Harry's Adventures in 7800 Collecting

[TrekMD]

I'm eagerly waiting for the Jaguar version of Xevious that is still being worked on.  It looks and sounds awesome! 

[HDN]

2 hours ago, socrates63 said:

I haven't played 7800 Food Fight yet

That is surprising given how much everyone loves it. How many of your games do you actually play?

[Atari 5200 Guy]

@HDN You do realize that the 7800 was the only Atari to get Galaga?  And, for what it is worth, it is a fun game.  I especially enjoy the sound effects personally.  And don't let that slowness fool you...that game gets crazy fast I believe at Round 10.  I am not a fan of Galaga but I enjoy the 7800 version.  And I was just looking at that photo of the 7800 games at the store and noticed something...there's a silver label PPII there.  I've never seen those.

The upside-down Touchdown Football looks like it was taken apart at one point.  There are also some titles on the far right I can't make out (long names) under Dig Dug and under Xevious.

My Thoughts On...

XEVIOUS

Xevious is quite possibly one of my favorite shooters on the 7800.  The sounds are almost 100% accurate to the arcade sounds which is amazing considering it is using TIA's two channels just for sounds.  This is one of few 7800 games to be very impressive in the graphics AND sounds department.  It also offers two ways to use the fire buttons by using the difficulty switches.  One of my go-to games on the 7800.

FOOD FIGHT

Food Fight was one of the titles I got with my original 7800 many Christmas Eves ago.  It was the last one I tried before "having" to go to bed.  Yea, right, I stayed up all night playing that machine.  Seriously...I didn't go to bed until about 5 or 6 in the morning.  Once I put it in and watched the demo I thought it was going to be one of the dumbest games in the collection.  Nope.  Once I started playing it was hard to put down.  Throwing food at chefs can be a LOT of fun.  This game should be in anyone's collection who owns a 7800.  Buying this game is no-brainer.

GALAGA

Galaga I already mentioned above but for completeness I'll add to that here.  This was another one of the titles I got with my original 7800 and it was played a LOT.  I am not a fan of this game as I prefer Galaxian over Galaga but once I started playing this one it was addictive.  The 7800 has a decent Galaga port that has its own charm about it.  The sounds are not entirely accurate but are effective.  Out of all of the other ports of this game the 7800 is my favorite of them all.  In otherwords I'd rather play Galaga on the 7800 than anything else. 

The 7800 as a whole did have a troubled shelf life and really never got the fan fare it really deserves.  What arcade ports it got were done between almost perfect and perfect in my opinion.  Ms Pac-Man, Joust, Centipede, Dig Dug, Food Fight, Xevious, Galaga, just to name a few, are a mixed bag.  Some use the same sounds as their 2600 brothers but are still impressive ports.  Asteroids, while based off the arcade, is actually a unique game that stands alone.  Robotron really shows the 7800's strength.  

Personally, I would have loved to have seen more arcade ports brought to the 7800 as well as some 7800 versions of some of the red-boxed 2600 titles.  It would not have hurt the 7800 to see Moon Patrol and also Solaris, Gravatar, Midnight Magic, and a few others.  Unfortunately too little too late and those old arcade games no longer mattered.  It's a shame really.

[Atari 5200 Guy]

On 9/29/2020 at 1:23 PM, HDN said:

I'm going to raid this shelf when I can afford it. I hope I can beat everyone to it. Quick question, though: is the Choplifter with the red text the one that patched the bug or is it the one with the black text and monochrome label?

I'd grab all of those. Duplicates are good for trades 😉 

I'd grab the colored one of Choplifter.  It's what I have and I've not found a bug yet.

[HDN]

5 minutes ago, Atari 5200 Guy said:

There are also some titles on the far right I can't make out (long names) under Dig Dug and under Xevious.

Realsports Baseball and Touchdown Football.

8 minutes ago, Atari 5200 Guy said:

@HDN You do realize that the 7800 was the only Atari to get Galaga?  And, for what it is worth, it is a fun game.  I especially enjoy the sound effects personally.  And don't let that slowness fool you...that game gets crazy fast I believe at Round 10.  I am not a fan of Galaga but I enjoy the 7800 version. 

Yes, I do realize that, and that's pretty cool. I'm not hating on the game, but I just think it looks a little strange compared to the arcade and NES releases. I will no doubt enjoy it and play a lot of it. The imperfections give me a reason to return to this specific version. Fellow Galaxian fan here.

10 minutes ago, Atari 5200 Guy said:

And I was just looking at that photo of the 7800 games at the store and noticed something...there's a silver label PPII there.  I've never seen those.

Yeah, they do have that. I also saw a CIB Pole Position II there once.

7 minutes ago, Atari 5200 Guy said:

I'd grab the colored one of Choplifter.  It's what I have and I've not found a bug yet.

I don't know if that's the buggy 1987 version or the fixed 1988 version. I have the 1988 system, the one most affected by the bug. That cart was $5.

[socrates63]

31 minutes ago, HDN said:

That is surprising given how much everyone loves it. How many of your games do you actually play?

I've only had my Atari consoles for a few months. The pace of my purchases to add games to my library has far exceeded my ability to play them, and that's been true for any gaming platform that I've gotten games for 🙂 

As far as how many games have I actually played? Less than 5% but that's what retirement is for 🙂 But in all seriousness, I may pare down my games collection as my collection is pretty large. Earlier this week, I removed all my Playstation Vita and GameCube games from the shelf to make room for my Atari games. I mentioned this in another thread, but this is part of my thinking around evaluating my collection and keeping those that mean the most to me (mainly for space considerations).

 

[HDN]

1 hour ago, socrates63 said:

I've only had my Atari consoles for a few months. The pace of my purchases to add games to my library has far exceeded my ability to play them, and that's been true for any gaming platform that I've gotten games for 🙂 

As far as how many games have I actually played? Less than 5% but that's what retirement is for 🙂 But in all seriousness, I may pare down my games collection as my collection is pretty large. Earlier this week, I removed all my Playstation Vita and GameCube games from the shelf to make room for my Atari games. I mentioned this in another thread, but this is part of my thinking around evaluating my collection and keeping those that mean the most to me (mainly for space considerations).

 

Having enough games where space becomes a problem for me is like my dream. My collection isn't nearly as large as most of yours, only about 230~ish items in it. Like I've said previously, it's been being built up in separate chunks since 1981 or so. I'm really quite proud of it so far. Last week I finally took the time and cataloged it using pricecharting.com. When I have disposable income I would like to invest in some obscure consoles like the Channel F and Bally Astrocade, as well as get some vintage computers. I have wanted to learn BASIC since I first discovered The 8-Bit Guy a few years ago.

My 7800 collecting and game collecting as a whole will be paused for the moment after I get these games. For Christmas I hope to get some games as well. Mainly BallBlazer, Pilotwings, and 7800 Mario Brothers. I also hope to get some more retro gaming shirts and things. Not many people my age you see wanting Atari 7800 games for the holidays.

[socrates63]

Good for you, Harry. I'm only rediscovering the joys of 80s gaming nearly forty years later.

230-ish sounds like a great collection. I didn't start building a physical gaming library until four or five years ago when I got into retro gaming. It may actually be more beneficial not to have a lot of disposable income as it helps you to focus on things that really matter the most to you. Otherwise, you get into my situation where you try to pare down the collection to more personally meaningful stuff. And above all else, hold on to what you've collected so far. Otherwise, disposable income or not, those things may become expensive or incredibly rare or both later down the line.

Speaking of Christmas 🎄 we're only a month away before we're inundated with holiday music 🎶 I can almost hear the sleigh bells ringing.

[Atari 5200 Guy]

I've been working on mine for a decade. I have about 700 games now but that number includes digital games as well which makes up most of that number.  Although trying to cram in an orderly fashion lots of games and systems in a room of a 1 bedroom apartment is impossible.  I can only use one console at a time so I drag out a system to play for a while and then back it goes.  Only the 360 and XBOne stay connected.  I really dislike the juggling act I have to do and my wife nitpicks at me about it sometimes but I do enjoy what I have.  Although thinning it down and concentrating on just Atari stuff has crossed my mind a time or two...but I'd miss my OG XBOX, NES, F-Zero...see what I mean?

[CrossBow]

I've been actually collecting since the late 90s. I have well over 2,000 games but no complete collections for any one system. Although the closest are likely my 5200 and 7800 collections As I really only need the heavy hitters for those. But the point is that I do lack the space to add much more without it starting to look like being a horder so I did trade in last year about half of my PS2 collection and might do the same with my 360 and PS3 games as well only keeping ones that I'm likely to want to play again in the future that don't have a remaster available on something newer or that I might now own on PC. 

And I need to get rid of my 150 or so LDs that I still have taking up shelf space...ugh. 

[HDN]

I've said this before, but most of my retro games were inherited from family members. My 2600 was from my dad's cousin, my NES was from my uncle, and the rest were ones my dad used to have. So I guess it's been nearly 40 years, but all were collected separately and then combined.

My games are currently two hours away. I don't think they'll be coming today, but I can wait.

 

[RickR]

13 hours ago, socrates63 said:

that's what retirement is for

I'm in this same boat.  Trying to play.  I rarely do.  Normally, I'll play the current high score squad game.  And also, I play a lot of Nintendo DS (although it takes me forever to complete any given game). 

 

29 minutes ago, CrossBow said:

And I need to get rid of my 150 or so LDs that I still have taking up shelf space...ugh

I may have mentioned this before, but I had a large LD collection a while back and sold it all (well, I kept a few favorite disks just for the artwork.  2 Star Trek movies and Fantasia).  It felt so good, as it really did take up a lot of space (and weight!).  Even the players are huge.  I understand the allure, and I have nothing against those who still collect LD.  It's a cool medium that looks and sounds great.  But DVD's are smaller!

 

[HDN]

LD's are really cool. Will I ever collect them? Probably not as I'm not a movie guy particularly. If I want to watch a movie I'll just use Netflix or something. But I would like to get a couple LD's someday. They're so cool. They're the vinyl records of film.

By the way, my package is now only about an hour away! The site takes a while to update. I hope I can get my 7800 back before tomorrow to play them.

[CrossBow]

3 hours ago, RickR said:

I may have mentioned this before, but I had a large LD collection a while back and sold it all (well, I kept a few favorite disks just for the artwork.  2 Star Trek movies and Fantasia).  It felt so good, as it really did take up a lot of space (and weight!).  Even the players are huge.  I understand the allure, and I have nothing against those who still collect LD.  It's a cool medium that looks and sounds great.  But DVD's are smaller!

Yes I had only been holding on to them because even with DVDs, the picture and especially the audio was still superior on many of my LDs vs their DVD versions. Additionally I think I still have some LDs of movies that never got released to DVD or especially never received a Blu-ray release. 

But with Blu-ray and especially UltraHD Blu... the LDs cannot compete at this point. The picture and sound have never been better than when Blu-ray was released. I've had a few people want to buy a few of the movies I have, but I honestly am just tempted to dump the whole lot at the local goodwill and make it a tax write off for next year.

 

[RickR]

Your plan seems good.  Selling locally would be nice.  I know a lot of people would like to buy those LD exclusives, but it's hard even to find a box big enough to ship them safely. 

When I sold mine, I just put the whole lot (with player) on Craigslist. 

 

[HDN]

Two things I would like to show you all:

I don't think I've ever shown this little guy off before, but this is my Woody over at my grandparents' house. Over here we have a few games like Basketball, Towering Inferno, and Lock and Chase. I rotate the games out frequently. Mostly multiplayer exclusive games are over here. Thank God, I can play this thing! I have tried Home Run and Crystal Castles out finally; they are fun games!

Oh, and that other thing. I just wanted to mention that my grandparents' water heater always gives me hand cramps!

[HDN]

@chas10e's games are out for delivery as we speak! So excited to play them. Thankfully, my dad said I can try them out a little bit when they arrive, but I have to put the 7800 back in the closet when I'm done. I hope I can get it back for real soon. It's nice to be able to try out these games, but I have a feeling I'm going to want to do more than just try them out!

[HDN]

@chas10e is the man! Today my games came. Galaga, Food Fight, and Xevious were all there, but there was something else! He snuck in Global Orbiting Robot Force (GORF) for the Atari 2600! That is so cool! Thanks, man! 

GORF and I haven't gotten along the best over the years. I have emulated it a couple of times and didn't much like the way that the bullet dissapears when you press the fire button again. I haven't played it in a while... maybe I will have a change in heart like I did with Dragster on VCS. I really dig the CBS cartridges. I texted my dad about this game. He remembers it from the arcades. He said, and I quote: "Yeah [it's like Space Invaders] but with a big arching forcefield". I think he's talking about the boss of the game. I never got there before.

If you didn't hear, I'm currently working on a Space Invaders review for a pilot episode of a YouTube review series I would like to make. I will touch on GORF in it!

I think I'm going to keep the tape on Food Fight rather than heat it up with a hair dryer and peel it off. It seems like it's holding the label in place and I might make it worse if I remove it. Plus, the tape tells a story. I love damaged labels because of all the stories they tell.

I haven't played any of these yet, but I will later today (history class right now). I realized when I took out the 7800 from the closet that the XBOX fell on it and made a little crack in the cheap Tremiel plastic. Sigh. I bet it will still work.

I love getting games from the I/O. I got these three, I mean four, games from chas and I also got another from @RickR. These games really mean a lot to me that I get from here. Thanks, you two. And @socrates63 insists on letting me participate a little bit in the Retro Junk box. Thanks, Young. I forgot about asking my parents, so I will do that later tonight.

But getting games from this website is really cool. When I'm able to again I hope to do that more. Atari.io is the best website on the internet!

I might edit in a picture later. Desk is a mess right now.

[chas10e]

Glad you got 'em all ! I didn't know "GORF" was an acronym and glad your dad has a recollection of it from BITD.

I don't know what the story is with the tape on Food Fight so I guess one will have to be made-up. I'm thinking something along the line of keeping the food fresh, perhaps it''l have its own thread 😉

 

[HDN]

1 hour ago, chas10e said:

I don't know what the story is with the tape on Food Fight so I guess one will have to be made-up. I'm thinking something along the line of keeping the food fresh, perhaps it''l have its own thread 😉

That sounds like it might be fun. My guess is that there was a hole in the cartridge and angry chefs kept coming out and wreaking havoc. They raided the kitchen and starting chucking food all around the house. The tape was needed to keep them from coming back out.

Really enjoying these games. I will write more about them later. I need to spend a bit more time with them (mostly because I just want to play them more!).

 

Edited October 8, 2020 by HDN

[HDN]

These are all very fun games. Let's talk about the 7800 games first, as this is a 7800 thread. I hope to make a "Harry's Adventures in 2600 Collecting" thread as well someday instead of just including them both here.

Galaga really surprised me. This game (on the default "advanced" setting) is much harder for me than the arcade original! The enemies move slow when they're flying into formation, but once they started diving down it became surprisingly hard for me. I try to get the double ship thing on the first stage, and that was actually pretty hard to do here. The kamikaze enemies seem a lot more aggressive here. Overall, very fun game indeed, and it also sounds great for the system. The graphics are a little unusual, but that adds to the charm. Overall, I really enjoyed this port of Galaga. I might even like it more than the arcade version. It's a very unique port and worth playing because it's different.

I also really enjoyed Xevious. The music, to me at least, isn't as good as Galaga's. The opening song is a little off key, which is very typical of the TIA chip, but it still sounds pretty good. The sound effects, though, oh man! They're almost arcade perfect! That can't be said about many games using the TIA chip. Gameplay wise, well, it's Xevious, and it's still a lot of fun. Despite the 7800 having a lower resolution than the NES, the graphics still manage to be much more detailed than their NES counterparts. I played this game using the two-button mode. I held down the left button for most of the game and just tapped the right one for precision bombing. That works pretty well for me; I don't like the inaccuracy of firing both bombs and bullets at the same time. Xevious is a great port and I think it's much better than the NES version (which is much better than I remembered).

Oh, and of course, Food Fight. This was the game I spent the most time on, by far. Despite how everyone sings its praises, Food Fight still managed to exceed expectations. Just playing it is sheer bliss. It's so satisfying to machine gun tomatoes, pies, watermelon, and more at those chefs. The music is nice and fits the game well. The sound effects add to the enjoyment and satisfaction I get from playing the game. Getting an instant replay is always a "treat" as well. You were all right. This game is amazing!

AN OPEN LETTER TO GORF ON ATARI 2600:

Dear GORF,

I'm sorry, GORF. You're actually quite fun once I got used to your weird firing quirk. When you fire again when a bullet is in the air, it will disappear and a new bullet will be shot. Initially, I didn't like this feature as I kept canceling my shots, but I found that it is pretty necessary in the later stages. You need some precise aiming. It reminds me a bit of Artillery Duel mixed with Galaxian; there's a bit of anticipatory shooting involved here. I don't think I ever got past the laser beam level before today. I think it's pretty cool that many of the arcade levels are here. I also find it a bit funny that this game is more colorful than the 5200 port; the spaceship you control is only a single color in that version. Anyways, GORF, I was a bit surprised to find you in that box and I'm glad I was able to give you a second chance. You are a pretty fun game I wouldn't have gotten otherwise and I'm happy to have you here.

Sincerely,

Harry

I am very glad these games finally came. Thanks again, chas.

 

My official @nosweargamer "Hall of Fame" Atari 7800 games as of today:

1. Food Fight
2. Xevious
3. Galaga
4. One-on-One Basketball
5. Pole Position II

 

I am now done collecting for the 7800 for a while. While I'm waiting, I will have plenty of time to think about what games I am going to get next. There are so many good games on the system to choose from. Any suggestions?

[RickR]

Glad you are enjoying those games.  Food Fight is pretty fantastic!  How nice that you got your system back to try these games out.  It's a happy day for sure.

I would like to add that the arcade Gorf has the same firing quirk.  

[HDN]

11 hours ago, RickR said:

How nice that you got your system back to try these games out.  It's a happy day for sure.

It was pretty nice of my parents. Shame I can't play it again today! Ha, ha!

But I'm pretty confident in my ability to get it back for real. I've been practicing guitar for a couple hours each day. My mom wanted me to learn that Edmund Fitzgerald song before the anniversary of its sinking next month, so yesterday I played that same chord progression for maybe 3 hours just to get it perfect. I had it down, and I played it for my dad before my mom came home and he said it was pretty good. UNFORTUNATELY, about five minutes before my mom came home I burned my thumb and index finger when I was taking something out of the oven, so I wasn't able to play it. My fingers just kind of ache now, but WOW did they hurt last night! Hopefully I will be able to play the song tonight and (fingers crossed) get my 7800 back. My mom initially said I needed to learn a song before I could get it back, but she keeps moving the goal posts. I'm not sure if this Edmund Fitzgerald thing will get me my system back, but it is worth a shot. I mean, it can't hurt. Only thing that can hurt are my fingers!

12 hours ago, RickR said:

I would like to add that the arcade Gorf has the same firing quirk.

Interesting. The more I played it yesterday the more I appreciated this feature I used to despise. Your solitary bullet moves so slowly compared to Galaga, Galaxian, and even Space Invaders. It requires a bit more thinking and planning than those other games. It's quite different because of that one mechanic than most other Space Invaders-type games. It is a unique blend of dodging enemy fire and timing your shots carefully.

I think I forgot to mention that the shield my dad remembered from the boss level is absent in this version. Hitting that tiny weak spot on the boss ship is quite difficult. The shot cancelling mechanic comes in handy here.

I did some research on the arcade version of GORF. I had actually never seen it before; only the 5200 and 2600 ports. I didn't even know that GORF had speech synthesis. The sprites are literally just ripped from Space Invaders and Galaxian in some of the levels! Doesn't surprise me at all; Midway distributed these games in the US and probably thought they could make their own games using the same assets. These are the Ms. Pac-Man people, after all. And yes, I know it was GCC who originally made Ms. Pac-Man, but Midway distributed it.

I did notice that your ship was able to move along the y axis in some levels in GORF arcade. Can you do that in the 2600 port? I didn't think so.

[socrates63]

Harry, you need to record the video of your guitar-playing and put it up on your youtube channel!

[HDN]

2 hours ago, socrates63 said:

Harry, you need to record the video of your guitar-playing and put it up on your youtube channel!

Ha! That channel needs some tidying up. I hope to completely redo it someday and make it into a retro gaming channel. At the present, I can't get rid of any of those videos or make any changes as my browser is no longer supported by Youtube Creator Studio, and no newer browsers support my computer's OS. Plus, my guitar playing is quite terrible.

Getting a new computer is something I have considered, but to be honest I don't really use it that much. I mainly have been using it for doing guitar things, the I/O, and putting music on my DSi. Plus, I have some software on here that I often use and an optical media drive which I also use pretty frequently. I could just borrow my dad's computer if I need to upload a video and put said video on a USB drive.

Point is, I'd rather tough it out and just use my ancient Windows Vista computer and my ancient iPhone 5 and save my money for cool stuff like Atari 7800 games.