Big Player

I had forgotten about All For One stores, which I believe were owned by Odd Lots/Big Lots. I always had to check out the All For One in the Kenwood Towne Center after I got my hair cut. The last 2600 games I bought from the AA store are Go Fish! and Seawolf.

When E.T. was released, I had always thought of it as a game for young children. (I was 12 at the time.) The only one of my friends and neighbors who had the game was an eight-year-old. As far as I remember, he didn't have trouble playing it. I didn't know it was supposed to be that bad, but I knew there were too many other good games that I wanted for me to ever consider getting the game. I don't think I played the game back then, I just watched and knew that it didn't interest me at all. E.T. was an overrated movie anyway. Sure it was popular but the merchadising certainly didn't begin to approach Star Wars in value. There were a lot fewer kids clamoring for E.T. toys. Mostly because it wasn't a story that you could play around with in your imagination like Star Wars. But it also didn't help that the movie lacked replay value. Once you saw it, you didn't need to see it again. I've seen it twice, both in theaters in 1982. None of the magic of the first viewing remained for me. I don't know that any E.T. game would have been as successful as they all hoped.

Do the close out games at Odd Lots count? If so, here are the last five new games I bought in 1993 for $1 a piece: Double Dunk Crossbow Millipede Jungle Hunt Secret Quest If you don't count close outs, the last cartridge I bought from a regular retail store was during the crash in 1984, Enduro for $10.

I do miss the days when the edit function was turned off for everyone but moderators and Siegler would edit other peoples posts. Anyone heard from him lately?

That's what the edit button is for. Once someone quotes me, I can't edit their posts unless I were a moderator.

To summarize what supercat and Batari have said, there are no programming safeguards that keep PB hacks from being put on a cart. PB games have a unique bankswitching scheme and no one has made a printed circuit board (PBC) that uses it, probably because it needed for only about eight games. Do a search. The games have been converted/reprogrammed or whatever to work on a regular eprom and board. I have the Montezuma's Revenue hack Tomb Raider on a cartridge. Just need a good lable. No need, I know the games have been converted. It doesn't change what I said, though I wish I had typed ABC instead of PBC.

I already own a copy of Castle Crisis fo the 5200 but are there any copies for the 8-bits lying around? I picked up an Atari 400 at the Cinciclassic and I would like to turn it into a traveling Warlords machine I could take to parties and other gatherings.

To summarize what supercat and Batari have said, there are no programming safeguards that keep PB hacks from being put on a cart. PB games have a unique bankswitching scheme and no one has made a printed circuit board (PBC) that uses it, probably because it needed for only about eight games.

I've played it and I'm sorry but Nukey Shay's Hack Em' blows it away. It isn't even a close comparison. Ebivision's Pac-Man is slow, the control response is poor and the sounds are almost non-existent. The game has an unfinished feel to it. But it does look nice though, I'll give it that, though it doesn't surpass Hack Em' in that department either. If Ebivision's Pac-Man wouldn't have been made, there wouldn't be a Hack 'Em at all. Don't turn the world upside down, please. Well, Hack Em' is a hack of Pesco. But of course, Pesco was a reworking of Ebivsion Pac Man and you are right, without it there is no Hack Em'. I didn't mean to be so negative on Ebivision's version. It's just that since the game is unavailable to most 2600 euthusiasts, there is always someone who says it is the best 2600 version of Pac-Man. There are three possibilities: A) They haven't actually played Ebivision Pac-Man. B) They haven't played Hack Em'. C) They are a friend or relative of Eric Bacher. D) They are insane. I believe the case with the original poster is that he played Ebivision Pac Man about six years ago and remembers it being much better than it is. Or maybe he is unfamiliar with Hack Em'? I have the .bin file and like you, I won't release it either. But I can compare the two side by side and it isn't close. I also stand by my comment on Ebivision games. If they had a little more polish and tweaking, they would be among the best 2600 homebrews. If they had just used the Stella list when developing. . .

I've played it and I'm sorry but Nukey Shay's Hack Em' blows it away. It isn't even a close comparison. Ebivision's Pac-Man is slow, the control response is poor and the sounds are almost non-existent. The game has an unfinished feel to it. But it does look nice though, I'll give it that, though it doesn't surpass Hack Em' in that department either.

This seems a bit out of the blue here. ..Al Especially since prices on 2600 have been dropping in the last year or two from what I've seen. Both H.E.R.O. and Star Wars:The Arcade Game were sold at the 2006 Cinciclassic for much less than I paid a few years ago. Even the top rarities like Quadrun and Q*Bert's Cubes seem to be going for less than they did three or four years ago. But I'm not in the market for 2600 items every day, so maybe someone who is can chime in.

You do know that you can play the original Basketball with one player? Using the right joystick port?

Cool. Right now we get to see Al and Tempest set up the Atari Age booth. I'm not sure who the other guy is. This is going to be so great at 3 in the morning.

Other than having Al ship Reindeer Rescue and the other games I ordered separately, no I don't see too many other options besides waiting.

I've been waiting for Adventure II and Raindeer Rescue as well. And I'm going to keep waiting for the same reasons stated above.

My younger brother and I played a ton of Atari Football, until Super Challenge Football was released. He used to kick my ass at the game too. It as close as I'll ever come to living under a totalitarian regime. We just didn't know anything else. Basketball is the best original sports game for the 2600. It's funny how the other sports games released at about the same time don't hold a candle to it. I think Basketball's quality kept it from getting a released Realsports game.

Damn it, I really want one of these. I've got this Vectrex here with no games at all, other than Mine Storm of course.

The lower shields look better to me. It also gets you more away from the look of the original 2600 Warlords, which is also a good thing.

I'd like to see any of J. D. Casten's Atari 8-bit games ported to the 2600. These were type-in games published in Antic magazine back in the mid 80's. Biffdrop and Box-In are my favorite. But then Rebound, Escape From Espsilon and Risky Rescue are great as well. Only Advent X-5--a text adventure--wouldn't be that great on the 2600. J. D. Casten has even given permission on his website for anyone to modify or port his games to any system. Here is a link to his games page. You can download the ROM's there. http://www.jdcasten.info/Atari/Atari_Page.htm

Also, this only applies to modern games. So all the games in my collection are not helping me at all.

The main challenge with making an Archon style game for the 2600 is displaying many differently shaped sprites at once. The challenge with the O2 is getting differently shaped sprites at all. Even Mr. Roboto! has that problem.

Seawolf for me. Hard to pick a second since there are a lot of good undersea games for the 2600. Seaquest and Go Fish in a tie.

So does Sean Kelly's 5200 Multi-Cart have hacked ROM's of Krazy Shoot Out? It appears to work on my 2-port but I only played it for a few minutes when I was going through all the games on the cart. What happens when you put the game in a 2-port? If I remember correctly, I had trouble leaving the room.

Hunchy II for me. It's the sleeper homebrew of the year.

I do love how those of us with no programming experience can contribute to homewbrew development. I'm not even an artist like you and I was able to design the sprites for the Seawolf mines. Also, being able to playtest homebrews and provide suggestions to the authors is great, especially when put you suggestion into the game. I can't wait for you to finish editing Stella at 20. While I've owned volume I for years, I can't wait to finally see volume II.