dauber

Kay-Bee was a frequent stop for me for veeja game shopping. It was there where I first learned that there was a Jr. Pac-Man for the 2600. I practically pleaded for that for Christmas in 1987 (and got it -- and to this day it's one of my favorites!). I think the last time I was at a Kay-Bee they were having a sale on 2600 games. I was eyeing E.T. (I hadn't heard the rumors that it was bad), but then I saw this game called Tax Avoiders. I picked it up and read the notes on the back and thought, "This sounds just bizarre enough that I'll regret it if I don't get it!" So, yeah...went home with Tax Avoiders! No regrets. (And to this day I still don't own a CIB E.T.) I had enough money left over to get another, lesser game, but I opted not to. (I was 12, maybe 13 years old at the time...not like I had a steady income!)

I was doing some research for an upcoming...well, project...(more info soon!)...and I found out about this store called Minnesota Fats and an ad it ran in the Chicago Tribune that, long story short, helped Atari's lawyers out immensely. Found out that as a Trib subscriber I actually have access to digitized versions of back issues (for now)! I though this was a cool find. This isn't the ad I was talking about (I did find that, too, btw), but it's still cool to see...and apparently one of their locations was not too far from where I live now! The ad I was looking for was for exactly one year later, and this same picture appeared, and the price was exactly the same too.

Dude.....Louisiana...man, all I can say is New Orleans is the most dangerous place to visit if you're trying to watch your weight; oh, man, the po' boys...and the gumbo.... Heh...I loved Food Fight before I ever even played it. September 1983 article in JoyStik got me into it. Never played it until the '90s on Jimmy G's/Inky's Atari 7800...

Right now Chase the Chuck Wagon for me, a loose cart. Should be getting a CIB Video Cube soon.

FTR, Jr. Pac-Man and Professor Suck-Man were not Namco games but unauthorized Midway creations.

At this point, either.

Oh....this past Thanksgiving for the extended weekend my wife and I went to New Jersey to visit her mother and some relatives. Along with my MacBook I also brought a book I've been meaning to read...which came in *very* handy because my M-I-L's Verizon FiOS dropped dead, meaning no TV and no Internet. (My wife and I each had stuff to occupy the time with, but my M-I-L was in a state of panic because she couldn't watch the damn TV.) And as with fergojisan (if that IS his real name!) I also have my trusty iPod with me, 160 gigs...even have a playlist for daytime airplane takeoffs: - "On The Run" by Wondermints, timing it so that the very last segment happens just as the plane's about to lift off, followed immediately by "Ride" from the same group, next track on the album, actually - "Someone To Love" and "Car Phone" from Roger McGuinn's Back From Rio album - Then back to Wondermints for their cover of "Barbarella" (my wife's suggestion) - And then back to the McGuinn album for "Your Love is a Goldmine". For some reason, that list of songs just plain works at the beginning of a daytime flight.

Thought maybe someone would have ripped the ROM. It went out of production right before I got my 7800. I've really been hoping to find that and Combat 1990.

Usually I bring my MacBook. I'm always working on a project, be it a podcast episode, a web site, etc., or I'll fire up MAME (played a *lot* of Arch Rivals during Thanksgiving break!)...

Wow, I realized that I've been a member for a few months now (but not very active) but haven't formally introduced myself. You might recognize my handle from AtariAge. I looooooooooove my 7800 (I'm lucky enough to have one that plays *everything* that it theoretically should, including all the Activision carts and even the Supercharger) and in fact will soon be sharing something that hopefully you 7800 fans will enjoy. Started out with an Atari 2600 4-switcher on Christmas 1982 and have never given it up. I'm not into modern games; they bore me. I'm a music guy. Amateur musician (guitar, bass, harmonica, bit of piano) and obsessed with the music of The Beatles and Brian Wilson. Other stuff about me?? Uhh.... Age: 42 Locale: Chicago (and I mean *Chicago*, not a suburb!) Occupation: web site developer (in fact, if you live in the US, there's a good chance you've actually run some of my code!) Pets: a beagle Marital status: very happily married for 17 years Children: No, thank you. Religion: Christian but I don't go to church as often as I "should" and I generally keep my religion to myself and don't get preachy -- what works for me works for me, what works for you works for you; Politics: liberal but I don't associate with any political parties as I feel they're all equally crooked, just in different ways (I always do vote though) Favorite Atari 2600 game (offically sanctioned): wow, too hard to choose...Jr. Pac-Man is up there (I've been a major Pac-Man fan since 1981), and I've been getting into Megamania and Communist Mutants From Space! lately... Favorite Atari 2600 homebrew: tie between Ladybug and lately have been getting into Space Rocks Favorite Atari 7800 game (officially sanctioned): Food Fight by a landslide! Favorite Atari 7800 homebrew: wow...too hard to pick just one...I love Bob DeCrescenzo's Frenzy/Berzerk twofer and have kinda been getting hooked on K.C. Munchkin! lately Atari 2600 Coleco conspiracy beliefs: shut up, there's no conspiracy there! Favorite arcade game: again, too much to name, but I've really been getting into Pigskin lately (and have a TG world record on the "turbo" version of Jr. Pac-Man!) Oh, and to answer the question that will probably be asked of everybody: - My handle comes from the character played by Bill Faggerbakke on the TV show Coach, because when I was in college, people told me I looked just like "that guy from Coach" -- and I worked for the college's football team, which just further encouraged the association. And I use Charley Chuck as my avatar because I kinda look like an obese version of him. I...think that's about it for now...anyway, I've gotten some really great welcomes already, so thanks, everybody!

So...anybody have a ROM for Santa Simon??? AA doesn't carry one, and the guy who developed it never published one. Couldn't find it on any ROM sites I could find. I'd love to actually buy the game, but it's been out of print for ten years.

So a new episode is out, effective, oh...ten minutes ago. http://fab4it.com/piefactory/audio/PFP_Episode044.mp3

Thanks for the kind words, DeLorean. Full disclosure: not an arcade collector...at all. I'd rather just go to an arcade. (Where I live there's no paucity of them!) For many reasons, I don't think I'd ever want to have an arcade game. Don't have the room for one. And these things require semi-frequent repairs that I'm not really willing to do or have done myself; I'll just leave it to the experts. I DO have a Q*Bert marquee though, and I found the perfect place to hang it; just gotta figure out *how*.

Hey, all...just some shameless self-promotion... Inky from AtariAge and I co-host Pie Factory Podcast. It's an arcade game podcast. What we do, typically: - We discuss, rate, and share our memories of playing two (2) arcade games. - The two (2) arcade games have a common theme. The common theme could be something as simple as "games whose titles are compound words" (such as Zoo Keeper and Firefox) to the obscure as "games that Dauber first played at Hunk's Pancake House in Bradley, IL" (Frogger and Asteroids). Occasionally we veer from the usual format, such as the three episodes we've done to talk about various home consoles (we've discussed the 2600, 7800, and Sega Genesis so far), or one episode that was nothing more than an interview with Brian Colin, designer behind Rampage, Arch Rivals, etc. (Seriously, he's a fascinating and hilarious guy...) We've been doing the podcast since April of last year, and in the next few days we'll be releasing episode #44, in which we discuss Dig Dug and Pac-Mania. You can hear the podcast via the usual channels -- iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher...possibly a few other providers I'm forgetting about. We have a Faceobook page, and our web page is at www.piefactorypodcast.com. We welcome both audio and textual feedback, too! Oh...yeah...and we won the Golden Poddie Award for podcast of the year for 2015.

This was my favorite episode of the whole podcast. I couldn't be sad at all that the podcast is over, that's how good it was!

Are these CIB?

Recently got my first arcade marquee too!

Another pro: Nearly passed out when I fired up the cartridge for the first time!