BassGuitari

Can't win them all. 😜

(Responding to the title because I'm not going to try to read that.) Because they weren't thinking about collectors 40 years in the future? 🤷‍♂️ The thought must have been that the box/packaging would suffice in telling consumers which version to buy for their system. I guess I don't know what else to suggest, other than to educate yourself. The differences are on the subtle side, but easily recognizable when you're familiar: Atari 2600 - Silver-ish label Atari 5200 - Blue-ish label; cart is more square-shaped than rectangular Intellivision - Narrow/elongated dimensions; squared/rectangular gold label (vs. usual trapezoid cut); end of cart is angled sharply Coleco - Gold-ish label; cart sides are angled along entire edge (vs. only halfway); trapezoidal profile; back of cart has a bracketed relief for storing controller overlays Atari 400/800 - End of cart is flat (vs. angled); cutaway on front bottom edge of cart shell; gold-ish label Commodore 64 - End of cart is angled; no cutaway; label only extends about halfway down the face of the cart; Silver-gray label Commodore VIC-20 - Very wide dimensions; gold label; title on end label is left-justified (vs. centered) TI-99/4a - Wide dimension; shallow teal label with title only; blocky protrusion around sides and face of cartridge; no title on end label; easily distinct from every other Parker Bros. cart Odyssey 2 (Brazil, Europe) - If you can't tell it's an Odyssey/Videopac game, that's on you 😜 Full disclosure: early in my collecting days, I made the rookie mistake of buying a Parker Bros. cartridge (Star Wars: The Arcade Game) for my Atari 2600, becoming very confused about why it wouldn't fit in my system, and later figuring out that it was the Coleco version. 🙃

What are your criteria? What kinds of games are you into? Are you trying to collect physical copies of games, or are you good with SD solutions? Judging from what you already have, I'm guessing you're primarily into the 16/32/64-bit era, in which case you have most of the bases covered already. There are certainly other interesting platforms from that era as well, but they come with a lot of caveats. But if you're interested in 8-bit systems, the NES is essential. Post-'90s, PlayStation 2 checks a whole heck of a lot of boxes, as well. If you're looking at handhelds, the Game Boy Advance is a slam dunk. I personally prefer the Game Boy Color's style and form factor, but GBA plays all original GB and GBC games on top of its own excellent library. Either way, you'll want one with a new IPS screen, whether you do the mod yourself or buy a pre-modded unit. Naturally they're a bit spendier than unmodded systems, but so worth it. (Same advice applies to NeoGeo Pocket Color, Game Gear, and Lynx.) If you are interested in early '80s gaming but find the consoles of the era too esoteric, there are several computer platforms that essentially double as game consoles, with substantial cartridge libraries (and disk and tape, if you want to mess with that) that are fun to collect. Most of these have SD-card solutions available for them, as well. Commodore 64 and Atari 400/800/XL are arguably the best of these; the TI-99/4a and Commodore VIC-20 are a little more niche these days but have some great stuff. (VIC-20 cartridges are particularly fun to collect, IMO!)

It's the PET Mini. 😜 I have no idea, but it doesn't look like anything Commodore would have done. My best guess is somebody just transplanted a PET 2001 (actually maybe a 4000 series board with some mods, it looks like) and its monitor into another case for some reason. Edit: It's hard to tell from the pics but I suspect the dial control is wired to the monitor board as a brightness control. You may find this site a useful resource. 🙂

Quote from the article: "The Z80 was used in many pieces of gaming-related hardware, including ColecoVision, ZX Spectrum, MSX, Amstrad CPC, and SAM Coupe, as well as many coin-ops, such as Namco's iconic 1980 release Pac-Man."

Hated House? And seriously, what's going on with the capitalization?

You've just set foot into the rabbit hole! There's a whole wider world of standalone consoles, Sears models, clones and hardware variations, and computers. (And if you really want to punish your wallet, Jaguar CD. 😜) For the sake of your own sanity, it's probably best to stop where you are. 😄 But since you've already come this far, I would suggest adding at least one flavor of Super Pong and a computer. 🙂

The kindest thing I can say about Covenant is that it was better than AvP:R. But nothing after Alien 3 counts anyway, so they're all just farts in the wind as far as I'm concerned. 😛

I agree, Alien is a reach. Despite the film tie-in, the humans in this game aren't really characters as much as generic avatars for us, the players. Blank canvases onto which we can ascribe any attribute. It can be Ripley if you want it to be, which is different than it's Ripley, full stop. If Ripley is in Alien, then Raquel Welch is in the submarine in Fantastic Voyage. 😜

How about Tomarc The Barbarian? The title is somewhat misleading because even though her name isn't on the cartridge, Senta is functionally a co-lead character as the game requires you to switch back and forth between playing her and Tomarc. (You have to get Tomarc to Senta, but in the meantime you have to keep her alive.) Rampage? You can play Lizzie in that one. I really hope it doesn't suck.

It's tough for me to pick a favorite. My favorite games are all basically good but have something that holds them back, so there isn't much that (in aggregate) really stands out from the rest. Golden Axe Warrior - Pound for pound, the best Master System game I've played. (And the best 8-bit Zelda game?...*hides*) But weirdly, not one of my go-tos; I'm just not much of an RPG guy. Double Dragon - This one probably qualifies as a favorite, being one of my most-played SMS games. Alex Kidd In Shinobi World - Good, but disappointingly short, and easy once you've played through it once or twice. I still prefer it to Shinobi, though. (My copy is a repro.) Power Strike - Impressive, but punishingly difficult. To be fair, the only Aleste game I can play worth a damn is Space Megaforce for SNES. (This is also a repro.) Black Belt - Like Kung Fu/Master, but with more personality and exploding enemies and bosses. Thumbs up! Gets a little tedious, though. Space Harrier - I want to like this more than I actually do; it plays well enough but the graphics and scaling are rough to the point of distraction; bosses look like the game crashed. Alien Syndrome - I like this one, but it's really squirrelly to play with the standard D-Square controller; the Sega Control Stick isn't a lot better. The Ninja - A nifty run-'n'-gun but gives off serious "budget" vibes, like a Sega Card game that's too big for the format...which makes sense since it was adapted from an SG-1000 MyCard title. Rambo - It's good, and the pace is just slow enough that it doesn't seem like it should be difficult, and yet I am garbage at this game. I love that Player 2 looks like Yaphet Kotto in Alien. R-Type - Am I crazy, or is R-Type overrated? I don't even mean just the Master System version (although, yes, also the Master System version). It's just alright to me. Recent pickups include Kenseiden, Time Soldiers, and Ghost House. I look forward to giving those a spin!

I would say this is more true for Star Raiders or Rescue on Fractalus, which make more complete use of the CX52 and are naturally suited to its analog joystick, but even with Defender's binary state of motion, I agree that the CX52 is preferable to joy+key. Are people saying that?

I think Q*bert's Qubes is the last Parker Bros. title I'm missing. I'll have to check; I *think* I have Mr. Do!'s Castle but I might be thinking of the Coleco version. Star Strike was one that seemed to take a long time to get to finish my M-Network set, for some reason. It had never been that hard to find, but it seemed like as soon as I started specifically looking for it, it went into hiding! And Raft Rider was the last one I needed to complete U.S. Games; it seemed to take a while to find a cartridge in acceptable condition. Earth Dies Screaming was a fun one to pick up to finish my Fox set. I've still got some chipping away to do on companies like Panda, Zimag, Avalon Hill, Starpath, Tigervision, and Commavid, but some "Finals" I'm missing include: Atari Red Label (NTSC/NA) - BMX Airmaster Apollo - Lochjaw Coleco - Bearenstain Bears Froggo - Spiderdroid (I think?) Imagic - Atlantis II, Shootin' Gallery Sears Pic Label - Gunslinger Spectravision - I'm missing about half of them (the rare ones), but the one that's sticking in my craw is Master Builder; I'd purchased a "tested, working" copy a little while back but discovered too late that the seller sent me a PAL version. At least I can play it on my 2600+. 🤷‍♂️

Broadly, I would file Bubble Bobble under "Platformer." More specifically, I would call it an "Arcade Platformer" or "Action-Puzzle Platformer."

In Mattel Electronics' defense (sort of), the M-Network games for Atari used Intellivision cartridge shells with interface adapters kludged on. To that point, Intellivision cartridges were largely concealed when inserted, and were supposed to be used with decorative keypad overlays and stored in their sturdy, artwork-adorned gatefold boxes, anyway, so there probably wasn't much thought at Mattel that more elaborate cartridge labels were necessary.* And that makes sense, although it's still nice that Activision, Atarisoft, Imagic, and other third-party Intellivision publishers opted for real labels regardless. 🙂 *It's worth noting that during the time of the Intellivision's development and release, not many consoles on the market had artwork on their cartridge labels. But they did have more than a perfunctory title sticker and are generally more interesting to look at, at least. Back to M-Network, eh, yeah, they probably could have used more color like Intellivision labels, at least. At the same time, I can appreciate the uniform look they have, too; the blue text on black has a certain sophistication to it, IMO. 🤷‍♂️ I suppose Mattel Electronics didn't want them to look too much like Intellivision cartridges, either. FWIW, Mattel Electronics didn't have much in the way of labels for Aquarius cartridges, either. Minimal, utilitarian cartridge labels were just their style, I guess!