Bubsy3000

= Are there any complete or almost finished games that were going to be released for the Panther before it was cancelled? Something that tells us how capable the Panther was technically?

So are none of the Jaguar games ports from the Panther? i thought that was the whole reason the Jagaur had the 68k?

Weren't Cybermorph and Crescent Galaxy ported from the panther after it was cancelled?

My old Atari stopped working over a year ago and I never had time to pick up a new one. Recently, I've been thinking of purchasing another 2600 console, maybe even from here. However, I wanted to know whether the original 2600 or the Jr provided the same experience or not. Basically if the Jr. provides around equal the gaming experience, I'd likely buy that due to it being made with newer parts. However, I've heard some stories over the years the original might provide the better gaming experience for 2600 games. I wanted to check in with Atari Age before making a decision.

If you look at the PSX games lists for 94 and 95 you'd understand right away. It wasn't that popular, but did well enough for a sequel. The only competitor to JF was Rayman and Gex, 2D platformers. So a first person unique 3D platform game was pretty hype. Not just on PSX either, the only thing the Saturn offered as an alternative was Bug!. Wouldn't be till after Crash Bandicoot 3D platforming would pick up on PSX with games like Pandemonium and others. So Jumping Flash pretty much had thw whole year of 95 to itself. Got an 86% on gamerankings, back then it reviewed well: http://www.gamerankings.com/ps/572469-jumping-flash/index.html

It makes many retro games inaccessible, and only reachable by a few individuals. This in the long-term would actually cripple the retro community. Can you imagine if I sold a homebrew 2600 version of combat, with the tanks having different colors, and sold it for $200 and it sold? original Combat would be $100 or more a pop. It would then spread to other 2600 games, and suddenly, collecting for the 2600 wouldn't be viable. It's why i disliked Ebay so much in the early 2000's. Most gaming items have recovered and lowered in price since then, but some things are permanently expensive since those Ebay mark-ups back in the day.

VC had select titles, and people were complaining about the prices they were selling them for. Sure, people got upset that they stopped the VC program, but that was mostly because of the number of games they got on it we likely won't see anymore. Not really double standards at all, Sony started out giving BC for free, and then intentionally disabled it for money,. Nintendos first BC console was the Wii for comparison, which had the VC, which was meant to sell those games for money upfront. I also don't understand why you believe I think it was calculated, I think Sonys is rushing this machine out just because of the NES/SNES mini success. I don't think this was part of a calculated plan at all, just throwing spaghetti at the wall to see if it sticks. When I was talking about Sony intentionally blocking BC, notice I said "since the BC compatible PS3's", I know that it would be "harder" to do PS3 emulation for the PS4 but it doesn't have PS2/PS1 BC either, and Sony likely could have found someway to get PS3 working but they would rather sell you all 3 of their previous consoles games for money instead of letting you play your old games free, and I just don't like that strategy as well as many others. (Also you're wrong about the PS3, hackers were able to get access to the PS2 emulator on newer fat models as well, they just disabled it) I think the issue here is you believe I'm giving Nintendo a "pass" which is not the case. it's just Sony has come out and done arguably dumb moves in front of peoples faces and then when people started complaining continued anyway. While Nintendo was more subtle. Which is why you see some forums saying this is the "return" of "arrogant" Sony which I don't agree with. But here's the thing though, The games on the SNES and NES classics, were games that, officially, had few avenues to play. Until the VC, some of those games could only be played on the original consoles, officially anyway. While Sony is charging for FF7 a 500th time, Tekken 3 a 500th time and so on. Also another thing you seem to have forgotten is the PSX Mini has a potentially crippling issue that is the lack of Analog Sticks. NES/SNES minis have no such issue for game control. Sony is likely going to put out numerous post 96 PSX games on the machine, and a lot of those games were designed with analog in mind. So they would be selling us, the consumers, games we already own that don't have optimal controls? But don't misunderstand me, I'm not giving Nintendo a pass. But Sonys been much louder on this issue than Nintendo has and therefore, had gained much more attention.

I'll have to take a look at the translation then. Hope one day someone translates Belzerion as well.

I got the orange and black one (madcatz?) with my second PS2 back in 2002 and it's still holding strong. Oddly enough the yellow official PS2 memory cards are prone to issues, like games disappearing and unrecoverable corrupt blocks.

I disagree with this, Microsoft is likely making more money than Sony's PS now and likely the mini due to certain games not likely to be included on it due to licensing issues, as well as Sony's past history on old games. Microsoft may have several BC gamers putting their discs in free, but they also sell almost every BC title on their store, and those sales increased significantly since the program started. Microsoft has put out multiple announcements about milestones, and a lot of the times when COD games were named the top most played BC games, a lot of those COD players were actually new sales. A lot of games that people are playing on BC were actually purchased, not just original disc owners. There's a reason why when the numbers jumped up so fast in 2016-2017 that Sony put out a response. Nintendo got away with its mini series because they often hold back their games and provide very few ways to play them. Most PSX classics are or were on PSN, the PS3, regular collections, or remastered collections. This is why when they back-tracked to use a more Nintendo-like strategy, fans got pissed. Sony has intentionally blocked off BC since post launch model PS3's specifically to sell you games multiple times, something consumers have had a problem with, and why Sony's other methods of BC have failed to take off. I doubt the Mini is going to change that. In fact, it may make PlayStation fans MORE upset. As for me, other than Sony's past strategies making me skeptical, I don't see much here, even for die hard fans. FF7 has been everywhere for awhile and been on sale multiple times with bundles on PSN through PS3/PSP and so on. I'm also not the biggest fan of Jrpgs. But my biggest issue with this is lack of DualShock support or the earlier Dual Analog. Since 1996 most developers were rapidly adding support for the dual analog sticks, or just the left one, across many popular game franchises. In fact, when i go over the most popular American and Japanese games on the PSX looking at lists online from users, not only are a lot of these not going to be included due to licensing issues, but most of them also released with DS/DA support and some can ONLY be played with DS/DA. PSX classic with games from 1994-1996 would have made a lot more sense. Sure we'd get some junk like Zoop and Fade To Black, but we'd also get some of the better games as well. Games that many PlayStation fans may not have even played, or at least don't remember due to how long ago it was. As it is now though, I can't see this being launched competently. I think there's going to be some issues with the hardware, and I think people will complain about lack of Analog for numerous titles, especially if they are going to aim for games released after 1996.

The last thing we need is for someone to help increase retro prices by selling a homebrew retro game for $200.

Well clearly something happened before I came, but it would have helped if people told me what it was, so I would know what to avoid doing. Funny you mention this, iirc the N64 was supposed to get a BTTF game by THQ. Never came out though. Or Delaware, where almost nothing is taxed at all, including sales tax. Plus, easy access to New York with all it's retro game stores.

Well at the time the SMS started picking up the Genesis was out so who knows. As for Alex Kiss and Golve, I don't think you were completely wrong, GRAPHICALLY those games were superior to SMB and Zelda. I also think Alex Kidd may have given SMB a run for its money because of that, IF Sega had more money to market it. I think Segas biggest mistake with Alex Kidd was not releasing it bundled with the SMS in NA. Instead I believe Alex Kidd started as a stand-alone titles and released a year later in 87 instead of 86 where the 7800 and the NES both also released. First Alex Kidd actually wasn't that bad imo. The second Alex Kidd game, the lost stars, was very, very, very bad though. Not sure what Sega was thinking with that one.

Doctor Hauzer is one of the games you can play even without a translation correct? I recall reading on some forums about people beating the game without knowing Japanese, is that feasible?

Well now you done gone and made everyone here look old!! Man, I don't even want to remember what the internet was like 20 years ago. All those gaming sites were mostly about the artwork in the backgrounds and the actual site page was in the middle of the screen. I remember old Gamespot N64 reviews on the old site and often you had to open screenshots in a new window, then click on it again to enlarge.

I am confused by your post. I agree with you 100% the SMS had a better library, especially later on, but I don't think that's enough to determine whether its believable or not that the 7800 outsold the SMS or the other way around in NA. Remember, the 7800 sold 1 million by summer 88 and the SMS already had a game advantage at that time and once 1990 hit both consoles basically started selling to the dogs. In my opinion this isn't really about the game library but what the market wanted to buy, which of course was the NES primarily, however I think that 1 million in 1988 for the 7800 is something to consider. With that said, I still have my Master System and enjoy it a bit more than my 7800. Though it sometimes has issues reading carts, it still works well today. Wonder Boy 3 in particular is one of my favorite games ever. In fact, I have a few of its ports including the one on the TG16. Not a fan of the new 2017 "re-imagining" of it though, it looks really weird. Doesn't look like Wonder Boy at all. Also funny story you got there about Spider-man, i wonder if the game itself was the cause of the malfunctions? I know some 2600 games have issues on 7800 hardware. No I think you're right, I don't think there was another video game console out other than the SMS that was close to the arcades. Even for computers I'm not sure if any of them were significantly better than the Master System. Sega did right with the graphics on that one! (Seems a lot of the old posts I made about my SMS collection are gone from back when I joined years ago. I guess Atariage doesn't keep posts around after a certain period of time. Or maybe it was because I only had like 4 posts anyway lol.)

Anybody ever been interested in buying older laptops from the 80's just to say you did? I'm not sure any of the older laptops are gaming compatible but some of them looked really cool design wise.

To be fair the Xbox was basically a PC, so developers could just throw their games on it and only have to worry about optimizing for the custom Nvidia GPU. It was likely the easiest console to develop for out of the 4.

I hope you meant Q4 1998 lol! To be honest only only really enjoyed F-zero X among those titles. Not that the others weren't fun, I guess those type of games didn't appeal as much to me as F-zero for some reason or another.

You won't be able to play Sega CD games on the CD-i because the CD-i doesn't play standard CD's. As for games many of the known games on MD and SNES are on the CD-i with better graphics and enhanced audio, such as Micro Machines, Fifa, and Flashback. Keep in mind they are still the same games though.

I second Elgato, it's the only brand I've been hearing about for years.

I'd say the BC PS3 is likely the console that causes the most redundancy. You don't need a PS2 or PS1 at all. In fact, if your Blu-ray laser dies, the regular laser can still play PS1/PS2 games even if you cant play PS3 games anymore. I'd say there no other console quite like it. Most other machines have it so it only makes on console redundant, not 2.

Hello there Atari Age, it's been 3000 years since I've been here and glad to be back! Today I wanted to talk about Gex. Gex was a platform series that started on the 3DO gaming console, later becoming the mascot of the system. It was later ported to the Sega Planet and the Sony PlayStation. It received a well received and well known sequel Gex: Enter the Gecko on the PSX and N64 (called GEX 3D on the N64), and then a final sequel, Gex 3: Deep Cover gecko, also released for the PSX and N64. Gex's popularity is often misunderstood. Gex sold over 15 million copies across the 3 games (not including PSN downloads and so on) which made it the 2nd best selling 90's born platforming series behind Sonic. Since Gex 3, no new games have released. Whether it's because of the brisk death of traditional 3D platformers, or developers not being able to adapt jokes for the new millennium, Gex has been on hiatus. For those who have never played Gex before it is a MUST OWN for any game collector, especially for platforming fans. The first game I would recommend playing on the 3DO since it seems to be less pixelated and has an actual save system. The PSX/SAT versions are more pixelated and you have to find "disks" in levels to save the game. I wouldn't have an issue with that extra challenge if they changed some of the stage design to accommodate it, but sadly they didn't. Gex 2 is a fine game on any platform, however the N64's audio is obviously worse due to its lack of sound chip and CD storage. It also has, if I recall, HALF the jokes cut off due to space, same for Gex 3. My experience: For me, I brought a 3DO at $300 when Gex first came out, everyone in the newspapers along gaming enthusiasts where hyping it up as the 3DO's "Killer app", especially with the new price point. Reviews were going crazy, and I decided to take the plunge. Got Gex, Alone In the Dark, Burning Soldier, Life Stage, Dragons Lair, and Slayer. Gex had me hooked from the Michael Jackson-esque music in the FIRST ZONE, the tight controls, the amazing graphics, and the fun gameplay. I was instantly a believer that prior systems could not run this game, and fell into the "32-bit gaming" hype despite me having worked with electronics and knowing bits had nothing to do with power. But every time i heard or read the 3DO PR guys talk about "New 32-bit gaming software" I always got excited. I was originally expecting something clumsy like the other "mascot" performers you saw on the SNES/MD., such as Aero or Awesome Possum, but Gex was completely different form those. When Gex 2 came out I was beyond hyped, thought it blew games like Banjo and Mario 64 out of the water. In this thread, share your Gex experiences!!

Hello guys, recently I caught up on numerous threads and one in particular stood out to me. Drac made a thread about Atari XE game system sales, and some guy came in and the thread ended with a big fight, one guy said Atari was a failure and the SMS outsold the 7800 and blah blah blah. Link to the thread: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/275433-atari-xe-game-system-sales/ However, despite the fight in that thread I've noticed ever since the 3.77 million 7800 number was proven to be not only for hardware, I've seen many Sega sites putting out the claim that the SMS possibly sold more than the 7800. Starting a fresh thread for this discussion, and with no fighting, I'd like to know the opinions of the Atari Age crew on this topic. First, here's my view, feel free to disagree: Now, I personally have a hard tome believing that the SMS outsold the 7800 in NA, in fact I believe the 2 million number for the SMS is likely bogus and that the 1.5 million also quoted as the possible LTD makes a lot more sense, especially since from 1990 onward, both machines sales cratered into dust. So i believe if the SMS has a chance of passing the 7800 it would have had to happen before 1990. My main reason for thinking it's not possible is that the SMS sold 500,000 units in a LA times article in late 1987, and by the time I heard anything about SMS selling over 1 million units it was in 1990. The 7800 sold 1 million by summer of 1988, not even a full year after the 87 LA times article. That leaves the holiday season of 1988 and the remainder of the 7800's lifespan for sales. Now, Curts numbers do tell one thing that is true, that 1988 was the 7800s best year, of course compared to Nintendo that peak was insignificant, but when compared to the SMS, that's a pretty huge deal when determining who was the winner of "second place". If Atari sold over 1 million with a holiday and several years left, I can't see how the SMS could have outsold the 7800 in NA at all. Sega removed the Sega Master System a couple years into the 90's because of poor sales, if it was indeed showing signs of catching up and passing the 7800 Sega likely would have kept it around a bit longer for some small profits, but in NA, they clearly were not getting those small profits and took it out of the market. In my view, It's likely the 7800 likely reached over 2 million by 89 alone. A big holiday season in 1988, plus, decent sales in 89, could have already placed the 7800 over 2 million units, especially since less stores started carrying 2600's, and the 7800 in both the holiday season of 88 and 89 got a price cut. Considering 88 was the best year, that could have been 500k alone. I'd like some other perspectives on this debate, perhaps someone has news articles to additional sales figures for either machine to help determine where the 7800 and SMS were at the end of their runs, or at least a give us a good guesstimate. [bonus discussion: On the topic of the XE, which was also discussed in that thread, the XE had a better launch than the 7800 had, and it sold-out, I'd say probably at least 1 million where sold by the end, but likely not much more than that since Atari never truly positioned the XEGS as a video game competitor, which to be honest, maybe they should have, it was doing better than the 7800 for months and had a large(and growing) library of games.]

It's something to think about, because back in the day the notion even worldwide that the SMS was sec ond place was silly. A lot of people assume this because of european sales, and estimated sales numbers, while most Atari sales are locked up behind news archive paywalls like News library (because making old articles free is apparently stupid?) and yet when I was in europe back in the day everyone had 7800's and I saw a few Xegs in stores, not much stocked SMS's and few games. Outside of the debatable 30-40 million for the 2600 (which like the NES may have been inflated or not by the company) and the "shipments" for the jaguar, where it may have sold near 200k out of that almost 300k shipment. We have nothing. Oh and I guess we have a range for the 5200. How much did the 7800 actually sell? How much did the LYNX actually sell? How much did the XE game system actually sell? There are reports with some sales figures for some years in NA and a couple in Europe (and new zealand) but that only gives use a bit of information for a specific time period. We know millions has been mentioned for the LYNX but no numbers, and apparently I've heard and see when I was in europe more Lynxs with more games then Gamegears, and I saw the same in NA for the first few years of the Lynx's life anyway. All 3 were all mentioned in paywall locked old news reports during Atari's earnings, and each time they had a rise in revenue and profits for their consoles. The 7800 and Lynx were mentioned for years. More so the 7800 since it was out longer. Even the Xegs was a big success which is a term that was used in a 1990 report. I of course am not going to use 500 different search terms and pay hundreds of dollars to MAYBE find an article behind a paywall that has sales info. There has to be some evidence of sales somewhere for these consoles.