47 replies to this topic

[Fort Apocalypse]

What is the best value TV plug-n-play game/game system?

Number and quality of games counts, price counts, ability to withstand a little abuse helps.

Edited by Fort Apocalypse, Thu Mar 13, 2008 7:02 PM.

[phaxda]

Whatever they have at the Salvation Army

Fort Apocalypse, on Thu Mar 13, 2008 5:00 PM, said:

What is the best value TV plug-n-play game/game system for the value?

[Fort Apocalypse]

phaxda, on Thu Mar 13, 2008 9:02 PM, said:

Whatever they have at the Salvation Army

I only wish I visited it enough to pick up something. My guess for something that I could purchase outside of that, a garage/yard sale, or someone who was selling on ebay that didn't know it's worth, would be something like a famicon clone that would have a ton of games.

[Reaperman]

Fort Apocalypse, on Thu Mar 13, 2008 9:09 PM, said:

phaxda, on Thu Mar 13, 2008 9:02 PM, said:

Whatever they have at the Salvation Army

I only wish I visited it enough to pick up something. My guess for something that I could purchase outside of that, a garage/yard sale, or someone who was selling on ebay that didn't know it's worth, would be something like a famicon clone that would have a ton of games.

with famiclones, tons of games usually means tons of awful "games" that are early titles at best. Expect one game to be super mario, another game to be super mario swimming level, a third would be super mario boss bridge fight. Also expect the colors and sound to be nothing like what you expect.

the best value I've seen in TV games is the c64 DTV. They cost a bit online (you'll never find one in a store), but they have a lot of good c64 titles built in. Some of the 'easter egg' titles like minima reloaded are better than the classics by quite a bit. Of course there's the hacking aspect.

the flashback 2 is also a great value--it comes with new joysticks. Can't really say I'm a 2600 fan--but for a system that's often under $20 these days...two new joysticks... If one were so inclined there's always the cart slot to mess with.

the onestation handhelds are okay, with their TV out and large cart library. They just haven't gotten the hardware quite down yet.

the duo systems (snes/nes) tend to do better at snes. I haven't played the genesis/nes duo yet. The two systems (in models I've seen) are on different boards inside if one were to feel like hacking.

then there's the messiah, which costs quite a bit, but at least there's the 'I may want to use this after tomorrow' factor.

really there's quite a crop of tv-games/retro systems to pick through, and some real diamonds in the list.

Edited by Reaperman, Thu Mar 13, 2008 11:37 PM.

[Math You]

I liked the Jakks Pacific / Atari paddle game.

Edited by Math You, Sun Aug 31, 2008 2:49 AM.

[mimo]

Radica Space Invaders stick. £9.99 and makes the best 7800 joystick

[Wickeycolumbus]

flashback 2 is the best, but i heard that the c64 plug n play is actualy a c64 on a chip, so it could probably be modded into a real c64.

[Reaperman]

Wickeycolumbus, on Fri Mar 14, 2008 2:25 PM, said:

flashback 2 is the best, but i heard that the c64 plug n play is actualy a c64 on a chip, so it could probably be modded into a real c64.

there's no probably about it these days--with the clear guides out there. I guess there is one; probably want to start with the pal one for modding. There are a few compatibility problems, it will never have a cart slot, and sid filters aren't there. Otherwise it's a c64.

Edited by Reaperman, Fri Mar 14, 2008 1:46 PM.

[jboypacman]

My three picks........

1)Atari Flashback II-Its a Atari 2600 what more could you want?

2)Space Invaders Plug-N-Play from Radica-This is just a nice solid stick with some great games on it.

3)Namco Ms.Pac-Man Plug-N-Play-I like this one personally due to the fact that Mappy is on it and it is a fun game to play.

[remowilliams]

jboypacman, on Fri Mar 14, 2008 10:42 PM, said:

1)Atari Flashback II-Its a Atari 2600 what more could you want?

2)Space Invaders Plug-N-Play from Radica-This is just a nice solid stick with some great games on it.

3)Namco Ms.Pac-Man Plug-N-Play-I like this one personally due to the fact that Mappy is on it and it is a fun game to play.

I've had my hands on tons of them, and I'd agree with that except the Radica stick. It's a good stick with bad games.

The best of the Jakks type stuff would be the wireless Ms Pac Man. Good games, nice control (love the Pole Position twist) and solid construction.

[jboypacman]

Not down with SI and Colony 7 Remo? . Its cool.

I like the Super Pac-Man Plug N Play as well just due to the fact it has Super Pac-Man and Pac N Pal on it and you dont see thoses two often and you can save your high scores which is a cool feature too.

Edited by jboypacman, Fri Mar 14, 2008 9:15 PM.

[Shannon]

I actually picked up the c64 stick at Toys -r- Us back when I got it.

[BigO]

This looks like something you would definitely want to consider purchasing
http://www.atariage....s...=120820&hl=

I have a Ms. Pac-Man, too. Rather, I have two Ms. Pac-man units, one that works great except for the chewed up cord and the other partially functioning with a perfect cord. I'd make one good one out of them and include it in the collection.

I have a FB2 that I could add to the collection, but don't have the original joysticks with it. (Though, I probably have some working joysticks I could include.)

Edited by BigO, Sat Mar 15, 2008 8:16 AM.

[atarian63]

Fort Apocalypse, on Thu Mar 13, 2008 9:00 PM, said:

What is the best value TV plug-n-play game/game system?

Number and quality of games counts, price counts, ability to withstand a little abuse helps.

The Taito system is decent. I liked it.

[[d2f]Iggy*SJB]

I haven't seen a Space Invaders stick anywhere....... where can this be aquired?
Also, is the Taito stick the same thing?

[mimo]

[d2f]Iggy*SJB, on Sat Mar 15, 2008 10:51 PM, said:

I haven't seen a Space Invaders stick anywhere....... where can this be aquired?
Also, is the Taito stick the same thing?

http://www.amazon.co...s/dp/B0002E7C9G
http://cgi.ebay.com/...1QQcmdZViewItem
http://www.gameexpre.......41&Section=

[remowilliams]

jboypacman, on Fri Mar 14, 2008 10:14 PM, said:

Not down with SI and Colony 7 Remo? . Its cool.

I'll quote myself.

remowilliams, on Sun Jul 3, 2005 6:04 PM, said:

The conversions are just plain bad. Space Invaders looks like it was written by someone who never saw the original game, the speed of gameplay is all wrong in Phoenix, QIX is to slow and the sound is awful. Colony 7 and Lunar Rescue seem to be fairly arcade faithful, but I wasn't really interested in those titles.

[atarian63]

[d2f]Iggy*SJB, on Sat Mar 15, 2008 6:51 PM, said:

I haven't seen a Space Invaders stick anywhere....... where can this be aquired?
Also, is the Taito stick the same thing?

I bought mine at best buy 2 years ago, it has space invaders and several others

Edited by atarian63, Sat Mar 15, 2008 6:35 PM.

[[d2f]Iggy*SJB]

I don't deal with Worst Buy(got ripped off by them a few years ago...found out I wasn't unique.) I do appreciate the info, though!! Is there a database somewhere that lists all of the available PnPs? I check the local WalMarts every week or two, but nothing new there except Dora the Explora, Star Wars, and 3000 versions of Pac Man.

[mimo]

http://www.atariage....showtopic=80878

[karri]

[d2f]Iggy*SJB, on Sun Mar 16, 2008 12:51 AM, said:

I haven't seen a Space Invaders stick anywhere....... where can this be aquired?
Also, is the Taito stick the same thing?

ToysRUs in Finland have these at least. I though I bought one of the last ones a few months ago but obviously they had more in stock because they were back on shelves last time I visited the store.

The price was not so cheap, around 13 € or so.

--
Karri

[Flojomojo]

Commodore 64 on a joystick
Atari Flashback 2

Everything else is running recreations of the old games on cloned versions of the Famicom hardware. The Atari Paddle games are good ports, the Namco Pac-Man sticks are OK, and the others I've tried are sub-par. I don't hate the Konami (Frogger, Gyruss) or Taito (Space Invaders) sticks as much as some people, but they're not nearly as good as the Flashback or C64 offerings.

The original Atari Flashback (looks like a little 7800), the Atari keychain PnP, and the Jakks Atari stick are particularly offensive to vintage Atari fan and should be avoided unless you're a curious completist.

[Crimefighter]

jboypacman, on Fri Mar 14, 2008 10:14 PM, said:

Not down with SI and Colony 7 Remo? . Its cool.

I like the Super Pac-Man Plug N Play as well just due to the fact it has Super Pac-Man and Pac N Pal on it and you dont see thoses two often and you can save your high scores which is a cool feature too.

That pretty much has been superceded by the fourth edition pac-man joystick which combines the 1st and 3rd edition games together.

[tremoloman2006]

I've purchased tons of these plug 'n play devices. Some are great, some are TERRIBLE. Here are my selections.

Tops:

• Atari Flashback 2
  
• Atari Paddle (2-player version)
  
• C64 Joystick
  
• Coleco 20-in-1 Portable
  
• Super Pac-Man
  
• Wheel Of Fortune

Worst:

• Ms.Pac-Man / Mini Atari Joystick keychain (tie)
  
• Tetris
  
• Texas Hold'em (6 player edition)
  
• Frogger
  
• Everything else Jakks makes

[karri]

karri, on Thu Mar 20, 2008 8:53 AM, said:

[d2f]Iggy*SJB, on Sun Mar 16, 2008 12:51 AM, said:

I haven't seen a Space Invaders stick anywhere....... where can this be aquired?
Also, is the Taito stick the same thing?

ToysRUs in Finland have these at least. I though I bought one of the last ones a few months ago but obviously they had more in stock because they were back on shelves last time I visited the store.

The price was not so cheap, around 13 € or so.

--
Karri

Actually I visited Toys R Us in Vantaa (Finland) today and they had one shelf filled with Radica Space Invaders sticks (about a dozen). The price was 12.95€.

I bet there is still plenty of these sticks somewhere.
--
Karri