candiru

The funny thing about the 7800s is that you can't go 100% by the information on the shell and whether or not it has an external expansion port. Some of the late release 7800s have earlier versions of the boards inside. I have 3 7800s and outwardly they are all the last version released, but they play all the "problem" games I've tried. I don't have Kool-Aid Man or a Supercharger to test with, but so far everything has worked fine.

So far I think you've named a good chunk of the incompatibility offenders. The only other ones I can think of that I've seen mentioned that sometimes have problems are Space Shuttle, Time Pilot, Pitfall II, Secret Quest, and the Supercharger. I've seen some mentions that a 7800 can potentially fry a supercharger so maybe do a little more research before you try that one. If you're so inclined, one thing you can do is open it up to see what date is stamped on the internals of your 7800. You should be able to find some information on this by searching something like "board revision" on the 7800 forum. I think there's a thread or 2 about where to find the date and how to interpret it.

I think it's time for some B-b-b-b-BMX mugu scamming.

You sure miss out on a lot when you read the abridged versions.

I just got this game a few weeks back and you can imagine my disappointment when I plugged it into my Vader and it failed to play, even after a good cleaning. I thought I'd gotten a dead game. However, it did play fine on my 7800 and 3 other 2600s I dragged out to test it on. I only have the one Vader so I don't have another to test it against. It's also my childhood system and the one I primarily use. It's never had any problems with any of my other 200+ games to indicate a worn out or dirty cartridge slot. I've tried holding it at weird angles, re-cleaning, etc but it refuses to work on this particular system. All it ever does is play the first beep of the opening tune, a quick rolling effect of the screen, then goes to black. This all occurs in probably less than 1/2 of a second. It's not a big deal, as I have other means of playing it, but I thought it was interesting and wondered if anyone else has encountered something similar. I know very little about programming or the minutia of electronics so forgive me if this is completely off-base. Is it possible that Time Pilot's odd programming that causes problems in some 7800s could also find a vulnerability in some boards used in 2600s?

I don't see any mention of Jurassic Park yet. That's a pretty solid title and should be easy to find.

Back in the day E.T. caused a lot of folks to suffer the stages of denial, bargaining, anger, despair, and finally 2 decades later it's finding some acceptance. That question leaves a lot of interpretation so here are some of the things that come to mind for me. Activision Decathlon or any of the Epyx sports games have lots of different things to do. Porky's also has some pretty distinct stages. Dark Chambers also has several levels.

I haven't dug through my closet for awhile, but I've probably got 15-20 CX-40s, 10 sets of paddles, and a 20 or so 3rd party sticks. I can't resist picking them up either if I see them cheap. I like to try them out and see which games, if any, they're best suited for. Plus, they look cool on a shelf. If nothing else, they become parts donors to keep my favorite joysticks going.

Unfortunately I don't have much in the way of duplicate manuals. I'd consider a cash offer on a big batch of games, but being in the middle of some fairly extensive house refurbishing I've got lots of different things begging for my wallet's attention. Still, I'll certainly take a closer look at your list.

Everyone should have 2 sets of paddles and Warlords for 4-player fun. Even people that think old games suck will probably enjoy this one.

(BUMP) updated

That's it! A Google image search of RCA Studio II yielded images of the system and carts. These forums are great, so many helpful people. Many thanks for the responses.

No, I know what TI-99 4/A carts look like. When I say that the contacts were exposed I mean actually sticking out with nothing surrounding them. I guess I wasn't very clear. Here's a rough image of what they looked like.

I was out thrifting a few days ago and spied a few carts on some shelves behind the counter. The store was pretty busy and the only employee I could locate was the one working the register so I wasn't able to get a good look at the cartridges. They looked to be for an old computer. Size-wise they were similar to a TI-99 cart. They were tan/beige in color. The contacts and board were exposed and sticking out of the bottom. I couldn't make out the titles very well, but the one on top seemed to be "Fun with Numbers" or something like that. Any ideas? Thanks!

Barnstorming: I want to shoot me some geese.

Ditto Space invaders, or just about any similarly set-up shooter for that matter . . . like Galaxian, Megamania or Phoenix, etc. Maybe not something like Spiderfighter though because the rapid-fire nature of that one might kill your hands using the paddle button to shoot. Gyruss would be pretty cool too with some sort of spinner controller. Oh that would indeed be awesome. Indy 500 is already one of my favorite games, but I've often thought how much fun it would be to be able to shoot too. Imagine the possibilities of having game variations where you could fire on your opponent. Getting hit wouldn't even have to kill you, maybe just freeze you in place for a few seconds. The tag and dot chasing matches would really be livened up too.

My sisters used to play the 2600 when we were all kids, but they don't really have any interest anymore. My wife will play some Atari with me if I bug her enough. Her family had a SNES so she likes some of those games though. Two of my brothers-in-law are really into PC gaming, and another plays quite a bit of Gamecube, mostly for the Star Wars games. I have a nephew, about 14 years old, that likes Colecovision but I think he considers the 2600 a little too primitive for his tastes. I'll have to educate him.

Dodge 'em is pretty easy to max out if you sit down and learn the patterns for a little while.

I have 2 small sheets that are about 8.5" x 5.5" printed on both sides in something like 4 or 5 point type. I fold them up to about the size of a business card and carry them in my wallet. I listed all the R5s and up. One sheet contains all the Atari systems, the other has Odyssey 2, TI-99, Colecovision, Intellivision, NES, SNES, N64, Virtual Boy, SMS, Genesis, 32X, Sega CD, and Dreamcast. If it's on my list I have the rarity handy, if it's not then it's fairly common. I'm already pretty familiar with the 2600, 5200, and 7800 rarities but after that a list is really handy. It's helped me single out some rarities and leave behind some more common things that I thought might be rare that I waited for a better price on.

I only had about a dozen games as a kid and not many of my friends had an Atari so I missed out on quite a few. I have all the R1s and all but 1 of the R2s (Crossbow -- Is this really a 2???). I just recently tracked down Popeye and Crystal Castles so I haven't played those much yet. I try to play all my games at least enough to get a good feel for them, but I must admit I haven't put much time into the likes of 3D Tic-Tac-Toe, Backgammon, or the Swordquest titles. In a way it makes the hobby that much more interesting because most of my acquisitions are new to me.

Good finds have been few and far between lately. Now, I've seen as much Atari stuff in the last 2 weeks as I usually see in a year, but most of the prices on it have made ebay newbie bidding wars seem almost reasonable. Today I passed a thrift on the way home from work and almost didn't stop. I'm glad I did though. I checked the likely spots and didn't see anything. Then I noticed a tall box up on the counter that I couldn't see into. I peeked into it and found myself looking at probably 50+ 2600 games. Marked $.87 each on 25% off day! Here's the haul: Joust Galaxian (fat font endlabel) Mario Bros. Dig Dug Ms. Pac-Man Midnight Magic Solaris Dodge 'em superman Starmaster Ghostbusters Pitfall II Kaboom Barnstorming Gyruss Popeye Star Wars Jedi Arena GI Joe Cobra Strike MR. DO'S CASTLE!!!!! (My highest rarity before was 6) Porky's Adventures of Tron Ghost Manor/Spike's Peak Time Pilot NES Castlevania Most of the labels are almost flawless too! This is probably my best find ever. I left a bunch of commons behind, but all in all picked up 8 titles I needed, 5 label variations, several improved condition labels, and a few tradebait items. I've probably bored you all enough, but here are a few pics.

I've opened a few of mine up and tweaked around on the leaf switches to get them just the right distance from the bottom end of the stick where it makes contact. It makes them a lot better IMO, but I still don't use them that often.

Sometimes I kind of like the newbie questions. I can usually answer those and then it makes me feel important, like a big man! Actually though, the repeats don't bother me but I think a little more emphasis on the FAQs and search features could be quite useful to people new to the site.

I'm a Kansas man myself though currently living in Missouri. Can't say I really go for the Wizard of Oz too much, but I didn't enjoy Pitfall Hairy either until I started pretending that he's a shirtless President Eisenhower. Now I think the strip is brilliant.

Riddle of the Sphinx uses both.