Now then if I were to ask you what the most unique boxes were for the 2600 I’d expect to hear answers like Commavid for their amazing box art, Bomb for their unique cutout design and included iron-ons, Tigervision, Mystique, the list goes on. Almost every publisher had a thing that made their boxes stand out on the shelves, but what if the best of these boxes were never actually sold on the shelf, and were instead sold online. What about homebrews? Yes, the homebrew scene on the 2600 is immense.
It’s uncommon in this day and age for there to be zero information on something, it seems that everything has a Wikipedia page or an article explaining it somewhere. Bomb has no Wikipedia page nor does it have any articles, Bomb has nothing but word of mouth, and frankly I haven’t heard any of it so I can’t form a proper opinion of the company. From what I can understand these guys were most active over in Europe, due mainly to the fact that 90% of all Bomb carts are PAL. From looking at the ava
There were plenty of weird game publishers out there, Amiga, Milton Bradley, and Zimag are the first that come to mind. There is one publisher that I think stands above the rest, or at the very least is on par with the strangest of them, Avalon Hill. Avalon Hill made unique, innovative, and very complex board games, though I’ve never played any of them myself. These guys weren’t a one-and-done publisher; they actually managed to release four games on the 2600 before packing up shop and moving to
Pong is a game that needs no introduction whatsoever, so I won’t provide one. We’ve all played Pong since it’s either been bundled with other games, or is so freely available on the internet that I’m surprised Microsoft and Apple don’t include an advertisement filled version with the newest install of their operating systems. I won’t be looking at any modern iterations of Pong though; I’m looking much further back, further than I’ve ever gone before. 1976, the APF TV Fun Model 401 is released, a
Mythicon was a pool of optimism for success in the videogame market that ran dry quicker than it took for me to type this sentence. These guys were a blip on the radar, they came, and they went and were never seen again. I suppose it is rather remarkable then that so many copies of their games can be found in the wild, perhaps it was due to how Mythicon distributed their games, it seems they were sold in non-traditional retail outlets like grocery and department stores. The prices of the games m
I have neglected my other systems for too long and it seems to be about time to remedy that. With my recent acquisition of an Intellivision II system I felt the urge to go back and play through all the games I have for it. I don’t have many Intellivision games and honestly most of them wouldn’t make a very interesting review, but I do have one game that is just so meh that I can’t help but be slightly angered by it. The game in question is Star Strike, and I have incredibly mixed feelings about
Warplock is not an original game, its premise isn’t original, and its gameplay most assuredly is not original. Despite its unoriginality I can’t really find it in myself to dislike this game. I wrote my original review of this game immediately after buying this game for a second time. I originally overpaid for a copy at my local Pre-Played, only seeing on Ebay a few days later a boxed copy that was listed for the same price as what I paid for loose cart. I was understandably miffed and took it o
Ever since the inception of DSRT I've been keeping a Word document with every single review I've written in it, alongside .txt files of every review as well (in case I need them for quick reference), after depositing my most recent review into the Master Document I noticed just how much I've wrote. With double spacing and 11pt font the document comes in at just shy of 440 pages with a word count of 154,098. This realization got me thinking... What if I selected the best of my reviews and condens
I have what might be considered an odd fascination with old LCD handheld games; I just can’t get enough of them they’re just so weird. In today’s world of pocket computers and mobile gaming these things just seem like pointless shitty relics of a bygone era, but they’re not. Each of these games are complex works of art that work together to create a game, perhaps they’re not as complex as console or computer games of the time, but let’s face it, you’re not taking one of those on the plane or on
Videogame consoles are rarely ever small, it doesn’t matter which generation you’re looking at whether it be the first, the eighth, or anywhere in between, these things are monstrous. But a game console rarely ever stays large, as technology get’s better and smaller, the consoles shrink with it, couple this with revised designs, and cheaper parts, and you have the birth of the slim console. A slim console is a console that is sold several years after its original release in a smaller more conden
When it comes to Catch ‘em games one reigns supreme Kaboom! But we’re not going to be reviewing Kaboom! for a while, we’re looking at one of the games it inspired. Which could be? Could it be Lost Luggage, Eggomania, Big Bird’s Egg Catch, Berenstain Bears, did I find the unreleased prototype of Kickman? (Hint: it’s no). I’ve already looked at two of the more notorious Catch ‘em games, Beat ‘em & Eat ‘em and The Music Machine, and chances are you’ve read the title to this review so you alread
Well isn’t this a little awkward, today’s subject for review, my recently acquired Datasoft Le Stick, has just stopped working. I have popped open the bottom to get at the wires to see what was going on and my worst suspicions were confirmed. Due to how you use the Le Stick, violently jerking it from side to side, it really does a number on the internal wiring where they all coalesce into the controller cord which leads to wires being severed. Datasoft tried to mitigate this by placing the wires
I am well and truly lacking inspiration for a game review today, nothing is jumping out at me in any meaningful way. So instead of doing a review that I don’t really want to I’ll do something else that I keep putting on the backburner, and don’t worry it’s not a new thing for Mondays, it’s just the thing I’m currently doing for Mondays. I’m just going to take a look at some more boxes, there’s always something to talk about with those, and I honestly have fun doing it, I’ve kept them relegated t
Telesys was an earnest company with humble beginnings; they just wanted to make good, fun games. Unfortunately Telesys also died a very humble death as they did not find their desired success in the games market. Telesys arrived on the scene in 1982; they released six games and were gone by the end of 1983. Sometimes I’m glad when I learn of the unfortunate demise of a game company, Mythicon and Mystique immediately come to mind, and I’m still waiting for EA to just go away already, but with Tel
The 2600 has several single screen platformers in its library. Some are excellent like Donkey Kong, others are decent but with flaws like Infiltrate or Tron, and others just suck like Miner 2049’er. There is one platformer that I feel doesn’t get enough attention though, and that is 20th Century Fox’s Fast Eddie. If I were to equate the gameplay other games in the library I would have to say it’s a decent mix of Tron and Infiltrate. Graphically the game is nothing special and sound-wise the game
Uh… What!?! They made a Chuck Norris game? Wait… Xonox made a Chuck Norris game!?! Well I just gotta play it now… …
… I vastly regret… everything.
So, this game exists. This game was released in 1983, right around the time that ol’ Chuck was gaining mainstream popularity, but he was doing Westerns not Kung Fu flicks (yet), which is what Superkicks would wind up being if it were a film. It’s just a classic case of “we’ve got a license for a celebrity, or other IP let’s just plaster their fac
Hooo boy! How did they get such a good game THIS stupendously wrong? The Miner 2049'er that was released on the Colecovision was fantastic whereas the version we got on the 2600 is rather legendary for it's inferiority for it's home computer and Colecovision counterparts. I saw this game cheap on Ebay and thought to myself 'why not?" and bought it... I put it in my 2600 and was immediately disappointing, this was nothing like what I was expecting, I'd played the Colecovision version and was expe
I like me some Seaquest, it’s just one of those games that is so simple in premise but absolutely masterful in its execution. The premise is simple, collect stranded treasure seeking divers while blasting away sharks and enemy subs who are pursuing them. As the game progresses the enemies come in larger numbers and are more aggressive while divers are fewer and farther between. You also have an oxygen meter that will deplete far too quickly for your liking, you can resurface to fill your meter b
I’ve been thinking back to my Spacechase review that I posted all the way back in June, it was my second review and I feel it is one of my worst. There is almost no talking about the game itself just me bashing it for being a bad game, and holy crap the second and fourth paragraphs are just one sentence each! That’s terrible! So I think it’s about time to go back and give this review a facelift.
Spacechase by Apollo is an unabashed and shameless copycat of Demon Attack that totall- Wait what
Battlezone is one of my absolute favorite arcade games, and as we all know when it comes to the 2600 arcade conversions can be rather hit or miss. Battlezone 2600, fortunately, hits it outta the park, it is seriously an amazing conversion. The graphics on display are, at least in my opinion, better than the arcade’s sparse vector lines, it just so full of color and detail that it’s a treat to the eyes. I think Atari borrowed from Activision a bit though since that sunset seems a little bit famil
Alright… So I promised that I would never review this game a long time ago in my Ghost Manor review but I feel that I now know enough about the game to give it a proper review. Spike’s Peak makes me cringe; I can find zero enjoyment from this game no matter how much I play it. Right now Spike’s Peak is the only Xonox game I have that I’ve yet to review and there is a very good reason for that, because playing this game puts me in a bad mood, so I must approach this game while already in a bad mo
It’s arcade time! And today let’s looks at one of the rarer conversions on the 2600… Bump ‘n’ Jump! I have only just recently played the actual machine for the first time and I gotta say… Nice. Originally B-n-J was published by Mattel under their M-Network label, but I was lucky enough to stumble across a boxed copy of the slightly rarer NTSC Telegames variants on Etsy of all places. It seems a lot of those Telegames re-releases are in the PAL format so I just got really lucky with this one sinc
What the hell… Let’s review Combat… This review is neither overdue nor actually expected I was just looking at my game shelf and thought the first six words of this review. Combat is iconic; people who’ve never even held a game controller know about Combat, it is for many people the epitome of the word videogame. Combat was the pack-in game for almost every single Atari VCS up until 1982, with the main exception being the Sears brand consoles that had Target-Fun (Air Sea Battle) as the pack-in t
I feel it’s time to finish this up, the final Data Age game, the only one I have yet to review, Bermuda Triangle. Judging from the model number Bermuda Triangle is the second to last game Data Age produced before going belly up, which is a pity since around this time is when Data Age was beginning to get good. Journey Escape, Bermuda Triangle, and Frankenstein’s Monster are all decent games in most respects, which is quite a shift from previous games like Sssnake and Bugs which are viewed as som
I have created a monster… Perhaps it was the fumes from my previous review but recent circumstances would have led me to this sooner or later. Recently I killed my 2600 as well as one I had gotten that same day at a local game sale, a word for the wise, if you have a 6-switch 2600 DO NOT re-seat the chips it will murder the console. As a test to see if my hypothesis is correct I took a system that was at death’s door, somebody had spilled soda in it and it would only play Congo Bongo and Warploc
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