Turbo-Torch

I worked at a Shakey's Pizza when I was in high school and it does look 100% identical. It's actually still there and is now a Texas Corral. Floor plan has changed a bit but much of it still the same.

Credit screen from a game called Protector and Y.A.S.I. It's downright insane. This is a video I found on youtube. [media] [\media]

There were poorly designed games that were failure prone, such as Pole Position, which always seemed to have an out of order sign in every arcade. There were also dangerous games. The color vector Electrohome G08, used in many Sega games, often caught fire. I was with a friend at an auction when he bought a Tac Scan for something like $300 (I was looking over other games and didn't realize he was bidding on it). He had an impressive game room but also bought and flipped games for profit too. I told him it was a huge mistake and it'll probably burn down his house and would be a liability to sell it to anyone...he never heard of the issue and thought I was joking. We got back to his house and while unloading the games I told him not to even put that one in his house, he still thought I was bullshitting him. He fired the Tac Scan up in his garage and it worked great. He played it for about 10 minutes and said "it's really fun, I'm going to keep this one for my collection." Seconds after he said that, smoke started to come out the back and then there was a loud bang and the screen went blank. He unplugs it and the smoke keeps billowing out of the cabinet. It didn't come with a key for the back door so we quickly used pry bars rip it off. The monitor looked like a mini fire place and the flames were already igniting the wood cabinet above. We threw it out in the driveway and put it out with a garden hose. I think I laughed for a week straight after that. He ended up parting it out and still made a profit. Just like a bad model of car or appliance, there were bad arcade games but they were few and far between. Arcade games are heavy duty commercial products that were built far better than any TV, stereo or home computer back in the day. Many ran 24 hours a day, 365 days a year in shitty locations such as laundromats. In the early 80s, a game was NOT played out within 6 months and forgotten about. Popular titles like Ms.Pac and Donkey Kong were still pulling in profits well over 5 years later and were still in many remaining arcades 15 year later. 3 year life span? bwahaha! If games were kept in a conditioned location without excessive humidity, they damn near last forever. The biggest failures are capacitors which dry out and fail but that's a fact of life in any electronic device. Funny how those caps were able to push 20 years of use, while in modern flat screen TVs, which don't run all day and night, are lucky to make it 5 years. Humid environment...clean your connections and IC legs with something like Deoxit and game on. As far as being modular. My Defender has separate mother board, ROM board, sound board and power supply. Each is plug 'n play and can be replaced in 5 minutes with a screwdriver. Furthermore, the WG monitor has modular boards which can be swapped out in less than one minute. This was great for an operator who didn't need down time ruining profits. All the failed boards could then be repaired and put back into stock.

I wonder if Endore is Enduro?

Aladdin's Castle used to sell these filled with tokens to give as gifts. I got this one as a Christmas present...I'm thinking '81 or '82. Their tokens were normally gold colored but for some reason one was silver and I kept it for good luck.

With no description given...$50 to $500.

Things called pinball machines which were around long before Space Invaders and PacMan.

Most of my quarters found their way into these games: Missile Command Moon Patrol Carnival Moon Cresta PacMan Galaxian Donkey Kong Mad Planets Space Invaders Jungle King

I'm not familiar with that board...it might be a Texas Peripherals drive? Look at the bottom right of the photo near the edge connector. See the numbers 1 2 3 4? I'm thinking things can go two ways here. Radio Shack sometimes selected drives by deleting certain pins in the floppy drive connector. Look at your cable and see if any pins are missing, especially any that match up to those numbers on the board. I'm guessing you may have some pins missing. If so, you'll need to reconfigure the cable or get a new one. If all the connectors/pins are there, it may be a simple matter of cutting the proper trace or traces between those 8 pads labeled 1 2 3 4. The two internal drives on TRS-80s didn't use a terminating resistor; however, the last external drive is supposed to have one. Personally, I'd get them up and running. Every vintage computer needs 5¼" floppies and the only thing cooler would be an 8" floppy!

During Christmas shopping season of '82, Aladdin's Castle at our mall was so busy there was a waiting line to get in due to fire codes. As people left, more were let in. I think the sign out front said the capacity was 115 people. The mall arcades were dimly lit but very clean and family friendly. No food, drinks or smoking allowed. We had a huge arcade in town that also had about a dozen pool tables. It never had that cool arcade feel as it had commercial tile floors, white walls and ceilings all brightly lit. Music from the jukebox was loud and great and the games were always kept in perfect condition. Then there were the mini arcades in places like Montgomery Ward and Sears. Usually all black rooms with dim lighting and maybe dozen games at most. Cool place to hang out if the mall's main arcade was too busy. Even department stores like K-Mart got in on it too. If they didn't have the dedicated arcade room, there would at least be a bunch of games near the entrance. Most pizza places had dedicated rooms but Showbiz Pizza was the ultimate as the whole place was like a giant arcade. The local roller rink was incredible. Games were placed anywhere they had an open space and the loud music and lighting made it the perfect experience. Don't believe I ever experienced a disgusting dive arcade in the early 80s. The games were in the $3,000 range and operators protected their investment. By '88 it was Game Over for that magic era. Mainly the big mall arcades lingered on and by the 90s they were ghost towns featuring crappy fighters, overpriced drivers that were like carnival rides, redemption games and the obligatory beat to hell Galaga and Ms. Pac.

Missile Command. Favorite when I was a kid, first game I bought 17 years ago and it'll be the last game I get rid of (if ever). That game is more hardcore 80s than a Fiero made out of Rubik's Cubes. Also have an Asteroids Deluxe. Never a favorite back in the day because a quarter lasted about 25 seconds. Like it now because it still kicks my ass so it never gets boring. I do hate the cabinet...oddest, ugliest thing to come from Atari. I also owned a Crystal Castles for several years. Really like the game back in the 80s but got burned out on it quickly as an owner. I sort of wish I kept it as it was one of the coolest looking cabinets ever made by any company. I see Moon Patrol posted above (NOT ATARI) and I owned one of those too. That was one of my ultimate favorites as a kid...I could get through both courses on one quarter. Burned out on that one just as fast as Crystal Castles and it got sold too. I think the ability to Continue indefinitely didn't help either as it takes all the mystery out of the game. I love games that I can't seem to master and can get angry at. Asteroids Deluxe and Defender are at the top of the list.

It is (or at least was) within the rules to bid on your own items. Old arcade operators (who usually look like someone from the Hoarders show) would think their garbage is worth a fortune and bid it up to the point they were high bidder and basically buy it back. Normally when you win an item, you pay something like an additional 10% to the auction company on top of your bid. I believe the auction company gave the buy back guys a much lower flat rate fee. Guy hauls dozens of arcade games hundreds of miles, buys it all back, pays a fee on each one, loads them all back up and then drives hundreds of miles back home. Following week, he goes to the auction's next location and does it all over again. I'm sure a few had overnight hotel costs too. There was no secrecy either. When one of those operators lots would go up, the regulars would leave to get something to eat or have a few beers.

It's the ultimate comeback that leaves them at a loss for words. Internet is no fun as they usually won't reply. At a flea market it's great to use on those know-it-all, fat old white trash flea market vendors. They won't acknowledge your offer but after a few moments of silence you'll get the typical "if I have to sell it for less, I'll just BURN IT!" I think one guy on RGVAC did actually burn a game once when everyone started making fun of his firm price. They also never learn. I used to go to arcade auctions and all day long decent games would be selling at fair and reasonable prices. Then you'd always get the old grouch vendor who would haul in 50 games and then out-bid everybody on his own equipment while having a hissy fit the entire time. End of the day, he'd dolly all his games back on to the trailer. You were allowed to buy your games back but each one still had a fee. Months later at another auction...same jackass, same games.

You do realize his post was tongue in cheek, right? Same as my post about the $999.00 Dancing Demon?

My Defender has some wattage behind it. It can get incredibly loud with no distortion when cranked up. I've found most old arcade games can get quite loud when turned up. Loudest game I remember on location would be a Space Invaders at K-Mart. An employee covered the speaker with a thick layer of foam and duct tape to try and quiet it down. I played one game and it shook with each thump. After playing, I pulled off the foam (just to be an ass) and went to find my mom. Wasn't long before someone put in a quarter and I could hear it in the middle of the store.

Orchestra 80 came out in 1980 for the Model I and was mono. Later the stereo Orchestra 85 appeared and then the Orchestra 90 in 1982. I don't know if the 80/85 sold in Radio Shack stores...the 90 definitely did. There were even predecessors to the 80 which appeared in '77. BTW, I just looked at the original case to my disk based Frogger game and it requires the full 48K.

Can someone hack in a bonus Quaalude that shoots across the screen every so often?

The 4K Model III was $699.00. Even in '81 that was next to worthless and I'm surprised anyone would have bought one. The $999.00 16K Model III had "Model III BASIC" which is Level 2. The 16K/Model III Basic upgrade kit was $300.00 so at least it didn't cost any extra in the long run as long as you did the upgrade yourself. Mine started off as the 16K cassette based system and I quickly outgrew it. I added the $100.00 RS232 board and was able to get online with CompuServe using Vidtex software on cassette. It worked well but there was no downloading capability. Eventually it got bumped to dual DSDD drives, 48K, DCM-II and an Orchestra 90 and a whole new world opened...of course it was a $3,000+ computer by TRS-80 standards. I saved a lot by going aftermarket on the drive kit and upping the memory to 48K by buying the RAMs off the shelf at Radio shack for $16 total instead of ordering the two kits (exact same thing) for $238.00. Even cables cost a fortune back then. I remember paying $39.00 for one when I bought my DMP-110 (worst printer ever made) and $29.00 for the Modem cable.

I'm guessing this has nothing to do with whether it's on a Harmony cart, Cuttle cart or burned ROM. I bet a real 2600 is the issue. FYI, my Harmony Encore is only a few months old. Have you tried it on the Cuttle cartridge yet?

I know the 4D had DS drives vs. all the older models having SS (original from Radio Shack). I have DS in my Model III but they are nearly identical to the SS except for the second head. 4D drives have a different style front face which makes me think they are a different brand. Either way, there has to be an obvious way to configure them. Definitely be cool to keep them functioning with the HxC.

As jhd mentioned...dumped at a clearance sale. The computer centers would practically give items away. You'd go in and end up leaving with things ranging from cool to useless simply because they were next to free. After the Model 4 came out, they eventually wanted the Model III inventory gone. $10 to $20 books for 10¢. Expensive software and games anywhere from 10¢ to $2. Dust covers, keyboard protectors, etc. all under $1. I used to ride my bike to the local computer center almost everyday to see what new items were marked down. Never paid much attention to the CoCo stuff but it was no exception. Ever notice all the boxed MC-10 computers on eBay? I remember debating on whether to buy one at $10, and that was an advertised sale. I believe they eventually dropped to $5 bucks. They also didn't tolerate damaged boxes. One store had a sprinkler head break and some Model 100 boxes got slightly wet but absolutely no damage to anything inside the box. $1,000 24K Model 100 computers marked down to $30! I ran home to get $30 and when I got back all three were sold. Best computer deal I ever got was on Tandy 2000 HD which was either a display model or possibly used in their office as it came with every option offered and it was all unboxed. 10mb HD, high res option board along with the high res color chip kit, CM-1 color monitor, 768K RAM and a DCM-II 300 baud modem all for $100! I already had a 1000EX and after getting that 2000 home, I had buyers remorse...talk about a red headed stepchild that was kinda/sorta IBM compatible. Ended up giving it to a friend so we could play TradeWars on some of the local BBSs. I'll have to see if he still has it.

Hate to say it but it has the jitters too (although another cool game!). I tried Alien Pinball and it also jitters and often crashes to a black screen when I lose a ball. I can't believe that someone else with a Harmony cart hasn't chimed in? Maybe try posting in the main Atari section or the Homebrew section. I bet many forum members don't know your games exist as this section is kind of buried. Edit: Just tried Cow and it's rock solid perfection.

Are they full height Tandon drives? At the rear of the drive's pcb, look for a 16 pin socket with a jumper pack plugged into it. The drive designation depends on what tabs are cut. You'll need to configure them for #3 and #4. I think the last drive may also require a terminating resistor pack. If you have newer drives, you may just have simple jumper blocks that need to be configured for #3 and #4.

Something is really messed up on a real 2600. Difficulty A causes a rapid growing orange screen from the bottom up, over and over again. The gray bars are gone as well as the little green defense things and it is still playable. Jitters are still the same on versions .4 and .5. Love this game and the concept. It could be one of the best games of 2015 if you could get the screen stable.

It was the very first game I bought for my 2600 and still one of my favorites. I used to play the heck out of it in the arcade and really liked the cockpit version even though I was a bit short for it at 8 or 9 years old. For those complaining about how the car looks... the arcade version didn't have a car...it had a sticker! Often missing too. the arcade version was black & white the arcade version didn't have oncoming cars the arcade version didn't have trees and houses The oncoming cars (I still say they are Ford Pintos) with horn beeps are my favorite part...they even crumple up when you hit one! And this was all done in 2K! But would you expect anything less from Rob Fulop?