Rhindle The Red

So, round six. Two from the L bracket, 1 from the W. BATTLE 15 Yes, it's Adventure taking on Galaga. BATTLE K Centipede vs. Asteroids: the battle of the classic shooters. BATTLE L Super Mario Bros. set the stage for platformers as we know them. Tempest set the stage for...Tempest 2000 and Tempest 3000...

Yes, I know. It's late. Again. Well, better late than never, I always say. Two solid victories last week and two sqeakers. ONWARD! BATTLE 13 Who can stop Adventure? Centipede got an ode. BATTLE 14 Super Mario Bros. got a movie. But that probably works in Galaga's favor. BATTLE I Asteroids got a song. But Yar's Revenge got what was . BATTLE J Tempest got a comic book character named after it. Kaboom!...didn't.

It's PHASE IV! Back to the L's. Okay, so I screwed up big last night and mistakenly listed Centipede as the loser against Keystone Kapers. My bad. Here's the restart. BATTLE E ROCKS! (Asteroids). MONSTERS! (The Legend of Zelda). BATTLE F BUGS! (Yar's Revenge) PLUMBERS! (Mario Bros.). BATTLE G SUE! (Ms. Pac-Man). TUBES! (Tempest). BATTLE H COPS! (Keystone Kapers). BOMBS! (Kaboom!).

So the third phase begins with a return to the W bracket. BATTLE 9 The mighty Adventure for the Atari 2600 goes toe to toe with another alltime 2600 favorite, Ms. Pac-Man. BATTLE 10 Another 2600 game, Keystone Kapers , takes aim at Centipede for the Atari 7800. BATTLE 11 Super Mario Bros. for the NES faces early arcade favorite Asteroids. BATTLE 12 Popular arcade shooter Galaga against the epic Yar's Revenge for the Atari 2600.

I am *not* a fan of digital downloads, but I will probably go against my better judgement and buy Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People. It's download only for either PC or Wii, so I might as well get it for the Wii. It seems like fun if you are a fan of Homestar Runner. I'd avoid the Virtual Console unless there's a really rare game that you just have to play. It's better, in my opinion, to buy the real thing, if you can.

I'm pretty sure you've got that backwards. Sony fought and that's why there was no rumble in the original PS3 controllers. Microsoft settled.

So the second phase begins with the first face-offs between the losers of Round One, trying for a second chance at glory. BATTLE A Food Fight for the Atari 7800, humbled in the first round, takes on the mighty (but still a loser) Legend of Zelda for the NES. BATTLE B The original co-op platformer, Mario Bros. for the arcade dukes it out with the NES' Mike Tyson's Punch Out!! . BATTLE C The arcade Tempest tries to outmaneuver the Colecovision's classic rendition of Donkey Kong. BATTLE D And crazed anti-shooter Kaboom! for the 2600 battles Crazy Climber for the arcade.

NOW!

Okay, here's the rest of Round One: BATTLE 5 Trendsetting NES game Super Mario Bros. against the unique gameplay of the arcade Tempest. BATTLE 6 Atari's early arcade success Asteroids fights off the system selling Donkey Kong for the Colecovision. BATTLE 7 Kaboom! for the Atari 2600 takes on arcade shooter Galaga. BATTLE 8 And the genre-defying Yar's Revenge for the 2600 takes on another "different" game, the oddball arcade entry Crazy Climber.

Well, that took longer than it should have, but here we are. The Double Elimination Super All-Star Summer 2008 Mega Vintage Game Shodown has begun! Four Battles in Round One: BATTLE 1 Adventure for the Atari 2600 squares off against Food Fight for the 7800 BATTLE 2 The reputation-saving Ms. Pac-Man on the 2600 takes on the genre-defining The Legend of Zelda for the Nintendo Entertainment System. BATTLE 3 Luigi's debut, Mario Bros. for the arcade, is up against a classic 2600 platformer, Keystone Kapers. BATTLE 4 And quality arcade ports square off with the Atari 7800's Centipede facing Mike Tyson's Punch Out!! for the NES. We'll do four battles a week and we should be done before the snow falls! (Which is always a good idea for a summer tournament!)

That guy's in Canada and the $15 shipping probably has something to do with the low sale price.

Yes.... And your point is....?

I received an awful lot of nominations and it took a while to figure out how to whittle it down to a reasonable amount. So, by means of this poll, I will choose the final participants in the Shodown. It will either be a list of 16 or 32 (depending on the number of votes). So, in this one, please select the games you *personally* feel are worthy of inclusion (you can vote for as many - or as few - as you like). Overall votes will determine the list as well as the seeding. Please think of the version listed when making your choices. Even though there is only one title listed on more than one system (Defender), focus in on the version that's been nominated, not one on a different system.

Before I close this, I'll officially add my nominations: Mario Bros. - Arcade Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back - 2600 Rescue on Fractalus - Atari 8-Bit

Next week or the week after depending on how many nominations there are.

Have you listed your nominations for the upcoming Shodown yet? Have you? Why not? Follow this link: http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...126494&st=0 But for the love of all that is good and kindly, read the rules first. If I don't get enough nominations by the end of this week, I'll be choosing the entries in ways that may not make people happy, so get your nominations in now!

New poll option added.

Before I get into this week's poll, please take a moment and nominate three titles for the upcoming Shodown by following this link. Thanks. Now, how about this new-fangled technology, DVD? When did you get your first player? What was it? What was the first DVD you owned? For me, I first bought a DVD player when the Nuon technology was abandoned in 2001 and I picked up a Toshiba N501 for something like $170. I had been watching DVDs on my computer at work already by that point, but the N501 was my first real player. My first DVD was Michael Nesmith's Elephant Parts. How about you?

Don't agree that the question is "pointless", but *your* point is taken and "I can't decide" has been added as an option to the poll.

So all three consoles have the ability to download both original and classic games. Which of the three do you think is best for someone interested in classic gaming? Remember, we're focusing on downloadable content of interest to classic gamers only. Note: as always with these types of polls, any trolling or childish behavior (console-warring) will be deleted.

Yes, the Jag is out. Correct. A total of 3 games, each from different systems. And I intended to count that as California Games. Yes, the Famicom is different than the NES. That's why SMB3 *can* be nominated for the Famicom. I didn't put any kind of region restrictions on the nominees. "Region is no object." Sure. And computers. And, please, everyone *try* to nominate three titles. I want as large a list as we can get. I'm going to run this nomination process for a while, so we may end up with a *lot* of titles, but that's what will make this one interesting. If there aren't enough nominations per title to do a seeding based soley on that, I'll deal with it at that time.

Well, I know I've been neglecting the "Poll of the Week", but it's time to get this year's tournament going. So, people seem to want game titles again, so that's what we're doing. The only thing to decide is who's playing and what type of tournament. Now, I'm partial to a double elimination tournament because we haven't done that before. But if there's an overwhelming demand for single elimination tournament, we'll do that. The Rules: PLEASE READ before posting: But for now, it's time for the nomination process. In order to guarantee a wide variety, the only requirement is that the title in question have been released before 1990. (That date is a convenient cutoff. It could shift if a good argument could be made, but it's as good as any.) Region is no object; a Japanese release is good enough to qualify. Arcade and computer titles are fine. Everyone can nominate a total of three titles, each from a different system. You need to specify the title *and* the system. I'll figure out the cutoff point and the number of nominations for each title will determine the seeding. This time, I'll let someone else take the lead and nominate first. I'll pipe in later.

The last GameCube game was Madden '08, released 8/14/07.

So, I'm getting excited for the new Indiana Jones movie and it got me thinking about good old Raiders of the Lost Ark for the Atari 2600. I remember how amazing this was back in the day, with it's multiple screens and inventory system. I also remember how friggin' frustrating it was; how many times I got all the way to the end only to plummet down the mesa side instead of getting into the cave. How about you? What's been your experience with this seminal 2600 title?

I'm not trying to pry into anyone's personal info, but I was curious about people's habits. Do you carry a lot of CC debt? Do you carry over a bit from month to month? Or do you generally pay it all off every time? Maybe you don't even have a credit card (too young or you just don't use them).