Mon, 24 Jan 2011 19:17:11 +0000 editor@atariage.com (AtariAge Forums) IP.Blog 60 http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/251/entry-7812-putting-things-in-storage/

I've recently purchased an N64 and an Odyssey² and now I'm wondering how to fit them into my existing gaming spaces. The N64 is an easy one, since my wife likes several games on that system. It will be hooked to the TV in the loft. The Odyssey² poses more of a challenge.

I have no more room for consoles. Both TVs in the game room/library have as many systems hooked to them as space will allow. So my plan is to see how much I like the Odyssey² and then decide which system to box up and put in the basement. At this point, it seems most likely that it will be the 7800. That's the system I play the least frequently.

Still, I'd like to find some way to avoid boxing up any system. It seems a waste to do that.

On the other hand, I feel it's a waste to even own...]]> Mon, 24 Jan 2011 15:17:00 +0000 http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/251/entry-7812-putting-things-in-storage/ http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/251/entry-6846-a-snapshot-of-my-collection/
At any rate, here's the number of CIB games I have for each of the systems for which I collect:

Atari 2600: 87
Atari 5200: 39
Atari 7800: 7
Atari 8-Bit Computer: 124
Atari Jaguar: 11
Atari Lynx: 24
Colecovision: 20
Intellivision: 63
Turbografx-16: 13
NES: 11
SNES: 8
Genesis: 18
PS: 3
PS2: 16

Obviously my A8 games collection is still the largest portion of my overall collection. That's because I've been collecting those the longest. I have previously collected and sold off most of the other systems in the 90s. But not the A8. That software has been with me a long time.

I also have a lot of 2600 carts, but that's probably...]]> Mon, 15 Feb 2010 20:18:00 +0000 http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/251/entry-6846-a-snapshot-of-my-collection/ http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/251/entry-6687-my-essential-pre-crash-console-games-list/ Atari 2600
Boxing
Kaboom!
Keystone Kapers
Seaquest
Adventure
Basketball
Bowling
Dodge 'Em
Maze Craze
Space Invaders
Video Pinball
Yars' Revenge
Demon Attack
Dragonfire
No Escape

Atari 5200
Berzerk
Centipede
Defender
Galaxian
Missile Command
Pac-Man
Pole Position
Qix
Robotron: 2084
Space Dungeon
Star Raiders
Vanguard

Colecovision
Carnival
Frenzy
Lady Bug
Looping
Omega Race
Pepper II
Slither
Turbo
Up 'N' Down
Venture
Zaxxon

Intellivision
Advanced Dungeons and Dragons
Bump 'N' Jump
Burgertime
Lock 'N' Chase
Shark! Shark!
Star Strike
Tron Deadly Discs
Utopia

Games you should have somewhere in your collection
Beamrider
Choplifter!
Gorf
H.E.R.O.
Montezuma's Revenge
Spy Hunter
Tapper]]> Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:42:00 +0000 http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/251/entry-6687-my-essential-pre-crash-console-games-list/ http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/251/entry-6595-im-back/ I'm looking forward to getting back in touch with everyone here!]]> Sat, 14 Nov 2009 17:10:00 +0000 http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/251/entry-6595-im-back/ http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/251/entry-5993-various-updates/
Randomness: I'm looking through my list of 450 or so games, and finding very few games that use randomization of enemies, treasures, powerups, etc. That's so strange.
But of course many of my favorites do use it: Adventure, Star Raiders, AD&D . . .

One of these days I'll put together a list of all my randomizing games.]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2009 14:56:32 +0000 http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/251/entry-5993-various-updates/ http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/251/entry-5984-undoing-mistakes-of-the-past/
Back when I was trying to keep the number of consoles to a bare minimum, I bought some games for some systems that I never should have. For example, Pitfall for the Intellivision. The game was designed for and works best on the 2600. I should never have wasted the money on the Intellivision version. Same goes for Coleco brand titles for the Intellivison and other systems -- they all look and work best on the Colecovision (which I plan to buy next year). The same can be said of the M network games that are just ports of Intellivison games to the 2600.

So within the next year, I'll be cleaning up my collection by purchasing the original versions of some games like Pitfall, and getting rid of the ones I have for other systems.

One exception I'm considering is to have a copy of Donkey Kong for every system for which it was produced. The only classic (pre-16-bit) system it never appeared on was the 5200. ...]]> Mon, 06 Apr 2009 16:26:36 +0000 http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/251/entry-5984-undoing-mistakes-of-the-past/ http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/251/entry-5971-the-a8-library-not-all-i-believed-it-was/
Take Donkey Kong, Jr. on the A8. It's a pile of poop! The feel is wrong, the colors are wrong, things are squished up too much, and it's incredibly easy to accidentally walk off the side of a platform. It's virtually unplayable, and it's the reason I never liked the game all these years.

Or take the same game on the CV. Again, the colors are wrong. And the sizes of objects is wrong. And the behavior of the beasties is wrong. But at least you don't fall from platforms quite so easily! It's playable, but not really worth the cost (dollars and storage space).

The only good home implementations of this of which I'm aware are on the 7800 and NES. The 7800's has crummy sound, of course, but at least it looks and plays reasonably well. And my recent acquisition of the 7800 version gave me a chance to learn that I'd been wrong about this game all these years. It's actually quite...]]> Fri, 03 Apr 2009 15:48:23 +0000 http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/251/entry-5971-the-a8-library-not-all-i-believed-it-was/ http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/251/entry-5963-lynx/
I still enjoy the games I always have, but that's a small minority of the games I own for it. Most of them are not to my taste. I do like Battlewheels, S.T.U.N. Runner, and the classics (Robotron, Asteroids/Missile Command, etc.).

So I'm still undecided as to what to do with this system. Maybe I'll unload a bunch of the games at some point.

The more I think about it, the more appealing it sounds to clear out the games I dislike from all the various systems, but keep all the systems.

But what to do with the games? I hate selling things online, because I have no time to make trips to the post office. And packaging is going to cost me an arm and a leg.

We'll see...]]> Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:11:50 +0000 http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/251/entry-5963-lynx/ http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/251/entry-5959-agonizing-over-what-to-keep/
But my game closet is nearly out of room. Yes, the game closet I just reorganized this year, adding 16' of new shelving to it!

The easy thing to do would be to get rid of the Lynx and games. I find it uncomfortable to play. And I have all the boxes, so I could just store it all in the basement for some other time. But it feels wrong to store away an entire system and all its games. If I'm going to do that, then should I even bother keeping it?

Another option would be to go through my entire game collection for all systems and pull out the ones that just don't belong. I did that with a few earlier this year, getting rid of titles like Video Checkers and Video Chess. I'm never going to play those games.

There are quite a few other games that I have no real use for. Star Raiders for the...]]> Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:25:28 +0000 http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/251/entry-5959-agonizing-over-what-to-keep/ http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/251/entry-5956-im-so-impressed-by-the-5200/
Of course, it was expensive to get the Best Electronics Gold controllers, the trak-ball, and the testing equipment to make sure everything was as good as it could be.

It was also a help that I made sure to buy games that benefited from the controllers. (Plus a few that were never released for the Atari 8-bit computer.)

For example, playing Pole Position on the 5200 is a much better experience than doing so on any other Atari platform. The control is much finer, and having two buttons available is nice.

And playing Missile Command and Centipede with a real trak-ball is just fantastic. A totally different experience!

As I've mentioned before, Star Raiders is also extra nice on the 5200 (and not just because of the minor bug-fixes).

I'm as happy with the 5200 as I've ever been with a classic console. And that...]]> Mon, 30 Mar 2009 00:45:50 +0000 http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/251/entry-5956-im-so-impressed-by-the-5200/