dogcorn

Eh...here's a mystery. On page 4 of the "Cat wants to play" catalog scan, the Lynx on the bottom is showing an odd game. Anyone know what it is? It looks like Sonic the Hedgehog to me.

Fairfield, CA is home to Scandia Funcenter, with a bunch of great classics. It was a while back but from what I remember, there was Missile Command, Pac-Man, Trivia Pursuit and Paperboy, among many others I don't recall.

Dragon's Lair 1 & 2 were the only ones I know I finished on one credit at the arcade. Time Traveler maybe, but I don't remember if I ever did it without using any reversal cubes. My friend could finish Samurai Showdown 2. Although, he tried it again this year, about 10 years after his peak, and got demolished. He said it was the joystick.

Pac-Man. Shyeah, right. Berzerk, Moon Patrol, Asteroids, Vanguard and Missile Command get my nod. Esp. Berzerk - somehow it reminds me of Tron, much more so than the "Adv of Tron" title.

Great topic! You're right, you really have to think about replay value rather than what's your fave, since the Love Boat may not come in for rescue anytime soon. Variety is also key. So with that in mind, I'd have to pick... 1) Trick Shot. Gotta have a pool table! 2) Video pinball. And a pinball machine.... 3) Casino. Since I won't be able to hit Vegas so easily. 4) Haunted House. Just a tad more replayability than Adventure IMO. The island will probably offer total darkness at night, adding to the fun factor. 5) Video Chess. Not my fave, but it looks like I'll finally have time to play it on level 7. Plus, the wild color displays when the CPU is thinking may attract the Coast Guard sooner. Honorable mention) Riddle of the Sphinx. I could play this game for hours on end under normal circumstances, but being stranded on an island do I really want to play a sim of being stranded in the desert?

I agree with most of the sentimenters here...Pacman and ET may have been the most colossal failures on a global scale, but really I thought they were semi-ok and played them a fair deal. Basic Math/Fun w-Numbers has to get my vote too. A calculator is more fun than this one. Plus, it doesn't recognize leading zeros, the remainder has to be in exactly the right place, etc. So you can have the right answer and it'll still play that dernfounded "You are wrong, you are wrong...." tune.

That's important, but doesn't always guarantee success - Dragon's Lair for example, you can play perfectly and still miss the score 3 times out of 4. On the other hand I can lose a life on Mappy and still make it. Probably Gyruss as well but I'm rusty...I'd have to remember the exact spots the incoming invaders converge at to get the 1000-point bonus.

They had a special camera that was hooked to a computer and synchronized with the timer. It took a picture of the screen the instant time ran out. PMF, you're dead on about Q-Bert. I tried this one out on Yahoo games and if you finish the level right away, it's very easy to get the score. But the host actually advised the contestant to try and get Coily to jump off! Unless you're forced to do that, that just slows you down and makes it impossible to win. I guess technically they're allowed to set up ONE score that is impossible, because they do give the contestant a choice of two. "If you pick Pac-Man, you'll have to score 3,740. If you pick Space Invaders, you'll have to score 5,000,000,000. Those are the average scores of more than 20 other players. So what's it gonna be?"

ZARLOR MERCENARY The 411: From the manual - "Shoot everything that moves. Shoot everything that doesn't move." Nuff said. Sort of like Xevious or one of those other zillion or so shooters whose names elude me at the moment. Dogcorn's take: Bleh. Shooters were never my favorite genre, and this title does little to sway me differently. It's just way too repetitive, despite the nice graphics. What DOES make for a nice gaming session is the easter egg of John Conway's Game of Life. (For the uninitiated, try Google - the concept is very hard to explain.) 95% of the time, I play this instead of the actual Zarlor game. Call me a scientist at heart. Grade: C+

XYBOTS The 411: Maze/shoot'emup game with an FPS-like perspective, but viewable only in the four compass directions. You shoot robots en route to the exit, while picking up junk on the floor like coins and keys. When the light on your back starts blinking, it's time to find an energy tank. Every few waves, you face the Master Xybot, which bears a striking resemblance to the 6 circles on the old Columbia House response cards from the 1970's. Dogcorn's take: A well-done game that really doesn't hold my attention. One complaint is the lack of variety from game to game. That's partly because the mazes are indeed the same every time you play, but another reason is the awkward difficulty curve. The first 10 levels or so are very easy - then comes the second Master Xybot and it's game over for me, always. I play this game primarily for the snazzy soundtrack and the memories of watching my dorm mate play, way back when the Lynx was panting up the Gameboy's leg. Oh, and shopping from the vending machines is pretty fun also. Grade: B

I think it was '97 or '98. I fell in love with it back in '91 but that was college and of course, no money. Once I started working and figured out what a savings account was, I started netsurfing for vendors and making lists of all the games I wanted and what price. When the package arrived at work I just about jumped for joy. I ripped it open, hooked up the AC, jammed in Electrocop and powered on. Ohh YEAAAHHH!!

My ex-roommate got what must have been the world record for Pinball Jam. Can't remember how many millions of points, but the ball got stuck in an infinite loop between bumpers and he just left it on overnight

Can't vouch for the best but Jakks TV is the WORST - you can sometimes pass completely through ghosts and one time I even got stuck in the "wall" between the tunnels. Very, very poor.

Updated 2/24/08 - last update for a while. MANY thanks to a poster on Webmagic for MANY new scores! Also to the Atariage admin who allowed first posts to be edited. One of the most fascinating things about the old Starcade game show was the bonus round, in which the contestant had to beat a certain score in 30 seconds, to win the grand prize. The score was quoted as "the average of over 20 players", but towards the end of the show's run I started to wonder if the producers were just picking arbitrarily high scores, to minimize the chances of winning...... Here are some scores from the actual show. See if you can beat them! Start the clock as soon as you are able to move. Feel free to post some of your own challenges if you want, but they should be doable...don't just post your one-in-a-million high score! Note: The challenge scores often varied; I've listed the highest known score first, followed by lower scores mentioned on other episodes. Angler Dangler 850 Astron Belt 5,449 (5,100) Bagman 2,074 (1,155) Bega's Battle 4,504 Berzerk 541 (515) Buck Rogers 2,805 (1,450) Bubbles 11,378 Burger Time 1,322 (1,000; 1,100; 1,240) Calipso 3,117 Cliff Hanger 45,000 Congo Bongo 2,085 (1,780; 2,034) Cosmic Chasm 7,431 Crystal Castles 7,166 (no warp please) Cube Quest 3,361 Discs of Tron 4,082 Domino Man 3,859 Donkey Kong 690 (290) Donkey Kong Jr 2,415 Dorodon 820 Dragon's Lair 6,587 (6,500) Explorer 3,580 (2,500) Frogger 2,000 Galaga 3,550 Galaxian 1,483 Graplop 2,369 (1,098) Guzzler 3,247 Gyruss 4,211 Holey Moley 390 Interstellar Laser Fantasy 1,557 Journey (the one with Steve Perry) 4,939 (1,614) Journey (Stern prototype) 1,763 Joust 3,076 Juno First 4,500 Krull 9,000 (8,053) Lock & Chase 2,110 Lost Tomb: 1,035 Mappy 2,123 (1,883; 2,089) Mario Bros 1,857 Marvin's Maze 2,050 Mazer Blazer 4,559 (4,000) Motorace USA 6,196 (5,849; 6,100) Mr. Do's Castle 2,952; 2,600 Ms Pacman 3,255 (2,460; 2,975) Munch Mobile 800 Pacman 3,740 (3,300+?) Pacman Plus 3,736 (3,400) Pengo 2,466 (1,257) Pole Position 6,914 (5,440; 5,540; 5,900; 6,224) Pole Position II 6,681 Pooyan 3,500 (2,300; 2,320) Popeye 5,884 Pro Bowling 231 Pro Soccer 1,889 (1,800) Qbert 2,168 (650; 1,228; 1,588) Rescue: 1,110 Roc & Rope: 1,870 Scramble 2,549 Sinistar 3,700 Snake Pit 1,000 Space Invaders 344 (317) Spy Hunter 3,400 Star Trek 2,847 Star Wars 10,700 (8,985 on the easy level; 10,000) Stargate 3,664 (2,483; 2,874; 2,930) Super Cobra 1,269 Super Pacman 4,400 (2,830; 3,436; 3,735) Super Zaxxon 2,076 (2,070) Swimmer: 310 Tazzmania 1,203 Time Pilot 5,910 (4,680) Track & Field: one world record in any event Tron 1,824 (540) Tunnel Hunt 3,808 TX-1 22,759 in 30 seconds, or 49,679 in 60 seconds Wild Western 543 (498) Xevious 1,492 (830) Zoar 1,414 (654) Zoo Keeper 4,125

Cool! I just played Ghosts & Goblins the other day at the arcade, on one of those multi-game systems (you pick the game from a roulette wheel ala DDR). I'd forgotten about that haunting music - Da da-da, da da da da da DAH da-da.

WHAT! No way! This is awesome!! Thank you Chris - I'm gonna start saving up NOW!

You know what, do me a vicarious favor and track down Microsurgeon. The game where you're a little surgical robot trying to save a terminally ill patient. It looks sooo cool. I always wanted to try that game but it is never in any of the "Rocks/Lives" packs

BTW I definitely remember seeing the original Puck-Man. I remember the name 'Otoboke'. I asked my Japanese friend about it and he said it meant 'camera' or something like that.

Interesting on the red ghost's name...if anyone remembers the Rubik's Cube (another craze that came out around Pac-Man's time), 'Macky' is the nickname of Shotaru Makisumi, the current world record holder for solving the cube, some 25 years later. He wasn't even born yet when the yellow chomper hit the arcades. Prophetic....