Retro gaming (1 Viewer)

[LeoA]

I never thought of myself as a collector of such devices, but I also have quite a lineup of what's known as plug and play game systems going back to the Jakks Pacific days all the way up to more recent systems like the NES and SNES Classic Editions.

I've sadly though not been able to justify some of the interesting recent releases in this area from Sega (The Astro City Mini and the upcoming Astro City Mini V) and Taito's Egret II. With the added expense of their built in-screen and controls that I'd never use since I'd be connecting them to a television, combined with the need to buy additional controllers in order to fully take advantage of them as mini consoles, they're just too pricey. $100 is top dollar for such things in my book, where as these would be around $200 or more going all in on each of them.

I did however get a Commodore 64 Maxi for Christmas (Technically, it's called TheC64). This is the full sized system with working keyboard that came out in I think 2020 (They also put out an earlier mini version, sans functioning keyboard). I think it's my first plug and play addition since the TurboGrafx-16 Mini came out. Been having a lot of fun with it in recent weeks, although I have a few minor nitpicks with it.

If an Amiga Maxi ever comes out from this company (An Amiga Mini is coming out this year), I'll be lining up for that one. Never owned an Amiga but was always impressed with what I saw of it.

 

[Bryan^H]

My first "plug n play" was way back in 2004. The Commodore 64 30 games in one. It was pretty neat. I got it at Toys R Us.

 

[LeoA]

That was a cool one. I think I scored mine for $15 or so at Kay Bee Toys. It was my introduction to the Commodore 64 (I was only exposed to the Apple II during the latter part of the computer's heyday).

What made the C64 DTV (I think that was the official name) especially neat was that it didn't involve emulation at all. Much like the Atari Flashback 2 from Legacy Engineering from the same time period, it was powered by a Commodore 64-on-a-chip. Literally a replica of the original hardware on a small integrated circuit.

If my recollections are accurate, it could even be wired up to work with original disk drives and such (Much like how the Flashback 2 could be hacked to include a cartridge port for 2600 carts). The creator was a big C64 fan and not only did a very good job at making it highly accurate, but went the extra mile with things like solder pads for the skilled hobbyist that wanted to trick it out to work with original accessories.

 

[Bryan^H]

I forgot that I ordered the Amiga mini until you mentioned it...had to double check.

 

[LeoA]

If my hoped for Amiga Maxi doesn't come to fruition next year, I'll definitely be grabbing one of the Mini's.

Even though it's expensive, you're not locked to 30 or so built-in games thanks to the ability to load disk images off SD card, so it's a better value imo than the Taito and Sega arcade units. A cool bonus with the Amiga Mini for someone such as myself is that the included gamepad and mouse are now compatible with the C64 Maxi as of last December's firmware update, which will be another excuse I use to splurge on one.

It's impressive just how far this field has came. Until 2010 or so, emulation simply was too expensive for such devices due to the hardware demands (A rough approximation that I've seen repeated through the years is that your hardware needs to be 10 times as powerful as the system you're emulating). That's why it was cheaper to go down the route that the C64 DTV did or to even commission recreations of classic games that ran natively on the plug and play's hardware (The latter was the path Jakks Pacific always took with their Namco themed systems and such).

Then it took another five years or so for it to become affordable to go HD with these and finally leave composite video behind. The NES Classic Edition in 2016 is what I think finally broke that barrier.

 

[Bryan^H]

I have some really rare Retro game signs from the mid to late 90's Toys R Us displays. I want to sell them on E-Bay. But to borrow a phrase from fellow member Josh Steinberg they are a "niche within a niche". I'm afraid they won't go high enough to make it worth my time, and there are honestly no others like them to compare to. "Buy it Now" never seems to work when it comes to such particular items unless it is offered very low.

 

[Bryan^H]

Just listed it on E-Bay. I'll probably be kicking myself in10 years when it is worth the price of a new car, but oh well. Life is short.

 

[LeoA]

I suspect now is a great time to sell.

We've got to be approaching the point where most of the kids that grew up with the NES that have relived their memories by building a collection that they couldn't of dreamed of ever having as a kid, have done so. So I suspect the big price increases are going to start slowing one of these days.

Atari 2600 prices and such, while largely never as crazy as this, seemed to stabilize years ago for I believe that same reason. Few newcomers are now entering the scene and the people left behind are those that stuck around as gamers after fulfilling their childhood dream that genuinely enjoy firing up the classics, following the thriving homebrew scene at AtariAge that regularly puts to shame 99% of the retail efforts from back in the day, etc. Other than occasionally filling a gap in their collection, they're not buying much anymore (And much of what they do buy for their classic system is new, like modern multicarts).

Prices for American consoles of course climb along with inflation, the march of time reducing what's out there, and the COVID bump in general that's affected classic gaming prices. But not the leaps and bounds that have been affecting newer Japanese systems in recent years. Only a few really rare and fragile things have gotten very pricey, like Vectrex systems.

 

[DaveF]

On the off chance you haven't seen this:

Museum rigs up multi-screen N64 GoldenEye to prevent “screencheating”

Step one: Spend thousands on outdated CRT signal-processing tech.

arstechnica.com

 

[LeoA]

I'm looking forward to this new classic gaming compilation (PS4, PS5, XB1, NS, PC, & VCS).



Between the trailer, Steam game page, and press kit, I've identified a good chunk of the 90+ game lineup.

Atari 2600 (29 games)

• 3-D Tic-Tac-Toe
• Adventure
• Asteroids
• Breakout
• Canyon Bomber
• Combat
• Dark Chambers
• Dodge 'Em
• Demons to Diamonds
• Gravitar
• Haunted House
• Millipede
• Miner 2049'er
• Missile Command
• Outlaw
• Realsports Baseball
• Realsports Basketball
• Realsports Boxing
• Realsports Football
• Realsports Soccer
• Realsports Tennis
• Realsports Volleyball
• Solaris
• Surround
• Swordquest: Earthworld
• Swordquest: Fireworld
• Swordquest: Waterworld
• Warlords
• Yars' Revenge

Atari 5200 (6 games)

• Bounty Bob Strikes Back
• Centipede (While seemingly absent in the game selection menu, a video clip from Atari's commercial for it is used at one point)
• Millipede
• Missile Command
• Star Raiders
• Super Breakout

Atari 7800 (5 games)

• Asteroids
• Basketbrawl
• Centipede
• Ninja Golf
• Scrapyard Dog

Atari 8-bit computers (4 games)

• Caverns of Mars
• Food Fight
• Miner 2049'er
• Yoomp!

Atari Lynx (1 game)

• Asteroids + Missile Command

Atari Jaguar (6 games)

• Atari Karts
• Cybermorph
• Fight for Life
• Missile Command 3D
• Tempest 2000
• Trevor McFur

Arcade (7 games)

• Asteroids
• Centipede
• Food Fight
• Major Havoc
• Millipede
• Pong
• Tempest

Reimagined (6 games)

• Haunted Houses
• Neo Breakout
• Quadratank
• Swordquest Airworld
• Vctr Sctr
• Yar's Revenge Reimagined

 

[English Invader]

I'm looking forward to this new classic gaming compilation (PS4, PS5, XB1, NS, PC, & VCS).



Between the trailer, Steam game page, and press kit, I've identified a good chunk of the 90+ game lineup.

Atari 2600 (29 games)

• 3-D Tic-Tac-Toe
• Adventure
• Asteroids
• Breakout
• Canyon Bomber
• Combat
• Dark Chambers
• Dodge 'Em
• Demons to Diamonds
• Gravitar
• Haunted House
• Millipede
• Miner 2049'er
• Missile Command
• Outlaw
• Realsports Baseball
• Realsports Basketball
• Realsports Boxing
• Realsports Football
• Realsports Soccer
• Realsports Tennis
• Realsports Volleyball
• Solaris
• Surround
• Swordquest: Earthworld
• Swordquest: Fireworld
• Swordquest: Waterworld
• Warlords
• Yars' Revenge

Atari 5200 (6 games)

• Bounty Bob Strikes Back
• Centipede (While seemingly absent in the game selection menu, a video clip from Atari's commercial for it is used at one point)
• Millipede
• Missile Command
• Star Raiders
• Super Breakout

Atari 7800 (5 games)

• Asteroids
• Basketbrawl
• Centipede
• Ninja Golf
• Scrapyard Dog

Atari 8-bit computers (4 games)

• Caverns of Mars
• Food Fight
• Miner 2049'er
• Yoomp!

Atari Lynx (1 game)

• Asteroids + Missile Command

Atari Jaguar (6 games)

• Atari Karts
• Cybermorph
• Fight for Life
• Missile Command 3D
• Tempest 2000
• Trevor McFur

Arcade (7 games)

• Asteroids
• Centipede
• Food Fight
• Major Havoc
• Millipede
• Pong
• Tempest

Reimagined (6 games)

• Haunted Houses
• Neo Breakout
• Quadratank
• Swordquest Airworld
• Vctr Sctr
• Yar's Revenge Reimagined

No Berzerk?

The Jaguar version of Tempest 2000 is a good inclusion. I wish they had included more games from the Jaguar and the Lynx (the Lynx in particular has some excellent arcade ports) instead of focusing on the early 80s stuff.

 

[LeoA]

No Berzerk?

The game list isn't complete. With 64 games on my list and 90+ games slated for the collection, we should be seeing over 25 more games being added to the list.

Berzerk was actually a Stern release in arcades. Atari Inc. only licensed it back in the day for home console conversions, releasing it on both the Atari 2600 and 5200. So while today's Atari SA presumably owns the 2600 and 5200 versions of the game, they can't do anything with them without relicensing the rights to the arcade game.

And with slim budgets and modest profits (and tight deadlines), it traditionally doesn't leave much leeway in the budget for the average classic gaming compilation to pursue much in the way of outside licenses.

The Jaguar version of Tempest 2000 is a good inclusion. I wish they had included more games from the Jaguar and the Lynx (the Lynx in particular has some excellent arcade ports) instead of focusing on the early 80s stuff.

Sadly, today's Atari SA doesn't own much for the Lynx and Jaguar (Or 7800). Everything else on the Jaguar for example, even games that today's Atari SA probably owns, involves outside licensing of one sort or another if they're to rerelease them. So I'm not expecting any additions for this category.

We'll see several more Lynx games be added for sure though, with the two Lynx compilations for the Evercade likely providing us with some good hints on what's to come (Checkered Flag being one I'm hoping for that I believe is a likely inclusion).

And the 7800 category will likely be expanded with Alien Brigade, Dark Chambers, Fatal Run, Food Fight, Motor Psycho, and Planet Smashers (All the remaining 7800 games that I believe they own that don't require outside licenses, like Pole Position II would from Namco if Atari SA wanted to include Atari's 7800 port).

 

[harleyquinn]

I'm looking forward to Advance Wars™ 1+2: Re-Boot Camp and the Cowabunga Collection.

Advance Wars™ 1+2: Re-Boot Camp for Nintendo Switch - Nintendo Official Site

Buy Advance Wars™ 1+2: Re-Boot Camp and shop other great Nintendo products online at the official My Nintendo Store.

www.nintendo.com

See on Amazon

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection includes: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time (Arcade), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game (NES), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project (NES), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (NES), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time (Super Nintendo), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (Super Nintendo), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist (Sega Genesis), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (Sega Genesis), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of The Foot Clan (Game Boy), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Back From The Sewers (Game Boy), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Radical Rescue (Game Boy).

I haven't played all of them. So, I'm pretty psyched about it.

 

[Ruz-El]

I'll probably bite on that Atari set despite owning the already available collections on both the playstation and the Switch.

Capcom Arcade Cabinet is getting a sequel as well. The first was a lot of fun so I'll be grabbing it. Sounds like it's stand alone though, I'm hoping the new tables all show in one program as an option. Like what Pinball Arcade/Rockband does, but I'm not losing sleep over it.

 

[English Invader]

I'm looking forward to Advance Wars™ 1+2: Re-Boot Camp and the Cowabunga Collection.

Advance Wars™ 1+2: Re-Boot Camp for Nintendo Switch - Nintendo Official Site

Buy Advance Wars™ 1+2: Re-Boot Camp and shop other great Nintendo products online at the official My Nintendo Store.

www.nintendo.com

See on Amazon



I haven't played all of them. So, I'm pretty psyched about it.

That's the motherlode, there. I've been playing them for years but this release has everything I could ask from Konami in relation to the TMNT franchise so I'm buying. These are games that continue to give me great enjoyment and they'll be a welcome addition to my Switch Lite library.

The only thing I object to is the Nickelodeon logo on the cover. I hate what they've done to the franchise. There is only one TMNT cartoon that matters:

 

[LeoA]

The game list isn't complete. With 64 games on my list and 90+ games slated for the collection, we should be seeing over 25 more games being added to the list.

Finalized game list for Atari 50: The Anniversary Collection (PS4, PS5, XB1, Switch, PC, & VCS) has leaked. Some pleasant surprises for me in the arcade category.

Two games were removed from my earlier list (Centipede for the 5200 which we briefly saw a clip of from an old tv commercial in the trailer, and the homebrew Yoomp! for Atari 8-bit computers)

Atari 2600
-3-D Tic-Tac-Toe
-Adventure
-Air Sea Battle
-Asteroids
-Basic Math
-Breakout
-Canyon Bomber
-Centipede
-Combat
-Combat Two
-Crystal Castles
-Dark Chambers
-Demons to Diamonds
-Dodge 'Em
-Fatal Run
-Gravitar
-Haunted House
-Millipede
-Miner 2049'er
-Missile Command
-Outlaw
-Quadrun
-Race (Indy 500)
-Realsports Baseball
-Realsports Basketball
-Realsports Boxing
-Realsports Football
-Realsports Soccer
-Realsports Tennis
-Realsports Volleyball
-Saboteur
-Secret Quest
-Solaris
-Super Breakout
-Surround
-Swordquest: Earthworld
-Swordquest: Fireworld
-Swordquest: Waterworld
-Warlords
-Yars' Revenge

Atari 5200
-Bounty Bob Strikes Back
-Millipede
-Missile Command
-Star Raiders ("+ Enhanced Version")
-Super Breakout

Atari 8-Bit Computers
-Bounty Bob Strikes Back
-Caverns of Mars
-Food Fight
-Miner 2049'er

Atari 7800
-Asteroids
-Basketbrawl
-Centipede
-Dark Chambers
-Fatal Run
-Ninja Golf
-Scrapyard Dog

Atari Jaguar
-Atari Karts
-Club Drive
-Cybermorph
-Evolution Dino Dudes
-Fight for Life
-Missile Command 3D
-Ruiner Pinball
-Tempest 2000
-Trevor McFur

Atari Lynx
-Basketbrawl
-Malibu Bikini Volleyball
-Scrapyard Dog
-Super Asteroids + Missile Command
-Turbo Sub
-Warbirds

Dedicated
-Touch Me

Arcade (Additions never included in earlier console, handheld, and PC collections are denoted with an asterisk)
-Akka Arrh *
-Asteroids
-Asteroids Deluxe
-Black Widow
-Breakout *
-Centipede
-Cloak & Dagger *
-Crystal Castles
-Fire Truck
-Food Fight (Previously saw a release via Game Room for the Xbox 360)
-Gravitar
-I, Robot *
-Liberator
-Lunar Lander
-Major Havoc
-Maze Invaders
-Millipede
-Missile Command
-Pong
-Quantum *
-Space Duel
-Sprint 8 *
-Super Breakout
-Tempest
-Warlords

Reimagined
-Haunted Houses
-Neo Breakout
-Quadratank
-Swordquest AirWorld
-VCTR-SCTR
-Yars’ Revenge Reimagined

Some things that stood out to me...

• Not one single homebrew made the cut.
• Not every cleared Lynx and 7800 game that Atari SA owns ended up included (like 7800 Food Fight).
• Several classic arcade games never included in previous compilations made the cut, including Sprint 8 from the late 70's.
• Night Driver (An iconic 70's Atari arcade racing game) and Tank 8 again miss the cut (The lone entry in the Tank series new enough to use a CPU, in what alongside Sprint and Pong were the premier game franchises for Atari/Kee Games in 70's arcades).
• The inclusion of a videogame recreation of Touch Me, Atari's take on the popular 'Simon' game, is cool.
  • I wish Video Music was similarly emulated here with mp3 support for music on a thumb drive on platforms that allow such things like Xbox (Video Music was an early attempt at a music visualizer).
• I wonder what this enhanced version of Star Raiders for the 5200 is that's on the list?
• Overlap with the Atari Flashback Classics/Atari Vault line isn't quite as bad as I expected. 45 of these 103 games are exclusive to this collection (and 92 more games from the older Flashback Classics/Vault line remain exclusive to those).
  • Enough new content here to justify its existence while also not making the older collections redundant.

 

[Ruz-El]

I'm sure I'll grab that Atari 50 despite having the flashback. I know they are licenses so they will never happen but it's a shame that the Atari 2600 versions of Moon Patrol, Jungle Hunt and Battlezone will never happen. Three of my all time favourites on the console.

 

[LeoA]

Battlezone never used to be.

Atari SA, the French company formerly known as Infogrames (Which bought Atari Corp's IP from Hasbro Interactive back around the turn of the century), initiated a fire sale a few years ago of Atari IP.

They quickly changed their mind and stopped scattering Atari's IP to the winds, but not before Battlezone escaped (Being sold to Rebellion Developments). Still irritates me that it's no longer a part of modern Atari compilations.

And Rebellion after their VR reboot of it a few years ago, seems fine with just keeping the classic arcade game and 2600 port hidden away in the vault.

 

[Ruz-El]

Battlezone never used to be.

Atari SA, the French company formerly known as Infogrames (Which bought Atari Corp's IP from Hasbro Interactive back around the turn of the century), initiated a fire sale a few years ago of Atari IP.

They quickly changed their mind and stopped scattering Atari's IP to the winds, but not before Battlezone escaped (Being sold to Rebellion Developments). Still irritates me that it's no longer a part of modern Atari compilations.

And Rebellion after their VR reboot of it a few years ago, seems fine with just keeping the classic arcade game and 2600 port hidden away in the vault.

So it's even more of a bummer than I thought. I'm gonna end up buying one of those cheap-o handhelds to play this stuff.

 

[Bryan^H]

D2 for the Sega Dreamcast has me hooked. It is survival horror. Tank controls are slightly worse than Resident Evil, it is sort of grinding, maybe even a bit boring. And the voice acting is...well, it isn't great. But being one to always champion the underdog, I stick with it. This experience with a thick sense of cold dread might draw you in too.

On the plus side you have a sub machine gun (UZI?) with unlimited ammo, and you can hunt deer, and rabbit for health with a scoped rifle.