New(ish) 7800 Games and Accessories announced by Atari and Plaion compatible with the 2600+

[jerseystyle]

31 minutes ago, Bill Loguidice said:

Midnight Mutants is easily one of the 7800's most sophisticated original games. It's one of the few that wouldn't necessarily seem out of place in the NES or SMS library in terms of scope. It's a shame more games like that weren't developed when it might have more of an impact.

MM is a fantastic game. It holds up to this day. I love the boss fights

[Sean_1970]

Well they surely have to republish it if it’s that good!

[chad5200]

12 hours ago, Bill Loguidice said:

Midnight Mutants is easily one of the 7800's most sophisticated original games. It's one of the few that wouldn't necessarily seem out of place in the NES or SMS library in terms of scope. It's a shame more games like that weren't developed when it might have more of an impact.

Would love to see a reissue of Midnight Mutants.  Even if they changed GRAMPA to GRANPA and updated graphics and art of Grampa to a generic Dracula character to avoid licensing fees.  No doubt a 7800 programmer enthusiast could knock that out in a weekend.

 

 

[astroguy]

Of the new games: Ninja Golf, Fatal Run and Food Fight, which is the one that standsout for best game-play and replay value?  Having messed with these games on emulators, Food Fights seems the best, but I'm curious of others long-term experience.   Rose-tinted glasses are welcome. 

Edited February 14 by astroguy
typos

[+Intellivision Master]

14 hours ago, astroguy said:

Of the new games: Ninja Golf, Fatal Run and Food Fight, which is the one that standsout for best game-play and replay value?  Having messed with these games on emulators, Food Fights seems the best, but I'm curious of others long-term experience.   Rose-tinted glasses are welcome. 

I would say Food Fight.  Because that one is the most fun to me.  It has good replay value.  

[Bill Loguidice]

15 hours ago, astroguy said:

Of the new games: Ninja Golf, Fatal Run and Food Fight, which is the one that standsout for best game-play and replay value?  Having messed with these games on emulators, Food Fights seems the best, but I'm curious of others long-term experience.   Rose-tinted glasses are welcome. 

I'm a big, big fan of Food Fight, and it's one of my favorite 7800 games. I also got the Food Fight Replicade, so I'll say for straight-up gameplay, it's a winner for me, but it's one of those games that's best in short doses, which is not surprising for an arcade game. It's challenging and fun, but repetitive. I'd say Fatal Run is interesting, but flawed in a lot of ways. Ninja Golf is similarly flawed, but is a bit more fun and certainly one of the most original titles on the platform. So I'd say for straight-up gameplay, Food Fight, but not necessarily something you'd want to go back to all the time because the stages are short and relatively similar. What's there, though, is a winner. If you want something a bit different that's uniquely 7800, then Ninja Golf is the clear choice. 

[shane857]

6 hours ago, Bill Loguidice said:

I'm a big, big fan of Food Fight, and it's one of my favorite 7800 games. I also got the Food Fight Replicade, so I'll say for straight-up gameplay, it's a winner for me, but it's one of those games that's best in short doses, which is not surprising for an arcade game. It's challenging and fun, but repetitive. I'd say Fatal Run is interesting, but flawed in a lot of ways. Ninja Golf is similarly flawed, but is a bit more fun and certainly one of the most original titles on the platform. So I'd say for straight-up gameplay, Food Fight, but not necessarily something you'd want to go back to all the time because the stages are short and relatively similar. What's there, though, is a winner. If you want something a bit different that's uniquely 7800, then Ninja Golf is the clear choice. 

Good game. Arcade style thou like Robotron 2084. I would play it 30 minutes or so...

[+LS650]

21 hours ago, astroguy said:

Of the new games: Ninja Golf, Fatal Run and Food Fight, which is the one that standsout for best game-play and replay value?  Having messed with these games on emulators, Food Fights seems the best, but I'm curious of others long-term experience.   Rose-tinted glasses are welcome. 

Try them out in emulation.  IMHO Food Fight is head and shoulders above the other two.

[shane857]

Personally...I think Atari should release more newer/better (homebrew) games to the mainstream, rather than re-releasing previous games. I for one would love to try all these new 2600/7800 homebrew/new games 👍

[Bill Loguidice]

55 minutes ago, shane857 said:

Personally...I think Atari should release more newer/better (homebrew) games to the mainstream, rather than re-releasing previous games. I for one would love to try all these new 2600/7800 homebrew/new games 👍

That's always difficult. Even homebrews rarely sell well unless they're based off existing properties. That's probably moreso the case when you're trying to appeal to a more mass market than usual. Maybe when they exhaust most of the "good" original titles they own, they'll do more things like "Mr Run and Jump." It certainly would be nice to get a new 7800 game with POKEY support in the emulator, even if it only uses 1 button.

[Albert]

1 hour ago, shane857 said:

Personally...I think Atari should release more newer/better (homebrew) games to the mainstream, rather than re-releasing previous games. I for one would love to try all these new 2600/7800 homebrew/new games 👍

This is definitely going to happen.

 

 ..Al

[Glorkbot]

4 minutes ago, Albert said:

This is definitely going to happen.

 

 ..Al

Praise the Lord! This is what I’ve been begging for!

[Varanis Ridari]

Glad to see some of these games getting re-issued, as 7800 titles in particular have gotten pricey as they're exponentially less common than many 2600 or even 5200 carts.

 

That said, I'm also with the fellas here saying more new releases like Mr. Run and Jump for both the 2600 and 7800 would be neat.

 

With Microsoft trying to turn its console into the gaming equivalent of a Roku box, Atari is poised to replace them among the console pantheon, and this full-circle back-to-basics approach is just the thing.

 

A long time coming, if you ask me.

[John Van Ryzin]

wow old games in new boxes, why would anyone want a new game?

[John Van Ryzin]

I have to admit the most amusing part of today’s Atari is, they removed home brew games that potentially violate copyright laws.  But they did not remove a A.R.T.I. 7800, a blatant copy of Activision H.E.R.O..  No offense to that developer, I took the remake game as a compliment.

 

Aside from that, what video game console manufacturer ever came out with a new game system without new games for said system?  Do Atari fans not want new games?

[Sean_1970]

5 hours ago, John Van Ryzin said:

I have to admit the most amusing part of today’s Atari is, they removed home brew games that potentially violate copyright laws.  But they did not remove a A.R.T.I. 7800, a blatant copy of Activision H.E.R.O..  No offense to that developer, I took the remake game as a compliment.

 

Aside from that, what video game console manufacturer ever came out with a new game system without new games for said system?  Do Atari fans not want new games?

There was Mr. Run and Jump, but that’s it so far. Given the nostalgia appeal behind the offering to begin with I’m not surprised at reissues and if the games are rare/expensive on the secondary market I welcome them (still hoping for a wider release of “Save Mary”), but I was also expecting wider sales of homebrew titles confirmed to work with the 2600+. Hopefully once they get a final of the firmware update released that fixes most of the outstanding compatibility issues they can get going on that, because some of those games are only really available in North America.

 

Of course given they shipped with 1.0 firmware, I can’t see how they could ship games that will only work with a newer firmware release if end users need to buy special cables or have special drivers and such. I mean I know there are dedicated people on this forum who have no issues with that, but this console is being sold on Amazon and has a target market beyond propeller heads, so that’s really not going to cut it. If you create a situation in which you’re selling games that won’t work on people’s consoles without a non-trivial upgrade that seems like a huge problem to me.

[John Van Ryzin]

1 hour ago, Sean_1970 said:

Of course given they shipped with 1.0 firmware, I can’t see how they could ship games that will only work with a newer firmware release if end users need to buy special cables or have special drivers and such.

I do not see how that is an excuse, since they must have tested the new/old games before they made cartridges of them.  They are clearly more interested in selling old cartridge games and modern remakes on other game systems.  Meaning they view it as a collectors market.

[Sean_1970]

10 hours ago, John Van Ryzin said:

I do not see how that is an excuse, since they must have tested the new/old games before they made cartridges of them.  They are clearly more interested in selling old cartridge games and modern remakes on other game systems.  Meaning they view it as a collectors market.

I guess they’d have to try it and see how many returns they get?

[John Van Ryzin]

Atari makes 500 copies of an old game and sells it as a new game for collectors.  That does nothing for home brewers who kept the game system alive.  Nor is it anything like how any company sells video game hardware, at cost, so they make the real money on new games.  Seems Atari business model is make a profit on the many retro devices, and take small risks selling old games as new.

Of course they probably make the most money selling remakes of old games on PS2, Xbox, Switch and PlayStation.

Atari 2600+ got an amazing amount of press. In the non retro game business that would have generated big sales of new games.  But Atari had only one new game and does not seem to care.  Meaning they make more money off you buying a new device.

 

Must be that this retro business is a super small market, and does not inspire taking risks on new games.

[Plumbob]

I’ve heard so many people say good things about Food Fight that I decided to pre order it…along with the extension cable and just two CX78+ gamepads.  (Just don’t tell my wife I’ve been spending money, or she will make me wait until next Christmas to open them!) 

[John Van Ryzin]

For example, to play an old 7800 game in a new box, you have to buy a new controller with a second fire button.  Ha!

[John Stamos Mullet]

Just now, John Van Ryzin said:

For example, to play an old 7800 game in a new box, you have to buy a new controller with a second fire button.  Ha!

Or buy an old, existing controller from the grey market for literal pennies.

 

I'm not sure if this user account is actually John Van Ryzin, or just some troll pretending to be him - but you're terminally boring whatever the case.

 

 

[John Stamos Mullet]

19 hours ago, John Van Ryzin said:

I have to admit the most amusing part of today’s Atari is, they removed home brew games that potentially violate copyright laws.  But they did not remove a A.R.T.I. 7800, a blatant copy of Activision H.E.R.O..  No offense to that developer, I took the remake game as a compliment.

 

Aside from that, what video game console manufacturer ever came out with a new game system without new games for said system?  Do Atari fans not want new games?

Activision, come get your boy. He's drunk.

[John Van Ryzin]

Yes I am really John Van Ryzin, proud to be terminally boring to you.  I am thinking playing and buying the same old games is boring.

[John Stamos Mullet]

11 minutes ago, John Van Ryzin said:

Yes I am really John Van Ryzin, proud to be terminally boring to you.  I am thinking playing and buying the same old games is boring.

Then why are you here on this entire website dedicated to old games?

 

I loved H.E.R.O. As a kid in 1984. Genuinely, it was my favorite 2600 game. 
 

They say “Never meet your heroes”, now I understand why.

 

 

Edited February 18 by John Stamos Mullet