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Nice job, pixelboy. I own Activision Anthology for the GBA, and I have to say thank you! Welcome to AtariAge...

I can't believe I didn't think of that! The best feature of modern video games from the 5200 on has been the pause button...so you could stop for a drink. Now there is no need to pause, just drink away 932791[/snapback] Rick Allen of Def Leppard must be very excited for this controller

Forgive me if this isn't appropriate, but could you potentially sell them through the AA store? (although, with the Krokodile cart not in production, I'm wondering if AA has decided not to sell multicarts for specific legal reasons, but it is an invaluable game developer's tool and could be sold as such). The commission you paid to AA (and I have no idea about this) could be less than the amount you would be losing on a closeout. That being said, I would be interested in buying a second as a backup, because I absolutely love my CC2. I think you would sell a lot more of them if people only knew how well they work. @atwwong - yes, all 2600 games work on the CC2, except for Pitfall II.

I actually have a really positive reaction to this A "remote controller" worthy of the name. It looks weird, but inviting for a newbie/classic gamer. The controller, without any plugins, looks really clean and simple. I like the trend towards less buttons, and I think it will force Revolution game authors to use less buttons in their gameplay control schematics, which is all goodness to me. It sure looks like an NES pad when turned sideways. Also, it looks like it's equally suited for lefties and righties. If games are written to use the trigger "B" button a lot (or an option exists to swap buttons A and B), I could see it being comfortable in my hand for a long time. I'll keep my mind open. The only point of confusion is that there are separate lowercase and uppercase A and B buttons -- maybe they could have used 1 and 2 instead to name the uppercase buttons. And it looks like it will use cheap AA batteries to power the unit, which is a good thing. I'm also thinking that there's a possiblity that someone (Joe Grand ) could create "Stelladaptor" type adapters for the bottom port to let you use any legacy Nintendo controller through it wirelessly (except GC, since there will be GC ports on the unit), or even an Atari-style controller (after all, the FB2 joystick is the "controller of the year" in my book)

NE146 - I just bought this last month because I wanted a backup MMC in case my first one got lost. I'm worried that MMC's will be hard to get in the future. Here's the link - it's a USB 2 SD/MMC card reader complete with a 128MB MMC for $23.99. And, yes, the MMC is pre-formatted in FAT16. You will need the card reader to transfer ROM's onto the card. Add something to the cart to make it $25 and you will get free shipping. I highly recommend it. With 128MB, you will have room for everything and then some...with 32MB, you may hit a wall with all the hacks, homebrews, and docs...

Missle Command was one of my most played games back in the VCS' heyday. And it may well be the best game on the Flashback 2 (lack of comb filter and extra "bar graph" next to the bullets due to the FB2's hardware implementation notwithstanding).

The two Mario Bros. make a great pair. I even think that 2600 Mario Bros. has better control and more fun gameplay than 7800 Mario Bros. I especially like Rhindle the Red's 2600 Return of Mario Bros. hack, and I'm glad I have it on cartridge. For Centipede/Millipede: I find 2600 Millipede to be my favorite as a 1 player game, but 7800 Centipede is awesome in "2 players at the same time" mode. 7800 Dark Chambers is much more fun than 2600 Dark Chambers, but 2600 Dark Chambers is an impressive technical feat... I also think the 2 Ms. Pac Man's are a great pair - especially if you think of the 2600 Ms. Pac as training wheels for the harder 7800 Ms. Pac. One more thing -- both Q*berts are great -- I have been really enjoing the 7800 Q*bert homebrew on my CCII lately.

The legacy support continues, because the Game Boy Micro, which will be released next week, can still play GBC games... edit:***oops, looks like I'm wrong, and the Micro doesn't have the second legacy chip***

Good luck, Kepone!

Welcome to AtariAge, Jay Maynard! We're honored to have you on our board. Hopefully someone on the board has a spare 2600 (or even cooler for trade shows, due to the composite video and audio out, a spare hacked Flashback 2, if it's compatible!) that they can loan to you or sell to you.

Frogs and Flies is one of the best little kid games on the 2600. No special kid controllers needed - it's a joystick game. And it's fun for grownups, too.

Activision Tennis plays great, even today, and was the first title to show that sports games without significant compromise were possible (in 2K!) on the 2600.

My guess: No, for multiple reasons. Back in those times there was almost no computerized typesetting for four-color printing, and the lead times to get the boxes were most likely greater than the time between code complete and shipping. Most likely the screen mock-ups were drawn and finished well before the game itself was finished. Also, the quality of screengrabs for print available at the time would not be good enough to do the reality of how the games looked on TV's when you played them justice.

I picked RS Football because it was the the best Atari-made sports game at the time. RS Tennis is way too derivative of Activision's tennis and isn't any better or more fun to play. RS Football beat M-Networks' Super Challenge Football because you could play it one-player (even though I could kick the computer's butt!), though Super Challenge Football has better overall 2-player gameplay.

I second the idea for the DS. I have posted before that it would be really cool for the lower screen of Anthology for the DS to look like a game console (I understand that it may not be able to look exactly like an Atari 2600 for copyright reasons) all the time - even during gameplay, and have touchscreen versions of Power, Game Select, Difficulty A and B, Color/BW, and Reset buttons handy at all times, with the games playable on the upper screen. The lower screen could even be toggled to show the currently saved high score and/or the score needed to get a patch so you know what you're shooting for! The user interface would be a huge improvement over the GBA Anthology interface (which, admittedly, is pretty good). I would also like to see an area for three initials next to the high score notebook - to give it that '80's feel and promote sharing of the cartridge among friends. Finally (this is a real pipedream) - two words - wireless multiplayer!

Good summary. I will also add that I feel more confident in my diagonal moves with these new joysticks, and that the red button also feels a bit more responsive. They are a little tight to insert into my 7800, but I don't feel like they will damage my system at all.

Kenfused - You have been doing an outstanding job - I am really enjoying the game on my 7800 with CC2, and moreso now that I am using new joysticks from my Flashback 2. It seems really close to being complete. I really like how you can choose horizontal or diagonal joystick placement.

My first time playing this ever. I scored 14,300. I will improve, but I happened to have a digital camera available (I just took a picture of Missle Command on the Flashback 2 and posted it in another thread) so I took the screenshot anyway.

Here you go, Thomas. Here's a screenshot of Missle Command on the FB2. I picked the green color on purpose to show you the lack of HMOVE bars/lines on the left, and also the "bar graph" just above the bullets.

I can top that - I put my FB2 joysticks in my 7800, and I'm playing the real deal with better joysticks than I have used in years. I like these CX-40a's even better than original CX-40's - the fact that all my CX-40's are worn out in one way or another just makes it even sweeter. For many of us who own 2600's or 7800's, the FB2 is worth it for the new joysticks alone. And despite all the glitches, I'm still excited about the possibilites of hacking the FB2, and I still enjoy playing it as is. Yeah, the state of some of the games could give newbies the idea that many of the 2600 games were glitch and flicker filled, but there's more than enough goodness surrounding it (like River Raid!) to totally counteract it. I hope it is popular enough to merit a second "FB2.1" run with all the bugs worked out.

Not to me rude, but this sounds kinda suspicious to me. If two consumers can immeadiately find broken games after adding a cart connector (and I grabbed a handful of carts at random), it's not a subtle issue. I'd say the 40 rom gamelist had to be hand-selected for games that would work. And also considering the Quadrun issue, there seems to be a "ship-it overwhelms QA" mentality going on. But in fairness, that does make it seem more like a classic Atari product 917027[/snapback] Actually, the Missle Command HMOVE issue can be immediately seen without hacking, as Missle Command is part of the built-in 40 ROM gamelist. The various versions of the 2600 (the Jr.), the 5200, and the 7800 all had minor hardware compatiblity (or even cartridge fitting compatibility!) issues due to hardware changes (one example: Robot Tank on the 7800) , and the FB2 isn't immune to them either. The HMOVE change, however, must have been really late, as it would have seemed to be caught by QA fairly quickly. I wonder if the HMOVE change, or other late "cosmetic" change to the hardware, is contributing to the shakiness exhibited in Asteroids Deluxe, Yars' Return, and (less likely due to the excessive number of scan lines coded) the GCC version of Millipede.

As a kid, I always thought the arrowhead was the pointy end. Now I can see it both ways.

I noticed last night that Missle Command seems different - there is a bar graph just above the bullet supply, which is not in the original game. Anyone else notice this, and why is it there?

I got mine yesterday, and it had the Atari Millipede and no Quadrun sound. Video quality is great IMHO (but then again I played it on a 15 year old 20" TV). Joysticks are fantastic, and they fit into my Atari 7800 without a problem.

I actually like Madden 2005 on my GBA