Fellow Atari Man

I think you can hide behind the house, if I remember correctly (I don't have the game any more)

Huh, I played one of those myself, but I guess someone imported it. I liked the new versions of Rally X and Pac-Man on Vol. 2, those were pretty good

I think it's the same way in Australia as well; a friend of mine there said they're either popular now, or were popular in the 80s and 90s, I don't recall. I'll try to remember to ask, next time I get an e-mail from him. It just depends on where you live, I guess. In America they obviously weren't *real* popular, in general.

Another tip is that sometimes it's good to try to clear out either the very top or very bottom rows after eating a vitamin pill, since you'll get those out of the way, plus you'll be closer to the next vitamin pill once it re-appears again.

Also, "as far as I can tell" as well (plus a tip from myself), either the vitamins don't disappear until you eat them, or they stay on the screen for a LONG time. So you won't always have to rush/risk death in order to get to them. I'll get to playing and posting scores later

I can only assume that's due to shoddy coding. The 32x should've been more than capable of running Doom. 938611[/snapback] Oh, it WAS more than capable of running Doom indeed, it ran smoothly and all (no one's mentioning the 3D0 version, which ran slower than a snail? And I heard the Saturn version sucked too, looking just like the 32X's, graphics-wise). Now, if you meant that it could have been better, since it was missing the crushing ceilings, creatures' side profiles, the infamous barrier around the screen, and not being able to save a game, that's a totally different thing entirely. It was still very playable and fun, but you might think differently (due to the above, obviously) if you played the PC version first, then found all the above missing on the 32X version. But that doesn't mean the 32X version crawled or anything.

There wasn't a Doom for the Genesis, but the 32X. Only other one I can think of to steer clear of is The Immortal, where there's over 30 animated deaths, like having monsters' heads explode, the tops of their heads cut off, etc. Cool for us older kids, but not the younger ones!

Big improvement since my last post...

Yeah, as mentioned later, it was The Boss, mine didn't last very long either. Strange for being such a huge, steady stick though. Plus I didn't like the feel of it, either...too bulky! Could've been the Wico Boss? Mine is 20 years old and still going strong 930519[/snapback] Wow, I'm impressed! Oh god! Before I found out Genesis controllers would work for the 2600, I got a Radio Shack knock-off that for a replacement joystick for my 2600, was very much like those Epyx ones (whatever it's called)...didn't last long. That was another Atari mistake, making those. Never used one, but I never heard a kind word about them.

I don't know, actually; I've toyed with the idea of keeping a 2600 high scores list once I got back into my 2600 a few years back, but obviously I haven't done much with the idea. Probably not much higher than the score I posted here, though: I'm usually pretty consistant with the game, getting through several screens, so I doubt I'll suddenly have a 20,000 or more game, but you never know.

It does if I'm having to constantly hit the button to make my ship fire, rather than just holding it down. I didn't say it allowed your ship to fire more than one shot, I said it was annoying to having to constantly press the button, rather than hold it down. Plus if the formation isn't as wide, then you're not having to move from one side to the other for kamikaze attacks. It's best (in my opinion) to remain in the center as much as possible, rather than being sent to the sides where you could possibly get trapped. Actually, I find that I hit the flagships more often in this version by accident, due to the gaps. But then, I'm comparing that to the arcade version (which has fewer space in between aliens), which you didn't mention anyway.

Yep, took, what, 8K? 16K? (Being too lazy to look.) Funny thing was, I played this once at a Sears years and years ago when it first came out, but didn't remember being impressed with it at all. The "picture" (drawing) in the Atari Age mag looked pretty bad too (although it was pretty accurate as to what the game looked like). Then years later I tried out the ROM for it just out of curiosity, and I later got the cartridge! Heh... *Another tip: if you can, take out the aliens on the sides of the screen, making their formation less wide, which there will be less attacks coming from all angles of the screen. Dang, this is annoying on difficulty a though.

Tip: *If you can take out the flagship's escorts first without due risk, THEN hit the flagship for top points, do it. However, it's not worth risking death for a few extra hundred points if there's a lot of bombs dropping and/or other aliens are swarming down as well.

Getting back on topic, most of the stuff in Dragonstomper is random (there's a few objects that ALWAYS appear in a couple of castles), not to mention Escape from the Mindmaster.

I never have understood a few of the weird Defender comparisons, like Defender with Cosmic Avenger: first off, with Defender, you have control over where you go; you don't on C. Avenger (it seems to me that C. Avenger is a little closer to Scramble than Defender is). Same goes with Defender with the Activision game Stampede; again, you can't go where you want (left and right, I mean) in Stampede! I just think those two "comparisons" (which I use that term loosely) have always been strange.

There were a good DOZEN video game systems and personal computers on the market to choose from. So, yep. As I read in an interview with one of the GCE guys, they said if they had juuuuuust gotten the Vectrex out a year or two earlier...

Gads, really? You're the only person I've ever met that liked that one; everywhere else I've seen (now and back "in the day") slammed it's slowdowns and two player deathmatch on a blank screen. It still scrolled pretty well, and yes, it DID have the BFG. I don't know where you can find it--I think there were two levels where I never could get 100% secrets on--but there's an easter egg where you can cycle through every single weapon, and the BFG does pop up. Except for the Saturn and 3D0; ironically, the latter had one of the best versions of Wolfenstein, but one of the worst of Doom. Anyway, seconding many votes to Kolibri and Shadow Squadron; Doom too, but only if you never played a pc version, which you probably have already.

Yah. And I think the Minelayer seeding the field probably counts as the first "cinematic" cutscene in video game history Oh, no way. There were games way before that that had those. I don't recall the name of one game I played, but it was some old, old black and white racing arcade game from a bunch of ROMs a friend of mine sent me (maybe Laguna Racing, or something like that) that had one: you crashed your car, and either a guy came running out, or some road crew guy ran to the car to help, or something. Forgot what, exactly. It came out in the late 70s. Well... it launched right before the crash. 904050[/snapback] Yep, plus there were a good DOZEN other gaming consoles and computers of all types on the market to try to choose from as well. So that didn't help. Other than a few of the early games to avoid (even though Star Hawk was a near exact port of the arcade game, it gets boring fast, Hyperchase totally sucks rocks, etc.), there's several good games, and the homebrew scene is what I'd describe as "near incredible", there's a lot of very good ones for it.

Well, after a whopping 20 minutes or so, I think I've had enough already And I think we found a game that's faster than Dragster!

Nice to hear someone say that; I've seen reviews stating that "no one liked invisible invaders", but I always did ZERO, ADD ME TO THE CLUB THIS TIME AROUND! Anyway, hardly had any time this week at all for this game; going to be playing some of it tonight. This is the best I've done so far...

Porky's has a really stupid one when you first turn the Atari on, where it shows Pee Wee blowing up Porky's. The reason it's stupid is because that's the game's ENDING. Morons; dunno why they showed that first, then there's no 'reward' when you beat the game and you see the same ending again My guess is when you complete a level for Escape from the Mindmaster and the door comes rushing up is a cutscene...

Thanks, mod. I think the absolute best way is to have a separate VCS, even if the 7800 is modded. Note: dunno what the deal is with quoting, I got an error, so it's in italics VCS' are indeed cheap. There's nothing wrong with that 7800 mod, as I've done it myself, never had a problem. You can still play P. Patrol, but yeah, no shields. I can still beat it every time and with maybe two starbase dockings, three if I get beaten up especially badly. But we'll see what kind of 7800 you get first, though

Bah ha ha ha...I hadn't played this game in so long I had forgotten how slow the scoring is Thought all the scores were low the first day or two until *I* played the damn thing. Anyway, not much competition from me this week, only had time for a couple of games. Oh well, happy 4th everybody.

Yeah, I can't find the old one either, hence why I'm bumping this one up; quite a few Atari reviews here: Stage Select There's Power Drive Rally (Jaguar), Joust and Asteroids (7800), Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (two there), E. T., Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Indy 500, Dishaster, etc. (2600).

Escape from the Mindmaster Midnight Magic Kaboom