Justin

Yes, exactly. Nice tight programming in assembly language tends to be best in terms of performance, however programming for the MARIA chip hasn't been an easy task - almost a lost art form - and 7800basic has opened up Atari 7800 development to many more people which has been a good thing. @Video 61 and @RickR could probably speak to the lag issue better than I can, and if 7800basic correlates with lag in some of these games and meeting the Doherty Threshold. The Atari 7800 is plenty capable of running Robotron: 2084 flawlessly without slowdown, I believe this relates to how 7800basic works. I'm envious of what OpCode Games has been able to do with porting MSX games to the ColecoVision and wish there were more games of equal or better quality being released for the Atari 7800.

Thanks for the info! 7800basic was a breakthrough achievement for Atari 7800 homebrew games. It seems like not that long ago 7800 homebrew development seemed almost impossible, and there were only two games being worked on, one was Senso DX. I used to talk with @Video 61 about this all the time. 25 years later now there is a new library of 7800 games to choose from. Were all of Bob's 7800 games done in assembly? I think he lives in my old neighborhood, I should reach out to him. It seems like the more 7800 development being done in assembly the better, the 7800 is tricky and sometimes you can feel a clear lag in games done in 7800basic simply due to the limitations. There have been some incredible games coming out for the 7800 and I hope to see that continue.

I get that all the time from people outside of our little "bubble" - people who know what Atari is, and instantly think of Pac-Man and Space Invaders. You can't really blame them - some may remember when both the Atari 2600 and Atari 5200 came with Pac-Man as the pack-in title when you buy the system. It would've been advertised. And of course remember "Atari National Pac-Man Day". It seems like Pac-Man was synonymous with Atari for a while.

I haven't kept up with these enough lately to be well informed on what's going on. Are all of the new 7800 homebrews being done in 7800basic or are some of them not? Just curious. Wish everybody well

Hi Lance, I'm referring specifically to the outboard motor on the back of the boat that says "MERCURY" in big letters at the top. A different "Mercury" than the Ford division, but still mind boggling to see it on that crazy boat.

From the back of the boat you'd think it was a Mercury 😛

I haven't been able to find the 1984 instructions yet. They were produced and sold and they exist somewhere. (It always bugs me when the 7800 is listed as "1986-1992" when they were absolutely sold in retail stores in Spring of 1984. "Yes, but that retail availability was a test market" - so was NES in December, 1985.) Here is a common photo of artwork Curt Vendel had for the 1984 box. The text on the back differs completely (why?) and the paragraph on the right begins with "You hyperwarp but end up in a worse spot than before!" - but doesn't explain how that's done. If anyone finds the 1984 instruction manual for Asteroids please feel free to share it with us 😀

I agree that Bentley Bear would've been a great mascot. I've been surprised though that when I show him to friends and colleagues they more often than not think that Bentley Bear isn't mascot worthy and couldn't have been in the same league as a Mario or a Sonic. And then they ALL say something unsurprising yet very interesting: "I thought Pac-Man was Atari's mascot?" It's wishful thinking but it would've been nice for Atari to acquire all rights to Namco in North America - for everything - all arcade and home video game system games, and keep Pac-Man as the Atari mascot. Everyone loved to talk about "E.T. ruining the video game industry" but Atari made countless unforced errors leading up to the crash. I would argue one of the biggest mistakes was allowing their most popular 2600 games and characters that defined the system to be from other companies: Pitfall Harry, Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Donkey Kong, Dig Dug, etc. Charlie Chuck from Food Fight would've been a fun mascot for the 7800. Atari should've had one de facto mascot running across all systems. The closest thing to that, again, has been Pac-Man. At one point in the Jaguar years Sam Tramiel discussed Major Havoc as a mascot for Atari moving forward. I'd say it was also a mistake to have the cartoon Jaguar mascot in all of the Jaguar print advertisements, and yet he didn't have a name, nor was he in Trevor McFur, Cybermorph, or any other Jaguar launch title. They could've built an entire game around him, or come up with a different character. He was just a random cat jumping at Mario and Sonic. The most powerful thing about video game mascots isn't just the mascot, it's the world they come from and the other characters around them. When you see Mario, he represents and reminds you of the entire "World of Nintendo" - green pipes, power flowers, mushrooms, green hills, Luigi, Peach, Bowser, and other "World of Nintendo" characters like Link, Zelda, Metroid, Pokemon, Hogan's Alley, you name it.

It would be interesting to compare the 1984 "Warner" instructions with the 1986+ "Tramiel" instructions and note any differences. Let me see what I can find.

I agree with all of this, with one exception being that while I preserve physical media, I've built a collection of "all-time favorite" movies on digital (iTunes) for the convenience of being able to watch anywhere any time. I only purchase movies when they go on sale for $4.99. This happens pretty frequently with iTunes and Amazon. (I don't mean for this to sound spammy but I want to share my experience with all of you) For the past two years I've been using a website called "CheapCharts.info" to create a personalized "wishlist" of my favorite movies, shows, music and books - and they notify me when those go on sale. If it's a movie that I don't have to have right this second - normally priced at $19.99 - it will notify me when iTunes has the movie on sale for $4.99, which is often enough to build a great library without spending much money. I look at it like a movie rental - if it's a movie I like enough to where I'd be okay paying $3.99 to rent it at Blockbuster back in the day, I'm okay paying $4.99 to own it on digital just for the convenience 🙂 It's worked out quite well for me. So for example - I love Alfred Hitchcock movies and have been able to buy up the entire collection in HD or 4K when it went on sale last year on iTunes for $19 instead of something like $179. Another example is on Black Friday I was able to pick up Dexter - The Complete Series on sale for $19, down from $140. Price charting is shown for every movie, show, album etc. and you can see price trends. If you're patient, the savings can really add up and enable you to build a big library, in addition to owning physical media which I am a huge proponent of. I know there are alternative means of acquiring movies digitally, but this is easy and inexpensive enough to where I don't mind it and don't want to spend all the time getting them through alternative methods. 👉 To be clear about "CheapCharts.info" - this website is only used to build my personalized wishlist of movies - not to make any purchases whatsoever, those all happen through iTunes or Amazon or Google Play. The website does NOT require any personal or payment information and does not link with your iTunes, Amazon or Google accounts. I've been using it for a while now and have found it very convenient. I check that site every few days, along with iTunes to see what deals are out there.

I was surprised I hadn't heard more in the Forums about the Super Mario Bros. Movie I was hoping it wouldn't disappoint! I haven't seen it yet but will pick it up when it goes on sale

Who has seen The Super Mario Bros. Movie? Was it enjoyable? Two thumbs up? 👍👍

With a starting price of $6,792.50 USD and no bids. We'll have to wait and see if it sells and for how much.

I got my hands on an "Irish" 2600 Jr. also. To my knowledge they never had retail availability in North America, they're certainly uncommon for us but if you look hard enough you can find one. I'm not sure why they went with the black plastic nameplate. It's certainly unique and reminiscent of the Atari 2700 design.

Just now realized when I clicked on this I've confused Montezuma's Revenge with Custer's Revenge and was relieved to see this was the game in development for the VCS

@Video 61 That's an excellent idea Lance! I'm happy to help. It would be a good idea to write down a list of interesting topics - for example, one might be these pirate games and the story of the ship of games seized by customs, given to Jack Tramiel and then sent to you. Another might be your experience with Froggo games, and him being made to wait for hours to see Jack. A third might be sharing 5 good tips for home brewers to get started in the Atari scene. Keep the topics basic and narrow, and we can get your blog updated with new posts. Even including a YouTube video would be a fun idea.

@Video 61 You gave us excellent information and a terrific story as always, Lance! Thank you for all you contribute to the community.

make it so!

I should've stated things more clearly although the post was directed to @Video 61 who I knew would understand the exact story I was referring to. One thing I promised myself I'd never do -and never allow to become mainstream in the Atari I/O Forums - is talking over people's heads. I created this place to be warm and inviting to all people - particularly newcomers to Atari who want to learn more. I don't intend this as a put-down to other sites (it's not) but a number of years ago I was pretty put off by the inward focus of people I otherwise like, who have a tendency to name-drop and go on endlessly about finer details of what engineers worked on what games, and the technical aspects involved, while entirely gliding over the game itself. It becomes a list of names and microprocessors. For example, web pages about Centipede that read like internal emails - battles between Coin-Op and Atari Home Consumer Division regarding Dona Bailey and Ed Logg's development of the game, use of POKEY and Bill Kunkel and Arnie Katz's complaints about performance on the Apple IIe - names and technical aspects that go over many people's heads without any discussion of Centipede itself, leaving the uninitiated feeling clueless and out of the loop not knowing who these people are or why they should know them. There are a lot of people who just want to talk about zapping spiders and mushrooms and how fun it was to play Centipede on a Saturday morning - and I want those people to feel welcome here, and not that they are stepping into the middle of a private discussion in a closed community.

I love the Picard Winery shirt @MaximumRD that's true class 🖖

I've come to feel the same way recently. THAT'S AMAZING!! I LOVE IT!! It's great when I/O Members can connect like that! I'm curious to hear what you think @RickR? (And I'll also tag @MaximumRD because he's Lord of the Amigaites and I'd love for him to weigh in on this as well 😛)

This is how I've always viewed it. Commodore lucked out in my opinion. Imagine Atari continuing under Warner with the Amiga chipset - had things gotten better financially - imagine the Amiga computer, the video game system, the arcade machine uses, etc. The biggest "What if" is if Atari had gotten the next generation leap right from the 2600 to an NES-quality system, and had Warner never ditched Atari.

Interesting to see the "upside down" conversation unfold. I had a number of "upside down" Parker brothers Q*Bert titles shrink-wrapped. In my experience the "upside-downess" of it didn't affect the value, but being shrink-wrapped nabbed me an unsolicited $400 offer. I'm going to move this to our Price Check forum where it would be more pertinent.

Got it certified and posted! WAY TO GO @socrates63 congrats on that incredible score!