Catsmasher

BillyHW, on Mon Jan 16, 2012 12:00 PM, said:

It is the first hand held video game with interchangeable cartridges - but they are not "really" cartridges, more like the whole front of the system. The resolution was one-color and a whopping 16x16 pixels. Gotta start somewhere. Great fun back in 1979!


http://en.wikipedia....iki/Microvision

It was designed by the same guy who designed the Vectrex.

Yuck.
Who has time to make this junk - or watch this junk.
From what I can tell - Venus Spa has two whole fans. If it was a real spa - it would be bankrupt.
You might make money one way - People could pay the girls to put their clothes back on and stop talking.
I know the economy is bad, but get a job cleaning bathrooms or go pick up aluminum cans...

Rex Dart, on Mon Jan 16, 2012 11:42 AM, said:

Yeah - those two!

I had a pretty good 2011 - a testiment to patience and diligence. I spotted and picked up a few systems I wasn't sure I would ever have, as I refuse to pay high prices for stuff in my collection. I will pay a 'fair' price, but not a run-up, ebay-driven, unreasonable price.

VECTREX - Woo Hoo. After seeing the prices on ebay, I had given up on this one. The only ones I thought were reasonable were "Don't know if it works", "I have no way of testing it" type of auctions. Get real! No way of testing it?! It just plugs into the wall. We all know that is code for 'Doesn't work". Well, I hit one of those local flea markets just for kicks one afternoon and one of the vendors was selling a bunch of old toys. Back in the corner of the booth sat something with a tube screen in it. That always gets my attention so I looked closer and lo and behold it was a Vectrex. He didn't know anything about it, and all the other people there were more interested in old tools and cheap duct tape than video games. I offered him $40 on the conditon that it worked. We plugged it in and it works just fine. Took it home and cleaned it up and now it is the jewel of my collection. My wife and kids are still trying to figure out why I am so excited.

Working Microvision - I say "working" because I still have the one I had as a kid, but it sufffers from screen rot. It makes noises, but there is nothing on the sceen. I told my kids that for Christmas I wanted a WORKING microvision. My wife found one on Ebay with several games, paid $15 and her and the kids wrapped it up for me. It works great and came with a bunch of games. All the boxes, all the instructions, etc. Awesome gift. My kids thought it was hilarious that I was so excited about a game with a small, monocolor screen which is basically a bunch of dots with another dot bouncing around.

Original Odyssey - I got some money for Christmas from the in-laws and had decided to go against my principles and buy an Odyssey off of ebay and pay the ridiculous prices that one seller in particular has managed to create for the system (by cornering the market, posting silly 'buy it now' prices, and then the other, few, sellers just follow suit). After reviewing the auctions, I changed my mind. $300 - $700 dollars just didn't sit right with me. So I kept looking. Eventually an auction went up that was not from the usual sellers and it was an actual auction. I bid $130 and won the auction. It is a complete Odyssey in like new condition with all the stuff. Only the top half of the box, but that doesn't bother me since I don't collect boxes.

Oh yeah, One of the neighborhood kids gave me a working Commodore 64, boxes, cables, manuals and disk drive for free because his mom told him he had to get rid of it if he wanted a 3DS and he knew I collected game systems.

Now I need to add more shelves on the wall and rearrange the Man-Cave!

A good year!

Best:
Atari 7800 - That thing looks futuristic without being tacky. Perfet for its era.
Vectrex
Original Odyssey - It looks cool still and even manages to work in a little bit of woodgrain.

Worst
ALL of the Nintendo systems! They look sooo cool in Japan, then they went and uglied them up when they made them for the US.
Intellivision - Yuck