BSA Starfire

Well I just got my Philips G7000 with 7 games inc, crazychase & complete quest for the rings, it cost me £18 in total, everythings boxed and in excellent working order, a real bargain! This is my first experience of the machine & I'm quietly impressed, the graphics are very simple for the most part, but smooth, the joysticks are neat & Crazy Chase is a blast to play. Quite why they didn't fit a power switch to the UK models is beyond me, it's a pain having to unplug the mains everytime you change a game but otherwise a nice old system. I also picked up a Vectrex & couple of games this week so my retro gaming has been in nirvana! Two great systems I have never owned before in one week, awesome! Best, Chris

Alpha Beam with Ernie & Oscar's Trash Race both have fancy endings(been playing them with a friends daughter, she loves them). How about ms pacman's intermissions.

I assumed it was NTSC as the seller states it's Telegames USA.

Hey at least it works! It's only a Epson SX100 scanner/printer combo, £30 brand new. I may be able to pretty 'em up a bit in iPhoto. The scan software didn't seem to have an option for pixel size so 300dpi is what I chose. Best, Chris

Did you get this off e-bay? i think I remember that auction I think I got it from ebay Germany, along with worlds end double pack(since traded away sadly). But I can't to be honest sure, it was 2 years ago or so. Best, Chris

hope these are better ROM, this is the second time I've used the scanner(or any other), so still trying to figure it out!

Wanted NTSC Battlezone, cus the pal version looks rubbish! Good labels prefered as it's common as muck! Cheers! Chris

In working order, good price paid. Best, Chris

Still need these bits, anyone???

Pretty sure you wanted this too, the PAL MASH box scans complete with Woolworths price stickers! I laos have some other Quelle loose carts, will big them out and list so you can see if you need any of them. Best, Chris

Finally after nearly 2 years I have got a scanner, here's the bits I promised for you ROM, there were probably other bits but I just can't remember what! Best regards, Chris

I think one thing I have learned here is that need is the mother of invention. I reckon we would have some pretty awesome steam engines right now if we didn't have internal combustion engines. I am enjoying this disscussion, thanks again all for participating. Chris

Another one here, £9.99 BIN http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Atari-2600-game-Univ...%3A1|240%3A1318

Hi rom, cheers for the vid, I assume that shows the attract mode. Any idea what the actual gameplay involves & in fact whether this is playable? Pretty excited about this, a new Supercharger game doesn't come along everyday after all. Best regards, Chris

I have several ideas I would have used on the 2600. This seems very interesting, can you elaborate? Also very nice to see the original designer here, thanks for the fun all these years! Best regards, Chris

OK, that's interesting, but makes little difference, as audio cassette was fine to load the supercharger. I assume then that CD required a 16-bit processor then? Best regards, Chris

i think you might be right, taking the image and video capabilities away from the 'net would be no bad thing IMHO. It would probably clear the 'net of most of the pointless junk(facebook etc) and porn etc. Also the evolution of games rather than hardware and shiny graphics would perhaps have given us experiences that we don't have now, look at how so many of our best homebrew programmers today give us new experiences on the supposedly obsolete technology that are often offering much fresher and more entertaining experiences than the latest in next-gen games. Sometimes having boundaries can lead to more creativity than have practically no limits. Also it always seems that the finest games on any gaming system are made in it's twilight years as programmers finally get to grips with the capabilities and tricks involved in making the most of the available resourses, again I look to homebrew writers to illustrate how far games could have come within the 8-bit frame. What would a Atari with Supercharger with 64 K Ram loaded from an audio CD been capable of if it was available as mainstream hardware in the mid/late 80's just as a small example of the possibly add-ons that may have been available? As far as personal computers are concerned a previous poster mentioned his Apple 2 and how it was advanced and upgraded with modern technology as it became available. It would be interesting how the popularity of mobile phones would have faired without the superslim mp3, video playing fashion devices on the market today. Thanks for all who are participating in this discussion, i'm am enjoying reading everyones thoughts so far. Funny how a simple daydream can have such far reaching and diverse conclusions. Best regards, Chris

I think most of the wildly overambitious games on eight bits in latter years were simply trying to convert 16 & 32 bit games to the old tech. If that tech didn't exist, all the produced game concepts would be tailored whitin the limits of the hardware. This does not mean all games would be good, but unsuitable concepts because of hardware restraints should be rare. Many of the game staples of today may not exist simply as they are a product of the availablity of cheap high power systems. No developers would fiddle with high end 3D etc if the power wasn't there in the average system for example.

I would say the finest packaging for a game ever would have to be Quest for the Rings on the Videopac/Odyssey2. Lovely board, metal pieces, fabulously high quality manual & even a gold cart label.

Hiya, Well both Jet Set Willy and Manic miner are platform games. Niether really have the feel of 2049'er or montezumas however. Both are very surreal in subject matter and require a very considered and accurate play style, planning how to get the items and making pixel perfect jumps and movements. Both these games were programmed on the Sinclair Spectrum by Matthew Smith who became something of a software superstar over here in a similar way to David "Pifall" Crane over there in the USA. Elite has very little resembalance to Star Raiders, It is an open world space simulator. You start the game docked in a space station with a basic starship and 100 credits, you may buy various cargos to trade for profit in other star systems for profit, each planet of which there are a huge number has it's own economy and political status, this alters the planets wants for items and there values and also how dangerous the sytem will be when you get there, space pripates are one of the threats. You may upgrade your ship with weapons, engines and larger cargo bays etc. You also recieve a rating as you progress in the game on your combat performance & also a legal status depending on your actions. This alters how the local police & othertrader ships will act towards you. Aliens are also encountered in what is called witch space, a area you sometimes get pulled into during a hyperspace jump. Other neat features are the missions you get from the military, using fuel scoops to harvest plama from the suns surface, Mineing lasers used to collect minerals from asteroids and probably a ton of stuff I have forgotten. The graphics are wire frame Vector and very smooth & the game is absolutly huge, it doesn't have an end but years would be required to see it all I would guess. It was originally proggrammed on the BBC model B by David Braben & Ian Bell. Later conversions exist for the Spectrum(good version), C64(poor framerate) and others. 16 bit versions exist for the ST/Amiga etc I belive a version was also released for the Nintendo NES much later, how the controls are mapped to the little gamepad I have no idea. I'm sure other versions exist. This link will take you to Ian Bell(original authors) web site. http://www.iancgbell.clara.net/elite/ Download and play on a emulator(BBC version I would reccomend) Read the flight manual(you'll need it for reference at times & read Robert Holdstocks Novella the dark wheel that sets the scene(it was originally packed in with the game). Have fun, it's probably the best 8-bit game ever to exist. PS. Can't be bothered to fix all the spelling errors in this post as it's too early in the morning, so there!

Just got my copy from play.com. And no work today! Am impressed with the quick flick through I just had, gonna devour this over the day.

Having owned both a PS3 & 360 at the same time, i have to say 360, I sold the PS3 simply because there were no exclusives on PS3 I wanted, the 360 library is better for me. I also like the pads better. The whole RROD is an issue but then I know 2 PS3 owners who systems have failed so who can really say. My sons 360 has been back once in 2 years and he's 10 years old so the system is NOT babied, the refurb has been flawless. My Falcon has been going since oct '07 with no issues(touch wood). Your mileage may vary. Witchever system you get Fallout3 and Oblivion are unmissable as is Mass Effect. I also love Puzzle Quest & Space Giraffe amongst others on Live Arcade. Plus points on the PS3 are free online, Bluray but as you don't have HD you'll not give a shit about that and BC with the PS1. Either way I reckon you'll have fun :-) Chris

Thanks for your input, I think it's quite an intriging scenario. Maybe CP/M would have been the dominant or maybe even MSX with the Asian companies behind it. I still have an Amstrad PCW, it's a 512K Z80 Based CP/M machine that was produced here in the UK till the mid 1990's & mostly marketed as a word processor, it is however a remarkably versatile machine and capable of most of the things I use my duo- core Macintosh for today. I think 2D would have stayed the predominant force in gaming, but with larger game worlds. I forgot about Laserdisc, but don't know much about the technology, I also remember the CED videodisc player we had when I was a kid, worked like a gramaphone, but this possibly could have evolved if the need was there. Look forward to reading more of your ideas. also love the idea of huge multiprocessor 8-bit's playing doom! Best, Chris

Yesterday I had a daydream, kinda what if scenario about how the world would be today if we had found it impossible to exceed 8-bit micro chips & say off the top of my head a 10mhz ceiling. For arguments sake let say that is as far as micro-chip technology can progress. How would the world look today? I guess the internet could still exist in some from, possibly more like teletext pages or viewdata, huge hard disks probably would'nt exist as I guess you wouldn't need them as file sizes would I assume be much smaller. DVD in fact digital video wouldn't exist, cell phones also I'm guessing. Would video games have fizzled out with no huge increases in WOW factor? Or would they have contiued to evolve with in the technological constrains? How about personal/home computers? Would there still be a market if there was not much in the way of technological jumps to drive the upgrade sales? How would the technology advance whitin these constrains, what do you think? Would companies like Atari, Acorn, Sinclair, Dragon Data, Oric etc still be here without the advent of the cheap IBM clones from the far east. Would the arcades still be alive and well without the competiton from the top end consoles of today? How about movies, I guess none of the CGI extravaganzas would exist, so we would still make film like George Lucas and sPielberg did with models etc. Give it some thought, I think it's an interesting what if? Best, Chris

I also own both and have since they were new, the speccy 48k+ was bought at full price & the Oric 1 48K was bought if I remember right for £30 new when the Co-Op electrical closed down. To be honest they were both great but the TV modulators weren't great on either, both had poor tape handling reliability & the general reliability for both was not great either( Both have been for repair several times over the years). For the money I think the Electron was the best of this era of UK machines, good basic, great keyboard & some fantastic arcade ports by Acornsoft, my freind had one and I was very impressed, of course it was the SQUARE choice as it was like the BBC's we had at school, so very uncool. The speccy of course wins hands down for games, was any machine other than the 2600 ever stretched as far technically as the speccy? On another note, the Dragon 32 plays a very fine game of Manic miner, and also had some good games but why was everything in green ? Anyhow it was another fine classic brit 8-bit wonder. Chris