fergojisan

Hello all,
 
I should have started here first but went ahead posting elsewhere.
 
I have been around different Atari forums since '97 - Jaguar Interactive II, Jaguar Sector II, AtariAge, groups on Facebook. Never been banned from anywhere. I just want to talk about the systems and the games - no real penchant or time for personal dramas Names were generally under Shaggy or some variation on that. I haven't really been active on an Atari forum since JS2 closed...I do some occasional posts on AA or a Facebook group here and there.
 
I own the Atari 2600, 5200, 7800, 800XL, XEGS, ST, Lynx, Jaguar and presently 9 Atari arcade games (one of which is their pinball machine Space Riders).
 
Long, long ago when Geocities was a thing I ran a site called "Kingdom Atari". That all seems to have been lost but it was fun for learning HTML and such things. I also ran a site called Castle NUON for a couple of years to discuss and report on that hardware, which felt a lot like the Jaguar 2 that we never got.
 
Currently I operate a site called Arcade Heroes where my focus is on real arcades and the current market surrounding those. Been doing that for 10 years and it is a lot of fun.
 
Professionally I own and operate a business in Utah called the Game Grid Arcade which will turn 9 this year. I also do website design and writing for an arcade distribution business and have done writing for a pinball mod company at the end of last year. I sold arcade games for five years while at a major online distributor but I quit that job last year to move onto brighter, greener pastures. 
 
I look forward to hanging out!

Wow, amazing finds. That Data Age binder is especially sweet. I am totally jelly.

Wow, amazing finds. That Data Age binder is especially sweet. I am totally jelly.

Wow, amazing finds. That Data Age binder is especially sweet. I am totally jelly.

Wow, amazing finds. That Data Age binder is especially sweet. I am totally jelly.

Hey all,
 
I made my first ever YouTube video in order to share the amazing pickups I made last weekend -- it was (in my opinion) worth the 500 mile round-trip!
 

 
I learned a lot by wrestling with a video editor this week... expect improvements next time around. 
 
If you like, you can also follow as I document my collection at AtariSpot on Twitter.  I'll still be uploading interesting new things to my collection thread here, though!
 
Lemme know what you think...

So....here in Chicago there's a place called Old Town School of Folk Music. It's a non-profit organization where, well...you go and take music classes! I've been going there for ten years. I've taken classes for blues harp, fingerpicking, songwriting, stuff like that. Some of the classes they offer are "ensemble" classes, which basically means you and a bunch of other people get together and play songs, and sometimes when the class is over there's a final performance -- often at what they call "graduation," sometimes at an actual performance venue (like a local dive bar or club or something)...

Well...once or twice a year there's "Beach Boys Ensemble." Now...most classes at the Old Town School meet once a week for eight weeks...Beach Boys Ensemble meets for sixteen weeks because, well, that's how hard it is, what with the vocal harmony arrangements and other things that neeed to be worked out -- Brian Wilson just does not have the simplest arrangements in the world!

Soooooo...anyhoo...2016 was the fiftieth anniversary of the Beach Boys' album Pet Sounds, so the Beach Boys Ensemble class was dedicated to that album, and we actually performed the whole thing in front of a paying audience this past June. We played it in one of the performance venues that's actually at the school. And something I found out: whenever there's any kind of ticketed performance at the Old Town School, they record it on the soundboard, unless the artist specifically asks them not to...and I was just given a copy of our performance! woohoo!

The first tune in the YouTube link here is the title track of Pet Sounds, an instrumental that Brian Wilson was planning to offer for use in the movie You Only Live Twice, but he says it was turned down. (Personally, I believe he never even submitted it for consideration.) This...is my debut on lead guitar.   I am SO not a lead guitarist, but I practiced the HELL out of it for weeks on end. I made a few mistakes, but they were minor enough that those who don't know the tune wouldn't even know they were mistakes, and those who *do* know it would think they were just artistic improvisations. It also includes the album's last song, "Caroline, No."

Anyway, just thought I'd share some of my non-gaming life with youse.

https://www.fastcompany.com/3067296/retrology/the-mit-dropouts-who-created-ms-pac-man-a-35th-anniversary-oral-history
 
Some great stuff coming out of interviews with Steve Golson, Doug Macrae, and Mike Horowitz -- all of GCC, the creators of the "Crazy Otto" daughterboard kit that ended up becoming Ms. Pac-Man.  GCC was also behind "Super Missile Attack", the arcade board enhancement kit that prompted the court proceedings with Atari, ultimately leading to GCC working with Midway on the design and release of Ms. Pac-Man.

SWORDQUEST FIREWORLD

You guys are gluttons for punishment, holy cow. This variation made me want to stick a pencil in my eye. I didn't even make it past the first set of asteroids. 

Will the Gemini joystick/paddle controller work on this console?

Street Racer for me. I like the old cars, and I like the symmetrical layout. Just like the game itself.

Street Racer for me. I like the old cars, and I like the symmetrical layout. Just like the game itself.

Street Racer for me. I like the old cars, and I like the symmetrical layout. Just like the game itself.

I guess mine is a tie, SQ Waterworld and Quadrun. SQW is in much better shape though.

SWORDQUEST FIREWORLD

I've gotten about 600 points better on average, which is still less than 2000. I switched to real hardware, which is the way to go for me for this game. No idea if the 2600-daptor has lag, and maybe it's only noticeable in games like this. I did manage to rescue one squiggle on the 2nd screen ONCE, but that was all. I was using the 500 XJ, which doesn't do diagonal well, which I need to try out in those screens.

Well, not really a sale & not everything, but a lot. 
 
Over the next couple of months, I will be moving. My wife & I will be moving to a home that is a lot smaller than where we are now. That's fine (especially since we're moving to my favorite place on Earth, a place I never imagined I would be able to live there, but that's a story for another post) but one major drawback is losing my large man cave area (basically the entire unfinished basement.)
 
Since my new area to play my video games will be much smaller, I need to trim down my collection a bit. I'm not emotionally invested in a lot of the games I've acquired over the years. I never played them in their heyday and since I've had them, I haven't played most, if not all of them. I would much rather these games find loving homes with people who will appreciate them.
 
It's not just games either. There will be some a bunch of things ranging from random pop culture collectibles to DVDs and books.
 
Here's what I'm looking for in return. I would like some 2600 CIB games, none of which would be considered rare. Maybe some games off my wish list or a vintage Star Wars action figure to help round out my collection. I'd also like to build up some sort of honor system future credit for trades down the road. Or technical support if/when one of my systems needs some help running properly.
 
I'll start posting photos & lists of items soon. Unless the shipment is extraordinarily large, I'll cover the shipping to wherever the items are headed. (That's assuming the stuff I'm unloading is wanted!)
 
 

SWORDQUEST FIREWORLD

First off, I should start off by saying I have a good-paying job, but I'm soooooo not rich and am in fact in a heap of debt, but...every Christmas I get myself an expensive Christmas present. A few years ago, for example, I told my loved ones, when asked what I want for birthday/Christmas, I said, "Just Guitar Center gift cards." I amassed a ton and got myself a nice amplifier. Last year I asked the same thing, but Apple Store gift cards...again, amassed a ton and bought a new MacBook Pro (didn't have nearly enough to cover the balance, but it was definitely a good chunk, and I financed the rest and paid it off in just a few months).
 
This year....my expensive Christmas present to myself was actually one of the least expensive "expensive Christmas presents" I got myself: the GPD-XD.
 
if you're not in the know, the GPD-XD is essentially a small quad-core Android tablet rigged up with a video game controller: two (analog?) thumb sticks, a D-pad on the left side, and standard four buttons on the right, as if it were, say, a PSX/Xbox controller. Also contains two shoulder buttons on each side. The unit I got has 32 gigs internal storage, and there's a microSD slot so you can add more. The purpose of its existence is to be a handheld gaming device, and I got it because I wanted some kind of handheld that would emulate a huge variety of systems at full speed and that I could take with me on my commutes to work, flights, etc.
 
I just want to say I hate the Android OS...always did..just so clunky to navigate...but...as a whole, I'm really, really digging this GPD-XD. It comes pre-loaded with a couple of emulators and, I imagine, some ROMs that are either freely distributable or so freaking obscure that nobody would care. Personally, I downloaded MAME4droid, an NES emulator (forgot which one!), an N64 emulator (again, forgot!), a SNES emulator (again, don't remember which one!), and an Atari 2600 emulator (forgot which one again, but there are TONS), all from the Google Play store. I also tried out an Atari 7800 emulator that I couldn't figure out how to get working. :/
 
A few observations:
- I find that I really love the "Kart" games...Mario Kart 64 and Diddy Kong Kart on the N64 are fun and very usable on the device.
- Not the best emulator if you're playing games that depend on a 4-way joystick...like, the Pac-Man games in MAME are a bit touchy; Donkey Kong, too.
- GOOD LORD, THERE ARE SO MANY EFFING MAH JONGG GAMES FOR THE SNES!!! (And some for the N64, which itself has a much smaller library.) And a surprisingly huge number of pachinko games, too!
- The screen is sharp but it's very sensitive to your skin's natural oil. IIRC, the device actually comes with screen protectors; I'll have to look into using 'em. (As it's an Android tablet, it's a touch screen.)
- Only NES game I have on it: the original The Legend of Zelda...which I suck at.
- Really cool -- yet simple -- outer packaging. The front of the box has a drawing of some kid with a caption that has both English and Kanji writing. The English writing says, "When you smile, he's happy. When you laugh, he's scared." (or something....this is from memory so it's not necessarily exact.) I...don't know what that's supposed to mean! And I don't know what the Kanji writing says. Probably the same, but I don't know how to read Kanji, so I can't say for sure!
- Holy cow, this thing gets a BUTT TON of battery life!!!! I've had the thing for, what? two, three weeks? I think I had to fully charge it once.
 
Anyway, yeah...I think I paid $170-ish for it...came with a case and some Mario decals (that I don't plan to use, btw -- if anybody needs Mario decals, just drop me a line and I'll get 'em in the mail for you!) to put on the case...definitely a worthwhile investment!

Dude, I hate the game NORMALLY, let alone the hard version. (I WILL participate, just haven't had the chance to play video games lately...) So I say, YES, it's OK to say you hate this game.   In all honesty, this is my least-favorite game on the 2600. I'm dead serious about that, too, with Kangaroo being a close second.
 
The collision detection just absolutely sucks.

Bleah. I finally made it to the second screen, but only once. Would there be any reason for multiple shots vertically, but not horizontally?

yeah I tried a special refurbished cx-40 I have, bought it from a brick & mortar place and it felt really nice. something you'd have to find locally really.
 
it has the clicky dome contacts cx-10 board and the reinforced handle, I had just picked up some clear rubber feet replacements because it was the only thing missing from the thing. 
 

 
I have tried standing up , sitting down,  shifting sitting positions all kinds of stuff  
 
 
from your screenshot it looks like your using Stella emulator, hows your cx-40 adapted to the PC ? 

It's Amazing!
It's Hypnotic!
It's Mesmerizing!
It's got a rockin' version of Louie Louie!
It's the intro to California Games!

 
When I was a kid, sometimes I would just stare at it while it looped over and over and over....

Bleah. I finally made it to the second screen, but only once. Would there be any reason for multiple shots vertically, but not horizontally?