Curmudgeon Gamer
05 May 2008
Giving It Away (or: Why the State of North Carolina now owns a lot more videogames)
My alma mater, NCSU, has a videogame collection. What they have covers newer systems and mostly popular games. So when they sent out requests for more games recently, I responded.
Last week I gave nearly every Atari 2600 and Atari 7800 game that I own to them. In total 120 games, many with boxes and manuals, which I've listed below for the curious.
There are some items there that are probably worth a few dollars. I don't keep up with the scene any more, so I don't know how much a Limited Edition Okie Dokie cartridge goes for nowadays. (Mine looked like this, but with #49 on it.) Nor how much a special edition of Qb (#93) fetches on eBay, complete in wood box with source listing and the original broken version circuit boards. When I was collecting, it was a big deal to get games like Track & Field, KLAX (2600, boxed), and Road Runner. I suspect demand is lower today, but at least NCSU has them without the fuss.
I only regret that I sold my two Swordquest Waterworld cartridges (both found in the wild, one with instructions and comic) and Motorodeo and way back when. I even had a Shuttle Oribter -- I wish I could have given that to NCSU too, but it was long ago liquidated.
In the coming years, I plan to donate the rest of my collection -- NES, Genesis, SNES, Jaguar, Lynx, PlayStation, Dreamcast, PlayStation 2. Those later systems will be more difficult, surprisingly. Whereas I spent a lot of time collecting Atari games with which I had little emotional connection, it's quite another thing to think of donating my original copy of Tomb Raider for the PS1 or my copy of Metal Gear Solid 3 for the PlayStation 2. [Note: Originally the word "selling" was used above. I meant "donating", as the text now reflects. The items I've given to NCSU were donated, and I declined offers of money to "defray costs" of transporting the items to Raleigh in person.]
I'm not sure on a timeframe, but my dwindling free time makes having this library in my home less desirable. And, I can visit it any time I want. There is even talk of some public events, to which I would be an invited guest. Neat.
Oh, and I did keep one Atari 2600 cartridge. Which one? The Stellalist Beta Cartridge. It's special twice over: my dear friend, Ruffin, gave it to me and it has code on it that I wrote. As far as I know it's not available anymore.
If you're interested in what I just gave away, just click here to see the inventory sheet.
Last week I gave nearly every Atari 2600 and Atari 7800 game that I own to them. In total 120 games, many with boxes and manuals, which I've listed below for the curious.
There are some items there that are probably worth a few dollars. I don't keep up with the scene any more, so I don't know how much a Limited Edition Okie Dokie cartridge goes for nowadays. (Mine looked like this, but with #49 on it.) Nor how much a special edition of Qb (#93) fetches on eBay, complete in wood box with source listing and the original broken version circuit boards. When I was collecting, it was a big deal to get games like Track & Field, KLAX (2600, boxed), and Road Runner. I suspect demand is lower today, but at least NCSU has them without the fuss.
I only regret that I sold my two Swordquest Waterworld cartridges (both found in the wild, one with instructions and comic) and Motorodeo and way back when. I even had a Shuttle Oribter -- I wish I could have given that to NCSU too, but it was long ago liquidated.
In the coming years, I plan to donate the rest of my collection -- NES, Genesis, SNES, Jaguar, Lynx, PlayStation, Dreamcast, PlayStation 2. Those later systems will be more difficult, surprisingly. Whereas I spent a lot of time collecting Atari games with which I had little emotional connection, it's quite another thing to think of donating my original copy of Tomb Raider for the PS1 or my copy of Metal Gear Solid 3 for the PlayStation 2. [Note: Originally the word "selling" was used above. I meant "donating", as the text now reflects. The items I've given to NCSU were donated, and I declined offers of money to "defray costs" of transporting the items to Raleigh in person.]
I'm not sure on a timeframe, but my dwindling free time makes having this library in my home less desirable. And, I can visit it any time I want. There is even talk of some public events, to which I would be an invited guest. Neat.
Oh, and I did keep one Atari 2600 cartridge. Which one? The Stellalist Beta Cartridge. It's special twice over: my dear friend, Ruffin, gave it to me and it has code on it that I wrote. As far as I know it's not available anymore.
If you're interested in what I just gave away, just click here to see the inventory sheet.
Labels: atari, collecting, libraries
--jvm at 20:27
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11 May 2007
On game preservation and GameTap
Simon of GameSetWatch has posted excerpts from a recent email conversation he and I had regarding GameTap and similar services, especially with an eye toward game preservation. You can go read it yourself.
I'll only add here that I meant to get in a mention of Save the Whales, a game which was reportedly distributed online-only and was almost lost to the digital abyss. Did I mention it was an Atari 2600 game? That's right, a game distributed through a modem to an Atari 2600 over 20 years ago. Anyway, it apparently wasn't a great game, but it didn't have to be fun to be important.
Ok, I'll add one more thing. That is not a picture of me in Simon's post. Honestly.
I'll only add here that I meant to get in a mention of Save the Whales, a game which was reportedly distributed online-only and was almost lost to the digital abyss. Did I mention it was an Atari 2600 game? That's right, a game distributed through a modem to an Atari 2600 over 20 years ago. Anyway, it apparently wasn't a great game, but it didn't have to be fun to be important.
Ok, I'll add one more thing. That is not a picture of me in Simon's post. Honestly.
Labels: atari, business, copyright, emulation, gametap, history, online distribution, steam, virtual console, xbla
--jvm at 00:50
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[ 0 ]
17 March 2007
Please tell me the childish crap will end someday
JohnH pointed me to the video earlier, but I only now saw the abstract about Jeff Minter's talk via Simon at GameSetWatch. I haven't watched the video, but the abstract has hit one of my buttons at a time when I'm short of patience.
As with anything having to do with the Atari Jaguar, the abstract (not written by Simon or JohnH) takes time out to insult the platform:
You know why it's funny? Let me tell you! Because most of the people writing that kind of crap are just repeating what they've heard others say and seen others write. They've never actually played Tempest 2000 or Defender 2000 or Power Drive Rally or Club Drive. They've probably never held the Jaguar controller that apparently ranks #1 on a list of the worst controllers ever. They just repeat the Conventional Wisdom, even if they have no basis on which to judge that wisdom.
I really don't get it.
Again, this is an industry struggling to take itself seriously, and most writers for IGN, GameSpy, and GameSpot probably can't say a single intelligent thing about the Jaguar. Not that their ignorance will stop them from writing.
And this kind of juvenile, uninformed tripe isn't limited to the Jaguar. The Sega Saturn is similarly maligned for things as stupid as its ability to do transparency effects. For the love of all that's good and wholesome, people, you didn't even know what transparency effects were before someone did them on the PlayStation and suddenly they're an important point in deciding which console has games worth playing?
Remember the size of the original Xbox? Or its original controller? Also good for a laugh, right? Because those two qualities defined how good the games would be. Like Halo.
At least when people bring up Pac-man for the Atari 2600, many who have actually played it can agree that -- similarity to the arcade original aside-- it just wasn't a very fun game.
If you haven't played Tempest 2000 then, let me tell you: you missed out. It was -- and still is -- a fantastic game. And Defender 2000 is capable of inducing a deep, trancelike gaming state that I wish I could find in more games. The definitive versions of those games are only on the Jaguar
Let's just say you get a Jaguar and those games and you play. When you get hooked on them, you won't notice the Jaguar or Atari logos on the machine. It won't matter that someone saw you playing an old system that people like to ridicule. Even the controller will feel natural in your hands. All of that manhood measuring that people like to do will seem awfully stupid while you're doing what we all want to do in the first place -- have fun playing games.
As with anything having to do with the Atari Jaguar, the abstract (not written by Simon or JohnH) takes time out to insult the platform:
If you were one of the 30 people to buy an Atari Jaguar, you probably bought his "Tempest 2000" and "Defender 2000" cartridges.Isn't that funny? It is, right? Side-splittingly, fall of the floor and roll around funny! In fact, it gets funnier every time someone uses it.
You know why it's funny? Let me tell you! Because most of the people writing that kind of crap are just repeating what they've heard others say and seen others write. They've never actually played Tempest 2000 or Defender 2000 or Power Drive Rally or Club Drive. They've probably never held the Jaguar controller that apparently ranks #1 on a list of the worst controllers ever. They just repeat the Conventional Wisdom, even if they have no basis on which to judge that wisdom.
I really don't get it.
Again, this is an industry struggling to take itself seriously, and most writers for IGN, GameSpy, and GameSpot probably can't say a single intelligent thing about the Jaguar. Not that their ignorance will stop them from writing.
And this kind of juvenile, uninformed tripe isn't limited to the Jaguar. The Sega Saturn is similarly maligned for things as stupid as its ability to do transparency effects. For the love of all that's good and wholesome, people, you didn't even know what transparency effects were before someone did them on the PlayStation and suddenly they're an important point in deciding which console has games worth playing?
Remember the size of the original Xbox? Or its original controller? Also good for a laugh, right? Because those two qualities defined how good the games would be. Like Halo.
At least when people bring up Pac-man for the Atari 2600, many who have actually played it can agree that -- similarity to the arcade original aside-- it just wasn't a very fun game.
If you haven't played Tempest 2000 then, let me tell you: you missed out. It was -- and still is -- a fantastic game. And Defender 2000 is capable of inducing a deep, trancelike gaming state that I wish I could find in more games. The definitive versions of those games are only on the Jaguar
Let's just say you get a Jaguar and those games and you play. When you get hooked on them, you won't notice the Jaguar or Atari logos on the machine. It won't matter that someone saw you playing an old system that people like to ridicule. Even the controller will feel natural in your hands. All of that manhood measuring that people like to do will seem awfully stupid while you're doing what we all want to do in the first place -- have fun playing games.
--jvm at 01:27
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