E.T Cartridge from Alamogordo Dig Turns Up on eBay (Oh, and this is the 200th post for Retro Game On)

Remember when that pile of urban myth was dug out of the ground in April? Retro Game On remembers. I even made a video about it, as it's a subject that intrigued me (and many other enthusiasts) for years.
I won't get too deep into the nitty gritty about the legend though, as I've already extensively covered the subject and I'm getting a bit sick of writing about it to be honest; but basically, Atari buried plenty of unsold stock in Alamogordo, New Mexico many moons ago. This came somewhat of an urban myth since they primarily buried E.T the Extra Terrestrial, which was famously bad and what many attribute to the massive video game crash of the early 1980's.
The story continues to develop however, since mankind is now doing what mankind does best; make money out of things. One of the dug-up E.T cartridges, complete in box, has just surfaced on ebay. As of writing it has eight days left, and is currently sitting on a cool price of $405. Since it only started at $100 though, and has been running only two days, this humble blogger from the bottom of the world predicts that the price is going to be incomprehensible by the end of the auction.
Just think about what you're paying for here: a crumpled piece of box and a (probably) none-working, dirt encrusted cartridge, all of which likely smells of 1980's garbage (like Vanilla Ices career). I payed something like $10 for my working, yet incredibly broken copy and even that felt like too much.
Sure, there is a lot of history, but it just doesn't appeal to me. You can't subtract from the fact that it's been sitting amongst thrown away crap for the better part of 30 years.

[ebay] via [DailyDot]

In other, unrelated E.T news; this is Retro Game On's 200th post! Woo! Party!

Actually that was a photo from my 100th post celebrations last year, but this milestone post totally came out of nowhere. I didn't have enough time to organise a party, so maybe we'll hit the clubs later; although it all depends on if the oldguns like the 2600 and Famicom can handle it. I guess we'll just have to see.
Once again though, thanks for the all support from the readers and watchers this blog has had over the years! This blog would be pointless if no one read it, and I look forward to many more years to come!

Video: The Continuing Story of E.T the Extra-Terrestrial on the Atari 2600

Today we take a look at this interesting piece of gaming history, that helped with the crash of '83 and investigate subsequent urban myths about being buried in the desert.
This isn't really a review as such, as we'll be looking deeper into how this game came to be and all the drama that happened afterwards.

 

Long Lost Mythical Cache of E.T Atari Cartridges Recovered from Landfill

They did it, I can't believe they actually did it. Dumpster Divers everywhere got handed their place yesterday as an 'excavation team' dug through 30 years of various trash and (presumably) unsold Bart dolls to find the ultimate piece of gaming history.
While lightly reported on back in 1983 by various sources, the fact that Atari dumped hundreds if not thousands of unsold E.T The Extra-Terrestrial cartridges largely remained a myth until yesterday.

Struggling with the video game crash of the early 1980's, Atari dumped this load of unsold cartridges into a landfill in New Mexico (close to the city of Alamogordo) since they were basically worth pennies at the time. I go into more detail here as to why E.T bombed so hard (from when I added the game to my own collection) but in a nutshell, Atari shelled out millions for the licencing fees of the movie only to rush the release by making one poor chap program it all in five and a half weeks so it could coincide with the 1982 holiday season. This resulted in E.T The Extra-Terrestrial being one of the worst games of all time, and the former urban myth of the landfill site just added to the story.

Why would anyone in a sane state of mind do this? For a documentary, of course.
Microsoft is producing various shows for its Xbox One and Xbox 360 systems which include one on gaming history. This story of course is incredibly famous among the gaming community, so it makes sense as it's something people would watch (myself included).
The whole situation may ultimately seem a bit weird, but I'm glad someone with the money went to the effort; it's something that's been on the back of many gamers minds for decades.

[Kotaku]

Video: Barnstorming for the Atari 2600 Review

Fresh of the presses! Today we take a look at Activision's wacky arcade game, Barnstorming.

Retro Scan: Pac-Man Atari 2600 Manual

The internet is a marvellous thing; making archiving incredibly easy. I’d like to do my part today and show you the whole scanned English section of the manual for Pac-Man, on the Atari 2600.

It's no matter that it’s a terrible game and an unfaithful port to one of gaming’s hugest IP’s; these things deserve to be saved digitally just in case. You never know what could happen: a great flood, a great earthquake, a great fire? Something else equally great? (Not great as in great great, but huge).

I think I'm wondering off the designated path though, into a forest of snakes and bears. Let’s quit this small talk and explore this manual.

The first thing that strikes your eyeballs is that this manual is in full colour. Glorious, glorious colour. At least six of them. Scroll down to the bottom of this post for a second and take note of of the copyright notice. This manual was printed in 1981, and it's in god-damn'd colour. The most recent new-gen game I've purchased was Assassins Creed IV, which includes a manual in black and white. What the shit, Ubisoft?   

It starts off in a very sensible manner, laying out what the game is about and how to play. It also mentions the fact that you can play this in the comfort of your home, honing your skills to the extreme so you can impress all your dorky friends in the arcade. Considering how terrible this port is, I don't think it would of done you any good. I'm not going to even bother making a joke, it's just plain misleading. Someone please call the ACCC. 

On the next page it talks specifically about the ghosts, and hints at their deviant musical lifestyles. It also talks about the controller, which is quite a small paragraph considering how simple it is. 

On the next page it tells you how to select different game modes using the console controls. I love how old consoles actually have some controls built into the actual unit its self. It makes the experience way more interactive.

There is nothing really else to talk about here, it's all practical information. Moving on... 

On these pages it continues to talk about the game variations, but also prints some helpful hints. Hints that no doubt, will help you kick ass and take names in the arcade while Eye of the Tiger blares in the background.

From there everything is repeated in several other languages leading to this back page. Here you will see that copyright notice, and also a very bold and proud notice proclaiming: "PRINTED IN U.S.A". I find that quite interesting, as most of that type of work comes out of China these days. I guess that's the beauty of looking into one of these booklets; they're basically time-capsules of a different time and place.
And now thanks to my cheap HP printer/scanner/copier combo, the whole world can look back and talk about how shit this game was for generations to come, while also appreciating the manual. God speed.

Oh, The Horror

Yes, yes I've done it. The game that is so bad, its famous. It was so bad that even the Angry Video Game Nerd couldn't create a proper episode out of it; he filmed a damn movie.
If that's not a good way to measure how terrible something is, then maybe this is: The game was programmed in five and a half weeks by one dude to coincide with the 1982 season of spending lots of money. Ie, Christmas.

As you can imagine, five and a half weeks is not enough time to program a (at the time) blockbuster video game, especially when the whole task is pressured onto one poor chap. This resulted in an incredibly buggy game that was broken on release. Since E.T was such a huge trend at the time, Atari went absolutely bangbusters with producing cartridges. It didn't take long for word to get around though on just how terrible the game was, and it's said that millions of unsold cartridges were buried in a New Mexico landfill.
This was such a flop that it's also considered to be one of the main driving points of the video game crash of 1983.

Not many games can attest to that, which is exactly why I wanted it. No matter what way you look at it, this is a piece of gaming history. There's certainly something special to owning, more or less, the worst game ever created.

Video Review: Missile Command for Atari 2600

Hey kids, do you like milestones? You do! Well, you've just come to the right place. This review here, is the oldest game I've ever reviewed to date, clocking in at 34 years! That's like... a whole lot older than me. Enjoy!

One Day I'll Build A Castle...

...out of Atari cartridges. They're so fun to stack.
I say that, but I've been having a terrible time getting my grubby hands on these wonderful black boxes. I've been outbid several times on eBay, always at the very last second. I'm not using that phrase lightly either, I literally mean the very last second. Turns out it's pretty hard to shark someone when you're bidding from a mobile phone.
I've also I had some bad luck with Gumtree. There was a fantastic deal of about ten games for $130, which I whittled down to $70. I had the cash in-hand and everything, but the bastard never told me his address after repeatedly asking him on the day I was meant to pick them up. I guess some other sucker offered to pay more.
Finally though, I won a bid on eBay for the above games. How much were they you probably weren't wondering? $35. Bargain. It even came with some instruction manuals:

A deal I'm quite satisfied with, but it's missing one game. A game I really wanted. I wanted it so badly, that I just ended up buying it separately, even though they're terribly valued by themselves. The game is so bad, it's good, and I can't wait to play it. Watch this space.

Retro Game On's Newest Member: The Atari 2600 Jr

You know what Retro Game On is lacking? Corporate sponsorship, hurr, just joking, I'm talking about 8 bit consoles! Yes, before that the only 8 bit representation were my Famicoms. Those don't get as much credit as they deserve either since I only have two games, but it mostly comes down to the fact that I can't figure out the tuning for them on my television. Even when it was tuned into my old TV, it had no sound and the picture was incredibly grainy. That's a Japanese console in Australia for ya, I guess.
I did buy an Atari 2600 nearly two years ago, but that turned out to be a dud. I think I know how to fix it, but in all honesty I've had no time to try, in-between Sega Game Gears. Since I had all the necessary cables, controllers and even a few games from the last one, it occurred to me that I should just buy the console without anything for a discount. Atari's are hellishly expensive online, so I've been putting it off for a while.

I came across this console on eBay for $30, which is plainly unheard of for an advertised working console. I know at that price that something must be wrong with it, but the seller had a 100% feedback rating over 2000 and something sales. I know 2000 is pretty small fry for an eBay shop, but that's still 2000 happy customers no matter how you look at it. I'm always into helping the smaller fish, and they were Australian too which seasoned the deal for me.

The games I have so far are Pole Position, Asteroids, Missile Command and Outlaw. I bought these all for $5 each on the sole basis that they were cheap. Well, cheap for the shop I found them in anyway. I don't know if that is a rational reason for purchasing them, but I did it non the less. After that I bought that broken console and it just went from there. Refer to those links above if you're interested in that particular story.

Since I just got it, I haven't had a chance to play those games I've had for two years, and I suck at them very muchly. It's sad to say since I consider myself a retro gamer, but I just haven't worked my head around that Atari 2600 joystick after years of buttons and dual sticks. I have all the time in the world now to learn though (well, until I die anyway) and I plan to get good.
Either way, my suckiness was a good excuse to create this short video with my friend after one, or, er, nine beers. We thought it was pretty funny at the time.

The Obligatory 'Sorry For No Posts' Post

What's that sound I hear? Oh, it's the sound of nothing. It appears I haven't posted anything to this corner of the internet for about a month. Sorry about that. The usual culprits are to blame; education, work, life in general etc. I wish I had the time for this right now, but it's becoming quite hard.
But I just want to start off and verify that I'm in fact, not dead. Now that that is out of the way, what's going on in my retro like life? Not a lot, but like herpes the love for retro never leaves. I did buy a Nintendo 64 and an Atari 2600 though, oh wait I posted that already. AH, I tried to fix the Atari because it didn't work! Oh wait, damn. I posted that as well. Well, I did leave that on a lame cliffhanger, but a cliffhanger none the less. I didn't in fact try and solder the connections again for about another fortnight because life got in the way. I did get to it eventually though, and it didn't help anything.
The problem is the internet doesn't offer much help in regards to the Junior model (which I have) but is plentiful on the original fat models. The structure of the variances are suppose to be similar, but my tech skills aren't that high. I could try and follow a guide on a fat model with my Junior, but it would be like... er...
My analogies suck this evening.

It currently resides on my table... silently mocking me.

Moving on. A catch up post wouldn't be complete without mention of shit I've brought.

I should start off by mentioning that the copy of Zelda isn't mine, it's currently on loan from a friend. Considering I've never been a fan of anything fantasy, I have a hard time bringing myself to play it usually. Like, I do enjoy it, but it's not on my priority to play it that much. It's a great time waster everything now and again don't get me wrong, but it's just not my type of game.
Both Quake 2 and Wipeout 64 seem great from what I've played so far, but I keep forgetting to buy a memory pack for my N64. Annoying in perspective, but I'll get there eventually.
Road Rash is just awesome though. Out of all the retro games I've played this last month, this is what I've been playing the most. Just the concept of riding motorbikes at high speeds down highways while bashing your opponents with crow bars and by flykicking them in the face... is just awesome. I've never played anything like that before. Also Soundgarden being in the soundtrack will always earn brownie points.

Does the Atari 2600 Jr Work?

Nope.
Surprise, surprise. A little while ago I received the RF cable for a recently acquired 2600. I bought this sucker as untested quite cheaply because I'm a reckless risk taker. Turns out it turned on and tuned to a perfect black screen.
Considering this got quite boring after a while, I decided to commence into a Game Gear style uphill battle to fix it, because there is of course no such thing as a dead console- unless you're a GG bought from a French swap meet anyway.
First off, I decided to crack open the bastard. What I saw inside horrified me:

Suffice to say, this console must of had a hard life.

I don't know what could have caused that much rust. Was someone pouring water down the cartridge slot? The rust certainly does seem to be most frequent around that area. Ah well, I got my tetanus shots.
After looking at it contently for a minute or so intently, I closed it up again and fired it up for the hell of it. Surprisingly this made nil difference, but I guess it was worth a shot. It's pretty much all I did for one of my Famicom's, although I did pull a hell of a lot of sawdust out of that one.
Anyway from there, I armed myself with rubbing alcohol and a toothbrush, opened it back up and started scrubbing the board. Luckily it seems as if nothing had burst open, but there was nearly 30 years worth of corrosion in there for lucky me to clean up. I was particularly worried about that huge 80's capacitor, but it seems okay for now.
I pulled up that train wreak of a metal cover and cleaned under there as well, I feel I did quite a thorough job in the end:

You could eat your dinner off that, if you like the taste rubbing alcohol. 

Did this fix it? Well, no. I guess having it clean is for the better anyway, so I don't feel as if I wasted any time. Also I now sometimes get colourful static when I turn it on. Better than before when it was just black I guess, but of course it gets boring after a while too as you can probably imagine.
So what's next? I've decided tomorrow that I might go and freshen up some solder points as a few are starting to show their age. Couldn't hurt, and you never know, I might fix that key connection that's stopping me from playing Missile Command.

New Additions to the Retro Game On Family

Which is more awesome? 

This could of been two separate posts, but I just wanted to give my fabulous audience a good deal.
...
Eh, who am I kidding... I'm just lazy.
Today I went into a Good Sammy's and picked up the Nintendo 64 for $25, and yesterday I received the Atari 2600 Jr. in the mail. 

I have only been into that Good Sammy's once- maybe six months ago. First impressions weren't good back then as all I saw was a mid nineties steering wheel for $40. The horrifying thing is that it wasn't there when I went in today so either they marked it down or some sucker got duped. Either way, coming across this Nintendo 64 with a controller and a 4MB RDRAM Expansion Pak for 25 bucks gives me hope for the shop now. Also there was an Xbox with two controllers for $100 (eh) and a fat PS2. Don't how much that was because it was buried under some plates or something. I'm quite content with my slim PS2 for the time being so it doesn't really bother me that I didn't stop to check the price.
There were no games there though so I went into a Cashies like shop to find a cheap test game. All the decent ones were $30, with a whole lot of medicore games for 5 or $10. Out of all the cheapies, Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2 seemed the best at $10. It probably is still a little steep price wise, but I could never stay mad at The Hawk. Both the console and the game have been tested and are fully working. Now all I need to get is a Controller Pak so I can save the game...
I also checked out a Salvation Army today but like everyone of those I've ever been to in my life, it was shit.

The story for this Atari 2600 started about a week ago. I was in this huge thrift store and there was Pole Position, Missile Command, Asteroids and Outlaw all for $5 each. Being that good deals are my worst enemy (the N64 being one) I bought them, even though I didn't actually own a 2600 at the time. Good logic right? 

I got home and released that I now had to buy a 2600, or the games would look sad on my shelf because they weren't being played. I went on Ebay, and saw this untested 2600 for $11 with no cables or controllers. It had only about 20 minutes left so I bidded and won. Good real right? Well... kinda. What I neglected to check in the excitement was how much the cables and controllers were by themself.
Turns out there is a lucrative business in after market accessories for retro consoles. The powerpack alone cost me $20, the controller cost me $10 (and this for was a cheap Mega Drive knock off, the 2600 sticks were more) and the RF cable was the cheapest at only $2. Considering I bought all of these for a console that might not work, it made me feel quite silly. I may have even been able to score a decent bundle for that amount all up. Lesson learnt. 

I'm still not sure if it works because the RF cable hasn't turned up yet, but the little red LED lights up when I turn it on because I have the powerpack. This is somewhat promising, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.