joeybastard

I always write reviews of homebrews in the store but here's some quick impressions since I've been playing my new carts all day. Stella's Stocking: All of the games are fun with Elf Dash being my favorite so far followed closely by Stay Frosty. The music and graphics when you turn it on/menu are really amazing to see on a VCS. Medieval Mayhem: It's perfect. Lots of options, great gameplay, great graphics, great music and it uses paddles. I can't wait until I have people over again because VCS Warlords was always a popular one and this will blow them away. Lady Bug: Lots of fun, excellent version of the arcade game, I still like the CV one better but I don't think this could have been done any better on the VCS. Space Battle: Uninteresting name for the game, but it's a fun shooter with a few elements that make it very unique for VCS shooters. I'd call it half Megamania/half Demon Attack but that's not doing it justice at all. Conquest of Mars: Perfect. My only gripe is that it's quite a bit harder than the A8 original. Gingerbread Man: I was really looking forward to this game since I like platformers. The game is good, but it's just a bit too hard I think. It's a bBasic game so graphics are bland buit it makes up for that with clever gameplay. The subtitle, "One Tough Cookie" is probably the truest advertising statement in the history of mankind. I think I'll be ordering some more games in a another couple of weeks since my birthday is coming up.

I think we're all aware of that but it's still fun to bitch about the choice.

Ahhh, how I love the 7800. See my comment below.. It should work in the 7800, but there are many 7800s that cause problems with some homebrew games. Generally these appear to be the systems that have the "kludge" circuit in them that Atari added for compatibility with Dark Chambers. I can swap the cart out for you, but it's likely that a replacement would behave the same on your 7800. This also affects 7800 games. I did test all the 7800 carts on my most stubborn 7800, but it doesn't surprise me that even then there are issues. Thanks, Atari! ..Al Nah, don't bother switching them. I was just curious if it was only my 7800 since it's the only Atari made console I have that has ever acted weird. All the others have always performed flawlessly but this one has weird power switch problems, sometimes the RF gets really bad momentarily, and some carts just take three tries to seat properly. I guess it's possessed. Thanks for the offer though and as usual, great job on this stuff, Al.

OK, I've been playing since 7AM this morning, all the games I got are really good and Stella's Stocking is a blast. One question though: Does Gingerbread Man not work in the 7800? All of my other games work fine in the 7800 but I had to switch the VCS for Gingerbread man. Is it just my 7800 that has this problem or all of them?

Pac-Man does suck, no bones about it. ET isn't that bad and gets unjustly canned but you can't force people's opinions of what blows.

SErvice GAmes made mechanical coin-op games as far back as the 1940's.

My wife just called, AA box has arrived along with a new Casino Player Mag. Looks like I'm set for the weekend

CV is my fav non Atari system followed very closely by the NES.

It's snowing a lot here in NY so I had to get up at 5:30AM to clear the snow before I got ready for work. If my games had gotten here yesterday, I would have just called in sick this morning and let it snow while I played Atari. Oh well, here's hoping they show up today and I'll play all weekend.

Jeez, did you have to sell a kidney to buy all that stuff?

Relax, it's all for fun. Considering the pounding you give everybody on every other game, you're still the CV champion of the universe.

Woo hoo #40! I was hoping to go top 50. Man, I hope this stuff gets here by Saturday so I can baricade myself into the gameroom with new carts and beer

They're... kind of lame, for lack of a better description. I like some of their 70's stuff particularly Toys in the Attic but I haven't heard anything after the 70's I thought was particularly great and the newer(90's+) stuff is just plain awful. They are a very middle of the road, take them or leave them kind of band for me. You might be right about the rights to the songs, etc. and that's why they picked Aerosmith but they don't have enough interesting stuff for me to want this.

I haven't had my roller open in a while but if I remember right, the roller controller joystick ports are not part of the main board. They are only attached by a thin ribbon and the only thing holding them in is some plastic nubs. I'm guessing but I think the things you describe are basically "stoppers" for when you pull off the joystick plug to remove it. They stop you from yanking the wires from the main board. That's just a guess though. EDIT: After rereading this, and seeing that pic below, I thought you meant something else. Sorry for the confusion.

OK, first try 157,100. Hoping to get another in before the kill date

I think I'd pay to limit signatures to one line. And any variation on the "Would you die for a (insert console name)" sig immediately changes your avatar to a picture of my bare ass.

Activison releasing Guitar Hero: Aerosmith All the songs on this one will be Aerosmith songs. While I can understand raiding "Toys in the Attic" for songs for the next GH, making it ALL Aerosmith means, I'll pass. Now if it was all Sabbath or all Zep, I'd understand this more but Aerosmith? Ummmmmm..... no thanks.

There was some kind of lawsuit over Pac-Man but I don't know the details. Even so, the 2nd KC game is also good and is much different than Pac-man. Details were...Atari paid millions for the license to sell Pac Man. Magnavox created, sold, and made profit from what was a near carbon copy, at least in terms of gameplay. Sure it was better, but it was still a blatant ripoff. Ultimately the courts sided with Atari and KC production was halted for good, but by the time it happened Magnavox sold as many games as it was probably going to sell anyway. Much better? Sure. Much different? Cmon man....cute little pizza with a slice cut out dude moving around a maze dodging ghosts eating dots. So the excape hatches were on the sides instead of the top, there were 3 ghosts rather than 4, and the dots moved rather than sitting stationary. Short of calling the game ManPac, it couldn't have been a more blatant copy. The first KC was pretty much Pac-Man but the 2nd game KC's Krazy Chase has enough different elements that I wouldn't say it's like Pac-Man except for both having a maze. You have to chase and eat the catapillar thing and it's not like there's dots to clear.

I'm a big fan of 2010 too. Nobody ever mentions it as a great CV game but it really is a unique action puzzle. The graphics, while repetitive are really nice, particularly the "whole ship" view.

There was some kind of lawsuit over Pac-Man but I don't know the details. Even so, the 2nd KC game is also good and is much different than Pac-man.

I think the Jumpman games are better too but that doesn't detract from the greatness of Miner. It just means I have more excellent games. Miner and Jumpman are both in my top 10 greatest games list.

My fav Genny game is Thunder Force II

?!?!?! I suspected crack but now I'm thinking crystal meth.

It's still nonsense to call it that. Are you saying that any time 2 systems compete in a generation that the 2nd one to come out is a "wannabe" of the 1st released? The PS3 is a wannabe of the X360? The PS2 was DC wannabe? It really doesn't make sense.

I've always had a thing for the music in Megaman II.