Max_Chatsworth

The 5200 *is* a 400 8-bit without a keyboard and a few other peripheral changes. Primarily, the only difference in programming is the analog controller setup for the 5200 and the digital 2600 controller type setup for the 400. There are a lot more changes to the mobo of the 7800. As I understand it, the 7800 has more in common in terms of programming with the NES than the 5200 or 8-bits.

@Swami Cool, thanks for the enlightening response.

@jaybird3rd Thanks for the helpful clarification.

Back then there were games everywhere. In every bar, landromat, restaurant - especially pizza places, roller skating rink, state fair, almost everywhere. arcades were more plentiful in general. Donkey Kong was around, but I agree with the kid in billy madison, DK Sucks.

before the fighting game boom of the 90s, around here it was Super Mario Bros arcade, Tiger Heli, Operation Wolf, Out Run, Gauntlet, Double Dragon, Jurassic Park and Adams Family Pinball (although they may have came later). I remember when Street Fighter 1 was new. Galaga and Ms Pac never left. Theyre still around now.

@Draxxon I don't even consider the 90's to be part of the arcade generation. By then the games were all 50 cent shooter behemoths or fighting games.  By then so many people had consoles or where gaming on home PC's as well and the arcades went from a place that every kid in school would go to, to a place where only arcade people went to.  

Har, har, I'd made a silly comment, and now:On Topic-

(Sorta?)

I guess that's essentially the same game as the Vectrex Homebrew port?

If so, I actually started a "track" for that at Twin Galaxies, seemed to be a pretty neat game, I got a perfect 10-0!

@Rogerpoco I'm completely out of it. That last sentence completely lost me???

"...If so, I actually started a "track" for that at Twin Galaxies, seemed to be a pretty neat game, I got a perfect 10-0!..."

Ah, another "High Score" site. One can "start tracks" on games, i.e., rulesets for a high score, if they don't already exist.

On the Vectrex version, it just goes to a score of 10, the best possible score is 10-0, "blowout".

Had to update my post, forgot we got Pac Man a couple years later. 

^ That's OK, it's still a cool game!  (Although I tend to play it and Star Raiders more often on the Atari 5200 these days.)

The Atari 8 bit computer/5200 Pac Man version was a welcome rescue from the embarrassment that Atari suffered from the 2600 Atari  

My favorite punchline joke ever:

A teenage boy is getting ready to take his girlfriend to the prom. First he goes to rent a tux, but there’s a long tux line at the shop and it takes forever.

Next, he has to get some flowers, so he heads over to the florist and there’s a huge flower line there. He waits forever but eventually gets the flowers.

Then he heads out to rent a limo. Unfortunately, there’s a large limo line at the rental office, but he’s patient and gets the job done.

Finally, the day of the prom comes. The two are dancing happily and his girlfriend is having a great time. When the song is over, she asks him to get her some punch, so he heads over to the punch table and there’s no punchline.

Really looking at the screen the Atari 8 bit version doesn't really have isometric screen on Congo Bongo.  It's really rotated to align with the cardinal axis with the player approaching from the left and adding thicker shading/"side detail" to give it a somewhat iso look. 

2 sayings that sprang to my mind, while not meaning the same are:  If those games were Ultra Popular, you might say, "Around here you can't swing a dead cat without hitting someone playing an Isometric game!"...Or if you were sick of them, you might say,  "If I Never play an Isometric shooter again,  It will be too Soon!"   But as they're not Ultra Popular and I'm not sick of them, neither applies heh...

Yes, the first batch of Congo Bongo home versions were quite slanted. A few years later, I believe Datasoft US Gold on license from Sega re-implemented the game on C64, Apple II and IBM PC using a true isometric perspective and reinserting the two levels from the arcade that most home versions lack. The ColecoVision version at least has three of four levels, the others only the first and last levels.

If it's the same football game I'm thinking of, it was also released for the 400/800 as RealSports Football.  (See here.)

@jaybird3rd Thanks! I was wondering if maybe it was since they were the same processor, but I didn't find it

I found a good unit and it's on it's way.  Thanks!

Yes. Yes it does.

@Master Phruby Sweet! That means I can get the Fujinet for it and use it with both my 400 and my 800XL(when I find one)!

$20 is a snip, or it would be in the UK, where I've seen known faulty drives go for more than twice that.

Sure!   If nothing else, parts!

@digdugnate Cool. I'm in KC.  I recently moved back to the area, but about 6 or 7 years ago I made a trip to the retro arcade in Springfield...forgot the name.  5 bucks..play Dig Dug and Donkey Kong all night.  

Hey...would you consider joining my club?

Cheyenne, WY,

About 2 hours from Denver,  in case I need culture or smog...

@GoldLeader   Or beer...?  I have driven through Denver about 1000 times obviously growing up on the KC area and travelling I-70 over the years.  But I also used to go through Cheyenne in the early 90's when I was stationed up in Idaho in the Navy back then.   I remember seeing the glow of the town in the valley during late night mountain drives....