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
The almighty hamburger. A hot sandwich starting with a beef patty, topped with trimmings like lettuce, tomatoes, and cheese, and smothered with ketchup and mustard. A monetary staple for fast food drive-ins and a popular item to cook for some outdoor grillin'. It's also one of the easiest food items to cook where almost anything on it will compliment it. Almost. That is until you come across evil food. Hot dogs, eggs, and pickles are tired of being on the menu and have gone on strike! Tha
Video games were once considered a novelty and a source of entertainment. No one knew how long they would last or where they would take us. Most of the older generation of gamers will most likely be able to tell stories of lining up quarters on popular arcade machines as a marker of when it would be their turn at the challenges awaiting them. I'm one of them. Feeding those machines quarter after quarter for a few minutes of entertainment never felt like enough. Sometimes it wasn't enough to
The SMURFS. Arguably one of the most popular cartoon icons of the 1980's. These little blue people took America, if not the world, by storm literally overnight. Once the cartoon aired it wasn't long before stores started loading down their shelves with everything from lunch boxes, vinyl records, figurines, dinnerware, posters, and many other items too numerous to mention. Seriously, anything you could think of to put SMURFS on was available. The Saturday morning cartoon series ran a full 9
Grab that joystick, mash that button as we go on a journey digging underground to collect vegetables, pump up Pookas, and dropping rocks on Fygars. This is Dig Dug -- the strategic underground arcade digging game that took the video game industry by storm in the early 1980's. Released by Namco in Japan, the game was brought to America and Europe by Atari's arcade division. It wouldn't be long after that when Atari's console division made home versions of the game for the Atari 2600, 5200, and
What to write about? I know I want to write about the 2600 but I just don't know where to begin. Do I talk more about the iconic woody console or the Junior model? I don't have much to say about controllers because it's either paddle, driving, keypad, or more joystick designs than anyone could fathom. Games? Do I talk more about games that I have managed to pick up since my last post? I might have to think on this a bit more. While I'm thinking...
As I sit here writing this there is
Once a year one of the largest gaming events sets the stage of what's to come. And XBOX has always put on a good showing with exclusives, releases of popular game franchises, XBOX firsts and much more. This year the concept behind XBOX's E3 show seems to be more about finally bridging the gap between console and PC gamers. But more on that later. Here are the highlights I found most interesting ... so far.
Sega is bringing one of the most popular RPG franchises of all time to the X
I'm just going to put this right out there without any introduction (I'll save that for another related article) and pick the 10 games I play most on the 7800 in the small collection I have which is now at 16 games. We start with number 10.
10. Centipede
Mom's favorite...but on the 5200. She tried playing the 7800 version when I got the system and a few games for Christmas around 1990. I have to admit that even though it gets more play time than others it doesn't quite capture ever
The FPS/RPG series Borderlands has become a favorite modern game with my wife and I. In anticipation of Borderlands 3 coming in September I decided to do a video series on Borderland 2 to revisit the game and to showcase the game in its raw form. There is no commentary as I lack the equipment to capture both at present time. The first of this series starts in the video posted below. More will follow when time allows.
Parental Warning: The game play presented in the video below has been
For my 13th birthday, in 1987, my mother picked up a game system I never knew nor heard of. It just mysteriously appeared. For I had unwrapped a game console that would forever change the way I perceived video games. That gift was the Nintendo Entertainment System. At first I didn't like the controllers because there was no joystick. In a joystick's place was this "thing" that controlled on-screen movement of a playable character or other image. Then again when the only games you have are
My first encounter with Mouse Trap, the video game and not the board game, was not until 2011 when I had, for a short time, a Colecovision console with some games. I ended up selling that off to help with holiday funds that same year. I would not see Mouse Trap again until about Spring 2016. This time the game would be for the granddaddy of all consoles...the Atari 2600.
Mouse Trap is a different take on the Pac-Man theme. The player controls a mouse that is hurrying to eat up all the cheese
(Hums theme to Xevious). Xevious. A shoot 'em up game developed by Namco. I still have no clue as to what exactly the player is suppose to do other than destroy everything. As well it is unclear whether the game actually has a purpose or if the player is locked in an endurance mode lasting as long as they can. I never figured it out. But I believe I read somewhere that Xevious has 8 rounds.
Xevious is a vertical-scrolling shoot 'em up game. The player gets no power ups and is equipped with a t
Jungle Hunt was one of many games Atari would bring to their consoles, meaning the 2600 and 5200, that I would not have the joy of experiencing. I'm not sure why this game never made it in my library of games in the past unless we simply could not find it. But it is here now and I have been trying to enjoy the game.
Jungle Hunt is a side-scrolling, run-and-jump style game. You play as a guy trying to rescue a woman who has been captured by savages. Sound a bit familiar? The game offers
During the first year of the 5200's production run, the system received many ports of popular arcade hits. Every dot-munchin' gamer loved Pac-Man, a game the 5200 received shortly after initial release. To Atari ... it only made sense to bring the Queen of Video Games, Ms. Pac-Man, for SuperSystem owners to enjoy in the comfort of their homes.
Ms. Pac-Man on the 5200 contains everything the arcade hit has including very accurate multiple mazes, intermissions, music and sounds. Pressin
Well...here it is; my 5200 game rating list. This list will grow as I obtain and review 5200 games. Just like the 2600 list I have going this list will show how I rank the 5200 games I come across.
5200 Game Ratings
Moon Patrol
Ms. Pac-Man
October 17, 2016: Ms. Pac-Man on the 5200 is a solid title but does suffer from a few aspects that differ from the arcade smash hit. One of the ghosts is not colored correctly and the sounds seem t
When Moon Patrol hit the local arcade it quickly became one of my favorites. By the time my 11th birthday came I had pretty much faced the reality that games for my 5200 were no longer going to arrive. This would have been in the spring of 1985 and after 1983 showed up the 5200 games seem to have stopped. For two years I kept hoping that I would see a new game for my 5200 show up somewhere. Nope. The only thing I really seen was the sudden rate at which prices were being dropped on anything for
Ahh. Missile Command. A game that reminds me of the ABC Network movie called The Day After. If you've never seen the movie I will share it on the forums here at Atari.IO. Watch it and you will see why I feel the two are almost connected.
Missile Command is an arcade-style game where the player is protecting six cities from wave after wave of attacks. First a few missiles, then a few more missiles. These are soon joined with bi-planes, satellites, and more to increase the challenge as if
If you are here then you either have a 5200 console and not sure what to do with it or you have had one for a while that is not wanting to work right or at all. In either case the system is most likely used, has not been played in quite sometime, and the controls are not working. Am I right?
Then welcome to the Atari 5200 guide! I will do my very best to help you get your system cleaned up, hooked-up the way it was intended, so that it can be enjoyed the way it was intended. Be advised, thou
Before I get too far along, I had previously reviewed this game on this website here. So if you would like to read that first for a memory refresh, or if you haven't read it yet, the link to it is provided. Because this review is revisiting the game and adding to that review. Let's see how well Solaris still stands after a few months.
Without repeating myself too much, Solaris was an attempt at creating a Star Raiders-like title for the Atari 2600. Instead of a first-person flying perspectiv
Before I start going into details I need to be clear about what this post is about. This is not a journalistic review of the console nor am I going to repeat, or try not to repeat, the memories of this console as I have already done that. Nope. This is more about the what and how that wood-grain console has worked its way into my heart in a short amount of time. So...here we go.
As mentioned in the post I made called 2600 Memories I never gave the 2600 a fair chance. My first console wa
This post is the one I will be editing when I find more 2600 games. This list will only consist of games I physically have...it will not be based off of emulation. I have nothing against emulation and I think those are good for preservation but it's not the same as the real deal for me. So...below is my list so far. Be sure to keep an eye on it as it will be changing and will be added to frequently.
My List & Ranking of 2600 Games
Adventure
Space Invaders
Solar
Atlantis. The legendary city said to have mystical powers. Legend tells of this mythical city being attacked before sinking into the depths of the ocean. Whether this city still exists remains a mystery to this day.
Imagic, one of two third-party game developers for the Atari 2600 started by ex-Atari employees, brings to the table a game based on the legendary city of Atlantis. The job at hand is to protect the city of Atlantis from wave after wave of attacks by Gorgon vessels. You have one Co
It may come as a surprise to others reading this but Adventure on the 2600 was one game that I missed completely. From the time it first hit store shelves until now I have never had the chance to play the game that has been considered one of the best on the system. Even when my mother and I would find lots of 2600 consoles with lots of games Adventure simply wasn't there. And since the 5200 was my first game console I felt the 2600 was lacking and never gave it a fair chance.
It's almost fall
Secret Quest, the last 2600 U.S. released game, gives the 2600 the dignity to go out with a bang. Not that it wouldn't anyway with all the popular games it had received during its production run. No matter how you look at it, the 2600 proved that gaming hardware was only limited by imagination, and Secret Quest takes that imagination and gives players an adventure they won't soon forget.
While misleading in a way, the label tells the game was made by Nolan Bushnell when in hindsight he basic
