DamonicFury

As we all know, some 7800's play games that other 7800's will not. As it turns out, my 7800 won't play Konami's Strategy X. The problem is with the controls... I can fire, but I can't move. The cartridge works fine with my 2600. Does anyone else have this problem? It's not a big deal... I'm just curious if Strategy X belongs on the short list of games that have problems with the 7800.

Just to be picky, River Raid II was an original home game, albeit a sequel.

Will this do?

Using Mr. Schell's ultra-easy to perform modication... http://www.schells.com/7800mod.shtml ... I was able to play the following games on my 7800 that didn't work before: Space Shuttle Robot Tank The Supercharger! Dark Chambers (2600) even worked afterwards, although from the description of the modification, that isn't always the case. I'm still not at 100 percent compatibility, but that is probably due to the late-model TIA chip that my 7800 has: Kool-Aid Man still has the infamous "bouncing" problem Time Pilot still crashes after a few seconds. Planet Patrol still has enemy ships that have jerky flight and my ship's sprite becomes a diagonal line during the landing sequence. None of these issues plague my 2600. Still, a big thanks to Mr. Schell for the tip... being able to play Supercharger games was worth the effort right there! Makes me wonder if replacing the TIA chip would result in that holy grail... a 100 percent 2600 compatible 7800. :-)

The Robot Tank/7800 issue is complicated, and I'm sure someone can explain it better than I can, but I do know that not all 7800's have the problem... and also not all Robot Tank cartridges have the problem! I have two Robot Tank carts, both of which work fine in my 2600, but one will not work with my 7800. I believe the 7800 FAQ discusses the different 7800 models and which ones R.T. is most compatible with. Unfortunately, I don't know of any easy way to tell the different Robot Tank carts apart, other than to test them. The 7800 FAQ does go into more detail - http://www.atariage.com/7800/faq/index.htm...l?SystemID=7800

Thanks for the tip on E... that let me get them all! Now can any one help with the movie logo game? Still stuck on C, D, L, and Y. http://www.logogame.com/game.php?id=6#guess Maybe that one needs it's own thread.

How on earth could I not get Star Wars? (sdamon is a utterly hopeless SW freak, and that arcade game is my all time favorite) I'll have to claim temporary insanity. The movie logo game is cool too... http://www.logogame.com/game.php?id=6#guess For that one I'm only missing C, D, L and Y

Cool game! I got 18 - missing E, I, M, N, O, S, W, and X

I broke quite a few of the pins, actually. Obviously, I need to invest in a much better solder sucker! :-)

A quick note on the POKEY: it's soldered into the Ballblazer carts. So unless you feel confident about your ability to desolder a 40 pin chip from a circuit board, you're almost certainly better off buying a new POKEY instead. (Just a friendly tip from someone who just unnecessarily wrecked a spare Ballblazer cart.) :-)

Here's the text of the The Hat's more recent photo. Along with the previous transcription, we now have most of the text of the Spitfire Attack manual, which could be included in the Atari Age archives.

I have to agree here... as much bad press as E.T. always gets, the Swordquest games are far, far worse! I can still enjoy a round or two of E.T. today, just as I did when it first came out. But those Swordquest titles are just unbearably tedious (just as they were when they first came out!) There's no real way to tell which game scorched Atari's reputation the worst, but I'm sure we can all agree that a long history of overhyping games that were average to poor led to Atari's downfall. Had they had anything like Activision or Imagic's quality control, the history of video games would be quite different.

I can vouch for how Pitfall! can sell well on Ebay, also. I tried to sell about twenty or so carts a few months back. Many went unsold, most went for the minimum bid, but Pitfall! sold for eight bucks. It was quite a (pleasant) shock, considering almost all the rest of the carts I was selling were much rarer. It does make sense that there would be a lof of people out there collecting out of nostalgia value for the carts they enjoyed twenty years ago. Once a few of them get involved in a small bidding war for your common cart, you can get lucky and sell if for a few bucks more than it's really worth.

I really don't think the conditions that caused the '84 crash are likely to repeat. Video games are a proven consistent money maker now, and it's highly unlikely retailers will abandon them in droves the way they did back in 84. It still was a new industry back then, and many retailers felt video gaming was a fad that would never come back. Everyone takes for granted now that one generation of consoles arises to replace the older ones, with the older software becoming dirt cheap. But when 2600 software became terribly cheap due to good old supply and demand, and the 'next generation' of the 5200 and Colecovision didn't quite live up to the success of the 2600, it caused almost everyone to abandon video gaming for dead, even though it wasn't. Sure, sales slacked off from the phenomenal numbers of the past, but this had lots to do with people becoming tired of the 2600, and dissatisfied with the 5200 and Colecovision (with their small software libraries and terrible controllers.) Even the big video game companies, like Atari and Coleco, felt that the future was in computers, not video game consoles. (Thus the 7800 was shelved and the Adam was promoted way out of proportion to the Colecovision) Basically, the crash was caused by an abandonment of video games by their makers and the retailers more than it truly was by consumers. When Nintendo stepped up to the plate and made a push against HUGE retailer resistance against video games, the public was more than happy to recieve them. Retailers are highly unlikely to just give up on video games again, and competition is too fierce for all the big makers to drop the ball at once ever again. Thus, in my humble opinion, a second video game crash is highly unlikely.

Thanks so much! I've typed it out for anyone who wants the text:

I've certainly had that problem a lot with my 65XE. It's probably the biggest reason I retired it, and made my upgraded 600XL my main Atari 8-bit machine. The 600XL/800XL probably have the best cartidge slot - on top of the machine and protected from dust by swinging doors... nice design! Opening and closing the top shell on the 400/800 to swap cartidges is a minor annoyance... plus there's a number of XE carts that just won't work on those machines. (Of course, there's a few carts that will ONLY work on a 400/800, like Astrochase.)

I don't suppose anyone has the manual for this they can post? Like elviticus, I enjoy the game, but I feel like I might be missing part of the point of it.

This one has been one of my favorites since it was first released. Like most good 2600 games it starts out very easy, and smoothly gets more get difficult as you play. Also, in my personal opinion, it has the best graphics of any 2600 game. (Multicolored sprites, a colorful detailed background, multiple screens... wow!) It's amazing that it was programmed by the same guy who did the 2600 Donkey Kong conversion! http://www.atariage.com/programmer_page.ht...ProgrammerID=39

I have to agree with those who say Pitfall II is easier than Pitfall, although neither one is really easy! My biggest frusration in Pitfall 2 was that point where you need a balloon to get to higher levels... and, having no manual, I had no idea there WERE balloons in the game! I finally lucked into jumping at the spot I needed to jump out, and was pleasantly surprised by the baloon's appearance! I have, however, beat Pitfall. It was over ten years ago during a summer in which I was REALLY bored. I mapped out the best way through the underground passages, and with a good bit of practice finally beat the game. I was terribly disappointed that the game simply ended once you picked up that last treasure - the rumor I heard when I was a kid was that you were showered with treasures from the sky if you could beat the game. Oh, those wacky school yard rumours! :-)

I just got mine yesterday (#54), along with some very entertaining homebrews (Jammed and Qb) and one very fun repro (Swordfight) Thanks once again to AtariAge!

I got mine in the mail yesterday also. The backing board helped a great deal in preventing any damage. Thanks so much to everyone involved in this patch promotion!!!! I can't beleive other Star Fire owners aren't rushing to join the Elite Squadron. The score isn't that hard to get if you put a little time into it, and the game is more than fun enough to warrant that time. I've even cracked 4500 (but only once!)

As someone who actually used a 1010 recorder back when it came out, I wouldn't recommend it. It is seriously slow, so you'll have to be VERY patient! I don't recall having much problems saving my own programs, but loading pre-recorded programs could be a real pain. And the buttons were easily broken through normal use... I broke my PLAY button twice (and I didn't even bother to fix it the second time.) One of the happiest moments of my young life was finally getting a 1050 disk drive so I never had to use the 1010 again! I hate to be a downer, but I have lots of unhappy 1010 memories. Really, a disk drive or a SIO2PC cable are much better choices.

I've played A LOT of Racer Revenge and the original Racer (on PC, not N64) and there are enough differences to make the purchace of RR worthwhile. For me, the biggest improvement over RR is the fact that you can destroy your opponents pod's! It is SO much fun to repeatedly ram another pod until it bursts into pieces. Also, getting one's own pod destroyed ends the race in RR... the originalRacer worked more like good ol' Pole Position in that destroying your racer only loses you time. Both games are a lot of fun, but I'd have to give the edge to Race Revenge.

C'mon, that's just mean. Thomas is clearly an amazingly gifted programmer... one of the best the 2600 has ever seen, classic or modern era. Just look at Thurst... that's a game that just shouldn't be playable on a 2600 at all! As for originality, I simply suspect Thomas enjoys the art of programming more than he does brainstorming for ideas. And there's nothing wrong with that... just look at the long list of programmers and artists attached to every single piece of software released these days. Only a couple of them had anything to do with coming up with the idea... the rest simply lent their talents to making the project happen. The Atari community loves you, Thomas, so don't let the naysayers get you down!

Hmmm.... I bought one of these back in a Sears store when it was a new item. I actually wore the shirt and played the game a lot! :-) It's interesting that the package is a sought-after collectible now. :-)