DamonicFury

New personal high score: 86085. Gives me some hope that I just MIGHT obtain 100,000 some wonderful day. :-) Spraying definetly has some effectiveness, especially if it is roughly targeted to where the missile actually appear. For me, my mental mindset is extremely important... I have to realy psyche myself up to be as fast, accurate, and observent as possible. Playing MC without that attitude gives me a mediocre score every time.

As a HUGE fan of arcade Missile Command (I have one in my kitchen!) , I can't express how cool I think this hack is. The title screen is VERY nice, and bringing back the left and right bases really makes this game have that arcade feel again. Great job, Paul!!!! Some minor suggestions (if they're feasible - the game is amazing as is!) Make the P/M graphics for the cursor, plane, sattelite, and smart bomb a bit more like the arcade versions. In the arcade version, the bases fire at different speeds - the middle base is much faster than the side bases. The sky colors in the later waves could be tweaked to be more arcade-like. This is really nitpicky stuff... already the game is so much closer to the arcade than the original. Fantastic work!

It certainly CAN be an RF switch... I've seen some that make the screen very fuzzy indeed. On the other hand, I have one Atari (and it's an honest-to-God heavy sixer) that is fuzzy no matter what I use to connect it to the TV. I've also switched out the cable (which is very easy to do once you open the Atari up) and even that didn't help the problem. Hopefully, in your case, it's just a matter of using a better RF switch or, even better, a direct coaxil-to-RF cable converter (either one should be for sale at your local Radio Shack)

Missile Command Star Wars Pacman Robotron 2084 Donkey Kong

Thanks for the tip, Chrisbid! I was able to pick up one of these after work thanks to the heads-up! Wow, what a nice price! :-)

On an earlier thread, I was looking for help in getting my Missile Command arcade machine back to working status. It has been working again for the past few weeks (thanks again for the tips, Cassidy!) and I've been playing it constantly. Does anyone else find the arcade version of this game to be EXTREMELY challenging? After hundreds of plays, my best score is still a mere 69,000. I can crack 40,000 regularly, but only rarely can get above that. Most of the other people who have tried my machine can't even break 10,000. The need to constantly defend three missile bases, the speed of the enemy missiles, the damnably-hard-to-hit Smart Bombs all combine to make later waves of this game incredibly hard. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE this game! I think the challenge is part of what keeps me coming back again and again to it. I'm just curious if other people find it as addictively difficult as I do. Or if there are other people who, like my girlfriend, find it just too hard to enjoy.

Yikes! Glad I got a copy of this game about a year ago! (Not that it's a great game, but it's an unsual part of my collection.) I'm guessing it's new lack of availability might bump up it's rarity rating a bit.

Missile Command - Programmed by Rob Fulop (who had previously programmed Night Driver, and went on to do Demon Attack, Comsmic Ark, and Fathom), this is a very nice translation of the popular Atari arcade game. Like it's coin-operated predecessor, the gameplay revolves around using a ground-based missile base to defend against an incresingly overwhelming nuclear attack. Due to the 2600's limitations, it is missing two of the three missile bases of the original, as well as the planes and sattelites. Despite these omissions, the game still is fast-paced and addictive. Mr. Fulop also included a small Easter Egg, which can be seen by scoring no points on variation #13. Missile Command, along with Space Invaders and Asteroids, was one of the first big hits for the Atari 2600. River Raid - One of Activision's biggest sellers, River Raid is considered by many fans to be among the 2600's very best games. Players pilot a small yellow plane up the River of No Return - which is filled with tankers, helicopters, and planes. Bridges seperate different sections of the river and must be destroyed to progress to the next level. River Raid was created by Carol Shaw ,who had previously programmed Atari's Video Checkers, 3-D Tic Toe Toe, and the unreleased Polo. She went on to program the 5200/Atari Computer version of River Raid as well as Happy Trails for the Intellivision. Star Voyager - An early Imagic game, Star Voyager features the same kind of first-person space combat gameplay as Star Raiders, Phaser Patrol, and Starmaster. Unlike those games, however, Star Voyager has no star map to consult, or star bases to protect. This game is all about fast and accurate shooting. It was programmed by Bob Smith, who had previously done Atari's Video Pinball, and went on to do other Imagic classics like Riddle of the Sphinx, Dragonfire, and Moonsweeper, as well as Parker Brother's conversion of Star Wars; THe Arcade Game. Interestingly, The label art for Star Voyager contains a spaceship with an extrememly strong resemblance to Star Wars' Millenium Falcon.

1. River Raid 2. Kaboom 3. Missile Command 4. Stampede 5. Keystone Kapers 6. Adventure 7. H.E.R.O. 8. Space Invaders (No other votes for S.I.? How is that possible?) 9. Frostbite 10.Pitfall

I have to agree with the "thumbs-up" for Krull. It's a really fun game that almost never gets much credit. I played it a whole lot back when I got it in the 80's, and it's still fun today. :-)

Ok, the big blue capacitor is replaced (by a big black one!) And I've replaced the 1st and 3rd RAM chips. However, the game's self test still claims the 3rd RAM chip is malfunctioning. :-( Also, I'm not getting any screen garbage anymore... just a big white screen. Any more tips? I'm really wondering if I have the skillz to make this thing work. I'm very appreciative of any further advice! I'm tempted to send the board away for more professional repair... http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...ssPageName=WD1V Might this be a good idea?

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...ogames&n=507846

Thanks for the great deal, Albert! Time to finally pick up this years homebrews, Seawolf and Climber 5! :-)

Thanks so much for the tips! I'll be sure to replace that "big blue" capacitor.... it sounds like a very likely cause of the problem. I haven't yet cleaned the PCB connector, but I'll do that when I get home today. It doesn't appear like anything has ever been replaced in this cabinet... it's amazing it works as well as it does after 24 years! Someday, I'll want to replace the monitor... the "High Scores","Defend Cities", "Bonus City at 10000", and landscape have all been burned into it. But it's not very noticeable until the blue sky wave starts. Thanks again for the tips, Cassidy!

I just bought my first arcade game this weekend! And it's one of my all-time favorites, Missile Command. :-) The first day I had it was a complete joy. Played great! The next day it would only start with random noise and screen garbage. I followed the instructions on the inside of the machine for the self test, and it indicated that one of the RAM chips was bad. I resolved myself to get some 4116 chips and try to replace the bad one. But this morning, it actually came up working ok again... once. Powering the machine on and off afterwards brought it back to it's non-working state. So, I'm doubting it's really a bad RAM chip, but perhaps instead a power supply issue. I have some soldering skills, and some basic electronics knowledge, but I'm far from an expert. Any help in getting it to work consistently would be really appreciated.

Yes, it can. There are only a very few (possible) exceptions: Robot Tank Decathalon Time Pilot Kool Aid Man Dark Chambers These may or may not work depending on both the cartridge and the 7800. Also, Tigervision's games may require their plastic extenders to be clipped so that they can physically be inserted into a 7800. But the vast majority of the 2600's games will work in any 7800 without a problem.

It looks like Saboteur has been removed from the AA store. I'm guessing this is due to the impending release of the Atari Flashback Console?

10 reasons I'll be buying an Atari Flashback Console: 1. It's the first piece of Atari made hardware since the demise of the Jaguar 2. Planet Smashers is quite rare as a 7800 cartridge. 3. The price is just about right at an estimated $35 at places like Wal-Mart. 4. Food Fight is one of the very best 7800 games. 5. Power supply included! No more running through AA batteries like in the Jakks unit. 6. For the most part, the game selection is very good... some of the very best 2600 games are included. (Adventure, Breakout, Crystal Castles, Gravitar, Haunted House, Millipede, Solaris, Warlords, and Yars' Revenge!) 7. Detachable controllers with Select and Pause buttons! 8. Saboteur included! Considering AA was selling this for $45, including it in this console is quite a bargain... plus it gives this nearly-forgotten classic a "wide" release. 9. The styling is so very similar to the sadly neglected 7800. 10. It's been hinted that if this platform is a success, it may well be followed by one with the cartridge slot we all want.

THANKS!!!

To answer your question, yes the 65XE is basically the same as the 800XL. The only advantage I know of is that it has a newer revision of Atari BASIC built in that eliminates a bug in the XL's where BASIC would hang under certain conditions. The disadvangtages are the mushy keyboard and rear cartridge slot.

Thanks so much to AtariBoy and andy_bernstein for making me aware of this version and posting the link! As a huge fan of the Star Wars arcade game, it's amazing to play this version of it... I had no idea that a "vector" graphics version of this game had been made!!! And thanks to the magic of the SIO2PC cable, I was able to try it out on my 800XL within minutes of finding out about it. Great stuff!!!

I just tested this using a CC2, and can confirm that on the 7800, the pause lasts only as long as you hold down the Pause button.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/t.../weekly/2690450 Looks like it's finally time to upgrade my Athlon Thunderbird 1000 based system.

Photos of the manual as well as a transcription can be found in the below thread http://www.atariage.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=43002

While not exactly the same, you could get a very similar setup by buying an Atari computer (about 20-50$ on Ebay) and a SIO2PC cable (you can often find them on Ebay, or you can buy an adapter from AtariAge for $20 that also requires a SIO cable.) The cable will allow the Atari computer to read from your PC's hard drive. With this hardware, along with the Atari 810 emulator software (at http://retrobits.net/atari810.html ) you can then play any 5200 game OR the vast library of Atari computer games on original Atari hardware! And your cost is much less than a CC2. (And you don't have to use those 5200 joysticks!) I use this setup and highly recommend it. :-)