The Official Atari Age Secret Santa 2020 thread

[ClassicGMR]

Oh I am excited as hell! My outgoing package finally got where it needed to be now it just needs a pickup!! Santa's cutting it close using USPS! ?

[CaptainBreakout]

39 minutes ago, ClassicGMR said:

Oh I am excited as hell! My outgoing package finally got where it needed to be now it just needs a pickup!! Santa's cutting it close using USPS! ?

Mine too, if I'm reading the tracking info right.

 

Oh, and I have to hand it to the Rescue Reindeer. You make me proud.

[adamchevy]

Mine too, if I'm reading the tracking info right.
 
Oh, and I have to hand it to the Rescue Reindeer. You make me proud.

The Rescue Reindeer made my kids start to get jealous! Seriously, I’m overwhelmed and excited for tomorrow morning! Thank you all so much! I look forward to posting some pics tomorrow!

[SoulBlazer]

Well, I haven't seen any sign that my Secret Santa even GOT my box, much less opened it.  I'm a little worried.   The tracking shows it finally got to their place over a week ago.

Edited December 24, 2020 by SoulBlazer

[moycon]

I received my box at the end of November. It's been a long wait, I think I'll open it tonight on Christmas Eve.

[eightbit]

Ok, could not hold off any longer!

 

Wow! My Secret Santa went ALL out! Everything looked so beautifully wrapped it was such a shame to tear it all open

 

Lots of great stuff here! My daughter already stole the playdough and the thinking putty however. No worries, I have the candy!

 

Love the Pac Man Fever record...I did not have this (and I have around 1000 records!). The 45 adapter is awesome! Love the C128 magnet...placed it right on my Ray Carlsen metal power supply that is connected to my real C128

 

And I was pretty floored to see a new Harmony Cart in here. WOW. I did not have one of these either. It is all set up now and in my 7800 ready for some sweet Atari holiday play.

 

 

Thank you so much Secret Santa! Merry Christmas to you as well as to all here that have participated this year and have made this happen once again!

[Rogerpoco]

Really wish the Retro FC worked, would have made a bit of a difference!

(I didn't "describe myself well, evidently, lol).

Happy Holidays, Everyone!!!

 

[Hydro Thunder]

I could not wait one more day! 

Plus my SS sent me a note letting me know he has EVEN MORE stuff on the way!  This community is too, too great.

AC, YOU DA SANTA!!!!  ????

So happy!

So much cool stuff!  The nostalgia, the homebrew, the VE Berzerk, the old school coupon!!! And I've never played Castle Crisis, so stoked!

The magazines, going to read every one cover to cover.  May have had them back in the day too.  SO, so cool.

 

Thank you!!!!! 

[SoulBlazer]

So I'm just going to state this in case others are having similar thoughts....

 

I'm not as active here now as I used to be, so I know hardly anyone knows this, but money is really tight for me right now.  I was laid off from my regular job in August.  Although I found work a month later, it's only a temp job which is ending on 1-30 at which point I'll be looking again.  Therefore I couldn't be as generous this year as I had been in past years.

I KNOW the suggested price is just a guideline, but seeing everyone blow out of the water what I spent (and on what my own Secret Santa spent on me) does make me feel a bit guilty.

On top of that, it never even occurred to me to buy wrapping paper.  I suck at trying to wrap things, and I assumed the person would know what the box was and they could decide when to open it.

So I know it's the thought that counts, and on that note, thanks to everyone who is doing such a amazing job and I hope I can do better next year.

[CaptainBreakout]

@soulblazer... Don't feel guilty... I've been there, I'm sure a lot of us have.  It will all come around. 

 

I used to be a tech and occasionally worked in game design and animation, but now I'm at a grocery store mostly because I moved out of civilization about 6 years ago.  Took a big pay cut.  Ironically, this year I've been better off financially then in the last few years (although my job has been massively harder due to everything Covid) due to hazard bonuses and just sales being much higher. Due to this, I actually had to reign myself in a bit on Secret Santa.

 

But everything is a cycle.  I don't know where I'll be next year, if 2020 has taught me anything. Anyway I feel that you're going bounce back this year -I just feel that intuitively.  I think a LOT of people will. So no worries. Here's to a brighter 2021 for all of us!

 

Meantime, Merry Christmas... we'll all pulling off AtariAge Secret Santa -in 2020!

 

Cheers!

[HoshiChiri]

So, since my fiance's family has opted to skip Christmas this year, I set myself up a lil' Charlie Brown-type tree & put out my remaining Santa gifts for tomorrow- becuase I could!

6 hours ago, eightbit said:

Lots of great stuff here! My daughter already stole the playdough and the thinking putty however. No worries, I have the candy!

 

Love the Pac Man Fever record...I did not have this (and I have around 1000 records!). The 45 adapter is awesome! Love the C128 magnet...placed it right on my Ray Carlsen metal power supply that is connected to my real C128

I'm glad you liked it all! I was a lil' concerned you might already have the 45- I figured being a 'not for resale' copy might justify the duplicate- glad it wasn't an issue!

 

The guys I bought the adapter from ended up sending me an extra, so I inadvertently got a gift for myself out of it! ? They are fun ones!

4 hours ago, SoulBlazer said:

So I'm just going to state this in case others are having similar thoughts....

 

I'm not as active here now as I used to be, so I know hardly anyone knows this, but money is really tight for me right now.  I was laid off from my regular job in August.  Although I found work a month later, it's only a temp job which is ending on 1-30 at which point I'll be looking again.  Therefore I couldn't be as generous this year as I had been in past years.

I KNOW the suggested price is just a guideline, but seeing everyone blow out of the water what I spent (and on what my own Secret Santa spent on me) does make me feel a bit guilty.

Don't feel guilty! I get the concern (I certainly worry about it), but I don't think anyone here is seeking expensive or multiple gifts- just heartfelt ones. I'd be perfectly happy with one inexpensive thing that was clearly chosen for me than all the impersonal trinkets in the world! (Seriously, it amazes me that AA folk can shop better for me than some of my own family!)

4 hours ago, CaptainBreakout said:

Due to this, I actually had to reign myself in a bit on Secret Santa.

This is reigned in?! What the heck would all-out look like, a frickin' arcade cabinet?! ?

[+chicgamer]

5 hours ago, SoulBlazer said:

I KNOW the suggested price is just a guideline, but seeing everyone blow out of the water what I spent (and on what my own Secret Santa spent on me) does make me feel a bit guilty.

On top of that, it never even occurred to me to buy wrapping paper.  I suck at trying to wrap things, and I assumed the person would know what the box was and they could decide when to open it.

So I know it's the thought that counts, and on that note, thanks to everyone who is doing such a amazing job and I hope I can do better next year.

Please don't feel this way. Secret Santa isn't a competition. This is all about sharing cheer with fellow AtariAgers.

 

I hope that everyone is enjoying seeing what everyone else received. I know that I am! This has really made Christmas for me this year!

 

Merry Christmas, AtariAge! Thank you for helping bring some happiness to this godawful year.  

[joeatari1]

5 hours ago, SoulBlazer said:

I'm not as active here now as I used to be, so I know hardly anyone knows this, but money is really tight for me right now.  I was laid off from my regular job in August.  Although I found work a month later, it's only a temp job which is ending on 1-30 at which point I'll be looking again.  Therefore I couldn't be as generous this year as I had been in past years.

Been there, done that.  I finally found a home with my current job after jumping around for a few years.  It is always the thought that counts and if your intentions are good then there is no wrong gift, no matter how big or small.  May the spirit of this season bring you peace and joy and may 2021 be a spectacular year for you!

[imstarryeyed]

Ok by tradition in our household we open gifts on Christmas Eve, and I just opened mine and OMG was it awesome!

 

My secret Santa was so generous and plucked some awesome games from my RF Generation Wish list that also have meaning to him!  How thoughtful and awesome he is!

 

I needed all of these games and am looking forward to trying them all out.

 

Road Rash is a personal recommendation from him being into grunge music and I am psyched to try that one out too!

 

The games are a great selection from some of my favorite Sega consoles and that Oddworld game is one I missed when it came out, so looking forward to that one too!

 

It is a great gaming Xmas for me this year, thank you!

 

The Kit Kats are going to go fast and are perfect in that small Xmas bag!

 

I however cannot leave out the freaking PRINCESS PEACH MASK!!!   OMG, it is awesome and I love it, I love it!!!

 

My Secret Santa went to Etsy and found the perfect mask for me being a cosplayer!  I am simply blown away about how perfect a gift it is!!!!

 

A big thank you to my Secret Santa you are very thoughtful and have made my Christmas extra special.

 

It seems every year I participate in this event, I seem to enjoy it even more.

 

 

Edited December 25, 2020 by imstarryeyed

[CaptainBreakout]

4 hours ago, HoshiChiri said:

This is reigned in?! What the heck would all-out look like, a frickin' arcade cabinet?! 

I'll use this opportunity to procrastinate on filling the stockings for a few more minutes...

 

Yeah... I considered for a moment finding a way to get you a robot cat.  There were a few options.  The most interesting was a implementation of the OpenCat project called Nybble. Going this direction was tempting, but expensive and seemed to envoke the plotline of a cheesy tween sci-fi horror novel.

 

"An odd set of circumstances gave Chelsea (Nina? Megan?) a new member of her family... an advanced robot cat. Since then, many new and strange things occurred that seem to point to this cat being a little too advanced."

 

Picture that book jacket.

 

Lol... And yeah, it was reigned in (see how I think?). Also a total pleasure. Merry Christmas!

 

[CaptainBreakout]

Just wanted to share this image with all of you.

 

 

Full stockings. Cheers!

[carlsson]

An arcade game probably could be reasonably affordable if it was shipped in a flat package as a kit without monitor option. Think IKEA Arkadspel... loaded with an off-brand PCB and noname controllers and buttons.

[joeatari1]

It looks like my Secret Santa really knew me!  This is great!

 

 

A really awesome advertising print for "Super Bug" by Kee Games!  That is so cool!  I will be framing it and hanging it in my game room.  As a VW fan my SS really came through.  I also love the font that the letter was written in, it's very retro.  I had none of the games that were sent to me so they will definitely get some play this weekend!  The candy was much appreciated and will be finished very shortly.  Thanks to whomever my SS is (I have a good idea who you are), this was an awesome experience!  Merry Christmas everyone!

 

P.S.  My wife got me a Retro Tink 2Xpro for Christmas.  I will be playing these on the big screen.

[emerson]

I am astonished by how on point these gifts are! Thank you Secret Santa!

 

 

I have not played either California Raisens or Peter Pan so I will be doing that today for sure. The Playstation Underground magazine is a holiday special with some neat looking demos and content. The O2 multicart was really too much, but I am very exited to explore the library of games. The science fiction collection has a number of good films including THEM which is in my opinion one of the best nuclear era sci-fi films. I don't think I've seen World Without End so I'm looking forward to that. James Clavell's Shogun is just awesome. I scored the vhs box set of this at Goodwill a number of years ago but each of the four tapes has this 1kHz calibration tone at the end which is three as loud as the video content. You can't fall asleep watching them or else you get woken up by this horrible tone in the middle of the night. To make the dvd set even better there is almost two hours of additional footage that my vhs set doesn't have!

 

Thanks again Secret Santa!

[HoshiChiri]

OK! Christmas morning! Time to open my remaining gifts! First up is... UM...

 

*nervous cough* well, I do have a little collection going of odd peripherals... this definitely counts! I will... need to figure out how to clean this before I do much else with it... ? Moving on!

 

More snacks! I'm gonna good until like, March ? and an Antonia Levi book! I haven't heard that name in years, she used to be regular at my local anime con. This'll be fun!

 

 

BWAHAHA! NO Christmas is complete unless someone gets a toilet-themed gift! Normally it's my mom getting toilet seat covers from my aunt, but I did give my sister Hello Kitty paper once (it was fruit scented!) This will be handy if the hoarders kick in again! And- my first NES homebrew! I have a couple modern carts, but they're more 'late release' (Holy Diver, Jay & Silent Bob: Mall Brawl to be specific.) Looking forward to trying this!

 

And then, the Big One:

 

 

Now THIS. IS. AWESOME. I LOVE a good rythmn game, so I'm very aware of Beatmania, but it's always been niche enough to be juuust out of reach of me! I'm gonna be spending today looking into how to play imports (as there is a spare PS2 slim floating around here!) Thank you so much! I can't wait! 

[adamchevy]

Firstly, I would like to express my gratitude to the Secret Santa’s that made this old man feel like a Kid again. I’ve never experienced this amount of generosity and I really was unsure how to feel as I experienced opening your gifts. My kids kept telling me to hurry up, and after a few minutes my two oldest wanted to know how to join Atariage. All I can say is thank you for making this Christmas so much fun and exciting for me and my family.



The Robotron 2084 picture that is framed is just awesome! Robotron 2084 is my favorite game of all time! This is going to look great hung in my game room! I have never played SpaceMaster X7, and I have wanted to add it to my collection of 20th century Fox games. I didn’t realize that it was based on a movie from 1958 of the same name. I’m really looking forward to watching that now over the next few days and playing the game for the first time. I noticed that the guy in the space suit on the X7 2600 cartridge looks a lot like the guy in the Robotron 2084 picture. I’m wondering now if theirs a connection?

I really liked the game Mappy since the first time I tried the demo for the 2600. I’ve wanted to own the cart for a while now, but having it in the box is just a step up. Thank you so much. My kids really like playing this game as well. As always Champ games does an excellent job with this homebrew.

I didn’t know that they made cartridges that are magnetized. Somebody must have seen that I’m a machinist and have a Toolbox to put these on! I’m always happy to display some Atari goodness at work. These are really fun!

Ok, so the amount of 2600 games I’ve received is way more than I was expecting or really could ever anticipate receiving at once. Truly this is a bonanza of Homebrews, especially Christmas themed ones and I think someone hit add to cart a few more times than was necessary. I’m really happy and overwhelmed nonetheless.

Galagon is one of my all time favorite Homebrew games and I think it’s really something special for the 2600. I’ve been wanting to try out the co-op mode with my 7 year old daughter on real hardware. My 7 year old daughter Raeli is a Galaga junkie ever since we got her a handheld arcade version from Walmart last year for Christmas that included Xevious and Galaxian as well. Thanks so much!

Amoeba Jump is really a lot of fun. I remember watching the Portland Retro gaming expo footage of it when it was first released. It looked like the perfect game that I would enjoy and my kids would also enjoy. It has those great mechanics that are so fun to play for a few minutes but are difficult to master. After reading the back of the box I learned that this was initially planned for the C64. It further intrigues me that this is now available for the 2600 due to the Developer Dion Olsthoon reading the book Racing the Beam. It’s so interesting that the games my kids most want to play are on the 2600. It’s wonderful! Thank you!

The Byte Before Christmas is a game I’ve seen many times on the Atariage store but have never looked into. I didn’t know that it supported paddle or joystick controller! Time to get the paddles out!! Thank you!

I’m so glad to add Stellas Stocking, Gingerbread Man, Reindeer Rescue, and Toyshop Trouble to my collection. I love Christmas games, especially 2600 ones, and I love playing them during the Christmas season. Which starts for me in the middle of November every year. I look forward to adding these to my Christmas tradition each year. Thank you!

Sword quest WaterWorld is a game that I’ve always been curious about. I’ve always been intrigued by the history of the 2600 contest that included this game in it. I’m glad to add it to my collection and I look forward to seeing if I can be an Atari champion! Thank you!

Chunkout 2600 is a game I’ve honestly never heard of and know nothing about. I look forward to exploring it! Thank you!

Balloon Trip and sheep it up are also the exact type of games I enjoy playing and I also enjoy playing them with my kids. I’ve never played either one of them. I look forward to playing them as well. Thank You!

Atariage glassware! I had no idea such a thing could be purchased! This is truly the glass I need full of a delicious beverage while I play 2600 games. This is really fun! Thank you!

Ok so I was really astounded to open yet another Secret Santa package and what do I find inside...so many great things. I really like Atari patches! I wouldn’t have considered myself a collector up until today. Thank you so much! An Atari notepad with pens, this may have to become a game journal. I’m not really a note taker or list maker, but I’ve wanted to journal my 2600 experiences or keep high scores for a long time. Thank you!

The wico extension cords are a top notch vintage extension cord that I’ve looked at owning for a long time now. Some of the modern ones lose signal I’ve found or just don’t work for some controllers like my CX80 Trak ball for some reason. I look forward to trying these out today! Thank you!

I love new CDs! I’m not sure exactly what it is yet but I will give it a listen very soon! Thanks!

Another new Homebrew that uses Paddle or Joystick controls! I’ve never heard of Cellar-y celery. I really like strange Homebrew games that have a story. I look forward to playing this as well over Christmas break. I’m really going to need to do a follow up on some of these games. This one looks like my kind of game because it also includes the word paddle! Thank you!

An Activision T shirt in a Hawaiian theme! Thanks so much, I Love gaming shirts.


I’m sure I may have missed something. This really was so unexpected and surprisingly wonderful. I think my wife was really taken back as well. Merry Christmas to my fellow Atariage members and Secret Santa’s! It truly has been a memorable and special Christmas for me and my family. Thanks again!

[ClassicGMR]

4 minutes ago, adamchevy said:

All I can say is thank you for making this Christmas so much fun and exciting for me and my family.

Wow that is fabulous! You definitely were a good boy this year. ?

 

I can, however, confirm you should have at least one more box whether it be at your house or still at the post office. Christmas isn't over yet!

[+cvga]

Truly amazing stuff. I love it all but that exhibitor tag is awesome! Super cool!

[Albert]

4 minutes ago, cvga said:

Truly amazing stuff. I love it all but that exhibitor tag is awesome! Super cool!

I have several extras, finally found a good use for one of them! 

 

 ..Al

[adamchevy]

Wow that is fabulous! You definitely were a good boy this year. [emoji1787]
 
I can, however, confirm you should have at least one more box whether it be at your house or still at the post office. [emoji4] Christmas isn't over yet!

Oh my goodness, I’m sure I wasn’t this good. This is just crazy! Well, thank you! As I’ve stated above I’m really not sure how to feel about all of these gifts. I’ll remember to try and be as kind and generous in the coming year.