Instant collection of the system you never heard of...

[vespertillio]

I was checking up on my EBay watch list today. As I did I checked out the sellers other items. As this seller was close, I emailed and told him I was probably going to bid on his auctions. I asked nicely if a local pickup would work for him. He said yes and I bid what I wanted to. (Of course I did this the old fashion way by bidding in the last 30 seconds) Anyway the auction I originally wanted (and won) was this one (ok, all I really wanted was Archon and the Pinball Construction set): http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=5158536094&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT

As he was close I decided to bid on these as well:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=5158536137&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=5158536104&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=8163378412&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT
I have to tell you, this was a very good idea (I think)
I have never heard of the computer, but that intrigued me. I have just finished sorting thru it all and I am flabbergasted. I'm looking at 27 almost NOS (as in never seen the light of day as far as I can tell) programs. The PC is mint as well as the recorder.

Now, I am a collector (and a player, hey I still have to keep the skills), but like anyone else, going thru stuff you have never seen is a blast. This thing looks to be very cool. Here is a link that provides some info:

http://home.kc.rr.com/vintagecomputers/

I know this is mostly a classic console board. But, it's also a gaming as well as a rrefuge for all things related to electronic entertainment. I pride myself (sadly) on being a knowledgebase of vintage computers, but I have never even heard of this thing. I have to tell you, I feel proud to own this little piece of history. The Fairchild by the way is very nice, almost perfect (except the box however the in packaging is great). The number 3 key is loose as he stated, but it looks awesome. I really only wanted 2 carts I didn't have so this was a bonus. As for the Commodore, it's great as well. I know I will never hook this thing up as Commodore decided to make this thing totally uncapatable with anything. However, it is still cool. as for most of the C64 items, FLACK, I offer them to you as you are the Commodore king.

Oh, by the way to all who think I am stuck in the past I did pick this little guy up today (thanks to criaigslist.com USE IT!!!!!)
http://formen.ign.com/news/11063.html

Anyway, never pass up a chance to keep a piece of history folks. Best to you and your yours.
And as always....

GAME ON!!!

:D

[christianscott27]

are there any games to speak of for the panasonic?

i will keep my eyes open for one, i still really regret trading of my tomy tutor find. mar-dec 83, that might just be the shortest market presence of all!

[Iron Draggon]

Hey, that's some sweet lookin' loot! And budget priced too! I don't know what I'd ever do with them, but I'd love to have some vintage computers. Especially a C64. I wanted one of those so bad when I was a kid, but my dad wouldn't get one for us. Too bad, I'd probably be a programmer by now.

[davidleeroth]

I've been searching this computer for at least three years, never even seen one IRL. I found a couple of games for it in a bookstore:

Santa Paravia And Fiumaccio, Instant Software
Mars Cars, Datamost
Swashbuckler, Datamost
Rat Patrol, TMQ Software
"Thief", Datamost
Solitaire, Datamost

There can't have been too much software around for it since all my games were included in your lot. I don't know if any of them are good but Mars Cars and Swashbuckler seem pretty cool.

Congrats, an excellent deal if you ask me.

[Videogamerdaryll]

Congrats, an excellent deal if you ask me.

Ditto...

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

I hereby certify this a Cool Find. No wonder this machine went over like a lead balloon! "Hey mom and dad, can I get a Purgatory?"

[jajaja]

I mean ive heard about Fairchild. But its a nice found for a cheap price :)

[Keir]

Cool! I've never heard of that computer either. Looks like you got every game listed on that site too!


I hereby certify this a Cool Find. No wonder this machine went over like a lead balloon! "Hey mom and dad, can I get a Purgatory?"Purgatory is just the name of that website, I believe.

[jgenotte]

Nice find for sure, man.

About that remote...I know you already bought it, but as advice to everyone else that may be interested in this kinda thing: I guarentee that the Logitec Harmony remote is much better than that one and its only $200 and readily avaliable (best buy, circut city). Check it out for your self before you decide on one or the other.

-james

[vespertillio]

About that remote...I know you already bought it, but as advice to everyone else that may be interested in this kinda thing: I guarentee that the Logitec Harmony remote is much better than that one and its only $200 and readily avaliable (best buy, circut city). Check it out for your self before you decide on one or the other.

-james

You sir are 100% correct. The remote I bought was state of the art back in 1999. The reason I bought it is I have Marantz components as well as the older version of the remote. It's a step up for me. :D

[Djfinny]

Santa Paravia And Fiumaccio, Instant Software
Mars Cars, Datamost
Swashbuckler, Datamost
Rat Patrol, TMQ Software
"Thief", Datamost
Solitaire, Datamost

Wow - haven't heard those games in a LONG time.

I had Santa Paravia and Fiumaccio for my old TRS-80 model 1 lvl 2 computer. Its one of the first "Civ" like games made. You are a ruler of a city and you have to make decsions on how to feed your people and raise money etc.... The game was a lot of fun.

The second one of that group - Swashbuckler I had for my old Apple 2e computer. It's a 2nd sword fighting game where you fight a host of different characters (pirates, snakes, pikeman etc) Another great old game.

BTW to the original poster. Very nice find! (I was you got 7 Cities of Gold too!!) I hope to own ALL the old EA "album cover" artwork someday to put on display.

[vespertillio]

BTW to the original poster. Very nice find! (I was you got 7 Cities of Gold too!!) I hope to own ALL the old EA "album cover" artwork someday to put on display.

Thank you. 99.999% of the reason I bid on these were for the gatefolds. They always remind me of EA's roots and how they used to stand by as well as give credit to their developers. :(

[Flack]

Wow, kick ass pick up man! It always pays to check eBay for local sales. I once bid on about 30 Sega Genesis games (all in separate auctions) ... turns out the seller lived on the other side of town, and I saved the $3 per game on shipping! I've probably done four or five eBay deals where I was able to pick up (or deliver) stuff locally, and I haven't been burned yet.

On that computer ... wow, that's pretty obscure! I've never even heard of one. I was also going to offer you those three Fairchild carts I recently picked up, but oddly enough they're the same exact three that came with that auction. Oh well.

I'll gladly take any Commodore crapola off your hands!

[Ed Oscuro]

Nice find with the JR (the other stuff is great too, but finding things like this doesn't happen every day)! I think the original price (just under $400) was quite good on the computer side for what you'd get in 1983, though it's a shame about the lack of a cartridge slot. The machine should have RGB output as well as composite. For the keyboard, I've read that it's supposed to beep when you've managed to press a key - tell us if that's the case. There's a ton of characters in ROM, including a set of katakana characters, some Greek and special purpose/graphic characters.

Sound - well, there's three voices with a range of eight octaves. Nice; should be on level with an MSX 2.

Now, for the tape recorder: there's two ways of recording data, and I think of reading it as well. One's the slow/very reliable position, and the other's "fast" and still pretty reliable...I'd try the slow option first though.

I also think it's neat that you picked up the cassette recorder as well; how many of those are still kicking around, I wonder?

Finally: There's apparently a somewhat-working emulator (http://www.geocities.com/emucompboy/), if anybody wants to try it. This is the only place I've seen that mentioned. Seems Playagain.net (http://www.playagain.net/pages/Emulation/m-panasonic-jr-200u.html) has some stuff up for it as well (assuming their site's up, that is).

[TheRedEye]

That lot didn't include Ramrom Patrol? What a ripoff.

http://home.kc.rr.com/vintagecomputers/wpeC.gif

[vespertillio]

That lot didn't include Ramrom Patrol? What a ripoff.

Actually it did. :D I'm going to do alittle research on this to see how many apps were made for this thing. Should be interesting.

[wufners]

$10 for a Channel F on eBay? WITH games? That's a nice catch, my man.

I've been in a few Channel F bidding wars. I always bailed after things got over $20--usually the auctions ended in the $30-$40 range.

That's a lot of auction you won from just one seller! Is he cutting you some slack on the shipping?

[Flack]

That's a lot of auction you won from just one seller! Is he cutting you some slack on the shipping?


... As this seller was close, I emailed and told him I was probably going to bid on his auctions. I asked nicely if a local pickup would work for him. He said yes and I bid what I wanted to.

[jkernea]

I just sold a Channel F w/common games on eBay for a little over $100. So, I would say that was a nice pickup for you on just that one alone. Congrats! :P

[vespertillio]

I'm going to try to set this puppy dog up this evening and see how it goes. Set the time machine back to 1983 baby, were going live. :D