iguana

I was watching I Love Toys ( I liked the I love the 80's shows) Anyway coming in a t a dismal 20 was the 2600! 20?? are you kidding me? Who did not own a 2600 or at lease dream about owning one in the day! it came in behind such great toys as Snoopy's Snow cone machine ans slinky! and to make the disgrace complete, they could not even get a real 2600 for the show, they were showing the Flashback 2! I like my FB2, but come on VH1. spend the 15 bucks and pick up a real one for the show! By the way the top toy was a hulla hoop.

But Atari does not have much debt at all. and Infogrames is hurting because of the association. now there management is not exactly brain surgeons either, but they must recognise that the brand Atari and it's retro catalogue are worth something, and if they can separate themselves from it before it crumbles they will.

The Problem with MMORPG is that they are very risky. Sure you have WoW which is a monstrous cash cow, but many miss and just kill the company financially. I do not know how much they have put into D&D, but if they want it to save the company it will have to rival WoW in subscriptions, and that is very hard to do. D&D has good name here, but I doubt it is the defining factor in Korea and China where these type of games must do well to make it. It also has an issue with competing against WoW and such. I do not think many people have 3 or 4 MMORP that they stick with because of the subscription. That means they have to take people away from the others for the most part. IMO D&D is only going to be a bargaining chip to sell Atari, and only if Infogrames does not have a right to grab it. D&D has more a chance of being the final nail than the savior for Atari. IF they go to release and it is not an instant smash. Shareholders will panic. they are better off selling out before that happens.

on an investor conference call Infogrames stated that Atari has about 10 million in cash. I think that is probably inflated, but they should have some cash as they had no debt. anyway the real question here is can they hold on till their D&D title makes it to market. It was also mentioned on the call. seems like what little management Atari has left is confused. Not sure they have any Idea what to do except hold on and hope D&D hits big. I am not sure Infogrames or Goldman Sachs will let that happen and since they own the lions share I think they may just sell the title off and move on with what little cash they have and can get from the sale. It did not sound like they had much else in the pipeline that would hold water. IMO it does not sound good when a company places all its hopes with one title, and I do not know as much about it as they do (or maybe I do and that is the problem). Stock held today but I think that was artificial. word was that most of it was people coming of short sales. that would not account for all the activity, but I am sure people had auto buys in at .80 or .75 and did not get them removed in time. plus some bargain hunters. It held and closed at .72 I think, not bad, but Monday will be bloody I think, that may force their hand and move to chop it up. Also on the call they said the FB3 was not n option and that the licences were not done. Looks like Atari will be in name only for a while folks. Glad I could see it here with AtariAge at the end. a group that appreciates the name. I don't mean to be doom and gloom, but things look dark for Atari.

This is bad news. I was planning on buying at .75 based on the fact that they had little debt and figured there would be no chance of bankruptcy. That and Goldman Sachs just bought a huge chunk of it, but now that their credit line is gone and they lost .04 a share, things look bad. Glad to see Baker leave. she really drove this plane into the ground. Her leaving can only help the stock. best i can tell is book value is about .12 a share, Doubt it would get that low as the name is probably worth more than that. I am not sure if they liquidate how Infogrames takes the money. I think they own about 40% of the stock, but they may have claim to titles in the pipeline, will be interesting to find out. Anyway this may be the end of any meaningful production from Atari. Sure there is flashback and the past catalogue of games, though I do not know the value there. I love Atari as much as the next guy, but it will be hard to get investors to pump money into effectively a nostalgia toy, which is what the street views Flashback and the like. And a big chunk of the nostalgia catalog was licened to Atari anyway, so there may be ways around the Atari name if someone really wanted to do it. The only good I can see coming of this is if the stock gets to about .25 (Where I think it will go) maybe a Busnell or someone like that will pick it up for a song, and attempt to fill the nostalgia, retro niche before we all get too old to enjoy it.

THe arcade in the Carousel building In seaside still has a fairly large classics section. I am usually there once or twice a year for a day and make sure I hit it. One of my Favs when I was young was Blue Star Skating ring. It had a ring downstairs and an Arcade upstairs. Best part was my Dad managed it, SO I would skate and play all day long like every other weekend or so!

In the electronic or mechanical area I had Electronic Stratego and Dark Tower (that was great) I also had Electronic Battleship, but liked Stratego better I had a game where you shot plastic pucks with a metal marble in the middle and tried to knock a "puck" into the other guys goal. Can't remember the name though. It was a cool game I also had an assortment of LED sports games like Football and Baseball. I think Coleco made them. I saw them recently in Stores as a throw back kind of game. I should pick up the football game, I loved that. Also the best of all was the electric vibrating football. I could not be defeated in that!

of cource now there is a written record of our community trying to think of ways around the trade marks and copyrights

i do not think the problem is the game but the trade mark. Nintendo is DK and Mario, and I am sure that they would protect the corporate brand to the death. You would have to change the name and the code and look of the game, then why bother, it is not the DK oyu were looking for anyway if you want a true Arcade conversion.

did you try yelling and cursing at it? I usually do that, but it does not seem to work for me. Maybe for you. Let me know if it does

Stampede

very cool indeed. I would ove to hear from the group or the director.

I find stuff at the wind gap indoor flea market. there is one game place there, mostly NES and up, but can get 2600 stuff, only commons though. systems seem expensive. Another spot there has various systems, Got a few from him (heavy sixer, 7800, I think i got my master system from him. he has a lot of Genny stuff and some NES, some common 2600 stuff. there is one more there that has hit or miss systems and games, usually has a few 2600, and a bunch of genny or NES stuff. There is also a place about 5 miles up the road. a consignment shop, they have a bunch of stuff. mostly because the owner knows I look and always asks people who bring in stuff if they have gaming stuff. I get a few things there, I often buy doubles that are cheap to make sure she continues to ask since there is a payoff there.

it was cake with a stearable ball. at least in the day. Can't seem to groove it right now. nothing special happened that I can remember. Bowling is one of the best sports titles on the VCS. I love that game.

I remember these fondly. We got a lot of our 2600 stuff from Sears as my Grandmother worked there and got a discount. I used to love "sears Days" when my mom would take us there to go shopping. My Grandmother worked the candy counter so we would go there and sugar up then head over to play games for the afternoon while my mom shoped. Different times I guess. Now a days my mom would be thrown in jail and I would be lucky not to be abducted.

was that Diplomacy on your shelf? I loved that game. Have not played it for ages though. I lost it somewhere along the line (think my wife tossed it in a move though she denies it.)

I treasure my GameBoy cleaning kit actually, seeing as it is complete and unused. I say the least collectible thing is warranty and registration cards 995440[/snapback] I love them. I got a boxed heavy sixer with all the cards specifically for the cards. they are great. I also picked up a colecovision just for the cards.

I had always thought that PS1 had the most. But thinking about it, maybe the Game boy and all it's derivatives may

Asteroids called and would like to disagree with that statement. 993796[/snapback] you are right, i meant the 3d vector thing.

I always play the nose guard. you go diagonal down at the snap then dive right away. gets a sack over 50% of the time and you can get the runner in running plays a lot as well.

on 2600, Mario Bros and Space Invaders. Also been hitting Xevious on 7800 as well. and even threw in a little KC Munchkin on O2

I would place Battlezone on there. Didn't the military want to use it or a enhanced version for training purposes? Also Tempest. Just because of the Vector thing. It made the vector thing popular.

I am with you. I hated Altered beast.

I don't know why you would... the letter they sent along with it wasn't very nice either. I suppose it's asking a bit much to hope that was a form letter. 951341[/snapback] I love the PS!!! Way too funny!

I always loved Kangaroo. Never understood why it got bashed so much. Sure the graphics are sub standard, but it is a lot of fun. I mean who plays the VCS for graphics anyway?