HDN

Hey, if anyone has a little bit of extra time and wants to read something, you should check out my newest entry of Games from Before my Time, where I cover this game. I cover my personal history with the game and some fond memories I have with it. Read if you would like to! Many thanks, Harry

@nosweargamer you know how you review games and rank them based on the single-player experience? One of these days, like maybe for April Fools or something, you should review a two-player only game like Combat.

Thanksgiving was always a holiday you had to wait for. Unlike something like Christmas Day, where the whole day is sort of celebrated, Thanksgiving is a mostly uneventful day until people start coming over, at least for us kids. Mom didn't trust us in the kitchen with Dad (she's a massive germophobe) so for most of the day we helped her clean the house. She suffers from extreme anxiety so everything had to be perfect for the guests or they wouldn't like it, so she thought. At about 4, most of the house was cleaned and Brian came over. She would feel better when someone else was there and she would stop yelling for a bit. Brian would help in the kitchen and my sister and I would quietly slip away until about 6:30 when the rest of the guests came over for dinner. For those few hours, my sister and I would avoid the main floor like the plague where everyone was. Sometimes we would go upstairs in one of our rooms and play on our DS systems or go outside if it was warm enough. On Thanksgiving day of 2016 we tried walking to the park but after a few minutes there neither of us could handle the cold weather and went home. We already got yelled at when we walked in the kitchen door (very stressful before people came) so we just went down into the basement to wait it out. Back in 2016, all of our home systems (except the Wii U) lived in the basement, including the Wii. I had recently set up a coaxial cable splitter so we had the big 27" Orion hooked up on the stand as well as the 12" Hitachi on the floor. Why I did this I do not know. If you didn't know, I didn't have an Atari 2600 system until very recently. I had always envied my dad's cousin who had one he wasn't using. I had known about that system he had for years and he didn't get rid of it until March of this year. Thankfully, I finally have it in my collection. I have been playing 2600 games for years, however, using emulation on my Wii. My sister was never a big Atari fan and still isn't, though on this day I was in an Atari mood and was begging her to play it with me. She reluctantly agreed. A few games of Combat and Pac-Man later, she quit out of boredom and started reading one of her stupid graphic novels. Soon, I was also bored with the games, so I was scrolling through the list of abbreviated ROMs looking for a new game to play. There were a few stinkers I didn't much care for in the "T" section. At this point, I was just clicking on the games one after the other, hoping I'd find a good one. And then I stumbled around Tunlrunr.BIN. Immediately I was impressed. There was an actual title screen. With many games I had found on my emulator myself, I had no idea what I was playing. I had to guess from the abbreviated names on the list of ROMs. Many of these games I found later on YouTube; sometimes I guessed their titles right, sometimes not. It was weird realizing Megaman.BIN was just Megamania, a game I had previously played on Arcade Zone for the Wii. But with Tunnel Runner I immediately knew what the game was called, who made it, and when it was made. And that music, that haunting theme of eight notes endlessly repeated in that menacing tone, music reminiscent of the theme from Halloween. This game was special, and I knew that right off the bat. I pressed + on the Wii Mote, which acted like the Reset switch on the 2600. I was again impressed by the maze being drawn on the screen and the accompanying sound effects, though I had now idea what was happening. Now what I assumed to be a health bar was filling up at the bottom of the screen. What kind of game was this going to be? I was thrust into a tunnel with a first-person perspective. "Oh no." I thought. 3D on early consoles like this was not good. I had played Might and Magic 3 on the Super Nintendo before and constantly got lost. The 3D first person perspective was very disorienting and it looked like the same two pictures alternating each time I took a step with an occasional wall or door. I hated that game and I still do. I don't think I ever got past the first area, Fountain Head. So when I saw a first person game on the ancient and far less powerful Atari 2600, I thought it would be a train wreck of a game. It was impressive, yes, but I didn't think it would play well at all. But for some reason I didn't turn the game off. I pressed the button and saw the maze that was drawn on the screen seconds earlier, but this time with little dots moving about. There was also this weird triangle and this symbol that weren't moving at all. I had no idea what was going on. So I started running. And running. I was actually shocked; I felt like my character was actually moving around! This game that predated M&M3 by, like, a decade had a better sense of movement than that 16-bit game did! After a while I pulled up the map again, looking for something to do. I noticed that the little arrow symbol had moved a bit, so I assumed that was me. I tried making my way over to the triangle thing to see what was up with that, bringing up the map again every couple of steps. I tried running towards the map and... Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun... Eleven-year-old Harry screamed. I heard the music again, and it was loud. I looked over and saw this diseased, rabid, and incredibly unfriendly Pac-Man inches from my face, chomping its mouth riddled with sharp fangs. By then, it was too late. It came a step closer and... Dun dun dun dun, dun dun dun dun, dun dun dun dun, dun dum beep boop! The thing ate me! I was incredibly startled by its sudden appearance, and my scream startled my younger sister on the couch. "What did you do that for?" she said, annoyed with me. "I'm playing Tunnel Runner." "What's that? Is it one of your stupid Atari games?" "Yes, and it's not stupid. Just play it." "No. I hate Atari." "Just do it, you'll like it." "No. Shut up." "Fine," I said, and continued to play Tunnel Runner. My guess was that that horrible thing was guarding the trapezoid/triangle thing. I checked the map to see where I was relative to the mystery item. I made my way over to it and heard the music again. Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun... I screamed again. The weird things were back. "Stop it," my sister said. I grabbed the trapezoid just in time and saw that a little symbol on the bottom of the screen was flashing. I realized it turned when I turned. "Oh, so it's a compass," I thought to myself. I stumbled around the maze aimlessly looking around for the exit. I ran through several doors that just teleported me random places I didn't want to go. After a lot of time had past, a few screams, and a few run-ins with the Zots who promptly devoured me whenever they saw our Tunnel Runner, I realized that the blank space on the edge of the map was where the exit was. I finally beat the first run on my last life with little time left on the timer. On the second run I was almost instantly killed. "Are you still playing that stupid game?" my sister asks me. "Yes." I reply. "Stop screaming. I'm trying to read my book." "I can't. It's a natural instinct." "Stop it. You're such a baby. Who's scared of a stupid Atari game?" "You try playing and we'll see if you're scared," I say. "Fine." she says. After she starts the game I explain to her what you are supposed to do. She was also skeptical of the first person viewpoint. I tell her to just play the game. She starts moving, and seconds later she runs straight into one of the Zots and, guess what? Screams. "I told you so!" I taunt. "Shut up, Harry," she retorts. We play the game for a bit longer. She's doing quite poorly. After she gets a game over it's my turn again, and I do a bit better than last time. When I die, it's her turn again. We both scream at the Zots, and whenever one was near we would start yelling at the other in a high-pitched panicky voice things like "Turn left! Turn left!", "Go, go, go, go, go!", and "It's right behind you! Run!" We laughed and just played Tunnel Runner on the Wii for hours until the Thanksgiving guests came over. At one point when my sister was playing I left to "go to the bathroom". On my way up the basement steps I turned off the lights. I heard from below cries of desperation and panic, "Turn them on! Turn them ooon!" I turned them back on and laughed at my sister who was "scared of a stupid Atari game". I got scolded by my parents for that, rightfully so. We had a blast playing Tunnel Runner that night, and for the next few days would go down in the basement and play that game again together. Happy memories. To this day, it's still our favorite Atari 2600 game. When I got my Atari 2600 in March, this was one of the first games I wanted to get. Shortly after I got my system, there was a sale at my local game store. Buy two games, get one free. I looked through their large shelf of Atari 2600 games and couldn't find anything. I also checked their glass case of pricier Atari games in case it was in there, which it wasn't. I was a little put off on how much some of the Atari 2600 games cost. A lot of them were above $5, which I thought a little much for a game that's only a couple of kilobytes. This was shortly before the pandemic hit and I didn't go back to the game store for a couple of months. In July I went back to the game store for the first time to pick up some new 2600 games. I picked up Vanguard, Jungle Hunt, Defender, and Q*Bert. My dad had picked up some games before, but this was the first time I personally had been inside the store in months. I paid for all four games and on my way out I thought I'd take a gander at the glass case just for curiosity's sake. I only took a short look at the case, but I saw it. This was the first time I had ever seen a physical copy of Tunnel Runner in person. I was so hyped! I couldn't wait a few more months to get it, I had to get them to hold it for me now. I didn't bring any extra cash with me besides what I brought for those four games, so I couldn't buy it now. How much was Tunnel Runner again? $20.00? Oh. Well, what has to be done has to be done. As soon as I got home I called them and asked them to hold it for me. The soonest we could possibly get up there was Friday, one week from that day, so I had to ask them to hold it until then. So began the wait. On that Sunday my mom kicked me out of the house. We had a rough day arguing and fighting with each other (we've had a lot of those recently) and she had enough. I don't know exactly what it was that made her so mad at me that she'd kick me out of the house; I didn't think I did anything out of the ordinary. I think we were arguing about cleaning the basement and it evolved into yelling at each other about some other things like how I'm irresponsible and how I don't have any interests besides video games and how she always yells at us and I didn't want to be around her anymore and some other things that came out because of how mad we were at each other. We definitely needed some time apart, so being kicked out of the house wasn't bad. Plus, since I was at my grandparents they were nice and stuff. I apologized profusely to them for being such an inconvenience. Our family currently has some issues. But being kicked out of the house wasn't all bad. My grandparents go to bed at like 9:00, MUCH earlier than me. I have said before that they have a 2600 in their basement as well. I brought it over there during COVID to give it some use before it goes to its new home. We haven't been going anywhere, so visiting my grandparents wasn't very unsafe. I still wore a mask for the majority of my stay just to be on the safe side of things. Basically, what my overnight stay amounted to was staying up late in the basement playing Wizard of Wor and drinking Diet Dr. Pepper. It was weird staying over there; on one hand I was thoroughly enjoying it, but on the other it was kind of depressing that my mother kicked me out of the house. It wasn't bad being kicked out of the house, just a little strange. I did get to go home the next day. The whole thing was a bit of a mess, but I wouldn't say it was traumatic or anything. But anyways, Tunnel Runner. I did get Tunnel Runner a little early, on the day after I came back, as well as Miniature Golf, which I also blogged about (check it out!). Both games were fun. So why did I get this game? Why did I spend an insane amount of money on this game that I could have used on several other games for the system? Because I love this game and needed it in my collection. Why own an Atari 2600 and not play your favorite game on it? I don't regret my purchase at all. Do I ever plan to spend $20.00 on a game for the system again? No. But it had to be done in this instance. Tunnel Runner means a lot to me and I have a lot of memories with it. So what about the game itself? Tunnel Runner was released in 1983 from CBS Electronics, though on the label it does say in a smaller print the copyright belongs to CBS Toys. It was one of the games by CBS that used the RAM Plus chip which added a whopping 256 bytes of RAM to the Atari 2600 system. A few other games that used this chip were Mountain King and Omega Race, both of which appeared and originated on other platforms besides the VCS. Tunnel Runner, however, never left. The goal of the game is simple: Get the key, get to the exit, don't die. It's in a first person perspective, which might be a little confusing to some at first, but you will get used to it and there's s a helpful compass down in the corner that will help you out. As you clear run after run things will start to change. New Zots will be added, each with different personalities like the ghosts in Pac-Man. The maze on the map will disappear and you'll have to fill out the map yourself. The Zots will eventually stop showing up, the exit will stop showing up, and most deviously, you will stop showing up on the map. Plus everything gradually gets faster and your time limit gets gradually faster. At 5,000 points, you will earn an extra life. Really, the game plays very much like a first person Pac-Man. This game is often compared to another similar game on the 2600, Escape from the Mindmaster, which came out the year previously. It is much more complicated than Tunnel Runner, though it isn't a fair comparison as it uses the Starpath Supercharger add-on instead of stock VCS hardware (plus a few extra bytes of RAM). Mindmaster incorporates puzzle solving elements and looks stunning for the time. I haven't had the pleasure of playing it, though it is definitely one I would like to play someday since I love Tunnel Runner so much. So what do I think of this game? What do you think I think of this game? I spent $20 on it! I love it! The music and sound effects are the best I've heard coming from the TIA before the 7800 era. The graphics are stunning and most impressive, and during gameplay there is no flicker. There's a bit with the Zots on the map, but its surprisingly absent in the actual game. Flicker was a bit of a CBS Electronics trademark. People complain about it in Pac-Man. Hah! They clearly haven't played Wizard of Wor or Omega Race. And Tunnel Runner's gameplay is exceptional. Do yourself a favor and play this game. Absolutely a perfect score for the system, 10/10.

Last week I reviewed my newly-acquired copy of Mario Kart Super Circuit. I had mentioned in that review that I couldn't properly rank it in my Mario Kart series rankings as I had only been playing it a short while, though I thought it would rank high. I had also mentioned that until the DLC came out for Mario Kart 8 on Wii U, this game had the most tracks of any game in the series as it included all 20 of the tracks from the initial Mario Kart game on the Super NES. At the time I had written that I had not unlocked any of the Super Nintendo tracks, nor did I know how to unlock them. Since the posting of that blog, I have unlocked the SNES tracks and I will cover them in this annex. Finding out how to unlock these tracks by yourself can be confusing, so I'm going to explain how to do it. To my knowledge there is only one right way. You need to unlock each cup of the SNES tracks individually in each class (50cc, 100cc, 150cc). What you need to do is first get the gold trophy on a cup of the new tracks in the class you chose. Then, replay that cup again and make sure to collect 100 coins or more total across the four races. If you do that correctly, you will get a cup of four tracks of SNES tracks that corresponds to the cup you completed of the GBA tracks (like if you got 100 coins on 50cc Flower Cup, you would unlock the SNES 50cc Flower Cup). Since there are five cups of GBA cups with four races each, the SNES tracks have been broken off from four cups of five races to five cups of four races each. So they're a little out of order, but no big deal. If you press the shoulder buttons on the cup selection screen, you will access a menu filled with your unlocked Super Nintendo tracks. Unlocking all of the SNES tracks for all of the classes can be tedious and is something that I haven't personally accomplished yet. However, I have unlocked them all in the 50cc class, so I have played all of them. I expected a lot more from the SNES tracks. Did I expect they would reuse background elements? Yes. Did I expect they would be full-on remakes of their SNES counterparts? No. But I did expect a basic yet competent port of the tracks. Just a straight rip with some elements reused from the main game to save space. However, these tracks were a bit of a disappointment for me because they don't accurately port the originals. I love Super Mario Kart on the SNES regardless of what people say about it. I think it is a great game that still holds up. Compared to the modern-day Mario Karts it's a completely different ride, but a fun game in its own right and it represents a completely different era of Mario Kart that doesn't exist in the modern games. The tracks in SMK are very different than those seen in all Mario Kart games afterwards. They are much shorter and all have a five-lap structure compared to the three-lap standard set in Mario Kart 64. The short and simple courses should be easily ported to the more powerful Game Boy Advance, right? The Super Mario Kart tracks are here, yes, but they are hollow shells of their former selves. Many stage elements are missing from the courses. Some are understandably cut as there's no in-game counterpart to some of the hazards in the Super Circuit tracks, such as the Monty Moles in Donut Plains 2 or the pipes in the Mario Circuit tracks. Some, however, in my opinion are inexcusable. For instance, in Mario Circuit 3 there are supposed to be oil slicks on the road. Why not replace them with the puddles seen in Luigi Circuit? I'm not aware of the ins and outs of programming for Game Boy Advance and the limitations they faced, but would it really be impossible to add a few elements to some of the remade courses seen in the main courses? The next year in 2002 Super Monkey Ball Junior managed to fit in 70 polygonal 3D courses in the main game plus some more in the bonus minigames. Is it that much to ask for a puddle of water that is already in the game to be placed in another course? A good example I found of this is in Bowser Castle 1. On the Super Nintendo, this course had Thwomps in your way and speed boosts as well. Here are two videos you can watch, one of the SNES version and one of the GBA version. Compare for yourself. Note: I do not own these videos. And here's the GBA version. See what I mean? It might sound that I'm hating on Super Circuit now, but that's not the case. I still like the game quite a bit. I'm just a little... disappointed.

If I ever want to see my 7800 and various other things again I have to learn the guitar. Got this acoustic one and it looks pretty nice honestly. I have tried music before but was never good at it, but I am actually enjoying it quite a bit. I found these lessons on YouTube that actually work well for me. Hope to learn some songs and play some Food Fight.

A very similar thing happened to my Atari 7800 ProLine controller shortly after I got it. The physical button wasn't stuck, but it was making an electrical connection and wouldn't stop accelerating in Pole Position II (which was the only 7800 game I had at the time). I took it apart and cleaned the connector and put the metal connector thing back into place with scotch tape. Those ProLines can be very stubborn when you are trying to put them back together. Though you might want to consider getting someone to fix it instead of taking it apart yourself. There's a lot more that can go wrong taking apart a handheld system than a controller, and they're less replaceable. Though you could probably fix it yourself, I wouldn't risk it. I messed up my Tetris Nano LCD game taking it apart and trying to fix a similar issue. I hope your Lynx gets better soon!

I have never much cared for Krull on 2600. That widow of the web or whatever it's called screen kills it for me. I have played the game before on emulators and seen many YouTube videos on it. I came downstairs one night and my dad was watching Krull. He was a bit surprised I knew as much about it as I did. I have never seen the movie myself however. The "greatest games ever" feature is pretty cool. I like chess as well, though I am terrible at it. I was seriously considering Video Chess for my last 2600 game. Really fun game and much, much better than Checkers. I also almost bought Video Checkers as it was only $2! I could have gotten another Cheap-O game with it, but I ultimately decided on Crystal Castles as it was marked down to the point where I could get it for free with my discount. There is an alternate universe where I have Video Chess in my collection! 2600 games are the only boxed retro games I have. I do have a loose Video Pinball, and it's a really fun game. My dad's cousin saved a lot of his boxes, though I have a feeling some Atari 2600 games (like Pitfall, Frogger, Spider-Man, Star Trek SOS, etc.) are missing from my collection that my dad swears he had at one point. I'm wondering if he has some of the boxes somewhere for some of my loose games. I have boxes for some games I don't even own. Maybe Video Pinball is in there, who knows? Something makes me just feel good about getting damaged games. "Ugly games" if you will. I helped my Defender lose some white spots with a ultra fine-point black Sharpie. I have seen footage of the arcade version. The problem is, if I remember correctly, you don't play defense? My dad and I play the NES version a lot together. It works better when both players play at once in my opinion. This past year I have played a lot more sports games than normal. I don't much care for sports in general, but I have found some really fun sports games this year. Like the aforementioned NES Ten Yard Fight and Baseball, Blades of Steel, One-on-One, 2600 Basketball & Football, Home Run, Miniature Golf, GBC Mario Golf, etc. I liked the NES Ten Yard Fight. It was a fine play. I think next year I'm going to get some version of OG Arcade Mario Brothers for one of my systems. I love that game so much.

I have never done this before, but I am interested. Is your 8mm tape more in line with B-Day 3 4 or is it more akin to MTT the Video size-wise? If it's the former (bigger tape) they make these adapters for typical VCRs. If you have a way to convert a typical VHS tape to digital format then you might find luck using an adapter like this one. The former tape size my family used from 2005 to 2008 before we moved on to the smaller size in MTT the Video, so its close to the same era as 2003. Hope this helps.

So last night I was lying in bed when I had this sick idea. From discovering a local game store to my dad's cousin downsizing and giving me his old 2600 stuff, I have had an incredibly eventful year in retro game collecting. I have been playing old games for years, but it wasn't really until now that I would go out and actually buying the physical cartridges of these games. With money I got from family for my birthday and Christmas, I started on my collecting journey! Later on, I got those 2600 systems and like 30 games! Sweet! Plus, I did get a few games for said birthday and Christmas. Here are a few highlights. The coolest of the cool new stuff I got. Lets a go! Here's the list, but I will take pictures of some of the things as well: Game Boy Advance (Glacier, AGB-101 (OG model)) Atari Video Computer System (Woody, 4-switch, manufactured on June 27th, 1981.) Atari 2600 (Vader) Atari 7800 ProSystem (1988 model) Lots of cool boxed 2600 games (like Pac-Man, Sears Haunted House, Towering Inferno, Crackpots, Lock 'N' Chase, Outlaw, ET, Donkey Kong, etc.) Tunnel Runner (Atari 2600) As soon as I heard I was getting a 2600 system, I was on the lookout for this game. It took a while (mostly from the pandemic) to find it, but I did find it in early August, 5 months and 2 days after my 2600 journey started. I don't want to admit that I paid a whopping $20 for this game, as I usually only buy 2600 games if they are $5 or less. Worth every penny. Best 2600 game ever! Glad I convinced some people to play it. Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun... Pac-Man (Atari 2600) I'm just going to come out and say it, this is my favorite version of Pac-Man I have ever played. I especially enjoy mode #5. This "worst game ever made" is my #2 Atari VCS game. It has such a unique charm and I love it. Miniature Golf (Atari 2600) Donkey Kong (Atari 2600) Moon Patrol (Atari 2600) Defender (Atari 2600) Sears Tele-Games version of my favorite version of Defender. Galaxian (Atari 2600) This game is special to me as I got it from someone here at the I/O. Thanks Rick. This is cool. Venture (Atari 2600) The first 2600 game I bought. I played this before I saw what the arcade game is and thought it was amazing. I still think it's a top-ten 2600 game, though I would like to play a more faithful adaptation someday on the Colecovision or maybe the Intellivision if I ever get one. Breakout (Atari 2600) Video Olympics (Atari 2600) Kaboom! (Atari 2600) Night Driver (Atari 2600) Wait, why are all of these in here? Well, most of these games (Night Driver excluded as it works well with rolling the Wii Mote) were mediocre until I played them with real paddle controllers. Now these are all excellent games. Super Mario World (SNES) Wait, Mr. SNES, why did you not have Mario World? I did have SMW when I first had the SNES, but it never worked well. About 6 years ago it stopped working at all. I don't know where it is. My new copy has a tear in the label, just the way I like it. I love giving the damaged games a loving home. I love this game so much and I am glad to have it back in my collection. Baseball (NES) I found this in the clearance bin on my first game store run for three bucks and picked it up. I actually enjoy baseball much more than other sports, though I don't follow it closely at all. There's nothing like going to a baseball game. My dad and I played a ton of this when I got it and still do play it quite a bit. Later on I found out this game was a "bad" game? What? No way. Ten Yard Fight (NES) Another clearance bin find for the same price as Baseball. Not a big football fan at all, but I really like this game. Castlevania: The Adventure (GB) This game I would probably never have gotten as I have heard such terrible things about it. But I did get it for Christmas and, guess what? I really liked it. A very fun one and an underrated classic. Super Mario Land (GB) Had this on 3DS Virtual Console. Happy to have it in my physical cart collection. In my opinion better than its sequel. Super Mario Advance (GBA) A really good version of Super Mario Brothers 2 on the GBA. Check it out! It's much easier than the SNES and NES versions, so take that how you will. I like the difficulty of the SNES game the best, probably as its a childhood version. But check SMA out. Lots of bonus goodies and completionist goals. 1943 (NES) Bump 'N' Jump (NES) Thank you, Grandma and Papa for this wonderful birthday gift! Gangster Alley (Atari 2600) This is on here as it is probably the worst game I have ever played. I would rather scrub mud off of tennis shoes than play this crappy game again. Mario Kart 7 (3DS) Found this on sale for $10 at my local video rental store, whose last day is today. By the time this is posted they will be closed for good. :( Lots of fond memories there. We didn't get streaming services until later and we were regular customers. I got the case with MK7 and it is very faded from the sun. It tells a story. Breath of the Wild (Switch) Mario Kart Super Circuit (GBA) Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters I need to take a closer look at this game. I will post about it in my blog soon, I hope. Crystal Castles (Atari 2600) This is the last game I will be able to buy this year. I hope it is fun with the 2600 joystick. I haven't played it yet. Here are some pictures! Of a few of them at least. What are some of the coolest things you added to your gaming collection over the past year?

This thing. It's called the Booster Grip. It goes over the joystick, like Atari clothes. Apparently the game needs both a thrust and shoot button. Makes it impossible in my current emulator. I don't know why they couldn't just do it like Atari did in Asteroids. To quote AVGN, WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? It also makes the game unplayable if you buy it loose. What games are you looking for? Just a bit curious as well. The 5200 is a fascinating system and I think its crazy cool how someone like you enjoys this widely-hated system so much. Mark my words: I will get a 5200 someday. Same here. Saaaaaame here. It's completely a kid in a candy store thing for me. Except it's long-lasting candy that you can save for generations and have loads of fun with.

I doubt I would get into trouble if I asked before making anything official. It doesn't hurt to ask. But I can still answer questions if anyone has them. Personally, I'm wondering what that Jag costs. I somehow didn't notice it when I was there. But that's cool, no worries. Saves me some time (and temptation).

I can't call them today for various family-related reasons, so I will try to call tomorrow. If anyone has any questions whatsoever that I can ask for you, please tell! I will ask them said questions if you so wish.

This was a while ago, but I did trade with @RickR. During our Squad Challenge of this game, Rick was kind enough to trade me his duplicate copy of Galaxian, AKA better Galaga. Don't get me wrong, Galaga is a fun game, but I have always enjoyed Galaxian more. Galaxian is like Jaws, the original is awesome, the sequels aren't great. Sorry for upsetting you Galaga fans. I know I'm in the vast minority! I wasn't very familiar with the 2600 version until the Squad Challenge, and I am very happy to have it in my collection. I didn't do well in the Squad Challenge but I had lots of fun. Unfortunately my Atari systems were taken shortly after and I still haven't gotten them back. I have included some other recent pickups for the 2600 from A-tar-i and Game Boy Advance. Only Galaxian is from Rick however; the rest are from good ol' Game Trade. There's also a guitar pick because I am being forced to play the guitar for my stuff back. Strangely, I'm kind of enjoying it, though my weak fingertips beg to differ. Rick was great to trade with and I hope we can trade again sometime soon after I get my stuff back (whenever that may be).

Hey, I have this catalog! M Network is a really mixed bag in my opinion. They made some really good games on the 2600 (Frogs 'n' Flies, Bump 'n' Jump, Burgertime), but also some terrible games I never want to play again (Like all of the sports games, Space Battle, and Astroblast). I know Astroblast and Astrosmash have their fans, but there is just no appeal to me because you can let the asteroids fall without consequence. Sure, your points drop, but that's really not that big of a deal as the game shows you your peak score as well.

Mom told me to fold the laundry. There was a shirt on the floor that I didn't see. She yelled at me for doing a bad job and having no goals in life or any skills. As punishment, I can't have my 7800 back for the day after all. :( I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up.

I talked to my mom about Atari Day and asked if I could have it back just for today. After trying to convince her for a while, she said I have to practice guitar for 4 hours in order do get it back for the day. Sigh. I did have other plans; my local video store's last day is today and they're selling their games for a dollar each. I am going to camp out and wait until they open at noon. Yes. I got a guitar. My dad got it because it was the only way for my mom to stop yelling at me and get my stuff back. As soon as I have my stuff back permanently I'm never touching this God-forsaken thing again. My fingertips have never felt such pain.

Tunnel Runner was $20 and I didn't see it there, but I wasn't really looking. There's another shelf in the glass case of 2600 games that I didn't take a picture of. I think Omega Race loose is $5 as it doesn't have that other button thing. I can call them and ask for you if you want.

Happy Atari day everyone. Here's some depressing Atari Day news: I have had my Atari 7800 taken away for an equal amount of time that I have had it available to be played.

I don't think they would ship to the Seattle area. I don't think. But yeah, I can ask them. Also, Young, read the Fairchild Channel F post again. I edited it because I had an idea that might help you with your Motorpsycho problem.

This is for you, @Willie!. I found two boxed Channel F games for you. Couldn't find any loose and I'm pretty sure there was a third one last time, but here they are. Videocart 12, Baseball, and Videocart 4, Spitfire. #4 is from when it was still called the VES. Behind them you can see the boxed Intellivision games. NBA Basketball, Space Armada, and a whole lotta Las Vegas Poker and Blackjack. Take note, @socrates63. I didn't see SNAFU, but I wasn't really looking. I've said this before, but very often their boxed games are the same price as their loose ones as far as the 2nd generation is concerned. Also on this shelf (but not shown) are the boxed 2600 games, boxed 5200 games, boxed Colecovision games, boxed Odyssey 2 games, and boxed 7800 games. There are varying amounts of each. I saw a lot of boxed Intellivison games (probably kept from the trash for overlay storage by their original owners), but only one boxed 5200 game. Today I did see 2600 Ms. Pac-Man and Frogger sealed. I am not sure if it is the original seal, but since many of the other games don't have it they may be NIB. They are typically a little bit more than their loose and CIB counterparts. @RickR I forgot to mention something when I quoted you originally, so I am going to mention it here so not to reach my maximum post limit again: "WOW! That store has a huge selection of great games. I will tell you that most stores here have about 1/10 the 2600 stuff as that. No 5200 or 7800 games. And definitely ZERO TI-99 or VIC-20. And all those boxed consoles! If I ever make it to my work's mothership location, I'm bringing an extra suitcase to buy some of that good junk." Yes. Typically what I would do when I wanted a new 2600 game is play a few on my emulator and decide which one to pick up. Sometimes it would be too pricey and I wouldn't buy it, but never finding the game at all was never an issue, at least for Atari systems. Nintendo, on the other hand... heh. I have had to wait quite a while before I saw certain Nintendo games I was looking for. I don't mind the wait really, but with Atari stuff, especially 2600, it was always there. There was one time where there wasn't a game I was looking for. When I got Tunnel Runner (you can't get on the list for games on Atari systems as they're all listed as miscellaneous in their system so I had to call in and check constantly for that one), I had a discount ready and I was looking for Sky Diver. I couldn't find it that day, but I did find Miniature Golf, which I did not expect to find. When I went back again today there were no less than eight copies of Sky Diver. Plus Sky Skipper. I guess it just never really crossed my mind that other stores weren't like this. I had an idea, though. It's a long shot and I would have to okay it with my parents first, but I was thinking perhaps there was a game someone couldn't find I could pick it up for them and mail it to them. For instance, I know Young has been looking for a few 7800 games recently at some of his local places. If say, I had seen one of those games at this Game Trade place and he wanted to buy it, we could work something out. It would work in reverse as well. Say The No Swear Gamer saw a copy of Tengen Tetris for NES while browsing his local game store that Rick had been on the lookout for (just an example), @nosweargamer could buy it for Rick and Rick could pay him back + shipping costs. We could essentially create a network of local game stores. We all live in different places with different games nearby that other members of the I/O might be on the lookout for. Just a thought.

Please do pay them a visit if you are ever in the area! They are in DePere, WI, so it is a bit of a drive from where I live but it is worth it. Plus, we head up to the Green Bay area almost every week for something. Great store run by very friendly people. I think the prices are fair. Maybe a little high in some cases but too low in others. The prices are balanced for the most part. I'm very fortunate to have it near me. Here are a few other cool things I noticed today: These two Sega Nomads, one boxed and one loose, but in this picture the glare is absolutely horrendous. There are a few Power Base Converters below, which I might pick up someday if I ever get a real Genesis. You can also see my hat I wear to hide my hideous homemade haircut and some disc-based games in the background. The CIB nomad is $400. That's why I think the Jag might be cheaper as it isn't in a case like the Nomad and... Ta-da! The JVC X'Eye! I have never seen this thing in person before. Typically they will wrap home consoles up in little plastic and cardboard boxes, but this one is different. It's just sitting there. Must be a bit pricey. If you don't know what the X'Eye is, it's basically a Genesis and Sega CD combo. Like a Turbo Duo or a Twin Famicom. They also have a sizable import section filled with Famicom, Super Famicom, and other Japanese games with the occasional PAL game mixed in. Didn't take a picture of the Famicorner.

Thank you, @nosweargamer. I would have gotten it to had it been a little cheaper. I've caught the Dig Dug bug as of late. Neighbors have COVID-19, so my disease is very preferable to theirs. I thought I might show all of you this right away in case you are interested. Here's the "console wall". It's about what it sounds like. They get a lot of the obscure systems sometimes as well as the occasional vintage computer. I've seen Coleco Geminis, Atari 7800s box or no box, top-loading NES's, all models of the Genesis, SNES model 2s, Sega CD's, and more. I thought some of you would be interested in the boxed Atari Jaguar system. I don't know how much it was, though since it wasn't in the glass case like some of the rarer systems were I'm guessing around the $200 range, maybe? That seems awfully low for a Jaguar system CIB. And here is their 2600 selection. Many games without endlabels today. Lots were reduced price because of that. I had to ask them what a few text label Sears Tele-Games cartridges were today. Most are $5, some are $2, some are $10. Decent prices, and sometimes free games if I get my discount like I had today. A few 5200 games there as well. Feel free to browse, but please do mind the glare. They are right by the door and I had to do it at this angle in order to fit them all in.