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From a trade with Starbuck66: 5 carts in real nice condition, including the Atari Corp controller-info-omitted Sky Diver. Much appreciated! With that one crossed off my list, I'm down to eight more carts with no controller info wanted... I hear you wondering: "Why did I ask for a copy of ET?" Well, wonder no more... it's a label variant. (Of course it is! ) The most common version is on the left. The one that Starbuck66 sent me, while not exactly *rare*, is less common. The most obvious difference is the size and number of diamonds on the spaceship in the background. Thanks again!

You're right, the standard NES power supply uses a step-down transformer and not an AC adapter, so using one would certainly result in damage. This page at Famicom World should have all your answers. Short answer: it would probably be easiest to use an AC adapter from a Sega Genesis or Sega Master System. But any AC adapter that falls into a certain range of tolerance (9V DC - 11V DC, minimum 850mA, center-pin negative polarity) should also work.

Just remembered a game that, while it's in Japanese, it's totally playable anyway and I think it's worth seeking out regardless: Joy Mech Fight. This was one of the last-released Famicom games. The graphics/animation and sound/music are both great, and the gameplay is revolutionary -- I can't think of another Vs. fighting game on the NES off the top of my head. On top of that, it's really GOOD. Here's a video that uses an English translation ROM:

That Famicom looks awesome. Hope you get a lot of enjoyment out of it! Here's a few recommendations for Famicom games (none of which require Japanese knowledge as far as I know): Final Lap The Goonies Gradius II Holy Diver Nuts and Milk Parodius Da! Space Harrier Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti Thexder Two games to skip: Ballblazer (WAAAAY better on the 5200/7800) Pac-Land (lousy controls, and doesn't look all that good either)

All available for trade/sale: C64 box, inner foam and cardboard intact. Sticker on lower left might be removable: C64 cartridges, box conditions vary (obviously none are perfect): C64/128 disk-based games, box conditions vary (a couple are sealed): Intellivision game, boxed:

I have a TI-99/4A computer with monochrome video cable and original brown dust cover available for trade or sale. No power adapter. Comes with three Triton catalogs (1988-1989). Will gladly add photos for anyone interested.

I've been waiting for these to arrive for quite some time, and they finally showed up today. More Atari 2600 cartridges from New Zealand, including THE ONE that I've most wanted for ages! AIR. SEA. BATTLE. YESSSS! I first mentioned the weird artwork for Air-Sea Battle toward the start of this thread. The same unusual cartoon-y artwork can be seen on the box for the Japanese Atari 2800 release of Air-Sea Battle -- I'm still on the hunt for one of those. My guess is that the new artwork was created because the original artwork design calls to mind the Japanese flag and the Naval battles of the Pacific theatre, and it wouldn't have gone over well in Japan. As far as I know, however, this Atari Monaco release is the only instance of the artwork being featured on a cartridge label, since games that came in Atari 2800 boxes were just the standard U.S.A. releases. Unfortunately, this particular masterpiece was not one of those featured in Art of Atari... Edit: just realized, this is made even weirder by the fact that the silver Atari Monaco box for this cart features the original artwork! Pac-Man is a new addition to my silver/gray label collection, and like I said the first time I had Atari Monaco carts to share, there's just something jarring about it to me... like... it's a dream where things aren't quite the way they normally are. Outlaw is also a unique label from NZ, with a brownish-purplish-red title in the same Harry/Hammer Fat font that graces some of the late Atari Corp picture label carts. Pole Position has a black Atari 2600 logo, which I can't recall seeing elsewhere. Let's talk fine print. Air-Sea Battle features a copyright date of 1978 -- no other Air-Sea Battle cart that I'm aware of does this, though the launch/gatefold and early boxes do. Pac-Man has two specific oddities worth pointing out -- it features a copyright date of 1982 (which no other 2600 Pac-Man cart does) and also mentions Bally Midway Mfg. Co. (which no other Pac-Man cart does). Not too much to say about Jungle Hunt except it lists the wrong Atari product number (2668 instead of 2688). Very odd since it seems to otherwise be a carbon copy of the original silver label release. As mentioned in my first NZ post, all of the Monaco carts have their main rounded-corner labels upside-down compared to what we're used to, too. Then you get to the end labels... Air-Sea Battle and Pac-Man have some fading going on, and none of them are perfect, but all in all... I can't express how excited I am to have these. Rarity of PAL games is tough to pin down, especially when you're talking about a country as relatively small as New Zealand... but either way, I can't imagine that very many of the Atari Monaco carts were made. Monaco Distributors still exists, though... I wonder if they have any old production numbers or sales figures they could share? Might have to send 'em an email to ask! With Air-Sea Battle and Pac-Man now added to my collection, there remain four Atari Monaco titles of the silver/gray style that weren't released in the same style elsewhere: Adventure, Haunted House, Missile Command, and Yars' Revenge. And with Outlaw crossed off the list, there remain at least two titles with unique black/picture labels from NZ I'm still hoping to track down: Dodge 'Em and Surround. The hunt continues!

Have you picked up your copy of Art of Atari already? Holding out until the holidays, maybe? Not sure if it's worth the expense? Need to see a few more reviews? My review is now online over on the I/O Blog -- check it out! And if you missed my interview with Art of Atari's author, Tim Lapetino, that's also available on the I/O Blog... ...along with lots of great reviews from Lynx Lounge, The Jag Bar, 7800 Avenue, and more! Some of you have already posted your impressions of the book over in my AoA interview forum thread, but if you have any additional thoughts I'd love to hear 'em.

I'll post 'em here for sure. Some are sealed; all are boxed. I also picked up an empty box for the C64 console in excellent condition -- still has the foam inside.

NSG -- yeah, I'm still in for what I wanted, thanks very much for testing and letting me know about the spotting. I just today picked up a number of C64 games boxed -- any potential interest there, or are you looking for game console stuff only right now?

Interested in 7800 Xenophobe + manual. Also 2600 manuals for Starmaster and Freeway. I'm pulling together new trade stuff and will PM soon...

Don't forget to get 'em VGA graded. Seriously, those are awesome. Did they offer them freely, or did you ask for them?

I think it's worth remembering that the Genesis (320x224) and Master System (256x192) involve more screen detail/resolution than the VCS (which doesn't have an output resolution in the traditional sense -- for practical purposes one can say it's 160x192)... so a small screen would be somewhat less of a concern for the Atari portable. I haven't seen the Sega portable so I can't comment on it, I just wouldn't write off the Atari portable solely due to its screen's size. That said, I still have almost zero interest in it, personally. YMMV. NSG: your video's intro image has convinced me to turn a few of my extra carts into Christmas tree ornaments! RickR: you could probably decorate an entire (small) tree with your Combat carts...

Best: 1) Ballblazer - The LucasFilms Games intro. The theme song. The game. The best! While I prefer the sound and music generated by the 5200 POKEY chip, the 7800 port keeps pace in every other regard. A game ahead of its time. 2) Alien Brigade - Could almost be mistaken for an NES title. Great non-stop action, great animations. Too bad it's such an uncommon cart. 3) Commando - The sound and music is top-notch, and the gameplay is great as well. Another one that could be mistaken for an NES title. 4) Food Fight - I loved playing this game in the arcade, and had I known this port existed back in the day I might have pushed really hard for upgrading to a 7800. Ah well. This version is solid for sure. 5) Ninja Golf - Huge credit for taking two completely unrelated games and mashing them into one -- and a pretty good one, at that! (Bonus: hidden joystick testing mode built-in!) Worst: 1) Hat Trick - Just awful. Activision's Ice Hockey (2600) is far more enjoyable. 2) Kareteka - It's a shame that the controls utterly ruin what is a pretty nice game on other systems. 3) Planet Smashers - Pew! Pew pew pew! Pewpewpewpewpewpewpewpew! Yawn. 4) Tank Command - This might be an okay game... on the VCS. 5) Pete Rose Baseball - The unintuitive/broken infield play makes the game unplayable. There's otherwise not enough good points to make up for the horrendous play limitation. Disclaimer -- Most of these (and 90% of the 7800 library) I've only played via emulation.

I've got a copy of Defender II available. I also have a box for it, but no manual. PM if you're interested!

Picked up a pair of CX78s while I was in Poland and had them shipped home -- they arrived today! (I think they can still be considered 2600 joysticks since they were packed with Atari 2600 Jr systems in Europe.) So far after a little bit of testing with a few different games, I think they're... alright. They're certainly not as precise as a stock CX40 stick, but they seem fairly comfortable to use. Next step is to try them with the console they were designed for!

Without question the Flag Capture '78 picture label -- three copies are currently known to exist. Of course Flag Capture is an extremely common game, all things considered, so if we're talking unique NTSC games and not cart variants (or PAL releases)... I'd suppose it would be Quadrun (R9) or Texas Chainsaw Massacre (R7). The AA Rarity Guide hasn't been updated in many years and could use an overhaul. Games like Quadrun, SQ: Waterworld, Berenstain Bears, Glib, etc. don't belong in the same rarity category as Lochjaw, Malagai, Cakewalk, etc. I have a number of supposed R8s in my collection, but none seem as rare as the R7 Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Quadrun should also probably be downgraded IMO.

Fantastiq sqore! Is it the rarest 2600 game in your collection now?

And now for something completely different... New additions to the collection -- two Atari calculators! There were at least 18 models of Atari-branded calculator, brought to market starting in 1987. These were introduced by Hartech USA, a division of Hartech Ltd of Hong Kong (led by David Harris, former Atari VP for International Sales). Atari Corporation issued Hartech a license to use the Atari brand name, so... they're not strictly Atari products in the usual sense. The CC91G "ExecuCard" is a credit-card sized solar-powered LCD calculator with a membrane touch-sensitive keyboard. You can see it featured on page 16 of the August 1988 (Vol. 7, Num. 4) issue of Antic magazine, as a "$5.95 value" bonus gift for subscribing to "Antic plus Disk". Hartech also has their own 1/2-page ad for their complete (?) calculator line on page 47. Unfortunately, this one's no longer working. Whether the solar cells are toast or there's an internal battery backup that failed, I'm not sure, but regardless... I'm not super invested in getting it working again. The CC192 "Mini Card Auto Recall Calculator" is slightly larger -- more of a pocket calculator. Its noteworthy feature is its 32-Step Auto Recall / Memory Playback. It was sold in cool-looking blister packaging. While I don't have the right size batteries for this one at the moment, I tried some other button-size batteries and the display briefly came on, so I'm confident that this one works! Well, inasmuch as it will turn on, that is. According to Best Electronics, the CC192 models "have a defective Chip. They have all Failed or will soon Fail and the Calculator will not function properly." I'll have to eventually let you all know if 2 + 2 = 5 with my CC192... On January 4, 1989 "Atari Corp. and Hartech Ltd. of Hong Kong jointly announced the cancellation of the licensing agreement authorizing the use of the Atari trademark on calculators. Instead Atari would create a Consumer Products division to expand its product line to include not only calculators, but a largely expanded selection of consumer electronic products. David Harris, Hartech's president, would be president of the Atari Consumer Products division, which would be located in Phoenix, Ariz. (home of Hartech U.S.A., Ltd.)" (thanks to mcurrent.name for the info!) Here's an article from MyAtari.org from back in the day (2003, archive.org) that shows a number of the other Atari calculator models. Anybody else have an Atari calculator in their collection?

RickR traded to me: 1) Basic Math with an excellent, non-faded end label -- this finishes off my text label collection; Basic Math was the one remaining cart where I hadn't been entirely happy with its condition. 2) Cookie Monster Munch -- just like Activision carts, it can be tough to find these with clean labels, so sometimes you take what you can get (though this one isn't bad)! Oscar's Trash Race is now the last CCW game I need... 3) Alpha Beam With Ernie overlay -- I'm not exactly planning on collecting these, but I thought I should have one for the collection! Thanks!

I finally received my copy yesterday from Amazon. The wife and I spent much of last evening flipping through it together... then I spent even more of my evening looking at it more closely (making notes for a forthcoming review). In short: it's great -- better than I hoped it would be. The quality of the product is top-notch, the curation/design of all the research done is fantastic, and I'd be hard-pressed to come up with significant ways to improve it. <$25 for the standard edition is an incredible bargain. That said, I don't regret my Deluxe Edition purchase at all -- I'd planned to pick up Atari Vault for Steam anyway (current regular price $20; I was going to wait until it hit $10 so... I'll call it a $15 value), the Cliff Spohn limited print is very nice and good quality (if a little small), but it's the book packaging that seals the deal. I really like the design of the standard edition cover, but having the heavy-duty slipcase that looks like an Atari box to protect the book that looks like a picture label cartridge is just a brilliant idea. Having the Deluxe book leather-bound takes it over the top. Just one man's opinion, obviously, but -- the standard edition is a great book; the Deluxe is a work of art in itself.

Paul composed the title theme for Thrust+ -- it's the pinnacle of musical achievement on a 2600 cart, if you ask me. To hear sounds like these coming from a VCS... it rendered me speechless the first time I fired up the game!

As promised, two more PAL oddballs! SpaceVision is one of numerous pirate companies that produced Atari 2600 games, except unlike many they were based in Australia. These companies were possibly all headed up by the same Asian-Pacific parent company (Bit Corp?) or were at least all inter-related in some other way. So, here we go... As a life-long, die-hard Philadelphia sports fan, I *had* to have that first cart! Nice job, SpaceVision -- using three licensed team trademarks/likenesses without permission on a single label? That's a whole other level of piracy right there! I thought that the image looked kinda familiar though, so I showed it to a friend who has probably forgotten more about Philly sports than I'll ever know. He quickly recognized it as being lifted from an advertisement/poster for PRISM, the first premium cable sports network to serve the Philadelphia region. So, what game is featured on this glorious cartridge? Basketball? Baseball? Hockey? ...Okay, go home, SpaceVision -- you're drunk! That SpaceVision "borrowed" totally unrelated imagery for a cartridge label is nothing unusual, however. They've lifted images from unrelated... Movies: Firefox (1977), MacBeth (1971), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Books: Trail to High Pine / West of Barbwire (1956), Dark Piper (1968) Obscure German TV Movies: Das Schöne Ende Dieser Welt (1983) Other Games: Codename MAT (1984 - Spectrum/Amstrad), Moon Patrol (1983 - Atari), Space Shuttle (1983 - Activision) I mean, even the styling of the SpaceVision logo is essentially stolen from Activision! Try as I might, I've never found the source of the trendy 1980s artwork on the multi-cart. The woman is wearing a jacket with a badge that says "TOPPER" on it. The SpaceVision logo blocks it, but it looks like the jogger in pink has a shirt that also says "Topper", and the kite-flying kid has a shirt that appears to have the same rainbow/cloud TOPPER logo on it. My best guess is that the artwork is somehow related to the South American sportswear company Topper, which has existed since 1976. There's something about the way the people look that does kinda say "Argentina" or "Brazil" to me, but... it remains only a wild guess. So, what's on this multi-cart? Hey, 5 out of 8 are immediately recognizable! Or are they? You never know with these foreign carts... Anyway, the following four games are what you expect them to be: Atlantis, Crack Pot (Crackpots, naturally), Demon Attack, and Frostbite. The others? - Astro War was originally a Dimax / Sinmax game; it was also sold as War 2000 (Home Vision), War Meteor Defense (ITT Family Games), Kampf im Asteroiden-Gürtel (Quelle), and Missile War (Hot Shot / Goliath), among a few other names. It's... alright. - Dig Dug is a massive surprise -- it's an original 1983 TechnoVision game called "Pharaoh's Curse"! This is not the same game as the more well-known Montezuma's Revenge-style 8-bit game "Pharaoh's Curse" by Synapse; this VCS version is essentially a Dig Dug clone (hence the title on the cart) released by VTech through their console gaming label. They also released games called "Save Our Ship" and "Nuts" (the fourth, "Locomotion", never went to retail). At the 1982 CES event they were promoting their VCS releases, but ultimately TechnoVision only ever sold their games in Europe (and are therefore only available in PAL format). - Fireman is Imagic's Fire Fighter. Meh. - Farmer is U.S. Games' Gopher. Meh again. It would have been nice if SpaceVision could have included some key as to how to orient the dip switches, but... when you have two on top and one on the side of the cart, you're already in a land of confusion. Ah well, at least there's only 8 combinations!

Being a big fan of Star Wars / Star Trek / Mass Effect / similar franchises in that same genre, the new BSG was largely very enjoyable for me. Not having the background of having seen the original series might have been beneficial, though -- I had nothing to compare it to. I haven't had the opportunity to sit down and try to watch the original yet, but I'd certainly be willing to give it a shot at some point. Anyway, like the vast majority of TV series the new BSG is not without its flaws, but I'd absolutely re-watch it even though I felt the ending (well, the last half of the last season to be honest) was... well... lousy. Really lousy. At least it wasn't straight-up insulting, like the end to LOST...