RickR

Retirement is next on my list too, god willing. The issue to solve is the health-insurance dilemma. How to pay for it before Medicare kicks in. I'll let you know if I come up with anything clever. I'd love to do the traveling thing too...but not in an RV. Maybe just book interesting hotels along the way.

You know, with my mom in a nursing home, I think about that a lot too. It's kind of interesting to see the stuff the other residents have as well. Many have way too much stuff and their rooms look ridiculously cramped! My best estimation is that there should be room for a computer, a TV, and 3-4 consoles w/ games. I figure you go minimalist on the furniture. Get a nice bed, a nice comfy chair and a desk. BOOM, that's all you need. Actually, I've probably given this too much thought :)

I agree that it's an interesting cart design. I like the little indentations that make it easy to pull the cart out. You'll like them both I'm sure. Of the two, Mountain King is more unique. But they are both fun. Like I said, the 5200 controller makes WoW more difficult when the levels start getting really fast. I really need to get my 5200 out. I still have a brand new "Tempest" to try! But space is limited with both adult children home.

It does make you stop and think. We know that Jack Tramiel loved to squeeze and leverage the businesses he worked with and purchased. MOS Tech deserved better.

How amazing, yet depressing! The company behind the CPU (6502) inside almost every Atari console we love was MOS Technology in Norristown, PA. Here's a video of the old building (long abandoned) with Bill Herd! It's amazing to me how when a business dies, most times the building just sits vacant forever. The only thing that really lives on is the memories.

That may be the case. I don't recall for sure. I know that the one player game uses the "right" player on the screen.

Some tips needed, please. I'm kind of stuck on level 10. That's the one where you simply have to find the exit, with a bunch of fire as obstacles. It's all memorization/trial & error -- not my strong suits! After trying about 5 times, I wasn't having fun and stopped. I like the earlier "puzzle" levels. Is the game more puzzley or memorization after level 10?

I have the cart, and here's what I think: It's good. The graphics could be better, but the gameplay is all there. The problem is the controls. The 5200 controller just doesn't work for this type of game. I have a digital stick, and it works 100 times better. If you have one, use it! It's the same game on the 8-bit computers. But the controls there are perfect. In summary: It's worth it. It's one of the better WoW ports. When you try it, fire up MAME on your PC and give the arcade original a try. It has speech, which makes it better.

23320. Level 9 was a pain in the @ss.

I'm not very far along yet, but I may come back with some questions when I get there. Also, I should probably just order that USB converter.

That is so helpful. I appreciate it. Thanks. That USB device looks perfect. And it's good to know someone else has tried OBS and likes it.

Consider it like the older era ports. For example Asteroids on VCS vs the arcade. The hardware is less powerful and they had to make compromises. And sometimes, they go with making "improvements" instead of making it as close as possible. With game design, time and budget play huge roles in what we get. Often times, "good enough" is the result.

It's against the nerd law to throw out a box like that. The penalty would be an atomic wedgie given by Ogre from Revenge of the Nerds.

I agree! The McWill is spectacular.

Here are the cameras. I got them out and they appear to work just fine. That 8mm Sharp Viewcam is a ton nicer than the original 8mm it replaced, which was a much larger sized "Sharp". I was pretty excited to find it at Goodwill in good condition.

Thank you, that's good to know. I think I'm the smaller tape. And I think I'm using the wrong nomenclature for my "newer" camcorder. Mini-DV like your tape on the right is what it is.

Here's my story. When my kids were babies, we had a camcorder that used 8mm tapes. Later, I upgraded to a digital-8 camcorder. Many years ago (probably 2003 or so), I attempted to convert all that to digital and ended up making several "S-VCD" disks. My memory isn't too clear, but I remember having some serious issues with the computer horsepower needed to do the conversion. In many cases, a disc would burn but not really work (with lots of fuzzy pixelization). I remember trying to make DVD's too, but my computer kept erroring out on needing a DVD encoder. The SVCD's still work, but the quality is terrible and I only converted a few of the tapes. After that, the 8mm camcorder got destroyed by the kids. I think they forced a tape in backwards and ruined the mechanism. Meh, things happen, it wasn't too big a deal. Later, I found a nice replacement at Goodwill, but never spent much time with it. The idea was to have a way to play our old tapes. Enough backstory. I've decided to try the conversion again. I want to keep it simple. No editing. Just make a DVD of every tape I have. I'll document my process here as best I can. I have no idea what I'm doing, so this is going to be a learning experience. Here's my theory of what to try: I have no way to get the 8mm camcorder output (composite) in to my computer. So I'll either have to buy a composite adapter/card/whatever, OR I thought maybe, just maybe I could output from the 8mm as input to the digital 8. The digital 8 has a firewire output, so that one will go into the computer just fine. This will be step one. I've found a freeware program called "Open Broadcaster Software" (OBS) that should do the work and burning for me once I get the video to the computer. PLEASE...if you have any tips, any advice, any help at all, let me know! Actually, step one will be gathering the machines and tapes up. Fortunately, I know right where they are....on a ceiling shelf in the garage. So the real step one is getting this down: More to come....

This is awesome. The 8-bit games just don't get the respect they deserve. Those are the games I spent my college years with, and I love that system so much.

I like Baseball a lot too. Does it have a "bad" reputation? My feeling is that the game is fine, but as most early NES sports games, it was surpassed by later versions. The best early NES sports title IMO is "Ice Hockey" with a close second to "Golf". Simple, fast, and fun. That's what makes them great. 10 Yard Fight in the arcade is one of my favorites. When I run MAME, you can bet your buns it's the first game I always play. I like the absurd voices and the simple gameplay. The NES version isn't close IMO. The vertical scrolling is way too slow (what happened there?) and there are no voices at all. It does look the same, though, which is nice. I do like to play it, but it always makes me run back to my PC to play the arcade version. You have a very varied collection, and it's cool that you enjoy them all so much.

This is a great topic! Let's face it...2020 has been crappy in so many ways. Maybe this will highlight a little positivity. Collection-wise, things have slowed down a lot for me this year. The focus has been on staying safe, integrating grown children back into the house, setting up usable work spaces, and having all 4 adults working on the computers from home all day (I need to buy my router some flowers or something for all the hard work it's doing this year). I've been focusing on getting boxes for my 2600 games. Below is a picture of what I have. Before, I was at 2.5 shelves. Now, I'm up to 3.5. Highlights for the year include "Superman" and "Yars' Revenge". The one I'm looking for now is "Video Pinball". I really enjoy finding boxes that are squished or all-alone with no game or manual. In many cases, I can bring them back to life by building an inner box to give shape. And sometimes some felt-tipped pen to get color back to whitened creases.

You got it right. Normal joystick button is thrust, and the booster grip has a button for fire. I have it, and it's really not good. Too cumbersome. The VIC-20 has an outstanding version of Omega Race that uses the 2600 Asteroids control scheme. It works perfectly. I think that version also lets you use paddles (I don't remember how it works) or keyboard. I think I mentioned this in another thread, but Atari should have made a whole series of games to tie together the classics, all featuring the little triangle ship and that control scheme. Example: Missile Command is that other planet attacking yours. So your government decides to strike back and launches the little triangle ship. To get to the other planet, it has to clear out the Asteroids (tie in to Asteroids) so your other ships can get through. Then a new triangle ship game that attacks the other planet, and so on.

It's real nice of you, but don't get into trouble or take any risk of trouble for this. We all have other sources for games.

On Astroblast, the consequence is a dropping score. Oh higher levels, things fall so quickly, it's hard to make progress if you aren't aggressive. Also, the 2600 version has no peak score. I think this version is better than Intellivision Astrosmash. Astrosmash is slower, and the controls on Astroblast are better (especially with a paddle). Space Battle is a very good Star Raiders type game. The only thing I don't like about the sports games is that they are 2 players only. Other than that, they are better than Atari's Realsport versions. My opinion, of course. I really think M-Network did a great job on 2600 games.

Maybe I should get my axe out and learn some video game themes. Or hey, some of those tv themes from the other thread. We can start a virtual atari.io band!

Happy Atari day! Since it falls on a Saturday this month, there's plenty of time for games. I plan on some Chip's Challenge later. @HDN , I hope you get your 7800 back soon.