Squad Challenge - Galaxian (Atari 2600)

[RickR]

1 minute ago, HDN said:

I didn't know they made 2600 carts in the 7800 style without the shielding.  I have a Jungle Hunt like that. I thought it was broken or something until I got my 7800 earlier this week and saw PPII was the same! Now that I look at it, I see the plastic spear thingies in there are a completely different shape than the spears in the shielded carts! Silly me. It does say 1988 on the cartridge.

They also make carts with a dust shield that does not lock.  It's spring loaded, but doesn't lock closed.  I guess there were steps to cheapness. 

 

[Justin]

1 hour ago, RickR said:

@RickR am I seeing that right, that there is no bar code on the bottom right where the white box is for it? It's not often that you see an "international" box from the Warner Communications era, most of the time when I see these they have a later copyright and are from Tramiel's Atari Corp.

[RickR]

1 minute ago, Justin said:

@RickR am I seeing that right, that there is no bar code on the bottom right where the white box is for it? It's not often that you see an "international" box from the Warner Communications era, most of the time when I see these they have a later copyright and are from Tramiel's Atari Corp.

That's right.  I'm trying to remember when and where I got this, but drawing a blank.  I also have no idea why it's in the fancy box cover.  Do you think it's rare or valuable? 

 

[HDN]

14,980. I'm improving. Sorry it's so blurry.

By the way, is it just me that is bothered when people say the aliens are the Galaxians? Even the back of the 2600 box says that. But in the arcade it says WE are the Galaxians. Mission: Destroy aliens. I mean it could be the aliens that are talking because technically earthlings would be aliens to them, but on the arcade attract mode it also says "Bonus Galaxip for x points." So the Galaxip is your extra ship, so that confirms you play as the Galaxians. The aliens I always assumed were the Galaga. I think it mentions something about that in Galaga or the arcade manual, but don't quote me on that. 

[RickR]

And another little interesting thing.  The manual is also multi-language, and the back lists "International Division" with the Crossman Ave address.  It's also dated 1983.

 

[Justin]

31 minutes ago, RickR said:

That's right.  I'm trying to remember when and where I got this, but drawing a blank.  I also have no idea why it's in the fancy box cover.  Do you think it's rare or valuable? 

In my opinion anything Atari in a full color retail box that lacks a UPC bar code on the back is, at the very least, interesting. I have a 10/10 perfect E.T. in the box, but the colors look slightly off (the blue sky is a little more aqua) it lacks the little holoptic sticker on top, it has updated text on the back, there's no bar code on it whatsoever, and it has a 1986 Atari Corp. copyright, which is weird because the game was so horrible that they had to put them all in a dump, right? There's explanations for everything, but Atari products without bar codes where there should be one are interesting to look into.

"Valuable" is subjective. This year we've seen some weird action in the Atari collector market. Some of the games are getting snatched up by people who are interested in comic books and want the games with the DC Comics inside of them. So to those people, your game would have less value and less interest. To an Atari historian or someone who pays attention to box and label variations, this is interesting. I don't think the "international" boxes are anything that uncommon, I see those a lot, but they are primarily from the Tramiel era. I thought it was something he was into because Tramiel was from Europe and Canada and had lots of European connections from Commodore that he was leveraging for games. So a good number of 2600 games from the mid-late 80s had international packaging and manuals. They did it with Lynx too, especially in the black box era. Interestingly, @btbfilms76 discussed this this week in a fairly detailed overview just a few days ago in his Todd's Adventures in Slime World episode, at the 4:15 mark.

 

10 minutes ago, RickR said:

And another little interesting thing.  The manual is also multi-language, and the back lists "International Division" with the Crossman Ave address.  It's also dated 1983.

I would expect a multi-language manual to go along with the multi-language packaging, that was pretty standard. Except for the 1983 copyright, and Jack Tramiel international manuals were often black and white.

[HDN]

1 hour ago, RickR said:

And another little interesting thing.  The manual is also multi-language, and the back lists "International Division" with the Crossman Ave address.  It's also dated 1983.

 

Nosotros somos las Galaxians.

El mision: destruir Los extraterrestres.

Edit: a big sorry to those who actually speak Spanish for offending the language with my utter lack of Spanish-speaking skills.

Edited September 3, 2020 by HDN
Added apology for my butchering of Spanish

[socrates63]

31,150

Finally broke 30k

 

[RickR]

22,740.  A slight improvement

 

[RickR]

26,410.  I need to ice my wrist if I want to try again today.

 

[TrekMD]

Played a little bit the regular version and the Galaxian Arcade hack.  Pictures of both for those who may not have seen the hack...

Hey @btbfilms76, enter me to win!

Edited September 4, 2020 by TrekMD

[Atari 5200 Guy]

I like the hacked version.  That looks incredible for the 2600.

@Justin and @RickR it would make sense for the box to NOT have a UPC printed on it.  It makes sense to let the receiver print their own barcode because every country is going to have a unique barcode.  Am I wrong?

Edited September 4, 2020 by Atari 5200 Guy

[socrates63]

@TrekMD now that looks like Galaxian! I need to get a hold of that hack.

[RickR]

I agree that Galaxian hack looks awesome.  Thanks, @TrekMD!

I'm pretty sure it's this one:  https://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=106

Reasonably priced!

[TrekMD]

I'm afraid that one being sold in AA is not the same hack.  There are two more versions that have been made that are better graphically than that one.  I'm attaching the binaries here.  The one I played and posted the picture of is Galaxian Arcade (but different than AA store one).  That one is a hack of another hack, Galaxian Expanded, which was also hacked  visually!  Yes, it gets confusing!  😁

Galaxian Arcade.bin Galaxian Expanded GFX Hack.bin

[RadioPoultry]

17,960

 

[HDN]

I have played the arcade hack before. My problem with it is that there is no incentive to play it for me. It looks almost as good as the arcade, but plays and sounds exactly like the VCS original. Sure, it looks nicer, but in this day and age why not just play a better port? It's not too terribly impressive for the system, like something like DK VCS or whatever. I know I'm in the minority here, and for all of you who grew up with the originals they probably seem amazing, but for me, if it's the same game gameplay-wise I'm going to go with the original. Plus, I heard yellow borders are the new hot trend.

[Atari 5200 Guy]

I played a few rounds but only made it to 11,040 points I believe.  Tough little game.

 

[Atari 5200 Guy]

Went for another few rounds 😄 Got a better score.  18,460 is what I believe I made.

 

 

[RickR]

10 hours ago, HDN said:

I have played the arcade hack before. My problem with it is that there is no incentive to play it for me. It looks almost as good as the arcade, but plays and sounds exactly like the VCS original. Sure, it looks nicer, but in this day and age why not just play a better port? It's not too terribly impressive for the system, like something like DK VCS or whatever. I know I'm in the minority here, and for all of you who grew up with the originals they probably seem amazing, but for me, if it's the same game gameplay-wise I'm going to go with the original. Plus, I heard yellow borders are the new hot trend.

I haven't played the hack yet, but I understand your point. 

Galaxian on the 2600 is good.  I really like the way the swooping aliens move.  It's a good approximation of the arcade version.  Plus, it's difficult yet fair, just like the arcade version.

On the minus side, they didn't get the sounds right at all.  Those iconic sounds are a huge appeal of the arcade version to me.  The orange border is kind of weird, but when you play the game, I don't notice it at all. 

I take it the hack doesn't really address the minuses at all?

[HDN]

56 minutes ago, RickR said:

I haven't played the hack yet, but I understand your point. 

Galaxian on the 2600 is good.  I really like the way the swooping aliens move.  It's a good approximation of the arcade version.  Plus, it's difficult yet fair, just like the arcade version.

On the minus side, they didn't get the sounds right at all.  Those iconic sounds are a huge appeal of the arcade version to me.  The orange border is kind of weird, but when you play the game, I don't notice it at all. 

I take it the hack doesn't really address the minuses at all?

No, not really. It got rid of the border, but the sounds are the same. It also seems to be a bit more sluggish, but that might just be me or my emulator. The arcade version wasn't very fast, but it didn't have those massive gaps between the aliens. It also flickers a bit more on the Galaxip, as it's now multicolored. Overall, nothing to write home about. Complaining about the border is stupid, because like you said you don't notice when playing. It's like pillarboxing or letterboxing in a video game or movie.

[RickR]

The orange border is a weird choice is all.  It would have been easy to program it as black.  I don't mind it.  Given that there's no moving star field, it doesn't impact anything.  The game was well-received back in 1983.  "Pretty good" was the consensus I think. 

I'll try to play the hacks at some point today.  I'm guessing it will be ok, but not as life-altering as the Pac-Man hacks and improvements. 

PS - those purple guys are the worst!  They are responsible for 90% of my life losses. 

 

Edited September 4, 2020 by RickR

[Willie!]

Playin' some Galaxian on my 2600 as part of the Atari IO High Score Squad Challenge 😛 (spoilers, I am terrible :P)

[RickR]

@Willie! is in da house!  I'm glad you joined in.  Awesome!

 

[Atari 5200 Guy]

16 hours ago, Willie! said:

Playin' some Galaxian on my 2600 as part of the Atari IO High Score Squad Challenge 😛 (spoilers, I am terrible :P)

Glad to see you here my good friend!!  It's not about the score but how you play the game, bud.  Win or lose, good or bad, the more friends playing the better.