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The Harmony cartridge is a home-brew product that looks like a regular 2600 cartridge but has an SD card slot and a built in menu system turning it into a multi-game cartridge. It works brilliantly and supports all 2600 games  plus most of the new home-brew games. The Harmony supports all games up to 32K - one or two home-brews exceed that but I haven't come across them yet! I recommend it highly.

It is also a boon for PAL 2600 owners. There are people now creating PAL60 versions of the most popular games. I have created several of these myself.

The ROMS I have created are here : http://www.davykelly.com but you can find those and all of the others at the PAL60 thread in the atariage thread. In fact I think someone has created a zip archive of every PAL60 ROM.
http://atariage.com/forums/topic/193459-pal60-roms/

As usual, PAL gamers got screwed with shitty PAL ports. Atari did optimise a few of their own games, but Activision made no effort at all. You notice this most with Kaboom!

2600 emulation is excellent today but if you still want the real thing it's well worth a look.
http://harmony.atariage.com/Site/Harmony.html

A couple of months ago I decided it was time to have a clearout. At the time my collection was around the 750 mark (all CIB). I needed the room. Needed some money and I had come to the conclusion that I had a pile of games I would never play because of the genre they were in.

So what did I do?  I sold 250 games to Chillout.  Selling to a dealer means you won't get the value you get if selling privately or on eBay. But I've been stung with eBay by a lying buyer who claimed a game I sold him didn't work. But the onus is on the seller - very heavily I may add - and given I needed some cash quickly, a large sale was needed.

Chillout's online tool is excellent and overall their service is excellent which includes free postage.

Got rid of a lot of PS2 games and some Wii shovelware, but more importantly, I sold some Gamecube games (in particular games that I have the Wii version of like Metroid Primes1&2, Pikmin 1&2 for example) , some Dreamcast games (Shenmue1&2,FPS-es I will never play), a batch of N64 games that I will never play because of their genre, and - gulp - for me - some SNES games.

It has been liberating. My collection (now around 500) is tighter and more focussed on games I will actually play. Some I will re-acquire in their JPN packaging (e.g. a very small number of Super Famicom games I have on my hit list).

Now I'm thinking about an arcade cabinet. If I sell a similar amount again I could afford my dream - an Asteroids Deluxe cabinet (properly refurbed from the US shipped is approx £1500). I'm 50 in April and the wife has made agreeable noises re where it would be located in the house - so I'm mulling that over.

So far there have been no phantom limb twitches - and I'm glad I did it.

Anyone else do any pruning or significant sell offs?

A bit out of date but here we go.

Gamecube

p.1 (zelda, metroid, viewtiful joe, monkey ball and donkey konga series. Rest of the Mario sports - see p.10)
p.2 (have Mario Party 7 now too)

p.3 (have 2nd copy of 1080 as it supports LAN mode)

p.4 (have since swapped the platinum edition of Smash Bros Melee for an original edition - pictured later on. Also have 2nd copy of MKDD in red box for LAN mode gaming. Have a 4th Wavebird now).

p.5

p.6 (SSX and PoP series)

p.7 (have Code Veronica X now as well. RE4 is in another pic.)

p.8 (some JPN imports - Castle Shikigami 2 - lovely shmup, Puzzle Collection with GBA cable downloading GBA versions of the games, and Kururin Squash - hyper addictive version of the GBA game)

p.9 (some odd ones here that divide opinion - Killer 7, PN03 and Eternal Darkness)

p.10 (Mario party 7 as mentioned earlier and also original edition of Melee as referred to earlier. Namco's Mario Baseball is gorgeous)

p.11 (couple of US imports here - US Ikuraga and Namco Collection that has some nice arrange modes for Pacman and Galaga etc.)

p.12 (another US import here - Pacman World 2 comes with the Pacman Vs bonus disc)

p.13 (PAL Pacman Vs with R:Racing. PAL Pacman Vs is 60Hz only though. Have 2 mats and 2nd copy of the Dance Game)

p.14 (Bongos for Donkey Konga and DK Jungle Beat...)

p.15 (dancemats)

[Saturn Bomberman]

Saturn Bomberman Gorgeous main game mode for 2 players, up to 10 player battle mode, and an excellent single player master mode. Best version ever.
Bubble Symphony Majestic sequel to Bubble Bobble
Athlete Kings Sega does Track n Field. This plays great and I believe it still looks really solid today - and it is better fun than the DC followup.
Fighters Megamix Great fun cross over fighting game - all sorts of weird characters to unlock and loads of content.
Digital Pinball One of my favourites in the genre. Well designed tables and an extremely solid engine designed to make the game very accessible - more so than any other pinball game I've played.
Sega Rally Famous port of the arcade game - things may have been very different if this had appeared sooner in the Saturn's life
Virtua Fighter 2 Same here - Still looks pretty good today. Would take a lifetime to master.
Galactic Attack aka Layer Section Great old school shmup that got a PAL release. Gorgeous visuals and great level design stands up to repeated play.
Darius Gaiden Another top notch shmup that got a PAL outing.
Marvel vs Streetfighter, Xmen vs Streetfighter 2 stonking entries in Capcom's vs series. Excellent ports and the 4MB cart means no loadtimes.
Baku Baku Lovely puzzle game - an original take on the symbol matching genre sees you matching food to animals.
Tilt Another quality pinball game - nice ability to flick between 2D and 3D views on the fly. Excellent themed tables.
Virtua Cop 1 & 2 Lovely light gun game series gets a great port from the arcade.
Sega Ages Vol.1 Outrun, Space Harrier and Afterburner 2 on one disc - pity we didn't get to see Vol. 2
Panzer Dragoon Zwei Glorius sequel to the launch original. Looks a lot more solid and plays silky smooth.
Sonic Jam Packed compilation of the Megadrive Sonic games - has loads of content and extra modes. Supports the lock-on feature of the originals.
Parodius Deluxe Pak, Oshaberi Parodius, Sexy Parodius This great series gets a spot on conversion to the Saturn. The 1st title has Parodius1&2 on one disc and got a PAL release. Oshaberi is content packed with loads of nice extras and Sexy Parodius introduces some changes to the series and its a shame this was the last one.
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo Lovely puzzle game gets the star treatment with lots of extra modes.
Soukyugarentai, Radiant Silvergun, DoDonPachi, Game Paradise Four import shmups of the highest calibre - why you get a Saturn.
Twinkle Star Sprites Odd puzzle game/shmup hybrid which looks and sounds great - comes with a 2nd disc stuffed with fan art etc. Finish the game once to unlock selectable slowdown!
Sega Ages : Fantasy Zone Lovely port of the cute arcade shooter that has a few nice extras if you delve around in the options.

[Gamers' League 2013 format]

I look through the retro event area with jealous eyes....you just don't get that happening in Northern Ireland. (Maybe it does but I've no knowledge of it). I started a gaming league in work a year or so ago to make up for it. I work in IT so I believed I would some sort of response and there are between 12 and 20 of us who now take part on this. Details below.

I'll post here from time to time reporting on how these events go. We have access to a projector and screen which really makes this a great fun event and I can recommend this to anyone.

Gamers' League 2013 format
 
1 event every 2 months held over a lunchtime (usually a Friday)

Games suitable for the league must have these properties:

* Have some sort of  2 player Vs mode

* A game lasts at most 5mins – so a 16 person knockout event would take just over an hour -  90 mins at the absolute most.

* Has to be accessible - no learning of levels or tracks required. No complex control issues or large "move lists". A "familiarisation session" the day before the event may be arranged so people can get used to the feel of a controller and game.

* Should be enjoyable for spectators
 
These requirements mean that traditional modern game genres such as car racing, fighting games, first person shooters etc. aren't really suitable for the league because of accessibility, complexity, practicality (e.g. need a LAN) and entertainment for spectators.
 
If we don't have a starting field of players that matches a knockout format (8 or 16),then we have two systems:
 
1.    A repechage style system with best losers from the first round progressing to make up the final 4 or 8.
2.    A single player score attack challenge with the top 4 or 8 scorers being seeded and going through to the knockout phase.


Feb event : Super Monkey Ball (GC) : 2 player vs in competition mode over 5 levels.

Apr event : Combat (2600) : Tank, easy maze, bouncing bullets.

Jun event : Virtua Tennis 2 (DC) : first to 3 games with tiebreak.

Aug event : Tap Runner (Wii) : first to 3 wins

Halloween event : Typing of the dead (DC): score attack in training mode to get top 4. Then 2p versus in level 1.

Christmas event : Tetris (SNES) : Game B first to 25 lines with garbage on.

League scoring is :
win - 5pts
runner up - 3 its
3rd place - 1 pt.

SF II Turbo (SNES) over 3 rounds is used to deal with a tiebreak at the end of the season.


Tetris, Typing of the Dead and Virtua Tennis are tried and tested - the others are being tried for the first time and may be changed depending on experience. Other games currently in the mix for future events include: Bomberman, Donkey Konga and  Bishi Bashi.......Open to suggestions.

One thing worth noticing - apart from Tank and Tetris - the events are based on Sega games - go figure.

Anyone got the Nuon DVD player?

I'm a big Tenpest fan and loved the T2K and TX3 remakes (though I have to admit to not having played the original Jag version  - only the Saturn version).

I've always been intrigued by T3K and given its unlikely an emulator will come along (and really an emu is usually a poor 2nd choice for me) I've always kept an eye out for one.

Well - I saw one in Ca$h Converters a while back - £20 - I nearly crapped myself and impulse purchased it.

I am the owner of a Nuon DVD player - with no controller ports.

My heart sank when I got it home. Apparantly its the N505 - it is full Nuon spec and the motherboard has the required circuitry and terminal for controllers - but the ports are not there. I ask you - what arsehole made that decision?

Anyhow there is a guide to directly wiring Nuon controllers onto the terminals - so I'm toying with that. Got a brand new Nuon controller off eBay but  T3K still garners decent prices so I'll probably get someone handy with a soldering iron to do the job once I get the notion to sink the money and get a copy.

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Hi folks....

I'm been around for some time (mid 40s) so remember the rise of the arcades and the arrival of pong machines in the home.

Had a 2600 (still do!) and had an Oric-1 and an Amstrad 464 (with green screen!) in the 8 bit micro days. Then I kind of got a bit disillusioned with gaming because I believe that while the 8bit era was a great incubator for talent - the dodgy difficulty curves and tape loading of the day kind of put me off.

The NES got me back into gaming - then had s SNES, then an N64 (was bit of a Nintard for a while) - then a Saturn (wanted to play some shmups) - then my world opened up - also have a PS1, PS2, Atari 7800, Megadrive, Dreamcast, Gamecube and Wii. Have around 600 titles all boxed and complete - not a collector - more of a hoarder.

Have been a programmer (not games) for 20 odd years - wrote my first "app" on an Apple II in school when I was 14 and have never looked back. Don't get to code in work any more but I dabble with Java, PHP and Blitzbasic in my spare time.

Love gaming - especially retro and "retro style" games like puzzlers & shmups and not really into narrative led games. FPS games I think have kind of ruined the market - they suck in too much resource and talent that could be better used in other genres. Still will play the FPS but not all that much -I think they are opiate of the gaming masses I am afraid.

Used to be a Ninty fanboy - but i'm still quite a fan - still believe they are the only real big inventor now that the likes of Sega, Namco, Konami and Capcom seem to fallen into oblivion or a rut. Still ever hopeful for the future though even though the HD remake seems to be de rigour with everyone now.