CaptainBreakout

Found out what I have is a version of the game by Rouge Synapse. I think it's an early WIP. Here's the developer's website... http://www.roguesynapse.com/games/space_paranoids.php

Yep, that's me. Rough & Ready is a tiny little gold rush town. Early on, the US post office attempted to get the town to change it's name (saying they could be Rough or Ready, but not both). The town's response was to formally secede from the nation. It didn't last long, but it's the only known town in US history to do that. There's a celebration every year here to commemorate the events. Love this place, but it needs an arcade. I found a calling. I used to be a Bay Area guy before moving out here to the boonies a few years ago (Intvnut... my sister's family lives near you). My goal is to build a tiny arcade out here in the garage the way you used to see them in camp ground visitors centers. The intellivision is in the attached guest room, and that part is finished already.

I like to joke with other parents that my kids (2 and 3) think it's 1984 as far as the state of technology at our house. That's not really true. We jump around from system to system when it's super-duper game night. They don't really seem to notice the big graphical changes between, say, the 2600 versus the Saturn unless it's back-to-back. Gameplay is gameplay, and presentation counts.

Hmm ... I think I have it on my old XP machine. I'll check it out when I boot it up this weekend. It's either that or a fan made recreation. I'll let you know after I investigate.

Ha! Oh man you are totally right. A Mythicon branded rack would indeed be pretty sweet! Gah!

I thought about trying to track this game down last year, just to represent Avalon Hill in the cartridge rack. It lost to Wall Ball. I just can't picture someone, in 2019, getting really INTO this game. It seems to rely on a cerebral, imaginitive intensity, and the player has to generate all the imagination themselves. This might have been all ya could hope for in the early 80's but now a game like this is asking the player to look past a lot. Meh. I could see this game might be interesting to see if you could train a modern AI machine to play and see what it would do. Anyways, yeah on Avalon Hill I guess I'm more about Wall Ball.

I like what you wrote about thinking twice about collecting Pongs. A couple of years ago I bought a Bentley Compuvision (which was the one I had as a kid). It's in good shape and works ok, but even that unit has a couple of issues I wish I had time to figure out and address. For a casual enthusiast like myself, and as far as more advanced cartridge systems go, it's easy to make a case for how playing the 2600 is a much different experience than playing an Intellivision/NES/what-have-you. Not easy to make the same justification for Pongs. As you said, most of these units are likely to arrive with issues. I'm not as good at fixing and improving the design as some of the brilliant minds here. I find it sound advice for me anyway so I appreciate that.

Sweet! I'm fine with an .iso or something like that too. I used to work for a DVD authoring house so I still remember how to do all that stuff. I can send you a thumb drive or something if needed. Thanks!!!

I'm into one two. I thought this was a new thread until I got a few posts down. Anyone with a copy, I'd really appreciate if you contacted me.

It is extremely good 3d for the time. It's too bad this commercial wasn't well known... there might have been a fan-made game that plays like the commercial by now!

Great thing to see right before drifting off to sleep. Very cool and thanks. I wonder how/who did the 3d? Magi? Synthivision? Omnibus?

Love this. Imagic had the flashiest cart shells. Atlantis was in my stash at age 5 or so, and my older brother could absolutely whale on that game. I'd be lucky to stay alive for a few minutes under that threatening, but colorful, atmosphere. In any case, it made an impression on me. Atlantis was either a garage sale score or possibly from the teenagers across the street who were totally fine with handing me carts. To them, Atari was already old hat and they had moved on to surfing and girls. Me being much younger, and all about getting more games of any kind, I was easily pre-compelled to spend my scarce allowance on games at Kay-Bee. Especially when grandma would slip me a $10. Mimi was awesome like that. In one of my earliest game purchases at retail, for some reason my eyes landed on Quick Step. I remember it was pricy... And new, according to the cashier. Stuff was already hitting the bargin bin at the time, but the cashier had convinced me that this was an AMAZING game at a quality level that insured it would never be seen in any bargin bin. Whatever he said to me worked. I remember it took all my savings plus whatever bump I got from Mimi. Sheesh, but Quick Step? That cashier ought to get smacked for selling that to an impressionable little kid who's favorite game was Adventure. What a frantic bouncing bunch of chaos. That damn squirrel was unbeatable (to my five year old self anyway). Also the noise that game generated was exactly perfect for irritating parents out of their minds, and if they weren't in a good enough mood to leave the room, they'd likely start cracking down on allowable game time. Quick Step, like ET and Sneak & Peak, became one of those titles that I thought I was doing something wrong since I wasn't enjoying them. Therefore I doubled down on trying to derive some satisfaction from them. Space Jockey and Star Fox (Mythicon of course) are also on that list, but I have to say only Sneak & Peak and Quick Step couldn't get me anything as far as a good experience. Eventually they were cartridges I'd just sneer at. I think I managed to get a friend to try Quick Step with me once or twice, or my little sister. No one seemed comfortable playing it however. No one ever talks about Quick Step, so it seemed like a good opportunity to rant for a minute. Epilogue: I did eventually get good at the thing since it was a go-to rom to try every time I set up an emulator. Still, even getting good at it, it still seemed like a pretty hollow game to me. Colorful and noisy as shit, and smooth and solid at the same time (also like shit?), but too uncomfortably frantic to be enjoyable (also also like ... well you get the point). It lived next to Atlantis since the cart shape was the same, and I often looked at it wondering if I could just walk it back to Kay-Bee and get my $19.95 back. More epilogue: I traded all my accumulated "old" stuff for a Game Gear in 8th grade. Amongst the pile was Quick Step. In my adult life as I've rebuilt my collection I've never had any desire to find Quick Step again. Hmmm. I find that kinda interesting. I have other "bad" games, or whatever subjective thing you want to call them. I'm actually really happy to see Star Fox on my little cart display, as well as most of the others. Quick Step, Sneak N' Peek and Bugs are the sour persimmons that my brain has an aversion too, despite a few very clear moments in memory. Fun to write all that. Now something is out there on the net about Quick Step and it's place in someone's life.

If HDMI output is an option, I've had really good luck with this thing called a "Ratsmart" composite to HDMI converter. (Edit... I have NOT tried it with a TI tho.. has anyone here?) It's about 15 bucks shipped via eBay. It 's got a little switch on it to output either 720p or 1080p. Looks remarkably good for how cheap and simple it is. If you really have to do real VGA, I remember the XRGB-2plus being an impressive and expensive solution. Haven't tried it with a TI tho. I used it on my Apple IIgs and it was the best solution I could find at the time (maybe 2006 or so). (I think I still have it in the garage and would consider trading it... if anyone is interested send me a PM)

Really? I thought the last US release was Scrapyard Dog. I think I saw that in a review. Aha... Here it is.. It's from Gorfcadet... another member here (who makes great reviews, love them). You might inquire where his information comes from.

Holy crap my VCR still plays Cliffhanger! The world needs to know!!!

Maybe in 100 years when Hollywood is a desperate crack addict of it's former self.

These look great. I hope Gold Rush gets released before my son grows out of his mid-toddlerhood train obsession. (Discussed in this thread... http://atariage.com/forums/topic/281573-train-game-suggestions) It's perfect for him/us. Highly looking forward to the release.

I always liked the idea of built-in paddles for a dedicated 2600 cabinet. Never seen it actually done.

I second the WICO. The ball tops look the best to me. An upside is you don't necessarily have to disassemble the joysticks (except maybe to remove and relocate the base button). They are sturdy enough to build a mount around and bolt to the underside of your control panel. You might need to route it out a bit if the control panel is wood, but probably not if it's metal or plastic. Edladdin knows what he's talking about tho and you might want to go with some pro arcade hardware with the octagonal insert. Probably much more top shelf experience. Something nifty to consider is getting ahold of an old DB-9 "data switch" or two and a few extension cables. You can build the switch into your cabinet and use it to bypass your joystick to an external controller connector for paddles, keypads and other such.

I don't know, but if Adventure: The Movie ever gets made the poster is already done.

Well, I'd never heard about this thing before. Now I know about it and making the decision not to want one was very easy, thanks to your write-up. I appreciate both these things.

'course I get your point, but I like the art in the second one better. Also before this gets crazy, I think it's safe to say that we all have our own criteria for our own collections and it's partly personal. If we want to delve into the validity of this, probably best for a separate thread.

Maybe you can use this for Supergun's box... Seriously, I'm kidding.

Nice to see your project get some momentium at any rate. My thoughts are that since there's a zillion versions of Flappy Bird, Canabalt, and 2048, there ought to room for two demakes on the same platform, as long as no one feels treaded toes, as you said. I seem to remember that two versions of Canabalt came out for the C64 at almost the same time, developed independently. Can't remember the details now but it was an amusing read. Anyway if you continue with this, I'm still down to contribute in some way. I could envision a rad sketched-style label.

I'm slightly afraid to Like the above comment.