Turbo-Torch

What name were you going by 20 years ago on alt.atari and RGVC? Region aside, he comes off as highly arrogant for telling people they're babbling on or their point is moot when they don't agree his ideas of emulation or mutilation of a console.

Yeah, that explains it all. I know people who have recreated 1950s malt shops with original restaurant equipment, pinball machines and jukeboxes from that era. I don't tell them that a modern piece of shit mixer, made to look retro, sold at Target it just as good or better than their originals. I also don't tell them that a new replica Crosley jukebox that plays CDs and docks a damn ipod is better than their original juke that plays 45s. Furthermore, I don't go into an audiophile group and tell them to hack up and modify a 1960s tube amp they paid $15,000 for, or tell them they can hear the same music even better on a modern 7.1 receiver. Also don't tell them to include a subwoofer to their setup which includes 50 year old drivers they paid thousands of dollars for. And yet another brilliant statement by someone who was dropping turds in a diaper when then SNES was released. Stop looking down your nose at people when they mention how something was "meant to played"...especially when the person you're replying to actually lived and experienced that era.

Really? If your area was that behind the times, I'm surprised you had video games at all. By the mid 70s, b/w TVs were cheap secondary sets for the kids' bedroom. By 1980, I don't remember anyone even owning a b/w TV unless it was one of the portables that used a dozen D cell batteries (good for camping). In 1988 (my senior year in high school) I bought my 19" Zenith STEREO color TV with COMPOSITE input and audio inputs/outputs. I actually still own it and use it with my 130XE. I have to ask...in the late 70s did you ever gather with a bunch of friends at your house or one of theirs to play Atari or Intellivision on the family room TV? In the 80s, did you ride your bike or skateboard to the local arcade, pizza place or bowling alley to meet with a bunch of friends and pump quarters into REAL ARCADE GAMES? Do you remember unwrapping 2600 ET on Christmas morning 1982? How about the disappointment of the first time you plugged PacMan into your woodgrain 2600? Did you use your Atari or C64 and a 300 baud modem to call local BBSs...or maybe even run your own BBS in the mid to late 80s? How many cool 8 bit games did you copy and trade with friends on 5¼" disks?

Systems from Pong to NES will never become worthless. Same goes for early home computers. They are right up there with the invention of the telephone, radio, car, TV etc. People pay ungodly amounts of money for items that no one alive today had any experience with. And even though cars follow the economy, they continue to rise every year. There is no shortage of pre 1950s cars going through Barret Jackson fetching well over $1 million...and these are not 100+ year old people buying a car they vaguely remember from when they were a child.

I bought mine new (white) for $50 bucks after it flopped. That's one failed system that didn't deserve its fate. I even bought the keyboard and used the dial up modem to browse the web back then. The controllers are my favorite for any modern system and the VMU modules are the coolest. Favorite game would probably be Jet Grind Radio...I racked up a lot of hours on that one.

If it was on MAME it doesn't count. Also, I hope that my opinions are getting you worked up to the point of losing sleep. Now babble on.

And I'm glad you realize that. Now go babble on about something else.

The reality is that a rare Beatles album will always be worth mega bucks...MP3s off that album will always be worth zero. All my 5¼" disks filled with games I downloaded off pirate BBSs back in the 80s barely have more value than the used disks themselves. Same goes for any games I download off the net and then transfer to my Atari with an sio2pc and copy to disk. One RARE boxed original game will be worth far more than all those disks combined. Someone can try and point out the flawed logic behind it and cry about how it shouldn't be that way, but that's the way it is and it will NEVER change. Win/Win situation for collectors and gamers. Values stay high on the genuine articles and gamers can still experience the real thing on their real hardware. Bottom of the barrel is emulation. A HD running on modern hardware ranks right up there with one of those all in one Jakks Pacific joysticks. Good for the non serious casual gamer and once bored or a new version comes along, toss it in the trash and move on.

Didn't know they actually made a modem for it. I have the communications cartridge kit and used it with a Hayes modem. It wasn't even capable of handling any local BBS. It did work for accessing the local library computer to search for books. It was a novelty that lasted about 15 minutes. I think the kit was on clearance for $5 bucks.

I have two Xtremes I bought new off eBay really cheap. I think they are pretty damn cool considering when they were released. I used one on the job as a PDA. It also doubled as an MP3 player and a game machine. Someone made a version of Defender for it which is incredible. Same goes for a version of Asteroids. I also found the communication ability interesting. There was an app that brought the US version to foreign standards which greatly increased the range.

The new mazes are really fun and the yellow maze is downright cool looking. A few tweaks such as making the fruit follow the maze and a different start up tune would make it a real winner. Does the fruit still follow the pattern of the original Ms. Pac mazes?

This game is incredible! Is the $10 official ROM available?

I stalled out on collecting about 15 years ago when RGVC fizzled out. Few months ago I saw this game on youtube and was blown away...seriously thought it was a hoax. I joined AA and found out about the Harmony cartridge and immediately ordered one mainly to play this game. Every time I play it, it's a surreal experience...it just shouldn't be possible on a 2600. I really hope it gets finished off one day as it seems to be 95% there. Difficulty appears to stay the same no matter what level. The elevator and mud pie factory screens could be made more challenging with bonus items to collect.

Nice collection. Those Atari Fossil watches are really cool. Are they from the early 80s or a current retro thing?

Another straight off the orginal cassette. Good luck beating this one. Things get crowded after 40K!

I used to play the heck out of the Astrocade at Wards. I can't think of any other stores that offered it in my area. The kiosk had a few games to choose from and Galaxian was my favorite. Another I remember was similar to 2600's Outlaw. That console was YEARS ahead of its time. I never knew anyone who owned one. I've been satisfied with my game collection for at least 15 years but I would love to add an Astrocade to it.

I have never considered the Lynx a failure. It had a lifespan of several years and many great games. Was anyone ever pissed off over having 70+ games to choose from? Did Atari actually lose money on this system? It was an expensive toy with expensive games and a need for batteries. It was the Lamborghini of portable game systems. The Gamboy was the Toyota Corolla, it was affordable in every way so of course it sold more than all the color systems combined at the time. Go back 25 years ago and no one in their right mind would have taken a pea green GB over a Lynx, Game Gear or Turbo Express. It was a Toyota vs. Lamborghini, Porsche and Ferrari. Failure would be something like the Virtual Boy with literally a handful of games. Maybe a year after its release, I bought mine brand new for $20 bucks. There were mountains of them at places such as Walmart, Toys R Us and Babbage's for no more than $25 and they weren't flying out the door at that price either. How much did Nintendo lose on that system? How many consumers initially spent nearly $200 and ended with about 14 games to choose from? Don't know if it is true or not, but I read where Nintendo stooped to forcing stores to take VB stock in order to receive N64 consoles.

Just like in the arcade version, the monsters must not be in the immediate area. I took off for at least 20 minutes and everything was still fine when I got back.

Yep, got that one too.

I just fired up my real pac arcade game and I have no idea what you're talking about. When pac eats a monster in the attract screen, the point value shows and he continues on to eat the next monster. I don't see this jump backward thing you're talking about...are you using an emulator or noticing something that's a fraction of a mm?

I love the fact that the safety spot is in this game!

Fuel becomes an issue after 40K. Once you run out, you're done no matter how many lives you have left. I was happy when the tape deck came back to life. Unfortunately a few cassettes didn't survive the decades...mainly the red label Radio Shack.