elenag

Whenever you see an Atari setup on a movie or a some sort of set, the game running as a demo is almost always Space Invaders or Pac-Man. For that reason, Space Invaders by a slim margin over Pac-Man.

I was 10 years old when I got E.T. as a gift, and I distinctly remember giving it a chance. After about 1 or 2 hours of playing it, I hated it. It wasn't necessarily that I didn't understand it; it was that I didn't care to understand it. It was just boring to me. My mother took me to the store to exchange it for something else, and I remember the clerk mentioned they had gotten returns on the game. Also, some kids at school reported they had returned it. Although probably exaggerated, the stories of hating and returning the game were true for me.

At about 10-12 years old, that cart was my first exposure to programming. I remember being frustrated with wondering why I couldn't enter more lines of code. Best I could do was move the cursor around. I got a lot more use out of Brain Games.

I was looking for a new USB joystick to use with Stella, so today I purchased a Philips PC joystick (Model SGC2909BB/27) from Walmart for $14.96. I was motivated to write something about it. I was first pleased after pulling it out of the package, because there are a number of buttons and features: 1 D-pad, 2 analog joysticks, 4 buttons on the right, 4 rubber buttons in the middle, and 4 buttons in the front. The USB cable retracts inside the joystick so it stores nicely. The plastic body seems firm and nicely weighted so I was pretty optimistic before testing it out. The right analog stick can be also used to control the mouse. I found it unusual there were no trigger buttons. Instead there are 4 buttons on the front edge (similar to L and R buttons on an SNES controller), which are fine but it'd be better if 2 of them were positioned underneath as trigger buttons. When I plugged it in, Windows XP discovered the joystick and activated it as expected. I didn't need to install the drivers from the mini-disk, so I started up Stella to play a few games. It has an analog switch and its default setting was set to analog. It worked out OK but the stick requires pushing very far so responsiveness isn't that great. Although, I'd say it's barely acceptable. I figured the D-pad would be more promising so I switched over to that, but I was immediately struck with how large the D-pad is. I don't have a large thumb (it's medium sized), so I have to physically move my thumb in order to change direction. This makes quick reactions nearly impossible. It gets worse though, because pushing the D-pad often doesn't register, so your man on the screen will either get stuck or turn to the wrong direction. This is exceedingly frustrating, and I can't believe this joystick passed QA with such a lousy D-pad. It's nearly 100% useless. One last annoying thing. It's got a bright blue light under the Philips logo so if you're playing in a darkened room, the blue glow is rather distracting. I must say do not buy this. It's a total waste of money, which is sad because a few minor fixes could make this joystick so much better. The price would be great given all the features and buttons, but if the most important features don't work it's useless. The D-pad needs to be smaller and more accurate and the analog stick could be more sensitive. I'll see if I can increase the sensitivity of the analog stick but even so it's still not a good joystick overall. http://www.consumer.philips.com/consumer/e..._27_US_CONSUMER

I'd expect to be out of the office by 6:00 to 6:30pm on average and probably after 7pm once in a while. They're paying for temporary housing so I'll have a few weeks to figure out whether public transit commute will work. Heh. That $15 a day parking is a bit steep. If you factor in gas, it'd be easier just to rent a closer apartment and pay the higher rent. I've done the 1 hour driving commute, and I really don't want to go back to that. Doing the commute on a train (or bus) isn't so bad if you can sleep, read or do whatever. It's nicer when someone else is driving.

I did find some info before about the commuter train. Wikipedia actually has an article on Seattle transportation. Ha. I didn't know about the last 2 though. I'd probably prefer the train but I saw it doesn't run that late so the commute home would probably be the bus. Heh. I'd consider driving but I'd rather put off buying a 2nd car if I don't need it. Plus parking near downtown can't be fun.

Thx. It's more exciting than usual because this company is known to be hard to land a job with (sorry can't help tooting the horn). I got into a real groove with their developers in the interviews so it all just clicked. It's going to be tough because I know their people are smarter than me. Hehe. Oh by the way, if you have any recommendations for which neighborhood to live in with 2 small children and easy access to downtown (via public transit & king st station), I'd love to hear them.

I got a job in Seattle for a major company. I should be getting back to my game once my move is settled, but I have a zillion loose ends to wrap up before doing so. This job is going to be a defining moment in my career, I think.

I stopped going to GameStop when I found their prices were consistently higher than other stores. The prices for buyback of used games is also atrocious. They buyback for $1 and turn around and sell it for $10-15. Screw that. I can get the same thing new for $10-15 at another store. Also, Half-Price books offers much better buying rates for modern games. Although they often have very little selection for console games, I check in on them once in a while and find something cheap... in the $2 to $8 range. Usually they have tons of PS2, but I find Xbox, GameCube, GBA, and Gameboy stuff occasionally. Now and then I see one or two Sega or NES carts on the shelf.

I've had that happen with a GBA game before, but this one was from Costco. I get home, open it up, nothing inside. Just the manual, but no game. The package was pristine and had never been opened. I suspect QA isn't all that great for some of these game manufacturers. Costco replaced the game, but only after complaining strongly and telling them I may not shop there anymore after this. The desk manager had to confer with the store manager for 5-10 minutes. I'm pretty sure they looked up my membership card and saw how much I spent at that store the last 3 years, which was a lot. Several orders of magnitude more than an $18 game.

Reviewing 1970's technology with 2001+ expectations (review date Dec 04, 2001) is rather pointless. I think any review needs to account for the expectations and technical possibilities of the day when the console was created. Today, mainstream console gamers expect HDTV resolution, 3D hardware support, MB sized texture maps, numerous controller buttons, internet connectivity, social networking features, avatar customization, infinite extendibility and mod features. Since those weren't feasible cost-wise and processing power-wise, reviewing the 2600 with those expectations is rather silly... IMO.

During the first couple weeks of trying it on and off, I was like What the F!%@, this is impossible. After a while I got drawn in. It grows on ya I think, and you become acclimated to the difficulty level somewhat. There are also tricks you can do to pull away from the ghosts: circling a wall so they gather up behind you, and then make for a powerpill grab going up to send them chasing upward in parallel, and going back down and cutting across under them avoiding the temptation to double back and opting for 90 degree escape routes when they're chasing you along the left or right screen edge, escaping by cutting across toward the middle of the screen using powerpills at strategic moments, 4 ghosts in the vicinity avoiding cleared corners regions (dangerous without a powerpill)

I have a clear memory of those bargain baskets when new games were selling for $1 to $4 at Kay-B, Sears, and others. Such a long time ago. I hate to say this but when I was 15 and the 2600 Jr was in the stores, I remember I thought of it as a goofy marketing ploy designed confuse customers with the 7800. I also felt it was a super weak effort meant to draw attention away from Nintendo, which was taking over America (deservedly so in my opinion). A lot of those feelings came from playing a stream of horribly produced Atari games during the video game crash. Today, I think my opinion has softened a bit because of games like Jr Pac-Man released around that time.

I hope no one minds if I refresh a really old topic, but I have to say I looooove this game. I never knew it existed for the 2600... sad huh? But then, I'm not a collector so I'm not all that knowledgeable of games I didn't personally own or remember seeing in the toy stores during the 80's. I suppose if the game came out in 1987, that explains why I missed it because my 2600 interest was fading around that time. I was no longer buying 2600 games due to fascination with the NES. I'm playing it in Stella because I don't have a physical 2600 system. I think I'll order an old style gamepad just for this game, because I'm using the keyboard at the moment, which is less than optimal. If I had this game at 11 years old, I'd have never gotten any homework done since I was a huge addict of the arcade Pac-Man as a child.

Kewl.