the_hawk

I only ever had 2 Atlantis, which I loved and Riddle of the Sphinx which I absolutely detested with a passion. Since playing a few on emulation, only Demon Attack & Cosmic Ark stand out for me.

I got the Atari 2600 out last night and had an absolute blast going through the dozens of games I've picked up over the last few months but not had time to play as yet. A few observations. 1. Activision games - bloody amazing what they could do with a 2600. I've mentioned many times that HERO & River Raid are my favourites, but I really enjoyed playing games such as Kaboom! & Keystone Kapers they are eminently playable & don't need a three hour tutorial. These are the sort of games that make me LOVE being a "retro gamer". 2. Jr Pac Man - Obviously the best incarnation of Pac on the 2600, but I don't remember it being so flamin' hard. I had about 20 goes at just clearing the 1st screen. It is awesome though, as I usually get bored with pacman by about the 3rd or 4th screen. 3. Roc'N Rope - Strange experience to play. Fantastic conversion of the arcade game that is very faithful, only trouble is the original arcade game is awful. I really wish whoever coded this had got their hands on Donkey Kong rather than this awful plodding rip-off! 4. Q-Bert - I keep coming back to it, I want to like it, I feel I should like it but I HATE IT I HATE IT I HATE it - the only isometric game I've ever enjoyed is pacmania. 5. Missile Command, Berserk Space Invaders & Frogger will ALWAYS be fantastic games on the VCS. Brilliant brilliant conversions. Nearly 30 years on now & playing the Atari always makes me smile.

I'm still finding my way round here. Times are Approximate the machine is a 6 button woody. Missile command 40 mins Frogger 30 mins Smurf 20 mins Galaxian 10 mins Ms Pacman 10 mins Defender 5 mins Millipede 5 mins All in all, a very enjoyable couple of hours!

1. Missile Command 2. River Raid 3. Frogger 4. Pac-Man 5. Space Invaders 6. Warlords 7. Berzerk 8. H.E.R.O. 9. Super Breakout 10. Galaxian That was more difficult than I thought it would be!

Hello everybody. I was having a look about on the forum for an "introduce yourself" type thread but I couldn't find one. As I spent a lot of time playing 2600 games last night I thought this thread would be as good as any to start with. I bought a woody 6 switch Atari VCS from Ebay a few months back to relive my childhood & I have been absolutely loving it - it cost seven quid & the bloke only lived 2 streets away - to say I was chuffed would be an understatement! I recently swapped a couple of Megadrive & SNES carts for a stack of classic carts with one of the good guys over on the Retro Gamer forum that I usually frequent. Last night I played through my newly acquired Atari 2600 games and it was a joyous experience. Missile command is a WONDERFUL conversion.& is what I spent the most time on, though I think "Mr Awesome" doesn't have to worry about a challenge to his high score from me any time soon! I seem to have got the US version of Frogger, which means funky colours (or should that be colors!) It doesn't detract from the fantastic gameplay though & I like to think of it as playing with a rare tropical blue frog. Smurf on the other hand can go suck my plums. I spent about 20 minutes trying to jump over that bloody fence on the 2nd screen, Smurfette can find her own way home. The 2600 also has a brilliant conversion of Galaxian, up there with the marvellous Space Invaders port, great stuff. Ms Pacman is also great. Although it is better than Pacman, I still hold the opinion that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the 2600 version of Pacman & it'll always hold a place in my heart! Defender was a bit too flickery, still good fun though in spite if the migraine it induced! I could never tell the difference between millipede & centipede. Now that I've got them both I still can't, I'm equally crap at the pair of them! I didn't bother with Circus Atari as my paddles are up in the roofspace - but they shall be unearthed soon when the mighty Warlords arrives from another kind retro gamer forum person! Anyway. Hello all! Atari love well & truly re-kindled, I think when time & space allow it I'll get myself a Lynx next, hopefully with the fab conversion of STUN Runner!