Mind Master

There sure is a lot of variety in the opinions in this thread. I guess favorite games is a very personal thing. I, for one, found Night Driver to be perhaps the most boring game of them all. I don't think I ever played it again after the first couple of weeks or so. But I could play Adventure until the cows (or dragons) came home.

Name some games that you personally think are overrated and underrated. Here are my choices: Overrated: Pitfall. It's good, maybe even very good. But it's not a top-10 game. Underrated: Home Run. It's fun in spite of itself.

Sinistar is unique because the namesake villain is actually faster than your ship. That means when he's on your tail, you either blow him up with sinibombs or get consumed right there - there's no escaping like in most other videogames. I've always had one complaint about Sinistar. The scream he emits when he eats you is the same one he emits when you destroy him. I wish the scream when he's destroyed sounded different so I could feel more triumphant hearing it (Sinistar creates a huge desire to kick his butt). Who's the psychopath that recorded that voice? "Be-ware! I live"...

Next challenge: To create an "Atari Square" by connecting four games as follows: Space Invaders to Missile Command Missile Command to Warlords Warlords to Yar's Revenge Yar's Revenge back to Space Invaders The four games named above can only be used once each in this Square chain. That is to say, you can't go from Missile Command back to Space invaders then to Warlords - you have to go directly to Warlords from Missile command without stopping at Space Invaders (or Yar's Revenge for that matter).

Looks like Pac Man and E.T. are a disastrous combination in this game we're playing as well as in reality.

The fact that nobody's replied goes to prove that the Sinistar is the most feared of all video villains...

Zero points and only five steps! I think we have a winner unless somebody comes up with a miracle. You guys are getting pretty good at this. Let's see if I can make things a little more challenging... How about going from one of Atari's biggest disasters to the other disaster. Pac Man to E.T. the Extra Terrestrial

Next challenge: Go from Adventure to Secret Quest in the fewest number of points.

Sweet. Laser Blast to Pitfall in zero points, 11 moves. My guess is nobody will be able to beat that. I'm going to modify a rule since people aren't using it anyway. Partial-word to partial-word links are now legal, but are penalized 10 points. That means volleyball can be linked to pinball at a cost of ten points. The only condition I'll put on this is that the linking word must be at least four letters long to be legal. You can use a linking word of three letters or less only when at least one of the two games linked has the linking word defined separately in the game title. So here are some examples to illustrate: Pac Man = Superman (10 points) (even though "man" is only three letters this is legal because at least one of the two titles has "man" as a separate word Space Invaders = Space Treat (zero points) Volleyball=pinball (10 points) (legal because "ball" is at least 4 letters long Superman=Bomberman (illegal: linking word < 4 letters and linking word is embedded in both titles Clear as mud? How crazy can this get...

...it's too hard. Any tips appreciated...

i agree that indenture didn't quite work.

I thought I had your 40 points beat, but then I realized I had an illegal link from volleyball to Video Pinball...

I think I know a way to further evolve this game. Thanks for your patience as I keep evolving the rules! We're going to a point system. The chain with the least number of points wins. Here's how the scoring works: - For a perfect word-to-word match, 0 points. - For a match of a word with a plural of that word, 1 point. - For a match where 1 word is embedded in the other word (such as Star in Starmaster), 10 points. - Using any of the short words as a match (is, the, of, or, and) is still illegal. - It's illegal to make a match using portions of both word (such as matching "command" with "superman". If "superman" were spelled "Super Man", then this would be legal but would cost 10 points as above). So given these rules, who can link Laser Blast to Pitfall using the fewest number of points? In case of a tie in points, the shortest chain wins.

oops - I meant LOOSEN the rules, not "listen". MM

OUTSTANDING!!! I'm going to listen the "hard" rules a bit by allowing plurals (i.e., raider=raiders). Let's see somebody connect Laser Blast with Pitfall (two Crane games).

Nice chain. Instead of just making long chains, how about if we have a specific objective this time. Can anybody make a chain that connects Space Invaders to Pac Man? Let's add another rule: no using numbers to make a link. As a tougher challenge, can anybody connect Raiders of the Lost Ark to Chopper Command?

Okay, I'm going to do something radical here to simplify the game, and also to make it more difficult. This is an official rules revision. 1. You have to match the EXACT word, not portions of words. Thus "command" CAN'T be linked with "man". "Command" can only be linked with another "command". 2. You cannot use the following words to make a link: the, and, of, is, or 3. You can only use a number to make a link if that EXACT number is used in the title of both games. (thus Miner 2049er can't be linked with Pitfall 2). Let's try it this way and see what happens.

This would be similar to making KC Munchkin for the 2600, something that I've long wanted to see a homebrewer come up with.

Note: You can still participate even if you don't have all the games...you'll just have to add up the scores of the games you do have and hope that'll top somebody's score from all 5. Quite doable, if you run up the score in one of the games you do have. My guess is Missile Command is the one that'll give people the highest scores in general. So no excuses, get cracking, even if you own only one of them! MAY THE BEST MAN/WOMAN WIN

Adventure is older than Yar's by several years.

Here's how it works: You must play the following five games in rapid succession, and add up the five scores to get your total score. No more than ONE MINUTE can elapse between the time you end one game and begin another - else your score is not valid (this is a test of sheer videogame adrenaline). You can play the games in any order you choose, but you MUST play the EXACT variation specified for each game. Here's the pentathalon: 1. ATLANTIS, variation 2 2. COSMIC ARK, variation 4 3. MISSILE COMMAND, variation 15 4. BERZERK, variation 9 5. KABOOM! You may set the difficulty switches however you'd like, in those cases where it makes any difference. Let's see who the high scorer is on these boards! Please report your score for each game and the total score.

Occasionally in Yar's Revenge, the game will abruptly end and display some letters instead of the score (I assume the letters are the designer's initials). It's quite irritating if you're having a great game (Yar's is one of those games where the score really matters) only to be shut down by this easter egg. Does anybody know what on-screen action triggers the display of this easter egg?

...I wondering what some of the more rabid collectors out there have done to get that rare game for their collection. Anybody?

Great chain. To answer question at the end, no, that isn't legal. But the two different names for the pinball game are legal. I guess it's my thread so I'll make the rules!

This is a game. Here are the rules: make the longest list of Atari 2600 games you can. Each entry in the list has to share at least one word of the title with the previous entry. For purposes of the game plurals count as the same word as singulars (i.e., racer = racers). Words can also legally be embedded in other words (i.e., commander=command=commando, since they all contain "command". Here's a very short chain for starters: Missile Command Chopper Command Pac Man ("command" contains "man") Ms. Pac Man Jr. Pac Man