CaptainBreakout

Ha! Picture an Activision instruction manual in an alternate universe. On the Bio page: "When he's not programming for the mainstream, he enjoys designing games inspired by his twisted sexual fantasies."

I like this one. I've heard that the difficulty plateaus after awhile, but I've either never made it that far or I'm just not that good. Anyway I agree. Better than Star Fox with a lot of the same ideas. Too bad this one is way more rare.

I hope not- My birthday's next month!

Well, my kids are stuck completely dry for a month, game-wise. Allow me to explain my situation... The kids' preschool is "Waldorf-based". For those who are out of the loop of educational trends, the long and short of it means that the kids aren't supposed to have screen-time. Like... ever. Not that I'm abandoning this thread. Far from it. I think this situation actually could make it more interesting. Let's just say that there are some inconsistencies with the Waldorf philosophy in the actual practices of most of these schools, as far as what happens at home at least. I happen to know that the main instructor presiding over this little institution is another animation fan like myself. He's also got kids same age as mine, and I've got a pretty good idea of exactly which movies they've seen from simply observing their behavior. Nevertheless, me and ALL the other parents signed a no-media-for-the-kids contract. This was presented as a social experiment, and the staff is doing it too with their kids. It's also nice that they don't pretend they don't break the rules just like all the parents do. And anyway it's just for the month of February. We'll see how it goes in a month. We're going to compare notes. Maybe I'll conclusively prove whether or not Atari rots your brain after 40 years. Just being facetious. You know what's also great about preschool? Pink Eye!!! My kids certainly 'learned' about Pink Eye this week. AND it's not just for kids!... There's no stoping parents from getting involved in the exciting adventure too! Yep... currently my eyes are glazed over like strawberry poptarts... minus the sprinkles and hundreds of times more horrifying. My wife got it in her throat. Same bug, except in that location it's called Strep (antibiotics have been deployed, but just since this afternoon). If it wasn't for Advil she'd be unable to communicate in any meaningful way. Don't touch us, we're disgusting. In fact you might want to wash your hands after you read this. ... Um, Namasty or whatever.

Rough & Ready, CA

I know what you mean... This stuff is fun, but there's always the risk of frustration. Thanks for the offer of the spare Basketball if I have to go there. I might bust open the Mattel Basketball and see if I can see any creative way to solve it. I want to see if there's enough room to solder and glue a surface mount LED in there. I fixed an Entex Space Invader that way, with a couple of those half-sized teardrop red LEDs (just the cheap ones that come in bags of mixed LEDs if you've ever bought those from an electronic supply place). That worked perfectly... Can't tell at all that a repair was done except the little spaceship / bullet is just a tad brighter in those two spots. If I follow through with the basketball game, I'll post my findings here.

Interesting. This review makes me want to try this game again. I played this game for the first time several weeks ago. I got to the point where I felt like I was getting the hang of it, but ran short of time. I made a mental note to give it another try someday. Now I wonder if my notion that there really is a glimmer of fun in there or if it's just me.

Another factor in these levels that adds another dimension is the cart shell. If we are splaying the published titles for the 2600 on a wall in the "A Beautiful Mind" style, one would have to draw some particular color of tape between publishers that used the same shells. Some of the connections are interesting... Epyx used the same shells as Activision, TNT games, Absolute, and Mystique. The only difference being a raised logo of the publisher, or lack thereof. Other connections are weirder, like how Tax Avoiders seems to be published with a modified SEGA shell. Perhaps it was remolded and cast... In mine you can still see when the word SEGA was filled down. Or how does First Star Software come to use a Xonox shell for Boing, but only for some? Where did they get them? Some publishers switched styles during their production, like Telesys and Sega -Why? And then there's deep mystery shells that have storied rumored origins. I'm speaking of Air Raid, Extra Terrestrials, Tooth Protectors and stuff like that. Seeing all these publishers laid out thoughtfully like this got me to wonder. If one is just a casual cart collector I don't suppose shell style matters much, but at some point it becomes interesting. I wonder at what point down the rabbit hole that is.

I still want a WICO Command Controller for the Intellivision. It's probably irrational since a Disc is part of the experience of playing the INTV, and most people agree that the WICO Command Controller is less enjoyable. I know... I already have one. I just want another one based on the hypothetical situation that I am playing INTV with a guest and both players want joysticks. All seems pretty unlikly, yet the desire persists.

PS: For anyone else wants to form or express an opinion on Strawberry Shortcake's Parker Brothers game (as far as its current status as appropriate for kids): You are welcome to watch this episode and let me know. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Strawberry+shortcake+meets+the+Berrykins

Oink! Tower Toppler Scrapyard Dog Here's my write-up... http://atariage.com/forums/topic/274802-atari-with-a-2-year-old/?p=4208161

Hi jatari87! Nice to hear from you! I like the thing still, and am still really happy about it. Thank you! Actully playing a game with it tho is usually more challenging than using the stock disc controllers. It is stiff. What they say about that is true. It's my go-to controller to hand to my young daughter (unplugged) when she wants to feel like shes playing the game with daddy. I'm still looking for a second one. I should post that in the 'whats your irrational want?' thread. Do I have anything to add to THIS thread right now? Um, lemme think. Not really... Oh wait actually... Anyone know a method of "fixing" a Mattel Basketball handheld? A couple of the LEDs are out on mine in the playfield. Fond memories of that one. My son likes it too, now. It might not have been my first red led game (or maybe it was), but it definitely dates far into the way back. Heh... And it's definitely HIS!

Well shut my mouth! I actually know who Banana Twirl is. I mean, in my case that's because I have a little sister, and I recently transfered all out childhood VHS tapes to mpeg2s. For some reason I stayed in the room while the whole episode runs where she introduced herself. I blame my love of background noise while I'm doing other things, laziness, and curiousity since I vaguely remembered it. There's Berrykins. Also Plum Pudding changes sex. It's true. I remember being a little confused by this at the time. It prompted me to verify this with a Google search, and yes indeed Plum Pudding was a male up until that point. Also the Berrykins get locked into a giant salt shaker and get banged around against the wall for a considerable amount of time. Who wrote this stuff? American McGee? Okay anyways, something hilarious happened with Scrapyard Dog, before I forget. When it came time to pop it in, I showed my son the box, hoping for an entusiastic response. What I got was a sneer. "I don't like this ... Picture." "You don't like it?" "No... It's BAD!" Um, I thought... Yeah it is kinda bad. I started to regret buying this thing. Tower Toppler was cheap, but this one was considerably more pricy. I thought I'd treat myself to a still-sealed box since I couldn't find a loose cartidge. Also it was a bad day at work at the time of purchase. Even though I was fully aware of the quality level of the game when I clicked Buy, I still figured it must still be likable somehow. Here I was with my knife in hand. "Oh... Well okay are you ready?" I, due presumably to a new lack of self-assurance over the situation, raked my knife across the plastic wrap. The dull blade caught on a corner, which drove my knife down into the side of the box, damaging the hell out of it. So, after knocking the resale value of this thing at least 20 bucks in a single swoop, I proceeded to open the top while keeping my cool and trying to retain some false sense of excitement. I gave the freshly extracted cartidge to my son for him to examine. Fortunately my knife blade had missed it. "Eh... I don't like him." He said with a look of disgust, looking at the cartoon guy on the label. "I... I like it!" proclaimed my ever-supportive 2-year old daughter. I held on to that uplifting comment long enough to plop the cart in the 7800 and turn it on. Playing the game was hilarious, simply because my son was exactly right, and very articulate in expressing his distain for the lack of good design and aesthetics. I was forced to agree with him each time. We only played a minute or two. In the game, while going down into the dumpster (which was metaphorical), he said some of his best lines. "This game is bad! This room is too hard! It's yucky. I don't like this room." That's when I shut it off. He was right. So I won't get my money back. But at least it gives me some solice that I can share this experience here. That makes it worth a little more, you know, for the good of the world, dear reader.

I had two thoughts reading this. First is how amazing it is that you have the only console that can take any Atari 2600 game and turn it into an Action52-like experience. Second is that if you found some way to replicate this console and sell it in the forums, you'd make a mint.

I suggest that you print out a very tiny 1-page version of this report, and stash it inside the body of this unit. That way 100 or so years from now it could be the subject of some epic story.

Just a fun note for anyone else who's got the arcade game... Coleco Pac-Man and Ms Pac-Man tabletop games make excellent "toppers". Can't wait to get mine working.

Last night we had another game session. This one was a little unusual tho since it involved... dun dun DUUUuun... The Atari 7800. Thanks to a very generous secret santa and a nifty new composite to HDMI upscanner (called, inexplicably, a "Ratsmart"), my kids and I dug into Atari's (or rather GCC's) reinvention of the video game... As it was touted. Hopefully the moderators don't move this to another sub forum. Please don't mind the system disgression, it's only going to be this one entry. Also, isn't a 7800 kind of a 2600 um... too? I know it's not really, but it sorta is on some level. So anyways... On to the games. While I was loading them into the garage game room (it was a cold night and I had to carry them one at a time), I left Food Fight on in the attract mode. They didn't seem all that interested. My son kept asking to play "wolf game". This puzzled me for a minute. I stuck in Oink (yay... 2600 qualifier). He looked at it kinda with distain. "No, not THIS game!" I kept asking him what he meant. I eventually realized that he was referring to a muppet show VHS tapes with a 3 Little Pigs bit in it. I was playing Oink while we were sorting this out (mom had given us a 45 minute limit, so every second counts). He started getting into it. At one point he pointed at the screen and said "What kind of wolf is THAT?!?" It was pretty cute. My two year old daughter just watched and absorbed all of this, except for one question. She looked at me and asked loudly... "Is... Is she eating it?" "Oh, the wolf? Yes. I think so," I replied. "Ooooh. Alright." She seemed satisfied with my answer. Anyway, even I got tired of Oink after a couple minutes. Also I think my son started whining for the muppet show. I got up and pulled down my two carefully chosen eBay 7800 purchases. "This one's about a frog, and this one's about a dog," I announced. I handed my son and daughter a boxed copy of Scrapyard Dog and Tower Toppler, respectively. "So, which one first?" They both looked at each other's games, then each other. They both said something along the lines of "Frog one." So Tower Toppler it was. I knew this was a tough game, and I'd played it a decade ago on the Atari800 (or it might have been the Apple II) under the name Castlian. Yes the game is tough. I was dieing pretty much immediately, and since the controls take some getting used to (and all I have right now is the ProLine), my reaction time was strictly bad. I was just watching balls and other floaty bulbous baddies just wander over and kill me. It was pretty embarrassing. Fortunately, my kids were along for the ride with me, and they were watching me get better and better. A half dozen resets later and my kids were right there with me, navigating up the tower and negotiating lifts and bad guys. Both my daughter and son were doing the peanut gallery style cat calls and offering toddler advice while we were trying, over and over again, to get all the way up the first tower. At some point my son started reading the box and saw the screenshot of the submarine bonus level. He asked me about it and I told him that I think you get to ride a submarine when you get to the top of the tower. Just when the top of the tower was within reach, the tension level would build so much. My son would say "I Really Want To See Submarine!!!" This comment was responsible for starting several more games then I expected. Happy to say... FINALLY.... I finished tower one. And yes, there is a submarine level. Its very impressive and looks like something out of Thunder Force III. I didn't get much of a chance to enjoy it because my son was asking about a million questions regarding what we were seeing, all in rapid succession. Good thing the level seems to be strictly for bonus points because I'm certain I would have died if it were possible. The next tower pretty much immediately killed me with a disintegrating block as soon as I moved right. Game over. Ok, enough Tower Toppler. That was a positive. I think I'll do Scrapyard Dog as a second post... I'm gonna hit Post now so I don't do something dumb and lose what I just wrote above. If I don't finish tonight I'll catch you all soon.

I remember when I first started collecting again (in my adult life) about 2002 or so: Someone was offering a complete Mythicon store display. It was a free standing wire rack and several NOS cases of Mythicon games, all unopened. Don't remember the exact price, but I'm pretty sure it was less than $100. I remember thinking "Wow! Here's something useless!". At the time, it seemed to me that since emulators were very much 'happening', and capable of running everything for free, original games would continue to deminish in value, especially the crappy ones. Things change, huh? Wish I'd have saved those eBay pictures.

The Musee Mecanique in San Francisco is the biggest collection I know of. A total dream come true to visit. Took my wife there on our first date. They also have a few 80's arcade games... Robotron comes to mind. http://www.museemecaniquesf.com

Yeah, these games are all very interesting, especially since each can usually be understood from the ground up if one really looks into how they work. There are always some very clever ideas inside. A voyage of discovery in each one. Early pinball games were EM machines, and early video games were discreet logic games (aka no CPU). Despite this, even the pinball games should be considered computers, if you ask me, since they were capable of processing math for their very specific purpose. The EM pinballs evolved into marvels of complexity. As a "central processing unit", an EM pinball game might even fit that description without too much of a stretch. Anyways if you are just gauging interest, I'm sure there's a lot of members here besides myself who think these things are as nifty as you do. You might need to get more specific if you want to have a deeper conversation about them. I have had my head inside a dozen or so of the arcade variety of these games, and they are always a blast to work on. I maintain a KH Keeney 'Big Six' machine from the late 30's. In addition to being a family heirloom, it's also probably the last working one on the planet. No joke. I had to replace each and every solenoid with Williams 70's era assemblies. And the whole thing is full of oil-cloth wires... Anyways... I could go on. It's a labor of love. Anyway, yeah... Got any specific stories about an EM machine, anyone? I'd love to hear em myself.

I like this. In every real pinball game I've played extensively there is always SOME place where a ball can get 'stuck' on a flat surface, even if it's only 1mm. Conditions have to be just right. It's kind of magical when it happens.

Wow... You did it! It was like an architect reviewing his least favorite building. Thanks for the great read, and for lowering my inclination to chase this game down. Maybe that will have a slight effect on the resale value over the long term.

We love Magic Mumford! I wish they made more merchindise of him... He's in our story books tho. Ah La Peanut Butter Sandwiches! I know what you mean about these stories. I love reading them at least as much as writing them. Strawberry Shortcake Musical Mix-Up received kind of a Meh response, but that was a year ago. We should revisit Fishing Derby for sure soon.

I'm just so glad the game is done. So many of these ambitious projects never get completed- here's to the exception! Also a major step towards getting my arcade game fixed and something I'll be super happy to see on the shelf, not to mention play. Let's hope we can all buy this thing soon.