Rev. Rob
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Posts posted by Rev. Rob
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Might as well start a second list with the Odyssey called "Consoles that will never have homebrew", since it doesn't have a CPU or RAM and the "cartridges" are just little circuit boards with jumpers in them to select different built-in games.Odyssey homebrew is something that I am actually seriously working on.
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Ya, I guess maybe it's worth $13.
I got my copy for free when I spent $175 on Panzer Dragoon Saga.
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Is Phaser Strike a good game?Sure... if you like Air-Sea Battle. I am not a big fan of either game.
However, "Phaser Strike" is pretty rare. Here's the story:
In 1979, Milton Bradley licensed the name "Star Trek" and marketed the game as "Star Trek Phaser Strike." In 1892 the licensing agreement ran out, and MB decided not to renew, and continued to sell it as simply "Phaser Strike." Since the market crash would kill the system within a year and because it had already fallen out of popularity, few copies of "Phaser Strike" without the Star Trek branding were ever sold. On eBay they go for pretty high if collectors catch wind of the auction.
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The honorable adventures of Kung Fu Lu
What happens when Breakout meets a Mario Bros. (the original Mario Bros. that appeared on classic systems such as the Atari 2600, back when Mario and Luigi were just cousins, before they were brothers)? Off the Wall happens, and it’s smashing!
Our hero is Kung Fu Lu, a young lad who has been granted five lives, as we are told from the game’s plot. His job is to destroy “an old, ugly wall” that contains evil spirits and to kill the mystical dragon that protects the wall, while outsmarting a cunning blackbird who attempts to foil Kung Fu Lu’s efforts. Lu uses only a stick and a ball to smash the horrible wall. From time to time, good fortune blesses Lu with magical objects that bring good fortune (power-ups).
Sounds cheesy? Who cares! Off the Wall brings amazing depth, innovative gameplay, and excellent graphics to the aging Atari 2600.
Developed by Axlon, a company founded by Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, (Bushnell sold Atari to Time Warner for $28,000,000 – what he would later reflect on as his biggest mistake), Off the Wall looks almost too good to be a 2600 game.
The gameplay is similar to the popular Atari hit, Breakout. A ball is released from the top of the screen. The joystick moves a character at the bottom of the screen, in this case, Kung Fu Lu, and the ball bounces back up and smashes bricks or blocks, (or chicks or ticks or tocks sir!), creating a quick-trick brick trick.
If the ball hits the ground, Lu loses one of his five lives that he begins the game with.
If that were all that there was to the gameplay, then Off the Wall would be one for the bargain bin. However, Bushnell’s Axlon does much to improve on the classic formula.
Smashing all of the bricks is not the object of the game
The object of the game is to simply kill the dragon floating around at the top of the screen. The dragon takes several hits to kill (approximately 6-8 hits). Once the dragon has been destroyed, Kung Fu Lu advances to the next level.
The most intriguing part of Off the Wall’s off-the-wall gameplay is the use of power-ups that became popularized by games such as Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. and Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog. Intermittently, when Lu smashes some bricks, a power-up will float down. If Lu grabs the power-up he will have special abilities for a short period of time.
Lu’s power-ups include the ability to create an explosion when the ball hits the wall, thereby destroying several bricks at once. At the right angle, the effect can be catastrophic. Another power-up slows the speed of the ball, making it easier to hit. One power up causes the ball to be caught in an upward cyclone upon being hit. And then there is perhaps the most powerful ability of them all, magnetism. With the ball and stick magnetized, not only will the ball always return directly to Kung Fu Lu’s stick as long as he is close by, but Kung Fu Lu can direct the ball in mid air. For example, if Lu stands directly under the wall with the magnetic ability, he can smash a tunnel into the wall. While the ball is in the tunnel, if Lu moves to the side, so will the ball, causing it to drill a hole directly into the side of the wall, and easily decimating the wall with just one hit – and perhaps also killing the dragon a number of times.
Finally, after the first stage, a menacing black bird comes to attempt to deflect Lu’s strikes at the wall. The bird flies below the wall and can intercept the ball, bouncing it directly to the ground, adding a much needed challenge and fresh gameplay element. The bird can often be used to the player’s advantage, because if the ball lands on top of the bird, it will bounce upwards.
Off the Wall featured amazing graphics considering the console that it was developed for. Axlon always pushed the 2600’s aging chipset to the absolute limits. Kung Fu Lu, the dragon, and blackbird are all well animated. Lu’s character has clearly recognizable limbs, and his stick can be seen. The wall its self is made up of many layers of different colored blocks.
It’s almost a shame that Off the Wall wasn’t developed specifically for the 7800 to take advantage of its superior graphics and sound capabilities. What is even more a shame is that Tengen, Atari’s 3rd party publishing arm in the late 80’s and early 90’s, never released an updated version of this game for the Sega Genesis. The company currently using the Atari moniker owns the rights to Off the Wall, and in 2005 released it as a built in game in the Atari Flashback 2.0 console.
Unfortunately, when it hit store shelves in 1989, Off the Wall was released too late in the 2600’s life cycle for it to have become a smash hit. Hopefully one day the right to this game will land in the hands of a company that will revive the title in a way that it deserves, enabling an whole new generation of gamers to enjoy this fantastic, creative and yet so simple gaming masterpiece.
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I can't believe that anyone would throw away a game or console, even a non-working one. I have sold my non-working ones for parts.
Why not keep it? Odyssey 2 is not all that valuable, and it does have a handful of descent titles. So, I say just pack it away and take it out when the next great homebrew is released.
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@Rev. Rob-Thanks for the info, i basically knew nothing of this system until now.Are the games okay, as in playable?
What does the unit look like without a cartridge on it?
As for are the games playable... I do have plans to write an article that includes mini-reviews on all of the games. Some are better than others, but some are really fantastic.
Sea Duel, for example, is worth lots and lots of fun. A true classic in every sense. You also can't really go wrong with Blockbuster, a compitent Breakout clone. Bowling is another gem.
A lot of the rest of the games are just so-so ports of exiting Atari games. Some are real stinkers. For example, the ultra-rare Super Breakout. I just don't get it.
As for a naked console, this page has a picture as well as excellent information.
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The first Odyssey ran on batteries, not a power supply. Well, that's how my Odyssey is. I don't know anything about the O^2, since I don't own one.No. All original Odyssey units had a power supply. It just was sold seperately. Look at the back of your unit and you will see it.
Really? Now I have to go buy one now. I hate buying those stupid big batteries. I wonder why they sold it seperately? Damn Magnavox.
I think that had portability in mind. They looked at it more like a board game... and most of its games are really just board games.
Be careful to get the right kind of power adaptor. I accidentally fried on Odyssey.
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Can't the modem still be used for dial-up head to head games?Sure, but does anyone still have dial up?
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This is a Jaguar forum. I am no more willing to mount an argument for the 32X over the Jaguar here than I am willing to launch an argument for atheism at a Christian forum or a pro Biden argument at an Obama forum. Where ever a mob rules, an individual will always lose.
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The Net Link was my first venture on the web like so many others'.Are you Shadow from #Netlink1, et cetera?
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Sorry to say, but the 32X owns all over the Jaguar in every possible way.
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It suprises me it even has a functioning screen after all these years, good buy the Microvision is a piece of videogame history.They're on eBay pretty much all of the time, usually for very little money. I think the screen rot thing might be a little over played. Most of the ones that are sold work fine.
You can see in my Blockbuster screenshot that I have some faded pixels, but all in all, it's a real trooper. It even holds up well in this 110 degree Phoenix heat!
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Three years ago I purchased my first original Magnavox Odyssey on eBay, complete in box, of course. I remember the excitement of that day. One of my first major collecting milestones, an object of desire in my hands for the first time ever... I was actually about to play the first ever console game with its screen overlays in all of its glory, and poopies... it did not work. Just a blurry screen.
I tried all of the usual methods, cleaning it, cleaning the contacts, taking it apart and putting it back together... nothing worked. I would by three more such Odyssey systems on eBay over the next two years. All to the same results. "I don't know how to test this system or hook it up a TV" was becoming an old line. I began to wonder if it was the same few broken systems making the rounds on eBay over and over again.
Once, I even took it to a local retro games store called Games Plus in Mesa, AZ, which is way across town from where I live (a 40 minute drive). Anyone who's a collector in Phoenix knows that these bastards are crooks, but they said they could fix it. Seriously, they have no price tags on anything and look up how much BINs are on eBay right in front of you to determine the price! I am not even kidding a little bit. They once tried to sell me a lose Odyssey 2 with no games for $100. Anyhow, the owner drooled on it... I explained to him how inserting the gamecard is what turns the system on, so he needed to be careful to not leave one in or the six C batteries that power it would go dead. Six months went by and they still didn't get around to looking at it, saying that Xboxes and PS2s take precedence, and that I understand that. So, I drove for 40 minutes to pick it up, and not only did they leave a gamecard in it for who knows how long, but it was in a box, on the floor, under a table, right out in the open. This paragraph has been my obligatory fuck Games Plus rant.
Anyhow, I just won this baby. At first, it was the same deal. Fuzzy screen. So, I decided to take it apart. After all, I do still have the last non-working one that I won, so what's the harm?
Anyone who's ever taken apart an Odyssey, will notice immediately the little circuit cards plugged into the system. I took out each of them and replaced it and made sure it was clean. Still, nothing. So, I decided to try batteries as opposed to the power adaptor. This way, it was safe for me to experiment with it while it was on.
I took it apart, turned it on, and again removed each circuit board. This time I paid careful attention to what element each board affected, left paddle, right paddle, ball, line, horizontal, vertical. I also discovered the difference between the 1TL200BLAK model (the one I just got), and the 1TL200BK12 model, which all of my previous consoles were. The 1TL200BK12 model, which is a newer model, has a hole in the bottom of it to access the horizontal adjustment. I began to look for this knob inside of my 1TL200BLAK model.
Quickly, I realized that each circuit board had a corresponding knob. I carefully adjusted each with a screw driver or my fingers, until all objects became stable on my screen.
Most likely, this would've fixed the first unit that I purchased all of those years ago. I did try it on my non-working 1TL200BK12 model, but to no avail. It completely fails to power on. It's complete, so I am sure it's worth a few dollars.
Last night was my first time out with a working Odyssey, and playing it was a magical moment, the first console game in history.
It's immediately apparent that the designers had no clue how to use the machine. The game rules are cumbersome and more akin to a board game than a modern video game. Some even require game boards and pieces to play. Rules for Football are astounding. They also saved money by using the same game cards with different rules and overlays to invent an entirely different game.
Despite all of that, it's still pretty incredible for me. If you ever have the chance to own one, do it. After all, it's less than the price of one really rare Atari 2600 game.
Here are some scans I took of the rules for simple tennis, in case no one believed me how crazy they are:
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Hi, My name is Rob...
...and I am the proud owner of a 1979 Milton Bradley Microvision, and a game complete collection.
For those of you who don't know, Microvision was the world's first handheld portable game console - that is, the first to be "reprogrammable." To my knowledge, it would take ten years for a successor, the touted Nintendo Game Boy.
Microvision was and is incredibly innovative and unique. Due to the limited technology of the late 70's and early 80's, this system did not have a color screen. It was a primitive form of LCD. Unfortunately, the screen is very sensitive to heat and other elements, and is prone to a phenomenon known as "Screen Rot." Fortunately, my unit is very minty and the screen works exceptionally well.
Here are some example of Microvision screenshots:
Sea Duel (Screenshot taking from my unit with a digital cam)
Blockbuster (the pack-in game)
Bowling
To view all Microvision games, click here.
So, as you can see, many Microvision games used screen overlays to supplement the lack of graphical capabilities.
Here is a pic of the US unit:
One thing that is interesting is that the cartridge is the entire face of the unit. Each cart has custom "buttons" built in, in order to optimize a control scheme for each game.
Also, the "processor" for each game is on the cart its self, optimizing efficiency for the core unit. (This is why there is no Microvision emulation.)
Note: The "paddle" (knob) is built in to the unit, and many games are designed to take advantage of it.
Powered by a 12-volt battery, it has exceptional battery life.
Games
A total of thirteen games were released for the console. I just acquired the 12th game, Super Blockbuster on eBay. Super Blockbuster is the only non-US released game for this system and also the last released for the system. It should also be noted that the European packaging is far superior to that in the US. I also just landed the 13th game (finally), it's called Cosmic Hunter, it was the last US release for the system. It's really a toss-up as to which is more rare. They both command about the same amount of money and show up rarely on eBay. A 14th game, Barriage, was promoted by was never released an no prototypes are known to exist, sadly.
Out of all of them, I personally feel that Sea Duel is the most innovative. The gameplay still shines today. Of course, many other titles have held up well over the years, such as Bowling and Blockbuster.
This handheld game console is a unique piece of history and I would recommend that anyone pick it up. It can be found complete on eBay for usually around $20, sometimes less. Just make sure that your unit has a working screen.
I truly love the unit that I own. Last week I took it out of the box to play it for a while and show it off to a friend, and it didn't work... no power. I was very sad, because I thought that I now had to by a new unit. So, I took it apart and put it back together, and it powered on just fine. Sometimes the pin connectors come loose in the unit. If the unit does not detect a cart, it will not power on. Just realigning the pin connectors can save many Microvisions!
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Please, let me know if I missed something...
I am posting this here because it all began with the 2600.
The timeline, history and facts of online console gaming
January, 1982- GameLine - A man of little fame but of much significance in American pop-culture named William “Bill” von Meister was at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas Nevada. For years, all new software, hardware and other innovations in the game industry were first revealed to the world at CES, long before the industry was truly global, long before E3.
Bill von Meister, President of Control Video Corp., better known as CVC, was at the CES to display his companies’ new product and service, the GameLine Master Module. The Master Module was a 1200 baud modem for the Atari 2600 which allowed users to download dozens of 2600 games from CVC’s centralized computer via a service called GameLine.
In June 1983 GameLine made its world debut. The GameLine Master Module was packaged with the following:
The Master Module itself, a long telephone cord, a subscription to a GameLine magazine called GameLiner (only two issues were released), a rule summary binder containing the rules to every game which could be downloaded.
Gamers would pay $49.95 for a one year subscription to the online service and would dial into the GameLine library and enter in a three digit code found in the rule binder (or magazine) to download any of the dozens of games available on the service for a small fee, which could be paid for via credit card. Once a player downloaded the game, it could be played up to eight times or until the 2600 system was powered off.
GameLine was short lived for two reasons. First of all, it was released only months before the great crash of 1984 and secondly, no major game publisher was on board with the service. Powerhouses such as, Activision, Mattel, Parker Brothers and Atari themselves never signed on to the service.
Before the plug was finally pulled on the GameLine, there were two expansions to the service which were ready to go: One was called StockLine and the other SportsLine. Respectively, they were services that would deliver stock prices and sports scores. Also in the works – but not finished – were MailLine, a service similar to what we now know as e-mail, OpinionLine, which was designed to be an open discussion forum, NewsLine, a service designed to deliver news headlines, InfoLine, a miscellaneous service that could be used for horoscopes, classified ads or even airline schedules, and finally BankLine, which was designed to be an online banking system from which electronic fund transfers could be made from home.
All of these services would see the light of day in one form or another, in part thanks to Bill von Meister, who eventually left CVC and founded he Source, which would eventually become America Online.
1982 – PlayCable
Today the concept of downloading information is quite simple. Every website visited on the internet is information that is downloaded. Programs, images, sounds, and other types of information are also available for download from the World Wide Web, including video games.
Companies like GameTap offer subscription-based game downloads; some games are now part of public domain and are free to download, others download them illegally. Though GameTap might be a new service, the idea to download videogames online is not. In fact, it’s an idea that has been in use for almost 25 years.
In 1982 the first console war was hot. Mattel’s Intellivision was squared off against Atari’s VCS 2600 and Coleco’s ColecoVision. In 1978, when the Intellivision was still on the drawing board, Mattel had partnered with a company called General Instrument to create the chipset. It so happened to be that that General Instrument was involved in the cable industry through their Jerrold division.
In the 1980’s the Internet was not in every household, and phone lines were no means of sending data; cable was needed to send even small bits of data at reasonable speeds. Mattel cultivated their relationship with General Instrument and by 1982 they were ready to launch their game download service: PlayCable.
PlayCable was a service that was provided by local cable companies. The cable company would rent the subscriber the PlayCable modem. This unit was modeled after the Intellivision unit and attached to the cartridge slot. The service had available 20 games to download per month. This was saved on the PlayCable unit’s 4K of memory until the system was powered off. The monthly subscription fee for the service is reported to have been $4.95.
In 1983 the PlayCable service met its end. Games had simply outgrown the service; Mattel and their partners General Instrument and Jerrold were not forward thinking enough. At this point most new games were up to 8K in size, some more. With the unit limited to only 4K of internal memory, subscribers were left disappointed with their service. By this time cable companies were already dropping the service as more and more cable TV channels, such as MTV and CNN became nationally popular.
When the service was discontinued all subscribers returned their PlayCable units to the cable company. This would be the last time that a game console would have an online component in the US for over a decade.
1994 – The Sega Channel
Sega, the premier pioneer in online console gaming, got its network feet wet in 1994 with the debut of the Sega Channel. Partnering with Time Warner, the largest media conglomerate in the world, as well as Telecommunications, Inc., which at the time was the largest cable company in the world, Sega launched the Sega Channel to the American public for a premium cost of only $12.95 per month.
Why a cable channel? Sega had an idea. It wanted to directly rent its Genesis games to consumers, making more profits from the company and eliminating the need for brick and mortar rental chains, such as Blockbuster Video.
With the technology of the time, it would have been near impossible to create a network that would satisfy consumers on phone line based modems. However, cable in 1993 reached 90% of the American public and had enough bandwidth to deliver content in a timely manner.
Sega Channel subscribers would receive the service as well as a modem (it uploaded at1.435 GHz and downloaded at 1.1 GHz) which inserted into the cartridge slot of the Genesis console, much like the later released Genesis 32X expansion console.
Sega Channel subscribers had the ability to download several Genesis games for nearly free, (twenty-five cents a piece), and play them repeatedly until they powered off their system. About fifty games could be chosen from at a time and this list was altered from month to month.
The most popular feature was the “Test Drive” aspect of the Sega Channel. The “Test Drive” feature allowed subscribers to play previews of upcoming games that were not yet released. Some “Test Drive” games were imports that were never released in America, and some never released in cartridge form at all.
Sega advertised the channel heavily on both cable and public broadcast television. It received very favorable press, even being cited by Popular Science as being among 1994's most outstanding products.
However, Sega’s estimated 1 million subscribers by the end of the first year fell dramatically short. Only 150,000 users subscribed to the service. The primary downfall of the Sega Channel was availability. Though cable could reach over 90% of Americans, local cable providers were unsure that the concept could be a success and thus few chose to carry the network. As a result only an estimated 30% of US consumers could have been reached by the Sega Channel.
On November 24th, 1997, with the impending end of the 16-bit era present, the Sega Channel was shut down and neither it nor a similar service would ever return.
May 1995 - Catapult Entertainment
In the spring of 1995 Catapult Entertainment launched a product called the X-Band Modem and a service called the X-Band network.
The modem its self was sold for the two most popular systems of its day, the Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo and cost only $19.95 at retail. The service, however, the X-band Network, cost $4.95 for fifty connections or games a month local telephone area code. Another option was more expensive; for $9.95 per month users had unlimited local connections. One could even play gamers long distance for only $3.95 an hour, anywhere in the continental United States. These priced, of course, were relatively inexpensive for the era.
One of the most popular features of the X-Band Network was the ability to send and receive X-Mail, which is essentially e-mail. The only draw back is that since no keyboard existed for either the Genesis or SNES, gamers had to use a cumbersome on-screen keyboard. After a match users could also chat with opponents using a similar interface.
The X-Band also had a call waiting feature, which would show incoming calls, a feature which was not standard on PCs until years later. X-Band was parent friendly too. It offered the ability for parents to lock out their children from establishing a connection to the X-band Network during specified hours.
Unfortunately, Catapult Entertainment’s amazing device was met with only lukewarm support from both consumers and publishers alike. Its limited number of compatible games (thirteen on Genesis and fourteen on SNES) combined with the fact that it was unable to produce Genesis vs. SNES online competition were seen as major drawbacks by consumers.
Ultimately, the decline of the 16-bit era led to the end of X-Band. On April 30th, 1997, the X-Band Network shut down permanently.
1995 Atari Jag
In 1984 when Jack Tramiel, former CEO at Commodore Computers, bought Atari from Warner Communications, no one knew that he would run into the ground the most successful console manufacture in history at that time, and do it in just over a decade.
After the 1994 release of the underpowered “64-bit” Atari Jaguar, the system soon suffered from poor first party software, poor third party support, and downright bad and ugly games. The expansion system, Jaguar CD, did even poorer in the market.
At the 1994 CES Atari announced that it had forged a partnership with a company called Phylon, Inc. to create a voice modem for its Jaguar product, which was about to be rolled out nationwide:
June 23, 1994 — Consumer Electronics Show — Atari Corporation announced today that playing Jaguar games with opponents over a single telephone line will be a reality in the 4th quarter of 1994. New technology, developed by Phylon Communications Inc., leaders in advanced fax/modem/voice technology, permits two users to play Atari Jaguar video games against each other. Utilizing the same phone line, they may speak to each other as they play. The game experience is truly shared by the two gamers although they may be miles apart from each other.
The Jaguar Voice/Data Communicator uses headsets for the players to hear each other speak as well as listen to the stereo benefits of the game being played. Users will also have call waiting indications, both at local and remote ends, to pause and resume a game due to an interrupting call in the middle of a game. Thus, this product can be enjoyed by the players without being a nuisance to others in the home. "By offering our voice-plus-data technology to leading OEMs and systems manufacturers, like Atari, Phylon is pioneering multimedia communications technology on the dial-up network," noted Dr. Hamdi El-Sassi, President and CEO of Phylon.
The first games planned to exploit the features of the Jaguar Voice/Data Communicator are Doom, Club Drive and Iron Soldier. "Reports I have been receiving from Jaguar owners is that they are ready for this technology. We have it and we are going to offer it this Christmas," announced Sam Tramiel, President and CEO of Atari Corporation. "By reviewing each game we have in development, we have been able to make certain each one integrates every bit of power we can put into it." The Jaguar Voice/Data Communicator is compatible with Atari Jaguar; the world's first and only 64-bit interactive multimedia home entertainment system. The Atari Jaguar and compatible software titles have been awarded multiple awards for technical achievement, design and innovation worldwide. The Jaguar Voice/Data Communicator is packed complete with stereo headset and is engineered for user friendly, plug 'n' go operation. Future software options will enable the Jaguar Voice/Data Communicator to access existing and upcoming online services on the Information SuperHighway.
Alas, the Jaguar Voice Modem (JVM) was not to be release that Christmas, moreover, none of the games initially announced to support the device did so. In fact, the only game to support the device in the end was Ultra Vortek.
Eventually, in 1995, the decision was made not to mass produce the JVM. Today it is estimated that less than 100 JVM units have survived and are in the hands of collectors around the world.
Does it work? Yes, and it is reported that the 19.9kbps modem performs exceptionally well over dial up, and that while the voice chat isn’t the best in the world, it is always clear. JVM users also report that lag, though it shows its self from time to time, occurs rarely and is minimal. Users are required to directly dial their opponents.
Other features that it included is the ability to answer incoming phone calls and store up to 18 phone numbers.
1996 Sega Saturn Net Link
In 1996 Sega Corporation, which at the time produced video game consoles, had conceived a new product for its failing Sega Saturn. The product was called the Net Link. It was a 28.8kps modem which would allow Saturn owners to both surf the Internet and play games online against opponents across the country.
At the time there was no technology that could squeeze an internet browser into a system as limited as the Sega Saturn, which only had 500 bites of on board RAM. So Sega found Ken Soohoo.
Ken Soohoo has had an interest in computer and video technology all of his life. At the age of 16 he programmed his first video game for the Atari 2600. He went on to graduate from the University of California at Berkley with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science with an emphasis in computer graphics and splines. His first major role in the video game world was when he joined - and became Vice President of - a small video game developer called Digital Pictures Inc.
Once Sega allowed Soohoo a chance at a contract to create the first web browser for the Sega Saturn Net Link, he united with Kamran Elahain, and six others, and created a workable web browser for the Sega system. The seven of the formed a company which they named “Planet Web,” which they later renamed “Planetweb” in 1998, (at which time Ken Soohoo CTO of Planet Web became Ken Soohoo President and CEO of Planetweb).
The resulting product was the Version 1 browser. The Version 1 proved to be so bug ridden that it was never released. The Planet Web Version 2 Net Link browser allowed for Saturn owners to send and receive e-mail, browse the internet, and eventually chat via Internet Relay Chat, better known as IRC.
Around the Net Link sprung up online communities. For many the Saturn was their first taste of the World Wide Web. Websites and forums sprung up everywhere that were created with a Net Link and for Net Link users.
Sega even released a mouse, keyboard and a keyboard adaptor (to convert standard PC keyboards for Saturn use) to make the internet experience more authentic. However, later plans for the release of a floppy disc drive and a printer for the US market were never realized.
After the US launch of the Net Link hopes were high for the device. It was outselling its nearest rival, the WebTV, by a margin greater than two to one. That being well and good, but where were the games?
It took Sega of America a while, too long of a while some would say, to begin to get online Net Link compatible games to the public.
Finally, it happened. Planet Web released the Version 3.0 web browser for the Net Link and along with it were packaged Net Link editions of Sega Rally Championship and Virtual On: Cybertroopers.
With all Net Link enabled games, players would be given the option to play online or off. If they decide to play online they were connected to an IRC channel where they could meet and chat with other “Netlinkers.” It was the preferred to find opponents in one’s local community, as Saturn online gaming required players to “direct dial” their fellow gamers. This meant that long distance charges could apply.
In the end, there were just five games produced for the Saturn that had Net Link compatibility: Virtual On: Cybertroopers, Sega Rally Championship, Daytona USA C.C.E., Duke Nukem and Saturn Bomberman. All but Saturn Bomberman supported only two players at a time, a limitation which prevented truly great frag-fests in Duke Nukem from ever occurring.
Though Planetweb had an advanced public beta test for a Version 4.0 brower, it never saw the light of day. In the Saturn’s demise, Planetweb had their eye on other projects.
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I've always suspected otherwise and never heard anything to really support it. There are games with higher serial numbers and later copywright dates. I know that the date doesn't always reflect when it was released, but Secret Quest has a 1989 release date whereas games like Sentinel and Xenophobe have 1990 dates. Are there any of these carts with an earlier copywright date? Or perhaps a Secret Quest with a later one? It's always been a mystery to me.The Axlon games were released in 1991.
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So what was the last 2600 game released in America back in the day? That one's always been a big mystery to me. I created a thread about it, but nobody else seems to know either.Wasn't it Secret Quest?
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I wanted to see if we can make a list of systems that are completly homebrew free.
I'll start:
Microvision
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1
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VESwiki used to have it, but it appears to be down. I think I have a copy somewhere, though. I'll see if I can dig it up.Think you can top it? F8 of Nations is a homebrew game for the Fairchild Channel F which, at 38 bytes, is currently the world's smallest game, at least as far as I can tell. So I'm challenging anybody to prove it is not the world's smallest. If anyone can find a smaller game than this one, or make a reasonably playable game in 37 bytes or less, it will win the title of World's Smallest game.Where can I find "F8 of Nations"
Cool... it must be the only Channel F homebrew ever.
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Link: http://www.revrob.com/content/view/43/49/
In the early 1990’s the world knew what the next big thing in gaming was – or at least that thought they did – it was VR (Virtual Reality).
In Arcades and malls in America, both kids and adults stood in lines and paid $5 or more for a chance to pay a VR game. This experience involved standing on a platform, wearing a helmet that covered the eyes, and holding a joystick.
Whichever way the player looked, a new view would be displayed. This technique is simply know as “movement tracking,” and was thought to provide a total immersive experience to gamers. This was expected to revolutionize gaming and introduce it to adults who never before considered paying 25 cents on an arcade game, let alone $5 on a VR game.
In 1991 Sega announced their very own VR console know as the “Sega VR.” By this point, Sega had some experience with experimenting in the VR arcade world, and were determined to be the first company to bring VR home.
Due to other priority projects, the Sega VR was quietly progressing on the company’s R&D backburner. That is until rival Nintendo released the Virtual Boy – A far less advanced concept that featured only monochromic red vector-esque graphics, and no true VR game play; only pseudo-3D graphics.
The Sega VR console combined full color LCD screens and stereo sound. Weight was distrusted evenly, and the device was reported to be comfortable. Also, unlike the Virtual Boy, it was truly portable, not requiring a cumbersome tripod for enjoyable game play.
The never-to-be-released console made its final public appearance at the 1993 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada. Many gamers reported vastly underwhelming graphics, and even “cybersickness.” Despite these setbacks, the VR was heavily marketed and a 1994 launch date was announced along with four completed games that were advertized as pack-ins with the headset, in order to provide a jumpstart for the initial user base:
Nuclear Rush: A simulation in which users pilot a hovercraft in a futuristic war.
Iron Hammer: In this helicopter simulation, gamers pilot a flying gunship a la EA’s popular “Strike” series.
Matrix Runner: This has noting to do with The Matrix, it was reported to be a “cyberpunk” adventure game inspired by Hideo Kojima’s Snatcher.
Outlaw Racing: Road Rash meets Rock -n- Roll Racing in this vehicle racing/combat game.
“Nuclear Rush” is believed to be the game showcased in this promotional commercial which featured the Sega VR: http://www.retrojunk.com/details_commercial/2680/
What happened to the Sega VR?
In 1994 the project faded away quietly. At this point Sega has internal strife between their Japanese and US departments. Also, the VR was seen as a distraction to Sega’s next home console, which was being designed at the time, codenamed Saturn.
Obscurity
Due to limited resources, strategic planning, the complete and utter failure of Nintendo’s Virtual Boy, underwhelming graphics and performance, as well as motion sickness, Sega was wise in not bringing this cliché console to the market.
Unfortunately, no ROMs or prototypes have ever surfaced. Most prototypes are thought to have been destroyed.
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After Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari, the once largest and seemingly unstoppable game and console developer, sold his company to Time Warner in 1977 for $28 million, he made several attempts to re-enter the game industry.
On October 1st, 1983, the date his non-competition clause ended with Time Warner after he sold Atari, he announced Sente Games, which a console/arcade developer with Midway as the distributor. After a decent run, and with only one majot hit Hat Trick, Sente games was absorbed into Midway in 1987.
Determined as ever, Bushnell created Axlon in 1988 under his Catalyst Technologies Venture Capitol Group. Axlon developed some of the finest games for the Atari 2600 very late in its life cycle, including Off the Wall and Secret Quest, the last game officially released for the 2600 in the US (1989).
Despite the brilliance of Axlon’s games, they were published only to help generate enough revenue to keep the company alive for their real mission - to launch a new revolutionary game console to rival the Nintendo dominated market.
To create this console, Axlon partnered Hasbro. Bushnell, and his partner Tom Zito created the NEMO project, which was the code word for the project used internally at Hasbro, which purportedly meant, "Never Ever Mention Outside."
The console later came to be known as Control-Vision. It was to use VHS as its storage medium, like the View-Master InteractiveVision, only with a focus on using real live actors for games, and it used a special patented technology called "InstaSwitch." A game called Scene of the Crime AKA Night Trap, now famous for being the subject of hearings in the US Congress in the 1990’s due to girls in wearing the kind of lingerie than can be seen in a beer commercial in prime time, was developed as a tech-demo to showcase the amazing InstaSwitch technology, which allowed the seamless transition from one part of a VHS tape to another. Sewer Shark, a game of Sega CD infamy, was also originally developed for this system.
In an exclusive interview with NetLink World, Ken Soohoo, current Planetweb CEO and former Digital Pictures honcho, commented that the Control-Vision version of Night Trap was far superior to what was possible on the Sega CD and Sega CD 32X, both in terms of graphics and gameplay.
Set for release in January of 1989, Control-Vision was dropped by Hasbro in November of 1988, less than two months before the console’s launch. The reason? Cost. Ram in the late 80's and early 90's was expensive. It has been reported that the D-RAM needed to run the console would’ve cost $100 by its self. The console would have retailed for $299, much more expensive than the Nintendo Entertainment System, Atari 7800, NEC Turbo Grafix 16, or Sega Genesis, all of which would be competing on the US market by the end of 1989.
After spending over $20 million dollars on R&D for the Control-Vision console, and over $4 million in game development costs, Hasbro pulled the plug on the whole thing.
So, where are they now?
Axlon was done. Hasbro absorbed the company’s assets, and it ceased to be. Tom Zito, the mastermind behind the Control-Vision games, went on to found Digital Pictures, and released both Nght Trap and Sewer Shark for the Sega CD. Night Trap 32X has a special video of a NEMO demo for any gamer able and willing to complete the game.
The rights to the two unreleased and never completed Control-Vision titles, Police Academy and an RDI Halcylon-esque NFL game featuring John Madden were acquired by Hasbro and footage of these two projects has never surfaced.
Nolan Bushnell, unable to repeat the initial success of Atari, declared bankruptcy in 1996 after his latest business venture, TeamNet - a series of online arcade games - failed due to being too far ahead of their time, and not all that good in the first place. Bushnell is now back in business with uWink, which is responsible for many of the cheesy games in bars that fat women sit in front of by themselves to play while everyone else is having fun. Bushnell has recently launched a restaurant chain based around the uWink concept called uWink Media Bistro, in which guests can order food from a touch screen, play games, watch movie trailers and other videos, and get their online dating groove on with other singles in the bar. Good luck with that, Mr. Bushnell!
Dana Plato, star of Night Trap, former star of Different Strokes, went on to make softcore lesbian porno, posed in Playboy, and died in 1999 of a drug overdoes.
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I own many "unpopular" systems:
Magnavox Odyssey
Fairchild Channel F
RCA Studio II
Magnavox Odyssey 2
Milton Bradley Microvision
GCE Vectrex
TI 99/4a
ViewMaster InteractiveVision
Telegames Dina 2 in One (Personal Arcade)
Nintendo Virtual Boy
Tiger R-Zone
Tiger Game.com
Atari Jaguar
Sega Master System
Sega Game Gear
Sega CD
Sega Genesis 32X
Sega Saturn
Sega Dreamcast
JVC X'Eye
VM Labs Nuon
SSD Co. XaviXPort
Some of the Sega ones are questionable because they were all popular in some circles, but not main stream. Vectrex was never popular in its day, and is only popular in the collector scene. As for the rest of them... some are downright hated!
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http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/...iid=chix-sphere
It's right in the midst of the great crash. Excellent read!
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The first Odyssey ran on batteries, not a power supply. Well, that's how my Odyssey is. I don't know anything about the O^2, since I don't own one.No. All original Odyssey units had a power supply. It just was sold seperately. Look at the back of your unit and you will see it.
FTR, it doesn't fit.
Some Odyssey 2s will work with a 2600 power supply, while some (like mine) will work with an NES power supply.That explains it.
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I love Off the Wall!
in Atari 2600
Posted
Dude, you catch them.