Forward to present day (2005, to those of you reading this in some 25th century museum/blog-vault), videogame volleyball will/has evolve/evolved into poly-polygonal, progressively scanned-tily clad women bouncing around on exotic beaches and buying each other cute gifts. Back here in 1972/73, where I am, Volleyball for the Odyssey is the primordial soup of videogame volleyball. Don't forget, those little figures on the Überlay are static; frozen eternally in those positions. The only movement on
Word Fun (Intellivision, 1980)
Hey, did anyone else notice the complete revamping of intellivisiongames.com? They've had the same site up for years and its always looked circa 1999-2001 design style, but now they've got something that looks like it's database driven. Well, good for them.
I actually have a Word Fun cart, purchased in Tulsa, Oklahoma for $5 in 2006. It wasn't until I plugged it into my Intellivision II in August of 2008 that I found this sucker doesn't work with Intellivis
Did you ever think about the fact that people who are talking to themselves may actually be listening to themselves instead? This is a placeholder entry for when I actually get an Atari PONG console.
When I have one. I'll come back here and describe the crazy PONG games my family and I played. The PONG tourneys. The PONG-offs. The PONG-downs. The PONGathons.
What this says is that I'm willing to play OUT of order. I'm NOT obsessed with my crusade. I can live a happy normal life and still
Okay, one last "gone before" entry.
1977 was when things started rolling, with the introduction of the Atari VCS, but 1978 was when things started rocking. Five programmable videogame consoles available that year.
Atari VCS
Fairchild Channel F (formerly VES)
Bally Professional Arcade
The Magnavox Odyssey^2
APF MP1000
Atari VCS 1978
Basketball
Braingames
Breakout
Codebreaker
Flag Capture
Hangman
Home
Okay, it's another "clip show" entry. See, part of the goal was to play everything in a long unbroken chain so the gradual evolution of these things could be observed. However, it ain't unbroken, so I'm refreshing my memory.
This is just a refresh of 1977 with (EDIT 2021: without) links to the original articles.
1977
Miscellaneous Dedicated
Stunt Cycle (a.k.a. Motocross)
Video Pinball (a.k.a. Pinball Breakaway)
Ultra PONG Doubles (a.k.a.
This is one of those filler episodes that tell you what happened during all the previous episodes of the season, like that really lame episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation at the end of Season II where instead of actually writing a plot they just put Ryker in a coma and had him flash-backing the entire episode.
What's worse is that, not only is this a flash back episode it's a two-parter!!!
For those of you who are new (as if any of you are new) this blog is about go
I want to define this act in an official-sounding-like way, in case it "catches on".
chro·no·game - v. to play a set of videogames in as close to the order of their release as the player can discern, using the resources available to them.
chro·no·gam·er - n. the nutjob who chronogames.
A set of videogames can be any set as one would like to define it. It could be the same game across multiple platforms. It could be all the games in a franchise. It could be all the games in one's coll
War of Nerves (Odyssey^2, 1979)
This is another great example of a game that didn't seem like much when I played it single-player but blossomed into a real giggle when I played it with my son.
You control a general and your mission is to lead a bunch of robots into battle to catch the enemy general, who also has robots. The challenge here is that you lead, you don't control. The robots can disable each other and you can heal them by touching them. There's a
Hi!
It's been 17 years since I started this blog! 17 years since June 12th, 2005. Can you believe it? I mean, the year 1989 was only 16 in 2005!
I'm going to try to switch to video but still type, because I love typing.
Actually I might do a subtitle file for the hell of it. Also make subtitles in Japanese (because my Japanese is absolutely horrible) and Spanish (because my Spanish is absolutely horrible and even worse than my Japanese.)
Something
Moving on to the cartridges available for the Fairchild VES in 1976.
Carts 1, 2 and 3. That's "it", I think.
I am not certain as to when these carts became available. They have a 1976 copyright on them so I'm assuming they came out that year. Since the Fairchild VES came out in August (according to Phoenix: The Fall and Rise of Videogames.) I'm going to have to say the following blogs take place during and between August 1976 and December 1976.
Videocart-1
I won't do this all of
#10 - Maze
This was fun, but would have been more fun with the directions. We weren't quite sure how to set up the mazes we wanted to play. Of course, now I know where the instructions can be found, but not having them made our selections a little random.
This is a maze cartridge that generates lots and lots of random mazes. Apparently this cart is "special" as it is one of the few carts with an extra chip in it (a 2102 SRAM, if you're curious) to help it handle all the work it does. (Th
Videocart #17, Video Pinball, FCF 1978
I wasn't able to find instructions for this one, but the label has enough guidelines for use that we were able to figure it out for the most part.
It's not really Video Pinball at all. It's Video Breakout, which is the same as saying Breakout (licensing issues aside), since the "video" part of the name is assumed.
We do enjoy some of the variations on Video Breakou-er-Pinball as presented on this cart. The game variant ca
Above is the Überlay from Shootout. Shootout involves moving your little white square from window to window (starting at the upper left to the upper right, cross the street to the lower right then make your way to the lower left) while your friend, parent, spouse, offspring or other loved one tries to shoot you. The person playing the "outlaw" who sneaks from window to window, can't just zip through the window at a blinding speed. The "outlaw" has to stop in the window long enough to say "You'll
Video Chess (Atari VCS, 1979)
Someone in one of the forums (AA or DP) asked what was our most disappointing Atari game back in the day?
I responded "Video Chess". I think I meant to say "Basic Programming" but at that moment, my answer was "Video Chess". For the record, I take that back.
As a teen, here's the problem I think I had with Video Chess in a nutshell: Long move times for the AI.
Each successively difficult level of play takes the VCS longer to make its move. Level 8 i
Video Checkers (Atari VCS, Dec 1980, Atari)
In 1980, Checkers feels like the new Blackjack.
Blackjack seems like it was a requirement to be on every system. Checkers... well, maybe not on every system. It was already on the Fairchild Channel F (which, I missed back when I played through 1978 like... more then a decade ago, but less than 40 years ago. I'll get to it soon.) and we've seen it on the Intellivision and Atari. Now we get to play it on the Atari again.
US Ski Team Skiing (Intellivision, 1980)
Okay, prior to Skiing on the Intellivision we've thrice seen videogame versions of the real life, not-so-cheap thrill of strapping wood to one's feet and sliding down a mountain while standing up. The first came with the Magnavox Odyssey, called Ski, and I think I compared it to a lava lamp in its ability to provide a nice quiet Zen trance if you were open to relaxing and enjoying it.
The second version came bundled as a variation
The slogan may be "Every game. Chronologically" but the philosophy is really "Every game I can find and afford, or, if not, emulate. Chronologically."
There have been a few games that I to plan to get even if they didn't make it into my first six years of chronogaming.
Atari PONG - The first killer ap for home videogames.
Odyssey 300 - Because it was my first.
Coleco Telstar Arcade - I'm honestly not dying to play it, but I can't forget about it, either.
Coleco Combat - Ditto for this
Okay, for those of you who didn't read my last entry (and who could blame you?) this blog is about pretending it isn't 2005. We're using our imaginations and pretending that it is 1973.
This isn't a historical blog. I won't bore you with relevant facts. I'm going to bore you with blow by blow descriptions of really old videogames. Before I do that, I'm going to bore you by talking about the Odyssey and how it may not have had anything to do with people loving video games nor was it ever mean
Guess what that is!!!
It's a Bally Professional Arcade controller which I Frankenstein'd from an Atari VCS joystick and paddle. Oh, and a small white cardboard box, newspaper and scotch tape.
No solder for the wiring either, just cut, strip, twist and tape. Scotch tape.
Now, there's a lot of people out there who lend a bit of flare to their homebrew hardware projects. Quirky behavior like planning and design were left behind while I did this completely on the
UFO/Sea Monster/Break It Down/Rebuild/Shoot (APF MP1000, 1978)
I'll say one thing about this cartridge: it has motion.
Getting decent screenshots of any of the games on this cart was impossible for me, due to the constant motion of one or more of the elements on any given screen.
Well, except the menu . . .
UFO and Sea Monster are reverse variations of Sea Wolf style gameplay, almost.
UFO-1 just has you blasting alien drone
In 1972 there was only one system: Odyssey by Magnavox
There were a total of 23 games released for that system during 1972 as far as I can tell. They were released in three groups:
12 with the Main Console plus 1 free game by registering your console.
4 with the Shooting Gallery add-on accessory
6 released for individual purchase or as a set of six.
I'm emoticoning these for future reference. The emoticon "system" is different from the Vs. Ultraman "system" and is just shorthand fo
Okay, since it's a "TV School House" sequel, one might expect the same sort of standardized testing format. One might, but one would be wrong. This is actually a Math test game, you can compete against yourself or another player. The drill is the same as the Math game built into the system. A problem is shown, you get points for answering it correctly, the quicker you answer, the more points you get. Up to 10 points can be awarded per problem if the answer is input within the first 1.5 seconds a
Here is a scan of both TV School House I and II for scale comparisons. (In case you've never seen one of the RCA "longboxes".)
I didn't even try to coax my son to play this one because it isn't a game and it requires knowledge that he does not yet posess.
Remember your SATs? If you are not old enough to have taken them yet, then try to remember any standardized test you've ever taken. This game pack is like those tests -- except the questions are a lot less interesting.
The main co
My family is out of town all week.
For approximately 144 hours I've been left to my own devices.
This is more continuous "free" time than I've ever had since my son was born in 1997.
The only "grown-up" responsibilities I have are:
File our income 2006 income taxes.
Fix my resume.
Get a job.
Okay, that last one is pretty important, however, I just graduated from College (BS in Technical Management from Devry University. GPA 4.0 thankyouverymuch.) and after having spent the
Tornado Baseball, Hockey, Handball, Tennis - Bally Pro Arcade, 1978
These must be popular sports. Let me just point something out here.
Magnavox Odyssey 1972
Baseball
Hockey
Handball
Tennis
Fairchild Channel F 1976
Tennis (built in)
Hockey (built in)
Baseball (1977)
RCA Studio II 1977
Baseball
Tennis / Squash (Handball by another name)
Atari VCS 1978
Home Run (Baseball)
Video Olympi
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