HDN

Hibernating is normal for this time of year.

You're doing great 👌

Atari Force is an important topic! 🦸‍♂️

They took liberties. Many changes were made to the story.  Many characters combined or missing entirely.  That's fine, though.  I appreciate that the movie is 90 minutes, and to do that changes had to be made. 

In general, the spirit of the book is all there. 

I just found the CGI dogs to be fake looking. 

We had a wonderful valentines day here, we went to play 18 holes of mini-golf and then later in the day we went out to eat at a favorite restaurant. It was a beautiful day and we had a lot of fun. I hope this year is tremendous for you 🌞

We also had a very nice day, @Justin.  We could not leave the house due to the weather conditions, but that's ok.  A Sunday spent with family, doing whatever we please is always worthwhile.  We had a team effort on dinner, watched the Blazer game, and caught up on WandaVision.  Have you been watching that?  It's really good. 

Lesson 1:  Learn and master the universal gesture for drivers.

I told this same thing to the people on the Atari 2600 Game by Game Podcast Discord server. One of the responses I got was "Better than Dodge 'em, I suppose".

Thanks but no thanks, Phil. That's actually a lot more than the one I was looking at at the game store.

Why is this game so pricey?

I thinks it's mostly due to the the novelty of Mario Bros appearing on an Atari system and not being as common as Space Invaders or Pac-Man. It you think that is bad, you should see how much the XE version sells for!

The least expensive Ebay copy needs a RickR end label. 

That will work.  And you can get them free at your local post office. 

The good news is that the box art looks perfect.  Once you square up the sides, that box will look great. 

Here you go, Harry.  This Yars' box is probably the very worst in my collection.  Here's a picture of the innards to give you an idea.  I can't pull the liner out, as I Elmer's glued the bottom shut. 

 

Last night I sat down and devoted some time to this game. I had played it only to test it out before this.

And, it's great! I love all the different variations. I'd have to say my favorite is #3, the one with two balls and two paddles. I really, really like the graphics, colors, and sound in this game as well. 

@Gianna would be proud.

Listen, bud.  I'm telling you straight away.  You did something amazing.  Putting yourself out there is not easy.  Many don't.  And they regret it.  You feel bad today, and that's perfectly normal.  But keep on going.  Keep your eyes open.  Make friends with as many people as you can.  Be you.  Keep growing and learning.  Trust me, that special person just for you will come along. 

Things aren't as bad as I thought. They certainly aren't IDEAL, but it could be much worse.

All are awesome. Enjoy. 

👏👏🕹️ great haul, Harry. Enjoy!

USPS has been hammered by, well, politics.  Hopefully they'll get back on their feet soon.

GOOD LUCK

🍀

Looking forward to Sunday, though it’s a little scary. But I’m confident I’ll be okay. Let’s just hope I don’t screw anything up.

Scary movie? I'm out 🐔

Looks and sounds good.  Very professional if you ask me. 

New test video. This one worked out loads better. The Doki Doki one had something like 435 dropped frames in a four minute video (I assume most were in that birdo fight). This one had only 5, all of which showed up pretty much as soon as I clicked the “Start Capture” button. It sounds much nicer now! I haven’t noticed any times when it was out of sync yet.

I love the music and sound design of SMB and this coming from someone who hasn’t played the games. 

He was on my dad’s side. The grandfather I mostly talk about on here is still alive. If he had died of COVID I would feel really, really guilty as we have gone over to visit recently and I would blame myself for killing him.

 I haven’t seen my dad’s dad in about a year (kind of sad that coronavirus has been going on for so long).

I had no idea that when we went to visit in late December 2019 that that would be the last time I saw him. It’s pretty depressing when I think about it.

Thank you all for the prayers and kind words and thoughts. I truly appreciate it.

My condolences to you and your family, Harry. 💐

My condolences as well. My mother died of COPD in November of last year. I know how it is. She did not have COVID, but she did have COPD and heart failure. So, I can understand the COPD aspect of it.

Awesome -- looking forward to seeing what you've added to your collection.

I'll also encourage you to save up and buy a Harmony cart for the 2600 or Concerto for the 7800 so you can play homebrew rom files.

Scott's a good dude and a fine seller.  Enjoy your games. 

Glad you’re looking forward to it. I call myself an Atari fan, yet for nearly a year I haven’t owned some of these for my system!

Maybe I should get a Harmony cart someday.

If it's in the Phantasy Star series, that is a great JRPG. Which one, anyway?

No, not Phantasy Star. I tried PS 2 and 3 on Genesis and didn’t much care for them.

This game is Final Fantasy Legend, on Game Boy. It’s really interesting, straightforward, not too cryptic, and has some mechanics that go well with my playstyle.

The Final Fantasy series is pretty good, too. I beat the original NES Final Fantasy in a year. Interesting JRPG. :O)

I had to look it up.

What's the connection with your dad?

It’s just that this shirt is very on-brand for him to get me. 

I met a few people who used to be developers or testers for video games. I'd look at them with giddy kid's eyes and gush all over them. They'd all tell me it's not what I think, and it's a good thing that I didn't get into the industry.

I haven't read that book (or any books about behind the scenes of game making yet) but I am glad to be on the consumer side of things and be in position to enjoy the work of talented folks.

Going back to the original question, I started reading the comic series Druids yesterday night but fell asleep. I'll have to start over again 🙂 

That's awesome. It's cool that you held on to these things 👍

@socrates63, you don’t know how many times I have had to dig these out of the garbage! I have lost a few over the years. Tapes break, parents recycle notebooks that seem to be “old”, “used up”, or “not of any use anymore” (I don’t blame them for making the simple mistake), a few were simply misplaced and haven’t turned up yet and some have just been lost to the sands of time. Most of these items are accounted for and are safely stored in the HCA (Harry Closet Archives).

My Metroid and other comics, books, cartoons, audio recordings, etc. of old are really bad. Crude art, horrible dialog, one-dimensional characters, godawful humor; these have virtually nothing going for them. They suck, plain and simple. Despite that, however, I am oddly proud of them.

Here is the last “episode” on the first tape, simply titled MTT. In the last few minutes of each tape I sang an ending song not to cut off anything important. And wow, young Harry thought diabetes was f****ng hilarious. Of course now I know that diabetes is no laughing matter.

I have the means of ripping these tapes to my computer rather than just taking a video of it. If anyone is interested, I would gladly upload some of these tapes.

No, Rick! It was Fernie Sanders! He is staying inside for the winter so he doesn’t freeze over.

Argh. Too many puns today!

Dang, man, that's rough.

Hoping things improve in time for the new year.

Same to you, buddy.