Let's cut out the introduction and get right to it. Be advised that most of these picks are based on images I've transferred back to disks when possible.
Bubble Ghost - a game I once played on GameBoy, this game involves guiding a bubble through single screen mazes filled with obstacles that can burst your bubble. Pop the bubble and it's game over. Very colorful and enjoyable.
Buggy Boy - The ST is the only system I've come across that has this simple little driving game. Collec
Long story short, I've had my 1040 STe for a few years now but I've never had the urge to do anything with it. Over the last few days I've attempted to find something to spark my interest in it of which I have found a few things. Most of which are games but at least I found something.
As a music machine it simply can't be beat in my opinion. The native MIDI feature of the ST line is very solid and I use Sweet 16, a program I'm very familiar with from the Windows 98 days. This much has kept
PCBs are designed, created, and already shipped headed my way as are a few components for me to populate the boards. I will go into more details once I have my PCBs and have been able to test and check out if my idea works the way I've planned or not. In the meantime, here is a pic of the PCB. If you are familiar with the UAV layout and install process needed for the 7800, then this should be obvious on what it is.
While what you see here is rather large, in reality it is only about th
A 7800 I worked on over a week ago was sent to me for a 'No Power On' condition. There are many reasons for this and I have found over the years two main issues. First is simply a faulty power supply adapter. Given these things are nearly 40 years old it isn't unreasonable to think that the PSUs are nearing their end of life. In fact I've had another client send back their 7800 when it started to develop power on/off issues and found nothing wrong when they were sent back. Sure enough, it was du
I'm making a blog entry for the Famicom games I own. I'm going to start ranking them based on how much I play the games. I can't go by like because I simply like all of them. Alright, here we go!
Salamander - pure and simple shooter with a unique story behind it and an awesome soundtrack. I also like the distinctive transparent blue cartridge.
Route 16 Turbo - developed by Sun soft of Blaster Master fame this arcade style maze game is simply hard to put down once you start playin
Here is an issue that I've seen before in one form or another and I thought I would talk about it here while working on a earlier era 2600 heavy sixer last night. The system was sent in for refurbishment. In this case that is all the original electrolytic capacitors being replaced out, new DC power jack, new voltage regulator etc. But a problem was reported and confirmed during testing of the console.
What was the issue? In this case it was an issue with the player 2 controls. Specifically,
Today when I checked the mail there was a package in there containing a game I have not seen since the Y2K debate. This is one PlayStation game I bought as soon as it hit store shelves along with a guide book. Being a huge fan of the first Gran Turismo this was one game I was highly excited about. So getting it in the mail was an exciting moment for me. A game that has eluded me many times was now in my hands, complete and ready...no...begging to be played.
I spent many months on this g
I want to start off by saying I love GOSUB on the 7800! It was a fantastic experience, simple to pick up and a lot of fun to learn. It's a solid play for an evening or afternoon, and it's a bit cheaper than other games I've purchased off of other websites. I got it from 2600connection, but I couldn't find it listed anywhere on his Facebook or Website. I had to send him an email and ask him if he had any left, PayPal him the money, and it came pretty quick. It's hard to track down unless you
When it came to reviewing Double Dragon for the 7800, I had to make a serious decision of what I'm doing here. Am I relaying my experience with a game and giving a grade based on that, or am I recommending games to my audience of probably 4 guys who already play and own the games I'm talking about. Okay well I guess I'm assuming these will each an audience of literally dozens one day. Think big, why not. Anyway, am I recommending games for you or relaying my personal experience? Because my grade
When I first got into emulators I, like many others, discovered computers could play NES games. I also discovered that some of the game ROMs I was looking at I never heard of before. When did the NES get Gradius II, what was Parodius? And what was Salamander? I ended up getting what I thought were NES games I had never heard of. In hindsight, and unbeknown to my mind, I was getting Famicom games. When I fired up Salamander I had no idea that I had unintentionally grabbed what we got (us USA g
I want to take an opportunity to add some basic information to my blog about how I grade games. I've been using a 10 point scale, but I feel that explaining the scale helps people understand my thoughts better. Other websites or reviewers might use a similar numeric grade but it means something different to them. So here's the scores and what they mean:
10 Perfection! If a game or an element of a game gets this, than I found absolutely nothing to complain about. It's top tier for the 7800!
Before I begin the review I will note that I posted this to the Atari IO 7800 forum first. I've essentially copied and paste it here so it doesn't follow the same formatting exactly as my other reviews. But I feel that it reflects my thoughts well and I don't want to rewrite it to say the same things.
Also, I'm attempting to take my own screenshots instead of using Google image search. I plan on going back and replacing all the other screenshots eventually. But since I play on real hardwar
In between my reviews I want to do something a little different. When it comes to retro gaming today, we have more options than ever to play our favorite old school games. The ever present Raspberry Pi. The "mini" consoles that was all the rage a few years back. Emulators and roms on our computers or modded consoles. But there's one way to play retro games that may be more convenient to most people than any of the prior mentions: Handhelds!
With a handheld you aren't tethered to a televi
Scrapyard Dog for the Atari 7800 Prosystem Review!
I've heard a lot of people complain about the momentum in Scrapyard Dog. They say that the character gains too much speed and runs head first into obstacles with little reaction time for the player. And while this is true, I really think these people don't give Scrapyard Dog a fair chance. It's a flawed game, but one that I really ended up enjoying! It could've never competed with the likes of Super Mario or even Sonic the Hedgehog when he
There was a time when buying a new game required using the packaging material to grab the consumer's attention. There usually was no limit to how far a software company would go to deliver a package that created an impulse buy. And by that I mean there was no other way around it...you simply had to have that game no matter what based on what the package looked like and how it presented the software inside the box.
Silent Service for the Atari 8-bit computer consoles was developed by
Crystal Quest Featuring Bentley Bear is a platforming game similar in feel and style to Adventure Island or Wonder Boy. The Atari 7800 has desperately needed platformers in the vein of Super Mario Bros since 1986, and even with this glaring hole in the library, homebrew developers have been slow to fill it. I don't blame anybody but Atari for the under representation of this genre, but it does feel a little odd that nothing was really released until 2014 to fill the gap. So, does Crystal Ques
It's been a year now since I bought my Famicom, Famicom Disk System, and a few games. I just double checked my purchase history and I bought my Famicom, as JUNK, February 14th, 2021. It took a week to get here which was impressive. And I'm probably not going to say anything about it people already know but I've got to speak my mind about it.
My Famicom discovery really started when I discovered emulators a few decades ago. I found a NES emulator and a ton of games. What I didn't realize
I remember answering a question asking that if I was stranded on an island what game system would I wish was with me. Or something like that. I had some figuring to do as to what systems were my favorites and also had games I could play that I wouldn't get bored with or spend too much time on if power was limited. I had a few other factors to consider as well such as power requirements and how it connected to a screen. All of that played an important role to my final decision.
The overal
This story starts a few years ago when I powered on my model 1 Sega Saturn and played a game for a bit and then powered the console off and back on to switch to a different game. But to my horror I discovered some strange horizontal white lines scrolling upwards on the screen? I powered the console off/on again and the lines were still there only now there were a lot more of them and they were scrolling much faster. Additional power off/on cycles would only cause the lines to change thickness an
Mac Tonight was a smash success, but quickly faded from the scene, only to be revived by Mcdonald's sporadically. On this episode of the Retroist Podcast, I look at the history of this famed spokesmoon.View the full article on the Retroist
Martin Goldberg is a veteran game industry developer, writer, archiver, and historian who is well known and respected in the Atari community. Marty’s articles can be found in many gaming publications, and he co-authored Atari Inc. Business is Fun, A Complete History of Atar Inc. in collaboration with Curt Vendel as part of their effort to preserve Atari history with their Atari Museum archive.
The period during which Aquaventure is thought to have been under development was one o
Matt Reichert is the expert on Atari prototypes, and he maintains atariprotos.com, a website dedicated to documenting these unfinished and unreleased games. His thorough research and detailed game reviews are important to the Atari community, and impressive.
I’ve explored several different possibilities on the identity of the programmer(s) of Aquaventure. Interviews with Gary Shannon and Tod Frye made it clear that they were both involved, while an analysis of the code indicated that Nic
