Collecting for the 2600+

[Dr Karnov]

8 minutes ago, JetmanUK said:

This is an interesting site. It does however have tons of joysticks missing that we had here in the UK. Funny to see that they featured the awful Amstrad rewired SJS sticks for the Spectrum though. That SJS 1, thumb ache from only having the fire button on the top and the terrible wobbly plastic feel of the stick itself. I actually liked the look of it, everything else.... Bad. SJS2 was much better, but flawed in many ways too. 

 

I should have these and a bunch of other old sticks in my loft, I should take a look and see if they are working ok. Quickshot 1 and 2, a Cheetah 125, some others the name currently escapes me and the best stick of the era, to me anyway, the PowerPlay Cruiser. I have the black one, not the garish green, pink and yellow one.

 

All that aside I actually really like the standard Atari sticks. I think they are perfectly fine 99% of the time, it's just that the PowerPlay Cruiser offers microswitches for better precision. 

When I was a kid, I had lots of weird joysticks (for my Amiga) but I think this was the strangest:

 

 

[JetmanUK]

Just now, Dr Karnov said:

When I was a kid, I had lots of weird joysticks (for my Amiga) but I think this was the strangest:

 

 

Freaky!

[+Intellivision Master]

1 minute ago, Dr Karnov said:

When I was a kid, I had lots of weird joysticks (for my Amiga) but I think this was the strangest:

 

 

It's definitely unique. 

[Brad_from_the_80s]

3 minutes ago, Dr Karnov said:

When I was a kid, I had lots of weird joysticks (for my Amiga) but I think this was the strangest:

 

 

Aerodynamic for gaming in wind tunnels.

[+sramirez2008]

10 minutes ago, JetmanUK said:

All that aside I actually really like the standard Atari sticks. I think they are perfectly fine 99% of the time,

My go to is the CX-40, followed by Suncom Slik Stiks. Slik Stiks have a short throw (great for twitch games) and last forever. I also pair certain controllers (e.g., Epyx 500xj with H.E.R.O., Starplex with Asteroids and Edladdin Supreme 78: All-Play 4/8, which allows you to switch “on the fly between 4 way and 8 way games).

[Maq]

Hello, here are my sweets that I bought on the last day of the year. 😀

[Brad_from_the_80s]

40 minutes ago, Maq said:

Hello, here are my sweets that I bought on the last day of the year. 😀

Nice eclectic mix there.  Pole Position!

[Dr Karnov]

2 hours ago, Maq said:

Hello, here are my sweets that I bought on the last day of the year. 😀

You'll have to let us all know which carts stand out as the best ones.

 

I've got Bobby Geht Nach Hause on the way, I thought that game looked really cool

[Brad_from_the_80s]

OT but I finally got a GSP today.  Now all your Atari are belong to us.

[JetmanUK]

9 minutes ago, Brad_from_the_80s said:

OT but I finally got a GSP today.  Now all your Atari are belong to us.

Yes! I got mine over Christmas, I think it's great! It's sat next to the 2600 Plus and Flashback 50 Gold. A real Atari shelf. What do you think so far? 

[Brad_from_the_80s]

29 minutes ago, JetmanUK said:

Yes! I got mine over Christmas, I think it's great! It's sat next to the 2600 Plus and Flashback 50 Gold. A real Atari shelf. What do you think so far? 

Well I may not get to mess with it much until this weekend, but will let you know.

 

And for no good reason at all, here's my recent high score on 2600 Mario Bros.

 

[JetmanUK]

3 minutes ago, Brad_from_the_80s said:

Well I may not get to mess with it much until this weekend, but will let you know.

 

And for no good reason at all, here's my recent high score on 2600 Mario Bros.

 

Enjoy! 👍🏻

 

I don't have Mario on the 2600, perhaps I need to load it onto the GSP and give it a go!

I really love that we have Nintendo and Sega games on Atari, a cool time in gaming history, when Atari was king before those two ascended to the throne. 

Edited January 8 by JetmanUK

[Ampersound]

This is my pre-Xmas eBay purchases and birthday present of the 2600+.

its taken me back to being 10 years old again and I can’t wait until payday to try and buy some more games😂

really want hero and river raid next.

[scifidude79]

22 minutes ago, JetmanUK said:

I really love that we have Nintendo and Sega games on Atari, a cool time in gaming history, when Atari was king before those two ascended to the throne. 

It really was a great time in gaming history. I first played both Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong JR on my family's Atari 7800. In fact, those were favorite cartridges of ours. Obviously, I knew at the time those were Nintendo games, it said "Nintendo" right on the boxes and cartridges, and I thought it was cool at the time. However, I never realized just how cool it was until I got older and realized just how big those gaming rivalries really were.

 

What's even more wild is when you consider that Nintendo's very first home console was a Pong console. People who want to act like Atari's contributions to home video games weren't that substantial need to consider that. Pong was such an influential game that even the company that would wind up taking the top spot away from Atari in the 1980s got their start in the home console market by copying Atari's moves.

[Brad_from_the_80s]

1 hour ago, Ampersound said:

This is my pre-Xmas eBay purchases and birthday present of the 2600+.

its taken me back to being 10 years old again and I can’t wait until payday to try and buy some more games😂

really want hero and river raid next.

Lot of great classics.  I still need to get Galaxian.

[KainXavier]

1 hour ago, scifidude79 said:

What's even more wild is when you consider that Nintendo's very first home console was a Pong console. People who want to act like Atari's contributions to home video games weren't that substantial need to consider that. Pong was such an influential game that even the company that would wind up taking the top spot away from Atari in the 1980s got their start in the home console market by copying Atari's moves.

The early days of the video game industry were pretty wild.  Coleco made shoes, Parker Brothers made board games, and Mattel made Barbie, yet they all went on to (briefly) become titans of the industry.

[scifidude79]

I got a little package from AtariAge today:

I have to say, I'm impressed. Not only are the brand new cartridges with their brand new artwork fantastic, but full color manuals on everything. The printing is all high quality and looks gorgeous. These are my first homebrew cartridges for Atari, though they won't be my last. I have some NES homebrews and I think AtariAge really stepped up the game over the makers of those cartridges. Both games are fun. I found Tower of Rubble thanks to the release on the VCS, so I decided I had to have it. Actually, I flipped a coin between that and Amoeba Jump for my first order. 😂 And Space Duel is a great classic that's a more recent find for me, thanks to the Atari50 collection. I'd never played that game before playing it on Atari50, and I quickly became a fan. When I saw it was available for the 7800, I had to have it. I did have to update my console to make it work, but it works great and it's a beautiful port. I used the Mega 7800 and a Retro-Bit official Sega Genesis controller to Space Duel, though only one of my Retro-Bit controllers works with it. And, lastly, I like the swag. I don't mind a good catalog, the Atari Club card is cool and retro (and something I'll look into) and that AtariAge sticker is going on something for sure. Everything was packaged well. The cartridges were neatly wrapped and the adapter was in a baggie. The paperwork was all bundled together, carded and wrapped. That's how you do it right. So, I'm very impressed and will be ordering from AtariAge again for sure.

 

And I got some Ebay stuff too:

JR. Pac-Man came yesterday, but I played very little because I was very sick the last couple days. I felt better today, so it was back to work. When I got home, River Raid, Space War and Pitfall were waiting for me. And, since I'm a doofus, I forgot to buy more cotton swabs in the store I work at the sells them, so I used the last two I had cleaning the cartridges. Luckily, Pitfall was pretty clean, but River Raid was filthy and Space War was pretty dirty too. But, they got their contacts and inner chambers cleaned and every used cartridge I receive gets its exterior wiped down with some Windex and a rag because I'm a germophobe. But, all of those cartridges work great in my 2600+ and are worthy additions to my collection.

45 minutes ago, Brad_from_the_80s said:

Lot of great classics.  I still need to get Galaxian.

Galaxian is great and the 2600 port is fantastic.

  

17 minutes ago, KainXavier said:

The early days of the video game industry were pretty wild.  Coleco made shoes, Parker Brothers made board games, and Mattel made Barbie, yet they all went on to (briefly) become titans of the industry.

It would be really interesting to see what the gaming landscape would be like today if the crash of '83 hadn't happened.

[JetmanUK]

3 hours ago, scifidude79 said:

I got a little package from AtariAge today:

I have to say, I'm impressed. Not only are the brand new cartridges with their brand new artwork fantastic, but full color manuals on everything. The printing is all high quality and looks gorgeous. These are my first homebrew cartridges for Atari, though they won't be my last. I have some NES homebrews and I think AtariAge really stepped up the game over the makers of those cartridges. Both games are fun. I found Tower of Rubble thanks to the release on the VCS, so I decided I had to have it. Actually, I flipped a coin between that and Amoeba Jump for my first order. 😂 And Space Duel is a great classic that's a more recent find for me, thanks to the Atari50 collection. I'd never played that game before playing it on Atari50, and I quickly became a fan. When I saw it was available for the 7800, I had to have it. I did have to update my console to make it work, but it works great and it's a beautiful port. I used the Mega 7800 and a Retro-Bit official Sega Genesis controller to Space Duel, though only one of my Retro-Bit controllers works with it. And, lastly, I like the swag. I don't mind a good catalog, the Atari Club card is cool and retro (and something I'll look into) and that AtariAge sticker is going on something for sure. Everything was packaged well. The cartridges were neatly wrapped and the adapter was in a baggie. The paperwork was all bundled together, carded and wrapped. That's how you do it right. So, I'm very impressed and will be ordering from AtariAge again for sure.

 

And I got some Ebay stuff too:

JR. Pac-Man came yesterday, but I played very little because I was very sick the last couple days. I felt better today, so it was back to work. When I got home, River Raid, Space War and Pitfall were waiting for me. And, since I'm a doofus, I forgot to buy more cotton swabs in the store I work at the sells them, so I used the last two I had cleaning the cartridges. Luckily, Pitfall was pretty clean, but River Raid was filthy and Space War was pretty dirty too. But, they got their contacts and inner chambers cleaned and every used cartridge I receive gets its exterior wiped down with some Windex and a rag because I'm a germophobe. But, all of those cartridges work great in my 2600+ and are worthy additions to my collection.

Galaxian is great and the 2600 port is fantastic.

  

It would be really interesting to see what the gaming landscape would be like today if the crash of '83 hadn't happened.

I think you are in for a ton of fun!

I've just looked at Tower of Rubble, it looks fantastic, I'd definitely buy that but I'm in the UK so I'll wait for hopefully better distribution. 

 

There nothing like River Raid is there? 😊

Edited January 9 by JetmanUK

[Dr Karnov]

4 hours ago, JetmanUK said:

I think you are in for a ton of fun!

I've just looked at Tower of Rubble, it looks fantastic, I'd definitely buy that but I'm in the UK so I'll wait for hopefully better distribution. 

 

There nothing like River Raid is there? 😊

I'm really hoping we get UK distribution for AtariAge products this year. They are selling official Atari carts on Amazon UK for an affordable price, so it's definitely possible 

[JetmanUK]

24 minutes ago, Dr Karnov said:

I'm really hoping we get UK distribution for AtariAge products this year. They are selling official Atari carts on Amazon UK for an affordable price, so it's definitely possible 

They HAVE to do this. Why leave such a large market out?

 

I will buy Tower of Rubble for sure, the one like a 7800 Dark Cavern, I've seen a Moon Patrol type game on YouTube, others too! I would buy lots of them.

 

Surely this is a low bar for Atari, the games have already been put on carts and artwork and boxes created. The bulk of the work is done. Age certs and other red tape to sort I'm sure, but come on, they will sell. 

[Dr Karnov]

1 minute ago, JetmanUK said:

They HAVE to do this. Why leave such a large market out?

 

I will buy Tower of Rubble for sure, the one like a 7800 Dark Cavern, I've seen a Moon Patrol type game on YouTube, others too! I would buy lots of them.

 

Surely this is a low bar for Atari, the games have already been put on carts and artwork and boxes created. The bulk of the work is done. Age certs and other red tape to sort I'm sure, but come on, they will sell. 

Agreed. Just think of the thousands of people in the UK and Europe who got a 2600+ for Christmas. There is definitely a market 

[JetmanUK]

9 minutes ago, Dr Karnov said:

Agreed. Just think of the thousands of people in the UK and Europe who got a 2600+ for Christmas. There is definitely a market 

Just a quick list of what I've seen so far, I've not even delved in that much yet either!

 

Frenzy

Tower of Rubble

Robot City (a maze shooter!)

Dungeon Stalker

Escape from Mars (Saw this on YouTube, I don't know if it's on a cart yet, if not it could be put on one!)

 

Edited January 9 by JetmanUK

[DEANJIMMY]

25 minutes ago, Dr Karnov said:

I'm really hoping we get UK distribution for AtariAge products this year. They are selling official Atari carts on Amazon UK for an affordable price, so it's definitely possible 

There will be new official carts from Atari/Plaion soon on Amazon as well.

 

On Atariage they there are new games in the shop too.

Some 7800 games look very interesting but currently they are in the preorder state and I wait until the games get a "Runs on 2600+" tag or it gets confirmed to work on the forum before I order.

 

I wonder if and how they will keep it seperated in the future?

New games and enhanced originals via Amazon and homebrew only via Atariage?

 

It would be nice to get them both the easy way in Europe.

On the other hand I know the return policy from Amazon could create Atariage some headache, as you get different minded customers as via the forum/shop from Atariage.

[DEANJIMMY]

1 hour ago, JetmanUK said:

Just a quick list of what I've seen so far, I've not even delved in that much yet either!

 

Frenzy

Tower of Rubble

Robot City (a maze shooter!)

Escape from Mars (Saw this on YouTube, I don't know if it's on a cart yet, if not it could be put on one!)

Since my Frenzy 7800 works now and gives me a perfect Berzerk too (with Speech) I did not buy the new Berzerk 2600 enhanced (green label from Amazon) as I alreday have the 2600 voice enhanced (red label from AA), as I have the diagonal shots on the 7800 too.

Berzerk 7800 ist the only game I use 16:9 instead of 4:3, it looks better!

 

The AA shop offers quite a few interesting games now:

I am interested in Ninjish guy for the 2600.

For the 7800 the list gets longer: Knight Guy, T:me Salvo (twinstick), ARTI (preorder) and EXO (preorder)

 

But as said, you have to make sure they run on the 2600+ in advance.

Edited January 9 by DEANJIMMY

[JetmanUK]

25 minutes ago, DEANJIMMY said:

Since my Frenzy 7800 works now and gives me a perfect Berzerk too (with Speech) I did not buy the new Berzerk 2600 enhanced (green label from Amazon) as I alreday have the 2600 voice anhced (red label from AA), as I have the diagonal shots on the 7800 too.

Berzerk 7800 ist the only game I use 16:9 instead of 4:3, it looks better!

 

The AA shop offers quite a few interesting games now:

I am interested in Ninjish guy for the 2600.

For the 7800 the list gets longer: Knight Guy, T:me Salvo (twinstick), ARTI (preorder) and EXO (preorder)

 

But as said, you habe to make sure they run on the 2600+ in advance.

Thanks for the update. It does look good in your screenshot.

So you buy from here? Are the international costs that are added on not to bad then? Or are you just biting the bullet!? It is temping.

I am going to try and wait until they realise that Atari is an intertnational brand...

 

Oh which joystick is that?