Game Room

[NE146]

Hmmm.. I might just have to buy Black Widow. Yes it's good. It's a Robotron clone but throws it's own stuff into the mix and adds variety. Fun game

 

..Although I guess in this day and age to explain it to a kid you'd say it was in the Geometry Wars family

[cimerians]

Juno First is a must buy for me.

 

HERO!!!

 

 

Black Widow is pretty good. Haven't played that in a long time.

[Major Havoc 2049]

Hey everyone. :-) I haven't posted here at AA in ages. Frak ya, Hero, Major Havoc and Liberator are coming! Woot! The control in HERO better be tight, as it will need to be in the higher levels with all the lava.

 

Man, I wish I would have played the demo of Video Pinball before buying that POS! The use of the flippers to hit the ball is almost useless. The speed/power of the flippers isn't emulated correctly and when you flick the flippers, they move up really slowly and actually slow the ball down. WTF!

 

I'll list all the games I have. I also have a Capcom Street Fighter fight pad and Hori EX2 joystick and if a game plays better using those, I'll put it in my listing.

 

Arcade:

Centipede

Crystal Castles

Time Pilot - A joystick seems to work best with this game. The analog stick is ok.

 

Atari 2600:

Pitfall - The Capcom Street Fighter fight pad works really well with this game, while the X360 analog stick sucks and the d-pad is OK.

River Raid - I can go without playing River Raid for two years and pick it up and easily rack-up 60K+, but the control is a little loose in this port, so getting over even 50K is challenging. The analog stick seems to work best and makes it somewhat playable. Even with the control issues, the game is still fun to play.

Yar's Revenge

Star Raiders - Solid port, but of course the 400/800/5200 version of Star Raiders is king.

Millipede

 

Does anyone have that white Atari 2600 looking joystick that came out for the X360 a few years back? I think it was made by Madcatz. I was wondering if that thing was any good for some of these games.

 

Feel free to add me to your friends list. My gamer tag is MajorHavoc 2049. What's up, Zeptari!

Edited June 13, 2010 by Major Havoc 2049

[moycon]

Feel free to add me to your friends list. My gamer tag is MajorHavoc 2049. What's up, Zeptari!

 

I'll be sure and add you Major, We are slowly getting a decent size group of folks that engage in Game Room challenges. I think I have around a half dozen going now.

[Atariboy]

The paddle games are there to cash in on nostalgia. People that haven't played something like Kaboom! in 20-30 years might not remember that it used paddles or immediately realize that it isn't going to be playable on a modern console thinking that they wouldn't release something that wasn't playable.

 

By the time they find it out, the money is already spent and they're probably sadly writing the game off as always having sucked now that they're looking at it through the eyes of an adult.

 

But the company got their money so they're happy.

[moycon]

By the time they find it out

 

Which anyone can before they purchase (for free) by simply choosing to demo the game. In fact it's the first choice when clicking on a game in the store.

[+Zeptari]

Feel free to add me to your friends list. My gamer tag is MajorHavoc 2049. What's up, Zeptari!

 

I'll be sure and add you Major, We are slowly getting a decent size group of folks that engage in Game Room challenges. I think I have around a half dozen going now.

 

hi guys! first things first...... I hoping my Game Room scores don't suffer to much

over the summer.... i go on vacation quite a bit in July and August.. plus i just bought a Wii tonight! So i'll be discovering new games on that...

 

but anyways.... i think Time Pilot and Yars Revenge play fine with the analog sick.

it's funny River Raid was the game i was the most excited to play, but has become

the game i play the least.. what a bummer!

 

I'm looking forward to playing Major Havoc again! I played this for the first time just last year at Funspot in New Hampshire... if you can.. go there!!! The place is freakn'

awesome!

http://www.atarimuseum.com/orubin/mhavoc.html

 

mmmmm Major Havoc says a stick controller works best with this game...mmm

i'll have to look into this!

 

gotta go...... later guys....

 

-rick

[Jess Ragan]

Does anyone have that white Atari 2600 looking joystick that came out for the X360 a few years back? I think it was made by Madcatz. I was wondering if that thing was any good for some of these games.

 

It stinks. It's good for exactly two things... the download codes for Time Pilot/Astropanic/Frogger and for hacking projects. I've got the guts of a MadCatz Arcade Stick connected to a hacked Saturn joypad and it works very well, considerably better than the Arcade Stick did before its operation. A common ground (all buttons use the same ground) makes it very hack-friendly. As a standalone controller, though, it sucks. The "joystick" is just an analog thumbstick with a plastic shaft stuck to the top and the "paddle" grinds as you turn it, not rolling freely like Atari's old paddles did.

 

I suspect there's a way to connect a real Atari paddle to an Xbox 360, if the analog thumbsticks use the same potentiometer technology. I've never attempted that myself, though. What's most infuriating about the Xbox 360 (aside from the hardware that's prone to overheating) is that Microsoft has the controller market completely locked down, so you can't use game controllers from your PC like you can with the PS3. If there's anything you want to use on the system that Microsoft doesn't make or license, you either have to hack it or buy a kludgy two-way cable with a licensed controller plugged into one end. Very lame, Microsoft.

 

Anyway! MegaZone. It's well emulated; not perfect but a good sight better than Shaolin's Road was. As for the game, I had a childhood fascination with it... it was a fun, if bizarre and brutally hard take on Xevious. I actually watched someone beat the game in a bowling alley 20+ years ago. You battle a giant face that deluges the screen with laser rings... if you can take out its eyes and nose the screen shakes violently and (if you manage to survive the fallout) you're taken back to the beginning with the usual Konami boost in difficulty. I'd feel pretty damn studly if I were able to do that without cheats.

[moycon]

if bizarre and brutally hard take on Xevious.

 

Totally agree. Xevious came to mind immediately when I played the game, and is probably a main contributing factor in me buying the game even though I had never heard of it.

 

Congrats on the Wii purchase Zeptari1, there are some kick ass Wii games, although if you are like most Wii/360 owners, the Wii won't keep you from your 360 for long (you'll see what I mean shortly)

[cimerians]

the Wii won't keep you from your 360 for long

 

 

Unless you homebrew it!

 

[cimerians]

It stinks. It's good for exactly two things... the download codes for Time Pilot/Astropanic/Frogger and for hacking projects. I've got the guts of a MadCatz Arcade Stick connected to a hacked Saturn joypad and it works very well, considerably better than the Arcade Stick did before its operation. A common ground (all buttons use the same ground) makes it very hack-friendly. As a standalone controller, though, it sucks. The "joystick" is just an analog thumbstick with a plastic shaft stuck to the top and the "paddle" grinds as you turn it, not rolling freely like Atari's old paddles did.

 

Totally agree, I sold mine.

 

I suspect there's a way to connect a real Atari paddle to an Xbox 360, if the analog thumbsticks use the same potentiometer technology. I've never attempted that myself, though. What's most infuriating about the Xbox 360 (aside from the hardware that's prone to overheating) is that Microsoft has the controller market completely locked down, so you can't use game controllers from your PC like you can with the PS3. If there's anything you want to use on the system that Microsoft doesn't make or license, you either have to hack it or buy a kludgy two-way cable with a licensed controller plugged into one end. Very lame, Microsoft.

 

Totally agree, imagine how kick ass Gameroom would be with an Atari Joystick\Paddle controller. It would be the best.

[Jess Ragan]

Has anyone used the rewind function in the Game Room to hone their skills to a razor's edge? I've thought about doing that with Mega Zone, because it's a HARD game but one that's largely dependent on memorization and patterns. I suspect that rewinding a scene over and over again, replaying it each time until it becomes second nature to you, could prepare you for the ranked matches, making you damned near unstoppable. I don't know how many people have actually been doing this, but I suspect they're out there.

[moycon]

Has anyone used the rewind function in the Game Room to hone their skills to a razor's edge? I've thought about doing that with Mega Zone, because it's a HARD game but one that's largely dependent on memorization and patterns. I suspect that rewinding a scene over and over again, replaying it each time until it becomes second nature to you, could prepare you for the ranked matches, making you damned near unstoppable. I don't know how many people have actually been doing this, but I suspect they're out there.

 

I've played it using rewind. I can get farther now than ever before. I think you are right, it's helps you prepare for stuff quicker than having to deal with plain ol trial and error without the ability to fix your error!

[Jess Ragan]

I earned a million points using rewind. That doesn't really mean anything, since I must have rewound hundreds of times, but I've learned a few things about the game that I didn't know before. The first thing is that it's possible to trigger a Pooyan cameo if you get far enough... the gates turn into red wolves from that game after you've beaten the Mexican wrestler face a few times. Secondly, this game cheats like a mofo... sometimes the positions of enemies are random (have fun avoiding the steel walls that pop up in your face!), and you actually have to know where the enemies will come out before they appear if you hope to survive. Tight corridors and flowers that swoop behind you and fly up your ass are not a good combination.

 

I wonder how far you could realistically get in the game without cheating... I suspect that there's a cut-off point where even the exceptionally skilled can't make any progress. I would rewind twenty or thirty times to avoid all the eyeballs that bounce around the screen during the Luchadore-pocalyse at the end of the game.

[NE146]

Has anyone used the rewind function in the Game Room to hone their skills to a razor's edge? I've thought about doing that with Mega Zone, because it's a HARD game but one that's largely dependent on memorization and patterns. I suspect that rewinding a scene over and over again, replaying it each time until it becomes second nature to you, could prepare you for the ranked matches, making you damned near unstoppable. I don't know how many people have actually been doing this, but I suspect they're out there.

 

Seems like a lot of effort to me.. If you're going to bother with all that why not just simply fire up Mega Zone in Mame and turn on cheats for it?

[Jess Ragan]

Oh, you cheap SOB. I just discovered how the top leaderboard scorer for Mega Zone got his outrageous score. He's not even that good, dying a few times throughout the course of the game, BUT once he reaches the Mexican wrestler face boss, he parks himself to the left and slightly down from the left nostril and blasts away at eyeballs 'till kingdom come. You nasty bastard! So it seems the best way to climb to the top is just to do that. I wonder if the other top scorers in other games used similar tricks?

[cimerians]

Oh, you cheap SOB. I just discovered how the top leaderboard scorer for Mega Zone got his outrageous score. He's not even that good, dying a few times throughout the course of the game, BUT once he reaches the Mexican wrestler face boss, he parks himself to the left and slightly down from the left nostril and blasts away at eyeballs 'till kingdom come. You nasty bastard! So it seems the best way to climb to the top is just to do that. I wonder if the other top scorers in other games used similar tricks?

 

They probably are cause some of those scores are crazy, considering your NOT using original hardware\controls.

[cimerians]

I finally got HERO....

 

Scored about 70,000 and got 4th place on the boards. I could easily beat the 100K thats up there now if I had a real atari joystick. The controls are BRUTAL for this game at later levels but its still playable. I do NOT use the stick, d-pad only for me.

[Flojomojo]

 

Still can't wait for HERO. Come on!!

 

Game Pack 6:

 

Arcade games:

 

* Black Widow

* Juno First

* Major Havoc

* Scooter Shooter

* Warlords

 

 

Atari 2600/Activision games:

 

* Casino

* Crackpots

* H.E.R.O.

* Kaboom!

* Laser Blast

* Sky Diver

* StarMaster

 

 

Intellivision:

 

* Star Strike

* Triple Action

* Utopia

THAT'S MORE LIKE IT!!!

 

Would still like to see:

 

Intellivision:

Dreadnaught Factor

Microsurgeon

Demon Attack

 

Arcade:

I, Robot (would like this SO MUCH!!!)

Star Wars (vector arcade)

[StormSurge]

June 30th Game Release details: (Atari 2600) Kaboom!, Crackpots (Arcade) Juno First, Warlords (Intellivision) Star Strike

[cimerians]

June 30th Game Release details: (Atari 2600) Kaboom!, Crackpots (Arcade) Juno First, Warlords (Intellivision) Star Strike

 

Oh my god Kaboom without a paddle.

 

Someone please call Microsoft......

[StormSurge]

June 30th Game Release details: (Atari 2600) Kaboom!, Crackpots (Arcade) Juno First, Warlords (Intellivision) Star Strike

 

Oh my god Kaboom without a paddle.

 

Someone please call Microsoft......

 

It's ridiculous.

[Atariboy]

I wish there was a way to play these online. Playing Triple Action's biplanes mode online is something I've wished for for years.

 

I wish whoever has most of Midway's coinop library (Warner Brothers I think?) would get onboard with this. They have a ton of things we never saw on compilations just like Konami.

 

Games like Solar Fox would be great additions for Game Room.

Edited June 26, 2010 by Atariboy

[moycon]

I wish there was a way to play these online. Playing Triple Action's biplanes mode online is something I've wished for for years.

 

Never played it. I'm assuming it's like Combat on the Atari2600? If so, I'm 100% in agreement with you. Now that would be worth the $3.00.

[Atariboy]

I wish there was a way to play these online. Playing Triple Action's biplanes mode online is something I've wished for for years.

 

Never played it. I'm assuming it's like Combat on the Atari2600? If so, I'm 100% in agreement with you. Now that would be worth the $3.00.

 

It has a ton in common with the biplanes mode in Combat, except the aircraft have simple physics now.

 

Intellivison Productions has a great video from back in the day at Mattel's officies where the staff was having a biplanes competition that perfectly demonstrates how great of a multiplayer game it is.

 

Edited June 26, 2010 by Atariboy