Atari 5200 Guy

Hehe...I had to share this, too!

Someone on SCS's Twitter page posted this so I downloaded it to share here.

I thought I would stop long enough to wish everyone here Merry Christmas.  I've been so involved in playing American Truck Simulator lately, doing their Christmas Event tasks, that it's been hard for me to stop playing.  I did capture a screenshot to share with you guys.

That sunset was just amazing when I seen it while driving through at 55 MPH through southern Cali.  But it also made me stop to think about something. 
Atari I/O has awesome members who are generous and giving.  But our members would not be able to do what they do without someone getting it to its final destination.  Trains and planes can only go so far.  The rest has to be taken by truck.  Those guys usually give up spending holidays with their family to make sure someone else doesn't go without.  Whether it's a trailer full of packages containing gifts, making sure your convenience stores and gas stations have plenty of fuel, and store shelves have the items ready to be stocked for your holiday needs, be it food or material items, we would not have the things we need or want without them.  
If all truckers went on strike our economy would stop, period.  So the next time you see a trucker take the time to thank them and wish them a happy holiday.  Some are giving up time with their family to make sure we have what we need to prosper and grow

Hehe...I had to share this, too!

Someone on SCS's Twitter page posted this so I downloaded it to share here.

I thought I would stop long enough to wish everyone here Merry Christmas.  I've been so involved in playing American Truck Simulator lately, doing their Christmas Event tasks, that it's been hard for me to stop playing.  I did capture a screenshot to share with you guys.

That sunset was just amazing when I seen it while driving through at 55 MPH through southern Cali.  But it also made me stop to think about something. 
Atari I/O has awesome members who are generous and giving.  But our members would not be able to do what they do without someone getting it to its final destination.  Trains and planes can only go so far.  The rest has to be taken by truck.  Those guys usually give up spending holidays with their family to make sure someone else doesn't go without.  Whether it's a trailer full of packages containing gifts, making sure your convenience stores and gas stations have plenty of fuel, and store shelves have the items ready to be stocked for your holiday needs, be it food or material items, we would not have the things we need or want without them.  
If all truckers went on strike our economy would stop, period.  So the next time you see a trucker take the time to thank them and wish them a happy holiday.  Some are giving up time with their family to make sure we have what we need to prosper and grow

Hehe...I had to share this, too!

Someone on SCS's Twitter page posted this so I downloaded it to share here.

I thought I would stop long enough to wish everyone here Merry Christmas.  I've been so involved in playing American Truck Simulator lately, doing their Christmas Event tasks, that it's been hard for me to stop playing.  I did capture a screenshot to share with you guys.

That sunset was just amazing when I seen it while driving through at 55 MPH through southern Cali.  But it also made me stop to think about something. 
Atari I/O has awesome members who are generous and giving.  But our members would not be able to do what they do without someone getting it to its final destination.  Trains and planes can only go so far.  The rest has to be taken by truck.  Those guys usually give up spending holidays with their family to make sure someone else doesn't go without.  Whether it's a trailer full of packages containing gifts, making sure your convenience stores and gas stations have plenty of fuel, and store shelves have the items ready to be stocked for your holiday needs, be it food or material items, we would not have the things we need or want without them.  
If all truckers went on strike our economy would stop, period.  So the next time you see a trucker take the time to thank them and wish them a happy holiday.  Some are giving up time with their family to make sure we have what we need to prosper and grow

Thanks to a generous donation of PC components I've been able to start two new series.  These series are centered around my favorite Steam games Euro and American Truck Simulators.  Other game play series are planned at a later date.  But, for now, I'm working on these two.  ETS2 has already started with ATS to start before Christmas.
Enjoy and I look forward to your feedback.  Future episodes are planned with commentaries.

LibreOffice is still going strong and very well supported.
https://www.libreoffice.org/
It's another great alternative to MS Office and feature rich!

I'd have loved to have given that 360 a home, red ring or not.  Especially with the box.  If that 360 has HDMI port then you have the model where the RRoD issues was to be fixed.  You shouldn't have been getting that from what plagued the original run of 360s.  What you might do is shake it to see if you hear anything rattling around in it.  It's possible that the spring that holds the flaps to the memory card and USB ports might have found a way inside it causing the problem.  The black 360 controller you found actually goes to the 360 model I own.  You have a 360 Premium edition, mine is just like that except all black called the Elite model.  Your hard drive is most likely a 20 Gig as that was the smallest you could get at the time...and the only one for a while.  Then came the 60, 120, and 250.  We have XBOX Live Arcade to thank for the increase in disk drive sizes.  I'm using a 20 GB and I barely have room for about 2 large games (about 5 GB per game) and a few smaller games.  Even with all the problems it had originally the 360 has a LOT of great games besides Halo.  Borderlands series, Forza, Sniper Elite V2, Farming Simulators, geez...I could go on and on.  I still have my original XBOX as well that I still use quite often...it just depends on which game I'm in the mood to play.  
I just realized the date of this post.  Is that XBOX still working?  If it ever fails please don't toss it out...I'll gladly give it a home.

Write my name on my cartridges?  Nope...never.  It ruined them in my opinion.  If I ever did that I probably wouldn't have received another game cartridge ever again.  Mom said when I got my 5200 to take care of it...and to me that meant it was not a drawing pad nor were the games we got for it.  So, no, I never put my name on them.  I didn't even write scores on the back of most manuals set aside for such things.  

I just beat the main story line in Fallout 3 on the 360.  Not a bad game at all and it had a neat story line.  I just didn't care of the ending because I would have liked the option, without having to purchase a DLC, to explore areas of the map I didn't get to.  I probably missed a LOT of side quests but the main story was interesting.  Fawks was probably the most surprising character in the whole game although I originally shot at him at first mistaking him for a hostile enemy which I ended up having to reload a previous save.
I have Fallout 4 on the XBOX One and was waiting to play this one before I started that one just in case they were both related some how.

Hey Guys,
With it being Thanksgiving I thought I would write what I'm thankful for.  
First off, I'm thankful to have a warm place to lay my head and plenty of food to eat.  I'm also thankful for my wife for whom I put up with and who puts up with me year after year.  I'm thankful for all the neat video games and systems I have in my collection.  I'm thankful for the friends I have in Minnesota who I hope are staying safe and warm this holiday.  And I'm thankful for all you guys here at Atari I/O.  Without you guys I wouldn't have most of the games in my Atari collection nor would I have meaning for having them.  It's one thing to have those games to enjoy but those games are enjoyed more when I'm able to enjoy those with you guys here.  I will forever be grateful for those that have literally given away gaming gear for others to enjoy.  There's no way I could ever part with them knowing where they came from.  
With that being said, Thank you for everything you guys have done from Justin keeping this place going, to NSG with his family-friendly YouTube videos, to Atari Creep keeping it real, Lee having to start from scratch (which I am very glad is still able to be with us), to StormSurge doing his Give-A-Way, and the rest of the Atari I/O crew who make this place the best place to be on the internet.  My only wish is for us to have the ability to do this for many years to come.
Happy Thanksgiving to all and for those traveling this year here's for safe travels.  And don't forget the PIE!    

Hey Guys,
With it being Thanksgiving I thought I would write what I'm thankful for.  
First off, I'm thankful to have a warm place to lay my head and plenty of food to eat.  I'm also thankful for my wife for whom I put up with and who puts up with me year after year.  I'm thankful for all the neat video games and systems I have in my collection.  I'm thankful for the friends I have in Minnesota who I hope are staying safe and warm this holiday.  And I'm thankful for all you guys here at Atari I/O.  Without you guys I wouldn't have most of the games in my Atari collection nor would I have meaning for having them.  It's one thing to have those games to enjoy but those games are enjoyed more when I'm able to enjoy those with you guys here.  I will forever be grateful for those that have literally given away gaming gear for others to enjoy.  There's no way I could ever part with them knowing where they came from.  
With that being said, Thank you for everything you guys have done from Justin keeping this place going, to NSG with his family-friendly YouTube videos, to Atari Creep keeping it real, Lee having to start from scratch (which I am very glad is still able to be with us), to StormSurge doing his Give-A-Way, and the rest of the Atari I/O crew who make this place the best place to be on the internet.  My only wish is for us to have the ability to do this for many years to come.
Happy Thanksgiving to all and for those traveling this year here's for safe travels.  And don't forget the PIE!    

To my surprise, it's not Gearbox making the shots...it's 2K from the sounds of it.  I hope Gearbox will step up and fix the game to where at least the solo single player portion of the game is playable.

Well, I wouldn't want to sell my copy of Battleborn because the game is good and there are small touches in the game, like how the bosses are introduced, that has a Borderlands style.  It's a FPS game with visuals that's got a TRON like appeal (dark colors with bright color outlines), it's very smooth with responsive controls.  The only thing about it was it had in-game virtual currency you could use to get more in-game content.  But you didn't have to spend real money on the virtual money.  You could earn virtual money while playing the game.  It took me a long time to find a copy of the game.  I haven't been able to play it much (looks like I might need to jump on board while I can) but what I have played I have enjoyed very much.

Well, there's some hope for digital games.  Guess what game reappeared on my XBOX 360 download history?  Forza Horizon!  Some how it returned.  
Yea, which is the case with all Wii games that had online abilities.  Nintendo has stated that once they shutdown the Wii Shop and online support for Wii games that any offline features of the game will remain intact and playable. 
What Battleborn is doing is more like those games you see on Facebook, AppStore (Apple), or Google Play (Android).  There use to be a neat little Google Play game called Car Town Streets, a game that carried over from the original that appeared on Facebook.  Without warning the game disappeared.  While it's player side remains on my tablet the game is completely unplayable. 

Hey Guys,
One of the first XBOX One games I ever got was called Battleborn made by the creators of Borderlands known as Gearbox.  It was published by 2K.  The game relies on a server-side portion of the game for both Solo and Multiplayer modes.  Without that the game will not work again.
Well, just tonight, my wife read something on MSN's website.  2K is shutting down the game and removing it from its servers by 2021 and has already removed all digital copies of the game from Steam, PlayStation, and XBOX online stores.  While I own a physical copy of the game once the game has been removed from 2K's servers the game will never be playable again, not even in solo mode.  So I basically will have a game that I won't be able to play ever again.  
It saddens me that video games have come down to things like this and is the sole reason why I am against digital only versions of games.  They do have some of their perks but when a game reaches the end of its life they disappear.  How are we to save games for future generations to enjoy if this is how current modern games are being treated?  
I wonder if someone could approach 2K and offer to move the game somewhere else if only to preserve it?  I do own a 1U server that would be perfect for preserving the game.  If nothing else maybe someone could ask 2K to give an alternative like at least allowing those owning the game to download what is needed to keep the solo portion of the game operational.
Rant over...but I really wish these game developers and publishers would do more to preserve their heritage.  Battleborn might not have been met with the same positive experience as Borderlands has but it's still hard work that people put into it that needs to be protected and preserved.

Hey Guys,
One of the first XBOX One games I ever got was called Battleborn made by the creators of Borderlands known as Gearbox.  It was published by 2K.  The game relies on a server-side portion of the game for both Solo and Multiplayer modes.  Without that the game will not work again.
Well, just tonight, my wife read something on MSN's website.  2K is shutting down the game and removing it from its servers by 2021 and has already removed all digital copies of the game from Steam, PlayStation, and XBOX online stores.  While I own a physical copy of the game once the game has been removed from 2K's servers the game will never be playable again, not even in solo mode.  So I basically will have a game that I won't be able to play ever again.  
It saddens me that video games have come down to things like this and is the sole reason why I am against digital only versions of games.  They do have some of their perks but when a game reaches the end of its life they disappear.  How are we to save games for future generations to enjoy if this is how current modern games are being treated?  
I wonder if someone could approach 2K and offer to move the game somewhere else if only to preserve it?  I do own a 1U server that would be perfect for preserving the game.  If nothing else maybe someone could ask 2K to give an alternative like at least allowing those owning the game to download what is needed to keep the solo portion of the game operational.
Rant over...but I really wish these game developers and publishers would do more to preserve their heritage.  Battleborn might not have been met with the same positive experience as Borderlands has but it's still hard work that people put into it that needs to be protected and preserved.

For being chalk that is some really good artwork.  And to survive for as long as they have has to say something.  If they could talk there's no telling what stories they could tell you.

For being chalk that is some really good artwork.  And to survive for as long as they have has to say something.  If they could talk there's no telling what stories they could tell you.

I only know of the LCD screen mod for Lynx.  I am unsure if there are more or not.
Your biggest issue you will come across is with the system's original screen as these do fade in picture quality over time.  My Lynx II doesn't have that issue so I've never felt the need to do an upgrade and I prefer original gear anyway even when they are faulty.
I've used both Lynx models and the second one is a bit more comfortable in my opinion.  It also is the only model to offer stereo sound.  It also moved the cartridge slot in a spot that made more sense.  The first model has been known to have issues with paint flaking which exposes the white plastic underneath.  No matter which model you pick make sure you get an as adapter for it because these systems will eat through batteries in no time.  The second model has an auto shutoff feature if left on too long without playing it.  Not sure if the first model has that.  
If you do get one that comes with games and it will not turn on then try cleaning the game carts.  The Lynx is designed to not power on if no game is inserted and dirty carts will emulate the Lynx not having a cart inserted.  I discovered this recently and was scared my Lynx had bit the big one but it was just a dirty cart.
As for games there are lots to choose from including world famous arcade hits and a few that were exclusive to the system like STUN Runner.  APB was on both the Lynx and ST but plays best on the Lynx in my opinion.  The same can be said for Blue Lightning.  

I'm all in.  I think I have this one.

I'm all in.  I think I have this one.

I'm all in.  I think I have this one.

Wow.  I haven't seen this game since the 1990s.  It was nice to revisit it.