Pitfall Harry

How has everyone missed the obvious so far? Ms. Pac-Man! -Ben

Hi Jamie, Yeah, you can have it. Just find a way to send me your mailing address (does this website support private messaging?), and it's yours. EDIT: Or just send it to me an an email: ufoundben at yahoo dot com -Ben

Hi Jamie, Yeah, you can have it. Just find a way to send me your mailing address (does this website support private messaging?), and it's yours. -Ben

It's a flat, rectangular cardboard card that is folded in the middle. It has no cutouts or holes in it, and it is not an overlay. You can lay it flat on the console if you like, but you can just as well place it anywhere else. There is printing on one side of the card only, which gives a quick overview of all the Space Shuttle commands. It came packaged as an insert inside the Space Shuttle game box. -Ben

I have an extra one of these, if anyone needs it. Anyone on this forum can have it, but on one condition: you actually need the card to play the game or to complete the collection, not to re-sell it for an easy profit. That's right. Meet the above lone condition -- and be first to let me know! -- and it's yours for free. And I hope you like the game as much as I do. -Ben

I think that had Mattel Electronics thought of doing this in the first place, their sales figures would have been doubled. Sometimes there is a steep price to pay for "cheaping out." -Ben

Or at least there was such a proto at one time. Whether it still exists today is anybody's guess, unless you know something we don't know. -Ben

That's really funny. I had Montezuma's Revenge sitting untouched in my collection for years before I finally got around to playing it. And you're right. It is a gem, hidden or otherwise. I think having a title unfortunate enough to invoke images of being stranded in Mexico with violent, projectile diarrhea had something to do with it. What a surprise I had when I discovered just how good it is. -Ben

That's what I do too. I don't have the living space to collect and store over 500 boxes. The fact that I have over 300 of them now is just an accident that resulted from being unable to pass up a great deal when I see one. I do like having the boxes, though. I just don't know where I can put any more of them. As far as a lot of your hardest titles to find coming from one source is concerned, you've got to count it as a major victory no matter how you acquired them. -Ben

Ack! I forgot about BMX Airmaster. That's because I've made up my mind the equivalent TNT release of game will suffice. I know I will never be able to afford the luxury of buying the Atari release. Yet I still haven't tracked down the TNT release either. Yes, I already have Quadrun, Swordquest Waterworld, and all the rest. I acquired Quadrun via deft trading with another collector. I paid $0.40 for a SQWW I found in a thrift store 25 years ago. But after so many years past since, I don't believe I will ever get lucky enough again to duplicate those feats with the Atari release of BMX Airmaster. So I'll just have to wait until I do get my hands on the TNT release before I can claim I have "completed" the 134-game Atari set. That's not to say I am not on a sizzling roll right now. I just scored 15 shrinkwrapped Blu-Ray movies at my local thrift store at $2.00 a pop. Great titles, too! Man, digital physical media is going, going, gone. And if you don't grab all you can right now, you'll be paying $100 for your favorites on Blu-Ray in just a few short years. Just like Atari games. Streaming Service providers are gonna make you pay and pay and pay, every time you watch your favorite movies and you will be left with no affordable alternative. Act now, or just watch it happen. -Ben

Well, yes. It is easy for ME to remember I've played two mismatched wildcards, but a finished program shouldn't force you to keep track of the game state. It's the fact that this game does not necessarily have a conclusive end, that it forces YOU to declare the game over when it technically can still be kept on playing (and stupidly handing over points to the VCS as you do) that I find particularly unsatisfying. My SOLUTION would be to have the program remove the other copy of the image you paired with a wildcard from the game layout when you play the wildcard, just like they do on the TV version of Concentration. In this way, the game board is swept clean by game's end every time. -Ben

Nobody really knows how rare Atari videogames are. In the absence of hard figures and demise-of-game figures, it's all just educated guesswork. And as you've noted, rarity depends greatly on your geographic location. -Ben

I've got to side with @Living Room Arcade on this one. I think the pace of Hunt & Score, without an emulation speed-up, is just right. The time the "Wrong Move" buzzer takes is short and can be put to good use by using it to think about your next move. There's another way you can multitask! Besides, the razz sound is kind of a cute feature. -Ben

Your analysis is spot on. And if you carefully read my post in this thread from April 08, you will find all of your above questions are already answered there. -Ben

Another subset comes to completion for me today. I just found a loose copy of Cannon Man to complete the 58-game Sears subset. Completing subsets like this is particularly challenging for me, because I refuse to pay more than $50 for ANY* video game. Now, if I can just find me a copy of Ikari Warriors (and I want it CIB), my 134-count Atari subset will be completed too! *If the Impossible occurs, I won't hesitate to plop down a kilobuck for a title like Air Raid, though. -Ben