Atari 5200 Guy

Atari is the sole reason why I wanted to get into programming. To hear all of this from an insider perspective is priceless. Thank you for sharing.

I played the hell out of the full sized ride on Hang-on game and don't even get me started on G-Loc.  At least I think that was what game it was.  Full motion ride, spin, turn, rotate, twist...I honestly believe it was the only game I ever seen with that much movement.

I will have to find it for the 7800.  So far I love the game.  But, it's true, Crossbow I have never heard of until I started collecting video games a decade ago.

I'll have to hunt that one down.

Oh yeah!  G-Loc!  Who could resist?
Even those silly "hunting" games with the arcade shotguns were pretty dang sweet. 

I played the hell out of the full sized ride on Hang-on game and don't even get me started on G-Loc.  At least I think that was what game it was.  Full motion ride, spin, turn, rotate, twist...I honestly believe it was the only game I ever seen with that much movement.

I'm going to look forward to this blog.  

I will have to find it for the 7800.  So far I love the game.  But, it's true, Crossbow I have never heard of until I started collecting video games a decade ago.

I will have to find it for the 7800.  So far I love the game.  But, it's true, Crossbow I have never heard of until I started collecting video games a decade ago.

I'll have to hunt that one down.

One corner.  So many toys.  Nice, man! 😎

7800 got Xenophobe? Holy cow! And, yes, Food Fight of course.  I forgot to put that one on my list.  I especially love the replays when they happen. I've been playing Donkey Kong a lot since I recently scored a 7800 copy.  I'm not a huge DK fan but something about the 7800 version is just pleasing to play.  Who knows.  I don't understand it either.
Choplifter I played on the SMS first.  I never knew of the game on any Atari until maybe 10 years ago.  So when I popped the 7800 version in for the first time I was shocked how much stuff was "missing" before I learned Sega added all those extras.  I like the 7800 version better but it's tough.

The 7800 is my favorite Atari console but my list of games would be a bit different as I found myself more interested in the games that weren't repeats from the previous generations at the time. 
F-18: Hornet - This is not one that I play that often these days, but when I first had the system I played it all the time and once I learned exactly how the game works, similar to 2600 Adventure, I would find ways to do stuff you weren't supposed to do like flying in the other direction and stuff like that. But at the time I was pretty impressed with everything you could do in the game with the different missions.
Crossbow - shouldn't be a surprise for anyone this is on my list heh. But I've always enjoyed this game on the 7800 and prefer to play it with a controller vs light gun as it is easier to setup your cursor on the screen in known locations and just move left/right as needed to take out a good chunk of the enemies on each scene that plays out. I also thought the graphics for this game were pretty stellar back then on the 7800.
Food Fight - I had never heard or nor seen the actual arcade cabinet back in the day, but the game looked like fun when I read the box and I'm very glad I decided to pick it up back then. I play this one still from time to time as it is just so well done on the 7800.
Double Dragon - I know...kinda surprising but to me I thought this version was closer to the arcade than the NES in respect to the level designs etc. I did play the NES version as well, but always liked the 7800 version more and got to be really good at it back in the day.
Xenophobe - This is one of the games I wanted the 7800 for as the arcade cabinet was so unique in the day and I had a lot of fun playing it so when I saw it was coming for the 7800, it was pretty much the game release that made the 7800 a console I wanted in the late 80s. The irony to this is that I ended up never owning Xenophobe until much...MUCH later in life. But aside from the arcade and Lynx versions, the 7800 version is my favorite home console port of the game by far.
Galaga - was also one I picked up originally back in the day and like @Atari 5200 Guy I thought it was pretty awesome back then. Yes the NES version looks closer to the arcade but something about the 7800 version to me was just more fun to play for some reason? 
Choplifter - Is another arcade game that I had only seen in the arcade a few times and I didn't know of the releases on the 5200 and 8-bit consoles back then. So it was new to me and I played it all the time until I had method down for getting a perfect game. I still like to pop it in once in a while to see how many POWs I can save. This is another decent looking game on the 7800 as well even thought the SMS version just trounces it. (Again, I didn't know about the SMS release of the game either back then).
Joust - This was one of the few games that I already had on my 2600 and played all the time. But when I saw how much closer to the arcade look and feel the 7800 version was, I was totally on board with this one. It was also one of my mothers favorites, but oddly she still seemed to prefer to play the 2600 version more back then?
And that is my short faves list of the original released games I owned back then minus Xenophobe as mentioned before. With the home brew scene what it is on the 7800, there is just some amazing talent that has really shown just what the 7800 was able to do and with the proper resources being given, it could have done even back in the day.
 

Ah.  I was wondering. With DC looking like Gauntlet that's where I thought the game originated from.  I'll have to research Dandy.

If I remember correctly, once integrated sound chips became a standard, most DOS games took the hit.  My little Compaq has an ESS sound chip in it with legacy support.  No DOS game can find the settings and setting them manually does nothing.  
 
Words of advice...if you can opt for it, and are trying to repurpose an old computer, get a true Sound Blaster.  You'll have less headaches 😉.
 
 

Nice.  And Doom to boot!  Quake was a power hungry game when it came out.  I remember the AMD K6-2 500mhz CPU I had at the time struggled a bit.  Quake and Hexen...but I could play Final Fantasy 7 without problems.  Once I installed a Diamond Monster video card it could play anything seemed like.
Very nice all-in-one setup for sure.  Can you add more RAM if you need it or is it maxed already?

Fun Fact: The 1989 Lotus Esprit SE was the "movie car" that Richard Gere famously drove throughout the film Pretty Woman. Neither Ferrari nor Porsche wanted to be associated with Pretty Woman because one of the leads was a prostitute, so they prohibited the film from using their cars. 
Lotus didn’t mind.
 

If I remember correctly, once integrated sound chips became a standard, most DOS games took the hit.  My little Compaq has an ESS sound chip in it with legacy support.  No DOS game can find the settings and setting them manually does nothing.  
 
Words of advice...if you can opt for it, and are trying to repurpose an old computer, get a true Sound Blaster.  You'll have less headaches 😉.
 
 

Nice.  And Doom to boot!  Quake was a power hungry game when it came out.  I remember the AMD K6-2 500mhz CPU I had at the time struggled a bit.  Quake and Hexen...but I could play Final Fantasy 7 without problems.  Once I installed a Diamond Monster video card it could play anything seemed like.
Very nice all-in-one setup for sure.  Can you add more RAM if you need it or is it maxed already?

Okay, as I stated. Here is what it all looks like complete now.
 
 
Here is the wiring that has been done on the original AV jacks. I still need to wipe out the interior a bit to try and clean it a bit more but you get the idea on at least how the wiring on it is now. This is the overall wiring inside.

And here is a close up of the AV jacks with the new wiring in place. Hopefully this looks more cleaned up compared to before?

And I did manage to get pics of another console done in the same manner so you can see what I initially start off dealing with.

Once the wiring was removed off the TIA and the TIA itself was removed from the main board, this is what I'm left looking at.

I was able to straighten the legs back into shape but one of the legs is broken off a bit and shorter than the others. This is pin 12 which is part of the TIA audio but enough remains to allow it to still work.

But at least for now, this 2600 is alive and well again and ready for many more years of active gaming!
 

Very cool. As far as real hardware I do not own a Famicom, I DO have one of those adapters you can use plug plug a Famicom cart into a NES or compatible system, that said I only have a  single Famicom cart at that itself is a cheapo knockoff multicart with mostly bad titles 😆I guess another option is using my original Nintendo or my Retrobit RetroTrio clone (it plays NES / SNES / GENEIS carts) and I could use my EverDrive N8 Flashcart and load Famicom roms off it. I will likely never own an original Famicom since my collecting is highly curbed these days but I always like the looks of them compared to the North American NES and the carts, don't even get me started, from label art to the compact size I was amazed by Famicom carts and was always disappointed we didn't get that design. Nice and interesting write up, thanks for sharing. 

The main problem I have is that when I want to play this game from my UnoCart, I can't remember the name.  Bugs?  No.  La Cucaracha?  No.  Dang it!  Let's just play Moon Patrol instead. 
Hey, here's a good idea...I should rename the file on that cart to LaCucaracha.  BOOM.  Problem solved. 
 
 

Thank you for the compliment.  That's why I try to review games and I see no point in sugar coating it.  It is not a Star Raiders game.  At least not a SR game we are use to.  I would rather let you guys know not to waste your money on something than to stay hush hush.  I know Atari also revamped Yar's Revenge.  I wonder how bad they messed that one up?

I'm sorry you are disappointed.  On the bright side, your review is excellent and I enjoyed reading it.  I'll steer clear of this game! 
 

That RPG you're playing does sound a bit different.  Not liking someone because they are not powerful enough?  That would be unexpected for sure.