RickR

You are the Hercule Poirot of retro system diagnostics! Nice work and very enjoyable to read. Thank you.

You are correct about the speech module. You have to modify it to have a passthrough for 5V. Fortunately, it's a very easy thing to do. If you are going to PRGE, you can buy what you need and get any questions answered personally from Greg of ArcadeShopper. He always has a booth full of TI goodies. https://www.arcadeshopper.com/wp/store/#!/32k-sidecar-memory-expansion-with-case/p/202969060 You could e-mail him and make sure he will have these at the show and that would save you on shipping :) My setup is for games only. I've got a stock TI 99/4A, a modded (by me) speech module, the 32k sidecar, and the older SD card cart (I don't remember the name) and also an adapter to use Atari joysticks.

I think if you have a TI, the speech module, a set of joysticks, and Parsec....you can have a lot of fun. Alpiner is another good speech game. I may have an extra speech module around here. I will look. If yes, it will be for sale cheap. I had extra joysticks, and those sold quickly on the ebay. I'll look for more of those too. I'm very close to getting my TI collection down to 1 box. But that's been on hold for a while.

What coming to these forums is like sometimes:

Right? That one!

<Don't worry, I won't spoil it for anyone> Do we have any others here that signed up for the 2022 CollectorVision Experience Club? My box just arrived, and while I won't spoil it, I will tell you I said "OMG" out loud when I saw the contents. Truly spectacular. 3 boxed games as promised and a special bonus .

Two free items that I'm very happy to have. A 23" TV, which is an upgrade for the smaller 19" you can kind of see behind it. Quite a bit bigger! I will use this one every day while exercising. It has a Chromecast attached for watching YouTube from my phone. I still need to remove the old one from the wall mount and add the new one. A decent Yamaha keyboard. This will allow me to get back into fiddling around playing music.

Thank you guys for confirming it isn't just me. I'll keep trying.

14850. I don't know about you guys, but I find myself fighting the controls on this one. A lot of times, it just won't go in the direction I want.

The streak continues -- this place looks fantastic too.

Beyond the production error and its solution, can I just say one thing? These three games are AWESOME. So much better than I was anticipating. At $3 each for the digital versions on the Atari VCS, they are a total bargain. I can't decide which one I like best.

OK, I've finished season 2 (and of course I had to watch S3:E1 to see how the cliffhanger is resolved). My opinions on this show: The show can be really funny at times. But too often, they go loud and obnoxious. The references to all the prior shows are awesome. You really have to pay attention to all the details. I find myself saying "okee dokey" in real life a lot more than normal. My favorite character is probably the doc, who is super quick to lose her cool and throw out f-bombs. Overall, super worthwhile to watch for any Trek fan. I'll get caught up completely here in the next week or so.

I'm in a gaming room now and really happy with this setup. 42" TV feels just right.

40810

We can take your word for it. I have Antstream on the VCS but I've never tried it. But I'll bet I could tell pretty easily if it's the same or not as what I tried on MAME.

If it runs the original ROM, then it's good for the competition. Most of the arcade collections are fine.

YES! That's exactly what this game needed. I'm going to go back and try this. Thanks for the notice.

Patrick Hickey Jr is a dynamo. He’s the author of the excellent “Minds Behind the Games” retro gaming book series (http://patrickhickeyjr.com/ ), owner and editor-in-chief of the independent comic book company Legacy Comix (https://www.legacycomix.com/ ) as well as creator of the awesome Condrey series (https://www.legacycomix.com/tag/condrey/), and a family man. I was very surprised to learn he also did voice acting for the super-fun Atari VCS exclusive BPM Boy by RetroNinja (https://www.retroninja.com/bpmboy), performing as the main villain DJ Git Bizy! We don’t often get to learn about the voice acting aspect of video game design, and I had questions. Patrick generously agreed to a quick e-mail Q&A, which I am sharing here. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did. Let’s jump right in. Q: You voiced DJ Git Bizy in BPM Boy. Did you do any other characters in the game? PHJ: Just the narration for the trailers when needed away from that. Q: How did you get the gig? Do you know Tony Barnes? PHJ: I've known Tony for a few years. Amazing guy. He wrote the forward to my Minds Behind Sega Genesis book and we chat all the time. Tons of respect for his near 40-year career in gaming. Knowing him has been a pleasure. Q: How much time did it take? All done in one sitting? PHJ: Not in one sitting. Lots of back and worth. I'd say about six sittings- about an hour a shot. The voice is a blast to do, but it requires energy and no distractions haha. With two kids sometimes, that's not easy. Q: Was a script provided? Any ad-libbing? PHJ: Yes, Tony is a pro- so always a script, but I've learned from the best voice actors that I've interviewed and worked with over the years, like Dana Snyder (Aqua Teen Hunger Force) and you've got to ad-lib and make every character your own. So there's a lot of that in there too. Q: Where did you record your parts? In your home, in a studio, or ??? PHJ: A little bit of both. I have a great microphone and my mancave works awesome as a makeshift studio. I also have access to a recording lab that I use from time to time. Q: What was your favorite thing about working on BPM Boy? PHJ: The game is a tribute to Tony's mom and Marble Madness. Add in Tony's underrated ability as a composer and it's a sleeper gem that I believe deserves a ton of play. Working with Tony and watching it progress from concept to finished game was the best part. The fact that one of my comic book artists (I own and serve as the Editor-In-Chief of Legacy Comix, https://www.legacycomix.com/), Valentin Quinones contributed the cover art and some other art really made me feel like I played a part in this. Q: What was it like to hear and see your character come to life in the game? What do your kids think? PHJ: It was great and it was my first time playing a villain, so total bucket list :). My kids love the character. He's silly so they always laugh when they hear his voice. Q: Have you played the finished game on the VCS or any other platform? PHJ: I don't own a VCS unfortunately but have seen the game in various forms. I'd love to own it on the console one day. Q: What do you think DJ Git Bizy's favorite track is? PHJ: Something with a lot of scratching and bass. I'd say, DJ Kool's Let Me Clear My Throat might be up there. Q: Did you have any involvement with the game designers? For example, did they show you animations to help get you in the right mindset? PHJ: Oh yeah, Tony did an amazing job of keeping me in the loop. It was one of my best experiences as a voice actor to date. Having interviewed him for so many of my Minds Behind the Games books (http://patrickhickeyjr.com/) definitely helped me get comfortable with how he worked. I think we killed it. Q: Which other games have you done voice acting for? I know of WrestleQuest and World Championship Boxing Manager II. Any others upcoming? PHJ: I'm the main character in Feardemic's The Padre series. That's on Steam and all major consoles. Tons of small indies like The Kaiju Offensive and even more trailers, Relentless Rex and Roniu's Tale immediately come to mind. Q: Final questions - tell us how far back you go with retro gaming. First system? Favorite game? PHJ: The first system I ever owned was the NES- I was born in '83. My favorite game is impossible to answer, but I'd say probably Fallout 3, Final Fantasy VII, NHLPA 93, Pokemon Red, and Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 are my Mount Rushmore. My favorite Atari game ever is probably Food Fight :) Q: I lied -- one more: What is your favorite drink at Dunkin Donuts? PHJ: Large Iced, Black, Three Pumps of Caramel and Mocha. Another HUGE thank you to Patrick for his time and thoughtful replies. Please do check out his books, Legacy Comix, and BPM Boy for the Atari VCS! Links once again are below. “Minds Behind the Games” books: http://patrickhickeyjr.com/ Legacy Comix: https://www.legacycomix.com/ BPM Boy: https://www.retroninja.com/bpmboy And finally, BPM Boy may soon be available via Steam. Check it out and add it to your wish list. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2130280/BPM_Boy/ (Also, many thanks to @Sabertoothfor guidance, encouragement, and editing)

A Ponyo DVD set and a Ricky Nelson cassette, both for 50 cents.

12,450. I had forgotten how hard the arcade version is! I'm playing using MAME on my main desktop with a Logitech gamepad.

20480. I'll keep trying.

Congrats to Marco and greenween and everyone else! I agree with the sentiment above. Donkey Kong Classics includes two games that are super close to the arcade versions. Very impressive indeed. This one cart seems like a "hold my beer" from the NES towards the 7800, doesn't it?

Thank you! I saw those but wasn't sure if I could choose them for this competition.