save2600

Looks nice and wish Atari had come up with something like that instead of the damned CX24. Curious how the top button is secured though. It thread right into the white plastic handle or...?

Besides being extremely bare-bones, another problem I have with 2600 DK Jr. is that the difficulty doesn't seem to ramp up like it should. Can just play and play and play until you're finally bored with it, which unfortunately, is sooner than later. Even 2D Zaxxon would have been much better, if only there had been a little more to shoot and look at. Talk about bare bones! 2600 Burgertime always comes to mind when thinking of bad or disappointing ports, but have to admit... rather play it than DK Jr. or Zaxxon.

^ Ha! The Atari offering has Defender pictured, but titled Star Ship. And Pole Position says Indy 500. Par for the course today!

Interesting write up of Double Dragon 2 that talks about some issues with the NTSC version: https://www.amigalove.com/games.php?game_id=71

From 1989's The Terror Within. Was shown on Comet last month, when I caught our beloved TI being used as a prop!

Hate to contradict, but I'd say most of the Amiga games (even from the big houses) were available here as NTSC releases. Certainly throughout the 80's. Was only the early/mid 90's when that started to change. I think people get the impression there were way more PAL releases because that's usually the version you find when scouring the 'net for these things. Anyway, I know for sure Double Dragon II (1989 Virgin Games) saw an NTSC release as I have it CIB and believe Plan 9 (1992 Konami/Gremlin) did as well. And a quick search yields that yes, yes it did. Here's the NTSC box, which differs from the PAL a bit...

Use only in case of emergency! Each game will come with a little book, that you can use with the keyboard on your controller or phone, to type in the games' program after the servers are looong gone.

Incredible conversion so far! Had a chance to play a few rounds and besides the difficulty comments above, thought I'd mention one that stuck out to me. On the Flag Ship stage, I noticed that it takes several hits on_the_actual "internal power reactor" to finally destroy the ship. Not talking about picking away at the hull which is expected, but the actual reactor core itself. In the arcade, believe it only took one hit before she blew. I don't necessarily mind the added difficulty in a home version myself, just saying. Perhaps some of these added 'skill options' could be left as a feature toggled by the difficulty switches.

Will be giving the gift of music this year!

Yeah, WTF?! What's the big idea with midnight? Even signed up for e-mails notifications, but received nothing this last time. Not that I would have been awake. 🙄

...sure hope so! Only way I'd be able to play it.

Soooo looking forward to this release and will be purchasing a CIB example, but an observation about the art on some of the latest releases as I couldn't help but notice a pattern. This is NOT meant to be a rip on anyone's drawing skills at all as they're obviously great. This observation is merely a stylization preference. The look just reminds me of when I lost interest in cartoons in the 80's on. It occurred around the same time they lost frames (weren't animated as smoothly), looked less cartoony and were drawn with sharper, more pointy edges. When it comes to this particular artwork or style (called simple cel shading?), noticed something missing which makes them look so flat, that I *think* may help bring more of a classic or "vintage" style to the characters. Believe it's called 'spotlighting'... when you see white outlines on various features that are closest to a presumed, but faux light source. The original art has it in spades and makes the characters more compelling to look at IMO: ...you see it on the games' name below, but not the characters. To me the flying bricks, animals and Zeke look slightly out of place. Would adding something like a little spotlighting even help or am I way off base here? As-is, that part of the art just looks a little too "modern" or stylized - again, IMO. ...all good if this has been thought out by the artist(s) and totally intentional, just wanted to give my $.02 to the subject.

For a home console in 1987, I'll give you that. One of the reasons I love the PC Engine/TG-16. I could see with some re-tooling or tweaking... increase the difficulty, give it some more variety in enemies, objectives and things to do (ie: power ups, new fighting skill sets, etc.) - this might have made a good game in the arcades. Or a good game period.

Would have been easier to avoid had China Warrior been mentioned in the title. ...and sorry fella's for not splitting hairs when it comes to CW being a 'fighting game' - because contextually (compared to a platform game like Mario/Sonic/Bonk), that's what it is. Knock yourself out if you want to call it a side-scrolling brawler, beat 'em up, fighting, fighter, "gladiator" (new one on me), Kung-Fu simulator or whatever else you want to call it. Just gave it a go right now and it's even worse than I remember 30 years ago. ha Forgot all about the forced scrolling (WTF?) and cruelly repetitive nature of the game. And at the end of a level, you fight a boss one-on-one... just as we've come to expect out of "traditional" fighting games. Except, this game plays and feels like it was made for a much, much younger audience. Love the music though!!

Would a PAL version of this game behave this way per chance? Maybe you landed one of them unknowingly.

Watched the latest video Saturday and noticed a couple of things as they've been evolving... 1) certain games seem to be a lot more "busy" graphics or camera wise, especially Breakout and Missile Command. Borders on distracting IMO. 2) Bi-planes screen zooming in/out too often IMO. Rather see more of a static, zoomed out perspective on such a game. Of course, when a plane appears from either side of the screen, camera would quickly zoom back out - just seems there's too much camera play going on. I must be getting too old for some of this stuff as the highlight of the video for me was at the very end, when Baseball was showcased. Loved the zoomed out perspective so you can see the entire field, and the game genuinely looked fun in that 'good old fashioned' way!

Don't believe China Warrior would have been a very good pack-in at all. Probably would have been as damaging as Keith Courage IMO. Fighting games did not/do not have the same universal appeal as something like a little friendlier platform game, that has several more dimensions and mechanics of play to it. I had CW BITD and never thought much of it. It's funny to see somewhat of the revisionist feelings toward this particular title after all these years and this isn't the first time I'm seeing that here in the forums. Maybe I need to revisit it, but BITD and despite the huge characters, was largely considered a generic stab at the genre. Stiff and clunky controls too, that left a lot to be desired. Believe CW quickly dropped to budget status too if I'm not mistaken. Anyway, I always liked the Bonk franchise and thought it was a good match for the TG-16. Different enough from Sonic (still play Bonk today, never got into Sonic) and Mario to still be fun, with great graphics, good use of colors, gameplay, etc. What I thought was strange was having a "mascot" game like Bonk appear on other systems BITD. NES, SNES and the Amiga with B.C. Kid at least. To me, a mascot should be exclusive to a given system. Definitely think it was extremely sad that so many great games from Japan were never translated for NA. Will forever seem like one of the largest, most obvious blunders and missed opportunities that the home console industry ever witnessed.

Oh!

Looking at the pic, I see pin 1 on the first controller port is bent. Happens to be responsible for the Up direction. Straighten the pin back with a small flat blade screwdriver or needle nose pliers and I bet it'll work again...

Excellent, well taken care of products. Excellent packaging. Excellent communication. Deal in confidence!

Hope you get well soon CPU!