Retail price? $7.99. For you? Fifty cents.

In the early-mid 1990s, I regularly made trips to Toys ‘R’ Us to pick through their video game clearance section. It was then that I built up the foundations of my fast-growing vintage game collection.

I had a blast when they started clearing out their NES items — for example, I picked up Kirby’s Adventure for $10 and a whole bunch of unopened NES accessories like controllers and cleaning kits from that time for a mere pittance (I still have about four new-in-box NES Advantages from that time that I bought for $2 a piece). This is the same place where I bought the Virtual Boy and Sega 32X new in their boxes for about $30 a piece. Man, those were the days.

One day while browsing the store’s video game strategy guide rack, I noticed this forlorn and chronically passed-over hint book for Ultima: Exodus, a poorly received port of the PC classic Ultima III for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The copyright date in the back said 1989, and by the look of the discount stickers on the front, it appeared the booklet had been sitting on the shelf since that time. After five years of neglect, its cover had become scuffed, dirty, and mysteriously ink-stained on one corner.

The book’s binding was off-kilter when I bought it for the low low price of 50-cents, which may be why consumers passed it up in favor of non-defective printings of the same book. On the other hand, they may have simply passed it up because the associated game wasn’t too popular.

Discussion Topic of the Week: When’s the last time you bought a physical paper hint book for a video game?

Up now on Technologizer.com is my recent interview with John Linnell of the tech-savvy rock band They Might Be Giants. Linnell and I discussed his personal computer and video game history, how he’s integrated computers into his music career, a fierce Tetris addiction, and gruesome encounters with X-Acto knives. I hope you enjoy it.

By they way — Happy Birthday to Mr. Linnell, who turned 52 yesterday.

GET INTO THE GAME. YEEEEAAAAHHH

By golly. Has it really been 11 years since the PlayStation 2 came out? Sony launched the massively successful console in Japan on March 4th, 2000, making the platform one of the longest-lived in history. Games are still being made for it (one of its most recent releases, WWE All Stars, landed in March of this year), and the console hardware is still in production.

During this week of E3, which will include a new console announcement, it’s interesting to look back a decade to the launch of this massively successful machine. The early ad for the PS2 you see above was published not by Sony, but by Target to promote its availability in its stores. It just goes to show how closely hardware vendors and retailers must work together to make every new video game console launch a success.

Discussion Topic of the Week: When did you first get a PlayStation 2? What was the first game you bought for it?

Oh Tammy Sue, How I Adore You

How do you make a handheld controller into a non-handheld controller? By strapping on a giant block of unwieldy plastic, of course.

The Stick Station (subject of a RSOTW in 2006) achieved the same feat by using a large poplar board. The result was far more stylish than the Video Rack, but equally useless.

While there may be a handful of games that benefit from an immovable joystick base (like an arcade machine), they’re in such a minority that they don’t warrant a special peripheral. I back up this observation by the fact that the Video Rack and Stick Station are exceedingly rare peripherals. If everybody had wanted one, they’d be common today.

There is one one notable case, however, where a joystick stabilizer really helps. Atari shipped a special dual-joystick mount with every copy of Robotron 2084 for the Atari 8-bit computer line. I have one, and it is awesome.

Discussion Topic of the Week: In your opinion, what video games would benefit from using the Video Rack?

Up now on PCMag is a slideshow I made showcasing 10 unreleased video game consoles. I hope you enjoy it.

Do you know of any cool unreleased game systems that I didn’t mention? Tell us about them in the comments below.

“Lets You Use Your Game Boy In The Dark.” (see back)

Discussion Topic of the Week: Did you use any accessories with your Game Boy back in the day? Which ones?

They came out of the blue of the black sky.

Discussion Topic of the Week: What’s your favorite 2D space shooter of all time?

In Memoriam: Gerald A. Lawson (1940-2011), black video game pioneer.

I am very saddened to announce the passing of a truly important figure in the history of video games. Jerry Lawson died Saturday morning, April 9th, 2011, at the age of 70.

Lawson was notable not only for being a rare African American electronic engineer in Silicon Valley, but also for leading the team that created the world’s first ROM cartridge-based video game console. I speak, of course, of the Fairchild Channel F, which hit the market in August 1976.

Lawson did an interview for this site in 2009, and I am proud to say that the feature brought this amazing man some long overdue recognition. The IGDA honored Lawson’s contributions to the industry during an informal session at this year’s Game Developer’s Conference on March 4th, 2011.

I heard the news of Lawson’s death only this afternoon from David Erhart, a personal friend of Lawson. Erhart tells me that he and Lawson were planning to go to a ham radio swap meet Saturday morning, but he received a call from Jerry’s wife on Friday night telling him that Lawson was in the ICU. The next morning, his wife phoned Erhart again to say that Lawson had died.

The cause of death is unknown to me at the moment, but I do know that Lawson struggled with severe diabetes for years. An obituary for Jerry is in the works, and I will post an update whenever I receive it (or a link to it).

Rest in peace, Jerry. Thank you for all you’ve done for us. History will not forget your name.

[Update (04/14/2011) – David Erhart was told by Lawson’s family that Lawson died of a heart attack. “He was feeling bad Wednesday afternoon/night as was taken to the hospital,” Erhart wrote in an email. “He then died at 6:15am Saturday morning.” This New York Times obituary quotes Lawson’s wife as saying that Lawson died from “complications of diabetes.”]

“Now you too can play Pool 1.5”

I have fond memories of Pool 1.5 for the Atari 8-bit computer line. I remember finding a neglected copy of it in the back of our Atari disk box as a kid and playing it for hours. Despite it’s age, I still enjoy playing Pool 1.5 more than any other billiards simulation.

The “1.5” designation in the name is interesting and somewhat unusual for a game. I assume it’s a version number, but I’ve never heard of, say, “Pool 1.0.” Maybe it’s a title that metaphorically suggests improvement on the real game of Pool, similar to how we say “Revolution 2.0” today. Or maybe not.

If you get a chance, you should try it out. The game holds up surprisingly well.

Discussion Topic of the Week: What’s your favorite pool/billiards video or computer game?

“Unleash the fury of the full force blast!”

Ah yes, Spawn: the game that launched a thousand thugs…directly off the roof of a building.

I’ll pause while you watch the video.

Aside from that slight programming snafu, Spawn is a passable, if graphically rich, platform beat-em-up for the Super NES. Does anybody out there own this game? How do you feel about it?

Discussion Topic of the Week: What’s your favorite comic book-based video game?