Ranthulfr

I bet it was an old-inventory (black picture label) Yars cart that got new stickers when Atari switched to red labels. They probably had a bunch of old carts that needed to ship with new packaging.

Yes, the redundancy in "Pitfall" is completely unnecessary! I mean, what is that second "l" supposed to accomplish, anyway? The different-looking traps were probably a way to disguise the redundancy made necessary by hardware/memory limitations. That was the game where you had the different keys (hearts, clubs, etc) right? I enjoyed that one for a while. The trap where the Easter Island head chases you really freaked me out the first time.

If it's any consolation, I noticed the same effect whilst playing Tape Worm on my 2600 Jr yesterday. The "shadow grid" corresponded to the unseen rows that the worm could travel along. That makes me wonder if it has to do with the programming in some way? At any rate, it was actually helpful in guiding the worm!

Nintendo has become such a major force in home gaming that it's hard for me to regret Atari passing on that console. I doubt that distributing the NES as the AES would have drastically changed history, but who knows?

The silver-label games rock! The first title/splash screen I remember seeing was for ET, by the way. It left me with a good impression of the cartridge. It wasn't till much later that I decided the game itself isn't one of my faves.

Which vintage/retro watches do you feel are especially interesting? I'm thinking in terms of the old LCD multi-function watches but I'd like to hear about anything good. Back in the day I had a calculator watch that I really liked. I want to say the brand was Armitron and it played multiple tunes. Way cool (to me at least). Which watch plays the best games?

You hit the nail right on the head in regards to converting the bankswitching scheme to a more standard method. Also the title "could" easily be changed to something else that still keeps with the LOTR theme but would avoid the IP problems. "One ring" "The quest for the rings" < Joking I can't think of any other names. How about "Overlord of the Finger Jewelry" ...or "Sojourn to River Dale"?

Oh good, now that I know the truth I can sleep again! Sure would've been a good place for an easter egg though (albeit one that nobody could uncover).

Okay, here is a question that's been bugging me for a while. It is a question of MONUMENTAL IMPORTANCE. As far as I can tell, all of the open passages in the Montezuma's Revenge layout are accounted for. In other words, they all lead to a known room. Except for one. The passage on the right side of this room (see pic) may not be truly accessible, because Panama Joe can't jump that far. Still, it must go somewhere, right? Is it a shortcut to the treasure chamber? Does it lead to the inner workings of the game program, causing it to crash? Where does it go?

Maybe it was a convenient way to detect whether a cartridge had been tampered with, for warranty purposes.

The first game I played on a VCS was probably Combat at a friend's house around '79. I remember playing Space War and Night Driver around that same time though. Another friend acquired Space Invaders, which was awesome, but I couldn't compete with his skill at the game. I recall seeing Adventure in one of his Atari catalogs and thinking that it sounded fun. When I finally played Adventure it was just mind-blowing. The open-ended freedom in the game added a totally new dimension to video games for me, and I'd say Adventure (and to a lesser extent Superman and then Haunted House) dominated my fascination with the system. When I got my own Atari I hooked it up to a small black-and-white TV in my bedroom and played for what seemed like (and probably was) hours.

Now THAT is an impressive piece of woodwork.

I've seen that "Atari 81" cover before, and my first thought after reading the orig post is that it was an internal company mag... Can't recall where I saw it though.

The best joystick... Doesn't it partially depend on the game you're playing? For general use I like ye olde cx-40.

The limitations of the 2600 are part of its charm.

It would be interesting to hear a choir sing Pac-Man Fever.

Could be that old carts have been doused with all kinds of stuff... It's just that paint happens to be opaque and permanent.

Of the ones I've played: Kaboom! Pitfall 2 HERO

Makes me wanna play the game!

The words "ATARI TRAK-BALL" were not painted over, just the background. So they probably wanted to highlight the text. But it does look very cool as a solid chrome plate!

A cheese puff? Then if you got hungry during a marathon game session you could just eat it. J/k. Maybe you could track down a busted stick to use for parts?

I can relate because I've always met resistance when plugging/unplugging controllers from my 2600 Jr. I avoid changing controllers any more than necessary, but when I do I generally wiggle them slowly in or out so as not to damage anything. I imagine that the sockets were a little off-size on some of the Juniors. I believe there is a controller extension cable available, and I've thought about getting one of those so I can plug/unplug from that instead of the main console.

Yeah, like that. You know, it occurs to me that someone could put a slabbed game on one of those paint mixers and scramble the insides all around, but it would still be sealed with a "85/mint" tag or whatever. A slabbed coin would be better preseved, I would think.

I would probably choose the game. But mainly I wanted to say that I've seen you comment along these lines before, and I think this is a really good attitude to have.

I would not want to see games getting "slabbed" in sealed cases. But I don't mind grading the way atari2600.com does it, for example. When they describe a game's condition as 7/10 or 9/10 it has some meaning, even if it is subjective.