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I finally found some time to start digitizing the Madison Area Atari Users' Group newsletters and game disks my dad brought on his last visit (discussed in my previous post). The first two newsletters contain information on the Rambo XL 256K memory upgrade. The Oct. 1985 Special Issue newsletter describes the upgrade and contains a listing to patch DOS 2.5 so that it will work with the upgrade to provide two 720-sector ramdisks. The November 1985 issue describes the Terminator XL (gotta love those 80s movies), which is a 512K memory upgrade. It also provides the artwork for a circuit board that can be used with either the Rambo XL or Terminator XL upgrade. I suspect that's the circuit board in my family's original upgraded 800XL. I have no idea whether any of the programs on the game disks are rare, but I’m guessing they aren’t. So far I’ve scanned disks 1, 2, 4, 7, and 24 (skipped ahead because I remembered Sanctified Quest for Power and Beneath the Pyramid fondly). The sound the menu makes when disk 1 boots up brought back a lot of memories One thing I'm curious about: the October newsletter says, "Don't count on the duplicate disk function always working between ramdisks." Sure enough, when I tried to duplicate a physical floppy to the ramdisk, it failed. Any ideas why this would be?

Recently I brought "the one that started it all" out of storage: the 800XL my dad bought for our family as a Christmas gift when I was 6. I wanted to clean up the video and add chroma, so I opened the case for the first time in probably almost 30 years. I was also curious to see the Rambo XL upgrade my dad installed to increase the memory to 256K. My dad was a member of the Madison (WI) Area Atari User's Group, or MAAUG. Having heard that "more memory is good," we decided to install the upgrade, which we purchased from the user's group. I think we thought that the existing programs we had would automagically run faster or better once the additional memory was in. The reality was that, years later, I dug out an old MAAUG newsletter and realized that unless you wrote your own software, had a program specifically written to take advantage of the 130XE's extra memory, or used a special DOS to set up a ramdisk, that memory was just sitting there idle. Other than using the ramdisk to save a few BASIC programs I was typing in (I was amazed at the speed), I never really used it. I'm hoping to change that now Upon opening the case, the upgrade in all its glory was revealed! My dad has excellent soldering skills, but he told me he was terribly afraid that he would hook it all up and find out that he had bricked the computer. Some of the MAAUG members held "soldering parties" to install the upgrade and test it out. I'm sure my dad was greatly relieved when everything worked. I have attached a picture of the upgrade. Luckily we had a socketed motherboard, so soldering the pins on the PIA was easier. If I can find the newsletter that details the upgrade, I'll post that here too. One other "time capsule" find. At some point a year or two after we got the computer, I had the stomach flu and threw up all over the keyboard! Undaunted, my dad disassembled the computer, took out the keyboard, and washed it. It's still working today! After I opened the case, I noticed some discoloring that could only have come from this incident. Memories...

Announcing "the Greatest Entertainment System since Television Itself"... Does anyone know if there were any other numbers of this particular Fan Club UK Newsletter? Cheers, Oscar

I had a good find at Goodwill yesterday in Great Lakes Atari Digest newsletters from the late 80's and early 90's. This was a cool piece of history as an Atari fan. I've messaged some people on Facebook who share the names with the authors of some of the articles in hopes of finding some of them. Atari STs seem to get talked about a lot in these. Did anyone ever write or subscribe to one of these?

OPCODE HAS A NEW PARTNER! We are pleased to announce that Opcode Games and AtariAge have entered into an exclusive distribution agreement under which AtariAge is entitled to distribute Opcode Games games and hardware worldwide starting March 2016. Under the terms of the agreement, AtariAge will be the exclusive worldwide distributor for the ColecoVision line of games and hardware from Opcode Games, including the Super Game Module and such games as Lady Bug Arcade, Pac-Man Collection SGM and Gradius. As a result, Opcode customers looking for the latest ColecoVision releases will now enjoy an easier and more seamless experience when shopping from the AtariAge Store. AtariAge customers, on the other hand, will benefit from the convenience of shopping for their favorite platforms from a single source. Here's why we feel this is good for everybody: AtariAge has a nice store setup already in place, with years' of experience selling homebrew games. You will receive first rate customer service and faster shipping. The convenience of buying all your homebrew games from a single store, allowing you to save on shipping. This partnership frees us from the the time consuming work of handling orders and shipping games, time which can now be spent working on more games. The first two ColecoVision titles from Opcode Games available at the AtariAge Store will be Penguin Adventure and Gradius. Special Edition pre-orders: Last January we started a pre-order process for the special editions of 3 of our upcoming games: Penguin Adventure, Gradius and Donkey Kong. Unfortunately soon after the pre-order had ended, PayPal placed a limitation in our account. It seems the pre-order generate a spike in our account that triggered some sort of preemptive alert in their system, so we had no option but to refund. We sincerely apologize for the trouble it may have caused, but unfortunately it was beyond our control. However we would like to thank you all again for supporting us during the pre-order and making it such a tremendous success way beyond our expectations. Well, here is the good news: now that we have AtariAge as our distributor, we are ready to accept pre-orders again, including pre-orders for the regular edition. That said, there are three possible pre-order scenarios: 1) You pre-ordered the special edition in January and received a refund:please visit the AtariAge Store and place a new pre-order (you can click on the game box images below to be redirected to the AtariAge Store page for that game). You will receive the SPECIAL EDITION when the game ships. 2) You pre-ordered the special edition in January but still have NOT received a refund: You will receive a refund in the near future, but right now there is nothing you need to do. Your pre-order is still safe. 3) You didn’t pre-order in January: now you can pre-order the REGULAR EDITION. Please click on the game box images below to be redirected to the AtariAge Store page for that game. On the not so good news side of things, we had no option but to raise our prices a bit to accommodate the new structure’s extra costs. AtariAge online store costs money to keep; they must pay for servers, PayPal fees, taxes, etc. And because our margins are already very tight due to very limited run nature of our business, we were forced to raise Penguin Adventure and Gradius price by $5, and they now have a MSRP of $50 each. Additionally, we regret to inform that free shipping can no longer be offered, since we won’t be handling shipping ourselves anymore, and AtariAge, being only a retailer of our games, can’t afford to offer that as well. We would like to extend our sincerest apologies to all the original pre-orders, but we honestly didn’t have many options here. Believe us, price increases were the last thing we wanted to do, and this isn’t a ploy to make more money or anything, it is just the reality of the situation that forced us to make the hard call. However we believe that in the long run our decision will pay off and we will be able to offer even better services as we have explained in the AtariAge agreement announcement. As a way to make up for the price increase and all the bumps we had during the original special edition pre-order process, we will be offering a bonus with the special editions to make them even more special. Please stay tuned for future announcements on the extra content. Also please check the FAQ section below for some extra information on the new pre-order. CLICK ON THE IMAGES BELOW TO PRE-ORDER YOUR GAME P.S.: You will need to create an AtariAge Store account in case you don't have one. Because of the issues with PayPal in January, we got short in money and had to delay Penguin Adventure’s production and manufacturing process. In order to maintain the quality of the game and packaging, we are now re-scheduling Penguin Adventure to release in July 2016. That will give us time to put things back on track and make sure you receive the best possible product we can produce. SUPER GAME MODULE 3rd RUN One of the most frequently asked questions we receive is about the 3rd run of the Super Game Module. We had originally planned to start a 3rd run as soon as we had started shipping the 2nd run modules but plans have changed and you will hear more information about that soon. The French SCART versions will be shipped along or before the next run. We have created a waiting list for the 3rd run of SGM, and you can subscribe by visiting our new Super Game Module webpage HERE. FAQ: Q: I pre-ordered the Special Editions versions in January and I WAS refunded. What should I do?A: Since you made the pre-order in January your name is in our list and you will receive your Special Edition in July if you keep your pre-order. To keep it, please pre-order the games again from the AtariAge Store by clicking on the respective game's image above. Q: I pre-ordered the Special Editions versions in January and I WAS NOT refunded. What should I do? A: You will be refunded soon. Please stay tuned. Q: I DIDN'T buy the Special Editions versions in January but I want to get them now. Can I still do that? A: The Special Editions of Penguin Adventure and Gradius were limited and they are sold out, but you can still get the REGULAR editions by clicking on the respective game's images above. Q: Since Penguin and Gradius will release together, can I combine shipping? A: Sure, you can pre-order as many copies as you want and during check out the AtariAge Store will calculate the combined shipping. Q: What about Donkey Kong? A: Since DK is still about 6 months away from being released, we have decided to refund all pre-orders and NOT take pre-orders again at this time. Once we start accepting pre-orders again, the same rules as Penguin Adventure and Gradius will apply, that is, the original pre-orders will be entitled to receive a copy of the Special Edition.

Coming in 2015 will be the ColecoVision Connection electronic newsletter. The purpose... to record for posterity the happenings of the CV universe. Still in the thinking stage, not sure yet about how frequently it will be published. First issue date is yet to be determined. Subject matter will cover all things related to the ColecoVision old and new. It will be open for submissions at any time from anyone who would like to contribute. I know there are some knowledgeable folks here and some great writers... anything and all things accepted - technical articles, reviews, history, etc. I will even post ads for CV related games or services. Fyi of course it will be freely distributed through this forum and www.cvaddiction.com. Writers will not be paid for their submissions, BUT will get recognition for their contribution and, well, that warm fuzzy feeling that goes along with it. More details to come. Interested parties, please send me a PM. Thanks!