$4.99 US / $6.99 Canada Issue #4—April 2008 Published by www.VideoGameTrader.com 1 | Video Game Trader Magazine | April 2008 | www.VideoGameTrader.com 2 | Video Game Trader Magazine | April 2008 | www.VideoGameTrader.com P. Ian Nicholson Publisher / Editor in Chief a.k.a VectrexMad What’s inside #4? Thomas Sansone Only a recent retro gamer, Ian is Vectrex- Mad! And you can usually find him making Price Guide Research Team comment on the rec.games.vectrex news- System Profile—Atari 2600 Thomas Sansone group. When he is not playing on his 5 Vectrex, he is on a continual quest to find 6 Nolan Bushnell: Entrepreneur, Pioneer… out new information on everything Vectrex Video Game Trader Staff Legend related and has just recently set up a Jim Combs website www.vectrex.co.uk to capture this. 11 Don’t Throw Away that Old TV, Your Clas- Jim is a hardcore passionate gamer. You sic Console will Hate You! Review Staff can find his works in the Digital Press 12 I Have a confession to make... Collector's Guide Advance Edition & Tips & Tricks Magazine. In 2005, Jim was Agents J & K 14 Full Circle recognized at CG Expo as their special Agents J and K are part of the dynamic Video Game Historian Alumni guest. duo known for nesarchives.com. However, 16 Do Sex & Video Games Mix? little is known about either one of these 28 Game over…. Continue? Dan M avid NESers. After you are done reading Dan's been playing video games since he VGT, head on over to their website was panel high to an Asteroids machine (www.nesarchives.com) and read their but especially loves the "16 Bit Wars" of amazing NES reviews. Reviews & Retrospectives the 90's. His writing can be found on Good Deal Games' site and the Digital Peter G 24 Miner 2049er Press Guide Advanced. 25 Punch-Out! Kristine Pat “Coldguy” 7 Homebrew Reviews – Orphan Systems … This 22-year-old college student has Dick Ward of VGColosseum.com Adopted always wanted to push the boundaries of what a gamer should be. And although Special Contributors 9 What Wii play. his degree will say computer integrator, 26 NES Archives w/ Agents K & J his passion is writing and playing old video Virtual Console Reviews (www.vc- games and sharing his unique perspective reviews.com) on the gaming world today and in the past. VC Reviews goal is to review each and every Virtual Console Release. You can Features John Hancock read past reviews at vc-reviews.com. Look 4 News, Views & Things that are Cool A serious collector, John has amassed for the most current reviews in this and a video game collection of about future issues of Video Game Trader. 17 Video Game Flashback … This month in 5500 unique video games and has com- history pleted 12 US video game collections Good Deal Games (including NES, Genesis, and N64). He 19 VIDEO GAME TRADER PRICE GUIDE – (www.gooddealgames.com) loves to share what he knows with anyone Full checklist and prices for Nintendo NES, Sega Good Deal Games is an internet retailer of who will listen. John also helps run local Master System, Atari 7800, Nintendo Game Boy classic games. You can find their puzzles video game tournaments and conventions Classic, Atari Lynx & Sega Game Gear, Turbo in Video Game Trader each month. and is a proud member of the Northwest Grafx-16. And now the Atari 2600 & Nintendo Classic Game Enthusiasts. Somehow, he Virtual Boy! Alan Hewston also has time to be happily married to his Alan is a senior staff writer for Retrogam- 27 Classic Puzzle lovely wife Sarah. ing Times monthly. If you enjoy his ―Many Faces of‖ column, please check out Retro- Michael Rosamilla gaming Times. This 23-year-old lifelong New Jersey All contents of this Magazine are copyright Video- resident, and graduate of Rutgers Univer- Special Advisor GameTrader.com and/or their respected copyright sity majored in English and minored in holders. Please do not duplicate without permission. Medieval Studies. He is currently a stu- Jay (jay2games.com) Published monthly. All images are original Video Game dent at Brooklyn Law School. His pas- Trader images, or have been used by permission. For sions are comic books, cartoons, movies advertising information or for any other inquiries related (action and comedy, specifically), and, of to Video Game Trader Magazine, please contact us at course, video games. [email protected]. Thanks for reading!! 3 | Video Game Trader Magazine | April 2008 | www.VideoGameTrader.com Bye-Bye Sony! Phil Harrison joins Atari Phil Harrison was named President of Infogrames after leaving Sony Worldwide Studios late in February. In addition to turning the sliding Atari parent around, Harrison will be charged with leading group publishing and game development of social games, both online and off. Atari will publish Alone in the Dark 5 on June 12 for PC, PlayStation 3, Wii, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, and Xbox 360. If you can think it, Mendy K. Pound can bake it Take a look at this awesome Atari 2600 cake. I wish I was local to Los Angeles, because I would plunk down the cash to get one of these sweet masterpieces. This delectable edible masterpiece was created by Mendy Pound of Cakes By The Pound (cakesbythepound.com). An awesome work of baked goodness, everything you see in the picture is edible other than the board that the cake sits on. I can’t get over the details on this cake. From the perfectly black and red joysticks, to the wood grain icing on the console and the tiny Atari logo, it’s just mind-boggling. Maybe someone will head over to her site and order an NES cake or a Turbo Grafx-16. If you do, please send us pictures! The NES Controller Pillow Case What can you buy the retro gamer who has everything? How about the Nintendo NES controller pillow case? It's made with 100% super soft Fleece and machine sewn for solid construction. It's also machine washable and dryable and good to fit most pillows. At only $40, or two for $70, it’s not a bad deal either. Find out more at the Etsy website (www.etsy.com). The NES Sneaker!? Ok, now I have seen it all. I have seen some pretty interesting NES mods in my time, but I have never seen an NES packed inside a sneaker! Somebody has way too much time on their hands. What’s next? A NES Jacket? New Phone runs Nintendo NES and SNES games, as well as Game Boy. This must be Official Nintendo Month. Handset maker Fly has launched a phone with built-in support for Nintendo gaming platforms. Its MC100 supports Java and Nintendo NES, SNES, Gameboy and Gameboy Color formats. Fly claims it is the first handset to do so. Games can be downloaded from the Internet and played using special game keys on the device. The phone also comprises and MP3 player powered with a Yamaha chip. Fly is not too well known in the West; it does most of its business in Eastern Europe, but has offices in UK, France, Germany, India, Russia, Ukraine and Nigeria. Nintendo's Duck Hunt license may be revoked Patent and Trademark issues may be the reason behind its no-show on the Virtual Console, and the altered version for Wii Play. Nintendo has apparently been trying to have re-issued the trademark on their classic NES game Duck Hunt. The reason behind the difficulty is that the trademark itself is too vague, and Nintendo has been denied their renewal of the trademark. However, there's still the chance for Nintendo to make an appeal. This means that there's still the possibility that Duck Hunt may come to the Virtual Console. Pac-Man shoes? Yes, and the dorky shoes are WAY cool! Finally! The wait is over. Pac-Man shoes have arrived!!! While we're not sure we have the courage to wear these Ben Shermans, we do admire the effort. And that Blinky? Brilliant. They're on sale for $US 39.98, so if you're feeling brave, they're all yours. We won't stop you! Onlineshoes.com stocks them, but when we checked, they were out of stock. I am getting a (Pac-Man) fever just thinking about wearing them. 4 | Video Game Trader Magazine | April 2008 | www.VideoGameTrader.com - Thomas Sansone 5200 Super System was named for its part number in the Atari catalog, CX5200. Following this trend, Atari renamed I have a question. “Have you played Atari today?” the VCS the 2600. When the Fairchild Channel F came along, Atari realized The 2600 got a shot in the arm in 1982 with the release of that the market for home videogame consoles that could Pac-Man. Department stores around the world promoted only play one game, like Pong, was fading fast. So, in 1976, the new game, holding Pac-Man contests, and kids loved it. Atari frantically started working on Critics, however, pointed out that project "Stella," a new cartridge- Atari probably threw the game to- based home videogame system. gether quickly and didn't care about As the project neared completion its quality. Atari knew a home version Nolan Bushnell (founder of Atari) ran of the arcade smash would have sold out of money, so he sold the com- well no matter what. Although Pac- pany to Warner Communications for Man was a bigger seller, some cus- $28 million (October 1976). Warner tomers had their faith in Atari shaken sunk over $100 million into Atari, expecting Stella (now after experiencing this terrible translation of the game.