I recently bought a 7800 off Ebay with quite a few games. I dunno-there's something magical about owning this system,I couldn't have one as a kid,so I'm making up for it now. Atari-their spirit lives on.
That's IMPOSSIBLE MISSION. The game was famous on the Commodore 64. The 7800 version is infamous for actually being impossible. There's a bug which hides puzzle pieces behind terminals that can't be searched. As such, you can't complete the game.
@DracIsBack Right. It utilized the "Maria" chip which allowed it to move great amount of sprites at a time. While the NES can handle much less, the 7800 can handle 100 of sprites at a time. So you'd be really lucky if you saw any flicked or slow down on a 7800 game.
The 7800 and NES had different focuses. The NES puts its energy into the background tiles while the 7800 put its energy into the sprites in the foreground. The number of sprites the 7800 can display is vastly greater than the NES but it has more trouble with detailed backgrounds. the NES has 53 total colors while the 7800 has 256. Where it gets tricky is how those colors are put to use and in what type of game.
Gauntlet wasn't on the 7800 at all, though there is a rumour of it existing in prototype form. There was a bad Gauntlet on the XE computer and a Gauntlet 3 on the Lynx. The game here is "Dark Chambers", which came from the same source as Gauntlet - Dandy from the Atari Program Exchange. But yeah, it would have been nice to have Super Mario and Zelda on the 7800.
I got a 7800 back in 1989, my friend got his nes system and because he didn't clean his room from playing the nes too much, his mom got pissed off and told him to pack up his 7800 and give it to me...all I had was a 2600 at the time..I think she felt bad for me or something. So I ended up with a 7800, 6 controllers and about 25+ 7800 games including another 40+ 2600 games. I wish I still had the damn thing, sold it to another kid for next to nothing. Probably worth hundreds today.
The problem with the 7800 was the 5200, it was pretty much just a more powerful 5200 with all the complaints about that machine fixed. The 7800 was ready to go in 1984, but they decided not to release it until they saw Nintendo making a serious profit. But the NES was much more powerful, and prevented third parties from making games on other consoles.
Very nice! Could almost be a real commercial! I would play that in my store if I was a retailer! The only thing I'd change is the music. C'mon! Haven't you ever heard of the Japanese sensation ACCESS, and their album Binary Engine?
I echo those who say that the 7800 got shafted by the very people who should have been promoting the hell out of it. It was as good as the NES; it just needed somebody to push it. Great job on the commercial.
"powerful" isn't really the correct way to describe it as they are both 6502 based systems with equivalent amounts of RAM. The NES graphhics system was well suited to playing side scrollers that were popular at that time, certainly and it definitely had the benefit of 3rd party games as well as a serious commitment to excellence. The 7800's big problem was not POWER but rather cheap owners who refused to sunk cash into it.
I had the 7800. It was a much better system than people think. I have to agree that the reason it didn't compare well with NES was because Atari was in a bad state at the time and didn't really support this console. What was the name of the game at 0:11 with the guy flipping over the robot?
Tramail wanted his computers in Kmart for crying out loud. That's ok for a quick buck, but no way to build a brand, then he tried to put the ST into the business world. What business wants a k-mart computer? The ST OS was junk. He had a chance to market the nes (under the atari name) in the US and turned it down because he wanted to get rid of the game machine stigma, but then puts out a computer he wants to sell at k-mart so he still had the stigma, only he was responsible for it.
There's a detailed WIKI that compares the NES and 7800 and how they worked. Double Dragon is disappointing on the 7800 though and should have been better. As for C64 being "more powerful", they are both 6502 based systems, as is the NES. Not the right way to think about it.
Dude...Stewert Copeland theme music. SWEET. Yea, this actually outperformed the Nintendo, but people were looking for a fresh look. They felt ripped by ANOTHER video game. People JUST BOUGHT the Atari 2600 three years before! Haha, nnow people buy a new System every Xmas. Atari was just before it's time.
Dang, I didn't mean to win this on ebay..... I just punched in $40 ..... didn't think the winning bidder was such a cheapskate. But now I won one. :( Hope it's worth it.
Very good commercial. A little long for a commercial, but still very good. Now, we all know that since Tramail was so cheap he would have cut it down to 10 seconds, just showing the Atari name. Jack Tramail destroyed the home computer industry with the piece of shit ST and the ST dragged the Amiga down with it. With both of them using the same processor a lot of software was designed for the shortcomings of the ST and then put out for the Amiga as well. Amiga only software was MUCH better.
I recently bought a 7800 off Ebay with quite a few games. I dunno-there's something magical about owning this system,I couldn't have one as a kid,so I'm making up for it now.
Atari-their spirit lives on.
Atari will ALWAYS be awesome!
The music was actually the theme for a tv show at the tikme of the 7800. It was called "THE EQUALIZER" and was on the air from 1985 to 1989 on CBS.
Everyone has unique personal tastes when it comes to music.
Love this , the equalizer is my favorite tv program , what's the side scrolling shooter at the beginning ?
Man, this commercial would've destroyed the competition in 1988.
That's IMPOSSIBLE MISSION. The game was famous on the Commodore 64. The 7800 version is infamous for actually being impossible. There's a bug which hides puzzle pieces behind terminals that can't be searched. As such, you can't complete the game.
@DracIsBack Right. It utilized the "Maria" chip which allowed it to move great amount of sprites at a time. While the NES can handle much less, the 7800 can handle 100 of sprites at a time. So you'd be really lucky if you saw any flicked or slow down on a 7800 game.
Why is this console from the 80's in a 90's style commercial?
The 7800 and NES had different focuses. The NES puts its energy into the background tiles while the 7800 put its energy into the sprites in the foreground. The number of sprites the 7800 can display is vastly greater than the NES but it has more trouble with detailed backgrounds. the NES has 53 total colors while the 7800 has 256. Where it gets tricky is how those colors are put to use and in what type of game.
Gauntlet wasn't on the 7800 at all, though there is a rumour of it existing in prototype form.
There was a bad Gauntlet on the XE computer and a Gauntlet 3 on the Lynx. The game here is "Dark Chambers", which came from the same source as Gauntlet - Dandy from the Atari Program Exchange.
But yeah, it would have been nice to have Super Mario and Zelda on the 7800.
I got a 7800 back in 1989, my friend got his nes system and because he didn't clean his room from playing the nes too much, his mom got pissed off and told him to pack up his 7800 and give it to me...all I had was a 2600 at the time..I think she felt bad for me or something. So I ended up with a 7800, 6 controllers and about 25+ 7800 games including another 40+ 2600 games. I wish I still had the damn thing, sold it to another kid for next to nothing. Probably worth hundreds today.
looks better then most Atari 7800 commercials
excellent vid. great job. lots of those games look cool. i have an nes and a snes and still play them. maybe I will hunt for this Atari
The problem with the 7800 was the 5200, it was pretty much just a more powerful 5200 with all the complaints about that machine fixed. The 7800 was ready to go in 1984, but they decided not to release it until they saw Nintendo making a serious profit. But the NES was much more powerful, and prevented third parties from making games on other consoles.
Very nice! Could almost be a real commercial! I would play that in my store if I was a retailer!
The only thing I'd change is the music. C'mon! Haven't you ever heard of the Japanese sensation ACCESS, and their album Binary Engine?
I echo those who say that the 7800 got shafted by the very people who should have been promoting the hell out of it. It was as good as the NES; it just needed somebody to push it. Great job on the commercial.
"powerful" isn't really the correct way to describe it as they are both 6502 based systems with equivalent amounts of RAM.
The NES graphhics system was well suited to playing side scrollers that were popular at that time, certainly and it definitely had the benefit of 3rd party games as well as a serious commitment to excellence.
The 7800's big problem was not POWER but rather cheap owners who refused to sunk cash into it.
Atari 7800: The Equalizer! ;^)
that was badass!!!!!!
I had the 7800. It was a much better system than people think. I have to agree that the reason it didn't compare well with NES was because Atari was in a bad state at the time and didn't really support this console. What was the name of the game at 0:11 with the guy flipping over the robot?
Tramail wanted his computers in Kmart for crying out loud. That's ok for a quick buck, but no way to build a brand, then he tried to put the ST into the business world. What business wants a k-mart computer? The ST OS was junk.
He had a chance to market the nes (under the atari name) in the US and turned it down because he wanted to get rid of the game machine stigma, but then puts out a computer he wants to sell at k-mart so he still had the stigma, only he was responsible for it.
There's a detailed WIKI that compares the NES and 7800 and how they worked. Double Dragon is disappointing on the 7800 though and should have been better.
As for C64 being "more powerful", they are both 6502 based systems, as is the NES. Not the right way to think about it.
Dude...Stewert Copeland theme music. SWEET.
Yea, this actually outperformed the Nintendo, but people were looking for a fresh look. They felt ripped by ANOTHER video game. People JUST BOUGHT the Atari 2600 three years before!
Haha, nnow people buy a new System every Xmas. Atari was just before it's time.
As good? The Graphics were way more advanced.
Dang, I didn't mean to win this on ebay..... I just punched in $40 ..... didn't think the winning bidder was such a cheapskate.
But now I won one. :( Hope it's worth it.
Agreed.
Very good commercial. A little long for a commercial, but still very good. Now, we all know that since Tramail was so cheap he would have cut it down to 10 seconds, just showing the Atari name. Jack Tramail destroyed the home computer industry with the piece of shit ST and the ST dragged the Amiga down with it. With both of them using the same processor a lot of software was designed for the shortcomings of the ST and then put out for the Amiga as well. Amiga only software was MUCH better.
good games :)