It should come as no surprise to my regular readers that I like to foster a sense of community around Vintage Computing and Gaming; I believe that the main strength of any publication lies in its readership, and VC&G is blessed with an exceptionally intelligent, resourceful, and creative one.

As a historian, I like to help people reconnect with and rediscover the past. But I can’t do it alone — we need to stick together. That’s why I’m announcing a new contest to promote activity on the VC&G Discussion Forum, an oft-neglected part of the site. Anyone can enter the contest by registering for an account on the forum and posting.

The Prizes (and How to Win Them)

For this contest, we’ve received prize donations from three generous sponsors: AtariMax, ACube Systems, and Jakks Pacific. There will be five prizes total: three grand prize winners and two runners-up prize winners.

The Gaming Prize

Awarded to the creator of the new VC&G forum topic with the most replies in the “Gaming” section of the forum.

Grand Prize:
AtariMax 128-in-1 ColecoVision Flash Multicart
Courtesy of AtariMax

The Atarimax “ColecoVision 128-in-1 Flash MultiCart” is a professionally produced 128-in-1 ColecoVision /ADAM compatible Flash Multi-Cart with an on-screen game menu and a fast USB flash programming interface. The cartridge includes professionally produced Multi-Cart Studio PC Software and custom device drivers for Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows ME and Windows 98. Each cartridge can hold up to 127 of your favorite ColecoVision games, plus on-screen menu and diagnostic software. Each cartridge contains a USB port for adding and removing games using your PC, plus a Reset button to return you to the games menu without having to turn your ColecoVision off and on again.

Runner-Up:
Arcade Gold Pac-Man Plug & Play TV Games Unit
Courtesy of Jakks Pacific

This neat TV-games unit features eight classic Namco arcade games: Pac-Man, Super Pac-Man, Pac & Pal, Pac-Man Plus, Galaxian, Dig Dug, New Rally-X, Bosconian. It plugs directly into your TV set and runs off of AA batteries. Like Jakks Pacific’s previous TV Games joysticks that I’ve reviewed, this one is a winner.

Tips for Winning: Post thoughtful, interesting, or provocative topics that inspire people to reply. There’s no limit to the amount of topics you can post, so feel free to try your hand as many times as you like.

The Computing Prize

Awarded to the creator of the new VC&G forum topic with the most replies in the “Computing” section of the forum.

Grand Prize:
ACube MiniMig Amiga 500 Emulator Board and Power Supply
Courtesy of ACube Systems

The ACube Minimig is a cutting-edge reproduction of the classic Amiga 500 computer using modern technology. Using a 68K processor core on a FPGA chip, the Minimig can run all Amiga 500 programs natively with 100% accuracy. Better yet, programs can be loaded off of flash memory cards and displayed on a VGA monitor. The Minimig is a limited-run item, usually back-ordered from here to kingdom come, but I’ve managed to secure one and a power supply for the winner.

Runner-Up:
Arcade Gold Pac-Man Plug & Play TV Games Unit
Courtesy of Jakks Pacific

This neat TV-games unit features eight classic Namco arcade games: Pac-Man, Super Pac-Man, Pac & Pal, Pac-Man Plus, Galaxian, Dig Dug, New Rally-X, Bosconian. It plugs directly into your TV set and runs off of AA batteries. Like Jakks Pacific’s previous TV Games joysticks that I’ve reviewed, this one is a winner.

Tips for Winning: Post thoughtful, interesting, or provocative topics that inspire people to reply. There’s no limit to the amount of topics you can post, so feel free to try your hand as many times as you like.

The “Postmaster” Prize

Awarded to the forum member who creates the most VC&G forum posts in any topic or category during the duration of the contest. (A “post” is a new topic or a reply to previous topic. Replies to pre-contest topics count as well.)

Grand Prize:
One NES DVD player, lovingly handcrafted by Benj Edwards
Courtesy of the Author

A few years ago, I created a NES DVD player hack for a popular article on VC&G. This prize will be very similar (albeit improved) in craftsmanship and capability to the NES DVD player featured in that article. The original player was sold on eBay in July 2006.

No Runner-Up

Tips for Winning: Post as much as possible (and as on-topic as possible, so that your posts will count).

Sound good? Well join now and start posting. You have one month — until June 19th, 2008 — to make your mark.

Official 2008 VC&G Forum Contest Rules

1. Anyone can enter the contest by registering for an account on the forum and posting messages therein at any time during the contest. The contest begins today, May 19th, 2008.
2. Current members of the forum may participate in the contest, but previous posts and topics created prior to 12 AM EDT on May 19th, 2008 will not count towards the contest. In other words, every one starts on even ground.
3. Contestants must reside in North America, South America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, or Japan to win prizes. This is because of shipping concerns. Also, contestants must be able to legally receive the above prizes through the mail without extra duties, tariffs, or taxes.
4. I reserve the right to disqualify any forum member from the contest at any time, at my discretion. I also reserve the right to move, moderate, or delete posts or topics that I feel are misplaced or not in the best interest of the forum.
5. Posts containing obvious flamebait, personal character attacks, useless filler characters, or SPAM will not be counted in the final contest result totals.
6. Topics split by a moderator do not count towards the “Gaming” or “Computing” prizes, as they are technically topics created by me. However, all posts in them still count towards the “Postmaster” prize.
7. Results for the contest (final post counts) will be tallied after 12 AM midnight Eastern Standard Time (UTC – 4 hours) on June 20th, 2008. The winners will be announced in a post on VC&G before June 22nd, 2008.
8. At the conclusion of the contest, I will contact the winners personally, and prizes will be shipped out to the winners through the mail or a private parcel service. Shipping costs for prizes will be paid by the sponsors or myself.
9. Have fun. Remember that we’re trying to jump-start a community, so please make posts with that in mind.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 19th, 2008 at 9:00 am and is filed under News & Current Events, Retrogaming, VC&G Announcements, Vintage Computing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.