hepcat

Let's see, on the 2600: Crystal Castles and Kaboom! On GP32, Adventures of Lolo 2, which is WAY harder than the first one. The LittleJohn emulator rules, BTW. On Mame32 mostly the Pac-man variants these days. One of the newer ones called NewPuc2 alternates between visible and invisible mazes from level 3 on and you get 8000 for the fourth monster instead of 1600. That makes greed a deadlier enemy than the monsters. --Jason

Hurry! Just over an hour to go!! http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...0&category=3528 --Jason

It cost me about 40 bucks (which includes shipping from Germany) when I bought it in late 2001. Of course the dollar has fallen so far since then, who knows how much it would be today. --Jason

Yep, just plug it in and calibrate the joystick! I use a Atari 2600 Slik Stik and it's better than an arcade controller for games like Pac-man. That being said, I will definitely be getting one of these devices from Black Chopper because: 1. USB ports seem to be used more and more often these days. I may not be able to connect a PCCI to the next computer I buy. 2. With the new device I'll be able to use NES and Genesis controllers as well as Atari controllers! --Jason

You can get a "PC Competitor Interface" at the website below. It was down for months but it seems to be back now. The PCCI rocks! I've been using it for over a year now with no problems. http://w5.cs.uni-sb.de/~stahl/com/index_uk.html Making this a sticky thread would be a good idea. --Jason

The game is Crystal Castles. Prior to Sunday, I'd been stuck around 600K. There's no way I could have predicted such a dramtic breakthrough. Everytime I play this game from now on my VCR will be running! --Jason

My 2600 "log book" is the scrap of paper I found on my TV stand this weekend. On it is written the Twin Galaxies record I smashed by nearly 300,000 points Sunday afternoon. Details forthcoming after I repeat the performance, with my stupid VCR running!!! --Jason

Wow, this is a tough one. But here goes, with the caveat that I might alter the list slightly if asked the same question next week! 1. NES SMB3 2. Atari 2600 Crystal Castles/Intellivision Burgertime (Tie: both of these are pure genius, I can’t decide between them) 4. Atari 2600 Ms. Pac-man 5. Atari 2600 Pitfall II 6. NES Tengen Tetris 7. NES Gyruss 8. NES SMB1 9. Atari 2600 Super Breakout 10. Commodore 64 Ghostbusters --Jason

Ah, Necromancer. One of the most bizarre games I've ever played, but it's pretty darn good. I've got it on my GP32 but haven't made it nearly as far as I did in high school. --Jason

Whoa! I would not base my opinion about Suncom joysticks solely on this one bad experience. Sure, you may have found a pair that were bad, but they were likely stored together improperly by the previous owner for many years. Sometime in high school I acquired a Suncom Slik Stik which quickly became my standard controller for both the 2600 and the C64. After years of use it still worked great. Over the past few weeks, I've finally managed to get a couple of Suncom Tac-2s and they're great too. As for the Starfighter, I did get one of those in an auction a few months ago. It was not quite as good as the Slik Stik or Tac-2, but it was still better than the vast majority of 2600 controllers. Suncom controllers rule! Give them another try!! --Jason

Speaking of Skeet Shoot, I recently acquired a copy of it. And after trying it, I have to agree it deserves every bit of the scorn people on these boards have heaped upon it. --Jason

Circus Atari rocks! Definitely one of my favorites for the 2600. --Jason

There's a store in Arlington, VA near the Clarendon Metro called "The Container Store" that has the best solution I've found for storing Atari 2600 carts. They sell small plastic, um, containers that confortably hold 32 carts. You could probably fit 36 or 37 if you wanted to squeeze them in. They stack very nicely and have a pull out drawer so you don't have to move a container from the top of the stack if you need a cart from the bottom. If I remember correctly, they cost $5.99 a piece. Now I'm not sure if "The Container Store" is a national chain, but I do recall seeing virtually identical plastic containers for sale at Staples the other day. Hope this helps! --Jason

I'm 32. The first video game I ever played was Space Invaders, probably in 1979. The first game I became addicted to was Pac-man. I think I got Atari in 1982 after begging my parents for months. And for the first 6 months I had it all I could play was Asteroids or Pac-man!! Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would someday own hundreds of carts! --Jason

For the 2600, around 420 carts, 203 of which are boxed. There's quite a few label variations in there, but I must be getting close to 200 unique titles by this time. --Jason

Darn right. I had never even heard of this game until I bought the Digital Press guide a couple years ago and decided to pick it up. Now it's one of my favorite NES games, although I have never even come close to beating it. --Jason

Thanks, MMF! --Jason

Super Mario Advance 4 (ie. SMB 3) has been released for the GBA in Japan. If I buy it, will it work on the GBA I purchased here in the states? Yes, I know it will be in Japanese, but I started taking lessons recently, so this game would give me a chance to practice as well as relive Nintendo's best game ever! --Jason

Winner!

Thank you!!!!

I'm certainly not going to defend E.T., which belongs on any list of the 10 worst Atari 2600 games. But it's still not as bad as DKJr. Sure, all those pits in E.T. are annoying, but they're not seizure-inducing like the DKJr. vine climbing sound is. As for Basic Math: Yep, it blows. --Jason

Guess again. Was that a joke, or did you really think Atari once had the rights to DKJr? I'll settle on Skeet Shoot as the worst. Sure it was a joke, but I think anyone who's had the misfortune of playing DKJr. will have to admit it's plausible. :wink: Atari did release this travesty as one of their red label carts. They must have (re)acquired the rights somewhere along the line. --Jason

No way. There are far worse games on the 2600 than DK Jr. At least it has three screens (or 4, never did get past #3.) Sorry, I’m not budging on this one. Choosing the worst Atari 2600 game ever is an admittedly daunting task, as so many of the challengers for the crown (Pac-man, Ssssnake, Karate, etc., etc.,) are indeed stupefying in their mediocrity. To defend my choice of Donkey Kong Jr., I am going to reproduce (to the best of my recollection), and expand upon, the comments on this atrocious game that I posted on the old Atari2600Nexus message boards. Donkey Kong Jr. remains one of my favorite arcade games and I remember spending a lot of the money I earned on my paper route learning to master it. When I heard it was coming out for the 2600 I was thrilled, and bought it as soon as it came out. That decision turned out to be the biggest waste of money of my life up to that time, and possibly ever. The first thing I noticed was the horrific sound effects. The sound of Junior climbing up and down vines is identical to that of fingernails being scraped across a blackboard. The only way to tolerate it is to turn the volume down...which forces you to confront the game’s laughable graphics. I’ve developed a theory about these, namely that DKJr is actually a prototype of the next game in Atari’s Sesame Street series. Doesn’t Junior when moving horizontally resemble Big Bird riding a skateboard? Doesn’t Donkey Kong himself bear a striking resemblance to Oscar the Grouch sans trash can? I think once Atari realized what a terrible game they had on their hands, they abandoned the project. Coleco then picked it up out of the trash heap, mass produced it, slapped on some “Donkey Kong Jr.” labels, and unleashed it on an unsuspecting public. I can hear some objections already. C’mon hepcat, how can you say DKJr is the worst? What about games like Basic Math, Street Racer, and other block fests like Basic Programming and the dreadful Hangman? My response is that these “games” were released very early in the 2600's life, before its programmers had learned how to fully exploit the 2600's capabilities. For Coleco to release a game like DKJr in 1983 is inexcusable. Don’t even try and tell me that by 1983, the same year that saw the release of such masterpieces as Keystone Kapers, Tunnel Runner, and Moon Patrol, Atari 2600 programmers could not have figured out how to put more than one "bleeping" bird on the key screen!!! DKJr has also been defended because it has three screens. I don’t buy that either. DKJr’s third “screen” consists of Junior/Big Bird riding his skateboard back and forth across mattresses while being chased by hungry paper clips. The gaming public would have been far better served had Coleco stuck to two boards, and made junior look like an ape instead of a Sesame Street character. I’ve read Pitfall Harry’s recent comments on “Off Your Rocker.” I’d never heard of that game, and agree that it sounds pretty awful. However, as far as I’m concerned Donkey Kong Junior remains the true king of Atari 2600 duds. --Jason Edit for typo...

I do not think that Karate is the worst Atari 2600 game. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Donkey Kong Jr. is the worst game ever made for the Atari 2600. As for Slots vs. Karate, it's been awhile, but I seem to remember both of them being equally awful. --Jason

I've had my GP32 for almost 2 months now and I'm extremely happy with it. It's a bit tricky to set up, but if you're patient things should go smoothly. www.gp32emu.com has some great FAQ's, I'd go there right away after your GP32 arrives. I sure hope you got the front light version, which I highly recommend to anyone considering buying a GP32. Without the light, it's still more visible than GBA, but not by much. As for emulators, it depends on what you're into but GPEngine, NesterGP, and Frodo are keeping me happy while I await a better 2600 emulator and Mame. Some of the free games are great too. If you like Tetris, be sure to check out Ah! My Goddess. It's well worth the 30Meg it will take up on your Smartmedia card! --Jason