Psionic

Makes sense actually, especially given the lack of parent/teacher-type stores back in those days. This would also explain why Simage was sometimes referred to as a "religious" company in old Atari collecting circles. Out of curiosity, when you say "local" where exactly are you referring to?

He was referencing an old joke.

The Octopussy version was supposedly in development at Western Technologies but the problem is that despite speaking with numerous designers and programmers who worked there, I can't find a single one who worked on this title or even remembers anyone else working on it. This would seem unusual for a game nearing completion. Hulk had an approved game design and was at least started but is not known to have progressed beyond an elaborate title screen. Although it's certainly possible that it could've progressed further and it is rumored to have been playable, this has never been confirmed. The Commodore 64 version was completed or nearly so and was eventually released by Konami a few years later. The other ports are known to have been started and their degrees of completion are not known, but I tend to think they were fairly well along in development. The problem here is that the subcontractor who was working on these ports is unknown (at least to me).

It could have been sold in some shops locally but it's only believed to have been available directly from Simage. Although no dealer ad or original owner has ever been found that I know of, so it's hard to say for certain exactly how and where it might've been sold. I know of at least one person who purchased it via mail order from Video Game Take-Out in North Hollywood, who had reviewed the game in their Video Game Update newsletter. According to that review, the game was available directly from the company.

M.A.D. was also originally developed with an overt Cold War theme but was changed from "Mutual Assured Destruction" to "Missile Attack and Defense" before release.

The housing inside those cartridges simply doesn't do a very good job of holding the PCB in place and there's really no 100% foolproof way to permanently fix the issue. To get the board back in place on your Halloween cartridge without opening it up, carefully pry the two halves of the cartridge slightly apart by hand until you can move the board around freely. Then properly reseat the board on the housing and press the two halves back together again slowly and extremely firmly using the palms of your hands. With the two halves back together again, attempt to wiggle the board extremely gently with your finger to confirm that it's wobble free. After that, whenever the cartridge is inserted into your console you must always use your fingers to apply firm pressure to the top and bottom halves of the shell equally to prevent the board from dislodging again. It's worked pretty well for me, although I honestly don't use the cartridge very often.

As far as I know, all Lochjaw cartridges contain EPROMs, so changes could easily have been made mid-production despite the extremely limited run.

That's because the original post was over seven years ago. The video was working fine until recently. There's a working link posted above and here it is again... https://youtu.be/MjfbkAdLa-o

Huh? The screenshot you posted is the 5200 version. The 2600 port has not been reviewed on AtariProtos. The Atarimania database has emulator screen grabs of the VCS version. They weren't taken from a box.

More than half of the games published by Parker Brothers across all platforms were developed by outside contractors. The programmer of Astro Chase was commissioned by First Star to do the port, not by Parker Brothers, and the only known prototype is housed in a Telesys cartridge shell. It's not likely that anyone inside Parker would have ever had access to this ROM, but if so they probably would not have been one of the programmers. I'm not even convinced that Parker Brothers would have published the VCS version as opposed to First Star simply releasing it themselves had it actually come out as planned. First Star published Boing, so they certainly had the distribution channels available for producing VCS titles.

I'm sure there's a few threads about it if you use the search function. What exactly do you want to know? http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-personal-game-programmer-pgp-1_20131.html http://www.digitpress.com/reviews/pgp1.htm https://twitter.com/nvmusa/status/1013896592632492032

It's not his own videos that were the problem. He showed off the safe and its contents at the end of this video that was posted by Racketboy back in 2010.

Very cool and in tune with the style of the original Activision games. ?

That's a good deal considering that the original list price was ¥5,980 ($55) plus shipping, with most merchants selling it for much more. It figures they'd lower the price now after I already have the game, but I'll probably grab another copy for trade since I was going to place an order with them anyway. I was planning to grab the Japanese release of Battle Kid but it looks like it's on backorder now.

We were referring strictly to the Japanese release by Columbus Circle, which is listed on the PlayAsia site and elsewhere as being compatible with Asian Mega Drive consoles only but actually will work on an NTSC Genesis. The NTSC release by Strictly Limited was intended for use with both North American and Japanese consoles, hence the notch on the side of the cartridge to accommodate the cartridge lock on the Japanese MD.

Weird. My copy didn't seem to work on my Genesis 3 when I tried it, which is why I assumed it was region locked even though I thought it seemed strange that it would be. I haven't tried it on any other North American consoles but now I guess I'll have to.

Nothing on the internet can be guaranteed to last forever. Websites do go away, sometimes unexpectedly. It's unfortunate but it's the nature of the beast. At least this time the data is still there in some form.

Just thought I would add that unlike 16-Bit Rhythm Land or their reissue of Gley Lancer, the Japanese release of Ultracore by Columbus Circle is not region-locked despite rumors to the contrary. If anyone was considering importing that version, the game will work on a Genesis 3 or presumably any other North American console using a Game Genie or other passthrough device.

My copies of Knight 'n More and Muncher Mouse have arrived safe and secure but I haven't had time to try them out yet. The Muncher Mouse box has a minor bit of damage to the top front edge of the box but it's not a big deal. The games were packaged as well as can be expected. I did notice something rattling around up inside the Muncher Mouse cartridge. It appears to be a plastic object about the size of a Tootsie Roll and wrapped in black electrical tape. I see the same thing inside the Knight 'n More cartridge except it's not rattling around. What the heck is that thing?

Just before the NintendoAge site was completely transformed (i.e. cannibalized) a breakaway group of NA members started the Video Game Sage forum and a lot of people migrated over there. Previously discussed here... https://atariage.com/forums/topic/297911-if-you-once-were-a-member-of-nintendoage-visit-now-to-be-shocked/

Given how long they've taken to get these cartridges out the door, SLG should've just given the digital ROM to anyone who purchased the game in the first place. They know it's going to get out eventually anyway and they aren't making any more cartridges, so what do they care?

I purchased the Japanese Mega Drive release by Columbus Circle after missing out on the Genesis one from Strictly Limited. SLG not limiting the number of copies one could purchase was completely ridiculous and left a bad taste in my mouth. This practice only benefits scalpers. I don't believe anyone has cracked the Mega SG and extracted that version but the Japanese release was indeed dumped and there are already Chinese bootleg cartridges being sold on eBay using the Japanese NTSC version of the ROM image. I'm sure the SLG versions will also be circulating in short order once people get their hands on the physical cartridges. Has anyone received theirs yet? I see a few people on Facebook are reporting that they have. One person complained about the overall lack of quality and another reports a damaged case. I've been watching eBay and I'm surprised that none have turned up for sale yet. I'm sure there'll be no shortage of people flipping them.

Not that I'm aware of and I can't imagine why someone would want to play this game with a joystick. Do you simply not have a set of paddles?

I recently ordered an Atom Retro power supply from commodore4ever and I'm happy with it so far. It was shipped via Priority Mail and arrived in less than a week.

CommaVid distributed their games nationally, albeit in limited quantities. Despite rumors to the contrary, all titles except MagiCard and Video Life were sold in stores to some degree. I'm sure that most distributors in the Midwest had them although I couldn't tell you which stores actually sold them. There had to have been regional department chains there that carried them. I'll check old newspaper ads and see if I can find any. I know Boscov's (who had other rare oddball stuff at closeout prices like the Wizard games) sold them in the Northeast. The Tigervision games were sold at several national chains, including Kay-Bee and Lionel stores.