[Updated Atari 2600 List]

Nice job on the Activision games. I am waiting for my last CIB Activision game from EvilPay; a copy of Skiing with the blue cartridge.

[Activision (Re-)Labels: Critical mass]

It is kind of hard to see my collection since I have everything stored in 19 quart plastic boxes I got via Amazon. There are about 160 of these boxes. I got the boxes for two reasons; one, the dust from previous owners, and ,two, the cat hair I have in my home. There are 11 boxes full of just Atari Age loose games and boxed games. I like how Albert releases the game loose so I can leave the boxed version alone and still have a game to play. I did have all the boxed games displayed in a big bookcase at the last home I lived in, but they got so dusty I switched to the boxes. I have 16 boxes, 2 rows 8 high, right behind my computer chair; just hope I'm not there when a big earthquake hits....

[My Collection - Part Five]

Just last year I got some of the more pricey games from evilpay and I am glad I did, the prices are going insane. I got all the homebrews through the years before even getting anything else.

[My Collection - Part Three]

When I got back into collecting Atari games in 2019, I (unfortunately?) got a copy of the book 'Classic 80's Home Video Games ID & value guide'. Although the book is a great list and resource, there are some errors in it; for example, I wonder if the late Atari release games were even made in 1985? The number of different label and box variants was astounding to me. The Sears carts are insane with the first nine games without a department id number, then the two to three department store id numbers they used. I did not even know about the Atari Corp releases. As for Canada, I give up on getting all the Zellers CIB games, it just is not happening.

[My Collection - Part Two]

It took me three years to get Cosmic Commuter CIB back in 2005. The price was steep, but now is just outrageous.

[My Collection]

I got a boxed Espial off of ebay back in 2002 for 99 cents! It was an auction too.

Now I am off to ruin someone else's day....

[Favourite Atari 2600 Arcade Ports]

I know nobody wants to hear (read) this, but I like Jr Pac-Man over Ms Pac-Man just because it is so much faster and harder to play.

I also like Boing! over Q*bert.

Let the stoning, live cow tossing and live liver donation commence...

[Atari vs Activision]

I prefer Battlezone over Robot Tank because RT has the guided missiles whereas BZ has the shoot and move mechanics.

Checkers--"Yawn, oh, sorry fell asleep there for a moment."

Activision Tennis is just do simple and easy to play, and I agree with videogamecritics points about RS Tennis, Atari blew a chance to make the game really perfect. Their first game Pong got the ball deflection right, Duh.

I like Enduro better because unlike an arcade game that takes your money by keeping the game time limit short, this home game is an endurance race, as its name implies.

Starmaster might have a bug and be on the easy side, it is better than having to deal with the Star Raiders controller; I'm surprised nobody has hacked SR to play without it.

I don't even play Megamania anymore, now that I have a copy of Astro Blaster on the 7800. But, back in the day, it was pretty neat.

Decathalon / Track & Field. Since my hands are getting bad with age, I wouldn't even bother playing either game now. Only owned Decathlon back in the day; the multi-stage play is/was awesome on both games.

Chopper Command kicks Defenders a**.

 

Overall, Activision games looked better right from the start; Atari played catch up, but of course their best programmers had left...

 

[Activision (Re-)Labels: Critical mass]

Very nice and a lot of work. My original copies are pretty good. It is a shame so many games were in hot attics. I was very lucky that only six of my original boxes has UV damage to one side of the boxes, because they sat in an enclosed attic under a skylight for about 14 years. When I look at ebay items, sometimes I just say."Roasted!", because you can tell the game was in extreme heat or UV light. This heat exposure is why so many carts do not have end labels; they are probably still in everyone's attics! I am finding a lot of Atari labels from 1982, 1983 are not aging well. It seems Atari was being cheap at the time, or maybe a lot of overstock just sat in hot warehouses too long? For example, it has taken a few ebay purchases to get a good label copy of Math Gran Prix from 1982. The original Defender is this way too.

[Terminator Salvation]

Turn on the closed captioning...once you do, you will be hooked.I'm so lazy now, the CC is on all the time.

As for the movie, it was OK.The special effects and stunts are worth seeing.The different kinds of terminator machines are interesting.The end is confusing;I assume the terminator/human regrows its heart?

As for the whole methos of terminator, if the machines rise up, humans are basically boned...it's as simple as expodential math.Once the machines are making machines, it's over.

[The place for Conan O'Brien is the Ed Sullivan Theater]

Looks like Leno is cancelled...And, you are right, Conan makes NY jokes that the LA idiots just can not get;it's almost too agonizing to watch.

[Our "new" cat]

I got two female kittens from my neice a little over a year ago--then about a month later I look and notice that these two cats are NOT female at all.They are still great never the less.

[Sky Diver (Atari VCS, 1979) aka Dare Diver]

"Now I get the 'No refunds' clause of the skydiving contract."

[Eli's Coming]

Don't give up your day job!

Pretty funny, reminds me of when I did 'flip-page' drawings in all my textbooks-you know the ones where you flip through the pages and it animates something lame.

[Holiday Qb]

Quote,"Holiday QB is the holiday cart for 2004. This was the second year of what's become an annual tradition here at Atari Age. Sadly I missed out on the first year, but I won't let that happen again!"

So did I, but got very lucky on e(vil)-bay and got a copy.

[Looking Backward. Moving Forward. Tripping Often.]

Quote,"The jpgs are suitable for printing and putting on your chrono-corkboards that I'm certain each and everyone of you have hanging in your living rooms by now. You may also use them to make chrono-t-shirts or even tatoo them onto the backs of your children for use as handy and mobile references."

Sick!, but funny.Lets just hope nobody sees these printed out and on display at a tatoo place.

Keep on chronogaming, I still enjoy reading it.

[Invaders from Hyperspace (Odyssey^2, 1979)]

I played the hell out of this game "back in the day".The Odyssey 2 was able to show all those planets and the players ships without flicker;Atari couldn't come close to this game.

[Tetris for Channel F]

That's weird that the program would add rows to the second player while you remove multiple rows on your side.Probably just something as simple as a + or - somewhere in the program.You would have to make player one the novice player side, to even out the fun.

[Schach for Channel F]

"I think I won my first game because I was excited and focused, which usually makes me smarter and better looking."

I thought drinking alcohol made people smarter and better looking?!, not vidio games.

[Bowling! Basketball! Odyssey^2, 1978]

The O2 basketball! looks horrible.The ball is not even dribbled,good thing they did not have fouls/freethrows.Nothing beats the Atari version(from this time period anyway).

[Spoiler! Video Whizball Easter Egg]

So this Easter Egg is two years before the Adventure Easter Egg.Looks like the Adventure info page needs to be updated...

Some of these old games are just so simple and bizzare that they are good to play.

Keep on "Chronographing"!

[1973 End of an Odyssey]

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then your picture of your Odyssey hardware is worth $1700!

I really enjoyed reading the Odyssey entries.It is amazing what they did with only four elements on screen.

Keep up the good work!