karokoenig

Well... Christmas '82 - Christmas '12... it is an anniversary.

The manual is actually quite clear about how to get out of the holes properly. We played it as kids back in the days, and I remember finding it mediocre, but not "most awful". In hindsight, I actually find it rather good. As an adventure type of game, it had a lot of complexity (for 2600 standards), but at the same time was much more intuitive than, say, Raiders. Incidentally, I got a copy not too long ago, popped it in and almost won my first game, just from memory of how it's played. The AVGN movie is gonna be interesting in that regard. Let's see if he's just howling with the wolves or if he's gonna do a honest and through review. I know he's not supposed to, because he hardly ever did. Basically, he has it in his hands to bust one of the greatest myths in gaming history. Would be an interesting twist if he actually did it. And I'd love to see the faces of those drop who pay entrance to the theater, screaming at the top of their lungs "E.T.'s gonna be f'd up the A! That'll be so cool" - then not getting what they want. I'd predict a significant number of hate mails to the AVGN from those folks. Would I go as far as saying "with power comes responsibility"? No, that would be asking too much. Still, the AVGN DOES have a lot of influence in the gaming world. That being said... ...Happy 30th birthday, E.T.! You are not a supermodel, but you sure ain't the ugliest chick in town.

And thus, dear fellows, eBay prices for 5200 stuff will rise

Actually, my TV can be switched to SECAM. Tried that... didn't work either. Sorry, sould have mentioned it.

The B/W picture is rather clear, as is the sound. But only after I have fine-tuned the channel on my TV. The Atari Jr on the other hand is "plug and play" - meaning that I just plug it into the TV, zap to channel 28, and it's there in all its glory. I don't know shit about this technical stuff, but doesn't that mean the frequencies of the two consoles are a bit off?

Yeah. Usually, reviews of that system go "It's crap, and that's it". The games look pretty good actually. Definetly in the same league as (some identical to) Intellivision or the early C64 ports.

Okay, so I opened that thing, it looked absolutely pristine inside. I dismantled the B/W switch, cleaned it and gave the contact thingies a little more pressure, so I can be sure they connect well. It didn't work, though. The problem ist still the same. Any other suggestions?

Thanks, I'll try to clean that thing and see what happens. Any suggestions for games with which I could try if it's stuck on B/W before opening toe case? Something that would show a marked difference if you had a B/W TV attached and flip the switch? Shame that the console has this problem. Apart from that it looks absolutely pristine, like fresh out of the store, and everything else works perfectly.

So, I got this CX 2600 - Darth Vader, I guess - today off eBay. It kinds works... But: Contrary to my 2600 Jr, which gives me a crisp colour screen right away, with this new one, it's all "snowstorm". You can guess there's a signal, but only barely. I have to manually fine-tune the channel on my TV, and the best I can get is clear sound and a B/W picture. Since getting clear sound and video is possible, I guess the TV cable is not the problem. Any suggestions? Please be gentle and dumb it down for me. I'm bad at technical stuff .-).

Since you mentioned that game... only a few days ago when watching a comparison video, I thought "Was this ever ported to the Atari 2600?". If not, I think it would be worth a try. It would look like shit, of course. But the gameplay could be ported well enough, I assume. Sorry for the Off-Topic.

Was wondering what you guys think of this one here: Yes, he is deliberately being an ass about this game, but I must dmit do find it kind of funny. Certainly something different among all the AVGN "homage" characters...

Atari 2600 here. I was 7, I think. It came with Pac Man at that time. In hindsight, I am stunned that THAT game was capable of fascinating me so much back then. Played it all night that christmas, and rose at 6.30 the following morning, to play again. (edit) I did have contact with a Pong console or two before that, via my uncle. But those really didn't impress me so much, I must admit.

That database seems to be more or less empty.

Hmm... Shipping from the US to Germany is gonna be kind of expensive. Also, I'm not sure if I can run that thing on my PAL system. Shame. I'd love to give it a shot, just for shits 'n giggles.

Next question. According to my favourite retro (i.e. text adventure) database http://solutionarchive.com , the Atari 2600 boasts a stunning number of two homebrew text adventure type games: "Dark Mage" and "Fellowship of the Ring". Does anyone know... ... if these exist as actual carts? And if yes... ... how I can get my hands on them? And if yes... ... do they come as PAL or NTSC versions? PAL would be very much preferred. Thanks!

Very true. I find it funny when he tries to look like he's helpless when he has to operate a Commodore 64. Or maybe he actually is...? Could be. Damn console kids :-) Like your videos, by the way.

At least the cart seems to have been treated with some dignity. I recently got a 21 game collection (Atari 2600), and half of the carts looked (and smelled) like they've been lying in a puddle for a few years... that's the sort of stuff you can get here in Germany. Well-preserved carts are rare.

And if not, they can often easily be fixed, even by technical dummies like myself. The beauty of a simple system.

Very common games tending to get pretty expensive on eBay or elsewhere, just because they are actually good. I'm not much of a collector, so I'm not looking for rare games specifically. But games like Pitfall II for Atari VCS go für at least 10 Euro these days, and they usually look like they have been stored in a puddle for 10 years as well. I'd like to have that, but I'm not yet ready to pay that much for a common cart.

I wasn't aware of the "Holy Grail" checkbox in the advanced search. Found it eventually after reading your tips. Thanks!

Well, and from what I can see, there are no rarity informations whatsoever on any of the game entries in Atarimania. The forum there scores about a post per month. Am I missing something here?

Yeah, that's where I found out it's from Goliath in the first place. It's just not in the rarity guide here. There is hardly any information about this version on either site, so I thought I'd ask in here if anyone knows more.

Being the occasional AVGN viewer myself, I learned pretty quickly that it's a bad idea to read comments on the YT videos. Danger of permanent loss of IQ points...

Hey there, I recently grabbed a little game collection on eBay, and among the games was a weird clone of Time Race (which itself is a clone of Space Jockey). It appears to be a german release, by Hotshot/Goliath. The "original" Time Race was already less than mediocre, but this version is even worse. I suspect those carts aren't particularly rare, but you never know... anyone have information on this for me? I have attached two photos of the cart. Sorry for the bad quality - had to use a stone old camcorder, because I didn't have any decent equipment at hand. Feel free to use it for the Rarity Guide database. The photos, shitty as they are, are still way better than the game :-).

I already posted this in the site feedback forum, which was maybe not so smart... so I'll try here now. I was trying to add a little bit of trivia to an Atari 2600 game or two when it gave me a 404 error. Is the sytem broken right now, or are normal users simply not allowed to add info? Thanks!