davidcalgary29

I've booked at the Overlook, a.k.a The Inn at the Convention Center! I can only hope that the decor has maintained its 1973 Kojak Crime Scene charm that I experienced in 2019.

Well, it was the gateway drug of choice of many for '90s Windows gaming, and I too was entranced by the beautifully-rendered graphics until I realized that many of the puzzles were irritatingly illogical and unsolvable. Bring me the red pages! I will say that I was just as captivated at the time by Jewels of the Oracle, a contemporary puzzler with equally gorgeous graphics that no one remembers. That one would be a much better fit for the Lynx.

I'll jump on this bandwagon!

So when are you taking orders?

I believe that the first 2600 that I owned was a Ben Heck special handheld, and I picked that one up almost two decades ago. And I didn't own a NES until I bought Osgeld's Nintenputer two years ago.

It was perfect. The candy performed a magic trick and disappeared down my kids' gullets as soon as I opened up that package. When the heavy, longing sighs start up, you've just got to accept facts and hand over the loot.

Hello friends! Santa SoulBlazer made my holiday happy indeed with some truly spectacular gifts! I’m very excited about the wonderful Final Fantasy shirt — now I have something to wear when I go out to shop! And the Vectrex multicart…the Star Wars set…and everything else…wow! So many thanks, Santa!

It's completely worth the price just for "snowboard rush". Although I do enjoy making the figure skaters fall on their butts all the time. Hee!

It was probably a near thing, but it's possible that Klax would have been the winner in arcades in 1990: I can't imagine that that trend held up over time, though, as Columns is just so ubiquitous. I can't imagine that many people have even heard of Klax these days outside of retro circles, even though it's an incredible game and one of my favourite arcade puzzlers.

I appreciate all the kind thoughts, but I'll send my stuff to wherever it's requested, as long as it's not in a war zone or it doesn't cost more than $100 to do it. So St. Helena, Ile Crozet, and Kerguelen Island are probably out.

C'mon, now, let's be nice. It's a simple mistake. I bought several machines from Curt many years ago, including a STacy, and should see where they are..

Sending out things to people I don't know at all is one of the things that interests me about this "project" (is it a project? A thought? An idea?). New rule: everyone who borrows an item has to write an entry on a "library card" explaining when they got the item, and how they used it. And if anyone who's posted on this thread wants to borrow some of my equipment, don't be shy -- ask! That goes for my Jaguar and Lynx carts, too.

I really don't hold any expectations for anyone but myself, so I'm rarely bothered by bad behaviour. Hee! That seems really grim when I type it out like that. I completely understand your position, though, and it's a reasonable one. Still, if anyone wants to experience the A8 (or ST, or 5200, CV, and 7800), this might be the perfect way to do it without spending a mint these days. That's a nice thought.

I ship things to people all over the world during Secret Santa time...and not just on this forum! I'm not concerned with getting anything in return but the hope that someone's going to get more use out of an item. I've given away many items in the past, and those things have just gone to one person. With something like this, more people can get to use it. I'll post a list of items I'm willing to ship this weekend or next week when the Christmas rush has settled down. I have a modded XL that can be loaned out, a boxed XC12, and tons of cartridges. I also have a boxed ST sitting around, two 7800 units that are, literally, collecting dust, and an A/V modded 5200 unit, lots of CV games, and lots of cables and controllers. A few simple rules could greatly reduce trouble: -no loans to anyone who has less than a six-month presence and fewer than 100 (real) posts; -An understanding that any item lent (and any item returned) may not be working when returned to the original owner; -An understanding that items can get lost in the mail, and that borrowers are not responsible for any financial loss incurred by the lender; -all items mailed must be accompanied by a tracking number (and, hopefully, postal insurance). -any item can be taken out of circulation by the owner at any time. If more than one person (ie. me) is interested in this, perhaps we could make it a sub-forum or a sticky.

Has anyone thought about starting an actual Atari museum/lending library? It'd certainly be easier to maintain if the collection was privately held across the world. All it would take would be a proper database. And how cool would it be to see it linked with something like Atarimania -- click on a piece of hardware, see if and where it's "in stock", and then arrange to have it loaned out! I know that I have quite a bit of equipment that could be loaned out, and I can see it working something like this: each "librarian" agrees to loan out one piece of equipment every six months. They're responsible for sending the item, tracked, to the recipient. The loaner gets to decide who, and to whom, each item is sent. The recipient is responsible for sending it back, tracked, within six months of receiving the item. Everyone gets to choose one new item every six months (if they wish). The library would contain hardware and cartridges; magnetic media is probably too fragile at this point.

That's so cool! I never knew that Dungeons and Dragons dice were actually Piramides mix from the Netherlands!!! Enjoy that school chalk! From my favourite Amazon review on the subject: Hey, a long nap is the solution to everything. Pity that it only took me forty-odd years to remember that.

The durability of the original 400s and 800s is astounding, that's for sure. My original 800 survived a hurricane that flooded our house five feet deep in the Bahamas. Sure, it was in a box on a shelf in the garage, but still.

You're just about 35 years too late for that.

Amen! I bought an AT clone in 1989 which -- with monitor -- cost me over $2000 at the time, and that was essentially my summer job savings. Okay, WordPerfect was nice on an 80-column screen, but I spent far more time wrestling with drivers for the AdLib soundcard (and the CD-ROM drive) than playing the games I wanted. And I can't believe how disappointing Barbarian on the PC was. I just wasn't into the ST or the Amiga, though, and wanted the clone for its huge DOS library. What I really wanted was a 65816 130XE with a better keyboard.

Any thoughts about the Intellivision port?

I read about it in COMPUTE!, which I borrowed every month from the library (I was eleven, and couldn't afford a subscription at the time). There was a big story called "Shakeout...at the Winter CES" or something to that effect, and the Atari columnist issued increasingly gloomy and dire warnings about the company's financial future. Those didn't start until '84, though. COMPUTE! was like doomscrolling in '83, from the Aquarius and the TI meltdowns, through Atari's disintegration, and ending up with the PCjr dumpsterfire. But that was all in the U.S. press. I didn't see any of that in Canada -- not even bargain-bin sellouts -- and I don't think R.O.M. magazine covered it at all. My entire family also knew how much I obsessed over My Precious 800, and my Dad reported to me (a little too enthusiastically, I thought) about all of Atari's Troubles.

Shopping was hard work, but I’ve made some new friends! #fishfry #AAbreakfast

Only eight more days to Christmas! I spent the day with my friends at the Co-Op. Holiday shopping isn’t complete without the three-ply. #AARulez #AASecretSanta

Centipede can't have been coded in 1987, as Handy's specs weren't even finalized until that year, right? That screenshot showing "copyright 198?" (and not "1987") probably reflects Shadowsoft's own uncertainty about when Atari released the original game, instead of being a clue about when they started their port. I imagine that would have been sometime in '91 or '92, around the time that Joust and Robotron appeared.