New 2600, 5200, 7800, and Atari 8-bit Computer Games! Pre-Order Today!

[mhodgeshvs]

2 hours ago, Curious Sofa said:

Is it weird or wrong that my heart literally skips a beat when I take in all of these pictures of these amazing games, boxes, envelopes, wax seals (??!!!!!??  ) and such?  Just amazing.  I believe I spied my copy of KC Munchkin in there!  Had an Odyssey2 when all the other kids had an Atari for a long while, then finally got an Atari later.  KC, UFO, Pick Axe Pete were the bob-omb. 

 

Al, you're amazing.  I don't think you can know how much the community appreciates all you do!!

Indeed!  Thank you for putting this into perspective Al. It really helps to understand the monstrous process. 

[+sramirez2008]

2 hours ago, Curious Sofa said:

Is it weird or wrong that my heart literally skips a beat when I take in all of these pictures of these amazing games, boxes, envelopes, wax seals (??!!!!!??  ) and such?

If it is, then I'm just as weird as you and I'm okay with that.

 

2 hours ago, Curious Sofa said:

Al, you're amazing.  I don't think you can know how much the community appreciates all you do!!

Hear, hear!

[Albert]

One final update before the shipping begins! 

 

The last few days I've been busy finishing up all the loose ends before I can embark on shipping.  Took a bit longer than I expected, but beginning tomorrow morning the shipping will begin en masse!  Without further ado...

 

When I arrived upstairs this morning, I thought the boxes sitting on the desk waiting to be shipped looked pretty cool in the low light, so I took a photo.

 

 

Here's the last batch of 2600 games I finished building, testing, and labeling this morning.

 

 

With all the "extra' games finished, I then boxed up all the remaining games that needed a box and stuck them on shelves.

 

 

Here's the shelves with the other games that would not fit on the large desk where most of the boxed games are currently sitting.

 

 

After that, all the remaining loose games (that is, games not going into boxes) had to be bagged, which helps protect them during shipping:

 

 

 

 

Oh yeah, yesterday evening I soldered, built and tested 20 AtariVoxes (I need 17 for these orders, and yes, there are 21 in this photo as I still had one from the previous batch):

 

 

And finally for today, I printed, cut, folded and stapled any additional manuals I needed for these orders.  While I have a rather large number of manuals that have been professionally printed, I do still need to print and cut manuals for many (mostly older) games.  Here are all the manuals for the extra 2600, 5200, 7800, Atari 8-bit, and ColecoVision games:

 

 

Sorted alphabetically, of course, for quick retrieval during shipping.  There are fewer manuals in this bin now, since some of them were used for the boxed games now sitting on shelves.

 

Everything is now ready to go, so as I stated above, I will begin shipping tomorrow morning.  A very large batch of games will be dropped off at the post office (with multiple trips) first thing Tuesday morning.  Shipping will then continue through next week to get everything shipped.  You won't see as many updates from me until shipping has concluded!!

 

Hope everyone has as great holiday weekend (and if you're not in the US, hope you still have a great weekend!)

 

 ..Al

[leech]

That first image in low light made the 2001 music pop up in my head.

 

One of these days you should take a picture of the Oompa Loompas you have in your workshop.  ?

 

So excited!  Must be getting time for a break after all that crazy work!

[CPUWIZ]

10 hours ago, leech said:

Oompa Loompas

 

<Google's "Albert Oompa Loompas">

 

?

 

 

 

[leech]

4 hours ago, CPUWIZ said:

 

<Google's "Albert Oompa Loompas">

 

?

 

 

 

HA HA, and I do believe all of our lives are better after seeing this.

 

"Stop, don't... come back."  Gene Wilder, you shall be missed!
 

Edited July 3, 2021 by leech

[+Muddyfunster]

I know everyone will be happy to get their orders, but I'd like to say a big thanks from the others side of the house for supporting homebrew authors. Cheers Al!

[Albert]

Here's my 4th of July update!

 

Started shipping early yesterday afternoon (after getting a few last pre-shipping tasks done in the morning) and managed to get 75 packages shipped before calling it quits in the late evening.  That's better than I was expecting, given how much longer boxed games take to ship than loose games.  And that the vast majority of games I'm shipping right now are boxed.  And some of these orders are quite large! 

 

Here are some photos I took at the end of the day showing the large desk where most of the boxes were stacked awaiting shipment.  As well as a smaller table in the room where the shipping is actually taking place, which I'm using to stage games so I don't have to go back and forth to the other room constantly. 

 

The big desk, remember this was completely full of boxed games previously:

 

 

Reverse angle:

 

 

Here's the room where I do most of the AtariAge work, including shipping:

 

 

As these stacks are depleted, I retrieve more games from the other room.  All the Jaguar and other "extra" (non pre-order games) I also have to retrieve from the other room as needed.

 

I'll be wishing I had a cargo van come Tuesday morning when it's time to bring all this to the post office!  I'll take pictures of the huge pile of boxes on Monday evening or Tuesday morning before that happens. 

 

Hope everyone is having a great holiday weekend!

 

 ..Al

[Albert]

Oh, the goal for today is to get 100 more packages shipped.  Then probably another 75-100 tomorrow, and the remainder throughout the week.  I also have a batch of regular orders I need to get shipped early this week, so after Monday I'll be splitting my time between the pre-order orders and regular orders.  But by the end of this week I'm confident I will have everything shipped. 

 

Also, the store does send shipping notifications once I've added tracking information and have marked orders as shipped. If you are not seeing emails from the store, especially for those using a service like Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail, please check your spam folder.  If you find any emails from AtariAge in there, move them out or mark them as not spam and that should fix the problem going down the road. 

 

 ..Al

[CPUWIZ]

7 hours ago, Albert said:

Started shipping early yesterday afternoon

 

[Albert]

It's Monday morning!  Managed to ship over 100 packages yesterday, so I'm now up to 184 total shipped (181 via USPS and three of the largest and heaviest packages via UPS).  And I'm not even to the halfway point yet. 

Getting ready for another full day of shipping, hope to get another 100 packages shipped today.  And I say "packages" instead of "orders", as some people with multiple orders have their orders combined into a single package. 

 

Here are the packages thus far waiting to go to the post office (and the UPS depot).

 

 

 

This will be an even bigger pile by this evening.  Not sure how many trips it'll take to get all the packages to the post office, probably at least three.

 

Here are the remaining games on the big desk:

 

 

 

Here's the stash in the room where the shipping is taking place (replenished these stacks up last night):

 

 

Will be interesting to see what's left at the end of the day!

 

 ..Al

 

[leech]

Ha, I think this is what happens when too many homebrew developers release their stuff at the same time.

 

Should figure out within the community to do what movies do, and don't release too many action flicks at once, and don't release anything when a big release is coming out.

 

Still, as long as people make them, we will keep buying them!

[Albert]

7 minutes ago, leech said:

Ha, I think this is what happens when too many homebrew developers release their stuff at the same time.

 

Should figure out within the community to do what movies do, and don't release too many action flicks at once, and don't release anything when a big release is coming out.

This is entirely on me, and kind of started as a result of attending PRGE at roughly the same time every year for the past five years or so.  There was no PRGE last year, but I still put together a large suite of releases at the end of the year.  I will never do such a large slate of games again at the same time, but instead will be aiming for smaller releases of games 3-4 times a year.  Still planning on getting more games into the store late August/early September, and then another round towards the end of the year before the holidays.

 

Once I have new 2600 shells, it'll be a lot easier to do small releases of games more promptly.

7 minutes ago, leech said:

Still, as long as people make them, we will keep buying them!

 

 ..Al

[CPUWIZ]

[Albert]

Just now, CPUWIZ said:

Yeah, I could rent a small cargo van from Home Depot very inexpensively for an hour, but not really worth the hassle.  Having to make a few trips to the post office isn't that big of a deal. 

 

 ..Al

[CPUWIZ]

1 hour ago, Albert said:

Having to make a few trips to the post office isn't that big of a deal.

 

I wouldn't even rent the van or pack the packages.  Someone else can do that. ?

[Albert]

Here's my Tuesday morning update!

 

By the end of day last night, managed to ship 301 packages total over the long holiday weekend (Saturday through Monday).  298 packages via USPS and 3 via UPS.

 

 

Here are photos of the remaining games to ship this week..

 

 

 

 

Here are two photos of all the packages waiting to go to USPS and UPS:

 

 

 

We used two cars to get these to the Post Office this morning.  I took two trips with my car, but that's all we needed to do (two trips with both cars, then a second with mine)..

 

First trip,

 

 

 

 

 

First trip was ALL Priority Mail packages.  Second trip was First Class with only a handful of Priority:

 

 

Here are the three metal bins (they called them "OTAs") that we filled up:

 

 

These bins only have AtariAge packages in them (two Priority, one First Class).

 

The remaining pre-order games will go out this week, probably ~30-40 each night until I've exhausted them.  Today, though, I have a bunch of other things to work on, such as some eBay and Etsy orders, finding more bubble wrap locally, and Goo Goning more carts.  I've been shipping the orders in chronological order, but some I had to skip as they need a game that I somehow didn't build (with so many orders and games, some mistakes like that are going to happen).  As I get those games built, I'll get those stragglers shipped as well.  And also have to work on regular orders this week.  I'll be super busy through the upcoming weekend, that's for sure!

 

Okay, now that I've stopped sweating (it's hot and SUPER humid here today), I have to get back to work.

 

 ..Al

 

[Albert]

Oh, regarding the bubble wrap..  I've gone through quite a bit of it since I bubble wrap all boxed games (and these are nearly all boxed games!), and my last two 300' rolls were stored in the attic.  Which is quite hot this time of year.  It seems these two rolls of bubble wrap lost a fair bit of air in the bubbles, probably due to the heat, so I won't be storing them in the attic in the future (this is probably the first time I've done so, as I ordered quite a few in advance of having to ship these orders).  Unfortunately, the local shipping supplies company I normally buy these from closed their Austin location in the last year and it's unclear when it will reopen (they are having to move their location, not sure if they lose their lease).  Another local company (EcoBox) permanently closed their nearby location recently as well.  So I'll need to venture into Austin today as I don't want to wait to get more...good bubble wrap, since I will be shipping many more orders this week.

 

 ..Al

[+Cafeman]

I really dig seeing all the pictures and I'm sure I'm not alone!

[+sramirez2008]

Wow, that big desk is nearly empty?

[+Ryan Witmer]

8 minutes ago, sramirez2008 said:

Wow, that big desk is nearly empty?

He's making room for Intellidiscs.

[+MrZarniwoop]

Seeing all the pictures is great, and a little overwhelming. Clearly, considering all the effort beginning to end, AtariAge homebrew games are the bargain of the 21st century!

[oakcitycomics]

4 hours ago, Albert said:

Oh, regarding the bubble wrap..  I've gone through quite a bit of it since I bubble wrap all boxed games (and these are nearly all boxed games!), and my last two 300' rolls were stored in the attic.  Which is quite hot this time of year.  It seems these two rolls of bubble wrap lost a fair bit of air in the bubbles, probably due to the heat, so I won't be storing them in the attic in the future (this is probably the first time I've done so, as I ordered quite a few in advance of having to ship these orders).  Unfortunately, the local shipping supplies company I normally buy these from closed their Austin location in the last year and it's unclear when it will reopen (they are having to move their location, not sure if they lose their lease).  Another local company (EcoBox) permanently closed their nearby location recently as well.  So I'll need to venture into Austin today as I don't want to wait to get more...good bubble wrap, since I will be shipping many more orders this week.

 

 ..Al

Try SAMS club if you are a member they usually have 240ft rolls for about $12

[Albert]

14 minutes ago, oakcitycomics said:

Try SAMS club if you are a member they usually have 240ft rolls for about $12

Not a SAMS Club member, but I do have a Costco membership.  I'll look next time I'm there, thanks for the tip!

 

 ..Al

[TrekMD]

Those pictures are impressive to look at!  Wow!  Thanks for all the hard work, Al!