Share your pickup loot and finds

[Gamevet]

Cool!

I like the Movie Trading Company over on that side of town. They always have something I’m interested in.

[Steve W]

First thing I did today was go get an oil change. They charged me $108! They didn't ask me what kind of oil I wanted, they just put in the most expensive synthetic oil. I was pissed off, so the sales person took off $15. So I'm now in a bad mood for the rest of the day. I'd been going to that Jiffy Lube for a couple decades or more, and I won't go back now. Good job, guys. And my "change oil now" light is still on. That's annoying.

I ended up dropping by a Half Price Books and picked up an Australian copy of Don Bradman Cricket 14. I have no interest in sports games and evel less in cricket, but I love PS3 imports and finding games that I don't have. Then I noticed in their glass case Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. Nice, another one I don't have since prices spiked really high for Spider-Man games during lockdown and have finally gone back down to sane levels. At least that cheered me up a bit.

[YoshiM]

I swear I go in cycles with stuff. In fact I KNOW I do. For sheer lack of space (and general disinterest from my kids) I had parted with my Tandy Color Computer and games years back. I thought I'd never get back into it. The nag was still there as I have a program listing from my Dad's adventure game that I don't have on tape or disk (as I backed up my tapes and disks about 20 years ago) on top of, well, it was a part of my childhood I never really DOVE into. I didn't have the patience then to really whip up programs as I was the kind of kid who built plastic models quick to play with them while the glue was still drying. Just last year I dumped some Rainbow and Hot CoCo magazines. Oh I'd still look at eBay listings but always steered clear. Too expensive, even for a CoCo 2. More than I would spend anyway.

Last month on Atari Age, someone posted a sale on Atari Age a sale for a 64K CoCo 2 with a bunch of cartridges and 4 of the black non-centering joysticks. I think in America money (as the sale was from a Canadian) it was a total of maybe $100, most of which went to shipping. So I got the following:

Tandy 64K Color Computer 2 (made in the USA!)
Cartridge storage case
4 black joysticks (non center kind-which I grew up with)
Chess (w/ manual)
Color File (w/manual)
Dungeons of Dagorath
Galactic AttackMath Bingo
Mega-Bug
Skiing (w/ manual)Typing Tutor
Videotex
Canyon Climber
Dino Wars (w/ manual)
Gomoku/Renju
Microbes
Reactiod
Spidercide
Temple of Rom

I've also been itching to get back into making videos so this is my fire in which to light my butt to do it. To kick this along more, I did get some essentials:

Communication cable for tape recorders $15 (brand new-modern made)
CoCo SDC $76 (had to get from the UK)
Tandy Deluxe Joystick $15
Downland (cart only-my first ever CoCo cart I ever bought as a kid) $5

I tested the system out and my young boys went absolutely NUTS for Dino Wars! I never played it but it's a simple dinosaur fighting game where you have to essentially bite the butt of your opponent. You can go left and right but also can go back towards the background and forward up to the screen-so an early 3D brawler (biter?). It pauses when you bite/roar but that didn't deter them. They just giggled like idiots. The fight goes on until one's health is low and then the loser wanders automatically into the background, whimpering.

I can't wait to try Dungeons of Daggorath again BUT I don't have a tape recorder. My Walkman will suffice for loading but I can't save my game in DoD (unless I have a hacked version on disk somewhere). I did load up my SDC with ALL my virtual disks (my own and what I've acquired) so hopefully this weekend I'll be able to try it out.

[Steve W]

I can't wait to try Dungeons of Daggorath again BUT I don't have a tape recorder. My Walkman will suffice for loading but I can't save my game in DoD (unless I have a hacked version on disk somewhere). I did load up my SDC with ALL my virtual disks (my own and what I've acquired) so hopefully this weekend I'll be able to try it out.

Cassette software is just audio, couldn't you just save your game directly to your desktop/laptop computer in a lossless audio format as a sound file?

[YoshiM]

Cassette software is just audio, couldn't you just save your game directly to your desktop/laptop computer in a lossless audio format as a sound file?

I'd have to check if my laptop is even capable of handling a microphone input. It has a headphone jack but I'm not sure if it does double duty and if it does I have no idea if the plug is compatible as I've never tried anything like that. My tower has no room near it to set up the CoCo or my tube TV. Getting this thing put together is a small project of finding room and hooking everything up. A tape recorder is portable, already compatible and fills the "nostalgia" itch.

[Gameguy]

Cassette software is just audio, couldn't you just save your game directly to your desktop/laptop computer in a lossless audio format as a sound file?

Yes, plenty of people have been doing this for years.

I'd have to check if my laptop is even capable of handling a microphone input. It has a headphone jack but I'm not sure if it does double duty and if it does I have no idea if the plug is compatible as I've never tried anything like that. My tower has no room near it to set up the CoCo or my tube TV. Getting this thing put together is a small project of finding room and hooking everything up. A tape recorder is portable, already compatible and fills the "nostalgia" itch.

People have been using various audio players to play the cassette audio to the CoCo, including MP3 players that can handle multiple types of audio formats.

You don't even need to backup the tapes yourself, there's already an archive of these tapes converted to audio files.
https://colorcomputerarchive.com/repo/Cassettes/Games/

I haven't found a specific guide to using these files yet, but I'm sure one can be found on google. So far I've just found forum type posts where people just say they've successfully played audio files to load software on their old computers including the CoCo.

[Steve W]

I went to a bunch of places today - at the first game store I picked up Youtubers Life 2 (which comes across as a dressed-up phone game, but it's odd so I couldn't resist) and Those Who Remain: Deluxe Edition. Next place I picked up the two PS4 fishing games for my brother, Sniper Ghost Warrior 2 Steelbook Edition, The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles, and the little Spy Hunter arcade cab. The next place I picked up Monark, and the place after that was Atelier Rorona Plus and Phoenix Point. And the Evercade game was waiting on my doorstep from Amazon when I got home. All in all, a good day game hunting.

[Niku-Sama]

First thing I did today was go get an oil change. They charged me $108! They didn't ask me what kind of oil I wanted, they just put in the most expensive synthetic oil. I was pissed off, so the sales person took off $15. So I'm now in a bad mood for the rest of the day. I'd been going to that Jiffy Lube for a couple decades or more, and I won't go back now. Good job, guys. And my "change oil now" light is still on. That's annoying.

what kind of car?
a lot of them are simple resets

[Steve W]

I've got a Fiat 500C. When COVID hit, I had to get an oil change and the Valvoline place I went to wouldn't let me out of the car, and afterwards they told me how to do it. Turn the key slightly until the electrical system comes on, pump the gas five times hard. I just found the text I sent to my brother back then about it, and I just realized I've been pumping the brake 5 times. Which is why the light hasn't turned off, I've been hitting the wrong pedal. Can a day go by without me feeling like an idiot? That would be nice.

I bought a copy of Elite Dangerous for the PS4 a few days ago, and a copy of Bloody Roar on the GameCube for a co-worker who's been looking for a copy for years. I didn't take a picture.