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BassGuitari

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BassGuitari last won the day on March 15 2021

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About BassGuitari

  • Birthday 01/31/1985

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    Remember how bright the future used to look?
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    Male
  • Location
    Fiorina 161
  • Interests
    Music, vintage instruments, history, World War I, vintage video games and computers, football, the Green Bay Packers.
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    DINA - Defender, Montezuma's Revenge, Frogger II, Meteoric Shower, Frenzy, Choplifter, River Raid, Time Pilot, Zaxxon, Strike It, Wing War

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  1. Unironically...no. 😜 The CX78 is definitely a step or 12 up from the ProLine, but it's no NES controller. Much cheaper-feeling and its layout is a little strange (D-pad up in the corner, off-axis; buttons situated lower, near-center, and spaced slightly too far apart). It wouldn't even be a Master System controller, except it at least has a cross-style D-pad--albeit kind of a crappy one--instead of a square. (What the hell, Sega?) I'm with you on this, though. It was indeed innovative, and--assuming it's in good repair--it has a deluxe feel to it that's kind of hard to describe. I attribute that to the joystick, which has buttery smooth action without being sloppy or loose. Playing on a good 5200 controller feels like luxury. The weird thing (to me) about the Atari 5200 is that it was clearly supposed to be an arcade powerhouse first and foremost, but its controllers seem like they were designed for simulators and computer-style games first and foremost. Forget good; they're great for those kinds of games. I think if the 5200 had had a regular digital controller as its standard (whatever form that might have taken), and the CX52 we all know and love (*ahem*) had been available as a specialty analog controller purchased separately, people wouldn't be nearly so down on it today (except for its reliability faults, which are usually easily fixed). People would be saying "You HAVE to get one of the analog joysticks for Star Raiders, Choplifter, River Raid, Rescue on Fractalus, and Qix!" in much the same way the Trak-Ball is revered for Centipede, Missile Command, and the like.
  2. Believe it or not, I think the only time I was kind of disappointed with a 2600 game was Adventure, of all things. The way the game had been talked up online in the late '90s (when I was getting into classic systems after growing up on NES, Genesis, and PlayStation), I expected it to be bigger. Even a lot of the game world that's there is empty and pointless; there's no reason to explore beyond the direct routes to the castles since there's never anything there (unless the bat is playing more havoc than usual). That's a criticism I still have of Adventure, even though I quickly grew to love the game. Defender is another one I have to admit having had a somewhat confused immediate reaction to. I liked it, but I found it odd that the ship disappears when you fire, and the sort of smudgy look of the laser fire was mildly off-putting as well. It wasn't bad, I just had an idea in my head that it would look different. But like with Adventure, I got over it pretty quickly. Defender is probably one of my Top 5 favorite Atari games now. 🙂
  3. *cracks knuckles* Street Racer Fantastic Voyage Spacemaster X-7 Donkey Kong (yup) Zaxxon Rescue Terra 1 Space Jockey Tanks But No Tanks Hunt & Score Cosmic Commuter Commando (is this underrated?) Warplock Rampage Radar Lock Pooyan Golf Encounter at L5 Subterranea (not sure it counts as "underrated," but I have to list it anyway) Solar Quest Star Ship Lost Luggage Tape Worm Commando Raid Burgertime (doesn't seem like anybody digs the Atari version) Canyon Bomber Ikari Warriors Xenophobe Dragonstomper Home Run Guardian Stellar Track Survival Island Pac-Man (has to be underrated, right?) Millipede (maybe not underrated but it seems like Centipede gets all the glory) Crash Dive GORF Fast Eddie Marauder Squeeze Box Frontline Cross Force Submarine Commander Tac-Scan Miniature Golf Air Raiders Mogul Maniac Private Eye Marine Wars Fast Food Sky Skipper Megaforce Threshold Tunnel Runner Video Olympics Survival Run Montezuma's Revenge (not sure if overrated, but doesn't seem like a game that usually springs to mind when people think of the Atari 2600) Name This Game Bermuda Triangle Cosmic Swarm Room of Doom Wizard of Wor Infiltrate Stargunner Towering Inferno Gangster Alley Spitfire Attack Thunderground Worm War 1 Demons To Diamonds 🙂
  4. Yes. 😁 Even as an Atari fanboy, I have to say there's a stronger argument for that title going to the Coleco. But only slightly. 😉 I think of the Xbox. A suped-up console derived from PC hardware. That's a stretch. They're actually very comparable. I still give the 5200 version the edge because it has multi-color sprites and true analog Trak-Ball support (and even makes great use of the standard 5200 joystick!); the Coleco version looks cleaner but has mostly single-color sprites and IIRC the Roller Controller only works in joystick mode (which still beats the Coleco controller at least). Aside from that, the Coleco version is pretty great. 🙂 It's always interesting to see that cited as a reason that the Atari 5200 didn't succeed. Not that it wasn't necessarily true; it does seem to have been a common criticism in its time. But fast forward a few years, and nobody cared that, for instance, the SNES wasn't backwards-compatible with the NES. Or that the Genesis couldn't play Master System games without an adapter. By the '90s it was expected/understood/accepted that the next generation of hardware would divorce itself from the last. Because why shouldn't it--it's supposed to be better than last-gen! And now we've kind of swung back the other way again, where next-gen systems need to be bleeding edge but also do everything else that came before them (which is a lot easier when it's no longer tethered to physical media). You're describing the ProLine joystick. 😜 Atari 5200 controllers are pretty comfortable IMO. Certainly compared to the Coleco (awkward joystick), Intellivision (uncomfortable fire buttons), and Atari ProLine (hello, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome!). Eh, maybe, maybe not. If you were in the market for a computer, you wouldn't have bought the 5200 anyway. But if you just wanted something that played games, you could look at the 600XL and say "Close enough."
  5. Don't forget the Atari Corp. 1986-88 Picture Labels (usually with different title fonts/colors, and often with errors) and Gray labels (cost-reduced versions of the Silver labels). 😜 And then there's weird stuff like "Picture" label Star Ship, 1986 Hangman, and Raiders of The Lost Ark with the Sears-style end label, but I think those are just filed under "Special." BTW the "Atarisoft" carts are just Silver or Gray label cartridges with unusual alternate end labels; I wouldn't say they constitute their own variation, since IIRC there are only two of them. Similar to "Pole Positn" and "Raiders Lost Ark" 🙃
  6. "Absolutely pathetic" is putting it a little harshly, but you're not wrong. I don't think the Lynx lineup is bad, but I nor do I find it particularly compelling or memorable. Like the Atari 7800, its games are basically good but somewhat generic and bland next to the competition (with some exceptions). They're fun enough, but there isn't much that stands out unless you're really into Atari Games arcade titles. The problem with the Atari Corp. era was that, comparing to what was going on in gaming and what was being innovated on Nintendo, Sega, NEC, and SNK platforms, Atari was just kind of there, seemingly content with a participation award rather than competing for a trophy. They were the store brand of videogames. The Lynx has enough good games that it's worth checking out, but its library was nonetheless emblematic of Atari Corp.'s "store brand" vibe.
  7. I figured it was something like that, but I wasn't clear on which part was actually the antenna connection. 🙂 From the pic it looked like the switchbox was going "in through the out door," but what I could make out from the markings kind of suggests that the dongle itself is actually the 75-ohm VHF input, which threw me for a loop.
  8. EDIT: Can you post a close-up of the terminals and connectors here? It's a little unclear what is what with the 75-ohm connector and dongle.
  9. Cool, but I wasn't comparing their situations or the states of their Ataris. You called Jack Tramiel greedy and incompetent; I provided an example to the contrary. 🙂 Now, if you want to ding him for not supporting the 7800 (or XEGS) enough after it finally released, or treating his videogame business broadly as a means to finance his computers, I can't argue too much there. But credit is due where it's due.
  10. If Wade gets a pass for supporting the VCS when he doesn't like it, Tramiel gets a pass for going into his own pockets to get the 7800 and its launch games out when he wanted to focus on computers.
  11. I should give Amidar a spin. It's probably been eons since I even fired it up, and I didn't really get into it the last time I did, but I don't remember it being that bad.
  12. Great pickup! Especially if there are cartridges to go with those Stronghold and Boing manuals!
  13. No, but I like to read super-old threads from time to time, so I actually enjoy most necrobumps. It's fun to compare current thoughts and takes to what people were saying 10, 15, 20 years ago. And even if the OP is long gone, it's not like people here now can't have conversation. So I never did understand why some people are so bothered by necrobumps. (Unless it's some 1-post rando responding to a For Sale thread from 2005 to ask the OP if his $50 TurboGrafx is still available, or something dumb like that. 🙃) Right?
  14. Nice! I love the Odyssey 500. The only ball-and-paddle system that had player graphics instead of just blocks! (They were really just stylized, re-shaped blocks, but still. 😜)
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