The thing that shocks me is that there are a few games I didn't remember existed, even though I must have read that catalog thirty or forty times.
I think the lineup that is really burned into my head is from about a year earlier, before the pathetic Pac-Man cartridge came out. What I remember even more distinctly are the pages in the Sears Christmas Wish Book showing the games available for their rebranded Atari, with the same outrageously faked-up screenshots that sometimes had diagonal pixels.
...The second one still has the old Space War cartridge in it, but the one I remember seeing in catalogs, not owning, and wondering about a lot was a very early game called Starship, which I think attempted to give a first-person cockpit view. I get the impression from the testimony of others that it was so lame they pulled it at the first opportunity. Of course they eventually ported Star Raiders to the 2600.
A very early, very lame game we did have, and that I played far more than it deserved, was Miniature Golf, which I suspect was at least part inspiration for the Homestar Runner "Secret Collect" game.
I had a copy of Star Ship, which had both first-person view shoot'em up, as well as a lunar lander game. I think the lunar lander game, though instead of landing on a surface on the bottom of the screen, you had to get your lander safely on an asteroid. I think the two-player version allowed player number two to control the asteroid to try and smash the first player's lander. Maybe you're talking about the blue catalog which had this goofy page devoted to Star Ship.
...Odd that at that point they were selling both Black Jack and Casino, which included a better-looking blackjack game and a couple of others. I think Casino was one of the first cartridges we had.
I also spent a remarkable amount of time playing that ultra-minimalist baseball game that the Intellivision ads made such fun of.
I loved Atari Baseball. That and bowling were the first two sport video games I got into. I also liked Activision's Decathlon when it came out, until hitting the 1500m dash level of course.
I loved Atari Baseball. That and bowling were the first two sport video games I got into. I also liked Activision's Decathlon when it came out, until hitting the 1500m dash level of course.
I must have been some combination of too young or too stupid; I didn't think Atari Pac Man was SO bad, but then, I didn't have much to compare it to yet. And then later I got copies of Pac Man and Ms Pac Man for the C64 and figured it out.
I think I was 8 when Atari's Pac-Man came out. I was very well-versed in video games, reading all the magazines and hanging out in arcades; all my stupid classmates didn't know about the world beyond their Ataris.
They thought Atari Pac-Man was not only the shit, but canon. Multiple kids thought my Trapper Keeper with a picture of the arcade Pac-Man board on it was messed-up and wrong. Where's his eye? Why aren't there doors on the top and bottom??
Everyone I knew owned a copy of that game, though. It really wasn't until like 10 years later that I learned that people who counted their ages in double digits though that Atari's Pac-Man was a failure.
I never actually played the 2600 Pac-Man; just saw it in commercials and thought it highly Wrong. I got the Atari 800 Pac-Man instead, which was all right; it had more or less the canonical Pac-Man board though it was squished into a 4x3 aspect ratio, making the timing all different. At least it LOOKED like Pac-Man.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
no subject
I think the lineup that is really burned into my head is from about a year earlier, before the pathetic Pac-Man cartridge came out. What I remember even more distinctly are the pages in the Sears Christmas Wish Book showing the games available for their rebranded Atari, with the same outrageously faked-up screenshots that sometimes had diagonal pixels.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
A very early, very lame game we did have, and that I played far more than it deserved, was Miniature Golf, which I suspect was at least part inspiration for the Homestar Runner "Secret Collect" game.
no subject
this goofy page devoted to Star Ship.
no subject
no subject
I also spent a remarkable amount of time playing that ultra-minimalist baseball game that the Intellivision ads made such fun of.
no subject
(Anonymous) 2006-07-23 03:07 am (UTC)(link)no subject
no subject
no subject
Some of these old games, though... it's the sounds that really take you back.
no subject
Very strange.
no subject
Also, I played way too much "E.T."
no subject
They thought Atari Pac-Man was not only the shit, but canon. Multiple kids thought my Trapper Keeper with a picture of the arcade Pac-Man board on it was messed-up and wrong. Where's his eye? Why aren't there doors on the top and bottom??
Everyone I knew owned a copy of that game, though. It really wasn't until like 10 years later that I learned that people who counted their ages in double digits though that Atari's Pac-Man was a failure.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject