HDN

I thought about entering the contest, but I ultimately decided to pass on it. Spend time with family. Visit the geese. Play some 7800. I already have the OG SNES, and would probably use that more anyways. It would look nice on a shelf, but I would rather have someone own it that would use it more. Plus, you can’t hook the mini up to a CRT! Congratulations to @nosweargamer for finding all of the clues! Quite the detective, that NSG is! Hope you enjoy your new console! This is a fun idea, @Willie!. I might make up my own contest someday. I have some 7800 games I need to get rid of. A contest might be fun for everyone here. What do you guys think?

That’s how my dad built up his SNES and N64 collection back in the late 1990’s and early to mid 2000’s. Lots of games from lots of long-gone video stores.

No. Doesn’t sound stupid at all. I don’t mind left-handed d-pads at all. Probably as I have used them so much throughout my life. Much more than a joystick. However, I can’t use left-handed joysticks. They drive me absolutely crazy. I have the Pac Man 35th anniversary plug and play, which has the stick on the left. When I use it, I need to criss-cross my hands.

How is that possible! D-pads are awesome! Actually, I have heard lots of people who grew up with the Joysticks of the second generation say the same thing. Mmm, yes. Space Invaders, Phoenix, Bubble Bobble, Zoo Keeper, Plotting, Electric Yo-Yo, Jungle Hunt; all top-tier classics.

So as a time-saving thing. I get it. Makes sense. Thanks. I guess nobody understood what “Be Kind, Rewind” meant.

Wow, no, I’ve never heard of these things. My VCR has built-in rewind and fast forward. I assume for these gadgets to exist that the earlier models didn’t have that feature built in or something?

Some pictures of the finished product. It took a while! Hope you enjoy them. I hope to post some more later.

So yesterday, I was sitting in my newly-Christmasified room and was working on some homework. I decided I'd add to the festive mood by putting on a movie while I worked. I ultimately chose to watch my all-time favorite movie, "It's a Wonderful Life". I stll cry every time, even though I've seen it countless times already! Anyways, my copy of the film is on VHS. It got me thinking: does anyone else still use these things? I know the picture is horrendous, but here's my thought. My TV only has coax anyways (I need an adapter to use other things like my Wii U on it), so the picture is going to suck regardless. I don't watch movies by myself too often (I'm more of a video game guy), but when I do, I end up using the VCR a fair amount. If I feel like watching a movie, I would go to my local thrift store (before the pandemic, of course) and buy a couple of tapes. They had a permanent (as in the past 5 years or so) sale going on there: 3 movies for $0.25. For that price, you can't go wrong! I've bought a few things there in the past; It's a Wonderful Life, ET, The Wizard of Oz, the original non-specializied Star Wars trilogy (I'd like to convert that to DVD). I saw Pulp Fiction there once, but I was like 11 at the time and hadn't been old enough to see it. After watching it, I regret not picking it up. It's a great film! So here's my point: I don't watch movies by myself too much, but when I do, I tend to break out the videotapes. Do any of you use VHS? How often? I'm really quite curious.

Well, unlike the 7800, I won't be getting it! A few months back (pre-COVID), my dad got all nostalgic and got on the list for one at the game store. They said they don't get them in too often. My dad said he'd be calling his brother and cousin over to play some Crypto-Logic! and other games. So it'd sort of be his thing, but I'd use it. So its pretty interesting to think about. We could get the call that the system came in later tonight, next week, in six months, four years, whenever. We technically could get an Odyssey 2 at any time, though its highly unlikely as they haven't gotten one at the store in the last four years.

On the surface, to me at least, the Odyssey 2 looks better than the VCS. It seems to have a much higher resolution and whatnot. Just look at the numbers. Literally. Take a look at the numbers used in the score on early VCS games like Air/Sea Battle or Video Olympics. Then compare them to what they were using on the O2 at around the same time. Other graphics in early games on the Odyssey, like Football! for instance, look much better than their VCS counterparts. The default mode in Indy 500 and Spinout! are virtually the same game. Same with Street Racer's first game mode and Speedway!, though on the Odyssey 2 there's no opponent car. Just look for yourself; the Odyssey 2 had much better graphics in the early days. Speedway! on the Odyssey 2 Street Racer on the 2600 Spinout! on the Odyssey 2 Indy 500 on the 2600 But what the O2 lacked was flexibility. It could only draw its in-game characters on the screen. These couldn't be changed. You could combine them to make different shapes, or "sprites", but that would give you that signature blocky look of the Odyssey 2. The 2600, sure, at first it looked much worse. But once developers became well acquainted with it, the machine started producing much better visuals than the Odyssey 2 ever could. It wasn't restricted in the same way. It had its own problems that the Odyssey 2 didn't have to worry about, but as far as visuals were concerned it didn't have to rely on a built-in character set. You could draw basically whatever you wanted on the screen (within reason) and didn't have to construct it out of pre-existing pieces. Such is painfully obvious with the few later third-party releases. The 2600 also didn't have a frame buffer, which seems like a hindrance, but actually was the key to its long life. Naturally, the 2600 could only display two sprites on screen at a time. I'm pretty sure you all know how the 2600 "raced the CRT beam" in order to get more sprites on screen at once. I'm not sure if the Odyssey 2 had a frame buffer or not, but its initial limitations seem to have lasted its entire lifespan and not worked around like those on the VCS were. I'm not sure if this is because the short life of the system or not. Maybe they just never got around to it during the system's initial life. My point is, the Odyssey 2 graphics looked better than the VCS at the start of its life, but by 1983 when the O2 was on its way out, its graphics were considerably worse than those on the 2600's versions of the same or similar games. Again, just see for yourself: Atlantis on the Odyssey 2 Atlantis on the 2600 Q*Bert on the Odyssey 2 Q*Bert on the 2600 The Odyssey 2 looks like an AWESOME system. My dad had one back in the day, and I would really, REALLY like to get one someday. Graphics don't really matter if the games are good.

@nosweargamer, thank you so much for reviewing Popeye on the Magnavox Odyssey 2 (or Phillips VideoPac). I have long wondered about that game, but the only videos I could find were a handful of gameplay clips with no commentary, except for one John Hancock video in which he briefly mentioned it. I'm so happy you were able to review it as I was really curious about how it played. It's so cool that there was a Nintendo game on the Odyssey 2! Too bad it's not here. I would love to pick up some foreign Odyssey games from Brazil or something. I heard the third party games are much more common there. If I ever visit Brazil, I'm going hunting, even if I don't have an Odyssey 2 system yet. You should try Frogger! It looks... interesting, to say the least.

Here’s what I ended up doing with the tree. I’m still not sure where to put the turntable. There is a speaker there, however. That’s hooked up to the stereo system downstairs. We basically have only used it for Christmas music the past few years. Here is what the shelf of things looks like nowadays. My boxed 2600 games and mini arcades have been replaced by a festive winter village and nativity scene. My DS/3DS/Switch cases have been replaced as well. That streetlight painting you see was painted by 11 year old me. It’s horrible! I could do so much better nowadays.

Wow! Those are really cool. I tried doing a year-round tree once, but I had to take it down for some reason. I didn't have space for it anymore at some point. I'm not sure what ended up "replacing it" or when. But it's up now and it's all that matters. You're right about the lights. They are a pain to set up, but worth it. I still have to tweak mine. They keep wanting to go crooked. Thank you! I'll have to show y'all the games downstairs sometime.

If I remember correctly, no. I think they make more of a humming sound if I'm not mistaken. I'll update you when I get them set up.

One thing I've found out about myself over the years is that I don't really move on from stuff like that. I started noticing this around 2018 or so when I got my Switch. I realized that though I did play my Switch a lot, I oftentimes found myself going back to games on the Wii U and 3DS. So I guess I don't really move on from playing systems, I just add more systems into the mix. Thanks for the compliment, but I can't take credit for the whole thing myself! Though these days I would consider them part of my collection, but as I have said previously they're family heirlooms! Many of these were collected by my dad's cousin back in the early 1980's and have since made their way into my collection. I would say about 70 to 80 percent of my 2600 games are from him. What I would like to do in the future is buy a ton of duplicates and re-gift some of his games (and his old Woody). He's got a young kid now (maybe 3 or 4) and I think that maybe he'd enjoy them as well. You know, buy some Pac-Mans and Combats and Space Invaderses, make a nice "starter set" and give him back his old stuff. I do plan on keeping the boxes and manuals though! As for the 7800 stuff, that's all mine. The 7800 is unique among my systems. Not only is it one of the few retro systems that don't have a family heritage, but to me it holds a strong connection to everyone here in the online Atari community. I mean, I only have three games for the thing I didn't get from AtariAge or the I/O. It reminds me of all of the new friends I've made here online. I mean, without you guys I wouldn't have the darn thing! I really enjoy the system so far, and I would go as far as to say it's in my top five systems of all time. Yup. I will have to snap a picture of those sometime. The fun thing about vinyl is just watching it spin for me. Using songs I have downloaded on my DSi is far more convenient, but not as fun. Listening to my vinyl is an event, and collecting it is fun and easy, too. Goodwill and other thrift stores oftentimes have good things in them. I've found singles galore, the John Denver Muppet Christmas album, the Fiddler on the Roof OST, The Best of Peter and Gordon, a double LP Glen Miller memorial album, and an alternate variant of Introducing the Beatles (I now have both versions), all for just a dollar or two. Ironically, the only thing I can think of of the ones I have named were a few Beatles singles (Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane, and If I Fell/And I Love Her) that cost me $2. A lot of my vinyl is second-hand from my parents' family and friends, though unlike with the video games, it's almost all from my mom's side. And I'm glad you brought up vinyl as I wanted to mention this but didn't know where to post it. Remember back in Young's Activision Patch Scores thread where I tried for the Private Eye patch? I believe it was @RickR who posted it (I could be wrong), but someone posted the Private Eyes music video? Well, turns out I own the LP! It was in my mystical "Blue Crate of Records I don't Listen to Often". I actually have a catalog of all that stuff in there so I don't have to dig it all out. I noticed the LP was listed in my little book when I was looking for more K-Tel records for @Atari 5200 Guy. I guess. I mean, I technically did grow up with the stuff as well, same as the lot of you. I guess what I was referring to was that when you all played it back in the day, you didn't know what would happen next. I mean, I know what happened to Atari, what games came out for it, what their failures are, etc. You didn't know for sure what was going to happen. I read in an old (1982 I believe) Atari 2600 catalog about some "upcoming games" once. I remember some obvious teasers in there, like when they said "We'll have a series of adventure games based off of blah, blah, blah," (SwordQuest), or "We'll have a series of the most realistic video sports games you ever did see," (RealSports). Stuff like that. There was also a teaser for "A sequel to Combat", which as we all know never saw the light of day. I'm fairly certain Combat II's prototype surfaced, or maybe it's just a homebrew. My point is, back in 1982 no one knew this game would be shelved. No one knew about the crash. No one knew what hot arcade games would come out for the system. No one knew about ET (until later that year, I guess. Bad example). In this day and age, I know about all that stuff and starting playing the games long after they had lost relevance. There were no schoolyard rumors, or fights with Intellivison or Odyssey 2 owners, or anything of the sort. Which leads me to another thing. All of my Harry-aged friends didn't share my love of retro games. Later, when I got into high school, I met a couple retro fans, but they were more 4th or 5th generation to modern, not so much the older stuff. I don't think I have ever mentioned this, but until I got into the ninth grade, I went to a small private school. There were only about 18 or so kids in my graduating class. I tried my best to make friends and stuff there, and we got along fine. But I was much different. Basically, 17 of those people had the same personality; SPOOOOOOOORRRRTSSS! I just wasn't interested in the same stuff as they were. I wasn't the weird, antisocial kid or anything; quite the contrary. I was definitely weird, no question, but I hung out and talked to them and stuff. I just barely got to talk about the stuff I wanted to talk about. Not to mention, whenever a new cool game came out that EVERYONE was playing, I was always the one out. They all had PS4s or XBOX Ones, but I was the weird Nintendo kid. We joked about it and such, no hard feelings. But I was the only real Nintendo fan in my class at the time. All the "cool games" went to the other consoles and PC while the Wii U was almost always left in the dust. I hung out with those people, we had our fun, but I don't really talk to them anymore. I have found my people in high school, and I wish I had left for the public school sooner. Plus, I've found other people online to talk to about things, which is really nice. So anyways, what was I saying? Oh, yeah, my point was that nobody really cared about retro stuff for a long time. I'd always felt somewhat alone in my retro game playing, but now with new people in my life, I feel like there is more of a community. I'm glad to be a part of all of these online forums, especially Atari I/O. Thanks for being so welcoming to a "kiddo" like myself. On an unrelated note, here's a Holiday Room Update! I have put my record player off to the side in favor of my tree for the time being. I'm still not sure where I'll put the turntable. The tree is decorated and all, and I've even wrapped some "presents" and put them under the tree! They're fake, of course, with one exception. I have a package sent from @socrates63 that I'm not supposed to open yet, so that's sitting there. Last year, I got some bubble lights for Christmas from my grandparents. They went to a year-round Christmas store earlier in the year and got a set for their own tree. I thought that they were so cool. I was so happy to get some for Christmas, even though they could only go up in my room for a few days. Last year, they went on the tree, but I'm thinking of putting them on a wreath this year. I think I'll take down my 3DS cases and put a wreath there. I love these lights so much! I think my room will be completely ready by the end of the week!

Here is what we are working with:

I don't think that'll work, either. The table that it's on is almost the same size that it is. I'm sure I'll figure something out.

Yeah, I'm just wondering how I'm going to do it this year. Last time, I didn't have a desk in the way. The main problem here is my record player. I can't put it where it was last year as that surface is now up against something and a record would just rub against it. I have one of those briefcase ones, and the record hangs off the side a little. Not the highest fidelity machine, but it gets the job done. The problem is that it's sitting right where the tree always goes. I can't just put it away as it's good for playing Christmas music on. I never had much room to work with in the first place, and now I have even less. But I'll find a way. It's a nice mental puzzle, I guess.

So the other night my family and I sat down and watched the hit 1997 film Titanic. My parents always talked about how much they hated it, but last night is when us kids finally got the chance to see it. I will say, parts of the movie are really well done. I have always thought the Titanic disaster was interesting, and my mother has as well. She knew a lot about it, to my surprise, and pointed out a few Easter eggs in the movie that would have gone over my head otherwise. For instance, there was one scene where the ship designer (I believe it was him) was staring into a fireplace or something, which was where he was supposedly last spotted. There was lots of stuff like that scattered throughout the film. The set design was also astonishing, and very accurate to the real-life design of the ship. I have seen what the vessel actually looked like from documentaries, pictures, footage of the wreck, et cetera, and the movie did a very good job replicating the original design. But the thing that completely ruined the whole movie for me was the horrible main story. The story! Jack, the stereotypical "poor boy" love interest character, and Rose, the stereotypical "rich girl loves boy below her social class" character. The whole thing is incredibly cliche. The two are "soulmates" and are so deeply in love, even though they have only known of each other's existence for less than a week. But no, just THROW THE NECKLACE IN THE WATER FOR YOUR DEAD PAL FROM 85 YEARS AGO, ROSE! And when you die, go make out with this dude you knew for like three days almost a century ago. Your husband you were married to for years? Screw him! And that stupid song! That song has been "memed" to death, and has been paired with so many stupid things over the years on the internet. I honestly can't take anything with that song in it seriously anymore, and since the story is so bad in the first place, the whole thing seems ironic to me. The song is so overused these days and paired with such stupid things, and the story qualifies as a stupid thing. It's not like it's a bad song or anything, it just doesn't carry the same emotional value that it did 20+ years ago. It is pretty cool that it was recorded in one take. You know, not many people know about this (including myself until yesterday), but there was actually a Titanic movie as far back as 1912. Yeah, it came out only 29 days after the tragedy occurred! Imagine someone releasing a 9/11 movie in October of 2001! How insensitive and horrible for the survivors! That's waaaaaay too soon to make a dramatization on such a contemporary and tragic incident. "Saved from the Titanic" starred a real Titanic survivor (who sadly experienced many emotional breakdowns on set) and even experienced with color in a few scenes. Unfortunately, all known copies of the film were destroyed in a fire in 1914, though it is rumored that a copy was given to president Taft and that it may still be preserved in his presidential library. A fake copy of the movie is currently on YouTube, though that isn't the original. Only the movie posters and a couple of stills exist today. So anyway, what were we talking about again? Oh, yes, our game! When I was watching Titanic, I couldn't stop thinking about a certain Super Nintendo game I used to play back in the day called SOS. I didn't play the game as often as others (like Super Metroid, F-Zero, or Mortal Kombat II), but I had played it a bit and enjoyed it. It was a very hard game, and I never did get too far in it. So I decided to try it out again after watching the movie, as it had been a while and my video gaming skills had improved drastically. SOS has a copyright year of 1994 and was published by Vic Tokai here in the USA. The game was developed by Human Entertainment, who is probably best known for the cult classic Clock Tower. SOS is not to be confused with the other SOS game on the Super Nintendo, SOS: Sink or Swim! The two are completely unrelated from what I can see. Though this game reminded me of the Titanic disaster, the game's story is actually quite different than the events that occurred in 1912. From research I have done, SOS drew heavy inspiration from the novel and film "The Poseidon Adventure". Rather than an iceberg becoming the ship's undoing, there's a violent storm in which the boat, Lady Crithania, is capsized. The game is also set in the early 1920's rather than the early 1910's. So what's the gameplay like? I'm glad you asked. At the beginning of the game, you have a choice of several playable characters, each with their own backstory and in-game goals. For instance, Dr. Jeffery Howell will need to rescue his wife as his main objective. You have one hour in real time to escape the ship with as many survivors as possible. The ship will rotate randomly using some nice Mode Seven techniques, and that can either help or hurt you. The game plays like a Metroidvania, and there is no combat in the game. All you need to do is avoid obsticles such as fires, sparks, and falling from too great a height. If you die in the game, you'll be deducted five minutes from the in-game timer. If you're still in the ship when time is up, your game is over. Because off all of the different characters and endings, the game is very replayable. The level design is very much like a ship that's sinking. You have your broken tables, sparks, fires, carcasses, WATER of course. The thing that makes the level design hard is that the ship is constantly rotating and you play most of the game upside-down. The stiff controls also add to the challenge. Some say these controls ruin the game, though I feel they add to it. You're a random dude on a sinking ship, not an athlete. If you had Samus Aran's controls from Super Metroid, this game would be a breeze to complete. I feel the level design fits the controls well, and nothing seems particularly undoable. So, what are the problems with the game? It can't all be positive. As previously mentioned, the controls can make the game very frustrating at times. I have found myself draining my time very quickly because I kept dying due to the ship's unpredictable rotations. I understand why they made it this way, but that doesn't mean it can't be frustrating. Another thing that can be annoying is the absence of an in-game map. Expect to get lost a lot. Again, the ship's turning also makes it harder than it needs to be, as it can be very disorienting. The A/I of the survivors you rescue is also pretty bad. It isn't obvious at first, but you need to keep hitting a button to get them to follow you around. Just keep hitting "L", and they'll follow you. It's not too big of a problem, but it can get mildly annoying at times. Strangely, this game commands quite a high price. When I was cataloging my collection via Pricecharting.com, I was pretty surprised when I found out this game's value. SOS, loose, goes for about $70 according to the site. Thanks, Dad, for not selling your games! This game also got a Japan-only sequel on the PlayStation. So would I recommend it? While SOS is a great hidden gem on the system, I simply can't recommend it because of the price. Is it a fun game? Yes. Am I glad I have it? Yes. But it's simply too much to pay for the game. While it's a great game, this is the SNES we're talking about here. This thing has a killer library of classic games like Super Metroid, A Link to the Past, and Super Mario World. So, for the system it's on and what it's up against, I'll have to rate it relatively low. Lower than I would like to otherwise. So, for the system it's on, SOS gets a 7/10 from me. If you find this one for a reasonable price in the wild, don't hesitate to pick it up and give it a go. It's a pretty great game, though it's not Super Metroid! I will say this: it's leaps and bounds better than the Titanic movie!

I’m a pretty big fan of Galaxian. I especially enjoy the 2600 version I got from @RickR a while back.

Thank you. That time... Yup, Christmas decorations! I go way overboard every year. The setting-up process usually takes a few days, but oh it’s worth it! I will post pictures when I am done.

If I was in The Penguin’s shoes, I could easily see myself falling for this.

It’s that time of year again... Goodbye, stuff! See you back on the shelves after the holidays.