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Ballblaɀer

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Everything posted by Ballblaɀer

  1. Junk! Juuunk! Juuuuunk! What'd I take? Space Dungeon, for the 5200. A very nice upgrade to what I had, which was looking a little worn. Riddle of the Sphinx, for the 2600. A *big* upgrade to the copy in my collection, which was far more faded than I'd realized. Compute!'s First Book of Atari, from 1981 -- gonna have to try typing up some of the included programs on my 1200XL sometime! Alphabet Zoo (Spinnaker) for the Atari 8-bit line -- I'm not going to start collecting 8-bit carts, I'm not going to start collecting 8-bit carts, I'm not going to... A CX-40 Atari joystick, in excellent condition. A new cassette tape! I honestly took this for the case -- I needed one for a loose Starpath cassette I have. But now I can record you a mixtape, too. Time Lord (NES) -- well, I wasn't gonna take this initially, but it was the one thing that wouldn't make it back in the box. Hmm, maybe I'll start the next RJB... Koopa shell McDonalds friction motor toy. Came in the original plastic; I opened it so the cats could chase after it. The Big Book of Hell -- as a huge early Simpsons fan (man, isn't it a shame that it ended after 9 seasons? ) I've never read any of Groening's earlier comic work. That changes now. Activision TV Games plug-and-play from Toymax -- one of the first "modern" P&P devices (2001?). I'm curious to see how the 10 games compare to the originals! Onto the next!
  2. RJB10 arrived Saturday to my PO, but I couldn't pick it up before it closed. Just went to get it during my lunch break today. Will open it tonight after work -- can't wait!
  3. Looks cool -- what's the oval blue thing, and the circular black thing lower left? The internet says that the Pong unit is one of the last ones to be made -- sold in 1983!
  4. Interesting that this carries a 1984 copyright date; the demo currently in circulation ("Yellow Sub Demo", which appears to be identical to this one) has a 1983 date on the Fuji screen. Some internal mail from Atari's Vax servers in the Home Computer Division indicate that Paul Comfort was in "Component Test Engineering", and around this time (early February 1984) HCD was looking at an issue in the SALLY chip in A8 computers -- something to do with the data bus and the CLC (Clear Carry Flag) opcode failing in a high percentage of chips when operated at high temperatures. I know very little about 6502 programming but I gather that the CLC opcode *does* get used in some sprite positioning routines. I'm gonna guess that this demo wasn't related to that specific issue (I'm not even sure if the 5200 used the same SALLY revision that was being tested at the time), but it seems like the kind of quick-n-dirty cart that a test group might put together to put an IC through specific paces. Thanks for sharing this with the community!
  5. Lots of great choices already. Here are some from me: Rescue Terra I - VentureVision's sort-of prequel to Laser Gates (same programmer). Shuttle Orbiter - Orbital mechanics and action puzzling? Sweet! Tapper - Solid, fun, and wholesome (Mountain Dews for everyone!) Subterranea - I so wish this game were more readily available; it deserves far more recognition IMO. Bump 'N' Jump - It's a bit of a memorization game at its core, but besides that there's plenty of fun to be had here. Room of Doom - A cool action shooter, probably my favorite CommaVid game. Montezuma's Revenge - a better action/explorer game than Pitfall II. Yeah, I said it!
  6. Lists are not stupid or pointless, they're great! Top 10 favorites I played as a kid in the 80s/90s, in no particular order: 1) Yars' Revenge 2) Superman 3) Crystal Castles 4) E.T. 5) California Games 6) Ice Hockey 7) Asteroids 8) Berzerk 9) Mario Bros. 10) Defender Top 10 favorites as of now, again not in any order: 1) Yars' Revenge 2) Enduro 3) California Games 4) Beamrider 5) Crystal Castles 6) Berzerk 7) Shuttle Orbiter 8) Subterranea 9) Montezuma's Revenge 10) Gravitar
  7. Coming to you live from near the eclipse centerline in Tennessee! Weather is good and we are ready to rock.

    1. Atari 5200 Guy

      Atari 5200 Guy

      Clouds here. And my location in MidMO means we don't get to see 100% anyway. :(

    2. RickR

      RickR

      We had a beautiful view here in Oregon.

       

  8. There's a handful of more common 2600 games I want. The only catch? I want them in near-mint condition, with little-to-no plaque/wear/dirt. If you have any of these and would like to help me make my collection nicer via trade or sale, send me a message or post here, please... Canyon Bomber (regular Atari Inc. picture label) Galaxian (regular Atari Inc. silver label) Math Gran Prix (regular Atari Inc. picture label) Trick Shot (picture label) Zaxxon
  9. Nope, not dead! Keep an eye on the AA thread for an update from them real soon.
  10. First footage? https://twitter.com/llamasoft_ox/status/896159971984855040
  11. I'd fall into the "who cares?" part of the spectrum of opinion if not for the fact that these have little purpose other than to be obtrusive. These days, it's a rare subway ride where one isn't exposed to someone's crappy music played through some tinny cell phone speaker. Nobody wants to hear what you're listening to, I promise. And exactly how good are speakers in a hat brim going to be, anyway? (Here, I'll tell you: not all that good.) Anyway, for this reason alone I hope the hat venture is a failure. I'm all for innovation and the creation of "I didn't even know I wanted it because, until now, it didn't exist" type products. And hey, I could even go for a nice, stylish, minimalist Atari hat. But nobody was asking for this, as far as I can tell, and I suspect that the only people who will use this product as intended are those without respect for others' rights to exist in an undisturbed public setting.
  12. Dynamite and an ice cream cone can mean only one thing: Taz!
  13. 5146 Can't see myself grinding too hard on this one. There's only so much bamp-bamp-bamp-bamp-bampbamp-bamp-bamp-WEEEOOO-WEEEOOO-WEEEOOO a guy can take! (Screwed up the audio, so I muted it. Was anything *really* lost, though? Change to 720p60 to fix the disappearing ghosts.) I feel like I can play better. But... do I want to?
  14. Newly available for trade or for sale (pictures supplied upon request): Atari 5200 Gremlins (CIB) Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator (torn end label) Atari 2600 Beany Bopper Flag Capture (1986 picture label) Math Gran Prix (Sears picture label) Submarine Commander Complete trade list updated!
  15. The most recent additions to my Atari collection are things I’ve not seen in photos on the internet or elsewhere. I can't see that they've been cataloged on AtariMania.com, AtariBoxed.com, or any other comprehensive database sites, and I’ve never really seen them specifically mentioned on any Atari forums or in Usenet groups like RGVC. I don't believe these are super-rare or anything; one has to think that lots (thousands, perhaps?) of these were printed. I just don't think anyone has bothered to document and share them. So, what are they? These are unique Swedish language instruction manuals from licensed international distributors for the Atari VCS in Scandinavia. They are supplementary to the standard English manuals, and are designed to refer directly back to the English manuals for illustrations, etc. Most are printed in black-and-white only, but a handful of them have color printing. Two of them -- Space War and Surround -- have the officially licensed artwork on the front, too. Video Chess has the title of "Schack", the Swedish word for Chess. When it came to releasing region-specific products for the VCS, Atari partnered with distributors all over the world. Aficionados may be familiar with some of the more noteworthy ones like Polyvox in Brazil, Monaco Distributors in New Zealand, and Irwin Electronics in Canada (see photo of Night Driver manual below, another recent collection addition). Some of Atari’s international relationships, including those with Scandinavia, find their roots in the first half of the 1970s when Atari/Syzygy partnered with a number of coin-op distributor corporations. Check out mcurrent’s fantastic Atari timelines for additional details. Atari's connection to Scandinavia appears to have originated in 1973 through the newly incorporated Atari International, with partner “AB Roulettekonsult och Spelautomater”, a roulette & slot machine distributor in Sweden that (if I'm reading translations properly) originally dates back to 1963. Sometime in their earliest years, the Swedish company re-branded as (or signed a partnership agreement with -- it’s not clear to me which) Cherry, a Swedish casino gaming company. One of the coin-op Atari games that Cherry distributed was a uniquely manufactured Breakout. Cherry also seemingly built their own version of the Atari Theater kiosk, though I'm not sure if any were ever put into service. Anyway, it's this same company that later also distributed the Atari VCS and its games in Scandinavia. The manuals are mostly attributed to “Cherry Hemelektronik AB” (Cherry Home-Electronics Ltd.) and “Cherry Företagen” (Cherry Enterprises). In addition to Cherry, there are also some manuals printed by “AlgaVision AB” and “AB Alga” to contend with. AB is the Swedish acronym for Aktiebolag, which is like "Corporation" or "Limited Company". I don't think that AlgaVision is directly related to Cherry, though they seem to have similar/overlapping regional coverage. Alga appears to have had an office in Finland as well: they printed an Atari 2600 system owner's manual all in Finnish. An article (“Growing Interest in TV Games”) in December 1981 Norwegian magazine “Radiobransjen” refers to AlgaVision AB as Atari's official distributor in Sweden, Finland, and Norway.* Inter-Salg A/S is named as another Atari distributor in Norway.** The designs of the B&W Cherry manuals and those of the Alga manuals are nearly identical. Interestingly, I've found two images through Google Image Search that show VCS advertisements from Cherry; one of them has the ad displayed next to a separate ad from AlgaVision, the other has the ad by itself but with an AlgaVision sticker ON it, as if maybe they were sharing stock, or they took over for Cherry at some point. All of this is to say that I don't yet understand how these Scandinavian companies were related (if at all), both in general and chronologically. My first instinct is to wonder how it's possible that these particular manual supplements don’t seem to have ever been documented anywhere. Then I remember that, while Atari expanded their business all over the globe, the VCS didn’t become a part of global mainstream pop culture in the same way or to the same extent that it did in North America. Ultimately, So if, say, some devoted Atari VCS fans don’t go to the trouble of unearthing and cataloging things like this, they could potentially be lost to time. I call on everyone, especially international readers, to help me chart the existence of additional manuals and supplements (find me at @AtariSpot on Twitter, message me here or on AA, or email AtariSpot [at] gmail [dot] com). I’ve been building a spreadsheet tracking major variants of Atari manuals, and I'm sure that the international manuals I have listed are but a fraction of what exists. I also strongly encourage everyone to scan unique manuals and submit them to AtariMania, AtariBoxed, and archive.org -- these things are all part of video game history and deserve to be preserved electronically, if in no other way! We’re seeing big pushes to archive post-crash video game history in recent years, but not nearly the same attention and effort is being given to classic systems, and especially non-North American releases. I hope to help change that. *Bonus: there’s a full-page VCS ad on page 6 of the same magazine which shows Inter-Salg A/S as the Norwegian distributor. **Double bonus: there’s an article that appears to be about VCS Pac-Man sales in this June 1982 issue of Radiobransjen -- when I get more time I intend to try to translate it.
  16. Nope! Right now I only have the 99, the adapter you just sent me, and the video cable that I'm using with my 1200XL (plus a monochrome-only RF cable that came with the computer). I haven't decided if I'm gonna keep the 99 yet, so I'm trying to limit the investment I make for now...
  17. This would have been one more 5200 game that used all four ports on the original SuperSystem units. Making a grand total of... three. Four, if RealSports Basketball had been released, too.
  18. Thanks to RickR who came through with a power adapter, I have a TI-99/4A that I know works. I'm now looking for a cheap set of joysticks (or an adapter so I can use standard 9-pin joysticks) and some common games. Mainly I'm looking to play a few of the games that I played at a friend's house as a little kid -- Microsurgeon and Alpiner -- but if you have any spares of other games laying around, let me know!
  19. Man, you are firing on all cylinders lately! Leave some free consoles for the rest of us, eh?
  20. Amen. I've never played Re-Volt on a console but it's in my top ten computer games ever, and I've played a ton of computer games. I can only imagine that the console versions are cool, too.
  21. Time Pilot! 1910, and "the mighty Dirigible".
  22. Newly available for trade/sale: Atari 2600 -- loose carts Activision Decathlon Basic Programming (picture label) Dragonfire Eggomania Enduro (blue label) Fire Fly Kool-Aid Man Q*Bert (red label) RealSports Volleyball Sky Skipper Spitfire Attack Trick Shot (text label) Wizard of Wor Intellivision Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack (CIB excellent condition w/overlays) Happy to take photos for anyone interested.
  23. Okay, you can change my "Pretzel Member" status to "Defender" whenever... 1,031,850 Rolled the wave counter, then the score counter, then my sanity -- so I quit with something like ten lives left, on wave 158/159. I think that's enough Defender for me for another few years!
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