JB

Actually a crumpled heap with the word ouch hovering over him. I laughed when I realized what it said. ... I actually spent more time purposely abusing the guy in Human Cannonball than landing in the tank. I played under what I call "reload" rules. Select a mode with a wall, bounce the guy off the wall, and see how close to the cannon he lands. I managed to completely obscure every pixel of him with the cannon once(a perfect reload).

Hey! "I'll trade you my Quadrun for a spare PacMan."

I KNEW I wasn't the only one! It's amazing how many people forget that.

I think that's a big part of why arcade systems lost their appeal. Why go shove quarters into a machine when you can get the same, or even better, at home? Are any arcade systems using HDTV quality displays? All the ones I've seen still use NTSC. A few use higher-resolution monitors. Earliest example I know of is Hard Drivin'. Unfortunately, a standard JAMMA cabinet uses a standard resolution monitor, and most modern games are JAMMA.

Just remember, in exchange for the crappy ZIF connector and pads without integrated rapid-fire we got AV ports and SOCKETED CONTROLLERS. Yeah, 'tis a nice trade, but I still don't like having to work for my games. Well, my deck's been opened and the pins bent back out. Actually bent out too far, as it's no longer ZIF(UPGRADE! ). After cleaning the connector(both ends of 4 q-tips turned black, the curse of used hardware) it works like a charm.

Yep. Cool game. I remember making the tracks with all of the jumps that send you flying and just racing over the jumps over and over again. I wish Nintendo had released their disk drive peripheral in the states so that you couldsave your tracks. Do any of the emulators support this? I suppose NESTicle's save state could be used... Or any DECENT NES emulator's states. And emulators DO spupport track saving, but ONLY if you're using the original FDS version of the game. But here's why I wish the FDS had come out in the States. Japan: 5$ to write a new game onto the floppy. USA: 50$ to buy a new ROM cartridge WITHOUT the added sound channels of FDS hardware. Try FDS Metroid sometime. The music is so diffrent it's scary.

BTW, the INTV1's channel switch is on the bottom right above the legal boilerplate stickers. . Flip it upside down and it's plain as day.

Just remember, in exchange for the crappy ZIF connector and pads without integrated rapid-fire we got AV ports and SOCKETED CONTROLLERS. It is physically impossible for me to overstate how much I appreciate that second enhancement. Especially since one of my 2 original NES pads had it's cord severed and the other one is physically worn out. The traces under the d-pad are actually worn off of the circuit board. No big loss since I use joysticks almost exclusively on it anyways, but I killed my first Advantage stick too. Fortunately Toys R Us was clearing NES stuff out at the same time, so I got a second one cheap.

Well, I kept the manual open while learning the game. Mine was the 99/4a version, so no overlay(but it TALKED!). It CAN take a while to get used to the controls, especially if you're used to simpler games that only use one or 2 buttons.

Just sensitive eyes.

The ball in Video Olympics.

From what I've heard the vast majority of problems are because of that ZIF connector in the back. Sure it made for real easy insertion/removal, but as it wears it becomes a pain in the rear. A standard connector would've worked much better.

Where does Hasbro come in? They sold everything. They wanted out of games, and they got out fast. Dear Granas. Does no one consider battery life when designing portables? Why? I can see handheld VCS/7800, and while a stretch I can see 5200 compatibility being possible, but the Lynx has no hardware similarities whatsoever. There's no point to putting it in the same system, it just complicates things needlessly. Of course, none of the 4 can really compete in the modern marketplace, so it's not really relevant. That makes NO sense whatsoever.I'd even go so far as to say it's just plain dumb. First, you're packing 3 games into one box. The Lynx version's the only one that's gonna get played, so why bother? Second, this is a PORTABLE SYSTEM. A VCS/7800 cart is way too big for that purpose on it's own, but a double-ender? Third, what's convincing people do design for ANY of these systems, much less all 3? It's obsolete hardware, and from a commercial standpoint there's no point to learning 6502 assembly to see what can be milked out of the VCS. You. Are. Evil. Is it a handheld or a plane dashboard? Then the directionals better be under the right hand to begin with.

Actually, they received more support than the XEGS and 7800 did from Tramiel Atari. Ouch. Totally agree. And that was my point in comparing Atari and Sega. They both spread themselves too thin, trying to support many platforms instead of focusing on one "killer" system. Had Atari focused specifically on the 7800 and Sega on the Saturn instead of distracting themselves with the 32X and XEGS, things might have turned out differently for both. Persoanlly, I always thought the bad PR from the 32x's sudden demise hurt them pretty badly. Had they not launched it, it woldn't be an issue. But once they did they were stuck with the unappealing choices of continuing to support blatantly inferior hardware or axing support for a brand new product that the loyal followers had just sank 200$ into. Of course, the fans were already irked that new hardware was hitting hte streets so soon after their 32x purchse, but not as much as they were when the 32x died. It was really a situation with no good outcome, and whoever concieved the 32x should be shot. I remember seeing both on the shelves at the same time, but my memory could be hazy.... Maybe I'mmistaken. I was pretty sure the Nomad was a lot later than that. It did, but Sega was a global company and they were supporting the SMS heavily in Europe - even in 1993. Ah.I know the SMS is STILL a big seller in parts of South America.

YOU WIN! That's been my gripe with them since I originally saw them. I'm always suprised how few people notice that. There's no B+W/Color switch either, but that's less important. Having said that, they are pretty darn nifty.

I suspect the Genesis returns a signal on one of the pot lines, making Astroblast think there's a paddle connected. Astroblast was a dual-mode game. It could work with either controller, and autodetected which was connected. A signal on a pot line'll fool it into thinking there's a pot, which means there's paddles connected. Hence, it goes into paddle mode. ... Gah, beat me to it.

The SegaCD and 32x were jokes that never had any real support. 32x especially. The Saturn was already coming when it was launched, and most of the software development efforts were focused on that. A child could've told the 32x was going to be all but stillborn. That's really what hurt Sega most. They lost a lot of reputation on those expansions. People plunked 200$ down for a system that was basically dead in a year. The SegaCD was dead before the Saturn ever made it out. The 32x was dead shortly thereafter. Though they got more support than the Pico, which wasn't even in the same market. It was targeting the same one that bought Speak & Spells back in the day. Game Gear and Nomad didn't overlap. The Nomad was a replacement for the deceased Game Gear. It also came out after the Saturn. And they made it very clear it was just a Genesis you could take with you. Which may have hurt them a little, except it hit shelves after the Saturn died in America. ... Did the Master System 2 even come out in America?

My Toys R Us had the NGPC hidden in a corner of a glass case. You had to ASK to use the demo unit. OF course, I remember the original GB demo units. They were pretty deep enclosures, with the GB right in the center, and some bright flourescent bulbs pointed straight at it.

Legally speaking, the RF sheild clips ARE required. They're there to keep the Sega Frankenstein in compliance with FCC regulations.

I, too, have heard the GameAxe actualy works rather well. Regarding the PSP... The thing's a joke. It's a mish-mash of diffrent tech levels(a high-end graphics chipset coupled with a low-res screen and only 2 meg of video RAM?) with no real focus other than creating as many buzzwords as possible. Ona sad note... Sony claims the R4000 is as powerful as the PS2's Emotion Engine. The R4000 is approaching a decade old. The Emotion Engine is brand-spanking-new tech. Sony's engineers must REALLY suck.

YAY! MISTER DRILLER!... I like that game a lot.

Whenever the guy at the game store looks at you funny, just remember that he probably thinks Final Fantasy 8 was the greatest game ever. Having said that, there ARE some real gems for the PS. ... Some of them tanked pretty badly too, oddly enough. Lacked high poly-counts and FMV, and therefore failed to generate mass-market appeal.

That woudl've been a slick trick, and similar to what Nintendo would do years later later with the Super GameBoy, then later still in select GameBoy Color games that worked with the GBO. Shame Atari didn't think of it.

NeoGeo Pocket!... What? I like the thumbstick.

Correction: no one's coded a VCS emu for GBA that has been a) completed and/or b) released. There were at least three of them out there in development that I know of. Ah. My mistake.