HDN

Nice video, NSG! I’m glad you’re doing Magnavox Mondays, though I think Odyssey Tuesdays would be a better title. Regardless, keep up the good work!

Welcome, @Rocker67! I hope you’ll stick around and enjoy your time here. Lots of friendly people. I also think it’s pretty cool that you had a Pong unit. I have always wanted to try one.

@DegasElite thank you for the advice. I hadn’t ever cleaned the ports for either 2600 systems since I first got the systems and cleaned everything up. I have done lots of cleaning with alcohol and stuff, so I am not unfamiliar with the idea of polishing up my games. However, I’ve found with the 2600 I haven’t had to do much cleaning. It’s a very reliable system. Especially with the Atari branded games. I’ve had to clean Activision and other third party games before, but not any Atari branded ones. 7800 is a different story. I will give cleaning my cartridge port a go tomorrow, though I am not sure if it will help my copy of Empire much. It certainly can’t hurt. And thanks for the advice for not leaving carts in. I don’t do it anyways, but I didn’t know it could cause any trouble. Sometimes I forget to take the games out of my NES because I can’t see them!

That is true for the most part. I like to try to get a high score and don’t pay much attention to it. The AI actually kind of works in the Bomber game types. Better than the other variants at least.

Besides Deoxit, I have tried everything you mentioned on Empire in the past. I have heard of Deoxit before but have never tried it. Perhaps I need to try that.

Welcome!

Thanks. That worked. I’m not sure why I didn’t try already. I have had a similar case with Empire Strikes Back. It worked fine for a while, but then all I got was a green screen with two vertical bars when I turned it on. I tried every method of cleaning I could, like alcohol, baking soda, vinegar, and a few more. Nothing changed. Same thing happens on both 2600s, but it works flawlessly on 7800. I thought that perhaps Air Sea Battle had met the same fate of becoming a 7800 exclusive.

Hey, I have a question for everyone. My Air-Sea Battle cartridge seems to have passed on to a better place. Or so I thought. You SEA, the game won’t work on my 2600 woody, as the game seems to constantly turn itself on and off. On the 7800, however, it works flawlessly. I haven’t tried my Vader yet. The woody works with my other carts, so why this one? Does anyone know what might be causing this?

A battle of the games! We'll only be counting the original two pack-in games for the VCS hardware, Combat and Target Fun. No Space Invaders, Pac-Man, or Donkey Kong here. Which game do YOU think was a better pack-in? Both had their pros and cons for sure. Please answer the poll to show everyone your side!

Thank you for the kind words! It’s funny you mention this today, as earlier today I doodled a few mock-ups in my notebook for what some other games might look like. I’m no artist, and these were done really quickly and are just in pen. All of these games I have, and they all have end labels already. If anyone is wondering what’s written on the other side, it’s nothing secret. Just some 2600 games I’m considering buying. I think in the future, I’ll use some nice paper instead of plain old tape and find a way to color it in better!

I think the game that suffers the most without a black background is Space War. Instead of looking like—well, a war in space, this game reminds me more of two pizza slices shooting each other on a pool table! And if I remember correctly, Atari didn’t like their black backgrounds on non-space games. Is this even a space game, who knows? It is also home to the worst mock-up screenshot in Atari history, and they had some pretty bad ones.

I have a seventh one I have yet to post. It may be the least funny of them all. I’m not kidding.

Where did you learn to be an ***hole? I don't think I'll be able to participate in this one, sadly. The Jaguar is supposed to be impossible to emulate. Thankfully, our next challenge is for F-Zero! I think this is the first Squad Challenge we've had where I actually had the game before the challenge started!

I knew this was going to happen... You have wounded me, Justin! Now I'm angry! Don't think you're getting away with this; last night, @RickR told me about your only weakness. MUA HA HA HA!

Let's start an Atari I/O war. Well, not really. More like a friendly argument. I have long been perplexed by Sega Genesis fans. I don't hate the Genesis, in fact I actually like it quite a bit. Sonic Spinball, Goldenaxe, Gain Ground, Columns III-- all great titles. The Nomad simply kicks ass, and the Power Base Converter is an excellent peripheral, from what I've seen. What's more, it had a ton of ad-ons, which are... debatably good. However, when it comes to people preferring it over the SNES is where I get a little peeved. The Genesis had FUN games, but the SNES had true masterpieces. Some of, if not THE BEST games around. It also had a much better controller than its counterpart, and you never needed to get another one with more buttons once the newer games came out. The Power Base Converter was fine and cool, but did it really hold a candle to the Super Game Boy? If you had a Master System already, there was no need for Genesis owners to buy a PBC. On the flip-side, the SGB offered Game Boy owners a little something extra; playing on the TV, better controller, custom borders, special features for some games, saving battery life, COLOR. There was good reason for SNES owners to buy an SGB even if they had the black-and-green-screened brick in their possession already. Sure, the PBC offered Genesis and Master System owners more convenience and less space wasted, but it didn't offer nearly as much as the SGB did. I think of some of the highest-regarded games on the Genesis, and similar games on the Genesis. Sonic the Hedgehog versus Super Mario World, for example. Probably the most famous comparison. Sonic was a lot faster than "that nice boy Mario". The game moved at a rapid clip compared to World's relatively slow and methodical pace. However, Sonic didn't really change the platforming genre that much, though it had plenty of imitators and rip-offs. Sonic, at its core, was a lot like the original Super Mario Brothers. You had to beat it in one single sitting, no saving, completely linear, same world layout. Sonic was more advanced than OG SMB, but in the end it played very similarly. Super Mario World, by contrast, changed what a platformer was. You could save now! There were loads of secrets to find. Each level was still linear compared to things like Metroid, but they were much more open-ended than Sonic's and past platformers. There was the world map, returning from SMB 3. There were lots of levels to play. It was a lot more forgiving and a lot less frustrating than Sonic was. And most importantly, Super Mario World holds up infinitely better today than Sonic the Hedgehog does. Maybe the Genesis looked cooler. Maybe it had more "tude". Maybe it had a better processor (though the SNES had better specs for pretty much everything else). But the SNES is just plain better in my opinion. So Sega fans, please tell me! WHY do you prefer the Genesis over the SNES? Please tell me, as I'd really like to know and I honestly can't figure out for the life of me why people prefer it! And if you say "Blast Processing" as an answer, I will kill you! Just kidding about that last part. But seriously, please let me know what the Genesis does that Nintendon't. Is it the faster, more arcadey games? Is it the ad-ons? Is just nostalgia? Please let me know!

I'm not a big comic book fan. I remember reading some DC comics (Detective Comics comics?) that came out of a box of cereal when I was around seven or eight and being too bored to finish it. All of my subsequent efforts to get into comics have more or less ended the same way. Most recently, I got some comic books with my 2600 stuff back in March. Four vintage Superman comics were mixed in with the manuals, from around the same time the movies were coming out (as there were a few advertisements in there for them). I never did finish them, but I did look through the ads. I should give them a second go sometime. Also with the 2600 manuals were a few Atari-themed comics. I believe issues 2 through 4 of Atari Force were in there from Berzerk, Star Raiders, and Phoenix if I remember correctly. I don't remember how many Atari Force mini-comics were released. I, as big of an Atari fan as I am, couldn't finish them. As far as superhero comics go, the only one I believe I have read to completion in recent years (if you count it as one) was "The Quotile Ultimatum", the mini-comic included with Yars' Revenge. I really enjoyed this one and how creative it was. Atari Force didn't seem to be near as accurate to their source games as this one was, but I should take another look at those. This mini-comic was very creative in expanding the "lore" of Yars' Revenge. I'm not saying that I don't like comics as an artform. I actually used to really enjoy reading the Sunday comics as a little kid before realizing how painfully unfunny they were. I also used to read a few "graphic novels", and I even had my own "comic strip" for a while (we'll get to Metroid's Turnover Tops another day). I just don't like superhero comic books. Is it that I'm intimidated by them? A little. I feel like I need to do some serious catching up to do on all the backstories, and I couldn't just jump right in on any issue. Is it because I don't give two craps about the characters? That's a part of it for sure. I feel the biggest reason, however, is that I just found them boring. I never much cared for action scenes in books and movies, even less in my youth. I've always prefer the story-driven segments of movies or books, and action scenes have always been less interesting to me as a whole. That's part of the reason I prefer Star Wars (A New Hope to all you filthy casuals out there) to Empire Strikes Back. Action scenes are even worse in a comic book, as you have to leave something up to the imagination, but it isn't as free and creative as when you're interpreting the words of a book. It's too limited to imagine the scenario for yourself, but just abstract enough to not be like a cool movie spectacle. I don't prefer action scenes in movies and books to story driven scenes, but in comics, it just seems to be all action and not enough story. And the action itself is considerably worse than if it was in a novel or movie. Now, with that said, I do enjoy some superhero movies. I think what really introduced me to them (if you don't count Star Wars, which you shouldn't count anyway) was Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. I loved this movie. It was funny, had lots of story elements, and yet still had enough things to make it a superhero movie. Shortly thereafter, we rented and watched (multiple times) its sequel, which was better in every regard. Guardians Volume II was funnier, built on the characters and story, had some emotional and suspenseful moments, and had a killer soundtrack. If you haven't already, watch the Guardians movies and get the soundtracks. But I digress. I later watched some more movies in the MCU, and even saw Endgame in theaters with my friends on opening weekend. I haven't seen all of the MCU movies yet, but all the ones I have seen were excellent films. So let's talk Superman for the Atari 2600, one of the first-ever licensed games. Superman was created by John Dunn and released in 1979. While Superman was released a few months before it, Dunn actually built this game off of Warren Robinett's Adventure engine. The reason this game came into being is because Atari's parent company, Warner, already had the rights to the character. Superman was a sort of tie-in game with the recently released movie, though other than the characters the games have nothing alike. I had actually never seen Superman until a couple of months ago. I enjoyed it, though it wasn't as good as Superman II, which I had seen years prior. You know those rotating triangle prison things? I think of those all the time, especially when I'm playing Freedom Fighters! on Odyssey 2. As well as "kneel before Zod". So, like Adventure, Superman is a multi-screen action-adventure game. You play as Clark Kent at the beginning. Walk to the right, and you'll see Lex Luthor and his henchmen blow up the Metropolis bridge. Make your way to the phone booth and change into Superman! Now your job is to put all the crooks in prison, which are all symbolized by a bar by the timer, and find the three bridge pieces and rebuild the bridge. Once the bridge is fixed, make your way to the phone booth to change back, and make your way to the Daily Planet newspaper building to finish the game. Use the joystick for moving and press the button for X-ray vision. This will let you look ahead one screen in whatever direction the joystick is positioned in, which is useful for finding important items and avoiding upcoming danger. Superman isn't all sunshine and roses, however. Though Kal-El can't actually die, he can be inconveniced by the numerous Kryptonite Satellites Luthor has unleashed. If Superman were to touch one, he would lose his ability to fly and carry items and villains. Your powers can return by simply touching Lois Lane, who will kiss you and return your powers. I'm not a big comic book guy, but I don't remember anything like this happening. Is this accurate? There are two main variations to the game: one player and two players. The two player option sees both people controlling different axes of Superman's movement. It's not good. The single player option gives one player full control of Superman. Unlike Adventure, there is only one game map, though there is an accurate in-game timer that pushes you to complete the game in as little time as possible, in a way making this one of the first speedrunning games. The difficulty switches determine the speed of the satellites and bad guys, and whether or not Lois will automatically come to your aid if you are hit. The graphics, while not great for the system, were leaps and bounds (over tall buildings) over any other game that preceded it on the VCS. Take a look at all the other games from the 1970's Atari VCS catalog. Some of the "better looking" games were Basketball, Human Cannonball, and Sky Diver. Superman had lots of animation, multicolored sprites, and lots of individual assets. John Dunn's art background really shows here, despite his boss telling him to "not get too artsy with it". Despite the nice graphics, Superman suffers from a lot of flicker, which can occasionally make it difficult to pick up items. No biggie, though. I never liked this game back in the Wii2600 games. It's much less self-explanatory than its sister game, Adventure. I never knew what I was doing. Why was the city stacked up like it was? What was I supposed to do? What were all these doors and colored rooms? Indeed, Superman is a game where you at least need to know the backstory in order to play. It wasn't fun to play it without it. It also helps to know what the subway station does, and what you need to do once the bridge is rebuilt and all the bad guys are in jail. I'd say this is one of those "manual games", though it isn't as necessary as it is in say, ET. You can explain the goal of Superman in a sentence or two and be able to play the game correctly. You don't need to worry about strange symbols at the top of the screen or energy meters or anything as complex as ET. Or Raiders of the Lost Ark, for that matter! When I refreshed my knowledge of what I was supposed and what everything was to do the other day, I booted up Superman on my DSi using an emulator. I can't find a way to get the thing to change the difficulty switches, so I was stuck playing with fast satellites, fast Lex Luthor and henchmen, and most deviously the elusive Lois Lane, who was nowhere to be found when I found myself weakened by a satellite. Most of my time spent playing Superman that first time was spent looking for Lois to heal me and stumbling across Metropolis, as I didn't have a map with me. I ended up beating the game (for the first time ever, I might add) in a whopping twenty-nine minutes and thirty seconds. Definitely not faster than a speeding bullet. It's easy to compare this game to its sister game Adventure. There are things that Superman does better than Adventure and vice-versa. For one, Superman has much better graphics, animation, and spritework than Adventure does, while it also has a built-in timer and a "task list of sorts". The timer is like a score; beat the game in the lowest time possible. Adventure doesn't have this, which in a way gives the player less incentive to keep replaying it. Superman also has a lot more goals to accomplish, like going to work, building the bridge, and putting everyone in jail. The game also has more human characters and a much more complex story than its fantasy-themed counterpart, and even though its multiplayer mode is less than ideal, at least it has one. However, Adventure has a world layout that is, while still not perfect, much more logical than Superman's. With a strictly top-down perspective, moving in four directions works much better and makes more sense here than in Superman's sandwich-like layered city. Adventure's world also has more distinct environments, and the world is generally less confusing as it doesn't wrap around. Metropolis looks nice, but it all looks the same, and while Adventure's world doesn't look as nice, at least they are distinguishable. There are also more items to interact with in Adventure, like keys, swords, and magnets to name a few. These items also serve functional in-game purposes rather than just being a thing that you have to bring to a specific spot on the map. There are also multiple maps and game variations, including a beginner mode, a larger map, and a randomized variant. So, which one is better? I'll leave that one up to you. Personally, I think I'm in the Adventure camp on this one, though Superman is really fun too. It's just that Adventure does a much better job of being an adventure game. The world makes more sense to me, and I like the strategy of choosing your item and always being on the lookout for the dragons. There's also a lot less time wasted in Adventure. Not that I don't like Superman, I really do. There are things that it does much better than Adventure, especially the timer and graphics. It's just that if I had to pick only one of them, I'd probably go with Adventure. Or as my damaged label says, Dventure. I don't yet have Superman. I recently sent one of our members a PM. @Scott Stilphen has been selling some of his Atari 2600 games for years, and he has this one listed as one of his for sale. I'm waiting for him to respond, but I hope to purchase this game and a few others from him in the future, if he still has them available, of course. So, overall, Superman on the Atari 2600 is a great game if you know what you're doing. It is especially fun to compare and contrast both Superman and Adventure, and play them side-by-side. I had a lot of fun researching and writing this blog post, so I hope you enjoyed it. Sadly, due to obvious copyright issues, Superman hasn't been rereleased in modern Atari compilations. So if you want to play it, you'll have to emulate it or pick up a copy someplace. It's much less sought-after than Adventure, and you should have no problem finding it for a decent price. It's well worth it. Take care, everyone, and I hope you enjoyed my blog post!

This is certainly an interesting twist on the typical NSG giveaway! As a 3DS “collector”, I’m very curious to what game that is! The superhero DVD is also interesting. I have told many of you on the forums what I want for Christmas! BallBlazer for the 7800. Edit: Maybe Pitfall II on 2600? I keep going back and forth in my head. And I can't forget Mario Brothers for 7800! Or Artillery Duel... oh, I can't decide! Edit 2: I have made my final decision. This silly question has really made me think. It's not like I'm choosing a game to get; this is all theoretical. So, my final answer is Metroid Fusion for Game Boy Advance. I got both Fusion and Zero Mission for my Wii U's Virtual Console a few years back. I enjoy them, though I think I like Fusion a little bit better. Both are great games. The GBA is one of my favorite consoles, and I haven't seen this game out in the wild before. So yeah, Metroid Fusion, final answer. Why am I giving so much thought to this? No idea. Absolutely no idea.

$129?!? For PONG?!? NO WAY!!! Think about it, if you shop wisely this holiday season, you could easily get yourself a 2DS with Mario Kart 7 included and a couple of its amazing games for that price. Maybe even a big-boy 3DS if you're lucky and come across a good deal. They're clearancing those puppies out, and with the typical Holiday sales you could easily score some one. The 3DS is a fantastic system. Or, you could buy yourself a VCS for around thirty or forty bucks, as well as a copy of Video Olympics. According to Pricecharting.com, the game is currently worth an even five dollars in its picture label variant. After that, you'll have the better part of $100 left, which you could use to buy some more VCS games, a cool snow globe or ornament, a delicious pie, a good book, or anything else you want. Or, you can have Pong. No variations, no other games, just plain old Pong. This price is sinful. People are starving and sleeping on park benches. Instead of buying this crazy thing (which will probably ship AFTER Christmas), use that $129 for LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE.

I couldn’t find anything on the Activision pack, @socrates63. I think our best clue is the logo between the bottom two games. Nice pickups! Crystal Castles is very fun for the 2600, but be warned! Don’t play this with a D-Pad! It sucks with one. Use a joystick of your choice instead. I find both the stock 2600 controller and the Proline to work well with the game. Superman also looks fun, and it’s a game that I’m currently looking out for. I mean, I have ‘Dventure thanks to you, so I need to get its sister game! Did you know that Superman was built off of Adventure’s early code? You can kind of see it once you know that. And I’m really, REALLY happy for you, finding that Defender cart and all. I heard your horror story about how you got rid of all your old Atari stuff, so I’m glad you have at least a small remnant of your past collection. Preserving the history of each specific game is one of my favorite things. I’d rather have a beat-up copy of a game that has a story behind it than replacing it with something in better condition. Don’t even get me started on selling my collection! It’s been built up slowly since 1981, and I would hate to trade away those “family heirlooms”. So it’s nice to hear that a part of your childhood is still intact. Defender has history, so don’t go on selling it away! As for my collection, I am really happy with how my 2600 collection is going. I now have many of the games that I wanted to get, but I’m still on the lookout for a couple. I might save up and buy some in bulk from Atari I/O’s very own @Scott Stilphen. I sent him a PM and I hope he responds soon! My 7800 collection is great now as well, as I have most of the games I wanted to get for it. Thanks again, @cjherr! I’m also happy to have my very own Homebrew cartridge, and it’s even better that it’s one of my favorite arcade games ported to one of my favorite systems! I think I might get into 2600 subset collecting. I would like to expand my text label collection and get some more CBS games. Awesome finds, Young!