Feralstorm

I'd wanted a 7800 since around 1984 when Electronic Games magazine did a big preview article on the system. Not much came of it back then, and I ended up getting an NES when they were new (after all, it played games almost exactly like those Nintendo VS arcade cabinets. ) My 7800 interests rekindled in the early '90s, when Atari was liquidating stock, and you could buy Atari systems and games at Big Lots for super cheap. I never found a 7800 console there, but grabbed a 2600jr, and many carts for both systems. Not long after, I found a friend who was selling a 7800, so I bought it from him, and haven't looked back. I don't do a lot with NES nowadays, aside from the occasional emulation. My primary gaming platforms are Atari 26/7800 and Amiga/CD32.

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The CD-32 handles standard Amiga mice the same as any other Amiga computer system. (unless a specific game/title changes around the input methods or ports for some reason)

"Fun" is always a subjective and relative thing. Some really enjoy programming, board games, or role-playing campaigns heavy on paperwork, while others are bored to tears by them. Conversely, others might find a popular frantic action game too difficult or overblown to have fun with. That said, there probably were carts where 'fun' might not have been a high priority. Basic Math and some of the other educational games were probably made more to give parents greater incentive to buy a game machine for their kids, and/or keep the moral guardians labeling video games as frivolous and worthless partially at bay. Maybe the Swordquest games too. The gaming sections of those feel like giving a player more to do in the whole puzzle/lookup/contest thingy. Not saying they CAN'T be fun, but maybe that wasn't the main deal.

Dunno if I've ever actually played the arcade version. I do believe the Amiga version of Rodland is superior to the arcade, however

I don't have much Intellivision experience myself either, but I would imagine the 2600 is more "pick up and go" accessible to many by being simpler in general in terms of controls/controller, and each platform's priorities toward game 'sophistication' or complexity. It's a little like how people dump on Atari E.T. or Raiders as 'unplayable' when they actually don't have the necessary info that would be provided in the instruction book. If one plays an Intellivision game without the manual or controller overlay, there will probably be a challenge figuring out what to do, depending on the nature of the game.

Definitely Yars' Revenge and Pitfall for me. Both get kinda boring & repetitive to me once you can play them with some skill, which makes them feel like 'busy work', like when Pitfall! the goal goes from 'survive' to 'get a map and a route so you can get all the treasure' Conversely, I love Pitfall II. A little more variety and a soundtrack helps a lot. Keystone Kapers I don't like too much, as it gets more annoying as it gets harder. I can see the issues with Asteroids, which is why I play my 'Arcade' hack version with the 'fast/Sadistroids' asteroid motion and UFOs right out of the gate on game #1.

Looks disappointing to me - a plain Jane case with an Atari logo on it. Seems like there are dozens of custom and fan-designed cases which fit the theme far, far better. "Raspberry Pi case with amazing RETRO styling!" (it's a box with the word 'RETRO' printed on it)

Assuming no extra added hardware to the cartridge, and just changing the game software itself to include music, it depends. It depends on how much resources are available in the cart space, and it depends on if the tightly-programmed game has enough CPU 'free time' while running to accommodate the additional music code. If it's a standard 7800 game using TIA for sound (as opposed to an added POKEY or something else) the available voices/channels are limited, so if you have sound effects as well, they probably need to be coded to override an audio channel when playing, and then resume the music. So, it depends. Either way, it's more complex than "just add music".

On a separate but related note, has anyone hacked the 7800 (or 2600) game so the goons' movement is actually relative to the screen scrolling? By default it looks like when the player is walking, bad guys are hauling ass to run up from behind, and/or doing back-steps to slow their approach from the other direction.

I HAD to have an Amiga after seeing the article covering the A1000's debut in COMPUTE! magazine. My parents were less enthusiastic, having just gotten a C64 a year or two earlier. I finally wore 'em down by 1989, and my family got an Amiga 500.

Should I assume this is NOT about Dennis Debro's game "Climber 5" which became "Atari Climber" on the Flashback systems?

I guess this speaks to relative rarity between the US and Japan (or elsewhere and elsewhere else). Just like when I see YouTube vids shot in some Japan retro game store, thinking how reasonably-priced some Dreamcast game I'd like is over there, I could imagine some Japanese Atari collector (presumably they exist) freaking over the bins of dollar carts that might be found here. (Seriously, 1480 yen for a loose Combat cart? )

"We need a video game console for set dressing!" "How about this NES?" "That beigey-gray block-shaped thing? That'll look too out of place in the Tool Man's entertainment center! What do you have that's like - black and brushed aluminum - maybe kinda wedge-shaped?"

Basically, the FB1 games were just newly-made NES-hardware games made to look like 2600 and 7800 games (AKA ports). It's possible some of the original 6502 game code was reused/adapted, but based on how I remember the FB1 games playing, I doubt it.