Phosphor Dot Fossils

My brain says Pick Axe Pete, but my heart says Smithereens. (Reminds me of that Letterman gag: "Her mind said butter. Her heart said...Buttafuoco.")

Following some new acquisitions at OKGE, and some post-OKGE cleanup, here are some new pics of the finally-finished wall of gaming glory. The whole west wall of the game room: 5200, Colecovision, Intellivision, Atari 400, TI 99/4A, Mattel Aquarius, 7800, Commodore 64, Apple IIc, Gamecube, Playstation (US & Japanese), NES, Odyssey 2, and 2600. Not seen: Magnavox Odyssey. All hooked up and ready to go! A couple more indications that I might just be a Star Trek fan from way back. The MCP - and Singe the Dragon - are watching you. At least while you play Kick.

That's about normal. I've seen these in both orange-ish red and yellow-ish orange. Mine also leans toward the orange-red variety.

Odyssey2 all the way. Coolest cart design ever - very utilitarian and attractive.

I'll be there too. You guys can't get rid of me now.

Cool! You can really catch the full glory of Kent's mobo T-shirt - he almost blends into the circuit-board motif of my short-lived video display. And finally I can say that I've been within a mile of a boxed Quadrun. Probably for the only time in my life.

[Venkman] That's a big ham. [/Venkman]

I guess this was the kind of boom-before-the-bust optimism that saw some companies overreach themselves and lose it all in the crash. Sorta like Atari making more copies of a single VCS title than there were VCS consoles sold! Trackball for the O2? No problem. And as much of an underdog as it was, I doubt seriously that Magnavox or NAP would've had any problem with someone doing third-party anything for the O2 - anything to help raise its visibility. The good thing about the O2 ball, though, is that it brings some games to life again. UFO and Cosmic Conflict, to name a couple. UFO + the trackball was a fairly popular combination at OKGE, actually. Not enough juice in the standard O2/'pac I/O connection to power the sensors that read the three wheels inside the controller, I imagine.

Really? You're kidding! I didn't know that. I had never played the Euro Frogger in emulation. I'd volunteer to be the North American O2 guinea pig for this experiment. That's the thing that just bugs the heck out of me when it comes to the Wico Trackball for this system. Two of the three known specimens are boxed! Who would make a box - with foil (shiny) printing on it, no less - for a piece of prototype hardware? I'm happy to own one of the three, but that box drives me crazy - there simply must be more of them out there. Unless there was a stockpile that was ordered destroyed, or converted to the control pinouts of another system. Like the TI 99/4A Wico trackball, the O2 model requires an AC adapter, so it's possible that with the plunge of the U.S. games industry and the rise of the personal computer market, the O2 trackballs were converted into TI trackballs. Matt, do you have any former Wico contacts who could help us figure this out? I'll have an extensive report on the trakball on my site soon, and even a game-by-game report of what it's like with every title in the US O2 library and some Videopac games as well (here's a preview: it's not good for Q*Bert. ), but in the meantime, here are a couple of pics. Anyway, back to the topic at hand - I'll bet the ball wouldn't do much good for Tutankham either - unless one's going for a game of Tipsy Tutankham.

I'd wrestle with you over that comment, but I've evangelized the O2 long enough to know it's not everyone's cup of tea. I have two regular, detachable-controller O2s. Some of the Euro games work fine on US hardware, while some, like Frogger, are a total loss - but that's where the Brazilian releases some in handy; they're coded for the PAL-M video standard, which is close enough to NTSC for government work, hence I'm able to play my Frogger and Popeye carts. I dearly, dearly hope that Tutankham is one of those games capable of making the jump to US hardware without a problem. Oh, and yeah, do give Attack of the Time Lord another shot. And if you think Killer Bees is irredeemable, ask anyone who played it with the O2 trackball at OKGE.

@ Dieter - you know where to find me if you're up for a US release. @ Matt - there is MUCH Videopac goodness to be found out there. Have you played any of the other Parker games on a real console? There's a company that was taking 3rd party O2/'Pac support seriously. If you make it to the next OKGE or happen to visit my neck of the woods, come see me - I've always got the Parker games with me to show off, because they are that good. Tragic that they didn't get released here. And tragic that they didn't release Tutankham at all - it's a damned nifty game, even in emulation.

Speaking as someone who has recently had legal issues with a corporate entity, I'd say two weeks is a more reasonable time frame for a response.

OutSTANDING. Dieter, if you guys want to do a cart release, get with me about artwork - I've already been dreaming some up ever since this proto was found.

I actually took Brian game hunting in Fort Smith once - I was kinda disappointed compared with some of my previous hauls (it had been a while since I'd bothered), but on the other hand...I think he walked away with some Genesis goodness and I scored a working C64 and a Koala Pad for $15 at one thrift store. Not too shabby. I need to check out the thrift/antique store action in nearby Alma sometime soon. Somewhere, out there in the world, is a Quadrun with my name on it! Uhhh...maybe.

Wow. So let's check the halftime score. We have ethnic slurs, political agenda theories worthy of Art Bell, and insinuations that there's a mole in our midst. If this is the best we can do, we'd all better take up crochet, because this hobby is dead. If they do have someone keeping an eye on AA, I doubt this anti-French sentiment will impress them at all. I'm going to fall back on an old refrain: maybe it's best to chill out and wait until we know what the Als know. Albert has said that no cease & desist letters have come from Atari, but evidently some kind of contact has been made and is ongoing. Perhaps he's inquiring with Atari about what it would take to get the hacks back in business. The point is, we don't know what's going on behind the scenes. And some folks are filling that vacuum of information with speculation and hysteria. And if you guys are really worried that someone from Atari is watching...wouldn't you rather put on a better face that won't sour them to the hardcore minority that we represent? The fact that AtariAge hasn't been sued outright would seem to indicate that there's some attempt at a civil dialogue going on among the powers that be. Which is a damn sight more than I can say for what's being said in here. Relax. Wait. There's no product for you to boycott yet. Let's see what's going to happen before we go off half-cocked. I feel like a broken record, because I'm sure I've said all this before.

Actually, no, literally, we're not in anyone's city limits - not even Chester! I had to place a call about some dogs battering down our fences to come and, erm, visit my dog (needless to say, we're spayed the poor dear since she started getting that...attention)...and discovered we're under Crawford County jurisdiction so no help could be offered. "But hey, if they're tearin' down yer fence, you could probably shoot 'em!" (Yeah, thanks for that, deputy.) Surprisingly, despite being a city mouse, I've grown to like it. We're not far off of I-540 though, so you're warm.

Ah man, I'm gonna miss out on these calls! Kinda sucks really - sometimes you never know what'll come of them. When Flack was covered by the AP this summer, someone called him with a helluva deal. All that's standing between me and those calls are (1) my unlisted number, and (2) being between Alma and Mountainburg, not in Fort Smith (though technically, my site has its own Fort Smith PO box, so Ethan's article is not incorrect in that regard - the site may be Fort Smith-based where billing and receiving and shipping are concerned, but I'm out-in-the-middle-o'-nowhere-based now! ). Other than that, very good article, I thought. And certainly not a bad bit of advertising for any of us who got a mention! Thanks Ethan!

D'oh! I'll be fixin' that quickish then. And some of those product links on my site predate...erm...the current situation.

That's part of my job for the TV station. If you guys need me to help in my spare time, I could use the cash. Seriously though, good article. And lots of Greens in this whole northwest Arkansas retrogaming scene too - funny that! Also funny to see myself mentioned in the same article as Jakks Pacific and Radica.

My own retrospective article can be found here.

I........didn't...just hear that. And you people thought my Backfire Bathrobe story was disturbing!?!!?

I'll betcha Albert was doing just what I was doing last week - pulling out his hair getting ready for OKGE. And the bugger still has more hair than I do.

Count me in for another MP3 request.

Wow, I didn't even know that was you - I've only ever known you by your forum nickname! Very well done - I really liked the Sleep video. If you're ever too busy and I'm ever not busy at roughly the same time (don't worry too much - my being not busy at work is a pretty rare thing), I wouldn't mind tackling a video for Paul myself, but Sleep would be hard to beat. It does such a good job of showing how Tree Wave does what it does. Bravo!

Just for you, MMF, I'm gonna do my level best to get one by next year. And have the Tron action figures playing it.