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Environmental Discs of Tron Roadside Pickup

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Re: Environmental Discs of Tron Roadside Pickup

#81

Post by kemayo »

thombat wrote: post #49
cduzz wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may also be along the line of "Stan said he'd get that thing working, then he didn't, then he died of cancer leaving me with a bunch of unresolved crap to deal with, and I really miss him and I really hate him and I really miss him." or some similarly complex issue.

Absolutely this: for many people settling the estate of a close family member is such an exhausting chaos of emotion that the question becomes: should I take it all to the dump, or maybe just take myself there?

My spouse has been going to estate sales recently, and it's an incredibly macabre scene. You walk into a house whose owner recently died, everything looking still basically lived in, and price tags have been put up on their entire life.

Re: Environmental Discs of Tron Roadside Pickup

#82

Post by kemayo »

parpfish wrote: post #77
cpfohl wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You wildly underestimate how willing people are to avoid lose money in order to avoid the time and effort it takes to get rid of some kinds of stuff ;)

The hard to believe part isn’t that somebody was putting this cabinet on the curb to toss it. The hard to believe part is that this specific guy found it at this precise time/place

The specific guy being who he is was essential to him finding it, mind you -- the story says his niece mentioned it to him after seeing it a few blocks away, presumably because everyone knows he's "the Tron guy".

Imagine how many random time-limited opportunities exist around you like this that you just never hear about.

Re: Environmental Discs of Tron Roadside Pickup

#83

Post by joshstrange »

iamben wrote: post #5

What's the monetary value of a find like this? It always boggles my mind when people jump straight to "bin it" rather than "I'll see if anyone wants to buy it". I guess sometimes you just need the headspace!

> It always boggles my mind when people jump straight to "bin it" rather than "I'll see if anyone wants to buy it".

I think people underestimate the time and effort that goes into doing that. It's not as simple as "I'll see if anyone wants to buy it", now it's a project you have to manage. Not only do you have to deal with people contacting you about it but then you have to find a time/price/location that works for everyone and you get to deal with the long tail of "Is this still for sale?".

I mean for something like this I would absolutely put out feelers since I know there are people who would pay for it but in general I just donate stuff after posting in my friends chat to see if anyone wants it. It's just not worth the hassle, for myself it needs to be well over $100 before I try to sell it. Maybe that's "privilege", maybe that's "lazy", I don't know.

Re: Environmental Discs of Tron Roadside Pickup

#84

Post by aio2 »

markstos wrote: post #43

As someone who just bought 900 Pokémon cards at an unadvertised estate sale at a roadside Michigan blueberry stand, I can relate. We had just stopped by for blueberries. I happen to see a couple unlabeled sheets of paper tacked up in a corner with grainy scans of cards. I asked the old farmer if she has some for sale and she pulls out this massive binder of cards with many first edition and holo cards in very good co…

I feel bad for her sister.

Re: Environmental Discs of Tron Roadside Pickup

#85

Post by allenu »

elliottcarlson wrote: post #73

No where near as cool; but ages ago when I worked at Tumblr, and when we were expanding the office, they were going to throw out the MAME arcade cabinet - since I lived about 15 minutes walk away, I put it on a dolly with a coworker and we pushed that thing through Manhattan to my apartment building. Got some great looks from people as we tried to navigate it up and down curbs. Still have it over 8 years later sittin…

I have a similar story. I was working at Microsoft and part of the internal arcade alias. One day, somebody on there mentioned a team was moving buildings and had some arcade cabinets in their storage room that they had to get rid of, one of them being a Street Fighter II: CE cab. SF2 was my favorite arcade game as a kid, so I needed it. I asked how much and they said free.

I got excited and quickly rounded up some coworkers, one with a truck, to go down to their building and "rescue" it. It ended up in my office and needed a few repairs. Over time, I learned how to do minor repairs here and there and even did a monitor tube swap (found an old CRT TV at Goodwill that became the donor).

The thing is huge, so became a nuisance when I moved teams a few times. I got good at putting it on a dolly and transporting it myself from office to office. I left Microsoft years ago, but kept the machine and it's now sitting in my home office.

Re: Environmental Discs of Tron Roadside Pickup

#86

Post by RichardCA »

BashiBazouk wrote: post #54

That is a really nice find. I played this one extensively back in the day and it's one of the better games of the era but beyond that it's one of those games that really needs the custom controls. I got it set up on MAME but never found a control mapping that was pleasurable to play.

I got it to work in an acceptable way with an 8BitDo Pro 2. I control the movement of "Tron" via the right stick and the aiming cursor with the left D-pad.

The main thing I notice on the environmental version is the Sark voice acting, I still wonder if they actually got David Warner to do it. :)

Re: Environmental Discs of Tron Roadside Pickup

#87

Post by IceCreamJonsey »

sidewndr46 wrote: post #34
tibbon wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Large objects can be so hard to deal with that they are often discarded, regardless of theoretical price or value. Motorcycles, Hammond organs, etc. So often it might be worth quite a bit it someone in another location, but especially after someone dies, there often isn’t the energy to deal with it. So on the street it goes. You can find some people asking $6000 for a Hammond B3, but then someone can’t give away a D-…

Same thing with aquariums. If you want a 150 gallon you have to pay. If you want a 2000 gallon and are willing to go pick it up and move it, it's usually free.

Exact thing happened to me when I first started collecting arcade games. I was ready to sell a Xenophobe cabinet, which is a massive, awkward monstrosity. Took a huge "loss" on it but at the time needed it out of my house and only cared that a potential seller could help get it up the stairs. :)

Re: Environmental Discs of Tron Roadside Pickup

#88

Post by Reubachi »

markstos wrote: post #43

As someone who just bought 900 Pokémon cards at an unadvertised estate sale at a roadside Michigan blueberry stand, I can relate. We had just stopped by for blueberries. I happen to see a couple unlabeled sheets of paper tacked up in a corner with grainy scans of cards. I asked the old farmer if she has some for sale and she pulls out this massive binder of cards with many first edition and holo cards in very good co…

I hope you offered the proper/perceived value for them, and not the "cardboard" price

Re: Environmental Discs of Tron Roadside Pickup

#89

Post by Aloha »

peter_d_sherman wrote: post #27

Commentary: I am reminded of a quote: "The best things in life are free!" (Usually those things are such things as sunlight, oxygen, trees, water, flowers, grass, friendly small animals, human beings that express the best of humanity, etc., etc... but in this case it's sort of like a very specific subcase of a very specific subset of a very specific subcase of all of those other best things in life that are free... t…

In the same vein of thought free anything that you want always is more enjoyable than the same thing you had to pay for.

Re: Environmental Discs of Tron Roadside Pickup

#90

Post by johnvanommen »

toyg wrote: post #60
koz1000 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The more likely reason is that it was a test machine, as shown by the paperwork in the cabinet and the low play count. It was put on location for a few weeks to gather earnings data and then probably pulled back to the factory. A lot of those test/proto machines were then scrapped or sold at a very low price to someone on the design/production team if they had the means to take it home. Back in this era it was very r…

Lady doesn't want to talk about it -> the owner was some man who is not in her life anymore.

Might have just come with the house. I've purchased houses where the former owners didn't bother to move out anything big and clunky.
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