CaptainBreakout Posted October 6 Share Posted October 6 (edited) Greetings Programs! The official Atari Age Secret Santa 2024 Thread is NOW OPEN! The year is 2024. Gift giving technology and advancement reaches a new peak when Santa perfects the SantaTrons: a robot species so advanced that even the elves are inferior to their gift making. However, guided by their infallible logic, the SantaTrons conclude that gift giving is frivolous and therefore must be stopped. Due to a genetic engineering error, you possess superhuman gifting powers (in all 8 directions). Your mission: to stop the SantaTrons and save the holiday spirit. You are the only hope for mankind! SantaTron pushed the Master Christmas Canceller (MCC) in the real world, so the MCC pushed back and brought him to Atari Age. He's a tough case, but the MCC wants him trained for Secret Santa… given a little hope … then blown away. MCC has employed Bel-Snick-Bot to find out who will be naughty and who will be nice. Holy Krampus! Mikey doesn't like it!!! Can YOU use your endowed super human gifting powers to save Christmas for all the Nice Atari-Age Members who participate? The Secret Santa gift exchange is open to ALL Atari Age members in good standing (explanation to follow). The Rules: 1. Post a reply within this thread of your intention to participate. 2. PM @CaptainBreakout or @chicgamer or @Grig (yes, you read that right!) with the following information: Atari Age username Name and mailing address Your "DEAR SANTA" letter. This may include ideas for items you might like (this can be specific, such as a particular game, or more general, like a console you collect for, or even a list of your hobbies or interests); please try to provide at least a few ideas. Send us anything you would like your Secret Santa to know about you for the purpose of gift giving. Please take the time to formulate some ideas for your Secret Santa. Secret Santas want to have fun coming up with your gift! In case your Secret Santa wants to include some treats, be sure to provide any dietary considerations or preferences. You may also offer a suggestion (e.g., "I love little sour candy that makes me cry, or hot sauce that makes me cry!" -or- "I don't like to cry... but when I do, what makes me feel better is chocolate, especially with marzipan or blueberries."). Please indicate whether you are willing to ship internationally. Note that international shipping can be expensive, so keep that in mind. If you participated last year, please tell us whom you were Secret Santa for. 3. All responses need to be received by Wednesday, November 6th. We will send out your Secret Santa notifications by Monday, November 11th. 4. How much you spend is up to you, but please don’t feel obligated to spend more than you’re comfortable with. We want as many people who want to participate to be able to, and we know this year (again) has been difficult financially for many. The suggested total gift value has always been around $30 USD. If you are in a position to be more generous—go ahead! But don't go broke. 5. We recommend you ship any packages sent via USPS during the first week of December. For international packages, we recommend you ship no later than late November. Please provide tracking information for your packages after you've sent them. This lets us know who might need a reminder about getting their packages shipped. The thread will be regularly updated as we get more participants. If you’re participating, please follow through with your commitment so that no one gets left out. Don't be a bad Secret Santa! Santa Fights for the Users (Remember this is about giving. Let's keep this going. Generosity is where it's at. Also, participation is a real commitment here.) As we said last year, we want to emphasize that Atari Age Secret Santa is about the giving. We all like receiving gifts, but if you're looking for an even exchange or coming out ahead, you're not really approaching this the right way. To reiterate what has been said in past years ... Don't be a Bah-Humbug and just enjoy giving and receiving with other Atari Age members. Need gift ideas? Easy. Just think about the member's interests. Also, gifts don’t have to cost anything (or much anyway). Also, just look through the threads for this event for the past (several) years. You'll get an idea of the amazing magic the members have made for others, and you can see what kind of gifts and gambits have been done in the past. It's all under the Events section of AtariAge. Good at Photoshop? Great! Print something cool and personal on glossy… maybe get it framed. Can you code? Wow!… do a little custom hack and blow their mind! A few loose carts. Look through your collection ... maybe something there that YOU never play, might be right up their alley. Have fun with this. YOU are someone’s Santa! What better opportunity do you have to blow the mind of another retro-head?... like yourself, but different? Have fun... You ARE Santa. (special thanks this year to the amazing graphics artist Jake Parker... who graciously allowed his rise-of-the-christmas-bots images to be used in this thread... you can check out his work here! https://www.mrjakeparker.com/ ) Also... more exciting news @Grig is back with us to help this year! Warm welcomes and heartfelt thanks! Real Life can be overwhelming, so we'll take all the help we can get. -CB ) Do not allow Bel-Snick-Bot to push you into an illegal exit off the Secret Santa grid! Fight for SantaTron! Participate in the Atari Age Secret Santa 2024! On the other side of Christmas, it all looks so easy ... Participants this year so far... 1. bent_pin 2. grig 3. carlsson 4. ClassicGMR 5. Neon Wraith 6. HoshiChiri 7. cvga 8. CaptainBreakout 9. CyranoJ 10. Zeptari 11. Edited Thursday at 03:07 AM by CaptainBreakout 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bent_pin Posted October 6 Share Posted October 6 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Grig Posted October 6 Share Posted October 6 so looking forward to doing this again! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted October 6 Share Posted October 6 (edited) It seems the previous record in number of participants was around 39. Perhaps we can hit at least 30 this year? Edit: Application letter sent, so that is first step out of the way. Edited October 6 by carlsson 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClassicGMR Posted October 6 Share Posted October 6 2 hours ago, CaptainBreakout said: 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClassicGMR Posted October 6 Share Posted October 6 OH! OH!! And. … I’m in. 😁 (shocking, eh?) 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bent_pin Posted October 6 Share Posted October 6 1 minute ago, ClassicGMR said: (shocking, eh?) (*stocking, eh?) 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptainBreakout Posted October 6 Author Share Posted October 6 If anyone wants to get seasonally psyched... Here's a link to play Robotron. On the Apple 2, (my personal favorite port). Give it a minute to load after you click the link. This is an old computer after all. 😁 https://www.scullinsteel.com/apple2/#robotron 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Neon Wraith Posted October 6 Share Posted October 6 Y'all can count me in again! Whooo! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bent_pin Posted October 6 Share Posted October 6 44 minutes ago, ClassicGMR said: OH! OH!! And. … I’m in. *HO! HO!! And. … I’m in. 2 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoshiChiri Posted October 7 Share Posted October 7 2 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cvga Posted October 8 Share Posted October 8 I'm in 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptainBreakout Posted October 8 Author Share Posted October 8 I'm in. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+CyranoJ Posted October 8 Share Posted October 8 Do I even need to say "I'm in" ? 3 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Grig Posted October 9 Share Posted October 9 On 10/7/2024 at 7:59 AM, HoshiChiri said: The word we use at my place of work is "VolunTold" LOL 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Grig Posted October 9 Share Posted October 9 22 hours ago, CyranoJ said: Do I even need to say "I'm in" ? SAY IT. YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO 2 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Zeptari Posted October 9 Share Posted October 9 And so glad to see @Grig back! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Zeptari Posted October 9 Share Posted October 9 On 10/6/2024 at 4:04 PM, CaptainBreakout said: Fight for SantaTron! Participate in the Atari Age Secret Santa 2024! List sent! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Grig Posted Thursday at 04:16 AM Share Posted Thursday at 04:16 AM GETTING EXCITED!!! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Dark Descent Posted Friday at 02:31 AM Share Posted Friday at 02:31 AM First timer here. My kid is getting coal this year, so I may as well give his gifts to someone else! Sending PM. 2 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoshiChiri Posted Friday at 11:43 PM Share Posted Friday at 11:43 PM 21 hours ago, Dark Descent said: First timer here. My kid is getting coal this year, so I may as well give his gifts to someone else! Sending PM. Coal's kinda pricey these days- I can get you a lump of imitation coal if you need! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Neon Wraith Posted Saturday at 12:40 AM Share Posted Saturday at 12:40 AM 54 minutes ago, HoshiChiri said: Coal's kinda pricey these days- I can get you a lump of imitation coal if you need! Not to mention all the EPA regulations and the labeling that must be applied to the product. Don't forget the Kalifornia Prop. 65 warning or you won't be able to even possess it in that state. Good gravy! 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bent_pin Posted Saturday at 01:16 AM Share Posted Saturday at 01:16 AM 1 hour ago, HoshiChiri said: I can get you a lump of imitation coal if you need! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptainBreakout Posted Saturday at 04:10 AM Author Share Posted Saturday at 04:10 AM I can turn most any item into coal with a match and a controlled environment. That's a pretty economical solution if that's what's on everyone's Christmas list. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptainBreakout Posted Saturday at 08:18 PM Author Share Posted Saturday at 08:18 PM Considering how many (most?) of us play on emulators and everdrives these days, the functionality of our original cartridges don't really matter as much. So you may consider charring some of your more rare and collectibles cartridges for the purposes of gift giving... Roasting them like chestnuts to make them into festive seasonal items. Games like... Chase the Coalwagon Coal Miner 2049er Sword quest: Coalworld The lighter weight should help save on shipping too! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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