Retro Gaming - The Bear and Badger

Eric

Moot_Geeza wrote:

I had it, came with the MD my dad bought from a colleague. I really liked it, we did it in the retro club a few years ago but most were less enthused than me. Attempted non rose tinted description: it's solid, plays a little differently to most 16-bit side scrollers and has undeniably superb music.

Moot_Geeza wrote:

I've got the cart knocking around if you want it? No box, but it was in with some stuff I pulled out the loft recently.

Amazing! I'll have a dig around the thread and see what you all thought. It looks great.

Definitely interested in the cart, if you either want to loan if there's a nostalgic attachment or happy to buy if you're looking to get rid. Pm me your thoughts!

Cheers Moot

Eric

So I finally ended up picking up an US Atari 2600 woody today with what looks like an av mod.

It was being sold with loads of loose games and some Megadrive games and the seller didn't really describe what it was particularly well so it's all a bit risky.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Retro-Collection-Video-Game-lot-Atari-and-Sega-bundle-Parts-spares-junk-/324565822271?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286

I need a power supply and hoping I can use a UK psu due to the transformer not being internal?

davyK

Yep - you can use a UK power supply. I have a US woody with a composite mod too.

You can use a Megadrive pad with the 2600 btw. So you can play 2P games - you won't need a 2nd joystick.

Some good old and still solid titles there I see from the pics:-

Demon Attack
Carnival
Yars' Revenge
Space Invaders
Vanguard
Missile Command
Dodge 'Em
Ms. Pacman

The unit itself looks clean. A 6 switch model too which is preferred. My US one is 4 switch - it has the difficulty switches at the back and I'm not sure why they revised the hardware that way.

That's a good price for that lot.

Now get a set of paddles and Kaboom!

Eric

Cheers davy, I knew I could rely on your vast knowledge.

That's wonderful news regarding the power supply. I'm picking up on Tuesday and just hoping it works.

If all good I'll get on sourcing some paddles!

davyK

A really good investment is a Harmony cartridge. Lets you load every ROM you can find into an SD card which goes into the cart - and it has a good menu system to allow you to launch games.

Eric

Just looking that up now. Is it it multiregion or will I have to get an American one? It's not too clear!

Was looking to get a flash cart for my Atari Jaguar recently but the guy who produced it, has had a bit of a mental breakdown and has stopped producing them apparently.

davyK

It has a different BIOS for each region. You can specify that when ordering but you can also flash it yourself. It also has a USB port for upgrades etc.

Apart from it allowing you to access the 2600 library, it also opens up the lively homebrew scene - the best of which are far superior to any official titles of the day. The coding techniques have improved so much and the Harmony supports larger ROM sizes than were economically viable in the 80s - this enables the coders to create some crackers.

There's an astounding port of the gravity shooter Thrust and an even more amazing update to Warlords called Medieval Mayhem. But there are plenty of others.

Eric

Ah that's wonderful davy, thank you again. Once I get it set up I'll be on to you for some more recommendations!

davyK

No probs! If looking for multiplayer check out this article I wrote..

https://www.retrovideogamer.co.uk/atari-2600-on-the-couch-10-atari-2600-games-for-same-room-multiplayer/

I have made various posts on other forums(fora?) over the years listing my favourites for 1P too. I have a copy of it somewhere as I like to maintain it.

davyK

Heh.. Here it is...

Combat : tank and plane vs game. 2 player only!

Breakout and Super Breakout : pretty good versions. Breakout 1 supports 4 players but has a 2 wall limit. Super Breakout has the cavity, double and progressive modes as well as classic mode with no wall limit. 1-2 players only except for progressive which is 1 player only.

Surround - basic vs mode snake game. Very basic but again good as it is 2 player only except for 1 variation and in which the CPU is unsurprisingly very poor!

Sky Diver is quite good - jump from a plane and land on a target (sometimes moving) taking wind into account. The longer you leave the chute closed the more points you get. Really good fun in a minigame kind of way. It supports 1 and 2 players - again far better in 2 player head to head.

Circus Atari - breakout type game - bounce 2 clowns off a see-saw to burst balloons (square balloons!). Really nice game with good "physics" on the clowns. 2 player alternate turns. This was an old arcade game I'm old enough to remember.

Video Olympics - every pong version imaginable - up to 4 players at once.

Maze Craze - basic maze game but with lots of variations. Excellent 2 player fun.

The 2600 got lots of big-name arcade translations. Most suffered from the limitations of the hardware but these ones are a good job - somehow squeezed into the old console without suffering from flickering etc. (at least not too much!)

Berzerk - move through maze avoiding robots 1-2 players

Ms. Pacman - great version. technically impressive as is the sequel Pacman Jr. (avoid the first Pacman which hasn't aged well and is worth a look for historic or nostalgic purposes)

Space Invaders - still excellent version with loads of options including some good 2 player simultaneous modes.

Defender II aka Stargate - again a pretty good version. Avoid the original Defender - not accurate and flickery as hell.

Phoenix - excellent attempt at this great old shmup. Has all the waves - even the mothership level - albeit scaled down. One player only.

Missile Command - excellent effort and provides a workable alternative to the trak-ball controller while retaining the original's feel.

Warlords - legendary 4 player game. Defend your castle from fireballs. This got an even better homebrew remake called Medieval Mayhem.

Activision and Imagic were companies formed by disgruntled Atari devs who left. They must have been the cream of the crop based on the technical excellence of their titles which all have great graphics for the day.

Pitfall and Pitfall II - early flick screen platformers

Atlantis - good old "defend the city" shooter with a 2 player coop mode

Chopper Command - excellent defender clone with military theme - some prefer this to the Atari official version

Keystone Kapers Chase game set in the platform genre. Seems primitive at first - esp. once you figure out how to catch the thief - but subsequent chases have more and more added obstacles that really provides a hook.

Demon Attack - great traditional shmup. Some novel 2 player modes where control changes every few seconds! Shoot "Phoenix" style creatures - atari tried to sue over this one becuase of its similarity.

Fishing Derby - very odd game. 2 player race mode to who lands fish up to 99pts!

Freeway - simplified frogger (back and forth only - no sideways). Again best with 2 players as you race across at the same time.

H.E.R.O. - late title and it shows. technically brilliant. Explore caves and rescue people. Excellent little action puzzle/maze game.

Kaboom! Legendary twitch game. Use paddle controllers to catch bombs in buckets - this really speeds up and is a real "in-the-zone" game.

Megamania - great old shmup. Excellent graphics and lots of different waves. Reminds me of the old Sega arcade shooter "Astro Blaster".

Pressure Cooker - build burgers to order and deliver them down correct shutes. Excellent game - a great mix of action and light puzzling with really nice graphics. A late 2600 game.

River Raid - solid classic shmup.

Space Shuttle - incredible achievement. This is a shuttle mission simulator. Launch the shuttle, dock with satellites, reenter the atmosphere and land - all without running out of fuel.

Solar Storm - odd 2D shmup as it uses the paddle controllers. Nice original ideas and looks and sounds great.

Others

Fantastic Voyage - nice shooter based on the sci-fi story/flick. Fly through a body to reach a blood clot in the brain shooting viruses etc. Nicely done.

Yars Revenge - brilliant original shooting game from Atari. Guide a mutant housefly in an attack against the Quotile behind its shield.

Thrust - superb latter day homebrew version of this classic game.

Scsicide - another brilliant homebrew - move the disc drive read head over tracks on the disc! Sounds odd but its very addictive.

Eric

Wonderful! Thanks davy that is ace. Copied to my gaming notes page.

davyK

You going to hook it up to your projector?

I did that in work once. Combat went down a storm!

Eric

That's the ultimate plan but my amp doesn't upscale composite and the OSSC doesn't recognise the signal unless it's RGB! I could stick it directly into the projector, just need some joystick extenders for that, other option would be to get a retrotink which would also allow me to hook up my C64.

Moot_Geeza

There's a decent little Treasure tribute in Retro Gamer this month. Nothing new ofc, but a nice read after the recent brief chat (in the 52 games thread iirc)

Eric

Nice, thanks for the heads up Moot.

davyK

Might get that. Haven't read a magazine in ages.

Eric

So, the power supply came through today and the good news is that everything seems to work!
Yars Revenge has some weird interference band running down the screen which I'm hoping is a contact issue, but all in all, it seems like the risk paid off!

One thing I didn't appreciate is how big the 2600 is, it doesn't fit in my Kallax set up which is saying something as both my far PS3 and OG Xbox do!

davyK

You mean this?

Eric

Yes that's it.

It's supposed to be there isn't it (facepalm) I thought it was some sort of magnetic interference!

What a dufus!

What is it supposed to be?

davyK

It's the neutral zone. That little missile that chases you can't kill you when you are in it. You can't fire either.

The developer of this game is Howard Scott Warshaw (of ET infamy). He actually uses the game's code instructions as data/colour values to generate that band. The management at Atari wanted to stop him doing that as they reckoned it was displaying their IP on screen!!! He was able to convince them otherwise.

There's an easter egg in that game - you can lock the game up with the developer's initials on screen (HSW).

Glad you got it up and working. Yars Revenge is an interesting but weird game. You need to check the manual over at atariage.com

https://atariage.com/manual_thumbs.php?SoftwareLabelID=2718

retroking1981

That's the neutral zone where you can hide from enemies, but you can't shoot when in there.

Thats if I'm remembering correctly.

retroking1981

Whoops, davy beat me to it.

davyK

Apparantly Atari started off trying to do a port of Star Castle but they gave up as it was just not possible. I'm glad they did as this is a better game. The game came with a mini comic telling the back story. I think it was cut back and added to the PAL manual but the Yanks got a separate comic and manual.

Eric

Brilliant chaps, as always! I just love this thread x

retroking1981

https://youtu.be/n-BZ5-Q48lE

EvilRedEye

Last chance to get the MSDEXP adaptor for the MegaSD (allows you to connect the MegaSD to the expansion port on the side to play 32X CD games): https://mobiusstriptechnologies.com/product/msdexp/

Moot_Geeza

Zombies Ate My Neighbours and Ghoul Patrol double pack coming to consoles. £11.29. No online co-op unfortunately.

davyK

Never played Ghoul Patrol but Zombies was excellent. Online co-op missing is a shame as it's by far the best way to play.

Moot_Geeza

Offline Shirley?

nick_md

Sounds like a great bit of slang.

"Davy? Yeah he's sound. Bit of an offline Shirley though"

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