bcostin
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Posts posted by bcostin
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I've always had a soft spot for Video Pinball, myself, but it's probably because I also have a Video Pinball arcade game, circa 1978. That's a fun game, complete with that handy nudge/tilt feature and a groovy blacklight disco-themed playfield.
Unfortunately mine needs a little TLC at the moment to bring it back into fully working order. Neat idea, BTW. I'm looking forward to more of these comparisons.
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Home Depot's having a big clearance sale now, with "yellow tag" items at 40% off. The local store (Westminster, MD) had 4-packs of "Aero Modular Storage Shoe Boxes" for $1.78 after the discount. These are clear plastic boxes with white plastic lids. They stack neatly and the lids seem fairly secure.
I grabbed a couple packs on a hunch and was happy to find that each box can comfortably hold up to 22 VCS-size cartridges. Storage for 88 cartridges for less than $2 isn't bad at all.The lids are also high enough to store taller cartridges, like the M-Network/Intellivision ones, or toss in a couple manuals.
There were some larger boxes of the same type also on sale but my store was apparently out of them. They had lots of these smaller boxes, though. I might head over there again tomorrow and grab a few more for controllers and other gaming stuff.
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I'm in Maryland, myself. Not far south of the PA line.
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Nope. There's nothing magnetically sensitive in a cartridge. Nor do they have anything magnetic inside them to endanger videos stored nearby. Be careful with any old SuperCharger audiotapes you may have around, though. Unlike ROMs audiotapes are a magnetic media.
-Bryan
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That mysterious background behind Omega Race seems vaguely familiar. Perhaps it's a background from another vector game? Maybe Cosmic Chasm?
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My first game was Combat. My parents gave my sister and I an original heavy-sixer back in 1978. Neither of us were expecting anything so cool, but my Dad had saved up premium points from a incentive program they had at work and put them all toward the system. Thanks, Dad.
Outlaw, Breakout, Indy 500, and Asteroids are among the games I remember playing the most. My sister and I also liked Space War (though we could never figure out why space was colored green.) I've had a soft spot for those early games ever since.
I'm happy to say that I still have all of those original cartridges. And my original VCS, now sadly non-working and awaiting repair, is proudly displayed in my gameroom.
-Bryan
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I've never really been able to get into some of the earlier Activision games. Stampede is one that a lot of people have named. They were already doing some pretty nifty things with graphics and sound, compared to other games of the time, but some titles hadn't yet developed the high standards of gameplay that we later came to expect.
I always liked Freeway, indestructible chicken and all. I used to play that game for hours with a neighbor kid. The traffic noise always has a stragely calming effect.
And it does seem as though game designers were more liberal in borrowing and sharing game ideas back in the good ol' days. (Fewer lawyers around to ruin the fun, I guess.)
Activision wasn't alone in this on the 2600, and a lot of computer games of the same era were also clearly "inspired" by whatever was popular in the arcades.
Another Activision example is Megamania, which is a lot like Astro Blaster (but without that pesky overheating laser), and Beamrider always struck me as a cross between Tempest and an old computer game called Gridrunner.
It's always a matter of opinion, but sometimes I like the "ripoffs" better than the original, or just as well in different ways. Robot Tank's damage feature and the weather and darkness effects (like in Enduro) give the game a different feel from the 2600's Battlezone cart. There's something kinda cool about piloting a tank with dead radar and damaged treads, trying to catch a glimpse of enemy fire coming at you through the fog...
[ 11-16-2001: Message edited by: 10KVGhost ]
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Some minor boxed Atari finds today
in Atari 2600
Posted
I was browsing past the games case at the local Goodwill store today and small pile of Atari stuff that had yet to be sorted. Nothing special, but it's been ages since I've seen any Atari stuff there at all. Here's what I got:
- Combat, Air-Sea Battle, and Video Olympics in nearly perfect gatefold-style boxes. Commons, I know, but I've never seen any of them boxed in the wild, and I've somehow never gotten a Video Olympics. All three are the slightly less common text label variations with numbers (01, 02 and 21, respectively), which is neat. Combat and VO also have their original manuals.
- Telegames Outer Space and Blackjack, also in nice gatefold boxes
- A boxed 3D Tic-Tac-Toe, another common that I didn't yet have in my collection.
Nothing all that special, but at 25 cents each I'm happy. Also found in the boxes: an original 2600 owners manual, two original (no part number) catalogs, and one 1980 catalog. Neato.