7800 Pro Gamer

I did some research and here's what I found out. I'm impartial but I've seen this posted multiple places and wanted to do a little research. Here's my findings. I just don't see A Boy and his Blob selling more than 300k on the 7800. Look up Curt Vendels 7800 game sales figure (available on atariage) and download the zip file. You can view the data through notepad if need be (I looked through the sales myself to make sure) and you'll see that the games that had been out the longest barely broke 300k in sales. This includes classics like Ms pac man. A boy and his blob release on NES in 89. The best 7800 game between 89 to 90 sold roughly 50k units. Even if you gave it an 88 release and gave it the best numbers possible, I only see it doing 150k tops. But as a 7800 kid who grew up with the console and loves it with all my heart, I would've loved this game to be on our system. But the sales number argument isn't there according to what I've found.

I got my copy of Venture 7800 yesterday and posted my full first impressions in its own post for anybody interested. If you read it the first day I've since added to it and completed my thoughts. If your not interested in ready that post than I'll leave my TL DR recommendation here: Buy it! It's good!

So after dinner while I let the pans soak I gave venture 7800 a go. Needless to say my pans are soaked and untouched a few hours later. If you like Venture at all, then I think this is worth your money. UPDATES Cartridge: when I got home a bit of the top label was lifting off the cartridge. It's really no big deal but I just thought I'd mention it. I patted it back down and it seems fine. Gameplay: The first game mode is arcade and it plays like the 2600 version, with 3 maps and 12 rooms I think. All the enemies look good and the challenge increases as you clear the maps and loop through them. Overall a fun mode, great for purists, but I recommend... XL XE challenger mode! Here they've added a new map with I believe 4 more rooms for a total of 4 maps and 16 rooms. There are some challenging trap rooms along with a reaper room that varies gameplay and increases the challenge greatly. A fantastic addition and would be my recommended mode except there's... 7800 Challenger with yet another map and 4 more rooms for a total of 5 maps and 20 rooms! And not only do the enemies become faster and more numerous in the challenger modes, but you'll also encounter booby traps in the monster rooms! The new monster rooms add some nice challenge, force new strategy, and help keep the gameplay more varied than in say, the 2600 version. You can also choose between directional shooting where you can freely move and shoot, and hold and shoot, where for as long as your facing a direction with the fire button held down you continuously shoot in that direction. Once you let off the fire button you can spin and shoot in a different direction. So is there any negatives in gameplay? Well I have one complaint and one opinion that I'll share at the end here. In some rooms, and it seems to happen more often in the newly added rooms, you start almost directly on an enemy. If it moves slightly towards you then you lose a life immediately. This feels cheap and takes away from what is otherwise a fantastic game. It also seems to happen more and more on later loops. I wish the placement would've been adjusted a bit in those scenarios. My other observation is that, while I think the monster sprites in the added 7800 mode look the best, the map just doesn't compare to the one added in the XL XE challenger mode. I think that map is top tier and maybe even better than the originals, where the new 7800 map feels like it's less dynamic in comparison. But that's just an opinion. Well that's all I have for first impressions. My next post about venture will be a review. If your on the fence about venture 7800, I'm here to tell you, GET IT! Yes, it's damn good I think! Let me know what you all think if you've tried this one! Thanks guys. Oh and my pans are still soaking, I better get to those.

Steve Golson who worked for GCC specifically during development of the 7800 has a few insights on the pokey and the console in general. Look up his appearances at gce 2012 and 2014 ( I think) on YouTube. It doesn't explain the reasoning in full for not including the pokey but he does talk about it.

@RickR great list. I personally never had issue with donkey Kong's sound but I've heard that opinion enough to know I'm the definite minority there. Joust and centipede are great ports, and 7800 asteroids is one of my all time favorites. One on one basketball is fantastic. It was one of the first early basketball games that really felt authentic to me. Turning your back to your opponent and then doing a spin and a jump shot, or driving to the hoop felt fantastic. Great choice. Ive seen ballblazer ranked as number one on quite a few lists and it looks super impressive. But to me, playing against the drones doesn't hold my attention long. It's a game that I need a 2nd player to truly enjoy and for that reason it usually slips outside my top 10. And food fight is a choice I just can't argue against. To me it's synonymous with the 7800 library. Thanks for your input.

I got my copy of Venture in the mail and thought I would give my first impressions for anybody on the fence about purchasing it. Again, I was only able to spend about an hour and a half with it last night, but I thought it would be nice to start a discussion on this new homebrew. Packaging: it came well packaged in a large box with plenty of packing materials. The instructions are a single laminated sheet and you get the cartridge in a white half size style box with the art and screenshots attached to the front and back respectively. I like the fonts and the color of blue used on the cartridge and packaging, but I do wish the manual could be stored in the box with the game. You could do it, but your going to crease and ruin the laminated sheet. But overall the packaging and shipping experience is good. Cartridge: I like the labels and the cartridge seem to be in the style of ataris 7800 and 2600 games. You have a top label with the name of the game and the front label with the box art and relevant information. I really like the design and it feels like a good quality product similar to any "official" release from the 80s. Gameplay: I played the 2600 game in preparation and this is a vast improvement. You have 3 game modes (arcade and 2 challenger modes), a choice of control styles and number of players. The graphics are true to venture and while I don't think anybody would call them revolutionary, they do look good! The sound effects are punchy and have impact, and I like the tunes that plays. The gameplay feel much tighter than the 2600 version and I see little reason to go back to that one after trying this one. I will post a full review in a week or two but I'll continue to put my thoughts here until then. I'll post more in depth thoughts about gameplay tonight after work as I've only tried one mode so far. If you have any questions please ask. Oh and thank you to everybody at video61 for putting this game out!

Thanks for the response guys! Touchdown Football was intended to be a silly joke. It's not tied for my number one, but maybe I didn't make that clear enough. Nothing against it but it's just not a number one game in my opinion. @CrossBow I love your list and I've always loved Double Dragon for the 7800! You do have to cheese opponents with the jumping back kick but I do that with elbow smashes in other versions. Once you understand how the game works it's a lot more enjoyable! I loved pole position 2 growing up and I found the backgrounds to be incredible. Something about seeing a city scape or ferris wheel come in and out of view while turning excited me. But I was a small child then but I still like the gameplay and backgrounds today. Crossbow is a game that my kids love to play with the xe light gun and I enjoy playing it with them. They were floored by the final boss when we got there finally! I wouldn't be opposed to any of the games on your list. They're all fantastic choices. Rampage was a lot of fun when I was a kid. the concept alone was captivating, but can't hold my attention for very long. Thanks again guys for the input and I hope to see more persona top tens! I love to hear the reasoning!

I did an experiment a while back where I ranked my favorite games for the 7800, five different times (weekly) over a month. What I found was that my opinion would change based off what I had played recently, what I had maybe just gotten or was on my mind, etc. Of course this isn't groundbreaking information, I think most people understand that your mood and most recent experiences have an effect on these sort of things. Pretty much the same games stayed in the same rough areas, but the exact order changed every time. I used that information to make my definitive 7800 ranking for all retail games on a different forum. But now I want to add homebrew to the list. So here is my top ten 7800 games (right now) based off of what I've played and own. No works in progress or that sort of thing will be included. 10. Crazy Brix - As a fan of Super Breakout and Arkanoid, I naturally gravitate to this one. It pays great respect to Atari's past but becomes extremely difficult in later levels. 9. Donkey Kong PK - This nearly arcade perfect port has so many improvements over the original Atari release that I couldn't list them all here. Once I converted my broken ballblazer to this there was no going back to regular old Donkey Kong. 8. Asteroids - When it comes to time spent in my console, no other game comes close to Asteroids. I'm so glad they went with the "meatball" style asteroids over emulating the vector graphics. 7. Tower Toppler - I'm surprised that this game isn't more liked. People actually tell me they hate this game! Not me though, it's one of my favorites! 6. Ninja Golf - I finally beat this one on the normal difficulty late last year. And yes, I'm going to try for the hard mode next! Silly idea, but lots of fun. 5. Ms Pac Man - Another game from my childhood, but one I didn't appreciate until I got older. This is one that my kids and I play together quite often. 4.Midnight Mutants - I pull this game down every so often and play it until I finish it. I've probably beaten it 4-5 times in my life, and I hope to do another 5 before it's over! 3.Ikari Warriors - Yes this is extremely high on my list and maybe a tad too high, but I love it. I find the control and challenge perfect and I've been playing it for 2 months now. And I'm still not sick of it! That's lasting power! 2. Food Fight - This is such an awesome idea for an Atari game. Some say that Ms Pac Man should've been the pack in, but you could make an argument for Food Fight. Most people I talk to consider it synonymous with the 7800! Love it. And number one....drumroll please... 1. Touchdown Football - Tight control and action that would make John Madden cry... Okay but seriously, number one is... 1. Rikki & Vikki - I have never been floored so hard by a game on my 7800 as I was by Rikki & Vikki. Had something like this released in 86 or 87 I think it could've sold consoles by itself. Well thought out puzzles, fun and challenging boss battles, and incredible music makes this a game that's not to be missed. So what's your top 10 games? After reading my list do you think I suffered some sort of brain damage? Or do you agree? I want to know!

I think my first bout of collecting was like 2003-2004. I had hooked up my NES because I wanted to play some old games. A few friends seen I had it out and all the sudden everybody was giving me their old NES and SNES games. Then I started looking for a few games I thought would be cool to own. That was short lived however. Between 2007 and 2012 I had my first child and shortly after lost my job. For that time span I kept my family afloat by reselling old video games on eBay and craigslist. Buy low and sell high sort of thing. I wasn't doing it to be a jerk reseller but it allowed me to spend time with my son while keeping our apartment. I built quite the collection then. Around 2015 or 16 I sold off almost everything because room was becoming an issue and I could play whatever I wanted on my modded Xbox or Wii. I only really kept my 7800 and a few odds and ends. Then I got nostalgic for the stuff that was given to me by my grandparents and for Christmases around 2020, so I started buying back the titles that I used to have. I now have a small modest collection but that's how I want it honestly. I do have a full 7800 CIB collection but that's really as nuts as I'll go now. My wife says that's more than enough and would kill me if I started buying everything I saw again lol

Wow that was a fantastic story. Incredible how it came full circle. In all honesty, you probably were one of the first "retro" or "classic" minded gamers. Thanks for sharing!

Yeah @RickR if you can show me how to start a blog sometime I'd appreciate it. I'm heading into work now so whoever you have the chance I'll take you up on it.

Thank you @RickR that is something I'd like to do. I'll let you know if I need help. Appreciate the feedback and I agree, it's a good game.

Evil plagued a colonial town for far too long. It's influence has allowed villains to infiltrate high ranking positions. The doctors soaked their victim eyeballs in tainted blood and performed witchcraft under the full moon light. Men turned their back to god as their skin rotted, and they took the form of wild beasts and animals. But one night, the villagers had enough, and the vile Dr Evil was burnt at the stake. His evil reign had come to an end. "I'll be back" he screamed, and many years later in 1992, his promise was kept. That is more or less the beginning of Midnight Mutants. Of course in game it's shown as a man being burned at the stake. "Burn witch" and "I'll be back" proceed the next screen. "I'm back" says the witch seconds later. Unfortunately it's more comical than anything, but there's an actual story and that's all that matters! Your grampa (Al Lewis) has been imprisoned and it's up to you to save him from the newly resurrected Dr Evil. Graphically, the isometric view takes some getting used to, but most other details are pretty good. The environments are varied as you explore a mansion, pumpkin patch, caves, a pirate ship, forests and more. And while the environments look good, it's easy to get lost within them at first. Some more landmarks within them would've been nice, but it's really not that bad once you learn each area. Your character stands out nicely but looks a little dopey. If you push the second button you'll see a nice detailed image of Al Lewis, who offers insight and humor on your adventure. This screen also acts as your inventory and a pause as well. The enemies look pretty good, even if the zombie is recycled over and over again with different heads. There are a few different tunes that play but for the most part you'll hear the same ones over and over again. Good thing that they are well composed and catchy. I can honestly say I never got annoyed by them. There are few other sound effects that sound appropriate but you can tell it's the TIA chip producing them. The isometric view can make moving and attacking difficult sometimes, but is easy enough to overcome. Some may say that finding items and objectives are difficult and hard to figure out. I say no more so than Zelda for the NES. And that's an all time classic. It's just the way games were back then, and if you ever become truly stuck, just use a walkthrough. You may need a guide to get you started, but once you get going Midnight Mutants charm will draw you in. Large, fantastic looking bosses and discovering new areas are your reward for sticking with the game. It's a difficult game, and the difficulty only increases in the later half of the game, but it's not impossible. I found an incredible amount of fun in Midnight Mutants. And a lot of replay value to boot. Midnight Mutants is our Zelda. No, it's not quite as good but its still a fantastic adventure for 7800 owners. And it's one that each 7800 owner needs to experience. There is a bit of a barrier to entry with the isometric perspective making the controls and aiming more difficult than it needs to be. And figuring out what to do or where to go isn't always obvious. But both of those can be easily overcome, and you'll be rewarded with a deep, unique adventure with visuals to die for! So what are you waiting for? Grampa needs or help! Graphics 8 out of 10 Sound 7 out of 10 Gameplay 7 out of 10 Value 9 out of 10 Overall 8 out of 10 Great! Let me know if you agree! And sorry if it's not perfect but I wrote it on a phone that doesn't always work the best.

I agree with a lot of what you have said and I think the graphics on the 7800 are great. It is odd that the console didn't ship with better sound and I think that really pushed the perception of the 7800 being the same old stuff from Atari. As a kid up until about 91 or 92 I played way more 7800 than any other console. That (along with other factors) is what pushed me to get a complete 7800 library while only staying with my childhood games for things like the NES. But man I wish I had ninja golf, basketbrawl, and midnight mutants as a kid. Those are awesome.

The 5200 like 7800 was under supported and didn't reach it's full potential. It was cool that you discovered the 7800 at a time where it was on the market but extremely cheap. As a kid I preferred the NES but I didn't think of video games being good or bad. I just loved playing video games whether it was 7800 or NES. It wasn't until I got older that I became nostalgic for my 7800 and the memories. I enjoyed all games honestly. I didn't become jaded until I was a teenager lol. Great stories so far all!

I know the 5200 has it's fans, but I think your on the right track about skipping it and releasing the 7800. Of course by the time the 7800 came out Atari was a completely different company than it had been. I wish the 7800 could've reached it's full potential.

Awesome story. I wish I remembered getting my 7800 but according to my mom she got it in 1986 because she knew Atari as a brand. Then a year or two later she got the NES and never looked back.

If your here at this website and more specifically on this forum and post, then you probably appreciate Atari and their consoles. One thing I always find interesting is where this appreciation started. Some have fond childhood memories, some had a curiosity about Atari, and for others it was just a gradual evolution of their love for video games. The 7800 holds a special place for me and here's why. I don't remember getting the console, I don't remember getting a lot of games, for me the 7800 was always "just there". The basement was our play room and we had our Legos, tinker toys, ninja turtles and he man's, etc in that area. But there was also an old console TV and an Atari 7800 hooked to it. The NES was upstairs and we were only allowed to play it when dad wasn't home or on the rare occasion that we would play it as a family. My father worked long and hard, and it was just accepted that when he got home, he wanted to watch TV and relax. That meant no Nintendo. So needless to say, the 7800 got a lot of use. Our favorites were asteroids, donkey Kong, donkey Kong Jr, Mario bros, rampage, space invaders, pitfall, and keystone kapers. We had tons of 2600 games but we all knew the 7800 games were special. To round out our 7800 games we had centipede, pole position 2, Ms pac man, food fight, and eventually double dragon. The late nights in the basement with the only illumination being the glow of the crt; me and my sister playing 2 player Mario bros or maybe rampage are great memories. I have great memories with the NES and other consoles too, but the 7800 was different. It was always our console. At some point the console got packed away, the TV was thrown out, and the purpose of the room changed. As all things do, the house and the use of it evolved as we grew older. I ended up pulling the 7800 out somewhere in the mid 2000s and had some fun with it for about a week. It got packed and put away again. Then, last year, I got it back out just by chance while looking for something else. I got a crt and set up a little retro gaming area for myself and the family, and the 7800 is the center piece. The kids love Ms pac man, crossbow (one of the many games I purchased in the last year) and so much more. Mom and dad, my sister and her family, and a few friends have come over and enjoyed playing it with me as well. It's a fantastic memory and a console that means so much more than video games to me. It reminds me of simpler times, of late nights and early mornings. It's a part of my life that continues to bring my family together, and I'll cherish always. So how did you find out about the 7800? I don't expect stories like mine, but I'm interested to know. Thanks for your time everybody.

It's so cool that you kept those. They were a fun read and I'd be interested in an updated version. I've writing reviews for my old 7800 games and planned on making a website around them myself although I don't I'll ever actually do it. But if you need contributors I'd be glad to submit bits and pieces 🙂

I got these same labels and they are fantastic! I'm no longer going for a complete Jaguar collection but when I was considering it these also acted like a nice checklist. The quality is fantastic and highly recommended, although I need some new ones for meteroite.

I don't think there's any doubt that a boy and his blob and any sequels would've done fantastic by 7800 standards. The 7800 desperately needed platformers and adventure games as that's what was really selling at the time. I grew up with the 7800 and I loved it, but when my friends came over they always seems disappointed that I didn't have any super Mario or MegaMan style games for it. Of course a few adventure games and platformers existed but I didn't have them. In short, yes it would've done excellent, but excellent on the 7800 is still probably worse than mediocre on the NES as far as profits go.

I ordered mine! I can't wait, it looks fantastic!