Dittohead Servbot #24
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Green corrosion on atari cartridge contact pins
Dittohead Servbot #24 replied to rhindlethereddragon's topic in Atari 2600
Oh yes, when I was cleaning my NES carts, I got not only the expected black on the cotton swabs/rubbing alcohol, but I sometimes got icky green like the OP described (ewww...). Clearly the carts were quite dirty but I kept at it and now they all work first try every time like they should. -
How "soft" is the Atari market.
Dittohead Servbot #24 replied to SpaceDice2010's topic in Atari 2600
Maybe so, but nothing beats playing the real deal. Though I will admit those save states on emulators can be quite handy. I only wish it were possible to do save states on a real console... -
How "soft" is the Atari market.
Dittohead Servbot #24 replied to SpaceDice2010's topic in Atari 2600
I personally also collect cartridge only--but I am a collector. The reason being is that most of the manuals can be read online and I don't like having boxes because then you have to ensure that you don't eh, "give them too much love". I like just having the cartridges all lined up on a nice shelf ready to pull 'n play. And yes we are of rather modest income means too. -
Actually, that's all the more reason for this countdown I split each console (or handheld in the case of the N-Gage) into two sections; why it seemed like such a good idea at first, and why it ultimately didn't work out. For all of them except the N-Gage, they did indeed have some good things about them and I think they obviously had potential (or else the company wouldn't have even tried to release the console in the first place), they just weren't nearly enough to overcome the faults that ultimately lead to that console's not being successful. In fact, I was even thinking about including some things that could've been done differently that could've saved the console from failure. For example, if Sega insisted that all 2D 32-bit games go to the 32X and all 3D 32-bit games go to the Saturn AND made the Saturn backwards compatible with Genesis/CD/32X (it did have a cartridge slot after all), I think the 32X's performance would've been a LOT better.
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Well, seeing as how I only ranked the Jag fifth on the list even though it sold by far the least amount of consoles on the list, and the fact that the 2600 was second on my greatest list ensures that overall I think I gave both lists as fair and balanced a shake as I could. And since this is nowhere near the Jag or 5200 forums, I certainly hope they don't count this as trolling. And the reason Neo-Geo/3D0 and other similar consoles didn't make the cut is because it was hard to tell which one stood out above all the others (the fifth one on the list was the was the one I was debating on; the first four were easy) and once I saw that the Jaguar sold far less consoles and had far less games, I decided it was the most qualified for the last slot on the list. Again, more on the Neo-Geo/3D0/etc later.
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Obviously you can't have a Greatest of All Time Countdown without a Worst of All Time Countdown, right? The ground rules are basically the same as the Best Of list, but this time I bent the "no portables" rule a bit and included one that I felt was absolutely very deserving to make the list. How did it rank and why? Read on and find out. For the purposes of this list, I only included consoles that were reasonably promoted/advertised. I know there was another handheld that arguably did worse than the one I included but it was not really promoted/advertised in the US at all (I didn't even know of its existence at the time). As for the consoles like the 3DO, Neo-Geo, and so on, I'll include those in a special "Dishonorable Mention" section later. 5. Atari Jaguar =========== (1993-1996), 250,000 sold, 67 (+14 CD) games, $250 (+$150 for CD) lanuch price Why it looked so promising: ----------------------------------------- Having been on the sidelines since the failed Atari 7800, Atari originally was going to go toe-to-toe with the Genesis and SNES with the Atari Panther, a proposed 16 bit console. But Atari figured that their best chance was to not try to compete with the Genesis/SNES on their own terms, but rather blow both away in terms of technical prowless and offer a 64-bit console a full two years before the Saturn and Playstation (which at the time were not even really thought of). And why it failed so miserably: --------------------------------------------- Obviously the launch price (double that of the Genesis and SNES) did not help any and it was very lacking in exclusives (due to the difficulty of programming for the console and third parties not thinking the Jaguar was really worth developing for). But what hurt the console most of all was its gigantic uncomfortable controller (which also featured "telephone buttons" that were rarely if ever used) that was arguably just as bad if not worse than a certain previous Atari console (more on that later). Jaguar commercials insisted on "Doing the Math" and protraying it as a 64-bit console despite the fact that its main CPU was really only 32-bit. The fact that Atari's previous two home console efforts were unsuccessful also helped ensure that the third time was definetly not a charm for Atari. 4. Sega 32X ========= (1994-1996), 665,000 sold, 32 games (plus 5 CD-32X games), $160 lanuch price Why it looked so promising: ----------------------------------------- With the Fifth Generation (32/64 bit era) just around the corner, Sega was hoping to give existing Genesis owners a taste of the 32 bit action. Because the upcoming Saturn would be so expensive (it was $400 at launch), Sega figured the Genesis would surely have some life left in it for the first year or two after the Saturn's release, just like Nintendo's NES kept going for three years after the release of the SNES. Furthermore, they hoped with the 32X's upgraded color palette (which finally matched and slightly exceeded the SNES), it could compete graphics/sound wise with the SNES. Finally, there was a debate as to whether Sega's Fifth Generation console should be cartridge or CD based; this way Sega figured, gamers could have the best of both worlds (cartridges on 32X, CD's on Saturn) And why it failed so miserably: --------------------------------------------- Though it was clearly very popular pre-launch, the fact that Sega could not fill all the pre-orders (600,000 consoles available versus pre-orders of at least a few million) made a pretty poor first impression. But it would later get much worse. Contrary to the 32X commercial, installing the 32X was definetly not as easy as "just stick it in your Genesis" as you needed a seperate AC Adapter, an extra cable to make the sprites visible, and the new Genesis 2 required a "spacer" to fit properly which further frustrated customers who couldn't get the 32X to even work right. The $10 rebate coupons included with the 32X was also difficult to redeem and were certainly no substitute for a pack-in title (which the Genesis included from the beginning and the Sega CD included up to FOUR pack-in titles!). What further hurt the system was that the games didn't look/sound much better than regular Genesis for the most part (and for its Doom port, it was missing levels even the SNES version had!). But by the time 1995 arrived, the Saturn was coming soon (it turned out to be in May) and though Sega insisted 32X support would continue, game developers were already abandoning the 32X in droves in favor of the Saturn or Playstation. Then Sega flip-flopped and announced that they would only support the Saturn and no other consoles. By this time, the 32X's were priced at only $20 and the proposed Neptune console (Genesis/32X in one) never saw the light of day. 3. Atari 5200 ========== (1982-1984), 1 million sold, 69 games, $200? lanuch price Why it looked so promising: ----------------------------------------- With the massive success of the Atari 2600, Atari wanted to design a new console that could better compete with the Intellevision. Not only in terms of graphics/sound, but the Atari 5200 would be the first attempt at an analog joystick and would have the "telephone pad" just like the Intellevision's controller and would be the first console to offer standard four controller ports. And why it failed so miserably: --------------------------------------------- The first thing that hurt the 5200 was the size of the console itself; it was even bigger than an Xbox! Second, it had a very unorthodox hookup style (with both the power and TV video connection going through the same cable and same adapter). But what hurt the 5200 most of all was the abysmal controller design--the joystick did not automatically center itself and was so weak it often broke after only a short time. Furthermore, the 5200, rather than competing with Intellevision, was instead faced with the technologically superior Colecovsion. The fact that the 5200 could not play 2600 cartridges standard (this was corrected with the later 7800) didn't help either and the adapter for it did not appear until the 5200 was all but dead. This console is probably the only time in video game history in which a successor console's failure resulted in the company falling back on its old console. 2. Virtual Boy ========== (1995-1996), 770,000 sold, 14 games, $180 launch price Why it looked so promising: ----------------------------------------- In the early-to-mid 1990s, virtual reality was seen as the wave of the future. Nintendo figured why not have a home console that will give gamers a taste of this technology? They also figured that since the Nintendo 64 was still a little over a year away, it would be a great "third platform" to go with their home console (SNES, later N64) and portable (Game Boy) platforms. So sure was Nintendo of Virtual Boy's potential, that they used the 75th issue of Nintendo Power to promote the Virtual Boy with the Virtual Boy itself making the front cover. And why it failed so miserably: --------------------------------------------- First, it was (sort of) marketed as a portable system when in fact it was clearly not. The warning that your eyes would hurt even after playing for not even an hour or two (with clear warning labels attesting that fact) scarred many parents from buying this console for their children and no doubt turned off adult customers too. You also had to sit in a chair at a table to even use the Virtual Boy, as opposed to just being comfortably on the couch with a home console or taking a true portable anywhere on the go. As for the fact that the Virtual Boy could only do black/red, Nintendo insisted that it would take three times as many color guns and would easily cost three times as much. But worse of all, all but maybe two of the games did not really take advantage of the virtual reality technology at all (in the sense of being played in first person) and would've looked/played better on their regular console/handheld. 1. Nokia N-Gage ============ (2003-2006), 3 million sold, number of games unknown, $300 launch price Why it looked so promising: ----------------------------------------- With cellphones starting to become more advanced and being able to do other things such as play small games, Nokia thought it had a sure thing going when they decided to offer both video games and a cell phone all in one unit. It was designed to be a jack-of-all-trades so to speak. And why it failed so miserably: --------------------------------------------- Because all of you know the saying that a jack of all trades is a master of none? Well, the N-Gage did a terrible, TERRIBLE job of both its main features. Using the N-Gage as a phone was cumbersome and resembled holding a "taco". But the games feature was even worse. The best example of that fact was the N-Gage's port of Sonic Advance. It was on a seemingly more advanced platform, which means it should be better right? No, it was far worse because it did not offer the Tiny Chao Garden and most of all, had a very narrow cramped screen where you could hardly see anything surrounding Sonic! Thus gamers reasoned why should I pay triple the cost of a GBA-SP to play WORSE versions of its games? As a result, GameStop/EB Games immediately docked $100 off the N-Gage within just 17 days of launch and overall GBA outsold the N-Gage 100 to 1. Needless to say, the N-Gage featured very few exclusives at all. Though the N-Gage tried meekly to save the console with later revisions, the writing was on the wall from the very start and resulted in what I consider the absoulte worst console in history. At least with the others on this list you felt like at or just before launch they had a reasonable chance, but pretty much everyone knew from the start that the N-Gage was a joke. Frankly, it's a miracle it even lasted three years when it easily was all but dead within three months.
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Am I the only one in this congregation who noticed and found it quite unusual that no plans were announced for ANY Eighth Generation video game consoles? See, Nintendo always released their consoles in the US on years ending in 1 or 6: NES: 1986 (nationwide release) SNES: 1991 N64: 1996 GCN: 2001 WII: 2006 Sony always released their newest consoles on years ending in 5 or 0: PS1: 1995 (1999? was mini version) PS2: 2000 (2004? was mini version) PS3: 2005 (2009? was mini version) So based on that past history, Sony should be almost ready to release the PS4 by now with the N6 (what I'm calling Nintendo's next console for now, just like I speculated that what turned out to be the Wii could've been named the N5) slated for a 2011 release. But yet not ONE of the Big Three even announced any plans at all for an Eighth Generation console. There is of course the highly anticipated Nintendo 3DS (I hope this will make the DS XL cheaper), but that's a handheld. I guess maybe we now reached a point where the graphics/sound/speed of gaming consoles just no longer have much more room to grow? I mean the graphics can now be done almost photo realistically and I wouldn't be surprised if by 2015 or so there's a 3D version of Google Earth that's photo realistic. So is that the most likely reason there are no Eighth Generation consoles waiting in the wings--there's just so little room for improvement now? In the famous words of Bill O'Reilly, let's say you?
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Sorry, I guess I overlooked it. But that does make perfect sense as I know many consoles were all about "bringing the arcade experience home", especially the Colecovision and the Genesis. So I guess Atari figured that if they wanted to project that kind of image for the 7800, they wanted to pick 11 blue chip arcade games and use them to show just how well the 7800 could handle them.
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And what exactly makes these 11 games the "Fabulous Eleven"? After all, you got the "Black Box Thirty" for the NES, and the "Original Nine" for the 2600, so what's so fabulous about the "Fabulous Eleven"?
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Now, as all of you know, I'm thinking about jumping into the 2600 pool. That being said, I know that with the first model Atari 7800, it works with almost all 2600 games, so all that's left is the 5200. My question is this: did they make a device that plays 5200 games on the 7800 and thus making it possible to play all three Atari platforms on one console? Now if that's true, I would seriously consider getting a 7800 with the 5200 convertor (if such a thing exists); otherwise I should probably just stick with 2600 only.
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2600 compatibility issues on the 7800?
Dittohead Servbot #24 replied to Austin's topic in Atari 7800
According to the FAQ on this website, there were five different flavors of Atari 7800. If you want the best 2600 compatibility possible, you want the model 1: Serial # Board part# Deck# 72R4BR- Country Expansion port CO25233- Board Date 1 AT 8 5037836 Taiwan Full port 001 REV A 84-25 Sort of like how the best possible Genesis 1 to get is the one with the V6 motherboard. Earlier models have weaker capacitors or other internal parts (and thus are more likely to go bad) and the V7 motherboard has bad sound. The V6.8 motherboard is just as good as the V6, but the V6 is easier to mod for S-video/stereo (which I want for my Genesis 1). I guess for a few consoles you have to really pay close attention to what version to get if you want the best one possible.