Gauntlet: The Third Encounter.

Never thought of or even heard of this game before Engadget made the claim that the Android logo was ganked from it, but it looks super fun.

Well, except for the fact that apparently you had to hold the system sideways to play it.



Holy crap that looks frustrating.

In Which Ralf23 Is A Creepy Internet Stalker, And Invites You To Be, Too.

So recently, the website Openbook came to my attention. It's a search engine specifically for Facebook status updates. It's motto "Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life. Whether you want to or not." invokes an ominous tone, so I guess it's supposed to be making a statement about online privacy or something. But then, I've never been quite sure how private people really wanted or expected Facebook status updates and other forms of Twitter-esque microblogging to be. In any case, I'm pretty much on the fence on whether this thing is really creepy, or just kinda creepy in an an obtuse, indirect way.

In the interest of journalistic integrity, I decided to spy on myself first, and compare notes with the rest of the Facebook community regarding opinions on that new Windows 7 commercial (where they included an overdubbed and re-appropriated version of the "Zombie Vs. Shark" viral video). I'm not particularly reassured by my findings.

For entertainment purposes, I've plugged in searches for favorite Dorkstuff topics (mostly vintage computers/games) and got a surprising number of relevant hits for many of them. I was actually trying to see how obscure I could get with a couple of them, but apparently people still dig 8-bit stuff on Facebook. Check it out:

23 Enigma (Hey, there's me again!)
Apple ][e, ][c, ][gs
Atari 2600
Castlevania
Clash At Demonhead
Commodore 64 (and related search "C64")
Rankin-Bass
Ren And Stimpy
River City Ransom
Sinclair ZX Spectrum
TRS-80
Turbografx 16

Local Austin Video Game Store Buys Corporate Giant.

Ausin, Tx video vintage video game store Game Over Videogames just announced that it purchased all retail outlets of Gamestop, increasing their number of locations from 3 to nearly 1000.

Post-It Note Atari.

Three Atari 2600 games (Pong, Breakout, and Missile Command) replicated using Post-It notes and stop-motion.

Don't Make Them Drag You Down To Club Centipede.

Wow. This commercial is pretty psychotic. I like the upbeat music playing as everyone is dragged underground to their deaths. A little bit of looking around, and it seems like this commercial is a sequel to this classic:

Massive Compendium Of Swordquest Goodness.

Here's a great site with all kinds of scans, solutions, and photos of the contest winners.

Dorktastic Photos Of The 1984 Atari 2600 Swordquest:Fireworld Championship.

Here is a site containing a brief summary and scans of pictures from the Championship Competition for the Atari 2600 game Swordquest Fireworld, including pics of the winner Michael Rideout with his prize, the chalice. Apparently the photos were discovered in a random shoebox of Atari games found in a thrift store.

Atari 2600 Rarity Guide

Provided by the excellent source of everything Atari (vintage and homebrew), AtariAge, here is an excellent rarity guide for collectors. It's a great source to roughly estimate how much you might have to pay to replace your childhood collection (HINT: usually not very much)

Or for someone such as myself to find that of my personal collection of about 140 games, only one rates even a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10 for rarity. Meh.

IT'S SATURDAY SUPERCADE TIME!

Happy Saturday!

And yes, that is Peter Cullen (Optimus Prime) announcing "It's Saturday Supercade!"

"Gimme An Atari 2600, and EVERYTHING That Comes With It!"