Ransom

So many of the old games are still difficult for me, after playing them off and on for 20+ years. Most of those games were pretty consistent in their difficulty levels throughout the game, though. But now, I find that I can sleep-walk through most of a game, then come upon a point that just seems impossible to master. It would be great if every game allowed the user to customize the level of challenge down to some level of detail, without the use of cheats. I bought the game to provide myself with a fun diversion. Trust me with the power to set the level of challenge that will be fun for me.

That's it...our extra Lynx II is going up tonight. It's MIB, so I'm putting a $500 BIN on it. Or do you think that's too low?

I list mine out separately like that in my db - much easier for a label variation freak like me. I once proposed that "Atari Inc" and "Atari Corp" be listed as separate companies in the AA db, but a cool reception ensued. Exactly! As someone who left the 2600 scene as soon as the 5200 came out, I missed out on the end of the Warner era and totally missed the Tramiel era on the 2600. So having a clear separation in the databases would be helpful. Guess I'll just have to do it myself. Thank you for letting me know I'm not the only one who wanted this!

All good games, but let's not forget Lady Bug! Playing that on the ColecoVision back then was a revelation to me (to this day, I haven't played it on an arcade machine). To me, Galaga:Space Invaders::Lady Bug:Pac-Man.

No, but the Atari Corp. games were pretty much limited to the red box releases (besides reissues). Is there a "NOT" operator or equivalent for the AtariAge search engine? Its possible. Anything is possible if you search hard enough on the internet but you need to ask yourself, is the effort involved worth the initial effort? I thought I needed to ask myself, "Are you feeling lucky, punk?"

I first got the Lynx II from EB for $79 with 4 games around 1995. Hard to believe a little purchase like that could lead to a decade of coding and testing games for the Lynx! I also bought some Lynxes from the aforementioned Venture chain near the St. Louis area back in the late 90s. I think it only had 4 games (not 6), but still, it was a crazy price... I think their final clearance was $25 for the Lynx with games! Ah, thank you! My wife and I were talking about it over the weekend, trying to figure out how many games were packed in. Since we remixed the distributions for the nephews and nieces (to make sure each got something they would like, and that each got something they could all play together), there's now no way for us to tell. So thank you! As for the price -- D'oh! I still have the receipts, so I know I paid $59.99 for each one (again, looked at them last weekend). It's a shame to know we could have snagged 'em for $25 apiece!

No, but the Atari Corp. games were pretty much limited to the red box releases (besides reissues). Is there a "NOT" operator or equivalent for the AtariAge search engine?

Does anyone know of a list of games that lets you search for games based on whether it's Atari Inc. or Atari Corp that produced them?

I remember when my mom picked me up from school one day (must have been 7th grade) and she surprised me with my very own copy of Pac-Man for the Atari 2600! It'd just been released. I was so happy! Then we got home, and I put it in, and....I liked it! The sounds were a bit of a surprise, but overall it was a pretty good game. Then I read in Electronic Games and other magazines about how terrible of a game it was, how the flickering ghosts were inexcusable, etc. And I nodded along with some of that, but I continued to play and enjoy the game. For those of you who got your first look at 2600 Pac-Man back then, what was your reaction? Particularly, if you didn't read any reviews first.

I picked mine up new at Venture (a midwestern chain store along the lines of Walmart or KMart, which went out of business years ago). They were selling Lynx IIs with batteries and something like six games (cards and instructions only) all in one box for $59. So my wife and I picked up a dozen of them and gave them to all the nieces and nephews. And we got three for ourselves (one for each of us, plus a spare). We then called up Go Atari and ordered a bunch of carts (new in box of course) for a cheap price, but I don't recall what it was. We also picked up a power pack, two visors, and two of the cases that fit a lynx and twelve games & acc. We played them for a few months, but then set them aside and haven't really played them much in the last decade or so. Lately, though, I've been getting back into it. They're really great little systems, and so many of the games are well worth playing.

Rampart. It's the only reason I keep the SNES around.

Thank you for the info, Stephen! That makes me feel a lot better. I'll make sure to regularly rotate my consoles and computers so that the ones I've been keeping in storage as backups don't let me down when I need them! As my favorite poem says: "How dull it is to pause, to make an end, To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!"

Open it up and count the bits. But be careful - if you open it upside down, the bits can fall out! That happened to me one time, and it took forever to find them and put them back in order.

I PM'd Ron/Cafeman (the guy behind Adventure II) about the 8-bit version, and he said no one had expressed interest in one, so he'd stopped after the 5200 cart. But he did say to check back in May for a possible status update. I'm hoping he'll be able to come out with Adventure II for the 8-bit some day.

Definitely the M-Network ones. There was just no reason to do that.

PM sent.

I got my Retro Duo in the mail last Friday. I plugged it in on Saturday and checked it out. The reason I bought the Retro Duo, despite owning an SNES and an NES, was that I'd run out of room on my gaming desk. It already contained an Atari 8-bit, two XF551's, an Intellivision, a TG-16, an Atari 2600, and the monitor. There was just enough room left in one cubby hole for the SNES, but not the NES, especially with the silly side-mounted A/V jacks. So I opted for this Retro Duo, figuring that for 50 bucks it was worth a try. I've only tried to play SMB, SMB2, Nobunaga's Ambition, RC Pro Am, and Super Mario World. And in those cases, I was just testing it to see what would happen, and didn't play any of them for more than a few minutes. But here's what I found: The S-video only works for the SNES. The composite output works in either NES or SNES mode. I hooked 'em both up, using my a/v switch that will handle both modes in one input block so no splitting of the audio is necessary. Once it was all hooked up I was definitely pleased with the SNES mode S-video output. However, the composite NES mode output looks less than ideal to my eye, even for composite. But I haven't hooked up my front-loader to compare yet, so I don't know if it's the same or not. The system uses SNES controllers exclusively, which is fine, but in NES mode I found it irritating that it uses the Y & B buttons instead of the easier to use and more logical A & B combination. Not a real problem with the joypads, but I use a Super Advantage controller and there it's a bit of a pain. Oh, one thing that I didn't see mentioned in the videos and other reviews: it includes all cables needed - S-video, composite, and stereo audio, in addition to two joypads and the power adapter (a small 'wall wart' style with a short cord -- 3' or so I would guess). So, all in all, for my purpose it seems to be a good compromise. I'll feel better about it once I've tried all my games in it, and once I've checked its NES output against a real NES.

I use a pretty idiosyncratic method right now to store my collection of boxed games. My Intellivision games are stored alphabetically first by manufacturer, then within the first-party section, they're sorted by 'network' ("Action Network", "Sports Network," etc.), then by game title. All my other games are stored alphabetically by manufacturer, then by game title. But the first-party section comes first, even if that puts it out of alphabetical order with the third-party names (note that this is different than the Intellivision section). Part of the idiosyncratic nature of my storage system stems from the aesthetic consideration of which looks best appearing first on the shelf. Usually, the first party boxes all look great together, whereas the smaller selections of third-party titles usually look more jumbled.

Looks like I'll be getting Iron Soldier and Super Burnout next time I have some money. Thanks for the great advice!

Based on the choices given, I couldn't vote. I like *some* of the retro systems, and *some* of the retro games, but as with the modern systems, most of the stuff was pretty weak. For me to buy and keep a system, it has to have a decent selection of games that are both fun to play and unique to the platform. So I have an Atari VCS, an Intellivision, an Atari 8-bit computer, a TG-16, an NES, an SNES, a Lynx, a Jaguar, and a Playstation 2. I expect to buy a PS3 and a Wii at some point in the future (no hurry). I keep the PS2 around mostly for the great 2 player cooperative games by Snowblind Studios. My wife and I really enjoy playing those together. I keep the Jaguar around because my wife likes the original Rayman, plus Cybermorph, Battlemorph, and Baldies. I've personally never been very enamored with the system. I keep the NES and SNES around mostly for my wife as well. She likes the Mario and Link stuff, plus Rampart on the SNES. I like a few of the strategy games for the NES. The TG-16 is kept for Military Madness, Galaga 90, and a few others. But our main systems are the Intellivision, the VCS, the Atari 8-bit, and the Lynx. The vast majority of the games we own are for one of those systems. So, we're primarily an 8-bit/retro family, but we support a number of other consoles that we have a dozen or so games for each simply because of a few very strong titles. I don't think we'd want to give up any of those systems if we had to choose.

If I die first, my wife will probably keep it. She's good at holding on to stuff like that. I'm the one with the problem of getting rid of stuff that doesn't seem useful any more, then having to re-buy it later on. If I die last, then it'll all probably go in a landfill. Unless I happen to be the last of us collectors to die...then it might be considered valuable enough for a museum to accept it.

You could always re-buy them CIB and store them on shelves, alphabetically. That's how I store mine.

Other than first person shooters and the games I already have (see below), are there any Jag games that are worth the price? Here's what I already have: Alien Vs. Predator Baldies Battlemorph Blue Lightning Cannon Fodder Cybermorph Evolution: Dino Dudes Flip Out! Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure Rayman Tempest 2000 Vid Grid

My first gaming system was a Coleco Telstar Arcade, back in the seventies. It was sold in a garage sale right after I got the VCS a year or two later. The VCS was sold to partially pay for a 5200, the 5200 was sold to partially pay for a ColecoVision, and so on down the line. The only gaming systems we have that are original are the SNES, Jaguar, Lynx and Playstation 2. Everything else was either reacquired (VCS, TurboGrafx-16, NES) or bought second hand but never owned during the original era (Intellivision). (Just for the sake of completeness, the systems I owned originally and have no desire to reacquire are: Coleco Telstar, Sega Genesis, ColecoVision, and Atari 5200. I also had a second-hand 7800, Channel F, and Astrocade at one time, but have since gotten rid of them and have no desire to get them back, either. In the 90s, I reacquired the ColecoVision and 5200 along with lots of games and accessories, but ultimately sold them and have no regrets about doing so. On the computer side, I still have my XL-era Ataris and some XE era stuff, but did get rid of my original Apple //c in 1990, then reacquired one in 1996, then got rid of that. I have no desire to get a //c, as I can play the few games I liked that were exclusive to it in emulation on the rare occasions I want to play them.)

Personally, I've always liked the Apple ][ version best.