Skippy B. Coyote

The brats give me the most trouble too. The best way I've found to deal with them so far is to mirror their movements as they're coming towards you so you stay in front of them, then fire at point blank range when they're as close as they can get without hitting you. I still miss now and then, but that strategy seems to work for me more often than not.

When I was growing up I always liked the Saturday morning Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon that ran from '93 to '94. I haven't seen it since I was a kid so I don't know how well it's aged or if it would still be appealing to me now as an adult, but man did that series make me think that chili dogs were just about the coolest food ever back then. I also seem to recall always wondering why Princess Sally Acorn was wearing stripper boots.

Though life wasn't the easiest this past week, the gaming continued on. Ineligible The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (GameCube) - 184 minutes Atari 2600 Chopper Command - 151 minutes Crystal Castles - 20 minutes Q*Bert - 55 minutes Quadrun - 106 minutes Scramble - 10 minutes Game Boy Color Pac-Man: Special Color Edition - 10 minutes PlayStation Doom - 300 minutes Sega Genesis Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - 294 minutes Total Play Time This Week 1,130 minutes (18 hours 50 minutes) [946 minutes eligible] Individual System Play Times This Week Atari 2600: 342 minutes PlayStation: 300 minutes Sega Genesis: 294 minutes GameCube: 184 minutes Game Boy Color: 10 minutes This was another one of those weeks where my gaming time was largely dictated by my medical situation, namely the frequency with which the thyroiditis that I've been dealing with for the last two months decided to start acting up. Some days were better than others, but all things considered I think I still managed to get in a pretty decent amount of gaming time this week. I spent a fair bit of time playing Chopper Command and Quadrun for the Atari 2600 High Score Club, but I also got around to finishing up The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers on the GameCube. I'm not sure if it was a really hard game or if I'm just not all that great at hack 'n slash games, but after 15 or 20 failed attempts on the second to last mission I ended up having to bump the difficulty level down from Normal to Easy to finish the game; and even then it was no cakewalk. Still, in spite of the difficulty level it was a really enjoyable game and I'll be looking forward to playing through the sequel The Return of the King at some point. The only other game that I played any substantial amount of time of this week was Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on the Sega Genesis, which my wife and I ended up doing two more play throughs of together trading off the controller between zones. We were really bound and determined to finish the game with all 7 chaos emeralds this week, since that's something neither of us have ever been able to do and the misses is a pretty big fan of the early Sonic games on the Genesis, but alas in spite of our best efforts the most chaos emeralds we were ever able to get in a single play through was 6 out of 7. The special stage that really tripped us up every time was #4, and the rest of them (even the final one) didn't seem nearly as difficult as that one. Even though we weren't able to finish the game with all the chaos emeralds on either attempt we still had a lot of fun playing through Sonic 2 again a couple times, and if nothing else it was a great way to spend some time together and take our minds off all the not-so-good stuff that's been going on in our lives lately. As far as the misses' gaming time goes for this past week, she divided the vast majority of it between finishing up and beating the Doom II portion of Doom on the PlayStation on Ultra Violence difficulty and doing the two co-op play throughs of Sonic 2 with me. She also got in about an hour of Q*Bert on the Atari 2600 (one of her favorite games on the system) and set household record high scores on both B and A difficulty settings, but that was pretty much it for her this week. Looking ahead to next week I did receive a couple GameCube games I had been wanting as "get well soon" gifts from a friend this week, so I imagine I'll be spending a good bit of time playing them next week, and I think that later today the misses is just about to start in on the copy of Alien Resurrection for the PlayStation that she picked up last week. She sure has been on one heck of a sci-fi first-person shooter kick lately. In any case, I that hope you've all had a great week and—until next time—happy gaming to you and yours!

I had never played Quadrun before today, but ever since I tried it this afternoon I've had a really hard time putting it down! I'm seriously digging this game, even if those brats are hard as all get out to hit with any degree of consistency. Still, this is definitely becoming one of those "just one more game" titles for me. Quadrun (B/B Difficulty, Default Settings): 42,190

Quadrun (B/B Difficulty, Default Settings): 33,570

There are a few of them out there, but my favorite of the bunch is The No Swear Gamer. He covers Atari 7800 and Atari 2600, as well as the occasional Sega Genesis or NES game and various retro odds and ends. Another channel worth checking out is Classic Game Room, which doesn't cover Atari games too frequently but when he does I've always thought his videos were great. Same goes for Metal Jesus Rocks.

I'll get in some play time and get a score posted later today, but in the meantime for those who have no idea what is going on in this very unique game here's a video from The No Swear Gamer where he explains all the gameplay mechanics and scoring system in Quadrun. Hope it helps! https://youtu.be/wmL4gLrvUIQ

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Sega Genesis) Scramble (Atari 2600) The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (GameCube)

There are mountains upon mountains of reproduction CX-40 joysticks out there, and they vary quite a bit in quality. The Flashback ones are well made and very responsive, though the 4 tabs on the actuator inside them that press the membrane contacts to the PCB tend to snap off after enough use. The reproduction gold PCB upgraded CX-40s from Best Electronics are very nice and built like tanks, but the dome contact for the button on them is a lot stiffer than it probably should be and that makes pressing the button pretty tiring on the thumb in games that require rapid button pressing. As far as the generic inexpensive Chinese made reproduction CX-40s go, I've never owned one that lasted longer than a week before breaking in one way or another. They may be a little more responsive than the original CX-40s but they're just not built to last in my experience. I've never used a Gemstick myself but they seem to get mixed reviews around here. Some people love them, some people hate them. If you're looking for an affordable third party joystick I've always liked the Wico Command Control bat top style sticks, but the Suncom TAC-2 and Competition Pro have a great deal of fans as well. The Wico has old school American arcade leaf spring contacts and is built to an extremely rugged near-arcade standard of quality, but it does have a long throw (the distance you have to move the stick to press the contacts) and can be a bit stiff on the diagonals. The TAC-2 has a very short throw and leaf spring contacts as well, but the stick itself is actuated by a rubber grommet that can be prone to drying out over time and if that happens then the stick will get very stiff and difficult to use. The Competition Pro on the other hand has leaf spring buttons but the joystick is a Japanese style microswitch joystick. Personally I love microswitch joysticks because of the tactile feedback they provide but some people find them too noisy. The only other downsides of the Competition Pro are that the housing on them feels very thin and a little flimsy and the button tension may be too light for some, but it is still a very popular choice. Lastly, depending on your budget there is always the option to purchase a custom joystick made with real arcade parts. There are a number of people around here who make and sell them (Edladdin, Kosmic Stardust, Wyluli Wolf, and UberArcade are the first that come to mind) and they can run anywhere from $60 to $150+ depending on what parts they're made with, though most people seem to prefer either a Sanwa brand JLF joystick with an octagon gate or a Happ / Industrias Lorenzo brand Competition​ joystick. In either case Happ / Industrias Lorenzo brand concave buttons with 20g microswitches tend to be the most popular arcade button choice for Atari gaming. Hope that helps!

I can't speak to the technical side of how the games were made but I do agree that RealSports Baseball is pretty much unplayable due to the extremely tough computer AI. On the other hand I do really like RealSports Volleyball and RealSports Boxing is probably the best 1 vs 1 fighting game on the Atari 2600. If you're looking for a good baseball game though I'd recommend checking out Pete Rose Baseball instead. The graphics are quite nice, the controls make sense, and the computer AI difficulty feels just right to me.

The closest I can think of to a roguelike on the 2600 is the homebrew game Dungeon, which is a really outstanding turn based dungeon crawling RPG that can be played through in half an hour or so. The corridor layouts in each level of the dungeon are the same every time but the enemy and item locations are randomized in every play through. The same goes for game mode 3 in Adventure. Those two games are probably your best bets for RPG action on the humble Atari 2600, though Secret Quest is great if you're looking for something similar in feel to The Legend of Zelda. Another game that could be worth looking into is a homebrew RPG titled Anguna, though I haven't played that one yet so I can't say much about it.

It is a neat system for sure, but I haven't bought one yet and most likely never will. The more I considered the matter the more I realized just how expensive a Jaguar would be (especially since my spouse is disabled and can't hold traditional game controllers, so we would have to get her a custom made arcade stick for it), and since I am someone of fairly limited financial means I know it would be for the best if I stuck to playing and collecting for more inexpensive systems. I still think the Jaguar is really cool and there's quite a few exclusive games on the system that I'm sure I would enjoy playing, but at the end of the day I do have to be a responsible adult every now and then and keep my hobbies within my means.

Alright, enough is enough! I wasn't planning on replying to this thread any further but if you're going to compound the lies you've already made about the condition of the items you sell with lies about my personal life then it's time to put an end to this. Enclosed in the spoiler tag below is a full unabridged screen capture of the entire email discourse between Lance and I for this transaction, so that those interested in learning the truth can read it for themselves and make their own determinations rather than relying on "he said, she said" arguments. I will reply no further to any of your messages or this thread and I hope that once I receive my refund from you tomorrow I will never again have to have anything to do with you or anyone as completely loathsome as yourself. Have a nice life.

Agreed, though you have to admit that if he intended to sell me used items at premium new price he should have said that they would be used and not leave me to assume they would be in new condition like he had previously stated his items to be. In any case I don't want this thread to turn into a mudslinging contest and it's quite clear that Lance has no intention of owning up to his wrongdoings so I will refrain from replying this thread any further and simply await my refund. I'm done.

The USPS tracking number for the package is 940550369930 0009006569 and it will arrive tomorrow. The simple fact that you would lie to me about the condition of the items you sell and then start spouting off assumptions about my marriage when you're called out on your deception speaks volumes about the quality of your character.

Way to go you two! Absolutely amazing!

Same here, though the system still isn't new by any stretch of the imagination. I wish I could get a better picture of the inside of the cartridge port because it is totally caked with years of dirt and gunk down in there.

Both. It does have the plastic covering on it but most of the scratches are deep enough that they go through the covering. It's also quite dented in several places as well.

No actually, you didn't. I took a picture of that earlier email because the only time you ever mentioned the condition of the systems you sell was in that previous email. So you sold me a brand new condition Atari 7800 system once and then when I asked to buy another you sent me a scratched, beat up used system without ever mentioning anything about the condition of it being any different from the previous one you sold me. Not only that but you also charged me the same price for the used system that you charged me for the brand new one, again without ever saying that it's condition would be anything other than brand new like the first system I bought. Doesn't that seem a little shady to you?

I wasn't sure exactly where to post this, so the moderators can feel free to move it to a different forum section if it would be more appropriate there, but I did feel that I should share the experience I recently had with Video61 ( http://members.tcq.net/video61/main.html) for the benefit of others in the Atari community who may be considering ordering from them. Here's what happened... Back in December I placed an order from Video61 for a brand new composite video modified Atari 7800 system. It arrived just as advertised and worked great, however some unforeseen financial circumstances at the time lead me to have to sell the system shortly after getting it so earlier this month I decided to order another one along with what was supposed to be a brand new Atari XG-1 Light Gun. However, what I received in the mail yesterday was not "brand new" by a long shot. The system's housing is thoroughly scuffed and scratched up, the chrome strip on top is scratched all over and dented in, the cartridge port is filled with dirt and gunk, and the hole cut for the composite video modification is definitely not professional looking. The light gun is equally covered in dirt and scratches and the front sight post is pretty banged up too. Attached below are pictures of the system and light gun for reference: I emailed Lance (the owner of Video61) about this and was quite polite about the whole thing, showing him the pictures that I just posted above and requesting that I please be allowed to return the system for a replacement or a refund, and here's the reply I got: Oh really? He never said they were new? Let's see here... And how about Video61's website? Suffice it to say Lance isn't the only one who is pissed. I do not appreciate being lied to then berated and guilt tripped for calling a seller out on peddling used, beat up equipment when they're advertising it as brand new and selling it for premium brand new prices. I will be sending the system and light gun back for a refund tomorrow and after this I will never do business with Video61 again.

Fun topic! I was actually just yesterday pondering what my current Top 10 favorite Atari 2600 games would be at this point, since the last time I really put serious thought to the matter was at least a couple years ago and I think my list has changed a bit since then. So, since you asked, I expanded my list to 20 and here's my current Top 20 personal favorite original production Atari 2600 games. 20. Midnight Magic 19. Montezuma's Revenge 18. H.E.R.O. 17. Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle 16. Alien 15. Starmaster 14. Miniature Golf 13. Adventure 12. Centipede 11. Robot Tank 10. River Raid 9. Sentinel 8. Kung-Fu Master 7. Crystal Castles 6. GORF 5. Millipede 4. Super Breakout 3. Ms. Pac-Man 2. Venture 1. Pitfall II: Lost Caverns

Crystal Castles (Atari 2600) Chopper Command (Atari 2600) Q*Bert (Atari 2600)