JasperAK

15,680 on Dalek Invasion (Berzerk clone)

I took my Atari Flashback Gold 9 to work about a year ago. Everyone had a good time, even the younger workers. I've taken it back a couple of times and the competitiveness is infectious. I'm already tempted to buy a third Amico (one for the family room, one for the kids alone, and) for work. I just hope games I buy are transferable between potentially three machines.

As for my favorites, Wizard of Wor is Aces and Solar Fox is a close second.

I've seen a lot of people mention Omega Race. Do you have the joystick booster, play with a Genesis controller, TJ's joystick or driving controller hack? Or maybe play in an emulator? I'm wondering if it is worth putting one of those hacks on my new Harmony cart.

Oh how far we haven't come in over two years.

Received mine this week and my Vader loves it. Even though I have the demos and bins, my daughter still likes using the carts so I'll be buying the homebrews and hacks over the next year or so. So much great work by the community, that I have no problem rewarding. Thanks everyone. AA does what Atari SA could only wish it could do.

Seriously. This thread is comedy gold. Maybe AA should do a crowdfund and sell these things for around $20.

That game is hard but fun.

I won Othello 52-12.

I second Solaris. I am currently playing through it and mapping as I go. Man is it long. Shit, I even hacked it to have unlimited lives to try and get through it. I suck.

And last night my daughter and I played Medieval Mayhem for the first time. Holy crap, three fireballs rocketing around. I was the first to go down and then her and we watched the computer duke it out for a few minutes. We started over again with different settings and I lost first again. After the computer had two wins, she one, and I none, I called for bedtime. I felt like a shit heel because she was winning, and after the requisite melt down, she was truly sad because we couldn't keep playing. Never before, even when she won or was winning, had I seen her like that. I think she felt true agency in the game, and it takes simple games like this to develop that feeling. These new mobile games have no agency; they are just glorified hamster balls and Skinner boxes. I think some people get that. She doesn't get it, but I think she will. And all of this from an awesome remake of a forty-year-old game. Fuck yeah the 2600 and retro gaming. Suck it Fred, Atari Age and all of these awesome programmers have it figured out. Take your shit box and go home.

I just got my new Harmony Encore cart today, and I just played the Demo v2. I never would have imagined this game. I am looking forward to getting the cart proper.

Thank you for the quick response. I don't want to sound like I'm kissing your ass or anything, but your excitement for the Amico is infectious. I'm really looking forward to seeing how this all plays out. Our family is exactly who you are selling too. If you have a 2p Co-op game like Diablo 3, I might even be able to get the wife to play. Fuck, now that I think of it, she'd play something like Zombies Ate My Neighbors. We liked the Wii but after a few months got tired of the Rabids mini games.

Quick question here. I have a 5yo and 7yo and as I'm imagining a woodgrain or black Amico in the house for the family proper (red if I get sole pick), I see getting one for them that they can control and play with just each other (one way to foster a bit of independence between them and parental units). The question is this: are the games purchased for a machine or account? Are they shareable between two Amico's in the same house? The reason I ask is several-fold. I have multiple Wiis because the damn CD loaders kept breaking, so they all have different games and DLC on them. I have half The Beatles Rubber Soul Rockband songs on one and most on the other. Poo. We don't play the Wii any more because of that. Nasty taste in the mouth. Further, while I've introduced them to my Vader, I don't let them play with it unsupervised because they treated it like it was theirs and not mine. Now I realize that with the Amico I'd probably only have to worry about the controllers' durability, I'm still thinking that at the expected price point I'd like to buy two.

This may just be what my 7yo, 5yo, and I have been waiting for. We love playing my Vader, but they are also used to Xbox 360 and mobile games. A system that the kids can play together, and can hook up to our real entertainment center, that's gold and badly lacking in the marketplace. Now my wife isn't too interested in playing with us, but she doesn't mind watching. Shoot, she used to watch her brother play the Intellivision. At one point I thought she used to play with her brother, so I bought her a Flashback Intellivision for Christmas. That's when I learned that she only ever watched him play. So I did what any husband would do. I played with her ding-dong brother for hours while she watched and talked smack to both of us. That was one of the best Christmas's we as an extended family had together. I also found the D&D games on there and they were fantastic, so if you found a way to get them on there (even without the branding), that'd be aces. I have to say if you can deliver all of this, this might just be a day one purchase for us. I think we're your target market. Sell it to me. UPDATE: Continued reading the thread; sorry for the derail. Back to your F*ing tacos kids.

Robot Tank: 36 Tanks; 4 days, 6 hours. Lost my final three tanks against the first tank in the next squadron.

I totally forgot Wizard of Wor was getting the awesome treatment as well. Looks like I'm getting both when they show up on the store.

Just waiting for it to show up here...

For fours that I purposely have: Alien, Moonsweeper, Defender 2, Robot Tank (CIB), and Sprintmaster.

I'm not much of a fan of the aesthetics, although I admit some of these original games are beautiful and some of the homebrews are amazing. It's the gameplay that I love. When I started collecting a little more than a year ago, Berserk was one of the first games I got. Within three weeks or so I had 25k points. Tonight, I slapped it in for about 5 minutes and got nearly 8k. I had a blast as the difficulty ramped up with every completed board. If I played for a couple of hours straight, I'd probably hit the 25k again. These Atari games you can pick up and play for a few minutes, lose, start right over; get into a rhythym and start racking up the score. Many 8-bit and some 16-bit are like that for me, but most of the Atari 2600 games are like that. I've not played too many games from other generations that are as pick-up-and-play. That's what I think of when I think Atari. So yes, Atari has a visual style that some programmers really nail, but its play style is why I've spent about $400 over the past year building a collection. Plus it uses joysticks (or paddles which my kids love--Warlords I'm looking at you). If they are not playing games where swipe with their index fingers, they are playing games with a much more tactile feel. When my kids and I play the NES, we use two advantages. Now don't get me wrong, they like playing LEGO and Skylander games on the 360, but its the Atari they continuously ask to play. Obligatory Rant: So screw Atari SA for f*cking up the Aretardbox. If they took what we already have and built on that, I would have bought it on release. I'm anxiously awaiting a modern day system to hook up to my HD TV that my kids and I (and maybe even mom) can play. I'm sure someone on this board is going to chime in and let me know something is coming in about a year. I wish my Atari 2600 had the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons game from Intellivison. Man I love that game.

I believe my daughter would be mighty appreciative if some of the fine programmers here would continue rectifying this situation.

According to this site, Beamrider, Picnic, and H.E.R.O. are the rarest games in my collection at a rarity of 5.

This was one of the first games I bought when I started my recollection about year ago. It never bothered me that you couldn't win; it was always about getting a better score than everyone else. I have such fond memories of this game and today the game play is still fun if short.

This needs to be on a cart.

My 7yo daughter and 5yo son like playing my Vader over the Xbox 360. She loves playing Haunted House. I've even seen her shake when the ghost appeared on the screen. I'm sure she'd shake at Resident Evil on the 360, but maybe after being bombarded with zombies, she'd become numb to them. But seriously, Haunted House on the Atari 2600, that ghost gets her every time. It is also a great system for competitive play. Wizard of Wor, Warlords, Combat, and Ice Hockey are our favorites, and I think it's because the games are relatively short. We can play three Spads v. one German Bomber and I can lose, but in two-and-a-half minutes we are playing again and I'm crushing her. She loves it. And she's pretty good at sh!t-talking too. It's hilarious to see her brother mimic her whenever I bite it. But the real fun is Ice Hockey. I can woop her butt in Ice Hockey, but three minutes later she comes right back for more. She's getting better and I'm almost done pulling my punches on diff-A, so one day I'm sure she will beat me at Ice Hockey. But not today. The one deficiency though are the cooperative games. Space Invaders, Wizard of Wor, and ... She turns Wizard of Wor into a competitive game by chasing me down to shoot me. One day she'll realize she can corner me with the monsters. I'd love to see Galaxian for 2pCoop. For two player fun, the 2600 is where it is at, the NES is a close second (I have two NES advantages), and the Xbox 360 a very distant third.