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  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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
  7. 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.
  8. 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)
  9. 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.
  10. 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"
  11. 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.
  12. I think its a game type thing. Atari was more than capable of keeping up when they did similar games. Racers for instance, most Atari stuff till the early 90's was as interesting as anything else being put out (racers by other companies. The problem with arcades is, by the time they started evolving beyond repetitive one screen games it was to late. Most especially 2600 games are just arcade games redone for a home console. Had Atari continued on, they could have kept up, maybe an adventure that played looked and felt like early Zelda, but they didnt. They disappeared for decades and when they reappeared it was to rerelease old arcade games, again. Play something like dark chambers, maybe not as refined, but was perfectly acceptable compared to Nintendo titles of the time. What if the early 90's saw a super dark chambers with more weapons and a story? Atari will have us old geezers that like their old stuff, and recharged, but to get in with the new crowd they need newer style games. Story driven stuff with a lot of variety. Even something like tempest which as far as I'm aware is their best selling classic game, good enough to stand on its own, has limited appeal and doesn't sell great compared to most things. They need, while there's some interest, to ride the old arcades and consoles to get enough seed money going to make truly new, or at least modern relevant content. Were old, and will be dying off, and can't support Atari indefinitely.
  13. Well in addition to rarity, its also important to have desire. If most people don't want it, its not going to warrant value. Fun fact, Stradivarius violins are more common than functional pre world war 2 televisions. Adventure vision is really rare, but is there a game unique to only it? Of its four games, I think all are knockoffs of common arcade games playable elsewhere. Yeah the tech is interesting/cool, just not enough to interest enough people to make it more valuable.
  14. Video

    The Paddles

    Always wondered why they didn't just do that, even bitd. Just a typical cx40 with a smaller button under the main fire button. Or maybe a hat button. What got me with the new paddle was canyon bomber. Maybe I'm wrong, but I swear that was a joystick game. Fire for bomb, and joystick left/right for faster or slower. Love the new paddle. There is slight jitter on breakout and some others, but I seem to recall most games did that anyways. I think the paddles are 256 or so step, and only about half their range is used anyways, for a vertical game with potentially 240 lines of gameplay area, A roughly 128 step pot will have to skip so many lines, causing jitter. But its nothing compared to a dirty or worn out pot which can flop around quite a bit.
  15. Totally, just A few seconds of reverse controls, or rabbit mode doesn't do much for the game. How about semi permanent pickups, like grab the boost and you hold onto it till you choose to use it, or drop UT in favor of a different pickup. Passive or user effect power ups limit what kind of power ups you can have. How about a giant powerup, you grow big and can squash other players, or a ghost power up that lets you go through others with no knockback. Does anybody know what the steering wheel does? For such a common pickup, even on Atari 50 I can't say I know it does anything. Of course a battle mode could be added, shock pickups to slow people down, bombs or missiles to blow someone up, or maybe everybody. Of course bigger cars, well, faster modes from the get go. How about alternative paths, like get the giant pickup lets you smash through certain walls for a (then usable by all) short, or not so short cut. And since the power ups seem ineffective on easy, maybe a straight race mode with none. Of course each mode and difficulty needs its own unlockable, even if its just additional people, but I could see more modes, tracks, and pickups being added for each mode and difficulty beaten. Not so sure about just higher resolution atarikarts though, the weird mode 7 look was more a necessity on low powered consoles than a want. I also have a feeling people who hate atarikarts are likely comparing to Mario kart 64, which didn't exist at the time and it was never intended to compete with. If there's a good reason for mode 7 style, I'd say, much larger tracks. Super Nintendo, jaguar, and even gba all did this with a 256x256 image, which is really low res. No reason not to do it with 512x512, 1024x1024 or higher. The jag game sacrificed track size for resolution, which is why the tracks are so short. But a more modern system should be able to stretch, skew, and pump out as big of an image as you like. Still not sure a mode 7game would do good in modern times though.
  16. Ah yes, I never was a "stud" by any definition, but I sure miss my metabolism. I used to think people just had it quit due to inactivity, but over the past few years, I've found that to be wrong. Sure, I'm reasonably healthy still (knock on wood) but despite exercise and running a few miles a day (just crank some good tunes and go) my metabolism has still all but switched off. I used to eat garbage too and was fine, now I get run down and gain weight just by smelling food lol. Anyone who missed the negativity may just not check a lot of topics, like there's one in Atari general, "atari should make a new Atari kart" or some odd. Just gloss over that and see some peoples hate and negativity. There's plenty of others. I just don't get "atari shouldn't do it because their unknown, or because its not Mario kart. Nobody claimed it was, as for Atari being unknown (outside us fanbase) it will remain unknown until Atari remakes a name for itself. I know, shocking to us fans, but they really are an irrelevant unknown in today's world. I love the arcade remakes, but I also know modern gaming and the bulk of people will just be " meh" on the recharged stuff.
  17. One more thing on Atari karts, I often don't mention because I figure most people who hate the game actually played it, like I do. Think the game sucks? Try beating it. I don't know that I ever 100% it or anything, but if you only play borris cup (or whatever easy is called, yeah, its very basic. Play and beat all of them. When you play miracle it unlocks a predator looking dude and slightly changes the game. Tracks are faster feeling, don't think your actually faster, but the computer certainly is, some of the pickups actually work (maybe they don't at all stock?) Like reverse controls, and hitting players and tracks often result in being knocked sideways or backwards instead of only forward like a boost. Its still no Mario kart, but if you put a small bit of time into it, its a lot better than it initially lets on. Truthfully, if the game started on this harder mode, I fully believe it would have been perceived better than it was/is. If Atari even attempted a new one, ill say, start out on this mode and go up from there, don't start on essentially baby mode. They still need to put effort in, but I don't think that means a crew of dozens to hundreds spending a year plus working on it, just A half dozen or so and a few months. Just make sure its reasonably refined and fun (and hopefully doesn't feel like a 99 era flash game, not that all those are bad, just that to much modern Atari does feel like that)
  18. I was going to say, many Atari games actually do use the console to start, rather than just push fire. 2600 intended to use the console for options and its why the short stubby 4' controller cord, while the system cables are a mile long, to keep the system close at hand. I think its why so many have said, instructions pls. I love the cardboard sleeve, but the 2600 isn't very intuitive, especially for those that didn't grow up with it. And many games aren't standardized. Some fire to start, some reset, some select...don't get me started on choosing difficulty, which is all over the place. Luckily, this day in age, we have help. Atariage is your friend, most instructions are scanned and easily accessible here. Don't know how "printer friendly" they are, but I often never look at one again once I know game settings and start.
  19. I thought he was referring to people who've been with AA since the beginning, not 40+ yold gamers. LOL, Atari age has been around a while (99, I think) but its not that old....yet. Albert has always been decent on the moderator side of things. You want to hate Atari, or whatever, cool, that's on you, unless a topic gets way out of hand he, or his crew, are unlikely to lock or delete it. Part of what i, and I'm sure many others love about atariage is the fact you can pretty well talk about anything with little chance of the board censoring you. Sure there's some stuff, covid is fake, misinformation like that (I've had it a few times, I know most assuredly its not fake) lets talk politics or religion (there's actually rules for not talking about those, even posted in general forums) but mostly, anything, and any opinion is fair game. Now how other members act, or react, that's another thing.
  20. Is650 hit it. Not a lot of people, just A small vocal crowd. I hear a lot of complaints about compatibility, but I knew that before getting in. It should improve at least some, but I doubt will ever be 100% on the plus, I just support it because I'm hoping Atari will continue working on it and even make new better hardware in the future.
  21. Well I'm not saying just release some crap. Yeah it needs to be good still. Totally like the idea of club drive on an asteroid with reduced gravity btw, that sounds like potential for awesome, and hasn't really been done a lot. Someone mentioned tron light cycles, I could see something akin to the extreme g series, which I loved, but was abandoned after only three games. My primary focus on something like Atari karts is more to do with, its not just a rebooted old arcade game with extremely limited appeal. Outside tempest, have any of those done good this century? (And I'm only assuming tempest did good, didn't look it up or anything) I mean, I'm sorry Atari was defunct in the 90's and this century, but there's limits on what they have access to do that won't just automatically do poorly. What they really need is truly new games, but even there, they still need to put effort into making it good, regardless of title, or reboot. They need something that makes money, but tbh, that's going to require putting a little money in from the get go. (edit) with the acquisition of Atari age, they have access to an interested user bass they could use to play test games to make sure they are good, or at least work.
  22. Kart racers are still relevant in today's market though, unlike something like food fight, which was different, but not particularly relevant even bitd. Seriously, walk across the screen, eat the candy, maybe pick up a pile of food to chuck at the chef guys... Even I don't really get the appeal, and I played it bitd. Kart racers have some appeal, even if their poorly made. People forget the key word is racers, and Atari did a lot of racers even into the 00's Maybe you don't like cart racers, or maybe ones that aren't Mario, but how about just A racer? Maybe club drive with modern look and more tracks. Its unusual enough to be really fun, A few real tracks, A few weird tracks, like houses interiors or hot wheels style tracks, oddball stuff like Jurassic park, and weird game modes like collecting fuzz balls or tag. Even if it only captures like 10% of the market share, which is doable with only Mario kart as another option, your still talking hundreds of thousands to millions of sales. Oh, and your totally right on public knowledge, that's why I've said, A lot, atari needs to advertise, and get products into stores. And physical would help. Right now, atari has vcs and gamestation, what happens to that in stores? It disappears amongst Nintendo system, and its isle of stuff, Microsoft and its isle of stuff, and Sony and its isle of stuff. Atari would have a four foot (maybe) section with two consoles and a few controllers, that would get missed by most. Anyhow, just cause a game won't do as good as another isn't a reason to not do it, unless you can prove it will do abysmally, comparing to an obscure game that I don't think ever did well I don't think qualifies.
  23. Love it, its basically ve from a couple of decades back with diagonal shots added. And it does add a lot to have voice for those who never got ve. "intruder alert, intruder alert" on startup, "Chicken, fight like a robot" on escaping a screen while there are still robots, and, "The humanoid must not escape, get the humanoid" when you clear the screen. At sometime ill set up for Otto and see if there's a different sound for escaping that or dying.
  24. Sure it won't do as good as Mario kart, but no cart racer does. That doesn't mean they shouldn't do it. Yes it had only a small number of unrecognizable characters (even for Atari fans) and only like five tracks with generic music. But in general kart racers do good. There's a lot more out there than just crash team racing, at least in early 2k, I had several, cartoon network, spongebob, ed, edd, n eddy, just to name a few. Most atarikarts problem was lack of polish, the confusing power ups which I'm pretty sure most did squat, the random wipe outs for zero reason, and lack of player controlled jump and reverse, but these can all be fixed in a sequel. Kart racers are one part of the market with a fan base that isn't currently super saturated, I still think Atari should totally do a new one.
  25. Atari sticks were always terrible. That's why so many third party controllers exist. It does work, and is fully functional, but third parties can be great (they can also be trash lol) Woo! Woohoo! Wah. My paddles finally came in, and run and jump, and berzerk, which I hadn't even gotten an email about shipping. My weekend is done
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