HDN

@Smell Dawg what a coincidence— look at what my personal copy looks like! 

I tried using Linux, or more specifically Raspbian, once. I know everyone likes it but I personally can’t stand it. It’s probably a me problem but it seems like none of the programs I like to use are compatible with it.

Galaxian is always a lot of fun. Congrats on your pickup (from a long time ago).
Here's the thing, and I'm not trying to offend anyone here, just stating my opinion: I don't like the MyArcade cabinets. I don't own any, and I don't in the future because of a couple of reasons. I'm a Basic Fun mini arcade collector. There seems to be a lot of companies making these nowadays. Anyways, here are my reasons.
They use, to my knowledge, MyArcade uses unaltered NES ROMs on their games. I'm not saying basic fun is blameless here; they have done this in the past, but it seems like nowadays they are using versions closer to the arcade on their newer Wal-Mart exclusive dot-matrix games. The screen on the Basic Fun dot-matrix games looks much better than the screens on the MyArcade units. From videos I've seen on the internet comparing the two, I have seen that the Basic Fun screens have darker blacks and richer colors. The Basic Fun units are generally cheaper. I've noticed that the Basic Fun units are typically around $20 at most stores, and oftentimes less. By comparison, the MyArcade units generally run for about $30. This one is the biggest reason of all for my personal dislike of the MyArcade units. They're lazy. To be completely honest, I think the same of all the other Mini Arcades with the dot-matrix screens. I think they're just plain lazy. I know they're closer to the arcades this way, but I really, really enjoy the static screen LCD mini arcades that Basic Fun also makes. These seem more retro to me as it's more realistic for the 1980s. You wouldn't be able to get a full dot-matrix screen in an early 1980s handheld! Granted, you couldn't get the sound quality these LCD games have on a 1980s handheld either. Still, the LCD units are more realistic, unique, and fun to collect. I can just play the arcade or NES ROMs elsewhere, but this is something you need these machines for. I feel the MyArcades are even lazier than the typical Basic Fun units as they are just the plain NES ROMs. At least when Basic Fun used to do that, they changed the title screen. If you couldn't tell, I'm a sucker for retro handhelds. LCD, LED, VFD, don't matter to me! I think it's fascinating that people were able to turn arcade games into portables with little segmented displays. Oftentimes, these handhelds turn out to be pretty fun as well. It takes some pretty creative people to work around the limitations of these sorts ofm displays. In school notebooks and the like, I used to doodle little drawings of LCD games of my own creations. I'd think of a game (Metroid for example) and try to draw what the LCD matrix would look like had it existed. I still have all my old notebooks, so I might post some pictures in the future if anyone is interested.
I try not to compare different versions of arcade games to their originals. I mean, it certainly helps, but when it comes to ports on old systems or handheld devices like these I try to look and see if they stand on their own as fun games. That's part of the reason why I love Atari 2600 Pac-Man and Donkey Kong so much.
When I first saw these Basic Fun LCD games come out, I was both really hyped and somewhat disappointed. On one hand, THEY WERE BRINGING BACK THE LCD MINI ARCADES! Ever since I was like 6 or so and learned about the Coleco Mini Arcades through the internet (yeah I was a weird kid), I had yearned for one. They looked so awesome! I even asked my parents for one for Christmas or whatever it was, but they thought it was too much money for what it offered and they didn't think I would play it enough. Understandable, though I think I would have used one quite a bit. They were right about one thing: these things are outrageously expensive! I completely understand why my parents wouldn't let me get one. Maybe someday when I have a disposable income I'll get me the DK one, as I highly doubt Basic Fun will be making a version of that!
I have played the Coleco versions of Frogger and Pac-Man in an antique mall before. Pac-Man isn't great, but at least it has a lot of different modes to try out. Frogger on the other hand is done very well. Obviously, I didn't pick them up there. Way too expensive, but when I look back on it they were going much cheaper than ones I've seen on eBay recently. This was a few years ago, and they might have increased in value since then. I probably wouldn't have picked them up today if I saw them, either. Do you know how many 2600, Game Boy, or NES games I could get instead?
On the other hand, the games were black-and-white and looked pretty cheaply made. The selection was also not great. You had Space Invaders (which was very similar to a keychain version I already owned at the time) and Pac-Man. Since then, I've gotten both. Space Invaders is fine, but Pac-Man is without a doubt the worst version of Pac-Man I had ever played in my life. I might even blog about it someday. I know they released an updated version at Wal-Mart, which looks loads better. Get Ms. Pac-Man instead anyways. Also, don't get Tetris. Nothing wrong with that game on the surface, but it's way too easy and will straight up stop your game after you beat level 15.
I didn't get one of the Mini Arcades until a few years later when I got Q*Bert. By that time, they were making them in color and with better joysticks. These versions of the games are most of the time very good and much cheaper than the Coleco units and other VFD games at the time. I'd recommend collecting them.
I hope nobody is offended by my opinion of the MyArcade titles. If you enjoy them, go right ahead. They definetely have their pros against the Basic Fun machines as well. For instance, they're more tabletop-like. But this is just my opinion.

These old wooden shelves are remnants of the days when my grandparents called this place home. This used to be my grandpa’s workshop. There are lots of workbenches, vices, and leftover tools from when he used to live here. For years, these shelves have sat here filled with movies on tape, board games, and other junk. Today I realized that it is in fact quite easy to reposition the shelves and so, with a little reorganization and dusting, our NES, SNES, and Game Boy collections have a new home. I still have N64 and the disc-based games to worry about, but since those systems aren’t down here yet they aren’t a top priority. As you can see, the movies are still here on the top shelf. That may have to change in the future. The board games have been put with their kin on another basement shelf.
I imagine that it would be pretty easy to grab some more boards to add to the shelf. I found some shelf-mounting thingies on the top shelf before I repositioned them, so I should be good if I wanted to add another four shelves in the future, which is somewhat inevitable at this point.

If you’re interested in that you might want to check this out. It’s pretty entertaining. 
 

This beauty arrived today...

Mail call -- I'm sure many who grew up with the Atari 2600 will share my sentiment that Activision was an amazing company. Their games wowed me as a kid and showed off what was possible with the 2600 in the hands of creative and talented developers. When I started collecting for the 2600, my first goal was to collect all Activision games for the 2600.
This weekend, that goal was accomplished with the addition of Cosmic Commuter. I was resigned to having CC as my lone cartridge only Activision game in my collection because a CIB copy is difficult to find and even more difficult to find for a reasonable price. A collector/reseller who I've bought from before reached out to tell me that he was downsizing his collection of rare items. This copy came from his collection.
Over the past few years, I also bought Activision repro patches (the first Achievement/Platinum in gaming?). Some are for games that never had official patches. Activision mailed a patch if you achieved a certain score in the game and mailed in a photo of the TV. I believe I shared them here before.
Also shown are a couple of repro Activision game cartridges (Kabobber, Hard Head). I believe these are prototypes and were never released.
So celebrate with me this milestone in my collecting 🎉🥳🍻
I will add this one caveat. This collection is complete only for North America. Activision released Fighter Pilot in the EU, and I don't have that. However, I do have Tomcat: The F-14 Fighting Simluator by Absolute, and Fighter Pilot is a rebranding of that game.

I finally got a new (non-rotten) disc to go with my case for Mario Kart Double Dash! After this, I may never pay for a GameCube game again. They’re so expensive nowadays and I paid way too much for this. Not that I was ripped off, it just goes for a lot these days.

I finally got a new (non-rotten) disc to go with my case for Mario Kart Double Dash! After this, I may never pay for a GameCube game again. They’re so expensive nowadays and I paid way too much for this. Not that I was ripped off, it just goes for a lot these days.

Watch the video here:
 
 

Please join us for an exciting Zoom meeting with Howard Scott Warshaw, the programmer of the Atari 2600 games Yars' Revenge, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.

The Zoom meeting is taking place on Wednesday, May 17, 2023 at 7:30pm EDT.  For the Zoom link, please visit https://www.tpug.ca.  This event is hosted by TPUG (Toronto PET Users Group), the longest continually-operating Commodore users group in the world.

If you're unable to attend the Zoom meeting, a video recording will be available on TPUG's YouTube channel.  To be notified of the video's posting, please subscribe to the YouTube channel at:  https://www.youtube.com/@TorontoPETUsersGroup

Thanks !
 

I finally got a new (non-rotten) disc to go with my case for Mario Kart Double Dash! After this, I may never pay for a GameCube game again. They’re so expensive nowadays and I paid way too much for this. Not that I was ripped off, it just goes for a lot these days.

I finally got a new (non-rotten) disc to go with my case for Mario Kart Double Dash! After this, I may never pay for a GameCube game again. They’re so expensive nowadays and I paid way too much for this. Not that I was ripped off, it just goes for a lot these days.

These arrived today.  I'm excited!

Some of the boxes look rough but the games inside are brand new.  Pac-Man is the most interesting to me because it looks like the bottom was purposely opened to remove something like maybe a catalog.  Its the only one that looks like that. The others you can tell were simply crushed.

I know I posted about this same topic recently, when I upgraded from a 19" to 22" LCD TV in my gaming room.  Well, I don't know how I keep doing this, but now I've been given a 24"!  And it has a DVD player built in too.
 

Hold my beer. This is the one game I can actually kind of play.

The picture sucks, but that is 1865.

I forgot how perfect this game is. One of the best ports of any game ever if you ask me. So many memories playing it too.

WAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!

I forgot how perfect this game is. One of the best ports of any game ever if you ask me. So many memories playing it too.

Roll the score on the crazy 8 setting?  Alright @Justin, what are you drinking if you can roll the score with this setting, man.  I want some. Jk 😂.  But seriously...if someone here can roll the score on this setting then wow.  

I forgot how perfect this game is. One of the best ports of any game ever if you ask me. So many memories playing it too.

I forgot how perfect this game is. One of the best ports of any game ever if you ask me. So many memories playing it too.

If you guys end up rolling your score we will just have to go with the honor system ✌️

The picture sucks, but that is 1865.