Toymax Activision 10 in 1 Plug n Play

Today I bring you the final Atari 2600 plug n play controller I will be reviewing. This one is packed with 10 strictly Activision classics titles: Crackpots, Atlantis, Pitfall!, Grand Prix, River Raid, Tennis, Spider Fighter, Ice Hockey, Boxing and Freeway. This one is brought to us by a company called Toymax, which I’ve never heard of, but it seems as though Jakks Pacific had to have their hands in on this somewhere, as the system buttons are the exact same as the 2600 joystick.

Activision [Left] Jakks Pacific [Right]


Clearly a different designed joystick than the Jakks Pacific, or anything I’ve ever seen, it allows the user the choice of a fire button in a familiar area or right on top of the joystick itself. The system overall is quite comfortable and functions much the same as the Jakks Pacific joystick, if not slightly smoother. Toymax also seemed to take good care of the Activision license in using some really good titles, something Jakks Pacific didn’t manage.

Activision [Left] Jakks Pacific [Right]


Toymax didn’t flub up and pack in any games that required the paddle, unlike Jakks Pacific. I know everyone will have fond memories of River Raid and many other titles within this unit. Of the three I’ve reviewed this is the one to own, it is without a doubt my favorite and the one with which I have had the most fun.

Activision [Left] Jakks Pacific [Right]

Posted December 3rd, 2012

Jakks Pacific Atari 2600 Paddle Plug n Play

Yet another Jakks Pacific plug n play system, although today I bring you the paddle controller. There is another version of this that has an attached player 2, but mine is strictly single player. Even so, Jakks Pacific added a few games from their joystick and more paddle controller classics: Breakout, Canyon bomber, Casino, Circus Atari, Demons to Diamonds, Night Driver, Steeplechase Street Racer, Super Breakout, Video Olympics, Warlords and 2 bonus Arcade quality versions of Pong and Warlords.

Original [Left] Plug n Play [Right]


The paddle controller is quite unique, not only in it’s design, but also in it’s menu design. The system is limited to one button, which is the menu button, other than the game play button on the side. When the menu button is pressed during game play it brings up a 6 switch Atari 2600 on the bottom of the screen allowing users to: Exit game, change TV type, change left and right difficulty, Game select and Game reset.

Original [Left] Plug n Play [Right]


There is no mistaking this behemoth for the original Atari paddle controller, clearly, but it still works just the same. This time Jakks Pacific seemed to get the game selection right, while adding 2 bonus arcade versions as well. As I said earlier there are two versions of this, both single and 2 players.

Again, this is simply another good plug n play to keep those classic paddle games in your conscious. For me the real thrill is playing it on the original hardware, but again Jakks Pacific delivered a decent replication of the experience in a plug n play system.

Posted November 28th, 2012

Jakks Pacific Atari 2600 Joystick Plug n Play

It seems in recent years there is a bandwagon of sorts to cash in on the ever growing popularity and nostalgic wave of retro games and systems. It seems as if Jakks Pacific rode shotgun in said bandwagon, at least for the plug n play market. At some point I picked up a Jakks Pacific Atari 2600 controllers for $1 in a thrift store, I was aware of the company but I wasn’t sure if they could pull of an authentic Atari 2600 experience in just a joystick.

Original (left) Jakks Pacific Plug n Play (right)

Jakk’s Pacific’s take on the Atari 2600 joystick is a reminiscent design of an original 2600 joystick, with a little more bulk for the system board, battery compartment as well as the AV cables and main buttons for operation. Packed inside are 10 classic Atari 2600 games: Adventure, Asteroids, Breakout, Centipede, Circus Atari, Gravitar, Missile Command, Pong, Real sports Volleyball and Yars Revenge. Anyone who grew up with these games may immediately see an issue with the selection of games for this unit, but I’ll be discussing that later.

Overall the feel of the controller is comfortable and, despite it’s weight and operational buttons, once you start playing you may find yourself thinking it is an original Atari 2600 joystick. The games are all functional and fun, as the system delivers a fairly decent facsimile of a classic Atari 2600 experience, despite being strictly single player and having the option of 10 games without needing to swap out the cartridges. That fact may attract or put people off, depending on your demands from Atari 2600 style hardware.

Plug n Play (Left) Original (Right)

So lets look back at the issue I mentioned earlier, some of the games included are for use with the paddle controller, and since this is a joystick that doesn’t really allow for the same control as the original intent. I think Jakk’s Pacific was in a rush and wanted to grab the rights to a handful of games and quickly shove the unit on the market without thinking of keeping true to the software needs. That isn’t to say you can’t play Circus Atari with the joystick, it just isn’t as smooth as it was on the original hardware.

Do I have any gripes about this unit other than it’s game selection? No. I love having a good selection of games packed into one simple and easy to use unit. Since both of my Atari 2600 systems don’t work, I can still play a handful of video games I can’t otherwise play.

Original (Left) Plug n Play (Right)

This was the unit that started my interest in retro gaming plug n plays, and now I own quite a few. I won’t be covering them all, but I will be covering the rest of Jakk’s Pacific’s Atari 2600 inspired systems. Needless to say, I enjoy them all, but I’m just wanting to inform you guys of what they do and why I like them.

Posted November 21st, 2012

Vintage Gaming Cleaning Kits

In the days when cartridges ruled the world it seemed as if anyone and everyone put out a cleaning kit to keep your systems in working order. Which was a big selling point made all too easy by the NES and its, more often than not, ability to put on a light show rather than play a game. If there is one thing I believe about retro gaming, it has to be the fact that if you keep your systems and games clean they will last longer and give you much better functional results.

Although I now know the true cause of these glitches, I was still taken in by the cleaning kits propaganda when I was younger. They made promises to keep the blinking NES, or just a black screen on other systems, away forever! Almost every cartridge based video game system had some form of cleaning kit, and although most of the time it worked for just a short while, the fact that it worked at all made them feel like essential hardware.

My first cleaning kit was a Doc’s Fix-a-system, which had what I still feel is a genius idea in the clip on NES cleaner. You simply took any NES game cartridge, clipped the contraption to the front of it and you proceeded to stab the living daylights out of your NES. Doing so cleared unwanted dirt and gave way to a few more minutes of uninterrupted gameplay.

I still love this idea, it still works great!


After that cleaning kit was lost or broken, I’m sure, I purchased a Player’s Edge NES cleaning kit. This one was a stand alone unit with a handle, and everything you needed fit conveniently inside the unit itself. Again you just took the unit and stabbed the living daylights out of your NES and you were good to play for a little while longer.

Years of use on this thing, does it show?


That would be the last cleaning kit I bought for nearly 14 years, until one day at a Salvation Army store I found a Player’s Edge cleaning kit for the SNES. Later, at another Salvation Army, I found an incomplete Doc’s 2000 kit, which brought back a flood of memories of the good old days. Sadly the NES clip was broken, but I decided to take what was left of it and turn it into a cleaning kit inside of an old Gyromite cartridge I had laying around. (Original article: Here)

Same system, only one fits perfectly into the NES so I can shut the lid.


It seems nowadays I go through thrift stores and find cleaning kits for almost every system, and if they’re at a reasonable price I’ll pick them up. Just this year I’ve accrued quite a few system cleaning kits, and although I may not use them I still pick them up when I can.

My current collection of boxed cleaning kits.


As an adult, I know the best way to keep my systems running is to clean both the games and the systems. But it seems a good Q-tip with rubbing alcohol thoroughly rubbed through a game keeps all my systems running well. Admittedly I have had some hiccups with my Sega Genesis, N64 and SNES, but nothing a good game cleaning hasn’t remedied, so far!

Back in the day cleaning kits were pushed in our faces, and as time went on they faded away. I still get nostalgic for cleaning kits and make room for them in my collection. Though they serve no practical purpose to me, as I’ve learned far better ways to keep my systems running, they still connect me to a time when video games were problematic, but so much fun.

Posted November 11th, 2012

Sam’s Scores VIII

Well everyone, after this article I will be doing more of the new video format than written articles. Today’s Sam’s Scores is going to have more than usual. I’ve had all these items for quite a while and I feel its time to get the old stuff written up to make way for the new stuff!


8) – Bag of Atari 2600 Games

For some reason thrift stores love to use plastic bags and my favorite Salvation Army is no exception. Normally I check the bags for signs of old happy meal Nintendo toys, etc. but this time there happened to be 10 Atari games: Adventure, Combat, Air-Sea Battle, Asteroids, Casino, Football, Air Lock, Missile Command, Space Invaders and Warlords. Even though my 2600 isn’t working, I couldn’t pass it up!

Bag of Atari 2600 Games -$3


7) – 3 Vectrex Games

In the same thrift/consignment store I found the Atari Jaguar in, were 3 Vectrex games. I checked high and low for the system, but I only found the games. I’m assuming there had to have been a system there, but I prefer to think there never was. These are the first Vectrex games I’ve ever seen, so I had to snatch them up!

3 Vectrex Games -$2 each


6) – Blades of Steel Red Label

Blades of Steel for the NES isn’t a rare game, in fact I’ve had a handful of them. What makes this version harder to find (as I don’t think it is “rare”) is the fact that it has a red label and was re-released with a handful of other games late in the NES’s life. I found this at Disc Replay, where I believe 2 others were eying it before I was, but I asked for help at the case first!

Blades of Steel Red Label -$2


5) – Resident Evil 2

Ever since I played a demo for this game, I’ve always wanted to own it. Disc Replay has it in stock on occasion, but $10 is a bit on the high side for me. Ever the one to hold out hope of finding it in the wild, luck and persistence finally paid off when I found this in the CD bin at Salvation Army. The case is cracked in some areas, but its complete and the discs are in good shape.

Resident Evil 2 -$1


4) – N64 Memory Expansion

When you buy an N64, the first thing you should check is the memory expansion slot in the front. If you see a memory expansion, you’re good to go. That isn’t to say the jumper is bad, without the jumper or memory expansion the N64 won’t even display video! I found this memory expansion at a flea market, just sitting on a table and since my N64 needed one, I bought it. (Being displayed already installed into my system.)

N64 Memory Expansion -$.50


3) – 3 N64 Games

My favorite Salvation Army does some insane pricing variations on their cartridge games, it ranges from super cheap or super expensive. This case just so happened to be a super cheap day, and I ended up getting DK64, Rayman 2 and Star Wars Episode 1 Racer, extremely cheap.

3 N64 Games -$.39 each


2) – Zelda 64: Majora’s Mask

I will admit that this isn’t one of my better scores, but the price still isn’t bad. Half Price Books was marking their games at a standard rate, and this one just so happened to slip through at a decent price.

Zelda 64: Majora’s Mask -$5


1) – Vintage Donkey Kong plush

If its video game related, I’ll buy it cheap. Plush gaming characters are fairly easy to find, but when I saw this sitting on a shelf looking at me, with no rips or tears, I had to own it.

Vintage Donkey Kong plush -$1

Posted March 9th, 2012

Atari Jaguar Review

In 1993, while Nintendo’s Super Nintendo and Sega’s Genesis were duking it out for supremacy, Atari stepped back into the home console market after six years of going silent. With the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis, we were told that more “bits” were better and although most of us were children and didn’t even know what a bit was, we knew the bigger the number, the better the system. Atari took an interesting concept and way over estimated their security in an all out war between the big two consoles of that year, creating one of the worst console failures in gaming history.

The SNES and Genesis were both 16-bit systems, the graphics and sound were vastly enhanced over the NES and Master System, but Atari was already hard at work on 32-bit (Panther) and a 64-bit (Jaguar) consoles. Somewhere along the line the Panther was scrapped and the Jaguar pounced into position to be Atari’s comeback that would not only put them back into the home console market, but also on the lips and minds of gamers everywhere. With everything in place, Atari tested the Jaguar in select markets in the United States, obviously things went well as they decided to widen the release and thus the Atari Jaguar was launched!

The Atari Jaguar boasted 64-bits, which was four times that of any console on the market. Atari must have hoped that the larger number would garner gamer’s attention, but sadly it never caught the attention of the game makers. The Atari Jaguar did have big titles such as: DOOM, Wolfenstein 3D, Bubsy and NBA Jam TE, as well as a slew of other great titles for the system, but most of them didn’t look much different than the SNES and Genesis versions. Many gamers felt that they already had a system that would play these games and more, so there was no need to purchase another system, simply based on it’s numerical optimism.

With the lack of game development and gamer support, another nail in the coffin was the Jaguar’s controller. The controller is massive and includes a numerical keypad. The keypad helped you quickly execute commands or other features, without having to cycle through with a D-pad and button combo in a rush. Certain games even came with overlays to tell you exactly which key did what, so you didn’t have to fumble around pressing them all. Overall the controller is comfortable, the keypad is useful, but it just seemed a bit too much.

Original (Left) and Revised (Right) Jaguar Controllers

Atari later decided to give the Jaguar an add-on, which turned out to be yet another shot to the dying Jaguar’s backside. The Jaguar CD was launched in 1995 and although I never owned one, from what I understand it pretty much died on the spot. With a very slim selection of titles for the add-on and the fact that some of them simply refused to work, the Jaguar CD was a massive failure in and of it’s own.

The Atari Jaguar’s roar was reduced to a retreating hiss as in 1996 the system was discontinued, after only selling approximately 200,000 units. To put that to a comparison, Nintendo’s Virtual Boy sold approximately 750,000 units, and the CD-I sold approximately 550,000 units. In the history of gaming consoles, the Jaguar only managed to outsell the Apple-Bandai Pippen.

Although Atari gave up on the Jaguar, it didn’t die. In fact Hasbro snatched up the rights to some Atari properties and in 1999 they released the rights to the Atari Jaguar, giving rights to the fans to develop software for the console. [Hasbro Release] The Jaguar’s casing molds were sold off to a dental imaging company and turned into the Imagin Hot Rod and the game casing was turn into it’s memory pack.

Imagin Hot Rod

With all the Jaguar’s shortcomings of the controller being massive and the games never pushing the technology inside the Jaguar, or perhaps it simply wasn’t all it was marketed as being, the system was and is still a great system to own. The Atari Jaguar is a very easy system to overlook, but there are many titles that are well worth a play through. Today fans try to keep the Jaguar alive, making their own homebrews for the system. I’ve never had a chance to check these games out, but I think its a really cool thing for both the fans making the games as well as Hasbro to let the fans keep the system alive. An idea other companies might want to try. (ahem! Nintendo, I’m coughing at you!)

Being that the Atari Jaguar is somewhat of a rare beast, I’m extremely glad to have found mine. Not only for the price and nostalgia, but simply because I thoroughly enjoy this system and it’s games. Something noteworthy is that inside the box of my Bubsy game I found a receipt dated 1996 from Electronics Boutique (EB Games). I find it fascinating that this game came with a small history of sorts as I didn’t even get my first Jaguar until about a year or two later. Though the Jaguar was but a mere blip on the radar, it still remains and has a strong underground following.

Posted September 6th, 2011