AussieAtari

This is getting really exciting, still no realease date yet? I was thinking of getting a Game Cube as they are on clearance around here but given all of the features of the Revolution, I might be best to hold off and simply get the new unit. The Revolution plays Game Cube games right?

We don't watch TV in my house at all (although I think the wife and kid sneak viewing when I'm not at home) so pretty much all "viewing" (apart from DVDs) is gaming. Arcade and handhelds (Lynx, GameBoy SP and DS) are getting the most attention at the moment.

I'd go for Monaco Grand Prix and Mario Kart 64.

My vote is for Klax, everyone who picks up one of my Lynx units gets drawn into Klax no matter what age or gender (which perhaps shows why Tetris was such a good move as the GameBoy pack in). The perfect combination would be Klax and Californian Games, one for a quick fix and the other to keep battery companies in business.

In the '70's Space Invaders - it was amazing at the time, arcades were still big and you could have THE game in your lounge room (There was even a song about the game that made it into the top 10 in Oz). In the early '80's (before I got into computers and left consoles for a while) River Raid & Lady Bug. Now I play heaps of different games but Galaxian and Xevious are the ones I play the most. Tonight though, I'm going to have to dig out Adventure and see what the fuss is all about!

That's really tough, for me it's the N64 because 4 player Golden Eye is hard to beat and having all of the players in the same room beats over the web any day. For 8-bit I have to go for the CV with the VCS adaptor, I still love and play that system today.

I'm heading over to Hong Kong and Shenzhen soon and would like to know if you can still get classic game carts and/or consoles (including clones)? Any recommendations or warnings?

I'm heading over to Hong Kong soon and would like to know if there are any recommendations for places to buy GBA/DS games and flash carts? I'll be spending two days in Shenzhen as well, purely to shop.

The Neverhood was a GREAT game which I never had the chance to finish. Thanks for the great news, I'll definitely be dropping by the Underdogs tonight to get re-acquainted with the game. I see late nights ahead Now all I have to find is a site to get a download of Monkey Island from and my old adventure collection will be almost complete.

This thread should perhaps be merged with the "FB3....." thread in the consoles forum. Curt has posted some interesting news in that he has what seems to be most of the Atari IP and Infogrames/Atari have little more than the name and game code rights. Now - if the Atari name ends up sitting on some administrator's shelf, all that has to happen is for someone to bank-roll Curt and we could yet see the FB3 (PAL version the same time as NTSC please as it looks like we in Oz will never get to sample the FB2 - Boo Hoo!!).

AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH, I pray that they are not so bad off that we will never see a PAL version!!!!! Flashback 1 sold reasonably well here (although now it is a clearance item everywhere) and if Flashback 2 is so much better then it should go down really well. Most of the DTV units are selling very well so the "real" thing should also do so.

I'd have to agree with the comments about the Megadrive (Genesis) always being beaten up, I have yet to find one in nice condition. They always seem to be really scratched and the fake chrome "16-Bit" is rubbed back to the plastic. It makes them look pretty poor against the old Woody units that almost always come up a treat. Maybe Sega-philes get carried away with all of their kung-fu fighting games and take their frustrations out on their consoles? The worst item I picked up was a Co-Co unit and game carts in a box, everything was filthy, covered in dust, full of hair and the actual unit has cigarette burns and stains in the plastic that I cannot get rid of even after trying out all sorts of things. The unit was so dirty most of the keys would not return and I had to take the keyboard totally apart and clean each key with soapy water and a toothbrush.

Marriage, house renovations, kids etc put my gaming, both on computers and consoles, on hold for a couple of years as it was considered a pretty solitary, almost selfish pursuit. Then my daughter from a previous marriage came to visit with her DS and my wife got hooked. Now we are planning our games room, building a MAME cocktail cabinet and she plays games more than me. We are looking forward to the kids getting older and all of us sitting around the N64 with Goldeneye.

Sim Tower is a great game and may work running under Win95 compatibility setting in XP. I found that getting my favourite Win95 games to run without any problems in XP such a pain that I dug out an old PIII box (bought for about $10 at a garage sale) with Win95 on it and use that as a dedicated old (but not quite retro) games box. Sim Tower, Rise of the Triad, Wolfenstein, Leisure Suite Larry, Space Quest, Redneck Rampage - the list goes on and on.

At least the Apple ][ was expandable, there was quite a home hardware scene here in Australia were you could source memory expansion and better quality video cards really cheap. Wasn't the Apple BASIC by Microsoft?! It was a great pity that Commodore rushed thier products out and did not take advantage of offering backwards compatibility, actual peripheral performance improvements etc, who knows, if they did they still might be around today and be the biggest. I think I'll log onto eBay and try to track down a ][C and see if my positive view of the Apple is valid or through rose coloured glasses.

I've got to throw a vote in for the TI99/4A, 16 bit graphics and more sprites. Another example of something with lots of potential that simply did not get the support base to bring it to the fore. Of course, over this side of the world we were going with the C64 and the Spectrum. I was working in retail selling computers at the height of the C64 boom and remember we shipped a huge number of units before xmas only to have almost all back the day after Boxing Day due to poor fuse connector soldering on the motherboards - boy was that a fun day, NOT! Nothing beats the real thing, emulation is great, but just like vinyl records, you can't beat the real thing for look, feel, performance (good or otherwise) and smell - when those power supplies get old. Maybe I'm just getting old myself.

I have had similar problems on a few of the poorer condition systems I have bought, usually attributed to damaged cable shielding causing ghosting in particular. The same problem and/or a "snowy" picture can be caused by a dirty plug or broken wire inside the lead which is why the picture improves if the cable is twisted. I clean the contacts or replace the RF cable and the problem goes away.

Thanks a lot for the response Jess, I will investigate the card you recommend for sure. I have heard only good things about Cologne.

I have attached the answer to your no sound problem. It is a VERY common problem with Game Gear units and this fix appears to work very well, is low risk and economical. GG_Fix_by_Ky_Crout.htm

Okay, since my last post I have now found out about the GBA flash carts and am about to order one so I can enjoy the delights of playing CV games anywhere (and hopefully find a 2600 GBA emulator for portable River Raid )! One more question though - what size memory cart should I buy? The price goes up pretty steeply as the memory size increases. Also, will the GBA flash carts work in a DS? My assumption is they should as the DS should treat them like any other GBA cart but I would like to know if anyone knows for shure.

Okay, this may be a dumb question, but are Colecovision and Intellivision cartridges TV format specific (PAL/NTSC) like Atari or not? All of my Atari cartridges are specifically PAL but there is no mention of format on any of my Intellivision and Colecovision carts. This leads on to my wondering if the new CV 128-In-One cart will work on my CV console (which is definitely PAL) and therefore if ROM images are not format specific?

This is the first I've heard of the ColecoVision Library, when was it released and where can I find details? There is nothing on it here in Oz.

A VERY nice collection, although I have to express my concern that you have the Australian carts with the pirate carts Do you have your consoles displayed as well?

As far as I know (and am happy to stand corrected), all of the last released rainbow 2600 and all 7800 systems released in Australia came with the CX-78 controllers, but with flat x-pad directional controller, not with the little thumbstick attachment. They work really well but are quite light and do not feel anywhere near as good as the NES pads, but they seem to be very robust and I've had no problems with longevity. They are not as good as the Pro-Line when playing Winter or Summer Games though as you can't beat slamming the stick when running! I've not seen the CX-78's available seperatley that often on eBay.com.au but considering you can pick up a 2600 with a CX-78 (without games) for around AUD$10, you can get them cheap and pick up a PAL console at the same time.

Thanks JagFan422, I was beginning to think it was just me! I tried adjusting the backlight but it did not make any difference to the viewing angle. I do think it is an individual thing though as I have noticed my wife looks at the unit pretty much straight on.