slapdash

I suspect these may just be really cheap labels, especially if these did show up boxed. If you open them up, are the chips ROMs or EPROMs? I suspect you might just find little black blobs rather than big chips though... As to the whole "S.S." thing... 2600 Connection did an article about this -- it does not stand for "Star Soft", as that was just a made-up name. But it may very well stand for Suntek Software, as many of the boards in a variety of manufacturer's games say "Suntek" on them (others say "SAE" which is probably "Suntek Asia(??) Electronics". Rainbowvision most likely got their games from Suntek, and Quelle got a bunch this way too. It's not clear, but Suntek may have even made the cases, which would explain the "S.S." stamped into so many of them, despite apparent other companies selling them.

We've already met, though I didn't recognize his new avatar. I don't drink coffee, which might explain how I actually read the thread and still didn't notice that. Oy.

~100 km south of Frankfurt, so no big detour. About how far north of Muenchen is that though?

It's been tempting believe me, but the next issue at least will simply be THAT far behind.

Anybody working on Mac loading software?

The 3D one is (Challenge of) Nexar I believe. The 2nd pic looks vaguely familiar, but can't place it.

Like I said, it's also on Digital Press -- and IIRC somebody posted a scan of the pic in the magazine. Take a look.

I posted about this on Digital Press (search for "cheekiness" & "GamePro" since I'm too lazy to :-) It's apparently an image they found off of Google -- do an image search for "bulldozer" and you'll find the image (sans fuji), though no idea if it's the original source. They really bit themselves on the ass with that one... I don't think most kids are going to know what that is, but any straight man (or lesbian woman) oughtta twig to it pretty quick. Yow.

Hey... Whereabouts IS Karlsruhe? In what direction from Frankfurt? I might actually be able to stop by since I'll be in Germany for Oktoberfest and other things...

Yeah, it's still alive, just really that far behind schedule. I'm really sorry about that... I finally got an article I was waiting on, so I'm hoping to get to the next issue before my big vacation (I'll be away).

I know, but how was the deal about allowing to make the CD? Was the number of copies limited? Does anybody still have the right to make more CDs? There was a royalty agreement, so if any more CDs are made, there would have to be a royalty payment to go with it, and likely that would have to be renegotiated at this point. All rights remain with Bridgestone. Well, if one of us would stop (unlikely! ) with this hobby completely (and feeling backstabbed like Randy probalby still does), we probably wouldn't be very interested in those kind of deals anymore too. Randy has not stopped selling the CD. I just reconfirmed that with him yesterday. He also says that he's up to date on orders, so anyone who hasn't gotten their CD should pass their name and payment method to me and I'll check with him to confirm if/when the order(s) were received and processed.

Alright, so I know Watson & his SO and Inky's SO, but not Inky. Oh well! (I've already met Dan & Bohus, so I know them by sight)

The DP Guide is well worth $25. It has more than just rarity ratings, and more than just Atari systems. Now, if you don't collect outside of Atari, you might not need it then.

I generally avoid tape media, with the exception of videotape machines. I'd say backups are a good idea, and I'd use the backups if I were you, just in case. In the case of the Spectrum, I know people have put CDRs of ROMs together before... You might check your favorite P2P app for MP3s, or check warez/ROMs sites for CD offers...

I've mentioned it in a couple threads on Digital Press that I like this game too (though so far I'm only familiar with the PS2 version). I'd heard that MicroCenter had them for $9, but there isn't one near me. Can anyone provide? :-) You sure do get to play as the dragons! One of my favorite missions was a dragon mission. It was one that was really tough at first, but got easier (still a challenge, mind!) with time. Some levels are only hard at first; others stay hard. The difficulty level is fairly tough in general though. But, I got all the way through except for the Bull Dragon level, which I think is the last one. Holy CRAP is that one tough... He just refuses to die! We even found a semi-decent hiding place, but he still does enough damage when it isn't safe that we've never survived the encounter.

Bump N Jump: Rush Hour [actually, there ARE games like this] Up N Down: Baja Edition Hmm, I think I COULD see Joust 3D working okay... Wait... You've got a Black Flag album as your avatar, right? And isn't the above a Fear Factory quote*? I didn't think punk & metal were supposed to mix! (*caveat: I've never known if that bit was original to Fear Factory, or sampled from somewhere, so my apologies if your source for the quote ISN'T FF...)

I'm not an expert, so if anyone knows better, please jump in... But, in a nutshell... Due to production costs (ROM masks are expensive) most games wouldn't have less than, say, 10,000 made. The exceptions are games that had EPROMs (not sure there are a lot in the 5200 realm, but there are some in the 2600 realm), and the (probably MUCH rarer exceptions) cases where they didn't make even that many despite the costs -- in this event I suspect that it wasn't planned; the company paid big for the mask, but was running out of money and didn't make a full run. I can't think of anything offhand that fell under this case -- perhaps Bounty Bob? I'm not sure that's so rare that there were less than 10,000 made... On the other end, they won't keep making games if they're not selling. For the most part, if you sell 100,000 you're probably doing okay; 500,000 you're doing great; 1,000,000+ and you've got a mega-hit. I doubt too many 5200 cartridges did that well. So, for a total off the cuff guess? I would suspect that most titles had 30,000 to 200,000 made. But I repeat, I'm no expert, and perhaps others know better?

It would be fairer to say lack of time. Thank you for the clarification. I was more hopeful than certain... That's encouraging, though I know that time can be a rarer commodity than even ambition... :-(

Matt: mail him a reminder. It's possible that the check was lost in the mail, or that he's just been too busy with other things. Ask him. Thomas: Bridgestone still owns the copyrights, whether or not the CD has sold/will sell out. Dan: Yup, Polo is not on version 2, nor are the Vectrex BINs (since, unlike version 1, version 2 was for profit); we added more PAL versions and a couple of homebrews whose authors allowed it.

Not to mention enhances scores. I was unbeatable with a Starplex... It also makes exploring the secret kingdom in Mountain King easier...

I assume you mean the woman with her back to the camera? Or do you mean the redhead who also appears further down the page? And who's the guy with the redhead (if not you)? the red head guy was bohus I belive. Er, red? Bohus (Gulag Picture Radio, right?) is the guy talking to Mrs. Inky.

I remember hearing some good things about the Zaks 6502 books, but I'm not entirely sure from where. I think the books were also said to have a fair amount of typos though...

This might sound stupid, but have you tried changing the channel? Could be 2, 3, or 4... There should be a switch somewhere giving you a better idea of which.

I'm partial to Crazy Taxi... Fairly simple to pick up (though the controls can get complex if you bother to learn all the moves), you can play just a quick game, and there's the obsessive factor with some of the "mini-games" (Crazy Box, Crazy Pyramid, [don't know about CT3])... It feels very "classic" to me, and I keep coming back to it.

Even at 50... they're adding games to the GBA version? Anyone know what games?