Raticon

I have a really hard time getting excited at all over early handheld systems, and the newer ones too. It always feels like a downgrade in every aspect like graphics, sound, general playability, ghosting screens and the fact they eat batteries like crazy. I get that at the time they were revolutionary and people could live with a sacrifice of graphics, color and sound to be able to take the games with them anywhere, but i do feel they have aged horribly compared to their stationary counterparts. The newer ones got good graphics and sound if course, but still are hampered in many ways. I feel the same about mobile games.

Anyone? I have tried to email ATgames but i havent received any response and google searching yields nothing.

I guess people think so for the same reasons some people like the NES better than the Retron console that plays the NES games and a ton of other consoles games - a matter of opinion, nostalgia and love for a particular system. I kind of like to play my PS1 games on the PS1 and not the PS2 because the PS1 has a way cooler and more badass startup screen . Even though the PS2 is backwards compatible and generals a better system.

Do you take donations from Europe and does the shipping of carts work to us over here?

I would suggest buying a Atari flashback 4 or 5, these are new consoles looking like small 2600 units with 75 and 95 games built into them respectively, running emulators. They connect to your TV with AV cables and they are quite cheap, the Flashback 5 being priced around 30 to 40 dollars. They come with joysticks and can use paddles. Its a good try to see if you like the system. I got one and it got me hooked on 2600 and not long after i got a real system and a bunch of games. Its a better experience than playing the games on an emulator on the pc or on the playstation in my opinion. On a sidenote i am way too young to have experienced the 2600 as a kid, growing up during the SNES and PS1 heydays so for me it was a newfound love and not a nostalgic old love renewed.

Yeah, its my impression that he likes the 2600 quite much, but he's also more forgiving and positive about the games for the 2600 because they are so old and simple and many developers in those day didn't really know what or how to do stuff. Basically taking the 2600 for what it is. The NES games has taken a lot of flak from him on the other hand on the basis that it is a much more capable system and bigger and better developers and as such you expect more from the system and games.

I had the same problem earlier. Please look at my old thread if it can help you: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/225996-very-strange-colors-from-a-pal-light-sixer

I have a PAL light sixer and when i play NTSC games all colors are screwed up. I live in Sweden so my tv and 2600 are PAL. The green background in football Pong turns blue. The blue walls in Berzerk turn pink. Some games display only in black and white. All kind of strange stuff and weird colors can happen if you put a NTSC game in PAL console or vice versa. Perhaps some games are in NTSC american standard?

You will have to pay about 200$ for a light sixer, only console, joystick and wires here in Sweden so consider yourselves lucky. Even the bad games in beat up, dirty cartridges with torn and ruined labels rarely go under 10$ per game. Saw a heavy sixer for about 300$ once. It was sold immideately.

I have failed to find any retailers here in Sweden selling the Atari flashback 5 or the Intellivision or Colecovision Flashbacks yet. E-mailing them yields no responses. These are the same retailers that carried the FB4 earlier. Earlier this summer i heard someone mention here that they would all 3 see release in the US only and no European release. Is this still true? Are these things limited to PAL or NTSC standards? My modern tv can handle both, but my old fat tv i use for classic gaming don't. Would be good to know if i need to look to import from the US in some way.

A terrible shame they won't see release outside the US. I got the Flashback 4 here in Sweden and it was that very console that got me hooked on Atari in the first place and made me get a real console and a bunch of games, i even went out of my way (and my wallet!) to get a pair of paddles (rare over here) and a extra original joystick just to have a complete set of sticks and paddles to play all the games on both systems. To be honest, i am most disappointed in missing the Intellivision and Colecovision-flashbacks as i have never ever played any of them, but i became interested in them after becoming a member here. Sure i can try to get hold of a Intellivision unit but they are very very rare here, and i've never seen a Colecovision for sale at all, never mind finding games for them If the Flashbacks got an UK or Germany release i could easily get hold of the system and, in the UK case, an adapter for the wall socket since power is the same, the German one would just be plug and play. To get one from the US would mean outrageous shipping costs and the added nuisance of getting hold of a converter that alters both the plugs and the voltage to Swedish standards.

SNES units are nearly indestructible hardwarewise. Seriously, all the units me and my friends got when we were kids all work to this day. These things will survive a nuclear war. I find that most units damaged on the inside has been severely mishandled or opened up and tampered with by people who don't know what they are doing.

Im also quite curious what became of this. The result could in some was act as a guideline for companies importing these kind of things.

Many atari carts in PAL have a P on the end label after the name. Some of them have the P on the front label after the games number, like: CX2116P instead of just CX2116. Some have a small text indicating its PAL on the front label or just PAL in big letters. Source: my own collection

I have a PAL console and a bunch of NTSC games that have the classic issues with black&white, wrong colors and such. Never mix and match as they say. Your only hope is to get hold of a PAL console, as my only hope is to get hold of a NTSC console :-P

Same here. Love the concept but its simply not double for me with the screen. Maybe the kids of today can but if you are used to some form of controller with dpad or a joystick its not that easy

I just tried it and i must say i find the onscreen controls absolutely abhorrent. I do not have any type of external controller though so i dont know if thats better.

Lets just name them after prominent people in the leadership of Atari that made all those terrible decisions back in the day that had our beloved Atari die and later be resurrected as the monster it is today. Our revenge will come one "zap" at a time .

Necrothread record? . I don't have Dragster in cartridge but playing in an emulator with a usb NES controller i got something like 7 seconds flat.

As i understand it Atari sold many games in bundles towards the end of the 2600 lifespan. Both as a way to increase sales as people would get more games for less cash and as a way to get rid of existent inventory with warehouses filling up with older and simpler games noone would bother to pick up by itself by the late 80s.

Looks like the very same type of cartridge that EPYX uses, as well as HES. Mind if i ask you to if it has just the embossed rectangle on the back or something else?

I noticed that my EPYX carts like summer games and winter games come in a cartridge exactly like my HES Decathlon with the rectangle on the back. Could it be that when/if HES ran out of Activision cartridges for whatever reason they opted for the same as EPYX had for their incredible similarity with the Activision original carts? I mean, the EPYX and Activision carts are exactly the same except EPYX has the embossed rectangle where Activision has its embossed name on the cartridge.

I got it from an auction on the Swedish ebay "Tradera.se" where i get most of my games. The seller is located in Sweden, well at least his bank account was in a Swedish bank . I find it very strange that an Australian game would find its way to Sweden. Activision released their own games here in PAL as i understand it. More mysterious is the fact that HES that released this version of Decathlon apparently uses a copy of Activision cartridge as the embossed Activision logo is merely a rectangle on my HES cart. Very strange.

Bullseye! Thank you good sir! Still dont understand the embossed plastic rectangle where Activision should be. Mystery solved!

South America? As in made for the South American market or for export by shady manufacturers? Wouldn't they make games in NTSC-standard? I get that Brazil has PAL-M though. I have checked the list on AtariMania as well as here on AA and i only find entries for NTSC Decathlon. Weird. EDIT: Well, according to the rarity list here on AA there was a PAL release under the "White" Activision label, rarity 5. Still doesnt match up. http://atariage.com/cart_page.html?SoftwareLabelID=1029 So far the "South America trace" is the best lead in this mystery case.