The Video Game Critic

In that fight, everyone wins.  Yes, it has finally happened.  The greatest action hero ever on the greatest system ever.  Missing in Action 7800 exists and can be purchased in cart form!  I have already placed my order.

Now it cannot be argued.  7800 = great.



Note: Chuck Norris is so tough it took 18 years to force his bearded image into a 7800 cart.

Isn't that the movie where the Vietcong puts a rat in a burlap sack, and they have Chuck tied up and hanging upside down, then tie the bag over his head? You see a lot of comotion in the bag, then it stops suddenly. The Vietcong pull of the the sack, and old Chuck has the rat in his mouth, dead from a kung-fu chomp. The VC tries to not let on how demoralized they are.

I'm holding out for 'Forest Warrior'.

[QUOTE=Steerforth]

Hey, just curious, Atarifever, but how strong is the homebrew Atari scene? I have dabbled not at all in homebrew of any form, but it is intriguing. Are they some talented guys donig some good stuff, or just some stiffs with half finished games and ideas?

[/QUOTE]

The homebrew Atari scene is very, very strong.  Honestly, I'm almost ready to stop refering to Atari systems as anything other than current gen. 

Some games easily rival the best games released during the life of the systems.  Adventure 2 is getting incredible reviews on the 5200 (sadly, I don't own a 5200), and is apparently worthy of the name (which says a lot). 

I know for a fact Beef Drop on the 7800 is great (heck, it's a homebrew with pokey chips!) and PacMan Collection 7800 is the best Pacman collection ever released on any system (I don't think it'd be easy to argue against that). 

The 2600 homebrew scene though is just the most incredible thing to watch.  When Christmas hit last year I didn't buy a Wii largely because I tied up all my money in new 2600 products.  I got the Atarivox speech synthesis unit (yes, the 2600 has one of those now) and the 4 homebrew games it's currently compatible with (it's worth it for the built in score saves anyway).  Then there was the Christmas cart that came with the order (Toyshop Trouble), which is like a sequel to Pressure Cooker, in that it is better than the original but has similar gameplay.  Hunchy 2 makes it apparent how lazy the programmers of Donkey Kong 2600 were.  Wolfenstein VCS: The Next Mission is a great Adventure clone that's really solid.  I could go on.  The 2600 homebrewers are producing very high quality products and are anything but "just some stiffs with half finished games and ideas". 

You really should consider dropping some money on this part of the hobby.

Good for you Atarifever, everyone is entitled to a "favorite" system. Mine, discounting the DS and GBA, is the Colecovision, I own 90% of the non-homebbrews for that , I have the ADAM computer, and still have most of the boxes I bought this stuff for NEW-it was the ONE computer/game system I could never sell, and it has lots of exclusive games (I don't think Space fury or space panic have been re-released yet, nor will Threshold EVER be-THAT is fun!).

I have a 5200 and suggest you get one. The games are few but almost all high quality (except galaxian). It is worth is for QIX and JOUST alone, these are my favorite versions. Kangaroo rules too, roo!...BTW I have my 7800 hooked up all the time but am mostly into 2600 games right now. It is nice I can go "up" a system without having to disconnect it, though! Game on!

P.S. I have Chuck Norris Superkicks for the 2600, so That is NOT his first game (when the liscence ran out they changed the name to "superkicks"...both are the same slow kung-fooey game).

Atarifever is right, small libraries keep game systems from being more popular. Has anyone even HEARD of the APF? Very few, 'cause it only has around a dozen games, yet they are slightly superior to the early 2600 games.

The 5200 has a small RELEASED library, but it is amazing how many prototypes exit for it. Check out www.atariprotos.com for all the known protos, including Tempest and the recently discovered CLOAK & DAGGER!

The 5200 and Colecovision are somewhat backwards compatible with the 2600 as well, with adaptors. Even if it could not play 2600 games, the 7800 would be a great system, with the best Centipede, Asteroids, Robotron and other hit games.

WOW! I just got a look at the actual MIA graphics- AH-HA! So the 7800 WAS able to display graphics equal to the NES! (There was a PLATOON game for the NES that did NOT have better graphics than this, in fact they were WORSE!) ... If only the 7800 had come out first and had more games like this, it would have been a contendor!

[QUOTE]Also, in my experience, it's less popular than the 5200 and far less than half as popular as the SMS.[/QUOTE]

Impossible, I say!  Nothing was less popular than the 5200!