Justin

THANK YOU @Willie! THANK YOU @RickR‼️ Let's make this a great one!! 🎅 Very generous of you Rick Letssss dooo thisssss! This is what it's all about

Yes @RickR! I'm starting to really LOVE this concept of arcade games in the home! Neo-Geo really knocked it out of the park! I wish I had appreciated this more at the time, but even back then I was so focused on classic games, and being that I've never been into fighting games and that seemed to be the overwhelming majority of Neo-Geo games, I made the unfortunate mistake of overlooking the beautifully detailed 2-D pixel shoot-‘em-ups, the gorgeous puzzle games, and other incredible arcade classics that made it to the Neo-Geo. I love those Neo-Geo controllers! I think the original Neo-Geo arcade stick will always be my favorite controller of ANY video game system, and the handheld control pads with their clicky thumb sticks are heaven on earth. I'm thrilled to see that you have a Neo-Geo mini arcade! Hopefully you might be able to participate if we do a Neo-Geo Squad Challenge next year! I think there's really a lot about Neo-Geo for Atari players to appreciate! Especially since it was a rogue system that would have filled the “home console” gap for Atari players during the broad span between the Atari 7800 and the Atari Jaguar

A breaking news update from our old friend @nosweargamer

Thank you @RickR that means a lot. That's precisely the sort of vibe we've always tried to curate for our little community

HO! HO! HO! Atari I/O Secret Santa 2021! $30 Max spend on gifts, $20 Min spend Please wrap your presents & make this fun! Include a thoughtful card or note! Presents must pertain to classic video games or retro culture Sign up by Thanksgiving, November 25th! Package must arrive by Wednesday, December 22, 2021 HO! HO! HO! It's time for our 7th Annual Atari I/O Secret Santa! If you'd like to be part of Secret Santa this year please respond below saying that you'd like to participate! Please include a link to your Want List in your post or a list of game systems you collect for along with any other wishes that your Santa can help make come true. Time is short to sign up! The last day to sign up is Thanksgiving, November 25th, 2021! This will give all of us time enough to take advantage of Black Friday Deals! Names will be impartially selected and we'll send you a PM with your Secret Santa information no later than Friday, November 26th, 2021. Have your wishlist ready to go! You might also want to include a list of general interests (Atari 2600, NES, Action Figures, Comics, Mini consoles, a new watch). Remember, you might not get something super specific on your list if it's hard to find. Offering broader suggestions may help inspire your Secret Santa with a good idea! We love classic video games and retro items, but finding vintage items in new condition is next to impossible! Therefore, gift items can be purchased USED or REFURBISHED so long as they cost around $30. Your Secret Santa package can be comprised of more than one gift, again - so long as the total value is around $30 and you've put together a gift package that you feel would be magical! (i.e. Please don't send a box of "junk", nobody wants a lump of coal in their stocking!) Let's make this special! The presents you send should be gift wrapped. It would be okay to send an item without gift wrapping if you were ordering from an Atari vendor, Amazon or eBay and wanted to have it shipped directly to your Secret Santa's house to avoid paying twice for shipping. We encourage you to gift wrap your presents whenever possible! We love creating magical holiday memories for our friends in the Forums. We're like a small town here, a warm community of friends with shared interests. For some of us who may have to sacrifice to make a special Christmas for our families, this may end up being the only presents we get to open. If you'd like to participate in Secret Santa this year but may not have the means, please send me a PM and we will try to find a way to help. If you're unable to participate in Secret Santa this year, please consider a donation to a deserving charity of your choice. Here are a few of our favorite charities, hand-picked by Atari I/O Members over the past several years: From @RickR — A donation to the Oregon Food Bank From @Atari Creep — A donation to Walk to End Alzheimer's From @StormSurge — A donation to StormSurge's "Extra Life" Campaign for the Children's Miracle Network From @Justin — A donation to the South Carolina Federation Center of the Blind Sign up by Thanksgiving, November 25th, 2021! Happy Holidays to All!

I've become increasingly more interested in the Neo•Geo recently, and have taken another look at the wild history of the Neo•Geo "Gold" AES System, the MVS Arcade system, and the fate of SNK. It's incredible to think that at the height of "Nintendo-mania" and the beginning of the bitwars, here comes this "industrial strength 24-Bit" arcade machine that had been consolized first for hotel rentals and then for the home. Like the greatest urban legends, the "Neo•Geo Gold System" achieved this legendary status as this epic thing everyone talked about but nobody had actually seen in person. Here are a few compelling videos telling the Story of Neo•Geo that I thought I'd share with you:

@Atari Creep had some nice coverage of the Atari XP games as well:

Industries Lorenzo (iL) used to manufacture the Happ buttons for many years. Unfortunately Suzo-Happ ended that relationship and has their new buttons made in China which are of a lesser quality. Of the two, I prefer the Industries Lorenzo buttons.

Delicious 🤤

Maybe you can find a way to emulate? It's coming up soon! Might be a good time to get in some practice and sharpen those zero-gravity racing skills

The gruesome story of Phineas Gage:

Growing up playing games in Chuck E. Cheese's, Tower Pizza and my local arcade, I always loved the responsive feel of the leaf spring buttons and joysticks on arcade games. It wasn't just the feel of pizza grease on the joystick, it was that nice, solid "click" that you felt with these machines. The responsiveness, the click, the firmness of the extra strong springs. Most of these buttons, as I would come to find out later in life, were Happ buttons. As I began to play a greater variety of arcade games, particularly the Japanese "Candy Cabs", I noticed a distinct difference in buttons and joysticks. If you own an arcade machine or have ever built or modified your own arcade stick, you're probably familiar with the different feel and responsiveness of these buttons - and why what might work great for one game, may not be the best choice for another! If you're new to arcade sticks or arcade machines, this will be useful! Let's take a look at a side-by-side comparison of the differences between joysticks and buttons offered by the three major manufacturers: Seimitsu, Sanwa, and Suzo-Happ:

I get the feeling we may see SwordQuest AirWorld released, or possibly a nice little box set of all four games. What would be really nice is if they could "fix" E.T. and release something incredibly fun and engaging for the 2600

Great to see you pick this up @RickR!! I think the Jeff Minter Collection for Atari Jaguar will give you a lot of fun afternoons for years to come. @RickR I really like the Space Invaders characters on your wall! Did you make those?

Of course! It's great to have you in Squad, @greenween!! 🍻 EGGGSSSSAACTTTLLLYY what we set out to build! A nice place to hang out and chill at the end of the day, surrounded by likeminded friends who "get it" That's what it's all about! Let's make it happen ☺️ So glad to hear that @RickR!! It's been fun trying out new game variations of tried-and-true games 👍 🥳 Absolutely! Congrats to our doctor on board @TrekMD That's a nice observation. I never really thought of it like that, but I think these style games can have tremendous potential for stress relief. I play classic games almost exclusively. I think maybe subconsciously this is one reason why! And why we try to make Atari I/O a fun and stress-free experience for all! You had a heck of a score @chas10e!! When you first put up that score I thought "Yeah I think I can beat that". Boy I was wrong! Cheers to all!!

Let's get the word out about this High Score Squad Challenge! The more people participating the more fun the challenge! Spread the word and invite friends to play!

Sonic Spinball Sega Genesis Controller: CONTROL PAD / KEYBOARD / PLAYER'S CHOICE Difficulty Level: FAST Play on: Real Hardware / Dedicated Console / Emulation OK! ✔ Squad Challenge ends 11:59 pm PST November 30, 2021 Objective Play for the highest possible score using the difficulty settings defined in the challenge. Post a photo or YouTube video of your score in this thread. Scores must be achieved between November 15th through November 30th, 2021. Screen captures are not allowed as they are more easily manipulated for falsified scores. Multiple submissions are permitted. The player with the highest score at the end of the competition is the victor! Eligibility Anyone can join in. All players are welcome! Play Rules Games may be played on real hardware, Flashback / Mini console, or emulation, using any controller or keyboard, following all rules and game settings defined in the challenge. Choosing between real hardware or emulation, and choosing which controller to play on is part of formulating your strategy. Enhancements, rewinds and hacked versions of this game are not allowed. "FAST" Difficulty Level OPTIONS > SPEED > FAST. We are playing Sonic Spinball on the "FAST" Difficulty Setting. To do this, select "OPTIONS" in the lower right corner of the Title Screen, then change "SPEED" to "FAST" Fair Play Your integrity is everything. Players should play fairly, be honest, and have fun! Falsified scores will result in your immediate removal from the site. It goes without saying that we will not allow cheats, hacks, cartridge frying, enhancements, rewinds, deceitful photo manipulation, subterfuge, or any other unfair advantage. Everybody hates a cheater. More To review detailed rules on how to play, please visit the High Score Squad page here: Message Welcome to our 112th Squad Challenge!!! For this challenge we're playing one of the most fun games from the world of Sonic the Hedgehog! Sonic Spinball was released in 1994 during the height of the Sega Genesis and the raging 16-Bit Wars of the '90s! Sonic Spinball is an amazing twist, creating a "Pinball Platformer" with very unique gameplay! Whenever I play Jinks on Atari 7800 or hear it derided by critics, I always think of Sonic Spinball and how Sega "figured it out" and got it just right. I hope you guys enjoy Sonic Spinball on Sega Genesis! I always like to do at least one Sega Genesis game every year in High Score Squad, and Sonic Spinball will be a fun way to mix things up. ROM and PDF Instruction Manual are provided below. Get those 3-button Control Pads out and warm up that Blast Processor! WELCOME TO THE NEXT LEVEL! NOTE: Here's a look at what's coming up through the end of the year: December: 2021 F-ZERO Championship, plus a game for Atari Jaguar! Plus many more great games in 2022! (Schedule subject to change) Sonic Spinball.pdf Sonic Spinball.md

Congratulations chas10e! Congratulations to @chas10e on becoming our new "Progressive" Super Breakout Squad Champion! Chas10e hit a home run with his stellar score of 1,919 points! Absolutely killer score and a decisive win! And a big congratulations to everybody on all those incredible scores across the board! Awesome to have so many of you jumping in and participating in this Challenge for one of the most epic Atari 2600 games ever. My score of 1,526 points secured the 2nd Place in our Final Standings for "Progressive" Super Breakout. @AtariSphinx was hot on my tail with a sizzling score of 1,424 points, taking our 3rd Place spot, and @RickR was right behind him taking 4th Place with 1,408 points. I was thrilled to see we had really tremendous participation for this Squad Challenge! @Atari 5200 Guy @greenween @Dinobot711 @Sabertooth @Gianna @Atari Creep and @TrekMD all joined us in our "Progressive" Breakout Squad Challenge and shared terrific high scores! Also, this week we welcomed back the "Original Mayor" of Atari I/O and absolute High Score Squad legend @greenween who joined us for this Challenge! Old-timers may remember @greenween is an "I/O OG" who joined us in the Summer of 2014 along with @RickR @Sabertooth @Atari Creep and a few others who were active as soon as the new Forums went online, and became the heart of the party in the chat and in our earliest Squad Challenges. It's great to have you participating in High Score Squad @greenween!! Everybody's glad you're here! WELCOME!! Our new Achievement Badges have been a real hit in the forums. Each one of you have now been awarded the "Paddle Squad" Badge for playing in a Paddle Squad Challenge! We will hand these out occasionally as "nerd cred" for playing in special events! Also, another Badge has been created for when you win a Paddle Squad challenge -- the "Paddle Champ" Badge! Each of these badges are handed out one time to each player the first time they play in a Paddle Squad Challenge or win 1st Place in our Final Standings. As always I'd like to encourage @chas10e to post his high score on the Scoreboard, and let's make sure this Challenge continues on! Congratulations to Chas, and a big congratulations to our community for being such a great group to spend time with, I hope everybody had fun playing "Progressive" Super Breakout! NOTE: Our next High Score Squad Challenge is for the Sega Genesis Be there!

My New High Score: 1,526 Best I can do ☺️