The tokens I used to have...?

At one point in my life, I had a decent coin and game token collection. I guess I can say that now, because it got stolen out of my storage unit during 2018. I made the mistake of handing something so important to me to another only to never see it again.

I amassed the token collection from my 18 months at Showbiz Pizza Place in Columbus. I loved doing game pull and going through the coins. I collected a lot of Other tokens during that time. What I forgot I did at one point was write down a list of the unique tokens I had. To wit:

• Abra Kadabra Pizza Magic
• Gallatin Bank parking token
• Aladdin's Castle (picture)
• Putt Putt Plus
• The Palace
• American Amusement
• Chuck E Cheese Pizza Time Theatre
• Showbiz Pizza Place
• Gladieux Corporation
• Buckeye Game Room
• The Wizard Family Arcade
• Malibu Castle & Showboat
• Fun n Games
• Capt. Darrell's Oyster Bar & Game Room on the Boardwalk Daytona Beach, Florida
• Amusement Wampum
• Jupiter and Beyond
• Crazy C.A.T.S.
• Fair Play Pizza Theater
• Big City Game Room
• Station Break Family Amusement Centers
• Lincoln Lane Brunswick 2000
• Funway Freeway Officer Mohair
• Games People Play
• Show Rental
• Olds Pizza Connection
• Silverball Game Room
• Ellwest-Jolar Amusement Centers
• Electric Animal & Screen Door Co.
• Video Vibes
• Rocky's Gamerooms Russell, KY
• Circus Playhouse Food Emporium
• Fun Factory
• Burger King
• Lunar Landing
• Red Roof Inns
• Kings Video Columbus Square Bowling Palace
• Funtasia Family Amusement Centers
• Cedar Point Arcades
• Game Trek
• Arcade City
• Jim's Jukebox Junction
• Smorga Bob's Family Restaurant
• Twilight Zone Family Videogame Centers
• New Tech Amusements
• Kmart  RND Video Game Specialist
• Razz ma Tazz Pizza Palace
• Future Games Inc
• Play Palace Family Amusement Centers
• Fancie Annie's
• Paradise Books (ahem)
• Fantasia Family Electronic Game Centers
• The Game Room
• Six Flags Log Ride
• Major Magic's All Star Pizza Revue
• Red Baron Family Fun Center
• Coca Cola (?)
• Regina's Movies
• Old Town America's Good Time Family Entertainment Center
• Bally's Le Mans Family Fun Centers
• 1984 World's Fair Video Expo which had different designs such as Space Invaders, Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, and Ms. Pac-Man

Here's why we should keep the Daylight Saving Time changes

I understand the Senate has drawn up and proposed legislation to make Daylight Saving Time a permanent thing by Fall 2023. This is a bad idea and here's why.

1. Persons affected by Seasonal Affected Depression are greatly affected by the change in sunlight hours for the daytime hours they are typically awake and active. They are at risk if they experience less sunlight hours during the Winter months. There may be light therapies which try to take the place of sunlight but it's no guarantee to actually work.

2. Who's going to update all the obsolete technology still in use because they still serve a vital role and have the time change hard coded into their systems? How much will that cost? Who's going to force companies to 'fix' all of that? Not everything gets their time from Atomic Clock signals or wireless networks.

3. The time change is also a reminder to check your smoke alarm batteries and replace them. Not all safety alarms make noises when their battery is low. What better reminder could there be?

Nearly everyone who complains about setting their clocks and watches every time are selfish people who don't want to admit they don't know how to set their clocks or watches and don't care who else benefits from Standard Time or Daylight Saving. President George W Bush thought enough of Daylight Saving Time for him to get it extended 2 weeks during his tenure.

Our planet dictates how many sunlight hours we get at any point in its orbit around our sun and while the tilt affects seasonal change, it's not going to straighten up during our time. It's our job to recognize what we're given and make the best of it. Keep the time change practice the law of our land.

A quick and dirty "Chess" program in Atari BASIC

Since firing up my 600XL and archiving my first few floppies, I've been hanging around the AtariAge forums. I ran across one person's post about a small chess program they wrote when they were 8 and over 30 years later they rewrote it from memory. I grabbed the screen captures and in Altirra, revised the code into just 10 lines. They were from Spain methinks so the pieces have different names. 

This is also me testing my Alcatel 4G data connection to send photos and posts to my blog again. For some reason the previous phone lost that ability.

A Productive Night with my Atari 800XL

For the first time in over 18 years I finally hooked my Atari 800XL up to my TV via composite video from a monitor cable and a power supply from The Brewing Academy. The last time it had been powered on was August 2003 when we were moving out of the Euclid Avenue house which my mom lost due to foreclosure from taking out a 2nd mortgage after running up her credit cards while suffering from Bipolar Manic Depression. She had been injured on the job and was waiting for disability to kick in while fending off People's Credit Card filing a lawsuit against her in Alliance Municipal Court over $3,000 she owed them. There's a much longer story to be told, some of it involving an evil sister thief who stole from their own family.

We moved into my grandparents' house to hide / wait things out. It was the last time I had used my Atari 800XL for translating manga and lots of other various tasks which I managed to do with it. It got disconnected and boxed up.  What happened was my mom buying a Windows XP Dell desktop computer. I still used WebTV and then I got the Toshiba Satellite 440CDX Windows 95 laptop to use. 

It was also the last time I got to use an Atari 1040ST which I somehow sold to a friend.

There were things about my 800XL which I forgot about and will hopefully fix like the Joystick ports. They're loose and probably need the solder reflowed. I haven't opened it up since I installed the 256K RAMbo XL upgrade. And after testing a box of software cartridges, I have a cartridge slot to clean out. They all eventually worked, but only after going through them all a couple times. I will likely clean the cartridges, too.

I miss using my Atari 8-bit. Thankfully I also found AtariArtist to go with my Touch Tablet. Hopefully I also have the light pen software. Computereyes became obsolete for capturing images off analog video. I feel bad for ruining our first VCR using it.

At any rate, it was good to see it turn on and work again. Though one of the dome switches I soldered to one joystick PCB will need to be replaced. It got obliterated in testing.

It would also be nice if The Brewing Academy would include a card indicating while the yellow plug is Composite (come POZ zit) Video, Black is audio.