bcostin

That site's hilarious! I enjoyed Thy Dunngeounan II, even though when I died it said I was hilariously dumb.

I think my favorites are Imagic's commercial for Atlantis ("I thought the Gorgons destroyed everyone from Atlantis?" "WE DID! HAHAHA"). The disintegrator beam destroying the game at the end is a nice touch. And Activision's Oink commercial, complete with dancing pigs and the singing wolf. I remember annoying one of my teachers by singing an approximation of that song in the hallways.

I remember playing Pitfall II for hours and hours. Between the amazing music and the gameplay I was pretty much addicted until I finished it.

Very cool. The sounds are amazingly accurate. Even if the original prototype's code is never recovered, I hope these sounds can someday be used in a homebrew. That would be nifty.

I'm in central Maryland. I don't get to thrifts as often as some do, but I can't remember the last time I saw a console. If any interesting electronic or gaming items are coming in then someone else is getting to them long before I do. Last month's visit to Goodwill did turn up some pristine Atari 5200 cartridges and a couple boxed C64 games mixed in with the usual piles of Genesis Madden carts. They may have been there for a while, actually, because it was only recently that they took their video game items out of the stupid glass case and moved them out to where customers could actually see them. I did find a couple nice books there, though. The best sources of cool stuff around here seem to be yard sales at houses in older neighborhoods, and rummage sales at churches. Those sorts of sellers have usually been in the area for a while and have had lots of time to accumulate interesting things in their attics or basements. By contrast, the people who live in newer subdivisions seem to fall into one of two categories: People who already got rid of all their interesting stuff before they moved out of their old house, or younger couples who are looking to get rid of baby toys. Those yard sales are pretty boring.

Nice work! As a Doctor Who fan I really like the Berzerk/Dalek hack. Now we just need to get some "EXTERMINATE!" voice samples in there.

I really like my Colecovision. It has an amazingly high ratio of good titles to duds. Including lots of excellent, accurate arcade translations (except for Gorf, which isn't much like the original). Maybe not arcade- perfect by today's standards, but they represent the peak of early-80's videogaming perfection.

Thank you, that's a great site, and a great game! Lots of interesting info, and the nicest collection of Computer Space photos I've seen yet.

Most of the ones that came to mind have already been listed. Here are a couple more: Balance of Power, a geopolitical strategy game by well-known game designer Chris Crawford. There was also a sequel which I've never played. SSI had a couple hex-map wargames for home computers based on Cold War themes, including Mech Brigade. SDI from Cinemaware Most millitary-themed games and flight sims during those years had some reference to the USSR. I was never much into those games in the day, but I'm sure there are some good examples.

The local Goodwill finally got smart and put their games out where people can actually see them, rather than piling them all on top of each other inside a locked case. Today I found five 5200 carts in really nice condition: - Robotron - QIX (with overlay) - Countermeasure - Star Raiders (with overlay) - James Bond 007 All commons, except for the last one. Now I just need to get a 5200 and I'll be all set.

Let's see. I have my original 2600 (circa 1980), but it stopped working about five years ago. I also still have my original non-working Vectrex. I have working ones too, of course. I didn't have any other game consoles back in the day (which probably accounts for my desire to collect all the ones I missed) but I still have my original C64, C128, and Amiga computers.

I like those mockups, too. The alternate perspectives are a clever workaround. The existing Q*Bert playfield isn't too bad, all things considered. What really bugs me is the playability issues, like way the bad guys appear and disappear rather than actually moving. It results in a lot of unnecessary deaths. I just tried the much rarer 2600 version of Q*Bert's Qubes. The gameplay is a lot smoother, though that may be related to differences between what's required to be onscreen at the same time. The playfield layout is completely different, of course, but is there any chance Qubes could be hacked into an improved implementation of the original Q*Bert?

I can say with some confidence that that is the coolest thing in the world, ever. Even my Atari-indifferent wife was impressed.

Sad, but it's the way of all gingerbread. Ashes to ashes, crumbs to crumbs.

Damn, Nukey. You are a one man hackin' maachine.

I played the original Halo for a couple minutes, but after years of keyboard/mouse control I had trouble adjusting to using a gamepad. I'd eventually have gotten used to it, but it didn't impress me enough to try that hard. Doom did do a lot of stuff just right, even with the limitations of technology at the time. I think one of its biggest achievements was showing that a videogame could be scary. The only game that's made me jump like that since are Half-Life and Half-Life 2. If you want a deeper FPS experience I highly recommend HL2. It's got a real story, some amazingly realistic physics, and bad guys that work together and can be eerily intelligent. And it's scary.

With the exception of my Gamecube, pretty much the only consoles I've bought are ones that were on their way out. The systems and games get amazingly cheap (with a few rare exceptions) and by then the reviews are plentiful and honest. (I'm a little more prompt with my PC game purchases, though. Half-Life 2 could not be resisted.)

Awesome! Sounds like you got a lot of great games. Have fun!

Hey now, let's not get nasty. Enterprise has turned into the best Trek series since DS9. If you haven't watched it lately you should. And, on the original topic, I've heard a couple Atari and arcade sounds snuck into various TV shows. Somtimes the sound effects used in the previews are different than in the actual episodes. I'll listen for the anything familiar on Friday.

Those pirate carts are neat. Freaky, randomly named renditions of common games. I recognize the artwork used on two of the labels on the "Other Cartridges" page. The Genus scorpion one at the top is lifted right out of an ad for a VIC-20 game (Scorpion from Tronix). And the "game fingers" illustration on the fake Imagic cart near the bottom of the page was from a Suncom joystick ad.

Hey, I remember that unit, too. Cute little system. I never owned one, but back in the day I had a Sears Wish Book that I'd page through and admire. (Actually, I still do the same thing now. )

The Colecovision has a bunch of great titles. Here are a few more: Defender Pepper II Venture Space Fury

Some of my own must-haves: Combat Cosmic Ark Enduro Frogger Moon Patrol Ms. Pac Man Robot Tank

Very clever! Every time I hook up my CC, the darn cats seem to think it's audio cable playtime.

Good job. Well designed, and your reviews are nicely written. The rollover images on the screenshots are a great idea, too.