eightbit

I've been digging around for you and came across a post here: https://www.forumvancouver.com/threads/the-good-old-bbs-days.7194/ I personally have never heard of this BBS software and it makes sense as the developer was from Canada and it appears the software was in heavy use for BBS's in Vancouver. That said, have you tried asking in the FB group for that area? https://www.facebook.com/groups/2316899757/

Say, Say, Say....Never trade white for black, or vice versa!

I recently came across a nice heavy sixer and two CX-10 joysticks that from the outside look new. However the boards have control issues and I have no idea how to fix them. Directionals have issues (down on one controller, up and right on another IIRC). Its a long shot I know, but does anyone have NOS replacement boards? CX-40 boards will not work btw. PM if you do!

I can say from owning many of Lotharek's devices that they are always top quality. I don't have experience with his Fujinet device but I can imagine it is very well put together. I'll have to give it a try when my wallet permits

It must have only affected very early (launch) models. Mine was certainly painted.

I was about to just buy one since they are pretty cheap (and I probably still will if I don't get any bites) but I figured I might as well ask and see if perhaps someone has a Harmony Cart they are not using and might want to trade it for something. I have random good stuff PM if you have one you would like to trade!

Purchased a really nice white Japanese Sega Saturn from Sir Guntz with a pretty hard to obtain VCD card and it arrived in beautiful condition. I can absolutely recommend this AA member. Thank you again!

Ebay auctions are weird in this way. Sometimes for no obvious reason at all one auction just explodes. I take them with a grain of salt for sure. But, I do know from trying to obtain one of these over the years that I was always most certainly looking at over $100. This seller was actually asking $100 initially for untested. I offered $50, he countered with $75. I accepted at that and figured I would just cross my fingers and hope for the best. I was confused on the joysticks when I got them. Buttons that click? Joysticks that were clicky? Are these bootlegs? "TOP" is not printed on them? But the connector ends are printed Atari...hmm. Well, it took some reading online to realize these were CX-10 joysticks. I never owned these and had no idea. Learned something new in the process! And, definitely not flipping. I got this because I wanted it!

It does work, perfectly. And, I am not so sure if this would have been too much, even not working. I saw this auction end at over $400 and I have to wonder why: https://www.ebay.com/itm/156122483746 Because of the CX-10 controllers? The boxed games? Low SN? People just bidding like crazy? Not that I am flipping this...this is for my personal collection. I never actually owned an Atari heavy sixer. I did own a Sears Tele-Games heavy sixer which I gave to my brother as a gift some years ago, but that's it. Seeing the prices these things command now I said to myself either I will find one locally or not own one. I figured I would just never own one but as luck would have it today was the day

I gave it a wipe down with some Windex...and very carefully as to not wipe off any of the orange pain that remained And, I used some q-tips and got into the grooves a bit. Then blew it off with compressed air. I really only put like 10 minutes into cleaning. This is what it looked like before any cleaning (the FB marketplace listing picture):

I was pretty surprised to find this today locally: It came with two CX-10 joysticks, a set of paddles and Combat. The kid who sold it didn't know if it worked...and didn't know how to hook it up. $75 total which I thought was a good deal. And just when I thought I would never find anything in the wild again

I will certainly follow the AVG cart project as it seems like it has a lot going for it. I don't think honesty you can make any truly "bad" choices with any of these devices. Be it the AVG cart, SDrive Max or Fujinet. Just have to compare and weigh out the options depending on what works for you. We should be so lucky that we even have options at all

I don't doubt it and again I am impressed by the feature set of the AVG carts. I have just never heard of them to be quite honest until now. When it was brought up in this thread I immediately checked the specs to see if it could connect to wifi like the Fujinet. And I asked here. But it couldn't do that so it's just not for me. I think you are getting me completely wrong if you think for a second that I have a stake in one over the other for some sort of "get them to buy this" sort of agenda. I don't make these and am not involved in any way other than being an end user with an Atari 8-Bit (and somewhat "new" to this line of computers as I did not grow up with them) that either likes what he sees in the feature set and ease of use or does not. I grew up with the C64 and I use the heck out of the Ultimate II+ in the present day. I know this machine like the back of my hand and I have tried every modern solution of this type for it and there is nothing that compares to the UII+ for this computer. I can positively conclude that at this present time the Ultimate II+ provides the best experience. See, I can't do that with the Atari 8-bit just yet. I discovered this machine only probably around the time I became a member of AA, and didn't actually buy one until around 10 years ago. They were never sold in my area at all...except for the XEGS. But at the time of that release we didn't have any peripherals for sale. Only carts. I had purchased the XEGS back then, or I should say my parents did. At "Woolworth" no less. I was 12 at the time I didn't understand it's purpose, other than keyboard vs. Rob The Robot. I had no idea at all that this was coming from a lineage of computers. As a kid I thought that Atari just made this one computer/console thing out of nowhere and was baffled why the graphics and sound were so privative (for that time in 1987). Just image being a 12 year old kid, never seen or knew Atari had computers before, and your first experience with that is the XEGS and stuff like "Fight Night". And had no idea that it was "old" technology under the hood at this time. I had no idea why this "crappy computer" was being sold to be honest. As a kid in 1987 we had some really great stuff and great graphics...and the XEGS was not that. I don't even know what had happened to that XEGS, but its use was very short lived. I really wish I had it now! But as years past I learned and understood where the XEGS came from. Appreciated the fact that this hardware was so far ahead of its time when released (the original hardware I am referring to). I have in the past decade or so gained so much appreciation in fact for this computer that I dare to I say it surpasses by beloved C64 in a bunch of ways. I now really love this machine, truly. My goal is to use it and play with software in the most convenient and modern way possible. I personally have found that the Fujinet device provides that to me, a person mind you who is not in the slightest a Atari 8-bit guru. And, if it can provide that to me with zero hassle you best believe it is a good thing and something I have no problem recommending to others. Again I am sure the AVG carts are great and I am not knocking them at all (and I would love to try one too!) but the lack of wifi is a bummer. This cart looks like it could almost be the "Ultimate II+" of the Atari 8-bit world, but just add the Fujinet wifi capability.

Haha...you obviously have zero clue how open I am to all solutions. I had already mentioned that I was impressed with the cart's feature set. I am just not impressed with the fact that it does not include an option that I think is a good one...wifi access. To each their own. But, it is starting to feel like (and sound like) you have some stake in this AVG cartridge project. Again it has a nice feature set from what I have read, but it is missing some features that I personally find convenient and at this point necessary. Let the users decide. I haven't heard too much "hoopla" in regard to the thing personally, and I am just being honest dude.

Sad to see you have gone down this sort of path. If you want to make a case for your 95 euro AVG cart and extremely expensive FlashAir SD cards (which isn't even the same as what this offers) go ahead. When it's popular enough to have it's own sub forum here on AA I'll think about it.