Thursday, March 31, 2011

Something nice on Craigslist

After weeks of showing nothing but overpriced 2600s, my CL search query finally returned a good Atari deal.:  77 games + console (with many controllers) for $100.  
Kudos for this Northgate CLter !!!
Picture is too small to see what games are included, but I bet there is Pacman and Frogger, enough to make any kid happy

Sunday, March 27, 2011

That Commodore deal from CL

was crappy, nothing interesting in it, except some Loadstar discs, I have to investigate this disc based C64 magazine one day.  But more interesting, I managed to get a Commodore 128-D out of this deal, and it was my first time with this quite remarkable machine, that is sometimes mentioned as the best 8-bit computer ever.

It is pretty heavy, thanks to the metal case, and really looks live a nice "MACesque" machine, I guess this is what Commodore was shooting for. Mine is not complete as it doe snot have the detachable keyboard, so I'll wait until I find a complete one to do a real test, but the RGB connector looks very promising.



Fancy metal beige mat case

1571 drive in the chassis

Plugs, the middle one is for the keyboard, why so complicated ?


ID card

RGB connector !!

Leftover of a store(?) sticker. a 206 number, whoohoo !!

Top view, kind of a Star Wars admiral vessel

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Commodore discs on CL

Found this on CL this evening. 500+ commodore games /programs etc... 75.0
.



Price is a little high but depending on what is included (how many rare items, and originals) it could be worth it.  I contacted the guy, if I can get my hand son the lot, I'll post the findings here.

Minis

quick, here

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

South of Seattle Vintage Electronic Hunt

Here is a list of a few places where you can go to find vintage consoles and computers in South Seattle.

the Southern one (and my favorite) is Re-PC.

Re-PC is a well known Seattle firm specialized in older PC parts. if you ever want to find a SoundBlaster or an AGP video card, go there, you'll get one, cheap.  They get their stuff from people and companies recycling their old bits, and sometimes it is more than an isa SCSII card, it is an old computer that is useless for work, but great for collectors. Out of their 2 shops (See below for the other one), the Southcenter one is the best one for older machines (I got my Commodore 1702 monitor there one day).  Here what I saw today:

this Geek's Heaven

They have a small museum of computers that they received and (I bet) are not willing to sell, nothing too fancy here
IBM 5150, the first IBM PC

TRS 80, not sure which model (someone ?)

Original MAC circa 1984

Atari 800 XL
On the shelves, I saw:
Commodore PET 8032 for $99

Bunch of monitors for your old computers. Tandy, Commodore  $15-$35

Another Commodore PET 8032 for $99

Ti 99 4/A  beige

Ti 99 4/A Silver

Commodore PET 8032 for 200 (??) and a 2001 for $99

Playstations for $3.....

Heat Computer System machine

There machines marked as as-Is are typically functioning, but they just don't want you to come back with it an try to use any type of warranty.

Typically they keep the really valuable pieces and sell them on eBay, so you will never find a truly unique machine there, but it is nonetheless a very fun shop to browse.


Back in Seattle, you can stop by the big Seattle Goodwill shop
1400 South Lane Street, Seattle -(206) 860-5711

As often you find very common things at Goodwill. Many of them.

Half yellowed Super NES, almost becoming interesting with this crap color

Playstations, many of them

16 bits glory

Original controller next to this crap Flashback 2 machine

Nice patchwork or a Dreamcast, a genesis, a N64 and a GameCube. All common machines are always available at this Goodwill.

Sign that Guitar Hero is getting outdated......


Next stop was the Seattle Re-PC, sister shop of the first one
1565 6th Ave S, Seattle, Washington - (206) 623-9151
This Re-PC is smaller with less vintage machines, except in their very cool museum:
"museum' entrance

As it says on the box, IMSAI 8080

Atari 2600 and a very nice Mattel Aquarius with tape recorder and printer (?)

Amiga 1000, original Mac, Lisa .... to name a few

Silver Ti 99 4/a with expansion box, tape recorder, voice module and a noisy printer

Atari 800 and an Apple II (with an Apple III monitor)

ADM-3A terminal

Jan 1975 edition of Popular Electronics

Sinclair ZX80 & ZX 81  European machines and not their Timex counterparts
last, at Re-PC, THE place where I would love to get into is the 'only for employee' backroom where they stock all their machines. I bet you can find some very cool stuff there
More machines

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Pink Gorilla

Interestingly, Seattle has one of the best video game store outside of Akihabara, and that is Pink Gorilla in the International District (also another store on the ave).
 
The place is packed with hundreds of games, often at good prices, including special editions of Metal Gear Solid GC or Winning Eleven for the PSP. If you have never been to Tokyo, you have a miniature of the Akihabara shops here, loose carts in plastic bags hanging from the walls, and rare specila versions of consoles and games.

In general I am always worried for shops that sell such specific items for so little, I feel that there is no way for them to survive, but Pink Gorilla have been around for years, so Seattle must be a good market for these things.

I also like the people working there, always ready to demo Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan. 
Seeing the clerk play the game flawlessly while handing the NDS upside down to let me see the screen haunted me for months, it is clear that I suck at these games, but I wish I could play upside down.

For someone visiting Seattle, this is a must see, you can skip the Market and spend your time here.

Looking for a Panasonic Q ? or the
Or an Intellivision ? a Fairchild ?
Super Famicom games, good prices (except the $20 MarioKart)
Atari games, too expensive
Famicom and Famicom disc games.  I used to see Famicom Disk Systems in the shop
Jap Saturn games,  Nights !! .........
PCE & Super CD games. Top right is Super Formation Soccer that used to be $100 back in the days .... now $5
More PCE games


US games Playstation large boxes and SNES
A bunch of US NES games