RickR

I fully expect someone to show up with a rolled score and make mine look pretty low. But thank you. I played this a lot as a kid, and it's funny how it all comes back to me so quickly.

Video Pinball was available in 1980. It's one of the first games my family purchased.

Yes. It's all about the nudge. For an early Atari release, this game has amazing physics on that nudge. Master it and focus on those two bonus channels on the top of the board. I will set up a camera and video a play session before this is over, and you'll see...

360,061

145,846. @nosweargamer is right...rolling the score is going to be a problem on this one. I'm going to fiddle with setting up a tripod with my camera (in video mode). This was my first try. Read the manual -- pay attention to the scoring. PS - I'm playing on my "PlusCart" because I'm too lazy to go into the attic and find a loose copy. And PlusCart has a "Recently Played ROMS" choice that makes it a lot easier than Harmony.

Looks like a good way to get some exercise! I don't have a Switch. Maybe this is a good reason to get one.

Oooh, I shall try that one, boss. Thanks for the tip.

Yeah, I think you're right, Harry. Thank you for the tips. Cutting corners and going straight for as long of stretches as possible. Hours and hours I do not have.

I agree! People kept dropping better scores, which made me want to go back in and get better. Good job, all. I'm going to go back in today and try the @RadioPoultry "bump-start" method. I tried doing that earlier in the week, but couldn't quite figure it out.

WOW! What a score, @HDN. Must have been the basement.

2'19"95. Done responsibly with no hooch.

Yep, real brick. The flue for the furnace and there's a fireplace above that on the main floor. The house was built in the 50's. The floor, chicken wallpaper, and bar were original. My parents had the paneling put in, I wanted to buy the house, but we decided it was going to be too much work to make it modern and livable on the main floor. The basement, I would have been happy to leave as-is.

OK guys, I've spent some time with the PlusCart, and here are my real thoughts It works as promised. Wifi on the 2600! Setup is easy. The games load quickly. There are hundreds of homebrews and hacks to try. This is the real draw. I've been having a blast playing some of these. I have much more to explore. The high-score games work as advertised. It's painless. Just play and your scores are automatically submitted under your account name. Easy! It's inexpensive. $20 for this much fun shouldn't be legal. Advice. If I could do it again, I'd spend the extra to get the 3D printed case. Modifying a 2600 cart case is kind of involved.

This issue seems isolated to my particular 7800. In reporting the bug over at AtariAge, the developer has noted it works fine on his 7800. Indeed, I have confirmed the cart works as intended on my 2600jr. A bug has been logged. It's nice that the development team is so responsive! For now, I'll use the 2600jr, which I like more anyways. On an unrelated note, may I mention something else I hate about the 7800? When you press a console button hard (sometimes needed on my finicky power button), the whole console will tip forward. If they'd placed the buttons a bit further back, or the base extended all the way to the front...

The man is on a mission! Best I can do this evening is 2'21"30

You only have to tap B to activate the boost. No need to hold it down in this game.

Hey wise guy, I'm in front of you too.

Well it works! I got it mounted in a old broken cart shell. Issue #1. The 7800 is stupid and doesn't like this shell. Works fine in my 2600jr. For now I'll leave it out of the shell. I got it hooked up to wifi, which was painless using the WPS button on my router. I also created a plusstore account and got that hooked up. Typing in an e-mail address on the pluscart takes some time. But you only have to do it once. I was able to load up and play a few games. They only take about a second to load. Amazing! I even submitted a few high scores! And oh boy, what a selection of homebrews and hacks. This is going to be fun. Issue #2: The 7800 is stupid. For whatever reason, the "reset" button on the 7800 takes you back to the pluscart menu. That means there's no way to start games that use the reset button! DOH! The manual says pressing "right" and "reset" takes you back. For example, I cannot start a game of River Raid. Goal: Get my 7800 out of here and go back to using a 2600jr. We'll see if that fixes my issues.

My PlusCart has arrived! 12 days from order to delivery all the way from Germany -- not bad. In the box is the bare board, cart stickers, and a link to an on-line manual. Next step for me is to mount it in an old broken "Defender" cart and then try it out. Hopefully this weekend.

OK, I don't want to dig up bad feelings. Advice: make the best of it. Maybe have one console out at a time if you don't have shelves to organize. Or get some milk crates to make shelves? You're a creative guy, you'll figure this out. Here's pictures of my childhood basement room that was dedicated to us kids. That spot in the corner under the hidden electrical panel was where we had a TV on a cart with Atari hooked up. It took a lot of hard work to get it cleaned up like this. And frankly, it was very sad. I'm glad I took pictures and video of the whole house, though.

Addendum: I should also mention we kids knew not to mess with certain areas of said basement. Example: The laundry room was off limits. Do not make a mess there. And my dad's storage areas (mostly his wine) -- DO NOT ENTER/LOOK/THINK-ABOUT-IT. In general, the rules were simple -- keep our areas neat, no rough-housing, and there were no parental problems. I have pictures of that basement when I had to clean the house out. I will find them and post them here.

What's wrong with the basement? It sounds like this is a downgrade? When I was a kid, the basement in our house was the kids domain. We set up a game room down there, did our homework down there, and visits from friends were always down there. I always loved it. Although it was cold, we could make noise, arrange things the way we liked, and generally "own the space". Run with it (if you can). Put old sheets over the "stuff" you don't want to see. Keep the space neat! Maybe this is a positive thing. Was it the noise that caused you to get moved? If yes, make sure you insulate the ceiling so noise doesn't drift up through the floor.

2'21"25