Justin

@7800 Pro Gamer I'd like to hear you dive deeper into your thoughts on this. I've always felt like I'm the only person who doesn't think Jinks is an awful game. It's not my favorite on the 7800, but it's interesting. With the trippy colors and Paddle, it always felt like it carried on some of that early DNA that Atari was made up of during the Nolan years. I liked that - at least to me - Atari tried to take the Ball and Paddle and place it in the world of a platformer. There were objects to bonk and things to discover, similar to a Super Mario style game that you'd see on the NES. I was also impressed by the voice synthesis at the title screen, even in 1994 I thought that was really cool. Most everybody else thinks Jinks sucks.

I can't narrow it down to five without it being random. There are so many good, great, and underappreciated games on the Atari 7800 and also the Atari Lynx. Some are better than they are given credit for. Others were hindered by Jack's cost cutting measures that stripped good games of needed sound and RAM that could've made some games more competitive. There are also some terrific indie and homebrew games that you should dive into separately. Here is a list of Atari 7800 games I get the most enjoyment out of:
Xevious Food Fight Mean 18 Ultimate Golf Centipede Joust Mario Bros. Ms. Pac-Man  Xenophobe Pole Position II Mean 18 Ultimate Golf Pete Argon: Robot Holocaust

Here are some real Pro-Tips for scoring big in BERZERK ENHANCED EDITION:
 
Quickdraw
As you move from one maze to another, continue pressing the fire button. It takes the robots a moment to start their attack - you can often zap them first when you enter shooting.
 
Predicting Otto's Entrance
Evil Otto always enters in the same place you do. Try to get away from this danger zone and near an exit as soon as possible.
 
Escape to the Sides
Because Evil Otto bounces up and down, it's easier to escape him through the side exits than the top or bottom exits.
 
Take Cover as Robots Obliterate Themselves
In difficult levels where there are a lot of fast-moving, fast-shooting robots, head for the cover of a maze wall immediately. Allow the robots to collide with each other and to shoot one another or to walk into your firing range. But don't wait long or you'll be trapped!
 
Scoring
You score 50 points for each robot destroyed. When all the robots in a single maze are destroyed, you score ten bonus points per robot. Robots explode when they're hit by your laser or the lasers of other robots, and when they run into maze walls, collide with each other, or get pounded by Evil Otto. You can score a total of 999,990 points before the score rolls over.
 
 
 

Berzerk Enhanced Edition
Atari 2600
Controller: JOYSTICK / KEYBOARD / PLAYER'S CHOICE
Difficulty Level: GAME 3
Bonus Challenge: Berzerk (original release) for Atari 2600
Play on: Real Hardware / Dedicated Console / MAME / Emulation OK! ✔
Squad Challenge ends 11:59 pm PST January 31, 2024
Nominated by @RickR and @Justin 
 
 
Objective
Play for the best possible time 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 January 1st through January 31st, 2024. 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, FPGA 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, save states and hacked versions of this game are not allowed.
 
Difficulty Level
GAME 3. We will be playing Berzerk Enhanced Edition on GAME 3 Difficulty Settings. You'll need all the lives you can get because in this game Evil Otto is invincible and the robots stalk you with their lasers.
 
Bonus Challenge : Berzerk (Original Release) for Atari 2600
We are holding a BONUS CHALLENGE for all you Berzerk aficionados! If you'd like to compete in our Bonus Challenge, we will be playing the original release of Berzerk on Atari 2600 on GAME 3! If you don't have access to the newly released Berzerk Enhanced Edition but would like to play along with us, you can submit a score for the original Berzerk. Be sure to denote that your score is for Berzerk (Original Release) when posting your original Berzerk score!
 
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 154th Squad Challenge! We're starting 2024 off with Berzerk Enhanced Edition which has become a popular release this holiday season with Atari publishing the game to coincide with the launch of their new Atari 2600+! If you don't own the game but would like to join in the fun, you can order Berzerk Enhanced Edition for $29.99 directly from Atari and receive it likely in time to be able to participate and post a high score in this Squad Challenge! You can also join in our Bonus Challenge with a score from the original 2600 Berzerk! 
 

 
Berzerk Enhanced Edition Instructions Available Online from Atari Here

I love seeing user groups get back together and get rebooted. SPACE, the Saint Paul Atari Computer Enthusiasts is a great group that has been around since the beginning. We have active SPACE members in Atari I/O and they used to share their newsletters here. Nice to see user groups covered in your videos!

@7800 Pro Gamer I'd like to hear you dive deeper into your thoughts on this. I've always felt like I'm the only person who doesn't think Jinks is an awful game. It's not my favorite on the 7800, but it's interesting. With the trippy colors and Paddle, it always felt like it carried on some of that early DNA that Atari was made up of during the Nolan years. I liked that - at least to me - Atari tried to take the Ball and Paddle and place it in the world of a platformer. There were objects to bonk and things to discover, similar to a Super Mario style game that you'd see on the NES. I was also impressed by the voice synthesis at the title screen, even in 1994 I thought that was really cool. Most everybody else thinks Jinks sucks.

I can't narrow it down to five without it being random. There are so many good, great, and underappreciated games on the Atari 7800 and also the Atari Lynx. Some are better than they are given credit for. Others were hindered by Jack's cost cutting measures that stripped good games of needed sound and RAM that could've made some games more competitive. There are also some terrific indie and homebrew games that you should dive into separately. Here is a list of Atari 7800 games I get the most enjoyment out of:
Xevious Food Fight Mean 18 Ultimate Golf Centipede Joust Mario Bros. Ms. Pac-Man  Xenophobe Pole Position II Mean 18 Ultimate Golf Pete Argon: Robot Holocaust

175,986, after many, many tries last night.
I couldn't figure out why my first run felt so "off"... seemed like things were going too well for being so out of practice.  Turned out, I had mistakenly enabled Zen Mode 😅

Just seeing my name on the leaderboard is something to celebrate 😂

A very cool interview with Ben Jones of Plaion on the development of the 2600+. The interview starts at 43:08. Interesting insights here.
 

The first Activision game to hit the series is Seaquest (1983). I love Steve Cartwright's work on the 2600. Barnstorming, Seaquest, Megamania, Frostbite...great stuff.
Seaquest is one I came to as an adult.  I love the bright colors and simple but challenging gameplay. I really wanted a patch worthy score, but it was not to be...
What do you think of Seaquest?
 
 

Strike Zone: 2600 is the best bowling game for the VCS: 
 
 

New Year’s Day fine dining at Erica Jane. 

@7800 Pro Gamer I'd like to hear you dive deeper into your thoughts on this. I've always felt like I'm the only person who doesn't think Jinks is an awful game. It's not my favorite on the 7800, but it's interesting. With the trippy colors and Paddle, it always felt like it carried on some of that early DNA that Atari was made up of during the Nolan years. I liked that - at least to me - Atari tried to take the Ball and Paddle and place it in the world of a platformer. There were objects to bonk and things to discover, similar to a Super Mario style game that you'd see on the NES. I was also impressed by the voice synthesis at the title screen, even in 1994 I thought that was really cool. Most everybody else thinks Jinks sucks.

Thanks for the coverage! 😄 
Porting to the Atari VCS is certainly going to be a challenge being that the system is geared towards Unity and we're one of the few devs running with Game Maker Studio 2, but we are determined to make this happen! 💪
The VCS community is wonderful so far and has been a lot of help in getting adjusted to Linux, and have been making the learning journey so far much easier to take.
So thank you everyone! 😊 
(Btw that video above is funny because we actually forgot to hit the record button the first time around and that's us scrambling to get back on track lol) 

Welcome to the Club @Ettinsoft!
The game looks like a lot of fun and we're happy to help get the word out to our small but mighty VCS community.
It's always great to see developers check-in with the community. Feel free to share any updates on your game here as the port progresses.
 

Like others said narrowing it down to five is a hard thing to do.  Especially if your counting homebrew.  So I'll give you the games that I loved back when we had one as a kid and then some games that really brought me back to it later in life. 
As a kid we played Asteroids a lot and the 7800 version was just so much cooler to me than our 2600 version. Pole Position 2 also got played a lot believe it or not.  Seeing the backgrounds slide in and out of sight was just so mesmerizing to me.  We also enjoyed Mario Bros in 2 player and Rampage. 
As an adult I came back with a heavy interest in Jinks, Choplifter, Ninja Golf, and Crossbow.  Of those games I still really like Crossbow and find it to be a unique and fun idea and I've completed Ninja Golf on every difficulty.  But Jinks and Choplifter... Well idk why I was drawn to them but let's just say that I no longer am lol.   So maybe give a few of those a try!

Honorable Mentions:
Crossbow Sentinel

My top five Atari 7800 games are these:
Food Fight Midnight Mutants Alien Brigade Kung-Fu Master Rampage These games have a real WOW factor to them, at least for me.

I believe it will but not everyone has a copy of the game to test since EXO just go released in the AA store and I guess no one that attended PRGE has been following this stuff or interested? Pretty sure John would have tried to test it as I'm sure he bought a copy of the game. The only downside with EXO is that the Savekey/AVOX doesn't work and from what I'm told those never will. The 2600+ only polls the ports in read only mode. It can't write back to them. So as a result... you can't save anything. EXO is a much more challenging game when you have to play it in one sitting LOL!
This also means that the Keypad controller apparently can never be made to work either. So no Star Raiders with this current hardware they have released. I was able to get Petscii Robots to start up, but I wouldn't exactly call it playable. No music only TIA audio worked, and all of the graphics were messed up. But the actual game was able to be played provided you knew exactly what the garbage on the screen was representing LOL. As I've played Petscii Robots quite a bit I was just about able to get through the first map even with it all screwed up looking. But the fact that EXO is working means that large size games can be made to work and the improvements made to the pro system emulator in these new builds is crazy impressive!
 

I do not have one and likely will not but that does not stop me from being fascinated and living through others, as well I am an update nut admittedly, I KNOW SOME SUBSCRIBE TO THE "If it ain't broke don't fix it" mantra but I have always been one to always update, use the latest firmware, use alternate or streamlined firmware that addresses or fixes issues or adds other features etc. In short, I will always be one to "tinker" 🤷‍♂️😝so with that, I JUST saw this video and thought some of you might lucky 2600+ owners may appreciate this. I know many are aware of the update and some even being early Beta testers however for the average Joe or those who may be wondering about the process this is for you. 
 

My only issue with videos like this right now, is that it is all but assured that Atari will replace this process out with something more user friendly. So while I can appreciate someone creating a video like this for those of us wanting to test the latest BETA release, it isn't good to have this on YouTube because a year or so from now, this process being shown won't be relevant and you wouldn't want someone to come across it thinking this is how you update the console and then end up making a mess of their system using incompatible FW etc. 
So I do think stuff like this shouldn't be posted in this particular medium until the actual FW release and process has been made more public and finalized.
 

I was wondering if the process was going to be made simpler.  Honestly it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be but it definitely felt a bit chaotic the way it was presented and done.  I hope they make it idiot proof because I messed it up initially, so if they need an idiot for testing I'm here! Lol

Here’s what I get…
 

7810 - Enhanced Edition Game 3