Algus

No way this doesn't come out on the PS3 and 360. BTW have you guys seen the trailer yet? So jazzed about Skyrim. I love Nords. Nordic-inspired cultures FTW

Oh Studio II is considered 2nd gen? Very good then. Disregard. Although I stick by my assessment of it not interesting me compared to other systems of its generation. Atari 2600 FTW >.>

I like the fact that you can save in All-Stars. SMB3 especially is a big game and going through the entire thing without saves is time consuming (and possibly tedious if you aren't very good). Visually I like both the original graphics and the updates SNES graphics. On both systems these are among the best looking games. Nintendo really put a lot of heart into the Mario games back then and it shows. Really I would be happy playing either but if I was sitting down with both in front of me and had to pick either the NES or SNES to play, I'd probably go NES just because I love the feel of the NES gamepad in my hand. It was my first video game console and it will probably always be my favorite.

I don't actually spend more than $200 or so a year on classic gaming stuff, which is why my collection is probably relatively small. 80% of my collection I bought new when the stuff first came out and thats where I continue to spend most of the money that I do drop on games. I've got quite a large 360 collection (might be my largest library). I've been mainly interested in hunting down consoles I didn't have. For me it started with the Genesis. I always wanted one as a kid but never could convince my parents to get one for me. As goofy as this sounds, I actually had a dream that I was playing some Genesis and when I woke up I thought, "Hell? Why not?" and that ended up getting me started. My first focus was on grabbing the Sega consoles (still don't have an SMS) and I actually got turned onto Atari via the Angry Video Game Nerd. Now that I've finally got my 6-switch out of the way though, I'm looking at focusing on expanding my old game libraries somewhat. I'm probably going to buy another console in March-April and I'm thinking of picking up an Atari 800 after the new year but I also want to substantially add to my 2600 collection and try to get a complete 32X collection (not necessarily all CiB, just all the games)

I don't actively dislike the Studio II but it doesn't particularly interest me compared to other first generation machines. The Coleco Telstar and some of Coleco's other machines are of interest to me. Still, if I ever get around to collecting 1st Generation machines, the Studio II is on my shortlist after the Telstar and Atari's own Pong Machine. I want that one machine that Coleco did that had the gun and wheel first though. That thing looks cool.

Haha, its the Mystic Quest ad! That ad is burned into my soul!

I have a BC PS3, unfortunately it is an 80 GB and has emulation issues on a few of my games. So I ended up hooking my PS2 back up. Playing PS2 games via the PS3 is pretty nice and being able to save games directly to the HD instead of having to wrestle with a stack of memory cards is great. Being able to use an HDMI connection to get an extremely clear picture is awesome as well. Ultimately though I have no problem sticking to the PS2 itself for my PS2 games. I'll do that over paying exorbitant prices for games I already own. Still I am willing to consider HD remasters of some stellar PS2 games. Depending on the cost, it would be worth the money to me to pick up digital copies of some of these games for convenience, esp. if the clarity and resolution are improved.

Ahh nothing beats a couch + a few buddies for some multiplayer action. I'm all for online multiplayer. I've got a friend who moved to the other side of the country to work on his PhD and we still game at least 3 nights a week. That sure beats what my dad and his old friends do, which is just send Christmas cards to each other every year. But it is disappointing to me to see local multiplayer stripped or ignored in favor of online multiplayer. Shooters have never been as fun to me as Goldeneye and Perfect Dark were and let me tell you, those two games weren't awesome because they were better than shooters on the PC at the time. wat, no bioware ? The big problem though is that when a big publisher like EA starts saying nonsense like this, others might begin to follow suit. Esp. in their ongoing war with Acti-lizzard and Take-Two these guys could be setting the standard for western gaming looks like.

Thanks for the insights and response to my questions! Pretty interesting to think of Sears as this mammoth that literally was a gateway into the retail market for these kinds of products.

Oh boy, NES, I... =( Some more obscure games that I think are good Batman (amazing music) Blaster Master Star Tropics (I & II) Adventure Island Trilogy (guessing you don't like Mario style platformers much? this series may be a pass for you) Bionic Commando Lifeforce Crystalis Captain Skyhawk Snake, Rattle, N' Roll R.C. Pro AM

Yeah, I don't know what the scene is like anymore but I was playing Call of Duty 2 right up until Modern Warfare was released and it was outstanding. Everyone that I didn't want to play with defected to CoD3 and then Modern Warfare and the people who were left on CoD2 were really chill and fun to play and chat with.

My interpretation was that he was referring to solo games like Fallout, Oblivion, Dragon Age, etc and believed they are finished, kaput, over. If your interpretation is correct, then the thought of a Fallout/Oblivion/Dragon Age game that consists only of a 4-6 hour solo campaign and the rest multiplayer (like Medal of Honor or CoD or Halo) is completely unacceptable to me, also. But then again, if EA believes online multiplayer is the only way to go, why did they just release NBA Jam on the Wii with no online????? Ah well, I still have a BIG backlog of games to finish and can always return to my SNES, DC, Saturn, PS, etc consoles for enjoyment. Me no need EA. Mendon The quote certainly seems to suggest your interpretation Mendon. I think I was going more off of the Kotaku commentary in the article. Basically Kotaku can't even believe they'd stop making single-player games so they just assumed they were talking about always having some sort of online integration heh ...least that's the impression I got

Even though you weren't involved with the 2600, I'd still love to hear your insights on it. When you guys were working on those early arcade machines did you ever think that it would be something that could get turned into an experience in the home or was the focus entirely on trying to develop new kinds of "pub games" ? Were you guys looking at what Magnavox was doing (with the Odyssey) and thinking of yourselves as competitors or in another market entirely?

Well I think I've settled on trying to grab an Atari 800XL for now. They do seem to be reasonably cheap and since I don't have any old computer systems in my collection yet, it seems like a nice little addition. Then I'll probably look to buy an SMS in March or April. If anyone's got some last minute advice, I'd love to hear it!

Awww, awright, so it depends on the actual TV? Rock on. Well if I ever land a set that won't let me use PS1 games in my PS2 on component, I'll probably be :/ Though I still have my original PS1 so I guess I should invest in some quality cables for it and just tuck those away for the future if anything like this ever hits me.

Aren't these the guy that got all excited over buying Bioware?? Aren't these the guys that own MAXIS?? Although there is that rumored multiplayer Mass Effect in the works... For the record by and large I love multiplayer and prefer games with co-op over games with no multiplayer (I'm actually not a big fan of competitive multiplayer...heh) but there are just some genres where multiplayer isn't that great, such as RPGs, sims, and puzzlers. I don't think either genre is old and outdated yet so really that is such a stupid statement to make. I'm certainly willing to entertain experiments in any of the genres I cited (Diablo was awesome, Tetris vs. Dr. Mario was awesome) but I have yet to see standard quality multiplayer concepts take hold in those genres (although the whole Diablo-esque kill & loot thing is an important, and enjoyable, sub-genre of RPGs...not counting MMOs here) edit: Ity does seem that he's talking about still making single player games but incorporating some sort of online component with that, I'm not terribly opposed to this. I have my own beef with some of the transactions but unfortunately consumers have accepted this kind of digital product so I don't expect it to go anywhere.

Haha yeah it was overpriced. I mentioned this in the dedicated Game Room topic but I'm a huge Asteroids fan. I figure three bucks for a ranked Asteroids was worth it. Though like I said I'm a little disappointed by the mode they selected for ranked because it really isn't all that hard. I'm surprised there weren't some even crazier scores on there.

Asteroids 2600, just placed 29th with 656,000 points. Anyone else on Atari Age playing 2600 Asteroids on Game Room? I'm curious to know how I'd stack up. I consider myself a medium strength player at best but the settings they use for their ranked games make it real easy to score high. Game Variation 1, Difficulty Switch A. Free guy every 5k points? Pretty much the only reason I lost was because my fingers started getting tired.

They are the ones that did Borderlands right? Some people blasted Borderlands but I liked it a lot. A yup. They did Borderlands. And from the quirky humor alone I can assume they have the kind of writers on hand that can round out anything in the script that Apogee hadn't finished.

Heh, I'm anticipating it getting dreadful reviews with everyone going, "We waited ten years for this?!" but I bet it will actually be pretty decent and highly underrated. Gearbox does good work IMO

Not trying to dispute your technical explanation neotokeo becuase you clearly know more about it than I do but IIRC when I had my PS2 hooked up via component cables I was still able to play PS1 games on it and I have no problem playing my old PS1 games on my PS3 now with it hooked up via HDMI. Are you stuck on the firmware bfutrel? If the firwmare itself won't recognize that a disc is in there, I would speculate that the problem is either the disc or the laser. Slim PS2s aren't as bad about the lasers falling out of alignment as the fatties were, but it can still happen.

I think the idea is to keep it so people on bad connections don't have to download as much and can just grab the content they need in order to play the games they want. I just downloaded everything (what the heck, right?) Anyway. I knew of game room but I never really checked it out until today. I think the prices are a bit high, esp on some of the 2600 and Intellivision games but I suppose the argument is it includes stat tracking and leaderboards for each game. This thing gave me access to the original Goemon arcade game (LOVE that series) so really I'm not gonna complain at all. I just wish they'd do some deals on the games or something. I'm a big enough Asteroids fanatic that I wouldn't mind adding the whole set of Asteroids games, but I don't really want to put the bones out they're asking for. Arcade Room is probably something I'll just add to whenever I have extra points. Unless they put out some newer stuff like The Simpsons. I'd be all over that.

Oh man I really need to get Blaster Master on my NES. I was watching AVGN's Atari 5200 episode the other day and he had the music playing and I was thinking, "Why don't I own this game?!" One of these days! edit: Still on my Asteroids/Galaxian kick but I've been playing a bit of Perfect Dark (XBL Arcade version)

Oh yeah this is the series that was based in part on Adventure Island right? Never actually seen it but I'm familiar with it because I freaking love the Adventure Island games.

Oh - now you're dropping the C= bomb as an option? Yeah, if you get a C64, you'll end up forgetting ALL about the SMS, Atari 8-bit AND the TG-16 Vic-20 I'd stay clear of for now. Only a few games shine on the Vic and everything else is much better on the C64. The Vic is a cute/quirky little system, but not one to be taken seriously as a gaming machine. Heh. Well for me right now it is definitely between the three I listed as those are the machines I really want. Although I think you guys have talked me into trying to hunt down an Atari computer before getting a 5200. Once I buy one system though, I probably won't buy another for awhile as I'll be trying to get games (my 6-switch was a special case...already had a 2600 but I finally found a good deal on ebay for a 6-switch + games & manuals I didn't have). I figure I'll get a C64 eventually but I'm not really looking for one right now...at least I don't think @AtariLeaf - Will take that under advisement. Want something reliable (esp. with hardware this old) but if I get one of the computers, I also want one that can run all the games. The 65XE was a repackaged version of the XL right?