kingpong

I've been looking for an Evolution for a while, but the only ones I've seen for sale for the last year or so have been Telegames releases - the ones that don't have the Coleco logo on the end. I've been holding out for a Coleco version, as I don't consider Telegames versions of anything as legitimate/collectable (though I always thought it was interesting that their Evolution label otherwise looked like the real thing, as opposed to the silver labels on other games). A non-working one showed up on Ebay recently, I figured it was worth it because I wanted one with the original label, working or not, as I could always put it on a Telegames version and not feel too bad about it. It came today and I think it is a repro label. Rather than being glossy like a normal Coleco label, it is much more matte (though not completely), and looks to be thinner. Has a little bit of wear on it, so it doesn't look like it was just printed, but it doesn't have rounded corners, and the end is slightly miscut. Nothing about it looks or feels like a traditional Coleco label. Before I trash the label to see what is inside I want to make sure it isn't an original label. Can anyone who has a real Coleco Evolution confirm that the label should be like other Coleco releases, or that it is cheaper looking/feeling?

I have to say, this thread has been both engaging and somewhat discouraging. Engaging in that it was interesting enough to get me to dig up my password for this account - looks like the last time I posted was 15 years ago. Discouraging in that it has taken me a heck of a lot longer to get to about the same point in my collection! My collection was built via yard sales/thrift stores in the early 90s (adding to my original games from the 80s), then Usenet auctions in the mid-late 90s. But once Ebay came along the thrill of the hunt was gone, so I didn't buy anything there, everything local dried up, Usenet died, and there was nowhere left to go. I think the last time I added a 2600 cart to my collection was 1998 at best. At least until I wound up buying some non-game stuff on Ebay about 3 years ago, and then was curious if any of the 2600 games I had long wanted were available for a reasonable price. So over the past 3 years I've filled in maybe 25 of the gaps in my 2600 collection, and as I said, I think I'm around the same place you are. So unfortunately, we'll probably be bidding on some of the same games... After comparing to the list of 404 (not that I like to count them that way - to me same game from different company is a different game, and single and double enders are unique, etc.)... Looks like I'm at 352. I can see getting to 360 between a few that I really want and a few that wouldn't be stupid expensive, but 370 seems really far away. I do know where I can probably get a Guardian for a reasonable price... A local store had one several years ago, before I was back in buying mode, and while I was pretty sure I didn't have it, it was expensive enough to not take that chance (I'm a cheapskate). I went back 2 weeks later hoping that it wasn't gone, but not only was it gone, the whole store was gone - they apparently packed up in the middle of the night and disappeared. After some misfires they reopened in a different location last summer, and they still had that Guardian for the same price. Of course, I had recently bought one from Ebay, so it didn't do me any good. I figure chances are good that it is still there now...

I think it has been a few years since I've posted here, but some new-to-me information picqued my interest. I was looking at the Summer 1984 Activision Fun Club newsletter from the UK and it talks about a "high-tech treasure hunt" involving Pitfall II. Supposedly 10 cartridges were distributed around the UK that contained a special message instead of the game. If found you were supposed to send it back to Activision in exchange for a normal cartridge and to have your name entered in a drawing to win a 1000 pound grand prize or a 100 pound consolation prize. The winners were expected to be named at the "Software Show" in September, whatever that was. Anyone have more details on this story? The odds of a cart being found seems astronomically low since they were to be returned to Activision, but stranger things have happened.

Last time I was at COW Lloyd had an upright Demolition Derby cabinet, but no cocktails. That was a few months ago though, and an insane amount of stuff goes through that place, so it is worth a shot.

Wow, I guess I should have paid attention to the Atarilympics thread when the competition was active, as my high scores from the 80s would have held up pretty welll... Dash: 8.40 (tie for Bronze) Long Jump: 10.56 (Gold) Javelin: 97.56 (5th) Hurdles: 10.16 (Gold) Hammer Throw: 93.74 (Gold) High Jump: 2.44 (Gold)

I don't mean to thread crap, but it seems like most of the posts in this thread aren't needed if everyone would just read the old Giant List of 2600 Label Variations as started by John Earney back in the good old days of collecting and apparently last maintained by Tempest. Kind of funny to think that back in the mid-90s I wanted to get every variation listed...

Just 4 protos here: 2600 Gravitar 2600 Grand Prix 2600 Sky Jinks SNES Battlecars I also have some PC games from Microsoft around here somewhere, but I can't remember what I have left or where I put them. PC stuff doesn't count as protos anyways.

I've been able to do it in 7 seconds a few times, and apparently Todd Rogers has as well according to Twin Galaxies. Of course, my time is listed as #3 on the score ranking, not that there is actually a score in that game, despite repeated emails over the years telling Twin Galaxies that they have it wrong. The "by time" ranking is new since I had last checked the score, so one would hope they'd have enough of a clue to combine the two of them.

Yars' is so low on my list because it has the most disappointing gameplay of any game I've ever played. That might sound like hyperbole, but it is true. You shoot the thing a few times, run into it, then shoot it with the other thing. Do the same thing ad infinitum. There's nothing the least bit interesting about this play mechanic. I love simple mechanics in games, so it isn't just the simplicity of the game. The task presented by the game isn't entertaining in the least. To present such a dull mechanic in a genre that is typically the most action packed just magnifies its deficiencies. Yars' Revenge was a game that was universally hated by everyone I knew in the early 80s. The same can be said of Adventure. You move around for a while and nothing ever happens. The same can be said of any adventure/RPG game, but it is more apparent in Adventure, having none of the graphic fluff that everybody seems to love these days. There's just nothing appealing about what you do in this game.

I concur with these picks, my least favorite 2600 games of all. Adventure suffers from being in the adventure/RPG genre (any game in those genres is by definition worthless, IMO), but it is bad on its own. Yar's is purely a bad game.

Since when is Tank Command going for less than Mean 18? I'd gladly pay the going rate of Mean 18 for a Tank Command. Given the rash of 7800 collection completions lately, here's what I need in case anyone wants to help make it one more completion. Haven't added to my 7800 collection in about 5 years... Alien Brigade Fatal Run Mario Bros. Motor Psycho Pete Rose Baseball Planet Smashers Tank Command

If one is going to go through the trouble of making a Power Pad interface, I would suggest doing the same for PSX dance pads. Rather than having to track down a Power Pad, PSX dance pads can be found everywhere for $10-15. I don't see how a joystick is really going to work though, unless jumps are not allowed. I suppose you don't really need the ability to hit multiple directions at once, but I would expect that ability to be there and the songs to utilize it. I've been wondering for months when someone would do a DDR clone for the 2600. I'm surprised it took this long actually, given the simplicity of the gameplay. Of course, that doesn't mean it will be the most trivial game to write.

K-Razy Shootout - loose BBSB - loose I think... might have docs ROTJ - complete, I think Many months later... a Meteorites is on the way, finally completing my 5200 collection that has been stuck at one away from complete for the last 7 years or so.

Hm, from a collectors point of view you may be right. I agree that making homebrews just for collecting reasons is not a good thing at all. Manufactured collectibles are never in anyone's best interest other than the person producing and profiting from them. I don't think it can ever be this way for games, but this sort of thing winds up killing most types of collecting. See comic books, baseball cards, Beanie Babies, and many other things for examples. When I see limited edition label variations, special packaging, etc. for homebrews, I get an uneasy feeling. Reproductions of prototypes are a strange one. The existence of special releases is almost a necessary evil in some cases. You sell reproductions in order to recoup the cost of obtaining the prototype from some jerk who wanted a bunch of money for it. Everyone would like for the reproductions to be readily available, but if they see ongoing production with the same packaging, there isn't going to be sufficient interest in the game to justify the prices needed to pay for the proto. If you laid out $2500 for a proto, it is a far more appealing proposition to get 50 people to pay $50 for the full production run of a game at a show than to get 100 people to pay $25 over the course of a general release. It is a shame when we see limited edition show releases going for inflated prices on Ebay the day the show ends, but if that's what it takes to preserve unreleased protos, then I guess those of us who understand what has value and what doesn't should just sit back and laugh at those paying the inflated prices, then thank them. I've only played a few. Not due to a "I'm not going to play homebrews" attitude, but usually because most of the homebrews don't appear to be appealing games (either in theme/gameplay or quality - some are well done but I don't have any interest in, others just aren't worth anyone's time). Some of the homebrews are quite good, and I tip my hat to authors of games good enough that I could see myself purchasing the game 15-20 years ago. I guess I feel that if you're going to do a homebrew, do something that is of comparable quality to the best available for the system, or don't do it at all.

Does this mean you are anti-homebrew? I'm confused. The short answer is yes, but that oversimplifies things. There was a thread a few months back where I got beat up pretty well for this opinion. Most of the homebrew games, at least those done within the last 2 years or so, are pretty impressive. As games, they compare favorably with many of the classics. If someone makes a game that would have been commercially viable if released when the system was active, that's quite an accomplishment, and something worthwhile. I don't look too highly upon games that wouldn't have been good enough to be released 15-20 years ago, interpretations of game genres that were not appropriate for the system's time, or graphical hacks. I just have some sort of fundamental problem with new stuff being released for classic systems, even if it is reproductions of old prototypes. It has to do with open systems versus closed systems. Consoles have traditionally been closed systems, computers open systems. Back in the early 80s, everybody and their brother could program a game for a computer. Whether you did it the way the commercial folks did, or if you typed in a listing from a magazine, somehow you could do a game. You couldn't do that with consoles. Information on how to program them was scarce, tools were out of reach, and Joe Schmoe at home wasn't able to do a thing with them. These factors led to console games having a bit of an aura around them that computer games didn't have. The influx in interest in homebrew console games over the last 10 years has eroded the line between console and computer games by effectively making the consoles open systems. While it still takes considerably more effort to do anything on a console than on a computer, the console isn't the untouchable thing it was to hobbyists 20 years ago. Heck, there was homebrew Gameboy Advance stuff out there before the system was even released. The classic consoles aren't open to that extreme, but they are open. For me, the presence of homebrew stuff for consoles it a bit like learning how a magic trick works. You still appreciate the skill of the magician, maybe even moreso than before, and you can still enjoy the results, but it just isn't the same as it used to be. The strange thing is that when the first 2600 homebrew stuff was coming around, I was quite interested. Yet by the time Okie Dokie came about, I was thinking "Ugh, another homebrew game". At first I thought it kind of neat that somebody managed to make a 2600 game, but I guess I soured on the idea over time.