Skippy B. Coyote Posted December 9, 2021 Share Posted December 9, 2021 (edited) A long time ago in a thread not all that far, far away I had a pretty sizable collection of games for a whole bunch of different systems, but due to a variety of life circumstances I ended up parting ways with all my collections over the past 3 years or so (you can find the full and rather lengthy story behind all that here if you're curious) and transitioned to playing all my games off EverDrives and optical drive replacement devices instead of original physical media. I've still got a real soft spot for Atari cartridges though, especially since the 2600 was the very first console I ever played growing up, and seeing as how the Atari 2600 is one of the very few systems that is still relatively affordable to collect for outside of a handful of pricier games I'd like (Pitfall II, H.E.R.O., Montezuma's Revenge, etc.) I've decided to start casually rebuilding my Atari 2600 collection to scratch that collecting itch and hopefully pick up some of the games that I wanted but never got back when I used to have my old collection while I'm at it! I won't be collecting for any other systems, just the Atari 2600, and I'm only going to be collecting games that I know I'll enjoy playing as well as the instruction manuals for them when I can find 'em affordably. I'm only buying cartridges with really nice condition labels (no rips, tears, deep scratches, or significant wear on the label edges but a bit of Actiplaque is alright) so they'll be enjoyable to both look at and play, and it should be fun watching watching the collection grow. My collecting budget is pretty meager, since I'm limiting myself to $60 a month on account of other hobbies I need to save funds for, but here's the games and manuals I have so far. As far as hardware goes, I've got a Light Sixer system with joysticks from an Atari Flashback 5 (the wired Flashback joysticks are definitely my favorite classic CX-40 style controllers) as well as some Best Electronics gold paddle controllers, Best Electronics light gun, a CX-80 Trak-Ball, and a QuickJoy foot pedal for those odd games like Stargate and Spy Hunter that require two controllers to be used at once. The foot pedal is super nice for those kind of games! Looking to the future I'm pretty happy with my hardware selection, though a few more joysticks and a spare Atari 2600 system or two certainly wouldn't hurt to have. A composite modded system to run through a RetroTINK for use on my modern TV would be nice, but I'm mainly going to be focusing on collecting games and manuals on a $60 a month budget. I'm all tapped out for December on account of a couple homebrew pickups currently on the way from the AtariAge store, but starting in January I'll be looking to acquire lots of common games to build my new collection! You can find my current wants list in the spoiler tag below Previously Owned Games To Recollect Armor Ambush Artillery Duel / Chuck Norris Superkicks Double Ender Barnstorming Basketball Bowling BurgerTime California Games Carnival Chopper Command Coconuts Crossbow Dark Cavern Dark Chambers Demon Attack Demons To Diamonds Desert Falcon Dig Dug Dodge 'Em Donkey Kong (Coleco) Donkey Kong Junior (Coleco) Enduro E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial Fishing Derby Frankenstein's Monster Freeway Frogger II: Threeedeep! Galaxian Gangster Alley Ghost Manor G.I. Joe: Cobra Strike Gravitar Gremlins Halloween (Reproduction) H.E.R.O. Ice Hockey Keystone Kapers Lock 'N' Chase Mario Bros. Maze Craze Megamania Midnight Magic Millipede Miniature Golf Mouse Trap (Coleco) Moon Patrol Othello Outlaw Pac-Man Phoenix Plaque Attack Popeye Q*Bert (Parker Bros) RealSports Boxing Riddle of the Sphinx Robot Tank Secret Quest Sentinel Shooting Arcade (Prototype Reproduction) Skiing Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle Solaris Spider Fighter Sprintmaster Stargate Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back Star Voyager (Picture Label) Summer Games Super Cobra SwordQuest: EarthWorld Tennis (Activision) The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Homebrew) Trick Shot Turmoil Vanguard Winter Games Wizard of Wor Wolfenstein VCS: The Next Mission (Homebrew) Games I've Never Owned Before Arcade Ports Double Dragon Espial Gyruss Ikari Warriors Mr. Do! Mr. Do!'s Castle Omega Race w/ Booster Grip Pengo Rampage Road Runner Roc 'N Rope Spy Hunter Star Wars: The Arcade Game Tapper Time Pilot Track & Field w/ Controller Tutankham Xenophobe Zaxxon Action / Adventure Adventures of Tron Crypts of Chaos Fathom Ghostbusters Krull Masters of the Universe: The Power of He-Man Montezuma’s Revenge Mountain King SwordQuest: WaterWorld Towering Inferno Tunnel Runner Shooters Air Raiders Beamrider Commando Encounter At L-5 Fantastic Voyage Kool-Aid Man Laser Gates Moonsweeper Planet Patrol Radar Lock Revenge of the Beefsteak Tomatoes River Raid II Solar Storm Spacemaster X-7 Star Wars: Death Star Battle Subterranea Survival Run Threshold Worm War I Puzzle Frostbite Klax (NTSC Prototype Reproduction) Racing Bump 'n' Jump Fatal Run (NTSC Conversion) Indy 500 w/ 2x Driving Controllers MotoRodeo Sports Boxing Decathlon Double Dunk Mogul Maniac Pete Rose Baseball RealSports Volleyball Steeplechase Other Bumper Bash Chase the Chuck Wagon Checkers (Activision) Fast Food Final Approach Lost Luggage Off The Wall Oink! Pressure Cooker Quadrun Sneak 'n Peek Space Shuttle w/ Manual & Control Panel Overlay Taz Homebrew Games Anguna Centipede Trak-Ball Chetiry Dark Mage Deepstone Catacomb Galagon Halo 2600 Incoming! K.O. Cruiser Lady Bug Arcade Lead Mappy Millipede Trak-Ball Missile Command Trak-Ball RobotWar:2684 Scramble Skeleton+ Space Rocks Toyshop Trouble Venture II: The Abysmal Abyss Venture Reloaded Zippy the Porcupine Edited January 9, 2022 by Skippy B. Coyote 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skippy B. Coyote Posted December 20, 2021 Author Share Posted December 20, 2021 Today I received the custom Atari 2600 arcade stick that I commissioned http://RetroGameBoyz.com to build for me and oh my gosh this thing is AWESOME! You can find my full review of it in the link at the bottom of this post, but suffice it to say I love this controller! ❤️?️ 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atarian7 Posted December 21, 2021 Share Posted December 21, 2021 Are you left-handed? I don't see how people can stand to have the button on the right and the joystick on the left. I'm so used to the fire button on the left. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skippy B. Coyote Posted December 21, 2021 Author Share Posted December 21, 2021 41 minutes ago, Atarian7 said: Are you left-handed? I don't see how people can stand to have the button on the right and the joystick on the left. I'm so used to the fire button on the left. I'm right handed, I'm just really used to having the joystick on the left and buttons on the right for pretty much everything except the classic Atari CX-40 joystick. All my arcade sticks for other consoles have the joystick on the left, as does my Neo Geo MVSX machine, so it's the layout I'm most comfortable with. I can manage operating a joystick with my right hand if I have to, but having the joystick on the left is what works best for me 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skippy B. Coyote Posted December 25, 2021 Author Share Posted December 25, 2021 A couple new Christmas additions to the Atari 2600 library courtesy of Albert and the AtariAge store! I've played Dungeon before and it's easily one of my favorite homebrew games on the 2600, but Dungeon II: Solstice will be brand new to me. Time to make some coffee, read the Dungeon II manual, and get to playing! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sramirez2008 Posted December 25, 2021 Share Posted December 25, 2021 2 hours ago, Skippy B. Coyote said: A couple new Christmas additions to the Atari 2600 library courtesy of Albert and the AtariAge store! I've played Dungeon before and it's easily one of my favorite homebrew games on the 2600, but Dungeon II: Solstice will be brand new to me. Time to make some coffee, read the Dungeon II manual, and get to playing! Lots of replayability with each game. Amazing that Dungeon II is a 4K game.? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skippy B. Coyote Posted December 26, 2021 Author Share Posted December 26, 2021 (edited) 11 hours ago, sramirez2008 said: Lots of replayability with each game. Amazing that Dungeon II is a 4K game.? Now that I've spent an hour playing Dungeon II: Solstice and beat it with every character class I have to agree! It's pretty astounding for a 4K game. I do like the original Dungeon better because it's just a bigger game with lots more to see and do, but Dungeon II is still a ton of fun. The original Dungeon is what I'd consider to be a "half hour RPG" whereas Dungeon II is a "five minute RPG". It's an awfully short game, but given the 4K game size it's still amazing how much content there is. My hope is that someday @s0c7 decides to revisit the Dungeon series with a third game that incorporates all the cool new ideas from Dungeon II like different character classes and more strategic combat into a larger game with the length and complexity of the original Dungeon. In any case though, Dungeon and Dungeon II: Solstice are still the absolute best RPG experiences to be found on the humble Atari 2600 and I'd recommend them both to anyone looking to add some variety to their Atari 2600 game library. They're a ton of fun and endlessly replayable thanks to the randomized nature of item and enemy locations. As far as homebrew games on the 2600 go they get my highest recommendation! ?? Edited December 26, 2021 by Skippy B. Coyote 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digdugnate Posted December 26, 2021 Share Posted December 26, 2021 On 12/20/2021 at 4:02 PM, Skippy B. Coyote said: Today I received the custom Atari 2600 arcade stick that I commissioned http://RetroGameBoyz.com to build for me and oh my gosh this thing is AWESOME! You can find my full review of it in the link at the bottom of this post, but suffice it to say I love this controller! ❤️?️ That stick is a work of art! I personally like that the stick is on the left side and button on the right; I'm kind of like you in that pretty much everything is that way cept my CX40 sticks. How's the weight on it? Pretty sturdy? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skippy B. Coyote Posted December 26, 2021 Author Share Posted December 26, 2021 46 minutes ago, digdugnate said: That stick is a work of art! I personally like that the stick is on the left side and button on the right; I'm kind of like you in that pretty much everything is that way cept my CX40 sticks. How's the weight on it? Pretty sturdy? It's a fairly light stick weighing in at 1 lb 3 oz, but the injection molded plastic housing is very thick and sturdy feeling with no creeks or wobbles no matter how hard you squeeze it or lean on it. The four rubber feet on the bottom are super grippy too so if you prefer to set your arcade stick down on a table (or a lap desk in my case) it's not going to slide around at all. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digdugnate Posted December 26, 2021 Share Posted December 26, 2021 Just now, Skippy B. Coyote said: It's a fairly light stick weighing in at 1 lb 3 oz, but the injection molded plastic housing is very thick and sturdy feeling with no creeks or wobbles no matter how hard you squeeze it or lean on it. The four rubber feet on the bottom are super grippy too so if you prefer to set your arcade stick down on a table (or a lap desk in my case) it's not going to slide around at all. nice! that sounds like a Slick... Stick. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skippy B. Coyote Posted December 26, 2021 Author Share Posted December 26, 2021 Just now, digdugnate said: nice! that sounds like a Slick... Stick. And way nicer than the old Slick Stick™ from back in the day! If anyone ever asks me what controller they should get for their Atari 2600 this is the one I'm gonna recommend. It's the nicest feeling Atari stick I've ever used and at $65 it's pretty reasonably affordable ? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skippy B. Coyote Posted January 6, 2022 Author Share Posted January 6, 2022 Got some very cool new additions to the collection in the mail from a fellow AtariAger today! I picked up a few Parker Brothers games, including Amidar, Spider-Man, and Reactor as well as SwordQuest: FireWorld, but the real highlight was the brand new in box first print copy of Star Raiders complete with the Video Touch Pad controller and Atari Force #3 comic book! It's not often that I get to open and check out a brand new 40 year old game from 1982, so I'm gonna really enjoy reading the manual and playing this one! ? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skippy B. Coyote Posted January 20, 2022 Author Share Posted January 20, 2022 This will be my last pickup for January, but oh boy is it ever a big one! Everyone's got a holy grail game they want for their collection, a game so rare you'd think it was made of unobtainium, and today I got mine! Sealed game collectors avert thyne eyes With Princess Rescue taken care of I think the only big $$$ games I really want for my library at this point are Quadrun and Chase the Chuck Wagon, the latter of which I weirdly enjoy playing even though most folks seem to not care for it. For now though I'm super excited to have a copy of Princess Rescue again and am looking forward to spending the weekend trying to beat it 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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