so whatch y'all think o the first homebrew console package?

[Room 34]

What's up with calling the Pro-Line joystick a CX40?

 

I started salivating when I saw "real arcade-style joysticks" but then when I saw it is still the same old lame hand-cramping Pro-Lines with the hard-to-push buttons that came with my 7800, I said, forget it!

 

I bought my 7800 NEW in the original packaging from Telegames in 1997 for about $80. Looks like Telegames is charging $130 for them now, and is out-of-stock. (I wonder when the next shipment's coming in... )

 

Anyway, maybe it is finally getting harder or impossible to get your hands on a new 7800 system. But I think even the hardcore old school gamers like me who don't want the new stuff still don't want to pay the "new stuff" prices for the old systems.

 

Sorry guys (if any of you are on here)... it sounds like a cool idea, and a lot of hard work, but I just don't think it's worth it.

 

And doesn't this belong in the 7800 forum?

[sku_u]

Anyway, maybe it is finally getting harder or impossible to get your hands on a new 7800 system.  But I think even the hardcore old school gamers like me who don't want the new stuff still don't want to pay the "new stuff" prices for the old systems.

 

Unlikely, at least in the CT area. I could get a new 7800 from Funcoland for $125.

[raindog]

This is probably the wrong thing to say on AtariAge, but it's heartbreaking to see them spend half a page talking about reliving arcade experiences and Ferris Bueller and other nostalgic stuff, when refurbed and shrinkwrapped NES consoles that had much better arcade conversions (especially the earlier arcade stuff that seemed to be the 7800's stock in trade) and A/V out can be had for $30-50 at random chain video game stores around the US, and much less at thrifts and garage sales.

 

Heartbreaking because their site might make it into some random small town newspaper and some hapless thirtysomething waxing nostalgic for 1986 might shell out $200 for an inferior experience.

 

Rob

[raindog]

Also, now that I think about it more, there have been a number of companies selling modded GBA's with the Afterburner internal light installed, and some of them offered warranties, so I think that counts at least as much as a "homebrew console" as this thing.

 

I think there might be a similar phenomenon eventually with A/V and/or stereo mods for the 2600, if not the eventual 2600-on-a-chip based projects.

 

Rob

[ubersaurus]

This is probably the wrong thing to say on AtariAge, but it's heartbreaking to see them spend half a page talking about reliving arcade experiences and Ferris Bueller and other nostalgic stuff, when refurbed and shrinkwrapped NES consoles that had much better arcade conversions (especially the earlier arcade stuff that seemed to be the 7800's stock in trade) and A/V out can be had for $30-50 at random chain video game stores around the US, and much less at thrifts and garage sales.

 

Heartbreaking because their site might make it into some random small town newspaper and some hapless thirtysomething waxing nostalgic for 1986 might shell out $200 for an inferior experience.

 

Rob

 

I dunno...the NES ports of most games that are on both systems, well, suck. Look at Commando, Ballblazer, Double Dragon, Rampage, Ms Pac-Man (Pac-Booster? wth?)...and others were pretty much exactly the same, such as Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr, Mario Bros, Ikari Warriors, and Dig Dug.

 

I will concede the NES port of Galaga was superior but not much else ;p

[raindog]

I actually haven't played NES Ms. Pac Man in years (being more of a Pac Man purist) but it sure looked better than the 7800 version. I don't remember that "pac-booster" thing either but there were two different Ms. Pac Man releases for the NES if I remember right, and mine is probably the Namco one. At any rate, 7800 Ms. Pac Man looks TERRIBLE, on a par with the awful C64 version. I'd certainly play Tengen NES Pac-Man over either one.

 

I was pretty happy with the NES Donkey Kong/Jr/3 as well, and Mappy is great although nowhere near as good as the Game Gear version. Dig Dug looks like they used the actual sprites from the arcade ROMs, making the 7800 version look blocky and just wrong in comparison. The 7800 never even duplicated the Namco font so common in arcade games of the period, and judging by how many NES games used it I'm guessing the NES had it in ROM or something. The sounds and sometimes the colors would be kinda off (Dig Dug: Night Digger?), but by and large at the time the NES was the only system on which you could get pixel-perfect renditions of common arcade games. I wouldn't have wanted to play Robotron on the NES (I've seen enough NES games with flicker to know it would just suck) but for the Japanese games it was designed for and which are the important ones to me and I'd wager most other fans of old games, it was just better.

 

In fact, in some ways the 7800 seemed almost a step back from the 5200/8-bits to me when it was released. It was released almost 3 years late, yet the games still seemed rushed and half-finished, the user still had to settle for low-res approximations of games the NES and SMS had no trouble duplicating exactly, and without any kind of genuine support from Atari or a home computer equivalent to refine their techniques on, programmers never got the chance to push it hard enough to make up for those early drawbacks. And even then, it seems to me that Atari fell back on "and you can play hundreds of 2600 games on it" awfully fast.

 

Of course I don't think I ever actually played the 7800 back in the day either, since everyone I knew who was still into videogames went for the NES or a C64 (or both.) So maybe my poor memory of the 7800 is due to poor emulation, but looking at the screenshots on AtariAge, it was definitely behind the times upon its release.

 

Truth be told, I think even my Colecovision was better

 

Rob

[raindog]

I should add that I never played Commando or Double Dragon at all, nor did I ever play a home version of Rampage, because I never cared for them (or most other mid-80's games.) My interest in the NES was purely its ability to closely recreate arcade games from before its time, and that was the standard I applied to the 7800 as well.

 

In 1986, I was still looking for the arcade experience at home, and totally duplicating the games I'd had to suffer through awful ports of a few years earlier (plus dead-on versions of current games, like SMB) as the NES did was more impressive to me than still-not-quite-right versions of new arcade games I wasn't playing anyway since the arcades had all closed.

 

If graphic comparisons hadn't clinched it, the NES versions of the few new games I actually liked (Atari ones, no less) like Marble Madness and Paperboy sure would have. But by then I had the Amiga, and I haven't seen a version of MM that beats the Amiga's...

 

Rob

[SS]

I dunno...the NES ports of most games that are on both systems, well, suck. Look at {snip} Ballblazer {snip}

 

NES Ballblazer was simply hideous.

[+Mitch]

At any rate, 7800 Ms. Pac Man looks TERRIBLE

 

Huh? 7800 Ms Pac Man is usually rated the best console version and closest to the arcade version.

 

Mitch

http://atari7800.atari.org

[Room 34]

At any rate, 7800 Ms. Pac Man looks TERRIBLE

 

Huh? 7800 Ms Pac Man is usually rated the best console version and closest to the arcade version.

 

Mitchhttp://atari7800.atari.org

I agree with Mitch... I think the 7800 version of Ms. Pac-Man is exceptional... of course, I didn't know until just now that there even WAS an NES version.

[Godzilla]

i dont what nes mushrooms this guy was doing, but the 7800 arcade ports are to this day the best classic era arcade ports i've played. 7800 galaga SPANKS nes galaga, imho. as does joust, millipede, xevious, and so many others. To to mention the ones the 78 has that the nes doesn't, like robotron, food fight, etc. and the 7800 IS 2600 compatible so it belongs here. And 2600 stargate is better than NES defender 2 :-) so there.

[Godzilla]

i always think faster than i type

 

(correction,)

 

i dont know what (etc)

[Godzilla]

To to == Not to

[bloatedmonkey]

Well, ya gotta admire their zeal. That's alot of words on that page. But my favorite line is:

 

These systems are assembled from scratch by professionals, using only choice quality parts of both new and refurbished origin at our Quality Assurance lab.

 

I'm going to start using that to describe MY garage

[SS]

Well, ya gotta admire their zeal.  That's alot of words on that page.  But my favorite line is:

 

These systems are assembled from scratch by professionals, using only choice quality parts of both new and refurbished origin at our Quality Assurance lab.

 

I'm going to start using that to describe MY garage

 

 

 

QUALITY ASSURANCE :

[Godzilla]

im kinda worried about their QA, they don't have any limes for their Corona!

 

But seriously, I do hope they can manage s-vid/a/v ports, i mean they are assembling them from all these quality parts and what not.

[raindog]

At any rate, 7800 Ms. Pac Man looks TERRIBLE

 

Huh? 7800 Ms Pac Man is usually rated the best console version and closest to the arcade version.

 

Mitchhttp://atari7800.atari.org

I agree with Mitch... I think the 7800 version of Ms. Pac-Man is exceptional... of course, I didn't know until just now that there even WAS an NES version.

 

Yes, we all know you 7800 owners find all the 7800 arcade ports exceptional, and no doubt if you poll Atari enthusiasts they're going to pick some Atari console's version of anything most of the time. And maybe they actually play better on the real thing, I dunno. I can't get past the fact that they were releasing ports of 1981 arcade games in 1986 that looked and sounded so far off from the arcade versions. It's a bias I freely acknowledge, but if Nintendo had needed to, I think they could have gotten a lot of mileage out of a "here's our screen, here's Atari's" ad campaign like Mattel did for Intellivision.

 

Rob

[+Mitch]

but if Nintendo had needed to, I think they could have gotten a lot of mileage out of a "here's our screen, here's Atari's" ad campaign like Mattel did for Intellivision.

 

Rob

 

I wouldn't have minded if they did. Atari probably would have sold more 7800s.

But knowing Nintendo, thay would have compared them with 2600 screenshots not 7800 ones.

 

My problem with the Nintendo arcade ports is that I have to use a gamepad with them. I still haven't found a Nintendo joystick that I like.

 

Mitch

http://atari7800.atari.org

[Godzilla]

how did they look or sound so far off? man you got your nose stuck up marios butt, man. I have the NES & 7800 version of almost every game that existed on both platforms, and the 7800 spanks down the NES. It's not even debateable.

[Paralistalon]

The PlayStation and Nintendo64 remakes kill both of them.

 

Need I mention the GameCube Namco collection that includes the "Arrangements."

 

[Nukey Shay]

Since it's possible to run Mame on a current console, it no longer matters

[Godzilla]

just cause the xbox can run real arcade games in it's mame does not magicallay make the fact that nes's arcade conversions sucked ass compare to the 7800 irrelevant.

[Adrian]

Y'know, this "new" Atari 7800 is now more expensive than it was 16 years ago when it first came out!

[Godzilla]

things that make you 'hmmmm'

(period piece from the time of the 7800,)

[Nukey Shay]

just cause the xbox can run real arcade games in it's mame does not magicallay make the fact that nes's arcade conversions sucked ass compare to the 7800 irrelevant.

 

I don't know what that means...but I like it