128bytes

I did update my avatar - thanks, Zach.

Lord Thag's idea is really good!

Nice job - much better than the old AAS (which you hopefully don't remember -- the ANTHONY ATARI Series of "AA Game of the week"). What is your favorite variation and difficulty level, sir Thag?

Great work! If you print a screenshot with an "atari", I may just have to update my atari avatar with it!

I have never bought a console on launch, but I did get my Atari VCS right after Space Invaders came out. One of these days I will, I'm sure. I looked at the DS right after it came out but decided that it was too big to fit in my pocket, so I bought an SP for $79 instead. Yesterday, I just bought 2 Game Boy Advances (not SP!) at Wal-Mart for $30 each and will get a 4-way link cable so that I can bring a few on the road for some multi-player fun. It will also let me play Activision Advance for the GBA with 2 players. I guess that's not cutting edge - I'm probably around the last person on earth to buy a new GBA from a store I still don't own any non-handheld consoles newer that an Atari 7800 - but am thinking of buying my first modern console. GameCube game prices are really dropping, and I understand that Nintendo will make their new console compatible with GameCube games, so I'm thinking of buying a GameCube now (new or used - PM me if you want to sell) as my first choice, and maybe a Game Boy player to go along with it.

It's resolved for me: ping www.atariage.com Pinging atariage.com [67.15.129.36] with 32 bytes of data: Reply from 67.15.129.36: bytes=32 time=53ms TTL=39 Reply from 67.15.129.36: bytes=32 time=52ms TTL=39 Reply from 67.15.129.36: bytes=32 time=52ms TTL=39 Reply from 67.15.129.36: bytes=32 time=52ms TTL=39

Can the introductions be moved into the Off-Topic section, so they can't be read by people who aren't registered? That might make people (like, um, me...) more comfortable to post their introduction information.

Congratulations. Impressing us nostalgia-obsessed types is a significant feat.

frogs and flies

Excellent choice!

I never timewarped away from April 1 on this one...I've just sat back since the first post waiting for it to unfold. Since noone else did a "mock interview" I spent 3 minutes making one up. Based on my "mock interview" with the package photograph on page 1 of this thread, I noticed that the package had black stains on it, except for the area with the shipping label with Charles' name on it. After "mock questioning" of the package, the package agreed that it is suspicious for its body to be dirty while its label was still clean. Additional disclosure: I was also offered the opportunity to "mock interview" Tron Man's package. However, Tron Man's package looked quite suspicious itself so I declined, and very quickly moved back away from the microphone. ps - I hope Canada Post's lawyers don't hear about this - the damages in the "mock trial" over slander charges could be quite serious...

Hey, everyone's still trying to take a peek at me... :blushing: Seriously, we should try to have both .a78 and .bin files available for download at the AtariAge site. I would even go as far to say that if there had to be only one version available, it should be the .bin version. It would do wonders for my modesty!

Make sure to thank me for this one when you set up your site: DS

Maybe someone could do a "mock interview" with Atari Charles to get additional information... Tron man seemed pretty excited to see Atari Charles -- seems like he'd be up for it

Eat The Cone! (special 7800-only one -- let me indulge)

Hey, I'm still waiting for someone to match the load times of the Atari 2600...the fastest loading videogame system ever!

Yeah, not really funny. Of course, the coolest guys are outside playing their GBA's in the sunshine, link cables and all It would have made a better point if the other guys with PSP's were playing multiplayer wireless games and the Nintendo DS guy couldn't join into that. The DS can have "revenge" if it beats the PSP to become the first handheld to have wireless multiplayer internet gaming (as is anticipated) -- if the DS guy was in wifi range, it wouldn't matter if he was the only one there without a PSP.

Not to mention a lot of other 25+ year old squares totally immersed in Atari who own PSP's on this board! (at least Adventure's yellow square is not alone... ) Very Funny! (...and I don't own a PSP, so I guess I'm not a square for that reason)

I agree with RT on this one. The "drop shadow" pixel in Tennis was groundbreaking, and the gameplay/engine still hasn't been beaten for this sport to this day, so I think it's a classic. I have played Tennis Addict -- even though the graphics are cooler, and you swing with the stylus (yeah, this would work with the DS), the gameplay and the strategy is just as good on 2600 Activison Tennis.

Now Wil has reviewed Jawbreaker for the 2600. He likes it.

bump with head, kick off platform, collect coins, avoid fireballs

One other thought on the Activision Anthology for DS - the bottom screen can be a touch-screen-enabled picture of a video game console, even while the game is active on the top screen, with game select, reset, a/b difficulty, and color/bw switches. The power off switch can take you right to the main selection menu.

My best ideas: A Xevious inspired game where the bottom screen shows the land straight below and the top screen shows the sky straight ahead, and you have to shoot/avoid the enemies in front of you while you are bombing/avoiding targets on the ground. A 2 player simultaneous racing game on one DS -- one person uses the left joypad and the L button, the other uses the right 4 buttons and the R button - with each player's first person perspective on a separate screen Activision Anthology on the DS with 2 player simultaneous action - the left player uses the left joypad and the L button to fire, and the right player uses the 4 buttons for movement and the R button to fire. Touchscreen controls can be used to select games and set switches, etc. before gameplay starts. Battleship would be a natural with the 2 screens (play either against the computer, play Advance Wars-style turn-based (pass your DS back and forth to the other player and the screens flip each time) or wirelessly with another DS) Some other ideas: I agree with others' ideas of a pinball game where the action is on the bottom screen and the scoreboard is on the top screen Galaga with running statistics on the bottom screen (shot percentage, etc.) Ports of 2600 games with maps (Starmaster, Ghostbusters, Solaris) where you could see the maps on the bottom screen and the action on the top screen

It came pre-formatted in FAT, and was 100% ready to go without any formatting. Formatting them is easy, though, but I won't get into the how-to here. The cable is only used if you want to do hack/homebrew development. You should use a cheap card reader/writer to transfer your ROM images to the MMC.

Hey, I found the big key during lunch time today! I'm still succeeding without anyone giving me any hints