Space Invaders Drink Markers

A quickie post today - a shot, if you will, as opposed to a beer.

From time to time my loving wife comes home with some little surprise treat that she bought for me out of the blue. Sometimes it is something simple like a bag of skittles. Other times it is more complex like my Spider-Man cuckoo clock. Occasionally, the treats don't quite hit the mark, such as when she came home with a new copy of Black Ops 2 complete with Season Pass, even though my brief love affair with the Call of Duty franchise came to an end quite some time ago (but I'll get around to playing it one of these days). Other times she hits it out of the park, like when she brought me a big box completely full of old science fiction digest books and magazines that she bought at a thrift shop for $5.

Whatever it is, I usually have two requirements before my mind feels free to enjoy it.  First, it should not be very large (space concerns) and second, it should not be very expensive (money concerns). She checked both of these boxes with her latest dollar-store find - Space Invaders drink markers!



Have you ever been to a party and you put your drink down on a table to chat it up with some hot young lady and then when you go to pick it back up there are 4 other drinks sitting there and you aren't sure which one is yours? Oh man, if I only had a nickel for every time!  OK - I don't often find myself in that exact situation, but I'm middle-aged, married and not particularly comfortable with crowds so I'm not really a good example. Anyway, I've heard it's definitely a thing. So how to avoid that potentially awkward social situation? Why, silicone Space Invaders of course! Just peel off one of these 6 different invaders and slap it on your glass, bottle, can, whatever, and you will be able to spot your drink a mile away.



Plus you will be announcing for the entire room of onlookers that you are proud to be a supporter of retro coin-operated games whose popularity in Japan resulted in a yen shortage. Believe me, the ladies appreciate that sort of thing.

All that for only $1!  Hell I've already used them a couple of times myself just for fun even though the only other bottles and cans on the table were my own empties. So go to your local dollar-store, slap 100 yen down on the counter and get your very own set!

My Latest Retro(ish) Purchase - the GB USB 64M Smart Card

Most of my gaming time the last 2-3 months has been spent on 3 newer AAA titles - Gears of War 3, Uncharted 3 and Batman Arkham City. I enjoyed them all, but as per my usual routine I am now chasing that current-gen gaming binge with a palate-cleansing drink from an older vintage. And for the last few days that involves a formerly forgotten and neglected Game Boy and a new hardware addition to the retro arsenal - the EMS GB USB 64M Smart Card (catchy name eh?).  Mine was an impulse purchase from Kitsch-Bent for $38.



The package came with the Smart Card and a mini CD with installation drivers and a file transfer program. The card is not plug-and-play nor does it come with a setup/installation program, so you have to manually install the new hardware and browse to the drivers on the CD, but then you are good to go.

The card is in the shape of an original Game Boy cartridge and has a small mini-B USB port at the top where you can connect it to your computer via a USB cable and transfer Game Boy and Game Boy Color ROMs from your PC onto the cart, thus allowing you to play them on your actual Game Boy and Game Boy Color. Unfortunately, you can't drag and drop files onto the card like an external USB drive, but their included file transfer application is very easy to use, if a little slow on the transfer speed.



You can of course play the same GB/GBC games via emulator on your PC, but I have very little interest in doing that. I mess with emulators fairly often, but almost never for any of the portable systems. No, the only way I'm ever going to see most of these games is on a real Game Boy to get a more authentic experience.

"If you're so into authenticity then why don't you just buy the real Game Boy carts then dude?  They're cheap these days!"  Well, generally speaking I do prefer to play real carts on real hardware and I do have a stack of GB/GBC carts I bought at dirt cheap prices on Craigslist, but the fact of the matter is that I'm not much of a portable gamer even on my newer devices like my PSP and iPhone and even less so on my Game Boy. So there is virtually no chance I'm going to go out an buy many more Game Boy games even if they were at giveaway prices. Plus, given my relatively low interest level I really don't want to have to deal with their storage demands on my ever-shrinking space either. But that being said, my interest in gaming history does provide me with enough curiosity to want to spend a little time shuffling through these old Game Boy ROMs that are taking up space on my hard drive. And if I DO happen to stumble upon an old game that I really like a lot well there's a good chance that I might just track down a boxed copy of that one off of eBay for my "Game Boy Collection".

"Well you know you can play those ROMs on a GBA don't you? Or by emulator on a DS. Then it's backlit so it's better."  Yeah and that is good enough for a taste, but I decided if I was going to spend a decent amount of time checking out this long list of games I wanted to try them on the original hardware. Somehow having to play these primitive games in a well-lit room on a gray brick that forces me to dial in the contrast on a little green monochrome screen lets me appreciate the game more even though the visual product is arguably inferior to what I could get on other platforms.



I've been playing with it for a few days now and it works great. This little card prompted me to pick up my GB that would have otherwise just continued to sit on a shelf gathering dust and occasionally making me wonder why I bought it in the first place - even as I still occasionally look for a cheap Game Gear, Lynx and Neo-Geo Pocket Color knowing full well they will be begging the same questions later.  I'm currently in the A's and I can tell you from just a few minutes of gameplay on each that Amazing Penguin and Amazing Tater are pretty nifty little games, while Amazing Spiderman utterly sucks.



One potential problem is that all games utilize the same sram to store the .sav file, which basically means that if you store any game-save information to the card it will be overwritten with new save information when you start playing a different game. I'm not sure yet if you can copy your .sav files back to your PC so you can reload them to continue later, but my curiosity on the great majority of these games is satisfied with just a few minutes of play so personally I don't really need any major multiple .sav file support or workaround. It would have been a nice feature though.

The card is advertised as a "64M" card which has confused some folks into thinking it has 64 megabytes (MB) of storage capacity. In actuality it contains 64 megabits (Mb) which translates to only 8 MB. This doesn't sound like much space at first, but only a few Game Boy games were as large as 1MB (e.g. Pokemon), many were only 32K (e.g. Tetris) and most fell into the 128K to 256K range.  So you can easily store about 50 Game Boy games on there and if you go for the smaller ones you could even fit over 100.  Game Boy Color game files are larger, so the card can only hold about 5-10 average-sized GBC games give or take.  The card is split up into 2 separate banks or pages and you can save 4MB of files on each page. When you turn on your Game Boy the list of games on the first page is displayed. To see the second page of games you power cycle the Game Boy by turning it off and then quickly back on, then the second page of games will appear. Then you just scroll down and select which game you'd like to play and have at it.

Apparently a lot of people who buy this card use it to load LSDJ (Little Sound DJ) a program that turns a Game Boy into a programmable 4-channel, 4-bit music workstation that LSDJ-aficionados use to explore Game Boy chiptunes or create their own. It even came with a LSDJ sticker to apply to your card.  You can see a random LSDJ music video here.  Looks kinda cool and has a fairly large online community so I might check out the LSDJ scene later, but for now I'm content to just speed-date a bunch of old games that I would have otherwise completely ignored. I'm off to Alien Olympics.

Joust Pinball

I saw the post on arcadeheroes.com about this RARE 1983 head-to-head Joust Pinball game for sale on eBay and had to check it out. I'd seen pictures of these before but have never seen one in person and never seen one in action before the eBay videos below.

I really wish I had a few thousand bucks burning a whole in my pocket to snag this unique pin - but it still has a day and a half left in the auction and is already up to $2,650 so it is going to be too rich for my blood. SO - if you live in the Houston area - or anywhere in Texas really - please go to the auction here, purchase this, and invite me over to play it!

[Update 8/12/2010] I forgot to come back and post the final price - the Joust pin sold for $4,349. Too rich for my blood but sure would have been a kick-ass addition to the gameroom (that I'll have some day)

Starplex

My gaming moods swing rather wildly and lately I have been pretty much all retro. Tonight I was thumbing (middle fingering on the touchpad actually) through a digital image of the January 1983 Electronic Games magazine and I came across a couple of ads for some gaming gear from a company called Starplex.

The first was the Starplex Deluxe Video Controller. This shiny little piece of woodgrained retro-goodness plugs into your Atari 2600 or C64/Vic-20 and allows you to use pushbuttons for the up, down, left, right, and fire commands instead of using a joystick. It also offers a rapid-fire option allowing you to just hold down the fire button.

I checked ebay and what do you know - there happens to be a new and unused (new old stock) Starplex Deluxe Video Controller complete in the box for sale right now with a starting bid of $18 (hey it was originaly $30 retail so that's a pretty good deal!). Given how much I like playing arcade games that have all-button control panels and my love for all things retro gamish this is right up my alley, but I probably won't bid on it (I just can't buy every cool but useless retro thing I come across) - so you can check out the auction here.

On the other hand if I saw the second item up for bid I probably WOULD bid on it because I've never seen it before and think it is even cooler.

The Game SeleX was a wood-grained (of course!) case that allowed you to plug in 9 Atari 2600 cartridges and then select which game you wanted to play with a selector dial. There was a dummy cartridge connected via a ribbon cable that you plugged into your VCS to reduce wear and tear on your original cartridges. Like the Deluxe Video Controller, probably not tremendously useful at this point in time but EXACTLY the sort of thing I would buy just because it's cool. Fortunately for me the SeleX was NOT for sale on ebay so I don't have to face that dilemma this day.

For Sale: Stelladaptor

OK - so now you have Stella running and can play old Atari 2600 games on your computer if you feel so inclined - that's pretty cool. But if you are like me using the keyboard for the games doesn't quite get it done - you need something a little more authentic. Well the Stelladaptor allows you to plug authentic Atari joysticks, paddles, or driving controllers into your PC's USB port and then use it to play your Atari games just like a real Atari 2600! It also works in MAME so you can use your Atari paddle or joystick to play arcade games too - perfect for spinner games like Tempest or Breakout and one-button joystick games like Galaga or Donkey Kong.

You can order it HERE from the AtariAge website for $39.95. If you need the USB cable included it is an extra $5. I bought two of them for the game cab at home and they work perfectly. Also, if you're new to AtariAge check out their website - it is pretty cool if you are an Atari fan.

For Sale: X-Arcade Joysticks

Using your keyboard to play old arcade games on MAME is great and I did it for quite a while. But eventually I discovered the X-Arcade Joystick rig and I gotta tell ya, it makes the experience so much more enjoyable. They use real arcade quality gear on these things and if you really want to bring the authentic arcade experience home they work great! I happily used mine for years before finally taking the plunge and getting the full-blown MAME cabinet. They aren't cheap but then again a new PS3 game will cost you $60 so you know - if you really want to play some old arcade games at home it is definitely worth it.

My set was the X-Arcade dual joystick which I think ran me $150 or so back in the day. But you can get it today at the low-low bargain basement price of only $129.95. What a steal! That sounds like I'm being sarcastic but no seriously, I think they are awesome. I only got rid of mine when I got the full-sized cab and didn't need it anymore so I traded it to a guy for a modded XBOX (that I rarely play).

But what? You say you like to play Centipede, Missile Command, Millipede, Marble Madness, Golden Tee, or the dozens of other games that use a trackball? Well you're in luck my friend because when I was playing on it I just had to make due with a mouse for all that stuff but now they have the X-Arcade Tankstick complete with Trackball!

With this baby you can play all the trackball games plus it works pretty darn well for spinner games too like Tempest and Arkanoid. This model goes for $199.95. It also has 2 buttons on the sides that you can use for flipper and bump action for pinball games. They also have a mini 1-player only version for $99.95 - but really - if you are going to drop that much change on a controller you might as well set it up for 2-player action. But that's just - like - my opinion man.

They also sell adapters so you can use it on your PS3, Wii, XBOX 360, Dreamcast, etc. if you want to - although I never got around to trying that because I became captivated by the thousands of arcade games on MAME that I had to play.

So there you go - strong recommendation to buy. I got mine at a store years ago - Fry's I think - but I never see them around anymore. So you will probably have to get yours on their website: http://www.xgaming.com/store/category/arcade-joysticks-and-game-controllers/. Do it! Do it!

For Sale: Game Cartridge Soaps

Not really planning on buying any but thought this product was unique enough for a shoutout - Geeksoap.net is selling soap in the shapes of NES, SNES, Nintendo 64, and Gameboy cartridges. Can anyone say Nintendo fanboys? Other systems are in the works.

For Sale: Arcade Mugs

What? You say you could really use a mug with a maze on it that when filled with hot coffee has pac-man ghosts and dots magically appear? Okey dokey - $7.99 at ThinkGeek.com. They have a Space Invaders one too.

It is Pitch Black. You Are Likely To Be Eaten By a Grue

Anyone familiar with the text adventure Zork knows not to go wandering around in the dark without a lamp. I just read that "GET LAMP" - a documentary about the rise and fall of interactive fiction computer games - should be available for purchase late next month. The classic works of Infocom always held a special place in my heart so I will almost certainly be buying this 2-DVD set. Here is an excerpt from their webpage at http://www.getlamp.com:

"In the early years of the microcomputer, a special kind of game was being played. With limited sound, simple graphics, and tiny amounts of computing power, the first games on home computers would hardly raise an eyebrow in the modern era of photorealism and surround sound. In a world of Quake, Half-Life and Halo, it is expected that a successful game must be loud, fast, and full of blazing life-like action.

But in the early 1980s, an entire industry rose over the telling of tales, the solving of intricate puzzles and the art of writing. Like living books, these games described fantastic worlds to their readers, and then invited them to live within them. They were called "computer adventure games", and they used the most powerful graphics processor in the world: the human mind.

Rising from side projects at universities and engineering companies, adventure games would describe a place, and then ask what to do next. They presented puzzles, tricks and traps to be overcome. They were filled with suspense, humor and sadness. And they offered a unique type of joy as players discovered how to negotiate the obstacles and think their way to victory. These players have carried their memories of these text adventures to the modern day, and a whole new generation of authors have taken up the torch to present a new set of places to explore.

Get Lamp is a documentary that will tell the story of the creation of these incredible games, in the words of the people who made them."