nosweargamer

And now for a commercial break featuring Redpop!

Ironically, even though they were separate companies, they are now owned by the same company!

Redpop! This is Faygo's classic Strawberry soda. I enjoyed this a lot as a kid, but have grown out of it a bit. It is very sugary and almost has a bit of a plastic-like aftertaste (even as a kid, I imagined I was drinking a liquefied red balloon. But I liked it!) You can taste a berry like taste, but it's not strawberry enough for me. I still drink it from time to time, but it's also a flavor I can easily pass. Rating: Meh

I grew up in Michigan, where Faygo soft drinks have been a mainstay for decades. (You could call them pops, not sodas, but most people just call them Faygos) Faygo is know for being cheap and having a large variety of flavors. I can get a few flavors here in TN, but to get a better variety and smaller bottle sizes, I usually need to head north. Recently, I returned to Michigan and this is what I brought back. I plan to review these one at a time in this thread using my classic scale: Hall Of Fame: A must get if you have a chance Solid: Good choice Meh: There are better Faygo options Trash: Avoid at all costs (Faygo makes good stuff, so this one is unlikely)

Oh no! Rows, I'm very sorry!!! I hope you don't think I was complaining. If it came across that way, please accept my apologies. And really, I didn't get the vibe that anyone else was complaining either. It seemed to be just a perfect storm of busy lives and the simple fact that we have done 3 junk boxes in just over 4 months. And yes, I contributed very much as I did send RJB 8 out 2 days after RJB 7 ended. I don't think we ever had so many so close together and it brought up a problem that we didn't foresee: Running out of junk! (at least I didn't foresee it, perhaps because I have more stuff I need to get rid of than most) And as the most experienced person here in hosting a junk box, allow me to say that it is very normal for a host of the box to get very excited about hosting it and then get a feeling that other's aren't matching their excitement. I've experienced similar feelings before but usually by the end everyone seems happy and it turns out to be a good experience. You've done an amazing job both as a participant and host and it would be a shame to see you no longer take part in it. I hope by the time we do another, you reconsider, but I understand if you don't.

Yeah. This will just give us an idea on how to plan for the future. It won't be set in stone, but I think it will help us better schedule them. Also, imho, the latest a junk box should start in a year is early October to avoid the holiday seasons.

With that in mind, I created a new thread & poll. Please vote to help us decide how often to do a Retro Junk Box! http://forums.atari.io/index.php/topic/3198-how-often-should-we-do-a-retro-junk-box/

We've been doing several Retro Junk Boxes here at atari.io, so much so that some of us have been experiencing low junk supply! With that in mind, how often do you think we should do a Retro Junk Box? You can vote in the poll and discuss your answers in the thread.

Now I want to know what the Transformer is!

Ep 335: Survival Run

Ep 334: Venture

Sorry Rows. It could be a bunch of us just happened to be busy around the same time. For instance, I've been out of state on a personal matter the past week and was barely online and never logged onto the forums. Sometimes things just happen like that. Any hoot, nice stuff! What did the DC figure end up being? And tell the Mrs, nice job on the scarf.

Ms. Pac-Man was actually released in 1984 for the limited run launch and then again in 1986. However, you can find labels that say 1987, since every year the made more cartridges, they printed the new year on the label. Xenophobe was released in the arcade in 1987, but didn't come to the 7800 until 1989, the same year the Sega Genesis came out I too wish they had a Pokey sound chip on the 7800, but that decision was not Jack's fault, since it was made and released before he bought the company. I do wish he worked out a way to have released the 7800 sooner, but at least he eventually did. Being a computer guy, there was always a chance he could've only used the Atari name for computers only.

Ringing the bell gets no points, but it replaces any missing fruit with more valuable fruit. There are four fruits with pineapples being the last and most valuable. Any fruit on the screen when the bell rings do not get replaced, so it's possible to have different kinds of fruit on screen at the same time.

Unfortunately, the pack-in was decided for 1984 and there were no NES style games until much later on. Most of the NES style games did not come out until the very end as it took awhile for Atari to realize what gamers wanted. With that being said, here were the games they had ready for the launch to choose for a pack in: Centipede Asteroids (UK Pack-In) Dig Dug Food Fight Galaga Joust Ms. Pac-Man Pole Position II Robotron 2084 Xevious

I, for one, enjoy Food Fight more than Ms. Pac-Man, but the truth is Food Fight was not a well known title (even to this day, a lot of non-7800 players aren't aware the game even exists) and the screen shots alone aren't that catchy. So while I would've liked it as a pack-in, I don't think it has the mass appeal. Xenophobe was one of the later releases, so that would rule it out. Otherwise, I'd be all over a Ninja Golf 7800 System set with Europads thrown in!

Actually, PP2 was licensed from Namco, just as Ms. Pac-Man was. Odds are that they still had licenses lined up for home use when they 7800 system came out as both games came out for the 2600 before then. Ms. Pac-Man on the 2600 is really good, but the 7800 really improves on it.

Feedback time for Gauntlet & Pole Positn'! I believe Gauntlet 4 on the Genesis was based on the original with some added enhancements, but was called 4 since it allowed 4 players to play at the same time, which was a uncommon for the system. It was also one of the few games that worked with both Sega's four player adapter and EA's four player adapter. From what I hear, Pole Postin' on a real Intellivision is not that great, but I have yet to play it myself. I believe the Plug n Play you were talking about was the Ms. Pac-Man version, that didn't have Pac-Man on it. And it wasn't the joystick that turned, but rather the knob on top. But I must say that it is the best way I've found to play Pole Positn' at home. That knob works really well as a steering wheel. Finally, I agree with Sean agreeing with me that Ms. Pac-Man should've been the pack-in over Pole Position II for the 7800, but now I have proof. I recently read in an old 1996 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly that Ms. Pac-Man was a top 20 hit in sales on the Sega Genesis and was popular enough to get a late release on the SNES. That just goes to show the strength of Ms. Pac-Man. And that was 10 years after the 7800 came out. It's not a knock against Pole Position II so much as it is a recognition of the mass appeal of Lady Pac.

As some of you know, I believe that Pole Position II was a poor choice to be the pack-in for the 7800. It was an okay game, but it didn't have the mass appeal like Super Mario on the NES did. I believe Ms. Pac-Man was the obvious choice from the early titles. It's a great port and was one of the most popular arcade games of all time. Some may disagree, but now I have PROOF!!!! This is from issue 85 of EGM with a cover date of August, 1996: Did you read that? It says that Ms. Pac-Man was a top 20 title on the Sega Genesis in sales And because of it's popularity, they where porting Ms. Pac-Man to the SNES And this was at a time when the Playstation, Saturn and N64 were battling So basically, a decade after the 7800 came out, Ms. Pac-Man was showing it's strength on the Genesis and SNES. Can you name any other classic title that was doing that? I didn't find any articles about PP II racing away on the Genesis and bringing in the sales. I'm not saying it would've made the 7800 anywhere near the level of the NES, but I wouldn't be surprised if it would've double 7800 system sales potentially leading to more games being made for the system and possibly a longer life. Case closed

Venture Atari 2600 Difficulty: Skill Level 1 High Score: 6,000 April 10, 2017

Survival Run Atari 2600 Difficulty: Game 3 High Score: 88,900 May 11, 2017

Cosmic Commuter Atari 2600 Difficulty: Game 1 High Score: 41,415 May 11, 2017

I know it no longer worth anything beyond as a collectible, but it's still cool to have!

Donkey Kong 3 Nintendo Entertainment System Difficulty: A High Score: 144,700 May 7, 2017