Atari 7800 System Video Review

[nosweargamer]

Guess what? I reviewed the 7800 system itself including going over some of the history and what originally came bundled with it. You can check it out here:

 

[The Professor]

It's confirmed that Paperboy was completed for the 7800?

[The Professor]

We absolutely need to get that ROM released. Paperboy, RoadBlasters, and Marble Madness all should have been 7800 exclusives.

[AlamoAtari]

oooohhhh paper boy. That would be fun!

[RickR]

What a shame if it's gone forever. 

[Atari 5200 Guy]

I am with most posters here; the 7800 is a very underrated system.  And I also believe that it was mishandled by Atari themselves.  While it had graphic abilities similar to arcade games from the early 1980's they should have tried to push the system to do more unique and original games.  Most of the games it got, while some of the best ports any Atari console ever seen up to that point, was already worn out and the public had moved on.  

 

It's already been proven that the 7800 could have done a great adventure game so I would have liked to see something like Gradius on the system.  There are so many things that could have been done that wasn't.  I really believe that the 7800 could have out powered the NES in the graphics department because of the amount of sprites it could handle at one time.  That, alone, is something that the NES simply couldn't do.  The graphic power was there and, even with just the TIA chip providing the sounds, there are times when the two-channel sound limitation is not noticeable with proper programming.  Just listen to Ms. Pac-Man and Xevious on the 7800.  Those are using TIA and not the POKEY add-on.  

 

The only thing I could think of that would have hurt the system would have to be those GOD-awful joystick controllers.  For some games the joysticks worked well but for extended or endurance gaming forget it.  

 

Again...just my opinion.

[nosweargamer]

 

UK Press happy to create myth of Bob Armour doing Gauntlet (i wish)

 

7800 Turrican would be seen running at Atari Show (again i wish).

 

 

I've heard many mentions of 7800 Gauntlet, but of course no evidence that anything really got started on it.

That's the first mention of Turrican on the 7800 I've heard. With all the sprites the 7800 could fit on screen, it might have worked, although it seems more like a 16 bit title to me and the Turrican name wasn't all that strong in the US. (They turned Turrican 2 into Universal Soldiers for the Genesis). But again, that sounds like nothing more than a rumor.

 

I wonder how easy it would be start a new 7800 rumor?

 

Hey! Did you hear about the Dragon's Lair game in development for the ill-fated Atari 7800 Laser Disc add on? 

Rumor has it that Atari made a prototype that Jack Tramiel ended up putting in a playroom for his grand kids after he bought the company.

[TrekMD]

Well, someone should hack Dark Chambers and just get Gaunlet made for the 7800 that way.