What existing 7800 titles are in-demand among 7800 owners or people thinking of getting a 7800 but don’t if they get the games they want?

[Jinks]

Great list Froggo gamer.. cept I like 7800 ikari warriors. ?

[Giles N]

5 hours ago, FroggoGamer said:

I'm not entirely sure how to respond, but in my opinion, the allure of the 7800, as with any system, lies in the exclusives. 

 

As far as the originals go, Desert Falcon, Food Fight, Ninja Golf, Midnight Mutants, and Alien Brigade are all good exclusive games. I've preferred many of the 7800 arcade ports over the NES ports despite sound issues. I doubt anyone would argue Ikari Warriors on the NES beats the 7800. 

 

The Homebrew community has made the 7800 even more exciting by adding both more obscure but great arcade titles like Armor Attack II, Astro Blaster, Astro Fighter, and Moon Cresta onto the console, along with amazing ports of more well known games like Pac Man Collection, Frogger, Burger Time and Q-Bert (albeit with some name changes). The homebrew community has also created some 7800 exclusives like T:Me Salvo, Bentley Bear, and my personal favorite, Dungeon Stalker. 

 

The 7800 is a very underrated device. As much as it cost to buy the more obscure gems like Midnight Mutants, it isn't incredibly difficult to collect for the 7800... well except for Tank Command because that game is so damned hard to find. 

 

I have recently streamlined my collection. As far as keepers go, here are mine:

 

7800 Original Run -- Ballblazer, Dark Chambers, Desert Falcon, Dig Dug, Food Fight, Mario Bros, Ninja Golf, F-18 Hornet, Winter Games (Sentimental value, mostly), Robotron, Tower Toppler, Xevious and Xenophobe. 

 

7800 Homebrews -- Asteroids Deluxe, B*nq, Beef Drop (Pokey version), Bentley Bear's Crystal Quest (until I beat the game, which I haven't yet), Crazy Brix, Dungeon Stalker (can't stress this one enough, this one is awesome), Frenzy (also has Berzerk, yes), Froggie, KC Munchkin, Meteor Shower, Serpentine, T:ME Salvo, Pac-Man Collection (fast Ms Pac Man), Alpha Race, and Rikki and Vikki.

I agree to very much here, but would like the availability of many of the top-homebrews (PacMan Collection) and completed unreleased originals (Plutos, Sirius etc), to be much easier to obtain, get hold of (-> larger stocks).

 

[Giles N]

4 hours ago, Jinks said:

Great list Froggo gamer.. cept I like 7800 ikari warriors. ?

I ordered the Tank Command grfx Hack recently; look forward to try it.

 

Bought original Water-Ski on ebay: haven’t a clue what to expect.

 

Will find out when I get it.

 

From YouTube, I must say I love the looks of Level 2 alligators

??

Edited October 23, 2019 by Giles N

[Lord Thag]

Of the original set, Tank Command is all I'm missing. Never wanted to drop $150 on one loose.

But honestly, the must haves? This is true of ONLY the 7800 I might add too: it's all the homebrew games. Seriously, nowhere else in the history of consoles has a system like the 7800, that wasn't popular, and whose small library had a few gems but not much else, been resurrected in such a fashion. Al/Atariage and the coders here (particularly Bob) have made this console *the* goto classic arcade console for me, as it should have been back in the day. My stack of homebrew games is 2/3 the size of the actual library, with only a couple of early duds. Quality stuff, and I actually play them all constantly. It's also the only system in the world to have the library of Pac Man ports that it does, now including the only home port of Baby Pac ever made.



 

[Giles N]

29 minutes ago, Lord Thag said:

Of the original set, Tank Command is all I'm missing. Never wanted to drop $150 on one loose.

But honestly, the must haves? This is true of ONLY the 7800 I might add too: it's all the homebrew games. Seriously, nowhere else in the history of consoles has a system like the 7800, that wasn't popular, and whose small library had a few gems but not much else, been resurrected in such a fashion. Al/Atariage and the coders here (particularly Bob) have made this console *the* goto classic arcade console for me, as it should have been back in the day. My stack of homebrew games is 2/3 the size of the actual library, with only a couple of early duds. Quality stuff, and I actually play them all constantly. It's also the only system in the world to have the library of Pac Man ports that it does, now including the only home port of Baby Pac ever made.



 

I appreciate both the original releases and the homebrews and updated versions, and completed original unreleased games (due to discontinuation).

 

My only ‘complaint’ about many of these new homebrews is the availability, which, - considering they are from the ‘00 and past ten year, ie new releases -  they could perhaps have been more easily obtainable.

 

At AtariAge-store I can order many homebrews, but many of the Pac-games; where do I get them?

 

If the 7800 is to compete with the NES’ and the Sega Mastee as retro-console, these new high-quality (ie professional-standard) homebrews must become much easier to get hold of.

 

 

Edited October 23, 2019 by Giles N

[Lord Thag]

1 hour ago, Giles N said:

I appreciate both the original releases and the homebrews and updated versions, and completed original unreleased games (due to discontinuation).

 

My only ‘complaint’ about many of these new homebrews is the availability, which, - considering they are from the ‘00 and past ten year, ie new releases -  they could perhaps have been more easily obtainable.

 

At AtariAge-store I can order many homebrews, but many of the Pac-games; where do I get them?

 

If the 7800 is to compete with the NES’ and the Sega Mastee as retro-console, these new high-quality (ie professional-standard) homebrews must become much easier to get hold of.

 

 

Let's just say that all of them are available if you know who to PM

 

[AtariLeaf]

I have all the regular carts I want, which i believe is 15 plus 3 homebrews. At this point it's only homebrews I would want and if some one were to ask, Super Circus Atariage is worth getting a 7800 for.

 

How does one find a copy of Alpha Race. It was never sold in the AA store was it?

Edited October 23, 2019 by AtariLeaf

[+save2600]

1 hour ago, AtariLeaf said:

I have all the regular carts I want, which i believe is 15 plus 3 homebrews. At this point it's only homebrews I would want and if some one were to ask, Super Circus Atariage is worth getting a 7800 for.

 

How does one find a copy of Alpha Race. It was never sold in the AA store was it?

No, the author made some and sold it direct here, but Michael has it on his site now:

 

http://gooddealgames.com/inventory/Atari 7800.html

[+x=usr(1536)]

5 hours ago, Giles N said:

If the 7800 is to compete with the NES’ and the Sega Mastee as retro-console, these new high-quality (ie professional-standard) homebrews must become much easier to get hold of.

How, exactly, is the 7800 in competition with other consoles of the time?  They've all pretty much established their fanbases over the past 30-plus years.

 

I'm all in favour of more homebrews, but feel that they should exist to fill gaps in the existing library and/or push the state of the art for what's possible to achieve with the hardware.  Trying to jockey for position with other consoles is pointless.

[+save2600]

4 hours ago, Lord Thag said:

Let's just say that al of them are available if you know who to PM
 

 ?

[Giles N]

55 minutes ago, x=usr(1536) said:

How, exactly, is the 7800 in competition with other consoles of the time?  They've all pretty much established their fanbases over the past 30-plus years.

 

I'm all in favour of more homebrews, but feel that they should exist to fill gaps in the existing library and/or push the state of the art for what's possible to achieve with the hardware.  Trying to jockey for position with other consoles is pointless.

Hm, when you put it like that I have to say I sort of agree.

Or to put it another way: I got both the 5200 and the 7800 primarily (!) to find stuff I did not get on the NES and Sega Master.

So, fair enough, I actually think a «fill the gaps» is sort of better.

What I perhaps should have said is: Nintendo has been skilled at keeping their titles around and obtainable...NES and SNES titles...

I find it bit frustrating that many of the 5200 and 7800 titles are so hard to get on old school hardware carts to be put into actual old hardware consoles.

The 2600 has gotten like a billion mini-console units with 100+++ games are included.

But what about people who are much more sold into the console generation of the 5200 and 7800?

Sure, I think Battlezone, Tunnel Runner and Solaris are impressive for their time...(and also good games) but what creates the cool-feel for me is the consoles that are from the 5200 and onwards... where both background and many sprites are often multicoloured.

I know, I know, its experience and taste...

But that the 5200 and 7800 libraries are comparatively small should make it easier to gather and produce say, a 5200-mini with 69 in-built games...
a 7800-mini with 60 inbuilt games...

—
Anyway, to have these consoles now as tools to make ones own stuff on, in is a very cool prospect for those who have a creative mindset and/or nature and/or need...

Edited October 23, 2019 by Giles N

[+x=usr(1536)]

1 hour ago, Giles N said:

Hm, when you put it like that I have to say I sort of agree.

Or to put it another way: I got both the 5200 and the 7800 primarily (!) to find stuff I did not get on the NES and Sega Master.

So, fair enough, I actually think a «fill the gaps» is sort of better.

 

 

Ah, OK - I think I understand your perspective a bit better.  I didn't realise that the 5200 and 7800 were sort of secondary to stuff you were doing with the NES and SMS.

 

Quote

What I perhaps should have said is: Nintendo has been skilled at keeping their titles around and obtainable...NES and SNES titles...

Granted, but Atari SA are clowns compared to Nintendo.  Nintendo may not always get it right, but I do believe that they get it right more often than they get it wrong.  If anyone at Atari SA can remember how to tie their shoes on a given day, they're ahead of the curve.

 

Quote

I find it bit frustrating that many of the 5200 and 7800 titles are so hard to get on old school hardware carts to be put into actual old hardware consoles.

Are you talking about individual cartridges, or cartridges capable of running games from an SD card adapter in the cartridge slot?  Both are out there - it just takes some patience and digging (in some cases) to find individual 5200 and 7800 titles.

 

Quote

The 2600 has gotten like a billion mini-console units with 100+++ games are included.

But what about people who are much more sold into the console generation of the 5200 and 7800?

There just aren't as many people into the later consoles compared to the 2600.  Given that the 5200 never saw release outside of North America and had a short lifespan even in that market, it never had the opportunity to build a wide userbase.  The 7800 was mismanaged from the start, which was unfortunate - but even though it did see wide release, it also never had the chance to generate a big following largely due to being mismanaged.

 

It's just economics: the platform people are more likely to remember will be what drives development of commercial products.  For the 5200 and 7800, homebrew hardware and software comes in where commercial development isn't viable.

 

Quote

Sure, I think Battlezone, Tunnel Runner and Solaris are impressive for their time...(and also good games) but what creates the cool-feel for me is the consoles that are from the 5200 and onwards... where both background and many sprites are often multicoloured.

I know, I know, its experience and taste...

 

 

And that's a fair point.  FWIW, I never had a 2600 growing up - in fact, I didn't own one until I was in my mid-20s and bought a used 2600jr. simply because I thought that I should have one.  By the same token, console gaming didn't really take off where I was (Ireland) until about the time the PlayStation came out - Nintendo didn't bother to sell the NES there until the SNES was almost on the market, and the SMS / Mega Drive didn't have a huge impact.  This undoubtedly shaped my current interests as your environment shaped yours.

 

Quote

But that the 5200 and 7800 libraries are comparatively small should make it easier to gather and produce say, a 5200-mini with 69 in-built games...
a 7800-mini with 60 inbuilt games...

Well, there really isn't much of a technical challenge.  It just comes back to my earlier point about economics.  Oh, and licensing - but that's a kettle of fish we probably don't want to look into.

 

Quote

Anyway, to have these consoles now as tools to make ones own stuff on, in is a very cool prospect for those who have a creative mindset and/or nature and/or need...

 

The great thing is that that is exactly what's happened.  AtariAge is Atari - the people who have that spirit and mindset are here and doing it right now.

Edited October 23, 2019 by x=usr(1536)

[Giles N]

1 hour ago, x=usr(1536) said:

 

Ah, OK - I think I understand your perspective a bit better.  I didn't realise that the 5200 and 7800 were sort of secondary to stuff you were doing with the NES and SMS.

 

The SMS and NES were very common in the shops when and where I grew up.

The 5200 is an NTSC console, so I hardly knew it existed before the IT-revolution made the world smaller.

I remember seeing  a few Video-game mags reviews of 7800 titles, but they didn´t catch my attention so much back then.

Probably because I almost never saw a single 7800 unit in the shelves in shops when i grew up or aas teenager.

But I think both of these consoles has been very interesting and fun(!) to obtain and collect for as they have very, very cool home-console versions of Arcade titles I played a lot as kid.

Many of the homebrews are in the process of continuing that: me likes.

Moreover, the unique titles are to me «gaming-discoveries».

See also my thread about Idea for Homebrew title: PacLand 1984.

We try to gather elements there to begin assemble a 7800 version.

 

 

Edited October 24, 2019 by Giles N

[Lord Thag]

The 7800 never had great market penetration, even in the US. Mainly you'd see it in Sears catalogs, Toys R Us, and Kaybee Toys, and even there, you had to know where to look.

It's a classic case of a great system that was delayed so long that it stopped being relevant. When it was made, it would have been the primo arcade home console. When it launched, the NES had changed the whole landscape and few people wanted classic arcade games when Mario, Metroid, Zelda etc were taking the world by storm. Time has changed that. Nowadays, people remember how good those arcade games were, and the 7800 has a bunch good ones.

On top of that, it's unique in that the homebrew library for it makes it far, far better than it's original library did. In 2019, it's become a great arcade system with some cool, obscure ports of games that few other consoles ever saw (Frenzy, Baby Pac Man, Space Duel, Moon Cresta and so on.) I find I play it far more NOW than I did THEN.

[Giles N]

On 10/23/2019 at 9:52 PM, AtariLeaf said:

I have all the regular carts I want, which i believe is 15 plus 3 homebrews. At this point it's only homebrews I would want and if some one were to ask, Super Circus Atariage is worth getting a 7800 for.

 

How does one find a copy of Alpha Race. It was never sold in the AA store was it?

I think I’ve seen Alpha Race at Gooddealgames

[Giles N]

21 hours ago, Giles N said:

Or to put it another way: I got both the 5200 and the 7800 primarily (!) to find stuff I did not get on the NES and Sega Master.

What I perhaps should have said is: Nintendo has been skilled at keeping their titles around and obtainable...NES and SNES titles...
—
Anyway, to have these consoles now as tools to make ones own stuff on, in is a very cool prospect for those who have a creative mindset and/or nature and/or need...

Additional comment here to what I said above:

 

As to collecting for *retro-home-systems*, both the 5200 and 7800 had titles that were not made on either the SMS nor NES.

 

I wanted retro-home-console versions of, Pole Position 1 and 2, Star Wars Arcade, Pengo, Robotron 2084 with lots going on etc.

 

Moreover...

I’m pleased to find many very good Atari7800-only titles that are huge fun and very playable retro-titles today.

 

[Giles N]

goodness!

 

I found out Robotron 2084 had a Dragon32/64 monochrom version made for it!

 

Dragon 64 was the first home-computer we had at home.

 

Anyway: neither NES nor Sega Master has version to my knowledge and the 7800 version has just an enormous amount of things going on at once.

 

Never seen a slow-down.

Edited October 25, 2019 by Giles N

[Giles N]

On 10/16/2019 at 5:14 PM, edladdin said:

I cant seem to get lined up with a copy of Scrapyard Dog at the right price.

 

Aside from a wish list of homebrews, that's the last 7800 cart I'm actively looking for.

Scrapyard Dog may have a few ‘flaws’ like our hero not being very characteristic, dull-looking or s some like to put it: ‘dorky’, and some of the backdrops a bit monotonous (backstreets and sewers), some may find the game too hard in places too suddenly, but I love

1) the playability of the main charachter: Louie: very responsive and fun to play.

2) the different scrapyard levels - which gets more ‘Mario-like’ as things proceed).

3) resque the dog! (silly and cool mission)

4) actually quite nice cartoony background music (even though city backstreet-level-music is a bit wierd), and still lots of sound effects, considering its a non-pokey game.

Many other games are very silent in the background.

5) rats with shades to jump on!

6) lots to play through: value for money.

7) just run and jump through it fast, or go for a more strategical take by collecting the pick-ups and finding the secret rooms.

 

This was the first take on the game-name. If it had become a long-running franchise it could have developed in very many directions, like Mario and Sonic, with tons of levels and characters. To compare it only with Super Mario Bros 3 is kind of forgetting that Atari may have intended to build-in lots of more features in upcoming follow-ups.

Edited October 25, 2019 by Giles N

[FroggoGamer]

I personally would love a 7800 Mini. The only issues may be some of the great arcade games published on the system might be an issue,but then again, Namco seems to be generous with licensing compared to some other organizations, like EA, who made One-on-One and Touchdown Football. But if a 7800 Atari Mini was made, there are certainly enough unique games as mentioned in my past rant to offer something different. 

 

In all honesty, with the 7800 having such a small library, homebrews included, you could put basically the whole library onto one. 

 

Sadly, I don't think there is enough of an audience for any decent company to invest in it, so it would end up being another ATGames project, and I find most of their work to be subpar. From what I've read here, 7800 emulation is not as developed as it has been for other systems. 

[CommodoreDecker]

The homebrews have potential, especially when games like "Impossible Mission" had bugs that prevented the game from being even remotely winnable. What the heck... (The Europe/PAL edition is just fine. The North America/NTSC edition has the bug where items are stuck behind terminals one cannot search behind...)

 

 

[Giles N]

On 11/1/2019 at 6:50 PM, FroggoGamer said:

I personally would love a 7800 Mini. The only issues may be some of the great arcade games published on the system might be an issue,but then again, Namco seems to be generous with licensing compared to some other organizations, like EA, who made One-on-One and Touchdown Football. But if a 7800 Atari Mini was made, there are certainly enough unique games as mentioned in my past rant to offer something different. 

 

In all honesty, with the 7800 having such a small library, homebrews included, you could put basically the whole library onto one. 

 

Sadly, I don't think there is enough of an audience for any decent company to invest in it, so it would end up being another ATGames project, and I find most of their work to be subpar. From what I've read here, 7800 emulation is not as developed as it has been for other systems. 

The companies could produce an Atari Mini-console Deluxe with

1)150 classic Atari 2600 games

2) 30 Atari 5200 games

3) 30 Atari 800/XE games

4) 30 Atari 7800 games 

 

If they called it deluxe, and included the ‘obligatory’ 2600 games to please the core of buyers, they could price it somewhat higher than your standard run-of-the-mill Flashback mini-console.

 

Perhaps they would even *regain* some retro-gaming cred.

Edited November 19, 2019 by Giles N