kennetzel

Space Invaders.

My problem with the Flashback systems is the line of site controllers. And for me, there WAS a lag in this system. It seems I have more control over things with the Retron 77 than I did on the flashback system. I have used it a few times, but the sluggishness of the controls, for me anyway, make it a tough system to play on. I am definitely more satisfied with the R77.

Not yet...I was going to try them today. But I don't have a lot of paddle games, mostly joystick. I will keep you posted.

I don't know...but I got my unit yesterday. I hooked it up and it played flawlessly. Not even a lag. Everything was right on the mark. I was greatly impressed with the picture quality. It looks so crisp and not an ounce of interfierence. Maybe I am an amature or just a casual user, but so far I am quite happy with the whole thing. It's nice to have Atari available now on the family TV.

All I know is...back in the day when Atari was new, I went through joysticks like crazy. THe originals were not fragile, but they were used a lot and hard. FOr some reason we think that the harder you slam on the stick, the faster you'll go. It's like everytime I had an Atari party, I always had to replace at least one joy stick. And it was the same problem...the white insert would break in the outer ring not putting enough pressure on the "buttons" to make it move. I don't know what kind of pressure I am likely to apply these days, but I would almost expect any joystick to break with aggressive play.

I just got email notification that my Retron 77 has shipped. Any day now.

I just refer to it as the 2600. It seems people know what I mean when I say it.

I preordered mine too. Funny thing though...I got the email on preordering, but none of the links worked, nor did the ones at the Hyperkin web site. Luckily someone on Facebook gave the the right link and I finally got to order it. But later in the day I got another email from Hyperkin and everything worked on it. But despite the hoops I finally ordered it. And looking forward to it...July 7 could not get here fast enough.

I got my first 2600 (VCS) in 1980...I started early on in this fantastic hobby.

I enjoy looking at old magazine ads of my favorite toys. I also collect toy robots, the Remco Lost in Space Robot the main piece of my collection. I have a bunch of catalog pages I found on the web of him being advertised.

Here, here.

They are posting at facebook that this is NOT a joke. I know it's April Fool's day, but it is also the first of the month which is where I would expect to see an announcement from a company. One can only hope.

I just saw this on Facebook. https://hyperkinlab.com/retron-77-premium-retro-gaming-console-for-2600/

My Atari story is a good one, but with some frustration. I was born in 1958 but embraced the video game boom of the early 80's quite enthusiastically. I would spend hours at the arcade playing Space Invaders, Pacman and Phoenix. I loved Space Invaders and kept bugging my wife to get this Atari thing so I can play at home and not spend money at the arcade. We just got married in 1979 and were the typical struggling young couple, so her answer was always "no" because she felt we couldn't afford the expense. But one day I asked again, and this time she said "okay." So we rushed down to our local high end department store and got a light sixer and picked up Space Invaders with it. We brought it home, hooked it up and played Space Invaders for hours. Poor Combat just sat there in the box. But a few weeks went by and I started to grow a small collection of games. Black Jack, Missile Command, Circus (my wife loved that game at the arcade) and a few others. Then one day, my friend was over and we planned on going head to head with more Space Invaders. We put in the cart, turned on the game and to my surprise the player two sprite kept firing on it's own one shot after another. It wasn't the controller, it was the console. So I called my local Sears store, explained to them that I did not buy it there, but it needed fixing, and can they do it. They said "sure" so I took it there. It was hard to let it go, but I had to do it. They took it in, gave me a tag and that was the last I saw of that light sixer. You see...they lost it. It was gone for a couple of months and I was in agony. But Sears kept giving me excuse after excuse blaming Atari for the delays. So I got ballsy and called Atari directly. I gave them the number on my tag. After a few minutes they informed me that whole load of games to be fixed never arrived there. They said Sears accepted the fact that they lost the shipment and they were working out something. But she told me to contact Sears and tell them that I spoke with them and they should send me a replacement. When I called Sears and told her I spoke to Atari directly, the girl at Sears covered the phone and "whispered" to her co worker "I DON'T BELIEVE IT...THIS GUY CALLED ATARI!" They continued to blame Atari for the screw up and told me that Atari would have to solve the issue. I told them Atari insisted Sears give me a replacement and they refused. So after another couple of months of arguing with Sears, they finally took responsibility and gave me a Sears Telegame system to replace the Atari. I raced home, hooked it up and was back into my Atari bliss playing more Space Invaders and anything else I picked up at the time. When I got the new Nintendo Entertainment System, I retired the Telegame and didn't think about it for a while. But then I found Atari Age, started reading the posts and decided to dig it out again. But there was a problem...the right difficulty switch didn't work and was stuck in the difficult mode. So I bought a heavy sixer off eBay and a Darth Vader and now I enjoy myself playing my old games again. I guess I'm hooked.

I posted about this a while ago when I got my Darth Vader. Everything looks great except the blue ones. They have a fuzzy appearance like one is on top of another but offset. Weird how that happens on the 4's. Nice to know it's not just me or my machine.