Pre NES Thread #3

[Anonymous No.10255831]

This is for discussion of games/consoles/computers that came out before the US release of the NES.

So some Anons peaked my interest with picrel, how's emulation for it? IIRC isn't it stuck on MAME or does it have a standalone emulator now?

[Anonymous No.10255841]

>>10255831
I remember reading in a collectors guidebook from the early 2000s that astrocades were infamous for overheating and frying themselves. They recommended using one only on a laptop cooling pad. Makes me wonder how any of them survived for decades.

[Anonymous No.10255851]

There's no Bally emulators which emulate BASIC cartridges and tape interface, so you can't play obscure homebrew games from the 1980s.

[Anonymous No.10256089]

>>10255831
I don't think we've ever gotten, nor will we ever get, a console as stunning as the Atari 7800. It's such a shame Atari took so long to release it...

[Anonymous No.10256131]

>>10255831
you can play rendition of Beatles song with this on MAME, funny stuff

[Anonymous No.10256161]

>>10256089
I'm reading howard scott kershaw's book right now, and he paints a picture of how atari was running things in 1980-82. It explains a lot about how they fucked up.

>assumed consumers would buy anything they made
>asserted that games with a big name attached didn't have to be good; They would simply sell on name alone (obvious fail with ET, but Pac-Man was the first victim of this bad practice)
>thought you never needed to update the VCS and held out against any and all new hardware demands from engineering
>never gave anyone outside of your company access to information
>treated game designers like they were disposable (directly the cause of activision and imagic forming; Both were made by disgruntled atari devs who were told to fuck off if they wanted money/respect, and promptly did so)
>had no concept of good product planning (overpaid for ET license yet required the game to be made in only 5 weeks? How can anyone get a quality finished project out in that time?) (granted author is creator of that game so he may be biased, but he also was closer to it than anyone to know how it was going)
and perhaps most telling:
>thought they never made mistakes and were always right

Kershaw puts it that kassar-era atari had a management-wide culture of arrogant narcissism which underlined all of their horrible decisions. He also argues that the transition from Bushnell to Kassar was the single deathstroke that killed Atari and, not long after, the industry as a whole. I am going to have to keep reading more books from more people to see how many align with his telling, however.

[Anonymous No.10256267]

>>10256161
I see, thanks for the informative post, anon! Atari really dropped the ball in the early 80's on many fronts, it's no wonder the once big name of the whole industry never properly recovered, SEGA and Nintendo were tough competition, but a lot of it was just Atari messing it all up.

[Anonymous No.10256370]

This system has pretty good games, and versions that could be considered the definite version of them, none of that really matter if the controllers are arse.

[Anonymous No.10256418]

There is neither a single game nor console before the NES that is worth writing more than one sentence about.

[Anonymous No.10256937]

>>10256418
I disagree... I do get your point, NES is when it all started to feel closer to today, being able to beat something instead of just going for a high-score, but a lot of titles from back then are still decent:

>Adventure
A Zelda title before Zelda ever came to be and a true revolution for the time still beloved today

>Pitfall
It essentially started the platforming genre as we know it before Super Mario Bros. improved on it

>Raiders of the Lost Arc
A complicated title to get into as there are many mechanics and secrets that again feel like Zelda

Of course I'd rather play NES over Atari or any of its competitors at the time... but the idea that an entire generation where people got their start in the hobby is worthless like that... I don't buy it.

[Anonymous No.10256958]

>>10256418
Stock NES is on par with these machines, most of the groundbreaking games used enhancing chips on their cartridge.

[Anonymous No.10256984]

>>10256370
I mean 99% of the games are also on the Atari 8-bit computers so the 5200 is really only good as a curiosity piece now. It looks nice as fuck as per usual with Atari systems though.

[Anonymous No.10257017]

>>10255831
WAR is probably the best game on this thing, altough it's homebrew

also yeah, it's only on MAME but afaik most games run fine

[Anonymous No.10257030]

>>10256418
based obvious bait poster conversation stimulator

[Anonymous No.10257226]

Is there online Pong? And if so is there a competitive scene for it? I wanna be a pro pong player.

[Anonymous No.10257670]

>>10255831
misterfpga core is fine over analog video out
I would imagine you're not gonna be able to emulate titles that use the paddle very well
its an endearing system
my pops played it as a kid
recs are still the same space fortress & the pacman clone

[Anonymous No.10257749]

>>10256937
NES is when the slopification of games began.

[Anonymous No.10257779]

>>10256984
5200 Space Invaders > 800 Space Invaders
No goofy ass looking green rocket on the screen.

[Anonymous No.10258396]

>>10256370
>>10256984
>>10257779
The 5200 had good specs. The games it had were quality. The library of games unfortunately was tiny.
Meanwhile, the 2600 had literal thousands of games, even if a lot of them were shovelware.

[Anonymous No.10258661]

>>10257749
Poorly made slop is what almost killed the NA video game market in the first place, get real!

[Anonymous No.10258698]

>>10255831
Astrocade emulation is fine for most basic stuff. Which is all you really need because it's mostly just a novelty,

>>10255851
You sure about that champ?

[Anonymous No.10258829]

>>10256161
I remember reading about Kassar and his decisions in the 'Ultimate History of Video Games' book, which is quite good and comprehensive.
IIRC he came from textiles/manchester and saw video games as essentially just another product to churn out and put on shelves.
On topic of older games, went to visit a friend the other day and we decided to try to some Atari VCS games. We had a surprising amount of fun playing Combat, Yar's Revenge (which was fucking cool), and Marble Madness. I think we mostly had fun with Joust though, excellent two player game, and what presentation. Hoping we can find a cheap trackball somewhere to play Missile Command sometime.

[Anonymous No.10258897]

>>10255831
Astrocade looks fun
https://youtu.be/HPrmN35zGLw

[Anonymous No.10258930]

>>10258829
>Hoping we can find a cheap trackball somewhere to play Missile Command sometime.

There's tons of fun trackball games. Might be worth it to buy a good one or make a neat DIY one. I'm already in it for an arcade stick that works on PS2/1/3 and PC, then I got a precision pro a a force feedback pro. Just need that trackball and sinden setup and I'll be more lonely and alone then ever!

[Anonymous No.10259030]

>>10257226
you'd probably have to play a more intense spiritual successor

[Anonymous No.10259038]

>>10258930
I bought a Kensington Expert Mouse. if you mount it or do something to keep it fastened to the table, then it works pretty well for you. I've been using it for missile command and such and it is fine to me. Some pro will probably call me out, but I dunno.

...I am still alone despite the trackball however...

[Anonymous No.10259185]

>>10258829
>Atari VCS
>Marble Madness

[Anonymous No.10259507]

>>10259185
Sorry, we played it briefly but not on VCS lol. I made a mistake with the wording.

[Anonymous No.10259527]

>>10259507
It actually exists, in a homebrew port of some sort

[Anonymous No.10259608]

[Anonymous No.10259870]

>>10258930
I'm afraid you vastly underestimate how poor and unskilled the average faggot here is. A 2600 track ball costs maybe $50 on ebay. Much less elsewhere. If someone was a turbo poorfag but had a modicum of skill he could simply buy a broken one for a fraction of that and repair it. Building a decent one is well beyond the capability of most. You need to connect wires and stuff.

[Anonymous No.10260171]

>>10259608
>space invaders on the VCS
>none of the "invaders" resemble the actual in-game sprites

[Anonymous No.10260681]

>>10255831
We're including arcades in this thread?

[Anonymous No.10261137]

>>10260681
OP here, I don't see why not. As long as it's before the US release of the NES then it's cool.

[Anonymous No.10261165]

>>10260681
Only if all the machines in those arcades came out before the NES.

[Anonymous No.10261792]

>Best Console Ever Made In Your Path

[Anonymous No.10261828]

>>10256418
shut you mouth

[Anonymous No.10261832]

>>10256161
I highly recommend this podcast.

They interview people from Atari during its golden years (Ted Dabney was the forgotten co-founder of Atari with Nolan Bushnell).
I think most of them would agree with Kershaw, including and especially Alan Alcorn - the creator of PONG - who they just interviewed.

https://www.teddabneyexperience.com/

[Anonymous No.10263071]

>>10257749
Nah, that'd be the SNES and PlayStation.

[Anonymous No.10263084]

>>10261792
every time i message a local the mf sells to someone else for less before responding
so fuckin annoying

[Anonymous No.10263089]

>>10259870
ok

[Anonymous No.10263576]

>>10263089
damn, that coleco trackball + two controllers looks boss. What stopped coleco from moving onward in the industry? Was it just the crash? Or were there other problems there? All I ever hear about is atari failures. I know intellivision actually did okay for themselves as a side runner in the post-crash, since the old staff bought the materials and rights from mattel and just kept working at it. No idea what happened to coleco, though I do know that fans for colecovision are pretty dedicated to pushing the system onward.

[Anonymous No.10263579]

Did you play atari today?

[Anonymous No.10263581]

>>10259527
my fucking eyes

[Anonymous No.10263583]

>>10263576
I think a lot of it was the Adam being a massive failure

[Anonymous No.10263586]

>>10261792
it's cool but I can't say it's my favorite. Absolute peak aesthetically, but not my favorite games. Such a shame. Dream release here would be a major havoc port.

[Anonymous No.10263590]

>>10261832
sick, thanks for the link.

>>10263579
it's still early but I think I'll play some marble madness and crystal castles later. Sometimes I wish I could do a lot of drugs at work like the atari guys did.

[Anonymous No.10264637]

>>10263579
I got a few games of Quantum in. It's a very fun vector game where you can actually write your name in the high score screen.

[Anonymous No.10264804]

>>10263576
they flew to close to the sun
they put all their eggs in one basket;
they thought they could fuck on a small little company known as apple inc

[Anonymous No.10264830]

>>10258897
>that explosion
Jesus christ

[Anonymous No.10265079]

>>10258897
>>10264830
Holy shit, they didn't muck around with that one.

[Anonymous No.10265434]

Does anyone else feel like late fall and winter are the best seasons to play this era of games? Playing 2600 Space Invaders while it's freezing outside just feels right.

[Anonymous No.10265442]

>>10255831
>This is for discussion of games/consoles/computers that came out before the US release of the NES.
AS IF THE HISTORY OF RETRO GAMING REVOLVES AROUND THE FUCKING NES OR EVEN CONSOLES THE ABSOLUTE STATE OF NINTENDIES

[Anonymous No.10265454]

>>10258897
I just wish they'd indicated that he'd exploded in some way

[Anonymous No.10265494]

>>10265434
>4:57am
>its raining
>window slightly cracked
>tv turned down kinda low
>atari 2600 glows in the dim room
>you change carts and play each for 15-20 minutes before starting your day

the zoomers will never understand
they said i could become anything;
so i became comfy

[Anonymous No.10265801]

>>10265494
>the zoomers will never understand

[Anonymous No.10267315]

>>10265434
WOW
JUST
WOW!
And all before 1982,

[Anonymous No.10267371]

>>10258897
What year did this come out on the Asstrocade?

[Anonymous No.10267380]

>>10261792
Vectrex?

[Anonymous No.10267384]

So, I kind of want to get an old PC. My dad had them when I was a kid, and I'm a programmer now and want to just putz around with an old architecture.
I've been looking at some sort of Spectrum, even the Spectrum Next. How is the latter vs. just buying old hardware?
I do kind of want the old pain in the ass architecture with fixed memory locations and such.

I don't know though. I figured I'd ask here.

[Anonymous No.10267470]

>>10256370
>and why is there a door on it? Is this a video game console or a fucking closet?

[Anonymous No.10267480]

>>10263071
The Famicom has a tremendous amount of shovelware but thankfully half of the NES/Famicom library stayed JP exclusive so we avoided that internationally

[Anonymous No.10267549]

>>10267380
xbox

[Anonymous No.10267554]

>>10267470
its to hold controllers
i use mine to hold 2600>5200 adapters

[Anonymous No.10267684]

>>10267554
The guy is just parroting some faggot youtuber

[Anonymous No.10268698]

>>10267549
LIAR! ITS A VECTREX

[Anonymous No.10268771]

>>10261792
when you realize this console has a higher resolution than the PS5/XSX/PC

[Anonymous No.10269312]

>>10268771
PS5 yes. As for XSX and mid-high-end Windows or Linux PCs these days, I don't think so.

[Anonymous No.10270058]

>>10259608
>Looking up an old tune from the back of my mind.
>Find it.
>Find many remixes and variants.
>Thinking that this would be really fun playing in the background while playing Space Invaders.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2iPfnP_5P4

[Anonymous No.10270310]

>>10258829
>Yar's Revenge
you got the apostrophe wrong
I will never stop telling people this

[Anonymous No.10270318]

>>10261832

Ah god well now I've got another podcast to listen to

[Anonymous No.10270329]

>>10265494
>>window slightly cracked
You should look into that.

[Anonymous No.10270371]

>>10270310
I didn't realise, and appreciate your correction.

[Anonymous No.10270474]

>>10267684
i put a rolling rock in there & took a photo

[Anonymous No.10270601]

>>10270474
put a bullet in your brain stem

[Anonymous No.10270632]

>>10261792
I used to play my friend's Vectrex and while it looked cool, the games were dull compared to Atari.

[Anonymous No.10271931]

>>10270601
NTA but why.

[Anonymous No.10271936]

>>10271931
He doesn’t like the angry video game rolphe. So his infantile tranny brain explodes when you mention he who must not be James-ed.

[Anonymous No.10271952]

>>10257226
Fuck that, I wanna play the ORIGINAL Pong.

Speaking of which, is that on MAME, or do I have to use that transistor-accurate emulator that no PC can run?

[Anonymous No.10271956]

>>10271952
yes, you can play it on mame

[Anonymous No.10271957]

>>10255841
Probably because everyone back in the day just plopped that bitch right on their shag carpets.

[Anonymous No.10271959]

>>10271952
Pong machines are like 40 pickles, my astrological anomaly

https://www.mercari.com/us/item/m98497069865/?gclsrc=aw.ds&&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=17230940812&utm_content=t0&adgroup=147710899160&network=g&device=m&merchant_id=134611514&product_id=m98497069865&product_id=1876110257950&gbraid=0AAAAADR9UGecc_-R_p0sHib981GLqKRTt&gclid=Cj0KCQjwvL-oBhCxARIsAHkOiu1mnUGt79uMP_aOqP3739h5tWtcHMukPBy6guWFqccFWwIrIrPl7D0aAiLxEALw_wcB

[Anonymous No.10271989]

You guys heard of PC-50x, they are european consoles based on pong hardware, the cpu was on the cartridges.

[Anonymous No.10272004]

Did ANY country other than US actually give a shit about Atari consoles? Atari 2600 didn't even come out in Japan until Famicom released. Did Western Europe care?

[Anonymous No.10272054]

>>10272004
Atari was hot shit in Australia in the 80s.
Pic related is the former Melbourne Atari Headquarters/showroom shaped like a spaceship

[Anonymous No.10272596]

>>10271952
It is on MAME.
No emulated Pong will feel the same as the real thing.

[Anonymous No.10273040]

>>10272054
Ayy what's the fuckin addy cunt?

[Anonymous No.10273054]

>>10272054
;-;

[Anonymous No.10273078]

>>10273054
neat

[Anonymous No.10273248]

>>10256089
2600 looked better. Can't beat that wood paneling.

But nothing looks nicer than the Japanese PC Engine when combined with the CD-ROM add-on. I mean LOOK AT THIS SHIT! It looks like something you'd see on a fucking space station.

[Anonymous No.10274008]

>>10273248
Core grafx variant PC Engine FTW

[Anonymous No.10274018]

>>10255831
Really cool thread.

Never even heard of it. Wow.
Way better than pong.

[Anonymous No.10274023]

my grandparents had a colecovision and my other grandfather had a 2600. we got the nes when i was like 4 so i barely have any memories of a time when i didnt have it. nes blew them out of the water of course but i still enjoyed them especially the colecovision because i would play it with my grandma. her favorite game was ladybug

[Anonymous No.10274032]

>>10256161
how long did other atari games take to make?

[Anonymous No.10274343]

>>10274032
6 weeks

[Anonymous No.10274461]

>>10256370
Can’t you use a Genesis pad? Or is that only on the 2600?

[Anonymous No.10274467]

>>10265442
No one cares about the shartstrum

[Anonymous No.10274590]

>>10274343
Thats the average for 2600 games.
5200 games took somewhat longer. Ditto for Odyssey 2, Astrocade, and even more so for Intellivision, and Colecovision.

[Anonymous No.10274792]

>>10274461
Genesis/2600 pads are 9-pin. The 5200's controller ports are 15-pin

[Anonymous No.10274937]

>>10271989

[Anonymous No.10274981]

>>10274343
so the et guy just had to work a couple weekends?

[Anonymous No.10275882]

i liked intellivision just because i could kick ass on sea battle. nobody stood a hope in hell against me. other than that, it was just a shit 1st and a half console. anything that needs overlays is totally useless

[Anonymous No.10276010]

>>10272004
>Did Western Europe care?
To an extent, but computer gaming was so prominent here that buying "a computer that can't do anything other than play games" wasn't something most parents wanted to entertain.

[Anonymous No.10277654]

Breakout is the best thing Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak ever did and you can't change my mind.

[Anonymous No.10279083]

>>10274343
lmao, nah, atari games normally took several months.
>>10274981
kershaw basically worked continuously for the 5 weeks to get ET done. The suggestion that even 6 weeks was reasonable timeframe for an atari game is just a wee giggle m8

[Anonymous No.10279085]

October is coming up. My goal is finish Haunted House on Ultimate, and finally play eternal darkness on GC

[Anonymous No.10279241]

>>10268771
thought it's only 256x256

[Anonymous No.10279537]

What Apple II games are worth playing from this era? I've tried Wizardry I and enjoyed it, but nothing else has really grabbed me. Maybe I just don't know where to look.

[Anonymous No.10281295]

>>10274032
In atari 50 he said he crunched himself with yar's revenge and turned out good so now experienced he thought he could repeat it. (he also made raiders of the lost ark, that explains the weird gameplay)