Lord-Chaos

One big problem of the AMIGA - especially the AGA models is that they don´t have a "byte per pixel",VGA-similar mode. The AMIGAs are great for 2D games.AGA AMIGAs can create sprites in HiRes (1280*256) ,have SuperHires resolution (1280*512 or more with overscan) , 256 colors , HAM mode with 262144 colors and 1/4 pixel scrolling/parallax scrolling. Plus internal IDE controller which supports up to 4Gbyte HDs. But by 1993/94 3D games , Ego Shooters like Doom/W3d were modern and 2D games not. It´s a problem to make fast 3D games on an AMIGA,because you have up to 8 bitplanes for 256 colors and have to do much more write operations than on a PC where one VGA pixel is exactly one byte. That means the AMIGA isn´t good for 3D games , even not for games like Wing Commander , the 256-color version is quite slow on not accelerated AMIGAs. Another problem was that AMIGAs didn´t have HD drives except the A4000. More problems : Commodore gave the A1200 only a 68020 with 14Mhz and 2MB ChipRam. They should have put a 68030 inside an change the RAM , because Chipmem is slow on AMIGAs an creating SuperHires games with 256 colors that would have killed the PC games of this time was simply impossible. Just imagine games running in 1280*512 , flicker-free on multiscan monitors with 256 colors in 1993 ! They also used the same old soundchip (8-Bit Paula) from the A500,but by the time PC soundcards weren´t much better and it was easy to add IDE-CDROMs to the AMIGA and have full CD sound. So my opinion is that if the AMIGA had a VGA-compatible mode so that Doom would have been possible in 93/94 , it would have survived. (BTW Doom is available on AMIGA now,but you need an Accelerator Card with at least 68030 an 40Mhz for it + more RAM) Thimo

I have a question - do you have the copyrights to these games ? I wanted to make XE carts myself (I have about 300 Crossbow carts , the boxes have been damaged by water) , but everyone told me,that I have to get permission by the copyright owners. So I was always trying to find owners of copyright , usually in vain. Thimo

You know Bomb carts are not really rare in PAL countries.But it´s annoying that lots of the Bomb carts you find don´t work anymore. You can clean them , you can try them on different consoles - nothing happens. What´s the reason of this ? Cheap parts ? Bitrot ? I mean I had ATARI carts that were under water , in sunlight for long time , in dirty cellars , etc. - and they still work.It takes a lot more effort to destroy a cart made by ATARI than a Bomb cart ... Thimo

The C64 Game System was a console based on the C64.That means a C64 without Keyboard.Some games like Terminator 2,Shadow of the Beast, Last Ninja 3,Flimbo´s Quest were released on cart. But it failed,because a real C64 could play the same games,had almost the same price and at the end of the 80s the console market was owned by Nintendo and SEGA and with some disk-to-cart games Commodore couldn´t compete with Nintendo´s or SEGA´s games. Strange - ATARI made the XEGS , Commdore the C64GS and Amstrad made a similar console based on the CPC+ (the most powerful of them) , but all failed, because the real computers were cheaper and had keyboards etc. Today , it´s a quite valuable collectors item which usually gets lots of bids on ebay. Thimo

Some more : Defender - The C64 version is a really bad port.ATARI version has better graphics,sound and gameplay. H.E.R.O. - The ATARI version looks like an improved 2600 version and plays well. - The C64 version looks like the Coleco version and although the graphic has more detail this makes the gameplay worse.And all the sprites seem to be 1 color on the C64 , but are more colorful on the ATARI. - I like the ATARI version much more. Spellbound (Mastertronic) - ATARI version uses multicolor graphics , C64 version seems to be a 1:1 Spectrum port with HiRes graphics , but less colorful. - The ATARI version seems to be limited to 48K and some (useless) rooms are missing AFAIK and what´s really bad - Rob Hubbard´s great music is missing. - So the C64 version is a little bit better , but just because they made this one only 48K for ATARI Q-Bert : - The graphics is better on the C64,good looking sprites are the C64´s strength. - I think this one is better on the C64.They could have made a better 800 version. Gyruss : - XL version plays well , but looks a little bit blocky compared to the C64 - C64 version has better graphics and sound and I think this one is better

I´d say it´s more a 2 or 3 , at least in Germany.I once had bought 100 sealed copies and they had many more.Probably thousands ... You know ATARI really mass-produced some games,this was cheaper than making only a few. Thimo

You know I can get lots of PAL games that may not be available as NTSC versions. In the last few years I was able to get these games which AFAIK were PAL - only : 32 in 1 Acid Drop Fatal Run Ghostbusters 2 My Golf Sentinel 7800 There also are some games which are very rare as NTSC,but common as PAL : Xenophobe by ATARI Bobby is going home Space Tunnel Mission 3000 Sea Monster Snail against squirrel Dancing Plates Mr.Postman Phantom Tank Open Sesame These games can be found in Europe , usually as white label games except the ATARI games. I´m talking of new and boxed games/with instructions of course , usually English versions or "multi". Which game would be the most interesting one ? Fatal Run since it´s the last (1990) and biggest single ATARI game (32K) ? I once had over 100 of this one and may hunt for it again ? Or what do you think ? Thimo

I´ve checked some of the games I have for both platforms : International Karate : - Better graphics on ATARI (more colors),better music on C64 - would call it a tie Druid : - C64 version has far better sprites , on the ATARI it´s sometimes hard to tell what the creatures should be.Also has music,the ATARI no music. - ATARI version is easier - C64 version is better Zybex and Draconus (Zeppelin) : - Both games have low resolution on the XL , but I like the music more on the ATARI. - Especially in Draconus enemy creatures are just to blocky on the ATARI.In the C64 version,you recognize them as animals ,monsters etc. - Zybex plays better on the ATARI , the C64 version is much harder - I ´d say C64 Draconus is better , but personally I like ATARI Zybex more than the C64 version although this one looks better Blinky´s Scary School (Zeppelin): - Same problem as in Draconus , the C64 sprites look good , but the XL sprites are too blocky and the graphics is only 4-color. - The music on the ATARI is quite good as most Adam Gilmore tracks , but the C64 music is a little bit better. - C64 version wins here Ninja Commando (Zeppelin) : -Although no blocky graphics this time,the XL uses only 1-color players for most moving objects and so the C64 version looks better. - Music is good on the ATARI,too - C64 version is better Ninja (Mastertronic) : - better ,more colorful graphics on the ATARI - I even like the music on the ATARI more than on the C64 , although it´s by Rob Hubbard. - I think the XL is better and plays better Rampage -The C64 version uses big multicolor sprites and the XL version only 1-color players , so the C64 version looks much better. -C64 version wins here Ballblazer,Eidolon,Rescue on Fractalus,Koronis Rift - These games have been programmed for the ATARI and the C64 versions - especially Koronis Rift and Ballblazer are quite bad , Eidolon seems to be the same on most systems. - Even the music is better on the ATARI. - ATARI wins here. The Pawn,Guild of Thieves,Jinxter (Magnetic Scrolls) - these games are graphic adventures.On the ATARI , they did not use any DLIs so all the great looking pictures from the ATARI ST Original look quite bad on the ATARI 800 , only 4-color graphics. - On the C64,the pictures use 16 colors and look much better. - so the C64 wins here Alternate Reality City/Dungeon (Datasoft) - The graphics on the ATARI looks better,more colors,DLIs etc. - Even the music is better on the ATARI - ATARI wins here Mercenary (Novagen) : - Graphics look the same on both systems - 3D wireframe graphics.The XL version is a little bit faster (the 48K version much faster,but less resolution). - I´d say a tie Amaurote (Mastertronic) : - The ATARI uses isometric 3D HiRes graphics as the Amstrad version , which looks great.It´s a little bit slow sometimes. - The C64 uses top-down view with ugly looking sprites,seems like a completely different game to me. - The music is better on the ATARI - the ATARI wins here Ghostbusters (Activision) : - C64 version has better sprites and more speech ("It slimed me"). - C64 versions music is better - The ATARI version is not much worse , but I´d say the C64 wins here. The Last V8 (Mastertronic). - C64 version as speech,more colordul graphics and awesome soundtrack by Rob Hubbard - The ATARI version is a bad port with only 4-colors,no speech and the music sounds ridiculous compared to the original - the C64 wins , but the game is crap on both systems Anyone can compare more games ? I´d say most problems are because of bad ports.ATARI games ported to C64 won´t be great there and C64 games cannot be ported to the ATARI very good. And sometimes - look at the Magnetic Scrolls adventure - the programmers just didn´t spend time in converting the graphics for the ATARI and just went "4-color". Thimo

Some people say that the ATARI 800 was too expensive compared to the C64 and the 800 XL came too late. Maybe it was just the bad time - ATARI had problems as the console market crashed. So the cheaper C64 and in Europe Spectrum and maybe Amstrad computers won. But by 1986/87 the 800 XL was so cheap in Europe , that ATARI sold more than expected and then decided to make new software and the 800XE and XF551 came out.They also sold some systems in Eastern Europe. MAYBE a better price in 1982/83 could have made the 800 /800 XL number 1 or 2. But ATARI lost money by this time and ATARI was not Microsoft who can loose money on every console they sell ... But on the other hand - the C64 was Commodore´s only real 8 Bit success (and maybe the VC20) , other systems like C16/116/+4 and even the C128 failed (not much C128 exclusive stuff around). Don´t understand why they made C64-incompatible systems like the C16 , without sprites ,without SID - 99% of the games are crappy budget titles ... They surely lost a lot of money with this one and other stupid systems like the C64GS (C64 console) with crappy games like Terminator 2 on cartridge. Thimo

I´d say their are 3 categories of game ports C64 to ATARI , a) very easy - text adventures from Infocom , games without sprites , games which only use monochrome graphics on C64 as Head over Heels (which looks the same on both machines) or several Speccy to C64 ports as Bobby Bearing and others.They could be ported 1:1 to XL. A port of some rpgs like Ultima V should also be possible,since Ultima 1-4 look the same on the ATARI. Vector-graphics games often use only a few colors to gain speed on the C64.So Elite , a lot of Flightsims and other games could be ported 1:1. b) games with some multicolor sprites but not very fast games - can be changed to software sprites with player overlays to add colors on the ATARI. Graphic adventures - you need to change C64 multicolor pics to ATARI DLI and Player-missile enhanced graphics , c64 pics are not a good source for this,better AMIGA or ATARI ST pics. Games like Impossible Mission,Last Ninja,Defender of the Crown,Pirates etc. should be possible with some minor changes. Or Bard´s Tale 1-3 , the XL could even do a more AMIGA-like graphics. I once converted Bard´s Tale pictures to the 256 color mode of the ATARI - looks almost like the AMIGA version with some color changes. c) difficult or almost impossible ports : Games that are very C64 specific - for example the Thalamus games - Hawkeye, Armalyte etc. , Katakis,maybe the Turricans or Wizball etc. Software sprites on the ATARI may look great,but it´s not possible to use dozens of them so very fast games may not be portable or only with some changes - 1-color sprites,not smoothly moving character-graphics software sprites , no software sprite masking. Some of the C64 games also use software sprites for fast moving objects (shots for example in Turrican). But I´d say that the ATARI 7800 could do such games , because of this I wondered why ATARI did not use the Maria Chip in the XL models as 2nd graphics chips. Thimo

Yes , but I was talking about the ATARI 800 ´s with it´s NTSC artifacting.This created a 4-color graphics 8 screen , but it looked very similar to CGA graphics. The colors are different on CTIA and GTIA.Just look at some Ultima. But on PAL systems, it´s only black/white. Thimo

Piracy maybe was a problem.There were many high-quality games before 1984/85 and after all the big companies left. But they supported the ATARI ST , so it was not that ATARI was the problem for them. But one thing for sure : Despite the C64 seems to have the most fans , since it was sold more than any other 8 Bit Computer except maybe MSX , which was sold in Asia , don´t know too much about it - the 800 is still alive , there are still fans around , games get good bids on ebay , there are new hadware and software projects. Other computers from that era are dead today. I don´t hear much about the Amstrad CPC , not much about the Acorn computers or the Commodore C16/116/+4 and I think even the Apple II scene is smaller , but don´t know it (since the Apple was not common in Europe). That means that the 800 XL is on of the 3 most-known 8 Bit systems in the Western countries - the C64,the Spectrum and the ATARI. And since the Spectrum was only popular in the UK and maybe Spain , the ATARI could be number 2. Don´t know much about the MSX systems , they were popular in Japan/Asia , but disappeared very fast from the European market. There were some MSX systems by Sony , Panasonic or Philipps,but they did not sell.There also were MSX-2 systems with 3.5" diskdrives and some PC-compatibility , but they did not sell,too. Ok,there is the PC , but although there are many classic games on this system and they still run on modern PCs , I don´t count the PC as classic 8 Bit system. And there are hundreds of "forgotten" 8 Bit or part 16 Bit systems - like the TI 99/4A , the Colour Genie,the Dragon computers,the Sharp computers , most of the Commodore CBM systems like CBM 610 or old 8296 , the Thomson computers with integrated lightpens , the Aquarius and many more. There is one collector who has at least 100 different 8 Bit systems by different companies. And "parts" of the ATARI 8 Bit had more success in the AMIGA , for example the AMIGA sprites which are in fact some sort of advanced player missiles which can have SuperHires resolution in AGA models. Thimo

It´s true that making sprites etc. is easy on the C64 , but the ATARI already was dead , killed by the Tramiels , by the time the C64 really took off. After the death of "old ATARI" , the Tramiels did not develop new 8 Bit stuff.Maybe a better ATARI XL was available in some ATARI lab ? Maybe an ATARI 800 XL with an added Maria Chip or a better soundchip ? But the Tramiels decided to "go 16 Bit" , and made only cheap 8 bit stuff as the 800 XE. So companies could not make money with the XL and dropped it. It´s not the problem that the 800 XL is difficult to programm for - it was/it is far more difficult to make ATARI 2600 games,but dozens of companies made games for it despite more powerful systems like Colecovision oder Intellivision with better sprites etc. came out. It was the Tramiels´ fault , the same thing they did with all their computers.It was their fault that the Lynx and Jaguar were not successful and that the Falcon was no success. The biggest problem is that the ATARI cannot do games exactly like the C64.Technically great games would be different on the ATARI and couldn´t be ported to C64 or Amstrad/Spectrum without loss. But many games on the ATARI are ports from Apple II (many of them using HiRes with artifacting) and C64. Apple II games look the same or better on the ATARI,since the Apple´s hardware is weaker.But they could have looked much better if they were written for the ATARI. And most C64 game-ports look and sound worse since they have been ported fast and without much work. But there are some games that look better on the ATARI : Dropzone and International Karate , only the C64´s music is a little bit better. Or Ninja by Mastertronic , of course the Lucasfilm games and Alternate Reality. C64-specific games like Last Ninja which uses HiRes sprites could not be ported 1:1 although Last Ninja was ported for the much weaker Acorn BBC and of course CGA IBM PC. But games like Defender of the Crown would look more like the AMIGA version on the ATARI , other role-playing/strategy/adventures,too , because for graphics the XL has the advantage of many colors and DLIs. As I´ve said before - another problem was that many companies did not support full 64K and made only 48K games.So some games like Spellbound have no music on the ATARI (but this one a better graphics since C64 version is an 1:1 Spectrum port). Except maybe Mercenary,which had both 48K and 64K versions on the disk. The Spectrum is a very "simple" computer,that made it so cheap and programming so easy.No custom chips , only one fast CPU.But most games look not very good , especially because of limited color choice and color problems when sprites move. It was cheap and more units were sold , that means bigger market and more profit for software houses.And this was the problem of the ATARI.No big market = no profit = no games. BTW with artifacting the ATARI can use 4 colors in Hires as it was used in many Apple ports , games like Treshold,Lunar Leeper,Ultima etc. use this technique.Too bad it doesn´t work on PAL systems. Also the colors are quite ugly and look like old PC CGA games and cannot be changed. Thimo

Is it possible to use for example an ATARI ST or AMIGA or C64 GEOS mouse on an ATARI 2600 or similar Trakballs ? They all have the same ports and fit to the ATARI 2600. Or does it take too much CPU time to read the data from a mouse/trakball so that it would not be possible to display something on the screen ? The "resolution" of the mouse/tb can be quite low , because the resolution of the 2600 isn´t as high as the resolutions of the systems the mice were designed for. Thimo

I can offer new , never used CX-50 Keyboard Controllers , 2 in 1 box in perfect condition for $10. I can also offer Keyboard Controllers in slightly damaged boxes for $8 , but still new. I also have Original CX-30 Paddles by ATARI , new and boxed , I can offer them for $10 ,too or $8 for slightly damaged boxes. There are two different packages , one with the text "Paddle Controllers" and a picture and the other with just the text "Paddle" on the box. I also offer Telegames Paddles , they are "clones" of the ATARI Paddles , that means 2 Paddles/1 port for $8. Playing games feels a little bit different with the Telegames paddles , but basically they´re the same. If you´re interested , please contact me ! [/b]

Was this game ever released ? I´ve seen it as ROM , but never as real cartridge. If it was released - did it have a real box or just a plastic box and a cheap manual just like some of the other Coleco games released during/after the crash ? Thimo

I have several interesting .de domains which will be used for a classic site , not only ATARI , but also Coleco and others. I have www.atari2600.de www.coleco.de www.vectrex.de These can be used for ATARI,Coleco,Vectrex-related sites. I did not get a G7000 or Intellivision related domain,but I also own www.classic-videogames.com which would be interesting for all other classic systems. I don´t have much Vectrex or Intellivision stuff myself and no complete collections. But I have enough space for lots of pictures,so if anyone can design a vextrex-related or Intellivision-related site , I coul upload it. I´d also support the ATARI XL/XE and the ATARI ST since I have lots of XL/XE and ST games/a large collection. Thimo

I think ATARI made the mistake not to upgrade the XL/XE computers more than they did. They could have added the Maria Chip found in the 7800 as extra graphics chip and then you would not have sprite-problems. So the ATARI´s Hardware is 3 years older than the C64´s. But there were several much weaker computers with no sprites at all - the Spectrum for example , or even the Amstrad CPC which was released in 1984. And some of the very popular MSX systems did not have impressive hardware ,too. And the Apple II also had weaker graphics than both C64 and ATARI. And the player/missiles aren´t so bad - they can be used as "overlays" for software sprites to add color , at least 2 new colors can be created with player 1 and 2 to make 7-color software sprites. The problem of POKEY music is that the ATARI did not have sound geniuses like Rob Hubbard or Martin Galway and many games only used the "standard BASIC sound" or had no music at all - but in fact the POKEY isn´t worse than the SID , it´s just a different Soundchip that is better for some sound effects - and there are effects that can be better done with the SID. And both Chips are better than the Spectrum Beeper , or the Amstrad/Spectrum 128 AY-Soundchip or the Apple II Soundchip or the ATARI ST Soundchip. Another problem of the ATARI was that many companies only made 48K games and did not support the 800 XL.So some games had to fit into 48K and features like music were missing. If you look at the C64 - there were awesome games , like Armalyte or Hawkeye or other Thalamus games.But the C64 also had poor 1:1 Spectrum conversions (Karnov for example) that did not use the sprites/scrolling etc. I think it depends more on the programmers than on the hardware. The best example is the ATARI 2600 - although the Coleco and the Intellivision had better (newer) hardware , the ATARI had the best games and some technically very impressive games , for example Solaris , that would have been not possible this way on the Coleco or Inty. Thimo

I can offer these ATARI XL/XE / XEGS carts . These games are English versions , made in the US , that means they work on PAL and NTSC systems , ATARI never made special European versions since all NTSC games work on PAL TVs. All games are boxed , new and shrinkwrapped , never been used. I may sell the games or trade them for ATARI 2600/7800 , ATARI 400/800 XL/XE , Coleco,old PC , AMIGA,C64,SNES,Genesis games. Please note that certain XE carts require 64K and won´t work on an ATARI 800 - Airball for example.The XE games require at least 48K. The XL carts - Millipede,Moon Patrol etc. will work on all ATARI Computers , since they´ve been written for 16K machines. If you´re interested , please write to [email protected] ATARI XL/XE carts : Ace of Aces Airball Archon Ballblazer Crimebuster Crossbow David´s Midnight Magic Desert Falcon Eastern Front 1941 Final Legacy Gato Hardball Joust Loderunner Millipede (large box) Millipede (small box) Moon Patrol One on One Basketball Pole Position Rescue on Fractalus Robotron 2084 RS Football Star Raiders 2 Thunderfox Tennis Disk : Microsoft BASIC Mickey in the Great Outdoors Cassette Scram Touch Typing

hi, I can offer these games for ATARI 2600/7800 , all games new and boxed + instructions. Most games are PAL , but some are NTSC versions. I may sell the games or trade them for ATARI 2600/7800 , ATARI XL/XE , C64 , AMIGA , (old) PC , SNES , Genesis games. My email address is [email protected] I also have several boxed ATARI XEGS games !!! ATARI 2600 List : Acid Drop (Salu,PAL) Adventure on GX-12 (Telegames,PAL) Alpha Beam with Ernie (CCW,PAL) Armor Ambush (Telegames,PAL) Astro Blast (Telegames,PAL) ATARI CX-24 Joystick Basic Programming (ATARI , PAL) Big Bird's Egg (CCW,PAL) Bobby geht heim (CCW, PAL,text label) Bogey Blaster (Telegames,PAL , aka Air Raiders) Bump 'n' Jump (Telegames , PAL or NTSC) Chess (Noname , PAL , aka Video Chess) Circus ATARI (ATARI , PAL) Circus (Noname,PAL) Commando (Activision/Salu , PAL , white label) Concentration (ATARI , PAL , text label) Cookie Monster Munch (CCW,PAL) Dancing Plates (BitCorp,PAL , text label) Deadly Discs (Telegames,PAL) Decathlon (Activision/Salu , PAL , picture label) Dice Puzzle (Sancho , PAL) Double Dragon (Activsion/Salu , white label,PAL) Double Dunk (ATARI , red box , PAL) E.T. (ATARI , European silver box,NTSC Fatal Run (ATARI , red box , PAL) Football Super Challenge (Telegames , PAL) Forest (Sancho , PAL) Frostbite (Activision/Salu , PAL , white label) Galaxian (ATARI , European silver box,NTSC) Ghostbusters 1 (Activision/Salu , white label,PAL) Ghostbusters 2 (Activision/Salu , white label,PAL) H.E.R.O. (Activision/Salu , white label,PAL) International Soccer (Telegames,PAL or NTSC) Jnr Pacman (ATARI , red box , PAL) Jungle Hunt (ATARI , European silver box,NTSC) Keyboard Controllers (Hardware by ATARI,boxed,new) Keystone Kapers (Activision/Salu , PAL,white label) KF Superkicks (Telegames , NTSC or PAL) Kung Fu Master (Activision/Salu , PAL , white label) Laser Gates (Imagic/Salu ? , green box , PAL ) Lock 'n' Chase (Telegames , PAL or NTSC) Mission 3000 (BitCorp , PAL , text label) Moon Patrol (ATARI , silver box , NTSC) Mr.Postman (BitCorp , PAL) My Golf (HES , white label , PAL) Off the Wall (ATARI , red box , PAL) Oscar's Trash Race (CCW , PAL) Paddles (ATARI CX-30) (Hardware by ATARI) Paddles (Telegames) Phantom Panzer (BitCorp , PAL , text label) Pick 'n' Pile (Salu , PAL , white label) Pitfall (Activision/Salu , PAL , white label) Quest for Quintana Roo (Telegames , NTSC or PAL) Rampage (Activision/Salu , PAL , white label) RealSports Boxing (ATARI , red box , PAL) RealSports Football (ATARI , European silver box,NTSC ) Realsports Tennis (ATARI , red box , PAL) Realsport Tennis (ATARI,European silver box,NTSC) RealSports Volleyball (ATARI,European silver box,NTSC) River Raid 2 (HES , plastic box , PAL,white label) River Raid 2 (Activision/Salu , PAL , white label) Roc 'n' Rope (CBS , PAL) Snail vs Squirrel (BitCorp , PAL , text label) Sea Monster (Bit Corp,PAL , text label) Sesam oeffne dich (Open Sesame) (BitCorp , PAL , text label) Smurf (CBS , PAL) Space Attack (Telegames , PAL) Super Breakout (ATARI , PAL) Super Challenge Baseball (Telegames , PAL or NTSC) Telegames Joystick (Hardware by Telegames) Tennis (Activision/Salu , PAL , white label) Title Match Pro Wrestling (Absolute , PAL , white label) Tomcat - F14 Fighter (Absolute , PAL , white label) Universal Chaos (Telegames , PAL) Weltraum Tunnel (Space Tunnel) (BitCorp , PAL , text label) Winter Games (Epyx/Salu , PAL , white label) World Championship Baseball (Telegames,PAL) Xenophobe (ATARI , red box , PAL) Zaxxon (CBS , PAL ATARI 7800 : Ballblazer (PAL Mat Mania (PAL Sentinel (PAL

Anyone knows which classic arcade games are available for the various Gameboy system ? I know of some 2-in 1 carts with games like Defender , Joust , Moon Patrol and some more , but there are so many Gameboy games , don´t know them all. Thimo

Some companies used EPROMs for their carts and EPROMs can get erased over time (bitrot) , but AFAIK ATARI never used EPROMs. I even have ATARI carts that were damaged by water which still work fine. But I think that this does not happen very often to ATARI carts - but carts from other companies , especially Bomb , die without any reason (or are dead when you get them). Thimo

I know a Scooby Doo game and a Transformers game for the C64.The Scooby Doo game was really bad (a bad platform game) and would be possible on a 2600 , but the gameplay is bad. I did not play the Transformers game much.It had music from one of the great C64 music artists , but can´t remember exactly. BTW : Scooby Doo for 8 Bit Computers was an interesting story - they previewed an animated adventure-game with superb graphics (by the time) and after some months only the known bad platform game was released by Elite , an English companY AFAIK.The game was released for multiple platforms , C64,Spectrum,C16,Amstrad , but not ATARI.

In the 90s , many games were written in Poland , usually with good graphics and music. I doubt that these games were available in the US , so it may be interesting to offer the games there. Most of the games were action games , jump ´n´ run , space shooters etc. and were in English.Some of the adventure or strategy games must be translated. Some of the games were quite good so it would be interesting to offer them I think. 2 possibilities : I may get original games on disk and offer them or it might be possible to get the rights of the some games an create new disk versions or even cartridge versions. The only problem is that some of the games may not work on NTSC systems , because they use a higher resolution or because of timing problems.This must be tested before. Thimo