Re: Vectors OS - was Atari Power supplies

> Paul Sommers wrote:
>
> Tek,
>
> The problem is the same in Australia.
>
> I have an Asteroids in almost mint condition that I paid $900US for. Price is
> not the issue!!! Getting one is.

Well, you must have a lot of money then there in Australia - I wouldn't-couldn't
pay that much for 'just' an asteroids... But on the other hand I can imagine how
rare these are overhere.
Are you even sure they work upside-down? :)

I also only have all the guts of Tempest, ESB and Starwars. Cabinets are harder
to find in Holland.
 
> In two years of searching I have not been able to find a color vector. There
> is a Star Wars in the Blue Mountains on it's last legs as it is running 12
> hours per day. God knows what they've done to keep it going but it's looking
> pretty sick. The tech has said he has replaced the flyback about 5 times now -
> when I asked him with what as the parts a scarce he just said "With a
> compatible flyback. It's just a flyback"

Well hell it is - every flyback provides different secundairy set of supplies -
If he can get replacements so easy, better find out which they were!

But doesn't he want to sell, such an old machine, I don't think he really
could't care less to sell if he keeps it running for 12 h/day.
 
> Well, it's not compatible - you should see the weird stuff that's happening on
> the screen. Particularly the Death Star explosion - looks like the CRT is
> about to shatter
>
> And another collector I know has a Star Wars.
>
> There was one for sale in our Trading Post about 18 months ago - he wanted
> $1000US for it and as I had done a great job in finding some rare stuff by
> hunting in the country I thought "Nah! Too expensive!" and I have kicked
> myself ever since.
>
> After 18 months of looking I would pay $2000US for one. Seriously!!!!

Yeah right. Would you pay THAT much? It better be a f*cking MINT one then...

> Apart from the odd Asteroids - every single piece of vector stuff was junked
> in the 80's.
>
> I'm now looking at shipping stuff from the US. But it's hard - every cab has a
> dfifferent weight, shape and location, and the time it takes to get a quote
> from a shipping company seems to be about 2 weeks and it's gone.

A friesn of mine - the biggest collector in Holland - ships stuff on a regular
base to the USA. He says it is fairly ease. He buys the games in the same region
of the US, stashes them somewhere in a warehouse untill he has a few which then
can be shipped simultaneously on one pallet. Sending four on one pallet is not
much more expensive than a single one.

> Living in the US would be wonderful for me. Just on a short visit earlier this
> year I saw al sorts of classics still on location and earning money - and I
> wasn't even looking - I just ran upon them.
>
> When you guys have Thanksgiving next year - REALLY give thanks!!!

Well,be a rolemodel - :)

Cya !

> Cheers
> MacMan
>
> ----------
> From: Tek
> Reply To: vectorlist@lists.cc.utexas.edu
> Sent: Monday, 27 December 1999 10:13
> To: vectorlist@lists.cc.utexas.edu
> Subject: Re: Atari Power supplies
>
> Josh McCormick wrote:
>
> > You make me feel like an Ugly American! :)
>
> :) You are... In terms of easy-to-get-this-wonderfull-vector-game! :)
>
> > 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.
>
> Where the hell did you get that image from holland? hahaha... You
> probably think
> we're all in wooden shoes watering the tulips... :)
> No really, I've never seen these myselves!
>
> > 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.
>
> The same way overhere. Problem is however, operators trash a game after 1
> or 2
> years of use. Games like Tempest were thrown away back in 86, or even
> before.The
> only things you see are the newest of the newest since everybody's got
> their
> PSX...
>
> > 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?
>
> I think that you think we in Europe care more about old thing than
> Americans,
> just because our history goes back much longer (opposed to the 500 years
> of the
> modern US). I think that is not true. I consider the Dutch as on of the
> most
> technically engaged people in Europe. For example, in Holland we have the
> most
> computers per resident, of Europe!
>
> I was once in the city of New York, and I really believe your culture is
> much
> more like ours (the Dutch) than, for example, the French or English. For
> example, all the US movies, sitcoms or other TV shows are spoken
> English,like
> they should, in stead of dubbed as in the rest of Europe.
> That's because almost everybody speaks English quite well. Sometimes I
> think we
> try very hard to be part of America :) (But we can go in a cafe and buy
> alcohol
> without ID or being 21! :P )
>
> > > 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?
>
> It would cost about $300 to get it in Holland, and maybe 100 UKP from
> England.
> Way too much for a game the same cost!
>
> > 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.
>
> You are peobably right about this. Here, the issue is not 'FIND ONE AS
> CHEAP AS
> POSSIBLE', but 'simple 'FIND ONE!' :) The price is not an issue (WHEN you
> find
> something, the price is quit right), since the higest price is still
> cheaper
> than buying one from the US + shipping.
> Ofcourse I'm talking Vector here, raster games are quite easy to come
> across.
>
> > No, but I was a webmaster from 1995-1997 for an ISP. It helps to see
> all
> > the bad things our customers created.
>
> That sure helps!
> I did some web designing for my company also, you can see it at
> www.matranortel.nl. It is not my job, however.
>
> > 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.
>
> Well, I'll be very curious to see the final result!
>
> > 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).
>
> Hmmm... I liked the looks as you send pretty much, but we'll see!
>
> > > 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!
>
> What? :) Got shocked?
> I think we are really off-topic now, maybe it is better to send repies
> only to
> our own address.
>
> Cya !
Received on Thu Dec 30 15:43:48 1999