Atarileaf

I was blessed enough to not miss many consoles growing up. I was part of the NES craze and had almost 100 games for it by the time the craze started to wear down. Most of that library was made up of popular titles. My favorites were Mega Man 2, Life Force, Guardian Legend, Zanac, Stinger, you get the idea. I lost many hours and weekend rest trying to beat those games and Castlevania 2. Since I didn't dig into sports games much I picked a few up not too long ago since they are the cheaper titles to obtain...literally a few dollars or less per title.
 
I am probably going to get tomatoes for saying this but when I got my 5200 I often dogged the 2600. When I would see identical titles for both systems I would look at the screenshots on the back of the boxes in stores. I felt like I had the better system because of visuals and sounds. Whenever I wasn't at home and visiting either family or friends who had a 2600 I would enjoy some 2600 game play but couldn't wait to get back home to my 5200.
 
I now own two 2600 models and almost 100 games. Space Invaders was my only reason for wanting a 2600 in the first place so that game was found first, all other titles were basically grabbed because I either didn't have them or I had some memories of them. Enduro, Pac-Man, Jr. Pac-Man, Missile Command, Vanguard, Warlords, Yar's Revenge I were familiar with the most. The 2600 taught me a valuable lesson as a gamer and collector in that it is not always how the games look but how they play. And most of the time the 2600 got the game play perfect. Most of the 2600 games I have now I find fun if not frustrating at times. The system shares the number two spot in my favorite systems list with the NES.

Come to think of it, I would have to say no. If I didn't own a system my friends did. I had the VCS and an NES then later Genesis and Playstation. My buddy had the VCS, Coleco/ADAM and a Master System so I was set there. Intellivision would be the closest but because I was jealous of it more than anything. Another one of my friends older brother had one and did not get to play it much. So in a way I snobed it then but enjoy it now. Had I been able to play on one more often I don't think it would have counted here. lol Everything I played then I still love today. In fact I have a few systems that I LOVED then but feel lukewarm about today such as the NES. 
 
Very interesting question.  

Great post I really should look at the PS2 library a little closer because I've head many people mention it as one of the great consoles of all time and it's one admittedly I'm not overly familiar with.

I was wondering this since I did own a NES back in 1988 and at the time didn't care much for it. I was never much into the Super Mario or other platform games. I played Duck Hunt more than SMB. I simply didn't like the style of game where you get so far, die and have to start over from the beginning. As such I didn't care much for the system.
 
Flash forward to my collecting days and in discovering the NES library in it's entirety I found a lot of great arcade ports that really made me fall in love with the system to the point now where it's my favorite system after the Atari 2600 and 7800. I do have a few that I enjoyed back then that I still love now like RC Pro Am and Blades of Steel but it's mostly games I never owned in the 80's that I really enjoy now.
 
Is there a system that you love now that you didn't care for back then, mainly due to a lack of knowledge or experience with the whole library?

I started college in 1986, and was poor for 4 years.  Completely missed the NES wave, except for a few times playing at friends places.  Fast forward a few years -- I wasn't poor any more, but I was more focused on my career.  I had a PC for gaming, but didn't pay much attention the Genesis or SNES.  The console that got me back into the fold was Dreamcast.  Then I had kids....and kind of didn't game for a long time. 
 
Once I got into the retro scene and renewed my love of the older systems (Atari, Intellivision, Colecovision) I grew up with, I started getting more into NES and loving it.  For the same reasons you mention.  Mostly for the great controller and the abundance of really fun games.  Zelda.  Punch Out!, Elevator Action, Donkey Kong Classics, Tecmo Bowl, Super Mario Brothers.  So many great games, and it really feels like a logical successor to the 2600 (standing on the shoulders of giants). 
 
The other one I've really taken to is the PS2.  There are so many great games, and they are very inexpensive.  And I think the PS2 has the absolute perfect controller.  Fits my hands perfectly. 
 
Nowadays,  I think my top 5 are:  Atari 2600, Atari 7800, Atari 8-bit, PS2, NES.

I was wondering this since I did own a NES back in 1988 and at the time didn't care much for it. I was never much into the Super Mario or other platform games. I played Duck Hunt more than SMB. I simply didn't like the style of game where you get so far, die and have to start over from the beginning. As such I didn't care much for the system.
 
Flash forward to my collecting days and in discovering the NES library in it's entirety I found a lot of great arcade ports that really made me fall in love with the system to the point now where it's my favorite system after the Atari 2600 and 7800. I do have a few that I enjoyed back then that I still love now like RC Pro Am and Blades of Steel but it's mostly games I never owned in the 80's that I really enjoy now.
 
Is there a system that you love now that you didn't care for back then, mainly due to a lack of knowledge or experience with the whole library?

I was wondering this since I did own a NES back in 1988 and at the time didn't care much for it. I was never much into the Super Mario or other platform games. I played Duck Hunt more than SMB. I simply didn't like the style of game where you get so far, die and have to start over from the beginning. As such I didn't care much for the system.
 
Flash forward to my collecting days and in discovering the NES library in it's entirety I found a lot of great arcade ports that really made me fall in love with the system to the point now where it's my favorite system after the Atari 2600 and 7800. I do have a few that I enjoyed back then that I still love now like RC Pro Am and Blades of Steel but it's mostly games I never owned in the 80's that I really enjoy now.
 
Is there a system that you love now that you didn't care for back then, mainly due to a lack of knowledge or experience with the whole library?

I say yes for the following reasons.
It's much easier to load up games on a micro-sd card than having to reprogram the flash cart. Micro-SD can have a much bigger capacity than 8 MB.  You can put the entire library on one card. ATR files.  You can load disk images on the UNO Cart. It's only about $60 shipped for the UNO Cart.  A bargain.

I didn't even know about the Space Invaders double shot until a few years ago. It almost seems like an easter egg more so than frying as it works every time where as frying don't you need to try again and again to get it right? Hence the possible damage it could cause. I don't think hitting reset while powering on a VCS would cause damage either.

I'm extremely curious (perhaps morbidly curious is a better term) about it the way people are about big celebrity breakups or political scandals. I have no interest in preordering as I'm not one to support potential vaporware but if and when this thing does hit the market I'm very curious of the reviews of it and what it will actually do, especially to justify its insane price point.
 
The Retron 77 however is one I will probably support despite some reservations I also have for it. At least Hyperkin does make actual products people like and buy, as flawed as they may be. Between it and what I'm hoping will be SD card support for the next Flashback I can't see a need for the AtariVCSbox but I will follow the train wreck as it stumbles down the track.

Oh don't worry I'm staying Justin. I actually only post on this site anymore. It's a nice easy going group here.

Thanks NSG No I won't shut the channel down. Too much effort over the years to just delete anything. I see other channels over the years do that (Jboypacman comes to mind) and I don't understand the need. I'll keep it up for archival purposes and you're right, never say never. The difference this time is I've pretty much gutted my collection to the bare minimum so unless I'm wowed by something in the future I can't see making anything

This game was placed in the last Retro Junk box by Rowsdower70 (Thank you, sir!)
 
I finally took the time to really play it, and thought I'd give my impression here.
 
The game itself is labeled as #17 of 20, and signed by Joe Grisaffi (one of the designers and director of the film) and was made in 2013. I have not seen the film this game is based on, but it appears to be available for free on-line, and I'm going to check it out. I also don't know if only 20 copies of this cartridge were created. If so, that's a shame, as the game is really good. It came with a manual which is simple and well done.
 
The game has a really nice opening screen with great music. You start as a naked guy who has to find his armor. Once you find it, you can use your sword to hack up 4 victims that you have to search for. Each time you kill a victim, a policeman is spawned. They shoot you, and you are unable to kill them. After the 4th victim is killed, the goal becomes to find a character named "Marla" and drag her into a castle. Once inside, you must defeat a Boss Queen by shooting away at her shields and then the queen herself.
 
The game reminds me a lot of "Haunted House" -- lots of searching and exploring, while avoiding the bad guys as best you can. I think it's really a lot of fun. It makes you want to keep playing until you can defeat at least one boss. The graphics are great, and there's no flicker at all.
 
RickR's final grade: A
 
Anyone else have more info on this game, or an opinion on the gameplay?

I liked it because it could make for interesting results especially in games that I had pretty much conquered and otherwise just were not as interesting anymore. I know in some places I mentioned this some comments were along the lines of "What? If I broke my console as a kid my parents would not buy a knew one, I would never risk that" well true intentionally rapidly flicking the on / off switch or inserting carts rapidly while power was on probably was not the greatest thing for the life of the console or games but that said I was pretty much under the same restrictions, I did not have much and if I broke something it was unlikely it would have been replaced but I just could not help myself, heck I took apart most of my toys through childhood and definitely through my young teens which later evolved to my electronics etc. I just had to find out what made things tick and I rarely regretted it, not to say I didn't occasionally break something, some things I reassembled but though they worked again were never quite "right" but I felt I learned a lot and the tinkering was entertainment in itself. Maybe I was just a weird kid.  
 
OF COURSE on that note for those collectors who might not want to attempt "frying" on an original console apparently it is possible to recreate 
the effect using the Stella 2600 emulator so nothing is at risk 
 

 
 

The UNO Cart - from The Brewing Academy. 
 
What is it?
A simple, inexpensive SD multi-cart for the Atari 8-bit computers.  Load XEX/ATR/CAR/ROM image files onto a micro-sd, and load them on real hardware using a menu.
 
More info and pricing:  http://www.thebrewingacademy.com/
Also available on ebay (search for "Atari UNO")
 
RickR Review:
Pros:
The menu works well.  I love the "Find" feature, which makes it very easy to quickly find and load the game you want. ATR files load FAST.  ATR files are essentially floppy disk images.  Inexpensive.  Very good support via AtariAge or directly from the maker.  Comes with an excellent paper manual.  Nice cartridge shell included.  Cons:
No joystick support in menu.  It's kind of cumbersome to use the arrow keys to find stuff.  Use the "Find" feature instead. Only for XL/XE computers.  Won't work on 400/800. Remember to hold down "Option" key when loading ATR files (to disable Basic).  Summary:
If you have an XL or XE computer, GET THIS!  It is excellent.  A very inexpensive way to have almost every piece of software available for the 8-bit computers. It works well.  A+. 

One of the best parts of playing One-on-One Basketball for the Atari 7800, is when you shatter the glass backboard!

Time to rank my 30th Sega Genesis Game
Ep 442: Caesar's Palace 

Put the pizazz on my Bridge Direct Arcade Classics MiniCade

Fighting the evil Galactic Orbital Robotic Force in these new episode of AtariCade 2600! GORF!!!!!

Thanks NSG No I won't shut the channel down. Too much effort over the years to just delete anything. I see other channels over the years do that (Jboypacman comes to mind) and I don't understand the need. I'll keep it up for archival purposes and you're right, never say never. The difference this time is I've pretty much gutted my collection to the bare minimum so unless I'm wowed by something in the future I can't see making anything

Oh don't worry I'm staying Justin. I actually only post on this site anymore. It's a nice easy going group here.

My first book "The Atari 2600 Homebrew Companion: Volume 1" just went LIVE this morning via Amazon.com (plus 6 other countries)! The paperback is printed in black & white on creme paper, just like the 80's video game digest books. It covers 34 homebrew titles for the Atari 2600 in 182 total pages. Homebrews spanning from 1995 to today! 
 
Amazon Kindle version will be available in a couple of days for $3.99. If you purchase the paperback and want the kindle too, the kindle version is reduced to $1.99.
I'm also going to upload a color version of the same book, since I've had numerous requests for color pictures (though it will be pricey due to the color printing costs of Amazon). 
 
There are some preview pics of selected pages (by Amazon) on the webpage. Just click "Look Inside" right above the picture of the cover to see them. If you'd like to see a sample title, I can post one here, since Amazon only shows the beginning few pages and none of the actual homebrew titles. The game list is in the table of contents which is one of the preview pages.
 
 
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1980969396/
 
 
If you purchase a copy, please let me know what you think. How did I do for my first book? Anything you'd like to see added for Volume 2?
 
Thanks!
Brian

Agreed. And Atarileaf, you're still invited to post your older videos in this thread. Other members may not have found your channel before and may enjoy your videos.

That's really heartbreaking news Atarileaf! You and Maximum RD were the first channels I ever subscribed to so many years ago. I'm sad that you're leaving and I hope you'll still pop into the forums sometimes, we love having you here!
 
 
 
 
We have one or two things but our YouTube channel got axed for no apparent reason. I have to reupload stuff to a new channel. I'll get you something asap! Thanks Willie!