kirin jensen

Definitely the challenger series of games. Packrat Videogames carries several excellent homebrews as well. The must-haves of the homebrews: Planet Lander! Puzzle Piece Panic! Mr. Roboto! KTAA! There's also a game called Route 66, but I'm not sure where to find/buy a copy. The others are available at http://www.packratvg.com/ And definitely get yourself a copy of K.C.Munchkin!

Gettin' close to the 300 mark! 291 on Freedom Fighters!

The only system I currently own is the O2, and the only baseball game I own is Baseball!, so I guess I'd say... Baseball! for the O2.

I agree with the other comments on how great it is to see a new entry. One of the first things I check when I go on the internet is the Chronogamer blog.

Did you download the program that allows you to run the O2 DOS emulator in windows?

Death Race Fantasy Did Nichibitsu's Space Firebird have a console version? Damn, I loved that game.

I used to have an Atari Classics cd-rom that included radio commercials for Atari games. I'll see if I still have it.

Woo hoo! 281 on Freedom Fighters! Hadn't played it in a while, fired 'er up and BLAMMO! New high score! I loves me some Freedom Fighters.

In hindsight, this makes sense; but you have to consider the sometimes incredibly unsophisticated consumer. Games meant for a super game module would inevitably be bought by unsuspecting - and soon-to-be-outraged - customers who'd return to stores wondering why the game wouldn't play on their 2600.

Blame it on the Boogie. Fun video. But I'm still blamin' it on the Bossa Nova instead. Wouldn't Riddle of the Sphinx be a better candidate? It has almost all the RPG elements in place and was way more playable than E.T. Better looking game too.

I suspect you're referring to the O3/7400 version of the graphics.

Definitely agree with using the fire button to start the game. Take a cue from Imagic. As the game progresses, the enemies should change, to give us an incentive to play further. A big no-no as far as I'm concerned: having a lengthy intro of your next man after the last one died. This is one of the only things that drives me apeshit about the otherwise excellent Ladybug. I'm in my gaming groove. DON'T SLOW ME DOWN. A small point, but important. If the enemies blow up a musical tone or series of tones (for multiple enemies) works for me. Save the ugly "blat" sounds for when my ship blows up.

Damn. Ya beat me to it. That is one boring-ass car.

Um. I'm guessing you played this once or twice in emulation and didn't get past the 200-300 point level. By 400-600 points, enough of the mine has vanished that rocks are bouncing between floors in all sorts of patterns - each rock independently of the other. It's one of the things that makes gameplay on the later levels so exciting and unique. The rocks are all over the place by the 1000-point level. So rotate the allocation of rocks to screen objects when all 5 occupy the same horizontal band. They flicker at 24 Hz. Big whoop. Um, yeah. BIG whoop. Take a little while and actually play through to the 500-600 point level. Never even mind the 1000 point level, where most of the mine is gone. What you're talking about is a serious misunderstanding of the play mechanics, and what you offer as a solution is a significant and serious alteration of the play mechanics.

While it's true that the Sega 1000 version is a dimensional departure from the original and only has boards 1 and 2 out of four, it still is fun. The goofy way Bongo is depicted is amusing in of itself. Not true. The aforementioned C=64 disk version is very good plus the Apple ][ one is as well. Both have all four boards present and decent game play overall. You should give them a try. Going to have to agree with you there. Using those "elevators" are a nightmare. It really is astonishing that a game of that complexity was ported to the O2 at all. It's missing 90% of the actual arcade game. As an added bonus Brutus is armed with his new, secret vomit attack. The funny thing is that most of the other Parker Brothers games for the O2 are pretty good ports. The prototype for Tutankham was amazing. The bg problem is that the O2 isn't good for a graphics-intensive game.

Um. I'm guessing you played this once or twice in emulation and didn't get past the 200-300 point level. By 400-600 points, enough of the mine has vanished that rocks are bouncing between floors in all sorts of patterns - each rock independently of the other. It's one of the things that makes gameplay on the later levels so exciting and unique. The rocks are all over the place by the 1000-point level.

While it's playable, the O2 version of Popeye is just sad. Say what you want about 2600 Zaxxon, Pac-man and the like. At least they were playable. I defy you to play the 2600 port of Springer.

I kept wishing they'd throw in a joke about Polybius, myself.

KC should stop moving in the middle of a 'square' when the joystick isn't being pushed. It doesn't keep going the way Pac-Man does. Beyond that, KC Munchkin really isn't a good fit for the 2600. The game was designed for the Odyssey which has four sprites that can show arbitrary shapes, twelve sprites that are limited to 64 predefined shapes, and four 'tethered' groups of four sprites each (the four sprites in each group each have an independently-selectable predefined shape and color). Twelve predefined-shape sprites. Twelve dots. Amazing coincidence, that. The 2600 would have a hard time showing sixteen independently mobile objects (twelve dots and four shape sprites) without motion constraints to prevent vertical overlap. It might be possible to make it work (see Lock and Chase) but better game concepts would be more worthwhile. Thank you for the technical info. I didn't realize that the dots were moving when I played it on O2EM. Could it be even more possible if the dots were to stay still? The moving Munchies are one the most important gameplay elements.

Stupid question time: are you using the right or left joystick? Pick Axe Pete usess the left on an actual O2.

It never exceeds 5. As you progress more "holes" appear in the floor and the rocks speed up and begin bouncing making it difficult to time you jump or duck under it. On the Odyssey2 you have an option of picking the floor layout to start (0-9). I'm not sure if this is possible with the Atari. Pick Axe Pete is one of my Favorite O2 games. Good Luck! Thanks for the info - glad to hear a max of 5 rocks appear. I am working on a scheme that will allow more "holes" to appear in the floor as the levels progress. Also, having different starting layouts will be pretty simple as long as I have enough ROM space (which is usually not a problem with Atari games anymore). I'll need to keep practicing to reach 600 - any tips? I usually stay low and wait for other pick axes to appear to get points by smashing the rocks. When things get too hectic, I'll try to catch a key as it moves to the top. I have noticed the two different types of rocks - some seem to move in a more erratic pattern than the others (I notice some even move up). I should be able to model the behavior. I have made some progress and hopefully will post a BIN soon. Thanks for the help! The main things to remember: You score the most points for grabbing a key and going through a door - 10 for the key and 20 for the door. accordingly, grabbing a key is the most point-effective tactic. This means heading for the top, usually the left side. Once you have the key, you can stick around and grab a pick axe, but it's not necessary or recommended. Just do it if the opportunity presents itself. Always jump towards the door once you have the key. That way, if a rock comes through you'll either spin and go through the door(rather than simply being bowled over) or jump the rock and make an extra point as you go through. Keep track of how many rocks there are at any time. You''l be better prepared to move if you know whether there are five rocks on the screen and where they are. Be ready for the next collision. Improvise. You're never dead until you're dead. Half the fun of this game is surviving nearly impossible situations. Learn to duck as well as jump. It will save you many times over. Watch for patterns in the rocks' movement you can exploit as the holes appear. Some will make it a great deal easier to predict where collisions will occur. Waiting judiciously works better than running to grab a key or an axe. Let it come near you and avoid the rocks in the meantime. On the top floor(left hand side), once you have the key jump the next rock to come out the door(and again after it hits the wall), then follow it to the door - jumping at the last moment. The rock will collide with any rocks coming toward you clearing your path and possibly giving you a new axe in the process. I usually get between 800-1000, occasionally scoring in the 1700-1800 territory, so I hope this advice yields you similar results. Remember: Playing Pick Axe Pete means never having to hit the Reset button

Maybe MK in style , but let's not forget why this game never made it to the floor. All sorts of crazy nastiness! Damn, an actual "nude fatality". It's too bad they've never snuck these characters into a Mortal Kombat game.

The Odyssey3 was likely never released at least partly because of the crash, so yes.

It never exceeds 5. As you progress more "holes" appear in the floor and the rocks speed up and begin bouncing making it difficult to time you jump or duck under it. On the Odyssey2 you have an option of picking the floor layout to start (0-9). I'm not sure if this is possible with the Atari. Pick Axe Pete is one of my Favorite O2 games. Good Luck! Yup, that's the thing. After 600 points or so, the rocks are all over the place - even though there are only five at one time. By the way there are actually two sets of rocks with different properties. The initial setup, by the way, should be no problem on the 2600: that's what the Game Select switch is for.

They were going to release it, but it got bumped for an update of Polybius instead. Which was good, because they hadn't updated that since the Virtual Boy release Polybius 3-D: "Fry your eyes - then your mind!"