Atari 7800

[Bernie]

In all seriousness, everything that says "Atari" on it that isn't an arcade machine or the Lynx is f*cking garbage. No joke. %90 of all games for their systems range from borderline unplayable to totally unplayable. That company has the worst track record ever, basically f*cking up everything they touched, squandering away billions of dollars and dozens of lost opportunities. By the 90s they were suing Sega for bullshit patents like "putting a image on a TV" and telling us to buy a Jag because it was made in America.

God Atari sucked.

However....Warlords and Combat. Those two are amazing!

You are 100% correct. If it says Atari on it for the most part, I treat is like a bio-hazard sign.  I gavce them the benefit of the doubt with some of their later releases on newer consoles.....ugh..  Why didnt they go out instead of Hudson Soft?

[Arkhan]

Well, to be fair, the Atari 2600 as balls-ugly as it is, is pretty fun. 

[Tatsujin]

Lol zeta. Quite true. Altough i had my fair fun as a kid with the 2600. But not even nostalgics can make the games good again today. The lynx i still have, and it is good fun.

[Arkhan]

the atari 2600 looks like shit but the arcadey style games are at least playable.  Asteroids looks mental with its rainbow rocks, but its still fun

[Tatsujin]

The who who designed the 5200 is the most retarded person ever walked on this planet.

[Arkhan]

The who who designed the 5200 is the most retarded person ever walked on this planet.

I didn't know a who designed it. 



No wonder she's so sad.

[Shrapnoid]

The 7800 actually had some pretty good games. Sure, some of them were...um...confusing and seemed pointless but, it did well with it's arcade ports and even a few of the original games that were released for it, once you figured out how to play them.

Believe it or not the 7800 was just an enhanced 2600 so, there's no way that a 5200 adapter would have been available as the 5200 (hardware wise) was the more powerful system.

The systems designated names sort of give it away as well. The 7800 is backward compatible *because* it is based on the 2600 hardware.

Want proof? Look it up.

The 7800 was the console that you heard about once in a great while but, probably didn't see or know of anyone who had one until the NES had already been declared champion of it's class.

[Arkhan]

the 7800 blows dude. lol

[HercTNT]

if i remember correctly, the 7800 is just a 2600 with slightly better video chip.  Even the sound chip and the speed of the system were the same. even so i'm with shrap on this one. i loved my 7800 and my 2600. most the games may have been crap, but the few that were not were great. then again, thats all i had growing up so its my personal fond memory. 

[DragonmasterDan]

if i remember correctly, the 7800 is just a 2600 with slightly better video chip.  Even the sound chip and the speed of the system were the same. even so i'm with shrap on this one. i loved my 7800 and my 2600. most the games may have been crap, but the few that were not were great. then again, thats all i had growing up so its my personal fond memory. 

The main processor called SALLY is faster than the one in the 2600 and is a bit different, though it is backwards compatible. The 7800 also has a different video chip (known as Maria). It used the CPU for sound in the same way the 2600 did unless a game had a sound chip on the cartridge.

[HercTNT]

Thanks for the clarification. its a shame that atari did not try to do more with the 7800.  it would not have mattered though, as other members have pointed out, the 7800's controller was pretty craptacular.

[DragonmasterDan]

Thanks for the clarification. its a shame that atari did not try to do more with the 7800.  it would not have mattered though, as other members have pointed out, the 7800's controller was pretty craptacular.

The European pad was decent.

As far as the Atari 7800 system itself, The 7800 was less powerful than it could have been because Atari put an emphasis on making it backwards compatible after seeing what a mess the 5200 caused and the need for an extra attachment to play 2600 games.

[Shrapnoid]

Yeah... They *should* have done a lot more with it after all of the time they spent pumping up in their little fan magazine.

I even read in some vg history book that Nintendo wanted Atari to market the NES in America and who ever was in charge of Atari at the time took them up on it because he knew that if it bombed, he could still launch the 7800 but, Coleco had a hissy fit over Donkey Kong licenses and their ADAM computer that caused a 3-way argument that ended badly so, the big N decided to market the NES themselves.

However, since the author of the same book said that Rockman/Megaman ate hotdogs and fries to recover his energy who knows what really happened?

[HercTNT]

Well, it kinda makes sense. After all, anything nicknamed "Sally" could not be all that great. Guess that explains the atari jaguar as well, calling the two main chips "tom and jerry".

[SignOfZeta]

...what?