redsteakraw

The link is as dead as the Youtube shooter.

I am going to try to get a full Activision, CBS, Epyx, Imagic, Mystique and M-Network. I recently made a list by publishers to make it a bit easier(thanks to markdown, pandoc and LaTeX). I know I won't ever have a complete collection, in total but I can have smaller goals. I only have a handful of boxed copies so I have no delusions of having even a complete boxed subset. I do like the variations and the sheer size and scope of the 2600.

I don't know how close the Light vs Heavy is but there is this dust cover that should show off the system.

That is what I would consider a complete set. I Just started to create my list of games to check off, I don't think I will ever have a complete in box collection. I only have two boxed Activision games, Ice Hokey and Tennis and 25 Activision titles in general. If you have any tips on how to acquire and collect the games in box or not that would be greatly appreciated.

There are only 3 so it shouldn't be enough to taint the collection. Steeplechase is also one of the rare 4 player games that can also be a party game.

I would define a complete set as the full set of retail games in a given region.

I only have one SEGA game and it is Tapper. It is literally one of the best 2600 games, it plays as smooth as the arcade game Just with reduced graphics but it is all there even the minigame in-between levels. It also has what I believe the first mountain dew product placement in a game.

Publisher Collection Completion Show and Tell + Tips. Like many new collectors who come to the Atari 2600 getting a new fully complete collection in 2018 is a nearly impossible task. However getting a subset collection is a doable feat. Do any of you have a complete collection of any given publisher, Activision, Atari, Coleco, Sega, Imagic, Konami, Mattel, CBS, Fox, M-Network, ect? Does anyone have any advice or any publishers that may be an easy goal? Also if you want to show off a complete collection feel free to show it below. If you have a collection goal other than a complete Publisher collection what subset are you perusing? Feel free to give any advice or tips / tricks you found along the way.

No Steeplehase or other Sears exclusives?

That sucks, the only thing I can say in defense of the text labels are they normally have a mode list so you don't have to look them up in the manual I do prefer the pictures though. On your friend, what ever happened to that person, is that person in prison?

Sorry to hear that, I avoid them because I see them as knock offs but you have a far more personal reason. Does that mean you won't collect sears exclusive games like steeplechase?

I also prefer the picture labels. In defense of Activision, their carts have the best design and stack well, they stand out with the bight colors with white text and they do show an accurate screenshot. What they also sometimes is have a brief mode list, giving the one advantage the text labels have over the picture labels. It makes those a nice balance between utilitarianism and aesthetic design.

I prefer the original picture variants, but avoid Sears variants if at all possible, I always look at them as the knock off variant as Atari was the source. I do have Steeplechase as Atari never released their own.

Label variant fight: Which one is your preferred label variant and why? For Atari carts do you prefer the Text labels, Picture Labels, Silver Labels, Red Labels. Do you like the classic Activision labels or the later variants? Imagic text labels or picture labels. You get the picture.

A workaround could be to hook the Atari up to a VHS player that outputs to composite RCA(yellow, white, red) then connect the composite cables to your TV if you have them.

With the exception of ET they are all really good 2600 games. I find it weird there are no Activision or imagic games, there are a couple Coleco releases though.

You can get this as well or you could just get this.

You need this adapter then hook it up to the TV via the coax antenna or cable port.

How are you connecting it to your TV? Are you using a direct RCA to coax adapter? Are you on the right channel, 3 or 4? Are you trying a recently cleaned game or did you try a different game? Some games will give artifacts like that if the contacts are dirty.

I am glad you got it up and running and yes that was the adapter I was referencing. I am sorry that ET is the only working cart you have. I use q-tips and 91% alcohol to clean my carts, use an eraser for harder games.

RCA to coax adapter straight to your TV's coax. You can use a RCA Composite switch box to switch between them. Coax switch box's severely degrade the signal and look like shit in comparison to the more direct hookup.

They did in 86, they could have done this in one of the later re releases of the VCS.

Maybe so, that means composite only output would have been cheaper. I wonder why it was never a variant with composite when they were trying to cut costs.

That wouldn't make any sense as the VCS didn't have any decent sound chips and hardware to take advantage of stereo sound. It is hard for the VSC to have a decent melody let alone a good music track. Even if they had the hardware I doubt any inbuilt speaker setup would be decent (not sounding like a tin can) and it's close proximity eliminates any advantage of stereo.

The internal speaker sounds like a dumb and pointless idea, TVs always had speakers, and this just brings up more questions. This however doesn't excuse the 2600 jr. where they knew it wasn't going to have a speaker.