VectorGamer

That is fast. Do they do international? At that rate Canada post would get it on the second day and it'd reach me by *quick calculation* December! Yours will take longer since custom officials will have to do everything but sodomize it first...

I'm having a retro gaming party this Saturday night so expect an interesting top 10 for next week!

They banned paint pens? That seems odd. Did they have a grafitti problem? I used to work at a school. We would use those pens (in gold, usually), to write the name of the school on all the computers and various school property. I spent many hours writing the school name on the sides of brand new computers. At the time those pens were new on the market and somehow it got all over someone's clothes which instituted the ban. A lot of kids brought them into the school for whatever reason.

I bought my 7800 power supply from Atariguide.com. It shipped in two days from Oakland, CA to central PA - amazing!

Circus Atari (2600) 15 mins Medieval Mayhem (2600) 15 mins Galaga (7800) 15 mins Robotron:2084 (7800) 15 mins Joust (7800) 15 mins Kaboom (2600) 15 mins Galaxian Arcade (2600) 15 mins Berzerk Voice Enh (2600) 15 mins Peanut Butter Panic (C64) 15 mins

I agree, alot of the best games I doubt were made by druggies. Prolly some of worst games were made while they were stoned tho lol.... like Ghostbusters for NES. I always think they had to be on crack to make a game that bad. Cosmic Swarm by CommaVid comes to mind...

That's how they did it in the seventies, right? Hold the circuit board in one hand and solder the joints to it with the other, right? Or am I missing something here? This is the joint he was revering too. LOL!

Medieval Mayhem (2600) 30 mins Galaxian Arcade (2600) 15 mins Robotron 2084 (7800) 30 mins Galaga (7800) 30 mins Joust (7800) 15 mins Centipede (7800) 15 mins

That silver ink you describe sounds like the pens that they banned from my school in 1980. The ink was actually silver paint...the name of the product escapes me...

Yeah, AA on joysticks is like AA on your steering wheel. I made that mistake once... I have thought of Goo Gone and was curious if someone else would recommend using it. I actually could not find the Goo Gone last night and resorted to AA at least to do a spot test.

Good point! I read the 5200 FAQ and either I missed it or there are/were no third party sticks made that were an "all-in-one" solution (the stick and the keypad in one device). All I saw were workarounds. Correct me I am wrong?

Thanks guys. I actually did a spot test of using ArmorAll on the underside of the case. You know how ArmorAll looks - glossy. It was late at night and the light I had wasn't very good so I'm going to revisit this tonight - I couldn't tell if it was glossy black over top of a smoke stain. I used to smoke, so I know ArmorAll does a good job of cleaning the crud off the dash to make it pleasing to the naked eye. But, this is a different type of material I'm working with.

Thanks for the link. Does this joystick still have the "self centering" problem or did they fix that as well. I did not see that mentioned as one of the improvements which is why I am asking.

Well, I have attempted to clean every square inch of this 5200. I lubed the power switch and it appears to have fixed the "stickiness" problem. I had a broken OEM coax connector which I cutoff and replaced. The video cable connector was not making a taut connection to the TV switch box so I simply bent one of the "prongs" (for lack of the technical term that escapes me) inward a tad to fix that. I used air cans (plural) and alcohol to clean this thing up. These were obviously all easy fixes that a caveman could do. I was pleasantly surprised that I could get this thing working at all. Here are the outstanding issues I have: The system came without joysticks, so that is on my list. The metal covering around the motherboard has rusted. I have contacted Best Electronics to see if they have this part along with joysticks for this system. There is also a brown staining all around the inside and outside of the case which I believe has to be from cigarette smoke but coincidentally it is similar in color to the rust. I've never heard of "rust" spores making homes in plastic crevices so I have dismissed that. In any event, the rubbing alcohol did a fair job in getting rid of the brown staining in spots. Are there suggestions for any other cleaners that may do a better job? Incidentally, the track ball controller does not work. But, for 20 bucks, I have a working 5200 with 7 carts.

What is the part number or name of this product?

I read about how the Atari assembly line featured workers with a soldering iron in one hand and a joint in the other. I have to wonder if the folks at Starpath/Arcadia were trippin' when they came up with games like Commie Mutants and Escape from the Mindmaster...

Medieval Mayhem (2600) 60 mins Peanut Butter Panic (C64) 15 mins Galaxian Arcade (2600) 15 mins Circus Atari (2600) 15 mins

I need two Atari 5200 compatible joysticks if anyone has them for sale. PM me.

Adventures of Tron for the 2600 has been claimed. Thank you

Do you post year to date results? Maybe post the top 3 YTD every week or maybe the top 10 YTD on the first of every month? Also, do you have threads for prior years on this board? I could not find any. Thanks for the great work!

Peanut Butter Panic (C64) 15 mins

I bought a 5200, 7 carts and a roller controller off eBay for $20 "as-is." I figured it wasn't a bad deal and if the 5200 didn't work I'd get 7 carts and perhaps a roller controller out of it. I had some problems getting the system powered on. Using my previous experiences with Colecovision power switches, I lubricated the power switch with WD-40, cleaned it with alcohol and I was able to get it powered on. However, the power switch is stubborn at times in either powering on or off (I have removed the cover when troubleshooting this). I think if I replace the power switch that this may fix the problem and perhaps others have run into this before with some pointers. If someone has worked on this before, can you point me to the right place in finding the replacement part and instructions on replacing it?

I received the carts last Friday - thanks much!

I like the first picture labels that came out - Asteroids being my favorite. They are more nostalgic to me. I like the silver labels - someone at Atari got this right. To me it means that the games were "new and improved" and if you look at the quality of carts like Galaxian, Phoenix and Joust it was very true. I'm neutral on the red labels. As far as the boxes that the 2600 carts came in - they were the best of any vendor out there. There is something awesome about the Space Invaders box - the saucers look omnipotent and the color of the box is perfect. The artwork is fantastic and it is my favorite packaging due partly because it was the game I wanted the most when I first got my Atari.

Medieval Mayhem (2600) 60 mins Mouse Trap (CV) 60 mins Donkey Kong Jr (CV) 30 mins