FujiSkunk

Not to dispute you, but are you sure? The AtariSoft FAQ has it as "ultra rare." That's an iffy way to put it, of course; perhaps only some press releases leaked out. I certainly haven't seen it myself, except in pirated form. Curiously, the FAQ also lists the C-64 version as "never released," and I have a copy of that on disk as well. Edit: Fixed BB Code.

There wasn't much to be had today, especially since some thrift stores were closed for the Memorial Day weekend. However, I did find a Commodre +4 for five bucks. I have no way of testing it, since just about every port on the back is proprietary. Still, anybody looking for the +4 and the 16 can take heart; they are out there!

Whoa. Just.. whoa! The parallaxing horizon and arcade voice samples are very nice touches! It's a shame the music will never be as good as the C-64's release, but you're doing a commendable job!

Strictly speaking, all Apple II games that use the standard Apple joystick are paddle-compatible. This is because Apple joysticks are really just a pair of paddles that have been repackaged into a single controller; that's why they're analog sticks with two fire buttons. Atari could have done the same thing with the Atari 2600, but they wisely chose to make the joysticks digital instead. I don't know if the Apple II's external controller port is even capable of a joystick like the 2600's, but the II+ and IIe actually have a second game I/O port inside the system, which does support digital controllers. Unfortunately I know of only one game that used this port: Track and Field by AtariSoft. Incidentally, Arkanoid for the Apple II is also mouse-compatible, if you happen to have one handy.

If you're looking for good arcade translations, AtariSoft did a great job on most of their ports to the Apple II. Moon Patrol and Mario Brothers stand out in particular. I would even argue that the Apple II release of Mario Brothers is the best 8-bit translation of that game I've played. Most of the latter-day arcade ports made by Mindspring and Data East unfortunately don't hold up as well, however, Data East did publish a good title with Victory Road: Ikari Warriors II. The game engine is much more solid than that of the first Ikari Warriors, and the double hi-res graphics make the game look just as good as its C-64 counterpart.

Yes, but Major Havoc didn't have loading times; the mini-game was just there as something of an intermission, not to pass time while the next level was loading. That's a subtle but important difference, especially to the patent lawyers. The C-64 occasionally had music or bits of animation during loading, but I don't recall any games having actual mini-games during loading. If somebody finds one, maybe they can convince a company to file a prior-art claim against the patent.

My SNES is also dual colored and it wasn't put together from 2 different consoles because I purchased it new back in the 90s and I've never taken it apart. 863223[/snapback] Ah, even better. So Nintendo's QA was getting to be like Atari's in the early '90s.

MY SNES brightened up after being scrubbed with alcohol. I think it was mostly just dust. 863084[/snapback] I'm of the opinion that there were two colors of SNES shells anyway, and what you're seeing is probably a Frankenstein someone put together from two other consoles. I have come across one or two myself like that. I might even still own one of them.

Yes, but not in game variation #1, which means you'll never see him if you don't fiddle with the game select switch. For every three game variations, Evil Otto doesn't appear at all in the first, he appears and can be shot in the second, and he appears and is invincible in the third.

That's probably not an Easter Egg so much as a conservation of graphics code. The smiley face you see is actually the inverse of the "Evil Otto" graphic. It's meant to look like debris from an exploding robot, but of course the source of the graphic is a little too obvious.

Details are your friends. How is it not working? Do you see any kind of picture on your television when you turn it on? How are you connecting the Atari to your television? Did you try both channels 2 and 3? Are there any cuts or fraying on your power cord? Most of the games you listed are fairly common, and none are what I would call rare, so you don't have to worry about potentially throwing away a gold mine. Even so, I would beg you never to throw away old 2600 stuff! Most likely the games still work, and the odds are favorable that the controllers also still work, even with the missing covers. Even if you decide you don't want to keep the system, somebody here would be very happy to take it off your hands. Welcome to AtariAge!

Why look at a different BB? Just check out the WWE thread. Edit: Okay, so I can't count. The WWE thread is only at 127 pages. That's still more than this one, though!

That would be for the Mystique version. 860216[/snapback] The Charles Addams estate might sue.

And video games actually started at a quarter, if I'm not mistaken. In the interviews for the Atari arcade collections, I believe Nolan Bushnell mentions quarters when talking about how the first Pong's coin bucket overflowed shortly after it was unveiled.

One of the difficulty switches controls the background audio. I believe it's the left one.

That border is there so that the whole picture is on the screen. It's there because the computer is designed for a monitor that overscans like a television(which the IIgs's monitor does) If I'm not mistaken, the border color can be changed in the IIGS BIOS, probably on the same option screen that lets you switch between "normal" and "fast" processor speeds. You should be able to set the border color to black, which would essentially get rid of it.

The "Vader" box shows the standard lower casing.

Completely compatible. There may be some issues when trying to run Apple II games on the "fast" speed setting; I don't recall ever seeing any, but it's been a very long time since I last got to play with a IIGS. On the "normal" speed setting, there should be no issues at all. The "problem" is that the RGB monitors used by the IIGS and the II-compatible Macintosh work a little too well. The Apple II creates its color pallette by manipulating what is essentially a high-resolution bitmap. One side effect of this technique is that any given color will not line up perfectly with any other color, even if the colors are supposedly mapped to pixels on the same row or column. On a composite monitor, this isn't very noticeable, but on an RGB monitor, multicolored lines that are supposed to be straight will show some obvious crookedness and/or blended colors. This doesn't affect compatibility, however, and really shouldn't be a factor in game play, either.

I kinda like the music included in the game. Wanna start another musical flame fest?

Hasn't there already been countless threads about how the FB2 is using a 2600-on-a-chip?

We could keep this up. Perhaps Sony should call their next one the PiStation, aka the PS3.14. Ooh, and then Atari could rename the Flashback and call it the Atari Recycler!

Grouping by company (and echoing a lot of what has been said): The best collection of arcade ports comes from Atari during their silver-label and red-label eras. Some titles are better than others, but all demonstrated just how capable the Atari 2600 was in the hands of good programmers. Crystal Castles, Millipede, Stargate, and Jr. Pac-Man stand out in particular, but I really don't think there's a bad one in the bunch. The Atari black-labels run hot and cold, with Asteroids and Berzerk being hot (even hotter with all the hack work going on nowadays) and Pac-Man being cold. Parker Brothers did consistently well with their arcade ports. In particular, the Parker Brothers Trilogy, Frogger, Q*Bert, and Popeye are three of the best non-Atari arcade ports you will find. CBS and Sega generally did good jobs on their arcade ports. Skimpy efforts like Gorf and Tac/Scan were made up for by spectacular releases like Wizard of Wor and Tapper. Activision and Mattel (M-Network) both came into the arcade porting business late in the game. Both companies also had a policy of discouraging programmers' use of the flicker trick, making their games easier on the eyes but often more predictable. Mattel's efforts, including Burger Time and Bump 'n' Jump, generally hold up well. Unfortunately, Activision's ambitions got the better of them, and while ports like Double Dragon and Rampage look and play better than anybody would have expected, they still prove those games just weren't meant for the 2600. The only company to be consistently lackluster was Coleco. Every company released arcade ports that could have been better, and Coleco was no exception, with "just okay" titles like Donkey Kong and Venture. The problem is, unlike other companies, Coleco never produced a really great game to make up for the rest. Instead, they sunk even lower with Zaxxon, a game that is literally unplayable at times.

Speaking of Hack 'Em, has anybody thought about creating a new Ms. Pac-Man based on that code?

Dadburnit, I would've snatched this up if I'd seen it! Darn me and my vigilant attention to bedtimes... Oh well, pencil me in as another who would buy this if it went into production again.

I've heard stories of good samiritans who were cleaning out some little old lady's freezer, where they found meat, still packed and sealed from the butcher, over ten years old. With a big enough pantry, freezer, or what-have-you, it's definitely possible.