VectorGamer

Galaxian (CV) 90 mins Medieval Mayhem (2600) 90 mins Mouse Trap (CV) 60 mins Smurf (CV) 30 mins

Phoenix (2600) 30 mins Circus Atari (2600) 30 mins Galaxian (CV) 30 mins Donkey Kong Jr. (CV) 30 mins Frenzy (CV) 30 mins

I see you went from 4 pics of 2600 carts down to 2. I'm still waiting on my 12 carts but I may be ordering some Coleco and 7800 carts off of you as well.

Circus Atari (2600) 30 mins Galaxian Arcade (2600) 30 mins Centipede (CV) 15 mins Donkey Kong (CV) 15 mins Carnival (CV) 15 mins Donkey Kong Jr. (CV) 15 mins Frenzy (CV) 15 mins

Some good two player games: Warlords, Medieval Mayhem, Video Olympics, Joust and of course Combat

I have the following 2600 carts to offer: Asteroids Asteroids (2nd copy) Football Combat Space Invaders (hand written end label) Target Fun Warlords Championship Soccer Sky Jinks Adventures of Tron (minus top label) Berzerk (missing end label) Space Invaders (missing end label) Pac-Man (missing end label) Frogger (torn end label) Frogger (label intact but in bad shape)

Circus Atari

Nukey Shay may be able to confirm this, but I believe the demands of making the cartridges as true to the arcade and the limited hardware resources of the console also contributed to the fact that many of those later releases were one player games instead of two players.

Here are some excellent carts sold through AtariAge: Galaxian Arcade (I play this the most) Space Invaders Arcade (very true to the original arcade) Berzerk Voice Enhanced Medieval Mayhem (my son loves this game) Pac Man Arcade (very awesome and close to the original arcade) If you can find the Supercharger by Starpath, there are several games that I like: Communist Mutants from Space Frogger (this is the best version and impressive graphics - although I do not know why they skimped on the alligator graphics) Fireball Phase Patrol Escape from the Mindmaster Some of these may have already been mentioned: Circus Atari (I really like this game and never tire of playing it) Joust (my son and I play this one alot) Centipede (not true to the arcade but certainly playable) Q*Bert (suprisingly as good as the Colecovision version) Defender Video Olympics (believe it or not) River Raid Phoenix (very good port of the arcade game) Demon Attack (similar to Phoenix) Enduro Jungle Hunt Pitfall Games to avoid: Cosmic Swarm (piece of crap!) Pole Position (very disappointing port of the arcade game - Enduro may be a viable sub) Sky Jinx (boring!) Grand Prix (graphics are decent but otherwise gameplay is pointless)

Circus Atari 30 mins Medieval Mayhem 30 mins Donkey Kong (CV) 15 mins Donkey Kong Jr (CV) 15 mins

Slow night... Galaxian Arcade 15 mins Circus Atari 15 mins Video Pinball 15 mins

I won an auction for a 7800, console only and no power supply. The seller sent me an email w/ pic of the power supply I would need part #24471-001. Is the power supply from a 2600/5200 or one that I can buy from Radio Shack compatible or is it proprietary?

Amen brother! I vividly remember playing Pong for the first time at a Two Guys department store on a sunny, summer Sunday afternoon. It's easy for me to remember that it was a Sunday because that is the only day of the week my dad had off of work.

I really enjoy this thread...were there others for prior years and if so do you have links for them?

I know the lines get blurry, but the C64 is a computer and is not eligible for consideration. Although the 2600 et al are also computers, they are game consoles by trade. A previous post mentioned pre and post 1983, which I agree is a good dividing line. Much of the games released in 1984 were incorporating laser disc technology and the play was unlike the classic games up to 1983. Having said that, I believe the only game in the list of 41 to be removed would be Millipede. But, correct me if I am wrong. What I think we should do is expand the list (of now 40) to every pre-1983 title that was ported to home console. That would include Pong (Video Olympics), Space War, Tank (Combat) and others. That would make it "black and white" versus "my opinion" of whether a game like e.g. "Popeye" is worthy of mention. Please do not include all the pong hardware variants that were released - we are only looking at cartridge-based home consoles not dedicated consoles. Please post suggestions for additional games to be included in the list to this thread and I will compile a master list as we go. Also, it would help to name at least one known console that the game was ported to. e.g. Tank (Atari 2600) Going forward, what would be the opinion of having users submit rankings of the arcade ports as played on the respective hardware console (i.e. no emulators)? Also, anyone know of another site/books besides videogamecritic and the book by Weis that grades classic console games? After this data is collected and submitted, should we then vote on which one console should be elected via a forum poll? Then to put the icing on the cake, I think we should select the best accessories for the winning console. The best joysticks, paddles etc...Heck, maybe even so far as best audio/video output...

Despite nearly everyone telling you that it doesn't? Anyway... And I don't think you ever answered (that I saw) if you've played all of these consoles on real hardware? That would be very telling. I'd also venture to guess that the videogamecritic hasn't played many of them on real hardware either. Maybe I'm wrong about that, but in any case, I certainly wouldn't go by his ratings alone. You really have to have first-hand experience on real hardware to make this call for yourself. Some people would obviously prefer the ColecoVision's game quality over the 5200's... though I really can't fathom that, since many of the Coleco games just simply don't have a very good '80s arcade feel, and same with the NES's. Hey look - not everyone agrees that the "has been" stocks of the Dow are representative of the entire market and that the BCS accurately ranks the top college football teams in the nation. I have not heard any suggestions from you on a better way to determine which is the better console but rather only comments from you questioning the methodology used to conclude that the Colecovision is the one to own. I'd like to hear your suggestions on how to make it better. It does not matter if I, personally, had played all of the games on the real hardware and graded them myself. My opinion would be just as well as those from the videogamecritic. It's elementary that we are not going to agree on a grade on a particular game (Carnival on Colecovision comes to mind - VGC gave it a B while I give it an A+) but I thought that was a given. I have offered suggestions, but you aren't interested. And yes, I do think it matters whether you've played them on real hardware. I absolutely do think that matters for you to really give each one a good assessment. And furthermore, I hope you don't think I'm arguing with you -- I'm not. Your first line in your reply here is clearly something I would agree with ... since I have said repeatedly that this is all a matter of personal opinion. If one person plays them all and feels the Colecovision is the best for them -- then it is. Period, end of story. Yes, I disagree with your methodology, but that's all I disagree with, and I'm dropping it right now because I've said everything I can say and really don't care anymore. I hope there's no hard feelings, because there surely shouldn't be, or at least I have none... if you think the CV is the best for your needs, it is... and that's all anyone needs to know. I'm interested in your suggestions, I just don't recall seeing any...

He was adding the Colecovision 2600 module in there as well and counting that, so I said he had to include the 5200's 2600 module... making the 7800/5200/Coleco all even in that regard. Since we're making up rules as we go here I did indeed include the module from the 5200. So, the Colecovision and 5200 play the same number of carts but the CV native carts get a better rating than the 5200. I never excluded the 52 and 7800s capabilities of playing the Atari carts.

Despite nearly everyone telling you that it doesn't? Anyway... And I don't think you ever answered (that I saw) if you've played all of these consoles on real hardware? That would be very telling. I'd also venture to guess that the videogamecritic hasn't played many of them on real hardware either. Maybe I'm wrong about that, but in any case, I certainly wouldn't go by his ratings alone. You really have to have first-hand experience on real hardware to make this call for yourself. Some people would obviously prefer the ColecoVision's game quality over the 5200's... though I really can't fathom that, since many of the Coleco games just simply don't have a very good '80s arcade feel, and same with the NES's. Hey look - not everyone agrees that the "has been" stocks of the Dow are representative of the entire market and that the BCS accurately ranks the top college football teams in the nation. I have not heard any suggestions from you on a better way to determine which is the better console but rather only comments from you questioning the methodology used to conclude that the Colecovision is the one to own. I'd like to hear your suggestions on how to make it better. It does not matter if I, personally, had played all of the games on the real hardware and graded them myself. My opinion would be just as well as those from the videogamecritic. It's elementary that we are not going to agree on a grade on a particular game (Carnival on Colecovision comes to mind - VGC gave it a B while I give it an A+) but I thought that was a given.

That is precisely the question I posed, perhaps with more clarity. Rephrase that as "the greatest number of quality titles (of arcade ports from the Golden Era) with the fewest number of consoles" and that's how I concluded that the Colecovision is the best bang for the buck. Although there are only 20 native carts of the 41 arcade games I selected, you can expand that library with the 30+ 2600 carts using the 2600 expansion module. The same is true of the 5200, but Colecovision gets the edge on the quality of the native carts. I think this thread could point someone with the question that Ransom posed (that I quoted above) in the right direction in purchasing one console that gains access to the most quality arcade ports from the Golden Era. It seems that popular opinion may be the 5200 at this time. If there is interest in trying to achieve a result that would be perceived as being fair and balanced, we could go as far as adding additional titles to the list of 41 I submitted and submit grades per each game across platforms. The console ports would have to be for arcade games released up to and including 1984.

The slim pickings of native cartridges for the Colecovision is in regard to games that I like to play which are mostly slide and shoots opposed to a game like Burger Time. The question in the original post is of what one system (yes, we all know that we can buy multiple consoles to fill the gaps) could be purchased (or stolen) that provides access to the highest quality and quantity of ports (native or of another console via an expansion module) from arcade games that were released in the Golden Era. This excludes emulators and computers.

Galaxian Arcade 30 mins Commie Mutants 30 mins Fireball 30 mins Medieval Mayhem 60 mins

Yes, I did leave out games like "Popeye" which I didn't see in too many of the arcades I was in and if it was there it wasn't taking in too many quarters. I would like to see the list of additional titles for the NES and the respective arcade release years. The reason is that my resources are restricted in grading the prototypes, hacks and homebrews myself let alone all the major releases. And in that way, it actually levels the playing field to only those carts that were released during console production. I am taking in consideration both quantity and quality. You can release 41 carts of the arcade games I listed and if 80% of them are crap then one cannot justify that as being "the one" console. Natively, the Colecovision has 20 carts to the 30+ on the 2600. Given the better grades on the CV titles versus the 2600 and the fact that the Colecovision can play the 2600 carts via an expansion module gives that console the edge. Grading the quality of the game will always be by opinion. I don't believe we can pick one console based on volume alone, so quality should be one of the variables in consideration.

Actually, I err'd in my original post. You'll notice that I mentioned that "Colecovision has the same number of ports and a better average grade" than the 7800, which only has 12 of the 41. I mistakenly looked at the number of ports for the 5200 as the number of ports for the 7800. Having said that, the "one console" to have for playing those classic arcade games is the Colecovision. I would rank the consoles as such: Colecovision Atari 5200 Atari 7800 Atari 2600 I really can't see how the XEGS and NES could be included in this table. They have such a small number of ports from the classic era that they are not worthy of consideration.

There are only 10 games of the 41 for the NES. There's no way that it could be "the one" home console for classic video games.

The book Supercade lists significant arcade (not console) releases per year during that era. The 5200 may very well have 29 arcade ports, but I chose what was in my opinion 41 significant arcade releases of that time. Go to videogamecritic.com to view the grades for the respective system games. There is no way that NES can be tops - it simply does not have the library of the classic era.