johnnytenspeed

[johnnytenspeed]

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

I’d like to take a moment to remind all of you reading this that E.T. is a bad game. Many of you know this already of course, but a disturbingly large number of you have been insisting lately that it’s a great but misunderstood game.

I understand it. It’s a bad game. There’s absolutely nothing enjoyable about trying to locate the one randomly located patch of grass where E.T. can perform the ability you need in that instance. It’s actually excruciatingly tedious.

It’s absolutely amazing that this game was finished in just five weeks. That doesn’t make it an amazing game. 

[johnnytenspeed]

Mission 3000 A.D.

Hey, I’m back. Thanks for waiting.

Speaking of waiting, how long have you been waiting for Draconian? Like forever, right? I mean, how long can it possibly take to completely redefine what we thought the Atari 2600 was capable of?

So while the rest of you hit refresh every five minutes, hoping this will be the time the finished ROM gets posted, I’m going to be playing Mission 3000 A.D. It’s Bosconian on whatever the opposite of steroids is.

[johnnytenspeed]

To Sign Or Not To Sign

I’d like to take a break from telling you what Atari games to play today and instead tell you what to do with your games when you’re not playing them.

Specifically, should you get cartridges autographed?

To a normal person this is a no-brainer. Getting stuff signed by famous people and/or game designers is cool. To the many collectors out there who aren’t normal people, it’s an outrage.

You see, they’re so obsessed with collecting, they’ve forgotten the things they’re collecting are games. Instead, they’re commodities, with a monetary premium placed on pristine condition as a desperate attempt to justify having no fun whatsoever.

The thing about an autograph though is that it isn’t about the name on the label. It’s about the experience of getting that name on that label. The experience of meeting someone you admire, talking to them, even for just a few seconds, and walking away with a unique memento. That’s worth way more than whatever a collector would have given you for that game before you ruined it.

[johnnytenspeed]

Ms. Snake

Snake. It’s that game pretty much everyone has played at one time or another because it’s been adapted to pretty much everything with a screen. Computers. Cell phones. Calculators. Those things diabetics use to check their blood sugar.

It was ported to the Atari 2600 in the 80′s too, but the few people who weren’t put off by the name Tapeworm and actually bought it were put off by the relentlessly shrill sound effects. Ms. Snake offers a nice, no-frills alternative.

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/215913-ms-snake-is-coming/

[johnnytenspeed]

D.K. VCS

Don’t tell Big N, but there’s a sweet piece of eye candy out there for the 2600 that looks and awful lot like a certain Big Ape.

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/206497-dk-vcs/