RickR

Don't be sorry, we all know it takes a lot of time. I'm sure it will turn out great.

It was "Electronic Games". I have them all in PDF form. I can find your issue tomorrow if you like.

Oh, and my joystick adapter arrived today in the mail. Boy, that was fast shipping!

That sidecar case is pretty nice, and I could use one. But for almost $50 shipped?? Yowza.

I don't have a link...just my own memory and experience. I started a post here on the forums a few years ago, but I don't think there was much interest so i stopped. http://forums.atari.io/index.php/topic/988-8-bit-games-that-were-re-written-for-5200/?hl=%2Bspace+%2Binvaders

For a long time, I was unaware that Atari "improved" some of the 8-bit games for the 5200. Once I knew, it made the 5200 versions a little more special and I really wanted to try them out. As you mentioned, Pac-Man has the intermissions and better ghost AI Space Invaders has much improved (and changing) invader animations. Dig Dug I think is a complete re-write. But I'm not sure it's an improvement. Centipede has more colorful objects Star Raiders has bug fixes and the long-range scan is more useful. This is all I can remember off the top of my head. What's really cool is that the 5200 versions have been ported to 8-bit! Load them using an SIO2SD device or a multi-cart. How sweet is that?

YES! More great points NSG. I'm a manager myself, and it really helps to have some veterans on the team to gently guide and ground new people while letting them try new ideas too. But the irony is that Atari could have easily kept the best programmers and maybe even prevented the birth of third party software if they'd have just given David Crane et al the simple recognition they sat down and asked for. Bad management usually starts at the top, and I think that's the case of what happened to Atari. Management that didn't know or understand the games/technology/entertainment industry and didn't understand the value of great developers. Let's be honest -- would it have hurt Atari to put the little developer picture and bio on each game and given royalties? Of course not. Imagine the feeling of creating a game that sells millions of copies and not getting anything but your 30k salary.

I think I'm going to watch "King of Kong" again now that more context has been added after 15 years. It's interesting how two cheaters have been exposed this year (Billy Mitchell and Todd "Dragster" Rogers).

The very first purchase I made for once I got an Atari 800XL computer was "The Entertainer" pack, which came with Pac-Man, Star Raiders, and a joystick. The 8-bit version of Pac Man is really great. I still love playing that version now. It's a lot of fun to play and reminds me of being back in 1983 again.... Oh, and Star Raiders is one of my all-time favorite games. That Entertainer pack was the best thing.

I completely agree with all of this. Twin Galaxies comes out of this with a partial stench too.

Completely agree! No bashing of Tod Frye or HSW is warranted in my opinion. In the video above, Tod Frye mentions he had no idea how much scrutiny the game would get. A little naive. But no one could have guessed there would be 40 years of scrutiny, that's for sure.

This is a great point! The Activision guys knew that great quality sold more games and built a brand. And most of them were chased off by Atari. "Prima Donnas" indeed. This is a great discussion, and I sure do enjoy reading everyone's commentary. Thanks.

Furthermore....I don't think it's fair to place so much blame on Tod Frye. He seems like a good dude, and he was in his 20's at the time. No, the real blame lies in Atari management. For not taking the time to do it right, or offer the right testing and comments to the developer.

Great video. The black background rule he mentions sounds like more of a guideline. I get the impression he could have chosen any colors he wanted. "We just didn't know what mattered" is his quote. I know it's 40 years later...but didn't they play test with any kids who could have told them how important the colors were???

It seems pretty straightforward, doesn't it? The video evidence shows it's not on real hardware. I'd say that he should go play on a real arcade machine with a video camera present. If he can get close to the old record, it validates it. It is my conjecture only that he did play on emulation, but doesn't believe that should impact the game. I think many people would agree with that. But rules are rules. So Billy, go play a round on a real machine and let's see what happens.

The TI also has a very lively homebrew scene. There's a yearly meeting "FestWest NW" coming up this Saturday in Vancouver, WA. It's a computer with some quirks. The multiplexer-driven memory is probably the biggest fault. Also, the complexity of adding anything other than a tape-drive for storage is a turn off. Luckily, most of the software available is on cartridge. But overall, it's fun. There are a lot of very unique games. Parsec and Alpiner stand out. The talking version of "Super Demon Attack" (on disk or the multi-cart) is outstanding...probably the best version of Demon Attack on any system.

I didn't pick up the case yet, although I put the listing on my "watch list". I figured I'd try out the board first. I do already have the Amiga sticks. They are just ok IMO. The sticks are very tiny, but they do respond well. I think using an Atari joystick will be ideal. I also have a converter to use Atari sticks on the Odyssey 2. Once you've tried the best, you can't go back to those other sticks

Check this out. I'm going to order one for myself. The TI joysticks suck. (EDIT: I just ordered one) https://texelec.com/product/ti-994a-to-atari-2600-joystick-adapter/

Chopper Command. Originally, I just thought it was a dumbed down version of Defender. I think we had it as a squad challenge a few months ago, and I really enjoyed it after spending some time with it. It's a great looking game, with very little flicker. And it does ramp up in difficulty pretty well.

Pick up any of the Atarisoft games. They are all excellent. There's also some very nice multi-carts available.

Pretty nice. It comes with a button spring, which is good. I think the red button is kind of useless, as I've never seen one of those break or get lost. But for that price, it's a nice way to bring a wonky joystick back to life.

Berzerk and Pac Man make for a good comparison. Both are arcade ports where the original game had a black background. Neither is set in space. I'm not buying the "Atari policy against black backgrounds" theory. I will buy the "rush job at mamagement's insistence" theory. The goal of all arcade ports was to get the home version as close to the real thing as was possible, given the limitations of the system being ported to. Pac Man was one of the first VCS game to absolutely fail at this. We would have accepted flickery ghosts, a non-standard maze, and missing fruits. But to not even come close on the colors and sounds? Ridiculous. Berzerk has some differences from the arcade version. Most notably, no speech. But in general, the game is pretty close. Same look, feel, colors, and sound. It "looks" like Berzerk. And that made it great. Pac Man on VCS was a good game, and a big seller. But it is my belief that it hurt Atari long-term. As I've stated before, that's the game that planted the kernel of doubt about Atari in my mind. Never again would I pay full price for a game from Atari without reading a review first. This was the moment I went and got a Commodore computer instead.

The comment about color tv's becoming mainstream at the time makes all of the statements suspect to me. That is false. Plus there are plenty of other Atari games from that time or earlier not set in space with a black background. Let's see. Missile Command, Video Pinball, Haunted House, Centipede, I could go on...

For sale is a working Milton Bradley Microvision with 4 games. All come with the boxes and foam inserts. The games are: Blockbuster (no manual), Connect Four (complete), Alien Raiders (complete), Bowling (no manual). There is wear on everything, but all games are tested to work. The screen has a smudge, but it does work nicely. The paddle works without jitters. Clean battery compartment. From a non-smoking home. Price includes Priority Mail shipping inside the USA. Please ask any questions and PM me if you would like to purchase. Asking $125 or offer.