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Video

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Everything posted by Video

  1. Wow, I have had the pleasure of four player faceball, but didn't know it could even do 16. That's pretty awesome. Don't know if you can still get them, but I got the screen mod for my purple mk 1 gba years ago. Love it, and the best of most the game boy world. It was just a drop in part, one bit soldered to run the backlight. Think it was an sp screen with an adapter to mate it to the gba 1 system.
  2. Well that's just nifty. I want one, not that I need another device to play atari, but still.
  3. Yeah if your cart has the door, anything you can stick in the hole to the side of the card edge will unlock it and allow you to slide the cover in. Those covers were a great idea imo as I'm sure it somewhat protects the carts card edge. Sure is a pain to clean though. If your cart has no cover (Activision and some others) then its easy access like ant other carts. Just use a good quality qtip and 90+% alcohol to clean it. You'd be surprised how much crap comes off what looks like a clean cart. Fun fact, many early Activision carts actually had a sponge rubber plug in them that did the same as the plastic sliding door. Of course, it rotted over the years and fell out on most, and I'm sure later carts skipped it anyways.
  4. Don't know about computer games being under represented. Game makers from the era basically all said the same thing, computers allowed so much, and were generally easier to program for, games could be made amazing, but was saddled with rampant piracy. I know a few with computers back then (mostly 64 and Atari computers) but while many had tons of games (including me) most had tons of bootleg games and a couple legit copies( including me) so while a popular console game could sell millions of copies, computer games sold tens of thousands, if their lucky. There may habe been millions out there, but most are bootleg. I remember dragons lair, but I don't know how fad like popularity it had. Everybody talked about ir , sure, but unlike pacman and pacman fever, which was ALL anybody talked about, and the machine took an entire wall of the local arcade, dragons lair was one machine, if you could find it, cost .50-$1 to play, and largely was discussed because, "wow, you can " play" a cartoon" super Mario bros was the first to make people really pay attention, but as said before, while test marketed in 85 and released in (the end of) 86, still took till 87-88 to really gain momentum. I think some might be because, well, I got Atari, and all other Nintendo games are on there, so ill wait for smb to release rather than buy a Nintendo, which admittedly is pretty, but I see literally nothing that Atari out and out couldn't do on there. (Rather right, or wrong)
  5. Atari wasn't the problem though. Their games continued to sell, so did some others, like Activision. The problem was games piled up from every fly by night group or individual out there. Gaming got relatively huge an everybody wanted a piece of the pie. The problem was there simply wasn't enough of the pie to go around. Some of those third party games were good, but most were abysmal trash, and some were reskinned poor sellers from big boys (atari won't say anything if we basically pirate a game that doesn't sell well) and some were exact copies of other games, even in some cases copying game breaking elements. Then there's Atari policy. In order to get games into stores, atari offered to buy back what doesn't sell. That's great, but stores assumed Atari would buy back anything that didn't sell, but Atari wasn't buying back crap made by others, leaving stores who unrestrictedly bought a bunch of trash holding the bag, which made a lot of store dump games, all games, into bargainbins, and it was a quick decline for Atari (and others) as suddenly stores wouldn't even buy/stock Atari stuff anymore either. Despite being honest, atari got blamed for "not supporting their buyback" which wasn't initially true, but probably became true as even the big boys got to broke to do things like that. This ill will towards Atari remains with many retailers to this day. Those of us who legit liked gaming still played, but fads are fads for a reason. Their unpredictable. Pacman was insane, then it wasn't, then it took till smb for a new fad to pop up (at least I don't recall anything huge between pacman and mario) but those that like games, rather than fads kept playing. Its just single screen arcade style has limited appeal in general, so you'd have to be relatively hard core to play through the crash. I was also one that had a c=64 and yes, its a video game console (that happened to do computerie stuff. But outside 2600, and that was more a "by the skin of its teeth" thing, consoles just died. Coleco and 5200 just disappeared, and 7800 got shelved rather than a full release. But games kept on, it was just a trickle instead of a flood. Actual gamers instead of fad chasers kept playing because their willing to look for the stuff, not because it remained easily attainable.
  6. Video

    Atari club?

    Naw I looked. The games are separate. Just makes more sense to get ones I want instead of all of them, it'd be half the price that way. Thought 75$ would be a bit high for posters or puzzles, but its Atari were talking about (they want like $100 for tempest 4k and Atari 50 too) You just gotta go through hardware to see them, and their all (I assume) perpetually sold out. Think I was looking for joysticks or something when I come across them. The box set was supposed to be limited to 500 or something, but the individuals should at least in theory come back up, eventually.
  7. Two worlds? I always looked at it as a diet oblivion. Its still a blast to play imo though. Pacman and et for 2600, but that ones been beaten to death though, and an example of people hate it largely without playing it (if you don't have original hardware like us geezers, you can't play them unless your into emulation)
  8. Video

    The Paddles

    Anybody tried warlords yet? The paddle follows a tiny curved track, if it does that half res like other games I could see that being unplayable.
  9. Video

    Atari club?

    Yeah it would make more sense to go posters. They should sell the games separate though, even for the same equivalent price, or even more. I don't want all four (like I don't already have a dozen copies of outlaw, and fatal run just isn't my style) As for just join. Eh, that's not really personality to join something sans data. But then, maybe everybody else is waiting for someone to join and find out what it is.
  10. Heck yeah. Being bleeding edge isn't that important nowdays, especially as upgrades are very incremental now. (How much more is ps5 and xbox current over than Xbox one and ps4? Outside better 4k support it hazard a guess of' not very') its just switch was last gen already compared to those, more like ps3 x360 level, and it is showing its age now. Like I said, want a new mario, probably don't need new hardware, its not pushing much, despite being some amazing games. Want other new stuff, cod, or a new fallout, that's where the current switch fails and it needs an update. BC would let people in with an instant library of already owned and loved games. I vaguely get some people saying no (it adds wear and tear to the console playing more games, or encourages people to buy less new titles) but outside us outliers, most people won't have dozens or hundreds of games anyways. People who like them will always buy the new Mario anyways, so unless compatibility would somehow deminish or cripple new hardware, I've never seen a reason not to do t.
  11. Laser blast for 2600 was considered bad? Wow, and I do legit like and regularly play that too lol. Modern games, how about anubis the second for Wii. People constantly say its horrible and nobody with a brain would like it. Sure graphically its lack luster (even for Wii) and it plays like Mario 64, but you use a wand to interact meaningfully with things in the world. Honestly the only part I ever considered bad, was its got only four levels (plus the trainer/demo level) Fun fact, people dis this and gingerbread man, usually as "the exact same game" but the other levels outside the tutorial are in fact all different. Just goes to show a lot of haters didnt actually PLAY some of the games they hate.
  12. Cool, didn't know about that one. Learn something new everyday. Thought you were going to compare to those coleco tabletop games, which are glorified single function LCD type games, but use vfd cells to give bright lit up characters.
  13. Video

    The Paddles

    It could also be how people play a game. I remember even bitd that paddle games had slight jitter, and why I thought they did. But, going into a game like breakout, especially if your a modern gamer, people are used to controllers being absolute precise and easy to control, and Atari never was, bitd we didn't notice as there was no other options. Even with the joystick (they were always fairly bad, but most had preferred better controllers, like silk stick) if you play a paddle game like a modern controller game, I could see issues, like track the ball and try to keep the paddle centered, I couldn't do that, never could. I've always played, watch the ball bounce, calculate where it should come down, and run the paddle to the new position, only adjusting if I'm slightly off. I never followed the ball. This difference in play style may make the difference from playable to not playable. Also, I could be wrong, but does the plus actually properly read analog pots? It could be converting A digital out, to analog pot, and back to digital at the console, so potentially not really play correct. As for real consoles, I doubt the new paddle is a one to one with the original model. Like I said, I believe the originals registered 256 or so steps, only half used. The new ones could be a straight 200 or 300 step, I assume still only half used, which could cause issues. There is a reason people have for decades pushed for cleaning original paddles, rather than getting new ones, the specific pot Atari used isn't made, by anybody. So we just had no modern options. You get the original specifications and someone willing to spend money could have a manufacturer produce an exact one. Just most Joe blows don't have the kind of cash to produce a minimum order (some as few as 10k units) I'm just glad Atari had some made, even if they turn out not perfect. Ill probably dif out kaboom and some others and try them this weekend. I seem to recall kaboom with zero jitter (could be wrong though) also, maybe dig out my test cart and see what happens, assuming it works.
  14. What is it? I just ask because there are some decent deals on Atari club, but you got to be a member, example the billy something or other collection you can get for $300 (that's like $75 a game for outlaw, fatal run, save mary, and dark chambers) cool, I guess, but you can get each for $25 if your part of Atari club. I'd probably skip outlaw, maybe fatal run, but would like dark chambers which while I played decades ago, I never owned, and save Mary which I think never officially came out. There's nice deals on other merch too. Anyhow, click the description and its basically a generic "join our gang" with no real details other than "you can be Atari club exclusives" join now. But I assume its paid. $20-$50 a year is a range of "awesome" to "I'd have to think about it, but probably?" $5-$20 a month is more like "maybe" to "uh, yeah, no" So, anybody got it? What's it do? Maybe deals on digital vcs games too? Price range? Is it in your opinion worth it? Anyhow, discuss, and thanks.
  15. Oh, when I said full handheld and full console, I meant but still use the same format/games. Much like the switch lite is still a switch, just no tv hookup, but thus far, Nintendo hasn't exactly made a switch that's only console. A console could cut some price by not needing attachable controllers and a screen and you could have 2 $200 sku instead of one and a $350 sku. I love handheld, and the convenience of it, but wouldn't want to go back to dedicated much weaker handhelds like back in the game boy days (not that it wasn't still one of my all time favorite systems.
  16. Yeah, et, and pacman are both universally credited with the market crash, and an example of the supported falsity of that claim. Both are 81 titles, and probably did a bulk of their sales a couple of years before the market even started crashing (83 or so) idk about et, but parish continued to sell even after the crash, which ended like 85. Its like Nintendo being credited with ending the crash, despite it being over a year or two before Nintendo came out in the US. Some people on here are right though. 2600 gets the blame, Nintendo gets the praise, and coleco and 5200 get forgotten.
  17. Tetris, really? I guess I'm remembering wrong, but I thought it ended after beating level 14 or so anyways? I think the dmg version continued on, but it gets so fast you can no longer keep up with it. Lots of twitch games did that, just get gradually faster till you can't react fast enough to play further. I don't remember on columns or klax, never got far on those, but Dr mario has an unofficial end if you get to 20 or so (shows an end scene and everything) but then goes on forever beyond that I think.
  18. The switch is insanely popular, and I'd say any successor should be bc to the switch. Do we need another one? Maybe not, but it is showing its age and there are plenty of titles not available on it due to lack of power. The switch is just a tablet after all, but, even with the new oled model, its still a ten year old console. They could do s new one, but like I said, bc is s must, and keep physical too. I and I assume many others still sport switch because I don't have to do online with it. Now the switch feature, the part that makes it switch, ability to be handheld, or on tv. I'm kind of torn on that one. I love the idea, but in practice, I almost never use it. Maybe they can go for simpler like switch lite, but still have tv connectivity built in? So many elcheapo handhelds do this, all the way down to $15 handhelds (those zillion in one jobs) and evercade, and others, no reason not to, why not Nintendo? One wire, no cradle. That, or make two distinct consoles, a full on handheld, and a full console, but to me that seems overly complicated. Either way, they need a much better way of carrying your profile and saves between consoles, their current setup sucks for that. Anyhow, we all know a new Nintendo is coming, and as the switch started out weak (hardware speaking) its about time too. I just hope they do it right.
  19. Never owned the mk1 lynx, so can't comment on that, but I found the mk2 lynx had, uh, well no worse battery life than the game gear. I got one new in the late 90's and did get to compare side by side while game gear was still available in stores. It was still ridiculously huge (and the first was even bigger?!) Lack of game variety was a problem for sure, but it did have some great games, and shared titles were magnatudanally better on lynx, like lemmings having 40 guys on screen at once while the GB and GG both got the basic 8 bit treatment of 10 sprites. But platformers and sidescrollers were insanely popular in the late 80's and through the 90's and lynx had a distinct lack of those. Sure their version of scrap yard dog was imo far better than the console one, it was at least playable, but outside of that, what was there? Atari had their own puzzle, klax, very comparable to columns and Tetris, but they really had no comparable sidescroller, even Sega had sonic. I loved the 3d stuff, like hard drivin or steal tallons, which the others didn't really have, and they were even comparable to the similar games on 16 bit consoles. But, when people say "I got a lynx, now what" what their really asking for is/was mario, and lynx doesn't have that. As for jaguar, except for really big cities, it never was in stores. It wasn't really given any type of chance. I only knew of its existence bitd due to seeing one, and precisely one add in a non typical magazine (hunting, or fishing or something) I assumed like some other Atari stuff it became vaporware, like cosmos, which I saw tons of adds for in relevant places like gaming mags. Hell, it wasn't till like 98 I knew the thing even come out, you know, when a few unknown online places bought all the stock and blew it out for $50 a console with 5 games. That's how i, and I'm sure many others got our jaguar collection on. Had it been in stores I would have wanted to get/support it from day one, but really, average Joe wasn't given the chance. All the programming problems could have been overcome, but without a fan base that wasn't really viable. Truthfully, with lack of awareness to its existence, the jaguar got a huge number of games, surprisingly, and some of the good stuff is absolutely amazing. Granted the bad stuff ranged from meh (when they were lucky) to absolute bottom of the barrel horrible. Its why I keep saying now, regardless what Atari makes, and their intent with it, what they absolutely need to do is make sure its available in stores, not just through scalpers in stores, but from Atari in stores. VCS was already discontinued, but again, no chance given as the only option was Atari themselves (you might get away with this if your huge and well known, atari isn't) or through scalpers for five times the price on Amazon and eBay. There was a few stores, but they were order points, not distributors, and again, you still had to know it existed to even order it. 2600+ and game station are at least available in real stores, and online, hopefully it will show Atari that makes a difference. Don't know sales numbers or anything, but I'd be willing to bet either of those have already outsold vcs.
  20. Ah yes, lots of kids had tons of Atari games, but how many were bought new? Attachment rate only counts bought new in stores. Comparing a shitload of games you got for a quarter a pop isn't the same thing. That's why I had three lists, most over all, for 2600, but I largely bought friends collections for a few bucks, and got tons of dupes. Gameboy, but I still largely got inexpensively, but it was a long enough lived system that I bought tons of new stuff as it was still relevant as I got my first job in the mid 90's, and xbox, which was the first console I ever bought day 1, and almost no used titles. Get to modern stuff, well I got 50 or so for switch. No whatever current Xbox and PlayStation. I got a couple dozen for ps4, but like 6 for Xbox one, being locked out of physical hurt, badly. Yes I got discs, but their just keys to download games, and with my internet situation of the time, downloading games at 50-200GIGS a pop wasn't going to happen. Why stick to consoles, its considerably less true now, but plug a game in and it just fucking works is still valuable to me. PC doesn't even count, anybody who thinks they have hundreds of games spanning 40 years, obviously hasn't tried running very much. I've got tons of PC games, and most don't work on modern hardware. Wrong speed, video works but games don't. Game works but cut scenes crash it, etc. Sure if your stuck to the walled garden of steam or whatever, but how many are counting the repurchase of games they already had decades ago? Not to mention piracy, which is rampant. I got many games for c64, but I have a total of three that are legit copies. edit) Modern games?, yeah you can get some digital for cheaper than day one production run games, sure, but production run games have always dropped in price too, and that's not counting the used game market, where admittedly the days of getting a last year AAA title for a quarter is gone, but you can still often easily beat stores or digital for minimal effort
  21. Straight. I know Atari carts, especially 2600, are highly regarded as reliable. Having very few, very large pins in the card edge helps a lot, but even Atari carts have limits to how well they function due to fouling over the years, which isn't always visible. Granted, some of the compatibility issue is carts made in different areas, today noted is a worldwide standard, but in the 80's there was lots of pal floating around (and don't even start me on pal60) but I bet there's some secam stuff still out there too. On old CRT, as long as a cart wasn't to far away from standard, other formats would work to varying degrees, but modern screens want what they want and are pretty fickle on compatibility, especially for something oddball like 2600's non standardized resolution, 40 pixels stretched to 160, by a vertical that can be almost anything. You can't count on something being one format, often the format was denoted by a small sticker that often fell(or was peeled) off. But absolutely, before discounting a cart, clean it first. This is the best chance of putting life back into it. Second, hopes of better combat ability in the future, but with a wide array of sizes and bank switch techniques, it may not happen. Atari carts are pretty durable, being so simple, its unlikely its out and out dead, but it can happen.
  22. I see people mention haunted house and adventure a lot. These are good examples of games that were revolutionary for their time, but not interesting to a modern gamer. Both suffer from unacceptable (by modern standards) lack of graphics, especially haunted house where everything is invisible until light hits it (awesome for its time) and both are incredibly short games, that can be beaten in 1-5 minutes, depending on game mode, and play style. I'm not sure modern gamers are the real problem, but rather, as has already been said by many people, including me, is the lack of progression and evolution in games. Had Nintendo disappeared in the 80's like atari largely did, do you think the modern crowd would care about Mario bros (not super) or the donkey Kong games? They are good games by classic arcade standards, sure, but if it wasn't for the natural progression through the years, I doubt Nintendo would be relevant either. Atari doesn't have to necessarily snap off totally modern games or anything, but they literally can't just keep rereleasing compilations of 40+ year old games and expect much to come of it, even WITH all the acquisitions they are doing, they still need more modern content. Not a lot, not everything, not even new ip, just A small number of new stuff each year to build up their modern catalogue. I'm not sure "recharged" fits the bill, I like it, but as their old hat fan base, I'm really to close to see the bigger picture in those cases. Just being prettier isn't necessarily going to help if the game is based off an uninteresting old game, especially with what is essentially just A reskinned old game. Haunted house is awesome, and has actual levels now, but your still just an eyeball floating through an environment with a small number of mostly invisible stuff till your lights hit it, and a level still only takes a few minutes to beat. This isn't interesting to mostly a modern crowd, not to mention some flaws the new game adds (once the ghost sees you its unavoidable, at least originally you could escape it)
  23. Wowsers, sorry to hear that. The console, well, switch version works more or less. It has constant sound issues, mostly with lack of loudness, but graphically fairly rare. It is at least playable. Considering its likely just using Stella and other emulators, you'd think it would be best on computer. Hopefully you'll get some updates soon to make it work, its not perfect, but really is s great collection.
  24. People probably dis them because its only one or two games instead of 6-20 like most carts. I totally agree that quality trumps quantity. If someone did a good job, I could see someone making a game specifically for evercade, rather than android or some old console. With nearly 4 years under its belt and over 50 carts now, I find it hard to believe someone hasn't made a game for it yet. Its a reasonably powerful handheld, well designed with a decent controller, so why not? edit Of course some would object as "its only one game, instead of 5-20"
  25. I own very few consoles that I don't have 25+ titles for, and that's due to lack of titles, game.com with only like 18 (out of a total possible of 21 or 22) virtual boy with a total of 6 (of a possible 13-16, depending if I got imports). For most games period its the 2600, with hundreds of titles, and probably thousands of dupes. For while it was relevant, gameboy with over 100 carts. For most money, probably xbox, almost 100 games, and almost all bought day one for full price . I will say, the attachment rate for an average console is low, usually 2-3 titles total. But we are all here because we're abnormal lot. We have an excessive fascination with gaming, maybe in general, or a specified console, but at any rate, we're not "normal" or "average" by any definition, so other than "how many games you got" asking what something like an attachment rate is isn't much relevant.
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