Sabertooth

Did anyone else wear this record out as a kid? From '79, comes Mickey Mouse Disco - a mix of originals and discofied Disney classics like Its a Small World. I'm not a disco fan today but my 4-year old self danced his little ass off to this! According to Wiki this record actually reached #35 on Billboard and was certified double platinum! Best tracks: Disco Mickey Mouse, Macho Duck and Mousetrap. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kiLdA9Kxfso https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1rE5LxCY5WI https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qztk8E0oFn4

The winner of Match One by a vote of 8 to 1 is Thundercats! Tune in tomorrow to find out which two toons will compete in Match Two!

This is a pretty funny hack! Although, having recently played Bubsy In: Fractured Furry Tales for my blog, I can say with confidence that they really needed to ratchet down his health bar. Bubsy can only take one hit!

This is a terrific song, MaximumRD. Thanks for sharing! I love Tears for Fears and agree that the song is definitely appropriate. That said, when I saw this in "Recent Topics" I half expected a post on the ultraviolent Wii game.

I will probably go again. It's great that they have moved it to a proper convention center, albeit in Ontario. The flea market space last year was much too small.

Does the membrane keypad work? If so, I'd go with that. It's the more iconic of the two!

Nice video! Once my schedule cools down, I'd like to try my hand at it too. Keep 'em coming!

Great responses so far. Keep 'em coming. I'm surprised that Silverhawks isn't getting a little more love. I guess that Thundercats is just so iconic. It's a bit like pitting the Go Bots against Transformers. Originally, I was going to use a forced ranking system for the match-ups, where the winner of the previous week gets a new challenger. Now I'm thinking that a pyramidal tournament scheme might work better and keep things fresh with new match-ups the first ten weeks, a fight between winners in weeks 11-15, and so forth. What do you guys & gals think?

Welcome to Vs. Cartoon Intros, the thread where your favorite cartoons of yesteryear battle it out for the title of MOST WIZARD INTRO EVER! I am your self-appointed host, LBC. Up first, we have two epic and eerily similar intros from those masters of animation Rankin & Bass: Thundercats vs. Silverhawks. Its up to you atari.io forum members to determine which of these amazing intros makes it to the next round! Register your vote in the comments below by Saturday, January 14 by 11:59pm PST. The score will be tabulated on Sunday, with the next round to be announced the following Monday night. And now, without further adieu, ROUND ONE: FIGHT! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcGNqrAtsgg Vs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLS6W-4GfMQ

Iron Soldier 2 Published: 1997 by Telegames Developed by Eclipse Software Design Iron Solidier 2 (IS2) is one of six completed Jaguar games that Telegames published under license from Atari following Atari Corporation's reverse merger with JTS. As the name implies, IS2 is the direct sequel to the 1994 Jaguar title Iron Soldier, a fan favorite among Jaguar owners. In fact, I believe IS2 is one of only two commercially released sequels to first gen Jaguar games to appear on the platform. Like the original, IS2 is a Jaguar exclusive in which the player operates a lumbering, giant mech from a first person perspective, free-roaming in a 3D polygonal world. Beyond that, IS2 improves on the original in nearly every way, including: more and deeper missions, more enemies, more weapons, improved graphics and full CD audio. Telegames released IS2 on both cartridge and CD format. The CD version is the subject of this post. I actually pre-ordered IS2 from Telegames and received the gold CD-R version. As I recall, this was due to issues they were having with the glass masters. I sold that original copy a few years later along with most of my Jaguar games. When I set out to collect again in 2010, this was one of the first CD games I picked up. Graphics: For anyone who has played Iron Soldier, IS2 will look very familiar. Stylistically, the sequel uses many of the same simple polygonal landscapes and structures found in the original - fuel depots, factories, skyscrapers, etc. The buildings are generally unimpressive but they do have texture mapped surfaces this time around. Enemy models on the other hand - particularly the tanks and helicopters - are very detailed and are much improved from the original. So too are the explosions. Already cool in Iron Soldier, the fiery polygonal explosions in IS2 are probably the best on the Jaguar. The CD version of IS2 also has an FMV intro and death scene. The FMV is not great but it's not bad. Unfortunately, there is no way to skip through the death sequence - which is a shame because, if you're like me, you'll be seeing it a lot. Sound/Music: The CD audio in IS2 is used to its fullest. It features compelling explosions, rumbles, gunfire and whooshing rockets. By and large, the sound effects are great. The in-game music on the other hand is a bit of a mixed bag. When it's good, it's really good with atmospheric techno and rock that fits the battle at hand. However, sometimes the ingame music is at odds with the atmosphere. Soft, almost meditative tunes accompany the onscreen devastation. While I can appreciate the variety, the vibe on some of these softer tracks is just too weird. Eclipse and Atari should have stuck with darker themed, driving electronic and/or rock music that better matches the game's combative themes. Gameplay: IS2 features gameplay that is nearly identical to the original. You pilot your lumbering, 42-foot mech - called an Iron Soldier - through various cityscapes on a mission to thwart the evil Penta Corporation. I say lumbering because the pace is a bit slow. Giant robot slow! There are 20 missions which range from convoy escort, to building protection to leveling entire cities! Missions are unlocked five at a time and while it seems like there is variety - you essentially spend the entire time destroying buildings, tanks, helicopters and enemy mechs. Health, ammo and weapons are available in crates found in the rubble of destroyed buildings. Control takes some getting used to. You press the A button and up or down on the D-pad to move forward or in reverse. Once in motion, you can use the d-pad to aim in 180 degrees while continuing on your path. If you want to turn the mech, you'll need to hold down the C button while moving the D-pad. This sounds trickier than it is and once you get the hang of it, it seems a fittingly awkward way to steer a giant robot. Weapons fire/action is triggered with the B button. Speaking of weapons, there are lots of them! You start the game with an assault rifle, grenades and a chainsaw selectable. New weapons, including, a Gatling gun, heavy shield and cruise missile, are added as you progress. Weapons selection is made using the Jaguar keypad. The game does not come with an overlay but the weapons selection is easy to pick up. According to the manual there are 13 weapons in all. Unfortunately, I didn't see them all in this go around. IS2 is a beast! While the game plays almost exactly like the original, the difficulty level in IS2 is markedly higher. I have completed Iron Soldier multiple times but have yet to beat IS2. I put this down to a combination of factors. First, the missions are more challenging. The type of missions that you encounter at the start of IS2 were at the end of the original. Clearly the developers were trying to provide Iron Soldier veterans with more of the same but harder. Secondly, mission objectives aren't always clear. I often spent a good deal of time trying to figure out how to approach a mission, with my delay sometimes resulting in mission failure. This was particularly true of the protection missions. It can be frustrating. Overall: Iron Soldier 2 is a solid update to the Jaguar original. Its more of the same, but when you're talking Iron Soldier, that's not a bad thing! Improving - albeit slightly - on the graphics, size and variety of its predecessor, IS2 is an example of Jaguar 3D gaming at its best. Final verdict: If you were a fan of the original, I highly recommend IS2. It's a challenging game that will keep you coming back for more. If you didn't like the original, pass. Thanks for reading and please share your Iron Soldier 2 opinions in the comments! The next game is: Pinball Fantasies

I used to like Cosmic Ark, then I tried it on this play mode... Merciless. It hard enough to get to a planet from the asteroids scree. Once you're there, it's hopeless. I think that I'll stick to a less challenging game mode while admiring this uber complete version that unfortunately, doesn't fit my 7800. Good luck to those who are playing!

K.C. Munchkin was one of two O2 games that I spent a lot of time with as a kid (the other being Demon Attack). My cousin had an O2 before I had my Coleco Gemini and we shared a lot of weekends at his house playing K.C. I have K.C. for the O2 and still enjoy playing it even today. In terms of gameplay, I do not share the opinion that K.C. is better than the 2600 version of Pac-Man in every way. K.C. has a lot of depth, but I find 2600 Pac-Man to best K.C. in a few areas: 1) The control in 2600 Pac-Man is smooth like butter, and while K.C. controls well, if you do not apply continued pressure in the direction you want to go, K.C. stops. This can cause unintended death and/or serious hand cramps. Admittedly, this is less of an issue with the original O2 controllers but if you have a modded O2 or are using 2600-style controllers, extended play is tiring. 2) While the audio in 2600 Pac-Man is somewhat harsh, I find it helpful to have both audio and visual cues letting me know when the power pellet effect wears off. K.C. uses only visual cues - purple to flashing - to signal the end of the effect. 3) The defeated ghosts in Pac-Man immediately find their way to the center after being chomped to respawn. This compares to K.C. where defeated "Munchers" often continue to roam the screen. While this roaming can create room for a bit of breather for the player, I'd prefer that they simply return and respawn. 4) Multiple lives. Oh, how I wish that you got more than one life in K.C. Where K.C. bests Pac-Man is in variety, graphics, color use and character design. The stock mazes are excellent and with the ability to create your own mazes, the possibilities are endless. This enhances K.C.'s replay value tremendously. K.C. & the Munchies also seem to have a bit more personality than 2600 Pac-Man's flickering ghosts. There's no flicker here. Just solid, brightly colored character sprites against a black background. No orange and blue mazes for you K.C.! In terms of gameplay, the "floating Munchies" provide an interesting element. Unlike the wafers in Pac-Man, K.C.'s snacks float around the screen. By the time the last munchie is left, it is moving around the whole maze as fast as K.C. does. Often, you have to intercept it. It's a really cool twist on the Pac-Man formula. Lastly, K.C. also includes an option to randomly pick the maze at the beginning of each level or have invisible mazes when moving. These play modes definitely keep you on your toes! 7800 K.C.: I really like the 7800 version of K.C. It retains all aspects of the original, including control, sound and maze building. It updates the character sprites to give them a more developed, cartoonish look but in a restrained way. For those that prefer the original O2 graphics, they are embedded in the game and accessed by holding the PAUSE button at start-up. Finally, given the litigious history between Atari and Magnavox over K.C., the novelty of playing this game on an Atari console cannot be overstated. It is just cool. That being said, I think there were some missed opportunities here. Firstly, it would have been great to see K.C. get the Pac-Man collection treatment with the inclusion of K.C's Krazy Chase. I'm not a programmer and I don't know how much effort that would've taken, but it would have added tremendous value to the cart. Secondly, it would have been nice to get an Arcade option, where the stock mazes rotate in a predictable manner a la Ms. Pac-Man. Thirdly, it would have been nice to have had an option for more than one life. Finally - and this isn't a criticism of the game itself - I much prefer the awesome U.S. packaging for nearly all O2 games. For whatever reason, they chose to use the European Videopac box art for inspiration. Overall, PacManPlus has done a fine job bringing K.C. to the 7800. If you don't have it for the O2 (or don't have an O2) then this is a great way to play. If you already have it, it will probably be a pass. For myself, I bought it for the slight graphical tweaks, the novelty of playing K.C. on an Atari machine and to support homebrew development.

I have one of these in red from a couple years back. It's a really cool shirt that gets lots of comments. Great deal on this!

@kamakazi20012 - I agree with you that there is fun to be had here. Bubsy is definitely better than the very worst Jaguar games like Checkered Flag. For me, its hard to say that its better than the other Jaguar platformers - Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure, Zool 2, Soccer Kid and Rayman. I think it falls somewhere in the middle of the Jaguar library in terms of quality and fun factor.

Bubsy In: Fractured Furry Tales Published: 1994 by Atari Developed by Imagitec Design, Inc. Bubsy In: Fractured Furry Tales is a Jaguar exclusive installment in the Bubsy series, published by Atari under license from Accolade. For the uninitiated, Bubsy is a wisecracking bobcat that runs, glides and bounces his way through hazard laden levels. The game departs from the main Bubsy franchise, which pits Bubsy against yarn obsessed space aliens, and instead places our orange hero in various fairy tale settings like Alice In Wonderland and Jack and the Beanstalk. For his Jaguar outing, Bubsy retains his trademark early 90s attitude from the Genesis and SNES titles. Play mechanics and death animations are also largely unchanged from the first Bubsy game. Graphics: Bubsy comes to life in bright, colorful and sharp 2D style on the Jaguar. While it is certainly not a generational leap from its 16-bit predecessors, Fractured Furry Tales looks great. The colors seem somewhat richer and deeper than in the earlier games, likely due to the Jaguar's enhanced color palette. Bubsy himself looks fantastic and the design of the enemy character sprites is fittingly whimsical. Sound: The sound effects and in-game music are good. In-game effects are typical platformer boings and pops. The music is competent and fits the levels. It's not memorable in the way that the very best platform music is but it does the job. Gameplay: In Fractured Furry Tales, Bubsy runs through each level - called chapters - killing enemies and collecting brightly colored orbs until reaching an exit. To get through each board, Bubsy uses three main moves: jump, glide and look. These are mostly intuitive and largely work as you'd expect. You kill enemies by jumping on them with the B button. Hopping from surface to surface is generally easy. Run, jump and hold A to glide across water and other hazards. Look seems like an odd "move" but trust me, it's needed. You start the game with nine lives and its not just because you're a bobcat. It's because you will die. A LOT. Bubsy limits you to one hit and it is unforgiving. Enemies can sometimes blend in with the scenery (I'm looking at you rattle snake) and/or are placed in such a way that they're easy to run into. Bubsy also tends to flop around a bit, making it easy to kill one enemy only to haphazardly bounce into another enemy, often just off screen. Because of this, it is necessary to take it slow and look before leaping. If you want to make it past Chapter One, you will find yourself stopping and holding the C button to check your surroundings before moving on. It really is the only way that I found to avoid frustratingly cheap deaths. Patience is rewarded. The level design in Bubsy is non-linear and the levels are not particularly intuitive. It was not always clear where I needed to go to advance in the game. The levels are also pretty huge! It's easy to get turned around. I guess that I prefer a little more direction in my platform games. Overall: Fractured Furry Tales is a great looking title with a lot of potential. The bright colors, fairy tale theme and whimsical characters work well. Unfortunately, the sprawling levels combine with the unforgiving one-hit death and poor enemy placement to make the game more frustrating than it needs to be. The challenge in Bubsy comes from design flaws, not from a need for precision and timing. Still, this is a game I dust off pretty regularly - at least a few times a year - just to see if I get any better. It's not a great game but, for me, it's oddly compelling. Maybe I'm just a glutton for punishment? Final verdict: If the occasional cheap death is not your thing, pass. However, if you like quirky, colorful platformers and don't mind dying, give Fractured Furry Tales a try. Thanks for reading and please share your Bubsy opinions in the comments! The next games is: Iron Soldier II (CD)

I finally got out to see this last night. Overall, I found it very enjoyable and slot it fifth in order of Star Wars movies, after the original trilogy and Force Awakens but ahead of the prequel trilogy. Things that I liked: - The return to the aesthetic of '77. Particularly with the rebel alliance scenes. Love those helmets! - The portrayal of the alliance as somewhat fragile and bickering. This is exactly what an galactic political rebellion would look like. - Nods to the earlier movies that made sense: Mustafar, Bail Organa, Mon Mothma. - Saw Gerrera - Badass Vader Things that I thought were meh: - Jyn Erso's character development. Her turn from "out for herself criminal" to "I make impassioned speeches to the alliance leadership" was too fast to be believable. - Unnecessary nods to the earlier films: Leia Organa, Evazan & Baba - Deathtroopers. Really, Krennic gets his own elite guard? Why? Toyline. - CGI Tarkin. I think Tarkin was necessary for the story but feel that his presence would've been better handled as a hologram. As Rowsdower and others have mentioned, the technology has come a long way but it still doesn't work seamlessly with live actors. It was definitely a good movie and Disney has done a great job restoring the franchise.

Welcome to what I hope is the first of many entries in The Game Cave. In this blog, I will share my thoughts and impressions on various games. The point of this exercise is to reacquaint myself with some of the lesser played titles in my collection. The main focus of this blog will be Jaguar gaming. I have been playing Jaguar since late 1994 and have a complete retail collection, the majority of post-JTS releases and many homebrews. At last count, this equates to 82 Jaguar games! That said, from time to time I might throw in a non-Jaguar title. A few notes: 1) I will not be playing the games in chronological order. Instead, games will be selected randomly using Excel. 2) I will play each game featured for at least two hours. I feel that this is sufficient to get a good impression of the game. I have no doubt that I'll play some of these for much longer. 3) I don't intend to get into the minutiae of a game's history, development and contemporary reviews. Other platforms do a fantastic job at that. This is just my personal take on these games from a player's perspective. 4) Feel free to comment and share your own gameplay impressions. I only ask that you've actually played the game on real hardware. That's all for now. I hope that you check in from time to time! The first game to be featured will be: Bubsy In Fractured Furry Tales

I've both purchased from and traded with RickR. He has always been easy to deal with. Great communication, accurate descriptions and quick shipping. Highly recommended!

Thanks for sharing @AtariCreep! Those are some great gaming goals. I'll look forward to seeing what you do with the YouTube channel! Also, sorry to hear about your hacked checking account. That happened to my wife a few years back. Hopefully they are able to sort it out quickly!

Happy 2017 Atari.io! It's resolution time! I don't know if anyone else does this but over the last few years, in addition to recommitting to working out and eating better, I also set gaming goals for the year. These have ranged from starting a YouTube channel to beating a certain game. And like my healthy living goals, these gaming resolutions are frequently abandoned by February. This year, my Gaming Resolution is to spend at least two hours with each of my Atari Jaguar games and keep a gaming journal - perhaps a blog - with my impressions on each one. I have a complete retail collection, the post-JTS releases from Telegames and Songbird, and several homebrews so this will end up being quite a commitment. The point of this resolution is to spend more time gaming and less time just collecting. What's your Gaming Resolution for 2017? It can be any gaming related goal that you'd like to accomplish in the new year. Share below!

I just listened to the Episode 1. It was very nicely done from start to finish. Entertaining, informative and funny! I'll definitely look forward to hearing more. Recommended. Also, point of clarification - I'm a dude.

I totally agree about the 2800. It is a very slick console. Even the packaging was amazing. It is no wonder that the 2800 console was used as the basis for the 7800 design. With the exception of the branding, the Sears Video Arcade II is essentially the same console and is much more readily available. If you don't mind it saying "Sears", it's well worth it.

This is a tough one. I love the aesthetics of both the Jr. and the Vader but not their native RF output. The Atari branded light sixer and 4-switch woody are about the same to me. I am not very fond of the Heavy. I will agree with MaximumRD that there is something appealing about the Sears variants - both the original and the Sears Video Arcade II. Of course, I grew up with a Gemini so it has a place in my heart. All that being said, if I had to pick now, I would say that a pristine Sears 4-switch wins it for me. There is something about the white and chrome bezel with the dark wood finish that is at once garish and appealing. If the Jr had better video, it would be top of my list purely from a design perspective.