[First Home Adventure]

you have a pretty cool idea, going through every game chronological and all.

if i had the resources i'd do that too.

and thanks to you i've decided that i don't need to get an odessy 

 

Dang, I knew I should've eBay'd all my Odyssey stuff before doing this!

[First Home Shooter]

Just wanted to say that I'm enjoying these reviews.

 

Thanks! You just made my day!

[A Stupid Idea]

heheh, thanks scogey. I think the 70s will go by quickly enough. It's the 80s that I think I'll be in forever!

 

Actually, I just thought about it and I take it back. The 80s might move a little quicker. What's slowing me down so much in the 70s is getting my 7 year old son to play these 2-player only games with me. We do have surprising fun with some of them (none that I've talked about yet) but every bad one reinforces the "crap game from hell" feeling that makes him not want to try any more of them. I shudder to think how hard it's going to be to get him to play anything from this era after he plays a few RCA Studio II games.

[Tennis und der Überlay]

Hi

 

I thought Odyssey cannot display sprites but only dots but on the screenshot, I saw two tennis players on the screenshot.

 

Does Odyssey can display sprites or you added them on the screenshot?

 

 

That "screenshot" is actually a scan of the Odyssey's overlay for the game Tennis. (A painstakingly composited scan as the overlays are all too big for my scanner.) Those players never move from their spots. The Odyssey Overlays are like what the Vectrex system used to add color. It is a sheet of plastic that clings to the video screen. All the action takes place behind it.

 

If I can get a good picture of the Odyssey in action with the overlays on it, I'll post it.

 

EDIT: There, above is an actual screen shot of the game in action. You can see that the overlay just adds a little flavor while the Player Spots and Ball Spot does their thing underneath.

[Horizontal Sync]

This is really interesting stuff which I've never seen explained before.

 

I'm going to risk asking a question and sounding like an idiot.

 

Is the horizontal blanking period the time during which the electron beam is going back to the other side of the screen to start the next scan line? Kind of like a vertical retrace only a little shorter?

 

Instead of sending it back to the other side why didn't they just move it down one row and have it draw things on its way back?

[Problem with Isabella Coq]

These adventure editors look really neat. Do you have to draw everything yourself or do they come with graphics libraries? Wait, I guess I can go look that up for myself!

 

Good luck on solving your memory problem!

[Atari Basketball A.I.]

That's so cool about Atari Basketball! I never knew that about the AI, probably because I never got that far ahead. Heh.

[Suggestion Pot]

I think the whole PC to <insert console here> theme is a good one. A lot of PC gamers don't know what has come over to consoles and a lot of console gamers aren't aware of what has been ported over from the PC. (and vice versa).(if that makes any sense).

[Stupid Appendix]

Wow. Glad your mom is doing OK. What a scary story!

[PC-to-PS2 Ports: Part 2]

Cool. Didn't know about Giants OR Elite Force for the PS2. Thanks for talking about them!