WildBillTX

I totally agree. People will believe anything as long as someone is always around to keep reinforcing it into their brains. One generation of gamers hears the stories, believes it and passes it on to the next. I have to give credit to the Nerd for showing how poorly designed the game is, and then attempting to demystify the mystique ET has gotten over the decades. BTW I remember reading a bad review of ET right after it was released, maybe in Electronic Games Magazine. Does anyone have a scan of that review?

The box and game are not mint. The box has been scratched with something on the bottom, and they used clear sealing tape to close the sides. The styrofoam or cardboard Atari used to hold the game in the day inside was gone, they used bubble wrap instead. The Joysticks are worn and the rubber is loose, but still work, which is a miracle. Most of the Atari joysticks I've found at thrift stores are broke or shorted. It looks like your average Atari that was played for a couple of years in the early 80's, then sat in a closet for 30+ years. I'll check out Electronic Sentimentalites site. I might jump at it..

This hacks for you: (and I prefer this song)

In the small towns in Texas/Louisiana, those "stupid" thrift store employees are still around, not just at Goodwill but at stores run by churches. Some of the people who work for these stores dont know the value of what they're selling or will bargain or accept what you offer just to get it out of the store. The ones to watch out for are younger and male thrift store workers. Good chance they grew up on video games and know what they originally cost. They can sometimes be jerks when bargaining. In the big cities like Dallas, Little Rock and Memphis, I've noticed prices for old records in Goodwills are going way up, even beat up junk. LP's and singles used to sell for 50 cents to a dollar. Now they want $1.99 or $2.99 because they know "Vinyls" are popular with teenagers and college students now.

I did attempt to redo Ready, but GO was the only thing that worked in that small space.

Thanks! You just have to be lucky. Most of the time I just find a lot of junk in the thrift stores in East Texas and Shreveport, or overpriced cartridge or consoles like a beat up SNES or Playstation 1 for $50. Back in February I was at a Goodwill in Canton TX and while looking in the back of the store I found a beat up plastic trashcan taped up with about 12 2600 cartridges inside. I asked how much it was, and it was $12. The clerk told me they got a whole bunch of cartridges and sorted them. They kept the "good games" like Pac-Man, Asteroids, and Dig Dug. They had those in the glass case at the checkout and were selling them for $3 each. The games they didn't know were in the trashcan. Things like Pitfall II, Mountain King, Beamrider, Spider Fighter, Turmoil (what a awesome game!!), Stampede, Chopper Command.. I just paid for it and walked out the door.

I bought this CX2600 for $27.06 (after tax) at a Goodwill store in Longview Texas today! And it works! I was really surprised to find one this nice at that price. I've heard some horror stories of Goodwill's around the country overpricing video consoles and cartridges. I've been using a 2600 Jr that bought new in 1987 so it was great to get one of the earlier models. Works fine with the Harmony cartridge too, and I wonder how easy it is to mod video and audio outputs to it. Still looking for a heavy sixer.

This is awesome already, the best Pac-Man I've played on the 2600. I'd love to see an options menu with plenty of things like a Pac-Man plus mode, normal-high speeds and difficulty level, maybe a turbo button? I've noticed one little glitch on the apple and higher levels. The siren that signals the monsters are blue stays on for a few extra seconds after they've returned to their regular colors.

I'm finally getting the hang of playing this game after getting killed off too easily. BTW is it intentional that your ship flies faster in a X diagonal pattern than + (right left up down)?

I didn't know it was a timing bug in the 80's. I thought it was programmed in. I heard for years that if a ghost wasn't looking at Pac-Man you could pass right through him. Exploiting the bugs in the original game like memorizing patterns, wiggling the joystick to make the ghosts change directions and also the infamous 256 level crash was part of the arcade experience.

That's a good idea, I understand the need to write tight compact code. BTW while playing it tonight, I think I passed through a ghost, is this possible on this version?

Yeah Go for 8K! Why do many programmers here just want to create tiny 4K games like it's 1979 again? I'm really enjoying the game, the higher levels are a lot of fun to play. This is the first 2600 Pac Man where the ghosts really chase you around the maze just like the arcade version. Keep working on it Dintar!

Right now I'm enjoying DINTAR816's new version. It plays smoother than Pac-Man4K and the AI of the 4 monsters is almost as tough as the arcade version. I also liked Nukey Shay's Hack'Em 16K, his version of Pac-Man4K with cut scenes, and also his enhanced version of Pac-Man Arcade.

I like to see the same companies who make the NES/SNES/Genesis clone consoles like the Retro Duo or the Hyperkin Retron 3 create a new console that plays Atari 2600-7800 cartridges. And maybe another one for Intellevison, Colecovision and 5200 cartridges (the controllers might be the biggest hangup for that)... all with Composite S-Video or better yet HDMI output. I dont know why this hasn't been done, copyright problems?

That's great news! A options menu like Spiceware has for his games would be sweet. And for the monsters eyes, I edited the graphics with Hackomatic2 to show what I meant, just make them a little larger:

I guess I'm outnumbered on the design of the monsters, maybe the eyes could be just a little larger like on the arcade version. They just look blocky and not cute enough. As for speed I compared it to my Mame Puckman rom and the closest Dinar's version comes to the first speed of the Mame rom is starting on the apple stage. When the game was popular in the 80's I think a lot of operators in my area (NE Oklahoma) set their Pac-Man cabinets to the hardest speeds to get short games, so I'm so used to a speedy version. I bet a lot of them were probably redone Galaxian or Rally-X cabinets, and some even had the hack kits with the turbo button. I'm just nickpicking little things here. This could released on cartridge the way it is now.

I thought "another version?", but this may beat PacMan4K or Hack'em for my favorite 2600 version. Excellent job! As for 4-8K size, we already have a 4K version. I'd love to see a "go for broke" 8K or even 16K version as close as the arcade version as the 2600 get it with the cutscenes and other nice player options, like a 2 player mode. My only comments is the play speed doesn't ramp up as quite as fast as the original arcade game does, it starts out very slow like the old NES version did. And I think the design of the monsters could be improved, they look too blocky like PacMan4K's did.

I remember reading in the 80's that Dona Bailey designed and programmed the 2600 version, though that might have been (misunderstood) marketing hype.

Very impressive! I think i like this version than the original arcade game.

LOL, offensive but funny. PS go check out Stevie's' 1970's albums like Innervisions and Songs In The Key Of Life - they are funky and groundbreaking in the use of synthesizers.

I'm glad they found some cartridges.. I hope it was worth all the trouble and money.. (shakes head...)

Combat in 1981 with a heavy sixer too! I wish I still had that heavy sixer. The second cart bought was Missile Command.