Ouchie! Sorry about that, superstar.

I'm not certain if the group displays your email address to anyone
unless it is a member when they receive an email from the group. Also,
we haven't had a new member sign up since March of '07. ;)

On the other hand, I use Gmail and Gtalk with voice and video.
According to my records, the last time I got any piece of spam in my
gmail inbox was August of '08 (they are so infrequent now as to be
almost nostalgic) and I have never seen any spam in Gtalk, though I
signed up for the service in 2003.

My address, jesset@..., has been virtually my only address for
the last seven years and I share it online with abandon. A Google
search for my email address provides over 100 results, while a search
for yours provides none.

So that's the story there. :D  I've went ahead and set group
membership to private. Is this what you meant?

Thank you SS, and I hope you have a wonderful holiday season!

- - Jesse

Would the moderator please consider making this group private? I'm
getting WAY too much spam on my yahoo IM. I don't use this name for
anything else so there's no other place they could get my ID from.

yes... they suck. i had a dream that i found a long lost series of rare
flipsiders that were
released in the late '70s. they were similar to the 80's ones, but colors were
drab and the
games more archaic. maybe i'm just wishing of a way to extend my obsession
indefinitely
("there have got to be more! somewhere!")

--- In mbflipsiders@yahoogroups.com, "Jesse Thompson" <jesset@...> wrote:
>
> Well, not that wierd. Aside from doing a fine job carving up a flipsider
> game designed for girls by 80's adults who were a bit myopic about teenage
> culture, I perceive some low self esteem issues from the blogger. They enjoy
> being derogatory in order to illicit attention.
>
> Of course I might not be so callous if their attitude did not remind me so
> much of a vintage 80's schoolyard bully, and/or if they did not (disrespect
> + own + refuse to sell) products we all happen to value highly. :)
>
> On 11/10/06, superstar <superstarlet_04@...> wrote:
> >
> >   someone has a blog about 80's stuff, and they have close up scans of
> > prom date, and talk
> > about the "guys" looking like david hasselhoff, etc. the weirdest part is
> > that they make fun of
> > gary fixler (i know you will see this.)
> >
> >
> > http://growinguptwisted.blogspot.com/2006/05/toys-from-vault-flipsiders.html
> >
> >
> >
>

someone has a blog about 80's stuff, and they have close up scans of prom date,
and talk
about the "guys"  looking like david hasselhoff, etc. the weirdest part is that
they make fun of
gary fixler (i know you will see this.)

http://growinguptwisted.blogspot.com/2006/05/toys-from-vault-flipsiders.html

That or perhaps Anjar's plans fell through. I haven't seen anything marketed yet. :(

Thanks for breaking the silence though. :)  I know that plenty units of the 80's line were sold. I'm amazed that they aren't being bought or sold more, on Ebay and the like.

On 20/06/06, superstar <superstarlet_04@...> wrote:

::crickets chirping::

where are these new flipsiders? another urban myth?

::crickets chirping::

where are these new flipsiders? another urban myth?

Sorry for not uploading these photos earlier, but I've been busy
moving furniture and cardboard boxes to my new apartment - which lacks
an Internet connection :)

Oh, and Dragon Master is up for grab @ ebay.co.uk!


My album:
http://games.ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/mbflipsiders/photos/browse/26f0

How ever did you work these magics!? I don't even know if I'm secure enough in
my masculinity to buy this one now that I finally see it :) I mean, Sean Astin,
Anthony Michael Hall, Kirk Cameron... they're all here! I think there's even one
of the guys from Menudo! I'm not sure why Sean Astin looks like present-day Sean
Astin, but then, Flipsiders were well ahead of the curve.

Thanks so much for locating these for the group! Now we have tangible evidence
of the real existence of all 12 known Flipsiders. I can sleep again.

-g

--- In mbflipsiders@yahoogroups.com, "superstar" <superstarlet_04@...> wrote:
>
> a little blurry but you get the idea:
>
> http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y216/ninnyc/flipsiders/3dc1a3d
> a.jpg
>
> http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y216/ninnyc/flipsiders/2493f34
> 4.jpg
>
> http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y216/ninnyc/flipsiders/4a900a
> 8b.jpg

a little blurry but you get the idea:

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y216/ninnyc/flipsiders/3dc1a3d
a.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y216/ninnyc/flipsiders/2493f34
4.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y216/ninnyc/flipsiders/4a900a
8b.jpg

You've outed me! Well, this may or may not come as a shock, but making working Flash versions of the games has been my goal since I started collecting them. It's one of the reasons I've been collecting them so fiercely - so I can bring all 12 to the world online. I've actually specifically been working on a Flash version of Rock Tour for a little while now! (been working a bit on Ghostly Estates as well). I'm something of a Flash junkie, as a search in Google Groups will show: http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%22gary+fixler%22

This has actually quite often happened to me, where I've been quietly working on a surprise thing in the background, and then had to come out with it when someone came up with the same idea :) The weirdest one ever (to me, at least) was when I was working on a method to create plantlife realistically using L-Systems in Flash for export to 3D formats that could be imported into Maya and other languages, and then 1 week after I got this fairly involved idea (and had much of a working library of code up and running), someone name Jon came up with the same idea in the Flash newsgroup, and announced that he would be starting up the same idea! More amazingly, he did this about 5 times over the next few weeks with every secret idea I had been working on at the time, and none of them were even remotely related. It got me paranoid, wondering if he was stalking me or something, but I guess we were just on multiple similar wavelengths.

What I've done so far, for the most realistic experience, is take 7.1MP images of the Rock Tour board in a nice setup, with the board and game held firmly in place with double-stick tape (only on the plastic areas!) so my hands wouldn't move them. It's almost 250 images, and just shy of 1GB of data (about 4MB each). It's always best to start with far greater resolution than your planned output for the best image quality. I've then been going in image by image and removing just the pieces and the area of the board they effect with their shadow, and color/specular reflections. These will be stored in a pieces movieclip in Flash, pre-aligned with their proper offsets. The reason for doing all this is not only for photographic realism of the boards, so you really feel like you're playing on the board, but also so the player doesn't have to view it from an unnatural top-down view. it will feel more like they're playing it from a natural seated position, while everything will still be readable. This necessitates some other things as well, like pictures where the pieces overlap in that POV's viewplane.

I've worked up a bit of the logic, too, on how the game will know how the rules work, so I include the option of either free play, wherein you can cheat, or do whatever you want with the pieces, like invent your own game, or have the computer only allow you to move the pieces to the valid places, if you want to have a cheat-free game. Some other things I've been experimenting with are getting a true-to-life version of the slider snap and spinner noises (this is very difficult, as the spinner noises especially aren't in the frequency response of most microphones), working with the 3D model and timed photographs to get appropriate looks for the blurred spinners, and realistically slowing-and-stopping spinners.

And of course, the reason I started building the 3D model was so that I could use some of the 3D engine stuff I've build in Flash in the past to have all sorts of sweet things happen. These include when you're choosing the game you want to play, having an interactively spinning version of the currently selected game spinning on the right, with info and such on the left, as happens in games like Tony Hawk, where your skateboarder is spinning on the right, and you can manipulate the spin to check out their outfit and board. Another thing I wanted to see was when you select the board, having it spin down from where it is in 3D, while the board is unfolding itself, finally coming to rest and fading into the position of where the photographed versions of the board are. Yet another idea I want to get in there is having multiple views, which of course requires taking hundreds of photos again from a new location while carefully moving the pieces around, but that's the kind of obsessive behavior I'm all about :)

I have also taken all the photos for a test run of Ghostly Estates, with the 3 pieces and the yellow item piece in every possible position, but I didn't like the lighting or setup for that one. This actually prompted me to start researching lights at my local photo store so I could get a mini product stage set up for cool lighting. I've been heavily considering putting a few recognizable 80s memorabilia pieces around the boards, so it not only feels like you're playing the Flipsiders, but are in fact, trapped in the 80s while doing so.

Anyway, sorry to jump all over the idea, but I have actually been working on it pretty heavily since January 10th, and felt that your announcement of the idea seemed like a good time to spill some of the beans.

-gary

--- In mbflipsiders@yahoogroups.com, "Jesse Thompson" <jesset@...> wrote:
>
> Hello!
>
> Welcome Aboard Superstarlet oh four. :)
>
> Since you've arived there appears to have been a flurry of
> information. As Gary mentioned, your collection is truly astounding.
> Espescially seeing multiple copies of some of these titles in your
> photo, I can actually hear people taking out their wallets ;)
>
> Short of owning them all, I could imagine the next best thing would be
> having these objects digitally realized. I know that Gary has modeled
> most of the working components of flipsiders in 3d. I think getting
> some high-res scans of these other games would also help in that end.
> I could imagine for instance importing such images into Flash
> presentations and making working versions of the games on the computer
> that way.
>
> The scans you have uploaded into the pictures section of the group are
> tres cool by the way! Are your originals higher resolution than how
> they display in the pictures section? Yahoo always downsamples
> whatever you put there. You can also upload them into the files
> section if you choose however, where they will luckily not be
> downsampled. :)
>
> So what think everyone else? High res board scans + (instructions x
> flash programming) = cool flash versions of the games?  I could fill
> in much of the "flash programming" part of the equation.. another part
> that would be helpful might be music and or sound though. Flash things
> just get inexplicably cooler when you add music and/or sound, and
> that's something I'm bad at. ;)
>
> And, I guess something I might try then would be to do that with Rock
> Tour or something since I have all the parts of the equation for that
> game. I'll let ye know. :)
>
> - - Jesse
>
> On 28/02/06, superstar <superstarlet_04@...> wrote:
> >  i'm highly doubting that the '93 games were flipsiders. they must have been
> > another
> >  similar game. there's too much info missing about them.
> >
> >
> >  --- In mbflipsiders@yahoogroups.com, "gary_fixler" <yahooSIGNUP@> wrote:
> >  >
> >  > I agree. What are they hiding? Was there some great Flipsiders War,
> >  > and the wounds are still too deep for anyone to want to revisit that
> >  > dark chapter? I think they're just trying to generate hype, and darn
> >  > it, it's working.
> >  >
> >  > -g
> >  >
> >  > --- In mbflipsiders@yahoogroups.com, "superstar" <superstarlet_04@>
> >  > wrote:
> >  > >
> >  > > i will not believe these actually exist until i see them. since
> >  > anjar,
> >  > > hasbro, MB or the inventor won't comment, the illusiveness
> >  > > makes them way more appealing... and frustrating.
> >  > >
> >  > > --- In mbflipsiders@yahoogroups.com, Gary Fixler
> >  > > <yahooSIGNUP@> wrote:
> >  > > >
> >  > > > Hmmm... When I got this email, I went to Jesse's mbflipsiders
> >  > > Yahoo!
> >  > > > group to reply, but though the screen says "49-78 of 79," the
> >  > > 79th
> >  > > > message isn't there. Did you delete it?
> >  > > >
> >  > > > Anyway, yes, that was my thread on BGG, wherein I was trying
> >  > > to get
> >  > > > any more info I could. I've been meaning to get that info over
> >  > > here,
> >  > > > but now that I see the dates over there, I can see work really
> >  > > has
> >  > > > gotten in the way, and time has flown past!
> >  > > >
> >  > > > That's my thread on BGG you found, which I started up when I
> >  > > noticed
> >  > > > the product ID numbers on my Flipsiders. I figured they could
> >  > > be used
> >  > > > to help track down the total number of Flipsiders out there, but
> >  > > as I
> >  > > > didn't have too many at the time, I still needed much help.
> >  > > Alfonzo
> >  > > > Smith was able to fill in some additional product IDs for me,
> >  > > > including that of the mythical Prom Date! He did duplicate the
> >  > > number
> >  > > > for Gold Fever and Road Rally as you can see, but I didn't want
> >  > > to get
> >  > > > pushy, since he had been one of my best sources of info
> >  > > already.
> >  > > > Unfortunately, with the common nouns used for the naming of
> >  > > the new
> >  > > > Flipsiders he listed, there was little I could search for online.
> >  > > The
> >  > > > only really oddly (and thus easily searchably) named one was
> >  > > > Caterpillar Causeway, but all that finds on Google is a few
> >  > > random
> >  > > > things, and now my thread on BGG. I searched out the rest, to
> >  > > no
> >  > > > avail. They are non-entities online, sadly.
> >  > > >
> >  > > > Since I've procrastinated long enough getting that info over
> >  > > here,
> >  > > > let's complete things. Thanks for the gentle nudge :) I will post
> >  > > the
> >  > > > info finally right now in a new thread with an easily findable
> >  > > topic
> >  > > > title.
> >  > > >
> >  > > > -g
> >  > > >
> >  > > > > i found this quote from someone on boardgamegeek about
> >  > > the 1993 flipsiders:
> >  > > >
> >  > > > > "I had a friend who was fond of the Flipsiders series so when
> >  > > they were discounted after
> >  > > > > being discountinued I wound up collecting them. When I
> >  > > catalogued my collection I was
> >  > > > > surprised to notice that the series was released by two
> >  > > different publishers. The ones with
> >  > > > > the 1988 copyright were released by Milton Bradley. The
> >  > > ones with a 1993 copyright were
> >  > > > > released by Diversified Specialists, Inc. (who?)
> >  > > >
> >  > > > > The newer games are:
> >  > > > > Caterpillar Causeway (#144172)
> >  > > > > River Run (#144185)
> >  > > > > Prized Pony (#144186)
> >  > > > > Alien Assault (#144200)
> >  > > > > Gold Fever (#144178)
> >  > > > > Road Rally (#144178)
> >  > > >
> >  > > > > There is a sticker on the back of these games that says
> >  > > "Distributed by West Coast
> >  > > > > Liquidators, Inc. Domiguez, CA 90220." This leads me to
> >  > > believe that the games were just
> >  > > > > dumped on the market and sold below cost."
> >  > > >
> >  > > >
> >  > > > > i've never heard or seen of any of these titles, ever. like
> >  > > aliens, do they really exist?
> >  >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >  ________________________________
> >  YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
> >
> >
> >  Visit your group "mbflipsiders" on the web.
> >
> >  To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> >  mbflipsiders-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
> >
> >  Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
> >
> >  ________________________________
> >
>

---

YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS

•  Visit your group "mbflipsiders" on the web.
   
•  To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
   mbflipsiders-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
   
•  Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.

---

You've outed me! Well, this may or may not come as a shock, but making working
Flash versions of the games has been my goal since I started collecting them.
It's one of the reasons I've been collecting them so fiercely - so I can bring
all 12 to the world online. I've actually specifically been working on a Flash
version of Rock Tour for a little while now! (been working a bit on Ghostly
Estates as well). I'm something of a Flash junkie, as a search in Google Groups
will show: http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%22gary+fixler%22

This has actually quite often happened to me, where I've been quietly working on
a surprise thing in the background, and then had to come out with it when
someone came up with the same idea :) The weirdest one ever (to me, at least)
was when I was working on a method to create plantlife realistically using
L-Systems in Flash for export to 3D formats that could be imported into Maya and
other languages, and then 1 week after I got this fairly involved idea (and had
much of a working library of code up and running), someone name Jon came up with
the same idea in the Flash newsgroup, and announced that he would be starting up
the same idea! More amazingly, he did this about 5 times over the next few weeks
with every secret idea I had been working on at the time, and none of them were
even remotely related. It got me paranoid, wondering if he was stalking me or
something, but I guess we were just on multiple similar wavelengths.

What I've done so far, for the most realistic experience, is take 7.1MP images
of the Rock Tour board in a nice setup, with the board and game held firmly in
place with double-stick tape (only on the plastic areas!) so my hands wouldn't
move them. It's almost 250 images, and just shy of 1GB of data (about 4MB each).
It's always best to start with far greater resolution than your planned output
for the best image quality. I've then been going in image by image and removing
just the pieces and the area of the board they effect with their shadow, and
color/specular reflections. These will be stored in a pieces movieclip in Flash,
pre-aligned with their proper offsets. The reason for doing all this is not only
for photographic realism of the boards, so you really feel like you're playing
on the board, but also so the player doesn't have to view it from an unnatural
top-down view. it will feel more like they're playing it from a natural seated
position, while everything will still be readable. This necessitates some other
things as well, like pictures where the pieces overlap in that POV's viewplane.

I've worked up a bit of the logic, too, on how the game will know how the rules
work, so I include the option of either free play, wherein you can cheat, or do
whatever you want with the pieces, like invent your own game, or have the
computer only allow you to move the pieces to the valid places, if you want to
have a cheat-free game. Some other things I've been experimenting with are
getting a true-to-life version of the slider snap and spinner noises (this is
very difficult, as the spinner noises especially aren't in the frequency
response of most microphones), working with the 3D model and timed photographs
to get appropriate looks for the blurred spinners, and realistically
slowing-and-stopping spinners.

And of course, the reason I started building the 3D model was so that I could
use some of the 3D engine stuff I've build in Flash in the past to have all
sorts of sweet things happen. These include when you're choosing the game you
want to play, having an interactively spinning version of the currently selected
game spinning on the right, with info and such on the left, as happens in games
like Tony Hawk, where your skateboarder is spinning on the right, and you can
manipulate the spin to check out their outfit and board. Another thing I wanted
to see was when you select the board, having it spin down from where it is in
3D, while the board is unfolding itself, finally coming to rest and fading into
the position of where the photographed versions of the board are. Yet another
idea I want to get in there is having multiple views, which of course requires
taking hundreds of photos again from a new location while carefully moving the
pieces around, but that's the kind of obsessive behavior I'm all about :)

I have also taken all the photos for a test run of Ghostly Estates, with the 3
pieces and the yellow item piece in every possible position, but I didn't like
the lighting or setup for that one. This actually prompted me to start
researching lights at my local photo store so I could get a mini product stage
set up for cool lighting. I've been heavily considering putting a few
recognizable 80s memorabilia pieces around the boards, so it not only feels like
you're playing the Flipsiders, but are in fact, trapped in the 80s while doing
so.

Anyway, sorry to jump all over the idea, but I have actually been working on it
pretty heavily since January 10th, and felt that your announcement of the idea
seemed like a good time to spill some of the beans.

-gary

--- In mbflipsiders@yahoogroups.com, "Jesse Thompson" <jesset@...> wrote:
>
> Hello!
>
> Welcome Aboard Superstarlet oh four. :)
>
> Since you've arived there appears to have been a flurry of
> information. As Gary mentioned, your collection is truly astounding.
> Espescially seeing multiple copies of some of these titles in your
> photo, I can actually hear people taking out their wallets ;)
>
> Short of owning them all, I could imagine the next best thing would be
> having these objects digitally realized. I know that Gary has modeled
> most of the working components of flipsiders in 3d. I think getting
> some high-res scans of these other games would also help in that end.
> I could imagine for instance importing such images into Flash
> presentations and making working versions of the games on the computer
> that way.
>
> The scans you have uploaded into the pictures section of the group are
> tres cool by the way! Are your originals higher resolution than how
> they display in the pictures section? Yahoo always downsamples
> whatever you put there. You can also upload them into the files
> section if you choose however, where they will luckily not be
> downsampled. :)
>
> So what think everyone else? High res board scans + (instructions x
> flash programming) = cool flash versions of the games?  I could fill
> in much of the "flash programming" part of the equation.. another part
> that would be helpful might be music and or sound though. Flash things
> just get inexplicably cooler when you add music and/or sound, and
> that's something I'm bad at. ;)
>
> And, I guess something I might try then would be to do that with Rock
> Tour or something since I have all the parts of the equation for that
> game. I'll let ye know. :)
>
> - - Jesse
>
> On 28/02/06, superstar <superstarlet_04@...> wrote:
> >  i'm highly doubting that the '93 games were flipsiders. they must have been
> > another
> >  similar game. there's too much info missing about them.
> >
> >
> >  --- In mbflipsiders@yahoogroups.com, "gary_fixler" <yahooSIGNUP@> wrote:
> >  >
> >  > I agree. What are they hiding? Was there some great Flipsiders War,
> >  > and the wounds are still too deep for anyone to want to revisit that
> >  > dark chapter? I think they're just trying to generate hype, and darn
> >  > it, it's working.
> >  >
> >  > -g
> >  >
> >  > --- In mbflipsiders@yahoogroups.com, "superstar" <superstarlet_04@>
> >  > wrote:
> >  > >
> >  > > i will not believe these actually exist until i see them. since
> >  > anjar,
> >  > > hasbro, MB or the inventor won't comment, the illusiveness
> >  > > makes them way more appealing... and frustrating.
> >  > >
> >  > > --- In mbflipsiders@yahoogroups.com, Gary Fixler
> >  > > <yahooSIGNUP@> wrote:
> >  > > >
> >  > > > Hmmm... When I got this email, I went to Jesse's mbflipsiders
> >  > > Yahoo!
> >  > > > group to reply, but though the screen says "49-78 of 79," the
> >  > > 79th
> >  > > > message isn't there. Did you delete it?
> >  > > >
> >  > > > Anyway, yes, that was my thread on BGG, wherein I was trying
> >  > > to get
> >  > > > any more info I could. I've been meaning to get that info over
> >  > > here,
> >  > > > but now that I see the dates over there, I can see work really
> >  > > has
> >  > > > gotten in the way, and time has flown past!
> >  > > >
> >  > > > That's my thread on BGG you found, which I started up when I
> >  > > noticed
> >  > > > the product ID numbers on my Flipsiders. I figured they could
> >  > > be used
> >  > > > to help track down the total number of Flipsiders out there, but
> >  > > as I
> >  > > > didn't have too many at the time, I still needed much help.
> >  > > Alfonzo
> >  > > > Smith was able to fill in some additional product IDs for me,
> >  > > > including that of the mythical Prom Date! He did duplicate the
> >  > > number
> >  > > > for Gold Fever and Road Rally as you can see, but I didn't want
> >  > > to get
> >  > > > pushy, since he had been one of my best sources of info
> >  > > already.
> >  > > > Unfortunately, with the common nouns used for the naming of
> >  > > the new
> >  > > > Flipsiders he listed, there was little I could search for online.
> >  > > The
> >  > > > only really oddly (and thus easily searchably) named one was
> >  > > > Caterpillar Causeway, but all that finds on Google is a few
> >  > > random
> >  > > > things, and now my thread on BGG. I searched out the rest, to
> >  > > no
> >  > > > avail. They are non-entities online, sadly.
> >  > > >
> >  > > > Since I've procrastinated long enough getting that info over
> >  > > here,
> >  > > > let's complete things. Thanks for the gentle nudge :) I will post
> >  > > the
> >  > > > info finally right now in a new thread with an easily findable
> >  > > topic
> >  > > > title.
> >  > > >
> >  > > > -g
> >  > > >
> >  > > > > i found this quote from someone on boardgamegeek about
> >  > > the 1993 flipsiders:
> >  > > >
> >  > > > > "I had a friend who was fond of the Flipsiders series so when
> >  > > they were discounted after
> >  > > > > being discountinued I wound up collecting them. When I
> >  > > catalogued my collection I was
> >  > > > > surprised to notice that the series was released by two
> >  > > different publishers. The ones with
> >  > > > > the 1988 copyright were released by Milton Bradley. The
> >  > > ones with a 1993 copyright were
> >  > > > > released by Diversified Specialists, Inc. (who?)
> >  > > >
> >  > > > > The newer games are:
> >  > > > > Caterpillar Causeway (#144172)
> >  > > > > River Run (#144185)
> >  > > > > Prized Pony (#144186)
> >  > > > > Alien Assault (#144200)
> >  > > > > Gold Fever (#144178)
> >  > > > > Road Rally (#144178)
> >  > > >
> >  > > > > There is a sticker on the back of these games that says
> >  > > "Distributed by West Coast
> >  > > > > Liquidators, Inc. Domiguez, CA 90220." This leads me to
> >  > > believe that the games were just
> >  > > > > dumped on the market and sold below cost."
> >  > > >
> >  > > >
> >  > > > > i've never heard or seen of any of these titles, ever. like
> >  > > aliens, do they really exist?
> >  >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >  ________________________________
> >  YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
> >
> >
> >  Visit your group "mbflipsiders" on the web.
> >
> >  To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> >  mbflipsiders-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
> >
> >  Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
> >
> >  ________________________________
> >
>

Hello!

Welcome Aboard Superstarlet oh four. :)

Since you've arived there appears to have been a flurry of
information. As Gary mentioned, your collection is truly astounding.
Espescially seeing multiple copies of some of these titles in your
photo, I can actually hear people taking out their wallets ;)

Short of owning them all, I could imagine the next best thing would be
having these objects digitally realized. I know that Gary has modeled
most of the working components of flipsiders in 3d. I think getting
some high-res scans of these other games would also help in that end.
I could imagine for instance importing such images into Flash
presentations and making working versions of the games on the computer
that way.

The scans you have uploaded into the pictures section of the group are
tres cool by the way! Are your originals higher resolution than how
they display in the pictures section? Yahoo always downsamples
whatever you put there. You can also upload them into the files
section if you choose however, where they will luckily not be
downsampled. :)

So what think everyone else? High res board scans + (instructions x
flash programming) = cool flash versions of the games?  I could fill
in much of the "flash programming" part of the equation.. another part
that would be helpful might be music and or sound though. Flash things
just get inexplicably cooler when you add music and/or sound, and
that's something I'm bad at. ;)

And, I guess something I might try then would be to do that with Rock
Tour or something since I have all the parts of the equation for that
game. I'll let ye know. :)

- - Jesse

On 28/02/06, superstar <superstarlet_04@...> wrote:
>  i'm highly doubting that the '93 games were flipsiders. they must have been
> another
>  similar game. there's too much info missing about them.
>
>
>  --- In mbflipsiders@yahoogroups.com, "gary_fixler" <yahooSIGNUP@...> wrote:
>  >
>  > I agree. What are they hiding? Was there some great Flipsiders War,
>  > and the wounds are still too deep for anyone to want to revisit that
>  > dark chapter? I think they're just trying to generate hype, and darn
>  > it, it's working.
>  >
>  > -g
>  >
>  > --- In mbflipsiders@yahoogroups.com, "superstar" <superstarlet_04@>
>  > wrote:
>  > >
>  > > i will not believe these actually exist until i see them. since
>  > anjar,
>  > > hasbro, MB or the inventor won't comment, the illusiveness
>  > > makes them way more appealing... and frustrating.
>  > >
>  > > --- In mbflipsiders@yahoogroups.com, Gary Fixler
>  > > <yahooSIGNUP@> wrote:
>  > > >
>  > > > Hmmm... When I got this email, I went to Jesse's mbflipsiders
>  > > Yahoo!
>  > > > group to reply, but though the screen says "49-78 of 79," the
>  > > 79th
>  > > > message isn't there. Did you delete it?
>  > > >
>  > > > Anyway, yes, that was my thread on BGG, wherein I was trying
>  > > to get
>  > > > any more info I could. I've been meaning to get that info over
>  > > here,
>  > > > but now that I see the dates over there, I can see work really
>  > > has
>  > > > gotten in the way, and time has flown past!
>  > > >
>  > > > That's my thread on BGG you found, which I started up when I
>  > > noticed
>  > > > the product ID numbers on my Flipsiders. I figured they could
>  > > be used
>  > > > to help track down the total number of Flipsiders out there, but
>  > > as I
>  > > > didn't have too many at the time, I still needed much help.
>  > > Alfonzo
>  > > > Smith was able to fill in some additional product IDs for me,
>  > > > including that of the mythical Prom Date! He did duplicate the
>  > > number
>  > > > for Gold Fever and Road Rally as you can see, but I didn't want
>  > > to get
>  > > > pushy, since he had been one of my best sources of info
>  > > already.
>  > > > Unfortunately, with the common nouns used for the naming of
>  > > the new
>  > > > Flipsiders he listed, there was little I could search for online.
>  > > The
>  > > > only really oddly (and thus easily searchably) named one was
>  > > > Caterpillar Causeway, but all that finds on Google is a few
>  > > random
>  > > > things, and now my thread on BGG. I searched out the rest, to
>  > > no
>  > > > avail. They are non-entities online, sadly.
>  > > >
>  > > > Since I've procrastinated long enough getting that info over
>  > > here,
>  > > > let's complete things. Thanks for the gentle nudge :) I will post
>  > > the
>  > > > info finally right now in a new thread with an easily findable
>  > > topic
>  > > > title.
>  > > >
>  > > > -g
>  > > >
>  > > > > i found this quote from someone on boardgamegeek about
>  > > the 1993 flipsiders:
>  > > >
>  > > > > "I had a friend who was fond of the Flipsiders series so when
>  > > they were discounted after
>  > > > > being discountinued I wound up collecting them. When I
>  > > catalogued my collection I was
>  > > > > surprised to notice that the series was released by two
>  > > different publishers. The ones with
>  > > > > the 1988 copyright were released by Milton Bradley. The
>  > > ones with a 1993 copyright were
>  > > > > released by Diversified Specialists, Inc. (who?)
>  > > >
>  > > > > The newer games are:
>  > > > > Caterpillar Causeway (#144172)
>  > > > > River Run (#144185)
>  > > > > Prized Pony (#144186)
>  > > > > Alien Assault (#144200)
>  > > > > Gold Fever (#144178)
>  > > > > Road Rally (#144178)
>  > > >
>  > > > > There is a sticker on the back of these games that says
>  > > "Distributed by West Coast
>  > > > > Liquidators, Inc. Domiguez, CA 90220." This leads me to
>  > > believe that the games were just
>  > > > > dumped on the market and sold below cost."
>  > > >
>  > > >
>  > > > > i've never heard or seen of any of these titles, ever. like
>  > > aliens, do they really exist?
>  >
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>  ________________________________
>  YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
>
>
>  Visit your group "mbflipsiders" on the web.
>
>  To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
>  mbflipsiders-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
>  Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
>
>  ________________________________
>

i'm highly doubting that the '93 games were flipsiders. they must have been
another
similar game. there's too much info missing about them.

--- In mbflipsiders@yahoogroups.com, "gary_fixler" <yahooSIGNUP@...> wrote:
>
> I agree. What are they hiding? Was there some great Flipsiders War,
> and the wounds are still too deep for anyone to want to revisit that
> dark chapter? I think they're just trying to generate hype, and darn
> it, it's working.
>
> -g
>
> --- In mbflipsiders@yahoogroups.com, "superstar" <superstarlet_04@>
> wrote:
> >
> > i will not believe these actually exist until i see them. since
> anjar,
> > hasbro, MB or the inventor won't comment, the illusiveness
> > makes them way more appealing... and frustrating.
> >
> > --- In mbflipsiders@yahoogroups.com, Gary Fixler
> > <yahooSIGNUP@> wrote:
> > >
> > > Hmmm... When I got this email, I went to Jesse's mbflipsiders
> > Yahoo!
> > > group to reply, but though the screen says "49-78 of 79," the
> > 79th
> > > message isn't there. Did you delete it?
> > >
> > > Anyway, yes, that was my thread on BGG, wherein I was trying
> > to get
> > > any more info I could. I've been meaning to get that info over
> > here,
> > > but now that I see the dates over there, I can see work really
> > has
> > > gotten in the way, and time has flown past!
> > >
> > > That's my thread on BGG you found, which I started up when I
> > noticed
> > > the product ID numbers on my Flipsiders. I figured they could
> > be used
> > > to help track down the total number of Flipsiders out there, but
> > as I
> > > didn't have too many at the time, I still needed much help.
> > Alfonzo
> > > Smith was able to fill in some additional product IDs for me,
> > > including that of the mythical Prom Date! He did duplicate the
> > number
> > > for Gold Fever and Road Rally as you can see, but I didn't want
> > to get
> > > pushy, since he had been one of my best sources of info
> > already.
> > > Unfortunately, with the common nouns used for the naming of
> > the new
> > > Flipsiders he listed, there was little I could search for online.
> > The
> > > only really oddly (and thus easily searchably) named one was
> > > Caterpillar Causeway, but all that finds on Google is a few
> > random
> > > things, and now my thread on BGG. I searched out the rest, to
> > no
> > > avail. They are non-entities online, sadly.
> > >
> > > Since I've procrastinated long enough getting that info over
> > here,
> > > let's complete things. Thanks for the gentle nudge :) I will post
> > the
> > > info finally right now in a new thread with an easily findable
> > topic
> > > title.
> > >
> > > -g
> > >
> > > > i found this quote from someone on boardgamegeek about
> > the 1993 flipsiders:
> > >
> > > > "I had a friend who was fond of the Flipsiders series so when
> > they were discounted after
> > > > being discountinued I wound up collecting them. When I
> > catalogued my collection I was
> > > > surprised to notice that the series was released by two
> > different publishers. The ones with
> > > > the 1988 copyright were released by Milton Bradley. The
> > ones with a 1993 copyright were
> > > > released by Diversified Specialists, Inc. (who?)
> > >
> > > > The newer games are:
> > > > Caterpillar Causeway (#144172)
> > > > River Run (#144185)
> > > > Prized Pony (#144186)
> > > > Alien Assault (#144200)
> > > > Gold Fever (#144178)
> > > > Road Rally (#144178)
> > >
> > > > There is a sticker on the back of these games that says
> > "Distributed by West Coast
> > > > Liquidators, Inc. Domiguez, CA 90220." This leads me to
> > believe that the games were just
> > > > dumped on the market and sold below cost."
> > >
> > >
> > > > i've never heard or seen of any of these titles, ever. like
> > aliens, do they really exist?
>

I agree. What are they hiding? Was there some great Flipsiders War,
and the wounds are still too deep for anyone to want to revisit that
dark chapter? I think they're just trying to generate hype, and darn
it, it's working.

-g

--- In mbflipsiders@yahoogroups.com, "superstar" <superstarlet_04@...>
wrote:
>
> i will not believe these actually exist until i see them. since
anjar,
> hasbro, MB or the inventor won't comment, the illusiveness
> makes them way more appealing... and frustrating.
>
> --- In mbflipsiders@yahoogroups.com, Gary Fixler
> <yahooSIGNUP@> wrote:
> >
> > Hmmm... When I got this email, I went to Jesse's mbflipsiders
> Yahoo!
> > group to reply, but though the screen says "49-78 of 79," the
> 79th
> > message isn't there. Did you delete it?
> >
> > Anyway, yes, that was my thread on BGG, wherein I was trying
> to get
> > any more info I could. I've been meaning to get that info over
> here,
> > but now that I see the dates over there, I can see work really
> has
> > gotten in the way, and time has flown past!
> >
> > That's my thread on BGG you found, which I started up when I
> noticed
> > the product ID numbers on my Flipsiders. I figured they could
> be used
> > to help track down the total number of Flipsiders out there, but
> as I
> > didn't have too many at the time, I still needed much help.
> Alfonzo
> > Smith was able to fill in some additional product IDs for me,
> > including that of the mythical Prom Date! He did duplicate the
> number
> > for Gold Fever and Road Rally as you can see, but I didn't want
> to get
> > pushy, since he had been one of my best sources of info
> already.
> > Unfortunately, with the common nouns used for the naming of
> the new
> > Flipsiders he listed, there was little I could search for online.
> The
> > only really oddly (and thus easily searchably) named one was
> > Caterpillar Causeway, but all that finds on Google is a few
> random
> > things, and now my thread on BGG. I searched out the rest, to
> no
> > avail. They are non-entities online, sadly.
> >
> > Since I've procrastinated long enough getting that info over
> here,
> > let's complete things. Thanks for the gentle nudge :) I will post
> the
> > info finally right now in a new thread with an easily findable
> topic
> > title.
> >
> > -g
> >
> > > i found this quote from someone on boardgamegeek about
> the 1993 flipsiders:
> >
> > > "I had a friend who was fond of the Flipsiders series so when
> they were discounted after
> > > being discountinued I wound up collecting them. When I
> catalogued my collection I was
> > > surprised to notice that the series was released by two
> different publishers. The ones with
> > > the 1988 copyright were released by Milton Bradley. The
> ones with a 1993 copyright were
> > > released by Diversified Specialists, Inc. (who?)
> >
> > > The newer games are:
> > > Caterpillar Causeway (#144172)
> > > River Run (#144185)
> > > Prized Pony (#144186)
> > > Alien Assault (#144200)
> > > Gold Fever (#144178)
> > > Road Rally (#144178)
> >
> > > There is a sticker on the back of these games that says
> "Distributed by West Coast
> > > Liquidators, Inc. Domiguez, CA 90220." This leads me to
> believe that the games were just
> > > dumped on the market and sold below cost."
> >
> >
> > > i've never heard or seen of any of these titles, ever. like
> aliens, do they really exist?

=-o !!!

You are such a superstar! I've had my own versions of what Danger Dive
and Slumber Party probably looked like in my head for so many months
now, and I have to say, these really aren't at all what I expected! :)
I don't know why I thought Danger Dive would be orange. It doesn't
really make sense, given that Dragon Master is orange, and the tapes
never match, and that the ocean is blue, but it's just always been
bright orange in my head. It's great to finally get to see them, and
you totally rock for scanning these in for us. Now 11/12 of my
curiosity has been satisfied at last. Once I finally see Prom Date, I
can get back to my regularly scheduled life.

Alright, I'm not quite *that* pathetic, but I definitely have spent an
unhealthy amount of time searching for these things. I like to have
obsessions. They're fun.

Thanks again!
-gary

--- In mbflipsiders@yahoogroups.com, "superstar" <superstarlet_04@...>
wrote:
>
> check the group photo album.

i will not believe these actually exist until i see them. since anjar,
hasbro, MB or the inventor won't comment, the illusiveness
makes them way more appealing... and frustrating.

--- In mbflipsiders@yahoogroups.com, Gary Fixler
<yahooSIGNUP@...> wrote:
>
> Hmmm... When I got this email, I went to Jesse's mbflipsiders
Yahoo!
> group to reply, but though the screen says "49-78 of 79," the
79th
> message isn't there. Did you delete it?
>
> Anyway, yes, that was my thread on BGG, wherein I was trying
to get
> any more info I could. I've been meaning to get that info over
here,
> but now that I see the dates over there, I can see work really
has
> gotten in the way, and time has flown past!
>
> That's my thread on BGG you found, which I started up when I
noticed
> the product ID numbers on my Flipsiders. I figured they could
be used
> to help track down the total number of Flipsiders out there, but
as I
> didn't have too many at the time, I still needed much help.
Alfonzo
> Smith was able to fill in some additional product IDs for me,
> including that of the mythical Prom Date! He did duplicate the
number
> for Gold Fever and Road Rally as you can see, but I didn't want
to get
> pushy, since he had been one of my best sources of info
already.
> Unfortunately, with the common nouns used for the naming of
the new
> Flipsiders he listed, there was little I could search for online.
The
> only really oddly (and thus easily searchably) named one was
> Caterpillar Causeway, but all that finds on Google is a few
random
> things, and now my thread on BGG. I searched out the rest, to
no
> avail. They are non-entities online, sadly.
>
> Since I've procrastinated long enough getting that info over
here,
> let's complete things. Thanks for the gentle nudge :) I will post
the
> info finally right now in a new thread with an easily findable
topic
> title.
>
> -g
>
> > i found this quote from someone on boardgamegeek about
the 1993 flipsiders:
>
> > "I had a friend who was fond of the Flipsiders series so when
they were discounted after
> > being discountinued I wound up collecting them. When I
catalogued my collection I was
> > surprised to notice that the series was released by two
different publishers. The ones with
> > the 1988 copyright were released by Milton Bradley. The
ones with a 1993 copyright were
> > released by Diversified Specialists, Inc. (who?)
>
> > The newer games are:
> > Caterpillar Causeway (#144172)
> > River Run (#144185)
> > Prized Pony (#144186)
> > Alien Assault (#144200)
> > Gold Fever (#144178)
> > Road Rally (#144178)
>
> > There is a sticker on the back of these games that says
"Distributed by West Coast
> > Liquidators, Inc. Domiguez, CA 90220." This leads me to
believe that the games were just
> > dumped on the market and sold below cost."
>
>
> > i've never heard or seen of any of these titles, ever. like
aliens, do they really exist?
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > Yahoo! Groups Links
>

check the group photo album.

Hello group,

Superstarlet_04's sleuthing has uncovered a now aging thread of mine on
BoardGameGeek wherein I asked about product IDs of the Flipsiders, once I
noticed them on the ones I had. I figured this could be used to glean the rest
of the supposed "*Now over 20 great games!" list of which ones were out there.
All my detective work had only ever uncovered 12 names, be it through people
I've talked with, my own collection, the info I've found here and on
BoardGameGeek, and the instruction manuals available at Milton Bradley's section
of the company that bought them - Hasbro's site. Most of these places don't have
a full listing of even the 12 I know about. I have written to Hasbro for more
info, but got a pretty typical response that as the games are no longer sold,
they don't have any info, and can't help me. They did actually suggest scouring
the "secondary market," i.e. Ebay and the like (as though I hadn't thoroughly :)

Thanks to some help from Alfonzo Smith on BoardGameGeek at the thread previously
mentioned, I've tracked down the little product ID numbers printed on the face
labels of the Flipsiders. Here's what I've found:


The 12 "known" Flipsiders, with their product IDs are:

4821 Checkered Flag
4822 Rock Tour
4823 Chopper Chase
4824 Mall Madness
4825 Dragon Master
4826 Scavenger's Gold

4827-7 Tank Battle
4827-8 Danger Dive
4827-9 Prom Date
4827-10 Slumber Party
4827-11 Ghostly Estates
4827-12 Rocket Race

The first 6 were released in the US in 1987, and bear the ©1987 by M.B. Co.
information on their labels. Of the second set ones that I've seen ("Ghostly
Estates," "Tank Battle," and "Rocket Race"), all bear the ©1988 version of the
copyright info. I have the unopened, packaged versions of "Scavenger's Gold,"
"Dragon Master," "Checkered Flag," and "Chopper Chase," all from the original 6,
and each lists the other 5 of the first 6 on their back as "More fun Flipsiders
to collect!" I haven't yet seen the packaging of any of the '88 set, and have
only seen the three I mentioned above, so I can't confirm that they were '88, or
that their numbers are what I have listed, though I believe them to be.

Superstarlet_04 - You have two I've never seen, so maybe you can confirm. Do
your versions of Danger Dive and Slumber Party have the numbers 4827-8 and
4827-9 on them, respectively? These are the numbers I got from Alfonzo in BGG,
and I do trust them, but it would be nice to confirm them from someone in here
that we know has actual copies.

According to Alfonzo on BGG, these are the additional Flipsiders, released in
1993 through "Diversified Specialists." Here is that list, though I can't
confirm their existence, that they were in fact Flipsiders, or that this info is
correct:

Caterpillar Causeway (#144172)
River Run (#144185)
Prized Pony (#144186)
Alien Assault (#144200)
Gold Fever (#144178)
Road Rally (#144178)

It is an additional batch of 6. Obviously the ID numbers on the last 2 have been
accidentally duplicated, but that's all I know of these. Anyone else have any
info?

For posterity, the link to the BGG thread with this info and more is:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/95767

As usual, I was hoping even more info would turn up, but any info ever is good
info, and I'm grateful to Alfonzo for helping out as much as he did. You'll
notice in that thread that I scanned in the instructions for Dragon Master for
him, which I'm kicking myself for now, as it didn't get me photos of the ones I
was missing (I was kinda hoping we'd barter a bit for info), and because I had
to carefully x-acto open my only mint, unopened copy to slide out the
instructions for the scanning. The really painful part of that story is that
I've just recently been made aware that scanned copies of Dragon Master
instructions are here. Ah well. I did make him much higher res versions, and in
multiple layout formats, so I will provide that link here, also for posterity.
If it's posible, Jesse, you're more than welcome to upload my versions to the
site here under the Files section.

Dragon Master instructions scanned in by me:
http://www.garyfixler.com/Flipsiders/DragonMaster/instructions

I actually quite a bit more info I've been cooking up in the background along
with this stuff, so I'll do my best to get that here when it's finished up.
Thanks again!

-gary

Hmmm... When I got this email, I went to Jesse's mbflipsiders Yahoo!
group to reply, but though the screen says "49-78 of 79," the 79th
message isn't there. Did you delete it?

Anyway, yes, that was my thread on BGG, wherein I was trying to get
any more info I could. I've been meaning to get that info over here,
but now that I see the dates over there, I can see work really has
gotten in the way, and time has flown past!

That's my thread on BGG you found, which I started up when I noticed
the product ID numbers on my Flipsiders. I figured they could be used
to help track down the total number of Flipsiders out there, but as I
didn't have too many at the time, I still needed much help. Alfonzo
Smith was able to fill in some additional product IDs for me,
including that of the mythical Prom Date! He did duplicate the number
for Gold Fever and Road Rally as you can see, but I didn't want to get
pushy, since he had been one of my best sources of info already.
Unfortunately, with the common nouns used for the naming of the new
Flipsiders he listed, there was little I could search for online. The
only really oddly (and thus easily searchably) named one was
Caterpillar Causeway, but all that finds on Google is a few random
things, and now my thread on BGG. I searched out the rest, to no
avail. They are non-entities online, sadly.

Since I've procrastinated long enough getting that info over here,
let's complete things. Thanks for the gentle nudge :) I will post the
info finally right now in a new thread with an easily findable topic
title.

-g

> i found this quote from someone on boardgamegeek about the 1993 flipsiders:

> "I had a friend who was fond of the Flipsiders series so when they were
discounted after
> being discountinued I wound up collecting them. When I catalogued my
collection I was
> surprised to notice that the series was released by two different publishers.
The ones with
> the 1988 copyright were released by Milton Bradley. The ones with a 1993
copyright were
> released by Diversified Specialists, Inc. (who?)

> The newer games are:
> Caterpillar Causeway (#144172)
> River Run (#144185)
> Prized Pony (#144186)
> Alien Assault (#144200)
> Gold Fever (#144178)
> Road Rally (#144178)

> There is a sticker on the back of these games that says "Distributed by West
Coast
> Liquidators, Inc. Domiguez, CA 90220." This leads me to believe that the games
were just
> dumped on the market and sold below cost."


> i've never heard or seen of any of these titles, ever. like aliens, do they
really exist?






> Yahoo! Groups Links

lol prom date "Mythical" . well i think that just about any of them are
mythical, it took me
years to amass the ones i have, and i hardly know anybody who has even heard of
them. i
will see about getting some scans for you.

--- In mbflipsiders@yahoogroups.com, "gary_fixler" <yahooSIGNUP@...> wrote:
>
> OMG! You actually have Slumber Party and Danger Dive!!! Consider
> yourself priveleged. I disagree with others in here that Checkered
> Flag is hard one to find. I can't seem to *stop* finding it, but I
> have never before seen even a picture of those first two, and I have
> done quite an absurd amount of research now. This is an exciting post
> to me, as I've searched so hard with no luck. It's nice to see even
> these tiny glimpses. Is it possible you could get some sharp pictures
> or scans of them for us (boards and tape faces)? I have all the other
> ones, but still haven't seen these. Prom Date is the only other one of
> the 12 that I know of, or that anyone else online that I've found so
> far has heard of.
>
> The order I've seen over the last 5 or so months of searching, in
> terms of rarity from most available to most rare is:
>
> very prevalent:
> Checkered Flag
> Rock Tour
> Mall Madness
>
> occasionally available:
> Dragon Master
> Scavenger's Gold
>
> hard to find:
> Chopper Chase
> Ghostly Estates
>
> extremely hard to find:
> Rocket Race
> Tank Battle
>
> - this is where my have-list ends -
>
> impossible to find:
> Danger Dive
> Slumber Party
>
> mythical:
> Prom Date
>
> A few people actually claim to own Prom Date on boardgamegeek, but
> when I asked around in there, all I got was silence. I have some
> suspicions about the scarcity of the 2 girl titles. ALL the girls I
> knew growing up were completely uninterested in gadgety toys, and
> furthermore, whereas all the boys I knew were pretty into collecting
> and hoarding, I've almost never met a girl who was this way. Most of
> the guys I know now have big collections of baseball cards, or comic
> books, or mp3s, or retro video game roms, or etc. I don't really know
> any girls with collections like this. I know some who say, collect
> "frogs," or "things with flowers on them," and that kind of thing, but
> this is more asthetics-based, and isn't something you can "collect all
> of," whereas it has seemed to me that men really seem to get behind a
> product line and want them all, just for the sake of "set completion."
>
> Boys obviously wouldn't want the girl titles growing up, and girls who
> got them either wouldn't be all that fascinated by them (not every
> girl of course, just by and large), and would likely have given them
> away, or sold them, or (gasp!) thrown them out if they did have them.
> I hope this doesn't come off as sexist, as it isn't intended to be so
> (if anything, it's somewhat anti-male, in that I've pointed out our
> somewhat prevalent and insane hoarding trait). This is just me
> spitting out trends in the genders I've noted over the years. It's
> just far more common for grown men to still have all of their original
> GI Joes and comic books (in perfectly preserved condition, no less)
> than it is for grown women to hang onto boxes full of My Little
> Ponies. Well, until we get married and our wives make us get rid of
> the junk :)
>
> I would also like to note at this point that multiple Tank Battles and
> Ghostly Estates is quite swoon-worthy for me! Your collection is hot!
>
> -g
>
> --- In mbflipsiders@yahoogroups.com, "superstar" <superstarlet_04@>
> wrote:
> >
> > i thought this might help in the documentation of how many
> flipsiders are out there, nobody
> > seems to know. the ones i own are:
> >
> > -slumber party
> > -mall madness
> > -dragon master
> > -scavenger's gold
> > -tank battle
> > -rock tour
> > -danger dive
> > -chopper chase
> > -rocket race
> > -ghostly estates
> > -checkered flag
> >
> > the only other one i know of is prom date, which i don't have. hope
> this helps.
> >
> > http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y216/ninnyc/etc/IMG_2132.jpg
>

OMG! You actually have Slumber Party and Danger Dive!!! Consider
yourself priveleged. I disagree with others in here that Checkered
Flag is hard one to find. I can't seem to *stop* finding it, but I
have never before seen even a picture of those first two, and I have
done quite an absurd amount of research now. This is an exciting post
to me, as I've searched so hard with no luck. It's nice to see even
these tiny glimpses. Is it possible you could get some sharp pictures
or scans of them for us (boards and tape faces)? I have all the other
ones, but still haven't seen these. Prom Date is the only other one of
the 12 that I know of, or that anyone else online that I've found so
far has heard of.

The order I've seen over the last 5 or so months of searching, in
terms of rarity from most available to most rare is:

very prevalent:
Checkered Flag
Rock Tour
Mall Madness

occasionally available:
Dragon Master
Scavenger's Gold

hard to find:
Chopper Chase
Ghostly Estates

extremely hard to find:
Rocket Race
Tank Battle

- this is where my have-list ends -

impossible to find:
Danger Dive
Slumber Party

mythical:
Prom Date

A few people actually claim to own Prom Date on boardgamegeek, but
when I asked around in there, all I got was silence. I have some
suspicions about the scarcity of the 2 girl titles. ALL the girls I
knew growing up were completely uninterested in gadgety toys, and
furthermore, whereas all the boys I knew were pretty into collecting
and hoarding, I've almost never met a girl who was this way. Most of
the guys I know now have big collections of baseball cards, or comic
books, or mp3s, or retro video game roms, or etc. I don't really know
any girls with collections like this. I know some who say, collect
"frogs," or "things with flowers on them," and that kind of thing, but
this is more asthetics-based, and isn't something you can "collect all
of," whereas it has seemed to me that men really seem to get behind a
product line and want them all, just for the sake of "set completion."

Boys obviously wouldn't want the girl titles growing up, and girls who
got them either wouldn't be all that fascinated by them (not every
girl of course, just by and large), and would likely have given them
away, or sold them, or (gasp!) thrown them out if they did have them.
I hope this doesn't come off as sexist, as it isn't intended to be so
(if anything, it's somewhat anti-male, in that I've pointed out our
somewhat prevalent and insane hoarding trait). This is just me
spitting out trends in the genders I've noted over the years. It's
just far more common for grown men to still have all of their original
GI Joes and comic books (in perfectly preserved condition, no less)
than it is for grown women to hang onto boxes full of My Little
Ponies. Well, until we get married and our wives make us get rid of
the junk :)

I would also like to note at this point that multiple Tank Battles and
Ghostly Estates is quite swoon-worthy for me! Your collection is hot!

-g

--- In mbflipsiders@yahoogroups.com, "superstar" <superstarlet_04@...>
wrote:
>
> i thought this might help in the documentation of how many
flipsiders are out there, nobody
> seems to know. the ones i own are:
>
> -slumber party
> -mall madness
> -dragon master
> -scavenger's gold
> -tank battle
> -rock tour
> -danger dive
> -chopper chase
> -rocket race
> -ghostly estates
> -checkered flag
>
> the only other one i know of is prom date, which i don't have. hope
this helps.
>
> http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y216/ninnyc/etc/IMG_2132.jpg

i thought this might help in the documentation of how many flipsiders are out
there, nobody
seems to know. the ones i own are:

-slumber party
-mall madness
-dragon master
-scavenger's gold
-tank battle
-rock tour
-danger dive
-chopper chase
-rocket race
-ghostly estates
-checkered flag

the only other one i know of is prom date, which i don't have. hope this helps.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y216/ninnyc/etc/IMG_2132.jpg

Wow, thanks for the pic! What's funny is that "checkered" and "chequered" are
both valid spellings to me. The version with the q just has more of an old-world
flair in my mind, like it's the "proper" or "scientific" version of the word.
This meant that when looking at your picture, it seemed completely normal and
right, and I had to look at the other version of it. But then that seemed right.
My brain wasn't liking making the distinction, or believing that there was one
:)

One thing else I noticed was the fine print on the bottom of the label. On
"Checkered Flag" it's:

©1987 by M.B. Co. Made in China. Patent Pending.

And of course that last bit is what fired up the sequence of events that lead me
to Mr. Titchener. It looks like the text on "Chequered Flag" may be slightly
different. Is it still numbered 4821?

Thanks for the pic! I'd love to see the sharp versions you speak of if you get a
chance.

-Gary

--- In mbflipsiders@yahoogroups.com, "conradargo" <conrad16@...> wrote:
>
> Nice detective work, Gary! You've done some seriously digging and got
> your reward for doing so :) Thanks for sharing that email with us!
>
> For now I can't provide you with anything better than this cell-phone
> shot of Chequered Flag, but I'll be sure to upload sharp pictures of
> my collection this week!
>
> http://www.megaworm.com/images/./data/media/2/chequered.jpg

Nice detective work, Gary! You've done some seriously digging and got
your reward for doing so :) Thanks for sharing that email with us!

For now I can't provide you with anything better than this cell-phone
shot of Chequered Flag, but I'll be sure to upload sharp pictures of
my collection this week!

http://www.megaworm.com/images/./data/media/2/chequered.jpg

Hi group, and hello new member conradargo, whose posts today pinged my inbox and
reminded me I've been meaning to post a few things.

First off, thanks to Jesse for including my link in the links section, and
calling me a propellerhead! Both made my day. Now a brief bit about Mr. T.

Awhile back when I started getting heavily into Flipsiders, as can be attested
to by my said Flickr gallery linked in the links section here, I noticed while
taking photos and scans of Checkered Flag that it said "Patent Pending."
Wondering if it ever received its patent, I went on a hunt at the USPTO. And <a
href=http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/ne\
tahtml/search-bool.html&r=3&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=ptxt&s1=anjar.ASNM.&OS=AN/anjar&R\
S=AN/anjar>found it!</a> You'll likely need to download their weird tiff viewing
plugin, but it's worth it if you want to see the original Flipsiders patent
image drawings. There are some notable differences between the original sketch,
and the eventual reality, at least for those released here in the US. I could
not find this through traditional means, like searching for "Flipsiders," as the
patents don't include the marketed name, just the invention idea. I had to first
search MB's stuff, and then Anjar's stuff, one-by-one, and finally struck gold.
It was a nerdily exciting moment.

I noticed the patent claims they were invented by a David E. Titchener of
Swindon, GB. I searched him out, and found a David Titchener in a <a
href=http://www.slowtwitch.com/headings/sciencebiz/industryold1.html>news
article</a> on his selling of his UK-based "220" magazine, devoted to
triathlons, and it mentioned Swindon, so it seemed like it might be the same
guy. There was no more info on him online, but that news item mentioned that his
daughter, Gail was staying on as the editor of the magazine. That was 2000,
though. Her 220 magazine email address bounced back as no longer valid, but
searching out her name revealed a freelance writer, which seemed a valid
transition for an editor. In several online sites she (or at least someone with
her name) was asking people for their true-life stories for inclusion in I
believe another magazine, so I figured she wouldn't mind me popping in with some
of my own searchings and questions. She was intrigued by my first vague email
about some "80s toys" to which she might be linked, so I wrote to ask if she was
the daughter of the man who invented Flipsiders. She was!

I sent her a probably frighteninly long email about my love of these old bits of
nostalgia, including how I found her out through my dogged online searching, and
if she and her father wouldn't mind, I included a little email interview
questionnaire. These were the questions I included:

-Tell us Flipsiders fans a bit about Anjar. How many people?
-How did you end with Anjar? Was it exciting, dull, rewarding?
-From where did the idea for Flipsiders come?
-Was it a moment of inspiration, a design-by-committee?
-Was this the first design, or was it previously, say, a Walkman?
-How quickly did the design work finish up? 2 months? a year?
-Were you there for all (I believe) 3 sets? ('87, '88, '93)
-There were 6 originally ('87), but how many in '88, if you know?
-What happened with the '93 set? According to a source online, they
seem to have been sold below cost through a liquidator.
-Did you design other things while at Anjar?
-How did you transition into magazine publishing?

Gail replied that she would forward the info on to her father, and so I waited
for awhile. Perhaps a week. Then one morning I awoke to find a nice note from
Mr. Titchener himself. It was exciting to have tracked down the original man
himself, and though he opted not to really answer any of the questions, he did
generously provide me with a brief bit of backstory. Here's the text of his
email for you, his other fans:

--------------------------------------------
Hi Gary,
   I have received your email via my daughter Gail, I am afraid there is
no Big Story for you re; the Flipsiders.
   Anjar made contact with me back in the 80s at The Toy Fair in London.
I was showing the games at a trade stand when I was approached by Jim
Becker (from Anjar ) who said, they (Anjar)  could be interested in
marketing the game in the USA. They subsequently designed the versions
that were eventually marketed by MB. in the States. I  believe
somewhere, I have one of the original prototypes from that show.  I
think it was designed on the theme of "Spider Man"
Your email brought back many memories to me, and I am pleased that the
Flipsiders gave you so much pleasure in your childhood, and even it
seems now!
I wish you well with your designs. Perhaps you will come up with some
type of game in the future....maybe you already have???
Sorry there's not more,
   Best Regards, David.
--------------------------------------------

I sent a little a thank you note for his time and info, and offered a final
thank you for providing us fans with fun that has lasted through nearly 20
years, and provided such great nostalgia.

I would love to see that original Spider Man prototype :) And I'm interested in
this so-called "Chequered Flag" variant that conradargo mentioned. Got any pics
of that one? Seems that even if we ever do find a full list, it won't be the
fully full list, what with other country versions to account for...

As far as what other Flipsiders there were out there, I made another of my
dogged researchings into the interwebs to find the answer to this, but it
remains somewhat of a mystery. I will post of my findings next under another
heading, such that it may be more easily findable in the post list.

-gary

Ahoy Jesse!

Thank you for greeting me, I assumed you would seeing that you're the
founder of this group ^^ And that blog you speak of is actually what
led me here! Quite an interesting read, like you say.

I _do_ consider myself lucky, seeing how hard it is to come over these
rarities. What a shame I didn't force my mom to buy more of these when
I was little - had I only knew how rare they'd become in the future I
would've made sure she got them all :P

A shame there aren't any news on the "New Flipsiders to be
released"-front. But at least I can now play _all_ of my old
FlipSiders, Dragon Master included! :)

By the by, how come "Chequered Flag" seems to be known as "Checkered
Flag" when the label clearly says "Chequered"? Something to do with
what country you purchase them in? Microsoft Word even corrects me
when I write spell it "ck" instead of "qu"...

Cheers,
Tomas



--- In mbflipsiders@yahoogroups.com, "Jesse Thompson" <jesset@...> wrote:
>
> No Problem :)   Unless memory fails, those were actually provided by Jon
> Becker and then cleaned up by C Barker.. I think I just moved it
from one
> part of the group to another. ;)
>
> Also, you get to count yourself lucky: Checkered Flag, Chopper
Chase, and
> Scavenger's Gold are considered pretty difficult to come by nowadays
(Dragon
> Master and Rock Tour are a bit easier.. I have those for example. :)
>
> And it's good to have you on board comrade Conrad! Keep your eyes
peeled and
> share any flipsiders info you come across to broadcast here, as we do as
> well, and we'll see how things develop. Also check out Gary Fixler's
page we
> added to the Link's recently. He has a photo blog up about
dissecting and 3d
> modeling a couple of flipsider's games that he has. Very interesting
read,
> that!
>
> - - Jesse
>
> On 25/02/06, conradargo <conrad16@...> wrote:
> >
> >  Well what do you know - I found the rules for Dragon Master right
here
> > under "Files"! Thanks a lot for uploading them, ibutton77 :D
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >  SPONSORED LINKS
> >   Game
software<http://groups.yahoo.com/gads?t=ms&k=Game+software&w1=Game+software&w2=P\
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=Board+games&c=6&s=126&.sig=4N9GFwU2mfau3Lizwqtv0w>
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games<http://groups.yahoo.com/gads?t=ms&k=Poker+games&w1=Game+software&w2=Poker+\
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d+games&c=6&s=126&.sig=tFc-wtAfK00a6mEbxNGJEw>
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adult<http://groups.yahoo.com/gads?t=ms&k=Board+game+for+adult&w1=Game+software&\
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   Chess
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game<http://groups.yahoo.com/gads?t=ms&k=Chess+board+game&w1=Game+software&w2=Po\
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w6=Board+games&c=6&s=126&.sig=dA2eooZATTmxdQGtccRmwg>
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games&w3=Board+game+for+adult&w4=Chess+board+game&w5=Monopoly+board+game&w6=Boar\
d+games&c=6&s=126&.sig=7rh5_QJjl-mNS9-ki5885w>
> >  ------------------------------
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