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MaximumRD

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Posts posted by MaximumRD

  1. I am not sure I could decide, love so many of them, I was always glued to the screen as a kid and would even watch the same episodes over and over. Also loved how episodes could be dark, sinister or even slap stick or comical, every genre of story but always a cool twist or reveal at the end, so imaginative. I think that was the thing, I never knew what to expect from one episode to the next! Also amazing how many young stars at the peak of their careers debuted on the series. Seeing people like Charles Bronson and Elizabeth Montgomery was always a treat, fantastic imagery but the story telling, so engaging that often what was left to your own imagination was even better! Without looking up episodes of the top of my head I recall loving (DO NOT READ THESE DESCRIPTIONS IF YOU PLAN ON RE-WATCHING OLD TWILIGHT ZONE EPISODES)  - 1. Episode where an astronaut basically power trips making himself a "god" over tiny civilization on a planet they land on only to be squished under the feet of other space travellers that land at the end. 2. An astronaut that believes he landed on a planet where the population has disappeared, he cannot find any people thought he has a feeling he is being watched but every clue he follows turns up nothing in the end and he is going mad from loneliness, we find out he is an experiment put into an isolation chamber with no contact and his mind has created this nightmare. 3. A crook / cheat / gambler is killed and ends up in what would seemingly be heaven, unlimited winning at gambling, booze, woman etc, only to discover he can never , ever lose, he is in fact IN HELL. Ok that one may seem odd but you have to see it as my description does not do it justice lol.  

     

    Really though there are so many great ones I cannot even recall them all. 

  2. Funny how the internet preserves everything, had not thought about this in ages, then on another forum someone posted that pic of me in the first post holding the Stella Gets a New Brain CD, of course I Google image search Stella Gets a New Brain and find my image then click that just to return full circle back HERE lol. 

    From a blog entry I did a couple years ago about the Starpath Supercharger, or rather the Blog entry Justin made from this original post, I never did get my own Starpath supercharger.  :P Now I kind of want one again, sure I can play most games on my Harmony Cart but would be cool to load as intended. 
  3. I admit I LOVED the Kenner Vader Tie Fighter, I was never lucky enough to have an Millennium Falcon back in the day but I did have an X-Wing , Luke's Sand Speeder and Vader's Tie Fighter and I remember putting a LED light in the cockpit that I powered with a 9-volt battery which at least to me gave it a cool look in the dark with Vader at the helm, oh great memories. 

  4. I do have Sonic The Hedgehog 2 for the MD which plays fine on my Genesis Model 1 unit.  Strangely, the cart is the same shape as the US carts.  

     

    attachicon.gifPicture 40.jpg

    I could be wrong but is that a Pal version, I think they were also called MegaDrive in Europe, I think only Japanese had the different shaped carts, I could be wrong though for sure. 

     

    UPDATE after some quick Googling : 

     

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  5. First to set the scene, the time was sometime during the original retail sales of the Sega Genesis (IE: TOO LONG AGO  ;) )

    Place - Canada, Toronto Ontario to be specific. 

     

    The first ever Mega Drive game I ever heard about I seen in person and this is how that happened. 

    Curse by Micronet was my personal introduction to a "bigger world". Meaning, though I was aware video games and consoles were sold and enjoyed worldwide I was not aware in the differences in console names, styles, colors etc. A tiny electronics shop opened in my neighborhood and due to my typical curiosity I entered the shop and up on the shelf was a box with what looked to me to be a Sega Genesis except the coloring of the trim was slightly different and it had this really cool name "Mega Drive" so I asked and got the story how it was the "Japaneses  import version of my beloved Genesis! 
     
    How cool I thought, sadly I did not have enough money to buy it BUT I did have enough to buy one of the import games on display and it was this very game, the cover art grabbed me immediately and I had not heard of this games "Curse" but I knew I liked games like Gradius and of course Life Force on NES was a old favorite and the style of this shooter reminded me of an upgraded version. So I bought it right then and there excitedly wondering what it would be like, the graphics represented on the box looked amazing. OF COURSE as you are probably thinking I was in for  little bit of a shock when I attempted to plug the cartridge in, it was too wide for the slot! Now the weirdest part is, I was so disappointed and though I had not heard of this previously I was always a bit of a tinkerer so I took a nail file, dismantled the Genesis and began filing the slot sides, it seemed to take forever and the end result was not pretty but I plugged it in, turned it on and.....YES !!!!! It worked, and a whole new world was open to me. Of course the knowledge of this "mod" was well known to many and common place for many but when I did it I had no idea if it would actually work. Now there were pitfalls to be sure as I would also come to learn that some titles would still refuse to run due to regional lockouts and even more surprising some games would have unexpected content in the form of 16 bit boobs or unexpected amounts of blood etc, it would only be years later trying the same titles on a friends actual Mega Drive that I learned the content and sometimes even the title screens changed depending on if they were loaded onto a Genesis or Mega Drive lol. Still to me it was fascinating and magical and something I still enjoy today. 
     
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  6. Oh man yes.  I have one.  Maybe two.  I need to take a picture of all the different 2600's I have around here. 

     

    I like the Jr. a lot.  Mostly for the small size (as you mentioned).  I also like that it's easy to use a short and high quality RF cable with it.  If you ever get a chance, compare it to the Coleco Gemini.  They are about the same size, but the Gemini came out much earlier. 

    Yes very comparable I know as I have a Gemini as well though no where near as good condition as yours!

  7. 3. 1989 i got my A500 and was happy about it. Playing games was certainly the destiny of that machine. 1991 i bought an A2000, which later got a Turboboard, 41 MB RAM. Graphics board, CDROM and two harddiscs. I used the machine for my studies in university. 1999 i changed to PC, because there were no support for Amiga anymore. Since last summer the A2000 is back on my desk and i am really surprised again and again, how comfortable the Amiga OS 3.1 was and is.

     

    Thanks for waking up this thread :spot: ,

     

    I agree completely, even today (though sadly emulation) when I load up workbench I remember it like it was yesterday, I got pretty into that OS, I use to put my own custom versions of Workbench together on floppy with my a500 and would cram as much of my favorite programs onto the single WB boot disc, I would customize the colors and even, because I could and it impressed my PC friends, use startup commands to make the Amiga "speak" to me lol, so workbench would load up while saying something like "Hello Rob, what would you like to do today?", yes I was a nerd. I loved it though. BACK THEN, I could not understand why my friends were bothering with ISA conflicts, sound card incompatibilities etc. I loved just throwing in a game floppy and it just loaded by itself!  A sad ending of Commodore and AMIGA but I would not change a thing in my personal computing history, to this very day (I am 50 years old now) and I still have very vivid memories of my days with A500 and later A1200, nothing felt quite like an AMIGA before or since and it seems only users from back in the day really understand that.  :thumb:  :beer:

  8. Ha, I wonder how many other great things are listed under "junk", I love oddities / rarities like that. My favorite Sega controller is a 3 button Genesis pad, no different than anyone except it is the one that came with the JVC Sega X'eye console (Some would know it as the Wonder MEga) and so it has the lettering JVC right in the center of the pad and to me this is just cool. I love the days when consoles and accessories were made by a variety of companies, like the Samsung or GoldStar 3DO consoles etc. 

     

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  9. Okay, hold up, you lost me.. So there's this guy named Mike whose developing a new retro video game system but he doesn't seem to know what he's talking about and he's at a booth at a video game expo showing off a non-working mockup?

     

    I think you posted that last year.

    Hah I know, what are the chances? Not sure if MIKE is another bad omen but it sure sounds like it!  ^_^

  10. The difference being it was Atari's own engineer who plainly said it's not ready yet, the antithesis of the Chameleon's faked prototypes and subterfuge.

    OK I will give you that but everything else about this just stinks, they have nothing running yet, literally other than a subjectively pretty box and a lot of talk there is not a single thing that warrants interest outside of blind loyalty to Atari. I LOVE ATARI but I just do not see how anyone is not sensing where this is heading. I agree with what someone else commented elsewhere "Atari isn't the old Atari and doesn't deserve your brand allegiance.  Make them earn it." 

     

    Check this out - 

     

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/03/22/atari_lempty_box/

     

    We sent a vulture to find the relaunched Atari box – and all he got was this lousy baseball cap
    Things get surreal in suite 7088
     
    By Kieren McCarthy in San Francisco 22 Mar 2018 at 07:02 82 
     
    Well, its lights come on, so that's something. The AtariVCS: what a games console looks like
    GDC The Ataribox has been renamed the AtariVCS, and it is finally here!
     
    Where? Suite 7088 of the Marriott Marquis hotel in San Francisco, USA, directly opposite this year's Games Developers Conference (GDC).
     
    There's only one problem: it doesn't work. And by "not work" we don't mean it crashed or is having teething troubles, we mean it literally does not work.
     
    When Atari's chief operating officer Michael Arzt suggested we take a look at the ports in the back, we're surprised to find it actually weighs something: Atari knows how to mock up products.
     
    Less impressive is the accompanying game controller which looks like an industry-standard controller – the sort of thing you'd see hooked up to an Xbox or Playstation – but which is in reality a solid lump of plastic in the shape of a controller. The buttons don't move, the joysticks are rigid. It has nothing inside.
     
    "The traditional controller works," Arzt told us, pointing to the square-stick box with a red button that, many, many years ago, was the games controller. It's hard not to get a twinge of nostalgia.
     
    The red button goes down and when it does, a circle of red lights on the controller light up. The central stick moves. It appears to have a real USB connector.
     
    Atari controller
    Nostalgia ... Literally the only reason to be in this room is this classic Atari controller
     
    What happens if we plug this into our laptop, we ask Mike. I don't know, he says. Will it work? I don't know. If we plug it into a different games machine, will it work? No. So it's custom hardware and software? I don't know about that.
     
    Mike doesn't know lots of things about the AtariVCS – standing for Atari video computer system – which is odd because he's the exec in charge of it. But for those things he doesn't know, he makes up for with all the things he does know. None of which he can tell us about.
     
    Here we go
    Launch date? Can't say. Interface? Can't tell you. Hardware manufacturer? Can't tell you. Games developer partners? We're talking to people. Target market? We can't say.
     
    What makes this all the more amazing is that the Ataribox was supposed to launch in December before, literally on launch date, the company pulled it citing vague issues with components. It then went silent for three months.
     
    Mike tries to tell us that big product launches are suspended all the time. We tell him they really aren't, and on the rare occasion that they are, the company goes out of its way to explain why and give a new launch timeline.
     
    So far, Atari refuses to give even a preorder date. And it won't say what the issue was that caused the launch to be called off. Was it hardware? Software? They won't say but apparently it's been resolved. Yet there is still no working model.
     
    Mike explains that the situation is the hours before the final countdown to a NASA rocket launch. Sometimes, even in the last few seconds, they have to call it off because of one small issue. We point out that a games console is literally nothing like a rocket launch.
     
    Mike is getting fed up. So we focus on finding actual real details, and here's where we get to:
     
    It will cost around $250 (equivalent to £180)
    It will be "like a good laptop"
    It will do 4K video
    It will use an AMD chipset – although they don't know which yet
    It will run on Linux
    We have to be honest, we tell Mike as he explains that AMD has offered another chip that is faster and will cost around the same and so it might shift to that chip, it doesn't sound like Atari has the slightest idea what it's doing.
     
    Literally across the road, companies are live demoing headsets that track your eyeballs and respond accordingly. One area has people physically running around with sci-fi superguns, blowing things up as they appear in their vision and avoiding their fellow players who appear in the game in the correct physical space thanks to wireless tracking accurate to 0.2mm.
     
    Why are we in a hotel suite staring at a games console from our youth that doesn't even work? And the answer, and the only reason, is the name.
     
    We thank Mike, wish him all the best, and grab an Atari-branded baseball cap on the way out the door. ®
  11. I'm not entirely sure the comparisons to Coleco Chameleon are warranted.

     

    I am convinced, the signs are there, really nothing substantial has been shown to prove it isn't. Let's be honest here, if you have something to show you are going to show it and silence the doubters but Cnet even recently confirmed what was shown and on display was NOTHING BUT A MOCKUP and YET they are discussing a date for Pre-orders? When they have not shown a single thing actually running? Nope, it is definitely Coleco Chameleon-esque in my humble opinion. I guess we shall see but going by experience and history in these type of things I am going with the odds and calling it as I see it. So far though even with it's "appearance" this has gone from rendered images to a mockup and a name change and a lot of hype and promises. If they actually start taking money for Pre-orders BEFORE they actually show anything running on real hardware I recommend not backing.  ;)

     

    Link to article -  https://www.cnet.com/news/ataribox-atari-vcs-console-linux-hands-on-pc/

     

     

    pasted from article : (OH COME ON ! ) 

     

    Good news: We finally understand what the mysterious Ataribox is all about. We've touched its deliciously retro ribbed plastic frame, and given its classic-meets-modern joystick a wiggle. The Atari VCS looks like it could be a real product, one you might be proud to own and display.

    Bad news: There's not much proof it's real yet. Atari didn't bring a working VCS to the 2018 Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco, only mockups. Though the company has an interesting vision for the box, we weren't able to try a single game.

    "We'd all like to be BAM, there it is, it's awesome. That day will come," says Atari engineer Joe Moak. "Today is not that day."   :spot:

     

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  12. AHEM

     

    I been calling this one out since the first mention of the guy behind it. Other than the name and some renders and a lot of HYPE they got NOTHING. Just more whoring of the Atari brand name to nostalgic fans who will shell out money for anything "officially licensed" and of course the minute you question or call it out or ask questions those with dreams and wishes will quickly label you anti ATARI or call you hater etc. NO, my history and current collection verify I am a HUGE Atari fan and want only the best for the name and company except this "ATARIBOX / ATARI VCS" is has has never been anything more than a marketing train wreck created by Fergal MacConuladh who merely licensed the name for use on this project.

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5ZhU2K7Gyk&feature=share

  13. Gameband is another project by Feargal Mac Conuladh, this snake oil salesman is the same clown behind "Ataribox". Personally I will be very surprised if either product ever materialize and actually ships.  :P He seems to be a lot of talk, promises and buzzowrds with very little substance. 

     

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    The clown prince himself - 

     

     

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  14. Sorting through my collection just a little while ago, but what the hell I'll try a few rounds of Hogans Alley on NES. I'll say this much, I would've been one horrible police officer, not only did I manage to kill many innocent bystanders but most of the gangsters escaped because my reactions were so slow!  :P
     
     Apparently at 50 years old my reflexes are already dead lol.
    I swear I recall being pretty damn good back in the day  ;)
    Still, sure brought back some memories and fun....I needed this after turning 50 this year  :rofl:
     
    Before anyone points it out - YES the color and saturation are way off but this is my ONLY CRT TV to play gun games on, a 13' combo DVD / TV I found in our electronics bin last week, I thought SCORE! No remote but I have
    several programmable / universal remotes and though I got a couple to work with this it only does basic functions like channel and volume up/down  :( Might have to break down and try to track down a compatible original remote. 
     
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  15. Well try not to get too stressed over it, after all we ARE dealing with some 30+ year old systems now and it is not always easily to pinpoint exactly what the issues are. IC's, solder joints and PSU's have served for many years and prone to failures. That said as well, I turned 50 TODAY and I am definitely at a different place, I always been a tinkerer, one to experiment but I think I am past most of that now, not saying I WONT do anymore of it but I think I like the idea of just enjoying and expanding on areas of my collection that currently work well. I don't think I want to get too much beyond more "creative" type modding like maybe painting a case that has sever yellowing or something, I think anything more serious I just want to phase out and pass on to those who are more likely and better equipped to restore and satisfy people who enjoy repairing more.  

     

    Anyway Atarileaf if I may say you brought ME and I am sure many with your retro videos for years, do what makes you happy, just be patient and think it through before doing anything to drastic, you don't owe anyone anything so do what you need to to ensure your enjoyment of the hobby! 

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