If I had a cassette deck I would smash it.... I honestly believe anyone who gets nostalgic about putting in a cassette, starting the load sequence and then goes and going to do something else for 15+ minutes while it loads is a tit!
Really, Grim? I remember waiting hours for a game to load when I had one back when I was 5. Bad times.
If you do I hope you have to resolder the contacts to at least 1/2 of the keys! I remember a point where my dad had to take the thing apart at least once a month as another key lost its contacts.
The failed loading was the best bit. I almost completed Gauntlet back in the day but it failed to load the last levels. Bastard.
I never encountered this issue, you must have had a dud console. I only ever met one person who had a cartridge based game for it (it might have even been some sort of compilation with 4 games on it), I almost fell off my seat when I saw it load something QUICKLY!
$895 for the high end one? That dual core atom might be somewhat decent since it's sporting a blu-ray. Still seems kind of expensive though.. good god.