RickR

Oh boy. Easy guys. It's all in good fun. The 24 hour rule makes sense. I have nothing to offer on the Super Mario World one because I'm not very familiar with SNES. That's OK, though! If I don't know it, I simply wait for someone else to fill me in with the right answer.

G.I. Joe

Correct on both counts!

Oh boy! Here goes nothing: Atari 5200 Type in the fail safe Easter egg out in the open The skull is morbid.

Super Skateboardin'

Keep them coming, please. I must have missed this post originally, but I see it now. I don't have any TI homebrews, and I will give these a try. I do have the SD card cartridge for TI, so these are most appreciated. Thanks! I've mentioned in other posts, but I'm super pressed for space at the moment with the whole family back home during the pandemic. One "special" system out at a time. Right now, it's the Odyssey 2 (and I put away the Commodore 64 to make room) for the "Attack of the Timelord" high score challenge. I was going to do the Atari 5200 next, but it's so dang big. Maybe I'll get the TI out next instead.

Update: The funds from my sale finally showed up in my bank account this morning. 5 days after being paid. On the bright side, they already took all fees. There should no longer be a monthly fee invoice. I guess the other really nice thing is that they don't charge you fees at all until you get paid. Remember with the old system, you'd be charged fees and if the buyer never paid, you'd have to wait quite a while to get them refunded. For those that are on the fence, the system does seem to work. I don't necessarily like it. It may take time to get used to.

Very nice setup for sure. So that modern keyboard is hooked up to the TI?

Yes. I can take on a few of those ideas. Patience will be needed though. RickR works some long hours most weeks.

Here are my ideas. I think it's important to build the community. I'd love to see existing Atari.io members join in. To that end, we need to keep things simple. For example, bringing up the expert level stuff (Tipi, nanoPEB, etc) is just going to drive casual users away. What's unique about Atari.io? It's friendly and fun! Focus on the games and the fun aspects of this system. Make the content inviting and not intimidating. Some thread ideas: Console buying guide. I remember you telling me when I first got started with the TI to avoid the "tan" colored units. I had no idea! I think we need to spread the most simple knowledge of what to buy, what it will cost, where to look, and "don't panic" information (for example, that one button on the keyboard that temporarily disables the joysticks). Include the details of "why". For example, the newer tan units have a different bios that won't play all games (kind of like the INTV2). Or how you can get a composite cable much cheaper by simply searching for a Commodore 64 or Atari 8-bit 5-pin cable. Game reviews. Maybe spend a month on each game. What is it most comparable to? What makes it better or worse? Example: Parsec is kind of like Defender. But it is a lot smoother and has speech. Better than any other console's version of Defender. Munchman vs. Pac Man. Just more info and maybe some simple ongoing high-score challenges for those most common games on the system. Controller options. What to buy. What to avoid. Is there any way to improve those horrid TI joysticks? How to use the Atari sticks on the system. Emulation. How many people on this forum actually have a TI 99/4A? Me. That may be it. So maybe we drum up interest by having a step-by-step simple guide of how to emulate on PC and Mac. Links to interesting YouTube content. I'll give it more thought.

I haven't watched your review yet, but am very much looking forward to doing so. I thought it would be fun to get my thoughts on the game down before I watch yours. I had this game when it was new. I remember liking it very much. However, I never did beat it. Before the days of the internet, it was all trial and error with a game like this. The manual didn't provide much help. I just didn't have the patience to start over and try something else to defeat that dragon. So I thought the game was fun, but I sure wish we had a walkthrough available back then. Sigh. I will watch your review. And then I might see if there's a walkthrough available NOW and go ahead and try it again 35 years later.

PS - the instruction sticker on the back is very obviously a repro too, and that's a whole other story. Finding a copy of the sticker was a challenge. Once I had one and cleaned it up, getting Windows to print the image to an exact size was an even bigger challenge. I used just a tiny bit of glue stick so it's easy removable. Again, I think it's important that it's clearly a repro part. This ended up being readable/usable, and I'm very happy with the result.

Before I type anything else -- special thanks to @Atari Creep. I wanted to share this little project that Chris helped me out with. I had a Mattel Electronics "Battlestar Galactica" LED game that was in very poor shape. I cleaned it up as best I could on the outside, and also got the game working with a little bit of battery acid cleanup and a new battery connector. It's a fun game, but it wasn't very easy to play while trying to hold the battery in with my fingers! Whoever owned this before me used tape to hold the battery in. But that's not a good idea. There's chemically encrusted tape residue all over the back, and it destroyed the instruction sticker! Well, @Atari Creep made the mistake of posting that he got a 3D printer recently. I asked him if he'd mind printing a battery cover for me. He very graciously said yes, and mailed the final product to me. (Chris, I sent you a little gift today in the mail in return). The replacement cover fit pretty well. Once it was warm enough to go back into my garage, I spent a tiny bit of time and elbow grease filing off the rough spots. Perfect fit! I know it's not a match with the color and texture, and it's a tiny bit too thin. But frankly, I don't care one bit. It does the job of holding the battery in. Furthermore, I think it's good that it's so obviously a reproduction part (in case I ever decide to sell this unit in the future). Here are some pictures of the cover, the simple files I used, and the final product. Again, thank you so much @Atari Creep. As for me, I really want to get myself a 3D printer now. For a bunch of repair projects like this missing battery cover. And also maybe for a little bit of art work. But I have much to learn before getting one. If anyone has experience and suggestions for a beginner, please share.

Good job, @Marco1019. How strange that the emulator doesn't do the voice. And this game displays the quirk of almost every O2 action game: only one life, and the game just restarts on it's own after dying. WHY????

I have an adapter cable. I'm trying to remember the details, and I can look it up if you want names. All I remember is that a guy on Atari Age or Facebook was making adapter cables for some other system. Amiga or Vectrex or ??? I can't remember. I sent him a message and asked if he could make something similar for O2 if I provided the wiring details. He said yes, and now I have an adapter. It's a big improvement. But still, the first thing you'll notice is that there's a bit of a lag in the 02 joysticks. I just assumed it was the mylar design they use in their joystick...and that does play a part. The Atari stick makes it better for sure. But there seems to be an inherent flaw in the system. My apologies to the person that made the adapter for not remembering his name.

Picard was hit and miss for me. There are spoilers below. But I've tried to soften them as best I can. On the plus side: It's so cool to have the characters of Jean Luc Picard and Data back. But at the same time, like the modern Star Wars movies...what took so long? Everyone is so old now. No matter. The scenes with Picard and Data are the highlight of the show. Sadly, there aren't enough. There is one absolutely outstanding episode. You'll know which one if you see the whole season. Seven of Nine - WOW! Absolutely the best character on the show. I love what they did with the character. Just my opinion, but the character becomes so much more interesting than she was on Voyager. I love that they got rid of the cat suit. Hugh! Riker/Troi/family - so good. Please give us more in season 2. On the minus side: Picard's current status in Starfleet is not believable. They needed to explore and explain this more. Almost every new character is just ok. There are some pretty far-fetched story ideas here. Especially the twist at the end. They went too far in the grisly aspects. It's more "Game of Thrones" than it should be. They have two very interesting Romulan partners at the beginning of the show. They just disappear after a few episodes. A shame.

I agree on both counts. We are still enjoying WandaVision. And over on Netflix, we are almost done with Season 3 of Schitt's Creek (which I think is really funny). Star Trek Discovery season 3 was ok. Now that it's done, we've cancelled the CBS service.

Thanks! As a retro-gamer, I think it's important to have at least one CRT -- preferably a Sony Trinitron. Even if it's a small one. I got that one from a member of the Portland retro-gaming community. I paid more than I should have, and had to drive a bit. No regrets, though. Totally worth it. I love it.

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That's understandable. I've watched all three seasons of "Discovery". My opinion: It's good, but flawed. Season 2 is the best of the 3 seasons. Anson Mount as Christopher Pike is really good. Of the main characters, Doug Jones as Saru is does such a good job. His character is the most "Star Trek"-y part of the show. Sonequa Martin-Green as Burnham gets a lot of flack. Undeserved. I think she is really good. On the bad side: They redid the Klingons for no good reason. A super dumb decision. Look past it if you can because season 1 is FULL of TOS Easter Eggs. There is a "turbolift" scene in season 3 that is so preposterous, it takes my opinion of the whole show down a full notch. So dumb. So, so, dumb. It is a more modern style of TV series. Like the newer version of Battlestar Galactica, there aren't any "stand-alone" episodes to enjoy. Every show builds on to a full-season story arc.

I doubt they'll change it. FYI - I have an account set up an on on-line bank (CapitalOne360). I simply opened an extra savings account just for this ebay purpose. I did not give ebay my account login info, but instead just gave them the routing and account numbers. If you decide to proceed, I think this is probably the easiest thing to do.

I do have more info on my transaction. The funds finally showed up in my Ebay "available funds" today. And supposedly, it will sweep into my bank account tomorrow. We'll see how that works out. The way to see this info is very convoluted, and I'm appalled at the lack of detail and transparency. They should know better.