CGE: The Auction and the Mystery Boxes
The climactic moment of any given Classic Gaming Expo generally arrives during the Saturday night auction. This is where all the rarest games and ephemera from the dealers' tables end up, and there's never a dull moment -- every single item is hotly contested, and prices got pretty insane this time. The highest-ticket item by far was an Intellivision Computer Keyboard unit, which was actually manufactured but only made it so far as being test-marketed before it was pulled. So retail units are out there, and this was one of them -- from the private collection of Intellivision game designer Keith Robinson. I guess he wanted $3000 more than he wanted an extra keyboard. Can you blame him, really?
I'll get right into the story. So last year, the CGE guys debuted the "Mystery Boxes." What's inside? Who knows! Bidding started at ten bucks. The first box climbed up to over $100 or so, and inside was... a bunch of junk. So the second mystery box came up, and bidding didn't get nearly as high this time given that nobody figured it was worth anything. But the guy who won it, again for about $100, ended up with Magic Card, an Atari 2600 game worth a couple few thousand dollars.
I always thought that, even though the event went down in CGE history, that it was a bad idea. The money was going to charity (the Special Olympics, at that show), so why not just announce that you're selling a Magic Card and raise thousands instead of a hundred? But I didn't see the big picture. This year, the Mystery Boxes were some of the highest-bidded items. One guy, shown right, bought the first two boxes for $400 and $600 each. They were filled with junk. He got a couple of Coronas for his charitable donations, yes, the most expensive Coronas ever.
But then, the CGE guys showed everyone a stack of five different unreleased game prototypes, which were put inside a Mystery Box. Later in the auction, they pulled out two boxes, and said the winner of the next auction would get to choose one. An Italian journalist won it for well over $1000, and picked the box with the prototypes -- luckily, he thought. But then, the last Mystery Box auction went for $1600, and it was another super-rare Atari 2600 game called Video Life -- again worth even more (although just slightly) than the auction price.
Now that's how you raise money for charity. And how you screw with people's minds. A joke with a two-year payoff!
Link: http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/07/cge-the-auction.html
Tales from the gaming world
I am a gamer.
It probably comes as no shock that someone who was a child in the 1970s and a teen during the '80s literally grew up playing video games. Yes, I was the kid with dozens of Atari 2600 games, the one who dumped the money earned mowing lawns into Gauntlet by the bucketful, the guy whose first major purchase as a freshly minted 18-year-old was not a used car but a used Commodore 64 so I could play Archon while at college.
For people of Generations X and Y like myself, video games are familiar staples of our lives, like rock 'n' roll was to baby boomers. Older folks may not care for it, but that's part of its appeal. For me, I'm really interested in the newest generation of gamers -- those kids now younger age 12 who are the children of parents who grew up playing video games. Will they look back upon Nintendo Wii as their Atari? Does playing video games with your children count as family time? Will sports participation decline as gaming becomes more dominant in young people's lives? Will the newest version of Halo mean to them what BattleZone did to me?
But that's another story.
Link: http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070729/ENTERTA...
Atari 2600 Connection #88 Published
The July/August 2007 issue of the 2600 Connection newsletter is now shipping. Highlights of Issue #88 include:
* Interview with Jeff Adkins - Classic Fanzine Editor
* Game Promotions - Article
* Spotlight on Homebrews - Raster Fahndung (2600) & Adventure II (5200)
* How To Beat Home Video Games - VHS Review
* Wolfenstein Easter Egg
* Letters
* News & Notes
* Classifieds
* Trivia Contest/Results
The 2600 Connection is a printed newsletter published bimonthly. To learn how to purchase this issue or buy a subscription, please visit the 2600 Connection website.
Link: http://2600connection.atari.org/
From: http://www.atariage.com/
Retrogaming Times Monthly #38 Available
Issue #38 of the Retrogaming Times Monthly is now online. Highlights from the July 2007 issue include:
* Lost Face of "Pooyan" Apple ][
* Nintendo Realm - Mid June to Mid July 1986
* NEScade - "Millipede"
* Apple ][ Incider - Apple IIGS Vs its competition
* Old wine in new bottles - Retrogaming on modern hardware
You can find all these and more inside this month's Retrogaming Times Monthly. If you've missed any back issues, you can also browse through their archives to get up to date.
Link: http://my.stratos.net/~hewston95/RTM/RTM_Home.htm
From: http://www.atariage.com/
EasyMiNT 1.7
The nice FreeMiNT distribution EasyMiNT has been updated and is available for download. Since last release a number of improvements and bugfixes has been made, as well as improved support for running EasyMiNT on emulators.
To read more and download the latest files, do visit the EasyMiNT homepage.
Link: http://atari.st-katharina-apotheke.de/home.php?lang=en&headline=Eas...
From: http://www.atari-users.net/
Akanoid DS has brilliant gimmick!
Do you like Classic Gaming? Do you like smashing blocks of various colours? Do you own a Nintendo DS? If you answered "yes" to all three of these questions, you may already qualify for the unique chance to exchange money for a copy of Arkanoid DS on the Nintendo DS!
"What's so special about this forthcoming release from Taito?" you might ask, if you were to talk in an entirely unnatural way. "Can we not just play one of the million other versions of Arkanoid that exist?" Well, my unnaturally-speaking friend, you could, but DS Fanboy is reporting a particularly wonderful-looking gimmick - Akanoid DS comes with its own paddle controller that plugs into the GBA port on the DS to re-create the authentic arcade experience! It's not out in Japan until December the 6th, but start getting excited now!
Link: http://www.dsfanboy.com/2007/08/01/taito-announces-arkanoid-ds-spec...
From: http://classicgaming.gamespy.com/
NES Mashup video
It's doing the rounds on the retro-gaming blogs right now, but just in case you haven't seen it, you're sure to get a kick out of the NES Mashup Video which features a huge amount of familiar characters, backgrounds and sounds from your favourite NES games!
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3mpbx0wFks
From: http://classicgaming.gamespy.com/
Atari stuff from Big Floppy People 2007
The Big Floppy People party ended yesterday. There were a lot of C-64 demos released, but also some stuff for the Atari. Foremost there were two demos from The Ultra Crew for the ST, and two chiptunes for the ST as well. TUC placed third and fifth with their demos and Dubmood scored second with his ST-tune and Timbral eighth with his ST-tune.
Download 'Rare' ST-release from TUC http://files.dhs.nu/files_demo/rare.zip
Visit the 'Rare' Pouet.Net page http://pouet.net/prod.php?which=31447
Download 'Happy Bear' ST-release from TUC http://files.dhs.nu/files_demo/h_bear.zip
Visit the 'Happy Bear' Pouet.Net page http://pouet.net/prod.php?which=31454
Download Dubmoods ST-chiptune http://files.dhs.nu/files_msx/dubmood_-_detta_ar_ddr-bfp07.sndh
From: http://www.dhs.nu/
YM Rockerz - "Warptyme" special edition for sale
Lotek Style of .tSCc. writes: The special case edition of warptYMe is
still available for sale (Ltd edition of 50).. If you want to order
send me an e-mail: 
Link: http://www.creamhq.de/ymrockerz/
From: http://www.dhs.nu/
"Atari" Parody by Dylan Baranski
I felt terrible about not having submitted any parodies these past few days, because I had other things to worry about, but now I've finally managed to break that silence. A few weeks ago, I got an Atari 2600 game console from Ebay. Now, some of you may be asking why I got an Atari when there are more advanced game consoles out there. Well, I have a bunch of reasons: 1. I'm a major gamer & I collect certain game consoles whenever time or my wallet allows. 2. It was a graduation present for myself. 3. I'm into collecting unusual stuff and/or stuff that has any sort of value to it. 4. Despite its age (it was introduced 1977), it's still a fun system to play. About the original song: It's from Weird Al's newest album "Straight Outta Lynwood" & is an original song in the style of Rage Against The Machine. I'm sure some of the older parody writers here will remember how they used to play Atari. Anyways, enjoy the parody, because I stayed up late to get it finished.
I played Laser Blast, but I couldn’t score enough points for the federation.
I played Missile Command, because I wanted to play a game where I defended
my nation.
I played Pac-Man, but the Atari game wasn’t as good as the arcade game.
I played E.T., and I gotta say, that dang piece of crap is VERY, VERY LAME!
I played Robot Tank, and I defended against the tank revolution.
I played Swordquest, but I never could figure out any of the dang solutions.
I played Super Breakout, yo… it was pretty hard, but I managed to break
all those blocks.
I played Space Invaders, and I blasted a bunch of aliens – I tell you,
folks, this game rocks!
Link: http://www.amiright.com/parody/2000s/weirdalyankovic51.shtml