Creating Atari wallets does take a healthy volume of games. Lots of games. The ones that aren’t wallet quality - which are most of them - do me no good sitting there doing nothing. eBay, with all of its glorious faults, provides substantial game availability and a manner to return the remaining games to use when paired with a cleaned, tested and complete system. During the years of wallet development, the eBay resales provided the money needed to fund the wallet project. All of the costs associated with engineering the Atari wallet processes - tools, adhesives, magnets, sealants, machines and machine shops - were shouldered by constant and vigorous Atari 2600 system resales.

Now that nilesz.com has launched and Atari wallets available via my etsy store, Atari system resales have returned. The extra money from the resales isn’t necessary as it was during development, so now all auctions from us - eBay seller niles.z - will donate 30% of auction proceeds split between two charities - World Computer Exchange and Child’s Play. eBay only allows one automatic donation in the auction itself, so we are forced to manually match the WCE donation to Child’s Play. An extra step for us, but one well worth it.

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When nilesz.com launched last month, I wasn’t prepared for just how quickly the video would propagate and didn’t have time to polish the site as desired. Site copy was old, outdated and did not represent the quality of the wallets. Pictures still needed taken and I still haven’t updated my projects to include the gaming tables, even as I prepare to introduce another repurposed project. Most importantly, wallet prices needed to be adjusted down to the new 2009 economy from the 2007/2008 economy when these were test-marketed.

While the prices of $35 & $55 were introduced as sale prices, the wallets will remain at this price point until I can no longer keep production on par with demand.

Now, back to the wallet-making and whatnot…

I’m giving away two wallets in todays twitter challenge!

To enter the contest, simply tweet your desires to win an Atari wallet to your friends! Include #atariwallet and a link to this post ( such as http://bit.ly/HohWs - feel free to use your preferred linking method as long as it ends up here) and you’re entered to win! Check my @nilesz twitter account for the announcement as my “entry” tweet.

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Watch my twitter feed on Thursday morning for a one-day twitter-only wallet give-away.

The catch? The winner must give the wallet away as a gift!

The rules? Not until Thursday…

In the spirit of looking at things differently, I’m looking for people to “see” Atari game titles in the real world. Of course you’re not going to see an example of real-world Missile Command in your daily life (not everyone gets to visit MIT Lincoln Labs - great place, very cool. I hope you like the Missile Command wallet Marc!) so I’m encouraging wordplay on the titles. What do I mean?

- Perhaps photograph a self-obsessed security personnel.
(Vain guard)

- Take a big letter D and photograph it against the front of your car.
(D - fender)

- Work at the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority? Take a picture of yourself at the main controls.
(MassHole Command)
Seriously. MassHole is a common term for drivers in Massachusetts. People drive like psychotic meth-fueled thugs up here.

- Draw, build, or smoke signal your idea.

-Photoshop entries will not be counted.

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In seven days, it’ll be Father’s Day. Eight days ago, I became a father myself. In celebration to father’s everywhere, I’m having a one-week wallet sale. While supplies last, all picture label wallets are only $55 and all text label wallets are only $35!

Head on over to my etsy store where you’ll find the sale prices already in effect. Of course, if you have a deep knowledge of music and can recognize the audio track from the video and are the first to comment in the entry below with the correct artists and album, you win a free wallet!

“Do the Pac Man… do the Pac Man…”

Did you recognize the music in the video clip?

If not, see Matt’s comment below with the artists name and the album the clip originated from. Matt just won a wallet of his choice!

I’ll be announcing another contest tonight. When one contest ends, another begins!

Again, congratulations Matt!

There have been many comments about the ease and comfort of carrying an Atari wallet. While I’ve been carrying one for years, I forget that people will be concerned about carrying a piece of plastic in their pocket. Words flow from me like warm chunky peanut butter, so below is a much more eloquent response from a current Atari wallet user to others who expressed the same concern:

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I’ve had quite a few suggestions to include an option to send in your games for wallet repurposing, and I hear ya. The thought crossed my mind, too, but as the wallet-making processes became clear so too did the challenges of doing mail-in custom wallets.

The first challenge everyone recognizes is the need to keep all the parts marked & together. In reality, this is the least of the challenges, adding only a few minutes to the process. Sometimes issues crop up during the machining process and not all make it through the process alive. Hell, some carts do not have the proper internals to complete a wallet, but enough carts fail along the way to balance out against the number of carts missing the necessary guts. Let’s also keep in mind I have to have enough carts to warrant another machining run, which unless the wallets become overly successful this will not be happening with frequency enough to support this kind of request.

Have a wallet suggestion of your own? tweet @nilesz or drop a comment.

A thousand thank yous to Ray Corsini for his bringing this vision to life, both literally and creatively. On my budget of nothing but favors, he was able to make it all come to life.

Astute observers of the video may have recognized that the Pac Man wallet in the video opens “backwards” - it opens on the left - unlike the wallets available in the store. I f#*ked up. The first few shells machined were done with the hinges on the wrong side, from which this Pac Man was made. I have not completed any normal opening Pac Man wallets yet, but they are in the works, along with Joust, Kangaroo, and perhaps even a Mario Bros. Obviously, Ms Pac Man introduced herself in the video, but a lady like her shouldn’t need any introduction.

Fortunately for us, the reverse Pac Man worked better for the camera angle we were working from than a regular one. I was prepared to complete one if necessary, but we felt the backwards wallet got the point across as desired.