HDN

Huh. Then I guess we have two completely different VCRs that happen to look very, very similar!

Same here! I think all three of us have had the same VCR at one point! I don't use that VCR anymore as I use a VCR/DVD player hybrid now. I think my sister plans on adopting that black one in the basement. @MaliciousCarp is that a Sharp?

I know I’ve had a few in the past. Mostly 2600 games I played on my Wii emulators that had abbreviated names as their ROM files and I never knew the full title of them. Eventually I forgot the ROM name too and couldn’t ID the game at all. I can’t remember any right now.

Sorry I wasn’t able to check out the stream, @Willie!, but I will try to watch this video later. Glad you’re heading back to YouTube. I’ll be able to catch your streams more there. And you’ll need only the finest members for “Willie’s Ultimate Troll Patrol”! Trolls are super annoying. I’m glad you are able to fix the problem and start streaming again in your “natural habitat”. You do great work, Willie! Stay strong and don’t let those silly trolls get under your skin.

Thanks Rick. I was just typing out a similar reply when you stole it from me! But yeah, @Atari 5200 Guy. What Rick said.

This dude has really good taste!

Congrats, @RickR! And wait, there’s more! All of you new folks get the special @HDN and @socrates63 consolation prize— an Atari.io account! Hope you enjoy your time here and stick around!

I freaking LOVE Ataricade 2600! I have been working on collecting arcade ports for the system for a few months, so I’m happy you have a series dedicated to it, @Willie!.

YEESSS! That’s a great episode. One of the best. And pretty freaky for a TZ episode if I remember correctly.

Did you ever see the episode with the talking doll? Talking Tina I believe was her name. That episode was a bit of a miss, but it sticks out in my head. The one with the old man in the cave was really good though, and I think of it often as well. @nosweargamer does Voice return in your Patreon mini-podcasts?

Or use two Power Stiks; one in each hand.

I feel this might be a topic worthy of its own thread! There are many unique ways to tackle this issue. I mean, we weren't even trying and we came up with four different ways of doing this. I bet there's a lot more. Of course, there's also the dual stick Edladdin controller, though that's WAAAY out of my price range.

Holding the joystick down a bit with your hands is what I was going for. I'm okay with holding them down a little bit as long as they're somewhat stabilized. I considered using zip ties as well, but I don't have any and it would be much harder to take the joysticks out when I'm done playing. My design was somewhat inspired by one I saw in a John Hancock video, though on a budget! Not like his was crazy expensive to make, but I'd need two joysticks to permanently devote to Robotron 2084 and zip tie them down on a piece of wood. For him, it makes sense. I mean, he says in his videos that 7800 Robotron is his favorite game of all time. I'm not too big of a fan and I don't really want to semi-permanently fasten my sticks to a board. This way, I can take them out easier when I want to, and all the stuff was already around the house.

Very interesting! I should have thought about that. If this doesn't work out, it's certainly an option. I assume it would be much sturdier as well.

Yesterday, I played a few games of Robotron. At first, I thought I could just use one joystick in each hand, but that ended up just causing the controllers to keep slipping out of the proper game-playing position. So I thought I’d try it with just a single stick, but that ended up making the game almost unplayable. After those didn’t work out, I decided I would make my own joystick holder out of a cardboard box and some rubber bands. I haven’t used it yet, but the sticks stay in place and I’m pretty sure it will work at least a little better than a single stick! Here it is:

I don’t know. It was a pretty small space, but she had her own office and such. Still, she’s staying home nonetheless. Arrrgghh. I don’t want to sound like I am complaining here, but this is going to be a really rough few weeks. I am mostly going to be restricted to my room. I won’t have the luxury of going downstairs and grabbing a snack or something. When she was home in Spring, the whole downstairs area was basically off-limits. We couldn’t talk at meals either. She always takes a long time at work and stays until about 9 or so. She works the same hours here. At her office at night, there are no distractions. Here, there are lots. So we basically stay upstairs in silence the whole day. It doesn’t work out great and this is just the way it is around here. If I get my 7800 back in a more permanent form I think I’ll replace my 2600 in my room with it until my mom goes back to work. Unlike last Spring, I have something that will help keep me sane: this site. I can actually talk to people! It will help distract me from... that. So thanks for being here. Whoo. Sorry if I vented a bit there. I’m just a little uncertain of what’s to come, I suppose.

100% spot on right there. Pong is an underrated game. When you have a good set of paddles or dials and a friend, it’s especially amazing.

I have some good news and bad news. Good news is that all the games work! Some take a bit more persuading than others, but that's probably because I haven't cleaned any of them yet. The main thing is that Choplifter works perfectly on my system. No glitches. So that's good. The bad news is, my mom's coworker got the virus. So... my mom's going to be working from home until November 9th.

Wow. Just wow. I can't believe they're here! @cjherr (who I found out was here all along) generously sent a box of twenty-some Atari 7800 cartridges. I am incredibly grateful for this gift. He said these games weren't used anymore as he's a strictly Flashcart kind of guy. He wanted these games to serve their purpose (being played) instead of collecting dust, so he kindly sent them to me! So, now my Atari 7800 library has been more than tripled! Honestly, man, I can't thank you enough! So, I said I'd post an unboxing video here. I plan to completely reform my channel into "almost strictly gaming" sometime soon, though no promises that I won't occasionally delve into other topics! So, for the first time you will all be able to hear my voice! I had to stay a little quiet as others in the house were doing video calls and such. There's also Sharpie on my hands as I used one to block out the personal info on the box. I swear, every time I go so much as near those things, ink gets all over my hand! Without further ado, An Atari 7800 Unboxing! So, there's my video! I'm humbled by this generous gift. I need to find a way to pay it forward someday. I don't know when, but someday... So, if you don't have time to watch me ramble on and on, here's a list of the games I got in the box: Ms. Pac-Man Robotron: 2084 Dark Chambers Touchdown Football Commando Desert Falcon Realsports Baseball Rampage Donkey Kong Donkey Kong Junior Crossbow Joust Xenophobe Pole Position II Xenophobe Xevious Xevious (yes there are two of them) Galaga Choplifter! Asteroids Hat Trick Centipede Dig Dug I hope to try these out soon. I haven't played any yet. The good news is that my mom is going to let me have my 7800 back for a bit! Or at least, that's what she said to me. When I'm able to play them, I plan to post my thoughts on a specific game each day. So on one day, I'll cover Donkey Kong for example, and maybe the next day I'll do Robotron. Thanks all for reading my post and watching the video! What are your thoughts on these games?

Young, you need to! It' s great when you're mowing the lawn or raking leaves or something. And I also have no idea how he is able to make all this quality content on his channel and still have time for himself! I'm going to really miss this podcast when it's over. If I remember correctly, you have a Twilight Zone podcast for your patrons, @nosweargamer? Or maybe that was someone else. I like the OG Twilight Zone quite a bit. I wish I could become a Patron, but I just can't afford it right now. Maybe in the future once I get a job. $1 a month isn't bad.

It seems like only last week we were playing Galaxian... Demon Attack's a fun one, though. These Squad Challenges are great for making me replay old games that I haven't touched in a while or don't remember too fondly. Or just introducing me to new ones in general. But anyways, Demon Attack. It's good. I'm seriously considering taking @Atari Creep up on his offer. Speaking of the Creep, I'm working on your Haunted House Adventure game for ya, man.

My favorite game to play on Halloween that's on the Atari 2600? Well, that's easy. Shocker alert! It's Tunnel Runner again! My favorite 2600 game of all-time is even more enjoyable this season than usual, as the Zots (enemies in the game) always jump-scare me! When I was younger, my sister and I used to scream every time we heard that ominous tune... dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun... I first played Tunnel Runner around the Fall season. To me, this game will always be the most special around the Halloween and Thanksgiving season. Thanks, @nosweargamer for hosting another wonderful giveaway! One of these brought me over to the site, and hopefully this too will bring more members to our Atari I/O community.

@RickR awesome! How long do these things normally take, round-trip? And when it's all done will everyone be posting what they took out/put in here? I hope to participate if you all do another one of these next year. For now, though, I just can't pay for shipping on such a big item AND get stuff to put in it. Hopefully by next time this thing happens, the pandemic will have at least died down enough for me to get a job. On an unrelated note, I have recently made a small map of the continental United States. I traced it on wax paper out of a dictionary and put that over some printer paper so you can't see through it. Since I don't have enough wall space to hang it up, I attached the tiny map to a tiny cardboard box. I have stuck push pins in every place where I got a game with a few exceptions. Wisconsin on the map is too tiny to place all the pins I need in it! It's pretty cool that I got these games from all these places in the USA via the internet that I've never been to personally.