Re: Atari Power supplies

> It is always the same with you Americans! :) The oldest game you can *possibly*
> find here in Holland is probably Outrun, and they probably want to have
> something like $1000 for it (upright).

You make me feel like an Ugly American! :)

Hey, I have a theory here. I'm not sure if it is dead-on or completely
wrong. Maybe you can offer some insight. In the States, many vendors are
wiiling to let things go for so cheap because they have no since of
history.

In a place like Holland, you've got to have old buildings, old tools, old
artifacts all over the place. And I'm guessing that people are very quick
to attach value to them and to recognize their place in history.

The United States, however, is such a "new" country that a since of value
in history just isn't there. A vendor isn't thinking about locking his
arcade games up for 50+ years because they're historically valuable. He's
thinking that this game isn't earning money any more and is only worth the
parts. Or maybe he gets into a habit of just warehousing the stuff he's
not circulating.

So my theory is that the European vendor is happy to just hold onto his
vintage games. Sometimes they'll sell, but they'll keep in mind that it'll
be worth a lot more one day, and prices it accordingly. The American
vendor might be thinking that maybe this guy knows something I don't, but
this is really just junk to me, and I'm thrilled that someone would PAY ME
to haul it off.

What do you think?

> So if anyone knows where to find an empty cabinet here in Europe, let me know!

I'm sure you've looked into shipping charges. How much does it cost to
ship a cabinet from the state to Holland? From England to Holland?

> Well' that is not too big of a problem, is it, guys? :) I think actually,
> that getting a TOTAL screwed game is best. I have most fun restoring
> them.

Hmmmmm... I wonder how much of your point of view is shaped by the fact
that the games are very hard to get ahold of. Your "reward" is in the
effort of putting together a complete game. Here in the US, because arcade
games are more common, I think the reward is in finding the best price (in
complete games, or in parts). I know that if I didn't have as much easy
access to arcade games, I'd be more willing to adapt some of the PCBs in
my closet to JAMMA.

> I think you have done a good job giving it a polished look. I think we al agree

> Cool! Have you been a professional site designer?

No, but I was a webmaster from 1995-1997 for an ISP. It helps to see all
the bad things our customers created.

> The idea of creating a 'FAQ' page per game is really good. Especially the
> discussion database per game seems a very good idea to me.

The discussion area is going to have to wait, unfortunately. The feature
that I thought would be the most valuable (and will have to wait as well)
is the "scoring". That is, someone submits a link, and the users can
promote it up to a high score (and more prominence) or demote it into the
trashcan. The "mass moderation" concept not only floats the cream to the
surface, but it also increases the scalability of the site by reducing the
time it takes in administrative overhead.

The concept is geared more toward it being a groupware application rather
than a website. In this sort of groupware application, the users of the
system are also the contributors and editors.

> Do you have any idea when the site is going to up and running? I hope to
> read a posting when it is done!

Other than giving the timeframe "soon", I'm not going to commit to a time.
I will say that the first version that goes online is going to be much
less complex than the final design I showed you. (No user logins, no mass
moderation, no messages, no voting or scoring. Mainly the hierarchy thing
with various boxes under each category ("fact sheet", documents, links,
for sale, persistent sales). That, and cross-referencing to other
categories (pokey chip, Atari button with LED, etc).

> C'mon... This is about a vector related site after all.. :) Now tell me, WHAT
> has the electrical storage capability of a 19VLUP22 to do with Vectors... :)

DOH!

-- 
jcm
jmccorm@galstar.com