This guy feels he was 'lucky' to find Bounty Bob Strikes Back after spending $570 For a loose copy...

[intellicolecovisonary]

 

[DegasElite]

Well, even for a rare cart, $570.00 is a lot of money. But, I guess for that cart, it's money well spent because of its rarity. I have seen mint Frogger games on eBay for the Atari 2600 on sale for $999.00. But, they are professionally graded for quality and that's why they are so expensive. They're even sealed for quality in a protective case.

Edited November 28, 2021 by DegasElite

[TrekMD]

I have that game.  It was pricey but less than half what he paid. 

[CrossBow]

Yeah... that is just what the market is demanding and apparently getting these days. My wife was with me while we were visiting a few of the local retro video game stores here in town. They have a 1200xl at one of them and asking like $600 for? But she was more surprised by the asking price on used Wii games. She was specifically looking for a copy of Wii Sports: Resort for her grandson and was surprised it was being offered everywhere locally for $35 for a loose disc in most cases. 

 

BB for the 5200 is the last of high price 'grail' games I need for my 5200 collection. Sure there are other games I don't own for the 5200 yet, but they aren't hard to find either and I just haven't bothered to get them. I didn't want the video but was that $570 just for BB or was that for the whole lot? Because if for the whole lot, that is actually a pretty stellar deal in that case.

 

[RickR]

I feel a little dirty for saying it, but honestly, I see this as a great time to SELL.  If you have stuff you don't use, prices may never be this high again. 

 

[intellicolecovisonary]

Here's the actual eBay auction, $570 for the cartridge and poster, no box. https://www.ebay.com/itm/144265269141?hash=item2196e14f95:g:b98AAOSw73phecv5

Edited November 28, 2021 by intellicolecovisonary

[CrossBow]

I think I've said this here before, the most I've paid for any older games was the $250 I spent for my near mint Magic Knight Rayearth for the Saturn. It came with a foam insert, the sticker sheet etc. The seller also threw in the JPN Saturn version of the game complete with the OBI strip and a NIB copy of the game for the Game Gear. So really at the time, I only spent like $200 for the Saturn game. It was the most I've spent for any single game and it was the first time my wife thought I was a little crazy. However, fast forward about 4 years and it ended up being a good call for me to buy it when I did as the game alone in less shape than I bought mine is easily around $700 and up currently.

8 hours ago, RickR said:

I feel a little dirty for saying it, but honestly, I see this as a great time to SELL.  If you have stuff you don't use, prices may never be this high again. 

 

It is quite tempting sometimes when I look around the game room and think.. Hmm. I don't have any room for more cool stuff. Wonder if I should think about thinning out parts of the collection I don't play?... And then I talk myself out of that because I know that later on down the line I would likely want whatever I sold and it would cost me way more in the future to get it again.

 

[- Ω -]

Cough, cough, choke!  $575.00 with shipping? 😲  Here's a suggestion for people wanting to get into the 5200... buy an Atarimax cartridge for $135.95 (shipping is included in that amount), then download 99% of the games in one ZIP file for FREE.  With the remaining $439.05 you can get a cherry 5200, UAV modification, awesome modern joystick and probably still have a few bucks left over.

[- Ω -]

21 hours ago, RickR said:

I feel a little dirty for saying it, but honestly, I see this as a great time to SELL.  If you have stuff you don't use, prices may never be this high again. 

 

You're probably right.  The younger generation has no nostalgic connections to these older units, and people of our age group are starting to downsize, move to retirement centers or sadly die.  Considering when this unit came out, my guess is there is probably a 10 year maximum window before prices start dropping like a rock.  Selling now and anytime I think during the next 5 years would be a good time, unless the economy crashes even further with inflation going into overdrive drying up the disposable income of people.  

[GRay Defender]

I don't have that game and yeah $575 is expensive for cart only.  I think a full CIB copy recently went for $1500 on ebay.  It comes down to how much value it has to the person collecting and how important it is for them to have a complete collection.  So far for me it hasn't been that important ... 😀

Edited November 29, 2021 by GRay Defender

[intellicolecovisonary]

The primary reason I have Flash carts at all, and I have them for the 2600, 5200, 7800, SNES, NES, Genesis,TG-16 and Colecovision (I'm still trying to find an LTO! or any flash cart for my Intellivision and a Vecmulti cart is on my radar) is so I can play those holy grail, unobtainium type games like Tank Command or Bounty Bob Strikes Back!. The ROMs of Tank Command and BBSB play flawlessly and look great on my flash carts. In the case of insanely expensive chunks of plastic aka game cartridges, my practicality overides my collector OCD.

Edited November 29, 2021 by intellicolecovisonary

[CrossBow]

1 hour ago, intellicolecovisonary said:

The primary reason I have Flash carts at all, and I have them for the 2600, 5200, 7800, SNES, NES, Genesis,TG-16 and Colecovision (I'm still trying to find an LTO! or any flash cart for my Intellivision and a Vecmulti cart is on my radar) is so I can play those holy grail, unobtainium type games like Tank Command or Bounty Bob Strikes Back!. The ROMs of Tank Command and BBSB play flawlessly and look great on my flash carts. In the case of insanely expensive chunks of plastic aka game cartridges, my practicality overides my collector OCD.

I'm largely in the same mindset. However, that doesn't mean I still don't end up getting a physical copy of a game at some point in time. For me flashcarts have mainly been a tool for me to use so that I can check out games before I buy them to determine if I really want to plunk down the coin needed to get a physical copy of the game. I don't think any of my flash carts really have a complete library on them except for perhaps my VecMulti, Dragonfly, and AgaCarts as they all came preloaded with the entire library at the time on them. But most of my flash carts are used to play WIP games or demos that you can't really get in physical form. Or to play fan translated versions of games never released here in the states. Even then, I usually buy a physical of the game. Such was he case with my actual Saturn purchases of both Policenauts and Grandia. I play them translated through my systems, but own the actual games too.

BBSB is a really fun game, but I honestly suck at it. I can get through the first level easy, but I've yet to complete the second level ever LOL! I mainly use that game on my AtariMax to help test controller calibration with stock CX52s.

 

[intellicolecovisonary]

BBSB is my go to test game as well for checking accuracy of CX52 controllers. I have 7 out of which only 2 play BBSB flawlessly.  Those two I painstakingly cleaned and calibrated. For me calibrating those pots was tedious and time consuming.

[CrossBow]

2 hours ago, intellicolecovisonary said:

BBSB is my go to test game as well for checking accuracy of CX52 controllers. I have 7 out of which only 2 play BBSB flawlessly.  Those two I painstakingly cleaned and calibrated. For me calibrating those pots was tedious and time consuming.

It can be a struggle for sure. I have one of the loopback test boards and that makes adjusting the pokey trimmer MUCH easier. From there it usually works pretty well as is but on the rare occasion, it might require me to pop that game up with the top cover removed on the controller so I can manually adjust the throw of the pots internally. But if you can get a stock controller working with BBSB and Gyruss without issue, then you have about as perfectly a calibrated controller and 5200 set as you can get.

 

[intellicolecovisonary]

I just aquired 2 more CX52 controllers and now 2 out of 9 are properly calibrated. Has anyone ever received a CX52 that works with BBSB initially? I haven't.

[CrossBow]

11 minutes ago, intellicolecovisonary said:

I just aquired 2 more CX52 controllers and now 2 out of 9 are properly calibrated. Has anyone ever received a CX52 that works with BBSB initially? I haven't.

Maybe when they were brand new? But no, I don't recall ever having one sent to me that worked properly controller Bob on the screen. Usually he will have no issues moving right, up/down but going back to the left can be the challenge. More annoying, is that I have the game give me those control problems but then all other games played will control just fine without issue. So that is why I use BBSB as the main game to test controller calibration with.

 

[intellicolecovisonary]

Weird stuff happens sometimes when I when I switch controller types from analog to digital. When using  my Competition Pro or the IKONGR adapter I sometimes have issues with going left in BBSB and other strange control quirks. It happens with the Wico as well. I some times have to disconnect the problem controller and plug in a known calibrated CX52, then disconnect it and re-insert the Wico, IKONGR or Competition Pro and Viola! they work perfectly, It seems to me that the 5200 does not like switching back and forth from analog to digtal controllers. As one of my friend put it "More weird controller %!#$& from the atari 5200".

[CrossBow]

I know some games actually do a calibration check on the controller when power on the system. I believe even the AtariMax SD does this to a degree and that is why without a controller plugged into it, it just moves down on its own and keeps beeping is because it senses an infinite direction during controller check. 

I would never swap controllers with the system powered on btw. That is how the 4052 MUX chips end up getting fried. 

[DegasElite]

Thanks for the tip, CrossBow. I will remember that about the controllers and the warning about swapping them with the power on. :O)

[CrossBow]

9 hours ago, DegasElite said:

Thanks for the tip, CrossBow. I will remember that about the controllers and the warning about swapping them with the power on. :O)

To be fair, if you have an AtariMax SD cart you kinda are forced to do this if you want to play trakball games. Because the menu doesn't work with the trakball so you have to first have a standard controller plugged in to select the game you want and then swap out the controller with the system powered on of course to play the game with a trakball at that point. 

Can't fault the console for this because Atari never imagined we would have flash carts in the future.

 

[intellicolecovisonary]

I use my CX53 all the time without having to swap the Trak-Ball for another controller. The Atarimax menu can be navigated with the CX53 Trak-Ball keypad. Up is button 2 down is 8, right is 6 and left is 4.

Edited December 1, 2021 by intellicolecovisonary

[DegasElite]

That is extremely helpful. Thanks for the advice. :O)

[CrossBow]

13 hours ago, intellicolecovisonary said:

I use my CX53 all the time without having to swap the Trak-Ball for another controller. The Atarimax menu can be navigated with the CX53 Trak-Ball keypad. Up is button 2 down is 8, right is 6 and left is 4.

I did not know that?! And when I reached out to the folks at AtariMax I was told to use a standard controller in port 1 to select the game and then swap out. I only state this because on my Amax cart, the trak-ball causes it to go crazy and that is why I reached out to them. Maybe I have an old one or something that doesn't look for it properly or something? I first encountered it when the Xari Arena completed version was released through AtariAge and couldn't figure out how to get my trak-ball to work through the Amax cart. I even bought the game because of my frustrations with this LOL!

 

[intellicolecovisonary]

2 hours ago, CrossBow said:

I did not know that?! And when I reached out to the folks at AtariMax I was told to use a standard controller in port 1 to select the game and then swap out. I only state this because on my Amax cart, the trak-ball causes it to go crazy and that is why I reached out to them. Maybe I have an old one or something that doesn't look for it properly or something? I first encountered it when the Xari Arena completed version was released through AtariAge and couldn't figure out how to get my trak-ball to work through the Amax cart. I even bought the game because of my frustrations with this LOL!

 

I initially found out about found the keypad on the CX53 menu navigation here where Allan states "Use the keypad on the trackball to move through the menu. I think 2 scrolls up and 8 scrolls down". I  discovered after trying all the buttons that 4 and 6 scrolled the menu left and right respectively and of course the start button starts the game. As to Xari Arena I have problems with that ROM as well on the Atarimax but the AtariAge cart works perfectly. I had the same issue with the Tempest ROM on the Atarimax, it was unplayable, yet the cart of Tempest I have works perfectly with the CX53.  https://atariage.com/forums/topic/251428-atarimax-sd-and-trak-ball-how-to-question/

Edited December 1, 2021 by intellicolecovisonary