Ah, my old friend, Robotron 2084

Sorry, no posts for a while. Project Arcturus was quite time consuming this holiday season. I was rather surprised by the level of demand for almost all my items and the surprising price elasticity for many items (Favorite flip of the year…a DDR Mario mix game and dance pad bought for $52.50…36 hours later it sold for $145….Oddest flip:The Big Lebowski DVD Achiever's Edition Box set, which got really high prices on Ebay but it was easy to find in retail stores and the extras in this box set are rather weak (coasters/a towel?). I was, in my own opinion, rather haphazard and lazy this season in regards to getting things up and listed, but once they were up, almost all of them sold at prices of MY choosing,. I supposed that it is not too rough a life when you wake up at noon, check your email to see that you got $800 more than you did yesterday and then spend a few hours boxing up stuff-doing the postage and then carting then to the post office/UPS and then doing some retail recon for any new shipments of hot items.

As a part of my Project Arcturus duties, I spent a lot of time in Target stores. One of the things that made my holiday season duties more pleasurable was Target’s decision to sell this item for Christmas.

Midway Stand-Up Arcade Series 1

This thing is simulation of arcade cabinet with a dozen classic games running in it (it actually works off a large N64-like plug in cartridge). While a bit small (and the controls feel a bit chintzy and the game selection a bit weak at times (Bubbles?, Splat?), it does has the single greatest video arcade game EVER.

ROBOTRON 2084
If you never heard of it, you can find a write up about HERE. The game play works off two joysticks, one for movement and one for shooting, so you can simultaneously shoot and move independently at the same time and in any direction. Interestingly enough, this game was designed gaming god, Eugene Jarvis, who had just broken his both of arms and had limited mobility in his arms and fingers and wanted still work on a game while recovering…unlike most every other arcade game, this game does not require any button pushing). It is easily one of the most frantic games ever with an amazing sense of speed and peril. Shoot shoot move move move. This has been one of those games that I would always play if I came across it and have bought several iteration for home consoles (PSX, Saturn, N64) that did not live up to the arcade experience….although the recent release of Williams Arcade Treasures Vol 1 for the PS2 does a passable job using the dual shock joysticks. Almost every time I’m in Target I stop by the demo unit to play a game or two of Robotron and usually rank the top score (despite usually flaming out after level six or so). All I can say is that if there zen gaming state, Robotron puts me in it….That and I’m really going to be bummed when they pull out that demo unit. While playing it has it’s attractions, I think I save up for a proper MAME cabinet setup sometime down the road when I have more cash, space and a very understanding girlfriend/wife.

Of other gaming news, I saw my first Xbox 360 “in the wild” and available for purchase today at Target. There was a single 360 core unit (green box, sans the hard drive and wireless controllers) at my local Target.