Nowadays, we receive so much mail that we'd spend our entire lives
if we attempt to respond to every single one of them. Therefore, we
thought we'd take the time and answer some of your questions here.
Is there a way I can play Atari 2600, computer
or classic arcade games on my computer?
This is probably the most often asked question. Instead of explaining
it here, check out Emulation 101
in our Other Sections area.
I have a broken Atari system / I have busted
joysticks / I'm missing the power supply for my Atari. Where can I
get it fixed; how can I find replacement parts?
Given that there are a billion possible problems with any electronics
device, we cannot possibly offer a sure-fire solution. We also don't
have time to deal with technical support nor do we fix broken systems
and controllers. If you're looking for a replacement part or accessory,
your search should start and end with
B&C Computervisions and
Best Electronics.
Atari computer enthusiasts should also check these two sites out.
I have 5200 controllers that don't work. Is
there a place that fixes them or sells replacement controllers?
Video 61 and
4Jay's sell
rebuilt controllers and also fix broken ones. They're your best bet.
What happened to Atari? Is this company
still in business? Will it come out with a new game machine or
computer?
In brief, Atari was split-up in 1984 following the market crash. Time
Warner kept the company's coin-op (arcade) division while selling off
its home console and computer divisions to Jack Tramiel (former head of
Commodore). Time Warner-owned Atari became Atari Games Corp. while the
Tramiel-owned Atari became Atari Corp. Atari Games was sold to arcade
giant Williams/Midway the early 90's, while Atari Corp. failed with its
Jaguar and Lynx machines and merged in 1996 with JTS, a hard disk
manufacturer. Finally, Hasbro came along in 1998 and purchased
Atari Corp. for a mere $5 million, and and released a slew of revamped
classic Atari hits for contemporary game machines and PCs. Hasbro
fell on hard times and sold off its entire interactive group (including
Atari) to French-owned Infogrames Entertainment. Similarly, Midway
was affected by the downturn in the coin-op market and has exited
from the arcade business -- which spelled the end of the Atari and
Bally brand names in the arcades.
Don't expect Infogrames-owned Atari to bring out a videogame machine
anytime soon -- if not forever. With multinational conglomerates such
as Sony and Microsoft vying for console supremacy, it's highly doubtful
that there will be room for another contender...
Where can I purchase Atari videogame consoles,
computers and games?
You can take the cheap route and scour your local flea markets, thrift
stores and garage sales; it's much more rewarding to find things yourself.
However, if you're pressed for time or would rather make your purchases
via the internet, you have a few options. The USENET Newsgroup
rec.games.video.classic,
rec.games.video.atari and
rec.games.video.marketplace
are three of the better sources in my experience. You might also want to introduce
yourself to the world of eBay, located at
http://www.ebay.com,
games can get pricey sometimes but you never know. Finally, you can always do a
web search for classic and Atari game dealers. Sorry, but we don't have the time
to direct each person to a dealer to cater to his or her specific needs; just do a
little bit of research and you should be able to find what you're looking for.
Classic gamers should start with
O'Shea Limited's Atari Cave,
who stock a nice selection of brand new 2600 and 7800 games for cheap.
Lynx and Jaguar gamers have three sources to choose from.
Telegames,
Go Atari and
Video Game Liquidators are
your best bet. Telegames has a good selection but their prices are on the high
side, while Video Game Liquidators have the best regular prices but with the
smallest repetoire of titles. Bits 'O Fun is somewhere in between, but they
occassionally have excellent sales that are hard to beat.
As for AGH, we are merely enthusiasts like our readers; therefore, we prefer
to trade rather than sell our extras. However, we do not have an overabundance
of stock of products nor is it our goal to cash in by profiting from sales --
we have better ways of making money. So you can try us and make us an offer,
but if we don't get back to you, you know why.
I'd love to get one of them cool Atari T-shirts that I
used to see all the time. Do you sell them or do you know where I can get one?
We don't have any extras for sale nor do we know of any place that offers authentic
Atari T-shirts (at the time of this writing.) A simple web search might prove otherwise,
of course.
Hey, I have a web page too! Can you link my homepage?
We have purposely avoided creating a massive directory of web sites for
several reasons. First of all, home pages come and go faster than a
baseball leaving the bat of Ken Griffey Jr. And besides, Lee Seitz has
a thorough link page at
http://fly.hiwaay.net/~lkseitz/cvg/nexus/,
which should be the starting point for classic and Atari games web searching.
Can I have your permission to use some scans and
graphics from your page?
Occasionally, we do grant permission for use of some of AGH's content.
However, we did not devote a ton of our time to create a web page, only
to have it available on everyone else's site. It wouldn't hurt to try
us, but as we noted earlier, we get flooded with e-mail on a daily
basis, so if your mail goes unanswered, we apologize.
Are there any others ways in which I can have
my questions answered?
We try to respond to all intelligent inquiries, but others may be in a better
position to answer your questions. We also suggest you consider posting to
the AGH Forum Message Board or USENET Newsgroups.
Don't get us wrong. We do appreciate e-mails from our visitors and love
receiving comments, suggestions, criticisms and words of praise. But we
are now to the point where we are incapable of responding to every single
e-mail we receive.
Due to the massive amount of email we receive each day,
coupled with the fact that we have lives outside of AGH, e-mails to us may go
unanswered. Sorry!
If you still would like to write us, click here
