[2017 COLECO Retro Gaming & Collectible Toy Expo]

Has there ever been a convention dedicated solely to Coleco stuff before? 

[Nintendo Announces the Mini-NES, w/ 30 Classic Games]

This is why nobody should ever pay more than retail for the thing. There will be plenty of em. Just give it time

My second option was going to be buying a Raspberry Pi and giving that to my daughter instead. I think she still would have been mildly disappointed though as the look and feel of "Nintendo" would have been missing.

[Games for Trade]

NSG yes please, I'll do the extra buck for the manual too. I believe you still have my address from our last transaction? If not let me know will PM you. Money should be in your PP shortly!

[Games for Trade]

I'm interested in Smurf, Dodge Em, and Flag Capture; not sure if there's anything on my trade list you're interested in, if not I'm willing to do cash if that works?

[100 Atari 2600 Games Ranked From Worst to Best!]

I was shocked to see Vanguard, Galaxian, and Raiders ranked so low, especially lower than Math Grand Prix! But hey everyone has their own taste :-)

 

Loved this video!

[7800 Homebrew Reviews]

The Colecovision has an awesome version of Frenzy, and it's actually even better than this one. Although the CV version doesn't have speech, or Berzerk, or the co-op 2 player modes, I still find the CV version to be more fun. There aren't slow-downs like in this version and there are added fun screen designs not in the arcade version. Also, the CV version is more colorful.

 

I rate the 7800 version 4 out of 5 stars. A lot of fun.

CV has bgm which helps IMO. I kind of view them as even because the two player co-op is really fun for me on the 7800 version.

[Nintendo Announces the Mini-NES, w/ 30 Classic Games]

They are so much smaller when you see them in person.... I think the color and the packaging had my Action Set I got in 1990 in my head as far as box size was concerned, but the thing is about as big as a small dictionary. 

[Nintendo Announces the Mini-NES, w/ 30 Classic Games]

Got mine at Best Buy this morning, showed up about 9:15, they had 26 of them. I was number 22

[What Are The 5 Best & 5 Worst 7800 Games? (Not Including Homebrews)]

You know, I see Dark Chambers getting a ton of love, but I played it last weekend making it to level N or something like that, on standard difficulty, and it was soooo slow... We were playing 2 players, and it felt like there wasn't enough stuff to kill, and not enough food lying around to replenish health. I found myself wishing we would have fired up the NES and played Gauntlet II instead.

 

What am I missing with this game? I have the 2600 version as well, and that one impresses me more because that's about as good as you can do a Gauntlet type game on the 2600. The 7800 version though, while it looks good, just feels too slow for what the system can do.

[What Are The 5 Best & 5 Worst 7800 Games? (Not Including Homebrews)]

This list is out of my collection and what I've played on real hardware:

 

1. Food Fight - This game is unique to Atari, and really fun to play.

2. Ms. Pac Man - I can't fire up my 7800 without playing it.

3. Centipede - Very close to the arcade, and the two player modes add to the fun and excitement!

4. Dig Dug - I have a million ways to play this game, from the Famicom version to the Namco collections on just about every console, but the 7800 version is my favorite.

5. Joust - This is really a three way tie for me, because I feel like I could put Asteroids or Robotron here too. This is another game that I can play a million ways, but I find myself enjoying the 7800 version the most. Great controls, graphics, and even sound.

 

5 worst (1 is the worst of the worst, etc)

 

1. Impossible Mission - I can't tolerate a bugged game that is literally impossible to beat. It just sits on my shelf.

2. Tower Toppler - To quote Classic Game Room: "There are two types of people who play Tower Toppler: People who hate fun, and people who hate themselves."

3. Crack'ed - I hate games that should use a light gun but don't.

4. Karateka - The controls and pace are terrible.

5. Jinks - I never play this game, and if I did I would fire up Super Breakout instead.

[Best Lynx Games]

Rampart and S.T.U.N. Runner

I tried S.T.U.N Runner the other day, and at first I wasn't impressed or that into it, but once I got a few levels in I really enjoyed it! I'll definitely be playing it again at some point.

[Replacing the CV controller knob with a ball]

When I had my wife's Colecovision modded by Yurkie over on the AtariAge forums, I had him do this mod to the controllers, and I agree, it really does help with responsiveness and overall control. Been happy with ours so far.

[Starbuck Games for Trade]

So here are the games I have for trade (as of 11/10/2017):

 

Atari 2600:

 

Asteroids x 2

Battlezone

Centipede

Cosmic Ark

Combat (text label)

Combat (art label)

Donkey Kong

Frogger x 2

G.I. Joe Cobra Strike

Homerun

Outlaw

Pac Man (Atari label)

Pac Man (Sears label)

Q*Bert

Space Invaders (text label) x 2

Space Invaders (art label) x 2

Space Shuttle

Star Raiders (cart only)

Wizard of Wor

Zaxxon

 

Atari 7800

 

One on One Basketball (box is sealed; cellophane is slightly torn at the bottom)

Colecovision:

Zaxxon (no label)

Super Action Baseball Score Pad

 

C64:

Speed/Bingo Math

 

GBC:

Legend of Zelda - Oracle of Seasons

 

Intellivision:

Armor Battle (loose no overlays)

Boxing (loose no overlays)

Night Stalker (cracked case on side, cart still functions, loose no overlays)

Shark! Shark! (loose no overlays)

He-Man Manual

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Starbuck list of wish]

Atari 2600:

 

Montezuma's Revenge

HERO

Private Eye

Cosmic Commuter

Beamrider

River Raid II

Double Dragon

Rampage

Mr Do

Stellar Track

Tapper

 

 

Atari 7800:

Ninja Golf

Ikari Warriors

Commando

Double Dragon

Mario Bros

 

Colecovision:

Pitfall

Pitfall II

Cabbage Patch Kids

HERO

Spy Hunter

Galaxian

BC II

Roc N Rope

Tapper

Star Trek: SOS

Star Wars the Arcade Game

Time Pilot

Turbo

Tutenkham

 

Intellivision:

Dracula

Sub Hunt

Tron Solar Sailer

Tutankham

 

Atari 5200:

The Dreadnaught Factor

 

NES:

Uncharted Waters

 

SNES:

Yoshi’s Island

F-Zero

[The Atari.io collective 2600 joystick collection]

One more... Suncom TAC-2.

 

I'd rate this one pretty high. It has a nice tight feel to it. Feels very high quality. I like it better than the Wico's.

I have two of these that I picked up for 5 bucks a piece at a local retro shop a few years back. They are by far the best stick I've used. I use them on my 7800 as well as with my Colecovision paired with adapter cables I bought from Paul Nurminen a while back.

 

I also have some CX-40's (one in a white box that says Replacement Part CX-40, I'll have to post a pic sometime), my CX-24's that came with my 7800 that I despise, some Gemsticks, some Wico bat sticks, and an Epyx XJ500.

 

In order of preference:

 

TAC-2

Wico

Epyx (would rank above the Wico but the microswitch noise can irritate people)

CX-40

Gemstick

 

 

 

 

And if I have to the CX-24 for two button 7800 stuff.

[So excited about a recent pickup!]

Nice find! My in-laws have a copy for the Colecovision; it's a fun game!

[Your Rarest 2600 Game]

Think the rarest stuff I have is a few 5's:

 

Strategy X

Roc N Rope

Frankenstein's Monster (in the mail from NSG!)

 

I have seen Gremlins and Ram It at one of my local game shops but they wanted 20 for Ram It and 25 for Gremlins. I've been willing to spend more money on Atari games now because I've got many of the commons making bargain purchasing more rare, so I might pick one or both of them up next time I'm up there.

[Squad Challenge - Super Breakout (Atari 2600)]

I loved this game as a kid, but it is kind of hard to go back to after playing Arkanoid, which is one of my favorites. Thank you for reminding me of how bad I am at this game.

 

 

My wife loves Arkanoid, and that's what she always says whenever I fire up Super Breakout. "Why don't you play Arkanoid, its better?"

 

I have a copy for the NES, but I don't have the Vaus controller, and they're super expensive these days. Guess I need to mod a set of  Atari paddles to work with my NES :-)

[Celebrated 15 years Anniversary wife my wife tonight!]

Congrats! My wife and I celebrated 13 years married in June, and it'll be 17 total years together the day after Thanksgiving (wow I couldn't believe that when i did the math). Feels like the time flies doesn't it?

[Squad Challenge - Super Breakout (Atari 2600)]

I remember just kicking ass at this game when I was a kid, but I played it a lot back then too. Over the last few years when I play this I can barely clear the first level!

 

Hoping to get some time in with this one this weekend and see if I can even compete... We'll see :-)

[Best Lynx Games]

So for starters, no, I don't have a Lynx, but it is on my wish list. For now, I use Handy PSP on, you guessed it, my PSP. It seems to work very well, and it's allowed me to at least get a glimpse into what I was missing not being one of the proud and few Lynx owners in the 90's.

 

The games I've tried and enjoyed the most so far are Ninja Gaiden, Xenophobe, and my absolute favorite, Chips Challenge. I played Chips Challenge in the Microsoft Entertainment Pack in Windows 3.11 on our 386, and I was geeked to get my hands on the original portable version to play on my PSP.

 

Just looking for more suggestions on what games to try out next?

[Genesis Vs. Mega Drive: Which Name Was Better?]

Personally I prefer the name Genesis, but Mega Drive isn't bad either.

[Console Arcades]

It seems like when I've discussed this concept with people, it's something they've never seen or heard of, so I thought I would mention it here and get some feedback.

 

In the early 90's (like 90-93 or so) there were two different places in my area that I like to call console arcades. They would have tables setup with TV's and a console next to each, and walls of games just like a rental store (and would sometimes allow rental of the games on display). You would pay by the hour, and you could pick any game you wanted to play off the wall, trade the box with the attendant for the game, then take the game, slap it into the console, and play it until you wanted a different game. Both of these places had the NES, the Genesis, Master System, Turbografx 16, and SNES.

 

I loved this concept because it allowed me to experience so many different games and systems that I knew about from magazines, but couldn't afford and that friends didn't have. Alex Kidd on the SMS; played it on a power base converter at one of these places, and I had never seen or played any SMS stuff before that. The TG-16; something I always wanted when I saw it on the pages of EGM, but would have never had the chance to play had it not been for these console arcades.

 

So my question is, was this just some sort of unique phenomenon to my neck of the woods? I did live in a fairly rural county in mid-Michigan, so I think that may be why the owners of these places thought the market was there for this concept. Eventually the two of these arcades went out of business, and I've never seen anything like them since. Just curious if anyone else has seen anything like this?

[Tanks]

A collectible card game is it?

 

I have played many of those, and I do enjoy them even if I can't afford them.

 

Tanks are fun, I've played many hours of Word of Tanks, and some Armored Warfare too.

No, this uses plastic miniatures you assemble. They have another game that preceded it called Flames of War that was larger scale tank battles and used die cast minis, but it was very expensive to get into. This game, you can buy a starter set that comes with 3 tanks for 25 bucks, and single tanks that can often be used in multiple configurations for about 10 bucks each.

 

I play World of Tanks on the Xbox One, and it's probably why I got into this new tabletop game, because they are very similar.

[Retropie on the Pi 1]

Have you updated the retropie emulation station front end? Found in the configuration for the retro pie? Latest vrsions 4.2 I think fixed and I proved a huge amount of emulators under the hood of retro pie.

I'll double check this, but I just downloaded and installed it last week so I thought I was on the current version of everything.