Justin

That's a great point. I've usually played it with the light gun, but the controls always felt not as responsive as they should have. Were you playing using the CX40 Pro-Line Joystick? I'll have to give "Crossbow" another play from a fresh perspective using a crisp joystick. ABSOLUTELY, same here! I always loved that graphic of the volcano with the lava flowing from it. Even seeing it on the back of the poster made me think "WOW, Nintendo could never do graphics like this!" To be clear, I always thought "Crossbow" on the 7800 looked great, and it was an exciting game that came from the arcades that would make Duck Hunt and Wild Gunman "look like a baby's toy". But when I actually bought it and played it I thought the light gun felt sloppy, and the lack of responsiveness hurt the experience of the game for me. Atari's fault. My point exactly. Did any kid know the XE light gun was supposed to work on the Atari 7800 also, or where to even find one? It did not look like it matched the 7800 AT ALL. They should've released the XE light gun in the red color as originally shown, then it would've appeared like an accessory for any Atari system. I agree. Again, Atari should've spent more time on the software end of things to tighten up this accuracy to be on par with "Duck Hunt" etc.

E X A C T L Y ! ! ! THIS IS EXACTLY RIGHT @RickR!!! I've ALWAYS felt this way, and I loved the Sega Master System too! But I know how I felt as a kid when it seemed like Nintendo had this massive presence everywhere, and even Sega had really sharp marketing for the SMS, and Atari had nothing. They gave us nothing. "The Fun Is Back" commercial and that's about it. I spoke about this in my post about creating my own Atari 2600 / 7800 Strategy Guide in 6th grade as being a big reason why I felt I needed to create that. Atari wasn't supporting us with any marketing, any goodies, anything at all, even their most loyal fan base. I felt this way as a 5-8 year old kid playing 2600 & 7800, and later on in middle school when I began my journey in Classic Gaming. It's almost as though Atari were one giant liquidation sale not interested in seriously competing with Sega Master System or Nintendo. ABSOLUTELY!! With Atari, Inc. under Warner Communications, Atari got lazy and greedy with releasing games before they were ready or properly play tested. Both Pac-Man and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial could've been so much better with SIMPLE, MINOR CHANGES or just a little more time and effort - as shown with Nukey Shay's Pac-Man 8K hack which is spectacular! It's not like these were obscure games, Warner allowing all of these PILLAR TITLES to be released with little quality assurance really HURT Atari's chances of success. WIth Atari Corp. under Jack Tramiel it was a different story. Jack was all about "Power Without The Price" and "Business Is War". Building a business on a competitive advantage of being a low-cost alternative is a valid one. Members Mark and Kirkland products at Sam's Club and Costco are one example of this. "Power Without The Price" may have worked to a degree with the Atari ST being a viable, lower-cost alternative to the Apple Mac. A "Jackintosh" we used to call it. However, I think taking that approach with their home video games SERIOUSLY undermined the success of all Atari home video game systems after 1984. Atari video games went from being the world's premiere name in video games, to being a bargain-bin discount off-brand. All of the big red bins at Kay-Bee toys filled not only with clearance 2600 games made from before the crash, but new 7800 games as well. Pricing the Atari 7800 at half the price of the NES and SMS, and making games that were half as complex HURT Atari's image. "Low cost off-brand" is what came to mind for many people during the NES era. They had made Atari the Kirkland of video games. I also don't think it helped that Atari continued the 2600 as long as they did. I can understand Warner's Atari coming up with a smaller, cost-reducing Atari 2600 in 1983, to be released in 1984, but Tramiel's Atari continuing the 2600 through the end of the decade and into the 1990s put old Atari 2600 games on toy shelves right next too the NES, SMS, even TurboGrafx-16 and Genesis. I love the 2600 but the average consumer would've seen a side-by-side comparison on the store shelves and would've decided that "Atari was old and outdated". Then, once that image was engrained in people's minds, Atari releases the incredibly gorgeous and magically advanced Atari Lynx at a price twice that of the Nintendo Game Boy. "Power without the price - but twice the price of Game Boy from the Kirkland of Video Games" was definitely one factor in the limited success of the Atari Lynx. NOT GOOD. This is spot-on. You're absolutely right. The wild thing is the Grass Valley guys who came up with the 2600 "Stella" went on to create the 400/800 to be the next generation Atari video game system to be ready by 1979. It would have been the machine to first have games like Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Asteroids and Missile Command, and it would've been what went up against the Intellivision and to a degree the ColecoVision. Sadly Atari saw an opportunity to make it into a computer and nixed the home console version all together. Imagine if instead of the 400/800, they had released a console version of the ANTIC technology first, in 1979, using the existing Atari CX40 Joysticks and CX30 Paddle Controllers, potentially a detachable add-on keyboard later on, and had gotten that system out before the 2600 exploded in popularity with Space Invaders. It would've been an entirely different story. Games like E.T. would've had more memory and on screen text. Games like Pac-Man would've been released as about the same graphically as the 400/800 but without the keyboard.

It's unreal. YESS!! @RickR @Video 61 I remember seeing both "Crossbow" and "Fight Night" in the Sears Catalog when they were new (that I posted about here) and thinking they looked like great 7800 games. Five years later when I began my journey as a Classic Gamer, I got a new 7800 game from Lance that came with the poster inside, and got my hands on an "Atari Advantage" poster for the first time. So much of my early (pre-internet) Classic Gaming journey came from Brochures - finding "clearance" Atari games at Kay-Bee Toy Stores etc., opening them up and discovering those beautiful Atari brochures inside. I loved flipping through the pages as all of those lost memories came flooding back, and I learned more about some of these games for the first time. Atari didn't do much for the 7800 or 2600 in the later years, but the Atari Advantage posters were an exception for both. Looking at the back of the Atari Advantage poster, seeing all of the neat games for the 2600 & 7800 that I still had yet to get ahold of. This is a case of "I remember remembering something about Atari", which happens often when I reflect on my early days in Classic Gaming circa 1993-1994. That was nearly 30 years ago, but even then, my original Atari experiences of the early-mid 80s' were already a decade in the past. So I have memories from 1993-1994 of remembering and rediscovering Atari things from the 1980s that I had totally forgotten about. "Crossbow" and "Fight Night" were examples of this. Of course I had never forgotten about games like "Asteroids", "Missile Command", "Space Invaders", "Ms. Pac-Man" and all of the pillar titles. But "Crossbow" and "Fight Night" were more or less lost memories and not top of mind. I remember in 1993-1994 seeing the Atari Advantage poster for the first time, and remembering games like "Fight Night" and "Crossbow" being out years before. Even by then I had not played them. I thought "okay, so 'Fight Night' is the Atari 7800 version of 'Punch Out!' which should be awesome! And 'Crossbow' looks like a light gun game, probably a more mature, more arcade-like version of 'Duck Hunt' which should be awesome." Sadly I was disappointed with both. Graphically they looked pretty decent, but controls were NOT GOOD and I had one of those moments where I felt like "Yeah, I can see why everybody seemed to dump Atari for Nintendo, the NES games are so crisp and have great control and are fun to play". Oh well. You can see "Fight Night" on the left page and "Crossbow" on the right page, both for $29.97 from Sears. I think "Crack'ed" is another game that would've benefited greatly from improved controls / Light Gun. @Video 61 Totally agree. I realize this would be copyright infringement etc. but I'd love to see someone release an improved / hacked version of Crack'ed to use the Light Gun, the same way others such as Thomas Jentzsch have released games like "Missile Command TB" for use with the Atari Trak-Ball. The Atari 7800 experience should be at least on par with the NES, and improved controls and controllers are a big part of that. You see that on the hardware end with your improved 7800-Compatible Grip-Stik and CX-30 Evolved Paddle Controllers. Crisp, responsive control makes all the difference, it's our connection to the game!

Here's my very first attempt: My High Score 7,130

YES!! Let's have fun with this! 👍 🥳 🥳 🥳

@Video 61 This is absolutely correct!! The answer is simple. It's because Atari allowed it to be. No "Atari Seal of Quality" or serious QA measures taken at that time, too many games shipped - that should have undergone another few rounds of testing. There is no game without control over it. Poor controls, lagging controls, poor controller hardware, it all adds up to a ruined experience. Atari should've been taking more acute action to assure crisp, responsive controls on EVERY Atari game for every Atari system before they ship out to store shelves. They could start with packaging the Atari 7800 with something far better than the CX24 Atari ProLine Joystick or even the CX78 Atari Control Pad.

BIG WAY TO KICK THINGS OFF!! @datafry

This is EXACTLY the reason we created the Scoreboard! It's not just another Twin Galaxies, it's a way for us to continue our favorite High Score Squad Challenges over a long period of time. I hope you'll keep playing, @RickR, you're very good with strategy and I think something will "click" for you and you'll do very well at this game. So glad to hear it @datafry I hope you'll continue to join us for High Score Squad Challenges! LOL you know it 😎

High Score Squad Special Event! Club VCS Recharged Squad Challenge Missile Command: Recharged March 1st - 31st HIGH SCORE SQUAD SPECIAL EVENT: ATARI VCS players be sure to stop by our new Club VCS and join us for our very first Recharged Squad Challenge! We're playing Missile Command: Recharged on the Atari VCS, now through March 31st! There will be new Recharged Squad Challenges coming every month in Club VCS, be sure to join us and show off your VCS skills. Big shoutout to @Sabertooth who is organizing the event and has been putting in tremendous work into making the Atari VCS community something genuinely amazing. THANK YOU to everyone who has been participating in Club VCS and inviting new Atari VCS fans to join us!

Congratulations No Swear Gamer!! TWO IN A ROW! Congratulations to high score legend @nosweargamer on his second win in a row, and on becoming our new TurboGrafx-16 Bomberman '93 Squad Champion! No Swear blew it up with his stellar score of 126,700 points, landing himself the top spot in our Final Standings! NSG live-streamed his high score performance in front of an audience on YouTube, and all of his viewers got to watch him win. WAY TO GO @nosweargamer! And a big congratulations to everybody on all those incredible scores across the board! I hope Bomberman '93 was a fun game and a good reason to pull out the TurboGrafx-16. I took 2nd Place in our Final Standings with my score of 114,100 points. High Score Squad regular @Atari 5200 Guy takes 3rd Place with his score of 52,300 points, that was an amazing effort! Newcomer @datafry joined us again and brought some super-sharp skills, taking 4th Place on our Final Standings with his score of 35,500 points! The legendary @btbfilms76 kicked off our event with his impressive score of 21,700 points, securing 5th Place. @Sabertooth played Bomberman '93 on his VCS and brought some seriously sharp skills of his own with an even 20,000 points, taking 6th Place. @RickR kept on fighting throughout, and reached 15,600 points to clench 7th. @Gianna was a passionate player and scored 10,100 points on her first time playing Bomberman '93. My congratulations to all who joined us in our TurboGrafx-16 Bomberman '93 Squad Challenge and shared these high scores. I hope everybody had a blast! Also, we'd like to offer a BIG WELCOME to new member @datafry who joined us once again this week in High Score Squad. We're thrilled you're here, WELCOME!! I'd also like to recognize and say thank you to Atari I/O's content creators who do so much to get the word out about High Score Squad events, and invite new friends to join our Atari Party at Atari I/O. @nosweargamer went live on YouTube on MULTIPLE occasions with our Bomberman '93 Squad Challenge and in each one played for over an hour before his subscribers. I was in attendance along with many of you and watched him achieve his fantastic scores! Be sure to subscribe to No Swear Gamer's YouTube Channel and join him on Discord. Congratulations on your 2nd win in a row! HIGH SCORE SQUAD SPECIAL EVENT: ATARI VCS players be sure to stop by our new Club VCS and join us for our very first Recharged Squad Challenge! We're playing Missile Command: Recharged on the Atari VCS, now through March 31st! There will be new Recharged Squad Challenges coming every month in Club VCS, be sure to join us and show off your VCS skills. Big shoutout to @Sabertooth who is organizing the event and has been putting in tremendous work into making the Atari VCS community something genuinely amazing. THANK YOU to everyone who has been participating in Club VCS and inviting new Atari VCS fans to join us! As always I'd like to encourage Squad Legend and our new champion @nosweargamer to post his high score on the Scoreboard, and let's make sure this Challenge continues on! Congratulations to NSG, special thanks once again @Gianna nominating this game after playing Bomberman on Switch, and a big congratulations to our wonderful little community for being such a great group to spend time with, I hope everybody had fun playing in our football league! NOTE: We play an often overlooked Activision classic in our next High Score Squad Challenge - Crackpots for the Atari 2600! Be there!

Appreciate your thoughts @Atari 5200 Guy but I have to disagree. Tommy Tallarico is not Preston Tucker, nor have big corporate and governmental entities felt threatened enough by Amico to where they colluded to quash the little upstart Intellivision. I think it's always a good idea to be skeptical of people asking you for your money, particularly with Kickstarter projects where they aren't close to shipping a final product. We've seen this time and time again dating back years. It's why we don't allow paid pre-sales on Atari I/O. Remember that Tucker wasn't just a movie. He was a real person, and those events, although simplified for the movie, actually happened to good hardworking people. I think people are overthinking this, or rather thinking about it too much. Most projects are crazy and hectic until they get launched. Passionate people who are deeply invested in their ideas and dreams are going to do whatever it takes to make their project successful. It's not always easy and it's not always pretty - usually it's pretty ugly. Missed deadlines, long nights, uncertainty. Most of the time though, the rest of the world isn't privy to this. Most projects aren't created with the world watching every step, examining every decision and discussing it endlessly on YouTube. But Intellivision invited the world in when they campaigned on nostalgia and asked regular "mom & pop" people to pony up $1,000 investments - which is a very small amount in investment terms for what is needed to get the project done, but is a very large amount for most regular people. They should have sought private capital from groups of accredited investors who can lose $100,000 in a project and walk away unscathed as if it never happened. Instead they went to the public with their Kickstarter campaigns etc. and asked regular people - namely classic gamers - to "invest" in their childhood dreams. If it's an investment you're after, longing the S&P 500 or hanging onto SPDR ETFs for a decade or two would be a much safer bet (and likely more profitable!) than "investing" in Amico. It seems like most of the people "investing" in Amico shouldn't be investing at all. The people behind Amico should see that and know better. Because they've taken money from classic gamers and regular "mom & pop" people, they've opened themselves up and invited the world in to watch what they're doing. Everybody gets to follow the events, the updates, discuss them at length, create "Amico news" and pick apart decisions. This doesn't happen with other products like Legends Pinball, AtGames Atari Flashback 10, 1UP Arcades, or a new kind of toilet paper dispenser. Simply because those projects never asked regular people for small investments, and they never invited the world in to see what they were doing. There are some exceptions to this - one of the closest to the Amico being the Evercade VS. Beautiful system, reasonably priced, no "dog and pony show", no grandstanding, and they're shipping their product and get positive reviews. None of this is Preston Tucker though.

We're awarding the Activision Crackpots Badge as an achievement for all players who score a patch-worthy score of 75,000+ Points in our Crackpots Squad Challenge through March 14th! Good luck!

@nosweargamer has an excellent overview of Crackpots for the Atari 2600. It's a great place to start if you're new to the game!

Let's get the word out about this High Score Squad Challenge! The more people participating the more fun the challenge! Spread the word and invite friends to play!

Crackpots Atari 2600 Controller: JOYSTICK / KEYBOARD / PLAYER'S CHOICE Difficulty Level: Default Play on: Real Hardware / Dedicated Console / Emulation OK! ✔ Squad Challenge ends 11:59 pm PST March 14, 2022 Objective Play for the highest possible score using the difficulty settings defined in the challenge. Post a photo or YouTube video of your score in this thread. Scores must be achieved between March 1st through March 14th, 2022. Screen captures are not allowed as they are more easily manipulated for falsified scores. Multiple submissions are permitted. The player with the highest score at the end of the competition is the victor! Eligibility Anyone can join in. All players are welcome! Play Rules Games may be played on real hardware, Flashback / Mini console, or emulation, using any controller or keyboard, following all rules and game settings defined in the challenge. Choosing between real hardware or emulation, and choosing which controller to play on is part of formulating your strategy. Enhancements, rewinds and hacked versions of this game are not allowed. Difficulty Level We are playing Crackpots on Game 1 (1 Player) using the Default difficulty settings. The Difficulty Switches are not used in this game. Fair Play Your integrity is everything. Players should play fairly, be honest, and have fun! Falsified scores will result in your immediate removal from the site. It goes without saying that we will not allow cheats, hacks, cartridge frying, enhancements, rewinds, deceitful photo manipulation, subterfuge, or any other unfair advantage. Everybody hates a cheater. More To review detailed rules on how to play, please visit the High Score Squad page here: Message Welcome to our 119th Squad Challenge! For this challenge we're playing Activision's CRACKPOTS designed by Dan Kitchen and released for the Atari 2600 pretty late in the game in 1983. Crackpots begins with an infestation! A bug barrage is swarming out of the sewer, chomping away at every building in town. Entire neighborhoods are now crumb piles! Over in Brooklyn, Potsy, the rooftop Gardner, is defending his beloved building with his only weapon - potted petunias. Be a good neighbor, help Potsy take potshots at the insect invaders... Quick! When too many bugs crawl into the windows, they'll start eating you out of house and home! ROM and PDF Instruction Manual are provided below. Crackpots.pdf Crackpots.a26

I'm thinking that may be my #3 as well @TrekMD Can we all agree "no cheating" on this question with answers like "Namco Collection" 😂

Haha that's great! You'll have to give us updated pics soon 🙂 Keep working on your strategy @RickR it's more puzzle than action. There's a lot of strategy with bomb placement, power-ups, etc. One strategy I use that works for me but not for everybody: I'm careful in the beginning to only detonate blocks that I need to move out of my way. I don't just blow everything up on the screen and let the little buggars run wild. My strategy has been to keep them trapped in their little spaces, and "snipe" them one by one. I try to keep them compartmentalized and not let them run free. If they are in a tight space they're more easily blown up by a single bomb, and their path is predictable. Once they escape their little compartment, or the "maze" area, they can roam free and you lose the ability to predict their behavior or box them in.

Looks like you were already at 11,300 @RickR 🙂

EXCELLENT topic @MaximumRD!! I'm going to have to give this one some thought... For my picks, I imagine Out Run (arcade) and California Games (Atari Lynx) will have to be up there somewhere.

Now that everybody's had some time to play Bomberman '93 what are your thoughts on the game, and on the TurboGrafx-16 in general? How does Bomberman '93 compare to other games in the series? How does Bomberman '93 and the TurboGrafx-16 compare to the Nintendo Entertainment System?

I may give it one last shot today, otherwise I'm going to be very busy until after March 1st. I'll have a new Squad Challenge up on time. I'd love to see one of you guys take the top spot for Bomberman '93!

I want you guys to beat my score! Nobody wants to pin the tail on their own donkey at their own birthday party. I hope you guys keep playing and leave my score in the dust. That was a great pop-up stream @nosweargamer, I've really enjoyed your livestream events lately and it's cool that you're covering our High Score Squad Challenges

I'd love to get my hands on one