Tavi

November 18, 2020

I would have to echo a few others here and say that the value of these titles is going to nosedive as soon as it comes out that there are hundreds of NOS available.

People will still buy them to play or collect, so the demand will still be there but I seriously doubt you would be able to sell them for anything close to their current pricing. Pallets of these titles is an instant market glut just waiting to happen, the scarcity factor would be lost.

I imagine this is why this person wants to sell the entire stock in one shot. Once the titles start flowing out into the market, the value of any remaining stock is going to seriously decrease.

15K is a sizable investment, and you are certainly getting a pig in a poke as you have no idea the condition of the majority of the stock being bought.

If it's all mint, you could do quite well, but there is certainly some very sizable risk factors that for the money involved I would not be terribly comfortable with.

...but if you do go for it, you can put me down for one of the 'Trilogy' sets as well :D

November 9, 2020

25 minutes ago, kevincondrick@gmail.com said:

Well yah unfortunately it doesn't matter if the fans on it or not it still dose the same thing. Idk if the clock battery has anything to do with it but it may be bad or something I really don't know. I'm still leaning towards the cpu shorted out with thermal paste somehow.

I do believe the only effect a dead CMOS battery has is that it will not keep the correct date/time. I do not think it would in itself cause this error. But if you have the system apart now, I do believe it is just a standard CR2032 under the green plastic shell, so you could pop the connector off the board and then test it with a multimeter and see if it is still putting out 3 volts or better. If it is under 3, I think it you can consider it to be dead.

If someone really gooped on the thermal paste, a short is a possibility depending on what paste was used. I use Arctic Silver, which is an excellent and popular paste but it is technically conductive (metal particles in the paste) so you do have to be careful with applying it.

If the thermal paste is conductive and has gotten onto where the CPU/GPU is seated and causing a short, I am not sure how you can clean it out easily. Popping either out of its socket would then require reballing to re-attach, which means either buying some speciality equipment or taking it to a repair shop to do the work for you.

Hopefully someone more knowledgeable can give better advice on this. Honestly my expertise with the fat PS3 comes entirely from servicing the one I bought just a month ago, so I am certainly no expert on troubleshooting problems with it.

November 9, 2020

A bit of an odd question, but the fan and heatsink are attached when you are turning it on?

I am not super familiar with PS3's, other then the CECHA01 I took apart to replace the thermal paste on a month and some ago, but for the PS3 fat I was working on to get to the bare board like yours, the cooling fan and heatsink assembly needed to be removed.

If the fan is not attached the error may be the PS3 is not detecting the fan, and triggering a 'overheating' shutdown to protect the hardware.

Just spitballing here though!

November 9, 2020

I did a bit of digging online, and found a post discussing the various PS3 'red light, three beeps' errors that might help better diagnose the problem.

https://www.avforums.com/threads/ps3-lights-of-death-issues-sequences-error-codes.1190159/

Most of these seem to be related to overheating issues, but if it happens immediately when it is turned on I expect overheating is not the problem here.

It might be worth experimenting a bit and trying a different power supply? This is something I was looking into doing, as the original PS3 power supplies reportedly are very inefficient and tend to run much hotter then the newer versions of PS3 power supplies. Looking around online it seems there are a few options for newer PS3 power supplies that will also still fit and work in the older fat PS3 models.

https://www.psdevwiki.com/ps3/Power_Supply

November 4, 2020

16 minutes ago, Shaggy the Atarian said:

So, latest delay now puts it at Jan. 2021. I thought that all of us "sad trolls" were going to be eating crow by now, or something.

In the mean time, I just learned about another competitor to both the VCS and Amico, although this one has bizarrely decided to follow the VCS model of being overpriced and having nothing original to it. Behold the Polycade 2600.

That certainly does look interesting, right up until I hit the part about the units 500$ price tag.

That price point is going to be a tough sell.

November 3, 2020

4 hours ago, racerx said:

"Atari" has hit a whole new low with their token shenanigans. It's fascinating to witness the depths of sleaze they're willing to plumb.

I enjoy poking fun at Atari as much as the next person over their years long Keystone Kops-esque approach to producing an 'un-console', but I just feel bad and frustrated over reading on this token scam.

I feel bad for those who got burned, and burned hard for as of a few hours ago the Atari Token is trading a .08 cents. Effectively it has lost two-thirds of its initial .25 cent value, and any backers lost two-thirds of their investment. You do not just somehow forget to put a system in place to allow your investors to transfer their tokens to your exchange, and force them to watch on the sidelines as the token price crashes and burns after the initial pump and dump.

The frustrated part comes in that it seems no small number of people are still willing to throw money to Chesnais on demand like trained seals. He says 'Atari' and they are all reaching for their wallets. I have had years of enjoyment from the gross incompetence concerning the Atari Box, but this pushes past incompetent and is now toeing the line on criminal neglegence. I am willing to bet Chesnais et al made certain that they could dump their tokens right when the price spiked for a tidy little profit.

Atari could stand for now 'Always Trying Anything to Ripoff Investors'.

November 3, 2020

This was a tough one!

The Atari 2600 is absolutely near and dear to my heart, I still love playing it even today.

The Atari was the pioneer and dominated with their massive catalogue of games, but Intellivision certainly was the graphically superior console and with a much more versatile controller compared to the Atari's single button.

Both consoles had their unique strengths, so I would have to go with the 'Both are great' option.

October 29, 2020

36 minutes ago, Mockduck said:

Atari has announced a delay in shipment, blaming delivery of the classic joysticks to get consoles to backers and a shortage of a key ryzen component as a delay in delivery to everyone else.

Per usual, the email that links to their Medium blog contains more information, so copying it here:

As you have likely realized, despite our team’s aggressive efforts to avoid it, Atari VCS deliveries are delayed just a little bit longer and will commence in mid-November instead of late October as we had planned.

The short version: Most of the VCS hardware and peripherals are in our US warehouses, except for the Classic Joysticks, which prevents the start of fulfilment. We have secured air-freight during the busy holiday shipping season, and now Atari is expediting the imports of these remaining products, so backers won’t have to wait much longer for delivery.

Here’s exactly what is going on:

All Atari VCS units and Modern Controllers earmarked to fill backer orders are either in the US warehouse or will be before the end of the month.

After being delayed due to a late-arriving part, all Classic Joysticks for backers are now scheduled to start departing the factory on 11/5/2020.

To mitigate this additional delay, Atari has now arranged to import the joysticks from China via air freight, rather than by traditional trans-ocean shipping. This will significantly reduce the travel time from the typical 6+ weeks, down to 10-14 days.

Based on this revised schedule, and barring any unusual customs delays (we’ve already experienced a couple), we expect to have all merchandise on hand in the US warehouse and ready to ship to backers starting as soon as the week of November 16th.

Orders will go out via standard shipping in roughly the order that they were made. Product serial numbers will not follow any specific order sequence. This includes both domestic and international orders.

We do not yet know the pace or daily outbound capacity of the fulfilment center and will share any info we can when it becomes available.

Thanks for the summary, it saves having to pull out the hip-waders to make it though their posts myself.

What jumps out at me is 'we expect to have all merchandise on hand in the US warehouse and ready to ship to backers starting as soon as the week of November 16th.'. Which means their best possible scenario to have the items on hand and begin shipping is on Nov. 16th. Which would bump the arrival date (for the US backers at least) to I imagine closer to end of November.

So another month delay, on top of the other previous two years of delays. They seem to be getting closer to getting the Atari Box over the line and actually delivered, but it is just painful (yet still entertaining) to watch how badly they managed to muck up almost every single stage of creating and releasing their un-console. I am sure there has to be a Borat-level of movie material here Atari could probably make a mint in releasing. 'Atari - Console System for Make Benefit Stock Options of Glorious Chesnais'

October 26, 2020

1 hour ago, OCAT said:

^ I hope they build in automatic Ultra Violet lights into every corridor, room, elevator, stair well and where ever they can put it to kill the C-19 because Now is the worst time in the history of the planet to be opening any resort related venture, not to mention it is also the worst time to release a videogame console as the 2 biggest hardcore consoles are about to be released as direct competition that are cheaper and far superior...
Atari has crazy courage I give them that. ?

Exactly this.

Vacationing and tourism is basically at a complete standstill thanks to Corona concerns.

I cannot imagine any company spending billions to build a line of Atari-themed hotels right now. Who would stay there with everyone keeping at home out of heath concerns or because they are outright banned from any non-essential travelling.

Hotels and theme parks are probably going to be the worst possible investments for at least the next few years. I imagine producing some nice looking renders is about as far as this project will get anytime soon.

October 20, 2020

Well, it is always unfortunate for both parties when something like this has to be done.

But Tommy is being very good about explaining it, which beats the standard 'Stop at once or our lawyers will sue you so hard your grandchildren will be born debtors'.

I am reminded back in 2001, when David Gray sent a C&D to the creator of a remake of his 1990 Hugo's House of Horrors.

He also took the time to tell the remake author he did an amazing job with the remake, to apologize and explain why the remake could no longer be hosted or shared.

Both parties were satisfied, and no-one walked away with hurt feelings over it.

It is almost 20 years later, and I still remember this and still think 'Now, this is how you do it with class'.

http://atticwindow.tripod.com/gac/mail.htm - The David Gray letter, in full as hosted by the remake author.

October 15, 2020

25 minutes ago, Stephen said:

What about these? Or did someone else make these up?

The Atari VCS PC/console hybrid will begin shipping to Indiegogo backers this October! Preorders will follow this holiday season.
AND! Missile Command: Recharged will be available as a launch title on the VCS, fully optimized for the wireless Classic Joystick!

pic.twitter.com/DWelglhTTj

— Atari VCS (@TheAtari_VCS) July 1, 2020

Atari VCS orders have not yet started shipping to backers yet, but very soon! We are still looking at end of October.

— Atari VCS (@TheAtari_VCS) October 13, 2020

When they miss this shipping date as well, it will be far from the first time.

'Weeks, not months' was said about 7 months ago. This after the two previously missed delivery deadlines.

If the Atari Boxes were actually shipped from China on Sept.28th as per their Indiegogo update, then there is a possibility they will arrive in the US by the end of October but they certainly will not be in backers hands by the end of October. I would say best possible scenario at least another month delay provided Atari does not use 'Joysticks are still not ready; darn Corona!' as an excuse to push shipping even further back, as they seem to be setting this up in advance already.

October 7, 2020

6 hours ago, OCAT said:

WOW! Sony did a teardown of the PS5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaAY-jAjm0w

I would like to see a video like this of the Atari VCS... no stupid music, no youtuber wearing a baseball cap backwards making stupid jokes, just a clean teardown all business, no opinions.

That was a great video, short and right to the point.

The cooling system still raises my eyebrows. Between the fan and the heatsink, those two parts seems to take up the majority of what is a rather large console. Throw in that Sony says they needed two years to create and test a new 'liquid metal' thermal paste replacement (https://venturebeat.com/2020/10/07/playstation-5-cooling-uses-liquid-metal-heres-why-thats-cool/) and I do wonder exactly how hot this unit gets and how much stress is going to be on the internal electronics from that heat.

Still, it is nice to see a complete teardown showing off all the major components of their new console. It is a bit curious that Atari has not done the same, especially for a 'un-console' that they say is supposed to be shipped within the month. Still seeing how long it took for them to release any videos of the Atari Box in use, I guess also not terribly surprising.

I expect if the Atari Box is actually delivered in the next month, there will be shortly after be multiple videos posted by tech and youtube reviewers on the internals.

Not really much point in keeping it all a secret now.

October 6, 2020

This popped up on eBay today: https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Diner-Intellivision-1987-w-Original-Box-Box-is-Destroyed-SEE-PHOTOS/373256526929?epid=56241970&hash=item56e7d29c51:g:Km8AAOSwAx1fe42b

The box looks a bit rough, but I think it could look decent with a little TLC. The front and back look in good condition, the end flaps are pretty rough however.

50$ USD seems to be the opening bid (plus shipping of course).

October 6, 2020

Necroing your post a bit here, but I thought I would share a similar story.

I recently bought a really cheap CECHA01 PS3 off eBay for 40$, with a seller disclaimer close to your issue where they said it worked but was horribly loud and also heated up quickly.

Upon receiving it, I did take it apart using this video as a guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5A4NIjKJZpE I could certainly live without the video's music (I muted it right away), but the video itself was I found extremely helpful.

There was not as much dust as I thought there would be, though there was some and a few tiny dust bunnies, but when I had it completely disassembled I found that the OE thermal paste was essentially dried up. As well, it appeared it had also shrunk as it dried, leaving many noticeable gaps between the dies and coolers. Another problem I found was that the cooling fan blades were actually making contact with the cooler housing; binding the blades and I expect the source of some of the operating noise.

It took a few hours of work to disassemble and clean the console, clean the CPU's and heatsinks to apply new thermal paste, create some spacers for the fan and finally reassemble everything.

But it was certainly worth the effort. It runs silent enough I cannot even hear the fan, and even after playing for a few hours it barely gets warm to the touch, let alone hot.

It is a huge pain and a fair bit of work, but I suspect you will be very happy with the end result if you do decide to replace the thermal paste in your PS3.

September 29, 2020

4 hours ago, MrBeefy said:

I think a majority of us thought they would get it out the door. It has just felt like forever. I really hope for backers sake they start shipping individual units to those who didn't order the joystick. That would suck for it to delay it for those who didn't order it.

I am quite honestly shocked that they seem to have made it into production finally. I would have bet serious money against this.

A penny stock company with only a handful of actual staff, who's only business expertise lies in licensing and lawsuits decides to get into console manufacturing.

Add in several lawsuits against them, critical staff walking off the job over not being paid, long periods of radio silence, delays, delays and more delays, and I am somewhat impressed they seem to be close to actually crossing the finish line and delivering a product to the Indiegogo backers.

I seriously thought by this point they would be running on empty, long over the expected delivery date(s) and with no funds left for manufacturing. I am wondering if that pallet of 'Dev Kits' that shipped to the US and promptly dropped off the radar a few months back found them someone willing to fund production?

It is good to hear that the backers may after all be finally getting something, as I was certain this was going to go the way of the Atari Gameband and at some point there would be a 'This is a hard letter to write... you were investing in a vision, not buying a product...' update where Atari just walked away.

I am still highly doubtful that the Atari Box is going to go far once the novelty and nostalgia wear off it; but at least it looks like the backers will actually get one which I suspect will please a few just for that alone.

September 25, 2020

1 hour ago, Bill Loguidice said:

As a collectible toy I guess it was a decent idea, but as a console, it was half-baked at best. That has more relation to the original Mattel though than anything to do with Intellivision Productions or any of the post Mattel Electronics companies.

As collectibles that you can also download into various games it seems to have been a great idea. At least I know my little nephews have a shelf filled with Nintendo Amiibos.

The specialized console certainly did not seem to catch on though.

September 24, 2020

Found this eBay listing this morning:

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/odyssey-2-video-game-system-untested-Sold-As-Is/224168938753?hash=item3431828d01:g:SRgAAOSwZzNfbLJ3

25 USD (or best offer) for an untested Odyssey 2. While on eBay I find 'untested' usually means 'tried it, and it did not work' for 25$ it still might be a bargain for someone?

September 23, 2020

I got a wonderful surprise today!

I had won an eBay auction for a sizable collection of Intellivision goodies, around 70 games (some are duplicates of course), two Intellivoices, a handful of adapters for hooking up to TV's, plus a working and very nice looking Intellivision console.

Nice as I can keep one Intellivoice, and give the other to my cousin for his Intellivision.

Even better is that it is obvious that someone took very good care of this collection. Everything is very clean, and though I have to finish sorting it all (thanks to customs for mixing it all up during inspection) it does seem that most of the manuals are there, plus the controller inserts. It looks like they were all organized together at one time.

As it seems it is going to be a sparse holiday season for console gaming, I think this will keep me occupied and happy during the long winter months ahead. There are quite a few games I have never played before in this collection.

One interesting thing is the hand labeled Baseball cartridge is surprisingly heavy, doing a bit of looking online I imagine it was one of the early cartridges with RF shielding? It is shocking how much weight difference it makes to have it in there!

September 21, 2020

1 hour ago, Steven Pendleton said:

Does this mean Bethesda will finally be able to actually hire quality control people or will they continue to release broken games?

Bethesda has produced some amazing games, but they are also usually only playable after the mod community gives them a complete top to bottom going-over to patch all the glitches and bugs they could not be bothered with.

I was considerably unimpressed with Bethesda jumping on the microtranaction bandwagon. You would have thought their charging AAA title pricing plus DLC's would be profit enough, especially for titles they depend on the players to finish and polish up for them.

September 15, 2020

3 hours ago, TACODON said:

A delay announcement shouldn't be far off.

It seems inevitable.

According to the latest shipping data I could find for China to US sea freight; it is currently 30-40 days. Like someone earlier had said, to meet their delivery deadline the units would have to be manufactured, loaded and already on their way. https://www.freightos.com/shipping-routes/shipping-from-china-to-the-united-states/

If Atari had actually produced the 11,000 backer units I expect they would have been making a lot of noise about it to appease their backers (They certainly made quite the fuss over producing and shipping their 96 Dev test units to the US).

As Atari has retreated back into their usual radio silence instead of announcing anything I think it is safe to say that the Atari Box units are still not yet in production, and that there is no possibility of them meeting their latest promised shipping date.

The only question is how long Atari is going to drag out announcing their newest delay and giving another revised shipping date.

September 11, 2020

On 9/9/2020 at 6:34 PM, Illtiger1 said:

Very good deal. Just bought one off eBay from a reputable seller in France. The link posted above (from France as well) no longer has the product. Checked here to be sure it was a good product. Still up on eBay if anyone is still interested. Was around $50 including shipping and taxes. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Colecovision-192-in-1-multicart-game-cartridge-system-Cover/154073007929?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D225073%26meid%3D70eec0c6b0214824a928ca669f265d40%26pid%3D100675%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D15%26mehot%3Dnone%26sd%3D154073007929%26itm%3D154073007929%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2380057&_trksid=p2380057.c100675.m4236&_trkparms=pageci%3Adc7f92fc-f2fc-11ea-a2f8-74dbd180ed79|parentrq%3A756bf4421740a99c67f03c04ffffd918|iid%3A1

I bought one of these from this seller last year, and while the multi-cart casing was machined a little strange (front and back casings have about a eighth-inch misalignment) the multicart itself works great.

Certainly for the price I have no objections. It is a great value for the cost of the multi-cart. The DIP switches are a bit unusual; but with the printout handy of the settings it only takes a moment (and a toothpick) to set it for the game you want.

September 3, 2020

I was actually looking for an Intellivision console or games on my local Kijiji, and for some reason this popped up on the 'You may be interested in...' items window.

According to the description it works, and comes with Hyperspace and Scramble for games. The joystick does not center anymore however they do mention.

Still, for 225$ CAD (175 USD?) I think it would be a great deal for someone in Canada interested in it (Or someone in the US willing to pay a bit for shipping). Looking on eBay and other sites they do seem to be listed for quite a bit more. Honestly, I am not really familiar with the system, but it seems like something someone on the forum may have interest in, so I thought I would share it.

https://www.kijiji.ca/v-old-video-games/saskatoon/vectrex-arcade-system/1520522845

August 25, 2020

2 hours ago, Tidus79001 said:

I see the trolls have moved to this thread now since the other Atari VCS thread in the Atari 2600 section of the forums finally got locked.

It is certainly not trolling to ask 'Where's the b̶e̶e̶f̶ games?!'. I would say it is a rather important question to be asking of a system that is supposed to be out in retail in around four months time and taking into account all we have seen for gaming on the Atari Box at this point is the Atari Vault, a free Antstream trial and the ability to run some Steam games (This conditionally; provided you also buy a Windows licence and additional storage for the system).

Partnering with a streaming service is a nice little extra, but it is not going to be a system seller. My Blu ray player can stream, my TV can stream, my laptop and PC can stream, my cellphone can stream, my streaming box can stream. I imagine that for most people they will be in a similar situation, with no lack of existing hardware and devices to stream media on already owned.

All Atari is announcing so far is the aperitifs and appetizers. Games are the meat and potatoes for a console (or un-console), and if I were a backer/potential customer I would find it worrisome there is almost nothing being said about this.

August 20, 2020

9 hours ago, IntelliMission said:

Fresh news and the first problems:

Let's see how this evolves (and how long do they take to fix it).

I was incredibly c̶h̶e̶a̶p̶ budget conscious, and just wanted the digital version. So no early access for me!

It has been a long wait, but I am glad it is finally in Beta. I hope they find all the major issues and get the game rolled out without too much more delay.

August 17, 2020

33 minutes ago, Bill Loguidice said:

Sorry, $900,000 for what looked like a budget title at best at the time was not a sensible budget, nor was showing off only a concept and not actual gameplay:

If they were better able to show a better vision and ambition for the money, it would have surely done better than it did. At the time, it just seemed a way to try and cash-in on a beloved name rather than a product that needed to exist. In my opinion, it got as much support as the effort put into pushing the project deserved.

He might have aimed a little bit too high there. Pitfall is incredibly popular (I know I still love playing it), and according to Wikipedia there were 4 million cartridges sold. Certainly not too shabby for the 80's.

But 'Space Venture' barely broke 500K in fundraising, and this is for the guys behind the insanely popular 'Space Quest' series; a decade spanning gaming franchise.

From what I recall of the original campaign (2013? Have I really been waiting that long now?) it was pretty heavy on the concept art and 'We're putting the band back together!' excitement, but they really did not have much in finished content to show off either at the time.

Still; despite many delays it is finally in the home stretch and does look pretty good!

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