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Post by VectorX on Oct 14, 2012 17:07:11 GMT -5
Wow, hard to freakin' believe, 35 years ago today, the Atari 2600 debuted... Pretty nice article from Yahoo, having 35 facts about it, at least two of them wrong, such as "Custer's Last Stand", which was actually Custer's Revenge, of course, and the common one of saying Adventure had the very first Easter egg, which it was only brought to light a few years ago that initials in some Fairchild Channel F game was actually the first. games.yahoo.com/blogs/plugged-in/happy-35th-atari-2600-175216071.htmlAtari at 35 this month, the Vectrex at 30 sometime next month Nice company!
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Post by TrekMD on Oct 15, 2012 8:31:31 GMT -5
That's a lot of years for a gaming console.
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Post by VectorX on Oct 15, 2012 9:26:10 GMT -5
I think I'll do something for this later
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Post by gamezone on Oct 15, 2012 9:35:35 GMT -5
Sure is hard to believe it is that old.
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Post by VectorX on Oct 16, 2012 14:48:20 GMT -5
Ok, here's part of what I mentioned I was going to do... Being influenced by the Yahoo article, and with how much the 2600 means to me, I'm currently working on my "35 things 2600-related" write-up as well Just note these aren't "35 top 2600-related things" either, as some things are indeed stellar, some mediocre, if not flat-out sucky (so that's why there shouldn't be any of "why did you leave out ____?", especially since there are SO many things to include. Maybe at the 50 year anniversary I can come up with 15 more ). However, they are all still related, and I go over various things, what with them being games, memories, or others, and I can guarantee all games I (briefly) go over here I've played. I've just done 10 for now; the others are partially written out/ideas scribbled down. Most of these aren't really in any kind of order, except for the top two, pretty much: My 35 Atari 2600 random things (more to come)1. Just having one, and thanks for the memories, future games and memories to come as well, thanks to new homebrews 2. Escape from the MindMaster–this is one of THE most absolute best games for the 2600, PERIOD. The mini-games really make it, it’s random (for great replay value), you can adjust difficulty settings (nine down to five chances to escape, as well as fast enemy stalkers) AND it not only has an ending, but one of THE best for the 2600! It’s amazing that the game is played on the 2600 as it is, but of course its got the extra memory to it. 3. Memory: I had fun with Phaser Patrol, taking it to school and trying to convince a friend it was some new heavy metal band with a sci-fi bend to it as I showed her the tape (yep, stuff was on tape back then; most of us hadn’t heard of cds, as they were in their infancy). I had to cover the part where it said it was a 2600 game with my thumb though, which didn’t work too well. Oh well ;D 4. Memory: due to making the honor roll at one *certain* point in junior high, mom said she’d get me a game. Didn’t Pac-Man come out? At the end of the honor roll ceremony, I spotted mom in the back of the school auditorium...with a bag She pulled out Pac-Man, and something called Haunted House that she also bought, which I had never heard of at the time. I was all giddy as hell for the rest of the day, bouncing off the walls, due to having Pac-Man in my own home. Then occasionally I’d wonder what this “Haunted House” game was...and then bounce off the walls thinking of Pac-Man again. Mom just calmly pulled Pac-Man out of the box as I ran into the den to fire it up at the end of the day. My heart sunk as I turned it on, going “what the hell IS this?” Granted, I don’t think Pac-Man is *that* bad of a game by itself. Considering it’s supposed to be a port of the arcade game, sure, it sucks in that respect. Haunted House turned out to be a bit more interesting though. I still have both to this day. 5. River Raid–this was, and still can be an amazing game, due to the scope and length (how could it keep on going and going?). 6. Super Breakout–might not seem like something substantial over many stellar titles here, but it blew away Breakout (which those games would end after three screens’ worth or something; say what?). And it had many different variations, which I still play a game of (mostly) each when I break out (har!) this cart over the years. 7. Memory–one day I got a call from this kid down the block saying he had bought a new game. I excitedly asked him which one it was but it was Laser Blast; feh. However, there’s more! When he got home and opened it, the new PITFALL 2 was inside! He then said his mom wanted to talk to mine, I gave her the phone, the doorbell rang, I opened it, and he was there with the game! Good lord, he was like eight houses down!! So we had a bit of fun playing that, which I was able to get to the end as well. 8. Combat: why not have this one on here, the very first game for the 2600? And there were many different games, stuff to control and shoot, to boot. A good debut for the system. 9. Fathom–one of only a few handful of puzzle games for the 2600. I need to break this out (har, Breakout again ) to see about beating it at some point and getting to the end screen where Imagic offers you a t-shirt (I wonder if those are still available? ). 10. King Kong–this wasn’t mine to begin with, it came with an Atari 7800 that I bought from a friend. Barf. How she could stand this sorry rip-off of Donkey Kong long enough to make 10,000 as the high score in her family was beyond me. Years later I traded or sold it off for something. The 2600 version of Donkey Kong was better, but that isn't saying much. More later!
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jammajup
Vector Runner
multi-format retro gamer
Posts: 47
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Post by jammajup on Nov 1, 2012 10:32:58 GMT -5
My heart lies with the Atari 2600,i have many good memories of the system. After all these years i can still fire up games like Asteroids,Haunted House,Berzerk,H.E.R.O and play them just as i could back then which is pretty amazing really,on the other hand after 4 hrs of Modern War 3 i had enough which speaks volumes lol.
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Post by VectorX on Nov 2, 2012 12:35:55 GMT -5
Heh, no kidding on that last point! I'll finish up and add my next 10 memories soon
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Post by VectorX on Dec 13, 2012 1:22:10 GMT -5
Oy, got a bit sidetracked with this one! Here are the next 10 memories/mini-reviews/thoughts! 11. Memory: Asteroids–I was able to snag this new when it came out. I called a friend of mine and left a message with his sister, telling her to tell him I got it. Of course, it wasn’t tooooo long after that when he called me back: “you wanna spend the night?” “Hah, I figured you’d say that when you heard I got Asteroids!” “YOU GOT ASTEROIDS?!” (Yeah, why would an older sister give her brother a message like that?) That was quite a night of playing, although the bonus U. F. O.s wouldn’t come out. But then we read in the instructions to turn it on difficulty A, and poof, the next game they came out. We were tripping when we saw what they looked like for the first time, it was so cool! 12. Adventure–a VERY different, unique game here! Pretty epic in a game and scope with several different castles, random game #3, the damn bat, dragons that looked like ducks/why are you a square?, etc., etc. I had to guide my sister through the catacombs all the time. I also almost found the dot by myself, searching that room once (KNEW there was something there, with the flashing!) but didn’t know I needed the bridge. (Makes me wonder if I ever found it if I would’ve been able to figure out the secret myself.) 13. Memory: Superman was a pretty ambitious game, although absolute HELL to guide a first-time gamer through, as games would take 20 minutes with them. Ugh! Anyway, my mom got this when the great video game crash happened, as a local Target was advertising games for very cheap. Superman was on sale for only $10. Wow, it was scary seeing all these adults (or not?) climbing over each other trying to get some cheap games. People were talking of “where’s Superman?” “Oh, they’re all out of Superman!” (Toys ‘r Us also advertised it for $10, which we swung back around to get it, which luckily they still had some.) That day was the talk at my junior high: “my dad got 3-D Tic-Tac-Toe just for the hell of it!” Then later once the crash was in full force and prices fell out big time, were there still mobs of people getting everything they could at stores? Nope. I couldn’t understand that back then...just too much junk out at the time. 14. Memory: there’s a big difference between the last days of high school and junior high, or at least there was back then. At my junior high, you did nothing but play, there were no finals or anything. Me and some friends were going to leave when one of them spotted the principal and said we were taking off. He knew it wouldn’t be a problem–the principal was cool–as he just said “ok, bye!” What the deal was, me and some friends got to talking about the Atari, so I convinced them to come over and play some, since my house wasn’t that far so we just walked over there. It was a cool afternoon and I was the hero that day 15. The Supercharger, PERIOD. A unique device. The games weren’t so unique for themselves for the most part–Suicide Mission was Asteroids, Fireball was Super Breakout–but being able to not only play fun games, get them cheaper than cartridges cost AND have previews for upcoming games on most of the tapes...whoa. Killer device. 16. Indy 500–came in a big box with those driving controllers and had many games on it. “Tag” was a favorite of mine, along with the ice races. Those were a bit challenging! 17. Memory: Sky Diver. One year for Christmas me and my sister found several of our presents before the big day. We found Milles Bourne (unique card game) and I found a couple of video games. We agreed that it actually wasn’t that fun, knowing so much of what we were going to receive beforehand. I asked for Video Pinball, which I got, but mom also got Sky Diver since it was cheap. As far as the game itself, it’s a bit different! I didn’t even know there was an arcade version of it for many years. I don’t know of any other video game in history (although there could be others...maybe?) where you control sky divers. The “splat!” effect is still amusing to me to this day, and the chicken variation where you have to land first gives quite a bit of urgency to earn your points. (A full review of it from myself can be read here.) 18. Along with Kaboom!, there isn’t any way I can do a list without leaving Space Invaders out too! 112 games was pretty astonishing, not to mention just HAVING this game for the system alone was killer enough. I remember playing it for the first time at a friend’s house, which was before we got a 2600. And believe it or not, I liked the invisible invaders, since it was a challenge trying to find the last one before it invaded you, and still fun. The moving shields options though, no, not so much. 19. Memory: Kaboom! I remember borrowing it from a friend (or maybe he just brought it when he was spending the night) and my mom saying how funny it was when you missed a bomb and the Mad Bomber had that little smile on his face. Then he went back to frowning. And this is STILL one of THE best twitch games out there, period. Seriously. I still play it occasionally over the years. 20. Dragonstomper–THE only true rpg from back in the day was a pretty lengthy game as well. Plus you had to know what to do to beat it. Quite a bit of a different game to distance itself from the shooters and all.
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Post by wyldephang on Dec 13, 2012 20:07:57 GMT -5
That's impressive. You've recalled so many memories of the 2600, and yet, none of them involve the atrocity that was E.T.! I was born in 1986, and by the time I was old enough to play video games, the Nintendo was the gold standard for home gaming entertainment. My family owned an Atari 2600 Junior model; it would continue to be a part of our regular gaming rotation until we acquired a Super Nintendo. Before we "retired" the Atari, however, we had a lot of fun playing classics like Pole Position, Galaxian, and Mario Bros. And I do remember watching my cousin play E.T. at my aunt and uncle's house in Michigan. My cousin had some of the coolest games and toys, but when I watched her play E.T., I felt she got the raw end of the deal!
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Post by VectorX on Dec 14, 2012 0:40:39 GMT -5
That's impressive. You've recalled so many memories of the 2600, and yet, none of them involve the atrocity that was E.T.! That's either at the end or I had it as a runner-up, I don't recall which. I didn't think E. T. was as terrible as a lot of people say, but I don't think it was a great game either. Plus ragging on it got old 20 years ago, if you ask me. we had a lot of fun playing classics like Pole Position, Galaxian, and Mario Bros. I've got those last two. Mario Bros. took a turn for the weird with the way the brothers were drawn (why were they so damn TALL, unlike with the arcade version?) but it still played pretty close to the original. And I do remember watching my cousin play E.T. at my aunt and uncle's house in Michigan. My cousin had some of the coolest games and toys, but when I watched her play E.T., I felt she got the raw end of the deal! The title screen was pretty nice, but it went a bit downhill from there.
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Post by TrekMD on Dec 14, 2012 8:55:11 GMT -5
I actually enjoyed and still enjoy ET. I never understood why the game was so hated. LOL
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Post by VectorX on Dec 14, 2012 13:41:04 GMT -5
Yeah, as avoiding pits is NOT impossible anyway. Next 10! 21. Memory: Berzerk. A friend of mine let me this newly released, hot game (I loved the arcade original) that I played so much my parents were pretty pissed off, threatening to “pull the plug” on it when they wanted to watch a ballgame on tv at one point ;D 22. Memory: Stellar Track. One day a friend called me to tell me he got this game. Say what? I hadn’t heard of it, being a Sears exclusive. I thought this game’s mostly negative reviews weren’t warranted, as it takes a bit of strategy (although at times you can get majorly screwed too). I was able to beat it before my friend did, which I wrote down the congratulation screen message and read it to him over the phone, since he hadn’t beaten it at the time! 23. Memory: Atlantis. I hadn’t played this at the time I bought it, but this new Imagic company was getting some pretty serious buzz. The game looked great and having the brief ending hinting at the story continuing with Cosmic Ark was pretty intriguing...fun game too. 24. Demon Attack–Imagic (again) arrived in force with this one, with the shiny graphics, the simplicity, yet throwing in different stuff as your game progressed (demons making their way down the screen, splitting, then attacking, etc.) was something else indeed! 25. Ram It–here’s a game friends of mine didn’t understand, just trying out a game of it and giving up, not coming up with any strategies or anything as you try to shoot your way out of constantly enclosing bars of color. Well, just take out one entire SIDE and there ya go! And play game 3, where the bonus bars give you more time. Here’s a unique game that combines strategy with just flat-out luck. 26. Megamania–having all those different, odd things to shoot with different attack patterns and such was pretty stellar, even if they didn’t look anything like the objects they were supposed to represent. 27. Memory: Atari losing money–I remember seeing a local report on the news about Warner losing money, as per usual, due to the cable business and such going up and down. Then the female reporter said one of THE biggest losses came from this: the Atari, as she put her hand on a nearby console. Due to not exactly reading up on the news back then as a kid, I didn’t know how far down the toilet they were going at the time. That hurt seeing that though! 28. Tunnel Runner–without a doubt, this is one of THE most spectacular games for the 2600, and one of the few scary ones too, as running either right by or right face-first into a Zot Monster in 3-D is some scary sh*t indeed! Its RAM Plus chip made this one of the most different–and most badass–games for the system, hands down. Don’t get eaten! (A full review from myself can be read here.) 29. Word Zapper–I don’t think this was as bad as people said it was, as it was a bit unique. And try the version that didn’t have real words and flip the difficulty switches on A for the doomsday asteroids or whatever that would destroy you; without them, the game was too easy. That makes it more of a challenge. 30. H. E. R. O.–Activision went all out on this one, having 20 levels with multiple screens each. A bit underrated, if you ask me. Too bad it came out too late and didn’t get much attention, as they ported it around to many platforms. There was nothing else like it at the time (maybe even to this day!), where you face all kinds of obstacles and go through all kinds of crap just to rescue one lone idiot (how’d some of these people GET so far down anyway?). I got this during the crash for only about $15, which was really well spent money.
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Post by VectorX on Feb 21, 2013 14:26:11 GMT -5
Just ran across my notes on this in a document I have of random stuff, so here's the end of it, finally! 31. Airlock–I read a slamming review of this in an issue of Joystik, then later found it for only .25 at a resale shop. Yep, everything they said it was, being very difficult and not fun was definitely true. I don’t recall what I would later trade it for years later but I do know I got the better end of the deal on that one It might’ve been for a Sega CD game, as the guy didn’t have a CD but thought he could use it for trade bait. And it worked! (Sucker!) 32. Zaxxon–I don’t think this one is as bad as people say it is. It’s still fun. As I saw someone post once, maybe it would’ve fared better if it were called “Floating Space Fortresses” rather than Zaxxon, and I agree. 33. Keyboard controller–always the innovator Atari was in bringing these out, even though you couldn’t use them for a lot, because back then, one button and a eight way joystick was all we had! 34. Warlords–the real surprise with this one is that it didn’t do well in the arcades, yet it was a smash for the 2600! Four players, fast-paced, and using paddle controllers for a Breakout-out type game, yet at multiple angles, and not just for action that only happens at the top of the screen? Killer! 35. Expandability–there were a crapload of different joysticks and controllers, along with adapters to play 2600 games on other systems, a couple of multi-carts, etc., which was really amazing considering a system that many people think sucks nowadays (and even back then). Yeah, well, explain all THAT then. Bonus runner-ups: I HAVE to mention E. T. here. However, I don’t really have that much to say about it; it wasn’t as horrible as many proclaim it to be. Avoiding pits is NOT impossible, but playing the game variation without the F. B. I. agent is too easy. Not a real good move there either way, Atari. And last but certainly not least, there were a ton of catalogs for games we could drool over, which is something that is missing today due to the cutthroat video game business and rising printing expenses, so why bother with this stuff nowadays (especially for games that get cancelled and end up never being released)? These were always great to get with a new game, and if you got even only a few new games a year, chances were good you could get backup copies of these! So, that’s the last of my tribute to days, years, and even decades gone by. Hope y’all enjoyed
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Post by TrekMD on Feb 21, 2013 21:26:47 GMT -5
I actually liked E.T. when I first got it and I still like it. Many people didn't like it because it was complex (you needed to read the instructions to play it). I thought it was an challenging game and I still like to play it.
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Post by wyldephang on Feb 22, 2013 4:37:56 GMT -5
I actually liked E.T. when I first got it and I still like it. Many people didn't like it because it was complex (you needed to read the instructions to play it). I thought it was an challenging game and I still like to play it. You may be one of the few! That's O.K., though. I do believe the game attracts an excessive amount of criticism. In the context of an early-1980s licensed game, E.T. wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. It sounds like it was prematurely rushed out the door to fill Christmas orders. In that sense, it was doomed to fail from the beginning, for we know from history what happens when a product is rushed to completion:
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