The Official Atari Age Secret Santa 2020 thread

[adamchevy]

I have several extras, finally found a good use for one of them!  [emoji3]

 

 ..Al

 

The exhibitor tag is awesome! I was wondering about where that came from! Thank you so much! I’ve never been to PRGE before and have always wanted one. Also that aluminum AA sign is really cool. I was wondering where that came from? Thank you so much Al!

[Albert]

2 minutes ago, adamchevy said:

The exhibitor tag is awesome! I was wondering about where that came from! Thank you so much! I’ve never been to PRGE before and have always wanted one. Also that aluminum AA sign is really cool. I was wondering where that came from? Thank you so much!

The aluminum AtariAge sign was made by @Crazy Climber!  I have a whole bunch of them, and have slowly been giving them out to people or using them for other purposes.  They are very nice!  And to answer your question about the AtariAge pint glass, those are not available for sale, the only way people have gotten them is if I've given them one.  But I do have a large pending order of those glasses and will be adding them to the store soon! 

 

 ..Al

[adamchevy]

The aluminum AtariAge sign was made by [mention=9102]Crazy Climber[/mention]!  I have a whole bunch of them, and have slowly been giving them out to people or using them for other purposes.  They are very nice!  And to answer your question about the AtariAge pint glass, those are not available for sale, the only way people have gotten them is if I've given them one.  But I do have a large pending order of those glasses and will be adding them to the store soon!   

 ..Al

 

 

Thank you! I really like the way the lettering is raised and indented on the glass. The logo is raised and the lettering is indented. That’s some nice detail. I also really like the pins that were included. I’ve never seen those for sale before either. My kids have been having fun with those.

 

I thought that sign looked like a crazy climber creation! I have a couple of his other signs. He does great work!

 

 

 

The Atariage magnets are also pretty cool and will look great on my fridge or Tool box. Thanks! Definitely some rad swag!

 

[+thanatos]

My Santa did a great job considering my likes/wish list was extremely vague.  

 

I got a Pole Position Tiny Arcade, which was the only thing I specifically listed. 

A set of gamer signs, which will probably go in the basement arcade.

A USB SNES style controller,

A tiny MP3 player - I mean really tiny, it's hilarious. 

A pre-configured Recalbox SD card and instructions.  That will be interesting, I've never tried that system before, and I have a couple spare Raspberry PI's currently doing nothing.

Oh and not pictured, a bag of Starburst gummies.   

Thank you Santa!

 

[ClassicGMR]

20 minutes ago, Albert said:

And to answer your question about the AtariAge pint glass, those are not available for sale, the only way people have gotten them is if I've given them one.

Mine stand proudly right next to my Funspot pint in my game room. Love it. ?

[Chuck D. Head]

Yay!! I finally got to open this sucker:

 

 

Thanks so much to frankodragon, who was revealed to be my Secret Santa!!! I appreciate you you jumping in at the last minute so I could participate!!!

 

 

I appreciate the message in the card and also Crazy Tank, which is my first 7800 home brew, which I will be playing tonight!!

 

 

Santa knew that I loved B movies, and found a fantastic compilation of Sci-fi B movies. Most of the stuff I have is horror or fantasy, so all but 4-5 of the 50 included movies are new ones to me and will be playing as I game throughout the rest of my vacation.

 

 

Lastly, an awesome selection of gummy candy! All were great choices, but it's the first time I had the Sunny D ones and they are the bomb!

 

Thanks so much for your thoughtfulness, I will be getting a ton of entertainment our of your gift!!!!!

[CaptainBreakout]

Alright... The kids are napping!  Sweet!  Now it's time for me to hit the rest of my package!  A little daddy time is in order.

 

 

Oh hell yeah!  You know a gift is awesome when you actually SAY "this is awesome" out loud.

 

Original rainbow apple logo too. Just excellent.  Apple ][ Infinitum!

 

 

Ha!  My secret santa has my sense of humor. I've been wanting to get into collecting activision patches too, and this is a great start.  My kids and I play Fishing Derby, perfect. I also happen to really like Kabobber. Oooooo... This is good stuff!

 

 

More and more!!? These items all all amazing... Build your own rocket science set!  Peanuts Christmas stuff I didn't even know about!  Vintage catalogs I don't have! Meteorites connections... My wedding band is inlayed meteorite and I've been looking for a good source for the material too.  I'll have to count on terrestrial dealers until I build my own rocket, which it looks like I might be in a position to do eventually.

 

 

Ok, santa is blowing my mind.  I look at the next thing, and boom (also, outside someone just blew up a firework... coincidence?).  Lots of gemstones.  Nice ones (I've been known to do jewelry work).  INCLUDING meteorite!  Gibeon no less... The good stuff!  Santa must be pretty tight with a meteorite hunter because this stuff is NOT cheap or easy to find!  WOW!!!

 

Love the activision You Suck keychain.. I've been wanting to get into that club, and now I guess I've arrived.

 

 

But wait... There's MORE?!  Yes!  An incredible thoughtful selection of books, cards and a Pirates of the Caribbean pinball flyer!  These are the kids of books an awesome dad has.  And that's exactly how I feel right now.

 

Santa... Sincerely Thank You!  So much thought went into this package I don't even know where to begin.  My wife is flabbergasted too.  I really REALLY appreciate all of this, it's so awesome!

Edited December 26, 2020 by CaptainBreakout
I forgot to mention, there was candy too! I just had to hussle it out of there when the kids were about.

[SoulBlazer]

3 hours ago, thanatos said:

 

My Santa did a great job considering my likes/wish list was extremely vague.  

 

I got a Pole Position Tiny Arcade, which was the only thing I specifically listed. 

A set of gamer signs, which will probably go in the basement arcade.

A USB SNES style controller,

A tiny MP3 player - I mean really tiny, it's hilarious. 

A pre-configured Recalbox SD card and instructions.  That will be interesting, I've never tried that system before, and I have a couple spare Raspberry PI's currently doing nothing.

Oh and not pictured, a bag of Starburst gummies.   

Thank you Santa!

 

I'm glad to know that you liked the stuff and sorry it wasn't wrapped!  As I said, that kinda slipped my mind when I was putting it together.

 

The gaming signs were bought cause of the vague detail about wanting to decorate your gaming den, and I thought those would be nice to hang up.

The controller actually came with the SD card and instructions.  I had bought two of them for my Pi cause there was a slight difference and decided after the fact I was cool with the one I had and decided to pass the other one on.  Some people swear by Recalbox as the superior emulation front end for the Pi, but I decided I was okay with Retropie.

[+frankodragon]

I was a Super Secret Santa since I was called at the last minute.  But I also got my stash from my Secret Santa.  (Forgive me for the quality of the photos.  Turns out I'm using a potato for a camera.)

 

Here's everything that was given with presents all wrapped up.  Lot of good treats!  Yum! 

 

 

 

These are my favorite.  I can't eat hard candy as I have a crown and you know how much those cost.

 

 

 

Games!  Lots of crazy weird games and even some big box PC ones too!  The adventure pack has classic Infocom ones!

 

 

 

 

 

A Bubble Bobble mini-arcade!  A great addition to my mini arcade collection!

 

 

 

And finally, some manga books!  I also collect these but I do believe these are ones I never seen before!

 

 

 

I must of been good this year so thanks so much AA Secret Santa!  

[carlsson]

1 hour ago, CaptainBreakout said:

Original rainbow apple logo too. Just excellent.  Apple ][ Infinitum!

I know someone who has an original Apple ][ coffee mug with the rainbow logo, well used but no damage. Most likely he picked it up 40+ years ago. I wonder what the market value is on a such item, or if there are plenty enough of the original merch even if he could provide proper provenance of its age.

[CaptainBreakout]

12 hours ago, HoshiChiri said:

 

?

 ? 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!

...

- my first NES homebrew!

...

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! 

 

Couple of notes...

 

Yeah, that understanding anime book taught me a lot.  I read it when I worked at an animation school, back when it was new.  I'm sure it's super dated now, but it really helped demystify a lot of Japanese culture and mindset, so I got a lot out of it.

 

Check out the manual in Nebs 'N Debs, the author signed it for you -and didn't call you Michael!

 

... And speaking of Japan. Good luck with the J PS2 games. I agree, that controller is amazing!  I was surprised the single US release of Beatmania that supports the controller is htf and expensive -the aftermarket price approachs a used Japanese PS2, and that's without the controller. There's way more titles for the DJ controller that were Japan-only, and they seem to be available for a reasonable price.  I wasn't sure if you already had a method to play Japanese region games, but I figured if you didn't you'd probably enjoy figuring it out somehow.

 

[HoshiChiri]

9 hours ago, CaptainBreakout said:

Check out the manual in Nebs 'N Debs, the author signed it for you -and didn't call you Michael!

Oooo! *runs to check* and there's stickers too! Awesome!

9 hours ago, CaptainBreakout said:

I wasn't sure if you already had a method to play Japanese region games, but I figured if you didn't you'd probably enjoy figuring it out somehow.

Definitely- right now I'm debating between 'finding an appropriate swap magic setup' and 'buy an import console'. Swap magic let's me put my current spare ps2 to use, but is by far the harder option to come by. An import machine gives me access to ps1 titles & a chance to get my joytech lcd set up properly- but means I'll have a very superfluous 3rd ps2 hanging around. Decisions!

[emerson]

21 hours ago, HoshiChiri said:

I'm gonna be spending today looking into how to play imports (as there is a spare PS2 slim floating around here!)

Besides maybe the swap trick, I am unsure how to boot imports without modding your console. I was able to load both Rez (J) and Beatmania 9thStyle (J) on my PS2 slim with Free McBoot + Open PS2 Loader via a network share folder on my pc. Gameplay seems to run very smooth for both games.

 

If you go the FMCB route and need a hand setting things up shoot me a PM as this was not a straight forward task.

[SoulBlazer]

So did everybody get all their stuff safe and sound, post office issues and rescue secret santas and all that?

And how cool is that the big man himself Al sent a rescue package?  I almost want my person next year to miss me.

[CaptainBreakout]

I think we're all feeling pretty good about it.  There's one package still in the mail that I'm aware of (to a member other than adamchevy).

 

Loved seeing all these pictures.  I think there's a few members we haven't heard from and hoping they will post pics too.  We'll see.  But yeah, I think this was a success, and the one member that needed a rescue, well... That worked out so well that I see the validity of the post above ?.

[Hydro Thunder]

Just want to say that I am extra overjoyed at my haul!  I had heard that Castle Crisis for 5200 was amazing, but I never quite was ready to pull the trigger.  I was just never a huge fan of Warlords and though I'd watched videos of CC, the game just didn't jump out at me.  But people were just raving and raving...and lo and behold, I got it via Secret Santa.  So I get to playing it.  And playing it.  And Playing It.  AND PLAYING IT.  And WTH am I doing posting this when I could be playing Castle Crisis????!!!??!?  I MUST BE INSANE!!   It's really that good, OMG.  

So I know the 5200 is a...system with "personality", it's true.  But get yourself one, and this game (and get a controller that works and/or have Best Electronics refurb it with their lifetime guarantee).  You will not regret it.  (and then get an AtariMax and become a 5200 addict heh).  

 

Merrrrrrrry Christmas!!!

 

 

[bomberpunk]

I received my package today. Inside was a nice Christmas card and a sweet retro Tiger Electronics X-MEN handheld LCD game, one of the four rereleases. I had bought Sonic 3 already for myself and The Little Mermaid for my oldest daughter, so this was a perfect choice!

 

Thank you, Secret Santa!!

 

And thanks to Chicgamer & CaptainBreakout for letting me in on this year's swap even though I was very late in the game.

 

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy new Year, and all that jazz!

Edited December 28, 2020 by bomberpunk

[carlsson]

Yes, big thanks to our hosts @CaptainBreakout and @chicgamer for carrying on with the Secret Santa tradition! Hopefully we can do it all again in a year.

The schedule probably was right, and better that some of us received our packages in weeks advance than waiting till the last minute with the risk of getting nothing.

I suppose if everyone who participated peacefully the previous year get pinged early on, fewer risk missing out signing up in time.

[ClassicGMR]

On 12/29/2020 at 2:26 AM, carlsson said:

Yes, big thanks to our hosts @CaptainBreakout and @chicgamer for carrying on with the Secret Santa tradition!

^ ^ ^ ^

THIS

[+chicgamer]

I want to thank all of you for making Secret Santa 2020 successful! Other than one member who didn't follow through with his commitment, everyone did a great job this year (including getting the vast majority of the gifts to people in time for Christmas), and you all made it so much easier for CaptainBreakout and me to coordinate. I've loved seeing people post what they received (if you haven't done so yet, please consider doing so!).

 

Is it weird that I'm already thinking about things I'd like to do for my recipient for Secret Santa 2021?  

[ClassicGMR]

36 minutes ago, chicgamer said:

I want to thank all of you for making Secret Santa 2020 successful! Other than one member who didn't follow through with his commitment, everyone did a great job this year (including getting the vast majority of the gifts to people in time for Christmas), and you all made it so much easier for CaptainBreakout and me to coordinate. I've loved seeing people post what they received (if you haven't done so yet, please consider doing so!).

Loved it! No offense to Grig - who is still awesome btw - there was nothing lost in transition that I could see from this side of the table. I am waiting for one last box to be verified. I'm afraid that it may have been mis-shipped? I asked @adamchevyto check.

 

36 minutes ago, chicgamer said:

Is it weird that I'm already thinking about things I'd like to do for my recipient for Secret Santa 2021?  

Hell no. I start buying Christmas items on the 26th when they go 1/2 off and I shop throughout the year. This year's was a little difficult because I shipped overseas and had to buy everything last minute but normally in previous years I am already done by July (not just SS... all my Xmas shopping is usually done by July or August. Learned it from mom). Nothing I had would have been compatible though.

 

Hope you enjoyed your gifts @carlsson!! Was a pleasure finding items that would fit your list.

Edited December 31, 2020 by ClassicGMR

[carlsson]

If there is something I'm amazed about, it is how much merchandise and stocking stuffers many of you seem to have or easily can get access to. I understand this is something one can amass over the year, if the right opportunities come along. Of course various DIY also is possible to prepare and hope that it can be adapted to fit the recipient.

[DrMooCowz]

58 minutes ago, carlsson said:

If there is something I'm amazed about, it is how much merchandise and stocking stuffers many of you seem to have or easily can get access to. I understand this is something one can amass over the year, if the right opportunities come along. Of course various DIY also is possible to prepare and hope that it can be adapted to fit the recipient.

In my particular case, I'm pretty good at selling my duplicates and extras ASAP, which doesn't help for Secret Santa time.  My 2 years with Secret Santa, I buy all the gifts "minty fresh" from local game stores or online, and hope that I'm on point with the info provided and not buying duplicates. I can definitely appreciate when my recipient can give A LOT of detail about what they want, especially since I know it's basically impossible for my family to shop for me and know it's complicated to worry about repros and all that stuff.

[CaptainBreakout]

Happy New Year everyone!

     Yes, I know I had a blast.  It was a pleasure co-organizing this with chicgamer, and coordinating with everyone here (there were some adventure moments too... the night of sending half the santa assignments during a planned-power-outage was particularly challanging, but it came with a nice amplified sense of accomplishment).  I want to echo chicgamer's sentiments... I loved seeing the pictures and reading the thrills from the members on opening.  During the time when members were building their packages, the thrills that could be felt were great to experience.

    I'm happy things works out so well.  I know it helped splitting the work up, not only was there a lot for one person, but it helpped a lot with keeping deadlines, addressing issues that popped up, and having two pairs of eyes on most things.  (So Thank you chicgamer! -got your card yesterday too, much appreciated!!)

   And big thanks to all the members. Your spirit of giving is inspiring and a pure pleasure to see. I feel honored to be part of this.
 

[roberto]

8 hours ago, chicgamer said:

Is it weird that I'm already thinking about things I'd like to do for my recipient for Secret Santa 2021?  

? I think this year the bar was set very high and many in the group really went well beyond what was expected! It will be challenging to meet expectations next year!

But I guess many of us are ready for new challenges...

 

In the meantime, have a safe and sound (and playful too) new year!!!