pacman000

Those are great pictures, Flojomojo. I love the huge stack of VCS games, and the "Turn your TV into a new ballgame" line.

I believe Telegames actually received a license from JTS. Release Info From Atari's Website in 1997: https://web.archive.org/web/19970203072023/http://www.atari.com:80/hot/3rd/telegame.htm Interview with Telegames From Atari HQ, late 90's: http://www.atarihq.com/jaglynx/grantham.html

The Panther was supposed to be released in 1991. Shoot. That was the right time. The Jaguar was too late to complete against the SNES/Genesis and too early to complete against the PS1,Saturn,N64. I don't know if this would have made a difference in the long run, but we might have gotten more games.

That constant beeping would have to go.

A version of Puzzle Bobble might be nice.

The bubble will only pop if someone puts at least three copies of the same cartridge next to each other, and the market will only crash if those are the only carts holding the market to the top of the screen.

Wasn't Flare also working on the Atari Panther? Did Flare ever get anything released besides the Jaguar?

"The only way to win the Generation Game is to not play." Then how about a nice game of Pong? On my Telesports Mini...which was apparently released after the ColecoVision. http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=3&c=680

Another quick description, from memory: Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back Side-scrolling shooter. Pilot a snow speeder over the ice planet of Hoth trying to defend the Rebel Base from the Empire's Walkers. Each Walker takes several hits to destroy, but your ship can take multiple hits too. You can land for a limited number of repairs. Has parallax scrolling. One of the more highly-regarded Star Wars games for the VCS. (It looks like you don't have the complete manual for this game. I think I have it at home. I can't provide scans, but I might be able to take pictures. Do you need such?)

Forgive me if this is a bit terse, but I haven't played this game much. If someone needs an exact description, the manual's available: Sky Skipper Vertically-scrolling maze game based on the rare Nintendo arcade game. Fly around the maze avoiding walls and clouds. Gorillas have locked several animals in cages. Free the animals by shooting the gorillas, then grab the animals before the cages close to advance to the next, faster level. You have a limited amount of time to successfully complete a level. Trivia: The arcade version of this game may never have been released. The boards may have been converted to Popeye boards. KLOV article on the arcade version: http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=9575 History of the arcade game, with information on an restoration attempt: http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2017/06/sky_skipper_arcade_restoration_revealed_to_the_world

You're right; I'm listening to it right now. Curse my memory! (And bless YouTube.)

I don't remember Alien, Aliens, or Alien 3 having much music. It's probably appropriate for the games to follow the movies' examples.

Funny, I've never thought of Roller Coaster Tycoon as an Atari game. Hasbro Interactive published the first game; Infogrames bought them and changed their name to Atari. I'm still used to thinking of it as an Hasbro game.

On the contrary, BASIC's flaws help one learn good habits. As soon as someone tries to debug a program they wrote, they think "Well, maybe I shouldn't have used GOTO so often."

Review of 2600 flash carts: http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2015/01/a-harmonious-relationship-harmony.html?m=1 I forgot about the Cuttle Cart...

You might have been able to play ROMs on a real 2600 with a SuperCharger. There was also this: https://www.atariage.com/software_page.html?SoftwareLabelID=2716

To avoid crank calls and telemarketers? I assume the store employee didn't know about the old website.

So do I.

Wikipedia used to divide the generations up like that. I never really liked it; the Arcadia was meant to compete with the 2600; the 5200 was meant to compete against the Intellivision. If we divided the generations that way it wouldn't correctly represent what was happening in the market. If we did divide it that way, wouldn't we need generation 4.5 to cover the CDi, 3DO Jaguar, and other mid-90's systems?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freescape I've been wondering about this for awhile. If the Atari ST and Amiga could run this, could the Jaguar? If the Jaguar was more powerful, could it run something similar with shading and/or texture mapping?

Browsing DP after they closed via the Wayback Machine, I found this: http://www.digitpress.com/reviews/mission3000ad.htm So, Bit Corp. already made a crude clone of Bosconian for the 2600, way back in the 80's. Here's it's page on AtariAge: http://atariage.com/software_page.php?SoftwareLabelID=1637

Here's a breakdown of what happened, from their forum:

If I remember AtariAge's company listing correctly the 2nd box is the official version of Bobby. Check Manufacturers/Bit Corp.

As I understand it Atari was split up into several different divisions, each with their own marketing department, management structure, finance department, etc. It's conceivable that the Home Computer Division and the Home Video Game Division worked under a different set of rules.

In reference to something RandomTerrain said: I read an essay once which suggested Atari's poor Pac-Man port hurt the public's confidence in video games, or at least Atari. The author compared reviews of games before and after Pac-Man. The reviews from before tended to defend games as if to justify them as a legitimate hobby; the reviews after tended to pick the game apart. Even if the game got good reviews the reviews seemed jaded; the reviewers had to remind everyone how bad Pacman was Here it is: http://www.8bitrocket.com/2017/04/05/pac-man-electronic-games-magazine-and-the-exact-moment-atari-lost-the-video-game-war/