Atari 5200 Guy

Speaking of Netflix...boo hiss at Nintendo for discontinuing video streaming services on the Wii after Jan. 31, 2019. They could have at least kept that part going. That's how I watched Netflix on my old CRT was with a Wii. I know things can't always last forever but they could have kept that part.

Not sure if this belongs here or not but I just recently discovered an online TV service that is actually free...and decent. Pluto TV! https://pluto.tv/tv/ I've been watching it on my Android tablet but I think they have other ways to watch. Not sure if it's on Apple or not. Been watching a channel called the "Asylum" and they played an airplane movie a while back which I already forgot the name of. A commercial airliner goes through a storm to be taken back to WWI times. Not great but not bad either. Just thought I would mention this for those who might be curious.

As long as his creations continue to entertain he will always be remembered. Thank you for the memories and encouraging the imagination of this person's mind during childhood. I don't know how many times I dressed up as Spiderman and pretending I could climb walls in the house when I wasn't allowed outside. The comic books kept me reading at an early age. You will be missed but I have a feeling your creations will live on for many generations to come. R.I.P. Mr. Lee.

And...improved again! 80,179

Improved my score a bit. Made it to level 11, too!

Today I have been. I can't get any where close to what I made earlier.

There was a small music store in my hometown called Unicorn that was the place to go to get any kind of rock music on vinyl and cassettes plus he sold the latest audio gear from turntables, amps, EQs, you name it. And swag...he had lots of shirts from concerts. The owner was a family friend named Curt. He started selling Atari stuff when I got the 5200. I remember seeing 5200 stuff at his store which is where I got my Star Raiders from. I don't recall him selling 2600 stuff. He sold them until the end after which he moved out of the area. My copy of Popeye came from a truck stop in Springfield, MO. Mom and I had spent all day looking for 5200 games. Never found any until the trip home when she stopped to fill up the car. They had half a shelf full of unsold 2600/5200 games. Their price tags were over price tags from stores we stopped at earlier. My $5 game cost $15 as removing the price tags later revealed. What? I was curious.

HA! Game tells lies. See what it says? "You are a Tetris Master." Blah. Anyone that can do anything with this game is a Tetris Master. It takes a lot of concentration to play this game on it's slow speeds. At its core it is a thinking game because you have one piece falling you have to figure out where to place PLUS you have to plan ahead where the NEXT piece can go. Then you get your NEXT piece you thought you knew where it could go but your new NEXT piece would fit that place better. So now you have to figure out where the current piece would fit best. It's a constant battle and causes lots of insecurities LOL. Basically you will find yourself battling against your own thoughts trying to place these pieces because time has no meaning in this game. It doesn't exist. And the real world will disappear while you play. That's the Tetris Trance! And just for an FYI, the history of this game is an amazing mess. If you have never watched it, be sure to go to YouTube and check out Gaming Historian's Story of Tetris. It's a long video but the history is rather amazing. It's a wonder any one console or computer ever got this game.

Improved my score. Made it to level 10, was doing good, had my Tetris mind set...wife asked me something and I lost it. LOL. I'm not blaming her, though, even if it sounds like it. 59,113 - Pic only this time.

I agree, Justin. Now, let's see Pepper II make it to the 5200!

Perhaps. Would like to have the NES ROMscanner but those things are very hard to come by. I believe they were only sold to stores selling NES games at the time. It was never commercially available. Bummer. The ROMScanner for a VCS would be cool, too.

The whole idea is just to have fun! You don't suck. You are doing good for someone that never plays the game much. Keep plugging away at it. I'm no pro at Tetris but there is something about Tetris that makes it hard to stop playing. The game will often feel like its against you. Show it who's boss! And just have fun!! That's all video games are about.

I thought I was recording when I got my number one high score in the video but I didn't even get a snapshot. For some reason I thought I hit the record button on my camera but ... yea ... technical glitch. So I am submitting my second high score shown in the last portion of the video. 51,813 Points Enjoy the video. I plan to do more Tetris game play videos. Played on real hardware.

That would be awesome, Creep!

Tetris on any system is the only game I have found that no matter how much the game causes frustration you keep going back for more. Once I start to play this game I have a really hard time putting it down. I have to force myself to stop but I could literally play this game for days without sleep and without realizing it. I had this on a CoCo 3 cart and could not stop. That was my first encounter with Tetris. The GB got it followed by the NES and ... Yea...not a good thing for me lol.

Wouldn't do me any good...I only have super tennis and I wouldn't have that if not for RickR. F-Zero challenge would be nice.

Well? It's bad enough to be running from those robots when they finally get you. But to be spawned right in front of a robot that, by the time you realize where you are, it is either too late or you can't move without dying. It is a hair pulling moment! He he...but this is still one of my top favorite 2600 games for that reason. The 2600 might not have been able to get everything right but it nails it on challenge...on most games anyway.

It is possible that the commercial was an early draft and never officially aired. If it did air then I never seen it. Then again having only three channels we rarely seen anything Atari on TV other than the games we were playing. Atari was really never advertised in my area when I was a kid. OK...maybe I should say younger because I'm still a kid at heart.

Love Coco!! Fixing to watch Rogue's Tavern on the Archives after I finish my round of Animal Crossing on Wii and GC.

Yea...our Walmart has a demo unit setup where all you can do is push a button to watch a short demo. You can't touch the controls. If I was to get one I would be after either the Asteroids or Galaga model. I'm hoping they addressed the artwork issue by now as is the issue with the rotary controller.

I would have been 10. The price of candy and oil those days...wow! I wish oil cost that much these days. Candy, too. I miss shopping centers like that. It is a shame how most of the stuff around then is gone now.

I never seen a ROM scanner for the standard issue NES before but did see a stand alone unit with 12 games in it at Wal-Mart years ago. Is that what you are talking about?

I just remembered something. Mom did play a few computer games with me a few years before her passing. When she remarried I spent a weekend with them. Brought my computer, too, as they had nothing to do and I had tons of games I thought they might like to help break the silence. I tried game after game with the results being pretty much the same...too complicated. Then I showed them Links (by Access, not Microsoft) running under DOS. Once I showed them how to play it with the mouse they spent all night long playing the game. I remember going to bed about 2 AM and when I woke up around 9 AM they were still playing the game having started a new one at some point. Another game Mom played with a friend and me was You Don't Know Jack (the first edition). It was a simple game to play...just push one button and type in your answer. Mom would laugh at "Cookie's" obnoxious jokes and trivial questions when he would say examples and then give the question.

So games my parents played? Centipede and Frogger on the 5200 was Mom's. I had a family friend named Charles. We got pretty close when I got my 386 in the early 1990's. He spent a whole day with me seeing what games I got and putting new games on my hard drive. Every weekend or other weekend after that I would literally pack up my 386 and visit his place. Then we would do sort of a software swap. It was because of him I discovered shareware games. Since he lived a rural area that got very little I usually had the cool commercial games. His area had a small computer shop that started carrying shareware programs (had a whole wall dedicated to shareware stuff). They would make their own disks and print out short manuals on how to install and play the games, all packaged in ziplock bags to protect them. Once we discovered Doom and Heretic we would setup local networks and play multiplayer games. Otherwise we would work together on some adventure games like the AD&D series from SSI or Wing Commander. He was always good about giving me his older computer parts to put in my 386 if they would fit and work. I still remember all the headaches we would go through trying to squeeze as much conventional RAM (640k and less) out of our systems so we could run some games. At the time I was a teen, he was in his 30s. Computer stuff back then just seemed more interesting to me. It was always about faster processors, higher quality sound, more storage space, more memory, better graphics, better storage solutions (floppy, optical)...it seemed never ending. Now everything is pretty much the same. Instead of new hardware promoting development of better software the computer end is now having to be created or upgraded to use software that exceeds some computer setups. Seriously...dual graphics cards?!? And I thought the Diamond Multimedia graphics card I had back then was the bomb. I understand basic setups are just that...but a basic computer setup back then would at least play most of the games...now a basic setup might play one or two major game releases if you are lucky. So...to recap again...Centipede and Frogger on the 5200 with Mom and on PC Doom, Heretic, AD&D, Wing Commander, Wolfenstein 3D, and there was one more I can't remember the name of on IBM PC with Charles.

Atari 2600 (dot) com has a price list of practically everything 2600 related. The item you mention is in that list. If it works and is in its box with all paperwork and any inserts it's worth $46.33, loose it's worth $37.28. That's in US dollars so in Australia currency, at the current rate of exchange, a used ROMSCANNER is worth $52 AUD and one in its box is worth $59 AUD. It looks to be in good condition. I would set a price between $65 - $75. Then if they need to mark it down for any kind of sale, like a 10% weekend sale for example, they will still make market value for the item. Your suggestion of $100 would help them cover overhead should the item sit for a while before being sold. For reference: http://www.atari2600.com/priceguide/ (Scroll to the bottom of the list to find the ROMSCANNER values. That list is a bit dated as it was last updated in July 2012.) That's the best I could come up with. Hope it helps.