I was a game developer at Epyx where I worked on Summer Games, Winter Games, California Games for the 2600. When Epyx folded, it was bought out by Bridgestone Media Group. I went with that purchase. Bridgestone had some video projects with the Agapeland people who made the Music Machine songs and such. I was creating educational software using Agapeland intellectual property (specifically the mouse characters from the Amazing Book). I discovered an old box of sample items from Agapeland including a child’s bowl, cup, organizer, stuffed animals, and the Music Machine cartridge. When I eventually left the company, I was allowed to keep these items as memorabilia.? That was 10-11 years ago. I guess I’ve kept it (aside from my natural pack-rat tendencies) because it has historical value aside from its rarity. It’s the world’s first religious video game. I several years ago I took pictures before and posted them on the net (you can see them on AtariAge in the rarity section). Back then it still had a store sticker on it that read: “For Display Only”. That sticker has since fallen off and been lost. I’m not sure why I never opened the box. Mostly because I had heard about the value of “unopened” and I was able to download an emulator ROM that satisfied my curiosity about the game. I guess that’s a moral about how emulation can help preserve history: it keeps historical items from getting used up.
How it surfaced now: I’m in the process of moving, and we’ve been going though our stuff looking for what to get rid of. My teenage son went on eBay and Google to see what we could get for some of our old video games, and discovered the information here at AtariAge (Thanks!). Needless to say we were pretty excited! However, we couldn’t find it! No matter how we searched, it was nowhere to be found. We searched literally every box in every closet and still couldn’t find it. We has almost come to the conclusion that it had been thrown away. We were looking through the boxes under my bed one more time, when I asked my son Andrew if he could see any other boxes under the bed. He said yes! There was one small box that had been pushed back behind the others that we had never searched. He pulled it out and there it was!
The seller has gone above and beyond by creating a page that gives background on the Music Machine. He even does a little comparison between this game and Kaboom. It’s well done and is definitely a good read for anyone interested in gaming history.
Overall this should be a great auction to watch. Will it hit $5,000.00 like the last sealed one? Let’s watch and see!
Check out these fantastic gems! Each could easily be the centerpiece of a video game collection. It’s amazing to see so many rare items appear on eBay within such a short time frame.
Sega Wondermega megadrive/ genesis mega CD console Ended Aug. 21, 2010 for ?261.00.
Here’s a bit of info from the seller.
This auction is for the ultra rare Victor Sega Wondermega console. It’s an all in one Megadrive and Sega CD combo, and being produced by the sound specialists Victor, it utilises superior audio and video capabilities to the regular console. The machine also does a lot of stuff besides play games. It has a visualsation program from music cds (a big deal in 1993,) also built in Midi capabilites allows users to attach any Midi device along with keyboards and additional software to create thier own music. And since this is the Japanese we’re talking about there is of course a built in Karaoke function.
The console is in great condition as you can see, it’s also been modded to play (region free) pal games. It is bundled with a Japanese psu, s-video cable for superior picture quality, and comes with Sonic CD, Night trap and Gunstar Heroes.
Entex Adventure Vision Mini Arcade Game Console 1982 Ended Aug 23, 2010 for $1,176.00 USD.
This one also has a great writeup by the seller. I love it when sellers are collectors!
The Adventure Vision was a self-contained (no external monitor required) cartridge-based video game console released by Entex Industries in 1982. The Adventure Vision uses a single vertical line of 40 red LEDs combined with a spinning mirror inside the casing to simulate 150 vertical rows (thus making it 150×40 resolution).
Estimates are that only about 50,000 of them were sold, and only about 100 of those still exist today. Our auction today includes the game unit, 3 game cartridges and 2 original game boxes. The game has always been well-cared for and is still operational.
Mr. Boston Vectrex Game Complete in Box Ended Aug 15, 2010 at $3,827.00 with a “Reserve note met.” It seems the seller (vectrex.com-net-org) was hoping for $5,000+.
Ultra rare, there are only a handful of these known to exist, and the seller states this is only one of two complete copies known. That makes this way rarer than a Nintendo World Championships cartridge. The only difference is that very few people collect Vectrex stuff, so even something this rare doesn’t garner the same demand as a Nintendo icon.
Myrian Games Six in One 6-in-1 NES Panesian Nintendo Game Ended Aug 30, 2010 for $710.00 USD.
Hot Slots Complete NES Panesian Nintendo Game Ended Aug 30, 2010 for $797.77 USD.
Peek-A-Boo Poker Complete NES Panesian Nintendo Game Ended Aug 30, 2010 for $810.00 USD.
Is there any game more famous than Tetris? Could any game have more replay value? More universal appeal?
On August 8, 2010 history was written.? The greatest Tetris players converged upon the Downtown Independent Theater? in Los Angeles, CA to find the answer to one simple question:? Who is the Greatest Tetris player on earth?
I was honored to be a vendor at the Classic Tetris World Championship, to witness the answering of this question, and to meet the people and personalities connected with this fantastic game!
My booth was fairly simple. I’m a video game collector, so I brought along a table full of my extras. Although I did make a few sales, the better part seemed to be meeting each person who came by my booth.
GirlGamer.com came by and interviewed me as part of their live stream of the event. (Part 1: You can find me starting at 26 minutes in.)
When I noticed Harry Hong looking over my games, I introduced myself and told him that I recognized him from his Tetris videos. He humbly introduced me to the red-headed guy beside him. “Jonas is pretty good too,” explained Hong. At that point, I had no idea who Jonas Neubauer was, but I figured I’d try to get all of the finalists to sign a boxed Tetris for my collection. I ask the two of them for their autographs, and Neubauer signed the box asking, “Do you mind if I write a saying?” He wrote out, “To a fellow Blockhead!”
Little did I know at the time that these were the two best Tetris players in the world.? Just hours in the future, the two would have eliminated all other semifinalists to face each other for the title. As Neubauer walked away, he commented on signing my game, “Thanks for asking me to sign that. That made my day!” I smiled to myself thinking, “Cool guy…I hope he’s actually a semifinalist and that I just didn’t get some random dude to sign my box…”
At 3:00pm, we wrapped up the booth by raffling off an original top loading NES system and some random NES carts. Congratulations to Quan Chi from 120-Games for winning the top loader!
The competition itself was phenomenal.? It was like going to a sporting event, except everyone was cheering for their favorite athlete/gamer.
What really seemed to get the crowd going was the video intro by the creator of Tetris Alexey Pajitnov.
Trey Harrison: Former Nintendo World Championship competitor. Echo Park, CA.
Dana Wilcox: A crowd favorite. Oakland, CA
Matt Buco: A walk-in to the competition. As I talked to Matt pre-game, he explained that he was playing much better after taking the edge off with a couple beers. New York
Ben Mullen: 1st place with the record for the most lines in a Tetris game. Minnesota
Jesse Kelkar: Hold the 2nd place record for the number of lines in a Tetris game. Los Angeles, CA
Harry Hong: Hong was the first player on record to max out Tetris on the NES. Los Angeles, CA
Jonas Neubauer: Able to max out Tetris score starting at Level 19. Los Angeles, CA
Each of the players was amazing. Naturally, even their worst day playing Tetris would put most of us to shame.
Preliminary Round 1:
The first round was simply for lines. Each player needed to get the most lines possible. That means that neither time nor score mattered. Heck, getting a “Tetris” (aka 4 lines at once) didn’t even matter. Neubauer came out on top of this first round with 294. Tied behind him were Harry Hong and Ben Mullen who both had scores of 290. Surprisingly, Thor Aackerlund seemed to choke during this first round with a score of just 89 points.
Preliminary Round 2:
The second round was for score. Thus, getting a “Tetris” was important again. This round was also untimed. But let’s be honest. Each of the competitors was lightening fast! Thor made a fantastic comeback in Round 2 showing the crowd that he still had it! Naturally, the crowd went wild with Thor’s 469,454 point victory! Following behind him were Neubauer and Hong.
Preliminary Round 3:
The third and final round in the preliminaries was identical to the second round. However, and like the rounds before it, Hong and Neubauer were neck and neck. The round finished with Hong in first place, Neubauer in second, and Thor in third. Had Thor done better in his first round, he may have had a chance for the final; however, he and the other six contestants were eliminated.
There was some downtime between the preliminary rounds and the finals, so I decided to do a little meet and greet. I talked with Thor Aackerlund and asked him how he felt about the competition. He got a big smile on his face and explained, “It’s time to pass the torch to a new generation. I ended up exactly where I wanted to be [in the competition], right in the middle.” Thor had a great attitude. He played was happy to step out of the spotlight and to allow someone new to step into it.
The Finals:
Who would have thought that Tetris could be sport enjoyed by spectators, hecklers, and geeks going nuts? Watching the entire competition was a blast, but the finals were the natural climax. While Hong and Neubauer are both incredibly talented players, Neubauer seemed to keep the cooler head during the competition. Hong played fantastically, but he stumbled twice. Although he made brilliant recoveries each time, his errors cost him. Neubauer, a more slow and steady player during the competition, gained his two out of three wins over Hong to claim the title of Classic Tetris World Champion!
(YouTube playlist for all 8 videos we took of event.)
While Harry Hong was awarded with a new Wii and games for second place, Jonas Neubauer went home with $1,000 reward, a huge trophy, and some serious Tetris bragging rights! Yup, I’m pretty sure I want to be Jonas when I grow up…
None of this would have been possible without the endless hours of work that Vince Clemente put into pulling this all off. He’s the man behinds the scenes who pulled all this off. Additionally, Sergio (aka “The Applemonkey”) did a great job pulling together vendors! Well done guys!
There’s something fantastic about video game kiosks, and Atari ones seem to be among the rarer ones. I was quite excited to see this Imagic kiosk pop up on eBay! Did I mention it includes an Atlantis II cart?
Atlantis II + Imagic Atari 2600 Kiosk LOT
The seller has a pretty interesting story to go with it. Not only was he lucky enough to make it to the tie breaker round for the Atlantis II contest, but he randomly found the Imagic kiosk being thrown out. Included in the lot is his original letter that he received in advance of receiving the cartridge in the mail.
Here’s the seller’s background story:
Background Story:
I entered the contest when I was 13 years old and was part of the tie breaker round. I was sent the package that contained the game and paperwork. I don’t have the box because, well, let’s face it I was 13! The only reason I still have the cartridge was because I was proud to have been able to get into a contest others could not. And the only reason I have the paperwork was because moms like to keep that kind of stuff. 😀 I tucked this game away and have moved it around with me over the years.
About 10 years ago I was taking out some trash for a job I was at and saw an interesting thing poking out of a nearby dumpster. I went to take a look and say that it was an old Imagic store display that let’s you choose a game locked in a case to play in the store. I took it home and found that it didn’t work. I took off the back and after examining it found that the power connection had come loose. I fixed that plugged it in again and it worked! I was excited and thought what can I do with this since I didn’t have an Atari system anymore. I decided to go find one and fix it up for a mothers day present (my mom loved to play those games with my brothers and me).
I shopped around and some garage sales and some flea markets and came across 2 systems that were both not working. I was able to fix one cannibalizing the other. I put the display and the system together and they worked perfectly! I then gave it to my mom on mothers day with cartridges she used to play, with the one rule that she had to give it back to me when she didn’t want it anymore. This is where it stayed for the next 10 years.
My mom passed away about 8 months ago and I was going through her stuff and found the original paperwork from Imagic. Needless to say this brought back memories. I decided to look up this game and the display on the Internet, again in reminiscing about the past, and found that there are collectors for this I never new existed. I decided I would sell it since my son is into the newer systems and does not take an interest in Dads old guy stuff.
Oh, by the way, I didn’t win the $10,000 in gold that Imagic was giving away in the contest. L
Remember being a kid and sketching out your idea for a video game level? My buddies and I loved to do this on the bus ride to school! We’d draw out the level complete with pits, vines, booby traps, monsters, etc. Then, still on paper, we’d challenge each other to tackle one another’s levels. Naturally, none of those levels ever made it beyond out trapper keepers to the gaming world…
However, the drawings of Toru Iwatani are an entirely different story. Not only did Iwatani do the gaming world a fantastic service by creating the iconic Pac-Man, but he actually preserved his original game design sketches for the last 30 years! Most likely he sketched them in either 1979 or 1980. Check out his different pixilated variations of Pac-Man and the differences between his concept board and the release version.
Iwatani revealed the sketches at the 2010 NLGD Festival of Games in the Netherlands. Special thanks to Control for revealing these to the world.
The photos were taken by Sandra Pompe NL EVD International (Agency NL).
Need a Mario Phone? How about a Vectrex kiosk or a Virtual Boy sign?
You’ve got to love eBay and the fantastic and unique gaming items listed this week. Here’s a collection of my favorites:
GAMES
FACTORY SEALED nes Chubby Cherub CIB new +box nintendo
neo geo aes metal slug 5 usa excellent ultra rare!!
COLLECTIBLES
Pikmin 2 Nintendo Gamecube Countertop Display RARE
E.T. Atari Game Video Store Display Mobile 1982 Sealed
RARE Age of Empires III Game Promo Ship Store Display
Mario Nintendo Custom Bomb Omb Art Sculpture Galaxy The beauty of paper m?ch?
Nintendo Game Boy Color Store Display Kiosk
Rare XBOX 360 Large Neon Sign
RARE Nintendo Neon Sign
AMAZING VECTREX DISPLAY STAND PROTOTYPE – VERY RARE !!!
AMAZING SEGA GAME DISPLAY STAND PROTOTYPE – VERY RARE I have a semi-respectable Vectrex collection and would love to have the space and cash for this gem.
AMAZING SEGA DISPLAY STAND PROTOTYPE – VERY RARE !!!
RARE NINTENDO VIRTUAL BOY STORE DISPLAY SIGN INBOX
Rare Nintendo Gamecube 35mm film trailer Metroid/Mario
Nintendo Game Cube Stand Up Store Display Game System
Sega Saturn Nights into Dreams Poster Promo Rare 120 120-Games.com is selling this and other items for the 100% benefit of the American Breast Cancer Foundation.
Mario Kart Telephone This may not be the rarest item, but it makes up for it in sheer awesomeness.? Apparently in Mario’s car phone was? just as absurdly large…just like in the early days of cell phones in real-people land…
If you enjoyed the movie “The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters” then you might find a current eBay listening of interest as it has to do with the Donkey Kong 3 world record.
Donkey Kong 3 (Arcade) World Record 3,087,100 machine! (Update: Auction ended July 1, 2010 at $60.67 USD)
George Riley is the current world record holder for Donkey Kong 3 at 3,087,100 points (Marathon) and 857,200 (Tournament Settings). He’s now ready to retire the machine on which he set those records. If you’re into video game history and are a Donkey Kong nut, this may be your auction.
Of note is the fact that I was the first person ever to be recognized for getting a score of over 3 million points, and thereby flipping the game 3 different times for the first time ever. For some history it needs to be noted that only 3 different Donkey Kong arcade games were ever released in the United States during the early 80’s. They being Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., and of course Donkey Kong 3. The first two have fame for being featured in the film King of Kong. Now the odds of getting a machine that has held the record on Donkey Kong, or Donkey Kong Jr. are pretty slim. So here is your opportunity to own a piece of history.
Naturally though the machine has its share of wear. It would be fascinating to know even an estimate of how many hours are logged on this and other world record machines.
Now about the condition. This machine used to be originally a Donkey Kong machine before they turned it into a DK3 machine. The spraying butten works great, and I have never had a problem with it. Now the controller is a different story. It at times seems hard to move, but it is still playable. The fact that I was able to get a world record on this machine would make this obvious. Now the main problem that has come up with the machine as of late is the fact that the monitor has been acting screwy. For instance right after I uploaded a 2.4 million point game to Youtube the screen went down about a third making it so you could not see Stanley on the bottom level. From what I can see this only happens when you play the game excessively at one time. So if you are an average player who dies out in 10 to 15 minutes you will probably have no problems. I will also provide links to Youtube to show the game play of the machine.? The video was made just recently about 3 days before auction, so it is still fresh. The pictures that you see though were taken the day of auction. I will start off the auction redicously low at .99 cents. Since I can’t really ship this I will make it Pick Up Only, but I don’t mind if you find a third party company that will pick up the machine from my apartment to ship it out at your cost. Just let them know that I live on the second floor of an Apartment building, and there is no elevator. Thank you very much for looking, and good luck!:)
I love the fact that Riley included some YouTube videos of his playing the machine. And, yeah, he’s good…plus I love the commentary from player videos like this.,
The auction is “local pick-up only,” so if you live in the Adelanto, California, this may be your chance to for a piece of retro gaming history.
Here’s something you don’t see every day. It’s a pretty fantastic looking prototype Game Boy Advance game. It has 12 hours to go and is already at $302.54, so it’s looking like it’s gaining some attention…especially if it’s undumped. Heck, it’s Star Wars style probably doesn’t hurt the value either.
rare unreleased gameboy advance GBA game UNDUMPED 3D (Update: The auction ended June 15, 2010 at $302.54 USD)
Pretty interesting info from the seller sickertus:
This auction is for an UNRELEASED and UN-DUMPED Nintendo Gameboy GBA game, developed by Marvelous entertainment. The game was never given a title (or it’s buried within the game code) but is datable to about 2001, due to the enormous board sticking out the top of the cart, a style that was only used for a brief while during the beginning of the GBA’s production. The cart is an official nintendo flash cart.
The game itself is GBA Unreleased 3d polygon space shooter. Very raw/unfinished. I wrote them about it in ’08, but they had no idea what it was. Trying to find it a good home. You can fire regular lasers and large “atomic” bombs which detonate and take out large groups of enemies. Eventually you reach the “deathstar” (which you enter in a very cool and seemless fashion (good job animators). Very much like starfox/star wars here, as barriors randomly pop up from the floor and ceiling (which you must try to avoid, of course). Everything is rendered in 3-D. There is a sticker on the reverse for Marvelous entertainment. I wrote to them in ’08, but no-one knew had any recollection of what this game was called.
The gameboy advance is not noted to have explored the use of 3D POLYGON technology to much effect. Several 3D “engine” programs where developed Such as the “blue rose” engine.
But for various reasons, this lead to only a handful of games actually published that utilize these features ( fully rendered 3D polygon graphics). The intent of this cart remains unknown, but it is a unique bit of software, and whether it represents an aborted game, or a demonstration piece, it represents an interesting glimpse into a future that wasn’t to be, during the early development of Nintendo’s GBA handheld.
This piece has been in my collection for several years, having acquired it from a collector in europe.
