Raiu

.. Hey, the announcer on that Space Invaders commercial is Danny Dark, probably best-known as the voice of Superman on Superfriends!

A better title? "Cannot Lurk Forever, Bear"

At the time, I didn't realize there were that many magazines, and.. . well, I was a broke preteen in those days, and convincing Mom to buy (let alone subscribe) to such magazines was never easy. I did talk her into getting me a subscription to Dan Gutman's Video Game Player (later Computer Games), but that didn't last very long. (The magazine, I mean... I stayed subscribed as long as it lasted) The only other magazines I ever subscribed to were Atari Age and Nintendo Power (though I bought every issue of EGM for years off the shelf, I think from issue 9 or so). ... and, oh dear. I didn't notice this topic was twelve years old. That's about how old I was when I first read Video Games Player

"Those people refuse to believe that I could make this game, so I'll prove them wrong by... making it, not releasing it, and letting them continue to think I couldn't make this game. That'll show them!" Seems legit. Well, it's quite possible he did absolutely nothing. If he did indeed finish a game, why not post a video on YouTube? What better way to "show them" that the did it but is not releasing it? .. which is pretty much what I was trying to say. But sarcastically. http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/seems-legit-sounds-legit

"Those people refuse to believe that I could make this game, so I'll prove them wrong by... making it, not releasing it, and letting them continue to think I couldn't make this game. That'll show them!" Seems legit.

They don't. Frogger starts with the same theme as the arcade game (the Japanese folk song ). Miner starts with an off-key and off-tempo version of . Anyway, I see that Ghostbusters has been mentioned, but I've always had a soft spot for Kangaroo (which has music at the game start and a snippet of Oh Susannah at the end of each level) and Pole Position (qualifying lap start, main race start, and end of game). The funny thing is that I always consider those two games a pair, because I got them the same day, a two-for-one sale at a store owned by the man my mom was dating at the time, and they both had music. -DS-

It almost looks like someone used MS Paint to try to recreate the game screen (and did so very, very badly) instead of getting an actual screenshot.

Another: Ghostbusters uses them to exit the store (left) and for Ghost Bait (right).

In order... I believe I saw Mappy at the Chuck E. Cheese in Northeast Philadelphia PA (which I believe is still there - the Chuck E. Cheese, not the game), but I never played it "in the wild". Like some others here, I first played "Bagitman" on the Commodore 64, and I've still never seen it as an actual arcade machine. I first saw an arcade Venture cabinet at a bowling alley that I can't remember the name of (and, in fact, I don't think I've ever seen it anywhere else), but I'd played the Colecovision version at my friend's house long before that. (I never actually played the arcade machine, thanks to my mom not giving me money for the arcade). MakeTrax... I think I first saw this at the second PhillyClassic. (I miss that show, but I haven't lived in Philly since 2004) I'd never even heard of Warrior until this thread. For Pengo, see Bag(it)man above. Exact same situation. I liked Pengo a lot better than Bagitman, though. Finally, I first saw Pac-Land at Champions arcade in the Roosevelt Mall. (It later changed its name to Challenges and replaced a lot of machines with skeeball, then moved next door to its previous location, then went out of business) I don't think I played it there. I've played just about all of these games on MAME since. -DS-

Exactly. The problem was that, though they sold a lot of cartridges in terms of raw numbers, they sold less than half of the cartridges they'd produced (four million is the number I've usually heard), and paid a huge licensing fee on top of that (over $20 million), so they ended up losing massive amounts of money despite what would normally be considered great sales. (Pac-Man has a similar story) And it was hardly the cause or even a cause of the whole Crash. A high-profile symptom, yes, but not a cause.

I had a calculator watch with a primative shooting game on it. Oh, there it is! http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Misc/ArmitronPianoGame.htm I think I still have the watch somewhere, but the band is gone and the batteries are long since dead. -DS-

I suspect it's because the ghosts are one player object, and the energizers are the shot sprites for that player object (and therefore have to match its colors). If the ghosts were changing colors less subtly, so would the energizers. As it is, the ghosts are similar enough in color that you can't easily tell the energizers are constantly changing colors. As for why they didn't just change the energizers to be something that wouldn't change colors with the ghosts, just toss that on top of all the other "why didn't they...?" questions on the pile. -DS-

Someone else who hasn't played Froggo's Karate, I see -DS-

Damn, I'm on the wrong continent to pick one of these up. I'll see if I can get anyone in the States to hold a copy for me! -DS-

I think he meant actually using the "E.T." typeface from the posters for the name. Raiders of the Lost Ark and and Krull have the movie logo/text on the box, but not on the cartridge. Superman is similar, but using the comic book logo rather than the movie logo for the box. Asterix had the comic logo on the box and front of the cartridge. The Sesame Street games also have the Sesame Street logo on the box, and the Children's Computer Workshop logo on both the box and the front cartridge label, but not the end label. Snoopy and the Red Baron, Pigs in Space, and Sorcerer's Apprentice had their own specific fonts for the box, front label, and end label, and they used the Peanuts, Muppets, and Walt Disney logos on the box and front label, but the game names were not in the original font (e.g., "Snoopy and the Red Baron" was not written in the Peanuts font, "Sorcerer's Apprentice" was not written in the Disney font, and "Pigs in Space" was not written with the Muppet Show's font). If it counts, Crystal Castles used the arcade machine marquee's font for the box and front label of the cart (but not the end label) for the Silver version only, while the red label version didn't use it in either place. Dig Dug used the marquee font on the box, but not the cart label. So... I think E.T. is actually the only Atari-published game to use the movie (or other original source material) logo on the end label, not just the front label.

That's sorta splitting hairs to me (since I play Artillery Duel as a one-player game all the time), but it's your list. -DS-

From what I can tell, Pac-Man also predates Yars' Revenge in that feature (though not by as much as Maze Craze). -DS-

I've read that Combat and Air-Sea Battle are also true stereo, since they were developed before the decision to make the console mono was made. (At l Also, on the question of version differences, I know that some of the later models (the last run of Jr.s and 7800s) have some TIA timing differences that lead to game errors. (Kool-Aid Man comes to mind immediately - it's unplayable on the affected consoles due to a collision error that causes the Pitcher to keep bouncing even though it's not touching anything) -DS-

I'd still include it in the list. Maze Craze has no strictly one-player variations, because both characters are playable on all game variations. When it says that some "can" be played one player, it just means nobody picks up the second controller (just like Combat or Artillery Duel "can" be played by one player in the same sense). -DS-

James Bond 007 wasn't based on a specific Bond movie, but its stages were all named after (and are very very loosely based on) various Bond films - Diamonds are Forever, Moonraker, and The Spy Who Loved Me. Other versions of the game also include a fourth mission, For Your Eyes Only. -DS-

Must have been 1978 or 1979. Mom took me to one of her friends' houses. Said friend had an older (college-age) son who had an Atari.... and who wasn't in that night. (They were also the ones who had the first pong-only console I ever saw, so the son liked to be ahead on that kind of stuff, apparently) I took over the little TV in the basement with the Atari attached to it, and played all night. I know it was early in the Atari's lifespan, because Space Invaders hadn't been released for it yet - I didn't play that until quite a while later, at my cousin's house. I'm not sure I'd seen Space Invaders in the arcade yet. Most of the games I played that first night were strictly first-generation (I clearly remember Surround, Codebreaker, and Star Ship). ... I think I'm going to have to go on an Atari EmuBinge tonight... -DS-

Emulation only for the moment, because I'm living in Europe now. Had to sell my Atari, all my games (well, I saved a few, because there was no way I was letting NTSC Obelix go for $1), and don't even have a TV over here. .... MY ATARI

One of the few classic consoles where "tapes" is correct... I have the following ADAM tapes: Donkey Kong Donkey Kong Jr. Dragon's Lair Zaxxon SmartBASIC SmartLOGO The ADAM Home Software Library (featuring, according to the tape case, "Application Programs, Educational Programs, Game Programs, Graphics Display Programs, Mathematics Programs, and Miscellaneous Programs") Two High Speed digital data packs. (Probably blank) I'm moving out of the country, and just don't have room for them. I don't even have an ADAM to use them on anymore. The price: Free to a good home. You just pay shipping. Or, if you have easy access to Fayette County, GA, you can come and pick them up for no charge at all. Let me know at [email protected] Thanks! Edit: Just a quick note that I probably won't be able to get back to anyone until Monday. (Today I'm moving furniture) Edit #2: ... er, make that Tuesday, or maybe late Monday night. (Still stuff being moved out of the apartment) -DS-