Atari 5200

The four port unit itself.

Atari 5200

Top of the Atari 5200 box.

Atari 5200

Back of Atari 5200 unit box.

Atari 5200

Views of various cartridges.

Atari 5200

Back of various Atari 5200 cartridge boxes.

Avalon Hill

The front of Avalon Hill's Dnieper River Line. Avalon Hill's early 1980s computer games were very interesting, as a lot of them came on tape and had three or four different computer versions on them, such as Tandy Model I/III, Atari 8-bit, Apple II and Commodore Pet. These are fun to collect, particularly in sealed condition, and I have a nice assortment. Not great games (most were mediocre and written in BASIC), but great packaging and nostalgia.

Avalon Hill

The back of the Dnieper River Line box.

Gortek and the Microchips

Commodore Vic-20 goodness.

Picnic Paranoia

Rare Texas Instruments nostalgia.

Picnic Paranoia

And the back of the box view.

Tandy Model III Box with "IV" Written on It

Note how the box ominously says, "CAUTION: Do Not Drop as CRT May IMPLODE". And you know what, if you package it wrong and you do, it does... hence the next picture...

Tandy Model III (R.I.P.)

Apparently it's NOT a good idea to package a Tandy Model III in a toilet paper box. Unfortunately, this didn't occur to the person who shipped it to me.

Tandy Model III (R.I.P.) Closeup

Yep, it's imploded real good... I cleaned out the insides of the unit and now it's parts stored inside its original box, and will keep the insulation in our attic company until such time as I track down a replacement CRT, which is not in any way urgent, since I got what is shown in the next picture...

Tandy Model IV

I got this from a different seller who actually packaged the machine using a non-imploding method, of which I was very grateful. I prefer the black and white monitor of the Model III, but the Model IV is a slightly better built machine and does all the same stuff anyway, just in green. The Model III box shown earlier was actually what this was shipped in. This was the first computer (well, the Model III mostly - there weren't many IV's around) that I programmed on in school, and I still have the disks from the class, so I wanted it "back"... and I can play all my nifty early 1980's Avalon Hill cassette software on it too (thanks to my compatible CoCo cassette cable)...

Odyssey2 and Misc.

This box took over a month after its intended reception date to reach me from a confused eBay seller, but, eventually, it was sent to the correct address. It was worth it, as pictured, there's The Voice and a whole lot of cartridges, manuals and catalogs, greatly increasing the size and quality of my current Odyssey2 collection. It seems I have a slightly glitchy version, but Smithereens! is especially incredible with the speech and almost digitized sound effects that are VERY impressive for the time period. With the 128-in-1 Multicart, I have just about everything I could ever need for the Magnavox system, and will just add a few more of the Master Strategy series of games, since the best part of those are the packaging and game pieces.

Also pictured in the box on the yellow paper is a nifty adapter for old Atari-style switchbox plugs that bypass that connection entirely and make the old systems work with any cable-ready connection or television, which brings us to the next picture...

Odyssey2 on HDTV

OK, maybe I'm stretching the truth a little about the HDTV part (this IS the Odyssey2 we're talking about here), but using that nifty adapter mentioned under the previous photo, I was able to go completely off my rocker and hook the Odyssey2 (and yes, it knows The Voice module makes it look fat) directly to my Hitachi 51" Widescreen HDTV. Despite the reflection on the screen from the foot rest and the uninterested cat in the lower left, I think it's a rather nifty picture of me just having lost on Sid the Spellbinder (the TV is in 4:3 mode, since 16:9 was a little TOO silly). Skulking to the left of the TV is the Xbox, wondering what the hell is going on...

Atari 410 Tape Drives, etc.

Yep, two Atari 410 tape drives. One doesn't work. This eBay special came with the books shown, the one box and an AstroChase tape, which also doesn't seem to work. Overall worth it though, as the Atari tape drives were the best of the classic era (hell, any era, since no one uses them anymore), allowing a voice track, as well as the standard data track, on a tape, giving us spoken tutorials and other awesome possibilities long before multimedia CD-ROM's...

New Lynx Games, Battery Pack and Computer Acquire

Just as the title says, this was a great eBay purchase. I actually have no real use for the Lynx Battery Pack and already had many of the games pictured, but the deal was too good to pass up. Anyway, even though I'm not a believer in keeping anything unused sealed in a box, since I already have many of these in my collection, I can keep them sealed, increasing the "collector's" value (of course they also make fine backups in case something happens to my "working" versions...).

Also, another "wonderful" multi-platform (Tandy, Apple) Avalon Hill cassette game, one that has consistently been the most heavily bid on among the Avalon Hill games of late on eBay (to July 2003), Computer Acquire, again, sealed (though not for long).

New Lynx Games, Battery Pack and Computer Acquire

And the glamour shots from behind...

The Workshop in Disarray

This picture, taken on 07/23/2003, is one I just HAD to post. I'm in the middle of re-organizing the whole workshop area to accomodate significant new collection additions. And people call me an organization freak... (well, I guess they can say it again when I get things back in order and post the pics!)

Commodore 64c

Yes, this is sometimes how I test or work on things--wherever there's room in the house. Every TV in the house, including the workshop's 20" Sony, the den's 32" Sony (pictured here), the living room's 51" Hitachi widescreen, and our bedroom's pitiful 25" Pansonic, has been given the ability to work with every game system and computer I can think of that we have. This was my latest test (to 07/23/2003 anyway), one of a box of over 100 DS/DD disks notched to be made into SS/SD flippies for use with old computer disk drives, like the Commodore 1541. Turns out the only way I could make it work so far is by copying a blank disk - no format commands work on any of the old systems I have (though there are still a few more to try)... My next experiment is to use my PC to C-64 transfer cable and see how that goes. I've had great luck with the Atari 8-bit SIO-2-PC cable, but am skeptical that it will be just as easy with a similar cable on the C-64 side of things...

Odyssey2 Multicart, etc.

Yes, my Odyssey2 Multicart, 128 Odyssey2 games in one. Each game is selected via a series of eight jumpers. This cart was courtesy of John Dondzilla and Video Game Connections for a very fair price ($49.99). It's a wonderful product and great to have if you're a collector and don't want a lot of cartridges lying around. At the same time, versions of games like Popeye, even if essentially unavailable elsewhere, are very sobering in that they demonstrate how poor the Odyssey2 could really be, especially visually.

Also pictured, Atari 2600 VCS keyboard controllers and BASIC PROGRAMMING cartridge (there's something similar on the Odyssey2 multicart too), Super Breakout, and Swords and Serpents for the NES. Karel the Robot is a neat pre-Pascal programming book from 1981.

Spinner

Yes, a MAME (USB) spinner! This one was in the $40 range and has different attachments, including a metal knob and wheel. The best part is that the spinner spins a full 360 degrees, which is perfect not only for games like Arkanoid, but also Super Sprint and Tempest as well! One of my favorite and most sought after (for a good price) PC items EVER!

Atarimax Maxflash 1MB Cartridge

My Atari 8-bit computer flash homebrewing cartridge (#45). This cartridge can be programmed in-system and is supported by an open-source multicart, disk-cart and ROM image development system. Or so the developer says...