Second Generation Appreciation Thread

[o.pwuaioc]

Dat top stick looks amazing.

It's very well built, too. Very heavy. Controls wonderfully. I only play 7800 games with that, now. I want to eventually spend the money and get this for Robotron:

[Jagosaurus]

I use the Genesis controller for 2600 as well. Unfortunately doesn't work for any 7800 titles that require 2 buttons.

I've always wanted to try the 7800 Europe controller but don't want to pay $40 for it. Imagine it'd work fine on the 2600 as well.

[marlowe221]

I picked a few games for my 2600 a couple of weeks ago. Nothing earth-shattering or super rare, but I did manage to fill a few gaps in the collection:

Dig-Dug
Galaxian (always wanted a Galaga port on the 2600...)
Tac Scan (by SEGA!)
Beam Rider
Solaris
Enduro

I also got some paddle controllers too - I'm not sure what happened to the ones that I had in 1980s..

[prfsnl_gmr]

Beam Rider
Solaris

Nice.

Beam rider is hard to find, and Solaris is one of the 2600's most "modern" games. (It is so modern, in fact, BoneSnapDeez probably wouldn't play it.)

[BoneSnapDeez]

Solaris is still one I need. The graphics are amazing.

I don't have Tac/Scan yet either, Sega had some awesome arcade ports back in the day.

Nice to see this thread brought back from the dead.

[marlowe221]

Beam Rider
Solaris

Nice.

Beam rider is hard to find, and Solaris is one of the 2600's most "modern" games. (It is so modern, in fact, BoneSnapDeez probably wouldn't play it.)

I just looked up Beam Rider on the Rarity Guide over on Atari Age... Holy crap!!! It's a 5! That is easily the rarest Atari game I own and I didn't even realize it.

:lol:

Solaris is still one I need. The graphics are amazing.

I don't have Tac/Scan yet either, Sega had some awesome arcade ports back in the day.

Nice to see this thread brought back from the dead.

Don't worry man - this thread has always been alive in my heart! I own more 2600 games than for all of my other "retro" systems combined.

I actually haven't tried Tac/Scan yet. What sort of game is it?

[marlowe221]

Well, here's the kind of fun you can only have with Second Generation gaming!

I thought I would try out Tac Scan last night but could not get the game to work. It powered up just fine, but the Game Select and Game Reset switches on the console did not seem to have any effect. Pushing the Fire button on the joystick to start the game did not do anything either.

I was frustrated by this and decided to take out my frustrations on some bad guys in Defender. Sure, fans of the original arcade machine don't like the 2600 port, but it's a good game in its own right - especially for those of us with no experience of the arcade game.

Then, I remembered that there are some games that use the right controller port for a single player game in stead of the left one. There are also a few 2600 games that require a controller to be plugged into BOTH ports even if you're only playing a single player game. So, I plugged my joystick into the right port to see if Tac Scan would cooperate with me any better than my last attempt. No dice.

Then I thought, "well, maybe this is a game for the paddle controllers?" So I plugged my newly acquired paddles into the left controller port and fired up my all-black Vader... and it still didn't work. In a final act of desperation, I plugged the paddles into the RIGHT controller port. Finally! One of the paddles actually responded and I was able to play the game!

It was OK.

In other second generation news, I have just put in an order for this:

http://www.2600connection.com/faq/controllers/faq_controller_slik_stik.jpg

[ExedExes]

Didn't you love getting games for the 2600 that didn't tell you what controllers to use on the cartridge?

I always found it funny that Wizard of Wor requires a right-side joystick to play in 1 player, but that is just mirroring the arcade version perfectly.

I once played GI Joe Cobra Strike, and ran into the same exact problem you did. That game required paddles.

Good call on the Slik Stik, I have one. One of the best 2600 sticks. I also went through many of those Epyx 500XJ sticks back in the day.

[marlowe221]

Didn't you love getting games for the 2600 that didn't tell you what controllers to use on the cartridge?

I always found it funny that Wizard of Wor requires a right-side joystick to play in 1 player, but that is just mirroring the arcade version perfectly.

I once played GI Joe Cobra Strike, and ran into the same exact problem you did. That game required paddles.

Was Wizard of Wor an early or late 2600 title?

The reason I ask is because I have read there is a reason that there are some games that control with a joystick in the right port. In the early days of the VCS, there were a lot of good paddle controller games, equal to or greater than the number of joystick games apparently. The idea was that you could keep the paddle controllers plugged into the system and use the joystick in the other port for games that required it - that way you wouldn't always have to be removing controllers and replacing them with others, wash, rinse, and repeat.

I don't know if there is any truth to that theory, but there is a certain logic to it.

I've also read that later in the VCS's life, there were far fewer paddle games and far more joystick games. So the single player games that used the paddle controllers were often programmed to recognize the right controller port so that the player could keep the joystick plugged into the left one.

Again, no idea if that's actually the case.

Good call on the Slik Stik, I have one. One of the best 2600 sticks. I also went through many of those Epyx 500XJ sticks back in the day.

Yeah, I have heard a lot of good things about the Suncom sticks. But I have never heard of or seen a 500XJ before. That's one of the fun things about the 2600, there was such a huge variety of 3rd party controllers and a lot of them were really well made and fun to use!

[BoneSnapDeez]

Check out the Commodore 64. Some (maybe the majority?) of games require player one to plug into port TWO. I've always read that it was "safer" for the computer the be structured this way (voltage or whatnot) but don't quote me on it.

Speaking of "non-functioning" games I recently acquired a copy of Time Pilot for the 2600 from my homie prfsnl_gmr. I couldn't get it to work - even after repeated cleanings. Then I did some research and found it's one of the few games that won't boot on the Atari 7800! Thankfully I also own two 2600s so 'sall good.

Also - Tac/Scan is an awesome space shooter. Play it!