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ExcessBLarg! posted:So why did they make the 7800 backwards compatible with the 2600, but not the 5200? It's weird that Atari engineered their 8-bit consoles and home computers in separate, but parallel lines with the home computer-to-console cross-over happening twice. Because the 2600 actually sold and was popular. The 5200 sold like poo poo and barely had games, most of which worked better on the 8 bit computers. They also had completely different hardware, so a 7800 that could run both would be impractically expensive. They had to pick one to be backwards compatible with if they were going to pick one at all, so the 2600 was the way to go.
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May 14, 2017 20:45
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Don't be surprised that one day your Famicom imports might be cracked open: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/someone-used-nintendo-famicom-cartridges-to-smuggle-73-spiders 
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May 14, 2017 20:53
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ExcessBLarg! posted:So why did they make the 7800 backwards compatible with the 2600, but not the 5200? It's weird that Atari engineered their 8-bit consoles and home computers in separate, but parallel lines with the home computer-to-console cross-over happening twice. So here's the thing: Atari after they were acquired by Time-Warner was bugnuts insane. Essentially from 1981 on, things get really, really weird in Atari and there's a lot of things to pull apart. The guys who actually can code fleeing the sinking ship to make their own (soon to be) giant companies. Fresh out of school newbies tossed a coding manual and told they had a month to make a port of whatever. If you look at their output from 1982 to 1983, it's just nuts. So what's that got to do with the 7800, you ask? Well, the 5200 was released in 1982 and did not, to put it mildly, set the world on fire. I encountered exactly one person with the system back when it was actually new. The 2600, meanwhile was still selling even as things were approaching the tipping point and so when they designed the 7800 it was backward compatible with the popular system that had tons of software. Of course, it helps that the 7800 was designed in 1983. Then the crash happened and Atari just had crates of them sitting in warehouses rather than selling them. Nintendo came along and it looked like things were going to shift hard and they pulled those systems out of mothballs to sell. So basically, nobody knew what they were doing in Atari management, they botched the 5200 hard, started to cover it up with the 7800 but broke the market, and then dragged it out when they thought they could recoup some of that investment.
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May 14, 2017 21:32
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Atarichat I had a 7800, actually. My mom gave me the choice between it and a NES, saying I could have more games with the Atari. I choose poorly. Thankfully I also had a NES eventually. Activision made, hands-down, the best 2600 games. A lot of them are still playable today, I think. Seaquest and its cash-out scoring system was my favorite. My first experience with hardware compatibility issues was when a friend of my mom's gave me some Atari games, but they were 5200 titles. God, those 7800 joysticks were awful. Simply garbage. You couldn't play with them for more than 30 minutes without hand cramps. POKEY was a cool sound chip that was horribly under-utilized (at least on the 7800). One of the tracks from Pretty Eight Machine was done with it: https://inversephase.bandcamp.com/track/atarible-lie I had several of the 7800 games but I want to say the only one approaching "good" status was Food Fight. I guess Joust was okay, but meeehhhhh. I did not have Robotron or Xevious, I hear those are decent. My friend had one of those 2600 Jr models ("the fun is back, oh yesiree"). He actually had the ET game. I recall the reset button on the thing being really sticky for some reason 
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May 14, 2017 22:07
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Yeah, you're better off emulating or getting ports of most 2600 games, Atari and Activision have done numerous re-releases on newer consoles of their best games from that time. Unless you like having carts or their box art, or already have a stack of carts that are not from those two companies there's not much reason to have an actual 2600. Speaking of, are there any good 3rd party 2600 games that aren't Turmoil or Solar Fox? (I'm not counting Activision for this because you know, that's a given).
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May 14, 2017 23:15
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Ofecks posted:Atarichat Oh drat, how have I not run into Pretty Eight Machine? Thanks for the link 
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May 14, 2017 23:36
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ExcessBLarg! posted:So why did they make the 7800 backwards compatible with the 2600, but not the 5200? It's weird that Atari engineered their 8-bit consoles and home computers in separate, but parallel lines with the home computer-to-console cross-over happening twice. Well, actually, they planned on making the 5200 backwards compatible, but ran into issues with keeping it compatible and also letting it be a step forward. They did eventually release an adapter for the 5200 that let the second revision or a modified original play most 2600 games. 
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May 14, 2017 23:37
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Also one could get a Colecovision with the Atari expansion module to play 2600 games. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ColecoVision#Released
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May 14, 2017 23:51
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Turbinosamente posted:Speaking of, are there any good 3rd party 2600 games that aren't Turmoil or Solar Fox? (I'm not counting Activision for this because you know, that's a given). Parker Bros did a set of surprisingly good games. So Empire Strikes Back, of course, and the port of Q*Bert is really good. Frogger's not bad either, though I'd play the ColecoVision version by preference. Mattel ported some of their Intellivision exclusives to the 2600 because they didn't understand how video games work. Astrosmash is fantastic and is probably the only one worth really pointing out. My favorite maze running game for the 2600 is an Amidar clone called Spider-Droid. I like Towering Inferno quite a bit.
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May 14, 2017 23:59
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M*A*S*H isn't great but must be seen to be believed, Megaforce is an early side-scrolling shooter based around the film's climactic (and stupid) flying motorcycle scene. Imagic had several good ones---Demon Attack being a solid Phoenix/Space Invaders riff and Cosmic Ark being fairly indescribable (defend your UFO from asteroids, then abduct lifeforms and refuel from planets?). Atlantis was apparently fairly popular as well, though the Air-Sea Battle genre of shooter is pretty much an outmoded historical oddity before you even get out of the 80s.
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May 15, 2017 03:00
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I was playing Shadowgate last night and then asking myself, "Why was I so excited to play Shadowgate again?" It's closer to the Scott Adams (not the Dilbert one) school of adventure game design than even something like Sierra. There's been one puzzle that might be okay if it wasn't so different from the terrible puzzle design of the rest of the game. And I should have remembered this from other attempts to play Shadowgate. I'll still probably buy Deja Vu and The Uninvited if I find cheap copies, though...
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May 15, 2017 14:03
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Random Stranger posted:I was playing Shadowgate last night and then asking myself, "Why was I so excited to play Shadowgate again?" It's closer to the Scott Adams (not the Dilbert one) school of adventure game design than even something like Sierra. There's been one puzzle that might be okay if it wasn't so different from the terrible puzzle design of the rest of the game. And I should have remembered this from other attempts to play Shadowgate. It sticks in your brain because of the kickin' rad graphics and atmosphere. I always have a desire to play Shadowgate if only to see that death screen again.
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May 15, 2017 16:01
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Use --> Sword --> Self
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May 15, 2017 18:25
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I know that interest in demoscene stuff probably isn't huge in this tread, but Titan released a new Mega Drive prod last month and jeeeez https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeGdJk5zb6c
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May 15, 2017 19:23
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the wizards beard posted:I know that interest in demoscene stuff probably isn't huge in this tread, but Titan released a new Mega Drive prod last month and jeeeez Holy poo poo! 
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May 15, 2017 19:39
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the wizards beard posted:I know that interest in demoscene stuff probably isn't huge in this tread, but Titan released a new Mega Drive prod last month and jeeeez I downloaded that and ran it on my Everdrive on real hardware and it looks so drat awesome on a PVM.
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May 15, 2017 20:13
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the wizards beard posted:I know that interest in demoscene stuff probably isn't huge in this tread, but Titan released a new Mega Drive prod last month and jeeeez Grief counseling for emulator authors 
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May 15, 2017 21:35
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Zamujasa posted:Grief counseling for emulator authors They released a collection of technical notes that does seem to list some common emulation inaccuracies https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ST9GbFfPnIjLT5loytFCm3pB0kWQ1Oe34DCBBV8saY8/edit
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May 15, 2017 21:37
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the wizards beard posted:I know that interest in demoscene stuff probably isn't huge in this tread, but Titan released a new Mega Drive prod last month and jeeeez I would love to take this back to 1989 and plug it into someone's brand new console. Could you imagine the reaction?
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May 15, 2017 22:11
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RZA Encryption posted:I would love to take this back to 1989 and plug it into someone's brand new console. Could you imagine the reaction? Those 3D bits are especially impressive, like straight-up looks better than some 32x games. Probably illusory and not something applicable to something actually playable, but really impressive-looking nonetheless.
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May 15, 2017 23:12
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univbee posted:Those 3D bits are especially impressive, like straight-up looks better than some 32x games. Probably illusory and not something applicable to something actually playable, but really impressive-looking nonetheless. It's actually all pretty simple mathematically; you can hand count the number of visible polygons in the stuff that's actually 3D rendered rather than simply having a transformation applied to an image. If you wanted to do anything more complex then it would break down really fast (though I'll point out that flight sims with more polygons have run on worse hardware than the Genesis).
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May 15, 2017 23:17
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Random Stranger posted:I was playing Shadowgate last night and then asking myself, "Why was I so excited to play Shadowgate again?" It's closer to the Scott Adams (not the Dilbert one) school of adventure game design than even something like Sierra. There's been one puzzle that might be okay if it wasn't so different from the terrible puzzle design of the rest of the game. And I should have remembered this from other attempts to play Shadowgate. I thought it was a good game, even if it took me an hour to figure out how to open the door on the first screen. I liked how the narration was 2nd person, reminded me of CYOAs/gamebooks, and I loved the Lone Wolf series as a young teen. Apparently the Japanese release is their version of horrible Engrish for us. Look for the GBC port of Deja Vu. It also contains the sequel, which wasn't released in english until then.
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May 15, 2017 23:22
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Deja Vu and Univited are so, so much better than Shadowgate. I still own and love all three, but dang. I'd pick Univited anyday.
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May 15, 2017 23:25
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Every time I see a screenshot of Shadowgate, I confuse it with a game my cousin had called Swords and Serpents.
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May 15, 2017 23:43
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Don't forget Shadowgate and its ilk were, as their "Macventure series" moniker implies, originally 68k Black and White Mac games whith some insane UI applications.
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May 15, 2017 23:48
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I feel like that's a Hypercard application but it's just a couple years too early for Hypercard.
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May 15, 2017 23:56
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Random Stranger posted:I feel like that's a Hypercard application but it's just a couple years too early for Hypercard. That was my thought exactly initially, it really plays that way. I'm pretty sure there's no sound whatsoever, too. And screen transitions are instant.
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May 15, 2017 23:59
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That's basically the goal behind the Macventures games, they made a simple engine they could reuse a bunch for any kind of adventure game they cared to write.
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May 16, 2017 00:21
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Caitlin posted:Deja Vu and Univited are so, so much better than Shadowgate. I still own and love all three, but dang. I'd pick Univited anyday. I also want to say Uninvited is the best of the three, but it might just be my affection for the haunted house setting. It's also the only one of the three that I finished without using a guide. There's a rather nasty potential dead end (the ruby), but it's not too hard to figure out, happens pretty early on, and is probably the coolest/creepiest thing in the game.
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May 16, 2017 05:46
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Deja Vu is over of those games I've always wanted to play because it showed up a lot in Nintendo Power "Best of" lists and the like, but I never did. How has it aged?
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May 16, 2017 06:03
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The Southern Belle Skeleton will never not be hilarious to me.
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May 16, 2017 06:21
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fishmech posted:Of course this came full circle again after the 5200 died, when Atari repackaged the straight up Atari 800-type hardware, in the revised form of the XE series 8 bit computers, into the "XE Game System" which was just a 65XE with the keyboard removed (you could buy an addon keyboard to make it back into a full computer) that ran cartridges. This machine would continue to be sold until 1991, with basically the same capability of the 800 from 1979! The XEGS was my family's first real game console (I think we had some kind of Pong clone before that). David's Midnight Magic was the first video game I ever owned, and Blue Max was probably the first video game I ever completed, start to finish, all by myself. The system came with Flight Simulator II (?!) as a pack-in, which I never did figure out, but enjoyed poking random coordinates into. I still have the console, and it still works, though the keyboard seems to have gone half-dead at some point. I'm hoping it's an easy fix.
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May 16, 2017 07:46
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kirbysuperstar posted:The Southern Belle Skeleton will never not be hilarious to me.
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May 16, 2017 10:08
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Hey, what's the last retrogame that you'd expect to get a movie adaptation in 2017? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fumQ6XaL6kA
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May 16, 2017 16:57
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Giant Ant Horror Action Movie HD
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May 16, 2017 17:12
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Harlock posted:Giant Ant Horror Action Movie HD a motocross action film with giant ants
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May 16, 2017 17:27
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Random Stranger posted:Hey, what's the last retrogame that you'd expect to get a movie adaptation in 2017? But which version of the game are they adapting it from? There were like 3 different games across the multiple platforms.
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May 16, 2017 17:29
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fishmech posted:But which version of the game are they adapting it from? There were like 3 different games across the multiple platforms.
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May 16, 2017 19:38
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Random Stranger posted:Hey, what's the last retrogame that you'd expect to get a movie adaptation in 2017?
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May 16, 2017 21:17
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Harlock posted:Giant Ant Horror Action Movie HD GI-ANT INSECTS!? Impossible!
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May 16, 2017 21:23
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