The 7800: Through the looking glass

[Lord Thag]

I thought I'd post some musings I've had about this console recently. Let me tell you a story:

 

Back in oh, '88 or '89 I think, I went over to my grandparents house one Sunday afternoon. I was recovering from the usual pig out at the buffet when my grandpa came in and handed me and my brother a Sears catalog and said 'you boys each pick out three hundred dollars worth of stuff that you want for Christmas' with a distinct Santa-esque twinkle in his eye.

 

Jaws, as you may imagine, hit the floor. We were not used to these kinds of riches. We attacked the catalog like rabid weasels.

 

Somehow, I managed to open the thing right to this page in the electronics section. I stared. This sleek black console called the Atari 7800 stared right back. What was this thing? I was a Nintendo kid, sure enough, but Atari was my first love, and here was a brand, spanking new Atari system that only cost about $100! Which left TWO hundred dollars left over to buy games! I bought most of the ones Sears had, Desert Falcon, Xevious, Karateka, Dig Dug, Joust, Robotron etc. Then I waited.

 

Christmas came, and in a whirl of wrapping paper, styrofoam, instruction manuals and cords, I had the system hooked up to my ancient color tv (with dials and screws no less!) and dove right in. At first, I was a bit disappointed. The system obviously lacked some of the graphics horsepower the NES had, and none of the games were anything like the new games I had like Gradius, Mario, and Ghosts and Goblins.

 

That didn't last long though. I still had a 2600 hooked up. Graphics had never been a selling point with me. The games themselves were outstanding. Xevious was a dream come true. I loved it in the arcades, and Desert Falcon was (and is) one of my favorite shooters ever. Karateka blew chunks, but all thre rest were damn good arcade ports. And so the new year went, and with it, many, many hours spent with the above mentioned games. Sears dropped the console soon, and nowhere else in town carried it, so I never got more games, and so the NES won out in the end. But I never stopped playing those first games until my system died a few years later.

 

These days though, I rarely touch the NES. Not much of a platformer guy really, but I still play the 7800. In retrospective, at least to my mind, the solid, arcade gameplay of the 7800 has aged remarkably well. I'm only missing three games for the entire library now, and while there are quite a few crappy titles (Jinks, Realsports baseball anyone?), there are some true gems. The system is chock full of that Signature Atari weirdness. Where else can you play Ninja Golf? How about an action RPG starring GRANDPA MUNSTER where you face an evil Optometrist (chuckle snort) who turned into a skeletal ram's head after drinking human blood? Or what about a game where you play a frog exploring spinning towers chock full or cannon balls, satellites, and other weirdness? I did mention the Grandpa Munster thing, right?

 

Only on the 7800, that's where. I think that's why I still adore this console so much. Yeah, it was a strange duck back in the day, but that very strangeness has, in a world where a million Nintendo games, tired platformers, and japanese cuteness reign supreme, allowed it to remain unique. And of course, who can forget the giant pile of outstanding arcade ports? Not only that, with the recent explosion of fantastic, A-list homebrews, the 7800 has, at last, cemented it's place in my heart as one of the oddest, and best, retro consoles I spend time with now and then.

 

It's been twenty years, and I'm still playing the old girl. Long may she live

Edited February 11, 2009 by Lord Thag

[accousticguitar]

Hear, hear; that's a good story.

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

Great post! It is nice some of the lesser known consoles can give someone those feelings and memories. I felt like I was the luckiest kid in the world the Christmas I opened a Colecovision and about 10 of the best games and I think that is way today it reigns as my personal favorite classic system! I like the underdog systems too. Thanks for sharing...........

[shadow460]

One reason I wish my Dad had gotten us a 7800 in 1986:

 

GALAGA!!

[xZanU]

Only on the 7800, that's where. I think that's why I still adore this console so much. Yeah, it was a strange duck back in the day, but that very strangeness has, in a world where a million Nintendo games, tired platformers, and japanese cuteness reign supreme, allowed it to remain unique. And of course, who can forget the giant pile of outstanding arcade ports? Not only that, with the recent explosion of fantastic, A-list homebrews, the 7800 has, at last, cemented it's place in my heart as one of the oddest, and best, retro consoles I spend time with now and then.

I have really liked all the homebrews I have played (Even bought Pac-Man collection). The 7800 is still my favorite system, it is the only console I own (though I'd like to get a genesis again) and is fun to play and safe to let my kids play.

[BrianC]

Or what about a game where you play a frog exploring spinning towers chock full or cannon balls, satellites, and other weirdness?

 

This game (Tower Toppler) isn't exclusive to 7800. It was on C64 first and also has a NES port called Castelian. NES port has some odd changes (especially the JP one) and the 7800 one is better, though.

 

I just got more stuff for the 7800 recently and I have been enjoying it. Tower Toppler is definitely a challenge and I love the arcade ports like Asteroids, Centipede, and Food Fight. I like how Asteroids and Centipede have extra two player modes. My power switch stopped working right a couple days after I got the games. My dad is going to help me clean the switches out with help of the info I found here (thanks!) and hopefully, it will be working good as new soon. I also plan to order a new one since the old one isn't in the best shape.

 

I also started playing Midnight Mutants and I'm liking it. It has a nice charm to it and I like the exploration based gameplay so far. Very challenging too.

Edited May 19, 2009 by BrianC

[Gunstar]

I was a kid in the 70's and my family's first console was the Coleco Telstar knock-off of Atari Pong, and hard as I tried and persistent as I was I couldn't get my parents to buy me a console or computer. So I played the 2600, Intellivision, and Colecovision at different friend's houses. I even had a friend with an Odyssey 2. I actually got a computer before a console, with cash from my grandparents too, for my birthday. $100 dollars though. This was in '83 just before the big video game crash. I went to an electronics liquidation store, I forget the name and found a Timex/Sinclair 1000 and peripherals and programs in a bargain bin I rummaged through. I ended up getting the computer, 16K ram pack, and about a dozen programs that came to just under $100 with tax. I had a tape recorder at home to connect. That was my only computing and gaming machine until about 6 months later when my older brother brought home a 2600 that was on clearance, in the heart of the game crash. I quickly collected about 150 games out of bargain bins, mostly for a $1 each. Then in '85 I upgraded to an Atari 130XE I saved for with an after school job. I was a happy camper. Then about 87/88 (my late teens) I saw the 7800 for the first time in a Toys R US. I'd seen the commercials, but it didn't seem to have anything better or that I didn't already have for my Atari computer.

 

But when I saw Commando and Ikari Warriors on the rack, I bought it directly. As they and Pole Position 2 never came to the Atari 8-bit line, I bought a 7800 to supplement my Atari computer games software library. I slowly collected the best of the best, especially games not on the A8, Xevious, Tower Toppler, Xenophobe, Ikari, Commando, Pole position 2 and a few others. Then I bought the last wave of 7800 games in the early 90's including Motorpsycho, Fatal Run, Ninja Golf and a few more. Always there, next to the 130XE until '95 when both went into storage after I bought an Atari Jaguar with my semester's college book money. I pulled them out and started going retro again in 2001, when I joined Atari Age and the rest is history...well, I sold the 7800 in late 2000's when I need money, along with more of my collection and then just got a 7800 PAL back this past summer and a Dragon cart. With all the new titles over the past 20 years and hacks making the games better, I'm having more fun now that back in the 80's.

Edited December 1, 2021 by Gunstar

[dogcow]

I have conflicted feelings towards the 7800. On one hand, I think Atari were kidding themselves thinking it could compete with the NES or SMS. Most of its games were arcade oldies and that just wasn’t what most kids wanted in the late 80s. But on the other hand, the only games I play on the NES these days are arcade oldies like Mario Bros. (not Super). So for me, the 7800 has aged much better. I’d have a game of Food Fight before Zelda II any day.

[johannesmutlu]

On 12/2/2021 at 12:52 AM, Gunstar said:

I was a kid in the 70's and my family's first console was the Coleco Telstar knock-off of Atari Pong, and hard as I tried and persistent as I was I couldn't get my parents to buy me a console or computer. So I played the 2600, Intellivision, and Colecovision at different friend's houses. I even had a friend with an Odyssey 2. I actually got a computer before a console, with cash from my grandparents too, for my birthday. $100 dollars though. This was in '83 just before the big video game crash. I went to an electronics liquidation store, I forget the name and found a Timex/Sinclair 1000 and peripherals and programs in a bargain bin I rummaged through. I ended up getting the computer, 16K ram pack, and about a dozen programs that came to just under $100 with tax. I had a tape recorder at home to connect. That was my only computing and gaming machine until about 6 months later when my older brother brought home a 2600 that was on clearance, in the heart of the game crash. I quickly collected about 150 games out of bargain bins, mostly for a $1 each. Then in '85 I upgraded to an Atari 130XE I saved for with an after school job. I was a happy camper. Then about 87/88 (my late teens) I saw the 7800 for the first time in a Toys R US. I'd seen the commercials, but it didn't seem to have anything better or that I didn't already have for my Atari computer.

 

But when I saw Commando and Ikari Warriors on the rack, I bought it directly. As they and Pole Position 2 never came to the Atari 8-bit line, I bought a 7800 to supplement my Atari computer games software library. I slowly collected the best of the best, especially games not on the A8, Xevious, Tower Toppler, Xenophobe, Ikari, Commando, Pole position 2 and a few others. Then I bought the last wave of 7800 games in the early 90's including Motorpsycho, Fatal Run, Ninja Golf and a few more. Always there, next to the 130XE until '95 when both went into storage after I bought an Atari Jaguar with my semester's college book money. I pulled them out and started going retro again in 2001, when I joined Atari Age and the rest is history...well, I sold the 7800 in late 2000's when I need money, along with more of my collection and then just got a 7800 PAL back this past summer and a Dragon cart. With all the new titles over the past 20 years and hacks making the games better, I'm having more fun now that back in the 80's.

That’s cool to hear that i vaguebly remember that we did had an atari 2600 jr in wich only my causins played on it,but then we got our nintendo nes in 1991, but then in later 1992 i saw and wanted a snes but i had to do it all for years with my nes and try to make the best out of it and so i played snes by my friends houses during their burstday,but finally in 2001 i discovered game shop a dutch store wich did sell second hand stuff,so i immediately bought the snes with a hand full of games for it and sins then i am collecting more awesome retro stuff(i don’t care about ps3,ps4,ps5,xbox,xbox 360,xbox one,xbox s etc,,, they are barelly the same systems)

and now i am the proud owner of the atari 7800 and the colecovision with nintendo games on it,it costed me an approximate $1000 bucks including shipping costs wich is a big pain in the butt,but it’s well worth it?