Bally's all time system rank: 68/92 ?!?!

[tripletopper]

The people at triple jump tried to rate every console made everywhere in the world, of all time I know I like 92 rankings.  the title for the worst console went to the dedicated system which only played one game which describes everything except the Odyssey 1 at the time of the Odyssey 1.

I personally think I have good judgment on video games because no video game in that list was current generation when I first got it until we got to number 38 I believe, the Sega 32x.

Before we got to number 38, there were four consoles did I happen to pick up at thrift stores before Macklemore hit the charts (my candidate for the BC and AD of video game thrift shopping eras).

These four systems ranked below the 32x and Triple Jump admits that they used mostly system sales figures, game library quantity, game sales, metacritic charts (which was weird because they didn't have metacritic until like either of Dreamcast or PlayStation 2 so how would older games qualify for a metacritic high score?), and historic milestones. Those 4 systems were,  in alphabetical order, by the name of the company, Atari Jaguar, Bally Astrocade, Emerson Arcadia 2001, and the Xavix.

Let's just say, the Bally got the worst of the 4. 4.  But that pull didn't factor in something that many Bally players known. (Has this guy never seen a Bally Fitness commercial?  I'd say yes, because he wants to pronounce it "Bolly", like the Indian movie making capital.). 

There was fans and enthusiasts and programmers who were (and even still now) writing and buying new programs with Bally Basic,  (and even better versions of Bally programming software) by selling them as almost a cottage industry of new games, passing tapes to each other.  Plus I think this is the lowest ranked system that has a fan URL dedicated to system, as the name BallyAlley.com was bought by this group.

If you did not voluntarily purchased any of these previous games that were listed before Bally back when they were considered new, then you have good taste in video games.  I dare you to find a system with a worse ranking on that triple jump list  than astrocade that has a fan URL.  even some of the ones that are better ranking don't have a specific fan URL.  they did not figure in the afterlife of these systems and probably Baliy has one of the best afterlives of a system.

Obviously if they did factor in cottage industry games then the Bally would have ranked higher.

It takes a special kind of person to be a Bally owner at the time when I was out.  I think it got released before I was born and I got a ColecoVision when I was 7, pretty close when it first came out, so I admit I was not a Bally person back in the day.  But I was aware that Cap'n Video was renting Astrocade as well as 2600 intellivision, and Odyssey 2 games as well as VHS, Beta, LaserDisc and Selectavision movies.  We went there for Beta movies. But I didn't rent anything there gamewise because I was a Coleco guy.  That was when  Atari was starting to sue people for renting games.  

 

By the way, BallyAlley.com referred to this atariage sub-form as one of two official Bally Alley continuations of their old forum.  The other one seems to be on groups.io email list.  I currently receive the emails but can't find how to post.

 

[128Kgames]

Astrocade rules, 'nuff said.  ?

 

The Bally Computer System model was my second game system after the Atari 2600.  

 

She was a thing of beauty, like nothing I had ever seen before.

 

My two favorite systems to this day are the Astrocade and the Neo Geo Advanced Entertainment System.

 

So she's in good company in my book.

[tripletopper]

my point was that the triple jump was giving it a lower score that I and most of us think it deserved because it did not factor in the cottage industry it's spawned even back in the 80s.

 

I think most people would rank the Bally above the Emerson Arcadia 2001.

 

Even the objective numbers would rank the Bally about the Emerson Arcadia 2001.  (Length of time in market, number of games in library [even before factoring in the cottage industry], machine sales, game sales [even if carts only], cultural importance, [the fact that Bally Alley.com exists early in the internet, and Emerson is as invisiblr in the afterlife as it it was in life.

 

I was 8, into video games, and heard of the Bally.   The only time Emerson jogged my memory was the when I found it at a thrift store, and I remember the legal battles for the name Arcadia, as printed in Electronic Games magazine.  I never saw ANYTHING Emerson related until that one thrift store day in 2002, and I've been thrifting since 1994, when a local game shop recommended thrifting.  Thank You Southgate OH Video Game Exchange

[ballyalley]

3 hours ago, tripletopper said:

I think most people would rank the Bally above the Emerson Arcadia 2001.

 

The Arcadia 2001 does have an Internet pretense.  Ward Shrake's "Digital Archaeology: Arcadia 2001' website began in 1998.  The website is long gone, but it's mirrored in-full on my own website:

 

https://orphanedgames.com/DigitalArchaeologyArcadia2001/index.htm

 

Also, there is a current Arcadia 2001 website called "Emerson Arcadia 2001 Central."  It's full of information-- though it's rather hard to find stuff (just like my own website, BallyAlley.com):

 

https://amigan.yatho.com/

 

The Arcadia 2001 didn't beat the Astrocade in the U.S. market, but in the world market the Signetics 2650-based machines with the Signetics 2637 UVI probably held a sizeable market share.  The Astrocade was only released in the United States and Canada, but the Signetics systems were released in many different countries.

 

In my eyes, the Arcadia 2001 and it's many cousins are as interesting as the Astrocade.  I wouldn't argue to have the Astrocade higher or lower on any "best of" of "worst of" list for I like them both.

 

(Okay, I cheer for the Astrocade a bit more... but I'm entitled to be a Super Fan of the Bally Arcade, right?)

 

Adam

 

[ballyalley]

Here is a direct link to Astrocade's #67 placement on the list at 28:37 minutes into the 1:45 hour called "Every Video Game Console Ranked From WORST To BEST:"

 

This first link may not work, since I don't think AtariAge will "understand" the direct link to the time in the video.  The second link should work okay.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pI-JPlKROUk&t=1717s

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pI-JPlKROUk&t=1717s

 

There is video footage of eight games (including a homebrew, a tape release and a prototype):

1. 280 Zzap!
2. Artillery Duel
3. Bally Pin
4. Cosmic Raiders
5. Crazy Climber (a homebrew cartridge)
6. Soccer (a prototype)
7. Solar Conqueror
8. Super Slope (a tape game by Esoterica)

Honestly, I was expecting that the video would hammer the console, but they gave it a fair shake.

 

Adam

[128Kgames]

You can have my Bally when you pry it from my cold, dead hands...

 

Kidding.  I'm taking mine to the grave.

 

Still kidding, Alcor has a spot for me at -196 degrees Celsius.

 

Honestly, reviews are always subjective, and I don't give them much weight.  Some people like mustard on their hot dog, some like ketchup.  

 

If you were like me back in '80 or '81 and got to see an Astrocade and then own one, it was like nothing else at the time.  Yes, the titles were limited and 3rd party games were few and far between (I never knew about Blast Droids or Treasure Cove carts, only tapes like Castle of Horror). 

 

But it captured something in a way the other consoles didn't.

 

Even when ColecoVision came out, I still held onto my Bally until many years layer, after my Atari and Coleco were long gone.

[128Kgames]

1 hour ago, ballyalley said:

There is video footage of eight games (including a homebrew, a tape release and a prototype):

1. 280 Zzap!
2. Artillery Duel
3. Bally Pin
4. Cosmic Raiders
5. Crazy Climber (a homebrew cartridge)
6. Soccer (a prototype)
7. Solar Conqueror
8. Super Slope (a tape game by Esoterica)

Honestly, I was expecting that the video would hammer the console, but they gave it a fair shake.

 

Adam

Adam did they only play these games?  Not really a great play list in my opinion.

 

If they only played those games it's no wonder.  

 

Get rid of 1,2,6 & 8.  Add Galaxian, Sneaky Snake, Treasure Cove,  WAR, and no idea how they could leave out Incredible Wizard.

 

They get a thumbs down for pronouncing Bally "ball - ee" and for calling it the Bally Astrocade.  And their history on it was incorrect.

 

[ballyalley]

2 minutes ago, 128Kgames said:

Adam did they only play these games?  Get rid of 1,2,6 & 8.  Add Galaxian, Sneaky Snake, Treasure Cove,  WAR, and no idea how they could leave out Incredible Wizard.

 

They get a thumbs down for pronouncing Bally "ball - ee" and for calling it the Bally Astrocade.  And their history on it was incorrect.

 

I don't think that they played any of the Astrocade games for the video.  I get the impression from the rest of the video that they use other YouTube videos for gameplay footage.  Can you imagine playing even one game for each system of the 90 or so systems that are covered?  The video would never have been started, especially if each game was given fair play.

 

As for the pronunciation of Bally as "Ball - ee," that certainly isn't the first, nor will be be the last, time that I've heard the system's name said that way.  Also, I don't think that "Ball - ee" is wrong.  I think that "our" way of saying it is American English and "their" way is "British English" or a variant on French pronunciation.

 

This video isn't really meant to be historically accurate: it's meant to be fun.  I've watched about 1/3 of the video and it has introduced quite a few previously unknown systems to me.  For that alone, the video is sort of fun.  Also, how many people tuned-in to the video and heard of the Astrocade for the first time?  Most of 'em, I'd guess.  That makes me happy.  Little by little the Astrocade will creep up the list until it's the number one game system in the world.  Or, maybe not.

 

As for the name "Bally Astrocade," I used to think that the system was never called by that title, but it was when it was initially re-released by Astrovision.  You can see the name in some Astrocade advertising.  I've heard (from Mike White and Ken Lill, and maybe a few other people) that Astrocade, Inc. had one year to use "Bally" in the name for the console, but I've never pinned that down or seen that said in any documentation that I've read.  I prefer the system to be called... heck, you pick one of the four official names or make one up yourself.  I like Bally Arcade or Astrocade but it could just as well be called the Fantastic Woodgrained Professional Z80 Dream Machine with the Always-to-Be-Upcoming Add-Under to Hold a Home Library of Videocades.  Yeah, that sounds catchy.

 

Adam

[ballyalley]

1 hour ago, ballyalley said:

There is video footage of eight games (including a homebrew, a tape release and a prototype):

1. Cosmic Raiders
2. Solar Conqueror

 

Oops.  They didn't play (or show) Solar Conqueror.

 

Adam

[tripletopper]

On 5/29/2020 at 12:51 PM, ballyalley said:

 

The Arcadia 2001 does have an Internet pretense.  Ward Shrake's "Digital Archaeology: Arcadia 2001' website began in 1998.  The website is long gone, but it's mirrored in-full on my own website:

 

https://orphanedgames.com/DigitalArchaeologyArcadia2001/index.htm

 

Also, there is a current Arcadia 2001 website called "Emerson Arcadia 2001 Central."  It's full of information-- though it's rather hard to find stuff (just like my own website, BallyAlley.com):

 

https://amigan.yatho.com/

 

The Arcadia 2001 didn't beat the Astrocade in the U.S. market, but in the world market the Signetics 2650-based machines with the Signetics 2637 UVI probably held a sizeable market share.  The Astrocade was only released in the United States and Canada, but the Signetics systems were released in many different countries.

 

In my eyes, the Arcadia 2001 and it's many cousins are as interesting as the Astrocade.  I wouldn't argue to have the Astrocade higher or lower on any "best of" of "worst of" list for I like them both.

 

(Okay, I cheer for the Astrocade a bit more... but I'm entitled to be a Super Fan of the Bally Arcade, right?)

 

Adam

 

and half the reason why the American-centric view is that amAstricafe is better than Arcadia is because Atari sued the pants off of Emerson if they were to release the "real" versions of the games which the rest of the world, other companies like Atari and Coleco had.  in America the Emerson games were neutered water down junk that just had to be changed enough to be different and usually every single change made it worse.

 

Emerson and their partners had rights to regions other than North America.  It was because rights were so divided that the Nintendo license went to Coleco for American Home consoles, an Atari for American Home computers, and because he Adam bridged the gap it caused a alot of legal issues.

 

Similarly, Coleco was fighting for licenses mainly in America.  I think Emerson got the rights to a lot of games that were considered Coleco's in America, which the bid on in the rest of the world, but had to be watered down neutered versions in America because the competed against Coleco's, Mattel's, and Atari's licenses.

 

Funny thing is Bally astrocade had the best version of Pac-Man.  And the reason why was because it was originally intended to be the official Pac-Man at home.  Bally assumed just because it had the arcade rights, they'd by default have the home rights.  Well, Atari took care of that by buying it directly from Namco.

 

Luckily what goes around comes around.  Atari had the arcade rights to Tetris, and assumed they had the rights for their home division (which had to be called Tengen, because the 7800 division had the rights to the name Atari.  Also need to do those weird licensing wouldn't let Sega or Atari publish on Nintendo, even though before the crash Atari, Mattel, and Coleco were cross publishing games out the wazoo.

 

By the way, I predict the Sega announcement will be returning back to the days of Atari, Mattel and Coleco where Sega will publish for both their own new console  as well as all current existing systems.

 

The American mentality of Sega finally prevails.  The Japanese mentality sunk the Saturn in the US and the Dreamcast in Japan, despite Americans pulling in a different way.

Edited June 3, 2020 by tripletopper
Unclear talk typing in first paragraph.