham Shui Po, located some five miles inland from downtown Kowloon. Everything is basically situated inside one large building, the "Golden Shopping Mall", take exit “D” form the MTR at Sham Shui Po station and as you come up the stairs the building is on the directly opposite corner. Inside the building are two floors crammed with rows of stores selling pretty much everything PC or console/hand-held related. The gaming area is reasonably concentrated at the front (as you walk in form the station) and along the left side row of the first floor. There is everything there from pretty much every game and accessory for the current consoles, great packages of consoles/hand helds and games and a good selection of second hand games and hardware. When I was there (May 2006) I bought a Japan-only release DS Lite with accessories, months before it is due to be released in Australia, some Nintendo US games not yet released in Oz and bargain accessories (try AUD$5 for a leather DS Lite case), genuine and 3rd party. Pirate software (and loaded mini SD cards for the DS) were literally just below the counter with photocopied lists of games on counter tops that showed what was available if you knew to ask. All prices were very cheap and the latest technology was on offer already at prices equal to or better than current, I purchased a 1Gb mini-SD card for less than the current retail of a 512Mb SD card. Apart from second-hand games for current consoles and hand helds, there were N64, Saturn, Dreamcast, Wonder Swan, GB Colour and other units widely available along with controllers, light guns etc. I picked up a genuine Arcade Stick for the Dreamcast for AUD$21, a bargain for a pretty rare item in Australia that often goes for well over AUD$50 on eBay. Closer to central Kowloon, there are several second-hand game and hardware dealers in small arcades in Whampoa where I found top condition Neo Geo consoles for less than HK$1,000 which is a bargain, plus lots of Game Boy and SNES Multi Carts along with clone Super Famicons and other dubious delights. A couple of stores had brand new Dreamcast consoles still in original shrink wrapping and bargains could be had for all sorts of things. I also found pirate Game Boy games and Multi-Carts in the famous Temple Street night market. I picked up two Multi-Carts which listed heaps of GBA games on one cartridge, an ambitious claim that proved incorrect as the carts were full of arcade ports and SNES games. All worked though and were terrific value at less than HK$100 each. I then headed further inland to Shenzen, just over the Honk Kong / China border (you’ll need a Chinese Visa) to the famous Lo Wu Commercial Centre which is a huge 5-story shopping arcade crammed with little stores selling every consumer good and clothing imaginable. If you can stand the “touts” hassling you selling fake Rolex, Gucci, latest release pirate DVDs etc, you can find heaps of Famicon Clones, multi carts and pirate PS 2, PSP, GBA and DS games. Mind you, you can buy most of the games on offer second hand at the same price in Hong Kong and genuine. Whilst it was fun to browse and see what you could get (including watching pirate goods being delivered to stores out of the ceiling!) I did not buy anything there as there was simply no benefit over the genuine article, either second hand or new from Hong Kong. To sum up, games shopping in Hong Kong and China is lots of fun, even my wife (DS player) loved it and we left with too many games and pieces of hardware, all of which work great and are complete. So if you have the chance, go for it and I hope this little guide helps.

Count me in.

VCS2600 for Space Invaders, back then it was a huge deal and until Ms Pac Man and River Raid came out I did not buy another game. Colecovision for Donkey Kong - I actually bought the console with the pack-in game for my sister's birthday with the "if you don't like it, I know someone who does" line. She kept it, I ended up buying another one for myself and she still has it in mint condition in the perfect box and won't sell/give it to me even though my Coleco is in a bad way with semi-stuffed controllers and pretty battered. Game Gear for columns - the Game Boy never grabbed me but I could not resist the colour and game play of Columns - pity about the battery life! Dreamcast for Resident Evil – Code: Veronica, I had not seen a RE game before and this one really bowled me over, now I have over 100 DC games.

Sometimes the stories are as bad as the pictures taken at just the right angle to hide box damage, marks etc, but at least the stories are superfluous to the item.

I’m off to Hong Kong later this week and am planning to pick up a Flash Card for my GBA whilst I am there so I can play Colecovision games on the move. Does anyone have any recommendations/warnings regarding the best/worst cards?

Thanks for all of the responses, especially Zero for the great links. My DC is PAL with a "1" in the circle and I can now confirm it does play CD-R's as I have been given a copy of a NES emulator which works just fine. Cheers.