Other than having the word 'Space' in their title, most of those games have nothing to do with each other and are very different. Still, it's silly to compare the Wii and 2600 library.
Nope, I try to avoid those as well (although I will admit that I played Diablo III for all of the 5 days it took me to beat it). When given a choice I try get the physical media over a download even if it costs more. I like to take my time with games and I like to go back and play games over again years later. I get sad when I realize that this may not be possible in the future with games that only exist as long as some server is up or I can connect to some network. Then again, I haven't seen many games lately that I actually want to play again.:)
This is exactly why I stopped playing Final Fantasy XI all those years ago. At first I really enjoyed it, I was young, unmarried, and had plenty of free time to do the endless grinding the game requires. However as time went on I discovered that it was beginning to interfere with my life. I was staying up to 2 or 3 at night in the hopes that I might be able to claim some unique spawn that I needed for some weapon or another (along with about 100 other people I might add), I was farming monsters over and over again for materials for my linkshell and not even getting to the enjoyable parts of the game anymore. I even changed my character from something I enjoyed to a very cookie cutter build that was boring as hell to play because that was the only way people would invite you into a party. Sure I was 'winning' the game, but I was having a miserable time doing it. The game was becoming a second job, I was running home from work just to log in and start accomplishing whatever tasks I needed to do that night in order to keep up with the game. When I dared do something else like watch a movie or play another game, I felt guilty because I was falling behind the rest of the linkshell and then I felt stressed out because I hard to work twice as hard to catch up/
One day while I was sitting for my second or third hour looking for a party, the heavens opened and everything in my brain just clicked. Here I was sitting around in real life watching my avatar sit around in a game (MMORPG Inception!), neither one of us enjoying ourselves. So I logged out the game and never returned. My Paladin may still be sitting around in Jeuno waiting for something, but I'm not.
I still play games (classic and modern), but I only play games that are fun and stay far far away from MMORPGs. I also balance gaming with a decently active (for a nerd anyway) social life and spending time with my non-gamer wife. When a game starts to become a second job it's time to sit back and question what you're doing. MMORPGs are insidious in this regard because they demand constant attention. If you put a MMORPG aside for a few weeks to do other things then you're several weeks behind and have to work twice as hard to catch up. With any other type of game you can wait months if not years to finish it and your game doesn't care, it's still there waiting for you and you're right where you were when you left.
Actually there was one. It was called Fatal Run (sort of a Road Blasters kind of game) but it was only released in Europe (http://www.atariprotos.com/2600/software/fatalrun/fatalrun.htm). There was even a 64K cartridge released in Brazil called MegaBoy but all the space was used by educational questions so it really wasn't a 'game'.
I used to follow the political cycle quite closely, but over the years as the attacks have gotten nastier and the facts less important, I've found myself completely turned off by the whole thing. I was getting upset enough that it was actually causing me to stress out, which was when I decided to just tune out completely. I still vote and I still try and get the most unbiased facts about each candidate (not an easy task), but I don't listen to any of the news about the election and I've found that I'm a much happier person for having done so. As Ford Prefect said "Let them have their fun", I'm not going to be a part of the 'teh political drama' anymore.
Also, the vice presidential candidate was vote Biggest Brown Noser in high school. Really? This is the best we can come up with? Unless he was voted 'Most likely to become a homicidal maniac' I don't see how this is important. Funny? Yes. Something to actually seriously consider? No. Aren't there bigger things for us to worry about?
I actually have a TRS-80 Model III (the one with the built in monitor) setup in my game room. The graphics aren't much (they're actually quite blocky), but they really did put a lot of love into those games. The TRS-80 version of Zaxxon is particularly impressive, and plays better than some of the versions on more capable systems (do a youtube search for it, it's worth checking out).
I found my TRS-80 on the side of the road in a garbage pile in the middle of nowhere Ohio while on a camping trip. I picked it up and took it home (over the wife's objections) and found that it still worked perfectly (initially it looked like it didn't work, but it turns out that the brightness dial had just been turned down all the way and was frozen in place). I guess my TRS-80 really IS a Trash-80.
Took out the memory (???? who is going to use the old memory- why did I do that?)
I thought the same thing then I discovered that an old 32MB SIMM worked just great in my Amiga 1200 accelerator so you never know. Then again if you still have an Amiga 1200 sitting around you're probably one of the people the article is talking about.:)
Thank you, I try and keep my collection neat and organized. I like to keep as many systems as I can out so I can play around with then when the mood takes me. What computers and systems I keep out tends to be in a constant state of flux, but it's always organized. I do indeed know where everything is at all times.
I also don't keep extras of anything, just one of each. I simply don't have the room for backups and spares. Eventually my goal is to have everything setup like a museum of sorts.
>>Strangely, I don't imagine any chicks hanging around.
I think my wife would disagree with that statement.:)
Careful with stuff like that. Nowadays with all the hysteria around people might also wonder what you were doing with his daughter and if it was legal;).
IIRC playing board games and hoping that her dad would let me play Karateka when he was done doing whatever he was doing. Like I said, I was 10.:)
This guy was my neighbor when I was growing up. It doesn't surprise me that he grew up to be a spam king, he was always looking for a way to 'get rich quick' and had a more than average understanding of computers (and a less than average understanding of just about everything else). I can remember him running some sort of telecommunications software on his Apple II every time I was over at his house playing with his daughter. Now looking back on it, I wonder what he was doing and if it was legal. Then again he gave me hundreds of pirated Apple II games at the time so probably not (although I was one happy 10 year old).
Actually, not really. Boxed Atari Touch Tablets are pretty easy to get. Places like Best Electronics and B&C Computers bought pallets of left over hardware when Atari went under and still sell them today. I have a sealed Touch Tablet in my own personal collection and paid a grand total of $20 for it.
Now opening a sealed Atari 815, that would be another story...
From the looks of the boards, it doesn't appear so. Those all look like Colecovision boards to me. It's possible that some of the loose chips could be for other systems though I suppose.
It actually wasn't designed for small childern, despite the Cabbage Patch Kids license. The game is actually quite hard, as it was a port of an action game for the MSX computer called Athletic Land.
I think the reason it got a mention is that long lost games are being found all the time, and it's interesting to speculate how they go from the testing lab to a flea market and finally to the gamers (who would have bought it originally) over 25 years later.
I run a website about unreleased Atari games called AtariProtos.com (http://www.atariprotos.com/). We've known about the existance of Cabbage Patch Kids: Adventures in the Park for years now, but it was thought that programmer Ed English had the only copy. While I'm pleasantly surprised that it appears that it has finally turned up, I'm still a little skeptical that this is indeed the 2600 version and not the Colecovision version since it was found with many other Colecovision prototypes. We'll have to wait and see, but if it turns out to be the real deal, another long lost prototype will have be found!
On a side note, one of the other EPROMs he found is labeled "Sword". This may be the lost Coelcovision game The Sword and the Sorcerer that was thought to be complete but not released.
Oh and a little bit of trivia, Cabbage Patch Kids is actually a port of an MSX game called Athletic Land. It was simply hacked into CPK to fit the license.
Spaceballs the Flame Thrower! The kids love that one...
Seriously though, I fondly remember Jarts. About the only dangerous thing that ever happened when I used them was a broken birdbath (and I was aiming for it). I vaguely remember hearing about some kid who put one through his skull, but I assumed that was just an urban legend. Guess not... I wonder if my grandparents still have that Jarts set? It would be cool to show my kids how 'dangerous' toys used to be. Those things were fun!!!
Japan has been the world center of gaming for as long as there has been a gaming industry.
I believe that the gaming industry started in the US with Atari. In fact the US was the 'world center' of the gaming industry for many years until the crash of 83-84 when it shifted to Japan.
Except that the Amiga team actually had a working prototype going and only sold gaming peripherals to raise enough money to finish and market the system. As far as I can tell there isn't any sort of working prototype of the Phantom.
I own an XPS and I've never had any problems (I've never played Sims 2 though). The problems the author was having may have been introduced in this years model, as my XPS is last years. Of course I also cleaned up all the extra crap Dell put on it the moment the computer was in my hands...
I don't consider myself to be a serious PC gamer (I'm more into console games), but I do play a few of the more popular titles like Doom 3, Half Life 2, and Civ 4. I'll admit that the only reason I even got an XPS was because my company offered huge discounts for going through Dell, but in the end it's really not a bad computer. I'm able to run everything at maximum resolution with all the special effects, so I'm happy (for now). Still, if I was a 'serious' PC gamer I'd probably build my own rig. The XPS is definetly for those of us who don't have the time or want to put the effort into building our own PC's.
I haven't seen many articles like that, but I'll believe you. But I think this is a key to why Nintendo is so beloved-- you don't give a shit about Yar and why he wants revenge
Actually Yar's Revenge came with a nice comic book that gave a very detailed back story on the characters and why they wanted 'revenge'. Incidentally Yar is Ray backwards (for then Atari CEO Ray Kassar).
Missing Some Important Games
on
IGN's Top 100 Games
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Is it just me, or does this list seem like they randomly picked some names out of a hat? Lakers vs. Celtics? Dear God!
There are some important titles missing like Zork, Kings Quest, Wizardry, Phantasy Star, Karateka, Radient Silvergun, Fallout 2 (although they did get the original), Diablo I/II, etc.
I suppose no list is going to have them all, but this lists seems so random. At least this one includes some 80's games for a change, most Top 100 lists start at the Playstation era.
IIRC Castlevania Bloodlines (Genesis) was set in the early 20th Century (World War I era). There was a level where you went through a German factory and had to defeat skeletons that were wearing army helmets. There was also a level that was cut out of the final version that featured a German dirigible in the background.
Slashdot Mirror
Other than having the word 'Space' in their title, most of those games have nothing to do with each other and are very different. Still, it's silly to compare the Wii and 2600 library.
Nope, I try to avoid those as well (although I will admit that I played Diablo III for all of the 5 days it took me to beat it). When given a choice I try get the physical media over a download even if it costs more. I like to take my time with games and I like to go back and play games over again years later. I get sad when I realize that this may not be possible in the future with games that only exist as long as some server is up or I can connect to some network. Then again, I haven't seen many games lately that I actually want to play again. :)
This is exactly why I stopped playing Final Fantasy XI all those years ago. At first I really enjoyed it, I was young, unmarried, and had plenty of free time to do the endless grinding the game requires. However as time went on I discovered that it was beginning to interfere with my life. I was staying up to 2 or 3 at night in the hopes that I might be able to claim some unique spawn that I needed for some weapon or another (along with about 100 other people I might add), I was farming monsters over and over again for materials for my linkshell and not even getting to the enjoyable parts of the game anymore. I even changed my character from something I enjoyed to a very cookie cutter build that was boring as hell to play because that was the only way people would invite you into a party. Sure I was 'winning' the game, but I was having a miserable time doing it. The game was becoming a second job, I was running home from work just to log in and start accomplishing whatever tasks I needed to do that night in order to keep up with the game. When I dared do something else like watch a movie or play another game, I felt guilty because I was falling behind the rest of the linkshell and then I felt stressed out because I hard to work twice as hard to catch up/
One day while I was sitting for my second or third hour looking for a party, the heavens opened and everything in my brain just clicked. Here I was sitting around in real life watching my avatar sit around in a game (MMORPG Inception!), neither one of us enjoying ourselves. So I logged out the game and never returned. My Paladin may still be sitting around in Jeuno waiting for something, but I'm not.
I still play games (classic and modern), but I only play games that are fun and stay far far away from MMORPGs. I also balance gaming with a decently active (for a nerd anyway) social life and spending time with my non-gamer wife. When a game starts to become a second job it's time to sit back and question what you're doing. MMORPGs are insidious in this regard because they demand constant attention. If you put a MMORPG aside for a few weeks to do other things then you're several weeks behind and have to work twice as hard to catch up. With any other type of game you can wait months if not years to finish it and your game doesn't care, it's still there waiting for you and you're right where you were when you left.
Nope, Jr. Pac-Man is only 16K. It only looks like it should be 32K because of some amazing programming (GCC really knew their stuff).
The only Atari Baseball game that I can think of that used a 3D-ish perspective was Pete Rose Baseball by Absolute. That was also 16K.
Actually there was one. It was called Fatal Run (sort of a Road Blasters kind of game) but it was only released in Europe (http://www.atariprotos.com/2600/software/fatalrun/fatalrun.htm). There was even a 64K cartridge released in Brazil called MegaBoy but all the space was used by educational questions so it really wasn't a 'game'.
I used to follow the political cycle quite closely, but over the years as the attacks have gotten nastier and the facts less important, I've found myself completely turned off by the whole thing. I was getting upset enough that it was actually causing me to stress out, which was when I decided to just tune out completely. I still vote and I still try and get the most unbiased facts about each candidate (not an easy task), but I don't listen to any of the news about the election and I've found that I'm a much happier person for having done so. As Ford Prefect said "Let them have their fun", I'm not going to be a part of the 'teh political drama' anymore.
Also, the vice presidential candidate was vote Biggest Brown Noser in high school. Really? This is the best we can come up with? Unless he was voted 'Most likely to become a homicidal maniac' I don't see how this is important. Funny? Yes. Something to actually seriously consider? No. Aren't there bigger things for us to worry about?
I actually have a TRS-80 Model III (the one with the built in monitor) setup in my game room. The graphics aren't much (they're actually quite blocky), but they really did put a lot of love into those games. The TRS-80 version of Zaxxon is particularly impressive, and plays better than some of the versions on more capable systems (do a youtube search for it, it's worth checking out).
I found my TRS-80 on the side of the road in a garbage pile in the middle of nowhere Ohio while on a camping trip. I picked it up and took it home (over the wife's objections) and found that it still worked perfectly (initially it looked like it didn't work, but it turns out that the brightness dial had just been turned down all the way and was frozen in place). I guess my TRS-80 really IS a Trash-80.
Took out the memory (???? who is going to use the old memory- why did I do that?)
I thought the same thing then I discovered that an old 32MB SIMM worked just great in my Amiga 1200 accelerator so you never know. Then again if you still have an Amiga 1200 sitting around you're probably one of the people the article is talking about. :)
Thank you, I try and keep my collection neat and organized. I like to keep as many systems as I can out so I can play around with then when the mood takes me. What computers and systems I keep out tends to be in a constant state of flux, but it's always organized. I do indeed know where everything is at all times.
:)
I also don't keep extras of anything, just one of each. I simply don't have the room for backups and spares. Eventually my goal is to have everything setup like a museum of sorts.
>>Strangely, I don't imagine any chicks hanging around.
I think my wife would disagree with that statement.
I find it ironic that I'm reading this article using IE 6 (my company refuses to get rid of it!). Would this be called Necro-Browsing?
Careful with stuff like that. Nowadays with all the hysteria around people might also wonder what you were doing with his daughter and if it was legal ;).
IIRC playing board games and hoping that her dad would let me play Karateka when he was done doing whatever he was doing. Like I said, I was 10. :)
This guy was my neighbor when I was growing up. It doesn't surprise me that he grew up to be a spam king, he was always looking for a way to 'get rich quick' and had a more than average understanding of computers (and a less than average understanding of just about everything else). I can remember him running some sort of telecommunications software on his Apple II every time I was over at his house playing with his daughter. Now looking back on it, I wonder what he was doing and if it was legal. Then again he gave me hundreds of pirated Apple II games at the time so probably not (although I was one happy 10 year old).
Actually, not really. Boxed Atari Touch Tablets are pretty easy to get. Places like Best Electronics and B&C Computers bought pallets of left over hardware when Atari went under and still sell them today. I have a sealed Touch Tablet in my own personal collection and paid a grand total of $20 for it.
Now opening a sealed Atari 815, that would be another story...
UPDATE:
It was the Atari 2600 version after all! I've done a review of the various versions of the game on my page: http://www.atariprotos.com/2600/software/cpk/cpk.htm
Tempest
From the looks of the boards, it doesn't appear so. Those all look like Colecovision boards to me. It's possible that some of the loose chips could be for other systems though I suppose.
Tempest
It actually wasn't designed for small childern, despite the Cabbage Patch Kids license. The game is actually quite hard, as it was a port of an action game for the MSX computer called Athletic Land.
I think the reason it got a mention is that long lost games are being found all the time, and it's interesting to speculate how they go from the testing lab to a flea market and finally to the gamers (who would have bought it originally) over 25 years later.
Tempest
I run a website about unreleased Atari games called AtariProtos.com (http://www.atariprotos.com/). We've known about the existance of Cabbage Patch Kids: Adventures in the Park for years now, but it was thought that programmer Ed English had the only copy. While I'm pleasantly surprised that it appears that it has finally turned up, I'm still a little skeptical that this is indeed the 2600 version and not the Colecovision version since it was found with many other Colecovision prototypes. We'll have to wait and see, but if it turns out to be the real deal, another long lost prototype will have be found!
On a side note, one of the other EPROMs he found is labeled "Sword". This may be the lost Coelcovision game The Sword and the Sorcerer that was thought to be complete but not released.
Oh and a little bit of trivia, Cabbage Patch Kids is actually a port of an MSX game called Athletic Land. It was simply hacked into CPK to fit the license.
Tempest
Spaceballs the Flame Thrower! The kids love that one...
Seriously though, I fondly remember Jarts. About the only dangerous thing that ever happened when I used them was a broken birdbath (and I was aiming for it). I vaguely remember hearing about some kid who put one through his skull, but I assumed that was just an urban legend. Guess not... I wonder if my grandparents still have that Jarts set? It would be cool to show my kids how 'dangerous' toys used to be. Those things were fun!!!
They already have it, it's called Para Para Paradise: http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=P&game_ id=8978
Although it's not nearly as advanced as something the Wii could do.
I believe that the gaming industry started in the US with Atari. In fact the US was the 'world center' of the gaming industry for many years until the crash of 83-84 when it shifted to Japan.
Except that the Amiga team actually had a working prototype going and only sold gaming peripherals to raise enough money to finish and market the system. As far as I can tell there isn't any sort of working prototype of the Phantom.
I own an XPS and I've never had any problems (I've never played Sims 2 though). The problems the author was having may have been introduced in this years model, as my XPS is last years. Of course I also cleaned up all the extra crap Dell put on it the moment the computer was in my hands...
I don't consider myself to be a serious PC gamer (I'm more into console games), but I do play a few of the more popular titles like Doom 3, Half Life 2, and Civ 4. I'll admit that the only reason I even got an XPS was because my company offered huge discounts for going through Dell, but in the end it's really not a bad computer. I'm able to run everything at maximum resolution with all the special effects, so I'm happy (for now). Still, if I was a 'serious' PC gamer I'd probably build my own rig. The XPS is definetly for those of us who don't have the time or want to put the effort into building our own PC's.
Is it just me, or does this list seem like they randomly picked some names out of a hat? Lakers vs. Celtics? Dear God! There are some important titles missing like Zork, Kings Quest, Wizardry, Phantasy Star, Karateka, Radient Silvergun, Fallout 2 (although they did get the original), Diablo I/II, etc. I suppose no list is going to have them all, but this lists seems so random. At least this one includes some 80's games for a change, most Top 100 lists start at the Playstation era.
IIRC Castlevania Bloodlines (Genesis) was set in the early 20th Century (World War I era). There was a level where you went through a German factory and had to defeat skeletons that were wearing army helmets. There was also a level that was cut out of the final version that featured a German dirigible in the background.