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IGNORE that price, you can get them for much less and still in good condition. Just seach eBay there are quite a few for sale right now (using Bally Professional Arcade, Astrocade or even Bally Astrocade). Oh, and by the way, finding a new in box Neo Geo would easily run you over $1,000.00...and that would be cheap...

I think if the Astrocade had gotten more third party support and more mainstream games, it would have. It had the best controllers of any console at that time, and I think one of the best console designs around (the cartridge bay was brilliant). The sound is near spot on in many of the arcade ports, being very close to the arcade version. Sharing its mainboard design with Bally's arcade boards didn't hurt either. Its just too bad they didn't enable more of the arcade board features like their higher resolution. Had they, I don't think the other consoles could have touched it, even the ColecoVision or Atari 5200. If you haven't picked up War yet or Crazy Climber, you should. Michael Garber, the programmer, is pretty damn good at what he does with the system. Oh, and as far as not getting much love, well, I think things are looking up for the Astrocade. You'll just have to wait and see.

You've seen a few Astrocades in a new condition complete with box, shipping box, manual etc.? I've seen quite a few Astrocades on eBay in the last two years, but no other one in such a condition. I can't speak for BassGuitari, but I have seen more than one system for sale complete with shipping box and paperwork in past few years myself. They are not that uncommon. And many times the ones with the shipping box turn out to be in pristine condition. But honestly, the Bally Computer System model is the most common model out there (I had not looked at the auction until now) so it's really hard for me to justify laying out that kind of money for that model. Having roughly 12 consoles at this point, maybe I can be a little more picky than the average Bally collector, but if you saw something you wanted and and were willing to pay that much for it, more power to you. The bottom line is its a great system to get your hands on, no matter the cost, so anyone who is looking for one should go out and get one. Just do your due diligence first.

I don't think so. I even think $366 is undervalued. How many brand new Astrocades in flawless condition have you seen in the last years? I was looking for one since 2 years. I doubt you'll see another one anytime soon. Was it an actual "Astrocade" branded console? Problem with any of the systems is that they were never in a "sealed" box (unless it was still in a sealed shipping box) so it's really hard to call one "brand new" in my opinion. "Flawless" yes, and I have several in that condition, but none I would have considered brand new. The only versions I could see paying that kind of money for would be a Bally Home Library Computer, White Montgomery Ward Bally Professional Arcade or an actual Astrocade model. But then again, to each his own. Just make sure to play it every now and then.

The latest and greatest (or most comprehensive, if you prefer) is the UltiMulti Cartridge 1.5.1 by GaMBITS. You can check it out here: http://www.ballyalley.com/documentation/multicarts/multicart_(GaMBITS)/multicart_(GaMBITS).html I believe it is still available, try posting a message to the creator Ken Lill on the Bally Alley Yahoo group: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ballyalley/ AX, Ken may also be able to do basic repairs on consoles if you are still looking to get yours fixed.

Buy one, you won't regret it. We've had two new homebrew releases for it recently, one being War and the other being Crazy Climber. And there are even bigger things on the way. I can't say what for now, but lets just say Your Life Will Never Be The Same. Don't shy away from the high prices, the system is "rare" if only that there are so few that still work, due to the issues with the RF shield that was added after the system was already completed. It's almost as bad as wrapping your PC motherboard (including the CPU) in tinfoil. See how long it lasts. There is one seller in paticular (you know who you are) who has Bally stuff for just ridonculas prices. Best of luck to him, but as you can see, not much of it sells. So I'm sure others see this and think "hey, I can charge a million dollars for mine too". Good luck with that. And whatever you do, do NOT but one that says "untested". Period. Untested=Broke, broken, not working, dead, fried, best used as a doorstop etc. That's the best advice I can give you on buying one. Be sure to check out www.ballyalley.com for even more info on the system, and if you are interested think about joining the Bally Yahoo group. Now back to our regular programming.

Forget the laptop cooler, save your money, just remove the RF shield from the motherboard. Clean the thermal paste off the custom data chip and you are good to go. Trust me. Don't block the vent holes on the bottom either, even with the shield removed, its not worth taking the chance you will overheat the thing. If the "jitters" you are referring to are when using the "paddle' feature of the knob, it can be corrected if memory serves me by some type of electronic spray for the "pot" (at least I think its called that). Post a message on the Bally Alley Yahoo group and you will definately get an answer as to what the stuff is called.

Sister’s boyfriend? Break his thumbs. Damaging ANY equipment is punishable by death in my household, especially if it’s vintage. On a lighter note, I too have all my equipment out on display and it can be hooked up for play (and often is). My ColecoVision, Vectrex, Bally's/Astrocade, Neo Geo carts etc. are on one of those bookshelf units from IKEA in what used to be my home theatre, but has now morphed into more of a family room. The only stuff hooked to our TV for regular use is the Xbox 360, Xbox, Wii and Neo Geo. Now that we have the Kinect, the Xbox 360 sees most of the action. My kids are only 5 and 3, but we've taught them to respect my stuff and not to play with it unless I or my wife are there to play with them (although we have let them play with the Kinect by themselves a few times, since there is now controller for them to mess up). The washing hands thing is brilliant, had not thought of that until now (probably should be washing mine beforehand myself...). Have not had to face anything getting played with yet with anyone other than immediate family, so I have not been exposed to your type of situation as of yet. Will have to set ground rules once the kids start having more friends over when they get older. I think you can be safe letting others play with your other systems, provided you are there to oversee them. And just an FYI the IKEA bookshelves have glass doors as options if you decide to go that route and want to protect stuff even more so.

Thanks for the responses, I have a good idea then on what to offer for it if I decide to pick it up.

Might be looking at one of those Sega Dreamcast store displays, the one with the built in monitor and the arms with the controllers attached. Any idea what the value is? From the looks of it, its complete with a Dreamcast and two controllers, and its supposed to be fully functional.

Pretty much with any of the boxes, since "Astrovision" began distribution with whatever stock Bally had left over, as I understand it. Probably best detailed on Lance F. Squire's FAQ site: http://alteeve.com/~lance/BoxVariation.html

For a fully functioning Bally Computer System model, which is pretty common, I would say ask at least $100 and settle for no less than $75.00. Just do yourself a favor and really play the system for several hours on any type of level surface other than a carpet. The systems are prone to failure, but my experience is if you can play it for several hours without any glitches or it crapping out completely, you've got yourself a keeper. Less of a headache in the long run with someone calling you back to say the system just died on them. (Just make sure they know not to play with it on the carpet). I see these systems going up in value in the near future, especially with the recent homebrew release of War and the upcoming release of Crazy Climber. (A little birdie also told me that bigger or should I say larger things are coming on the horizon). For a White Montgomery Ward version of the Bally Professional Arcade (which I assume yours is) I'd say you got a great deal. For a pristine console that is still white and not off-white or yellowing, easily $150.00 to $200.00. I rank that model as the third rarest version. Nice score. There really is no "matching" of boxes, manuals, etc. when it comes to this system, except for perhaps the earliest system which by the way was the Home Library Computer, not the Bally Computer System. The systems history from Bally, then Astrovision and finally Astrocade, boxes, manuals, controllers and consoles where all kind of "thrown" together like a box of chocolates. So basically you never know what you are gonna get. Sites like Bally Alley and THE Bally/Astrocade FAQ can fill in a lot of information on this: http://www.ballyalley.com/ http://alteeve.com/~lance/Ballyfaq.html There were four different "names" for this system: 1) Home Library Computer 2) Bally Professional Arcade 3) Bally Computer System 4) Astrocade The Home Library Computer model was by mail order only, so I suspect whatever those systems came with would have matched that era console. The Bally Professional Arcade, the second release, came in both a woodgrain finish as well as the white finish (the white being the rarer of the two). Then came the Bally Computer System and finally the Astrocade brand. I rank the Home Library Computer model as rarest, followed by the Astrocade and then the white Montgomery Ward Bally Professional Arcade version. They are also the only ones I keep on display:

Check out The Incredible Wizard if you want to see the BPA/Astrocade really shine. Probably the best port of Wizard of War for that era, period. Better yet, pick up an actual console and play it. Galaxian is a contender too, and "Munchie" (the consoles version of Pac-Man, never released officially but later sold third party as "Muncher") is a pretty decent game as well. So much went wrong with the release of this system and during its lifetime it’s just a shame, really. (Heck, its name changed four times: Home Library Computer, then Bally Professional Arcade to Bally Computer System and finally Astrocade). A lot of people may not realize they were all one and the same, just with different badging (basically). It’s a cool system to get your hands on if you can, and with Michael creating new games like War and Crazy Climber it just got that much better. Check out www.ballyalley.com for more information.

I couldnt seem to find any information about the coleco gemini at all on that site. All the information was colecovision based, or so it seemed. Thanks for looking though. It seems like a weird site for the blocks to have picked up on. Seeing as they dont block atariage.com. That's Websense for you! Thank god they don't block AtariAge otherwise I would have to quit!

Did you try eColeco? The site is blocked at my job so I could not search it: coleco.freeservers.com If they don't have them they might be able to point you in the right direction.

In theory, I would think Novus or any plastic polish would work, provided you are not doing it on the silk-screened side. I know they make varying levels of polish depending on the degree of the scratch, if that helps any. I've never tried it as I am just too damn lazy...

Hello Rob, When this project started nearly two years ago it began with a survey to gauge the "most wished for" overlay. The survey came back with Mine Storm, Pole Position, Star Castle, Protector as the top four. Mine Storm and Pole Position are now finally here. We looked at doing Star Castle and this one had the hardest graphics to reproduce - so we pushed that to the bottom of the list. We thought about doing Protector and we did get permission from Alex Hubert the author of Protector. But then there were concerns raised by some persons who own the limited edition of Protector not wanting to see their prized limited edition collectable loosing value. So instead the next two overlays won't be reproductions but rather new artwork overlays. It all depends on Peteski the other guy in this project, but the next two overlays he has started work on are YASI and Protector. The artwork will be inspired by the orignal arcade video game artwork from Space Invaders and Defender. Ian You should take a look at the vinyl Vectrex wraps that were made for YASI. An overlay to go with that artwork would be fantastic (that, and it would give me a reason to finally apply one of the wraps I have to a second Vectrex console). http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110321235528/vectrex/images/9/99/YASI-PROTECTOR_WRAP.jpg

Did you try posting an announcement for Ping-Pong pre-orders? I don't remember you doing so, but if you started a topic on it you might get the necessary pre-orders you need to release it in the complete package. You could put me down for one right now.

I have a flash cart and would be interested in digital copies of the prototypes Eduardo.

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