DarthDuke

Sorry. New to this forum thread. Didn't realize that posts had to be in a certain format.

Yeah, smart bombs are fantastic! In the versions where I can't hide behind the horizon, I use the bombs a lot. Maybe one of the reasons why I don't mind Defender being so difficult is the satisfying payoff that I get from even managing to rescue one humanoid from a lander. I don't get frustrated if I don't get a higher total score than I have before because that play mechanic is more satisfying to me than a score.

I never keep track of how long I do things for fun. I've never thought of it. If that format needs to be followed, I guess I won't post anymore. Thanks for letting me know.

That's a good deal! I can easily spend more than $14 at Pinball Hall of Fame when I'm there for an afternoon. I don't mind because it goes to charities like Salvation Army. Would be awesome to have a place like the one you are talking about though.

Spent part of February 29th playing video games. I try to treat Leap Day as a holiday and relax and do fun stuff to celebrate. This year, I got an Atari 7800 for Christmas, so part of this Leap Day was spent playing Dark Chambers, Xevious, Centipede (both versions), Millipede, Defender, Joust, Strategy X, Ghost Manor and Spikes Peak. I also played Claymates, Clay Fighter 2, Gauntlet and Golden Axe 2 on my SNES and Sega Genesis. Played Defender and Joust on my Atari 7800, SNES and Genesis back to back. I'm not sure why, but I'm a huge fan of those Williams arcade games. They are borderline too hard for me, but the way they are designed, I still enjoy playing them a lot even though I die a lot. It's fun to play the three different versions. The Atari 2600 version of Defender is my favorite because you can hide behind the horizon to avoid getting hit. The Sega Genesis version of Joust is my favorite I think because of how well suited the controller is for it and to some degree, I like the way it sounds on the Genesis the best. I like the Genesis' kinda growly sound for some games. Makes Defender sound cool too.

Wow! That's a big arcade for having freeplay games! I've seen freeplay cabinets in hobby stores where I live, but not this many. Does this place charge any kind of admission or at the door fee? There used to be a high-end bar/restaurant here where you could have somewhat expensive, but quite good, drinks and gourmet level bar food (excellent bison burgers for example). But the upside was that they had a lot of freeplay arcade cabinets, pool tables, darts, etc. Not nearly this many though. I think the arcade side of the place was maybe a fourth the size of this one, but it was still a great place to hang out and to have parties. Covid killed it off unfortunately. It never came back.

To launch the ball, you push the joystick in the downwards direction which pulls the plunger out on the screen, then press the fire button to let go of the plunger. You can control how fast the ball starts out on the table by how long you hold down the joystick. You can also control the flippers either together or separately by how you move the joystick. Pressing left will move only the left flipper, right for right flipper, down for both. It's a clever way to simulate the pinball table. I agree that Midnight Magic is a bit better than Video Pinball. More colorful and it has two different songs that it plays: one at the start of the game and another when you run out of balls. I am not sure how using a paddle controller would be better. How would you control the plunger with a paddle controller?

I was, and still am, a big fan of pinball games, so I'm surprised that we never had this console when I was a kid. I think I would have liked it better than the Pong console we had. Pong was fun, but only when I had one of the very few friends and relatives over who were gracious winners and didn't make me feel miserable every time they beat me at a game. At least with pinball, you can play it by yourself. If I saw one of these Pinball consoles out there now, I'd certainly give it a try as long as it didn't cost a small fortune. I have Video Pinball and now Midnight Magic for the Atari 2600 and they are pretty fun versions of Pinball. You are right, it is rather odd that even in articles about obscure and rare video game systems, one rarely sees this Atari Pinball console mentioned.

Yes, I think you hit the nail on the head. Galaga is like a squishy, cartoony remake of Galaxian. Galaxian does seem to have more of an edge to it than Galaga. It's funny that my friends and I used to debate about which was better and saw the two games as rivals even though they were both Namco games.

I have picked up a few new-to-me games this past week. I got Strategy X, XONOX double ended Spikes Peak with Ghost Manor, and Midnight Magic for the Atari 2600. Also found Claymates for the SNES. I had never heard of Konami making Atari 2600 games, so that was a fun surprise. Amazes me that I keep coming across new-to-me Atari games after playing the console for decades. It's a kinda tough blend of River Raid and Combat. The XONOX cartridges are funky looking things but kind of a neat idea. Both games on it are rather confusing so I had to look up the manuals to figure them out. Impressive graphics on Spikes Peak there, especially the mountain. Kinda weird that you have to play 'tag' with the ghost or skeleton and intentionally tap him rather than the usual case of needing to avoid or shoot other characters on screen. I kept trying to avoid those monsters on the first screen until I read in the manual about this twist. Midnight Magic is pretty awesome! A very good pinball simulator for the 2600. Only thing I wish was different was that the main color on the screen was a bit brighter. I sometimes had trouble keeping track of the 'ball' as it's a rather dark red against the black background.

I've never seen Infiltrate or the Star Trek games before either. The Star Trek game has a fantastic sticker! I wonder what the box and manual are like? I'm surprised that I've never heard of the Star Trek one because I think I've looked up lists of Star Trek video games before and don't remember seeing it on there. I have had Secret Quest before but sold it a few years ago when I decided to give up on it. Couldn't ever make any headway in it. With the money I got for it, I bought two or three other games that I was able to play pretty well, so it was a good trade. Nice finds there!

This is very helpful! I will give it a try. Thanks!

Playing this on the EMU7800 emulator on my PC. It is indeed awesome! I've always liked Galaxian a bit better than Galaga, so I'm very glad to be able to play this 7800 version at home.

I was always happy to find the Teddy Bear level in my games when I was a kid. If I had the manual for it, I'd look in there to see which level it was. If not, I kept hitting the level select toggle until it showed up. It was very nice of the programmers to put that icon in there since not every game had the easiest levels in the same place. Some games put the easiest level first, but not all of them. I was just playing Centipede a bit ago, for example, and the Teddy Bear level is level 2 rather than 1. It is significantly easier than level 1. You can still run out of 'lives' but there are a lot fewer bugs that fall or run across the screen and it takes longer for them to show up. You have to rack up a lot more points before they start showing up. You also seem to gain extra lives easier, like it seems to take fewer points to get an extra life, or it's so much easier to rack up points that it seems that way. I loved Centipede (and still do) because I could hold the fire button down to keep shooting rather than having to hit the button for each shot. In the arcades, it was one of my favorites because of that and because of the trackball which made controlling the shooter pretty easy. I never had a trackball for my console at home though because they seemed so expensive at the time. I use trackball mice on my computers. They are wonderful things! Playing Centipede on my PC with Stella emulator is pretty close to the arcade experience. I love it when Atari and other publishers put especially easy levels in games because when I was a kid, I had terrible hand-eye coordination partly due to being born with double vision that never went away. Had to do years of eye exercises and get special glasses to make it easier for me to control my eye muscles, but I didn't start the exercises or get the glasses until I was five, so I had a lot of catching up to do by the time the exercises started helping when I was eight. Imagine being unable to do much of anything that required good vision or reflexes until you were eight. My grandma got me an Atari 2600 when I was seven, partly because I was unable to play sports with the other kids so I needed another way to have fun and partly because she hoped that playing the games would help improve my dexterity and vision. I think it did because I certainly enjoyed trying to play those games much more than I did doing my eye exercises and physical therapy. Finding the Teddy Bear levels was great because it meant that I could have a little less trouble in playing the game long enough to rack up some points. I still enjoy playing these easy levels and using cheat codes and/or mods in other game systems too because even though I have more control of my eyes and have done years of PT, I'm still not as fast as some people are. Granted, there are some with even bigger challenges. My brother-in-law had Multiple Sclerosis, so he had a really hard time controlling the muscles in his fingers and arms, but he could play turn-based games fairly well. We enjoyed playing RPGs and strategy games together. When his MS got to the point where he couldn't even hold the controllers or mouse very well, I would operate them for him and ask him what he wanted his character to do. I think that game designers could do even more to make games accessible to people with physical challenges. I hear there is an organization called Special Effect who makes controllers for people with different challenges. That's a start.

Info on the game straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak. Fantastic!

My wife got me the Atari 7800 this year. I got her a new laptop. I've never had a 7800 before but have been curious about them for decades, so this is a great Christmas gift! So far, I have Xevious, Ms Pacman, Dig Dug and Dark Caverns for it. A good start. It's been a great new way to destress after dealing with the company who have been coming over to my grandma's house every few days since Thanksgiving. Nice to see them again, but helping my 95-year-old grandma get ready for each set of visitors has been tough. I'd do anything for her though She's great! For one thing, she's the one who got me my Atari 2600 and a bunch of games for it back in 1980. I'd been playing the ones at my cousins' houses since 1977 when I'd visit them, so it was great to have my own.

A funny, yet still informative video. I love funny video game videos. Especially if I can still understand the presenter and if he doesn't curse very much. Looking forward to watching more of your videos.

No wonder this game was only $5 at my neighborhood game store. It was the only 7800 game they had today. We'll see how I do on it. I'll try Trebor's trick and see if it helps me get past the bird.

You bet! The Batman TV show was really fun! Computers have sure come a long way from when this show was on the air.

That's great that he fixed it for you! Some guys on Ebay are really good about customer service.

The WiiU is what the Wii should have been to start with. It would be a more popular console if Nintendo had tried harder to market it and had worked with third party developers better. I have played a Switch and Switch Lite at friends' houses and at in-store displays. I am not impressed with it. It is flimsy, tiny, poorly designed and built. It is a real disappointment coming from a company renowned for making user friendly, robust consoles. Even the cartridges are poorly designed. They are practically SD cards and barely any bigger than one. I have friends with young kids who have already managed to lose and even accidentally break a few of these cartridges. Nintendo cartridges aren't supposed to break unless you destroy them on purpose with a hammer or something. They've had to replace the joycons too as the thumb sticks quit working right less than a year after they got the system. I experienced problems with connecting and staying connected as another member has mentioned too. I tried using the pro controller and it was tolerable, but the fact that I needed to use a sold separately controller to be able to play the games with any success is a problem. The joycons that come with it are far too small for an adult with big hands. I had a hard time holding them while still being able to press the tiny buttons. The console itself does get quite hot sitting in the cradle while plugged into a TV. That is a real problem with today's thin portable stuff - it isn't designed to cool itself off very well. They have some good games for the system, but it is possible to play most of the third-party games on other systems better. It was a mistake to try to put PC games on the Switch. The ones I've played looked like I was trying to play them on a low budget off the shelf HP or something. I have yet to see a Switch title that is a 'system seller' for me. None of the ones I've played or read reviews for have made me decide to get one for myself. Meanwhile, I still play my WiiU on a weekly basis. I especially love that it is backwards compatible with Wii games and still enjoy playing 'light gun' games on it like Link's Crossbow Training and Nerf games especially. My wife and I also enjoy using the Wii Balance Board to do the exercise games with. It also makes Tetris a very different experience. Best of all, the WiiU is a truly unique gaming experience. Many games use the screen in the gamepad for one thing while you see something else on the TV. The way it works with Breath of the Wild, for example, is really cool! BOTW just isn't the same game on the Switch and is a good example of how the Switch feels like a step backwards for Nintendo in the gameplay experience department. Another good example is Quest of Dungeons - one of the better 'retro' style indie games I've played. You can see your hero in the dungeon on the TV while simultaneously seeing the map or your inventory on the gamepad. Using your WiiU like this turns the console and your TV into a giant DS. The WiiU gamepad feels more robust and durable than the Switch. My friends who have WiiUs too have much better luck with their kids using the system without harming it than they have with the Switch. I have used my WiiU ever since it was a new console with no problems that I couldn't easily solve. The original battery quit charging last year. I just ordered a replacement one on Amazon and installed it in a matter of minutes. Yes, the Switch has a more powerful processor that delivers fancier graphics, but the system still can't compete with the Playstation and Xbox consoles on the graphics front. Used to be that Nintendo didn't worry about trying to compete with Sony and MS on graphics because they focused on unique gaming experiences instead. The Switch is basically a touch screen tablet with buttons and joysticks that kinda work with it. When it came out, I predicted that it wouldn't be long before other companies copied it and I was right. Steam Deck, Google Stadia, Aya Neo, GPD Win 3, Retroid Rocket 2, OneXPlayer etc. came along. Heck, even some phones and tablets play games pretty well now. The Switch isn't unique enough to fight off these competitors. It is not the fault of the console that it doesn't have a larger library of WiiU games. The few it does have are pretty good though. I especially love Yoshi's Wooly World and Super Mario Maker. Two of the best platformers ever made.

When I was a kid, it was the early 70's when most people didn't have a computer at home at all. The few who did had something that looked like a glorified typewriter with a tiny screen, if it had one at all. The first computer I remember seeing in person was at our local bank which had an IBM 5100 back in 1975. Back then, my dream computer didn't exist yet. It was the stuff of science fiction and was only seen in Sci Fi novels, movies, cartoons and comic books. My dream computer was a bit like Batman's Bat Computer only I remember wanting one that had a big screen the size of a house's window. Such a thing seemed almost impossible back then, but my wife's classroom now has a touch screen computer that is the size of a chalkboard. It's amazing how things change.

That is very cool! Well done!

The Atari Force comics are very cool. I've collected a few of them, both the mini comics from the game boxes and the normal sized ones. One thing that always baffled me though is that most of the comics had little to do with the games themselves. I really wanted the comic that came with the Defender game, for example, to actually be about the game. The description and pictures in the game manual are compelling and really added to the experience of playing the game. Would have been awesome to have a mini comic that expanded upon that description. I think Defender would also make a good basis for an anime series for that matter. There's a lot of drama, pathos and possibly even humor potential in this game. I do have the comics that came with Centipede and Yars Revenge. They are a lot of fun to read and have neat artwork. They really show what is possible when it comes to making a comic book version of a video game.

These joysticks look fantastic! You even put the Gottlieb logo on there. Nice detail. It would be the next best thing to having a full cabinet. Would certainly take up less space and cost less. I love Qbert because it is such a unique game with funny little characters. I especially love how Qbert 'cusses' when he gets hit. The biggest problem I've always had with the game is how hard it is to control and to make sure that I'm jumping onto the right spot on the pyramid so that I don't fall off. A joystick that made it easier to move correctly in the game would indeed be helpful.