phuzaxeman

14,710 oh wow, rusty.

Been playing this game for a while. I've got a lot of gold and health plus antidotes extras. Any suggestions on what to get? My friends have up to 2nd level spells too. I think I have a sword.

It's a cool game. Have you done a review Ken Sider's Beef Drop?

Hi, does your adapter that you had sold that uses the 2600 joystick also work with the 2600 paddles on the 5200? thanks

Played Space Assailants 2121 today. Really enjoyed the music. If you make any updates in the future, would be cool if there was a 5200 keypad option for controls. Thanks again for bringing this to the Supersystem.

While Castle Crisis is an amazing game, your work on all your games are great especially Intellidiscs. Intellidiscs is a top 10 5200 game and I'm looking forward to purchasing the cartridge.

It's weird seeing people using your right hand to control the stick. Traditionally, shooting games in the arcade have the button on the right side of the joystick. Are you guys lefty?

Ryan, great progress. Keep up the good work. I just played Lock N Chase at my local arcade. The game is growing on me. I think its going to be great when you get the car dropping of Rob to the maze. Have you thought about adding an intro scene where you see the characters and the names? Maybe a batch of new enemy names?

The updated @playsoft versions play really well. My favorite Asteroids version is the one that uses the 5200 keypad. Reminds me of the arcade with no stick.

17,085

Very good write up! Thanks for sharing. You mentioned that the 5200 has a "small library, and poor reputation." While the library is smaller, its small time frame of existence had put out more games per year than the Lynx, Jaguar, and 7800. The 7800 lasted in some cities 8 years but put out 59 games? As far as the reputation, the 5200 was considered one of the most cutting edge consoles in 82 when it released and only the Colecovision rivaled it. Bally, Astrocade, Intellivision, Oddysey, 2600 all had nothing on the 5200 when it was released. The poor reputation was a myth in the early 80s and was created after the fact especially in the day of youtube. If anything, the release of the 7800 during the time of the Nes and Sega and the release of the Jaguar during the era of SNES, N64, Genesis, PS1 had Atari with a poor reputation. You mention, "The 5200 isn't powerful enough to do perfect ports of early '80s arcade games, so 5200 games are at least somewhat unique, and no 5200 game is available on any modern platform " In 82, there were no perfect arcade ports from any console. Even the Colecovision version of Donkey Kong was missing screens and other details. What the 5200 was doing in 82 was pretty amazing. There are aspects of 5200 Centipede that imo were better than the original (i.e, Scorpion). In terms of Berzerk review, I disagree that the controls are slow. I think the controller work great for the sticks but the game design was slower not the sticks. Your complaint that the game doesn't seem to have a point is the same as the arcade. You have to imagine in 83, there was no console that offered berzerk with speech synthesis. I also disagree with you that the 7800 has better graphics on Centipede. The spider is more detailed on the 5200 plus the centipede fluidity when it comes down is smoother. The aspect ratios are also off with the wand much bigger on the 7800 and leaving not much playing field. The controls on the 5200 are true to the arcade with analog or trackball. Plus the 7800 lines on the screen are annoying. I do like 7800 two player mode. We're not even talking about sound effects and sound. Having own the 7800 since 86, thee 5200 centipede is king of all versions in that generation and it isn't even close. Hopper on the TI-99/4A does not have better graphics than 5200 Pengo. Unlike Hopper, Pengo looks and feels like its an arcade game and it does a good job translating the arcade experience for 82. Plus it has music and more sound effects than Hopper. My cousin had a TI and we used to play a lot of TI games like invaders. While Super Breakout was probably the wrong game to pack in, it's still a great game. The fact that it's difficult for you tells me you haven't learned how to use the 5200 sticks yet. Once you know how to use the controllers, you will appreciate more Countermeasure. The game wasn't supposed to be fast. TANKS are slow. Countermeasure on the 5200 is one of the gems and is a reason to buy the 5200 (Space Dungeon, Baseball, Tempest, Gremlins, Centipede too). Many 5200 purists love Countermeasure. Great conversations here about the 5200. Thanks!

Little 3rd party support, low sales, and people were more interested in the NES and Sega. I had my 7800 in 86 and there wasn't many games at the stores. In some cities, the 7800 came out in 84. That's an 8 year life span with only 59 official games and about 3 million sold. The 5200 lasted about 2 years with 69 official games and sold about 1 million. I knew more people with 5200's in 82 than 7800's in 86. 5200 actually had more impact and sold more in its short lifetime than the 7800.

259,575 Haven't played this in a long time.

If you read the article about the comparison between the 5200 and coleco controller, it gives praise that the 5200 controls work "superb" on centipede. I don't deny the reliability of the controls, but this hate on the internet over the years against the 5200 sticks is a lack of understanding.

Ryan, any news on a cartridge/box release for Intellidiscs? Thanks.