Yo-Yo

I've been keeping my eyes open for a reasonably priced TurboGrafx 16, but so far, it's eluded me.  They are pretty hard to find. 

Lol I belive I have those HuCards

I have two TG-16's, both do composite A/V without the official add-on as they have been modded. No original HuCards (I gave those away  ) which is fine since I have a TurboEverdrive so I can load any PCengine / TG16  game up and play on the TG16! Some great games for sure! 

I have a turbo grafx-16. I love it. It's a weird system. I like that it's weird! In some ways its amazing and in other ways it doesn't make sense. When it came out in the USA it was such an obvious step forward from the NES. Yet it doesn't make sense to me that they made it so big when the PC Engine was so tiny. How cool! It doesn't make sense to me that for all of the great games they had in Japan, they didn't translate well into games for the USA. Kato and Ken is a good example. Then the Genesis happened. The turbo grafx, the duo, and the express were all awesome. I wish I had a larger collection.

I had a turbografx years ago and I absolutely loved Bonk's Adventure.  
Here recently I traded for a PC engine and some games.  Right now out of the handful of games I own my favorite is Alien Crush.  I'm really looking to get back into playing games for this console as it has a certain charm that I love (even if I can't explain it well) and some killer games that you can't really find elsewhere.

I don't know about all of you, but I'm very fond of the TurboGrafx and the PC engine. I've been collecting for awhile now, but not as long as my Atari era stuff.

What are some of your guys/gals favorite games? If I had to pick just one, I'd say Legendary Axe. I'm mostly a fan of shmups on the system, but Legendary Axe was the game that got me into collecting for the system.

How about you?
 
 

Love the podcast!    Thanks for joining us.

Interesting read:
 
http://ataribook.com/book/what-are-the-real-facts-behind-pac-mans-development/
 

The best part of this story is the marketing guy who pushed to not release it.  A few small changes would have made the game a lot better.  Black background, blue maze, for example.  And remove the eye on Pac-Man.  They do mention that a lot of other programmers thought it was a tremendous accomplishment on the 2600, and it is.  Especially when you consider it was Tod Frye's first game!  But that's the frustrating part....just a few small changes.....
 
One part I still don't understand is the lack of oversight at Atari.  It always seemed like the programmer didn't have to listen to any input from other developers or a supervisor.  The decisions they made went unchallenged.  I'm not sure if that's entirely accurate, but it seems to be implied in a lot of stories like this. 
 
This was a good read, and thanks for posting it. 

Some of this I had never heard before, thank you very much for sharing it Arenafoot!

I love the 2600 Game by Game Podcast, keep up the good work!

FERG!!!!

Just in case you aren't a regular listener, this is a bi-weekly joyride that has rekindled my love for Atari & retro gaming in general. Ferg does a fantastic job and the listener feedback is so, so good. 

***Warning*** The Atari 2600 Game by Game podcast is a dangerous gateway podcast. You may soon find yourself discovering many other fine podcasts and never have any time to listen to anything else.

Hi all, my name is Ferg and I started this now bi-weekly podcast in 2013. My goal is to cover EVERY game made for the Atari 2600. Because I'm dumb. In each episode, I cover one to three games (usually by one company) and I talk about the gameplay, history (of the game AND the programmer if I can), packaging, and YOUR memories of the games. I always give a heads up for what's coming up and I get such wonderful feedback for almost every game. You can check out all of the episodes here: http://2600gamebygamepodcast.libsyn.com/webpage
 
I am also on iTunes and Stitcher, but iTunes has started to remove some of the shows, so the Libsyn page is your best bet right now for the early episodes, if you want to hear me learn how to podcast over a long period of time (still learning).
 
This week I cover two Spectravision games which I like very much, China Syndrome and the Challenge of Nexar. You can find the episode here:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/2600gamebygamepodcast/109_-_China_Syndrome__Challenge_of_Nexar_by_Spectravision.mp3
 
The next episode will be about E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, which you may have heard of. If you would like to contribute your memories of E.T., you can send them to me at 2600gamebygame@comcast.net
 
Thank you for reading all this and especially for listening!

Cool story. The guys who wrote that book can be excessively pompous to the rest of us though. If you don't know every detail of every story or you don't bow down to kiss the ring.... or say you'd like a refund for something you paid them $200 for in 2010 and never received.... then they talk down to you like you're a meaningless nothing of a person. Whip out an old Atari id badge though and it's a different story.

Just seen a member post over on Assembler, he bought an Infintium Labs Phantom Console, I was not aware anything beyond a case / shell was ever produced. Looks like it pretty much would have been like the original Xbox but with a modified Windows XP operative system. Sounds like a Windows version of the upcoming Steam Consoles. Here is the thread on Assembler 
 
http://assemblergames.com/l/threads/recently-bought-a-phantom.58385/#post-836198
 
 
Here are the images : 



 


 


 

 
Unseen64 Entry  info: 
 
http://www.unseen64.net/2008/09/12/phantom-console/
 
 
The Phantom console was a game system developed by Infinium labs in 2002 but it was canceled for financial problems. This console was able to run games without using cartidges, DVDs or CDs: instead, the games would have been downloaded from internet by a pay-per-play service. The phantom console was designed to be very easy to set up and all the accessories were wireless, so you did not had to worry about any cables. The console did have an AMD Athlon XP 2500+ CPU, an internal 40 GB Hard drive, 256 MB of RAM, Nvidia GeForce FX 5700 Ultra video card and Dolby Digital 5.1 Audio sound card. About the kernel, the Phantom had a modified [/size]Windows XP operative system. The phantom also had his own keyboard (the Phantom Lapboard) that now is selling at the site of Phantom Entertainment (once time Infinium Labs) and is compatible with PC or Mac. The console first appeared at E3 2004 as a working prototype (there were only a few games available, one of which was Unreal Tournament 2003). Infinium labs said that the console would have been avabile in January 2005. The date was missed and people that pre-ordered the console were angry.. but Infinium Labs said that the Phantom would have been avabile later, in autumn 2005, the same relase date of the XBOX 360. That date was also missed and then Phantom Entertainment (the company Infinium Labs changed his name into) decided to stop the project for the console.[/size]
Wiki Entry info: 
 
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Phantom_Entertainment

I guess Ken & Barbie were really into Sega Master System too
 

I think Pat was a mainstream kid and is a fairly mainstream guy even now, and to anyone mainstream the outsider always appears strange and confusing. "Oh it doesn't play Mario? Why would anybody want this?" Because Phantasy Star and Space Harrier. And Ian hates talking or thinking about anything outside of his comfort zone, he'd rather lean back in his chair and noodle at this thumbs.
 
I think there is a lot of love for the Sega Master System today, buts it's proportional to Nintendo and the amount of love they received in 1987ish. You have to admit the SMS looked like the control panel off of a Stealth fighter! It took game cards and the graphics were pretty great for the time.

Plus Mortal Kombat looked better on Master System than I think it ever could on NES
 

I think Pat was a mainstream kid and is a fairly mainstream guy even now, and to anyone mainstream the outsider always appears strange and confusing. "Oh it doesn't play Mario? Why would anybody want this?" Because Phantasy Star and Space Harrier. And Ian hates talking or thinking about anything outside of his comfort zone, he'd rather lean back in his chair and noodle at this thumbs.
 
I think there is a lot of love for the Sega Master System today, buts it's proportional to Nintendo and the amount of love they received in 1987ish. You have to admit the SMS looked like the control panel off of a Stealth fighter! It took game cards and the graphics were pretty great for the time.

Plus Mortal Kombat looked better on Master System than I think it ever could on NES
 

I think Pat was a mainstream kid and is a fairly mainstream guy even now, and to anyone mainstream the outsider always appears strange and confusing. "Oh it doesn't play Mario? Why would anybody want this?" Because Phantasy Star and Space Harrier. And Ian hates talking or thinking about anything outside of his comfort zone, he'd rather lean back in his chair and noodle at this thumbs.
 
I think there is a lot of love for the Sega Master System today, buts it's proportional to Nintendo and the amount of love they received in 1987ish. You have to admit the SMS looked like the control panel off of a Stealth fighter! It took game cards and the graphics were pretty great for the time.

Plus Mortal Kombat looked better on Master System than I think it ever could on NES
 

Plus Mortal Kombat looked better on Master System than I think it ever could on NES
 

I personally never even knew it existed until after I started collecting for Genesis.  Back in the day, NES was the only console I saw in stores. 

It is a good system, and the Master System attachment for Genesis makes it really easy to enjoy the great games.

Pat & Ian asked a good question on The Completely Unnecessary Podcast this week: Why isn't there more love for the Sega Master System? Their question is a good one but I think their answers are lacking something.
 
There's always more nostalgic love for what was most popular at the time. Look at the nostalgic movies that get all the love now, most of them were what was popular when we were younger. The same is true in video gaming. The NES dominated that generation, and even the Atari 7800 was outselling the Sega Master System based on price.
 
The Master System was a GREAT console, I think it had the best graphics of the era and some of the best games. You can't go wrong with Phantasy Star, and I disagree with Pat & Ian that people wouldn't have been interested in playing OutRun or Shinobi on the Master System. If you were back in 1986, and the Genesis was a good 3-4 years away before it really got going, those were great titles on a really cool game system. It's growth was stunted because it didn't take off the way the NES did with Mario, etc. but that didn't mean there weren't great reasons to own a Sega Master System, or of course an Atari 7800.
 
I do agree with Pat & Ian that "only 2 kids at every school had a Sega Master System" that sounds about right, and that Sega lost interest in supporting the Master System in America when they were close to releasing the Sega Genesis and knew it would blow the doors off of everything else around.
 
What do you think?