My apologies in advance for this post. You may think this is a strange place for this but I can't think of another outlet for it and I can make an Atari connection.
My stepfather is dying. Quickly. I'm not even sure if he's technically my stepfather, but he might as well be.
Growing up, I hated him. I realize hate is a strong word but I HATED him.
Now, I'm pretty devastated by this.
My parents divorced in 1979, when I was six. My mother remarried a true a-hole a year or two lat
(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
This is just this year and just for the Atari VCS/2600............. 2016 Homebrews released Jan 10, 2016 - Upp! (Jason Santuci "theloon") - self published {sold thru Etsy} SOLD OUT Jan 28, 2016 - Pigs in the Castle (Rudy J. Ferretti) - self published Jan 28, 2016 - Checked Inn (Rudy J. Ferretti) - self published Jan 31, 2016 - Coke Zero <NTSC version> (Thomas Jentzsch) - AtariAge blog Feb 15, 2016 - Upp!+ - Jason Santuci/self published (contains small feature changes and improvements){sold
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
I'm stealing the bit from Retrogaming Times. "The Many Faces of" was one of my favorite articles. Comparisons of the same game for various systems. Ordered from worst to first. Here are the various versions of Pac Man for classic systems. No homebrews or hacks allowed. These are the versions I've played...please let me know if I missed any.
Last Place: Atari 2600 - People like this version for nostalgia's sake...but it's not a good game. Main sins: Pac Man doesn't face up or down. No fruits.
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
The Atari 5200 was the first game console I would ever own. Received as a Christmas gift shortly after the system's initial release it quickly became my favorite childhood product. Years went by playing many of my favorite arcade games at home in the comfort of my family's living room. Many decades later the 5200 remains my favorite console of all time. The system really brought home some of the most advanced technological game console breakthroughs that other consoles picked up. And most of the
The Atari 2600 is the undisputed king of game consoles. And in the short amount of time that I have owned an Atari 2600 4-switch wood-grain model the amount of 2600 games I owned has been growing fairly well. With that being said I thought I would do a post on what my top 10 most played games were that just happen to also be my favorites. This list is based on games I own a physical copy of and not on emulation. Therefore as I pick up more 2600 games this list will change and may expand to inclu
Nintendo's shock of announcing a miniature NES with 30 games built-in a few weeks before I wrote this article seems to have been met with mixed feelings. With all of the clone systems on the market based on the original NES, that perform well but might have mistakes here and there like a few colors wrong or sounds not quite right, it makes one wonder why Nintendo didn't think of it sooner. After all, Atari, ColecoVision, Intellivision, and Sega, have had remakes of their consoles on the market f
Strapped inside the cockpit of your starship, looking out into space, you see a star moving. After a few seconds of watching, the star turns into an enemy Basestar...and it has sent out its best starfighters to destroy you. Red alarms start to go off as your radar shows the enemy attempting to out flank you. An enemy starfighter appears right in your line of sight. You take the shot by firing your photon torpedoes. A direct hit!! Somehow you managed to miss the fire of another starfighter, which
When I was gifted E.T. for the 2600, very much brand new as in never-been-opened new, for my birthday just days before writing this review I couldn't have been happier. E.T. was one of my favorite childhood memories and I still enjoy that movie to this day. I must have seen that movie five times during its first release in the theaters. Then I seen the game on store shelves for the 2600. Bummer! I had a 5200. And why didn't my system get an E.T. game? I was blind to what was happening because I
Maybe next year for Midwest Gaming Classic...
As it stands, I'll have:
Tempest 2000 for DOS (PC) Tempest 2000 for Jaguar Tempest 3000 for Nuon Space Giraffe for 360/PC TxK for PSTV TxK VR for Oculus DK2
Maybe I can have a table setup dedicated soley to Virtual Light Machine goodness (VLM1, VLM2, Neon) and all the different iterations of Tempest Jeff ever made for the multiple consoles and PCs setup. Too much Tempest? Hopefully not =D
I suppose I could also throw in there a few cl
As I expand my knowledge and experience in different manufacturing/post application processes, there's always a constant light blinking away in the far distance, almost humming as a reminder. The things I see that are now possible today that wasn't possible 20 or 30 years ago is truly impressive and opens up far more opportunities and options for modifications and customized hardware that just wasn't possible back then.
The bad news is, Atari is dead as a doornail when it comes to releasing