StanJr

301760 Had never played this before. Once I figured out you could refuel by running through the exploding mushrooms instead of shooting them things got much easier...

Holy crap. 3 gems? I've been all over the map and I don't think I've found one! More to do, more to do!

281000 This is my last shot. The game is starting to wake up the Hulk.

Ok! I finally beat the game with sword only. I imagine beating the game sword-only with one life is incredibly challenging. I'll have to give that try when I have more time. Some notes: On the Western Shore, you don't have to get in the boat to move to the next screen, you can enter the sea from below the ship and you are magically on the ship on the next screen (see pic) When I rescue the Cleric he doesn't refill my HP before high tailing it out of there. I thought he did that in the last version. Ungrateful, he is. Reducing the Demon Boss attack has made him super easy again. Since he only shoots once and contact with him does not decrease HP, all you have to do is wait for him to appear and shoot, then wail on him up close. Easy with sword, super easy with bow. You don't have to fight the Vine Boss (?) that guards the armor. You just have to scoot by him into the armor room. When you come back he's gone. (I love the design of that sprite!) After getting the sword from the Dragon, I also found a blue item a little ways along the path. I cannot tell if it did anything to me. After getting the sword from the Dragon ANYTHING you stab/shoot burns to a crisp. And I mean anything. The shopkeeper, the sheep, the figurehead on the long house (see pics). Truly this is a dangerous weapon. Is that intentional? I still cannot find anything to do on the big green castle screen (see pic). Am I missing something? Such a fun game. This will be a treat to have on cart.

251000 Starting to get into a groove, but wow, things get hot fast!

Thanks, Thomas. And yes, every little bit helps. That Oystron phase is debilitating.

201000 Finally. Once you figure out how to influence the enemy movements you can get into a rhythm. That doesn't keep the spiders and wavy lines from screwing you over, though.

119000 First attempt, but i've gotta get on the stick. Diff A is much harder than I expected and you fools are really good.

Never stop posting these updates! Sounds like you found some real winners this time! Can't wait to see what you try next!

BONUS: (since Vocelli stole Pressure Cooker out from under me...) I run a bar kitchen and we have a $5 Happy Hour Burger special, so every day from 5-7pm, my life is pretty much exactly like this:

I made another run, but the snow conditions were just too severe. Oh well. If I ever get a fully functioning VCS, I may be competitive again...

145750. Apparently the four-switch I got working gets tired after about 15 minutes of gameplay and the output signal gets very very snowy, so I had to play the last 45K under white out conditions, which makes it very hard to see enemy shots and sometimes flak. Good times. I've got 4 VCSs and none of them are fully working.

Nothing is ever going to make me not like or look down upon Ms. Pac-man. I can play that thing all day. I don't care if it was made by Captain Picard on Data's neural net using an iron flling in a cave during the 19th century. It's a great game, it's a lot of fun. No amount of new homebrew releases are going to change that. By the same token, I'm also plenty excited about Draconian, Mappy, and whatever else is pushing or being pushed by new developments in how the VCS utilized. Is there a ceiling where I say, "ok, this no longer looks like the Atari 2600 at work?" Probably, but I haven't seen it yet. I'm not smart enough to know the inner workings of what's going on, I just know if I enjoy a game or not. I can see how people new to the 2600 might not know the difference, but chances are good they didn't grow up with the system so they wouldn't likely know anyway. Furthermore, if some impressive new game brings them to the system with all of it's whistles and bells, I don't see the down side. People who really geek out on this stuff will then dig in and learn all about the system and its origins, its original limitations and its development history. People who don't will play the hot game for a few weeks and then move on to something else. Maybe I just have no idea what the problem is. If Thomas makes incredible games that are fun to play with ASM and Darrell makes incredible games that are fun to play with Spice C, and bjbest makes incredible games that are fun to play with Bb, don't we all win?

Here are the mistakes in the Oystron Manual: Page 2 Difficulty Switches reads: "When the left switch is in B position (advanced), the space ship will bounce..." "Switch to A position (novice) for..." should read: "When the left switch is in the A position (advanced), the space ship will bounce..." "Switch to B position (novice) for..." Page 4 (see image), the images for Space Creature and Space Oyster have been mislabeled. The image for "Space Oysters" is labeled "Space Creatures" and the image for "Space Creatures" has been incorrectly labeled "Space Oysters." Omissions: The manual does not describe how to acquire bombs with are essential to game play. Nor does it mention that once a full row of oysters has been collected it will flash and disappear. Normally this would be no bid deal, but both of these features are part of the basic game play and should likely be described in the manual.

Try Mario Bros. The action there is very straightforward and the characters are fun. It's one of my son's favorite Atari games. He also loves that its two player simultaneous, so that might be a future in road for you as well.

I got a 4 switch working enough to play, so I'm back in! Good thing too, playing this one the emu is miserable. This is a great game that I do not play as much as it deserves. 119650

Is RRII one of the games that doesn't play well on the heavy sixer? I can't get mine to work at all.

Online release is a good idea for the manuals. Do homebrews still get pages in the database? That's a great place for that. BUT physical manuals are part of the appeal of classic games, to forego them in homebrew releases would be a mistake.

Oh I know. I just chalked it up to the early days of homebrew production. I'll make a solid list tomorrow and post it. Thanks