Skippy B. Coyote
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Posts posted by Skippy B. Coyote
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Awesome.
Again, I don't think we thank you enough, thegoldenband. This tracker is really an awesome deal every week, and I know it is a labor of love maintaining it. Things like this make our hobbies worthwhile.
Thanks.
I couldn't agree more! Ever since I started participating in this tracker I've noticed that I always feel more excited to play video games, and that I end up playing a larger variety of games than I used to. I often look back at what I played the previous week and decide what I'm going to play this week based off that, rotating systems and game genres regularly. All the hard work that thegoldenband does on this tracker has really breathed new life into my favorite pastime, giving it some structure and giving me motivation to keep the games I play fresh and varied.
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It's been a while since I updated this thread, so here's a look at my newly acquired Centipede themed 60-in-1 bartop arcade machine from http://doxcade.com:
And an updated look at the retro gaming center while I'm at it.
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As someone who loves their Game Boy Camera and still takes pictures with it regularly, I will be placing an order for this amazing bit of kit on the 1st of next month: http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2015/10/hardware_review_bitboy_lets_you_back_up_your_game_boy_camera_snaps_with_ease
The BitBoy is little on the pricey side, but it's by far the best solution ever created for transferring photos from a Game Boy Camera to a modern computer!
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Atari 2600, Game Boy, and Game Boy Color for me.
There are enormous quantities of great games that can be purchased for $3 to $5 each on all three of those systems. The NES is actually pretty budget friendly too for the most part, with the majority games outside of the mainstay first-party Nintendo franchises (Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Kirby, Punch-Out!!, etc.) and some of the big name third-party ones (Mega Man, Contra, Castlevania, Final Fantasy, etc.) going for around $5 to $10 these days. The most popular NES games, such as ones in the franchises I just mentioned, have gotten a bit pricey at $20 to $30 on average; but there's still dozens if not hundreds of great quality lesser known titles to be found on the old gray toaster. -
Hey there everyone!
Those of you who have been following my posts in the Arcade and Pinball section of the AtariAge.com forums may have noticed that since last July I have been on a bit of a quest to find a custom arcade cabinet maker willing to build my "dream machine". What I was looking for was a bartop sized recreation of a Centipede arcade cabinet, with an LCD monitor, iCade 60-in-1 board installed, backlit marquee, authentic looking bezel art, and joystick + trackball controls. What followed was several months of shopping around online, contacting various websites that specialized in making scratch-built bartop arcade machines. I must have contacted nearly a dozen different sites, and all of them quoted me prices of anywhere from $800 to $1,200 before shipping costs. All but one that is.
When I contacted http://doxcade.com and told them what I was looking for, the price I was quoted was an astonishingly affordable $440 + $35 shipping to Minnesota. Being a disabled person living on a fixed income all the other prices I was quoted were way out of my price range, but with a little careful budgeting this was one that I could definitely swing. While DoxCade didn't have any renown in the arcade machine community, and I couldn't find a single review of their products anywhere online, I decided to roll the dice on them anyway since if worst came worst the purchase would be covered under PayPal's buyer protection policy.
Approximately one month later, and after no small amount of picky feedback and change requests regarding the color choices for the base, controls, and marquee on my part (I really was probably the pickiest and most detail obsessed buyer that this poor craftsman had ever had to deal with, to the point that he actually ended up selling the Centipede machine he built for me on eBay and made me a second entirely new one built to my exact specifications free of charge. What a saint!), this arrived on my doorstep:
So how did this budget priced custom arcade machine turn out? Was it worth the money? To find out I'm going to be evaluating on five different factors: Appearance, Build Quality, Controls, Games, and Overall Value. That said, let's get started!
Appearance
As you can see from the pictures above, it's a lovely looking bartop that is strikingly similar in aesthetics to the original Centipede cabinet. There hasn't been a single person I've shown it to so far who didn't instantly recognize it as a Centipede arcade machine after one look at the side art, and a good number of those people definitely were not people that anyone would consider a "gamer". When your grandma could tell what arcade cabinet it's styled after just by glancing at it that's always a good indicator of authenticity.
Bigger fans of arcade games will notice some inaccuracy in the control panel layout, particularly in the location of the trackball, but that was just the price of trying to squeeze a trackball into the control panel of a 23" tall bartop. You can't tell from the outside, but the trackball mounting plate underneath the control panel artwork takes up the entire panel to the right of the three fire buttons. Speaking of artwork, all the artwork used for the sides, marquee, bezel, and control panel looks fantastic. It's all very high resolution, extremely authentic looking, and printed on some seriously thick and heavy duty vinyl. The marquee is well lit by a strip of white LED lights behind it, and in low light the whole thing just lights up like a Christmas tree. The picture above that was taken in the dark really doesn't do justice, as it looks much brighter and more vibrant in real life. The back of the cabinet is also very aesthetically pleasing, with a neat little Pac-Man style cutout and dots for ventilation, and the black paint covering every part of the cabinet that doesn't have vinyl artwork on it was spread very evenly, with no detectable brush strokes, missed spots, or pooling. All in all I'm really pleased with this cabinet in the Appearance category. No complaints whatsoever.
Build Quality
Weighing in at 35 lbs. and constructed entirely from 1/2" MDF, this thing feels rock solid! There are four heavy duty rubber feet on the bottom of the cabinet that prevent it from moving even a millimeter no matter how aggressive you get with the joystick, and when your hands are resting on the control panel it really does feel like an honest to goodness arcade machine. I have no concerns whatsoever about how well this machine is going to hold up to the long years of daily use ahead of it, and I really like how the whole cabinet was designed to be user serviceable in the event that any of the electronic components ever need replacing.
Accessing the joystick and button microswitches is as simple as unscrewing the two phillips head screws on the top of the control panel and lifting a panel up, and getting at the LCD monitor, JAMMA board, power supply, and other electronic components can be done by removing the two screws on each side of the cabinet then sliding the entire back panel of the cabinet out. The mono speaker and LED strip backlighting the marquee can be accessed by unscrewing the three screws on top of the cabinet, lifting off the marquee retaining bracket, then sliding out the acrylic marquee. The whole cabinet seems to have been designed with easy long term maintenance in mind, which is a very good thing in my book.
The only fault I could really find with the build quality is that there could have been a little more attention to detail in certain areas when the cabinet was assembled. When it first arrived in the mail the LCD monitor was about 1/4" off center and the marquee was aligned crookedly, but fortunately both of those were very quick and easy fixes using nothing more than a phillips head screwdriver. All it took was loosening a few screws, straightening out the marquee and monitor by hand, then tightening the screws back down. The only alignment issue I found that couldn't be fixed was that the front black baseboard of the cabinet seems to have not been cut to quite right height, since there a slightly uneven 1/8" gap between the top of the baseboard and the bottom of the control panel. It's not a major aesthetic issue to me, and it doesn't affect the function of the cabinet at all, but it is something that I do think could have been avoided with a little more attention to detail. Another detail that's off by about 1/8" is the centering of the vinyl artwork on the control panel. It's not very noticeable unless you look at the positioning of the 1 Player and 2 Player Start button graphics or the locations of the two screws securing the control panel to the cabinet base, but a keen eye will notice that the vinyl was applied about 1/8" left of center. Close examination also reveals a slightly uneven cut on the edges of the side art vinyls that is a little jagged in a couple spots, and a very small chunk broken out of one of the corners of the marquee retaining bracket on top of the cabinet.
In spite of the small handful of cosmetic flaws, I do think the overall Build Quality of the cabinet is very solid and well thought out. I have no doubt that it will last a lifetime of use.
Controls
Second only to the games themselves, one of the most important aspects (for me at least) of playing an arcade game is the quality of the joystick, buttons, and—in this case—the trackball that I'm playing them with. Trying to play a game like Ms. Pac-Man, which was designed for a 4-way joystick, with a ultra sensitive 8-way Japanese joystick designed for fighting games can be the worst kind of exercise in frustration; and the light weight button microswitches popular among fighting game enthusiasts these days just don't have the same feel as the stiffer, more heavy duty microswitches that anyone who has played the original 1980's arcade games that this cabinet runs might remember. With that in mind, I am pleased to report that DoxCade selected some really fantastic and period-appropriate hardware for the controls of this cabinet!
The joystick is a Holland Computer brand bat top joystick that features a pleasantly stiff tensioning spring, which makes it feel more like one of the classic 1908's Wico brand leaf spring joysticks than any modern microswitch equipped joystick. It is an 8-way microswitch joystick, but the heavy spring inside combined with the square shape of the actuator makes it very difficult to accidentally activate the diagonals when playing a 4-way game like Ms. Pac-Man or Frogger. I think this joystick was a perfect choice for the cabinet, giving it 8-way functionality with a distinctly 4-way feel in the games that demand it. The three fire buttons also feature some very robust springs and microswitches in them, which may put a little wear and tear on your finger muscles in games like Xevious and 1942 that require constant rapid button pressing, but they do give the system the kind of heavy duty 1980's arcade machine feel that I personally find very enjoyable.
Lastly, the trackball works magnificently! It is a 1.75" trackball, so those accustomed to the 2.25" trackballs that most arcade machines will notice it's little smaller than usual, but it does fit the cabinet nicely, is beautifully flush mounted on the control panel, and is very precise and comfortable to use. Once I got used to playing Centipede and Millipede with this trackball I consistently started nearly doubling my previous high scores, and after a few weeks with it don't think I could ever go back to playing those games with a joystick again. I'd also like to add that the trackball works extremely well in place of a spinner for Arkanoid and Super Breakout, providing the kind of analog control sensitivity that those games really need to be played well. I did have an issue with the ring securing the trackball on top of the control panel rubbing against the ball and preventing it from spinning freely when I first received the cabinet, but the ring was easily removed with a little clockwise twist and all I had to do from there was take a small round hobby file and shave off a millimeter or so of material around the inside lip of the ring to prevent it from rubbing against the ball. After that the ball spun smooth as silk, and has been completely problem free ever since.
All things considered I have been very pleased with the controls! The joystick and buttons chosen feel just perfect to me, the trackball has been an absolute joy to use after doing that little alteration to the retaining ring, and they're all spaced out very nicely on the control on the control panel and comfortable to use for any length of time.
Games
And now we come to the most important thing of all: The games! All the aesthetics, build quality, and control choices in the world don't matter one bit of the games in the cabinet aren't good, and I can happily say that all but a handful of the games on the iCade 60-in-1 JAMMA board inside this machine look, sound, and play flawlessly. To make things even better, the 17" vertical LCD monitor in the cabinet displays them beautifully and gives every game the kind of sharp, clean appearance that these classics deserve to truly do them justice.
All the big vertical screen arcade classics are here, including Centipede, Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Junior, Frogger, Space Invaders, Galaga, and many many more. If you'd like to see everything included on it, you can find the full list of games included on the board in the spoiler tag below:
- 1942
- 1943
- Amidar
- Arkanoid
- Bomb Jack
- Burger Time
- Centipede
- Crush Roller
- Dig Dug
- Dig Dug 2
- Donkey Kong
- Donkey Kong 3
- Donkey Kong Junior
- Frogger
- Galaga
- Galaga 3
- Galaxian
- Gyruss
- Hustler
- Jr. Pac-Man
- Juno First
- King & Balloon
- Ladybug
- Mappy
- Millipede
- Moon Cresta
- Mr Do's Castle
- Mr. Do!
- Ms. Pac-Man
- New Rally X
- Pac-Man
- Pac-Man Plus
- Pengo
- Phoenix
- Pinball Action
- Qix
- Scramble
- Shao-Lin's Road
- Space Invaders
- Space Panic
- Super Breakout
- Super Cobra
- Super Pacman
- Tank Battalion
- Time Pilot
- Van-Van Car
- Xevious
- Zaxxon
- Pooyan
- Pleiads
- Gunsmoke
- 1943 Kai
- Congo Bongo
- Jumping Jack
- Ms. Pac-Man (Speed-up version)
- Galaga (Speed-up version)
- Pac-Man (Speed-up version)
- Jr. Pac-Man (Speed-up version)
- Pac-Man Plus (Speed-up version)
While I haven't played every single game on the board, I have played the vast majority and almost all of them—including all of my personal favorites—are perfectly accurate to the arcade originals. The only games I have found thus far that had any issues with them were Millipede, Gyruss, Gun Smoke, Super Cobra, Scramble, 1943, and 1943 Kai. In all of those games the graphics and gameplay are perfect, but the sound is overly loud and distorted to varying degrees depending on the game. Some of the games like Millipede and 1943 are only slightly too loud and distorted just a little in the sound department, making them still very playable without irritation, while others like Gun Smoke and Scramble have their sound so loud and distorted that you'll be hard pressed to play them for more than 30 seconds without getting an earache. This hasn't really been an issue for me, since all the games I really like to play are perfect, but it could be an issue for someone who is a huge fan of one of the few games on the board affected by audio problems.
I'd also like to mention that I really enjoy the clean, bright, and easy to navigate menu system for selecting games. It's extremely intuitive to use, requires no setup at all, is very aesthetically pleasing, and I like how the board cycles through demos of all the games when not in use. If you do want to tweak and tune the dip switch settings for any of the games on the board all you have to do is power off the cabinet then power it back on while holding down the black button on the back of the cabinet closest to the power switch to start the board up in test mode, then cycle through the games and dip switch settings to configure them however you like. By default the board comes with all the dip switches turned off, but even as someone who has never configured anything like this before it was very easy for me to look up the dip switch settings for every included game online and set them to their original factory defaults.
The last point worth mentioning about the board is that it even when the machine is turned off it does save your high scores in every game I've played on it. The only catch is that if you entered your initials for the score those will not be saved. This isn't a big deal to me since the only people who are going to be using this machine are myself and my wife, and we both keep physical pen and paper copies of our high score lists, but it could be an issue for someone who plans on having several different people using their machine and turning the power off regularly.
Factoring all of these points together, I can safely say that I'm very happy with the iCade 60-in-1 board. It plays all the games that I personally enjoy absolutely perfectly, has an aesthetically pleasing and easy to use interface, and it's a tremendously affordable solution for someone who doesn't want to invest in a MAME computer setup or deal with the all the hassles inherent to configuring MAME and it's various front end options just to play some classic 80's arcade games with a clean and attractive user interface. Which brings me to…
Overall Value
When I sit back and consider everything about my custom commissioned Centipede cabinet from http://doxcade.com, I can't help but feel like I got an incredibly good deal for my money. For half the price or less of what every other custom arcade machine builder out there was quoting me I got a machine that is a beautiful bartop sized recreation of an original Centipede cabinet, built like a tank, and just an absolute joy to play all the arcade games that I like the most on. There were a few niggling details with it when it first arrived that needed some minor tweaking to sort out, but the very user serviceable nature of the cabinet's design made those fixes simple and easy to perform. Once those were taken care of I was very happy with it and would absolutely recommend DoxCade.com for anyone looking to add a bartop sized arcade cabinet to their home gaming center without having to spend a small fortune in the process. You may notice a few minor cosmetic imperfections here and there, but keeping in mind the price and the fact that these are handmade cabinets being built one at a time from scratch and not factory production units I think a couple tiny cosmetic flaws are perfectly acceptable, and the machine as a whole is sure to provide you with many long years of retro gaming enjoyment.
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This week was a slower one for our household, partially due to real life obligations and partially due to the lack of auto-fire in the arcade versions of Xevious and 1942. I'm really enjoying those two games on the new 60-in-1 arcade machine, but man do they ever wear your fingers out!
Ineligible
The Pinball Arcade (Android) - 81 minutes
Arcade
Arkanoid - 26 minutes
Centipede - 42 minutes
Donkey Kong - 6 minutes
Frogger - 18 minutes
Galaga - 5 minutes
Ms. Pac-Man - 20 minutes
Ms. Pac-Man (Speed-Up Version) - 11 minutes
Shao-Lin's Road - 21 minutes
Space Invaders - 11 minutes
Xevious - 66 minutes
1942 - 96 minutes
1943: The Battle of Midway - 13 minutes
1943 Kai: Midway Kaisen - 6 minutes
Atari 2600
Dungeon - 23 minutes
Frogger - 49 minutes
Missile Command - 27 minutes
Moon Patrol - 44 minutes
Space Invaders - 14 minutes
Game Boy
Space Invaders - 8 minutes
Game Boy Color
Frogger - 9 minutes
Project S-11 - 20 minutes
NES
Freedom Force - 43 minutes
Kirby's Adventure - 152 minutes
Mechanized Attack - 26 minutes
Operation Wolf - 33 minutes
Total Play Time This Week
870 minutes (14 hours 30 minutes)
Individual System Play Times This WeekArcade: 341 minutes
NES: 254 minutes
Atari 2600: 157 minutes
Android: 81 minutes
Game Boy Color: 29 minutes
Game Boy: 8 minutes
For my gaming time this week, most of it was spent playing old arcade favorites on the household's recently acquired arcade machine. I've also been exploring some new games on it that I had never played before getting this machine, like Capcom's classic 1942. I spent a little time with the two different versions of 1943 as well, but sadly they're two of the handful of games on the iCade 60-in-1 board that suffer from poor sound quality and really grate on the ears. I'm not too disappointed though, since I prefer the simplicity of 1942 anyway. The Atari 2600 also got a fair bit of love this week, with the wife and I taking turns playing Frogger, Missile Command, and Moon Patrol.
The real surprise of the week was just how much attention the NES got! After letting it gather dust for the better part of a year, both the misses and I have been playing a fair bit of NES games lately. For my part I had an awesome time with the NES Zapper, blasting terrorists, enemy soldiers, and robots (as well as the occasional unintentional civilian
) in Freedom Force, Operation Wolf, and Mechanized attack. I really enjoy all three of those games, from the branching paths and smooth pacing of Mechanized Attack to the trigger-finger-crippling intensity of Operation Wolf; though Freedom Force is still by far my favorite. It's a game that feels like it was really designed for the "one shot at a time" NES Zapper, rather than a port of an arcade game that was originally meant to be played with a full-auto light gun. For my wife's part in things, she decided to play through Kirby's Adventure again and explore every inch of every stage until she finds all the secret areas and gets 100% completion. It could take her a while, but I know she'll be able to pull it off. That's all for this week! Great job on the tracker this week everyone, there's some serious variety up there!
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Wow! Thanks for all the great replies so far everyone! This morning I ended up cashing in a few eBay Bucks I had in reserve to pick up Dragon Spirit for the NES (based on Mark from Classic Game Room's review of it) and 1942 for the Game Boy Color, because I love playing 1942 on my 60-in-1 arcade machine being able to play a pretty accurate port of it on the go sounded like way too much fun. But to get to your replies...
1943 for the NES is a great game and one of my favorite shmups. It is not a one hit you die game. Your plane has a meter and when you take damage the meter lowers and it can be refilled as well. You can upgrade hit power, enemy damage, weapon power, etc. I highly reccommend it.
It does look like a great game! I have the arcade version of 1943 on my 60-in-1 multicade but I haven't spent much time with it due to it being one of those handful of games on the board where the sound is screamingly loud and completely distorted, plus the handful of times I did play it I never managed to live more than 30 seconds or so.
The NES version looks to be much more my speed, and I'll definitely have to pick up a copy at some point.Task Force Harrier EX for Genesis was good
I haven't heard of that one before, so I'll have to check it out. Based on some screenshots it looks pretty similar to Twin Cobra, which is another one I've been meaning to try but haven't been able to decide on whether to get the NES or Genesis version.
I know you didn't list the system, but since you DO have an NES...
The first Famicom cart I ever bought was TwinBee, and if you have a way to convert Famicom to your NES, I'd highly recommend it. It's not EASY, but it's addictive, great looking, and has a fantastic soundtrack -- as long as you don't mind the "cute 'em up" factor. Oh, and it's usually quite inexpensive. One of my most frequent "go-to" vertical shooters. It's clearly in the Xevious lineage, and has always reminded me just a little of 1942, which you also list. The aesthetic makes it more fun to deal with as it gets harder. Maybe not your cup of tea, but it might be worth looking into?
And props for listing Solar Striker... I always liked that one, but haven't played it in years and years.
I've been waiting for enough excuses to pile up to convince me to invest in a NES to Famicom adapter, and TwinBee is pretty high up there on the list (along with Yie Ar Kung-Fu). I've been hoping to track down a copy of Pop'n TwinBee for the Game Boy first to try it out the gameplay mechanics on the small screen before dropping the cash on a NES to Famicom adapter, but that's one game that has proven pretty tricky to get ahold of. Nevertheless, I do kind of owe it to myself to try some version of TwinBee in the not too distant future.
This be a surprise coming from me, but I recommend Blazing Lazers for the TG-16
If I ever happen to get my hands on a TG-16 then I'll definitely have to check that one out. Thanks for the recommendation!
You might want to keep an eye out for ColecoVision Flashback if you don't have a ColecoVision. It has Mecha-8, programmed by Nanochess here on Atari Age. It's a scrolling shooter that has cut scenes.
I always forget about Solar Striker, one of my favorites for the original GameBoy.
Thanks for reminding me of the 10th game that should have been on my list above! I do own a ColecoVision Flashback and I absolutely love Mecha-8 on it! I've played through it a good 5 or 6 times already and it's always a joy to play every time. The shooting action and difficulty level feels just right to me, and the cutscenes used to tell the story are really neat too. Mecha-8 would be the new #9 if I was to re-write my list.
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Are you willing to buy digital stuff? Are you willing to buy ridiculous stuff?
For the mega drive I know fire shark, that is a mix of truxton and 1942.
Do you know the YouTube channel ser Flash? (Bullet Heaven HD)
https://www.youtube.com/user/Serraxor
I think looking through their Videos you might find something.
If you want xbox indie games and PC games I might be able to recommend a couple...
Digital stuff no, ridiculous stuff yes.
I'm one of those weirdos who refuses to pay money for any digital games, partially because I like to collect physical media and partially because there's no way to resell a digital game if I decide that I don't like it or wouldn't want to play through it again after the first time. I'll definitely have to give Fire Shark a look, since I recall Mark on Classic Game Room giving it high praise for it's similarity to Truxton; which I did find to be a pretty enjoyable game overall, even if the last stage was insanely frustrating to beat. And thanks for the Bullet Heaven YouTube channel recommendation! I had looked through there back when it was still on Series 6 but never subscribed since the videos rarely say what system the games are for and whether or not they're imports for normally region locked systems in title, which was a little annoying. I don't mind picking up imports for region free systems like the Game Boy/Color/Advance, or the Saturn if I get another one at some point (since it's so easy to bypass region locking with an Action Replay cart), but I'm not down for buying foreign systems or getting one of my systems modded just to bypass region encoding for a few games. Nevertheless, I'll still take a look at Bullet Heaven Series 7 and see if anything jumps out at me.
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Hey there everyone.
Of all the game genres out there, one of my absolute favorites is vertically scrolling shoot 'em ups (AKA "shmups"). While there's no shortage of websites dedicated to this genre of game, I'm in a bit of an odd spot when it comes to finding new shmups to try out because I seem to have some pretty peculiar preferences when in regards to these type of games. You see, the kind of shmups I enjoy the most are vertical scrolling ones with simple gameplay mechanics, relatively low difficulty, and not too much happening on the screen at once; which is pretty much the exact opposite of what most shmup fans look for in a game.
To give you an idea of what I mean, here's a current list of my Top 9 (because I have yet to find 10 that I really like) favorite vertical scrolling shmups:
9. Star Soldier (NES)
8. Truxton (Genesis)
7. Iridion II (Game Boy Advance)
6. Project S-11 (Game Boy Color)
5. River Raid (Atari 2600)
4. 1942 (Arcade & NES)
3. Raiden Trad (Genesis)
2. Xevious (Arcade & NES)
1. Solar Striker (Game Boy)
I love all of those games for their relatively low difficulty curve, simple and approachable power-up mechanics (if they have any at power-ups at all), and the fact that none of them almost ever clutter up the screen with too many enemies/bullets/power-ups/hazards flying around at once.
I've tried playing lots of vertical scrolling shmups that get almost universal critical acclaim, such as Raidant Silvergun (Saturn), M.U.S.H.A. (Genesis), Space Megaforce (SNES), Zanac (NES), and Ikaruga (GameCube) and found all them to be either too "busy" on screen to keep track of what is happening or just plain too difficult to have fun playing them. With that in mind, I'm starting to get a little tired of wasting boatloads of money on critically acclaimed shumps that end up being not quite my cup of tea and having to resell them shortly after purchase; so I'm hoping that the fine folks here at AtariAge might be able to recommend me some simplier vertical scrolling shmups that could be a little more to my liking. For reference, the systems that I currently own are an Atari 2600, NES, Genesis, PS1, Wii, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance SP; though I'm completely open to the idea of purchasing other systems at some point if there are lots of games I might enjoy on them.
Any suggestions? -
I play a pretty wide variety of games across a dozen or more systems made from 1978 up until now, but I think the type of games I enjoy most can all be lumped into one easily defined category: Arcade Style Games.
Most of my favorite games are all the kind of games that you might find in an arcade. They're the sort of games that you can pick up, play for a few minutes, enjoy some fun reflexive challenges, then move on to something else. Games that are easy to learn but difficult to master, and designed to munch quarters by the handful. For this reason my all time favorite home consoles are the Atari 2600 and Sega Genesis, because both feature innumerable quantities of these arcade style games across an enormous range of sub-genres. From maze games like Ms. Pac-Man to vertical or horizontally scrolling shooters like Thunder Force III and River Raid, fixed shooters like Centipede and Millipede, racing games like Pole Position and OutRun, fighting games like Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter II, beat 'em ups like Golden Axe II and Kung-Fu Master, and all kinds of other odd ball arcade style games like Frogger and Super Breakout.
The one sub-genre of arcade style gaming that the Atari 2600 and Sega Genesis are somewhat lacking in though happens to be one of my favorite type of games: Light gun shooters. For those type of games I like the PS1, Wii, and NES, which give you access to all kinds of wonderful light gun shooters like Area 51, Crypt Killer, Time Crisis, House of the Dead 2 & 3, Freedom Force, Hogan's Alley, and many more. I'm pretty partial to the PS1 for these kind of games due to it's compatibility with the Nyko Super Cobra light gun (an utterly amazing light gun that feels like it was straight out of a real arcade cabinet, complete with force feedback vibration and LED lights) but with the aid of a Nyko Perfect Shot pistol grip attachment for the Wii remote there is still a lot of fun to be had on the Wii if you like light gun shooters.
Arcade style games of all kinds are my real love when it comes to gaming.
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They might be a little more complex than you're looking for since they feature the ability to look up and down plus items in addition to weapons, but Blood and Shadow Warrior are two of my favorite 90's first person shooters that come to mind. They both play fairly similarly to Duke Nukem 3D, but with their own distinct flair. Another that fits your description a little more closely is Marathon for the Mac, which looks and plays a lot like Blake Stone but with the addition of a complex plot line. Zero Tolerance on the Sega Genesis also matches your description perfectly, if you can live with it's fairly low frame rate. Heretic, Hexen, and the original Quake could be worth looking into too if you haven't played them yet; and if worst comes to worst there's always Redneck Rampage.
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Hi, where can I get cib zippy!?!?
Albert recently mentioned in the Homebrew Release Schedule thread that 50 boxed copies of Zippy will be available at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo, another 50 boxed copies will be available on the AtariAge online store a week or two after the expo, and loose cart + manual copies will be hitting the store about the same time. Hope that helps!
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Excellent buyer! His communication skills were great, he replied to every PM quickly, and paid for the games he wanted right away. I'd happily do business with him again!
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I'm a bit of a light gun fanatic, and looking through the forum history it seems that it's been over a decade since there was a thread like this, so I thought it might be fun to see what the current AtariAge forum population liked in terms of light gun games and the hardware they play them with. Feel free to use this thread to talk about any classic era light guns and games, as well as the occasional newer light gun games that show up every now and then on some of the more modern consoles (I'm looking at you, Nintendo Wii).
I'll start things off by going over a few of my personal favorite home console light guns and a some of the games for them that I like best, then any other light gun enthusiasts that may be lurking around these parts can chime in and add their own reviews and/or recommendations. My favorites happen to be (from left to right, top then bottom):
NES Zapper
Light guns just don't get any more classic and elegantly designed than the original NES Zapper. The "clang" sound of the trigger spring alone will instantly transport almost an entire generation directly back to their childhoods, and the comfortable ergonomics are nothing to sneeze at either. While it may be slow on the trigger compared to my other favorite light guns, and a little tricky to track down one in good working order, there's no doubt that the NES Zapper has made it's mark in the history books as an iconic piece of gaming hardware.
Favorite NES Zapper Games: Freedom Force, Hogan's Alley, Operation Wolf, and Mechanized Attack
Best Electronics Atari Light Gun
This is one that you don't hear people talking about too often, but if you're looking to play some light gun games on the Atari 2600, 7800, or any Atari 8-bit computer then I don't think you'll find a better light gun to play them with than this. It feels solidly built and is vastly more accurate than any other light gun I've seen for the Atari lineup. At 3 feet you could hammer a nail with the shots from this thing; drilling one shot on top of the other for as long as the game lasts. It also has a very comfortable microswitch trigger, with the lightest and most responsive trigger pull I've ever felt on any light gun. The only real downside to it is the lack of a rear sight, but in spite of that shortcoming I've never had a problem hitting what I was aiming at with it. I sincerely hope homebrew developers make some more light gun games to support this wonderful peripheral at some point.
Favorite Best Electronics Atari Light Gun Games: Sentinel and Shooting Arcade for the Atari 2600
Nyko Perfect Shot for Nintendo Wii
I'm not sure this really counts as a "light gun" so much as it is a pistol grip attachment that converts a Wii remote into a light gun, but I'll be darned if it isn't the best light gun option out there that I've seen for the one modern console that revitalized light gun gaming in recent years. The ergonomics and aesthetics are very similar to a real double stack 1911 pistol, and the pass-through port on the bottom of the pistol grip allowing you to connect a nunchuck controller to it was just a brilliant addition for some of the more complex light gun shooters on the Wii. This pistol grip does suffer from the opposite problem as the previously mentioned Atari light gun, lacking a front sight rather than a rear sight, but since every light gun game that I know of on the Wii gives you an on-screen targeting reticle it's never been an issue to me. If you're looking to play some more modern light gun games then the Nyko Perfect Shot for the Wii gets my highest recommendation.
Favorite Nyko Perfect Shot Wii Games: The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return, Dead Space: Extraction, and Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles / Darkside Chronicles
Nyko Super Cobra for PlayStation
I think the PS1 and Sega Saturn were the first systems to really bring the full arcade light gun gaming experience to home consoles without any compromises, and the Nyko Super Cobra may be the most full featured and arcade-authentic light gun to play them with. Weighing in at a hefty 15 ounces, this beast of a light gun packs a heavy force feedback motor that jars your hand a little with each shot, a series of red LED lights that flash in sequence along both sides of the frame every time you fire, ambidextrous auxiliary buttons for grenade activation and reloading, and some nice extra features like toggle switches for auto-fire and auto-reload. As if that wasn't enough, this also happens to be one of the very few light guns out there for the PS1 that works perfectly with games made for both the Konami Justifier and Namco GunCon. There's also a Saturn version available, and did I mention that they're both dead accurate to boot? This is one light gun that I just can't say enough good things about!
Favorite Nyko Super Cobra PS1 Games: Area 51, Crypt Killer, Time Crisis, and Lethal Enforcers I & II
I think that about covers it for my current favorite light guns and games!
How about you? What are some of your favorites? -
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Freedom Force (NES)
Operation Wolf (NES)
Mechanized Attack (NES)
Today just felt like a really good day for some 8-bit light gun games!
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What a week! In terms of video game play time, this week was the second biggest week that our household has had for gaming since we started participating in the tracker. Which I think is pretty fitting, since this week the biggest gaming system we've ever had arrived in the mail!
Ineligible
The Pinball Arcade (Android) - 189 minutes
Arcade
Arkanoid - 26 minutes
Centipede - 150 minutes
Donkey Kong - 34 minutes
Donkey Kong Junior - 9 minutes
Frogger - 28 minutes
Galaga (Fast-Fire Version) - 10 minutes
Gun Smoke - 3 minutes
Juno First - 8 minutes
Millipede - 32 minutes
Ms. Pac-Man - 27 minutes
Ms. Pac-Man (Speed-Up Version) - 45 minutes
Pac-Man - 4 minutes
Phoenix - 25 minutes
Pooyan - 12 minutes
Shao-Lin's Road - 39 minutes
Space Invaders - 17 minutes
Super Breakout - 8 minutes
Xevious - 20 minutes
1942 - 2 minutes
1943: The Battle of Midway - 3 minutes
1943 Kai - 3 minutes
Atari 2600
Battlezone - 34 minutes
Centipede - 8 minutes
Donkey Kong - 23 minutes
Frogger - 29 minutes
Gorf - 46 minutes
Midnight Magic - 51 minutes
Millipede - 14 minutes
Ms. Pac-Man - 41 minutes
Sentinel - 32 minutes
Venture - 15 minutes
Game Boy
Pipe Dream - 37 minutes
NES
Battle Chess - 66 minutes
Freedom Force - 86 minutes
Pinball Quest - 133 minutes
Pipe Dream - 35 minutes
Tetris - 107 minutes
Total Play Time This Week
1,451 minutes (24 hours 11 minutes)
Individual System Play Times This WeekArcade: 505 minutes
NES: 427 minutes
Atari 2600: 293 minutes
Android: 189 minutes
Game Boy: 37 minutes
Usually I take a picture of every game cartridge or disk that was played each week along with the controller it was played with, or the entire system in the case of plug & play consoles, but I don't think I'm going to be dragging the 35 lb. Centipede themed 60-in-1 bartop arcade machine from http://doxcade.com shown above off it's spot on the counter every week for a photo.
Suffice it to say, that behemoth is the "very Centipede related" thing that the misses and I had been waiting to get in the mail the last few weeks. The machine itself has been a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand it looks awesome and I've never had as much fun playing Centipede as I have using this bartop arcade machine with it's beautiful 17" LCD monitor and real arcade trackball, but on the other hand I've been finding a lot of the original arcade versions of games that I love the home console ports of to be just too darn difficult to be fun for me. The biggest ones that come to mind are Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Junior, which I adored on the ColecoVision growing up but find the difficulty of their original arcade versions to be way too high to be anything other than an exercise in frustration for me. On the upside of things, I've been having a real blast playing my old arcade favorite Shao-Lin's Road again for the first time in the better part of a decade; and it plays exactly like I remember it. The misses has gotten a bit of fun out of it playing games like Frogger and Ms. Pac-Man that only use the joystick, but unfortunately due to some physical mobility limitations she has it turned out that having the fire buttons located up above the joystick towards the top of the control panel made them just too difficult for her to reach without experiencing some pretty nasty discomfort. She always plays video games with arcade sticks on every system we own (since it's pretty much impossible for her to hold and use a traditional joypad), so we figured that this bartop machine would work perfectly for her; but the higher-than-normal button placement in comparison with the home console arcade sticks that she's used to ended up making it a big NO GO.
All in all the arcade machine has been a bit hit and miss, so next week we're going to see if we might be able to order a new control panel for it with the fire buttons relocated to lower down to make it more comfortable for my wife to use. In the meantime, we were finally able to pick up a new and (mostly) working Atari 2600 Vader system this week, and my better half went out and scored a bunch of new NES games to lessen the sting of arcade machine not working out quite as well as we had hoped. What resulted was a much more diverse than usual week of gaming around here, with the NES, Atari 2600, and Arcade (in addition to the ever-present Android version of The Pinball Arcade that I'm always playing on my cigarette breaks) all posting strong times. All things considered it was a pretty good week for gaming.
P.S. : Freedom Force on the NES rocks beyond measure and may very well be my new favorite pre-32 bit era light gun game!
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On all the 2600 models I have the long red adjustment that adjusts with the allen wrench is not the tuning adjustment, it's the flat white disc with the slot, the allen wrench one is for audio only
For reference, when I talk about tuning the RF box I'm referring to the RF Modulator in the red rectangle.
There's a hole on each side that you can insert an allen wrench into to tune the video signal.
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Alrighty, once again I re-tuned the RF box and played the 2600 for a few hours last night without problems. Then today when I went to play it again the RF was completely out of tune, so I decided to take some of your troubleshooting suggestions.
You sure it's not the TV itself?
Positive. I have a second TV that I tried plugging it into while the RF box was out of tune and it still displayed nothing but static on both Channel 2 and Channel 3 settings. And yes, I did confirm that both of the TVs I tested it on were set to the appropriate channels.
Are you using one of these for hookup to the TV? Or....
.... one of these?
The switchbox above can be troublesome but the coxial (F-Type) to female RCA Adapter is a better option.
I use a gold plated female RCA to male coaxial adapter to hook up my 2600s, so no switch box to worry about. I actually own two of these connectors and tried both in case one was faulty, but the result was the same with both.
1- Try turning on the system first, then tuning tv to the needed channel. most tv's have an auto-fine tuning
2- Could replace rf modulator
3- av mod system
4- Go to the house of healing in Tantegel castle and ask to be Un-cursed for a small donation
Tried the first suggestion and had no luck, and sadly I lack the parts and tools to do the second or third. I'm strongly considering the fourth option though!
Do you have any spare RF cables? Try swapping them out and trying another.
I do have a spare original Atari RCA cable and an aftermarket fully shielded 14 Ohm resistance cable with gold plated connectors and ferrite beads on each end, and I did try them both in place of the original RCA cable but neither fixed the problem.
The only thing that fixes it is re-tuning the RF box with an allen wrench, but that only seems to last for 6 to 8 hours before it goes out of tune again. The weirdest thing is that the RF tuner dial doesn't seem loose at all, and there are no sources of vibration in my apartment that could jiggle it loose overnight; but it has been going out of tune every night while I'm asleep. Now are you ready for the really bizarre part? After doing all that troubleshooting this morning I had some errands to run and decided to just wait to re-tune the RF box yet again after I got back, but when I got back home the RF box was back in tune again without me ever doing a thing to it. What the heck!?
As a last resort, everything RF-related on the motherboard could be replaced (one at a time, then test after replacing), or you could buy a brand new populated motherboard from Best Electronics for $40.
Thank you very much for the suggestion! If I can't get this weird RF box tuning issue permanently fixed by next friday then I'll just call up Best and order an entirely new fully populated reconditioned motherboard to drop in it, assuming that Best carries Rev. 16 boards. The externals of this particular 2600 are in such flawless condition that even if it's not working right I'd rather spend $40 on a new board than return the console and try to find a properly working one in equally good condition. So at least I've got a worst case scenario game plan now. Thanks!
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Phoenix (Arcade)
Arkanoid (Arcade)
Pooyan (Arcade)
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I think it's the TV. I don't know why, but I do. Do you have other sets you could try it on? Is it an HDTV? I've noticed they like to go all staticy and make Atari screens suck.
I'm pretty positive it's not the TV. I'm using a Sony Trinitron CRT TV and I've never had any issues running other older consoles (or previous Atari 2600's I've owned) on it.
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That's a bizarre problem. I've never heard of anything like that before with an Atari or any other console. Does it do it on both of the Atari's TV channel settings?
Maybe you have a poltergeist.
Yep, it does it on both channel 2 and 3. I'm really starting to wonder if I'm cursed lol I have this enormous library of nearly a 150 games for the 2600 that I love to play, but to date all four Atari 2600 systems that I've bought (all of which were in perfect "like new" condition) have ended up having some bizarre and unusual problem with them. At least this time I know what the problem is, I just have no idea how to fix it other than opening it up and re-tuning the RF box every time I want to play it. And it's not like it's going just a little out of tune either, it's going so far out of tune that the picture is nothing but static on both channels 24 hours after it's last tuning.
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Hey there everyone!
In the ongoing saga of pretty much every Atari 2600 system I've purchased having some kind of problem with it, this time I recently bought a new (and I do mean new, as in "fresh out of the box" new) Vader system and—unsurprisingly—there's a problem with it. This time the problem is that the RF tuner box on the board keeps coming out of tune, on a daily basis.
I'll open up the system, adjust the RF tuner with an allen wrench until the picture is clear and static-free, and the system will work just fine for an evening of gaming. When I come back to it the next day to play it again though, the RF tuner will be so far out of tune that the entire picture is nothing but static and I'll have to open up the 2600 and re-tune the box again to get a picture. This has now happened 3 days in a row, so it seems like it's going to be a longterm problem that I have to find some way to fix.
Any suggestions for what to do about an RF tuner box that goes massively out of tune every day? This system is in such flawless cosmetic condition that I'm really hoping there's some way to fix it!
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Awesome first entry! Very professional voice acting, video capturing, and editing. You've got my subscription.
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I am unsure how I will be handling that.
50 boxed copies will be available at PRGE.
50 boxed copies will be made available on AtariAge after the show (probably in November).
I only have 100 boxes for this game, the rest will be sold as cart and manual.
..Al
Thanks for updating us! Any rough ETA on when cart & manual only copies of Zippy might be available for purchase or preorder?
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Last 3 games you played?
in Classic Console Discussion
Posted
Lady Bug (Arcade)
Donkey Kong Junior (Arcade)
Arkanoid (Arcade)