+johnnywc Posted August 1, 2022 Share Posted August 1, 2022 12 hours ago, GoldLeader said: Whoa! You could rent Atari games? That's Awesome! That never happened around here...Until the NES...I bought Towering Inferno one day on a whim (and nothing else on the shelves I wanted) and was glad I did! Yes, I was pleasantly surprised when I found a place in walking distance from my house, and it was pretty cheap too! A great way to play some of the lesser-known games without having to plunk down a lot of cash. 12 hours ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said: Some very good games in the batch today (and some VERY bad ones). Yes, I was going to mention that too... you can almost see the writing on the wall for the impending doom of the crash that was to hit a year later. 12 hours ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said: RS Volleyball was a great surprise! It had a very "realistic" feel to it, probably the only thing missing was diving for the ball! Agreed! A 4-player Champ Games sequel with QuadTari support could be pretty fun! 12 hours ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said: Berzerk is always excellent and I *love* Megamania such a great shooter. Communist Mutants from Space was probably a big standout for me today, some great things going on in that game! I must admit that I've never played CMFS, I'll have to give it try! 10 hours ago, Nathan Strum said: Yeah... get used to that. Yup, you can feel the crash coming! 10 hours ago, Nathan Strum said: I've always enjoyed that game. If you wait long enough, the sun sets and a shark swims by. A very cool "Easter egg".. those long volley games had that nice surprise with the sunset & shark. ☀️? 10 hours ago, Nathan Strum said: The one thing that bugged me about Megamania (and does to this day) is that when you die, everything just stops. No explosion. No debris. No nothing. Just *stop* and fade-out. It's very un-satisfying. Especially after the spectacular player-ship explosion in Demon Attack. I do recall this but not thinking too much about it, except - "well, that's different!" 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SpiceWare Posted August 1, 2022 Share Posted August 1, 2022 On 7/30/2022 at 10:46 PM, ZeroPage Homebrew said: What is your favourite game from the second part of 1982? (list below) By this point in time I'd mostly moved onto computers with my VIC-20 and played games on it like Video Vermin ('82 Centipede clone), though out of that list I did play some 2600 Berzerk back in the day. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azure Posted August 1, 2022 Share Posted August 1, 2022 On 7/19/2022 at 6:12 PM, sramirez2008 said: Below is a pic of my Atari heavy sixer along with the launch titles... I believe kids these days would refer to that as a "battlestation". ? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted August 3, 2022 Author Share Posted August 3, 2022 EVERY Atari 2600 Game released in 1982 (Part 3)! The Atari 2600's 45th Anniversary Countdown continues tonight with the final part of all the classic 2600 games released to the public in 1982 such as River Raid, Gorf, Turmoil and Wizard of Wor! What is your favourite game from the final part of 1982? (list below) Wed Aug 3, 2022 @ (LIVE @ 7PM PT | 9PM ET | 2AM GMT+1DAY) WATCH LIVE: https://twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/ WATCH LATER: https://youtube.com/zeropagehomebrew/ Spoiler Wabbit Challenge of Nexar Final Approach Tapeworm Cross Force Raiders of the Lost Ark Amidar Carnival Marauder Alien Mega Force Turmoil Condor Attack Karate Mines of Minos CocoNuts Fast Food Dark Cavern E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial Sky Jinks Dragonstomper Escape from the Mindmaster Bachelor Party Beat'Em & Eat'Em Custer's Revenge China Syndrome RealSports Football Spider-Man International Soccer Cosmic Creeps Gorf Wizard of Wor Fantastic Voyage Vanguard River Raid Dragonfire Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveM Posted August 3, 2022 Share Posted August 3, 2022 Dangit, I gotta miss this one. Lots of good hidden gems in this group. My favs are Nexar, Turmoil, Dark Cavern, and Fantastic Voyage (but you gotta know what to shoot and what not to shoot. Shoot the wrong stuff, and the game ends quickly!) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted August 3, 2022 Share Posted August 3, 2022 Love Sky Jinks. Smart programming and looking great with just 2K. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+johnnywc Posted August 3, 2022 Share Posted August 3, 2022 Wow - lots of great ones in this list, even better than the last! I have a fond memory of RotLA and solving it on my own (back before there were cheat codes, walkthrus, etc). It was quite a thrill figuring it out and I think this is a hugely underappreciated game. I had a similar memory about E.T. - I personally liked this game despite it's flaws (the pits were annoying but once you figured out how to (a) avoid them or (b) catch yourself in the middle of a fall they weren't so bad) The other standouts include Turmoil, Dragonfire, River Raid, Vanguard and Spiderman. Incidentally, I recall that when I played River Raid and Vanguard with my brothers we would be quoting the commercials for the games ("River Raid! River Raid! Can you make it!?!" and "Luther destroys the Gond!" ). Looking back on it now, the commercials were pretty cheesy but they had a big impact on us as kids, that's for sure! Speaking of Luther, he did look like a big dope in that commercial and it makes sense since destroying the Gond in Vanguard was very easy (and the only letdown of the game IMO). Picking a favorite is tough; the top two for me are River Raid and Vanguard, with River Raid getting the edge. ?️ 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted August 3, 2022 Share Posted August 3, 2022 3 hours ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said: The Atari 2600's 45th Anniversary Countdown continues tonight with the final part of all the classic 2600 games released to the public in 1982 such as River Raid, Gorf, Turmoil and Wizard of Wor! What is your favourite game from the final part of 1982? Challenge of Nexar has always been a favorite of mine. Highly underrated game. The Trak-Ball edition is a must-have if you own a Trak-Ball. I recall being very impressed by the graphics in Mega Force... but not anything else. This was also when I first started hearing E.T. bashing - the guy who ran our local video game store said he'd heard that the title screen for E.T. actually took up more space than the rest of the game. Not sure if that's true or not, but it was already being heavily criticized for its gameplay. (I never watched the movie, so I never had any interest in it in the first place.) I remember seeing Sky Jinks for the first time, and being stunned by the graphics. Really beautiful game. Never bought it though, because it's effectively just Skiing backwards. Escape From The Mindmaster felt like the first game that really justified the SuperCharger (with multi-loads, mini-games and really impressive "3D" graphics). I spent some time playing my way through it. I think after I solved it twice though (getting the highest ranking), I never touched it again. I'll be interested to see what James thinks of CBS's version of Gorf, after playing the Champ Games version. (And we've been continuing to make even more improvements to it, since your last time playing it.) Spider-Man was kind-of fun. Mainly because I was a fan of the arcade version of Crazy Climber. And I liked Spider-Man as a comic book character. But it's a very one-note game. Fantastic Voyage is another highly underrated game. Really impressive and innovative use of graphics. But read the manual before playing it, or you're going to die. A lot. River Raid was a favorite of mine for some time when it was released. But my ability to play it topped out at some point, and I lost interest. Same with Dragonfire (outstanding graphics though). There are a lot of games on this list that I own, and quite a few are good ones. But I think I'd give the edge to Vanguard. I was a fan of the arcade version, and Atari did a surprisingly good port of it, including vertical and horizontal scrolling, a variety of enemies and terrains, music, and of course, Ralph McQuarrie artwork on the box. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+TwentySixHundred Posted August 3, 2022 Share Posted August 3, 2022 Going off pure nostalgia im all about Carnival: Was a nice little shooter that kept me entertained. Make sure you take out the coloured windmill at the top to progress to the next level. Many people don't know you need to do this. ET: Yes i actually do have fond memories of ET. At the time it was pretty good and felt like Adventure in ways. There was also random phone placement game modes which gave replay ability. The pits and falling into them along with getting out wasn't a major issue once getting used to the game IMO. Gorf: Decent shooter that kept me entertained. At the time i never knew there was an arcade version so i wasn't disappointed. Vanguard: Was a huge highlight on the system overall for me. Loved this game and was probably in my top 5 of all time list (especially BITD). The amount that was crammed into this game with variety, graphics and gameplay was mindblowing. This game really had it all. Other standouts i picked up later were Alien, Fast Food, Karate and River Raid 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orange808 Posted August 3, 2022 Share Posted August 3, 2022 (edited) 1 hour ago, Nathan Strum said: River Raid was a favorite of mine for some time when it was released. But my ability to play it topped out at some point, and I lost interest. True, but you're describing the common experience with most any "classic arcade" game with no specific finite endgame goal. Those designs (simply) repeat similar (and often identical) gameplay and apply an increasing "difficulty" curve. For many, the allure of a high score won't be enough. In my case, I would have to play River Raid for a very long time to even challenge my personal best. I understand. On the other hand, it's not necessarily any less satisfying than a pure test of patience, concentration, and staying awake. Pitfall! is a game that simply tests the player's ability to be consistent and pay attention. Desert Bus is a fantastic parody of what Pitfall! does to gamers. Pitfall! is more varied, but at this point navigating Harry is all cerebellum. It's autopilot. Certainly not inherently more satisfying for me. Desert Bus is a perfect description of why I don't play Pitfall! anymore. Then, there are game designs with a set ending and experience. While satisfying the first time, they simply require memorization of the gameplay. And, that brought us the "beat the game" mindset that really gained steam over the years. Once the game is played, the content is no longer fresh. It becomes an exercise in learning to win with a better score/time. Once again, not necessarily more enjoyable or appealing for everyone. I think River Raid is the best of the bunch and it has aged better than most Atari software. For players that come in fresh, there's a great experience there and it holds up remarkably well. Outside of The Incredible Machine, the Civilization series, Pirates!, and Masters of Orion 2, I have found few games that are consistently entertaining to replay (without a stream additional content from the mod community, that doesn't count). Edited August 3, 2022 by orange808 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted August 5, 2022 Author Share Posted August 5, 2022 EVERY Atari 2600 Game released in 1983 (Part 1)! Oh boy, here comes 1983.... The Atari 2600's 45th Anniversary Countdown continues tomorrow with the first part of all the classic 2600 games released to the public in 1983 such as Phoenix, Spider Fighter, Journey Escape Bobby Goes Home and Pooyan! What is your favourite game from the first part of 1983? (list below) Fri Aug 5, 2022 @ (LIVE @ 12PM PT | 3PM ET | 7PM GMT) WATCH LIVE: https://twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/ WATCH LATER: https://youtube.com/zeropagehomebrew/ Spoiler Spider Fighter Confrontation Gauntlet Malagai Donald Duck's Speedboat Obelix Pepsi Invaders Phoenix Quadrun Mission 3000 A.D. Mr. Postman Open Sesame Snail Against Squirrel Assault Great Escape Wall-Defender Bobby Is Going Home Berenstain Bears Journey Escape Video Jogger Video Reflex Pac-Kong Gamma-Attack Alien's Return Base Attack Panda Chase Parachute Wing War Marine Wars Pooyan Strategy X Spitfire Attack Survival Run Dice Puzzle Scuba Diver Stunt Man 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+TwentySixHundred Posted August 5, 2022 Share Posted August 5, 2022 There is one standout game this time and that's Phoenix! Another 10 ten game on the system IMO. I also have the Arcade tabletop cocktail of this setup in my shed. Very faithful to the original and looks spectacular. Spent many many hours playing this game as a kid. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted August 5, 2022 Share Posted August 5, 2022 I did not play any game from the list back then (looks like I had completely moved to my C64 by then). And IMO this selection is much worse than the previous one, so signs of the coming crash are getting stronger. Spider Fighter and Phoenix stick out. And as a fan of the comics, I also like Obelix (you may need some hints to understand how it plays). 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveM Posted August 5, 2022 Share Posted August 5, 2022 Lots of shovelware here. Spider Fighter and Phoenix far above the rest, but I kinda like Quadrun too. When I was in college in the early 90s, there was a computer store near campus that also sold leftover Atari 2600 stock. After going a few times, I figured out just two guys worked there - a smart guy and a dumb guy. If I went while the smart guy was there, I'd just look around, as he'd charge full price for everything. The dumb guy, however, would only charge $2 for all 2600 games. I picked up a new in box Quadrun from him for just $2! Also stocked up on a lot of Atari red box games and some late Activision games like Private Eye, all for $2 each. Eventually, the smart guy caught on, and that was the end of that. Years later, I ended up selling Quadrun for $750 on ebay, minus the box. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Cafeman Posted August 5, 2022 Share Posted August 5, 2022 I did own Phoenix but no others from this list. I remember kids in school who loved Spider Fighter. There were a couple great games in 1983 that I owned, not on this first subset- Enduro, Keystone Kapers and Robot Tank. Memory says I moved on to 5200 during later 1983. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted August 7, 2022 Share Posted August 7, 2022 On 8/4/2022 at 7:59 PM, ZeroPage Homebrew said: Oh boy, here comes 1983.... The Atari 2600's 45th Anniversary Countdown continues tomorrow with the first part of all the classic 2600 games released to the public in 1983 such as Phoenix, Spider Fighter, Journey Escape Bobby Goes Home and Pooyan! What is your favourite game from the first part of 1983? Phoenix. There, that was easy. Spider Fighter was one of those games I would've bought if I'd had the money, but games were still expensive at this point. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted August 8, 2022 Author Share Posted August 8, 2022 EVERY Atari 2600 Game released in 1983 (Part 2)! The Atari 2600's 45th Anniversary Countdown continues tonight with the second part of all the classic 2600 games released to the public in 1983 such as Eggomania, Save our Ship, Halloween, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Gopher! What is your least hated games from the second part of 1983? (list below) Mon Aug 8, 2022 @ (LIVE @ 7PM PT | 10PM ET | 2AM GMT+1Day) WATCH LIVE: https://twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/ WATCH LATER: https://youtube.com/zeropagehomebrew/ Spoiler Burning Desire Cathouse Blues Knight on the Town Eddy Langfinger, der Museumsdieb Motocross The Music Machine Bumper Bash Mangia Master Builder Zoo Fun Nuts Save Our Ship Demolition Herby Ram It Stargunner X-man Eggomania Gopher M.A.D. Name This Game Picnic Squeeze Box Missile Control Mission Survive Surfer's Paradise: But Danger Below! Treasure Below Halloween The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted August 9, 2022 Share Posted August 9, 2022 4 hours ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said: The Atari 2600's 45th Anniversary Countdown continues tonight with the second part of all the classic 2600 games released to the public in 1983 such as Eggomania, Save our Ship, Halloween, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Gopher! What is your least hated games from the second part of 1983? (list below) Ummm... wow. Well, M.A.D. wasn't entirely terrible. And Name This Game had a cool-looking octopus. But... yeah. We're really in the weeds now. So what does this get you up to? Mid-January? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+TwentySixHundred Posted August 9, 2022 Share Posted August 9, 2022 I didnt own any of these and none stand out that i have played. Mangia i played many years ago on high score club and it wasn't completely terrible. Although i think what made it tolerable and more fun was the fact it was for HSC. Guess you gotta take the good with the bad when it comes to these montages. Hopefully the next list has some gems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted August 10, 2022 Author Share Posted August 10, 2022 On 8/8/2022 at 7:35 PM, Nathan Strum said: So what does this get you up to? Mid-January? I estimate we'll be doing about 6-7 streams for 1983. All the games in the first two of 1983 are of unknown date and the third one will take us from Jan-Mar. 🙂 On 8/8/2022 at 7:45 PM, TwentySixHundred said: Hopefully the next list has some gems. Part 3 of 1983 has some much better games in the mix thankfully!! We'll be playing those tonight! - James 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted August 10, 2022 Share Posted August 10, 2022 7 minutes ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said: Part 3 of 1983 has some much better games in the mix thankfully!! We'll be playing those tonight! Will you post the list? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted August 10, 2022 Author Share Posted August 10, 2022 EVERY Atari 2600 Game released in 1983 (Part 3)! The Atari 2600's 45th Anniversary Countdown continues tonight with the third part of all the classic 2600 games released to the public in 1983 such as Ms. Pac-Man, Star Wars Jedi Arena, Entombed, Frankenstein's Monster and Revenge of the Beefsteak Tomatoes! What are your favourite games from the third part of 1983? (list below) Wed Aug 10, 2022 @ (LIVE @ 7PM PT | 10PM ET | 2AM GMT+1Day)WATCH LIVE: https://twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/WATCH LATER: https://youtube.com/zeropagehomebrew/ Spoiler Adventures of Tron Air Raiders Bermuda Triangle Centipede Cosmic Corridor Crazy Climber Crypts of Chaos Dishaster Entombed Frankenstein's Monster G.I. Joe: Cobra Strike Guardian Killer Satellites (cassette) Ms. Pac-Man Piece o' Cake Raft Rider Reactor Rescue Terra 1 Revenge of the Beefsteak Tomatoes Seahawk Seaquest Shootin' Gallery Star Wars: Jedi Arena Sub-Scan Swordquest: Fireworld Tac-Scan Tron: Deadly Discs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted August 10, 2022 Share Posted August 10, 2022 That's a much better list than the last one. BTW: How are you going to present the lightgun games? Stella? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted August 10, 2022 Author Share Posted August 10, 2022 8 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said: That's a much better list than the last one. Massively better list, some fun ones in there for sure! It was certainly difficult to find good things to say about the last batch other than some decent graphics here and there. 8 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said: BTW: How are you going to present the lightgun games? Stella? We'll be using Stella to play the one released lightgun game (Sentinel) for the Atari 2600. I just tested it out with the mouse and it works great! We'll reserve the 'semi-complicated camera pointed at a CRT' setup for when I do the Homebrew light gun games & Vectrex streams in the future. 🙂 - James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Iacovelli Posted August 10, 2022 Share Posted August 10, 2022 good line up, was wondering if you are going be showing porky's from 20 century fox? its not offensive its based on the movie the only dirty part of the game was the shower scene (the movie was rated R though) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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