A Black Falcon

Hmm... yeah, that's definitely interesting. Would certainly solve the problem, and while usually I'd much prefer original media, floppy disks are so ridiculously unreliable that staying away from floppies is kind of a good thing... Where do you get the Nano-PEB from, though?

It definitely would be nice to have VGA output from the thing. The composite cable is of course much cheaper, but that'd still tie me to my TV... with a VGA option I could use a computer monitor too, which would be nice, considering that this is a computer and not a console. On that note, as I have it set up now, no way could I get one of those expansion boxes, or any more sidecar things either; I have it with my consoles, and there's no table in front of the TV to store a big computer setup on. I don't have the space for a TV just for the TI, so it'd need to hook up to a PC monitor in order to put it on a desk. I actually find the RF output to be decent in quality, it's certainly not PC-monitor sharp but for a more than 30-year old RFU it's quite acceptable, but a way to use it on a PC monitor would be nice. That list of games is interesting. They all require several expensive addons to play, though, so I won't be playing them anytime soon, for sure; 32K RAM addon plus floppy drive? That probably means needing one of those expansion boxes, yes? And those things are expensive, and hard to find a place for; looks big! Also, how would you get the games from the internet onto a disk a TI-99/4A can read, anyway? But yeah, expensive addons for this thing -- VGA, expansion box, and such -- are on my list of gaming things to get sometime now that I have the system, but they're not at the top of it. I have the basic system, that can play the cart games at least... It does seem that there's a bunch of modern homebrew for disks that needs those pricey addons, but there are many games on tape that aren't text adventures, really? I thought that during the system's life (until '84) TI released most of the games on carts...

I got a new system last month, a TI 99/4A computer from the early '80s. Actually, I got the computer unit itself several years ago, loose for $3 from Goodwill, but I didn't have the cables to make it work, so it's just been sitting in the basement. Well, I saw some TI 99/4A game carts locally recently, so I decided to get the stuff required to play the system; I've been wanting a new system recently without spending much, and this certainly does that! The base TI 99/4A is a cheap system, and I got a pretty good deal here on it too, that's for sure. So far, I think that it's okay, but not great. The computer is interesting, though. It'll be better once I have a gamepad adapter so I don't have to play games with the keyboard, too... Still haven't gotten that yet. At least I can play games, even if the controls aren't ideal. All of the games I have play on keyboard. So, I got the system a while back, but to make it work, I bought a lot on Ebay last month for $22 including shipping that got me a power supply and RFU (both original; the brick is in the middle of the cord, not on the plug, which is great!), a game, and several replacement parts for the system that I don't need now, but who knows, might someday. I also have the Speech Synthesizer Module, which I got locally as a part of a $10 pack of the speech unit and some games -- yeah, it was a good deal! The Speech Synthesizer sells for a good $30 online, but I paid only $10 for that plus 12 carts, 9 of which are games. The system is a computer of course, so it has a bunch more accessories including a tape drive, floppy drive, etc., but for now I'm fine with just the base system. TI released most games on cartridges, anyway. The tapes and floppies are mostly for horrendously dated productivity software (both for the software and for saving data), and for text adventure games. I think there are a few non-text adventure games on tape or floppy, but most of the system's small game library are on carts. The TI 99/4A only lasted from 1978 to 1983, and TI tried to limit third-party software releases through most of that time, so it has few games, or anything else. Some of what it has are interesting, though, as I said earlier. One reason for the paucity of software is that for most of this system's life, TI strongly discouraged third-party software, unlike most computers; they wanted to publish everything themself. As a result, the system has a much smaller library than most computers of the time that lasted as long. Still, it has some good stuff for sure, games particularly. But facing tough competition, TI gave up on the industry and announced the system's death in the second half of 1983, early in the crash, and discontinued it in early '84; it was one of the oncoming crash's first computer victims, taken out by the Commodore 64's price war it seems, from what I've read. The system itself is fairly well built. The system, power supply, RFU, speech synthesizer, and all 15 carts I have all worked perfectly on the first try! Very impressive, for stuff that probably has barely been touched in decades. The system is a bit beat up, and I really would like to have that joystick adapter (because the TI joysticks are apparently terrible, so I'd rather use the ones that let you use Atari/Sega [sMS/Genesis] controllers) because the keyboard, while nice and clicky, is NOT a good game control mechanism, but it works well, considering its age and where I got it! I was not expecting everything to work nearly so well... TI clearly had fairly good build quality. The system does have metal on it, and the cartridges have spring-loaded protectors over the board that goes into the system, so this does show. Maybe those protectors is why all of the games have worked first-try with no blowing or anything needed. The only issue I've had with the system so far is that sometimes some keyboard keys stop responding, but pressing around the keyboard fixes the problem, so it's pretty minor. A joystick adapter would also get around this problem; I highly doubt I'll ever do much non-gaming computing on this machine. The RFU outputs via those two prongs that really old things have. I thought I'd need to buy a coax adapter, after testing it by taking apart my Odyssey 2's RFU (which is the same, but came attached to a two-prong to coax adapter), but then I realized that the O2 RFU has side two-prong inputs, so instead I screwed the crazy-big TI99/4A RFU onto the side of it. Of course both are manual RFUs, but it works fine and my TV recognizes it, which is great. No problems like those I had with the Atari 7800. It's weird to use a computer on a television, but I don't have a setup where I could attach this to anything other than a TV, and don't have a desk to do a proper computer setup for it, so it'll have to do. I have to play it with the thing sitting on my lap, of course. It gets warm once it's been on for a while, particularly on the righthand side of the system. It'd be nice to get joysticks, so I could just put it nearby (since menus and such require the keyboard). Of course, if I ever get the floppy drive addons (either sidecars that plug into the side expansion port, or the large external expansion box which looks like a desktop computer), it'll need to be on some kind of desk. They make the thing much larger. This will do for the basic system right now, though. For games, all of the games below are cart only. I don't have any boxes or manuals for anything. I will need to print some stuff out, because I REALLY need a listing of the system command codes -- hitting several keyboard keys plus the number buttons does various commands, and I don't know what they are because the command strips are missing. For those who know, I mean those paper or cardboard strips that you'd put above the numbers on the keyboard that show you what the hotkeys do; we had something like that for our first PC in the early '90s, for Wordperfect. One other thing I'd like is an application, the expanded programming cart that lets you make Basic programs that play back speech samples from the speech synthesizer! It'd be nice to be able to do that, but the built-in TI Basic can't do that, I think; it's overly limited. The speech synthesizer is kind of cool, but all I can do with it right now is hear the speech in the two games I have that support it, Parsec and Alpiner. I have 15 TI 99/4A cartridges. I will talk about each one below. TI 99/4A -- The Attack - This is the game that came with the $22 power supply, RFU, and parts bundle from ebay. It's got good music, but the gameplay is slow and kind of boring. This is one of several top-down shooting games on a sort of grid. You have to kill all the enemies to beat each level. Enemies come in two sizes, small or large. Small enemies can't hurt you, but if four combine they become a large enemy the size of four normal ones. The field is full of black squares with numbers on them, which turn into enemies once those numbers, which are timers, reduce to zero. You win a level once all large enemies and black timer blocks are gone from the screen. As with most shooting games on this system, the game is sort of grid-based. A tap of a direction changes direction, and then another press in that direction moves forward in that direction. You can also shoot, of course, and those are the controls. The game starts out VERY easy, but does eventually get trickier, though I imagine the keyboard controls hold me back too; the keyboard works okay for a slow-paced game, but once the action heats up... yeah, it's not great. Also, I wish the music played during gameplay, it's good. Probably there's a system limitation that made playing music during play difficult. Overall, this is one of the weaker shooting games I have. It's too slow-paced and too easy for too long. Still, there is some fun to be had once you get a ways into the game. Next I'll list the 12 carts I got in that cheap $10 package locally, along with the Speech Synthesizer. Yes, all of this plus that accessory was $10. The first three aren't games, but I'll list them anyway for completion's sake. Adventure - This isn't a game; it's a boot disc for text adventures. The cart allows you to boot any of the first twelve of the text adventures for this system by a guy called Scott Adams, which are available on tape and probably also floppy disk. Without one of those accessories, though, this cartridge is useless. Too bad. Early Learning Fun - This "game" is for very young children. Anyone old enough to read this is outside of its agerange. There's nothing here remotely worth touching for anyone over, like, age six. TI released a whole bunch of learning "games" for children, and this is the one I have. It's probably aimed at about the youngest audience you could get to use a computer. This super-simple, incredibly dated visuals have definite charm, though! The simple but oh-so-early-'80s visuals, and beeping sound effects, combine to make this pretty amusing to "play" for a few minutes as you look at the various modes. There's nothing here beyond that, though. There is almost no actual challenge; as hard as this game gets are some parts where you have to determine whether there are more of one type of item, or another very obviosuly different item, on screen, when there are only like 4 or 6 items on screen total! It's ... not hard. But the title is "EARLY Learning Fun", so that's okay. Music Maker - This is a music creation application. You can compose music for the system's decent built-in music chip, and save it to tape or floppy. Even if I had those addons, I'd probably never use this. I'm hopeless at music. Games from this package: A-Maze-Ing - Now we get to some more actual games! A-Maze-Ing is a maze game, as the name suggests. Real mazes to get through, that is, not Pac-Man dot eating. You play as a mouse in a maze, and your goal is to navigate the maze to the end. The game has a nice variety of options, including three maze sizes from small to decent-sized, one or two player simultaneous play, the option to have a few cats in the maze that will kill you if you run into them (so try to avoid being cornered!), invisible maze options if you want to make the game harder (the walls appear if you run into one), easy or harder cat AI settings, and obstacles in the maze. Yeah, there's a nice featureset here for the time. Of course your only goal is to reach the end, so you win the game each time you get there that's game over and you can then play again with the same or different settings, but it's decent fun for a few minutes. I've always kind of liked mazes. There's a LOT more to do in this game than there is, say, in the Atari 2600 maze game, Maze Craze! It's faster-paced and more fun than Snail Maze on the Sega Master System, too. The mazes aren't as large as Snail Mazes' mazes, but that's a good thing overall. A-Maze-Ing is very simple and straighforward in what it tries to do, but what it does it does as well as could be hoped for for the time. Hopper - This is a clone of Sega's arcade game Pengo, with a few less features than arcade Pengo, but still pretty solid gameplay. You play as a kangaroo here, trying to escape from your human captors on a cargo ship. I don't love Pengo, but this is a pretty good version of it. Pengo is a top-down action/puzzle game. You move around a screen full of boxes, trying to kill the three enemies on each level by pushing boxes at them. If you hit one with a box, they die. If they touch you, you lose a life. And that's all there is to Hopper; some elements of Pengo, such as the enemies pushing/destroying blocks, don't seem to be present here. It just gets harder mostly because of the increasing enemy speeds. Other than that, the main difference is graphical; Hopper is kangaroo-versus-humans, instead of Pengo's penguin characters. Hopper is a decently fun little game, but I don't know how long it'll hold my interest. The game is mostly playable on the keyboard, though, which is nice... at the easier settings at least, that is. As usual, it's tough to keep up once the speed increases. This game has no variety -- just slide the boxes into the three enemies, and repeat until you lose -- but it's solidly done. This is apparently one of the later games for the system, from mid/late '83, and it's nice that I have it, it's a solid and good game. Alpiner (Speech Synthesizer supported) - Alpiner is a game based on the arcade game Crazy Climber, except with normal controls. In Crazy Climber, you have to use one stick to control one hand, and another for the other hand. It's quite confusing. The Famicom (NES) version of Crazy Climber requires you to move one hand with controller one, and the other hand with controller two! Crazy. Alpiner's controls are better -- left, right, up, and down move you normally. That's the only control here, there are no other buttons. This game has impressive graphics for the system, with very large sprites on screen. However, the gameplay is REALLY basic, too much so for me I think. You are a mountain climber, and are trying to get up six mountains. The mountains are named for some large real-life mountains, but in this game you'll climb each one in seconds! Your sprite is HUGE, and obstacles are either large and very easily avoided, or are far too hard to see coming because you take up like a third of the screen's width and height. The graphics are decently good, and the speech samples are amusing, but I don't like the gameplay very much, it's just too uneven between the excessively easy parts, and the obnoxiously difficult and random ones you run into about halfway through this very short game. Avoiding the falling rocks when you're so large is a guessing game. This game could be worse, as it is playable, and occasionally amusing, but is kind of bad I think. The speech samples and graphics make it worth a try, though, it's amusing stuff to see. Hunt the Wumpus - Perhaps one of the better-known games for this computer, Hunt the Wumpus is a graphical remake of a text-based mainframe game. The game is a fantasy action-adventure puzzle game with three difficulty settings and a few other options as well. You are a hunter, with a single arrow, and have gone into the caves looking for the Wumpus, a fearsome monster. The game field is a single screen grid of round caves (rooms) and curving connecting passages. Orange circles in a room signify that the Wumpus is within two spaces of your location. If you run into the Wumpus, the Wumpus eats you of course. Green rooms have a pit next to them, so watch out. If you enter a room with a pit, you fall into the pit and die. Bats ... not sure what those mean yet. Regarding the orange circles, only rooms count when counting to two, NOT curved connecting paths, so in the harder settings which have a lot of them this game gets QUITE tricky! You'll need skill and luck to kill the Wumpus in the harder difficulties, because you never know for sure if a room or curving path is in front of you. Regardless, using these clues, you have to try to kill the Wumpus. You've got to guess where the Wumpus is, hope you don't walk into it because that means death, and fire your arrow at the space where you think it is. If you're right, you win. If you're wrong, well, you had only one arrow and wasted it, so the Wumpus eats you. The game rules are simple, but once you get into it, this game is both challenging and pretty fun. The graphics are also simple, but have a great classic charm that has aged very well. The "you win" and "you die" animations are great as well, as is the menu music. On the easiest difficulty setting it is simple enough to kill the Wumpus, but try the harder modes and it's a different story entirely! Unfortunately, as in some other games from the era, there is no progression here; just play single levels and see if you win or lose. The game does keep track of how many times you've won, gotten eaten by the Wumpus, or fell in a pit, though, which is nice. Of course it won't save this; I don't know if any cartridge games for this system support saving stuff to tape, but this one doesn't. Still, it's great to have a sense of how well you've been doing in your current session. Overall this is a good game, but it gets frustrating quickly on the harder settings -- it's just so hard to figure out once lots of curving paths have been added into the mix! This is a decent little game, but I can see it getting repetitive very quickly. Still, for such old game, it's interesting -- this was definitely trying new things, back when it released in about 1980! And it's still fun for a little while, at least. Blasto - This is a puzzle/action game. You have to clear a field full of mines, using a tank. The game has several modes and options, including one or two player simultaneous play and three screen bomb densities, Few, Average, or Many. The game has a strict time limit as well. This is a very short, but tough, game! At anything above Few bombs, destroying all of them in time is hard, and I haven't managed it yet. This game feels a bit like Combat but with mines. Squares on the field are either empty, normal blocks, or bombs. You can shoot in four directions, as always for the shooting games on this system. When you shoot a normal block it breaks, but if you shoot a bomb it explodes, destroying the eight spaces around it. So, destroying a mine will set off a chain that destroys all the mines around it. Try to think of the best path around the level so you get the mines as quickly as possible. This game is a bit too simplistic, though. Clearing the minefield is frustrating, and if you manage it that's it; there is only one screen. That's not enough, really. There is no AI opponent, unfortunately, but there is a decent two player versus mode, where you try to score the most points by shooting the other guy and clearing mines. It's a nice feature. I'd REALLY want joysticks for this to work better, though, sharing a small keyboard is no fun. Overall, as a single player game Blasto isn't that good, but the multiplayer is more interesting. It's still an average at best game, though. Blackjack/Poker - I haven't played this beyond testing it to make sure it works, but I'll probably play Blackjack sometime. I don't like casino games generally, but blackjack is tolerable. This version is pretty basic, with single or multiplayer versions of both games. The graphics are bland. Hangman - This is the only typing game I have (beyond Early Learning Fun), and it's kind of entertaining! It's too bad that this game doesn't support the Speech Synthesizer, for a graphical version of the hangman game in TI's Speak and Spell, but otherwise it's decent stuff. On the note of the Speak & Spell, yes, I had one of those growing up! Great things. Hangman is okay as it is, though. You can either use the games' built-in dictionary, or type words in yourself. You've got to choose the number of letters of each word you'll be challenged with, from 4 to 9, before playing. You have 11 guesses to try to guess the word. With each miss, a piece of the scaffold and hanging guy is added. Of course, once you've missed 11 times, the hangman has fully been drawn in, Taps plays, and you're dead. Try again. A bit grim for a kids game... but it does make you want to try again and get the word right next time! Anyway, overall, Hangman is an okay game. It's basic, but okay. The simple graphics have some serious charm. Chisholm Trail - This is another top-down grid shooting game. It sounds like a Wild West game, but looks like a shooter. Move around the grid, and destroy the enemies! The game has 9 difficulty options (starting points), but in any setting the game is HARD right from the start, and it's fast-paced too -- none of that slow stuff like The Attack or Tombstone City. I want a joystick for this one. The game seems pretty good, though. In the game, there are four colored enemies who shoot at you and spawn endlessly when killed, and black block enemies which are your actual targets and won't attack you back. The colored enemies have different sprites as you progress, but the black ones always look the same. The black block enemies start from a ring in the center, so you can see how many are left. In order to complete each day, you need to destroy all 16 black block enemies on each stage. Making things worse, you have limited ammo, so the more you shoot at the colored guys, the more likely you'll run out of ammo and have to lose a life, if you don't lose them even before that first. There's one last obstacle -- when you kill a colored enemy, its starting-point entrance will shoot a laser blast at you if you're lined up with it, so stay away from them and focus on the moving black blocks. Chisholm Trail is a grid-based game of course, but everything on this system seems to be, so that's not exactly surprising. You do have free movement, but it's all on a grid. Tap an arrow key to change direction, tap again in that direction to move a space. The Attack works the same way, and Tombstone City as well. This seems promising and could be a good game, but I can't say for sure yet, need better controller. The game is fun, but I die so quickly! I haven't managed to finish a level of this yet, sadly enough. The enemies are tough to avoid and move quickly, and shoot at you as well. The music theme is nice, but as with most games on this system, there's no music ingame, only sound effects. Very few TI 99/4A games have in-game music, apparently... oh well. Overall Chisholm Trail is a decently fun game, but it's very difficult. This might be the hardest of the TI 99/4A games that I have. Tombstone City: 21st Century - The last of these top-down grid-based shooting games, Tombstone City is the most complex one. The titular city is in the center of the screen, and it's a safe zone. It's a small grid. Around this are hordes of aliens, because despite the wild-west theme, this is a sci-fi game really! Future wild west sci-fi, I guess? Your ship is called a "schooner", but looks like a generic 2nd-gen space fighter. Heh. So, as in The Attack, the game has basic enemies which can't hurt you, and a second enemy type which can. These threatening enemies are the same size as the regular ones, though, unlike The Attack's oversized (4 tile) threat-enemies. They also move quickly, so watch out and try to line up your movements... or die, at higher speeds while playing on keyboard. Yeah, this game makes me want a joystick for sure. Threat enemies turn into cactuses when destroyed; the cactuses were originally tombstones, but it was changed for censorship reasons or something like that. Now here's the trick to the game, which you must understand in order to get anywhere: in order to beat each level, you need to have all cactuses on screen be in a location where there are no other cacti in the eight spaces around them. If two cacti are touching they just sit there, but if three cacti are in contact, the three cacti vanish and a threat enemy spawns and goes after you immediately. There are also quite a few of the normal, non-threatening enemies on screen in each stage, and more may spawn, but threat enemies will mostly spawn only from places where two cacti are touching eachother. So, you've got to look for places with two cacti touching, and camp out around there trying to lure an enemy into a position where you can kill them while they're touching them, to destroy them and spawn another enemy who you hopefully will kill in an open space. Once I got a little better, I started luring them into chains -- making a set of three, getting a guy to spawn, and then using that enemy to destroy the next set of cacti. It's satisfying when you get a bunch separated all at once. It's an interesting concept, and once you get used to it, it's fun. It definitely isn't a simple game, though, unlike most 2nd-gen games, and it starts out slowly as well. Tombstone City speeds up as you go, though. My first impression on this game was 'argh, I died', but with a bit of practice, I'm starting to get better. This is a good game for sure. These last three games I bought locally for $5 each, within a week of getting the system. It was pretty great that a local place had a few of the system's better games for me to get right after I got the system! Parsec (Speech Synthesizer supported) - This game is one of the most popular games for the system. It supports the speech synthesizer, too, which is pretty cool; it uses it well. Parsec is a horizontal-scrolling shmup, and enemies come at you a few at a time. Unlike some shmups, your and the enemy's laser shots are VERY fast -- when you fire, an enemy in front of you across the screen will be hit almost instantly, and vice versa. You really need to watch out for their shots because of this! Also, your laser will keep firing if you hold down the fire button, but hold it down too long and you overheat and explode, so don't do that. The fast enemy shots can be tricky to avoid too. This is an endless game, as games back then usually were. I believe that there are about 16 different types of enemies you have to face before the game loops and starts repeating. The difficulty gradually increases for a long time, though, so only the very best players will be able to play this indefinitely. I can't get too far, but the great gameplay, decent graphics, and solid design make me want to keep trying. This is a tough but fun game, and I can definitely see why it's so popular among TI-99/4A fans! The speech definitely adds something to the game too, and the action is fast and fun. It's mostly playable on keyboard, too, provided that I don't have to move forwards or back much, but you don't need to do that often in this game. Still, I'd like to have a joystick for this, I'd probably do better. One issue I do have with the game is the ground -- while this game scrolls, there are no actual obstacles to avoid, apart from the ground itself. Unlike, say, Scramble, there are never any barriers above ground level; it's just the ground, with its endlessly-looping terrain of rocks and buildings, and the starfield above where you ac tually play the game. You can crash into the ground if you fly down to it, but it's be better if the terrain had more variety, as it does in, say, Scamble or Vanguard. Too bad. The enemies will provide plenty of challenge, though. So far, for me the hardest enemy waves are the ones that come from both the back and the front at once. They're quite hard to predict. Also, as in some shmups of the era such as Scramble, River Raid, and Zaxxon, the game has a fuel system. You use fuel by flying along, and recharge it in recharging tunnels which appear instead of the usual ground loop when you're low on fuel. Getting into the tunnels can be tricky, so be very careful. I've crashed into the tunnels a few too many times... and they are also narrow, so you have little room to maneuver. Still, it's a decent mechanic to have, and probably does add to the game. I like the shooting action more, though. The many types of enemies each attack a different way, and this game requires good reflexes. This game is visually simple, but everything from the time is. For a TI 99/4A game, it looks pretty nice. The sprites are small but well-detailed, and each different enemy type looks distinct. Overall, for its time this game looks and plays pretty well, and it's more fun to play than I was expecting based on videos; this game is fun to play for sure. The speech quotes are also pretty cool. If you get Parsec, definitely also get a speech synthesizer! Munchman - TI's take on Pac-Man, Munchman is a blatant clone. The game has a few differences, to try to keep Atari from suing, but it's Pac-Man alright, and a good variant of it too. This is a good game, one of the more fun ones I have for the system. It controls decently on keyboard, too; you just need to move, no fire button. Instead of eating dots, Munchman (despite the title) actually works more like Crush Roller or Amidar, visually -- you're trying to pass over all of the paths. As you move, a chain-like line is laid down behind you. Once the whole screen has been filled in, it's off to the next, slightly harder, level. The maze is different from Pac-Man's maze, it's important to say, so this game isn't a clone, it's a similar game in the same genre. As in Pac-Man, there are four enemies trying to stop you. Unlike Pac-Man, though, each one starts from a different place. Munchman starts in the center of the screen, while the four enemies start in four squares around the center. They leave their little bases a few seconds after you start moving. Amusingly, the power pellets are TI logos. Yeah. One interesting game element that's different from Pac-Man is that ghosts eaten while you are invincible stay dead until after the invincibility wears off. Each one you ate is sent back to its base, and will only leave it after you're vulnerable again. So, avoid eating multiple TI powerups at once if you can, because it'll really cut back on how many ghosts you can eat! In Pac-Man ghosts will respawn right after you eat them, which menas if you then grab another power pellet you'll now be able to eat those. It's different in Munchman. I don't know if this way is better or worse, but it works. The graphics are simple but effective. This is a solid little game. It's entirely unoriginal, but is a good variation on one of the generation's greatest classics. Car Wars - This game is TI's port of Sega's arcade game Head-On, released on the Atari 2600 as Dodge 'em (Atari) or Dodger Cars (Sears), and also remade years later on the Game Boy as Head-On (Japan) / Power Racer (US). The game is a maze game, and if it hadn't released several years before Pac-Man, I'd think that it was a Pac-Man knockoff. Instead, it has to have been one of Pac-Man's inspirations. The goal of the game is to get all of the dots on the screen. The screen is broken into five ring-shaped paths around a central block. This game is much less dynamic than Pac-Man, though. Unlike that game, you can't move freely; all you can do is change your speed between slower and faster (hold the button down to go faster) and change lanes at the four intersection areas on the center top, bottom, left, and right of the screen. The enemy car moves as fast as you do, and if they run into it, you lose a life... and the dot field is fully replenished. That's right, you need to grab every dot without dying in order to clear a level. As a result of this, this game is VERY hard! There's only one enemy car at the start, or two later on, and you can actually win this game, there are a limited number of screens... but good luck with that. Even beating one screen is tough! The game controls fine on keyboard, but it's just plain hard whatever the controller. This is a pretty good game, but it's quite hard. It definitely has that "just one more time" addictive quality to it that a good arcade game should, though. I have the 2600 version and the improved Game Boy version, so I wasn't sure if this would really be worth it, but the graphics are better on the TI, and the game controls just as well, so it was well worth the low price. Good game! On another note... I would REALLY like to know how this Sega arcade game ended up getting a Game Boy remake from Tecmo. What? It released after the Game Gear was available, too! How odd. Anyway though, Car Wars is a good version of this little-known, but probably influential, arcade classic.

I agree entirely that the games' production values in its packaging and the boardgame components are fantastic. About the only thing I could possibly ask for is a little figurine for the heroes instead of a metal token, but that's pretty minor. However, I do think that the game is good as well. Yeah, it probably helps that I love fantasy as a setting, whether in games, books, or anything else, but once I got used to the weird lack of combat ability, I really have started to like the game... maybe the game doesn't quite live up to the presentation, but it's close. This is a good, and really innovative, game. Oh, on another note, one thing I didn't mention is that the dragon can only move in that empty horizontal strip -- dragons can't move around the whole screen, only back and forth in that empty strip shown in the screenshot. Must be a hardware limitation I imagine. Also there are never blocks in the strip with the dragon in it, but that's surely to allow it to actually move back and forth the whole way...

Also on my blog with slightly nicer formatting: http://www.blackfalcongames.net/?p=135 Quest for the Rings (Odyssey 2) Review & Gameplay Description ----------------------------------------------------- Front of the box I don't think I could ever write something that great. Quest for the Rings is a hybrid board and video game that was released in 1981. The game is a co-op fantasy action/adventure/stealth game, and for 1981 this is an incredibly interesting and unique game. Following Atari's game Adventure for the Atari 2600 in 1979, Quest for the Rings is one of the first ever fantasy games on a home console. Fantasy games were already gaining popularity on computers, with titles like Zork, Adventure (Collosal Cave), Akalabeth, and Wizardry, but on consoles fantasy games took a little longer to get established. This is one of the games that helped bring fantasy gaming to home consoles. It's also one of the first ever co-op multiplayer games I know of that isn't a Pong clone, a pretty important thing! Quest for the Rings is a flawed game, and there are a few things I really dislike about it, but there are also some great elements to the game as well, and either way, it is a quite unique title well worth a look. Quest for the Rings is a fantasy action/adventure game, and your goal is to get the ring on each screen. This might sound like an early RPG or hack-and-slash games, but it is designed to be more of a stealth game, from long before that genre even existed. You CANNOT kill any monsters in this game. Yes, you can die very easily, one hit knocks you out until the next screen in fact, but the monsters are invincible. Some characters can stun or warp around the monsters, but no foes can be permanently killed, unless you get to the ring and win the level of course. Yes, really. It's one of the most bizarre design decisions in the game, and I really disliked it at first, though you get used to it with time. THE BOARD GAME AND MANUAL Quest for the Rings comes in a large box. The game comes with a cartridge with gold label; a plastic tray with two compartments, the first of which holds the cart and the second which holds a lid that covers a space for the metal tokens and plastic covers; an overlay that goes over the O2's keyboard (on the system), to make the buttons you press during play (to set up dungeons, in the main game mode) look cooler; a thick manual; and a game board, which folds out into a decent-sized board. The manual cover. The dragon image is inset, on a second page glued to this first one. Image source: O2 Homepage article linked at the end of this review. PRESENTATION Quest for the Rings looks like it was inspired by Tolkein's Lord of the Rings, Dungeons & Dragons, Adventure (with perhaps a dash of Pac-Man), and a basic board game. It is both very familiar in theme, yet unique. The packaging has a great '70s or early '80s look to it, and it's definitely a positive for the game. This game has high production values in its packaging. The actual video game element is, of course, extremely simple looking as all O2 games are, but they did their best to impress outside of the videogame, and it works. I like the art in the manual and on the game board. The art is a product of its time, for sure, and it looks good. They clearly put a lot of work into designing the look of this game! Comparing that art to the ingame graphics, which are also pictured in the manual, is amusing. The game has a substantial amount of text in its thick manual as well. The writers did a great job, particularly with the names! In addition to the manual, every city and province on the map is named. Of course, since this is a fantasy game about collecting rings, it brings Tolkein to mind. While the concept is obviously inspired by Lord of the Rings, it's not just a copy of that story. The villain is the Ringmaster, a being who is the essence of the great Ring, which fell into a volcano. The Ring slept for a long time, and its Ring-spawn dreamed of the ten scattered lesser Rings. Now the Ringmaster is awakening, and the Ring-spawn's dreams now summon nightmares. The nightmare hordes are gathering the rings, waiting to give them to their master once he fully awakes. I won't copy the text of the Prologue page; get the game and read it! It's a solid fantasy backstory. Four heroes have set off on a quest to stop the Ringmaster by taking the ten lesser rings which are giving him power. Two players play as the heroes, and one as the Ringmaster, playing as game master. If the heroes gather the rings together before time runs out, they can destroy him with their power. You win the game by collecting all ten rings. This is a second-gen game, don't expect a final boss. This is the one flaw with the story; why does collecting all ten lesser rings automatically defeat the Ringmaster? This isn't explained, unfortunately. GAME MODES AND LENGTH There are two ways to play Quest for the Rings. First, you can play the full adventure, using the board and pieces. This is designed for three players, but can be played with two with some limitations. Press "Ringmaster" on the overlay (Space button) to start this mode. Alternately, you can just Start the game and play a simple arcade-style mode with an endless-until-you-win sequence of dungeons. Press Start (numeral 0 key) to play this mode. This is the best mode for a single player game, so it's what I've played the most. It's actually two player only, but it's very playable with only one person -- just have both controllers near you, and choose which one you want to use on each stage based on the stage layout. It's harder than with two people, but really does work great. Plenty fun. In either mode, you win when you get a total of ten rings between the two characters combined. You can't lose in the game; for that, you have to stick to the suggested turn limits in the manual. So yes, in the arcade mode, there's no way to lose unless you keep track of how many times you've died and stop playing after the suggested 100 (Easy), 75 (Medium), or 50 (Hard) turn limits. Again, limited compared to newer games, but this game IS a console game from 1981, and that board needs to be used for something; it has the turn counter going around the outside. I have mostly played the game in the arcade mode, because I only got the game fairly recently and don't often have opportunities to play local multiplayer games, but I really wanted to cover the game as best I can anyway; this is a really interesting game, and I kind of like it... and kind of dislike it. The game has some definite issues, but also strengths. In one or two player arcade mode (pressed Start instead of Ringmaster), a game of Quest for the Rings probably will take somewhere between 15 and 30 minutes, give or take. With only one player you'll be on the upper end of that scale for sure, or longer. That may sound short, but for a second generation game which has an ending, it's actually really long! Atari 2600 action-adventure games like Adventure, Haunted House, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and and E.T. can be beaten in five minutes or less if you know what you're doing. Those games are interesting, but painfully short experiences for anyone used to third-gen gaming or beyond. Quest for the Rings, however, feels like a much more full-fledged experience. I wish it had a final boss fight, but otherwise, this is good just as it is. Also, in board game mode, playtime likely doubles; it'll take time to choose where to go, talk with the other players, etc. Back of the box. Note the dungeon artwork, character and enemy art, and fully set up game board and system with overlay. BASIC BOARD GAME PLAY In the main game, the basic concept is that the heroes are exploring the island as they try to find the ten rings, which are hidden around the map. Players can start from any of the ports around the edges of the map. The map is a network of roads that you can move along that connect various spaces which represent the 23 castles and towns in the game. The Ringmaster, before play begins, places metal tokens that represent rings and stronger monsters underneath the 23 covers which represent the castles the heroes must assault. One metal token also represents the heroes. There are four for spaces with just a ring and normal enemies (Orcs and Firewraths), three for Dragons (with a ring), and three for Nightmares (two kinds of stronger monsters, which always are together, again with a ring). One cover goes over each space on the board. Covers have an image on the inside of them showing which level type you will face on that screen. So, the heroes don't know which spaces have rings on them, and which have dragons or other monsters beyond the basic ones. They will just have to explore and figure out what's been placed on each space. Once the heroes have been to a space, the cover on that space is removed. Players take the ring tile if they managed to actually get to it; this is not easy. Each level is a single screen. If any monster, or their attack, touches you, the hero 'dies' and is sent back to the map, but the survivor can keep trying to reach the ring. If the heroes get the ring, take the metal token; otherwise, leave it. The Ringmaster can move dragons which have been revealed around the map. If you get the Dragon's ring you take the token, but until then, they can be moved around. For some reason you can't move the Nightmares, but I guess you could make up your own rule to allow that. That's the game, essentially; it's a fairly basic board game. Just move around the space, reveal what's underneath them, and face that layout in the game. It reminds me a bit of Enchanted Forest, but with a videogame element and, honestly, less complexity in the board game than that fun childrens' boardgame. Within the board game there are also a couple of optional rules or modes they suggest in the manual, including whether to use the game master's 'Possession' mechanic (explained later), a way to play the board game with only two players (one player sets the game up, the other makes all movement choices; no possession of course), and the turn limit players agree to limit themselves to. There are no difficulty level options, but the game is plenty challenging enough as it is, apart from there being no way to lose other than running out of turns of course. As far as the cartridge itself is concerned you won't lose unless you choose to stop, but once you get all ten rings, the game ends immediately, with an O2-standard hard stop; you'll need to hit power or reset to play again. Now, in just about any game from the third gen on (mid '80s to the present), this would mean that you win the game by fighting the demon lord. This is a second-gen game, though, so as I said earlier, adjust your expectations down; the game ends the instant you collect the tenth ring. That's disappointing, but expected for a console game of its age. The two players do most of the playing; the game master doesn't do all that much once the game is set up, unfortunately. If you play with Possession, though, the game master can play once in a while. The game master can also move certain enemies around, if they have been revealed. Entering a level through the red fog. Image source: Mobygames THE VIDEO GAME COMPONENT Of course, this isn't just a board game, it is also a video game, and a decent one. You'll spend a fair amount of time in the game. The game has average O2 graphics, which I describe below in their applicable categories, and okay sound. The sound effects are basic and standard for the system, but the game does have some nice droning background audio. It does a good job of enhancing the creepy atmosphere of the game. It's too bad that this game didn't release a year later and get The Voice support, for some speech; that'd have been cool. Ah well. First I will discuss the levels, then the stealthy nature of the gameplay, then the characters, the monsters, and last the optional Possession rule. When you start a game, first you select your characters. In arcade mode, you immediately then go to the dungeons; in the main game, it'll now wait until the Ringmaster punches in a setup. Once this is done, you go to the dungeons with a nice effect! The square 'rings' around the character select box start blinking, to create an effect that looks like you're warping through space. The manual says that actually you're going through the Ringmaster's red fog as you travel towards your destination. Sure. You'll see this screen after each level you complete. I like this effect; O2 games rarely have any kind of screens in between levels. Of course, the game ends when you hit the turn limit on the board or get ten rings. LEVELS Each level is a single screen map, made up of large O2 background-graphics squares in a random pattern. Yes, floor layouts are randomized. Some will be open and easy to move around, while others will have a maze of walls to navigate around that make the enemies' task of stopping you much easier. Basic enemies are scattered around the screen at the start. Your heroes start near the middle, and the ring is somewhere along the bottom edge. Movement is slow, and the enemies dangerous, so getting to the ring can be a difficult task. It'd be nice if the mazes were more detailed, but one of the many limitations of the O2 is that it can only put squares or lines along a 9x8 grid; you cannot directly draw an environment onto the screen in any design you wish, unlike pretty much any other console. Still, it works; the mazes are as complex as a game where the walls are large squares on a 9x8 grid can be. Only two squares, in the upper left and upper right, are reserved for the interface -- this number show how many rings each player has. Ten total wins, but it's nice to see who has gotten more. The game takes up the rest of the screen. Many O2 games have a full bar for the interface, so I like the increased screen area the reduced interface gets. Also, you can freely move around the screen (albeit slowly), unlike the tile-based movement in, say, KC Munchkin (O2). The game has four kinds of stage environments. The art in the manual for each one of the four is fantastic, maybe the best in the game. There's nearly full-page artwork for each of the four settings! Small images of two of these are on the back of the box (pictured above). Dungeons - First, you have basic levels. Nothing special here. They have a set pattern and normal walls. These levels are often more open. In the main game, the Ringmaster gets seven Dungeons covers. Shifting Halls - Second, in these levels the maze randomly shifts during play. Essentially, every couple of seconds, the blocks move one space to the right, and a new row of random blocks is added on the left end. Don't worry if a wall appears around you, it won't hurt; you just won't be able to move out of the block while in the wall unless you're playing as the Phantom. These levels are fairly open. The Ringmaster gets six of these covers. Crystal Caverns - Third, there are levels with invisible walls. The walls appear if you touch one, but the rest of the time, they're there... you just can't see them, everything looks the same! The manual says that the caverns were built by the Windweilders with invisible walls, at the Ringmaster's command. These can be tricky. The walls are normal, just invisible. These mazes have more walls on average than the above two. The Ringmaster gets six of these covers as well. Infernoes - And last, the Infernoes are levels with walls made of molten lava. The walls in these screens blink red and pink, so they're easy to recognize. The merest touch on these walls will kill any of the heroes instantly, so be careful! These are the hardest levels by far, and have the fullest mazes. The Ringmaster only gets four Inferno covers, so use them wisely... or play the basic arcade game, and face who knows how many of them! Remember, in the arcade mode, levels will be randomized, but in the boardgame, the Ringmaster chooses the layout of stages. You might think that Dragons in Infernoes are the obvious biggest threat, but because of how dragons work, they work similarly in any stage. Nightmares in infernoes, though... those stages can be quite challenging. A Dungeon level, facing the Nightmares. STEALTH What, what about the action? No, this isn't really an action-heavy game, exactly. You can fight some enemies, but most of the time your main goal is avoiding them, getting around them, or sneaking past them. So, I'd like to discuss the "stealth" element of this game. Each hero has an entirely distinct role and plays VERY differently, so I will discuss the specifics how to play as each hero in the Characters section below. One can kill basic enemies at melee, one can stun or push back enemies, one can pass through most walls, and one can turn invisible. The best way to play this is as a co-op stealth game, I think. Think things through and take it slowly. You move quite slowly in this game, so that's not too hard. However, I find it frustrating that I can't actually hurt the enemies with three of the four characters! One hit kills any hero in this game, so even the basic foes are a significant threat for some of the heroes. So, I got used to this design decision, but I don't really like it; I expect to be able to fight with any hero, including a "stealth" one. That's how a modern game would work. But back in 1981, the idea that all players should of course be able to fight was a new one. They must have thought, why not make a game with so many limitations on its combat? Most of the players, fighting? That'd make the game too easy or something! Plus, this ways they'll have to work together. But even so, it's kind of frustrating game design. This is the kind of odd design decision that makes old games like this interesting; the designer(s) were trying new ideas and didn't know what would work and what wouldn't. This... kind of works. How fun players find the game will vary widely between players. There are three kinds of monsters: basic monsters, who can be killed; strong monsters, the Nightmares, who appear together and can be pushed back but are invincible; and Dragons, which are invincible and you should stay away from. All the invincible monsters, and the two heroes with distraction and invisibility or pass through walls powers, are why I called this game one of the first stealth games ever made, if not THE first. I guess that avoiding the ghosts in Pac-Man or the dragon in Adventure is kind of "stealthy", but this game takes that to another level, in a way that I don't think had been seen in console games before. I don't have great patience for stealth games so I find this kind of annoying, but it is unique. The closest thing to this that I can think of to this, in terms of games with characters with strictly defined roles, is The Lost Vikings, but that game is a slow-paced puzzle-platformer game designed around single-player play, as you try to figure out the puzzle in each level using the three Vikings' unique powers. I love the game in single player, but it's not as good in co-op, honestly; I like being able to switch between all three Vikings. Anyway, that's a very different kind of game from this. If you play Quest for the Rings you will quickly have to learn avoidance techniques for the enemies. Once I got used to the stealth focus of the game, though, I did begin to see the attraction to the design. Each screen is like a puzzle, and the ring is the goal. Can you get there, or will the enemies get you first? The Dragon (or is it Godzilla?), in a Dungeon. CHARACTERS You have four heroic adventurers to choose from, though only two can play at once because the O2 only has two controllers. The game starts with a character selection screen, and each player can select any of the four. It'd be fantastic if all four heroes could play at once, because they are each very different and have unique powers, but you can't. You will just have to choose which two to take on each quest. This does add some nice replay value to the game, as playing the game as, and learning, each of the characters adds some fun challenge. I believe all four of them are male, as far as I can tell. Also, remember that each hero has only one hit point; any touch to a monster or dragonfire attack kills you instantly, until the next screen of course when you come back. All players use the standard Human character, but with slightly different colors or identifying marks to make them different. Still, it can be easy to forget who you are, so pay attention. Whoever you choose to play as, player one is green and player two is red. The Warrior: The Warrior is the only hero who can actually get any monsters out of your way, so he is very useful. His sword is called Bloodeater, but for a sword with such a name, I sure wish that it could actually kill things! Ah well. Even so, the Warrior makes the game more straightforward when chosen because of his combat abilities. Without him this game becomes even more of an avoidance-centric game than it already is. When you press the button while facing left or right -- and ONLY left or right, a significant limitation, you swing your sword. The sword will warp the other hero, Orcs, and Firewraths to the right side of the screen, getting them out of your way. Yes, you can hit the other player with it, so watch out. The sword can also push back both kinds of Nightmares and even turn away the Dragon, though sometimes I couldn't get them to actually move backwards, just stop. They can be stubborn, but at least you can do something to slow them down. If you hit a Nightmare and it is stunned, it still will kill a hero if you touch it, so stay away! Also stay far away from dragons. Getting close enough to actually hit the dragon and turn it away is far more dangerous than it's worth, and iwll probably lead to your death. The Wizard: The Wizard is the other hero with an attack. He can fire a magic bolt, again either left or right only, which can push back stronger monsters, and will stun weaker ones for a few seconds. Yes, this mighty wizard can at best only stun his foes. Why couldn't they have found someone who knew Fireball? The game would be more fun that way! Ah well. The wizard is very useful because it gives you a ranged attack, which is very useful at times against the spiders and gargoyles, but the lack of ability to hurt anything is annoying. I know that since the warrior has only a short-ranged attack a long-range attack would be quite unbalanced, but having only ONE character who can kill anything is too limiting. The Changeling: The Changeling's power is the Mirrorcloak of Invisibility. If you press the button, the Shadow turns invisible. This sounds great, but he is actually the hardest hero to get used to, because when invisible you are, well, invisible. You'll have to try to remember where you are. Also, while invisible you move at only half speed! Yeah, the Shadow is a real challenge to play as. Still, he can be great against Dragons, because as slow as he is, it will often be possible to get past that dragon while invisible, something difficult to do otherwise. He cannot attack, so all the Shadow can do is avoid enemies and try to sneak to the ring. If an enemy touches you while you're invisible, you die. It's harsh, but that's how the game provides a challenge. So yeah, you need to pay CLOSE attention to stay alive as this guy. The Phantom: The Phantom can walk through walls. Only stone walls, though! This guy is essentially a mage who knows Pass Through Rock and nothing else. Hold the button down and you move at half speed and can walk through walls. This makes him near-useless in the Infernal Caverns, since he will die if he touches the walls. The Phantom does have one essential power in any kind of level, though: While using your power, enemies move towards the Phantom. This means that the basic strategy in this game, if a player is using the Phantom, is to get enemies to move way from the Ring with the Phantom, then go in with the other player to grab the ring. The game does keep track of how many rings each player has gotten on the screen, but all you need is all ten total in order to win. He also has no way to attack, of course, just like the Shadow. You must avoid the enemies which are coming to kill you. Fortunately, while you're fully inside of a wall most enemies can't get to you, so you can hide out, even if going out of the wall is likely suicide due to how slowly you move. An ideal party is probably the Warrior or Wizard and Phantom or Changeling, to have one fighter-type and one ability-type. Of course, the Warrior and Wizard is also viable. Phantom and Changeling makes the game a pure avoidance game; this is the most challenging combination to use, for more experienced players. Facing the Nightmares in an Infernoes stage. Image source: Mobygames. ENEMIES Orcs use the standard Human character that the players do, but with a different color. They are basic enemies and are warped away by the Warrior's sword, and get stunned by the Wizard's magic. Firewraths are basically red Orcs. Supposedly they move slightly faster than Orcs, but otherwise they're exactly the same except for color, and are the "other" type of basic enemy. If they touch you you will vanish (die). Spydroth Tyrantulus are giant spiders with an awesome scary name. They've got a custom sprite. These are Nightmares, and will appear only on screens or spaces with a Nightmares tile. Both kinds of Nightmares always appear together. These ones can be very difficult to get past when one blocks a passage you must get through -- while Warrior and Wizard attacks can potentially push them back, it doesn't always work, particularly if only one player has an attack. You can stop them from moving forward, but actually pushing them back can be futile. Remember, you can't kill them. Some hits will knock them out for a moment, though, so you can at least hurt them and stop their advance. If one touches you, it EATS YOU ALIVE! Yes, your little guy gets slowly consumed by the spider. It's creepy stuff for such an old game! The Doomwinged Bloodthirsts, a sort of pterodactyl or gargoyle or such, is the other Nightmare. These monsters can fly through the walls, so beware. Otherwise they're similar to the spiders. These guys have the coolest name! Seriously, Magnavox's writers did a great job here. They didn't need to put this much into the writing, but it's great that they did. They also have a great custom sprite, and eat you if they touch you. Argh. Dragons are the strongest monsters. They also have a custom sprite, though they sort of look more like Godzilla than they do dragons. These guys are a serious threat, and you WILL die, and often, against these invincible monsters. You can try to attack dragons, and can get them to turn around if you hit one in the head, but it's probably a doomed effort, because Dragons can breathe fire, and if the fire touches you, you die. Warrior and Wizard attacks can stop dragonfire, maybe, but if you chance it, you're sure to fail before long. If you move in a horizontal line with the dragon, it will attack. Of course, Dragons always are between you and the ring, so you'll have to find a way to get around or sneak past them in order to get to the ring. It can be tricky, but it's rewarding when you finally succeed. The writers even named each of the dragons in the manual, which is a cool touch when ingame they're identical. The three dragons are Goldfang, Scortha, and Mythrog. POSSESSION This is for the board game variant only. If you play with the suggested three-player game, after finishing setting up the game, other than moving around revealed dragons, there is only one thing that the Ringmaster actually has to do during the entire time that the two players playing as the heroes are playing the game. That is Possession. The Ringmaster has eight Possession tokens, and each time they use Possession, they turn one of the tokens in. Possession allows the Ringmaster to take over the body of one of the heroes! Yes, this means that the villain player can take a controller from one of the two heroes eight times during the game. You can lure the enemies to the other hero, attack the other hero, and such. Of course, if the Ringmaster touches the ring by accident it counts for the heroes, since this is just a controller swap, so stay away from it. Naturally, game element this can play havoc with the players' strategies... but Possession usages are limited, so use them carefully. Its great that the designers came up with SOMETHING for the Ringmaster to do during the game, because otherwise they'd be essentially useless. On that note, in the two player boardgame variant, there is no Possession of course, so maybe try playing with a lower number of maximum turns, since there will be no interference from your foe. The game board. Image source: O2 Homepage article linked at the end of this review. OVERALL GAMEPLAY As I said, I haven't played boardgame mode much, but I did play it enough to understand it, and the basic play is the same in either mode. Whether it's in the random generator of arcade mode or human-designed situations in the board game, once you enter a stage, your hero, or heroes, are dropped in the center of the screen. Immediately identify who your character is! The manual warns you that Orcs and Firewraths look similar to your heroes, and they indeed do. Next, using your hero's abilities, either try to see if you can get to the ring, or work with the other player, if you are playing in co-op. This game was designed around two players working together, so with only one player this is a tough game. Play it with a friend if you can! Even just the arcade mode, without the boardgame, is vastly superior with two people than it is with one. Is this the first co-op multiplayer console game ever, where two people work together to defeat computer-controlled opponents? I'm not sure if it is or not, but it certainly has to be one of the first. Finishing with no time limit is inevitable, but set a stricter time limit and Quest for the Rings is plenty hard! The monsters are dangerous, and death will happen quickly and often. Think, and work together. Co-op multiplayer games are great, and it works very well in this game. The very different powers of the four characters strongly encourage the players to work together. I wish you could play with all four at once, but ah well; the O2 only has two controller ports, nothing can be done about that on this system. And of course, most O2 games, including everything from Phillips-Magnavox except for Turtles, are O2-exclusive and never have any sequels on other platforms or any official re-releases anywhere else, so if you want to play Quest for the Rings, you need an O2. CONCLUSION So, is the game worth getting? This is both a board game and a console game, so it's got a fairly high barrier to entry; this isn't an expensive game, and is the most common of the O2 boardgames, but still, it's not something you see every day. But even so, honestly, yes, the game is worth it. Quest for the Rings is as frustrating as it is fun, and I don't know if I'd actually call it a great game, but it's unique, interesting, and compelling for a while at least. The game has a lot more variety than most second-gen games, for one. With a board to move around on, an optional human Ringmaster designing the layout of the board that the heroes will face and making things harder occasionally along the way during play, and more, the board game element adds some complexity, randomness, and fun. Videogame levels are much the same. There are three different types of walls to deal with, four different types of levels -- just basic foes (board game mode only; you won't see these stages in the arcade mode), basic baddies + ring, basic + nightmares, and basic + dragon -- and four heroes, each with an entirely different and unique ability. The game is challenging, and trying to make my way to the ring on each screen, or even regularly, will require skill and strategy. This is NOT a fast-action game where you just run around and shoot things! It's quite the opposite of that; this is a thinking-persons' 1981 console game, which is quite a rare breed indeed. I like that element of the game more than I dislike it, despite my complaints above. There is more to this game than many games of its generation. I know I've said this repeatedly, but it's a unique and interesting game, and broke new and unseen ground for a console game at the time of its release in 1981. Quest for the Rings is a one player or two player co-op (versus optional human opponent of sorts) fantasy action/stealth board and video game. It's like nothing else, and I'm happy to have it. I give the game a B, I guess. It's hard to choose a score. A good gameplay Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUPoXqqWAeM A decent video review, for some footage of the board and stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maBfOZQ2Cbs Good site for this game: http://www.the-nextlevel.com/odyssey2/reviews/qftr/index.php The site has plenty of great images, a few of which I used (linked), and says that "This Dungeons & Dragons style game was named "Most Innovative Game of 1981" by Electronic Games magazine." I believe it, it's definitely a very original game! This page on that site has images of all the tokens and objects that come with the game: http://www.the-nextlevel.com/odyssey2/strategy/qrings/qrboard.jpg A few more screenshots: http://www.mobygames.com/game/odyssey-2/quest-for-the-rings/screenshots

Oh yeah, I thought I was forgetting something... that's another change. One more that this reminded me of is that on the Sega model, the area around the AC power jack on the top of the system is red, I believe, but on the Majesco system it's the same shade of black as the rest of the shell. Unless you REALLY need a Master System adapter (the Majesco GG may or may not work with these) or (for some crazy reason) now-dead TV Tuner support (the Majesco GG doens't work with the TV Tuner), why? Other than not supporting those two accessories, the Majesco model's better! It's much less likely to have capacitor problems by everything I've heard. Mine certainly hasn't had any (yeah, my GG is a Majesco one, got it in the hopes that it wouldn't go bad like the Sega ones do. SO far so good.).

This is correct. That's the easiest way to tell that it's a Majesco system, those three colored ovals are white, instead of red blue and green. Just look for GGs with white ovals! Also, the Majesco GG, and Majesco's game cartridges as well, are made from a dark black plastic. It's a different color from Sega's grey system and carts. This difference can be hard to notice unless you've got both styles next to each other, though.

This is true. You can tell which games are dual-language and which aren't if you look at the romset. It's important to note that any NGPC can be set to either language, so for those games it doesn't matter where your NGPC is, just what language you have it set to, I'm pretty sure... Most dual-language games were released in multiple regions -- either Japan+Europe or all three regions, since there are more than a few games released in Europe but not the US (apart from getting those EU versions by mail order) -- but there are a few Japan-only games that have English on the cart too. SNK did the same thing sometimes on the Neo-Geo itself, too. On the NGPC, Big Bang Pro Wrestling is an example of this.

Huh, I didn't know that there were O2 controllers with square bounds... that would be kind of annoying, the ridged bound on the stick really makes a lot of the games easier to play. Blockout/Breakdown would be particularly hard with a square bound... or anything else like that one that uses the angles like that. Seeing the variety of controller variations is cool, though. I have the normal kind in the upper right. It's a pretty decent controller, for the time. Handles well. I actually got my O2 at that same store, a couple of years ago now I think... it was $50, loose (though with the original power supply and RFU), with seven complete but common games. Yeah, I could have gotten it for a bit less online, but it wasn't too bad, and buying local means easier returns if you have a problem with it... though the O2's been fine, no trouble at all (unlike my 2600 and 7800...).

No, the problem is the same on any GBA model, whether it is the original one, the SP, or the GB Player. You'll just have more brightly lit screen behind those darker colors on the SP or Player; the actual darker colors are the same. It's a color issue, not brightness. That's strange, for me it only happens on GBAs. Regardless, the solution there should definitely work.

There are two ways to get around this bug. 1) Play the game on a real Game Boy Color. The bug will not occur; it only happens on Game Boy Advance, Advance SP, or Game Boy Player systems (in that last case, because the GB Player has a GBA inside, essentially). 2) If playing on a GBA-line system, when you turn on the system power with the game in, do the following: A) Note: You must do this EVERY time you turn on the system, or else the bug will happen. It won't save the fixed status after you power it off. B) Turn on the system and start a new game (don't load your file). C) Get game over as quickly as you can and return to the main menu (don't continue). D) Now load your save file and play the game. The crash bug will not occur. Yes, really, that's what you have to do. I don't know why it works, but it does! BC: EF is one of the very best games on the GBC, so don't let this bug stop anyone from playing this amazing, amazing game. Other than not having to deal with the BC: EF crash bug, there are several other good reasons to have a real GBC! First, the GBA makes GBC game colors darker than they look on most GBCs. You can see this in many games, but BC:EF is a good example; the colors are noticeably darker on a GBA than they are on a GBC. The lighter palette of the GBC is how games are supposed to look, and you'll never see it on a GBA. And second, the GBA doesn't have the IR port, if you actually want to use that functionality sometime.

$40 complete? A store around here wants $200 for a boxed O2... and $100 for a boxed The Voice.

No, the N64 did come with an AV cable, not RF. You have to buy RF units separately. Plenty of people bought them, though, for TVs that didn't have AV inputs. I have several, which I needed back then for our TVs, though they're all junky third-party RFUs that kept dying on me...

True, 3DO boxes are nice, but normal small jewelcases... I don't know, I just don't really like them as a game case. They're too small, you can't fit much of a manual in those things! They worked for PC games because with the large box you could have a separate manual, but consoles that use those cases... I don't know, I like larger cases better. Plus of course the things are fragile and break all the time. Saturn/Sega CD-style longbox cases, like Novastorm uses, also are extremely fragile, but I do think that people who complain about that all the time leave out that normal jewelcases are no better, durability-wise. I like the look of those big jewelcases anyway. Anyway though, there I was mostly comparing cases like Novastorm's to those of other PS1 games, not to the 3DO.

Huh, so it's easier on 3DO than PS1? Why? What did they change? Because graphically it's no contest, the game looks far better on PS1. I also like the 'longbox' case, I much prefer those to standard jewelcases...

I'd like to get a 3DO... even though I'm far from convinced that it has many games I actually want to play much, I want one anyway. Collecting consoles is addictive! And there are a few 3DO games I do really want to play, most notably the 3DO version of Star Fighter. The AD&D games and Blade Force also look interesting, among others. I have some stuff for the 3DO (a few games, a controller...), but no system yet... I'd say the best version of Novastorm is the PS1 version -- it's two discs long on PS1, as opposed to one disc on all other platforms, and they use the space to increase the graphical quality and window view size. It's the same basic not-so-good game, but you DO have a larger play window on the PS1.

Sonic 1, Tails' Sky Patrol, and Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine (since it's Puyo Puyo), and maybe also Tails' Adventure, are the only ones that are actually good. The Sonic Drift games are okay. The others are mediocre to bad... apart from Tails' Adventure, Aspect's Sonic platformers are not any good.

Huh, Klax is from 1991? Didn't know that. Still, in the US, as far as I know, the 2600 lasted from 1977 to 1990, as far as new game releases go. In Europe it apparently had official releases until 1991 and had a third-party release in 1992, yes, but didn't the system release later there? 1978 is what I see, so if right, the system did last slightly longer in Europe, but some of that is because it released later there. Anyway, as for the systems with the longest lives in terms of officially-licensed game releases, the top ones are: -Atari 2600 (1977-1990 US, 1978-1992 EU) -Game Boy (April 1989 to July 2002, JP; August 1989 to September 2001, US) -- note that this counts backwards compatible Game Boy / Game Boy Color games as original GB games. They really are both GB and GBC games, but often are listed as only GBC games. The last GB-only game was probably in 1998 or 1999. 1998 US, I think? Maybe later in Europe or Japan. But the dual-mode games really should count, they play on a Game Boy. -Neo-Geo (July 1991 to July 2004) - note that the MVS arcade Neo-Geo machine lasted from 1990-2004, but the home system wasn't released until '91, and ended support the same year as the MVS did. -PlayStation II (October 2000 to November 2012 (I think?), US; November 2000 to November 2013 (so far) Europe; March 2000 to March 2013, JP. I don't know of any US PS2 releases since late '12, but I'm not 100% certain about that. I think those are the longest-lasting systems. So yeah, which is the longest? Honestly, the Atari 2600, Neo-Geo, Game Boy, and Playstation 2 are all very close. They're all in the 12 to 13 year range. In Europe the 2600 might actually win if you include that unlicensed third party release in 1992 and it did release there in 1978, since I don't know if any other system hits 14 years, but then again depending on when in the year that game released and when the system released, it could not actually be 14 years. Atari itself supported the 2600 for 13 years each in the US and Europe, starting one year later in Europe (though it is hard to understand why 2600 Klax and 7800 Sentinel didn't release in the US...), though, putting it right in the same 13 year timeframe as the Neo-Geo (US/JP), PS2 (JP/EU), and Game Boy (JP). All three of those systems saw their last releases within days to months of their 13th birthday in the regions in question, so where the 2600 stacks up in comparison would depend on the system and game release dates. I don't see any details for the EU 2600 release beyond just "1978", or anything about when Klax or Acid Drop released, exactly. Do people here know those details, or for when the last US 2600 games released in 1990 either? It wouldn't be too surprising if they are unknown; while in Japan all games ever released seem to have been recorded down to the day, in the US often we don't seem to know release dates for lots of '70s through '90s games beyond just the year, if even that in a few cases. It's pretty annoying sometimes, for someone like me trying to figure out when things actually released. Anyway though, in the US, the longest-lived systems are probably the Atari 2600 and the Neo-Geo AES, with the caveat that all Neo-Geo AES games released in its later years were mail order only, and weren't sold in stores. In Japan, the Game Boy, Neo-Geo, and PS2 are all quite close. And in Europe, the Atari 2600 might be longest, followed by the 2600 not counting third party games, the Neo-Geo, and the PS2. The same caveat applies to the Neo-Geo in Europe as it does in the US, though. Ugh, I see what you mean! Lots of errors in that article, found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_last_games_released_on_video_game_consoles -Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 was not released in the US, only Europe. Wikipedia's citation there actually links to the IGN page for PES 2013, from 2012... whoops! I don't know of any US PS2 releases after late 2012. -Pokemon Yellow wasn't really a "non-GBC" game -- the US box does have the "Game Boy" label on the side with no "Color", but actually it does support limited colors, which means it does have a degree of GBC support programmed in. DWM2 was the last GB game, though, since it was the last dual-mode GB/GBC game released in the US. I'm not sure what the last real non-GBC GB game was, though. -I have no idea if Moto Rodeo was the last 1990 release on the 2600 (and thus the system's last US release) or not. -There is debate over what the last TG16 game was -- it could be Bonk 3, as opposed to Magical Chase. Bonk 3 (US HuCard) is the only HuCard release with "Duo" packaging, which could potentially mean that that's the last game? No way to know for sure though. -The last US Sega CD game was probably Surgical Strike, and not Demolition Man. -I don't think Solar Crusade was ever released in the US for the CD-i, and it certainly wasn't in 1999! I have yet to be convinced that any CD-i games released in the US after 1995, in fact. In Europe it lasted until '99, but not here. -Why put the "but it was mail order only" caveat on Class of Heroes 2 (PSP), but not on the Neo-Geo? I have no idea what the last retail Neo-geo game was in the US, but it was surely years before its end, maybe many years; the system didn't last past the mid '90s as a retail platform in the US, I think... -No way was Creature Shock (March '96) the last US 3DO game! Finding release dates for 1996 3DO titles is next to impossible, But I think that the system probably had releases until June or July... Casper and Star Fighter likely released after Creature Shock. Maybe something else as well, I'm not sure. And that's just for the US section of the list. The Japanese part might be accurate thanks to how good their game release date record-keeping is, but I have no idea if the European or South American lists are or not...

That's a fair point, yeah. But if you can't afford to develop games for your new system on any kind of a reasonable timetable, should you really be releasing a console now?

I don't see any other good reasons being mentioned, though... Katz came in in mid/late '85, you said, yes? January '86 then? And did the 7800 actually (re-)release then, do you know that for sure? So the 2600 Jr. released in December '85, you're saying? Or are you skipping to Dec. '86? I'm not clear. ... They released the system in January '86 by what you know, then, but didn't actually get around to getting any contracts for teams to work on more games until "well into" the year, and none of those games were finished until the next year? This is exactly the kind of inexplicably bizarre thing I was talking about! I just don't get it at all, that's not how any major platform has been handled. I mean, sure, of course you're right that Nintendo had locked down all the best games, and of course finding developers willing to work for as cheaply as Jack required might have taken a while, but those are all things you should have done BEFORE releasing your console! Not months after! Mostly see above, but seriously, "Jack is cheap" sounds like the best explanation for this to me. Going by what you're saying, due to wanting to make a profit Jack was too cheap to actually put money into game development for his console when it was needed (ie starting before release), so they delayed doing so until some time after release waiting for a time when Atari had some money, and the result was zero game releases for the 7800 for the entire rest of the year after it released, in a year where apparently it released in January. At least they may have managed to release some of those 2600 games in 1986 (I've had a hard time finding definite dates for them...), but even if they did, though people with 7800s of course played plenty of 2600 games on them, those aren't 7800 games. Maybe you could get away with this in the '80s, when people didn't have an internet to check gaming news on, but still it's crazy, and it's kind of surprising that the system sold as well as it did then despite having no new games for quite a while after launch. Post-launch game release draughts are common, but that's one of the worst I know of in a system which didn't fail immediately. Interesting picture. That looks like most of Atari's 1987 library there, and they're announcing them as 1986 releases... but of those only some of the 2600 games actually released in 1986, and the rest and all of the 7800 games were 1987. What happened? Expecting a new console to sell while you release ZERO new games for it is pretty awful. Yeah, this stuff I know. When those 7800 sales figures were discovered that showed how well it had sold I know a lot of people were surprised... On the note of Katz though, most US Genesis fans think much more positively of Kalinske than Katz; Kalinske is the one who led Sega in its best days, while Katz's early period wasn't bringing them much marketshare compared to Nintendo's. They were beating NEC, but NEC kind of defeated itself... Anyway, Katz (as Sega of America head) has some defenders, but most probably think that Kalinske was much better.

As I said earlier in the thread, the problem I have with this story is that I can't think of even one possible decent excuse for why, if this is all true, there wasn't one single new, post-GCC 1984-launch, game released for the 7800 until sometime in 1987. You say here that he got Katz in September 1985? So when was the 7800's re-launch then, sometime in early or mid '86? And then... absolutely nothing for the better part of a year, until finally in 1987 they re-launch all of the 1984/1986 games with the spring-loaded cart edge connectors removed, and finally start releasing a few new games. It's completely bizarre, you can't release nothing new for a year and expect your console to compete! Atari was lucky that the 7800 did as well as it did. Nostalgia and very low prices managed to bring them some success even while the software library was thin and dated. The only excuse that this thread has really come up for to explain it is, I think, just that Jack Tramiel was just that cheap... but I just find this so weird. I can't think of any other even remotely major console which was released and then had no new games for the better part of a year, and managed to sell okay-ish anyway!

Well, when exactly in 1986 did the 7800 release? I see Wikipedia says January, GameFAQs June, and likely as not they're probably both wrong... so does anyone know when it was? Because as I said, as far as I know, the only games released in 1986 were the games that were finished in 1984, and nothing else. I presume that they were all available at launch; it seems likely, since they were all done (though is there any proof otherwise?). Unless it was actually like December '86, then, this means that after launch, Atari released exactly nothing for the 7800 for somewhere between six months and a year, before finally in 1987 releasing their first few new games. Not even anything new for Christmas? I know Tramiel Atari had little money, but that's hard to excuse. Yeah. Yeah, Atari had a good point when they sued Nintendo over those agreements... but as Nintendo surely knew, any such legal decision would inevitably come far too late to matter in the console race that generation. But even without that, convincing Japanese third parties to give decent software support to the 7800 would be very difficult in any scenario. Japanese gaming companies have always cared the most about their home market. Yeah, I focused on Tengen (Atari Games) because they actually did make some good NES games during that period, such as Gauntlet, Paperboy, Toobin', Super Sprint, Tengen Tetris, and such. And of course they also published a bunch of Sega and Namco games, but who knows if they could have done anything like that on the 7800; they wouldn't ghave Japanese games to base them on and it's not on the same platform, after all. I don't think Tengen had any real big system-sellers, though.... I mean, I really love Gauntlet, but I can't see it selling consoles over Mario, if Atari had been whole and only releasing their games on Atari systems. And as you say, the rest of the Western third parties on consoles in the late '80s weren't much to speak of. At that time the good Western developers were almost all working on computer games, and a few on arcades. Not consoles. Well, 7800 build quality isn't great for sure, but the NES has its problems too ("ZIF" connector!)... but yeah, the 7800 does look and feel cheaper, at least, and the controller, while okay, certainly isn't as good. And why did the US never get the gamepad controller? Odd decision there. So you're saying he was too poor to support his console? If you're too poor to release your system, should you even be releasing it... but on the other hand, in '87 to '90 he managed to fund a few games a year for it. Why couldn't that have started in 1986?

The main issue I have with this version of events is that I can't understand why it took Tramiel's Atari to actually start making new GAMES for their console! I mean, Tramiel bought Atari, and, according to this story which is the accepted one on Atari-Age, really did want to release the 7800. Okay. But, he got into a long fight with GCC first instead, and thus was only able to release it sometime in 1986. Alright. But... even considering that, I find the release list beyond mystifying. I know that most of Atari's remaining game programmers surely stayed with arcade Atari, not Tramiel's home company, but if you are going to release a console, you need games for it. It's not optional, it's a requirement. And yet, as far as I know, Tramiel did not release one new games for the 7800 in 1986! Inst4ead, that year's release library -- the games with the spring-loaded cart protectors in them and 1986 copyright dates on them (it's too bad they removed them later, they're nice!) -- are all, ALL, games designed by GCC back in 1984. Every single one, I think. The first original titles didn't start appearing until 1987, and even then the release library was extremely thin and didn't improve. I know that Atari was losing lots of money and Tramiel was focused on profits and not actually getting the most out of the 7800, but still, not developing any games at all for your new console until the year after you release it (not counting the test market!) is ridiculous. And when you consider that if he really was planning to release the 7800 from when he bought Atari he should have been planning for that from the beginning, from when he bought the company, instead of finally getting around to getting some new software in 1987 or so, it makes it even worse. As has been; said the 1985 test-market went alright, probably. Sure, the NES wasn't available in most markets until sometime in 1986, and wasn't really popular until 1987, but it WAS available in a few markets in fall 1985 and early 1986, and it did okay to well in them. There is a clear difference there between it and the 7800, which launched a bit later. Of course the 7800 did see some initial success, before fading out as the NES crushed it, but still, the NES launched first and at least some people knew it. Also of course, the above is important -- the NES quickly got a far larger library! Yeah, Nintendo worked very hard to get stores to carry the NES -- guarantees, suing R.O.B. to get it into stores that otherwise wouldn't have carried a videogame console, etc. And that work paid off. I doubt that. I mean, yes, it could have certainly had plenty of Western game support. But Japanese support? That would only have come in any significant amount if either the 7800 actually released there and did okay-ish, or Japanese third parties decided to support the thing even though it was nonexistent at home. Both of those things seem unlikely to me, and the problem with that is, most of the popular NES games were Japanese. So yeah, I'm sure that a 7800 say from a unified Atari with better marketing could have had much greater success than it had, and could have gotten games from major Western studios like Tengen (which, if Atari hadn't split up, would have been first-party of course), Activision, Acclaim, Ocean, Color Dreams, and the like... but Tengen aside, that's not much of a list. Yeah, having stuff like Gauntlet and Paperboy potentially exclusive would have helped the 7800 for sure, but they'd still need an answer to the NES games from Nintendo, Capcom, Konami, etc. And 'the NES is never released in the US at all'? I doubt that, Nintendo was determined to get it out somehow. But regardless, I think that getting much Japanese game support for the 7800 would have been difficult at best.

The PCE Super CD drive does indeed have bad capacitors in it, just like the PC Engine/Turbo Duo and the TurboExpress/PC Engine GT. Other PCE/TG16 models don't have bad caps, but those three do. Those capacitors will need to be replaced (there's plenty of info about all cap replacements on PC Engine FX forums, if you haven't looked there). As for the original PC Engine/Turbo CD drive, its main problem is that there's a gear in the drive mechanism which falls apart. Fortunately this can be replaced, several different ways (again PCEFX has the info/gear replacements). They don't have the bad cap problems, though, so I'd think that it's a much less problematic issue... I mean, just replace that gera, and maybe also the laser if that's gone bad as mine did (fortunately you can still get replacements), and you're probably set.