eegad

Haven't been able to pull this off myself.... Anyone been successful?

Okay, well really two things... First that after nearly 40 years I'm still occasionally playing with it - there's no other toy from my childhood that I can say that about. And secondly that there are people STILL making new games for it!

One difference I know of is that there was a version with a "line" for the players on the field (like in Football II), and a version with just "dots" for players (like in Baseball). My best friend got the lines version when the game was first released, a year later when I got one and it was the dots version.

One exception to this rule (that I know of) : My 32" Samsung is an odd duck, in that it is a non-interlaced model. At least for a while they were making some of their crt tv's work more like computer monitors (also had some nice features like freeze-frame, etc). I remember when I bought it, going to the store with the intention of getting a Sony. The "large screen" (32 inch) models were all lined up together. The Samsung was next to the Sony. But as I stood there doing a side-by-side comparison, I had to admit that the Samsung was noticeably clearer, especially up close. It was a while after I bought it that I learned about the non-interlace thing. I've kept this beast around because classic videogames (and also including my Wii) look better on it than a "regular" CRT. But the one downside? Light gun games do not work on it for whatever reason (I'm specifically talking about Atari XEGS titles like Crossbow & Barnyard Blaster...and I also once had an NES hooked up to it to test it with that system also).

I use a circa 2000 or so 32" Samsung for my Atari 2600, 800xl, and Colecovision. Also hanging onto a 20" Sharp from the late 90's in case the Samsung dies.

I was just playing Defenders of the Oasis on my Game Gear... It's the first time I think I played it in 25 years. I was shocked to see that my saved games from so long ago were still there. I always assumed at the time that the cart used a battery for that, but can a battery really have held a charge and the data for that long? So now I'm wondering if it instead uses flash memory... Except that I would have thought flash memory would have been too expensive to use in a game cart way back when. Does anybody know what Game Gear carts used to save games? And if it's a battery, I'm curious how many others out there also still have their saved games working decades later.

About 5-6 years ago I spent some time searching for and gathering up nice graphics and sound demo programs, which I then filled a maxflash with. I now would like to update that cart with some newer demos and would like some recommendations. I do have 2 big qualifications however - they need to work on NTSC Atari's, and they need to run on an unmodified machine with 64k (since I'm ultimately going to be running these on a vanilla US 800xl). Now and then I stumble upon some really impressive 8-bit demos, but more often than not they require 320k, or only run on PAL, etc. so that I can only run them via Altirra.

Where can I d/l a copy of this one to check out? I've never heard of it before.

Awesome! Thanks so much for this - now it plays more like the actual arcade machine.

If so, it seems odd since both the actual arcade game and the 2600 version have diagonal movement.

From the receipt I recently came across in my Adventure box, we paid $22.95 plus tax when it was released.

The only version of Vanguard I've ever had was nicely done, but would only move vertically and horizontally; no diagonal movement of your ship was possible, which makes it kind of hard to play. I believe it's a 5200 conversion. Has anyone ever hacked a version with diagonal ship movement? I wouldn't think it would be terribly difficult to intercept the joystick reading sub routine and patch in another JSR to check diagonals and update X and Y player position accordingly. (Then again, I haven't done any real programming in 25 years, so I get it's "easier said than done").

Personally I still wish someone would make Phoenix for the XL/XE. I kinda remember that someone as working on it a few years back, but never saw anything come of it.

Was just wondering if there were any 2 player games for the 8bits that you could set up as computer vs computer. Say something like a chess game, or golf or baseball, or a war/strategy game, etc where instead of selecting player against another player, or player vs computer, you could just have the computer play against itself and sit back and watch.

No, the catalog I'm talking about was in the space invaders cartridge box, not the 2600 box. In any case, if stores in the area were saying that Adventure wasn't available yet, then regardless of the catalog it wasn't out yet. Also, the letter that a kid wrote to Atari revealing that he'd found the Easter egg was dated August 4, 1980. So assuming Adventure hit stores in July 1980, it sounds about right that a few weeks or a month later some were starting to stumble upon it (I myself stumbled upon it one night a couple months after getting the game). A scan of that letter is here (apparently it was given to Warren, who kept it).... http://www.ataricompendium.com/game_library/easter_eggs/vcs/adventure_letter.pdf

I finally solved the mystery (at least as far as I am concerned). Yes, I got my Atari 2600 On July 1, 1980, along with Space Invaders. The catalog with Space Invaders listed Adventure as "coming soon". I thought it sounded cool, and wanted it. My grandmother went to the store to get it for me a few days later, but was told it wasn't released yet, but they could put her name on a list and call her when they got it in stock. My recollection has always been that she didn't bring me the cart until a couple months later. But the thing is, I still have that Adventure cart, complete-in-box. I just hadn't bothered opening it and looking through the game manual in a LONG time. I did so recently and found a folded up receipt inside it, dated July 19, 1980. So when did Adventure actually become available in stores? I'm going with "mid-July, 1980"

A few years back I downloaded and put Cave In on my Harmony cart. Played it a few times and liked it, but never got very far, and ended up kind of forgetting about it. Today while playing some random games on my 2600, I rediscovered Cave In....and ended up spending something like 3 hours mapping it out. I ended up making it to the final throne room with the crown pieces.....and then got killed as I got the final boss down to 1 life block. :-( I don't see myself having the patience to play through this again anytime soon, but am curious as to the game ending. If you beat the boss is there any ending sequence/music? Does anyone perhaps have a link to a video of either the ending or a full play through? I just did a quick YouTube search, but only found a few short gameplay samples.

Interesting read. Something I never realized until now - that Tod also did the 800 version of Asteroids.....which back at the time I always considered the worst arcade port on the 800... so I guess I'm not surprised to learn that. Pacman was definitely the game that turned me off to the 2600. For 2 years prior to its release I was always buying the latest 2600 releases. The day Pacman released, my mom drove me to the mall after school to get it. I came home all psyched to play....turned it on...and was like "what is this crap?". For the next 6 months I was very selective about my game buying, and then moved on to the 8-bit computers. The saddest thing about the whole 2600 pacman story is that Tod made a million bucks off it, while better 2600 programmers before him (ie - David Crane, Larry Kaplan, etc) got paid squat by Atari.

I'll go with Stay Frosty and Anguna.

By having multiple units. The things I am most nostalgic about and care the most about being able to play for the next 20-30 years (I'm 50 by the way) are the Atari 2600 and Atari 8-bit computers. I have 3 Atari 2600's (2 heavy 6ers and 1 light)...as of christmas-time, they all still work just fine. I have 3 Atari 800xl's and 1 800. As of a month or two ago, they all work fine. I also have 4 working 1050 drives, and multiple cables, transformers, and joysticks (and 2 sets of paddles, but both are somewhat jittery). I think I'm pretty well covered on Atari stuff. I also have some nostalgia for my Game Gear and Colecovision. The Colecovision still worked fine as of 2-3 years ago, but if it died I wouldn't be all that heart-broken. My Game Gear was suffering from the bad caps problem when I dug it out recently; thankfully a kind soul here on the forums did a great job of fixing it up for me. If it died outright, I'd probably hit ebay for another refurbished unit. Beyond that, there's always emulation, which is what I use to play old Genesis and Intellivision games on occasion, since I don't have actual consoles of those anymore.

Nice job with Time Pilot - was playing the party version on my 800xl via MaxFlash cart yesterday.

I open it up and give it a shot at "fixing" it by re-seating chips, checking connections, etc. If I can't....I once got an item repaired...and twice just held onto it (an Atari 400 and an Odyssey II...both have power lights that come on, but just show a plain blank screen)...it's a matter of "maybe one day I might find what's wrong with it".

I recently broke out my Sega Game Gear for the first time in perhaps 4-5 years. That last time, it worked fine. This time the sound was very faint, even at full volume, and the picture could only be seen, faintly, when held at a severe angle. A quick search of Game Gear problems showed that at this point pretty much all Game Gears have failed due to decaying capacitors. I've got a bunch of other "vintage" games.... 3 Atari 2600's, 3 Atari 800xl's, an Atari 800, an RCA Studio II, a Colecovision, many old handhelds like the Mattel series, Merlin, etc. So far, the other stuff all still works. What I'm wondering about is if these are all destined to fail in the near future (or if any other specific consoles / old computers are also experiencing widespread problems). Do all caps fail after 20, 30, 40 years? Or was it more specific to the Game Gear (or certain electronics from that particular early-90s time period).

That I still have, and got before I was 18? In order from oldest... RCA Studio II Atari 2600 Light Sixer Atari 400 Atari 800xl Alas, the 400 didn't work last time I tried it (just displayed a solid color screen). The other 3 all work fine and still have the original boxes/manuals.

I just took out my Game Gear last night for the first time in maybe 5 years. The display was washed out and the sound very faint. I googled and quickly found this is a common problem with Game Gears, as the caps go bad over time and need to be replaced. I suck when it comes to soldering, but would love the get the unit repaired. I searched for repair service & found a few links...one was not in business anymore, one was in Europe, another link brought me to an atariage posting of someone offering to do the service.....but recent posts are about how many people who sent him units never got them back. So....has anyone here gotten their Game Gear repaired by someone they can vouch for? There must be some trustworthy hobbyist or small business that does this sort of thing. Would like some input/recommendations. Thanks.