80s_Atari_Guy

The only worry I have with all this digital-only gaming is that, in the future our younger generation won't have any way of playing them, unless ALL DRM is allowed to be stripped from the digital files. As servers close down, and current gen hardware becomes obsolete, we won't have many/any way of playing these games in the future, so no "retro" for our younger generation. Whether that bothers them, is not known as most of my mate's kids always want the next big thing, and quickly forget about previous gen hardware like PS3 and Xbox 360. I do miss buying physical media for my PC. My last bought physical media was GTA V on 6 DVDs, and I prefer it because I can always install it, not matter how long it takes, no matter if I have internet, and I can play it anytime - obviously as long as I have at least verified my serial number. The glossy box is gorgeous, and everything that comes with it. Saying that, I do have well over 220 digital Steam games on my gaming PC, and (as in this month's summer sells) it's far more convenient to sit here, buy games, download games then play them. I also miss the great artwork, often from famous fantasy/sci-fi graphic artists, that graced the boxes of older games, especially Amiga big box games. I have 50 boxed Colecovision games, 63 Atari 2600 games, and 38 boxed Intellivision games and love them all. I love those Atari 2600 box art, we will never get this again.

That "Thing" looks a abomination. And how, exactly, is 720p a PRO ? Why in god's name would you want to scale 2600 graphics to 720p ?

That Family Guy sketch with the over-emphasised H, reminds me of the Quorn adverts here in the UK. The voice-over annoyingly says "Qworn", when it's clearly pronounced "Corn". And, Stewie's over-use of the H, is getting a bit tiresome.

After the SHITE that was the Retron 1 HD, I think I will stick to the real thing. Awful picture, Awful sound, Awful frame rate. Dreadful machine. Taken from Youtube comments, "Hyperkin: cutting corners in every conceivable way." After all the comments shitting on the Atari machine, it's a bit funny reading comments from idiots buying this shite.

What a awesome cart. Has anyone in the UK got their carts ? And did you have to pay anymore, such as import tax ?

To the op, you can't go wrong with a Sony Trinitron. Or any of the following, Sony FD Trinitron KV-14LT1U 14" TV Sony Trinitron KV-X2582U 28" TV Commodore 1701 Philips CM8833 Mark 1 Philips CM8833 Mark 2 If you want a PVM or BVM, then I've used the following, and they're superb. Sony BVM-20F1U 20" Sony PVM 2044QM 20" Sony PVM 20n6e RGB They're hard to get, and often quite expensive - But they're not as expensive as the over-rated and over-priced Framemeister - which (IMO) looks nothing like a CRT, even with scanlines. Top post, youxia. Completely agree with every thing you said.

Thanks. Took a while, but I eventually found Alex's website.

Protector / YASI Vector Invaders Just as a quick example.

So many great games on this great machine, that only one game to start with is hard. Alley Cat Diamonds Eidolon Elektra Glide Mercenary Bruce Lee Ballblazer Spy vs Spy Beach Head Boulder Dash Encounter Star Raiders II Koronis Rift Great American Cross Country Road Race Drelbs Jet Boot Jack Heck, just typing that list out, even though I've played them all sooo many times, just makes me want to fire the beauty up.

Thanks, appreciate it. Did he have any available ?

Hey Bryan, any chance you could answer this ? I would love a plug-in version, but fear the postage could cost more than the actual device.

Thats very good, Leonardo. Perhaps we should get a box-art thread going and start our own boxes ? What printer did you print that box on ? And what materials did you use ? By the way, that 2600 box came with new box inserts, newly printed leaflets and manuals, and a new box for the cherry power supply.

Sure. I will take a few more a bit later. I have to go shopping first.

Here in the UK, the most difficult would be the High Street shops. I really miss going into those old Computer Shops, seeing shelf after shelf of 80s computer games, and hardware. These were so different times back then, times when staff were incredibly friendly, didn't ask for a mobile phone number/email address/post code, just to pay for your item. My local 80s games shops had all the major systems on show, and playing the latest releases.

I will put some pics up for you, a bit later. I was thinking of a large company with enough money to mass-produce repro boxes, which would keep the cost down. I guess it all comes down to who would be first to take the risk ? I would, if I had the capital, and backing. I personally believe, after seeing empty old original boxes go for silly money on ebay, that this would indeed be quite a profitable project. You would require real high-quality artwork from the original boxes, as well as details and dimensions of the inner packaging, and included leaflets. Good luck with your Vectrex Box, it looks great, so far. Some pics of the repro 2600 box. My phone camera isn't the best, so the pics aren't the best quality.

To be honest, I don't think that matters to those who just want to try it. I, like many, remember the history of this and the original, and would love to play it in MAME, regardless of how good or bad it was. I don't think releasing the roms would diminish the value of the roms themselves, or the actual machine, because there will still be only those 2 in existence. And, any attempt to make a reproduction machine would still be just that, a copy. I mean, does having copies of rare one-off Van Gogh paintings diminish the value of the original ? Of course not. Now imagine if super-rich owners of rare paintings didn't loan them to galleries, or used the courts to stop copies and posters from being made. Nobody would ever get to see "The Starry Night", "Sunflowers", or a self-portrait. And what happens if the owner passes away ? Do they goto family, or another private collector ?

Just seen a Atari Falcon 030 Boxed, go for £1200. They're fairly rare, but are they worth £1200 ? Regularly, I see EMPTY boxes go for what I used to pay for the FULL thing. SNES Empty boxes - 1st-gen console boxes- go for upto £50. Atari Jaguar empty boxes, with all the inserts, in good condition, go for upto £60. Empty Gameboy DMG01 Boxes go for around £30. I paid £39 for a brand new Reproduction Atari 2600 Chess Piece Box, including cardboard inserts, manuals, and boxes. They now go for £50. They are gorgeous, though. The last of the Sinclair Spectrums, the Spectrum+ 128k, boxed, go for more than I paid for my I7 8700k. Even unboxed, they still fetch upto £200. Mind you, give it 10 years and my 8700k will be worthless, while the Spectrum 128k will be priceless. I am seeing many CRTs, of specific brands - Commodore, Philips, Atari, Sony - are now starting to go for serious money. Then you have fairly rare machines like the Sam Coupe, Enterprise 128k, Jupiter Ace, Memotech 512k, all go for often mental prices. I love this hobby. But I also feel it's no longer a hobby, it's a business for those who have it all, and more or less a hobby for the rest of us.

I like emulation, but emulation of more modern machines like PCSX2 - PS2, or rpcs3 - for PS3. Dolphin for Wii and Gamecube. And Cemu, for Wii-U emulation running at 4k with some superb custom shaders. What I don't like is, say, Winvice running a C64 emulator and playing Bruce Lee on a 55" LED Samsung TV, on my Gaming PC. I use either a Xbox One pad, or a Blu-tooth Sony DS4. Sure, it's convenient, quick to setup, and plays ok. But there is just something that doesn't "Feel" right. I have a empty feeling, like I'm playing a Windows conversion of Bruce Lee, rather than on a C64. I feel no connection to emulation of older systems, even with CRT shaders and even CRT overlays. I get bored real quick and often go back to PC gaming. Right next to this setup is this mess. Thats MY mess, and I love it. I could now quite easily fire up the C64C, load in Bruce Lee from my SD2IEC and play that for a couple of hours on the monitor it was meant for, the 1701 (or a 1702). The wonderful glow from one of my favourite monitors just cannot be recreated from my Samsung LED. At night, that area just glows from that wonderful little CRT. And it feels right, it feels like this how it should be played. The lovely micro-switch clicks from my Quickjoy SV-131, all get the endorphins going, and I'm in my element. I also don't get the connection between how you load a game, to how you play it. I mean, I could load Bruce Lee from a tape, but the SD2IEC + Epyx Fast Load Cart means I'm playing the game in seconds. The end result is the same, the Bruce Lee game running on real hardware. The mocking of modern hardware addons for retro machines, I find bizarre. I mean, in that pic you can see a uncased TZXDuino. It does exactly what a real tape deck does, the end results are exactly the same - even the loading is slow. But the convenience of having a few thousand tape images, in such a tiny device, while still using real hardware, outweighs using real tapes - having to find them, rewind them, hope they load...etc.. Also, many graphic artists from the 70s and 80s, used CRT artifacts to their advantage. Modern HD TVs, can't show these, along with scanlines, shadow masks, etc.. software shaders can help but they never quite look the same. Modern HD TVs can also highlight all these retro system's technical limitations, things that CRTs can better hide. I appreciate if you love modern TV tech, and want to move on. Emulation is perfect for those who don't want the often hassle of maintaining these old CRTs, or retro systems. Many old systems have batteries in that will need replacing. Caps need replacing, connectors cleaned, carts cleaned, disks - hopefully not had rot set in, or mould. It's easier to take a USB stick full of emulators, to friends for retro gaming sessions. One thing I will add. When I pop round a old school mate's house with emulators, none of his kids (aged 8-10 years) are interested. When I take a old CRT, and retro system, no matter how cumbersome, they all get excited and want to join in. They're all Nintendo Switch mad, yet take round a NES and my 1701 CRT, and I can't get the buggers off - my mate had to send them to bed.

I have way too many CRTs. Televisions ============================== JVC Model C-21TX1EK 21" Sony FD Trinitron KV-14LT1U 14" Sony Trinitron KV-X2582U CRT TV 28" Monitors ============================== Acorn AKF30 RGB Monitor Amstrad CTM644 Colour Monitor No.1 Amstrad CTM644 Colour Monitor No.2 Amstrad CTM644 Colour Monitor No.3 Atari SC1435 RGB Colour Monitor Commodore 1701 Philips CM8833 Mark 1 Philips CM8833 Mark 2 Viewsonic 15" SVGA CRT Monitor.

Why can't we buy download versions of these rare homebrew games ? It seems nuts that games that are easily accessible to the devs, are purposely made "Rare", when they could sell download roms for flashcarts.

I just use a "Jerry" converter, and a decent quality PC USB wired Mouse. The mouse works great, and much better than any Amiga mouse. Although, the converter sticks out quite a bit.

My 4Mb 1040 STf, is almost mint and in it's original colour - not yellowed. It's boxed, with the polys, manual and Floppy disks. The monitor is the superb Atari SC1435, and it's mint - hardly used and original colour, boxed with polys and manual. While not worth what they originally sold for, I bet I could get quite a good amount if I put it on ebay.