I have always referred to H.E.R.O. as my favorite Atari 2600 game. It's a game I had as a child and have often hailed its theme and gameplay as masterful. But one little thing had always bothered me about H.E.R.O. - I had never beaten it! Going back and finally mastering games I played as a kid has become quite the adventure for me. There's something dramatically satisfying about combining the nostalgia driven experience of replaying a game from childhood with the brand new experience of finally beating it. It's like creating a portal between two worlds; like somehow magically connecting my past with the present. And it's a really special thing when there happens to be a game that you tout as your favorite, but still haven't completed yet. The list of games that fall into this category is obviously finite, and I cherish the opportunities that I have to venture into that realm and overcome a challenge that has eluded me for decades. In fact, I cherish them so much that I like to document them. Here is my three part video series where I put on my laser helmet, strap on my Prop-Pack, and attempt to finally save all of the trapped miners in my favorite Atari game of all time.
Posted on May 14th 2020 at 12:00:00 PM by (russlyman) Posted under atari
I take the Toony Terrors figures Micahel Myers (Halloween) and Leather face (Teaxs Chainsaw Massacre) Series 2 Toony Terros by NECA and rePaint them to look more like their Atari 2600 counter parts. Both had games on the Atari system, so with the limited graphics of the system, the color palette will also be limited
Anyone in the RF Generation community, or anyone even remotely familiar with 80s pop culture is sure to have heard of an Atari game called Pitfall!. You know, Its the one where you swing on a vine over the alligators. The one that makes that funny sound when you touch the logs... the game that made David Crane a household name. Yes, Im sure you have all heard of Pitfall!. But did you know that you could beat it? Well, I sure didnt, until recently that is.
See if Duke and his special guest from the present, Chris Roberts can repair the biggest time fragment yet. Can Duke recall one of the most significant memories from his childhood? Watch and find out!
I was born in 1975 and spent my childhood in the 1980s. Now as an adult, I am a lover of 80's nostalgia. I am so excited to share this video series with you that is a unique and fun take on reliving my past. There is something so magical about seeing a toy or video game for the first time since childhood and having that "Oh, I remembered that!" feeling, and that is at the heart of this series. I hope you enjoy reliving my past with me!
[img width=483 height=575]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/B-005/gs/B-005-S-00280-A.jpg[/img] My favorite cartridge label for this game, since it best sums up the chaos within.
SPECS: Game: Bobby Is Going Home Genre: Platformer Year: 1983 Publisher: CCE/Taiwan Cooper Developer: Bit Corporation Rarity (according to AtariAge): Undetermined Controls: Joystick Number of Players: 1 player Average Cost: approx. $5 - $15+ (depending on label variation) Also Available On: Only for the Atari 2600 or similar VCS consoles
Tagline/Description: "Bobby feels that the world is so beautiful. He feels his life [is] perfect. But this day as he [is] going home, he meets many strange troubles."
Just over two years ago, I wrote an article about how my Atari 2600 collecting had branched out of North America and into Brazil. To summarize, there are several Brazilian 2600 titles that were not released in North America, but are playable on NTSC based systems. Of the handful of games that I have acquired, one of my favorites is a little 2-D platformer called Bobby Is Going Home. Let's take a look!
In this blog series I will be focusing on the Atari 5200. I will be covering the console itself first and then move on to the games. This series will be one half information such as history and background info on the console and the games. The other half will be a review of the system and the games from my point of view after playing them. I will make it through each game for the Atari 5200, as long as I have it. This is going to be a long series of blog posts, and have quite a few games to get through. I have about 25 games left to grab for the console, but I will review those as I get them. I appreciate comments and hope you have as much fun reading this as I will writing this. Please pardon for any typos and incorrect writing conventions.
So without further ado, I give you my first blog post and an inside look into.....
The Underestimated Atari 5200
Part 1
The first post in this series will cover the console itself. The background information such as the history, technical information, and library information will be brief. I would rather focus more on the review and my thoughts about the console itself.
Brief History:
The Atari 5200 also called the "Supersystem" was released in 1982 exclusively in North America. What we got was a console capable of giving the public great ports of great arcade games. Despite the great games the console suffered due to controllers that were notorious for not working, competition from the Colecovision, and in 1984 the video game crash finally finished the Atari 5200 off.
Technical Information: The Atari 5200 was based off of the Atari 8 Bit computers (Atari 400/800). The Atari 5200 uses a 1.79 MHz Processor, and has 16kb of RAM. Although, the Atari 8 Bit computers had a more powerful 10k operating system compared to the 1k "monitor system". The Atari 5200 has a max resolution of 320x190 Pixels. The console used ANTIC and GTIA chips for graphics, and a POKEY chip for sound. Two versions were released. The first version included four controller ports, and the second release had two controller ports. The four-port version had a strange way to hook it up to your tv, with a power adapter connecting into the RF box. The two-port had a more traditional setup.
Controllers & Peripherals: The 5200 controllers were 15-Pin controllers that were a combination of a joystick with four fire buttons, a start, pause, and reset button. The controller also included a numeric keypad. The joystick was a 360 degree non-centering joystick. The Pro-Line Trak-Ball controller was also released for the console. Other controllers were in development by Atari but never released. A few third party options were released. WICO released the Command Control a 9-Pin controller that came with a Y-Cable to make it compatible with the Atari 5200. The Command Control also came with a keypad. Masterplay released another adapter that allowed the use of any 9-Pin controller with the console.
Nowadays, you can find repair kits and upgrade kits to fix the classic Atari 5200 controllers. The gold-plated parts are the best ones to pickup. They are more expensive but definitely increase the controllers life by a mile.
Games: The Atari 5200 has a library of 69 games. Homebrews, Repros, Multi-carts, and Hacks are available for the system as well. About half of the games released were from Atari, and the other half are from several third party publishers. The rarest game for the console is said to be Bounty Bob Strikes Back the sequel to Miner 2049er. Some popular games include Pac-Man, Mario Bros, & Frogger. I will cover more about the games, when I review them in later posts.
My review of the console:
I am not doing a review where I give a rating, its more of my thoughts and ideas on the console. Let me first say I wouldn't be doing a multi-post review if I didn't like the console. So do expect some bias there. I will do my best to give it an honest review.
My first exposure to the console was through watching the AVGN review of the Atari 5200. I had never played it, or was interested in it before watching his review. He mostly covered the console and did not show any of the games in his review. I was still enamored by it. I wanted to try it out for myself.
A few years ago I was able to pick one up off ebay. The auction included the console, two controllers, and a handful of boxed games. This was the start of my goal which was to pickup every Atari 5200 game in box. A very ambitious endeavor, I found out later. Its not out of the realm of possibility but a few games are quite difficult to find even loose. But I digress.
When I got my Atari 5200 in the mail, I plugged it in, and started playing. My first reaction was that the games look amazing. Pac-Man looked almost arcade worthy. The other games I got with it, looked great as well. The controllers I received did only work partially, but they worked enough to play the games. They did later break all together. I repaired them several times before they eventually couldn't be fixed anymore, without picking up upgrade replacement parts. I am now in the process of waiting on my Y-cable to come in the mail for my Wico Command Controller. So with that, I do agree the controllers are the major setback for the console. Although with some amount of investment the controller problem can be remedied. But, the controllers being unreliable is my only complaint about them. I heard many people say the non-centering joysticks are a major problem. I disagree, I found the feel to the joystick very responsive, and comfortable in my hand. I didn't feel I had a whole lot of difficulty controlling Pac-Man, Frogger, or the car in Pole Position. The button layout felt great, and having a pause feature is a great addition to playing Atari games. I enjoyed playing the games with the Atari 5200 controller until it broke for good. I do understand though that reaction time is delayed at times because of the non-centering. The non-centering joystick however does not make the games unplayable, it just something you have to get used to. Although, I would much rather use a Wico Command Control. They are just better, bar none. Its too bad the console did not last long enough for them to rectify the problem. You could tell they learned their lesson when they made the Atari 7800.
(I want to add that opening, repairing, and doing maintenance on the controllers is quite easy but you may want to view a guide, so you don't break any parts inside the controller. I unfortunately broke one of controllers while opening, making it completely unusable. So just a word to the wise, always view a guide before working on the controllers.)
I am a big fan of the console despite its problems. The look of the console definitely shows its age, which makes it appealing to me. The Atari 5200 featured a great small door on the top of the system, used for storing things such as pens, pencils, spare change, D20 dice, & juice boxes. The games are easy to insert and take out. With the two-port model, it is easy to hookup and start playing. The console is quite large and one might have a hard time trying to find a place for it. I have found that the console itself is very reliable. Every game I put in it, booted up on the first try. Since I have not had to fix mine, I do not know yet, how hard they are to fix.
When compared to its competitor the Colecovision, it runs a close race. Colecovision does have a much larger library of games, and the controllers are more reliable. Although the Colecovision controllers just don't have the same great feel the Atari 5200 controllers have. I like a good ole trusy joystick, compared to that flat dial. The Atari 5200 is a worthy rival to the Colecovision.
I think that about covers it for now
I will go more into the individual games later, but all the games I have played are great. The colors are nice and bright. You get the classic Atari sound effects, and music. The Atari 5200 even has a built in voice module. Which is a pretty nifty bonus when you play some of the games.
I know this is a brief overview, and review of the Atari 5200. For this series, I am hoping to focus more on the games and not the console. I will probably touch more on the console as I go about playing the games but for now, this is all I want to say.
I hope you enjoy this review, and keep coming back for later installments.
Sorry guys, you won't be getting a Top Games of 2015 list from me. For one, I don't own a current generation console to play games released this year on, and secondly, my list of my favorite games I played it 2015 will be available early next year when you listen to the RF Generation Playcast (http://rfgenplaycast.podbean.com/) .....shameless plug!! Instead, I'll be focusing on a topic that has baffled and frustrated me (and probably you) for years and that is, "What import games can I play on my North American consoles without having to import systems?" I certainly won't be able to cover every system, but I'll try to cover the more well-known and most-owned consoles. I understand that some imported games can be burned or pirated for play on North American systems; however, since this method is frowned upon by a large majority of the community, I will not be covering or suggesting this method for any system here. I hope many of you will find this article useful and please think of it and my research as my holiday gift to you!
**DISCLAIMER: Please be advised that I have not tried several of these methods myself and that the great majority of the information that I have assembled here has been compiled through research. I have verified as much of the information as possible, but some of it may be incorrect. If you find that something is incorrect, please send me a PM and I can verify and edit this post. Thank you!**
Let me ask you something...if you had been the Boss of Atari in the 70s and 80s, what would you have done different, and do you think that it would have saved Atari as a Hardware Developer? Well, here's how I would have handled it...
DISCLAIMER: This entry is meant for humor (maybe...) and friendly discussion of how things could have been. Try not to take it too seriously. Also, if you happened to notice the time that this was posted, give me a break! It's late at night and I'm bored as hell!
Right then...The first thing I would do is give credit to anyone who made a game for my company. Atari was notorious for not giving credit to game designers. In fact, Secret Quest's box says it's by Nolan Bushnell (Founder of Atari), but this is incorrect. It was actually programmed by Steve DeFrisco.
The next thing I would have done is allowed more time for games to be developed. This move would have probably made Pac-Man for the 2600 and E.T. into good, or at least decent games. These were just two of several games that were rushed out to my knowledge.
Third, I would have toned down the marketing attitude somewhat. While it's true that a Console and it's games NEED to be advertised in one way or another, why waste money on marketing entirely? Today, it costs over 1 Million US Dollars for 30 Seconds of Airtime during the Super Bowl. That's 1 Million Dollars that could have gone to funding better technology and games. Perhaps this is a minor point, but I still feel that it's relevant.
Next, I wouldn't have been a dick to my employees. This may sound harsh, but it's true. At one point, an employee called The Czar (Ray Kassar) called every Atari Programmer "High-Strung Prima Donnas". What a jerk! Another guy, Jack Tramiel, fired over 1000 Employees, including the CEO. Why he did this, I don't know, but it still seems rather much to me.
FIVE! Kill the idea of "Adult Games" right away! This clearly caused much controversy, and many problems for Atari. Despite being unlicensed, they still happened. I would have used all manner of means at my disposal to prevent them from appearing on my console.
Number Six! I'd make sure games were actually finished. There were plenty of games that were never finished or released for the 2600. Each one for it's own reasons, but if I start something, I expect to finish it one way or another. More on this idea, I'd have also spent a ton less money on that Swordquest Contest. I've read that Atari used REAL Jewels to make the prizes...WHY?! Who thought that was necessary?!
Problem Seven! The Supercharger! Okay...I like the Supercharger. It's cool, but it's short supported life was stupid, in my honest opinion. I feel that if more time was taken to learn it, and it used something OTHER than Cassette Tapes, it might have done so much better. I know options for media were limited back then, but I feel that, given enough time, CDs could have been officially utilized with it.
NUMBER NINE--(Coughs loudly)--...5200 Controllers! These things are pretty junky unless rebuilt. Also, the Number Pad is too much. I'd lose it. I could think of at least a couple ways that the Number Pad could have been made obsolete, but that's a minor issue. The big issue is the build quality of these devices. They're Prototypes were built so much better, and received favorable reception. So why then did Atari change them? I would have actually listened to the customer, and kept it the way it was.
Last, but not least...The Epilogue! Perhaps all this is very much easier said than done, but that certainly doesn't mean it's impossible. I feel that if these steps and more were taken, Atari could still be the Giant that it was back in the 80s today. Still, I could be wrong. Perhaps they were doomed from the start, I don't know. As the Tootsie-Pop Commercials say..."The World may never know."
Well, that's all for now. What are some steps that you would have taken in this matter?
SPECS: Game: M.A.D. Genre: Shooter Year: 1982 Publisher: U.S. Games Developer: Western Technologies, Inc. Rarity (according to AtariAge): 4 = Scarce+ Controls: Joystick Number of Players: 1 player (against computer) & 2 player (head-to-head) Average Cost: approx. $2 - $5 loose Also Available On: Only available on the Atari 2600
Tagline/Description: "Defend your future civilization's energy supply against waves of devious attack missiles. Your energy stations stand vulnerable...use your ground based Photon cannon and pit yourself against computer controlled missiles; or, let another player guide the missiles, and do battle head to head. Each wave of missiles becomes more aggressive and intense. Grab your controller and prepare for a furious battle."
I've been trying to get my brother to like "Old Games" but he'd rather call them "Crap" and play newer games like "CoD Ghosts" and basically all of the games made for xbox 360 from 2012 to present! So I might actualy give up . let me know if I should give up.
Another summertime weekend for picking and searching. No yard sales this time though. Thunderstorms and hail as big as baseballs in some areas stopped me from exploring those, but thrift stores were fair game.
Firstly, got an early Father's day gift from my wife. No idea on what she spent, because it was a gift and she doesn't disclose price on the gifts she buys me, but I know it wasn't extreme.
Sega Genesis core system 3 controllers: (1 SEGA, 2 Blockbuster Video third party with blue colored start button) 7 Games: NBA Jam: T.E., NHL '94, Sonic the Hedgehog, RBI Baseball 3, Fatal Fury 2, Joe Montana II: Sports Talk Football, Jammit
Finally, grabbed some systems for pretty darn cheap:
$10: Original PS2 with one original black memory card, an original black dualshock 2 controller, a clear black dualshock 2 controller, and a surprise inside: Kingdom Hearts.
$4: Game Boy with Super Mario Land 2 inside
$6: PSone with A/V cables and Power supply
$3: Clear green Dualshock 2 controller and two original black PS2 memory cards
I am very happy with the amount of systems I got this time around and how cheap I got them for, since I'm thinking all of these games are pretty common finds. I wonder about the colony wars title though. I haven't seen that one before.
We are a community of collectors, gamers and the likes, and some of us enjoy to let the world know what is on our mind. For those members, we have the community blogs, a place where they can publish their thoughts and feelings regarding life, universe, and everything. Some of those members might even choose to write about gaming and collecting! Whatever they write about, you can find it on their blog. You can either see the latest community blog entries in the feed you see to the left, or you can browse for your favorite blog using the menu above. Interested in having your own blog hosted on RF Generation? It's rather simple, first be a registered member, and then click the "My Blog" link that you see in the navigation above. Following those two steps will certainly get you on your way to blogging.
Sit back, relax, and enjoy our entries, rantings, and completely unrelated series of thoughts. We write for you to read, so we certainly hope that you enjoy our material.
. let me know if I should give up.