pocketmego

I know Pole Position was popular, but I certainly don't remember it being so popular as to merit its own Cartoon show. I remember this show vaguely from childhood. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1H7r2vBuA2I I wonder who played that game and thought a weekly show about semi-transforming cars would work in the context of a standard race car game? -Ray

When you look back at home designs of the 70's there are a lot of obvious reasons why the original 2600 was Woodgrained. For one thing the 70's was HUGE with Excessive panelling. My parent's paneld our ENTIRE house in the late 70's and is that house still a dark place today. You have to have some historical perspective besides just the questionable design sense of the '70s. It was still relatively new for expensive products (like a video game console) to be made from plastic. Plastic had connotations of being flimsy and cheap. So it was common at the time to put a woodgrain veneer (or is it even really a "veneer"? it's a vinyl decal) on anything that was both plastic and expensive, to make it at least seem to be of higher quality, since the good stuff was still made of wood or metal back then. As for cars being made of wood... well, back in the early days cars DID have substantial parts made of wood... the old old old cars with wood paneling on the sides really WERE made with wood paneling, not just a vinyl decal over the steel body the way '70s and '80s stationwagons had. And they had wooden dashboards back then too! (And no seatbelts! But eventually they realized it was too much work to clean blood off wood... ) I don't know about the plastic thing. Was plastic really still considered cheap and flimsy by 1977? I mean, certainly from its inception in the 60's into the early 70's maybe, but by 77, I can't imagine plastic hadn't been pretty much accepted as what some consumer goods were made of. If you look at the 2600, especially the Heavy sixer you can see it used the same metal buttons that big 8 tracks Stereos used at the time. Also it is heavy and metalic, but covered in plastic, which would have been the same as the Phones o the time. So i don't think it would have bothered anyone that it was made of plastic, so to speak. -Ray

When you look back at home designs of the 70's there are a lot of obvious reasons why the original 2600 was Woodgrained. For one thing the 70's was HUGE with Excessive panelling. My parent's paneld our ENTIRE house in the late 70's and is that house still a dark place today. Being that they had no market analysis at the time, I am sure they used what they knew about the previous PONG homes system buyers. Basically everyone liked to play games on their TV, it was Unique and Hip. So the VCS was given the same basic design as Stereos and the ike had at the time. So, it was certainly marketed as a piece of furniture that would be natural in anyone's den. -Ray

I was buzzing around You Tube, as I am apt to do, and I found this "2600" Super Mario Brothers Hack... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVANvEwj1Is The guy who editied this thing seems to really believe that a game like this could actually have been done on the 2600. When clearly it is just a HACK of the NES game with blocky looking graphics. Ignoring things like smooth scrolling and no flicker, the 2600 certainly couldn't have handled that music. It really annoys me when people just think of the Atari as a bunch of blocky low rez graphics and totally miss what the system did, IT DID GREAT! -Ray

hey I'm with you I'm all about the Battlezone and I'll take Solaris over Star raiders...wait, what was the topic? -Ray

Yupp, 100% right. Sega destroyed Nintendo in europe hands down, just look at ebay, most of the sms stuff is being sold there. Oh, and just for the record to think that game companies and designers don't take the European market into account is just plan ignorance. Teams of marketers have to make charts and sales predicitons for products all over the world, not just in the so-called "hot spots". If they didn't take the European market into account they would be potentially loosing Billions of customers. So, yes, the European market is certainly considered when making games. -Ray

Not Robot Tank? LOL -Ray

Agreed. My theory is they wanted it left on the SMS, so people might buy either it or one of those SMS adapters that pluged into the Genesis. I had one of those and it is how I got to play Shinobi and Phantasy Star 1. The also probably didn't want to pull sales away from the VERY sucessful Revenge of Shinobi, which pretty much stayed a hot franchise for the entire run of the Megadrive. -Ray

I am trying to determine what the better game is between these two Space Operas. My personal battle with the Zylons goes way back, being that once I saw Star Raiders I had to have it. I played that game and went one a many a long and imagination filled voyage toward the destruction of a terible alien menace. However, I am new to Star Master which I played on the Activision PS collection and found it a bit confusing. Lately I've wanted a new copy of Star Raiders of which there appear to be tones of them out there and every damn one of them is sans key-pad. But, Star Masters is availabkle and I don't think it requires any extra peripherals. So which do you all think is the better of the two? -Ray

I find when you buy in lots as I am apt to do, duplicates become a way of life. The irony is that I have like 5 Asteroids, 3 Yars', and ironically only 1 Combat. -Ray

I was wondering the same thing. It looks a lot like the Flashback game. Which i really didn't find all that good. Can you ellucidate? -Ray

Damn Straight! -Ray

Nice, You guys certainly put me to shame, I'm still in the early 100's somewhere. However, My inherent laziness will never allow me to count all my carts, so I ma never know it once I reach the 2-300 mark. -Ray

Interesting, before winning my Heavy Sixer and 2600 Jr on Ebay, this was the first machine I bought at a Flea Market. I never knew it had its own name. Why is it called Vader? is it a Darth Vader reference because its all black? -Ray That's correct! First came the Sears 6 switch, then the woodgrain sixer, then the woodgrain 4 switch, then the all black vader 4 switch, (my first atari) and finally the Atari Jr. I do know that the -4 switch woodgrain always seems to been made in 1981. -The all black Vader was made in 1982, and sometimes early '83. Sweet, thanks for the info guys. You are always a wealth of knowldege. -Ray

Interesting, before winning my Heavy Sixer and 2600 Jr on Ebay, this was the first machine I bought at a Flea Market. I never knew it had its own name. Why is it called Vader? is it a Darth Vader reference because its all black? -Ray

Oh, I see. Re-Realed by Atari themselves. Thanks -Ray

I keep seeing references to the Vader 2600. What is a Vader? -Ray

I know that DK, DKjr, and Q*bert weren't released originally in the Tramiel era. Were they re-rleased with a new run of production? -Ray

Arguably, Metroid really only gained Icon status recently. I don't remember it beinbg much more than an underground hit back in the day, where Mario and Zelda were always HUGE and hot games. -Ray

Good one, I love to play Spider Fighter!! Did anyone ever get one of those patched from Activision, the one if you sent a photo of you 40,000+ score? I only recently discovered Spider Fighter, so I didn't back in the day. But I could totally win that patch now easily. If no one else has mentioned it, I also just thought of Secret Quest, which is another great Unsung game. Truly the Legend of Zelda of the 2600 (at least it was designed to be). -Ray

I played through bthe entire mission today. The level one version anyway. For what it is, it is a very interesting game in that it really is designed for multiple objectives. In an age where most games had one goal, you had to complete three in order to beat Superman. Plus it gave you something for winning, basically when you entered the Dailey Planet to finish your story the game gives a tone that says you won and trhen you are treated to Clark kent being whisked through every screen in the game. Silly sure, but it was a precurser to the ending cinemas of the NES era. In terms of Cinematics, yes, I think Superman was the first one. -Ray

Hunchy2 Wolfenstein VCS - The Next Mission Atlantis Cosmic Ark Demon Attack Chopper Command Spider Fighter Berzerk Pitfall Pitfall 2 Solaris That should get you started. -Ray

Looking beyond the scope of the US and Japan the SMS was a very successful system in Europe and did last for quite a few years longer there than it did in America. It is the equivalent of how the Turbographics 16 did very poorly in the US, but was a huge hit in Japan. What really sold the SMS and then the Megadrive in Europe were the sports games (most notably European Football) such as Fifa which the NES just didn't do. Nintendo had invested so much in its Japanese and North American markets that they never concentrated much of anything in the European market. Sega swept in and made a killing there. Frankly, I would have been thrilled to see the SMS and Genesis last here in American like its counterparts did in Europe. I loved my Genesis and would have been thrilled to see many more games and the kind of great lifespan that the Europeans enjoyed with the Megadrive. The Atari Jaguar did better in Europe as well. -Ray

LMAO!!! I love all the Execution style headshots to make sure that the job was done. Robot Chicken rocks. -Ray

Hiya, I was wonderign what 2600 titles were released new during the Tramiel era. Here is what I have been able to gather... Solaris Midnight Magic Rampage Double Dragon Secret Quest Xenophobe But, I know there had to be more than that. Anyone know or have a complete list? Thanks -Ray