Page 41 - OSG Presents Classic Gamer Magazine #1

THE 23rd PSALM of BIRA BIRA side Columbus, Ohio, collector was dismayed to find that they had
Bira Bira is my shepherd; I shall not Robert Batina found a carved switched to ALL CLOTHING!
want. He maketh me to lie down in wooden figure lying amongst a pile While lamenting his bad luck, he
thrift store bins; he leadeth me be- of rare Atari cartridges inside a ventured on to the next thrift store.
side the piles of URs; he restoreth Tupperware bowl. Being in a This time he remembered the
my Supercharger; he leadeth me in hurry, he grabbed the bowl of car- wooden statue. He grabbed it,
the path of functional 4k Rom tridges (including the wooden gave it a rub for good luck and en-
dumps. statue) and purchased its entire tered the store. Jackpot! There he
Yea, though I search through the contents. When he searched the found a Channel F system with ten
bins of the shadow of Pac Man, I bowl he found several hard to find games - for only ten dollars! The
will fear no OCs; for thou art powers of BIRA BIRA had been
with me; thy Q-Bert Cubes unleashed!
and thy Cosmic Avenger they He scanned an image of BIRA
comfort me. Thou preparest BIRA, placed it on the Internet and
an Atari 2600 for me in the asked people to explain what its
presence of Mike N., Paul S., origin might be (and to feel free to
etc...; thou anointest my carts channel the powers of the wooden
with isopropyl alcohol; my image in their quest for classic sys-
VGR list runneth over. Surely tems and games).
MagiCard and Tempest prototypes games for the Atari VCS: Brain People did. And The Believers
shall follow me all the days of my Games, Strawberry Shortcake, were rewarded. Collectors who
collecting; and I will Chase the Starmaster, MASH, Crypts of used the image found new boun-
Chuckwagon in the Reef Store of Chaos, Revenge of the Beefsteak ties of old video games. Vectrexes
Bira Bira forever.
A thought. He also inspected the ventories grew exponentially and
Tomatoes, Commando Raid, and
appeared where there were none
Miniature Golf. A good find, he
- Chris “Crackers” Cracknell
before. XONOX Double Enders in-

wooden figure more closely.
where there were droughts in thrift

stores, it now rained Intellivisions.
The Believers were happy. A small
As Robert described it:
s collectors of classic
videogames we know
width of an Atari cart, and almost
born.
how frustrating it can be when we “It is about as wide as half the “church” (and cottage industry) was
hit upon a dry period of finding as tall as the length of 2 Atari carts. Chris Cracknell borrowed the
classic cartridges and game sys- It is light wood, with a very dark original BIRA BIRA statue from
tems. We know the feeling of stain applied to it, with carvings all Robert and made plaster replicas
wanting to spit nails when seeing over it, making it appear as some (with instructions), which he now
the mother lode of rare cartridges sort of warrior, with a large menac- sells for $5.00 a pop. He has also
walk off with somebody else at the ing face and an amulet. And, on written an original game for the
local flea market. We’ve even the back of the figure, there is a Atari 2600 entitled “Rescue BIRA
gone as far as appealing to a carving that appears to say: "BIRA BIRA” (actually it’s a modified ver-
higher power to end this rare car- BIRA" sion of an “X” rated game, “Jungle
tridge drought. Apparently we’ve Fever”) including original label art-
been appealing to the wrong higher Not thinking too much of it at the work and an instruction manual.
power. time, Robert went to the next thrift He’s even seen fit to write a comic
While visiting a thrift store out- store he regulars for classics and strip about BIRA BIRA and his arch
Classic Gamer Magazine Fall 1999 41