DamonicFury

Exactly! Prior to 1982, if you called the machine a '2600' very few would have had any idea what you were talking about! Yes, the model number was CX2600 ever since 1977, but it was always called the Atari VCS by Atari, other Atari companies, the press, etc. The public, by and large, simply called it 'the Atari'. It wasn't until 1982 when the 5200 was released that Atari rechristened the machine the 2600.

I'll be there tomorrow with a backpack full of new-in-box 2600 Star Trek games. 10$ seems like a fair price for one, right? I'll have a sign on my backpack about them, so if you see me around and you want one, just ask!

Reading "The First Quarter" gives some good insight into what was going on early on at Atari. The programmers were not paid well and they were given NO recognition for their work. Given this situation, it's amazing that many of the first generation games are as good as they are, and hardly unsurprising that many are clunkers. It wasn't until the formation of Activision which rewarded it's programmers with the money and fame they duly deserved that 2600 games started to seriously improve.

I do have a 5200 Zone Ranger picture label. You can check out my tradelist (see the link in my signature) to see if there's anything else you might need. I also have 2600 and 5200 Star Trek new in box available. I don't own any other 5200 stuff myself... the games I have are just ones I came across by accident. It would be great if I had enough items you are interested in to trade you for that Boing! :-)

Just got my response... yep, still available, five bucks, at the above address. Go get 'em! :-)

>>>muhaha I'm headings to Mechanicsburg! >>>hmm that anywhere near Allentown? >>>[edited] ahhh just south or Harrisburg.. about a 2 hour drive I went over there myself today as it was only about a 20 minute drive from where I work (thanks for the tip, RichG1972!) and I would recommend saving yourself the long trip. They have 3 cardboard trays worth of games, but nothing at all rare... the most exciting (?) games I saw was a Robot Tank and a Space Cavern. Perhaps they do get in better things from time to time, but they're certainly not the lost treasure trove of Crazy Climbers and Quadruns. :-) All I bought was a Stellar Track manual for 50 cents and some used DVD's.

Hmmm... I mailed a polite inquiry about the CD to that address a couple weeks ago, but haven't heard anything back yet. :-( Hoping to hear something soon, as I would love to get that CD. :-)

Rarest - Guardian (w/box and instructions) Chase the Chuckwagon Best games - River Raid, Kaboom, Stampede Rarest games that are actually good - Frogger II, Track and Field (amazing arcade conversion!)

I still have a copy of Electronic Fun that has an interview with Gary Kitchen. He claims to have loved arcade Donkey Kong, and truly desired to do the best port possible... but he was simply limited by what the 2600 could do. The guy was certainly no slouch as a programmer... his next game, Keystone Kapers, looks and plays GREAT! I'm guessing that DK is simply a game that simply was not meant to be on the Atari... it relies a bit heavily on a well-drawn, complicated playfield, which is really, really difficult to do on the Atari. An extra 4K probably would have helped though.

So far, I have had successful trades with: General Atarian Atari Rescue Group MegaManFan Maxime Beavious (sp?) CPUWIZ sku_u And a big shout out to the 5th ghost for the loan of his Shooting Gallery manual!

I think part of the problem was the game selection... if you had a 2600, then you already had good versions of many of the 5200's games... Missile Command, Galaxian, Berzerk, Space Invaders, etc. While on the other hand, buying a Colecovision allowed you to play games that you could only play in severely crippled form on the 2600, if at all... Donkey Kong, Zaxxon, Time Pilot, Looping, Cosmic Avenger. Plus, it was clear to even a child at the time (and I can say this for certain as I was one) that the 5200 was basically a 400 without the keyboard. So why buy a 5200 that can only play games, when you can spend a few bucks more for a 400 that plays THE EXACT same games, plus you can program and word process on it? Plus, those hideous, hideous controllers surely didn't help 5200 sales! :-)

Actually it turned out he didn't have an extra one. No big deal. :-)

I recently was perusing the AtariAge rarity lists, and actually found a common cart I did not own - Atari's Super Baseball. Which surprised me to no end since I've been collecting for quite a while, and was shocked that I'd never come across it before. I also did several Ebay searches with far less hits than one would expect of a rarity 2 cart. I brought this up on the Rarity forum, and was informed by Pitfall Harry that O'Shea's has been selling this cart for years, but has it mis-listed as simply "Baseball" I ordered a bunch of carts from them years ago but I'm not really interested in ordering just this one cart from them now thanks to their 12 cart minimum order rule. (60 bucks for a rarity 2 cart... yikes!) Hopefully, I can pick one up at Philly Classic. I'm just curious what people know about this oddball cart. I'm guessing that O'Shea's has many more of these carts than was ever released to the public. As for the game itself, I've learned it's basically a reworked version of the very easy to get RealSports version, with a new title screen and some graphical tweaks.

Pitfall Harry, you are the man! :-) Apologies completely accepted... and I apologize for my ignorance of this this paticular case - sometimes after collecting for 20 years and owning nearly 300 carts, you get to think you know everything! For my own part, I had no idea S.B. was one of O'shea's mountains of carts... that certainly goes a long, long way to explain why it's rating of 2, despite it's (relative) scarcity elsewhere. You gotta admit, it's pretty unusual case. :-) I will indeed email you about your cart... many thanks for your very generous offer.

Believe me, I wasn't trying to give the AtariAge guys a hard time... I have tremendous respect for the guide they've put together, and the tremendous resource they've give to the Atari community. I was just posting my own opinion on the rarity of a paticular cart... which is what I believe this forum is for (?)... not trying to upset anyone's apple cart. :-) As for Oshea's, I'm familar with them, and ordered all the carts they had I was missing back when they were a mere 80 cents a piece. I didn't then, and I don't now see Super Baseball listed there... there is a cart simply listed Baseball... is that really S.B? (I had assumed it was the common-as-hell RealSports version, or maybe even Home Run) Super Football and Football are listed separately on their site separately. Pitfall Harry, I appreciate the long and informative reply. I've been collecting carts for a long time myself, even if I'm fairly new to posting on these boards. :-)

http://www.atariage.com/software_page.html...wareLabelID=526 I was just perusing the rarity lists and was shocked to see a cart in the rarity 2 list that I not only didn't own, I had never even heard of! Most of the 2's I have multiple copies of, come across in the wild ALL the time, and there are dozens of them on Ebay at any give time. Do a search on Ebay for Super Baseball... see? I'm not saying it's ultra-rare or anything... but it's certainly no 2! Maybe a 4? (btw, anyone got one to trade?) :-) http://www.geocities.com/sbdamon/ataritradelist.html

- Best Arcade Translation - Stargate - Best Graphics - Keystone Kapers - Best Adrenaline Rush - Kaboom - Best for Taking out your Frustrations - River Raid - Most Feared Video Villain - Any of the Double Dragon fighters (how the heck do you beat those guys up???) - Coolest Individual Sound Effect - 'air raid' siren at the beginning of Defender

I had a similar problem with an Activision Rampage cart (rolled on a heavy sixer only) I just tweaked my vertical hold on the back of the TV slightly, and that fixed it... didn't even have to readjust it for other games (so it's not a PAL cart... whew)

A VERY BIG THANK YOU to the 5th ghost for loaning me his copy of the Shooting Gallery manual!!! I have scanned it and sent it to AtariAge to hopefully be included in their archive. It is FAR more difficult to get extra bullets in this game than Carnival, which seriously shortens the length of time it can be played. This isn't a bad thing... like many of the early Activion games, it makes for a perfect short, yet fast paced game. :-)

I didn't hate the Intellivision, but I never really understood it's supposed "superiority" to the 2600. The graphics were just about as blocky and ugly, but there were far fewer games available and those controllers were the pits. (In fact, between the Atari and the NES, EVERY system had terrible controllers!) The one big selling point the Intellivsion had for a short while was it's sports games... it had one that looked and played ok, while all Atari had was Home Run and Football (uggg!) But it wasn't too much longer before the decent RealSports games came out, and finally even Mattel seemed to admit defeat and translate just about all of it's carts for the 2600. I know as kids most of us had to make do with what our parents chose to buy us, but I always kinda felt sorry for the Intellivision (and Odyssey!) kids... all us Atari owners had all the best games! :-)

These are great! :-) My guesses for MindMaster's last three... Bump N Jump, Vanguard, Decathalon... ? (I could be way off!)

That is correct! Every game between Oink (cart #AX-23) and Cosmic Commuter (cart #AG-038) features the Activision rainbow. It was dropped for the end of the line Activision games - Ghostbusters, Commando, Kung Fu Master, Rampage, Double Dragon, and River Raid II.

A:Worst Adaptation of an Arcade Game Donkey Kong B: Worst Activision Game Ever Spider Fighter... it just lacks that Activision orginality. It's tempting to say Bridge, but since I have no idea how to play it, that's not really fair! C: Worst Imagic Game Ever Trick Shot D: Worst Game Ever Produced for the 2600 Football E: Worst Sports Game Ever Football F: Worst Graphics Football G: Worst Game Company Froggo... hacking someone else's game and releasing it as an original creation is about as low as you can go. H: Worst Atari game Football - can you tell I have no love for that cartridge! Thank goodness there are so many other choices to play football on the 2600!

Which game was the first to feature the rainbow after the on-screen Activision logo? and... which was the last one to do so? (I'm pretty sure I have the answers to these, but I thought it would be fun to have everyone guess at it first!) :-)

I know this thread isn't meant to be at all serious, but my mom really and truly thought many games were tools of the Devil! Demon Attack for example was forbidden, as was Adventure (!) No Satan's Hollow in the arcade, of course! Thankfully she had a soft spot for Ms Pac, Carnival, Frogger... the cutesy games were all just fine by her. :-)