RickR

I've had both a I and a II, and I like the II a lot better. The screen is bigger, and the controls fit better in my hands. But they are both fine, really.

This is one of my all-time favorite games. Mostly due to the simple controls that let you do so much and the realistic movements of the players. I grew up with the 8-bit/C64 versions. Once I finally discovered the 7800, this became my favorite 7800 game. It's got the same gameplay and controls, but it plays a bit faster and looks better. A+ game on both, with a slight edge to the 7800.

DS9 has turned out to be my favorite incarnation of Star Trek, which is interesting because in it's initial run, I didn't like it. I thought it was too political. But now, I can fully appreciate how good it was right out of the gate. A brilliant story line and excellent world-building story telling. Here are my lists: Must Watch: The Visitor (I consider this the very best Star Trek episode of them all) Emissary - A pilot episode that hits it way out of the park. In the Pale Moonlight Far Beyond the Stars - when Star Trek does real science-fictiony Star Trek, it's pure magic. By Inferno's Light - A master class on packing a lot of material into an hour of TV. Stinker List Profit and Loss Let He Who is Without Sin The Passenger - Alexander Siddig's acting here makes me cringe every time Fascination Move Along Home

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I've got a few carts (Where did YOU learn to fly?), but no console. They just never seem to come up for a reasonable price. I'll keep looking though. @BlackCatz40, for sure don't throw those out. I'm sure they can be repaired. There are Atari Jaguar groups on Facebook that you should consider asking.

One of these days, I'm going to get a Jaguar! Yours looks great!

The 7800 is where things get really interesting for me. It got a lot of the computer games, but they were re-written. For example, One on One basketball is essentially the same game on Atari/C64/Apple 2. On the 7800, they improved the graphics a lot and made the game a touch faster. Awesome! Asteroids is another great case. They took a tired old game and gave it the really cool 3D rock effect and also added the co-op mode! Spectacular!

You've got to master the slow jump (jumping over the holes at the slow speed). It's really hard, as you have to get the timing right. That's the main challenge of this game -- shooting the rocks and jumping over the craters. Keep your eye on the ground, not on the sky aliens. As I mentioned before, the pattern of the craters/rocks is always exactly the same (except for the aliens that drop crater bombs). Those levels get much easier once you memorize what's coming.

We've had mandatory masks in Oregon since early July, and it's starting to turn the curve back down. There's no penalty here that I know of, other than shame.

The fact that some sports are starting up without crowds really got me thinking. Why do we spend billions of dollars on stadiums when the home experience is so much better? Do you remember that episode of Star Trek (I think it was "Bread and Circuses") in which they have gladiator battles on TV? Maybe this pandemic will drive that kind of efficiency. Sports teams wouldn't need such expensive facilities if we just mostly watch from home. Your home setup sounds pretty fantastic TrekMD! My TV isn't that large, my sound system only 300 watts, yet it's still so nice to watch stuff there -- such better quality than we could have imagined 20 years ago. In many ways, we are in the golden age of home entertainment.

There are some 5200 games that are different. Dig Dug and Centipede on the 5200 are complete re-writes and much better than the 400/800 versions. Space Invaders and Pac Man are tweaked a bit (example: intermissions added to Pac-Man). For me, it's just a matter of nothing new hardware-wise. The 5200 had some great games, but it didn't have anything the 400/800 couldn't do 5 years earlier.

PS - the last movie I went to was "Onward" with my 10 year old niece. I think it was early March. Right before this mess started. It was a good movie -- I'm a huge Pixar fan.

I've only done take-out at restaurants since this started. I have not gone inside to sit and eat. Isn't that awful? On the bright side, we've been doing a lot of cooking of new recipes and it's fun to try new things. But on the other hand, it gets tiring, as I'm sure it is for everyone. We do take-out maybe once or twice a week. I try to tip as much as possible even with the take-out and support our local businesses. I know there will eventually be a vaccine, but I sure wish everyone would wear a mask while out in public. I believe if that occurred, I've heard the virus would be gone in 2-3 months.

30,640. Holy heck, how do you get past that rocket car that comes behind you?

I like doing this exact thing too! It all started when I was a teenager. I had an Atari 800XL, and most of my friends had a Commodore 64. There were many games common on both systems. I used to get made fun of a lot because the Atari versions of various games had slightly worse graphics and sound. I think it's fair to say that the C64 has smaller and more detailed sprites than the PM graphics of the Atari. But the Atari versions were usually a lot faster and more colorful. I also noticed right away how much of a dog that C64 disk drive was. SLOW! And the Atari computer has a lot more design polish. For example, it will auto-load a disk when you turn on the system, while the C64 will not. Whatever, they both are great. And as an older dude, I now have them both and enjoy them very much.

I'm going to say that when this horrid pandemic is over and there is a vaccine, I plan on doing EVERYTHING. Movies? Yes. Restaurants? Every night. Theme parks? You betcha. If I ever make it any or your areas, I'll buy you a beverage of your choice 🙂

I need to pull out my real SMS to re-play some of these classics. I'm sorry I was too time-crunched to do it for the Alex Kidd challenge. Seems like that pause button was the only way to get a screen shot of the score.

Here's the NSG review of Moon Patrol...it has a few helpful tips. And he also mentions a little trouble with the difficulty switches!

Awesome points, @Justin. What's so dang interesting is how all of the other players goofed it up too. Mattel got hosed by that bad court decision on the computer add-on for Intellivision. A daily penalty took their focus off what they did best. And why spend any time and effort on the Intellivision 2 without improving your one weakness (the controller)? And Coleco had the very best machine out at the time, and they spent their wad on the failed Adam computer. D'OH! What could have been if they'd have just focused on the ColecoVision as a game console.

Oh good, it's not just me! This game is HARD! But really fun and well-done. It's kind of amazing what the 2600 was capable of with the right developers and resources! No flicker, great graphics, and fast gameplay. Incredible! I will keep trying. This seems like one of those games where the pattern is pretty much the same every time with just a little randomization from the sky enemies. I'm getting really good at getting through the first and second levels after playing through them 100 times.

I'm going to go all the way back and say 2600 Space Invaders. It was so cool to realize you could finally have some real arcade games at home! Revolution, baby! I really think those early Atari arcade ports were all cool for the same reason. Asteroids, Missile Command, for example. But not Pac-Man. That one had the opposite effect. Not cool! Time to upgrade to a system with more power!

I tell you, I've tried that A/B switch both ways, and I canna tell no difference. I put it on A.

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