DamonicFury

That sounds like a really likely answer! Thanks, Graywest! Doing a search on these forums for 'Hot Rox', I see that Tempest mentioned this catalog picture as indeed showing Hot Rox. Very cool! An old, old mystery for me can be laid to rest. Sadly, it seems they changed the artwork as well as the name ... we may never see a full-size version of what the artwork would have been.

This is an old Atari mystery for me... I've been wondering about it since 1982! In the 1982 Atari catalogs (CO16725-Rev. D and CO16725-Rev. E) the first inside page shows a lot of Atari boxes. One of them is quite small and hard to read, but from what I can see, there's no match in the Atari library for it. Anyone have any ideas what it might be? (You'll may need to look at a copy of the real catalog... it's hard enough to see there, let alone in the scan!) The circle I drew may be a bit unclear... I'm not talking about Dodge 'Em, but the game box next to it. The title text isn't totally legible, but it seems like it might be something close to "HOT-ROCK"

A few more... Astro Blaster Carnival Galaxian Galaga Gaplus Galaga 88 Mr. Do's Castle

Great show! Got lots of classic gaming goodies, played some Gorf and Tron, and had a great time. :-) Anyone travelling to the area for the next show should check out Challenge Arcade in the nearby Berkshire mall... lots of great classics there!

X-Wing

You certainly wouldn't want a Windows-based OS running on a Vector monitor, would you? Besides the fact that there's no way a vector monitor could show the GUI, all the extra bloat of a newer OS would really be utterly unnecessary for a PC whose only purpose is to run Vector games. To me, DOS seems like it would be an acceptable choice. But to each his own... It's tempting to put together a mini ZVG-powered arcade box to just run Asteroids and similar games on a Vectrex monitor. But it wouldn't be cheap: 200 - ZVG 200 - cheap PC 100 - Vectrex 100 - cabinet and controls The cost would be much higher yet if you wanted to use a higher quality vector monitor! If you really love that authentic vector look that much, you may as well just get a real authentic vector machine - so long as your favorite vector game is reasonably common. ZVG would be a good solution for those who really want an authentic vector look for some of the rarer games, like Quantum and Zektor.

I might be willing to pay quite a lot... IF it was more than just a standard Vectrex. Specifically, if it could play arcade-perfect versions of other classic vector game like Asteroids, Battlezone, Tempest, etc. Seems unlikely that such a product could be brought to market, as no one is making vector monitors anymore. There is this interesting product, however, that allows you to use a Vectrex monitor and a computer to play the arcade classics... Zektor Vector Generator

The market for retro game devices of all types seems to be drying up rapidly. A couple of years ago we had: The Jakks sticks Numerous arcade compilations (Namco, Taito, Midway) The Target Midway cabinet The PVGTech Taito & NeoGeo bartops The Atari Flashback 2 Other than the cruddy Target cabinet, these were pretty good products. But they don't seem to have caught on quite well enough to inspire a second wave of retro goodies. Perhaps the Live Arcade/Virtual Console/GameTap services are meeting the public's need for retro gaming now. Still, I prefer the products that tried to replicate the look and feel of the original games.

Were any other old-school Activision fans thrilled with the opening logo? :-)

An alternative to a MAME box that will play both Qix, Zookeeper and 8 other Taito classics can be found here: Review of Gameroom Classics bartops I picked up one of these on Ebay for under $200, and it's quite nice. Zookeeper plays great, but Qix does have an sound issue in it's emulation... the background hum typical to Qix keeps cutting out. And, of course, Arkanoid doesn't play very well with a joystick! According to the review, it seems you could even take out the circuit board and put into a JAMMA cabinet.

Just picked up Excitetruck a week ago, and my wife and I are both seriously hooked on it. It's very cool you can add your own songs to the game... so what are the best tunes to enjoy with it? Here's my current list (chosen for both fast tempos and lyrics about racing/speeding/trucking...) Space Truckin - Deep Purple Wheels of Fire - Manowar Motopsycho - Megadeth Highway to Hell - AC/DC Ride the Sky - Helloween 502 - Megadeth Highway Star - Deep Purple Hell Bent for Leather - Judas Priest and for laughs... Truck Drivin' Song - Weird Al What else works well with this great game?

1. Rygar 2. Chip's Challenge 3. Shanghai 4. California Games 5. APB 6. Roadblasters 7. Lemmings 8. Gates of Zendocon 9. Hard Drivin 10.Super Skweek

What's the difference between the third edition and the original one?

Naaaaa, na, na, na, na, na, na, naa... Katamari Damacy

I don't own either of these, but I've looked them over a good bit: Pros for Dream Arcade: Namco and Capcom games Easily able to add any PC game, arcade collection, or emulator into it (for 4.99 at your your local EB/Gamestop, you could add the Taito arcade collection, for example) More authentic arcade look (marquee, tilted monitor) Pros for Awecade: Spinner and light gun included Exidy games Larger monitor (for the AC-605SP) -OR- The price on the P.A.M. is very attractive compared to it's competitors A MAME cabinet could indeed give you a more authentic look on most games by using a real arcade monitor. The cons of doing so is that they are expensive, and the vector games (Asteroids, Tempets, etc.) will look awful. Mine uses a PC monitor, and I'm personally quite happy with the result. Building a MAME cabinet is probably the best option, certainly the cheapest, but the amount of work involved and skill required makes it not for everyone. Best of luck whatever you choose, and let us know how your choice works out!

Yeah, these were the good old days... I vaguely remember Dave's original emulator... it played Galaxian, Amidar, and something else I've long since forgotten... anyone recall this? Those files are long gone for me, though. In these days, when the newest version of MAME has become so bloated that it can't even run Pacman well on a Pentium III, those old emulators did a great job running the classics on a 486!

Coleco controllers are pretty awful (the knob doesn't turn, it's just a poorly designed 8-way joystick), but you can use a 2600 controller for games that just need a single button or a 7800 controller (preferrably the Euro joypad or a Radica SI hack) for games that need two buttons. The thing with the Colecovision is that it has very few games that aren't arcade converions, so if you already have some kind of MAME setup, you may already have superior versions of almost everything the Coleco has to offer. As for good games you can play on the 2600 that aren't included on the Atari/Activision collections... Jr./Ms. Pacman, M*A*S*H, Fantastic Voyage, Demon Attack, Subterrania, Cosmic Ark, Atlantis, Montezuma's Revenge, The Empire Strikes Back, Space Invaders, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Phoenix, Tapper, California Games, BMX Airmaster, Galaxian, Air Raiders, Discs of Tron... just to name a few!! And that's not including AtariAge's great library of homebrew carts. Personally, I'd take the 2600 over any other classic gaming system. Partly for nostalagia, but equally for it's truly great collection of games.

IMO, it's a fairly average 2600 arcade port... not great, not terrible. It's pretty unlikely you'd get one as cheap as $30. Looks like they are going for about $50 on Ebay these days.

I've got a Missile Command and a MAME cabinet (which began life as a Double Dragon cabinet, but had been converted to a Clutch Hitter when I obtained it.)

I'm afraid not. The documentation is quite skimpy. Konami could, of course, make a "no connection required" version of these games available for download if they no longer wanted to support it via the web site, but there's no guarantee that they will. Still no sign of the 6th game, or of any "Live" features as of yet.

Looks really nice! While clearly too small for 2-player games, it still retains both joysticks for Robotron-style action. The bartop conversion idea is EXCELLENT... perhaps you could even sell it as a bartop, and offer the bottom base as an optional extra. In any case, looks like a great design for those desiring a multicade that doesn't lot of space.

Like Omegamatrix, I find it to be a tough choice between Solar Fox and Tapper, but in the end, I feel that Solar Fox just makes for a better 2600 game. While the programmer did an excellent job of replicating Tapper's gameplay, the loss of the cartoony graphic's that the 2600 could never do really hurts it. Solar Fox's more abstract graphics translate to the Atari much better. And while I know this is somewhat controversial, I personally feel that simplifying Solar Fox's gameplay actually makes the 2600 version superior to it's arcade parent.

As a big fan of Konami's classic games, I went ahead and got the Konami Arcade controller. These do appear to be fully emulated arcade versions of Time Pilot, Gyruss, Scramble, Contra, and Yie-Ar-Kung-Fu. The screen is squished somewhat to take up all the space on a horizontal monitor, but the scoring is NOT moved to the side as the screen shots on the package would suggest. There are "enhanced" modes for Time Pilot and Scramble that keep the same sound and gameplay, but add 3D sprites and effects. Yie-Ar Kung Fu has a splash screen, confirming my suspicion that the emulation was done by Digital Eclipse The games are downloaded to your computer, but you cannot play them unless you have an active Internet connection. (Apparently, some kind of key check is made before starting a game.) I don't see ANY "Live" enhancements for these games yet, not even a online high score table. The sixth game is still not available, nor is there any mention of what it will be. I would have been thrilled if this had been a simple CD release of Konami classics. It's kind of a shame that they instead married them to this basic Genesis-style controller, making the games impossible to play on a X-Arcade/Hot-Rod/custom-made cabinet. Really, the only reason I can think of why Konami would have went this route was to prevent piracy, which is almost laughable considering how easy it is to find, download, and emulate these games. While obviously doing so is the cheaper route and allows for better controllers and a better sceen presentation, I still like to buy legal versions of these great classic games when companies make them available. It would just be nice if more of them put out first class packages like Atari's 80 Games in One or Taito's Arcade Legends (which is HIGHLY recommended, as it even includes MAME compatible roms!), rather than a gimmicky collection like this.

In case anyone in the US is actually looking for this stick, it's finally out... I saw one in Toys R Us yesterday. Doesn't seem to have the MegaMan Gamekey, however. :-(

Finally gave up on waiting for a US release and purchased Taito Legends 2 off of Ebay (for PC). Once again, it's a very nice release, and once again they have MAME compatible ROM folders! (Not sure it's one hundred percent legally kosher to use those files with MAME, but they made no attempt to hide, rename, or encrypt the files, so it's hard to imagine they were that would be strongly opposed to their use in that way by paying customers.)