28th April 2013, 8:48 PM
Nice catch.
The 7800 is an odd situation. Atari got big flack for the 5200 not being backwards compatible with the 2600 (also, their numbering system seems almost intentionally designed to confuse, like they just felt they needed to toss random numbers in there to make it seem more futuristic). The 7800 actually added BACK 2600 compatibility and just didn't even bother with the middle system's compatibility. Weird stuff.
I have a 2600 system, but no Atari systems after that. I've been very nervous about even trying to find a working Jaguar, simply due to the reported failures of those systems. I may end up looking up some repair guides. I understand some people have managed to set up repair guides that improve on the original setup so it is far less likely to fail.
The 2600 itself? You're talking about the source of the "game crash" and the first true home console, that is, in the sense of a home system that can play multiple unique games. Before that, the best one could hope for was systems that still had set rules, but certain "game chips" could slightly alter those rules to create different games (but couldn't code anything truly unique). It has some games that can kill hours and hours of time among friends to this day. Heck, Outlaw alone is crazy fun, and that's just two stick figures shooting at each other on a single screen. Then you have games like Raiders of the Lost Ark, and other terrible trash.
I was reading some forums where younger gamers thought the "Nintendo Seal of Quality" was idiotic, that "anyone with a printer can circumvent that copyright protection". They didn't get that the "seal of quality" had nothing at all to do with copyright protection and everything to do with keeping NOA in control of what games got released on the NES. Sure, anyone could "print" the seal and sell a bootlegged cart, no problem. However, a major publisher couldn't legally get away with sticking that seal on a major release without Nintendo shutting them down, and THAT was the point.
While the NES had less garbage utterly flooding out the good stuff, let us not forget that a HUGE amount of NES games still were terrible, it just wasn't such a deluge that no one could even see the good games out there.
The 7800 is an odd situation. Atari got big flack for the 5200 not being backwards compatible with the 2600 (also, their numbering system seems almost intentionally designed to confuse, like they just felt they needed to toss random numbers in there to make it seem more futuristic). The 7800 actually added BACK 2600 compatibility and just didn't even bother with the middle system's compatibility. Weird stuff.
I have a 2600 system, but no Atari systems after that. I've been very nervous about even trying to find a working Jaguar, simply due to the reported failures of those systems. I may end up looking up some repair guides. I understand some people have managed to set up repair guides that improve on the original setup so it is far less likely to fail.
The 2600 itself? You're talking about the source of the "game crash" and the first true home console, that is, in the sense of a home system that can play multiple unique games. Before that, the best one could hope for was systems that still had set rules, but certain "game chips" could slightly alter those rules to create different games (but couldn't code anything truly unique). It has some games that can kill hours and hours of time among friends to this day. Heck, Outlaw alone is crazy fun, and that's just two stick figures shooting at each other on a single screen. Then you have games like Raiders of the Lost Ark, and other terrible trash.
I was reading some forums where younger gamers thought the "Nintendo Seal of Quality" was idiotic, that "anyone with a printer can circumvent that copyright protection". They didn't get that the "seal of quality" had nothing at all to do with copyright protection and everything to do with keeping NOA in control of what games got released on the NES. Sure, anyone could "print" the seal and sell a bootlegged cart, no problem. However, a major publisher couldn't legally get away with sticking that seal on a major release without Nintendo shutting them down, and THAT was the point.
While the NES had less garbage utterly flooding out the good stuff, let us not forget that a HUGE amount of NES games still were terrible, it just wasn't such a deluge that no one could even see the good games out there.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)