JasperAK

These are not the TACOS you are looking for. All of these posts are distracting to Hard Work. There should be more tacos on New Years Eve. Come back then.

Damn, I could have been at Hard Work on my passion project but got distracted by this thread. You all are the reason why I can't get Hard Work done. Hopefully after this thread dies down after the Tacos rot, I'll only have to revisit it once a year. 😜

Well I could get a stopwatch and a lady and count the ticks. Too soon?

Ignoring this thread is Hard Work.

Congrats on the book. I'm interested in programming for the 2600, and why I clicked on your link. This crap on the other hand is why I stay the F*** away from TikTok. This BTW was the video that showed up immediately after yours.

Just because it's HardWork, doesn't mean you shouldn't start.

Is it already 2024? We're getting closer.

I started a list but realized it was just a list of my favorite games. I was just a wee little one during the 2600 heyday, so I'm not sure if my thoughts have any value to the question posed. What I'd really be more interested in is what 10 games or fewer keep your 2600 hooked up to the TV. What can really only be played on the 2600? Sp what defines the 2600 today. Is that list different? For the record the games that had the most impact on me around 1982-1984 when I started really playing the 2600: Asteroids Haunted House Pac-Man Defender Missile Command Yars' Revenge Space Invaders Chopper Command Pitfall Empire Strikes Back Miscellaneous Notes: I naughty word hate Space Invaders. I don't think I've ever completed two boards. Almost the same thing with Megamania. I did not have Megamania back then but it wouldn't have mattered. I still stink at both of these games. Badly. But Space Invaders was always in the rotation. Naughty word you all. We loved Pac-man and Defender! Today, there are so many better versions of Pac-man that I'd rather play them than the Atari's original. But while Stargate (Defender 2) is awesome and the remake of Defender that's on this site is naughty word amazing, I still like Atari's original Defender. Chopper Command, Pitfall, and Empire Strikes Back were the most graphically attractive games. I'm mad that I never got an actual Chopper Command patch. Too easy. But fun as naughty word. Honorable Mentions: Now for some reason I don't remember having Berserk, but if I had that game back in the day, like today it would have been my favorite. Same with River Raid. And Warlords. By 1986 or so my friends were moving on to Nintendo but I logged a naughty word ton of time with Solaris. At some point (1985-86) I also played the snot out of H.E.R.O and loved it. I could only clear maybe three or four boards but loved it none-the-less. So to answer the question I posed for myself at the top of this is this: Berzerk Asteroids Yars' Revenge Warlords Defender Chopper Command River Raid Ice Hockey (and all the team color hacks I made) Pitfall Empire Strikes Back Honorable Mentions: Beamrider Star Master Robot Tank Atlantis (which I suck at) Moonsweeper Galagon Wizards of Wor Remake Defender Remake Dr. Who Today is awesome because we have access to everything, but back then, I would have loved Beamrider, Ice Hockey, Star Master, and Robot Tank if I had them. They would have definitely made my list.

I just realized that this thread can now legally drink on New Years almost everywhere but the States.

EDIT: The link in the first post lands here. I'm running Windows 7 Firefox. After testing, I also land on a page with Orko. Love it. And this is what the first post looks like for me. I'm assuming that the first link is supposed to be a picture of the font.

It looks like the 'www' in the links is causing the problem. Including your signature.

Fuck yes for the necro on this! My son has been hounding me for this game on the Switch. It's 'They Came From the Sky'. He thinks it would be fun for us to play against each other and since it is up to four players, his sister could join in. I don't know, the gameplay resembles the Atari 2600 and visuals are not much more advanced. I mean this doesn't remind me of the fidelity of the NES with its more pixels per screen or far more colors. Maybe it's not the 2600, but it's something. What is it? This post might look like poop because I can't figure how to add inline images.

I loved playing the original games like Haunted House, Pitfall, Defender, Chopper Command, River Raid, and Home Run/Real Sports Baseball. So much so around 1986, I got a Jr. to replace a failing Vader and Solaris along with it. Mom also got Karateka for me because neither the sales guy nor my mother knew what the hell was what. Others in the neighborhood played The Legend of Zelda, R.C. Pro-Am and Double Dragon, and I was jealous. but I honestly hated Super Mario Brothers, and even though I sucked at it, I still loved Solaris. But the writing was on the wall. I got my NES somewhere around '87-'88 and some of the first few games I got were Star Voyager, 1942, MLB, and Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link. Not long after that I got Bases Loaded. I was set, but once I got Silent Service, Genghis Khan, Final Fantasy, and a NES Advantage, the Atari got packed up. Solaris never having been beaten. I have replaced everything I had in the past and added much (far too much) more. I've introduced my kids to the 2600 (on a replacement Vader), NES, SNES, and Genesis. They love Ice Hockey, Warlords and Golden Axe. They enjoyed most of the games I showed them, but unless they were arcade-like--head-to-head or score competition--, they couldn't quite keep their attention. So today we rock the Switch, but the only retro-system I've set up for the family is the Genesis. Truth though, I have the NES and my hacked Atari Flashback hooked up to my computer monitor. Every once in a while I try for another Activision patch.

I think they really missed the boat here. If it weren't such hard work, they could have released this to coincide with Netflix showing both the original four seasons and the Knight Rider 2000 feature.

Ready to buy

I've actually earned the first one a couple of years ago, so i'll be waiting.

I am surprised that no one mentioned one of the biggest differences to me. Activision offered patches. So while most of the games were never ending, there was a distinct goal to reach. Now my crew back in the day never sent away for the patches, but we always challenged each other to earn them. We had high score sheets that we would have to sign off on. When I got back in to playing Atari, I took my hacked Flashback to work and we played the shit out of all the Activision games that were fun and offered a patch. My 19yo co-worker earned about six patches and I earned around nine. I printed out the patches and made a shadow box for mine. Earning the patch for Dragster, Spider Fighter, and Barnstorming were quite the achievement. I remember he missed the Spider Fighter patch by around 500 points, but he was the first with Dragster. So for me, Activision wins by offering a tangible goal. Tangent: Chopper Command's patch score of 10,000 was ridiculously low. You can get that in about three or four waves. It should have been somewhere around 30,000 or so.

I forgot about both of those. Amazing games.

I think you need a Harmony Encore. Check your ROM in something like Stella to make sure it is ok. I think there are a few homebrews that require the updated Harmony Encore, but I can't remember what it does that the previous one doesn't.

Definitely check out the homebrews. There are so many that are exceptional. With a little hunting on the site, you should be able to find versions to put on a Harmony cart. Honestly, if you are new to the site, I'd recommend hanging out in 2600 programming to see what people are coming up with today. Following the development of these games is amazing. For example, if you like Defender, then look for Arcade Defender. Some brilliant programmer took the guts of Stargate/Defender 2 and demade it to match as close as possible the Defender found in the arcade. There are at least half-a-dozen playable revisions. One of my favorite games to play Dr. Who vs. the Daleks based on Berzerk. Another is Galagon, a remake of Galaga that is amazing. Star Castle, Arcade Wizard of Wor, and Venture Reloaded. All amazing. And holy crap if you like Warlords, track down Medieval Mayhem. If you fell in love with the 2600 and its original library, homebrews will make you fall in love all over again. And because you can follow the development of so many of these games, it's like a long-lasting honeymoon. Something to match Solaris is going to be hard though, because it was one of the latest and most complex games. I remember I got mine when I bought a replacement Jr. somewhere around '87. As others have mentioned, Beamrider, Moonsweeper, and Star Master would probably be the most similar that I've played. If I wanted just the space combat, I'd go with Star Master. Radar Lock will probably look the most similar to Solaris since they were released around the same time, but I don't remember playing it much. Another space combat game I like is Tac-Scan. I'd watch a video or play a rom before buying it though since its gameplay is a little different.

You just go on pluging your game. That is some amazing work.

Non non, Mr. Grindypants. After 4 hours of Penult? Non Non.

Yes. Quite clearly there is something wrong with you. Berzerk is a metaphor for life man. Every step is a one way ticket closer to death. There's no going back. The maze is unsolvable. Like life. All that matters is your score at the end. You dig? ? This post courtesy of me listening to a band from the early 70's called Pluto. ?

I can't possibly upvote or like this post enough. This Venture hack shows what the original hardware is capable of. This Venture hack is amazing, and something I would like to have on a cart. Look at what is possible with this little 6502 system we have been dicking with for the past 40 years. And that's not even talking about what is possible with ARM.

A few points. I bought Wizard of Wor Arcade and Galagon for myself for Christmas. They are in a box with many other retro game carts that I am not currently using. When I want to play either game, I play the demos on my Harmony Plus Cart. I do not regret my purchase, but this has lowered my chances for purchasing other full productions. I don't need boxes or printed manuals, but I do enjoy the physical carts. My son also loves the carts, so I have now all of the carts for the roms he likes to play. He loves the visceral feeling of changing the carts to change the game. He's six. He likes the agency. The look on his face when I took a cart of Battlezone out of a bubble mailer was priceless. What neither of us needs is a box. I enjoy physical carts so much that I am tempted to get custom carts of a few games that I hacked (Canyon Raid, Night Raid, or Pittsburgh vs. Montreal/Ottowa/San Jose/New York Islanders/Philadelphia/Toronto/Vancouver/Washington in Ice Hockey). I also want one for a Berzerk/Dr. Who hack, but I think the author fell off the face of the earth. But back to the roms. A while ago, I had seriously considered reaching out to some developers here to offer to pay for full roms with Venmo or another cash app. I'm glad to hear that that may soon be in the offering here, because I also don't mind supporting this site. I don't mind rewarding the developer, the publisher, and the distributor for games that I enjoy. I don't want to side-track the thread, but I think Amico has it right. I don't think I will have any problem paying $10 for a digital download game. I will almost certainly buy a few physicals if they are around $20 or so. I'm glad to see AA may possibly offer something similar. You know what would make physical purchases so much easier for me? The digital copy for free to put on my Harmony.