I think it was a year or two ago that a few of us participated in a friendly Yars' Revenge high-score contest. Qix77 and MutoidMan were involved... maybe Boingo_Buzzard too? I can't remember if there were others off-hand. My apologies to whomever I'm leaving out - memory circuits getting old. I think I was the low-scorer of the bunch, but it was a blast competing with friends.

Most people play the game on an emulator these days, as with most Atari 2600 games.

To my fellow old-guys, or as I prefer to think of us: the original generation of gamers. Do you remember how the game looked on the original hardware? The pictures weren't made up of blocks like on an emulator, but rather bright scan lines on a TV screen.

Take a trip down memory lane with my latest classic gaming article. If you're in a hurry (like I often am), you really don't need to read the whole thing. I think the visuals alone will bring a smile. Of course, I think it is a good read if you're a fan of the game or curious about it.

For those of you who have only ever seen this game in an emulator and never on a TV screen, the way it was originally played, you may want to check out how cool it really looked. I love the way older video games look on a CRT. They light up with all this cool energy and I love the look of those little tiny TV elements that make up the picture.

This game packed some seriously cool visuals for 1981. The neutral zone and giant explosion effect alone were reason enough to want and buy the game. Playing wave after addicting wave was reason enough to keep coming back for more.


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The Yars' Revenge challenge was a lot of fun. It took a while to get back into the groove of the game, but once I did it was awesome. I think I got as far as the pink Qotile shield. Qix77, do you remember what, if any, colors come after pink?

Good article, Todd.

I think Yars' Revenge may have been the first Atari cart with a comic book to explain its background - I thought that was so cool.

The game looked, sounded, and played like nothing else at the time and it was amazing. Truely, it was a new experience at the time. Very rarely do I get a similar feeling of wonderment when playing a modern game. Still, I keep trying!

Qix77 Wrote:Very good article. I agree that the old CRT TV scanlines did make a difference... Thanks for the article and the pics. Really good stuff..

You're welcome, and thank you. Yes, I just love the look of scan lines and the little colored TV elements that make up the picture. It's a dying technology. A few more years, and they'll be completely gone. I'm hoping that by then, the look of it will have been included in emulators. I know some emulators simulate it now (or try to), which I applaud, but they've got a ways to go yet. They should really come and talk to me. I've studied the look very closely.

MutoidMan Wrote:Good article, Todd... The game looked, sounded, and played like nothing else at the time and it was amazing. Truely, it was a new experience at the time.

Thanks.

Yes it was. Everything about it was really cool and unique at the time. Browsing the comic each time before playing it was half the fun. It set the mood and put the imagination exactly where it need to be for maximum enjoyment!

Qix77 Wrote:If I right, we both were playing Stella emu and Todd had a new Atari console with built in games.

Yep. I was playing on my Flashback 2. The Flashback (1) had the game too, but it was just a recreation of it. The FB2 actually had the original game code running on an Atari-on-a-chip. 100% same experience as the original cart... at least I can tell no difference when I play either... except the FB2 produces a cleaner image because it has RCA plug TV connectors rather than an RF modulator. If you no longer have your original Atari and the cart, you really should find a FB2. They're cheap (about $40), come with authentic feeling joysticks, and have several original 2600 games built in (only about 1/3 of which are games I enjoy). And their joysticks actually fit in the original 2600 as well! Major coolness!

I couldn't compete with the scores you guys were achieving, but I was scoring WAY higher than I ever did in the 80's. As much as I loved the game, it used to also frustrate me a lot when I was younger. I didn't quite use a good technique with the game back then either.

I remember that Atari also had a different type of comic series that came with some games. It was called "Atari Force". I loved those comics but only had like four of them.

I loved those booklets! I was never much in to comic books, but the Atari comics drew me in just because I loved video games so much. They used to get me fired up to play Atari. Total geek-gaming awesomeness back in the early 80's.

Qix77 Wrote:I wasn't really big in comics but I did love reading a lot of Marvel stuff... Amazing Spider-Man X-MEN (sometimes) Fantastic Four (sometimes) Atari comics was really cool though. I think there was a book that was both an arcade strategy guide and a funny comic in a novelet type of format called "Blitz" (I think)... They had some really cute and funny stuff in that too along with Pac-Man routes and other stuff. Wished I still had it.

Don't forget about the Nester comics in Nintendo Power, the only comic that could get away with providing game hints in the form of a comic strip loosely based on a random NES game and two doodz.

Sketch Wrote:Yay for CRT goodness! *Hugs his behemonth wood grained Magnavox*

OMG.. You too? I had one and even had the plastic RBG gems embedded above the channel nob which also had that dial to "tune in" in the most improper way possible.

For those of you that don't know, this is Nester:


And this is Lark, a playable character in PilotWings 64:



Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Qix77 Wrote: Sketch Wrote:Yay for CRT goodness! *Hugs his behemonth wood grained Magnavox* OMG.. You too? I had one and even had the plastic RBG gems embedded above the channel nob which also had that dial to "tune in" in the most improper way possible.

Mine was made in 92, has no knobs, but it has that fake woodgrain plastic frame. Looks very 80's in it's design. An Atari 2600 would blend right into this beast. Still woks great.

I remember my grandparents had an old Panisonic with MASSIVE turn knobs. I loved that echoing CHTHUNK they made as you turned though channels. Sounded like you were activating a doomsday bomb in the living room.

I was waiting for you to chime in. I know you have the same love of CRT imagery.

Which is why I still have my Magnavox.

Isn't it interesting how in movies the best tv screens shown are beautifully glitched? The CRT has a long culture around it's own scrabblevisioned nature. And also when was the last time you've heard that CRT screen knock sound? Even look at the awsome designs the Tele has gone through that define each era just like the automobile. I see them as techno works of art & culture all which sport their own unique machine personaities.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
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I just had a CRT TV die on me. It was a cheap-o 19" KTV that I bought for $199 back in 1989. When I lived on my own, it was my main TV and gaming TV. Great memories of my NES, C64, SNES, and occasionally my Apple //c on that TV. After marriage it became my gaming-only TV. I enjoyed my N64, GameCube and Atari 2600 on it. I damn near cried when I turned it on one day (just a few months ago) and the picture was like... well, kind of like a full-screen Atari logo. The electromagnet must have died to some extent because the top of the screen was really small, and it fanned out toward the bottom, with the RGB colors horribly misaligned.

I removed the dial channel switches for VHF and UHF for souvenirs and reluctantly placed the TV in the garbage. It was a cheap-o TV, but it was a good TV to me over the years. Many good memories with it.

We've still got 5 CRT TV's in the house (1 is the "Weed Killer" monitor, not really a TV, but still has a CRT ). I also have a 12" B&W tube-TV that will no longer be of much use after the digital tuner switch-over next year. Then again, it hasn't been powered up in at least 4 or 5 years.

Soon the rest of our CRT TV's will die off. One by one. Eventually, there will be none left. I love HD and flat-screen and all... but there's just that coolness to a CRT TV that will be lost and it will break my CRT-lovin' heart.

Hopefully by then, gaming emulation will have perfected the look of a CRT display and we'll be able to enjoy the next best thing. It won't be the same, but it will have to do.

But while I've still got a few CRT's in my TRON-lovin' clutches, I'll probably be pumping out more up close and personal CRT imagery of old school console gaming goodness!

Qix77 Wrote:Hey Todd... Remember that crazy little Atari joystick that you got with 10 2600 games on it? Just got one tonight. It was a gift from a very unlikely girlfriend.

Actually I've got an Atari Flashback 2. It's basically a mini Atari system with about 40 games built-in and hooks up to the TV via audio and video RCA plugs. The joysticks (it comes with two) are just joysticks, not a self-contained system.

The joystick you have is probably a Jakks Atari Classics 10 in 1 TV Game joystick. I think those things started the whole retro-console-gaming-mini-unit craze a few years back. They sold like wild fire... what a weird phrase. Does "wild fire" really sell? Maybe it's they spread like wild fire or something. Whatever I meant to say.

The games are recreations of the Atari classics. Most people agree that most of the recreations are close enough to the originals to be loads of fun and have you reliving your memories of early 80's home gaming. Some people were disappointed by the fact that the games were just recreations and not the real things. You can check out some reviews of it on Amazon - mostly positive (some people complained about sound quality issues).

The Atari Flashback (the first one) was similar. It featured recreations of Atari 2600 and 5200 games with some of them closer to the originals than others. It was powered by an NES-on-a-chip processing device.

The Atari Flashback 2 actually featured the original Atari games (original code used on the carts) running on an Atari-on-a-chip. The games look, sound, and play exactly the same because they're the original game code running on updated (shrunk) Atari hardware. Some of the games were modified a little, like Asteroids, but most of the games are exactly like they were on a real 2600.

I'm sure the Jakks joystick will be loads of fun to play, but you may want to also consider picking up a FB2. They're only about $50 and have more Atari games - including the original Yars' Revenge!

About the Yars' Revenge challenge - I seriously want to go at it again. Unfortunately life in the real world probably won't allow it. I went from being a gamer to being a would-be gamer. I WOULD BE gaming if I had some frickin' free time on my hands. Sometimes I wish I were 12 years old again, living with Mom and Dad... but still able to sleep with my wife. he he Seriously, I miss the care-free days of being able to play and goof around with time to spare.

I've got some time off coming up this Christmas season. Maybe we can fire up the old Yars' Revenge challenge around then?

Anyone else got time off toward the end of December?

Qix77 Wrote:...I was disappointed that it wasn't emulation. I could tell by playing Yar's that the pulsating sound was a much higher pitch and the 'static field' (cant remember what they call that zone) was way too clean and not snowy like in the original.

It's called the Neutral Zone (not to be confused with the border between the Federation and the Romulans ).

I'm sure you'll still have plenty of fun with the 10-in-1. The games aren't 100%, but most people seem to really enjoy them.

Like I said - consider hunting down a FB2. When I got mine, I was totally transported back to the good old memories of the early 80's, and even had to dig my original 2600 out of storage to get more.

Oh.. and BTW... I've sold a few wild fires before. I was working at 'Wild Fire City' where they sell wild fires... and thats all. One day we had a fire sell and we posted signs that said "Everything Must Go"... and it did... up in flames. It was a good day at work too and I got to ride in the fire truck.... and I'm so full of crap on top of that... lol...

Thanks for the laugh. Can always count on you for a smile!