fergojisan

Wow, I realized that I've been a member for a few months now (but not very active) but haven't formally introduced myself.

You might recognize my handle from AtariAge. I looooooooooove my 7800 (I'm lucky enough to have one that plays *everything* that it theoretically should, including all the Activision carts and even the Supercharger) and in fact will soon be sharing something that hopefully you 7800 fans will enjoy. Started out with an Atari 2600 4-switcher on Christmas 1982 and have never given it up. I'm not into modern games; they bore me.

I'm a music guy. Amateur musician (guitar, bass, harmonica, bit of piano) and obsessed with the music of The Beatles and Brian Wilson.

Other stuff about me?? Uhh....

Age: 42
Locale: Chicago (and I mean *Chicago*, not a suburb!)
Occupation: web site developer (in fact, if you live in the US, there's a good chance you've actually run some of my code!)
Pets: a beagle
Marital status: very happily married for 17 years
Children: No, thank you.
Religion: Christian but I don't go to church as often as I "should" and I generally keep my religion to myself and don't get preachy -- what works for me works for me, what works for you works for you;
Politics: liberal but I don't associate with any political parties as I feel they're all equally crooked, just in different ways (I always do vote though)
Favorite Atari 2600 game (offically sanctioned): wow, too hard to choose...Jr. Pac-Man is up there (I've been a major Pac-Man fan since 1981), and I've been getting into Megamania and Communist Mutants From Space! lately...
Favorite Atari 2600 homebrew: tie between Ladybug and lately have been getting into Space Rocks
Favorite Atari 7800 game (officially sanctioned): Food Fight by a landslide!
Favorite Atari 7800 homebrew: wow...too hard to pick just one...I love Bob DeCrescenzo's Frenzy/Berzerk twofer and have kinda been getting hooked on K.C. Munchkin! lately
Atari 2600 Coleco conspiracy beliefs: shut up, there's no conspiracy there!
Favorite arcade game: again, too much to name, but I've really been getting into Pigskin lately (and have a TG world record on the "turbo" version of Jr. Pac-Man!)

Oh, and to answer the question that will probably be asked of everybody:

- My handle comes from the character played by Bill Faggerbakke on the TV show Coach, because when I was in college, people told me I looked just like "that guy from Coach" -- and I worked for the college's football team, which just further encouraged the association.   And I use Charley Chuck as my avatar because I kinda look like an obese version of him.
I...think that's about it for now...anyway, I've gotten some really great welcomes already, so thanks, everybody!

So a new episode is out, effective, oh...ten minutes ago.
 
http://fab4it.com/piefactory/audio/PFP_Episode044.mp3

For the 2600 carts, what are your label preferences? I mean quality, not variants.

Yes! Time to Represent again just like you did in Kaboom!   

In the book, "Art of Atari" by Tim Lapetino, the following info appears on page 264:
 
 
 
 
Both Vendel and Goldberg are mentioned in the acknowledgements section, so it seems their book of errors has started to contaminate others.  At least Lapetino states the crown was "allegedly" awarded (since, as I mentioned, no evidence has been shown to prove it ever happened).
 
There's also some neat promotional artwork for the Philosopher's Stone that appears in his book, as well as a nice copy of the AirWorld box art:

I've done more research on the SwordQuest games than anyone else in the hobby.   Here's my SwordQuest Revisited article, which is a compilation of everything to date:
 
http://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/articles/swordquest_revisited/swordquest_revisited.html
 
I also recovered the SwordQuest Archive of Adventure website that Lafe Travis created in 1997, which featured Russy Perry Jr.'s solutions for the first 3 games in the series which originally appeared in the 2600 Connection newsletter:
 
http://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/articles/swordquest_archive_of_adventure/swordquest_solutions.html
 
My Revisited article was meant to be a companion to the AoA. I also created the interview webpage for the Michael Rideout interview (on Digital Press).
 
After reading Eric Grundhauser's article (which btw, features some of my photos but doesn't credit me for them) and seeing that he quoted Vendel and Goldberg, who are less historians and more historical revisionists, I expected it would include some incorrect and/or unproven "facts".
 
 
In the Volume 2, Number 10 issue of Atari Life (Atari's internal newsletter), CED Product Manager Joel Oberman claimed more than half a million EarthWorld cartridges were sold in the U.S., and of those, only 1% - 5,000 - were semi-finalists.
 
According to Robert Ruiz Jr., who created the "Adventurer's Club" in 1984, over 4,000 entered the contest.
 
 
 
Should have said neither were either completed.
 
 
 
 
Was this confirmed with Bell himself?  If so, why is there no proof of it online?  Why has this never been mentioned anywhere?  As of now, it has NOT been confirmed.
   
   
  Again, where's the proof behind this statement?  If someone won a $25,000 crown, you better believe we would have heard about it before now, either from the person who won it or someone who knows them.  Also, the SwordQuest Challenge was a nationally-advertised contest.  Vendel's claim that the WaterWorld contest had to be completed for the sole reason the game was released and people submitted entries for it doesn't ring true because the contest was comprised of FOUR games.  Each game's contest was part of reaching the overall contest- to win the sword!  Why else would Atari have paid off the winners of the EarthWorld and FireWorld contests if they legally didn't have to (because AirWorld was never released)?   From Michael Rideout:    
  So if Atari indeed had some "super secret" playoff, what of the rumor of Atari paying off the WaterWorld finalists?   If Atari paid off the 10 finalists at least $2,000 each, that would be nearly as much as what the Crown was valued at!   But again, no finalists have ever come forward to corroborate this semi-secret, non-public playoff, and IMO until someone does, this is just another unfounded rumor.   Finally, as to the whereabouts of the remaining prizes, there lies the ultimate rumor.    
  The Philosopher's Stone was housed in an 18K gold box, but the stone itself was actually a large piece of white jade, and not something that could be "smelted back down".  If the remaining prizes ended up back with the Franklin Mint, I'm surprised nobody there would have the foresight to hold on to them because, even though their base materials would always fluctuate in value, the prizes themselves would have eventually been worth more, being they would always be unique, one-of-a-kind items.    
  For one thing, that rumor stems from Vendel himself, from a post Vendel made on the rec.games.video.classic newsgroup back in 1998:   http://tinyurl.com/lqcybvk    
Curt Vendel   4/13/98   Other recipients: ah...@freenet.carleton.ca   Hi Bill,     Go to www.atari.nu, goto the Atari Archives Section and read the Other Atari Projects area titled: Atari SwordQuest, you'll find out quite a bit, also if you decide to play the game, there is also a link to the SwordQuest Solution Site, also go to www.atarihq.com, there is an interview with the winner of the Fireworld contest.      In breif, Earthworld and Fireworld were widely released, both contests were run, WaterWorld was only released to Atari Club members through Atari Age magazine, since it was released in limited quantities and the company was in the middle of being sold, the Waterworld contest was cancelled, as to what happened to the crown prize is unknown, AirWorld was never started and as for the Knowledge Stone prize, that too is unknown.   However I found out several months ago from a close friend of Jack Tramiel the former owner of Atari, that the $50,000 sword of ultimate power is hanging over his fireplace in his home in California.   Curt     So which story is it, and who was involved?  Was the unnamed person a close friend or an Atari employee?  What's the person's name?  Were they a man or a woman?  lol  He offered no other information other than it was a close friend... or an Atari employee.  In my experience, you need to identify your source(s) of information, so that others can independently verify the information, because without that, your story is just that - a story - and it has no value or meaning.   Vendel also claimed in his RGVC post that the WaterWorld contest was cancelled and that AirWorld was never started.  See my Revisited article for statements from Tod Frye regarding how far he got with programming AirWorld (20% completed, by his estimate):   http://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/articles/swordquest_revisited/swordquest_revisited.html#aw   All I know is, if Tod Frye - the person who CREATED the SwordQuest contest to begin with believes the prizes ended up with Jack Tramiel, then until I see some definite proof otherwise, at this time that's the story.   Lastly, the Atari-Warner Bros.-Franklin Mint connection was found by John Hardie, as he mentioned in his Michael Rideout interview:    
   

WOW, thanks so much guys!!!! I will hit ALL of you up at the end of December. Didn't expect any responses this fast, now this amount. HAHAHA You guys rule!!!!

That's the part I hadn't heard about, but I can't tell if Curt is speculating or not.

I really need to get off my butt and get in on these.

Ha! I was cleaning up in the kitchen and working on hooking my systems back up in my game room, listening the whole time.
 
I had forgotten about the (only) skit I did (will ever do). Your skit was hilarious and made me cackle out loud quite a few times. Thanks for that and for all the kind words.

Ha! I was cleaning up in the kitchen and working on hooking my systems back up in my game room, listening the whole time.
 
I had forgotten about the (only) skit I did (will ever do). Your skit was hilarious and made me cackle out loud quite a few times. Thanks for that and for all the kind words.

For the 2600 carts, what are your label preferences? I mean quality, not variants.

You listened to the whole thing already?
That's crazy!!! 

For the 2600 carts, what are your label preferences? I mean quality, not variants.

Thank you Phil! Great listening all the way through, but I will miss it. First things first.

I really need to get off my butt and get in on these.

Episode 130 features Keystone Kapers by Activision. Thanks so much for listening!
 
http://traffic.libsyn.com/2600gamebygamepodcast/130_-_Keystone_Kapers_by_Activision.mp3

I really need to get off my butt and get in on these.

I really need to get off my butt and get in on these.

Episode 130 features Keystone Kapers by Activision. Thanks so much for listening!
 
http://traffic.libsyn.com/2600gamebygamepodcast/130_-_Keystone_Kapers_by_Activision.mp3

I really need to get off my butt and get in on these.

Thank you for having a cool site to shout out

Episode 130 features Keystone Kapers by Activision. Thanks so much for listening!
 
http://traffic.libsyn.com/2600gamebygamepodcast/130_-_Keystone_Kapers_by_Activision.mp3

Up on Ebay:  http://www.ebay.com/itm/291930793389
 
Cool stuff, though I don't think it's worth anywhere near what it's listed at.  The seller even copied the text and a photo from one of my articles:  http://www.2600connection.com/faq/vcs_nr/vcs_nr.html#combattwo
 
Michel Allaire also did the box art for VCS RealSports Baseball and RealSports Football.
 

Thank you for having a cool site to shout out