Pengo Atari 2600 Prototype

Check out what I found over the weekend!

Here are some screen shots..

Rush 'N Attack NES Review

I never used to like this game when I was a kid.  I guess it seemed too difficult for me at the time.  It is actually not that bad of a game.  It is an arcade port.  A really good arcade port, it looks almost identical and the music is pretty good too.  The name is kind of funny, a play on words really.  Rush 'n Attack = Russian Attack.  It looks like you are in Siberia on the first stage running by ICBMs on trucks.  Anyway, the point of the game is you have to keep going right and advance to the next stage after killing a boss at the end.  It is basically another "you VS everyone else".  The enemies will keep re spawning if you stand in one spot so the best strategy is to move quickly to the right.  You have a knife in which you stab people with.  Some enemies with jump at you or shoot at you.  You can climb ladders, jump, lay down, and run.  There are a few special weapons per stage but they are not really that helpful.  The game play is not too bad for a side scrolling arcade style game.  I personally get bored with the game after playing for about 20 minutes or so, but it is a good game to pick up every now and then for a quick play.  I have never finished the game.  I usually make it to about the end of the 3rd stage before I get a game over.  Overall, I give this game a 5 out of 10.  Nothing really special about it but not a bad game to fart around with from time to time. 

Mike Tyson's Punch-Out / Punch Out NES Review

Good old Mike Tyson's Punch-Out.  This game is classic.  When you first play it, it seems hard, but once you memorize the patterns, it is pretty easy.  The game play is pretty good, and the graphics are pretty good for its time.  There is no way to power up Little Mac (that's who you play as), you just keep fighting your way through the opponents.  You can however refill some or all of your power once per fight by pressing select between rounds.  Each character you fight has their weaknesses which makes the game fun.  Each fight is 3 rounds where you either need to knock your opponent out or get a TKO (Technical Knock-Out) knocking your opponent  down 3 times in a single round.  You get 3 minutes per round but the clock is kind of weird.  It runs really fast sometimes and other times runs slow.  There is no constant to the clock.  Mario is the referee which is pretty cool.  You fight your way through 3 divisions and at the end you fight Mike Tyson or Mr. Dream if it is the Punch-Out version.  Nintendo dropped Mike Tyson from the Punch-Out game after making the game for 3 years.  They apparently only had a 3 year license to use Tyson's likeness in the game.  Overall, I give this game a 7 out of 10.  I still find myself picking this game up from time to time and going all the way through it from beginning to end and having a good time doing it.

Current NES Collection

Here is my current NES collection. 354 Carts. 10-Yard Fight 1942 1943: The Battle of Midway 3-D Battles of World Runner, The 720 8 Eyes A Boy and His Blob - Trouble on Blobolonia, David Crane's Abadox - The Deadly Inner War Addams Family, The Adventures in the Magic Kingdom, Disney's Adventures of Bayou Billy, The Adventures of Dino Riki Adventures of Gilligan's Island, The Adventures of Lolo Air Fortress Airwolf Al Unser Jr. Turbo Racing Alien Syndrome All-Pro Basketball Alpha Mission Amagon American Gladiators Anticipation Arch Rivals - A BASKETBRAWL! Astyanax Athena Back to the Future Back to the Future II & III Bad Dudes Bad Street Brawler Balloon Fight Bandai Golf: Challenge Pebble Beach Bard's Tale, The Barker Bill's Trick Shooting Baseball Baseball Simulator 1.000 Bases Loaded Bases Loaded 2: Second Season Bases Loaded 3, Ryne Sandberg Plays Batman - The Video Game Batman Returns Battle of Olympus, The Battle Tank, Garry Kitchen's Battletoads Bible Adventures Bigfoot Bionic Commando Black Bass, The Blades of Steel Blaster Master Blue Marlin Boulder Dash Breakthru Bubble Bobble Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle, The Bump 'n' Jump Burai Fighter BurgerTime Cabal Caesar's Palace Captain Skyhawk Castlequest Castlevania Castlevania II - Simon's Quest Championship Bowling Chessmaster, The Circus Caper Clash at Demonhead Cobra Command Cobra Triangle Code Name: Viper Commando Conquest of the Crystal Palace Crystalis Cybernoid, The Fighting Machine Dash Galaxy in the Alien Asylum Days of Thunder Deadly Towers Defender II Defender of the Crown Déjà Vu Destination Earthstar Dick Tracy Dig Dug II, Trouble in Paradise Dirty Harry: The War Against Drugs Donkey Kong Donkey Kong Classics Double Dare Double Dragon Double Dribble Dr. Chaos Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Dr. Mario Dragon Power Dragon Spirit, The New Legend Dragon Warrior Dragon Warrior III Duck Hunt Duck Tales, Disney's Dynowarz, The Destruction of Spondylus Excitebike F-15 Strike Eagle Fast Break, Magic Johnson's Faxanadu Fester's Quest Fighting Golf, Lee Trevino's Final Fantasy Flying Dragon: The Secret Scroll Formula One: Built to Win Friday the 13th Galaga - Demons of Death Gauntlet Gauntlet II Ghosts 'n Goblins Goal! Godzilla - Monster of Monsters! Golf Golgo 13: Top Secret Episode Goonies II, The Gotcha! The Sport! Gradius Gremlins 2 - The New Batch Guardian Legend, The Guerrilla War Gumshoe Gun.Smoke Gyromite Gyruss Heavy Barrel Heavy Shreddin' High Speed Hogan's Alley Hollywood Squares Home Alone Home Alone 2 - Lost in New York Hudson Hawk Hunt for Red October, The Hydlide Ice Climber Ice Hockey Ikari Warriors Ikari Warriors II: Victory Road Image Fight Infiltrator Iron Tank - The Invasion of Normandy Ironsword - Wizards & Warriors II Jackal Jaws Jeopardy! 25th Anniversary Edition John Elway's Quarterback Jordan vs. Bird: One on One Kabuki - Quantum Fighter Karate Champ Karate Kid, The Karnov Kid Kool and the Quest for the Seven Wonder Herbs Kid Niki: Radical Ninja King of Kings, The Early Years King's Knight Kings of the Beach Professional Beach Volleyball Knight Rider KO Boxing, George Foreman's Kung Fu Kung Fu Heroes Legacy of the Wizard Legend of Kage, The Legend of Zelda, The Legendary Wings, The Life Force Little Mermaid, The, Disney's Little Nemo - The Dream Master Loopz Lunar Pool Mach Rider Magmax Major League Baseball Mappy-Land Marble Madness Mario Bros., The Original Marvel's X-Men Mega Man Mega Man 2 Mega Man 4 Mendel Palace Metal Gear Metroid Michael Andretti's World GP Mickey Mousecapade Mighty Bombjack Millipede Milon's Secret Castle Mission: Impossible Monopoly NARC NFL Football Ninja Gaiden Ninja Gaiden II, The Dark Sword of Chaos Operation Wolf, Take No Prisoners ORB 3-D Othello P.O.W. - Prisoners of War Pac-Man Palamedes Pin-Bot Pinball Pinball Quest Platoon Play Action Football, NES Predator Pro Wrestling Punch-Out!! Q*Bert R.B.I. Baseball R.B.I. Baseball 2 R.B.I. Baseball 3 R.C. Pro-Am Racket Attack Rad Racer Rad Racer II Raid on Bungeling Bay Rally Bike Rambo Rampage Remote Control Renegade Rescue - The Embassy Mission Ring King Road Runner RoadBlasters Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves RoboCop RoboWarrior Rock 'n Ball Rocket Ranger Rocketeer, The Roger Clemens' MVP Baseball Rollerball Rollergames Rolling Thunder Roundball 2-on-2 Challenge Rush'n Attack Rygar Section-Z Seicross Sesame Street: 123 Sesame Street: ABC Shadowgate Side Pocket Silent Service Simpsons, The - Bart Vs. the Space Mutants Simpsons, The - Bart Vs. the World Skate or Die Ski or Die Sky Shark Slalom Snake Rattle n Roll Snoopy's Silly Sports Spectacular Solar Jetman - Hunt for the Golden Warpship Solomon's Key Solstice - The Quest for the Staff of Demnos Spy Hunter Star Force Star Soldier Star Tropics Star Tropics II - Zoda's Revenge Star Voyager Star Wars Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back Starship Hector Stealth ATF Stinger Strider Super C Super Cars Super Glove Ball Super Jeopardy!, Talking Super Mario Bros. Super Mario Bros. - Duck Hunt Super Mario Bros. - Duck Hunt - World Class Track Meet Super Mario Bros. 2 Super Mario Bros. 3 Super Off Road, Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Super Pitfall Super Spike V'Ball Super Sprint Super Team Games Swords and Serpents T & C Surf Designs T2 Terminator 2: Judgment Day Taboo - The Sixth Sense Tag Team Wrestling Talespin Target: Renegade Tecmo Baseball Tecmo Bowl Tecmo NBA Basketball Tecmo Super Bowl Tecmo World Wrestling Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II - The Arcade Game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III - The Manhattan Project Tennis Tetris Tetris 2 Three Stooges, The Thunderbirds Thundercade Tiger-Heli Time Lord Tiny Toon Adventures Tom & Jerry - The Ultimate Game of Cat and Mouse! Top Gun Top Gun - The Second Mission Total Recall Totally Rad Touchdown Fever Track & Field Track & Field II Trojan Ultima: Exodus Ultimate Basketball Urban Champion Vegas Dream Videomation Vindicators Volleyball Wall Street Kid Wayne Gretzky Hockey WCW: World Championship Wrestling Werewolf - The Last Warrior Wheel of Fortune Wheel of Fortune: Junior Edition Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Wild Gunman Willow Win, Lose or Draw Winter Games Wizards & Warriors World Class Track Meet World Cup, Nintendo World Games Wrath of the Black Manta Wrecking Crew WWF WrestleMania WWF WrestleMania Challenge WWF Wrestlemania Steel Cage Challenge Xenophobe Xevious - The Avenger Xexyz Yo! Noid Yoshi Yoshi's Cookie Zanac Zelda II - The Adventure of Link

Flea Market Finds

Grabbed all these for $10

Both of these for $5 each (I have never seen these in the wild)

Both of these for $15

Both of these for $12

These for $1 each

And both of these for $3 Not a bad haul overall. I am still searching for a Genesis model 2. I talked to a guy that sells game stuff and he said that he would bring one to the flea market next week for me. It has all the hookups for $20. Hopefully I can get the 32X working on it.

Game Chasers Episode 19 Online

Garage Sale Finds

First garage sale I stopped at, I picked up Battletoads and Circus Caper for the NES for $2 each. Second one I stopped at, I got a Genesis Model 1 with 2 controllers, A Sega CD model 1, a Sega 32X with 6 games which are Doom, Knuckles Chaotix, Star Wars Arcade, Spiderman, Blackthorne, and Tempo. Also Castlevania Bloodlines and Xmen for the Genesis and the secret of Monkey Island for Sega CD all for $20. The third garage sale I stopped at I picked up a Gameboy Pocket Red for $3 with a snowboarding game and a nascar game and like 4 empty gameboy plastic cases. Overall, not a bad haul. Everything works except the 32X. It is not putting out a proper video signal for some reason. If anyone knows how to fix it, let me know.

Game Chasers Episode 18 - Arcade Redemption Part 2

Last weekends finds and this weekend

Last weekend I went to a garage sale in a local trailer park and saw a Super Nintendo with 2 controllers and all the hook ups with 8 boxed games with a price tag of $30 on it.  Now $30 dollars is a hell of a deal considering that the games were: Super Mario World, Super Mario World 2, Super Mario RPG, Warios Woods, Donkey Kong Country, Donkey Kong Country 3, Toy Story, and Super Star Wars.  I asked if she would take $20 and she said YES!!!  Awesome find.  BTW, it is an early SNES with the plastic tabs, not the metal ones.  The SNES is in awesome shape and works great.  Both controllers are also working great.  The system and the games are clean and awesome!  I also picked up at various different hidden locations :), Zelda: A Link to the Past for 12 bucks and for the NES: Baloon Fight (5 screw), Boulder Dash, and Thundercade for $4 each.  This past weekend I grabbed Caesars Palace for the Genesis for $1 and Super C, and Gradius for the NES for $3.50 each.  I also picked up Blue Marlin for the NES for $4.  I have wanting that one for awhile now.  I also picked up a Coleco Telstar Alpha Pong machine for $7 but have yet to test it because it didn't have a power adapter.  It does however take 6 C batteries.  Here is a link to what it looks like http://www.pong-story.com/coleco_alpha.htm  The last stop of the weekend was a garage sale where I snagged two generation 1 Sega Genesis consoles with 1 RF modulator, 1 S video cable, 2 controllers (3 button), 2 power adapters, and 4 boxed games which are Toxic Crusaders, Twin Cobra, Winter Olympics (Mega Drive) and NHL All Star Hockey '95 all for $10.  It was a good 2 weeks with some awesome finds.  Good luck and happy hunting!

Zelda 2 - The Adventure of Link NES Review

I remember eagerly anticipating this game after being a huge fan of The Legend of Zelda.  This game does not disappoint in any way.  The game is awesome for its time with lots of secrets and hidden areas.  This game is also very challenging.  A lot of people don't like it because it was a totally different game from the original, which in my opinion is how it should be.  I just played through the entire game again yesterday and it is still as cool as I remember it.  Very entertaining and arguably one of the best NES titles ever.  If you have never played this game, you need to now.  You will find hours of fun and challenge.  I would have to say it is my favorite in the Zelda franchise.  I have a lot of hours logged into this one as a kid.  Overall, I give it a 9 out of 10 with a great story and great game play.  Do yourself a favor, dig this oldie out and play through it again!     

Game Chasers Episode 17 Online Now!!

Check it out!

Jaws NES Review

Jaws is one of those games that kinda grows on you.  Most people hate this game and say it sucks and only play a few minutes of it and get bored.  The game is actually quite challenging and fun if you give it a chance.  The game kinda plays like an RPG.  You travel back and forth between ports on the ocean with your boat collecting power ups which can be bought with conch shells.  It is totally random when you get thrown into "battles" with stingrays, sharks, and jellyfish.  Sometimes they drop shells or stars which are different point values and you can collect crabs which make your diver faster.  You can also get a submarine which has bombs that go down as well as straight shots.  The game is very basic and you will sometimes run into jaws and he has a lot of power.  You also get bonus rounds about every 3 "battles" in which you are flying an airplane dropping bombs into the sea hitting jellyfish.  You can get a lot of shells in the bonus rounds which you trade in at ports to raise your power level.  After you bring jaws' power level meter down to zero, you go into another scene where you have a chance to kill him to win the game.  You have 3 strobes that you activate to make jaws pop out of the water and then stab him with your boat when he is close.  If you don't bring jaws power down to zero you can keep playing to rack up your score.  I think I have gotten about 140,000 for a high score without making a calculated high score run.  Overall I give the game a 7 out of 10 with excellent game play and fun factor.   

Garage Sale Finds

One of the first sales of the day and Piper (my wife) spotted Burgertime for Intelivision CIB for $2.  I had to get that of course.  Later on I picked up Hey You Pikachu for N64 for $2 also.  Then the last garage sale we went to, I picked up Dragon Quest 8 for PS2 CIB and Xenosaga episode 1 CIB for $1.75 each!  Not too bad of a day for game hunting.

Adventures of Dino Riki NES Review

This game is not fun at all.  Number 1, I hate forced scrolling games which this is.  Number 2, the more speed power-ups you get, the harder the game is.  I don't really have anything else to say about this game.  I give it a 3 out of 10 mostly for graphics.  I just plain dislike this game, period.

Babseball NES Review

This game is pretty good considering it came out in 1984.  It is a basic and I mean basic baseball game.  There are no team names, just initials.  There are no player names or numbers.  You can pick from I think 8 teams total.  It doesn't matter what team you pick because they all are the same except the color.  The game play is very straightforward, except controlling the runners.  Controlling the runners is probably the most frustrating thing about the game.  Everything else is pretty much automatic.  One thing that sucks big time however is when you hit the ball towards the 3rd baseman, he always covers 3rd and 9 times out of 10 he lets the ball get by him.  Oh well, anyway, the game is alright and I give it a 5 out 10 overall.  It does get pretty boring after 2 innings though and I feel very hard pressed to complete an entire game when I do play this game.  It is so slow at times it makes you just want to turn it off and sleep.

Tetris NES Review

Dude, it's Tetris.  Does it really need a review?  If you have never played this game it is time to crawl out from underneath that rock and join the rest of the world.  Easily scores a 10 out of 10 just because of what it is.  You never get bored of it and only continue to get better with practice.  The only version that is better is the Tengen or the Arcade version with simultaneous multiplayer  mode.  A must have for any hardcore NES collection.

Win Lose or Draw NES Review

 Like 99% of all failed attempts to make TV game shows on the NES, this game sucks.  There is really nothing else to say.  I give it a 2 out of 10.  I guess it would be alright with 2 players.  Never mind, the game sucks, period. 

8 Eyes NES Review

This game is a weak Castlevania 2 Simons Quest clone.  It has a stage select when you start, you can select 8 different cities in the world.  I tried about 3 of them before I got bored.  The game is so repetitive that it puts you to sleep.  You have this bird thing on your shoulder that I guess someone using controller 2 can control, but other than that there is nothing special about this game.  Maybe I am missing something?  I give this game a 3 out of 10.  Game play and graphics are almost identical to Simon's Quest and although it seems challenging, it is very difficult not to get bored and just give up after about 10 minutes due to the repetitiveness.

WWF Wrestlemania Challenge NES Review

The title screen comes up with an awesome shot of The Ultimate Warrior!!  OK, anything cool about this game ends here.  Do yourself a favor and never play this turd of a game.  The graphics suck (other than the title screen), Hulk Hogan is so tan he looks African American, and the game play sucks so bad you can barely control it.  I will give this piece of shit a 1 out of 10 only because there are worse games out there that deserve a zero.

Robocop NES Review

This game is actually a pretty decent port of the arcade version.  The graphics and game play are pretty decent and it is a challenging game overall.  You start out with just your fists as weapons until someone fires a gun at you, then you have your gun as a weapon for the rest of the stage.  The format of the game is a platform side scroller.  Overall I give this game a 6 out of 10.  It is not a game I would necessarily play all the time, but it is fun to play every now and then.  

Rad Racer 2 NES Review

OK, number 1, why did Square make this game?  Anyway, this game is just a recycled version of the original Rad Racer.  The game play and graphics are identical to the original.  It doesn't even make any sense why they put this game out.  The only thing challenging about it is there are these red cars that actually try to block you.  I don't remember that in the original, but I could be wrong. The music is also different and the dashboard display.  I didn't see anywhere in the game where you could select a different car.  Maybe when you get to later stages, you win a different car?  The bottom line is that overall I give this game a 4 out of 10.  Same old recycled crap that Squaresoft should be embarrassed about even putting out.

Atari weekend

First stop was Toy Box and Treasures in Waterford on Saturday.  I picked up a ton of games for 30 bucks.  7800 games - Donkey Kong Jr, Dig Dug, Mrs. Pac-Man, Centipede, Choplifter, and Galaga.  Atari 2600 games - Phoenix, Galaxian, Venture (red label), Wizard of Wor, Popeye, Donkey, Kong (red label), Pitfall!, and Megamania.  Today, I went to Gibraltar Trade Center in Taylor and Taylor Town Flea Market.  I picked up Defender for the Atari 400/800.  I also got for the 7800 at 2 bucks each, Karateka, Xevious, and Food Fight.  I picked up for the 2600 - Defender, Demon Attack, Riddle of the Sphinx, Space Shuttle, Zaxxon, Surround, Stellar Track (Sears), Asteroids, Space Invaders (Rare Sears), Decathlon, Pac-Man (Rare Sears), and Adventures of Tron.  I only picked up 1 game at Gibraltar which was H.E.R.O.  the ever elusive full graphic label rare version for $5.25.  This game goes on Ebay for anywhere from $45 to $120.  Overall a nice Atari grab for the weekend!

River Raid and the Atari 400

So everyone has played River Raid on the Atari 2600 right?  Well, have you ever played it on the Atari 400 computer?  It is awesome.  The Atari 2600 version is awesome, don't get me wrong, but the Atari 400 version rocks!  The graphics are better and there is a lot more stuff going on.  There are tanks on the shore / bridges that shoot at you, there are hot air balloons, and the shoreline has definition.  The Atari 400 computer is far superior to the 2600 VCS.  I guess it was a lot more expensive back in 1978 when it came out so it's processor is better.  I plan on picking up more 400 games on ebay or wherever I can find them.  I see them out in the wild occasionally and I always try to pick them up when I see them.  I got River Raid, Super Breakout, and Basic Programing for 4 bucks each at a secret location in South Lyon a few days ago.  I picked up Frogger and Asteroids at a flea market a few weeks ago as well.  I also have Missile Command, Pac Man (Awesome port!), Star Raiders, Donkey Kong, and Centipede.  I also just bought Pitfall on Ebay yesterday for a mere $6 shipped.  I am looking forward to that one as the graphics and sound should also be far superior to the 2600.  Man I love the Atari computer!

Intelivision / Arcade cabinet

Well, the Intellivision works. I picked up "Sea Battle" with the overlays this weekend from Destiny Games an awesome place, check them out. I did also pick up an Odyssey 2 for 25 bucks with 4 games, however it doesn't power up. I plan to open it up in the near future and check to see if it maybe needs just a quick solder, I will keep everyone posted. On a plus note, I got a free Pentium 4 Dell tower from my neighbor to possibly resurrect the MAME cabinet. I have been going through Moon Patrol withdraws lately! He said it needs a hard drive but that is not an issue, I have about 4 40GB hard drives laying around here. Looks like a 4th of July project to me. I also picked up a few 2600 games over the weekend. I will be doing some reviews on here in the near future, so stay tuned!

I went to a moving sale around the block from my house a few days ago. I walked up and a guy came outside and said "everything is for sale inside the house" So I walked in and to a back enclosed porch area and spotted a Nintendo 64 controller and grabbed it. Nothing was priced but I overheard the guy saying "If you see anything make me an offer, everything's for sale." I immediately spotted a Turbografx 16 with a Legendary Axe HuCard in it so I grabbed that too. No power supply or RF cord but I snarfed it up quickly. I went into a den area and spotted an Intellivision which I also quickly grabbed. I looked around for a few more minutes and didn't see anything else worth while. I took the stuff to the guy and he said how about 10 bucks? Sold! I got back home and hooked up the Turbografx 16 with my Retron 3 power supply, which was the same specs and used my Atari 7800 RF cable. It powered up but just a white screen. I took the HuCard out, blew some dust out of the card slot and used some brass polish on the HuCard. It fired up to the main screen! I went on Ebay and bought a used Turbografx controller which is on the way so I can test it (fingers crossed). I don't have any Intellivision games but I plugged that in and it does power up as well as put out an RF signal. We will se what happens with that. The Intellivision is in pretty bad shape and the controllers look bad so I am not holding out too much hope for it. I will keep you posted as to what happens with both systems. I had several TG16's back in the day and it is a pretty fun system. I don't think I have ever played an Intellivision however. I am pretty stoked about the TG16 though. It was one of the systems I have been thinking about getting again along with the Sega Master System.

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