Anyone grew up with both an NES & 7800 Back in The Day?

[duckodb]

I got the NES in early 86 and got a 7800 sometime in 88 i think from a friend of mine down the street that wanted an NES which by then I had 2 of so I traded him one that I bought off another friend down the street. After owning a NES and both Zelda games and Metroid when I hooked up the 7800 I thought well what’s the point in owning this. The couple of actual 7800 games I had , pole position II and Donkey Kong didn’t really make me wanna go out and buy more, plus I also had Donkey Kong on the NES already. I probably had 60 or 70 2600 games at that point so it was nice to be able to use it for them but my 2600 i got in 1980 worked fine, still does to this day actually, so to me the 7800 was pointless. I do still have it and it works though and over the years I’ve bought more games for it off eBay but really it’s just a collection thing, same with these dreadful 5200s I have now, whereas my old original NES from 86 is hooked up in my living room now and still gets played regularly. 

[John Stamos Mullet]

Never owned a NES. Never really wanted one. I had a few friends who had it so I played at their houses and wasn't impressed with it. I was 14-15 by the time it came out, so graphics were my thing, and the SMS seemed to blow it away in that department. Some of the games were fun, but not enough of them to make me want one.

 

But the 7800, warts and all, is still my favorite console ever.

[CommodoreDecker]

IMHO, YMMV...

 

 

I had a 7800 before buying a NES in 1991 (on clearance thanks to the SNES coming out.)   

 

Loved the 7800's arcade ports (Asteroids, Ms Pac Man, Ballblazer, et al), even if there was no Asteroids Deluxe, Millipede, Tempest, Sinistar, Paperboy, et al. Very glad they had the classic Food Fight...

 

But SMB, and Zelda won me over with more expansive gameplay  and still hold up more than a lot of modern games.  Skyrim feels like Zelda on steroids, and also needs a system requiring 1000w of power to run it on smoothly, and even then the game gets too repetitive - something the best looking games can't fight against. Zelda and the NES chug along fine at <100w and doesn't really get boring until the very end and it's 2D.  2D or not 2D is the question and for me I just answered it.     

 

Duck Hunt easily trounced Bug Hunt, despite the latter's surrealism and wit being appreciated. Didn't care for many of their other games, though I had Excitebike at the time.  I'd later (by 2022) appreciate Castlevania, of course...  Metroid was okay, though I did give Super Metroid a shot when I'd finally get a SNES (2021) and it's by far the best version... that said, the NES's original did start it all.

 

Never had DK or DKJr on the 7800 at the time... which is for the best because the sound is bloody awful... if only the POKEY was integrated...

 

Wish the 7800 had Vindicators, but you know they wouldn't have used a POKEY chip when the game deserved it, sigh...

 

Commando didn't have the horrible screen problems on  t he 7800 that the NES had.

 

Don't get me started on Ballblazer on the NES, hehe...

 

Didn't know both got Rampage until a few years ago.  The 7800 version's characters aren't quite as defined, but it has all three characters, good title screen with music, and I've returned to it more than the NES's version (which has crappier music and monotonous colors for their buildings despite their having slightly more detail.  When the NES screen shook, the character sprites in the buildings didn't, which was jarring too.)

 

 

[+Pat Brady]

On 12/26/2022 at 7:13 PM, CommodoreDecker said:

Never had DK or DKJr on the 7800 at the time... which is for the best because the sound is bloody awful... if only the POKEY was integrated...

 

TIA is capable of very good DK music and sound, as demonstrated by @Joe Musashi's D.K. VCS. I think some of the envelopes could be improved, but it's way way better than the official 7800 port. DK on the 7800 didn't need POKEY, it needed a programmer with expertise, desire, and time to make it sound good. Same for DK Jr. and Mario Bros.

 

[johannesmutlu]

I remember we got our nes back in late november of 1991 with the multi cart mario & duckhunt game included with it,i was mind blown away to see computer graphics on a tv screen,but that didn’t mean that i was amezed by it’s graphics oh no,but i was amezed at how to control mario to make something happen on screen,i was also amezed to be able to shoot on ducks with the zapper because it felt like magic to me,

before that we had a pong console i suppose,

also everybody else in our family wanted a computer but i just wanted a nintendo,all because i saw those nintendo commercials wich did let me suckered into it to wanting a nintendo to not even exactly knowing what it was,untill i got it,saw it in action and i was like “so this is slmething supposed to be cool” not knowing any better at what game consoles and computers were really capable off untill later on,also once we rented supermariobros 3 at fabruari 1992,i was indeed mind blown by it’s graphics & sounds and being able to fly in the sky,and later that year at the summer off 1992,i bought mario 3 in germany wich was fl10 gulden (time before the euro) cheaper then in holland,

anno 2022 i collected many atari game consoles among other ones with nintendo games on it among other games including sega & atari games as well😁

[MrMaddog]

On 12/27/2022 at 10:44 PM, Pat Brady said:

 

TIA is capable of very good DK music and sound, as demonstrated by @Joe Musashi's D.K. VCS. I think some of the envelopes could be improved, but it's way way better than the official 7800 port. DK on the 7800 didn't need POKEY, it needed a programmer with expertise, desire, and time to make it sound good. Same for DK Jr. and Mario Bros.

 

 

The 7800 versions of Mario Bros. and the DK games were rip offs of the Famicom versions, I'm not just saying that go compare the graphics and level designs.  You can tell Atari was stonewalling Nintendo on the Western release of the Famicom while using the licensing rights to make 7800 versions.

 

I wouldn't mind except using the TIA for the music wasn't so hot...and the 800 version managed to have all four levels in the same order as the US arcade versions.

Edited December 31, 2022 by MrMaddog
Forgot to carry the zero in the 7800's name...

[Trebor]

3 hours ago, MrMaddog said:

The 7800 versions of Mario Bros. and the DK games were rip offs of the Famicom versions, I'm not just saying that go compare the graphics and level designs.  You can tell Atari was stonewalling Nintendo on the Western release of the Famicom while using the licensing rights to make 7800 versions.

 

I wouldn't mind except using the TIA for the music wasn't so hot...and the 800 version managed to have all four levels in the same order as the US arcade versions.

The Nintendo related titles: Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr, and Mario Bros, were developed by International Technology Development Corporation (ITDC).  They were a software company based in San Francisco, that would acquire contracting work in the US, leveraging programmers in Shanghai, which would perform the job quick and cheap.  Due to the similarities, it is probable the programmers utilized the Famicom ports as reference material.  Those three titles coming across as literal cheap knockoffs made in China, would be apropos.

[NE146]

"Back in the day" I was a senior in high school and had a Famicom (clone) then went off to college in the states and there I bought a US NES console. And that's where I first started seeing 7800 games for sale on the shelves along with the NES stuff. 

 

Suffice to say, the offerings of Joust, Ms. Pacman, etc. I mean.. Only a few years earlier those were 'wow' titles, but by 1987 there was just no more appeal, for me at least. I took a hard pass on any 7800 stuff until decades later. 

[MrMaddog]

21 hours ago, Trebor said:

The Nintendo related titles: Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr, and Mario Bros, were developed by International Technology Development Corporation (ITDC).  They were a software company based in San Francisco, that would acquire contracting work in the US, leveraging programmers in Shanghai, which would perform the job quick and cheap.  Due to the similarities, it is probable the programmers utilized the Famicom ports as reference material.  Those three titles coming across as literal cheap knockoffs made in China, would be apropos.

 

Ah. so it was outsourced....I thought it was done by GCC like the other 7800 launch titles were.  Also explains the lack of HSC support as well.

[CommodoreDecker]

On 12/27/2022 at 9:44 PM, Pat Brady said:

 

TIA is capable of very good DK music and sound, as demonstrated by @Joe Musashi's D.K. VCS. I think some of the envelopes could be improved, but it's way way better than the official 7800 port. DK on the 7800 didn't need POKEY, it needed a programmer with expertise, desire, and time to make it sound good. Same for DK Jr. and Mario Bros.

 

 

Great point. It's a shame neither were utilized when  the  7800 version  was being  developed.  I think they had expertise, just not the time and likely not the desire as well...