Bally Astrocade RIP 01/22/09

[christianscott27]

... so it was the xbox 360 of its day?

[GrizzLee]

... so it was the xbox 360 of its day?

 

 

Ouch.. that hurts

 

-Lee

[STICH666]

... so it was the xbox 360 of its day?

Nah it lasted more than 6 months.

[carmel_andrews]

Unless I am thinking of another gaming system, wasnt the bally arcade (aka Astrocade) designed by David Nutting (of Nutting Associates, who gave our Mr Bushnell his big break)

[Lord Thag]

Unless I am thinking of another gaming system, wasnt the bally arcade (aka Astrocade) designed by David Nutting (of Nutting Associates, who gave our Mr Bushnell his big break)

 

You're mostly correct. Nutting designed the Astrocade's video hardware, which was also used in many of Bally's arcade games such as Wizard of Wor and Gorf, if memory serves. It was an amazingly powerful Zilog Z80 design that allowed a high res 320 x 204 mode - which the Astrocade, in a very dumb design choice, entirely failed to utilize (the pins are not even connected), leaving the home system with the lower res mode only. Other than that, your basic astrocade is basically a home version of a Wizard of Wor machine -hence that game being as true to the arcade as it is on the system.

 

It's also a real computer, with a very detailed BASIC cart with a headphone jack to load/save programs (of which there are thousands these days.)

 

It was a hell of a nice system. It's a shame the thing is so unreliable. I'd play mine a lot more if I wasn't always freaked it would burn up.

[GrizzLee]

Folks,

 

A moment of silence please.

 

 

Our beloved Bally finally passed away last night at 9:09 pm (Pacific time). She was went out with her guns blasting in a an exhilerating game of Dog Patch with my 13 year old son in full glory on our hi-def TV. We suspect, she suffered from heat stroke... like most Ballys seem to do. All efforts to re-vive her have failed (soob, sniff... soory, we are a bit broken up about her).

 

She was fully modified with RGB and S-Video capabilities and sported a great Bally Multi-cart. She provided many years of tremendous service to our family and outlived several of her siblings we aquired over the years.

 

We would like to replace her. If anyone has a working unit to trade, sell or give away, I'd be interested.

I don't need controllers, box, etc...) Cosmetic condition isn't high on my list, as I will do a transplant into the carcass of my old machine. I hate to think that I'll never enjoy another round of Gun Fight, Dog Patch, Scrible, etc... ever again.

 

Thanks for listening (reading),

 

-Lee

 

 

Upate!!!!!

 

I aquired another Astorcade yesterday off of Craigslist. It works wonderfully.

 

I am in the process of "modding" her to keep her cool and adding my RGB circuitry back in. I am thinking of mounting a latop cooling system underneath in a "semi-permanant" type installation. I will also transplant the case (as my old one is in beautiful condition).

 

I want to pamper this lady to ensure I get many years of service from her.

 

In the mean time, has anyone found a way to repair these? I won't give up yet :-)

 

Also, I have some extra games available that I will be posting in the market place in a couple of weeks.

 

Thanks,

-Lee