Sharky Posted February 13, 2003 Share Posted February 13, 2003 I remember the switch Atari 2600 had a switch which was Color/BW. I rarely touched it because if I wanted to play Space Invaders in Black and White I would just use the Color control on the family Television set. Why was this switch so important? Although some games it didnt work with it and 1 game I rememeber was Ghost Manor that used it in a different way incase you wanted to control the boy instead of the girl. Did anyone ever really find this switch useful ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted February 13, 2003 Share Posted February 13, 2003 Why was this switch so important? I was not intented for those people who wanted B/W, but for those who only had B/W (TVs). Did anyone ever really find this switch useful ? I, because I was one of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gateway Posted February 13, 2003 Share Posted February 13, 2003 Yes, I did! For exactly the game you mentioned... Ghost Manor! That was the coolest feature of that game IMO! I usually would be the boy, but if I was getting bored, I'd just reach over, flick that BW/Color switch and PRESTO! GENDER BENDER! Also, Activision's Space Shuttle needed almost all switches on the VCS to simulate a shuttle mission! Nowadays, I believe that some of the homebrews coming out have been using the opportunity of using the extra switch to improve game options before a game or as an extra function during a game, since the joystick has only one fire button, for example. Homebrews will continue to get more complex with game quality and new controllers, etc. so I think the BW/Color switch will see more action soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Mitchell Posted February 13, 2003 Share Posted February 13, 2003 I remember the switch Atari 2600 had a switch which was Color/BW. I rarely touched it because if I wanted to play Space Invaders in Black and White I would just use the Color control on the family Television set. Why was this switch so important? .... Did anyone ever really find this switch useful ? 2 Players are different colors but the same hue on a color TV set but are the same gray on a B&W set. (Obviously you were not playing a simultaneous two player Space Invaders.) Flip the Color/BW switch and one player is Black and the other is White. I had a BW TV set in college on which we played Atari 2600, Stunt Cycle, Video Pinball and Atari 800. Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jayson Posted February 13, 2003 Share Posted February 13, 2003 Activision's Starmaster of course was one of the best uses of the BW/Color switch. Toggled between the main view and the galactic map. I find it amazing that the system could actually be programmed to redefine the use of a hardware switch. Guess that is the advantage of having a lot of the system's smarts in the carts. (I'm a poet and don't know it but my feet show it ... they're Longfellows. ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted February 13, 2003 Share Posted February 13, 2003 I find it amazing that the system could actually be programmed to redefine the use of a hardware switch. The BW switch is not hardwirded at all. It's just another switch exactly like the difficulty switches which is called BW switch because it's settings should be used by the programmes to select the palette. Later the intention became obsolete and so Atari optimised it away in the 7800. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharky Posted February 13, 2003 Author Share Posted February 13, 2003 2 Players are different colors but the same hue on a color TV set but are the same gray on a B&W set. (Obviously you were not playing a simultaneous two player Space Invaders.) Flip the Color/BW switch and one player is Black and the other is White. I had totally forgotten Space Invaders had a 2 simulantous mode, no wonder what made this game so fantasic in the early 80s ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godzilla Posted February 13, 2003 Share Posted February 13, 2003 TJ: they didnt optimize it away, it just became the pause switch. so if u play a 2600 game that requires the switch to be in the b/w position, you have to HOLD DOWN the pause switch the whole. not very practical. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted February 13, 2003 Share Posted February 13, 2003 TJ: they didnt optimize it away, it just became the pause switch. so if u play a 2600 game that requires the switch to be in the b/w position, you have to HOLD DOWN the pause switch the whole. not very practical. Hm, how useful is a pause button when you must hold it all the time? Implementing a good (unlike Kool Aid Man) pause functionality with a switch just requires one single extra bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liquid_sky Posted February 13, 2003 Share Posted February 13, 2003 i dont know what godzilla is talkiing about, you just press the pause button and it stays paused until you press it again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godzilla Posted February 13, 2003 Share Posted February 13, 2003 HAHAAAaaaa I'm not talking about 7800 games, eh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godzilla Posted February 13, 2003 Share Posted February 13, 2003 TJ: they didnt optimize it away, it just became the pause switch. so if u play a 2600 game that requires the switch to be in the b/w position, you have to HOLD DOWN the pause switch the whole. not very practical. see, see how I talk about 'if you play a 2600 game' ^ up above? amazing, eh? yea, if you play a 7800 game, it works like it's supposed to. big surprise, eh? :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liquid_sky Posted February 13, 2003 Share Posted February 13, 2003 the way you said in the 7800 made me think so, should have said the 2600 mode of the 7800 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Room 34 Posted February 13, 2003 Share Posted February 13, 2003 i dont know what godzilla is talkiing about, you just press the pause button and it stays paused until you press it again What Godzilla's talking about is the way the 7800's pause button works on 2600 games... when you're pushing it down, it switches to B/W mode, but when you release it, it goes back to color. I am not an expert on electronics, but I believe the way this works is that with the 2600, having it as a switch that stays in either position, it's a simple on-or-off situation. With the 7800, it's more complex... it waits for the signal to be interrupted, and that causes other eletronics to change the state from play to pause. When it's interrupted again, the state is switched back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MegaManFan Posted February 13, 2003 Share Posted February 13, 2003 I think I can clarify this confusion: The black&white/color switch on 2600 and the pause button on 7800 are wired to the same function location. The problem is that the switch actually "set" a state on 2600 to remain one of two values depending on it's position, while the pause button on 7800 is "momentary" and only designed to signal a state when pushed, not hold it. This becomes a problem because some 2600 games made novel use of an otherwise wasted switch and actually used B&W/color to participate in games (see Space Shuttle), so on a 7800 you're screwed trying to play them because there's no way it can hold or retain a position value for the game to read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsoper Posted February 13, 2003 Share Posted February 13, 2003 Actually, as some people have posted in the past, you're not really screwed by the lack of a B/W switch on a 7800: 1. In Starmaster flip the difficulty switches instead (undocumented feature) 2. in Space Shuttle I THINK you can play the whole game on the backup engines (haven't verified this myself) 3. In Ghost Manor just play as the girl only (or is that boy) Does anyone know any other B/W games? John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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