Dig Dug Release Date: May 1986 Original Developer: Namco 7800 Developer: GCC Publisher: Atari Genre: Action/Maze This game supports the unreleased High Score Cartridge and the XM Expansion Module for saving high scores. It's the classic tale of psychotic underground killer meets adorable balloon monsters and dragons. It's one of the most popular arcade games of all time and one of Namco's biggest hits, which further cemented the company as an arcade giant. Dig Dug might be one of my top ten favorite arcade games ever. The cute characters, vibrant colors, and simple, yet difficult to master, gameplay make this one always worth coming back to. I remember when I was little, I even tried going for the world record. Granted, I was playing it on a plug and play, which would have immediately disqualified my scores. But hey, I was just a little kid with limited knowledge of how to use the internet. You can't blame me THAT much. Anyway, Dig Dug had already received various ports before the 7800 was put on store shelves, including a very impressive 2600 conversion. The 7800 port came out in 1986, during the time when the NES was slowly starting to gain traction. However, this is one of those special cases, where the Famicom port of an arcade game was never released in the U.S.[1] So, at the time, the 7800 port was probably the best home version of Dig Dug available. Making an at home experience as great as the arcade is no easy task. However, GCC were able to deliver a product that doesn't just stand tall against all other ports of Dig Dug, but also compares quite favorably with its arcade big brother. Almost everything from the arcade game is intact. Digging paths through the dirt, blowing up enemies, crushing them with rocks, picking up bonus food items, all of that is here and is represented fantastically. The controls can be a bit difficult to get a grip on. You really have to hammer that fire button to blow up enemies. However, the movement is very smooth and responsive. Out of all the old school Dig Dug home ports, this is the one that I think comes closest to replicating that arcade feel. While the Famicom version of Dig Dug is certainly a great port, there's definitely an empty feeling I get while playing that one. Between the limited color palettes and the pure black background,[2] it feels like I'm playing Dig Dug in the middle of a void. Meanwhile, the 7800 version trades high resolution for bold colors. And I think this trade off was a success. The colors here really scream Dig Dug. Even if this is a meaningless detail to most people, the addition of a blue sky really makes the graphics come alive here. Besides the background, the characters and objects also look the part. The Pookas have a bit of a blocky look to them. I think they could have been drawn a bit better. However, everything is super colorful, well animated, and does a great job at representing what they’re supposed to be. I especially think the fire graphics for Fygar look excellent, as well as the various vegetables that Dig Dug can pick up. As for the sound, this games reuses all of the music and sound effects from the 2600 conversion of Dig Dug.[3] However, I think is less of an example of lazily rehashing old assets and more of an example of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Dig Dug sounds great on the 7800. Pretty much all of the classic jingles and sound effects from the arcade game are here and they sound pretty faithful considering the limitations. The game over, high score, and continue themes are missing, but everything else here is about perfect. In the 2600 version, moving and stopping would cause the music to reset each time. However, the 7800 has the music simply pause every time you stop moving, like it's supposed to. So, if anything, the 7800 actually improves on the 2600 sound. Just like in the arcade game, you can pump enemies through thin patches of dirt. However, you have to be up close to do it. This requires precise movement, and can take some time to get used to. The Fygars are also able to flame you through those thin dirt patches. So, it can be risky to kill enemies that way. However, risk versus reward gameplay is what these games are all about. Do I want to blow up everyone and clear stages as fast as possible? Or do I want to lead multiple enemies to a rock to crush them all and get a massive point bonus? Quick decision making and fast movement is an absolute necessity here, and the game rewards you for these skills. It’s always so satisfying to crush multiple enemies at once, especially in groups of three or more. And that crunchy sound of the rock hitting the enemies just adds to the satisfaction. As for options, there’s not much more than the basic difficulty and two player options here. If you get a game over, you can continue your game from where you left off. However, like in the arcade game, your score is reset. So, if you don’t care about points, you could keep playing to see all of the different levels. Is Dig Dug on the 7800 an absolutely perfect conversion? Maybe not, but I'd be lying if I said that the amount of fun I had here didn't match the amount of fun I've had playing the arcade game. I would probably give this a high score anyway, due to my personal attachment to the game. However, I do genuinely believe that it's the strongest of the five Namco conversions. While I would have liked to see more options, what’s here is executed with near perfection. 10/10 Availability: As one of the more popular games for the 7800, copies of Dig Dug are readily available on eBay. Loose cartridges can be found for around $13, while sealed copies are hovering around $20 to $30. If you’re looking for good and cheap games for your 7800, this is definitely one to consider. If you just want Dig Dug, then you can of course find it on various Namco Museum titles. However, if you’re looking for a classic home conversion of the game, the 7800 port is the way to go. Sources: [1] List of NES Games (Famicom Games Not Included) [2] Dig Dug Famicom Gameplay [3] Dig Dug Atari 2600 Gameplay Developers - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/175135-7800-developers/ Packaging - https://atariage.com/box_page.php?SoftwareLabelID=684 Release dates - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/254852-7800-game-release-dates Gameplay footage:
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Galaga Release Date: August 1986 Original Developer: Namco 7800 Developer: GCC Publisher: Atari Genre: Shooter This game supports the unreleased High Score Cartridge and the XM Expansion Module for saving high scores. Galaga is up there with Centipede, Donkey Kong, Joust, and Ms. Pac-Man as one of the kings of early 80's arcades. All of these games received ports for the 7800 and we'll look at those at some point in the future. However, Galaga might be my favorite of the lot in terms of their arcade originals. Galaga has always been a favorite of mine ever since I was a little kid. It's one of those games that never gets tiring and is just about flawless in every way. So, how does this 7800 conversion stack up? First of all, I think it's important to note that official Galaga ports back in the day were a bit of a rarity. While its predecessor, Galaxian, was ported to practically every console and computer under the sun, Galaga mainly got ported to higher end machines and Japanese computers. The Atari 7800 version is actually the first console port of Galaga to be released in the United States. The NES version of Galaga didn't release over here until a couple years later. It's also important to note that the NES version is actually a port of the MSX version of Galaga. Granted, it greatly improves on the MSX original with more detailed graphics and advanced sound, but the NES version has not been built from the ground up. I want to get this out of the way first, because most people would probably dismiss the 7800 version as being inferior without knowing how the two were developed. And even when knowing how they were made, it's difficult to recommend the 7800 Galaga over the NES version. Does that mean this is a bad game? Absolutely not. Galaga on the 7800 provides most of the same enjoyment that the arcade original does. The gameplay here is the same classic formula that I'm sure we're all familiar with. Blast the space bugs and avoid them when they swoop down and shoot at you. If one of the big green bugs captures your ship, you can save it to earn double firepower. Every few rounds is a bonus stage, where the goal is to shoot as many enemies as possible before they leave the screen. In the later levels, an enemy will sometimes transform into a line of three different enemies. These include scorpions, dragonflies, and even Galaxian flagships. And like with most arcade games, the difficulty gets progressively higher the longer you play. The core mechanics have not been changed a bit, and the gameplay is still just as great as the original. The play control is very responsive and there's a good amount of speed when moving around the screen. And it's still extremely satisfying to get double ships. The game has been adapted to a 4:3 aspect ratio, and this doesn't affect the game in any major way. However, it's the little differences that can throw you off. The objects are too small and the screen is too wide. This makes getting double ships more of a challenge here than in the arcade version. The gaps between enemies are just big enough to where you will often shoot between them, which seems more like a flaw than a fair challenge. It can also be really tricky to shoot them when they're flying down towards you. This is especially true for the later levels. I understand that this was part of the challenge of the original arcade game. However, I do feel like this is more of a fault with the 7800 version, as this didn't happen to me nearly as much in the original. Despite the smaller character sizes, the graphics here are actually really nice. They replicate the color and charm of the arcade version very well, and everything here is instantly recognizeable as a Galaga character. They may not be as detailed as they are in other versions, but I think the more simplified look actually works quite well. The main player ship is what suffers here the most, as it's missing some of its red tips. Other details like the star field and the explosions look fine enough, but the tractor beam looks more like a staircase than a beam used to suck up intergalactic insect fighters. The music and sound in this game is quite good and well replicates Nobuyuki Ohnogi's original sounds. I always thought of Galaga as being one of the first stepping stones towards music being an important part of video games. And I'm glad that the same atmosphere the original music conveyed is carried over to the 7800 conversion. Both high score themes are sadly absent here, but nearly everything else is spot on. Even with all of the positives mentioned above, there's undeniably something off about this version of Galaga. The enemies are very jumpy and often fly towards you in huge waves, making them very difficult to avoid. You barely have any time to react before they fly down. The horizontal aspect ratio certainly doesn't help this either. The gameplay starts off very slow, pathetically slow even. Often times, you can shoot all of the enemies before they even start swarming down towards you. However, the speed does ramp up quite a bit in the later levels, making it feel more like the arcade original. As for options, this game has the absolute bare minimum. 1 or 2 players and a handful of difficulty settings, with the expert mode just skipping you to stage 10. It's hard to tell if there's really a difference between normal and advanced difficulties, but the enemies might be a bit more aggressive in advanced mode. That could just be the placebo effect though. Like with all of the arcade ports on the 7800, more complex options like changing the number of lives or the points required for bonus lives would have been greatly appreciated. However, what's here is passable for an early console port. Galaga makes for a great time on the 7800, but is lacking what made the arcade original perfect. I had a ton of fun playing through this game and trying to beat my high score. However, I sadly can't recommend it over other superior versions. 8/10 Availability: Right now, copies of Galaga on eBay are hovering around $15 loose and $60 complete in box or sealed. However, I imagine that a local game store would charge much less for it. Galaga on the 7800 is a bit cheaper than its NES counterpart. So, if you want to save some more money, I would actually recommend the 7800 port over the NES one. However, I would also recommend getting Galaga on one of the many Namco Museum collections first, most of which cost a few bucks and some pocket lint. Sources: Developers - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/175135-7800-developers/ Packaging - https://atariage.com/box_page.php?SoftwareLabelID=716 Release dates - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/254852-7800-game-release-dates Gameplay footage: EDIT (4/2/21): I uploaded a gameplay video and rewrote part of the review. I had originally said this about missing the enemies with your shots.
"The enemies stay close together when they're in formation, which means that you thankfully won't shoot between them and miss that often. However, it can be really tricky to shoot them when they're flying down towards you." Turns out, I was wrong about this and my shots actually did go between them quite often. I have now fixed this. Xevious Release Date: November 1986 Original Developer: Namco 7800 Developer: GCC Publisher: Atari Genre: Shooter This game supports the unreleased High Score Cartridge and the XM Expansion Module for saving high scores. Ah, Xevious. That one Namco game that everyone considers to be a classic, even though it actually didn't do so hot back in the day. Xevious was way more popular in Japan, even nearly outselling Space Invaders at one point.[1] And while the game didn't fail in the US, it mostly went overlooked by the general public. Nonetheless, Xevious got ported to the 7800. And while I wasn't too thrilled about Pole Position II, this is definitely a game to get excited about. Apparently, this game has a story. I'm not sure who asked for a plot from this early 80's shooter, but it's got one. Basically, the whole plot of the game is that we humans are actually invaders of Earth. The planet natives, the Xevians, have come back to attack us and we have to stop them.[2] Really, for a game as simple as this, a plot is completely unnecessary. However, I'll give them points for being unique. Xevious plays out like a typical space shooter. However, there are a few things that set this game apart from other shooters of the era. First, this is one of the earliest examples of a scrolling shooter. Rather than it just being a single screen, the camera moves along a set of 16 different maps. Secondly, this is one of the earliest shooters to feature multiple methods of attack. You have your zapper, which blasts flying enemies. And you have your blaster, which drops bombs on ground forces. Finally, this game features a pretty extensive cast of characters for the time. There are several types of enemies here, including the mostly passive Toroids, the ground based Lograms that fire at you, and the indestructible flying Bacura shields. The game even features a boss battle, the Andor Genesis, which shows up from time to time. The movement of the ship is smooth and the controls are very responsive, which is essential for a shooter. With a game that has as many enemies and projectiles flying across the screen as this, good control is pretty much required. Even with a 7800 joystick, this game would probably control pretty well. The game features different firing options, depending on what position the switches on the front of console are in. If both switches are in the A position, a button press both shoots and drops bombs. If both switches are in the B position, then the zapper and blaster are mapped to different buttons.[3] And for those who didn't know before, the B position is left and the A position is right. You can thank me later. When it comes to accuracy, the 7800 port pretty much nails everything. Graphically, the game is pretty faithful to the arcade original. Xevious is one of the earliest examples of a game using pre-rendered 3D graphics, over a decade before Donkey Kong Country hit the scene.[4] For the time, the game was kind of a technical marvel. And while the 7800 graphics are obviously not perfect, they do look really great. The backgrounds are nicely detailed, the colors pop out well, and most of the characters are recognizable. The Solvalou ship does look a bit plain, but everything else looks just fine. The NES version of Xevious is somewhat infamous for its ugly visuals. The colors in that version are really drab and most of the backgrounds look like they were cut out of construction paper. So, to see the 7800 version come as close to the arcade as it does is really impressive. The music and sound effects are excellent. Despite only using the TIA, the music is remarkably close to the original music and the sound effects are all appropriately crunchy and satisfying. In fact, I might even call this one of the best sounding games on the system. It even has a unique high score theme! Sure, it's not the greatest tune in the world and it ultimately went unused, but it's still a nice addition. The level designs are spot on and all of the enemies are in their appropriate levels. The game even includes the hidden citadels and extra life flags, missing from many contemporary home ports of the game. This is an early example of a shooter where not only is the player thinking, but the game as well. If you kill a lot of a specific type of enemy, more aggressive enemies are sent out.[5] So, you have to decide whether you want to take on a high score or just survive as long as possible. While it's more subtle here than in other Namco games, that risk versus reward gameplay that they made so famous is still a core part of Xevious. This was the inspiration for later shooters like Zanac, which was called Zanac AI in Japan to reflect its automatically changing difficulty.[6] Because of the many enemies you face and the many ways you can approach stages, Xevious has quite a good amount of replayability. However, does the 7800 version do as much thinking as the arcade game? Probably not. I did attempt to play the game without shooting anything, and I think only a few less projectiles spawned than normal. I also compared some playthroughs of the game on YouTube, and the enemy layouts in both were practically the same. Granted, both videos seemed to demonstrate a similar skill level of playing. However, I also did the same for the arcade version, and the changes in enemies were much more noticeable there. So, I'm assuming that this difficulty changing AI is simply not present, and is instead replaced with some basic difficulty options. This is a disappointing omission, but maybe it was too difficult to implement. There are a couple of other small things that I'm not a fan of. The crosshairs are a bit too close to your ship compared to the arcade version. This often resulted in me flying straight into projectiles when I was trying to bomb a ground target. I also feel like the game is a bit light on options. The difficulty options are appreciated, but they're could have been more here. One other error is that whenever you kill an enemy, the background music repeats. The music already repeats very frequently. So, average players might not notice this. However, once you hear it, you can't unhear it. There’s a few collision errors and other small bugs like that. However, these are very minor blemishes on a nearly flawless conversion. Xevious is classic shooting fun and passes the test for a great 7800 port with flying colors. It has just about everything that was from the arcade original, along with some basic but useful options and support for high score saving. In fact, I'd say that the 7800 port is the definitive version of this game, as far as old console ports go. However, the lack of difficulty changing on the fly does make this one a tad disappointing. It also would have been nice if they included some extra modes like Super Xevious. However, when a straight arcade port is as good as this, I'll take what I can get. Xevious is definitely a must have title. However, there are just enough problems that unfortunately prevent it from being perfect. Still, if you are a fan of shooters, this is probably the best the 7800 has to offer. 9/10 While not a part of the game itself, the packaging on Xevious is actually pretty great and features some beautifully painted cover art. The back of the box is also cool, showing a screenshot with the Andor Genesis in it and mentioning just how dangerous and devious the game is. Availability: This is a new section for 7800 reviews. Since I didn’t talk about availability in my Pole Position II review, I might as well knock out both games here. Pole Position II is without a doubt the most common 7800 game, as it came bundled with every system. If you have a 7800, you probably have this game. I got my copy for a dollar. So, you shouldn’t have any trouble finding this game. As for Xevious, this one is pretty common too. On eBay, you can find a loose cart for about $10 and you can get the game in box for roughly $20. I imagine that if you buy this game from a store though, you’ll probably be paying $5 or less. The 7800 ports of Pole Position II and Xevious have not been rereleased on any modern platforms. However, you can find the arcade versions of these games on various Namco Museum collections. Just know that the billboards in Pole Position II are always different from the original arcade billboards due to licensing. Sources: [1] Arcade Gamers Vol. 1, pg. 10 (According to Wikipedia) [2] Xevious (7800) Instruction Manual [3] Atari 7800 Difficulty Switch Guide [4] NEXT Generation Issue #21, pg. 39 [5] Xevious - Killer List of Videogames [6] Zanac - 2015 Developer Interview Developers - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/175135-7800-developers/ Packaging - https://atariage.com/box_page.php?SoftwareLabelID=716 Release dates - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/254852-7800-game-release-dates Gameplay footage: EDIT (5/29/21): I recently realized that I didn't mention if the 7800 port had automatic difficulty changing. Turns out, it actually doesn't. While it's a shame that this isn't included, I have to make sure the review is accurate. So, I went back and fixed it. Now, the score for Xevious has been bumped down from a perfect 10 to 9 out of 10. Don't worry. There are plenty of other opportunities for 10 out of 10 games in the future.
After what seems like an eternity, my first ever Atari 7800 review is finally complete! My system for reviewing games is in a separate blog post that can be found here. Anyway, let's dive in! Pole Position II Release Date: May 1986 Original Developer: Namco 7800 Developer: GCC Publisher: Atari Genre: Racing Every good console needs a pack-in game. It's just a shame that the Atari 7800 didn't have a better one. Pole Position II is a port of the 1983 arcade game of the same name. It's supposed to be a sequel to the arcade hit Pole Position, but it ends up feeling less like a Pole Position 2 and more like a Pole Position 1.5. The only major additions are some enhanced graphics, different music, and three new tracks along with the Fuji track from the first game. While Pole Position was a pretty popular game,[1] it's definitely not a game for everybody. As important as it is, it does feel a bit dated when compared to more modern racing games and not everyone is a racing fan to begin with. Despite this, Atari still thought it was a good idea to make this the pack-in title.[2] Before playing the game, you are given four tracks to choose from. Each game is split into two parts. There's the qualifying lap, where you have to beat a specific time in order qualify for the race. And the actual race, where you have to complete five laps before your time runs out. The game is purely a race against the clock, as you'll still see cars even when you're in first place. There are even cars during the qualifying round, where you think they would you leave you alone. Control wise, you move the joystick left and right to steer your car. Moving the stick up and down switches your car from low to high gear. Pressing the left button makes your car accelerate and the right button does nothing. Like the arcade version, there is no brake button. However, the manual says otherwise. Maybe they were going to add it in, but just forgot about it. While racing, you have to avoid various hazards such as other cars, road signs, and puddles of oil that slow you down. However, the change in speed barely makes a difference. So, you might as well run over them. They make a funny noise when you do so. As for the graphics, they do a pretty good job of staying faithful to the arcade games. They're colorful, they're easily identifiable, and each track has a unique and fairly detailed background. Like most 7800 titles, this game uses a 160 pixel wide graphics mode. The advantage of this particular mode is that it allows for more colors at once. However, this also means that the pixels are wider than they are tall, resulting in some games looking pretty blocky.[3] These graphics aren't going to give the NES a run for its money, but they're pretty solid. The same can be said for the sound. Despite the 7800 using the simplistic TIA for sound,[4] this game was made when developers truly knew how to take advantage of the TIA's sound capabilities. Pole Position II does sound better than a lot of 2600 games. I'm especially a fan of the tire screeching sounds and the previously mentioned puddle noise. The voice samples are missing from the arcade game, but that's understandable given the limitations of the hardware. The jingles before and after races are nice, but more of them would be appreciated. The arcade Pole Position games had a ton of different jingles. So, having only two is honestly pretty lame. The biggest flaw with the game is that you can't touch anything. Unlike more modern racing games where you can bump off of other cars, touching a car here turns your car into a ball of flames. I can understand just having the signs blow up your car, but the fact that you can't even touch the other cars makes this game much more frustrating than it needs to be. I can't help but cringe everytime there's two cars right next to each other. Often times, I just go around the cars and drive on the grass because I don't want to risk blowing up my vehicle. Thankfully, the game does control pretty good even with a joystick. However, even the good controls don't do much to help as the collision detection is a bit on the sensitive side. Even when you think you went perfectly between two cars, you might still blow up anyway. Overall, I do enjoy Pole Position II. However, it's not one that I can recommend to everyone. Even with some of its problems stemming from its arcade counterpart, it's just not the best game to package a system with. It also doesn't help that the game has no multiplayer options, despite the 7800 coming with two controllers. It's a fun game, but not one you should go out of your way to look for. Then again, you probably already have this game if you own a 7800. 7/10 Sources: [1] 1983 Atari Sales Estimates [2] 8-Bit Central Atari 7800 Images [3] 7800basic Guide - Graphics [4] 7800basic Guide - Sound Developers - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/175135-7800-developers/ Packaging - https://atariage.com/box_page.php?SoftwareLabelID=706 Release dates - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/254852-7800-game-release-dates Gameplay footage: EDIT (2/1/2020): According to this thread on AtariAge, GCC actually developed Pole Position II and not Atari. I guess it makes sense that GCC would develop the pack-in title for the 7800, as they also developed the 7800 itself. This error has now been fixed. I also tried to fix those large gaps in the information section by making the font size smaller. Hopefully, it's still decently readable. I also added proper links in the information section and sorted all of the links alphabetically.
EDIT (5/29/2021): I fixed the release date for this game. I don't know why I put June there instead of May. Also, I'm planning on adding citations later to this and my Galaga review. I'm just too lazy to do that right now. EDIT (5/29/2021): Alright, citations are now finished! I also went ahead and rewrote the section about the 7800's wide graphics mode. I wasn't satisfied with it and I think my claim about it not straining the CPU as much as other modes has no source to back it up. So, I got rid of it because I don't think that's actually true. I also bumped the game's rating up from 6 to 7. I think a 6 out of 10 is a bit too harsh and there are enough positives here to make this worth a 7 to me. Before reading my 7800 reviews, it might be good to know how exactly I review games. However, if you want to jump right in, here's the link to my first 7800 review.
I don't have a particularly special system for reviewing games. However, I always keep these rankings and criteria in mind when I review games. It can be challenging to give an exact number score to certain games. It's hard to decide if the flaws in certain games are minor enough to warrant the game getting a perfect sore, or if the game just deserves a 9 out of 10. However, I did try to make each number ranking unique enough to help make reviewing games a little bit easier. Anyway, here are the 12 possible scores that I can give a game. N/A - This is for games like prototypes that were never completely finished. 0 - Completely broken (unplayable) 1 - Nearly broken (only barely works) 2 - Terrible (very few redeeming qualities) 3 - Bad (bad execution of ideas that weren't good in the first place) 4 - Mediocre (has good ideas, but suffers from too many major issues) 5 - Average (not bad, but not good) 6 - Decent (better than the average game, but not by much) 7 - Good (fun games that don't reach their full potential) 8 - Great (has some minor flaws, but is still a lot of fun) 9 - Excellent (nearly perfect) 10 - Practically perfect (games that never get old) Now that you know what each ranking means, feel free to check out the rest of my blog! After waiting for what seemed like an eternity, my copy of Rikki & Vikki finally arrvied! I mentioned in the last blog post how Rikki & Vikki was the game that made me fall in love with the 7800. Well, I can safely say that playing the game has made me fall in love with the system again. Now admittedly, I haven't played much of the game yet. I've only gotten up to the first world boss. However, I'm really loving this game so far! There's so much love that was put into every element of this game. The graphics are very detailed and the character designs are cute and memorable. The music is wonderfully composed and sounds better than any other 7800 game out there (sorry Ballblazer). And the gameplay is rock solid, featuring some fast action and challenging puzzles. I probably sound like I'm reading off of the back of a box right now, but I really am being honest here. Even just from playing the first world, I can tell that the game is phenomenal.
Now, what about the reviews? Well, I mentioned before that I would randomly pick a game for each review. However, I'm thinking about scrapping that idea and just picking out whatever games I want to review. I think the library is small enough to where I don't need to spend too much time picking out a game for a review. And due to the nature of randomization, I can get stuck playing a really crappy game for a review when all I want to do is just play a good one. Before writing this post, my first review was gonna be of Scrapyard Dog. However, Scrapyard Dog is a very hard game and is really not that fun to play. So, I think I'll leave that review on the back burner for now and get to it later. Anyway, I want to start off my review blog strong. So, the first five reviews are all gonna be of Namco games! I wanted to review these games first because I'm a huge Namco fan and because these are all relatively simple games to review. And they're all pretty good games too! Stay tuned for my first review where I cover, fittingly enough, the first game that many people probably played on the 7800. To start things off, I was not an 80's kid. I am currently only 15 years old and I obviously did not grow up in a time period where the 7800 was still being sold. Despite this, I also have no idea of when I was actually introduced to the 7800. I have of course known about the 2600 for a long time, thanks to various Flashback systems, compilations, and my sister's boyfriend owning one. However, I probably wasn't aware of the successor systems until much later. What got me interested in learning more about the 7800 was a video by Playongo comparing the 7800 to the NES in terms of graphics and sound. In the video, he talks briefly about the history and development of the 7800, along with comparing various 7800 games to their NES counterparts. I had also known about the NES before from owning clone consoles and having a small collection of NES games. However, this video was probably one of the first times I ever started getting interested in the technical aspects of both of these systems. This video is what also introduced me to quite possibly the most impressive game on the system, Ballblazer. And while I'm not a big fan of the gameplay, my mind was blown the first time I heard that music. Flash forward to the summer of 2018. At this point, gaming has been one of my biggest passions for a while and I have gained much more knowledge about retro systems. I decide that for my birthday, I wanted to get a 7800 and start collecting for Atari systems. And on July 5th, thanks to my wonderful parents, I got what exactly I wished for. Yes, for my 15th birthday, I got an Atari 7800. While I was interested in the 7800 library at the time, I mostly got it to play 2600 games and I've bought a decent amount of games over the past few months. However, it wasn't until recently that I got into collecting actual 7800 games. First of all, 7800 games are very hard to find where I live unless you want to pay $6 for a copy of Galaga. And second of all, I wasn't too interested in the 7800 library. The fact that it's so small doesn't help it, but it's also because I mostly wanted to build my 2600 collection. However, very recently I've gotten back into the 7800 thanks to a few different things. First, I finally got my first 7800 game last month. Yeah, it's Pole Position II, the most common game on the system. But I was still happy to own a game that was designed to play on this system. Secondly, I've recently discovered a channel called The No Swear Gamer. Now personally, I'm not one for censorship and keeping things family friendly. And if you've ever watched my streams, you would know that I swear a lot on those. However, the reason I love The No Swear Gamer is simply because of how informative and to the point his reviews are. He keeps things simple while having a dry sense of humor and because of that, I find his videos to be quite entertaining. And thanks to his videos, I ended up learning more about the 7800 and discovering games that I didn't know even existed like Jinks or Motor Psycho. And finally, the biggest thing that made me love the 7800 again was a little homebrew game called Rikki and Vikki. This is without a doubt the most impressive thing I've seen running on this system. While I unfortunately have not played it yet, do you see those graphics? Do you hear that music? This is all being done on what was basically a more fancy Atari 2600, and yet it looks like it could have been a late NES game. The characters, the soundtrack, the animations, the environments, the cutscenes, everything about this trailer amazed me. And while unfortunately the 7800 didn't have quite as impressive games back then, it's lovely to see the system finally getting the support it deserves and to see it live on. That's why I'm glad to be a 7800 fan. So what exactly will I be posting on this blog? Well, I plan on doing a review of every licensed NTSC 7800 game to see which ones hold up or not. I don't know when exactly I will start posting these reviews or how consistently these will be posted. After all, this is mostly a passion project and I don't want to have a concrete schedule for something like this. However, I do hope to finish my first review in the next couple days. Each game will be randomly picked and I'll try to stay as objective as possible. As much as I love Robotron, I'll try not to have a bias towards that one. And this will apply to every game I review. I also plan on posting news about the 7800 and reviews of games outside the standard library. So, I will review Rikki and Vikki if I ever get a copy of it. Anyway, that's all I got for now. I'll explain my system for reviewing games more in depth in a future post, but I'm pretty tired right now and I gotta get some rest. I look forward to writing the next post on this blog. Cya!
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AboutA blog cataloging my thoughts and opinions on the Atari 7800 and every game in the Atari 7800 library. To see a list of what games I have and haven't reviewed, click here. Archives
May 2021
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