109 replies to this topic

[SRGilbert]

brojamfootball, on Tue May 12, 2009 4:25 PM, said:

Target has the new Pac-man ones in post #39 above also for $19. I got one and it's really nice. All of the previous games of all Namco plug and plays are included, except Ms. Pac-Man. The packaging is a smaller blister pack and not the large box shown above. I guess they just keep redoing them.

I saw that too, I was sad to see it has the twisty stick, otherwise it could make a nice 7800 stick.

[TwinChargers]

awace, on Tue May 12, 2009 12:43 PM, said:

TwinChargers, on Sat Dec 13, 2008 9:41 AM, said:

S1500, on Fri Dec 12, 2008 9:47 PM, said:

*sigh* Will Namco release any OTHER games on a dedicated stick and not just Pac Man, etc over and over again? There is way too much overlap on these dedicated consoles.

Yeah, whats the deal? Namco acts as if it only released 10 or so games with the way they produce plug-n-plays. Maybe if they made a joystick with games other than the ones they've already released atleast 3 times already they would get some new sales.

I wish i would have used that avatar!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the compliment, and the bump to this thread. Twins really need to get playing some better ball... but thats a whole other forum.

So it looks like there isn't gonna be a new Namco 6 Plug-N-Play this year then? I thought the game-key they had to unlock other games on your joypad was a solid idea, but they stopped that project years ago with sadly no game-keys released for the most part. Wonder if going that venture would have proven to be too expensive for them or what the deal was?

[awace]

Crimefighter, on Sun Dec 28, 2008 11:49 PM, said:

Then you're thinking of the 3rd edition Pac-Man game shown here, that's been out for two years.

http://www.vintageco...es/236#more-236


I found this variant of the 4th edition stick however, but I've not seen it for sale --

http://www.searchama...d-tv-game-1.jpg

oooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhh COOL that fire button looks and is exactly same size as arcade and its setup like Atari joy so its easy to use that looks cool w the ghosts too!!!! ...
you got a keeper there.

[awace]

TwinChargers, on Tue May 12, 2009 5:19 PM, said:

awace, on Tue May 12, 2009 12:43 PM, said:

TwinChargers, on Sat Dec 13, 2008 9:41 AM, said:

S1500, on Fri Dec 12, 2008 9:47 PM, said:

*sigh* Will Namco release any OTHER games on a dedicated stick and not just Pac Man, etc over and over again? There is way too much overlap on these dedicated consoles.

Yeah, whats the deal? Namco acts as if it only released 10 or so games with the way they produce plug-n-plays. Maybe if they made a joystick with games other than the ones they've already released atleast 3 times already they would get some new sales.

I wish i would have used that avatar!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the compliment, and the bump to this thread. Twins really need to get playing some better ball... but thats a whole other forum.

So it looks like there isn't gonna be a new Namco 6 Plug-N-Play this year then? I thought the game-key they had to unlock other games on your joypad was a solid idea, but they stopped that project years ago with sadly no game-keys released for the most part. Wonder if going that venture would have proven to be too expensive for them or what the deal was?

Did you see the other day when cuddyer almost hit the SUBWAY sign banner!!!!

[awace]

kenfused, on Wed Dec 31, 2008 11:31 PM, said:

Crimefighter, on Mon Dec 29, 2008 8:56 PM, said:

Gee, they keep putting out new sticks but the same games in a different combo.

And it seems like they never give you every pacman variant/decedent on one stick

why didnt Namco make
''Pac & Pal / Pacman & Chomp Chomp''
instead of just Pac & Pal.. and why did they speed up the Rally x game and didnt just put both 1 and 2 in it they dont need a licence to steal Midway's versions of there games since they own the code anyway!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ..

[onmode-ky]

TwinChargers, on Tue May 12, 2009 7:19 PM, said:

So it looks like there isn't gonna be a new Namco 6 Plug-N-Play this year then? I thought the game-key they had to unlock other games on your joypad was a solid idea, but they stopped that project years ago with sadly no game-keys released for the most part. Wonder if going that venture would have proven to be too expensive for them or what the deal was?

There could be a Namco 6 this year (though I can't remember when Jakks Pacific's license with Namco Bandai ends, so it's possible it could already be over). Keep in mind that the Namco 1, 2, and 3 models all came out in the middle of the year, but Namco 4 and 5 were released toward the end of the year. Namco 5 has only been out for about half a year. So it's still too early for Namco 6.

As for the GameKeys, that project died due to lack of retailer interest. The last report I got from Jakks, several years ago, was that they were trying to convince retailers to carry them. My guess is that the early GameKeys didn't sell well, so the retailers soured on the project. Or, they just didn't like them from the start for some reason (e.g., profit margin, shelf placement).

onmode-ky

[[d2f]Iggy*SJB]

Atariboy, on Mon Dec 22, 2008 7:28 PM, said:

Why would you alter a 4 way stick thats used with games that don't need diagonal control, to a 8 way stick? Seems like it would just make the control even more frusturating.

If you want to retire it and own a Xbox 360, and recent Namco Museum release has all the games from that Super Pac-Man stick, including Pac and Pal and Super Pac-Man.

I really don't like the controllers of the newer consoles, TBH. The newest console I have in an N-64, and while I have the Namco Museum for it, I don't like how the controllers work for that cart. As for modding the Super Pac-Man stick, I still haven't gotten around to it, but the reason is because I'd like the ease of moving from one direction to another, rather than moving it from, say, up to nuetral to left. Or another similar combination. It seems to stick(especially when you are Super Pac-Man in high-speed mode) when making those 90 degree turns. While it's true you don't move diagonally, it's nice to be able to smoothly move the stick from one direction to another like you could in the arcade.

[onmode-ky]

Jakks Pacific's 2009 expansion of their TV Games brand is starting to release. If you go to Amazon.com and search for the string "motion games" in the "Toys & Games" category, you should find 10 results, of which 2 are irrelevant. The other 8 are $50 products which have been available for ordering since at least sometime in May, originally with a release date of June 12th, I think it was, for most of them (whatever it was was definitely in the first half of June, while 2 of them are dated for December). Since that date passed, the entries have been marked as "Not in stock," but not "Currently unavailable." As of Monday night, 2 are in stock and finally have images associated with them; some of the others also have images now. The images are what at last confirmed my suspicions that these are Jakks Pacific's new TV Games Motion products (for some reason, rather than being attributed to Jakks, these are listed as products by "Motion Game" on Amazon). The 2 which are in stock are in very limited quantities (as in only 2 or 3), while the others have now switched from "Not in stock" to "Usually ships in 1 to 2 months." Obviously, for the moment, these are going to be on the rare side. It's strange that Amazon lists them for $50, though, as Jakks' original announced MSRP for these was $30. Either Amazon is wrong, or they jacked up the price quite a bit.

Also, searching "motion" at the ESRB website under the plug-and-play category gives results, with content descriptors, that include 5 of the products listed at Amazon (although they claim that SpongeBob has changed his last name to "Squarpants").

I have also just discovered Jakks' new Big Buck Hunter Pro ($60 vs. $40 announced MSRP, 2 in stock) and Sing Scene ($50 vs. $30 announced MSRP, 1-2 months, Pop and Country variants) toys at Amazon. It looks like most of Jakks' new plug-and-play products are hitting the market at about the same time, with only the fitness title being left from the announcements early this year. At a Target store, as well, I have seen the new trapezoid cross section box with handle on top for the Namco 5 TV Game (which came out last holiday season, so it's just a new package for an existing product). I never did like the previous blister-pack TV Games packaging, so I think this is a good change, though still not as good as the cardboard boxes they used to use.

onmode-ky

[TrekkiELO]

Zwackery, on Fri Jan 9, 2009 7:33 PM, said:

This pic was posted yesterday at

http://www.ubergizmo...iving_room.html

retro_ar...e_pacman.JPG

I saw this box at Target today, one big difference from that blister pack version is there's now a big easily scratchable sticker around its actual joystick flat top instead of the premolded on artwork and printing with only one small Pac-Man label!

Rick

Edited by TrekkiELO, Tue Jul 7, 2009 1:44 AM.

[TrekkiELO]

onmode-ky, on Thu Jul 2, 2009 6:05 AM, said:

At a Target store, as well, I have seen the new trapezoid cross section box with handle on top for the Namco 5 TV Game (which came out last holiday season, so it's just a new package for an existing product). I never did like the previous blister-pack TV Games packaging, so I think this is a good change, though still not as good as the cardboard boxes they used to use.

onmode-ky

I agree that these new boxes are way better than those nasty blister packs, also see my other reply right before this one and "The Price is Right" with Drew Carey as host is one of their 2009 TV Games.

Rick

Edited by TrekkiELO, Tue Jul 7, 2009 1:19 AM.

[onmode-ky]

TrekkiELO, on Tue Jul 7, 2009 2:57 AM, said:

Zwackery, on Fri Jan 9, 2009 7:33 PM, said:

This pic was posted yesterday at

http://www.ubergizmo...iving_room.html

retro_ar...e_pacman.JPG

I saw this box at Target today, one big difference from that blister pack version is there's now a big easily scratchable sticker around its actual joystick flat top instead of the premolded on artwork and printing with only one small Pac-Man label!

Rick

I'm not sure what you mean. I took a close look at the model in the new box, and it really isn't very different from my blister-pack version. True, the base in the boxed package I saw is all black with a yellow Pac-Man sticker around it instead of being yellow with the same yellow sticker (which I find a bit odd; maybe it was a temporary color variant at the factory, rather than a change to go with the new box), and if I remember correctly, the texture of the plastic at the top of the base is different, but other than that, they look the same. There is no premolded artwork on the Namco 5 in either black or yellow base versions; are you thinking of 2007's Namco 4, whose base had a rounded top with molded Pac-Man character art (and 8 games, compared to the Namco 5's 12, since it added 4 of the Namco 2 model's 5 games to the set)?

TrekkiELO, on Tue Jul 7, 2009 3:06 AM, said:

onmode-ky, on Thu Jul 2, 2009 6:05 AM, said:

At a Target store, as well, I have seen the new trapezoid cross section box with handle on top for the Namco 5 TV Game (which came out last holiday season, so it's just a new package for an existing product). I never did like the previous blister-pack TV Games packaging, so I think this is a good change, though still not as good as the cardboard boxes they used to use.

onmode-ky

I agree that these new boxes are way better than those nasty blister packs, also see my other reply right before this one and "The Price is Right" with Drew Carey as host is one of their 2009 TV Games.

Rick

Thanks for the heads-up on the The Price Is Right TV Game. I haven't seen it at any of the Targets or Wal-Marts in my area (they don't have any of Jakks' new TV Games aside from that single Namco 5 in the new box at one Target). Would you be able to tell me who the developer is? If you have it yourself, you can look at the logos at the boot screens, or if you don't have it, I'd appreciate it if you would look at the back or bottom of the package next time you see it in a store. I track the developer info in my plug-n-play listing file.

onmode-ky

[awace]

Was at wall mart Buying Food Yes Food Got 2 fruit punch ½ gallons for $2.00 .
Anyway I saw A Atari Joystick in a new package it looked exactly like the other one the older package one w the weird (1) sticker version 1 sticker
but the new one had no version 1 sticker as i think it was a marketing mistake cause there is only 1 version of the Atari Joystick ,
and they aparently didnt come out w a nother version!!! . The last one i purchased was $4.95 from thrift store it was hanging from its composite wires along w many many power packs I found a 5v+ dc power pack and permantly wired it to the power pack I think it from a pile of 5v power packs from routers someone gave me They said some school was throwing a hole bag of power packs away BUT W OUT THE ROUTERS I said ill take those..
I also rewired a single paddle plug play found Pal jumper left alone found 2player jumper and connections for extra paddle p1 p2 I removed internal
Mini CRAP paddle it came with NOT EVEN 1 meg ohm pissed me off as we all know unless its a ATARI part number and 1meg ohm you will DIE in circus atari... so i used a REAL pair of Atari© paddles and hooked wire to the button hole they work great I also used a 5v+ power pack I didnt use 6v cause the board only needs 5v in the 1st place THE pacman mini joystick could use 6v because of the led's !! but since a power pack never gets weak like batteries i can get away w it!!! The mini pacman i got off amazon NEw from some promo $ left over from my amazon GIFT per week thingie I guess i made out that week.. I didnt see vana white on the wheel of fourtine box.

[brojamfootball]

Awace,

Nice attempts to use capital letters to start sentences! It is helping your posts become more understandable, but why not use them all the time instead of just sometimes?

Try inserting a period between your thoughts/ideas and you'll be nearly golden.

I am sure that since you go to all the trouble to write your posts, you would like people to be able to understand them. Anymore, I generally skip reading your posts as they make no sense, but gave this latest one a shot after seeing some capital letters used.

For example:

"Was at wall mart Buying Food"
Curious use of capital letters there. I can't imagine why that was done in that way. I guess you felt that buying food was really important, kind of like the name of the world's largest business, which for some reason you did not capitalize(and misspelled).

"I also rewired a single paddle plug play found Pal" --you rewired a "single paddle plug play found"? I'm not sure what that is. Thanks for calling me "Pal," but we've never even met. Your idea is lost in confusion. Using a period or a comma to separate your ideas would have saved you on this one.

[BDW]

brojamfootball, on Tue Jul 14, 2009 10:30 AM, said:

Awace,

Nice attempts to use capital letters to start sentences! It is helping your posts become more understandable, but why not use them all the time instead of just sometimes?

Try inserting a period between your thoughts/ideas and you'll be nearly golden.

I am sure that since you go to all the trouble to write your posts, you would like people to be able to understand them. Anymore, I generally skip reading your posts as they make no sense, but gave this latest one a shot after seeing some capital letters used.

For example:

"Was at wall mart Buying Food"
Curious use of capital letters there. I can't imagine why that was done in that way. I guess you felt that buying food was really important, kind of like the name of the world's largest business, which for some reason you did not capitalize(and misspelled).

"I also rewired a single paddle plug play found Pal" --you rewired a "single paddle plug play found"? I'm not sure what that is. Thanks for calling me "Pal," but we've never even met. Your idea is lost in confusion. Using a period or a comma to separate your ideas would have saved you on this one.

I agree. Even though it is the internet, one should at least use 5th grade linguistics.

Edited by brandondwright, Tue Jul 14, 2009 10:50 AM.

[TrekkiELO]

onmode-ky, on Sun Jul 12, 2009 8:54 PM, said:

TrekkiELO, on Tue Jul 7, 2009 2:57 AM, said:

Zwackery, on Fri Jan 9, 2009 7:33 PM, said:

This pic was posted yesterday at

http://www.ubergizmo...iving_room.html

retro_ar...e_pacman.JPG

I saw this box at Target today, one big difference from that blister pack version is there's now a big easily scratchable sticker around its actual joystick flat top instead of the premolded on artwork and printing with only one small Pac-Man label!

Rick

and if I remember correctly, the texture of the plastic at the top of the base is different, but other than that, they look the same.

This is what I meant, that's not different texture, look very closely, there's a huge crappy black sticker now!

onmode-ky, on Sun Jul 12, 2009 8:54 PM, said:

TrekkiELO, on Tue Jul 7, 2009 3:06 AM, said:

onmode-ky, on Thu Jul 2, 2009 6:05 AM, said:

At a Target store, as well, I have seen the new trapezoid cross section box with handle on top for the Namco 5 TV Game (which came out last holiday season, so it's just a new package for an existing product). I never did like the previous blister-pack TV Games packaging, so I think this is a good change, though still not as good as the cardboard boxes they used to use.

onmode-ky

I agree that these new boxes are way better than those nasty blister packs, also see my other reply right before this one and "The Price is Right" with Drew Carey as host is one of their 2009 TV Games.

Rick

Thanks for the heads-up on the The Price Is Right TV Game. I haven't seen it at any of the Targets or Wal-Marts in my area (they don't have any of Jakks' new TV Games aside from that single Namco 5 in the new box at one Target). Would you be able to tell me who the developer is? If you have it yourself, you can look at the logos at the boot screens, or if you don't have it, I'd appreciate it if you would look at the back or bottom of the package next time you see it in a store. I track the developer info in my plug-n-play listing file.

onmode-ky

HotGen

Contestant's Row, The Showcase Showdown that also includes Big Wheel Button which sticks out from its controller base, The Showcase itself, stage backgrounds, music along with the included pricing games are all excellent reproductions, both sound effects and looks.

Any Number
Cliff Hangers
Double Prices
Dice Game
Flip Flop
Grand Game
Grocery Game
Hi-Lo
Hole in One
Lucky $even
Money Game
One Away
Pick a Pair
Plinko
Punch a Bunch
Range Game
Three Strikes

When you win each game or do well enough, they will unlock to allow separate play.

It has some speech of Drew Carey ("The Actual Retail Price Is", "Hold My Hand. Say Alakazam!", "You Have To Say Oh Mighty Sound Effects Person Do I Have At Least One Right?" & "Want To Say Hi To Anybody At Home?") then, Rich Fields ("Here It Comes!", "Come on Down!", "You're The Next Contestant On The Price Is Right", "Take A Look. It's A New Car!", "It's A Chance To Win Upto $25,000 In Cash", "And Now Here's Drew Carey With Our Showcase Showdown" & "And This Showcase Can Be Your's, If The Price Is Right") however, no models, except silhouettes.

Still great for any longtime PIR fans like me!



Rick

Edited by TrekkiELO, Tue Jul 14, 2009 11:00 PM.

[MegaManFan]

I'm curious as to whether or not anybody tried to "hack in" to the SMS chip the way they did for the Commodore stick and Atari Flashback 2.

[onmode-ky]

MegaManFan, on Thu Aug 6, 2009 1:35 AM, said:

I'm curious as to whether or not anybody tried to "hack in" to the SMS chip the way they did for the Commodore stick and Atari Flashback 2.

Um, I don't think that sentence is related to any topic discussed in this thread. Has the SMS, or any SMS-related product, even been mentioned?

TrekkiELO, on Wed Jul 15, 2009 12:22 AM, said:

onmode-ky, on Sun Jul 12, 2009 8:54 PM, said:

and if I remember correctly, the texture of the plastic at the top of the base is different, but other than that, they look the same.

This is what I meant, that's not different texture, look very closely, there's a huge crappy black sticker now!

I saw the new box-packaged release of the Namco 5 ("Retro Arcade") TV Game again in a Target recently, and this time, I could see what you were talking about. That really was just a big sticker across the entire top surface of the controller. I guess there is an advantage to owning the blister-packaged release instead, then, aside from the base being the color of Pac-Man.

Thanks again for all that info on the The Price Is Right TV Game. I saw one for myself recently (in the same Target store as mentioned above). Good to hear that they did a good job replicating the PIR experience. Do you know if the PC/Wii/DS/whatever-else renditions of PIR have either Bob Barker (unlikely, considering the fee he'd probably command) or Drew Carey?

New plug-n-play news: again, at that Target, I saw 3 more of Jakks Pacific's new TV Games products for the first time: two TV Games Motion games (the Spongebob Squarepants and Star Wars: The Clone Wars ones) and Big Buck Hunter Pro. The motion games are developed by HotGen, like the PIR TV Game, and the BBHP game is developed by Super Happy Fun Fun, who also did last year's Ultimotion Swing Zone Sports for Jakks (and they did a cell phone rendition of BBHP, so maybe this was just a port to (modern) light gun technology).

I tried out the Clone Wars motion game, and it's pretty good. The underlying TV Games technology has really evolved over the past few years; this one features some impressive graphic scaling effects (makes hyperspace jumps and flyby shots look realistic--not that I've ever seen a hyperspace jump first-hand) and seems to have pretty good resolution and color depth, as well as handling a fair number of sprites onscreen simultaneously (and yes, still sprites, no 3D like X-Wing or TIE Fighter). The sound is okay, but the synthesized music, which I think consists of only 2 primary tracks, of which 1 is almost just the bassline of the other, is nothing to write home about, certainly no iMUSE. The motion control aspect is impressively sensitive, very SixAxis in feel (though still $25 cheaper MSRP than a DualShock 3). However, I continually got screwed up by the fact that you turn it like a car steering wheel to go left and right, whereas I'm used to pushing flightsticks left and right. Also, holding it in the air rather than with a grounded reference point was a little disorienting at times.

With all the new stuff I saw recently, I made an update to my Comprehensive Plug-and-Play Listing thread, namely the addition of attachment pnpgames.20090812.txt. However, I can't figure out at all why it didn't sort so that 20090812 was at the bottom of the list; how in the world does 200905 sort after 200908??? Also, I should note that the TV Games Motion products are not tracked in that file, following my rule since creation of the file of not tracking games that use motion sensor interfaces.

Speaking of that thread of mine . . . what happened to the counters that track how many times the attachments have been viewed? Previously, some of them had only been looked at a single-digit number of times, but now, the least-viewed one (aside from the brand new attachment) has over 30 views. This explosion (relatively speaking) is really unexpected. Maybe it's counting Web robots' views?

onmode-ky

[Jess Ragan]

My understanding is that the console versions of The Price is Right are inferior products, worse than the Plug 'n Play in all respects. Only Rich Fields makes an appearance in the Wii game (and presumably other versions)... Drew Carey is notably absent.

I want to see a little footage of this Plug 'n Play in action. I've been a fan of the show for as long as I can remember (although it's lost its luster somewhat with its chubby new host) and I'd like to see a video game that really does it justice. I'm hearing good things about it but I've got to see it in action to believe it.

[onmode-ky]

Jess Ragan, on Thu Oct 1, 2009 2:48 AM, said:

My understanding is that the console versions of The Price is Right are inferior products, worse than the Plug 'n Play in all respects. Only Rich Fields makes an appearance in the Wii game (and presumably other versions)... Drew Carey is notably absent.

I want to see a little footage of this Plug 'n Play in action. I've been a fan of the show for as long as I can remember (although it's lost its luster somewhat with its chubby new host) and I'd like to see a video game that really does it justice. I'm hearing good things about it but I've got to see it in action to believe it.

Actually, searching "price is right tv game" at YouTube gave a 2-part video review as the first results. Each part is 10 minutes long, so it's not a short blurb. As an aside, I think this is the first non-online video game I've ever seen that supports as many as 9 players.

Part 1:
Part 2:

Looks and sounds all right to me. What do you think? Incidentally, I think there is a mistake in the review, as I believe the Jakks TV Games are all 32-bit architecture these days, not 16-bit. Granted, this game doesn't appear to push the hardware too much, but this isn't Uncharted 2: Among Contestants.

onmode-ky

[Fellow Atari Man]

Crimefighter, on Sun Dec 28, 2008 11:49 PM, said:

Then you're thinking of the 3rd edition Pac-Man game shown here, that's been out for two years.

There's been so many of them it's easy to get them confused.

Crimefighter, on Sun Dec 28, 2008 11:49 PM, said:

I found this variant of the 4th edition stick however, but I've not seen it for sale --

http://www.searchama...d-tv-game-1.jpg

They come out with so many I think they go out of print quickly. Here the most current one (I think) is the Retro Arcade Featuring Pac-Man, yet it's not on Jakks' website, the last one is still Arcade Gold, with only eight games; the current one has all of them, plus four more (Galaga, Xevious, Mappy and I think Pole Position wasn't on the previous). Because they came out with some Star Wars Episode 3 one, but now that the movie's come and gone from the theatres they're not making that one any more either...same with the 1 vs. 100 tv show that was cancelled, try finding that in a store already.

Crimefighter, on Mon Dec 29, 2008 7:56 PM, said:

Gee, they keep putting out new sticks but the same games in a different combo.

Yeah I think it's a bit disgusting; I'm almost disgusted now that I got Retro Arcade Featuring Pac-Man, but I'm having a blast with it, plus it's my first ever plug and play unit anyhow, so it's not like I'm getting ripped off by buying all the ones that have come out in the last few years.

TrekkiELO, on Sat Jan 3, 2009 11:57 AM, said:

I had a very interesting telephone conversation with Jakk's Pacific yesterday and had them look at this picture, they said it didn't exist, insisting that their most recent version was Edition 4 Arcade Gold Pac-Man.

Yeah I had to e-mail them to register my product, since it said on their warranty page that the product didn't exist. In their return e-mail they said they noted it in their records that I had applied for my warranty. However if the thing breaks I'm just going to return it to Target anyway, either way it's the same warranty (90 days).

[onmode-ky]

Regarding the The Price Is Right TV Game, which we discussed a bit in this thread's last few posts, I've recently come upon some funny elements in it, after viewing a couple of YouTube reviews of it. Namely, since it does not use real-life products (unlike Ubisoft's Wii/DS/PC renditions of the game show, which, based on some reviews, seem to go a bit overboard with the product placement), it uses fake product names . . . but they are fake names based on real products' names. It becomes a game in itself identifying what real-life product is behind each name! For example, the discussion in a YouTube comment which alerted me to this in the first place noted that a stove brand "Junelabel" was, in fact, a play on "Maytag." Also, a number of other fake names were anagrams (Roxloc cleaner) or names that rhymed with the originals (Kleinz mustard). The following are some product names where I figured out the origins. Try to see if you can get them before clicking the "Show" buttons:

Hermes Top Duke (car) // real name:

Spoiler

Mercury Grand Marquis

IWB (camcorder) // real name:

Spoiler

JVC

Evasion Buck (car) // real name:

Spoiler

Dodge Ram? But, it wasn't a truck, so I thought maybe Dodge Charger?

Bruic Rugby (car) // real name:

Spoiler

Buick Lacrosse

Palm-Lun (cleaner) // real name (before you click, no, it's not Palmolive):

Spoiler

Pine-Sol

Trembler (granola) // real name:

Spoiler

Quaker

Bell Grande (canned peaches) // real name:

Spoiler

Del Monte

Harrison Fission (car) // real name:

Spoiler

Ford Fusion

Here's one I didn't get myself, but a friend did:

Cosell (lamp) // real name:

Spoiler

Howard

And, lastly, here are some fake names for which I haven't figured out the real-life equivalents:

Weep 8-2 (car)
Bright Times (chandelier)
Rabilla (pasta)
Origin Heath (computer armoire)
Belloq (chocolate tart)
Kvetch's (cocktail)
FunThings (trampoline)
BESO (curio cabinet)
Lihalgo (sofa)
Mesmer (inline skates)
Benediction (trombone)
Sasha Pepper (SUV)

Any ideas? The instinct for "Weep" is to go for "Jeep," but I'm not convinced. I thought maybe the theme was "tears," so Chrysler (cry-sler)? Not sure, though I suppose "Jeep 4x4" does match, if you assume "8-2" is an arithmetic expression. On the rest, I just draw a blank, as I'm not familiar with brand names for many of those things.

Also fun, it seems that some of the descriptions for showcases (maybe the second showcase to be presented in each Showdown) follow the format "Your showcase is all about <noun phrase>," where the phrase is a random theme . . . which turns out to have, really, nothing to do whatsoever with the contents of the showcase. It's just something picked at random out of a list, so you end up with a completely nonsensical showcase theme. I thought this one in particular was a nice in-joke from the HotGen staff: "Your showcase is all about developing a video game." I'll bet they would really have liked a trip to Vienna to help them deal with developing a video game.

onmode-ky

[Mirage]

Barilla pasta. The Weep 8-2 I'm thinking is Jeep 4x4, like you said. That makes sense. Unless it's "something 6", but I can't think of anything that could be. Dunno.

[Austin]

S1500, on Fri Dec 12, 2008 9:47 PM, said:

*sigh* Will Namco release any OTHER games on a dedicated stick and not just Pac Man, etc over and over again? There is way too much overlap on these dedicated consoles.

The same goes for their home console arcade compilations...

[desiv]

onmode-ky, on Sun Aug 16, 2009 8:43 PM, said:

MegaManFan, on Thu Aug 6, 2009 1:35 AM, said:

I'm curious as to whether or not anybody tried to "hack in" to the SMS chip the way they did for the Commodore stick and Atari Flashback 2.

Um, I don't think that sentence is related to any topic discussed in this thread. Has the SMS, or any SMS-related product, even been mentioned?

er.. Yeah..
Quite a bit of page 2 mentions the SMS, complete with some pics...


desiv

[the-topdog]

My all-time favorite is Jakks Pacific Capcom Joystick with 1942, Commando, and Ghosts and Goblins.

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