Video

February 10

Never understood the "death grip" in aftermarket connectors. Always seemed to me a well documented system with cart port specs should not do this, but for whatever reason, Nintendo clones, and replacement parts (and ONLY Nintendo) always had problems with this. Some other consoles are tight, sure, but nothing like Nintendo.

Always thought about just nixxing the zif in favor of a straight connector and just have carts plug into the top, after all, Nintendo made a top loader and it had no cart issues damaging carts, or destroying the connector. Of course it would look ugly, just cutting a hole in the top of a toaster, and some cart ports are soldered rather than screwed in, so no one size fits all.

The toaster has better imagery parts than the toploader, even if you get an earlier mvo console instead of the later cheaper rca only model.

Love their transparent shell on that site, wonder of you can get a transparent bottom too? I'd do that, even if I did no other mods.

February 9

I bought 2 (no option for standalone at the time) both were sealed on top with a circular clear tape about an inch across. No seal on the bottom. No shrink wrap or anything either, just the disc piece of tape.

Ill see about a pic later, one is still sealed (till a friend visits and we can try two play marble craze, or four player warlords or something)

February 9

I bought a ton in about 2020, it was 8 cents or so at the time. Got about 12000 shares, and paid about 1k for it. It bobs around 2x what I paid currently. It did hit nearly a dollar a share back in 21, then dropped to about 8 again.

I too think Atari is in for great improvement, if they can hold their head of steam, they were doing better when vcs launched, then the pulled the plug and it hurt them. Well see what the next couple of years does for them.

If you not got any now, its a good time to get some.

February 8

Hmm, love the look of black systems, but I've got enough variants of evercade already so I think I'll pass. Looks nice though.

I'm weird, so I might pick up a hot pink console or handheld if they made one, which I think would be more "valentine" anyways.

If the duke system actually makes a reappearance I'll definitely try for that though.

February 7

I often think of things like that in games, the "what if" type things. Like how you always teleport to the middle of an asteroid field on asteroids and just start blasting away. Sure, they will kill you, but hey, you just showed up in their territory and start blasting away. The alien space ship is just trying to protect their rock collection. After all, you have a space ship, that can even teleport, even on 2600, why not just travel places their aren't rocks?

Its just video games, have fun with it, but us 70-80's kids really got to work our imaginations.

February 7

I think someone made the + and didn't realize the switches mean something, so they just assumed a was easy or one setting, while b was hard or second setting. Don't know how often it was mentioned in original manuals, but some did mention, A is for advanced, while b is for beginner.

I can see the difficulty being reversed, but not mentioned at all is weird, unless its not used. Old manuals would still mention all switches and just mark them as unused.

However, most (all?) The games on 10-1 carts use the difficulty switches, so no mention is just weird, unless the games were modified to not use them. Atari has modified some of their games before (like the more modern adventure, where dragons don't have "stomachs" or whatever the hole in their body is supposed to be) but I doubt Atari bothered editing difficulty options on any, much less all the games on the 10 in 1 cart.

February 5

I don't mind paying extra for a new game, just wish they were available to purchase at all. This constant "sold out" business is pure bs. Now common games that you could buy for $2 (if you don't already have a dozen or so in your collection) uh, no. Ill pass on most of those. I'd still buy new or rare games, and while I'd love them in the $30-40 range, I've got no issue with paying $60-70 (or $100) but damnit atari, make them available! After all, nobody has an issue buying a modern console game for $60, yes their Atari games and mostly not that deep, but your paying for what you want. If I was to say one thing I want (outside availability) it would be instruction manuals.

So far I'm loving what little I can get, and my feelings aren't hurt that its expensive. Tbh, I'm having as much, or more fun with a lot of Atari titles than I am with a lot of the current gen crap. Maybe ill order some goodies from Albert to tide me over till the official run stuff becomes available, if ever (maybe ebay, but I'm not looking for sealed there, I want to play. Anyhow, lots of great selection on atariage, there's over 100 titles now, even after axing lots of things for various reasons.

February 4

Well the difficulty switches are the missing extra switches from the original 6switch model. Don't know if they thought moving them cleaned up the console dashboard or what, but their really the same system.

Bitd, some games did have instructions that mentioned this. Activision space shuttle even had an overlay for both six and four switch models of console.

February 2

Just always was that way. I'm sure someone has an interesting story behind why their upside umopap!sdn. (Sorry, couldn't help myself)

Maybe so parents walking by (the system is supposed to be close to you to access switches) can make sure your not playing those bad games like gears of halo theft Auto 4. "We only play wholesome games like mythacon titles in this house damnit"

February 2

Neat, never knew about that one. Ill have to keep an eye out. Usually there's just commons, but I occasionally run into rare, or odd games. Maybe pal, don't know if secam ever got multicarts or not, but seeing how the systems are put together (like a dozen extra chips, just to dumb down to 8 colors) I bet those rarities give funky pics.

Maybe try it on 2600+, don't know about kapers, but enduro works (if you got one) or if you have access, try a friends CRT sometime. I hope it works and just doesn't like your setup.

I've been looking for garfield, but haven't actually confirmed it exists physically. Oh, and heman, but again, the 2600 version may not physically exist. (loved it on I believe intelivision, despite being a pseudo package game, it suits them)

I picked up gremlins from my local~ish gamestore, what an odd game.

February 2

On sports, I don't care for the uber realistic. Most I love are bs in some way, from rbi with instant homeruns, or the ball busting your tv, lol, or NBA jam where you can be Clinton and dunk from across the court, while on fire, or world cup where you can do a back flip kick the ball knocking the goalie into orbit. I love these games, we don't need the updated roster, or in some cases good graphics, just fun, sometimes quirky play elements.

On racers, semi real. The need for speed series is one of my favorite of all time. I don't mind 'hard' as long as I can realistically improve to the point of being a contender. Atari is wild on racers, Atari karts, club drive, hard driven, all great games, that have decent physics, and realistic (for their time) graphics, but aren't a Strait forward racer. Driving, but not necessarily racing, smugglers run is one of my favorites, combat stuff like revolt or twisted metal. Really, about anything goes.

February 2

The GB does have a contrast knob that makes the screen lighter or darker. Don't get me wrong, it was always a terrible screen, but its late 80's tech. The weird blue pixels on the gold/green background always looked weird to me too. If it has no lines, the zebra strip is probably fine (they dry out and cause problems as the system ages) if its truly lighter than normal, there could be a bad cap or the knob may be bad, probably an easy fix for those that know what their doing. The game boy pocket has a much nicer screen with greyish/black pixels on a light grey background. Unfortunately the two AAA batteries only run 5-8 hours depending on the game and battery type. Always wanted to try dropping a pocket screen in an original dmg, but never had one apart, so I don't know if their compatible or not.

Lots of options exist to improve the screen, or just replace it, but my first dmg still is unmoded, despite a bad screen, I find it charming in a way, besides, I mostly play on color or advance when I do play.

February 1

Lol, love it man, ill keep an eye out for the longer version. Pretty funny and shows most peoples issue with the game, holes 😛 while not just dissing the game for them. Looks like, well sounds like you were having fun with it, and after all, that's the important bit.

February 1

Very cool. Yeah the last two is kapers, and enduro ( one of my favorite racers on 2600, I put lots of time in but rarely get past day four, no idea how many days it goes, five or seven if I guessed, AA probably has its instruction sheet, I've just not looked) can't really tell about the other two, poor image.

As for color, is that an LCD tv, hard to tell from the pic,, they often don't like the vcs funky resolutions, and locking to b/w is often one of the things they do, and it could be exaggerated by being a multicart, or it might be a partially corrupt or damaged ROM. This is definitely rarer than a typical one off cart, but I am familiar with space vision, I've seen them, but don't own any.

What did you pay out of curiosity? Like I said, probably someone would buy or trade for it.

January 31

Games going for a buck or two a year after launch was common for the era though. People forget, but back then game stores were rare, if they existed at all in your area. Its not like today where games top will pay you 50 cents to $5 for a game, then throw it on the shelf for $5 less than the still available, still full price, production run. That's a relatively new phenomenon.

On pacman, yes, it sold, and sold well. It sold throughout the life of the Atari too. It was a decent game, that satisfied our itch to play permanent at home. Why people would sell it a fear later for a few cents is easy. A arcade game can get away with simple and repetitive, because I got to play it a few minutes a shot, A couple times a month while the parents were shopping. Home version gets played hours a day, every day. Overly simple games like pacman don't hold up as well when you can play as much as you want, not like say, asteroids, where each game is truly unique as the rocks break up more randomly as you shoot them, despite being a very simple arcade style game, so it has a much greater replay value. I'm sure some out there have a pacman cabinet, either a lovingly restored original, or a modern knock off. Seriously, do you play that for hours every day? I doubt it.

Most peoples problem with pacman is two fold, one, the very likely chance they never played it, or were to young to remember it, so they jump on the internet bandwagon of "it suxors" mostly because of two (and provable by their own comments) because they never played it, all the hate is graphically related. While people say all kinds of reasons the game sucks, its always graphics. You wonder why? That's easy. Most people don't have/play atari, and most don't emulate either. Without one of those, you can only see pacman (on blalions of YouTube videos that are mostly the "look how bad this game sucks" type. You can't play without emulation or actual hardware, because while they made it, atari doesn't own it, so it doesn't pop up in modern game collections. People assume it sucks, because their told it sucks, and they can't experience it themselves, so that becomes perceived as fact. Same with ET, which while like pacman, I'm under no impression its the best ever, I'd also never say its the worst either. Both are middle of the road (maybe a bit better) average games with perfect gameplay, taking 2600 limitations into account.

January 31

My thoughts on recapping, I've got no issue if it is needed. If a cap goes out, your device can quit working, sometimes disasterously so. However, that's if needed, not just "because I can" atari 2600 is a really reliable machine and if you regularly use it, it shouldn't need recapped. Most peoples problem with it is "I got out of playing for years or decades, and went back to it after the caps dried out from lack of use" assuming someone didn't stop playing bitd because a cap blew and back then it wasn't possible to Google fixes.

I don't care for modding, but hey, its your toy, not mine so that is up to you. Recapping is about preservation, not modding, to get as long a life out of a product as possible, so that's cool if you can. Buying someone else's thing is just inheriting someone else's problem, especially with a 40+ year old piece of hardware, so not necessarily a viable option. And as seen with 2600+ even new may not be. I'd love a 100% replacement for my aged 2600, sure, but its going to be a future thing, if ever. Recapping is still a last resort for me as I lack experience/skill to do it, but I'd try if I had to, because I love my 2600, but like I said, last resort, I'd risk serious chance of doing further damage or destroying it doing it myself. Luckily my childhood Vader still works fine, knock on wood.

January 31

I was going g to say that. Looks like an unbundled paddle is available for preorder too.

Man I'm going to drop a load of money the year, it would be a lot more if so much stuff wasn't constantly "sold out" seriously.

When is dark chambers for 7800 going to make N Appearance?

January 31

Copyright can last an obscene amount of time, its to protect the creator, and maybe the first generation of kids so they can use it without people just stealing it. However, its nowhere that simple, copyright does expire relatively quickly if it isn't being used. It can become public domain in as little as five years if its not actively being used, and considering how few people know who even made, distributed, etc rogue, if say its probably public domain at this point.

Seriously, anybody ever see a production run of the original game? Or was it always just a bootleg? I've never seen it for sale, even as a bootleg, it just was always available free for a wide variety of computers and even some consoles (in redone with Mario graphics fashioned)

January 30

While most games do have updates today, Nintendo proves even in the modern world that games can indeed be released complete. I don't necessarily know why they update, just little faniggly things for whatever reason, but I've as of yet, not run into any that are out and out unplayable without updates (my switch doesn't have an internet IV) just to bad quite a few are still released incomplete, or cards as keys style. I'm done with Microsoft and their discs as keys mentality,i got the xbox one and literally played one gsme on it in the six months i had it, as the average game download (from disc media) exceeded my internet quota for a month. At least Nintendo stuff is clearly marked on the front of the package so I didn't end up saddled with a game I potentially can't play.

Love that mockup image (despite flaws) actually reminds me of old Atari adds from the 80's. Whole family gathered around Atari with excitement on their faces, looking at the side, or back of the tv with a boot screen, or no image lol.

January 29

If your going to go with a non custom format like SD, yeah, the vcs already has USB, just make games on a thumb drive and release for that.

I did mention multiple times taking the vcs, updating it for a more up to date capability (the current one is officially five years old, and unofficially probably closer to ten) update it and give it some sort of real media port, cart, disc, something. I spent a chunk of time without access to good internet, and it soured the waters so much ill never go back to digital downloads again. It was ok,ish, when games were 5-10 gigs, not so much when games are 50-200+ gigs. I won't be buying any more consoles that don't have (good) physical support. Tbh, I've got enough stuff backlogged, I'd just do without. Its no real skin off my nuts if people don't want my money.

January 29

I liked the bubsy from a few years ago, if it wasn't for the shortness of that game it could have been great. Seriously, look at the map and your thinking "first world", not " the world" I loved it and had a blast, and was quite surprised when I beat the world and it was just, game over. Oh, that sucks.

Just give us more of that, but make a larger world. That game should have had four worlds at least, and typically that type of side scroller has 8 or more. Lots of people would consider 4 to short too, but it at least wouldn't have been unsatisfactoraly short like what we got.

As for bubsy personality, that's part of what makes bubsy, well, bubsy. I've no issue with adding to his personality, but don't take away what is currently there, at least, not till he has an established improved/different personality to replace it with. Game characters do change, but the love it/hate it mentality of extreme changes could end up hurting it too. Or maybe us old school who remember him from bitd would hate it, but a new one could attract a new crowd. That could be ok, as long as he ends up perceived as well or better than he was.

January 28

In my neck of the woods, it was 2600, maybe the occasional other thing, like odyssey 2 coleco, or some other. Computer gamers were outliers. In my area, I was that outlier. Yeah, nobody thought Atari just made crappy consoles, or dumbed down arcade conversions.

At least here, consoles would be the more important part of Atari by far.

January 26

2600? I'd love a cart adapter for that. I've still not tried the dock yet. What controllers are good for it? Its pretty supportive (self stated) but doesn't work well in practice according to the AA group. I thought about some of the wired USB super Nintendo style pads, probably 8bit$o but haven't gotten around to it yet.

I thought you were referring to Activision anthology or Atari collection for gba, pretty sure those don't support two play at all.

January 26

Yeah the 7800 version uses a two button controller, that it currently doesn't support correctly. With reverse controls many games can't be played, as fire was usually the first button. (Making them partially compatible with a single button controller) here's hoping it will be fixed with an update, same for diff switches.

In the meantime, a two button controller is required to play. I'd suggest picking up some euro pads, which are loads better than the proline crap we got. Buttons will still be reversed, but you'll still have a fire button.

Also, try the 2600 version if you can find one. Its pretty common, so if your local game store has pre Nintendo stuff, they will be likely to have a copy for $5 or less. Clunky looking for sure, but play on advance (b setting on 2600+ till they fix the switches) its still a great game. Or uh... Play on beginner and veg out however long you want to go for, you won't die to death till your tired of playing.

January 25

Worse? There are several games on 2600 that can't be played (or completed) due to game breaking mechanics. I'd place those as worse. While I'd not say et is the worst, its not as some say, the best either, even among its on genera. Now of its genera (I'd class it with the likes of adventure, haunted house, superman, raiders, and a few others) its one of the worst (or maybe THE worst) but not overall.

Now it may be the worst, highly anticipated name brand licensed game. Had say yars been an absolute failure, I doubt it would be remembered the same way. ET did have millions of copies made, like five or so, but I think it did still sell in the millions. Be interesting to see sales vs production numbers. Often et was cited as having more produced than there was consoles, but I don't think so. Depending on the data you get, there was between 12 and 18 million 2600's in its original life. Though that was its life, dont know how many consoles existed in 82 (thanks zzip, thats on me) Wonder how many pluses have sold so far?

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