Sam’s Score: Atari Jaguar
Do you believe in fate? Destiny? Serendipity? Well, I do… sometimes. I had just decided to add a new thrift store to my weekly rounds, because on my first trip through they had a few video games. They didn’t have anything I wanted to buy then, but that doesn’t mean that will always be the case. After a few more trips their video game stock was growing, anything from Sega Genesis to a lone PS3 game. They had the games but didn’t have any systems or controllers lying around, at least not that I saw. But one day, on what I thought to be just another browsing trip, I found it sitting there and I knew that I had to buy it!
Just a week prior, a friend and I were discussing a Craigslist ad for an Atari Jaguar, which included 10 games. The ad sounded a lot like my old Atari Jaguar that I lost in an unfairly slanted trade, but I never contacted the seller because they wanted over $200 for the lot. During the next week, for some odd reason, I heard a lot about Atari Jaguars, so I took it upon myself to do some research on them, as well as their prices online. By the end of the week all the Atari Jaguar talk had me missing my old system pretty badly, so I was even more amazed when I walked into that store and found it.
It took me a few seconds to calm down and focus on anything other than the price tag, but eventually I went into hurry up and grab it mode. The system came with one controller, both of which were caked in dirt. Sitting on the shelf beside them were five games, which I nearly missed entirely in my euphoria. After collecting the system and games, I looked pretty hard but sadly there were no hookups anywhere to be found.
Given how dirty the system was and the fact the Atari Jaguar has an open game connector, I still felt that it was worth a chance to buy it anyway. After I collected my thoughts, I took everything to the register and watched as the tiny amounts rang up to a very decent total. I asked if they had a return policy, luckily they did, but even so I wouldn’t want to return anything unless I absolutely had to (like the system being dead — gulp!).
Throughout the rest of the day, while I continued to game hunt, the system sat in the bag but my mind couldn’t stop thinking about the score, and wondering if the system even worked. This also brought on the hope I would run across more games, controllers or even the official hookups for this thing. With no such luck, I knew I had to do some research to see what power supply I could use, so that I didn’t create the reason why I would need to return it to the store, and I found that I already had one!
The very first thing I did was break out the cleaning wipes and gave the system a much deserved bath. The dirt came off with ease as the wipe turned from white to a sickly, dark brown color. At first I only cleaned half of the system so I could take a comparative pic (seen below), but once it was done, the system looked brand new! I assume everything went together, but I’m not sure why the games were so clean and the system and controller were so dirty.
Left: Dirty! - Right: Clean!
After I was confident that I had the right power supply, I hooked everything up and pushed the power button… nothing! My heart sank and I immediately started thinking about how I would return the system, but I wanted to keep the controller and knew I would keep the games. I sat there for a moment, wiggling the power supply in hopes that it may spring to life and all I would need to do was solder something back together, no life what so ever.
I sat there for a moment and the knowledge of my old Atari Jaguar returned to me. IT NEEDS A GAME!, I thought to myself, so I picked up a game and firmly planted it into the system. I wasn’t prepared to see another lack of life in this thing, so I pushed the button and hoped for the best. Success! The system lit up and the Jaguar logo came roaring on to the screen (literally, it roars at you), needless to say I was extremely happy.
The Atari Jaguar is a relatively rare system, which I will be discussing in my forthcoming Jaguar review. Before I found this one, the last Atari Jaguar I had seen was my own. Throughout my many thrift store finds, I’ve never come across anything related to the Jaguar, not even in Disc Replay, which may not even carry them. The 5 games I got were: Tempest 2000 (complete in box), Iron Soldier (complete in box), Bubsy in Fractured Furry Tales (complete in box), Raiden and Doom. Inside Bubsy’s box I found an interesting receipt, which I will also be discussing in the review. So far everything works great, and I hope it continues that way because I’ve quickly grown attached to this system and it’s games.
System -$5
Games -$2 each
Sam’s Scores: Atari 2600!
The Atari 2600 was my first video gaming system, I loved that thing! Even though I first got it during the Super Nintendo days, that didn’t matter. What mattered was that I was actually playing video game classics in my home, in front of my TV! Although my Atari 2600 doesn’t work, I still keep my eyes open for Atari items, so here is an entire edition of Sam’s Scores for the Atari 2600!
4) – Atari 80 Games CD-Rom
No, this isn’t entirely vintage, but the games are! This is Atari’s 80 classic games in one for the PC and it has some really good games on it: Asteroids, Centipede, Haunted House, Human Cannonball, YAR’S Revenge and it even has all 3 Swordquest games, but you won’t be getting any prizes for finding the secrets. I picked this up cheap enough at a thrift store and since it’s 80 Atari games, that classifies it as vintage gaming!….technically!
3) – Atari Controllers
This score is 2 different sets of Atari controllers I found at the same thrift store. The items were in 2 different bags so I couldn’t see what all was inside, I just knew they were Atari and I needed them! 1 Joystick, 1 set of sports paddles, 2 driving paddles, a DC adapter and some other miscellaneous hookups for the 2600. Each set had it’s own price, but when I reached the cash register I got an additional 30% off, even though the tags weren’t discounted that week.
2) – Atari DC Adapter
While trying to test my Atari I found my DC adapter was bad, so I was on the hunt for a new one. Searching through adapter bins and bric-a-brac piles alike, I finally found one! It was an official Atari adapter and it worked, sadly my system did not. The price was good, but I still pushed for (and failed at getting) a discount under the “No Returns, yet I don’t even know if this thing works” act. Still wasn’t a bad price…
1) – 26 Atari Games
After Thanksgiving I hit some thrift stores that were having sales, the store I happened to get these games from has become a staple in my thrift store rounds and has paid off quite a bit! I had noticed a shoe box filled with Atari 2600 games, so I took a look. I didn’t know if my Atari even worked at this point, I had no controllers but I also had no games! Each game was set at a certain price but I didn’t have that much, so 2 of the store employees gave me an early X-mas gift! And there were some seriously great titles inside the box!
Emulation vs Original
A while back, a friend of mine acquired an Atari 2600 and wanted me to test it out and clean it up, knowing I love doing that sort of thing. After I got the system running, I was playing through some games when it dawned on me, sitting there with the joystick and it’s single button was the best feeling I’ve had playing Atari 2600 games in quite a while! I own software for PC and my other consoles that allows me to play most of my favorite Atari 2600 games, since I can’t play them on my own (broken) system, and it just isn’t the same.
When I play Activision Anthology on my PS2, sometimes I get confused as to what to press because the PS2 controller has more buttons (and 2 analog sticks!), not to mention the shoulder buttons being mapped to emulate the switches on the Atari deck. The Atari was super simplistic with merely 4 to 8 directions and 1 button. If I’m playing a game designed for the PS2 there is no confusion, it all comes naturally with the mental understanding that this game has a feature for most if not all the buttons on the controller. Video games have come a long way since the Atari 2600 and thankfully so, but when they try to reach back there seems to be a disconnection within that transition.
Don’t misunderstand me, I believe it is a great idea to offer classic video games on next gen consoles. I believe it helps keep the classics alive and bring them to a new audience that may not have been exposed to them beforehand or possibly can’t find or wouldn’t be caught dead with the classic systems these games were programmed for. There are many pros and cons for each side and I can understand them both equally, but I still feel that personally I would rather take the time to hunt down an old system and it’s software so that I can connect with the originality over playing them on a console they were never designed to be played on.
Emulation and software remakes have done a lot of good for classic video gaming, with companies like Atari, Activision, Namco and many others releasing multiple (albeit usually the same games over and over again) compilations of their classic games for many of the next gen consoles. I use emulation as a learning tool, sometimes they might offer games I’ve never heard of or haven’t seen before so I try them out and find out whether its a game I would like to add to my collection or not. While I must admit, I do own them, will probably continue to buy them and for the most part thoroughly enjoy them, I’m simply saying that emulations and software remakes are not a perfect alternative to the decades of bliss and simplicity that the original hardware has provided before.
Journey Escape
One game I really loved for the Atari 2600 was Journey Escape. It was a difficult game by Atari standards. I remember playing for hours and getting so frustrated I threw the joystick down in anger. Sure enough, minutes later I was back at it, dodging the groupies and promoters again.
I remember being in a thrift store when I was younger and coming across a cassette tape with the same cover as the Atari game. Turns out the game was based on Journey’s Escape album. I bought the tape and I also realized the music in the game was “Don’t Stop Believin'” from the tape. I remember for the longest time, I thought that was the coolest thing ever.
The game is about the band Journey. You are playing the part of the band members trying to leave a concert and get to their space ship. Almost everything in the game causes you to slow down. The game has a time limit and every time you touch things it slows you down and takes money from you. There are 2 things you can touch without it slowing you down. In fact they let you go through everything to reach the ship.
The things you encounter are:
Love-sick Groupies
They will move towards you and rob you of time and $300.Shifty-eyed Promoter
They will try to make you an Offer you can’t refuse and take $2000.Sneaky Photographers
They seem to come out from nowhere to take your picture and take $600.Stage Barriers
They slow you down.Loyal Roadie
These guys will help you for a while. They will keep the crowd away for you.Mighty Manager
These guys are the most useful, they will keep the crowd away until the end of the level and pay you $9,900.Journey’s Scarab
This is your escape vehicle. Touch this and the level is over.
If you can reach the scarab with all the band members, the game is over and you won!
As an added bonus, I found the original commercial advertising the game.
Sam’s Scores [Top 5]
Here at TVG they call me a bargain master, the truth is I simply do my best to make sure I get the item(s) I want for the lowest possible price. Sometimes I’m successful and other times I either pay full price, because it was already a bargain anyway, or I end up losing the item waiting for it to go on sale. In my bargain hunting guide I promised to share with you some of my recent scores and in 2010 I have to say, I have been pretty lucky with the scores I’ve managed! I have (painfully) narrowed it down to my 5 favorite scores of 2010. This is by no means all of them, just the best!
5)
As always, a day at a local thrift store yielded number 5. I walked in and just behind the front counter I saw four NES games, I couldn’t tell what they were because they were sitting sideways on the shelf. I asked for assistance and at first I didn’t see any price tags but whatever the price was it was 50% off because they all had the 50% off discount colored tag on them. The games were: Operation Wolf, Jeopardy, Super Mario: 3 in 1 and Super Mario/Duck hunt. It turns out Super Mario/ Duck Hunt did have a price tag on it, which set the price for all four games…
4)
Number 4 came from Craigslist, an interesting place despite my items wanted posts always being removed. I only try to acquire things from Craigslist if I feel the seller and I can agree on a reasonable price. I had been searching Craigslist for vintage systems, games, etc. when I found a Nintendo 64 being sold very close to where I live. The ad was for the system, all the hookups, a controller, a memory card and a rumble pak, all fairly cheap. Still, I had to bargain so I sent the seller my offer. As a bonus score, I recently found an official red N64 controller at a thrift store…
3)
While documenting an outing for my hunting guide, I found an NES in a local thrift store for a very reasonable $7.98. Since there was no way to test it’s full functionality and this store has a no return policy, I walked up to the cashier and asked if there was any discount we could work out. The tag was orange which was not part of the store’s weekly discount colors, but I ended up with a discount anyway…
2)
Earlier this year I made a sizable score which included an NES with 14 games and multiple controllers (including a Beeshu Zipper and Wico Commander). Also an Atari 2600 with a few game manuals and the original AC adapter, although there we no games or controllers. Everything was in really good shape but needed some serious cleaning, which I’m not afraid of! The NES and games worked perfectly and until recently the Atari went unchecked, the original AC adapter was dead and I’m still unsure if the system works or not. All these items were…
1)
Last but certainly not least is the Zelda: Ocarina of Time score, this is my favorite score (thus far)! I didn’t even own an N64 at the time, yet I knew enough about Zelda to know that I needed this game when I saw it! I was looking through a rack of VHS tapes, because sometimes game boxes are confused and placed amongst them, when I seen a golden box that said Zelda on it. I picked up the box and I knew right away there was a game inside, it was the limited edition Ocarina of time. Inside the box was the manual and the gold cartridge, all three were in good shape! I also picked up 2 Sega Genesis games at the same time, both in their boxes with manuals (NBA Jam and Triple Play ’96).
Sega Games – 50 cents each
Zelda: Ocarina of Time – 90 cents!
