The Night Phantom
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Posts posted by The Night Phantom
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Originally posted by Junie:Do you happen to know which version of Atari name is the oldest ATARI CORP or ATARI, INC ?
“Atari, Inc.” is the older name. When the company was split in two, the home division became Atari Corp., and the arcade division became Atari Games, Inc.
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The Spider-Man manual is enlivened by the graphics of Spidey and the Green Goblin accompanied by speech balloons. Over the years this (admittedly corny) feature has been responsible for the lion's share of my nostalgia for this game, even though there are only three of these graphics in the entire manual.
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Circus Atari, a.k.a. just plain Circus when sold by Sears, is a genuine treasure. It seems to be based on the Exidy coin-op Circus, but the 2600 version's manual does not reveal the copyright/trademark acknowledgement one would expect in such a case. What's the story here? Is Circus Atari licensed? Is it a ripoff? Did Exidy and Atari go to court? -
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Originally posted by liveinabin:I loved the fact that they actually made more copies of ET than there were Ataris!! What were Atari thinking??
Uhhh...that it would be a “killer app”?
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I'm not sure how obscure these are (AtariAge rates their rarity at 4), but here are some of the favorites in my collection:
Of the three, only Beany Bopper involves shooting. Hope you find something you like! -
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Originally posted by Nukey Shay:According to the story**, the carts were crushed before being encased in containers BEFORE being added to the landfill (per EPA regulations?). So any carts you find would be unplayable (even if you WANTED to!).
Ah, but if E.T. could come back to life, then why not his game!
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I visited www.atari2600.com earlier this week (Monday, I think, and possibly Tuesday also) with no trouble; so, whatever is going on is recent. Maybe the site is simply being upgraded or maintained and will be back within a few days.
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Frankenstein's Monster...good!!! -
I really enjoy Warlords, but it does have the problem that, once a player's king gets knocked out of a round, it can be a while before that player gets to play again. This can be boring for the idle player—and even injurious to his pride, if the computer is among the remaining active opponents!
[ 10-30-2001: Message edited by: The Night Phantom ]
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As you may know, the US Postal Service is starting a program of irradiating the mail, in reaction to the recent anthrax incidents. However, there's some legitimate concern that irradiating the mail might harm more than just microorganisms. If you send or receive electronics through the US mail, there is potential for damage. ABCNews.com has a somewhat inconclusive story about this problem.
I'm no expert on these issues; so, I don't know the full extent of the risk. If you have something valuable to contribute, please do!
In the meantime, you may consider employing/requesting other carriers and/or insurance on any electronics items being shipped. Egad—I'd hate to think of a valuable prototype being lost to safeguards against 21st-century terrorists!
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Also note that “virtual” ordering can solve the problem in my Star Raiders example above, since you can list multiple genres per game and cross-reference as appropriate.
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You need to consider both what is going to be easy for you to find and what is going to be easy for you to manage. Usually when I want to play a game I know which one it is and what its name is; so, alphabetical order by title is a natural way for me to search, and of course it's easy to set up, also. I personally would not follow Atari-Jess' scheme since A) the company rarely enters into my game selection process and B) I find categorizing by genre to be a headache (e.g., is Star Raiders a “space” game or a “strategy” game?). However, if these methods work for you, then by all means use them.
Although it might mean a little more work, you can also set up some sort of database (or a series of lists kept manually) to allow you to view a listing of your games ordered by different criteria. In that case, the actual physical ordering of your cartridges becomes less important. For example, you can keep the carts alphabetized, but whenever you want to look for Activision sports games, you fire up the database and have it sorted by company+genre, and then you have a quick and handy way to know which carts to pull out.
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What is the origin of the opening theme music in Ghost Manor? The melody is one I have heard many times in many shows, and I figure it probably comes from some opera or concerto or something. (I'm pretty sure it's not featured in Grover's Music Maker... )
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Originally posted by Atari-Jess:and the female one islady in waiting
That would be Lady in Wading.
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It might be worth pointing out that a Game Genie-type of device already has been made for the VCS. It's called the Personal Game Programmer and was produced by Answer. Unfortunately, this accessory is super-rare; so, it would be worth creating a new such device that could be had at a reasonable price.
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Sega?
in Atari 2600
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Originally posted by Ze_ro:Ugh... please stop throwing "Atari" in as every second word... it makes thingsveryhard to read!
I believe this technique is called Fuji Latin.
One Sega game for the VCS that I like is Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom—not the game so much, but I really enjoy the sound effects.
(said very quickly) — SEGA!
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I'd have to say Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, which very neatly takes a very thrilling signature sequence from one of my favorite films and turns it into an exciting, challenging game without changing the story.
I'm not as big a fan of the film Halloween, but the game Halloween is another one of my VCS favorites. One annoying departure from the film is that the Shape (the maniac killer, a.k.a. Michael Myers) always goes after the child first, whereas in the movie he always reserves his violence for adults and teenagers. Of course, this change is good for moral shock value.
Some comments on the “true origins” of games mentioned by others:
- I agree with Rhindle The Red: the Superman game seems meant to draw directly on the comic books, not on any of the films or TV series based thereon.
- On the other hand, while M*A*S*H was a book and movie before becoming a TV show, I think it's the TV show that the game was intended to evoke.
- If we really want to be picky, Star Wars: The Arcade Game was based on, well, an arcade game. (Am I the only one offended that this home game was subtitled The Arcade Game? It's blatant fraud!)
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Originally posted by marty:i got a scuba diver sealed. although the box has a bend on the back and the corners are worn, i still consider this item as a pretty rare item.
Beware: a scuba diver can be killed by the bends!
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Originally posted by Jack-Ass Tramiel:I don't doubt that it's fashionable and well designed (it's from France after all), but what the hell is it made of that makes it cost so darn much?!
It's made of licensing and franchising fees.
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As I mentioned last night in another%20topic,%20shirts%20with%20the%20Atari%20name%20and%20logo%20are%20available%20from%20the%20Olympique Lyonnais online store, though they run a little expensive (especially when you add shipping to North America) and commemorate a soccer team most Atari fans know more or less nothing about.
Pac-Man and Pitfall! have been mentioned in this discussion as signature Atari games, but note that Pac-Man was licensed from Namco and Pitfall! was from Activision. So, neither would be a good basis for Atari's corporate identity.
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Originally posted by Ze_ro:What about the first gold bar that is in the water? If you don't get this your first time through (presumably after getting the forest gold bar), you'll *never* get it since you won't be able to get back up the waterfall.
Not true; you ought to be able to fetch the gold bar above the waterfall once you've bagged the rat, by continuing to move to the right. Of course, you'd still have to adjust the order of treasures in the list Pitfall Harry provided above. (I mean our Pitfall Harry, of course.)
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Originally posted by liquid_sky:just wondering, are they a good team?
Apparently they've been losing to Barcelona lately.
The team is called l'Olympique Lyonnais (“OL”) and its Web site has an online shop where you can even buy a replica of the team shirt sporting the Atari name and logo! To see it, just head over to http://boutique.olympiquelyonnais.com/boutiqueol/, then activate the “Proline Replica” button on the left, then scroll down to the product marked “MAILLOT THIRD Gris”. The site is in French, but the photo should be easily understood.
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Turning Hal Jordan into a major psycho and killing him off just to bring in a replacement was inexcusable. But I digress...
I want to provide a correction and a clarification of things I said earlier.
First off, in our Marvel example, I proffered the notion that Marvel chooses not to pursue certain infringement cases. While I'm sure that's true, another reason would of course be that Marvel doesn't know of all infringements. So, a better way to put would be that Marvel doesn't choose to pursue them, whether intentionally or unintentionally.
Second, I wish to clarify my remark that “not for profit” does not automatically excuse one from all legal liability. That is true; however, not-for-profit status can have some bearing on an intellectual property case, along with other factors.
Also, I'd like to thank Russ Perry Jr for bringing up the Stell-A-Sketch incident, which I had forgotten about.
'Nuff said!
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ET Holes
in Atari 2600
Posted
When E.T. has fallen into a well, you can move him upwards and out so long as the levitation symbol (an underlined upward arrow) appears in the power zone indicator at the top of the screen. In almost every well the levitation zone extends throughout the entire width of the well's bottom. (The exception is the well containing the flower: a different power zone immediately surrounds the flower. Flower power!) You don't even have to wait for E.T. to fall all the way to the bottom; you activate his levitation power in mid-drop.
Possibly the problem facing the naysayers is that they don't know how to keep E.T. from immediately falling back into the well once he's levitated back to ground level. Continuing to push the joystick up is a mistake, and so is immediately releasing the stick; instead, the player should push the stick down or to the side as soon as the well interior screen is replaced by a ground-level screen.