sirlynxalot

I think River raid just had the meter continuously go down at a steady rate, so if you flew slowly this added fuel risk because then you would not be close to the next fuel tank.

Just had an idea for a product to exploit the atari 90s period. It's a Jaguar mini but included on it is not only Jaguar games but also lynx games. That broadens the library of games atari can put on it that don't require licensing, making it more affordable to produce, it gives a good flavor of atari in the 90s across both systems, and provides a greater value proposition to the consumer (wow I get 25 games instead of 10, etc)... And really how likely is it that lynx stuff would ever get it's own separate product by atari S.A. to exploit it's library only. I think this would be a win win except for purists who wouldn't want lynx stuff on a device modeled after the Jaguar. And maybe for the controllers they could use the same vendor starwander used for his pro controllers, thereby saving tooling up costs while delivering the "better" controller to consumers.

Radikal Bikers was ported to PS1 in Europe.

Cool. Love seeing these. So is the Hydra just a prototype of the cabinet design, or is the software itself a prototype that might have an earlier build of the game with it compared to the final product?

It's an NTSC system and theoretically should be an NTSC ms pacman cart. It kinda reminds me of the screen rolling I'd get trying to play xonox's artillery duel on 2600, which I think had some kind of aetypical scan line issue unique to that game that certain TV's couldn't handle well. Like I said I've successfully played many other 7800 games without these issues on this same console last night before and after trying ms PAC man (and then trying ms PAC man a few more times) so kinda leaning away from the idea that my TV is incompatible with the 7800s signal and leaning more towards the game does something aetypical with it's display. I'll also give cleaning the cart pins a shot today and see if that improves anything.

A lot of those arcade games you mentioned were made by Atari Games, which was operating as a completely separate company with separate owners after Warner sold the game console side of the business to Jack Tramiel in 1983 or 1984. I guess its all "Atari" to the consumer, but from the mid 80s on, the arcade stuff like Marble Madness, Road Blasters, Paperboy, etc. were being developed and published by a completely separate company that also confusingly called itself Atari and used the Atari logo. My understanding is that the current Atari SA folks are basically the inheritors of the game console division IP and have never owned any of these mid 80s to 1990s arcade games, so bringing those in could involve significant licensing outlays.

Here's an example of another gui/frontend for launching your emulators and roms that you might like. "Hyperspin" as its called is a little tough to set up compared to other frontends though.

I've attached a short video to show how Ms Pac Man runs on my 7800. Full disclosure, I'm using the RF connection on a circa 2012 LCD TV, so you might think there could be some incompatibilities there with the modern TV picking up the 7800's signal, and there is the odd flicker here and there in other games... however, Ms Pac Man is the only one that is this incredibly bad. Pole Position also has a similar graphics issue but it goes away once the car starts moving. All other 10 or so 7800 games I've tested out seem to be unaffected. I also haven't had this issue with a multitude of 2600 games I've tested out. So what do you think? Is this an issue with components in the console? my TV's issue picking up the 7800's signal? or the individual game cart being defective in some way? *Edit: The video doesn't seem to display on the forum so here is a link to it hosted elsewhere, though the site says the video will be deleted within 24 hours since I'm not a member so it may not be available by Wednesday. https://www.veed.io/view/f65724b3-762b-4d6f-b16f-f531cfec2914?sharingWidget=true

Honestly 9 games seems like a lot. And that's better representation than the atari 5200. The whole thing seems pretty skewed to 2600 games but I'm still glad to see this coming out. The lynx, 5200 and 7800 selections seem a bit weird but I imagine they are carefully selected to limit the games that atari would need to negotiate new licensing arrangements for (eg even if the 7800 port of pole position or xevious was made by atari, atari would still need to do a new licensing arrangement with namco to re release those games). When it comes down to it, Ataris original IP from the tramiel era seem a little weak. Scrapyard dog, fight for life, Trevor mcfur, fatal run, they might have been somewhat notably on their respective systems for various reasons, such as being the first or the last game released, but none of these games made a splash in the game scene of their time and none of them stacked up well against similar games by competitors. I think the 50th package will still be neat to play though. The idea of going chronologically through the timeline and playing games in order of their development and release while listening to interviews with the developers or other people involved seems like a fun concept regardless of the objective quality of the games themselves.

I also primarily used the 7800 to play 2600 games.

Currently checking out Atari 5200s, looking for a 2 controller port system, ideally with 1-2 controllers and a few games. Only considering units that still have the controller storage area cover, and which are in average or better cosmetic condition.

I fully agree. Atari was trying to market the 7800 as a way to play great versions of the "oldies", many of which had already been released across multiple formats. That was not a winning strategy against the NES and its large library of games that had countless new concepts and great graphics. Regardless of the NES, it was also probably not a good marketing campaign to attract children, who were the key video game demographic in that time.

I don't think anyone has developed aftermarket shells for lynx. You can periodically find shells for sale on ebay, I've seen a few over the years from gutted consoles. If the shell is worn down because the paint is rubbing off in places, you might find it easier to just repaint it.

Looks great! Excellent job developing this controller!

The lynx has some pretty impressive games. The scaling it can do is used to excellent effect in titles like road blasters and stun runner. There are many games on lynx where it seems like the 7800 doesn't really have anything comparable to it. Itd be great if the 7800 was like a console version of the lynx but it doesn't seem to be. Doesn't even really share design DNA since lynx was developed years after the 7800 by non atari personnel and then sold to atari.

Wow the difficulty/challenge really kicks up a notch after the first boss. I've gotten as far as sand level 8 but its starting to feel highly difficult in an of-the-era way Especially playing via the emulator which does not allow for save states and the need to play through all previous levels again if I shut the game down and come back to it later. I guess I haven't seen most of the game yet, but so far my impression is Graphics and art direction - A+ most impressive I've seen in a 7800 game, the graphics easy rival NES games from my perspective Music and sound - A+ best I've ever heard in a 7800 game, the music and sound fit the game and the music is atmospheric and sounds great, kinda reminds me of Cave Story's music Depth of game and replayability - A+ top notch for a 7800 game, countless unique levels and a 2P option that provides even more new levels, blows stuff like impossible mission out of the water The game seems to be getting very difficult as I progress but taken in the context of the difficult of other games from the era that this is paying homage to, I don't think its outlandish. I can't imagine that I would be able to progress that far if I were using a mushy unresponsive 7800 pro line controller though 🤣 This is the most impressive 7800 game I've ever seen.

Late to the party but I just bought this on steam and am really enjoying it. I'll save my overwhelmingly positive review for when I've experienced a bit more of the game (can get to first boss no problem but haven't beaten him yet). Just a couple gameplay questions right now: -Does the single player game need to be beaten all in one go? Is there any password system? -Right now, continuing brings me back to level 1. Is there any checkpoint system, like maybe after I manage to defeat the first boss I can start from level 11 instead of level 1 each time I continue?

Circa 1990 I owned a 7800 and played NES a bunch at friends houses. I envied the NES and smooth platformers like Mario hard. I felt that the 7800 was very inferior to the NES and didn't really think of it as a competitor or peer at all, I didn't think that the graphics, sounds or depth of the games were similar at all. For example almost all NES games had background music while the vast majority of 7800 games didn't. Many NES games had multiple levels with varied graphics that would keep you interested in the game for hours at a time, while 7800 games seemed shallower in that regard, like replayability was just based on the game getting progressively harder such as enemies moving faster or shooting more bullets while the graphics and presentation felt about the same. NES had a bunch of games that felt like you were going on a lengthy adventure through a big and interesting world, like Mario, Zelda, Metroid etc. 7800 didn't really have that, I didn't know scrapyard dog and impossible mission existed at the time but I don't think they would have impressed me compared to the NES stuff. NES also had all the games that were getting TV commercials and press at the time. Amongst kids I'd say stuff like super Mario Bros was way more popular and a much bigger draw to a system than early 80s arcade games such as asteroids pac man and centipede. For example, we talked about Mario at school all the time and watched Mario cartoons on TV and never talked about the early 80s arcade games. NES was also getting all the popular media tie in games like ninja turtles and Terminator, which were of big interest to my generation as kids. I was also envious of the control pad that was horizontal and used a d pad. It felt modern and was just fun to play with in a way that the atari 7800 and 2600 joysticks weren't. It was a breakthrough when I discovered, still as a kid, that I could use a Genesis controller on my atari systems. That became my preferred controller for atari games instantly. Owning the 7800 provided me with 0 social capital at school. I never met another kid who owned one at my school, and kids I had over to play were kinda lukewarm about it when we played on it.

Ah probably good advice. I didn't know the PAL console video output was substandard compared to the US machine even with a PAL tv. I should probably just put the idea by the wayside, I was mainly attracted to the idea from a collecting original hardware standpoint, as some of the rare US games are like $100+ while PAL copies are like $20... but there's a lot of impracticality to getting a duplicate console and hunting down carts when I should probably really just get a flashcart or emulate on PC for purposes of actually playing the rare games 😅

I'm pleasantly surprised with the quality of the RF on this TV. The TV is from around 2012 so things could have become much worse in that time. I was messing around in the onscreen TV menu and while there was nothing labeled as such to switch from NTSC to PAL format, there were options to both automatically or manually try to tune in channels. I've never done this so don't know if it would help at all with the PAL signal, but thought it was interesting. Crossbow, good idea on the flash cart and testing a PAL game on a 2600, but I don't have one of those currently. That reminds me, I do have a PAL dreamcast game that I could try, which I've always played with the in-game 60hz option - though if I switch it to 50hz for a test, it would be going in through standard RCA video cables rather than RF. If that setup works, it could suggest my TV has an unadvertised ability to support PAL in some instances... might try it out today.

I managed to find my TV's instruction manual and with respect to the antennae/coaxial cable area where I plug in my NTSC atari consoles via RF, it says the following: "ANT/CABLE—Antenna input that supports analog (NTSC) and digital (ATSC) off-air antenna signals and analog and digital cable TV (QAM) signals." So it seems unlikely that it would support PAL. I was kinda hoping in this day and age of globalization and greater interconnectedness that Asian TV manufacturers (in my case Toshiba) would just make their sets compatible with both standards so that they wouldn't need to make two different products, but in any case, that's not an advertised feature for my set.

I bought a nib lynx ac adapter from best electronics years ago. Interestingly, the picture of the ac adapter on the box (which is like a hand drawing rather than a photo) does not match the shape of the actual ac adapter.

I have another question that doesn't really deserve a separate thread. If I were to import a pal 7800 from Europe to the US, would the US ac adapter work with it and be an effective way to power it? Additionally, would it be likely that the pal video signal (rf?) Could be picked up by my relatively modern US lcd tv that has no problem picking up the rf signal of my US 7800?

It came out a bit too late in the DC's lifecycle for sega to seriously plan a DC port. Pretty sure Super Monkey Ball was also subject to an exclusivity agreement with Nintendo for exclusive release on gamecube for a couple years.

Wow, somehow I had the idea they dug up a majority of what Atari had buried in 2014, but reading the article, it seems they recovered less than 2000 games out of over 700,000 that are believed to have been dumped in the 80s. That's literally less than 1%! Let the excavation continue! 🤣