The essential carts..

[Keatah]

I'm working on trimming down my huge rom collection from the thousands that I've gathered down to the essentials. Any suggestions? I suppose I should include everything by atari, activision, imagic, data age, starpatch/arcadia, sears telegames(clones), etc..etc..

 

I have no intention of deleting out of the collection, just want to separate it and make the collection 'rich' instead of being diluted with hundreds of garbage roms. The 'deleted' or removed roms would go into a zip archive like a ready reference.

 

I'm doing this because I'm building a system to emulate the classics, a dedicated system. I already did this to the 5000+ mame roms, got down to about 200. But with mame, it is a matter of 'favorites', with the 2600, it would be a matter of which companies, I guess... ?

 

HELP!!!!

[GideonsDad]

Good luck with such an enormous task, I like my 5,000+ 2600 ROM collection just the way it is.

 

I have no advice to give other than - Data Age, really? J/K I like Journey Escape but they also made Airlock, Bugs, and Sssnake (Eep!).

 

GideonsDad

[Thorsten Günther]

I'm working on trimming down my huge rom collection from the thousands that I've gathered down to the essentials. Any suggestions? I suppose I should include everything by atari, activision, imagic, data age, starpatch/arcadia, sears telegames(clones), etc..etc..

 

I only have 100+ carts, and mostly 20th Century Fox, Activision, Atari, CBS, Imagic, M-Network and Parker. I have one Tigervision cartridge (Jawbreaker), one First Star cartridge (guess it) and that about covers it for me. I don't even have all the crap games by Atari (like Pac-Man, Defender, E.T., Space War, Star Raiders) and even sold the supposedly good ones that I did not like (Adventure, Haunted House). But then I am only collecting those titles that are - IMHO - fun to play.

 

Thorsten

[+Ransom]

I only have 100+ carts, and mostly 20th Century Fox, Activision, Atari, CBS, Imagic, M-Network and Parker. I have one Tigervision cartridge (Jawbreaker), one First Star cartridge (guess it) and that about covers it for me. I don't even have all the crap games by Atari (like Pac-Man, Defender, E.T., Space War, Star Raiders) and even sold the supposedly good ones that I did not like (Adventure, Haunted House). But then I am only collecting those titles that are - IMHO - fun to play.

Thorsten

 

I'm doing the same. Plus, I'm trying not to have too many duplicates across systems. That's my current conundrum. How many copies of Dig Dug do I really need? It's fun on the 2600, but it's so much better on the 7800. And then there's the two versions for the 8-bit Atari computer: one that's like the 5200 version, and one that's got multi-colored sprites (I have both cartridges; Atari slipstreamed the change after the 5200 came out). And then there are the ports to non-Atari systems. Same for so many other iconic games. But it's hard to let go of what is, by itself, a good game.

 

To me, the essential 2600 collection are those games that:

 

1) Are fun to play, and

2) Never appeared in better form (more playable as well as prettier) on any other system that I own.

Edited December 20, 2009 by Ransom

[+RevEng]

I recently did the same thing too, in anticipation of receiving my Harmony cart, but I took another path because I don't necessarily like all the games from Activision, for example.

 

First I took all the games that I knew and loved. This ones a no brainer.

 

Then I took games that reviewed well at various review sites, like The Video Game Critic and Tomorrow's Heroes.

 

Then I took all homebrews that had been released in both cart and binary form. (still planning to buy my favourites from these after Christmas, when I get a chance to try 'em all out!)

 

Lastly I searched through the hacks section at AA for some of the hacks I particularly liked. Voice Enhanced Berzerk is one I like in preference to the original. I also grabbed some Combat variations.

 

I would love to see the ability for AA users to be able to rate the 2600 roms and hacks, similar to metacritic. Then you could just sort the list based on the score and nab the top ones. Bonus points if the system allows other meta tags you can filter on, like "adult content", and "arcade port".

[Rom Hunter]

I'm working on trimming down my huge rom collection from the thousands that I've gathered down to the essentials. Any suggestions? I suppose I should include everything by atari, activision, imagic, data age, starpatch/arcadia, sears telegames(clones), etc..etc..

 

I have no intention of deleting out of the collection, just want to separate it and make the collection 'rich' instead of being diluted with hundreds of garbage roms. The 'deleted' or removed roms would go into a zip archive like a ready reference.

 

I'm doing this because I'm building a system to emulate the classics, a dedicated system. I already did this to the 5000+ mame roms, got down to about 200. But with mame, it is a matter of 'favorites', with the 2600, it would be a matter of which companies, I guess... ?

 

HELP!!!!

It's actually quite simple.

 

Download my V5 ROMs collection first (you won't find a better documented and researched one):

http://www.atarimania.com/rom_collection_archive_atari_2600_roms.html

 

Then search for the ~ symbol in the ROMs map.

 

The ROMs with a ~ symbol are the original versions.

 

Put these in a seperate map.

 

You now have a clean VCS 1977-1992 ROMs collection.

 

Add your favorite homebrews to it and... voila!

 

Hope this helps.

 

Edited December 20, 2009 by Rom Hunter

[homerwannabee]

Going with the top 100 as voted by members of AtariAge is not a bad idea.

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/62626-top-100-2600-games-of-all-time/page__view__findpost__p__1631309

[Kurisu]

I'm working on trimming down my huge rom collection from the thousands that I've gathered down to the essentials. Any suggestions? I suppose I should include everything by atari, activision, imagic, data age, starpatch/arcadia, sears telegames(clones), etc..etc..

 

I have no intention of deleting out of the collection, just want to separate it and make the collection 'rich' instead of being diluted with hundreds of garbage roms. The 'deleted' or removed roms would go into a zip archive like a ready reference.

 

I'm doing this because I'm building a system to emulate the classics, a dedicated system. I already did this to the 5000+ mame roms, got down to about 200. But with mame, it is a matter of 'favorites', with the 2600, it would be a matter of which companies, I guess... ?

 

HELP!!!!

It's actually quite simple.

 

Download my V5 ROMs collection first (you won't find a better documented and researched one):

http://www.atarimania.com/rom_collection_archive_atari_2600_roms.html

 

Then search for the ~ symbol in the ROMs map.

 

The ROMs with a ~ symbol are the original versions.

 

Put these in a seperate map.

 

You now have a clean VCS 1977-1992 ROMs collection.

 

Add your favorite homebrews to it and... voila!

 

Hope this helps.

 

 

oh so thats what the tildes mean in your rom sets. Always wondered... Well, now I know what to put on my Harmony cart when I finally order one.

[Keatah]

Thanks for all the varied replies, this certainly helps to put things in perspective and broadens my way of looking at stuff. Thanks Rom Hunter. I have your earlier collection prior to this release. What a fine piece of work and research this is, indeed! So that's what the ~ tilde ~ thingy means! ha!