Sorry about the last entry, it was a bit depressing, but it proved to me why I don't choose to approach this hobby for the sake of nostalgia. The only thing I miss about being young is having acres and acres of free-time. Time I wish I'd spent more of either learning or playing videogames. As a grown-up, what's cool about this hobby is having a 30 year backlog of relatively inexpensive games to sift through along with having slightly better time-management skills.
Football (Atari VC
I discovered another Chronogamer! A writer over at Retrogaming Times Monthly is chronogaming the NES, starting in 1983! This is the same guy that wrote the always interesting Syntax Era, so it should be good.
Anyway, here's the link to the issue with the first NES chronogaming. The column is called "Nintendo Realm". (You have to scroll to it.)
http://my.stratos.net/%7Ehewston95/RTM19/RTM19.html
No, he doesn't call himself a "chronogamer," and as far as I know,
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
Chronogamer is two years-old today!!!
Just for anyone wondering if the decrease in frequency of entries is any indicator of a flagging enthusiasm on my part, please let me assure you it is not. Real life has gotten a little bit in the way of my passionate pursuit of this effort, but this effort will indeed continue just as passionately, only slow.
To prepare for the next era of chronogaming, I've managed to get most of what I think will see me through to the Great Crash of 1983-84. There
Bowling (Atari VCS, 1979)
I was in a bowling league when I was in middle school. My team won the league championship two years in a row. I don't remember my average, but when I was 13 years old, my high score was 191. I don't think that's a great high score, (though I've never beaten it since ), and I'm certain my average wasn't very impressive, but it disturbs me to suddenly realize that I may actually be more qualified to talk about videogames based on bowling than videogames based on
Do you have a gaming company that, once upon a time, you would've done anything to work for?
For me, that company was Origin Systems, Inc. The Ultima Series brought me into computer role playing games in a big way. Ultima IV was my gateway game. I spent from 1991 to 1999 upgrading my computers just so I could play the latest Origin releases.
Origin is no more, but the company was resurrected, in a way, when the Garriott brothers went to the computer MMORPG maker of the most successful on
Sorry for the long absence. In setting up our Christmas living room my Bally Pro Arcade was trapped underneath a table. To get to it we would've had to move a large sofa bed and we just weren't up to it. Now the holidays are over . . . let the chronogaming continue!
Brickyard / Clowns - Bally Pro Arcade 1978
Brickyard is essentially Breakout. The only variation from Atari's Breakout is that there is some music and a stunningly good brick busting sound effect. I might have
The clock has stopped. Out of chronojuice. I should be able to restart again in September. All my chronogaming equipment is in storage for the summer.
In the meantime, I hope to update
www.chronogamer.com
with all of my entries from here while I'm away.
Take care,
michael / mezrabad / chronogamer
Thunderball! (Odyssey^2, 1979)
Thunderball! is a video pinball game in the tradition of APF Pinball (1978) or Atari Video Pinball (1977). However, what served as flippers in those games was really just a barrier which you could turn on and off to prevent the ball from exiting the bottom (or sides) of the screen. In Thunderball! we are given what actually could pass for flippers and it goes a long way towards giving this attempt at pinball a much more authentic flavor.
I
I find it hard lately to take screenshots of games for which I know screenshots and even well crafted home movies already exist. I also find it to be a little off-putting to my actually sitting down and trying to play a game, thinking "okay, I'll need to take some pictures of this". For now, I'm going to stop worrying about the visuals for these entries and simply "blog".
Invaders from Hyperspace (Odyssey^2, 1979)
Freaky game. You and your co-player are protecting two planetary systems
Casino (Atari VCS, 1979)
All right, this is another game which makes it possible to play Blackjack on the Atari VCS. I approached this cart with some pretty low expectations. I have a very hard time getting into Blackjack games on videogame consoles, though I do remember enjoying Odyssey^2's Blackjack game well enough -- must've been the keyboard.
So, I check out the directions (thanks Atari Age!) and find out that it supports up to four players! Well, we only had three players after I
Codebreaker, Atari VCS 1978
This cartridge contains two games, Codebreaker, which is a videogame version of the tabletop game, Mastermind, and Nim which is a videogame version of the ancient game Nim.
I've already written about the Fairchild Channel F version of these games, Mindreader and Nim. Go back and read it if you want. It's not funny, but it's informative. Bottom line is: I like playing Mastermind-clones and Nim. Sue me.
Now, let's talk about the Atari
Memory Match I & II, Fairchild Channel F, 1978
What was bright and shiny in 1977 is now old and faded. Here in 1978 I don't think there is anyone who thinks of the Fairchild Channel F as a serious competitor against the might that is the Atari VCS. Yes, the controllers are interesting, but the apparent speed, resolution and color capability seems so extremely limited when put against the Atari VCS.
Another crop of games DID come out for the Channel F in 1978. The appa
Videocart #16, Dodge-It, Fairchild Channel F, 1978
We really enjoy Dodge-It. Simple concept: You and your second player (optional) are in a box. A red ball (square) bounces into the box and you have to avoid its many rebounds off the walls of your enclosed space. Avoid it for long enough and it is joined by a second and then a third and then a fourth and so on up to nine bouncing balls. The highest we got was six balls at once. A counter on the left increases as you play and stops wh
Sorry for the hiatus, real life and such, yada yada yada.
Slot Machine (Channel F - Zircon, 1979)
Jerry Lawson, the designer of the Channel-F, in a panel discussion at CGE 2004 revealed that he'd made Slot Machine for his mother, who was fond of going to the casinos and playing the slot machines. I don't know if he gave it to her for Mother's Day, but in honor of the sweet sentiment: Happy Mother's day to all the mother's out there who tolerate videogames in their homes.
Hey, sorry, I've been remiss in my chronogaming. I started playing Morrowind which, of course, led to reinstalling Daggerfall and then restarting Arena (after reassembling the appropriate computer systems to run them on.). After playing Arena for a little bit, I got curious about other early ray-casting engines which lead to Wolfenstein 3D and finally to an emulated copy of the original Escape from Castle Wolfenstein, which reminded me that I should really get back to playing through the home vi
Hey, FYI, apparently "redoubling my chronogaming efforts" must've meant "not writing about them anymore" because I haven't updated in a week, right?
No, no, no. In this case, I've needed to start "redoubling" my efforts to selling the stuff I've already moved past, namely anything pre-1977.
I've got three rules as far as keeping a happy marriage as it relates to my gaming obsession.
Rule #1 Never give an exact figure detailing how much time you've spent gaming during a recent period
For those of you playing along at home this is Videocart #21-Bowling, for the Zircon Channel F.
I wonder if they actually changed its name to the "Zircon Channel-F"? All of the carts released during what is known among Channel F fans as "The Zircon Era" have the Zircon Empire's name and address on the back of the cart. I'll scan a picture of it one of these days.
Bowling (Channel F, 1979)
The Title (system, year) format was one of the ways of presenting the ca
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
Backgammon (Atari VCS, 1979)
Two games in a row from which I expected very little and yet found so much!
Backgammon on the Atari VCS is one of the best videogame versions of the 5,000 year old board game that I've seen to date. The APF version worked well enough, but typing in the moves via their keypad was painful. Atari's solution is so appropriate that I'm tempted to call it elegant. The paddles are the perfect controller for this game. Press the button to roll the di
They're back again for our backing up pleasure.
Due to the title of the post at the time (DP blogs will be lost) and the jist of the message (DP blogs will be lost after the conversion which I'll try again later tonight) I thought they were lost when it went down for "under construction". If I'd read more carefully, I'd have learned that he fully intended to give us a chance to back everything up after the conversion. So there. He cared. *sniff* god bless him!
Anyway, thanks jboypacman
Elementary Math / Speed Math / Bingo Math
Lettermatch / Spell n Score / Crosswords
Bally Professional Arcade, 1978
I can't honestly say anything about these titles other than that MESS, which does a great job of emulating the Fairchild Channel F, doesn't support the Bally Professional Arcade as well, at least in my experience.
I can't get my PSX controller to interact with MESS in the Bally emulation (like I can in the Channel F emulation) and the analog knob of
This review bears no relation to the Kiss album from 1979 with the same name. That album came out in 1979 and now it's after 2000, man. For you Kiss fans, it doesn't take x-ray eyes to see that despite their charisma they could be accused of dirty livin'. If you get the joke then you sure know something. Yes, even in hard times, I've got a magic touch. Hah! I know, I'm hysterical, but save your love for the Odyssey^2.
I've been reorganizing my "house of doom" into a single "wall of doom", i
Alpine Skiing, (Odyssey^2, 1979)
Unless I'm forgetting a game, we haven't seen a Skiing game in a home videogame context since 1972!
Skiing for the Magnavox Odyssey was fun for its day in a Zen sort of way. Alpine Skiing is less fun but has some perks. I wonder what made them choose the Alps? Why not Andes or Himalayian Skiing?
First perk: it's two player, simultaneous. Points to any game that attempts to force people to play together, even if it the overall
This is sort of an interim entry taking place between the sharing my experiences with the Fairchild Channel F and going on to explore the Bally Professional Arcade.
I just won an APF MP1000 a few weeks ago on eBay and, in separate auctions, won six carts for it.
I still have some time before I get to this system, but when I do, half of its library is unavailable to me. As far as I know, an emulator for it isn't finished and the carts for it are not dumped. I'm about to st
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