Load"*",8,1
The Tramiels had alot to do with the success of the Vic-20 and the C-64, but they were later bought out of thier own company.Originally Posted by Melf
http://oldcomputers.net/c64.html
Last edited by gamevet; 05 Nov 2006 at 10:12 PM.
The system should've been released in 1984, not 1986. Having any system sit on the shelf for two years makes it instantly technologically inferior to anything that came out in the meantime. Atari was stupid, though they were also gunshy since the industry crashed. Along came Nintendo and the rest is history - which I wonder how much different it would've been if the 7800 had already established itself.
Load"*",8,1
The Atari 5200 was getting outsold by the Colecovision and home computers were becoming the big, so it made no sense to release it.
Atari had success with the Atari 400/800 computers, but thier Atari ST computer was getting outdone by the Amiga. That's probably why they went back to consoles.
I believe re-releasing the Atari 7800 was a desperate attempt by Atari to get back into the console market; since thier home computer market was drying up and the NES was starting to make waves.
What I really don't get, is why they bothered releasing the Atari XE?
http://www.videogamecritic.net/xeinfo.htm
Last edited by gamevet; 05 Nov 2006 at 11:55 PM.
Godzilla plays in my head
Interesting seeing a history of 7800 here. I was a brief 2600 fan but became more of a 5200 fan. I bought the 7800 this year actually, 2006 , when I found it at Groovy in Pittsburgh. Food Fight is awesome, I like Asteroids a lot too. Also like the Desert one with the egyptian theme.
Atari 5200 / Atari 8bit computer games hold up strong against the 7800 ones. Centipede, Mario Bros, and Joust I prefer on 5200 for example. Maybe its because I played those versions so much back in the day. I prefer 5200 Ballblazer too because it has better sounds than the 7800 version. On the other hand, 7800 has much better visuals than 5200 can do, plus some of its games have 2-player simultaneous like Centipede and Asteroids, IIRC.
Atari messed up bigtime with the inferior sound capabilities of this system.
Father Brain
A 7800 and Food Fight really is a must own. The game is a blast, and features a bit of impressive programming with instant replays that appear after some stages.
And just the idea of Ninja Golf makes it worth owning.
Throat punch: the musical
I remember seeing this in Kaybee when I was a kid, it ended up a choice between this and a NES. Mario won. Some of those games don't look too bad, wasn't there also a Snoopy Vs Red Baron game on it? *-neo
What de fook is a gamest mook?
The 7800 I played was used for the built-in Asteroids and 2600 emulation only. But try to find a 7800 game? In a shop? Not a chance.
The Dro
Fricking 7800.
All I wanted back then was an NES. Pleaded, begged, did anything in my power to get my folks to buy me an NES...
But they wouldn't, not when we had this pile of "perfectly good atari 2600 2600 tapes". So they got me a 7800 because it was backwards compatible.
What a pile of poop. Controllers were horrible too, though not nearly as pad as the 5200 controllers.
Good thread as always though. =D
There was for 2600.
Do the Autobot dance.
With as much of an Atari fan that I was back in the day, I never owned a 7800 until years later. I remember coming across a Pole Position II cart way back when and wondering why it just wouldn't fit in my 2600's cart slot. There were some good games for the 7800, but there's a reason it's often Atari's least remembered console. No, not because of the selection of games, but because Atari wouldn't know marketing if it was humping them in the butt.
And yes, the sound did suck. I believe several games (Ballblazer and one other) included the POKEY chip, which was actually a pretty good sound chip for its time. Why Atari couldn't just include one in the console itself is beyond me.
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