Skylark68

Christmas '82 I think. Mom handed me the Sears wish book around mid November or so and told me to pick out one game for our VCS. I picked out Empire Strikes Back and sure enough on 12/25 I unwrapped it. It was a good Christmas. I also got some cool model airplanes that I built within a few days. I wish I still had those (I still have the games for the VCS at least!).

TG16 was a lot of fun. I sold mine about a year ago so I could concentrate on the older systems. Lots of good games. Splatterhouse, Legendary Axe, Alien and Devil's Crush (if you like video pinball) are all awesome. As for the older systems, I recommend the Odyssey 2. It's very reliable and the games are pretty cheap. There are some gems like both of the KC games, Attack of the Timelord, and the Master Strategy games are sure to impress your friends. Most people like Quest for the Rings the best, but if you implement the board game, Conquest of the World is a lot of fun too (it's a lot like Risk, but with actual battles instead of dice rolls). I have the Great Wall Street Fortune Hunt but never played it.

That would be me. I posted a map and some hints in another thread a few years ago-- search for "swordquest" and/or "fireworld" to find them. I think I read a theory that the numbers in the game (00 through 09) were just sequential numbers because the comic book wasn't ready at that time, and they were going to be replaced with page and frame numbers from the comic book once it was finished, but the game was released without the numbers being replaced-- or something like that. I don't know if that's true, but it sounds like a good theory. The clues can be triggered in any order, unlike EarthWorld's clues-- although for the contest we had to trigger them in the correct sequential order. You are a genius or certified. J/K Amazing! Given the fact that I was only 6 or 7 when the game came out (although we bought it in the .99 cent bin during the crash), I never figured Fireworld out. I figured out most of Earthworld before I lost interest.

Word Zapper Imagine a universe where you control a space ship stuck in a world where you have to blast letters from a floating scroll to spell words. Then imagine that there are aliens that attempt to hinder or destroy you from doing so. Pretty weird.

I think that a game based off of Apocalypse Now would have been interesting. It could have been a little like White Water for the Intellivision where you guide the river boat and have to dock your boat occassionally to go on shore. The main mission would be to get to Kurtz' base as in the film. It could play a Low Res version of The End by the Doors as the in game music.

I went last night, it was a lot of fun. Sorry I couldn't make it back today. Loved the selection of games. I brought a friend who is in his early 40's and really enjoyed playing Defender and Stargate again after 20 something years. The pinball games were amazing. I never spent much time with them in my youth, but now I see that I was really missing out. Kudos to Atariage for such a nice display as well. My friend and I played Kaboom for quite some time before leaving. Sorry I didn't meet up with anyone on the boards.

Even better, get one with a record player and a tuner, etc. all in one!

Well, I pre-ordered my tickets this morning so I'll see you all there Friday evening. I'm looking forward to going finally. I would go Saturday but my wife scheduled family pictures for us (yippee) in Dickinson (other side of town).

This thread is awesome for so many different reasons. To chime in on the topic at hand though, my favorite top 3 games are Adventure, Missile Command, and Asteroids. I can't choose just one of those three.

After reading the thread about the reasons behind the video game crash, I was thinking about what would have happened if Atari had won the lawsuit against Activision in 1980, thereby denying any company besides Atari the right to make games for the 2600 (VCS). It's an interesting alternate history in my opinion. I wonder if the Atari would have done as well as it had, or if it would have slowly died due to lack of titles or immediate replacement by the 5200? Would the videogame crash still occur? What are your thoughts?

I have Outer Space, but outside of the sweet label difference it's the same piece of lameness. I really tried to like this game. I even pop it in now and then just to see if my opinion will change. So far, it hasn't. It wasn't part of my original collection from back in the day, I didn't pick it up until about 5 years ago, so that might have something to do with it. I don't know. There is probably a really good reason this was one of the few titles that Atari didn't continue producing in the late years of the system. I remember a book that I had that reviewed all of the hand held systems and console systems from the early beginnings that was published right when the Intellivision came out. Starship was given a bad review even back then.

With inflation, I guess these games were more expensive than current day PS3 games.... Amazing.

Towering Inferno is pretty fun in my opinion. I haven't played that or Commando Raid in a long time but both are pretty good. Commando Raid is a sort of Missile Command. I actually thought that US Games (later Vidtec) made some pretty interesting and original games. I'm not sure why they get a lot of hate.

This was one of the first games that we had with our 2600 back in the day. My brother and I played it over and over again (particularly game variation no. 3). I believe we bought it soon at the initial release because my Dad actually bought us the system and the game the same day and the release of Pac-Man was a deciding factor for him (I wanted Warlords). Combat and Pac-Man were our only 2 games for at least a couple of months. Needless to say I had played the arcade version (although I wasn't a huge fan), but back in those days everyone knew that the arcades were much better than the home versions and no one complained that I knew. It was awesome that you could play Pac-Man at home. Remember that while the 2600 was no longer state of the art by this time, it was the only system that allowed you to play Pac-Man at home (at least for a short period of time).

I never find anything cool like this around my part of the country. I'd be lucky to find a couple of Pac-Mans with the end labels torn off halfway. Congrats!

It's called metaphor and imagination. People buying games in the 70s and 80s didn't have the same expectation that artwork would look exactly like the on-screen graphics. It was a way to get people excited about the games, and connect to what was state-of-the-art technology at the time. So, I don't think any of the art was ridiculous. Don't get me wrong, I love the artwork and I love the games. I grew up in this era and since I was pretty young, the artwork made a big impression on me and helped sell the game to me (although my parents paid for them - haha). You have to admit though, some of them were pretty over the top!

That's hilarious. I too thought that that game was going to be a lot more awesome than what it was/is. I bought it sometime in the late '80s new at Kay Bee thinking it was going to be a great game. Boy was I wrong.

Thanks for the advice. I took it apart last night and cleaned it up. It still does the same thing, but it's not as bad now. At least it's playable now. Maybe a little more cleaning will do the trick. I decided to put it up for sale on ebay though "as is".... It's a neat system, but it's my least favorite out of the 2600, Intellivision, Odyssey 2 (out of my remaining systems). I'm trying to focus on my 2600 collection right now.

That's a nice area. I assume you can see those huge television transmission towers pretty easily then! I'm looking forward to the expo, it's going to be a great time. I'm planning on bringing a friend or two.

I recently pulled my Colecovision out of long term storage (climate controlled and dry). I attempted to play it this afternoon and it powers up okay, but when playing Gorf and Pepper II, for example, the screen shifts and flashes whenever I make any movement with the controller. Likewise, if I jiggle the power cord close to where it plugs into the system the screen flashes and shifts violently. Sometimes it even restarts the game at the "Colecovision" screen. I can also hear a little bit of static or hiss in the background when sound effects are playing. Interestingly, Mr. Do plays okay but I can still hear the static sound in the background. Before I tear into the system, is there any suggestions out there to what it might be?

In your opinion, what is the most ridiculous artwork put on an Atari 2600 game box? By ridiculous, does the artwork have anything to do with the actual gameplay? Does it totally overhype the actual game? It doesn't have to be one made by Atari, any of the third party game boxes are valid. As an example, I consider the boxart for both Breakout and Super Breakout pretty ridiculous. How many times do you really picture yourself as a tennis player slamming a ball up against a breaking wall while engaged in a game of Breakout?

Aeroblasters looks awesome! I'll definitely check that one out, just added it to my want list. I've got a nice little list going. Thinking of possibly selling some stuff to give me some more spending money, haven't decided for sure yet but my Saturn may be on the chopping block. I did pretty much the same thing. I got rid of my NES, TG16, and a few other systems to concentrate on my Odyssey 2, Intellivision, and 2600 collection. I decided I needed to focus on a smaller collection. If you don't already have one, I suggest picking up the Turbobooster or Turbobooster Plus for your machine. It really makes the audio a lot better. I think it was supposed to sharpen the graphics a bit too, but I didn't notice any difference.

Before I got rid of my TG16, I really enjoyed Aeroblasters. It's a lot more fun with 2 people though. The slow plunge of your jet when it gets destroyed is hilariously awesome in my opinion. Bonk's Revenge was pretty fun and you already have Legendary Axe (the whole reason in owning a TG16 in my opinion).

Sorry, I just now re-visited this post. I'm in the old Willowcrest subdivision near Hwy 35 and 518 (near the railroad tracks in the old part of town). I don't venture out to 288 unless I absolutely have to. haha