Fellow Atari Man

March 11, 2010

Oh ok, thanks for the info. Well that sucks a bit. Thought I was losing my mind though!

Anyway, I rewatched the video and it looks like the stuff displays the same. So the small asteroids are just a minor cosmetic change and no big deal. Something's still 'off' though with waiting a long time for a new ship to appear once you lose one, but like I said I'm sure this will be fixed soon.

March 11, 2010

Oh and one last note--don't mean to keep on adding stuff, but for some reason again no Edit button is appearing so I can't edit my first post, unless I'm missing something--to clarify, I couldn't remember if I had said earlier if I had said the small asteroids were either way bigger than on the original or they just didn't exist. Turns out it was the latter. At first glance it just seemed to me that there weren't any. But yeah, they appear to be a lot bigger. So I'll go back and check out that video again after all to see how they look (after all, I don't have to watch all eight minutes of it).

If they're porportionally as big as the player's ship like is reflected in my photos, then no big deal. If not then it's probably due to that display problem I'm having, as well as for the reason why it takes so long for new ships to appear once you've lost one and you're waiting for the screen to clear up, yet there's plenty of times that the coast is clear and it isn't happening.

EDIT: well sheesh, NOW there's an Edit button at the bottom of this post, but not the other two! What gives?!

March 11, 2010

last part...

plus that's the only skill level where the asteroids will move quickly too and you're not awarded any extra ship.

Once again, stating something that's supposed to be there - i.e. the obvious. There's a reason for "skill levels" and the advanced being the "Arcade" mode.

Likewise, because of the skill levels, extra lives were not reproduced in any of the games. That was the trade off they wanted.

I don't know what the original criteria was from Atari Interactive and/or Taco Bell, just pointing it out. So it's not necessarily 'obvious' to everyone, like it wasn't obvious that I could be having problems at my end. Why wasn't it obvious? Not everything that's obvious to one person is the same to another.

Not very faithful in my book, with all of those elements, if you ask me.

Certainly entitled to your opinion based on your misunderstanding.

No misunderstanding here, just for being tech-ignorant. In all the posts on the other thread, not a single one throughout the first several pages said 'wow, these are awesome, and so very close to the originals!', most of them just were in regards to people commenting on not knowing about them being out, stories of going to Taco Bell, picking them up and not playing them yet, or Taco Bells not having them yet, that was it. With the gameplay being crap (so I thought, now I'm fairly sure it's not true) and not anywhere near the original at my end, and figuring people went off too early on the games and seeing the developers were on the pages, possibly didn't want to say anything bad in the process. An e-mail I got about this also stated that the games' reaction had been 'mixed'. I just put two and two together there.

So with the above elements, put yourself in my place: what would a person THINK after all of that? Seriously. I have photographic and video proof at my end and anyone reading this nearby in Houston can drop by and see for themselves in person how it behaves. However I'm pretty sure this can be quickly fixed (someone on here will probably let me know what I need to do at my end for a fix) so if anyone wants to drop by they'd better hurry. But they'll be able to see for their own selves in person.

But then nobody asked.

Don't be condescending to me with the smiley. I see something wrong, I'm going to post about it so others won't waste their time and/or money with something like this. Anyone's free to post too. I can say just as well that being a programmer you should have been able to spot that I'm having trouble and you have to ask yourself why I would make something up, just like if you're the person on the YouTube post who said 'is Darryl making crap up?' No, I am not. You offered to help other people with problems but not myself. Granted I can see how you can jumped to conclusions though just like I did. Like I said, I'll correct the post if this problem gets fixed.

Centipede I haven't played though, can't say for that one, but two out of the three haven't been that faithful, in my opinion.

These aren't ROM duplicates,

Didn't say they were.

Breakout I even worked directly with Al Alcorn on to cover the discrete hardware mechanics.

Read that in the other thread already, didn't question it.

If you want to trash someone's hard work and claim "not faithful"

It was to my understanding. It doesn't matter how hard someone worked or not if they're not faithful. But that could be very well true this time around. If so, congrats on your hard work.

When Curt and I took the contract, we set off to put in a hell of a lot of attention to detail and I put in a hell of a lot of passion in to these. And to have that rewarded with BS like this - to have it summarily dismissed by someone who doesn't have a clue that skill levels usually mean altered game play - unbelievable.

Not BS, from my standpoint. And yes, I did very well understand different skill levels, that's why I tried them all and noticed differences, bowing out on all the easy games because they were so easy indeed. Intermediate's better suited for myself. And the arcade level on Breakout's hilarious with the way your paddle is turned into a dot about the size of the ball! :lolblue: Too difficult for me on that one!

I'm getting an inkling of what HSW went through with his games, and I'm truly feeling sorry for him now.

I'm sure Howard didn't foresee his becoming kind of a kind of 'rock star' status for programmers, so to speak. Nothing to feel sorry for in regards to doing a good job, I just didn't see it and still don't. I'll see it once this problem is fixed.

I killed myself putting in 20 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 8 weeks straight,

...so if you were driving a car during that time, fell asleep at the wheel and ended up killing someone, how would that go over with the victims' family and friends and the court system and inmates and all if you were convicted of Involuntary Manslaughter? (Or whatever's equivalent in your state...here in Texas we got rid of that charge years ago.)

No need to tell me about the demands from Atari and all, I've known how awful the video game business can get due to reading about the horrors of Electronic Arts and all, where programmers would put in 60 or more hours a week, they kept on meeting deadlines for certain parts of a game and wouldn't get a break, EA would just keep on demanding more and more overtime. Maybe this isn't still true nowadays as I read that years ago but I doubt it's much different. Marriages ended and what they did was illegal, yet technically not since there isn't any kind of cap for that kind of thing (i. e. too many hours) since last I heard the entertainment industry doesn't allow or recognize that. Maybe that's changed since the actors strike from several years ago (that's one thing they asked for was shorter hours on the set) but I doubt it.

I don't think I've ever worked 60 hours a week, but I have worked under very miserable conditions, for 11 years with a rare illness, whatever it feels like to a 'normal' person it's 20 degrees hotter to me, I'm constantly drenched in sweat, have no a/c for my car (for those who freak going 'you have an air conditioner in your CAR?', yes, it gets that hot here down south we need them), God forbid if it ever rained and I would have to roll up my windows and turn on the defrost (and turning on the heat makes it work better, which is even more horrible), if my thyroid got low enough I could literally have a heart attack, and lets not forget the fatigue where I would have to set the alarm on my watch so I wouldn't fall asleep during my two state-allowed 15 minute breaks...which happened often.

So, keeping all that in mind, guess how many jobs I ever got fired from. Think about it a good, long time. Does your answer match mine? ZERO. And I worked a lot of temp jobs for a while too, I could have gotten fired from them. Didn't happen. Yet I had all kinds of shit happen where bosses said 'I can't BELIEVE we have to do that!', I would have to talk them down, and they'd thank me for that. Others said 'wow, I thought MY first job was bad, but yours...', since I've done ugly legal work. Yet I did that for years too.

Get used to bad reviews, they'll happen at one point or another, regardless of how good and/or accurate a product is or not compared to the original. Sometimes you can just brush it off to people being idiots, like the very first thing I saw in regards to this was someone saying they had faith until they heard they were Flash programmed. Real brilliant.

You can hire more people for your company. Obviously if it's just you and Curt you can say you don't trust anyone else and you've tried others before, but it didn't work out, you can't afford to hire someone else right now, and blah blah.

But if something catastrophic were to happen, what would become of Legacy Engineering then? I don't know much about business in general but I know if you lose a parent company you're lost big bucks. Or even if Atari didn't pay you much it seems like you can't afford a loss big or small.

Because I'm pretty sure I saw you in a video in regards to gathering support for a portable 2600. Unless I have you mixed up with someone and/or can't recall the exact amount, I think it was stated that well under $100,000 was needed to invest to try to market the thing (I think it was well less than half of that actually). If that's true that's very chump change needed for marketing a product like that.

If you were sued for something, even if you weren't found guilty of anything, that could very well wipe you out. Something to keep in mind when you're in the public eye. No one wants bad publicity; sometimes that can work to a person's advantage (a 'bad boy' actor or actress sometimes won't lose any popularity), other times it doesn't seem to make any kind of effect, like Michael Vick still earning the big bucks, but at least many people still have the sense to boo him whenever he enters the field. But not everything can work out that way, can it?

Think about it.

Anyway, to summarize, if anyone knows what I'm talking about in regards to my display problem, I'll definitely give all this another shot. Sorry for the long-assed posts.

March 11, 2010

Don't get too fired up over his trolling...

How is what I said trolling? I didn't agree with the points, have photographic and video proof of everything I said. Where is the problem here?

BUT...as it turns out, this could be a technical problem from my end. I'm pretty tech-ignorant, so I'll need y'alls help in getting this resolved. If it turns out indeed to be something on my end I'll be more than happy to retract my statement and edit my post.

Thanks for keeping the near-defamatory speculation to a minimum until I was able to get back, since obviously I couldn't post the evening wgungfu replied, and then the night after that (last night), the computer mouse bit the dust. And with it being near impossible to manuever around on the net without a mouse, I decided it would have to wait. So that was rather bad timing :lolblue: The mouse wasn't replaced until earlier today so I got on when I could.

Just one last one before I go to the main post...

I don't care what anybody else says - Marty and Curt are AWESOME!

Who said anything otherwise? If you mean me, when did I ever say anything about them?

No they're not. In Asteroids, Hyperspace works instantly, which it didn't in the arcade, and you can't die upon re-entry.

Incorrect. Just fired up the Asteroids Rev 2 ROM in MAME. Hyperspace works instantly (as soon as I hit the space bar), and it just died on re-entry.

Not what I meant actually. What I meant was there is a delay in Hyperspace, as it takes like a second and a half or so before your ship reappears after you hit the button. Not a big deal, just pointing that out, as I'm sure people are happier that way since Hyperspace can be dangerous (I never minded on not being able to die on Mine Storm on the Vectrex, for instance). Sorry for the confusion on my poorly-worded post.

The smallest-sized asteroids don't exist

Also incorrect.

NOT incorrect...not from my viewpoint, at least, which I'll explain later. I'll do all the tech stuff together before addressing them all at once.

Here are photos that are not Photoshopped or tampered in any way (aside from dialog on one, and I think I slightly resized another one, iirc):

That's Asteroids, revision 2.

That's from the Taco Bell game. Doesn't look like there's much of a difference? Lets try it in a more obvious angle...original (to the best of my knowledge, since I don't always trust ROMs), with only a screenful of small asteroids left:

Now the same concept, but from the Taco Bell release:

And there's not difference whatsoever between the two? Yes there very obviously much is. The rocks are quite bigger than on the ROM/arcade version.

anyone looking at the review video posted can clearly see small Asteroids.

I watched the video once and saw no reason to watch it again. I watched it before I got the games so it wouldn't have 'clicked' with me that I am having tech trouble at my end.

I had to wait and wait and wait and wait for a long time for a new ship to appear after dying and the coast was clear plenty of times.

So far you're the only person reporting this problem.

Like I said, I'll answer all the tech stuff in one swoop.

Or maybe you're playing on the lower skill levels which were designed for kids at Taco Bell's request and specifically feature more allowances (such as easier thrust, saucer variances, more breathing room for regeneration, etc.), and clearly explained elsewhere here.

Nope, it did that on intermediate. I can film a clip of it but it probably won't be necessary. I was going to use the Hypercam capture yesterday when I started a game but went 'oh dammit, I forgot to start the Hypercam program'. But then I noticed (too late, since I had the sound off) the large saucer had appeared and shot me. However, I did have on my watch, which I started timing it, in case the problem happened. Yep, it took fifty seconds for my next ship to appear...nearly an entire MINUTE. If anyone thinks that's not a long time, try killing a ship and look at a watch or clock for that long and see how very long it is. You couldn't get any combination of rocks on the first screen of the game to block you out for that long, no way, no how.

Now, as I said I'd answer these together, now here's what apparently the deal is: for those who have seen the thread about the Cliffall homebrew, I downloaded it and was wondering why the screen was so screwed up. It was odd that I had no indication as to how many lives I had, I would get hit by creatures for a while until I just died at some point. I saw screenshots and wondered why didn't my version look like that.

Then I realized part of the top of the screen was cut off, unseen. I messed around with trying to get the vertical resolution fixed but couldn't. After messing around with various things I just tried resetting it to the factory default. Bingo, that fixed it.

Now, there was another game where for some reason the screen was slightly blown up, as the left and right edges were too big, with a tiny bit of those vertical sides/images cut off and the in-game dialog started looking weird (some characters were fat). I downloaded the upgrade to it and noticed the same thing but it wasn't a big deal, and I didn't think much of it.

Now, with this problem being more prevalent--and being able to think about this for a while until I figured it out once I had to wait before I could get back online again--it seems like the game is 'reading' the graphics wrong (probably not the correct term but I'm sure you get my drift). That would explain why no one else has mentioned this and why I have to wait and wait and wait for a new ship to appear; somehow the asteroids are being read incorrectly, the game thinks they're actually bigger than they're actually appearing, so it's waiting until the coast is clear...which can take a very long time, yet it's very clear to me over and over again the coast has been very obviously very clear until the next ship finally decides to appear.

So, if anyone knows what I'm talking about, I'd appreciate letting me know what the deal is so I can attempt a fix and retry the game. If things work out the way they should, like I said earlier, I'll be more than happy to edit and retract my statement/earlier post.

The small saucer only seems to come out on the highest skill level (I got over 20,000 on intermediate and it wouldn't come out)

Once again, looks like you didn't read any of the background of these games and why they were done. Try reading through some of the other threads here before complaining about things that were up front from the get go. The skill levels are there for a reason.

Yes I did read the background, just pointing it out. I know why the skill levels are there too.

but the saucers kill you so quickly so often it's not like the original either,

Sorry, but that's incorrect again. The saucer firing mechanism (I'm assuming you're describing the small saucer) uses the exact same targeting criteria and timing as the original arcade source code, which I had as well.

Yeah that might've been a bad coincidence/jumping to a conclusion too quickly from myself. This might've just happened twice or something and it seemed to happen every time; it could happen two or three times in a row and still just be random, but just a coincidence (the same can be said from the game I mentioned earlier that I've had slight problems with [called Gridhunt, by the way], where at times you swear the damn computer's cheating!), and I was just disgusted that the game wasn't anywhere like the original and uninstalled it from the computer. But I'd be happy to be wrong with that and to be able to play a much closer version to Asteroids than I originally thought.

(to be continued, I got a message saying that this goes beyond the character posting limit)

March 8, 2010

as always very faithful to the originals.

No they're not. In Asteroids, Hyperspace works instantly, which it didn't in the arcade, and you can't die upon re-entry. The smallest-sized asteroids don't exist, they're as big as your ship! I had to wait and wait and wait and wait for a long time for a new ship to appear after dying and the coast was clear plenty of times. The small saucer only seems to come out on the highest skill level (I got over 20,000 on intermediate and it wouldn't come out) but the saucers kill you so quickly so often it's not like the original either, plus that's the only skill level where the asteroids will move quickly too and you're not awarded any extra ship. Not very faithful in my book, with all of those elements, if you ask me.

Lunar Lander has a bizarre glitch where the point values keep on changing upon decent; I've seen repeatedly (thought I was wrong at first, but after it kept on doing it over and over...) where I was going to land on something that was 3X, then when the landscape zoomed up, it was down to 1X, or vice versa. Or at times they'd totally disappear. Whatever. I'm pretty sure the original didn't do that, I'll have to download the ROM to check.

I assume Breakout's faithful but can't say for sure since I hadn't played that since I was a little kid.

Centipede I haven't played though, can't say for that one, but two out of the three haven't been that faithful, in my opinion.

March 6, 2010

Yeah, the AVGN made an idiot out of himself in regards to the 32X bashing. I was halfway thinking of putting up a reply to his 32X bashed video, but it had thousands of replies, so someone probably already covered them. The only ones I can remember offhand was him ridiculously trying to blame playing Doom and all with only a three button controller when the six button ones were available back then as well (duh!), along with not being able to fit all the adapters onto a power strip, when, again, they started making those available back then when all the outlets weren't facing vertically in a stack. There were several other stupid things in regards to that video too but I don't recall what else they were though.

edit: Forgot to say, although I have 32x DOOM, I don't know why; must have got it free. It TOTALLY SUCKS on 32X and is an embarrassment to the system)

Depends on your exposure to Doom, that was the first version of Doom I had played at the time and it was still a blast.

Anyway, I've got both the 32X and CD, the CD I only paid $70 for (after it had been out for a few years) and the 32X when it was under $50 (think I only paid $30 for it). Nothing real great in either case, got a few good ones though, like Doom, Shadow Squadron and Kolibri for the 32X, even though it's load times were agonizingly slow, Willie Beamish on the CD was hilarious, got Out of This World and it's sequel with Heart of the Alien, Silpheed, Flashback (bypassing the Genesis version, having better music and cinematics) and a few other highlights, especially since I still need Road Avenger and Batman Returns (among a few others)! Heard just the driving section alone was pretty killer on the latter!

March 4, 2010

"actresses" you say? What does "decorum" say about sending me a PM?

PM the link here also.

I might have to break down and pick this up after seeing that.

As fine as StanJr looks in those pictures, I'm still not yet convinced. That video might push me over the edge godslabrat.

I do look fine thank you very much. I can do some topless pics of my own if you like...

Nope, the topless wimmen are enough for most of us, I think

Oh yeah: before godslabrat sent me the link (thanks, btw ), I just did a search for "topless women on the Wii". Um, sadly, there's more than one site that does such a thing, another one had a bunch of British babes playing Wii games. There's different ones per game too, so you can take your pick :cool:

March 4, 2010

And what about the Sega CD? I believe the Sega CD used an internal battery and also can take some kind of special cartridge to put saves on; does that cartridge use a battery backup too?

Yeah the Sega CD had internal storage, not a battery, I don't think. It had space for four games.

The Backup RAM Cart added space for 10 games total...no battery required on it either. Here it is.

Columns

Ms Pac Man

Sonic 1

Not sure if you're asking if your list of games required batteries or not, but I'm sure these three don't, at least.

February 4, 2010

Thanks for giving the article a read!

You're welcome, and I'm glad that several others have chimed in since as well!

Plus, we've had company come over and had a blast just playing the Balance games in a sort of "party" atmosphere. I know two of our friends also purchased a Wii and Wii Fit based on the fun they had while visiting us.

That's great!

Yeah, it IS interesting just to watch as it is, even without it being a powerhouse as far as the graphics go with the other current gaming systems.

The only change that I would like to see incorporated into Wii Fit Plus is that I would like to see the date included in the "record" of an exercise or balance game.

I'd like to be able to mute that squeeky voice when you do your body test and all. It just has a few very little things to tweak it a tiny bit, and that's it. It's great enough as it is.

Some may call Wii Fit Plus a "fad gadget" that gets little use, but not in our house.

No way in utter HELL a "fad" costs a hundred bucks (note: that's with the game and the Wii Fii Board, if you have to buy that package), yet was still a top seller for 2009. I was surprised in reading that several weeks ago, I had no idea.

Exercising is easy when it is fun. My grandparrents gave me their tread mill cause they never used it, Now I got it set in a corner with a TV and walk on it nearly every day while I watch the news

Agreed 100%. And go for you too

February 2, 2010

There was a pretty neat demo that looked like a cross between Mortal Kombat and the little Italian cartoons they used to show on The Great Space Coaster, though. Not sure if that was ever completed, though!

I think you're talking about a homebrew karate game. Did it have paralax scrolling, or do you know? Yeah, I haven't heard anything about that one in a while now, it hasn't been completed yet (obviously).

January 30, 2010

Space Frenzy is what you mean, John makes it. Comes with the unfinished demo of Super Spike World. Not much to do in that one but Frenzy's addicting for a while. Vecmania's definitely worth it too.

Right now I'm mostly playing Royal 21.

January 27, 2010

Edit: how do you edit posts anyway? No Edit button is showing up for my previous post

Well, yes, you can eat birds' eggs to increase your health. Shiny small treasures, yeah, add to your score...quite a bit, actually.

I got to one part where I couldn't figure out how to get past a couple of huge rocks...then I figured out that I had to accomplish a certain task to do it. It was a neat touch Oh, and it looks like that annoying rat from Pitfall 2 makes a return as well!

January 27, 2010

You just have to mess around with it a bit to find certain treasure pieces and then you can go from there.

One thing you have to a few times, for instance, is go as far right as you can when you first start the game, to the swinging vine, then fall from the left side of the screen. There's pieces of some kind of object you have to get in order to progress through the game. You'll have to get to that underwater area, then go up into the caverns a few times in order to find the pieces and unlock more of the game (just explore around a bit), like when you get all the pieces together, go back underwater, then go to the right side, rather than left and back into the caves again; the treasure piece (once complete) will unlock the second area of the game.

BTW, here's a few things I just discovered tonight:

There's a few shiny items in the game. Anyone know what they do? I didn't really pay attention to see if my score jumped up or not when I snagged them. One of them is right next to the skeleton in the underwater area.

You can climb up several trees and eat fruit if you try I think I ate an egg from a bird's nest to restore my health too, not exactly 100% sure.

This isn't a bad one, they just need to fix a few bugs, like the jumping/getting stuck in walls/not falling problems. And even the original Pitfall games looked better than this one, the graphics are crap! But it's cool though.

January 27, 2010

Then i thought,since the Vectrex is dependent on a built in monitor,the monitor konks out and that's it,you're screwed.Its not like you can just change the monitor/TV like you would do for a console,so i passed.

Not necessarily, I've heard that Vectrexes have off the shelf hardware that you can supposedly take to a tv repair shop and they can get it fixed. Can't say I've heard of anyone doing that or not though, so that's at least something to remember and try out if it happens.

January 19, 2010

Very good in-depth review there Stan. Obviously a lot of time was spent getting to 'know' this release, as there's so much to do in it, being many games, along with actual 'legit' exercises (I guess you can say--yoga and all) too. They're challenging, fun, have tons of replay value, and you get to burn calories as well!

The family got one several weeks ago and I hardly miss a day on it.

December 15, 2009

I think it's because Jakks comes out with so many of these they become collectors' items in no time flat. A lot of people have a hard time finding them when they come out in the first place even, much less when they don't even find out about them until a few years later.

November 16, 2009

Yeah unfortunately John Dondzila, wonderful Vectrex preserver with games and all, has been trying to find a replacement for his Genesis to Vectrex converted pads for months now but hasn't yet.

Someone on here also posted a while back of a new Vectrex controller (that looked big and expensive but you never know) but I can't find it now. I assume that hasn't been released or else it would have been posted on the Vectrex news sites and all by now. Anyone have any updates on it?

November 12, 2009

Actually, I got the Sega Genesis and DOS maps (same thing, just different colors - see attached)

Yeah I know, I have both too. Actually there's a tiny bit of difference with no Uhlek territory in the upper right of the map, which is on the Genesis but not the DOS version. Other than that, yeah, they're pretty much identical.

Thanks again!

You're welcome, you got the better deal out of it that way though, no pen marks to have to white out or erase via Photoshop!

And yeah, in regards to the last post, I also play Star Control too One of the few Genesis games I have that I can still play over the years.

November 5, 2009

Does anyone know if there is a Starflight map on the web somewhere to download?

It seems like a cool game but I need the map and the sucker is hard to find.

If anyone knows please respond here, please!!!

Thanks.

Hi SS, if it's not downloadable on that SF page somewhere (I only just skimmed through it just now), let me know, because, if worse comes to worse, I can just scan mine and send it to you. Granted, it'll be in a few pieces (since it's so large I can't scan it all at once) and I've got markings for wormholes and all, but if that's the only option that you wind up having I'll be glad to send it your way as it is

October 26, 2009

Then you're thinking of the 3rd edition Pac-Man game shown here, that's been out for two years.

There's been so many of them it's easy to get them confused.

I found this variant of the 4th edition stick however, but I've not seen it for sale --

http://www.searchamateur.com/pictures/pac-...d-tv-game-1.jpg

They come out with so many I think they go out of print quickly. Here the most current one (I think) is the Retro Arcade Featuring Pac-Man, yet it's not on Jakks' website, the last one is still Arcade Gold, with only eight games; the current one has all of them, plus four more (Galaga, Xevious, Mappy and I think Pole Position wasn't on the previous). Because they came out with some Star Wars Episode 3 one, but now that the movie's come and gone from the theatres they're not making that one any more either...same with the 1 vs. 100 tv show that was cancelled, try finding that in a store already.

Gee, they keep putting out new sticks but the same games in a different combo.

Yeah I think it's a bit disgusting; I'm almost disgusted now that I got Retro Arcade Featuring Pac-Man, but I'm having a blast with it, plus it's my first ever plug and play unit anyhow, so it's not like I'm getting ripped off by buying all the ones that have come out in the last few years.

I had a very interesting telephone conversation with Jakk's Pacific yesterday and had them look at this picture, they said it didn't exist, insisting that their most recent version was Edition 4 Arcade Gold Pac-Man.

Yeah I had to e-mail them to register my product, since it said on their warranty page that the product didn't exist. In their return e-mail they said they noted it in their records that I had applied for my warranty. However if the thing breaks I'm just going to return it to Target anyway, either way it's the same warranty (90 days).

October 26, 2009

You earn a new feature with every 2000 points you score. Get a high score of 2450, for instance, and you unlock the first of these features. Get a high score of 12890 and you unlock (all?) six of them. The point total doesn't carry over so you have to score them all in a single game. However, the cartridge has a save feature (!) so once the features are unlocked, they stay unlocked, even after power off.

Oh lord I went higher than 6000 points yesterday, if only I knew... I didn't notice anything special, though, how are these features supposed to be unlocked? I kinda hate "easter eggs" and hidden stuff, I feel deprived of part of the good work the programmers did to fit all thy could into the cart.

They're not. Just start up Y. A. S. I., and on the main screen, press 2 for Options, then two again. Keep on repeatedly pressing 2 and you'll see a variety of variations to choose from: you start off with the regular game (A), then others include steerable missiles, cloaking invaders, moving bunkers, etc.

October 22, 2009

Yeah Jess Ragan got it right about the scoring, although I think it's in increments of a thousand. Just have a few good games and you'll start noticing the stuff, it's under variations or something, I can't recall offhand...

BTW, on his ordering page why does he have 2 different sections of Vectrex games?

I believe the the first section is his own creations of the second is from others.

Yeah, several of the games--Protector/Y. A. S. I., Vaboom!/Vectrace, etc.--were originally sold by Mark Shaker on his vectrexcarts.com website. John Dondzilla volunteered to take it over for Mark when Mark's dad went into the hospital for a while and he spent a lot of time going to the hospital to see him.

October 22, 2009

Who knows anything about programmer Alex Herbert? Is he perhaps working on something new for the Vectrex?

He seems to be one of those kinds of people that have disappeared for a while, as forums for his website have never shown up (IIRC) and he was working on Berzerk Arena where you could hook up two Vectrexes and go through a maze to seek out and shoot the other player (I think) but I haven't seen or heard any development from that game in like forever either. Hopefully he'll pop back up at some point and post some new news?

And yeah, like everyone else, I played the hell out of Y. A. S. I./Protector too. I've never heard a bad review of that one and probably never will. Have you gotten into the unlockable additions on Y. A. S. I. yet? Nice to have some variations on that one

October 15, 2009

I did not know there was a Vanguard 2,

Like JR said, it was nothing like the original. I didn't think it was bad though. It was pretty surreal playing it too in the sitdown version, since there was no in-game music (pretty common back in those days). Calling it Vanguard 2 made no sense whatsoever though, it was a totally different, unrelated game.

October 15, 2009

Yeah I've been interested in this one for a while, especially due to...

That looks really sweet! The game "Red Leader" in particular reminds me of The Dreadnaught Factor.

...that in particular, since I've always wanted to play that game.

I've got their Retro Arcade Featuring Pac-Man unit. I'm pretty happy with it, despite no two player variations. I pretty much agree with this review of it here, especially the screwing up of Xevious part (I almost never play that due to no diagionals, it's ridiculous!).

I asked my nephew about it when he was here over the weekend and he said he played the Star Wars one and liked it. He's 12 though, so I don't know what us old dudes are to think of it. Looks promising though. The Return of the Jedi game with the Millenium Falcon going through the Death Star looks like a side-viewed version of the Atari Return of the Jedi game though, but I don't have anything against that game though, just saying it doesn't look real original!

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