Comparison and review of 9 Plug n' Play Direct-to-TV game consoles. Support this channel on Patreon: / 8bitguy1 See audio fix in this episode: • Radica Sega Genesis Au...
Looks like the Space Invaders TV game is going for the original arcade game look, minus the plastic overlay. That's exactly how it looks on original hardware without the plastic on top of the cabinet's screen, which added artificial color to the monochrome aliens :) But yeah, awesome video! I forgot how many of these things existed and how many of them I've owned, this is a fascinating topic! I'd love to see more about how these even came to be, and why so many came out in the early 2000s.
I actually bought a few of these when they were new, and the logic of why they were coming out was that everyone of my age range (I was 21 in 2000) had fond memories of the games and want to play them, but retrogaming wasn't really a thing yet and most people didn't want to go to flea markets and swap meets to find the stuff. We just went to Walmart on a Saturday night, bought one of these and a case of beer, and good times were had. It was a set of products that were at the right place at exactly the right time... Or at least that's how I lived it.
6:11 That version of Warlords is the arcade version. It's one of the few games that came in a cocktail cabinet so that 4 players can play together without forcing two of the players to have a weird controller orientation.
Mappy is in several Namco collections, including one of their arcade "Anniversary" machines (was it PacMan Party?). To play, you jump on the trampolines and collect objects. If you collect a certain object and then collect its match without collecting another object in between, you get a bonus. Flashing doors emit a wave that sends any cat horizontally opposed flying.
I swear that Ms. Pac-Man game is more well-known for Mappy than it is for the featured game. It’s also part of why some older Generation-Z’ers (like myself) enjoy some older arcade games
This is exactly it, in a similar vein the game got faster later on as enemies were destroyed because the system could run the necessary calculations faster. One of the few instances were lag made the game easier.
*8-Bit....IIRC The Arcade version of Space Invaders used, what I call "Colored Clear Tape" under the Cabinet Glass to give the rows of Aliens different colors.*
"And the last game is one called Mappy, I've never heard of it..." ... "Well, at least 4 out of the 5 games are desirable..." You cut me deep, Shrek. You cut me real deep.
I bought mine at Gamestop clearance for $5 each, maybe between 2006-2007. I got the Pacman and Space Invaders. They did have that Ms. Pacman there, but I bought the two piece wireless version of it instead.
I had that 2004 Ms. Pac Man console when I was a kid and thought it was awesome! Mappy is a collect-a-thon. You are a police mouse collecting contraband from the cat burglars. I always thought it was pretty fun. We played that thing so much we actually wore out the joystick to the point it barely worked anymore.
(1) Warlords for the Atari paddle is the arcade version, not the 2600. (2) The aliens in "Space Invaders" WERE just one color. Some machines used color overlays to fake color. Later revamps of the arcade machine had legit displays, though. Yes, looks nothing like the actual game.
Just a small correction: the first Atari Flashback (the "Mini 7800" one that uses the NES On A Chip) is not compatible with real Atari joysticks. Although it uses the same connector, the pinout is different, so it won't work with real Atari joysticks and the joysticks that came with it won't work with a real Atari.
the Space Invaders 'main' game is a slight hack of the arcade game...the invaders originally were white and were only green when they reached the barrier level and below due to a color overlay...they had a color version later on both with multiple color overlay and a color monitor...Also Phoenix was a game in itself in the arcade by Amstar
As for the flashbacks, the games your wondering why aren't there is they are owned by other companies, is reason why. As for the Space Invaders one, that is THE ARCADE space Invaders, the colour only occurred due to a screen and background trick.
I know the reason why. But I think if they paid the royalties, even if it doubled the price of the unit, it would be worth it. Because as it is right now, it is not worth it.
The Ms Pac Man controller seemed to have the best selection in my opinion. I'd buy that for a dollar! Also, the Space Invaders seemed pretty authentic because in the original arcade space invaders, the aliens were all the same color. Later arcade consoles used color overlays on the screen to give the appearance of multiple colors, but the original arcade versions didn't have those overlays.
I had the Ms. Pac-Man one as a kid. I don’t think we ever figured out how to steer on Pole Position so we didn’t play it. I only ever played Ms. Pac-Man and watched my mom (aka the Galaga champion) play the rest. Hearing the Mappy music brought back some really good memories of sitting on the living room floor with my sister and watching my mom play. Great video!
Basically, what you have to do in Mappy is collect all of the goods in a stage, like computers and paintings. You can stop the enemies briefly by opening doors in their faces; the flashing doors send out a wave that pushes them out to the wall. Later stages add more gimmicks, like an attic and extra trampolines.
Ahhh, I remember that Space Invaders stick fondly. Used it for some time as a dedicated Qix machine before gutting it and turning it into a USB joystick and using it with MAME for some time.
Regarding the flashback 2, most of the games you have on your wishlist probably weren't available due to licensing. Activision titles like Pitfall were completely off limits.
there is a Sega one that is shaped like Sonic's head, and it comes with 2 Wii style remotes, it's wireless, and seems really good ... until you play it, it has too much lag!
Even the first few seconds of your intro take me right back in time. The sound of placing a cassette into the player, typing on the keyboard, pressing play (and crossing fingers for 5 minutes) really brings it all back to me. Even the smell of everything over heating!
@@ChristinaGXL well its not a hard thing to remember the joke is pretty lame enough. The producers was jaks pacific so put the pieces together numb nuts!
If you had bothered to take a look at the Wikipedia page for the Atari Flashback, you'd know the Flashback 2 (The broken one you have) had both Pitfall and River Raid on it. Both the Flashback 1 and 2 were designed by Curt Vendel, who owns the Atari History Museum; the motherboard has his wife's name, Michele, on it. As far as hacking the system, the motherboard is actually printed with a soldering diagram for a person to add the cartridge slot.
I just realized the version of space invaders on the space invaders plug and play bears an uncanny resemblance to the version of the game from the Famicom. The sprites look identical, save for the colors being changed and it even has the scoreboard off to the side from the Famicom version. Furthermore, when playing this particular unit in Mame it says it uses a 6502 as it's CPU, same as what the Famicom uses.
Absolutely tons of arcaded machines, and a few home consoles, the Atari 2600 being one, as well as a few home computers, used the 6502 CPU. That said you're very probably right, it's probably a NOAC again, somebody at Jakks Pacific, and wherever else, figured they were onto a goldmine with using that chip to play old games. The chip was surely dirt cheap, plenty of market stalls had knockoff 1-quadrillion-in-one NES consoles around that point, so putting in some classic games instead of a few MB of NES bootlegs is surely gonna be cheap. You just need to pay someone to actually write those games. Which isn't difficult, friendly enough hardware, tiles and sprites, and simple old games to port to it.
the 8:15 version of space invaders is the exact same version i have on my 365-in-one cart for the european NES, with the same colored aliens, the weird bunkers that dessolve weirdly etc, its the exact same thing. these games for the 365-in-1 were mostly cheaply made ports/remakes , and like 30 pure unmodified games thrown in too. So its highly possible that this version you are seeing was just one of those cheaply remade ones made for multicarts...
What I have noticed with these plug and play is that they are battery hogs. They suck up a lot of battery very quickly. I converted a plug and play to a hybrid where you could plug a wall wart into the plug and play and wouldn't have to worry about batteries. Of course you have to be careful because you don't want batteries in there and then plug in the wall wart because *BOOM*!!
Indeed.. the voltage regulators they use are meant to be cheap, not efficient. Some of the units I showed, like the space invaders version, actually have power sockets where you can run them from an adapter. Others, as you state, can be modified.
Easier said then done when you have small kids that need batteries for everything. My adaptation will allow either batteries or a wall wart provided you don't have the two together.
heheh. i had a spongebob and the namco pacman plug and play. they were definitely making little kid me run through a lot of batteries. i actually liked the last game on the namco pacman pnp.
We had the same struggle with Pole Position and the whole family, for the first several weeks, just thought that game was broken or something. Finally someone noticed that the joystick rotated and the mystery was solved.
I love watching your videos! I grew up in the 2000's but I wish I could have grown up in the 80's/90s to experience the older games back in their time. Luckily, I have an ORIGINAL Atari along with several joysticks and games. Also I have an old laptop that I put windows xp on so that i can play MS DOS games, such as Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, and Duke Nukem 3D, and I take it to school with me. I'm sure I'm probably one of the few if not only kids in my school who takes an old laptop to school and plays MS DOS games on it.
A while after I got my Sega master system I sold my Coleco vision with all the games, expansion modules etc, for £30, so I could go buy Impossible Mission for the SMS... I was really disappointed. I'd seen it get great reviews but I guess I was just much more into platformers when I was 8/9 and I've never forgotten how disappointed I was with Impossible Mission... :(
Excellent videos! At 46 I play hell with my teenage kids over too much YT, but your videos send me on a gripping nostalgia trip! I also the technology side and your fault finding of broken games, as well as your reviews. Great channel!
God, I had a lot of fun playing Championship Wrestling by Epyx on my old C64. Quite possibly the best 8-bit wrestling game I've ever played with maybe the exception of NES Pro Wrestling.
Thats "Doctor" Robotnic. He didn't go 7 years to evil medical school to be called mister. Also the Atari Flashback units don't have the games that defined it because of licensing. All of the good games that you mentioned were licensed to Atari by Sega, Namco, Activision, and so on and so forth. So while it would be great to have those games on the plug and plays it not going to happen without paying licensing fees to their respective companies.
Your response to the Tetris controller reminded me of when I used to play the original QUAKE in multiplayer with only a keyboard. Then someone introduced me to a 'mouse' and I no longer had to type frantically to look around the screen while jumping turning and firing.
As a collector of plug n plays, I HAVE to get one of the Commodore ones. I haven’t seen anyone else mention that one and it seems super cool and unique. Discovered your content a few weeks ago and have been loving the channel. 👍🏻
10:19 I still have this one! I used to play it all the time when I was younger! I also have another one with a red controller somewhere and a Disney Princess one. I got them all I think when I was around 5 or 4 when they must of came out around 2004 or 2005. :) I was really little when I got them, so I have no idea what year it was I got them but I think it was around that time. :) As far as I know they all still work pretty well! 😁
@@nascarsimracing1 Starfox 64 is an awesome game. I still play it every once in awhile to this day. That said you are just are well off playing on an emulator. If you use the right plugin you can play it in widescreen 1080p and it will look much better then it ever could on an original system. I use an Xbox 360 wired controller and all the C-button functions are easily mapped to buttons on the controller.
@@HerecomestheCalavera awesome! And in fact i actually play it on an n64 emulator on my phone! Technology has vastly improved! In fact i even can emulate ps2 on my phone!
As I said, I had one of those, that is, the Pacman one and another one, the SpongeBob one, but unfortunately the SpongeBob one, I cut the cables to untangle the Pac-Man one, but I seriously wish I still had them since I feel that it is a historical piece. important part of my Gamer history… 🥺
I had a bunch these in the family as a kid and we all loved them! Really the only reason we stopped playing is the lack of RCA ports on new TVs. So much fun for the whole family.
I love Mappy so much bro whenever me and my family went on vaca we'd bring that plug n play console and me and my sis would head up to the TV nobody uses and just sit down to play Mappy, it was great.
I used to play the crap out of it as a kid. In fact i still play it to this day. I love this game. To score big points, remember to get the radios, then the TVs, the computers, the paintings and finish with the safes, in this exact order.
What are your thoughts on emulators, like the ones people make out of Raspberry Pis and dedicated MAME PCs? Given that you have such a collection, I know they might not be particularly enticing to you. Still, you've probably got a pretty unique perspective on the topic as a result.
Great reviews and break down of games and showing mods. I have several of theses plug N play systems. I enjoy them. I would like to be able to be able to get a empty system and download games of my choice. Thanks for the great videos
Thank you so much, I could not figure out pole position, and then you told me you had to twist the stick, and I was like, I need to try this right now, and it worked thank you so much
I chuckled at "Mappy... I've never heard of it." I've played Mappy multiple times in arcades, and I've played home versions of it (without looking that up, I think the ColecoVision had one?), and I have NEVER figured out what the hell it's supposed to be about. You play as a mouse thief, I guess? Who robs... trampoline houses? Some day, I'll look up what it's official backstory is, and I'll probably smack my forehead, but it's almost more fun playing it without having any idea WHY the player character is doing the things he(?) is doing.
1. You are a police mouse who is trying to recover stolen goods from a criminal cat organization 2. There did exist a ColecoVision Mappy, but it was never official and was made in 2016.
I remember my dad giving me the Ms.Pacman joystick when I was little, the game I most played was Mappy, and it has been one of my favorites games I ever played. I also remember bringing it to my cousins house and we would play it.
10:54 where could you find the MS PAC MAN one for sale? I wonder if there is a way to replace the chips inside and create a MAME with your own games. Even so, it has MS PAC MAN _and_ GALAGA, so this one for the win! If it had DIG DUG and GRADIUS, it would be perfect! I know this is a few years old, but have you done a video on which of these types of emulators are the easiest to modify and put your own games on, as well as which ones have the hardiest/best joystick/controllers?
Growing up I remember having Ms. Pacman. It was so much fun! (The most vivid memory I have of it was buying clogs then sitting down in the living and playing one of the games haha)
I had the Sega one the Atari one and the first Pac-Man one you showed and I took those on EVERY vacation I went on for most of that decade. That Pac-Man one is an incredible build and I played that thing so much. We also played dozens of hours of Kid Chameleon we had it mapped out with secrets and never finished it
If you ever do return to this (or maybe you have, I dunno), a video on how to mod the C64DTV to use a PS/2 keyboard and a disk drive would be very interesting to see.
I own the Pacman and Ms Pacman games which I bought at the time, and about a week ago, dug them out of my closet and played them again and they're still perfect! I had the same problem with Pole Position until I remembered to twist the knob! Mappy was a classic back in the arcades in the 80s. My wife liked it more than I did. This version is extremely faithful to the arcade. In fact, I would say they all are. Great review!
First time watcher, and I have to say that I like your style. Not overly excited, but not boring. Like a nerdy Antiques Roadshow. I like it. I'm subscribing.
Looks like the Space Invaders TV game is going for the original arcade game look, minus the plastic overlay. That's exactly how it looks on original hardware without the plastic on top of the cabinet's screen, which added artificial color to the monochrome aliens :)
But yeah, awesome video! I forgot how many of these things existed and how many of them I've owned, this is a fascinating topic! I'd love to see more about how these even came to be, and why so many came out in the early 2000s.
Shit, didn't expect to see you here! Wow!
I hear wedding bells.
i love how Clint has a big channel, but he watches and discus about videos just like us peasants.
It looks a lot like the Space Invaders I used to play on my Gameboy Classic when I was young. Also, hi Clint!
I actually bought a few of these when they were new, and the logic of why they were coming out was that everyone of my age range (I was 21 in 2000) had fond memories of the games and want to play them, but retrogaming wasn't really a thing yet and most people didn't want to go to flea markets and swap meets to find the stuff. We just went to Walmart on a Saturday night, bought one of these and a case of beer, and good times were had.
It was a set of products that were at the right place at exactly the right time... Or at least that's how I lived it.
7:46 "It's Dr. Robotnik. I didn't spend six years in Evil Medical School to be called 'mister,' thank you very much."
Nice to hear from u dr evil lol
6:11 That version of Warlords is the arcade version. It's one of the few games that came in a cocktail cabinet so that 4 players can play together without forcing two of the players to have a weird controller orientation.
It was running on NOAC hardware though, hence the audio and slight graphical differences
Mappy is in several Namco collections, including one of their arcade "Anniversary" machines (was it PacMan Party?). To play, you jump on the trampolines and collect objects. If you collect a certain object and then collect its match without collecting another object in between, you get a bonus. Flashing doors emit a wave that sends any cat horizontally opposed flying.
I swear that Ms. Pac-Man game is more well-known for Mappy than it is for the featured game. It’s also part of why some older Generation-Z’ers (like myself) enjoy some older arcade games
I like Mappy.
The Space Invaders console looks exactly like the arcade - when the colored overlay on the arcade is missing. SI was actually coded in B&W.
This is exactly it, in a similar vein the game got faster later on as enemies were destroyed because the system could run the necessary calculations faster. One of the few instances were lag made the game easier.
William Hostman Glad someone pointed this out.
well, the lack of lag.
Bpendragon Presents actually it's slightly different, the aliens don't look at all the same.
I was going to mention this, but since the vid is a year old when I'm watching it, I'm glad I checked to see if anyone else had caught this!
Robotnik didn't go to evil medical school for seven frickin years to be called "Mr."
*8-Bit....IIRC The Arcade version of Space Invaders used, what I call "Colored Clear Tape" under the Cabinet Glass to give the rows of Aliens different colors.*
MAGGOT VOMIT Atari is tumbs up
I don't know why they didn't use 6 different colours and a reel to reel tape for background music while they were at it. That would have been awesome.
80 games and 75 are awful? Sounds like they captured the spirit of the 2600 very well.
Hahahahahaha, the funniest/saddest part is the fact that... its true.
LMFAO!!!! So true.
AtGames was the worst
Lol
ET must be on atari flashback
Defenetly do a sequel there is more to discover regarding these.
YES. GIVE MORE.
Agreed!
There are such marvels like the Game Filip: Perfect for children with no necks!
mariic2 Finally! A game system for me!
mariic2 finally, a game system for me! :D
"And the last game is one called Mappy, I've never heard of it..." ... "Well, at least 4 out of the 5 games are desirable..."
You cut me deep, Shrek. You cut me real deep.
@Allie X it was the atari 2600 and they were missing half the good games
Mappy was a game I mastered as a kid... never knew I'd have fun with it until I tried it
Yah that game has a special place in my heart lmaooo the music and everything
lol yeah that was a gut punch for me, Mappy is basically the very first game I ever loved
7:45 it's Doctor Robotnik He didn't finish his PhD in engineering so guys like you could call him "Mister"
7:45 Mister Robotnik's Mean Bean lol.
IIRC the arcade version of Space Invaders did just have white aliens. The colour was achieved with an overlay on the top part of the screen.
Agreed, and only in posh places
I think that the colour version was known as Space Invaders Part 2.
Indeed.
The lack of knowledge/research in this video made me grind my teeth hard.
Umi
Mappy actually is a Namco legend game. It was more popular in Japan but did have success in the US and as a NES title.
If you're the 8 bit guy, then who is the 16, 32, or 64 bit guy?
Clever!
Don't forget 128-bit guy.
+Redey1290 the 256-bit 512-bit 1024-bit 2048-bit?
+Redey1290 nobody can crack his encryption..
i am The 64 Bit Guy
[shivers...] those sound effects bring back forgotten childhood memories!
I had the Miss Pac-Man plug-n-play and I never figured out how to turn in that one racing game. Mappy was for sure my favorite game on there.
i still have it. i never learned how to play mappy up until now
Oh, man. Mappy is one of my favorites games ever... I can't believe you didn't know it!
willprogresivo But it was hard as fuck tho xD
willprogresivo ME TOO
NikProBG 123 back then I starting getting better but I think those fat cats tapped me Everytime lol
started
nappy is the greatest game EVER. omg it's so fun, I got up to the 4th bonus level and that's my highest
You can find these things in Goodwill, for sure never pay over 5 dollars for them.
Yeah they were a fad mostly in the mid 2000's.
ProtoMario BUT PROTO! WHAT ABOUT THE NES MINI!
B U T P R O T O there's no goodwills around me!!!
"You can find these things in Goodwill"
No I can't, Goodwill near me never has any good gaming stuff.
I bought mine at Gamestop clearance for $5 each, maybe between 2006-2007. I got the Pacman and Space Invaders. They did have that Ms. Pacman there, but I bought the two piece wireless version of it instead.
I had that 2004 Ms. Pac Man console when I was a kid and thought it was awesome! Mappy is a collect-a-thon. You are a police mouse collecting contraband from the cat burglars. I always thought it was pretty fun. We played that thing so much we actually wore out the joystick to the point it barely worked anymore.
First time watching you. I like how you reviewed and explained everything. I'm interested in seeing more!
(1) Warlords for the Atari paddle is the arcade version, not the 2600.
(2) The aliens in "Space Invaders" WERE just one color. Some machines used color overlays to fake color. Later revamps of the arcade machine had legit displays, though. Yes, looks nothing like the actual game.
georgef551 yeah but the arcade version of warlords was a bit brighter in color
(3) Mappy _is_ a classic arcade game.
georgef551 The original Space Invaders was only in black and white.
Dude he pointed most of these out .-.
and the graphics of space invaders are from the famicom version, but the sound effects are from the arcade... im confused!!! :(
Just a small correction: the first Atari Flashback (the "Mini 7800" one that uses the NES On A Chip) is not compatible with real Atari joysticks. Although it uses the same connector, the pinout is different, so it won't work with real Atari joysticks and the joysticks that came with it won't work with a real Atari.
VWestlife I LOVE YOUR VIDEOS
VWestlife didn't expect to see you here, that's nifty, I'd say
VWestlife ń
VWestlife ii
VWestlife top comment and only has 5 replies all of witch have been that past 2 months
the Space Invaders 'main' game is a slight hack of the arcade game...the invaders originally were white and were only green when they reached the barrier level and below due to a color overlay...they had a color version later on both with multiple color overlay and a color monitor...Also Phoenix was a game in itself in the arcade by Amstar
I have to admit, I never thought I would binge watch anything on RUclips, but you sir are awesome! Thank you for all that you do for the community!!
As for the flashbacks, the games your wondering why aren't there is they are owned by other companies, is reason why. As for the Space Invaders one, that is THE ARCADE space Invaders, the colour only occurred due to a screen and background trick.
I know the reason why. But I think if they paid the royalties, even if it doubled the price of the unit, it would be worth it. Because as it is right now, it is not worth it.
But isn't that the point?? Some cabinets did not have the color trick in the background and was 100% as shown in that plug - n - play console.
Sorry man. Authentic is authentic. That's how it was.
I think his response was about licensing
The Ms Pac Man controller seemed to have the best selection in my opinion. I'd buy that for a dollar!
Also, the Space Invaders seemed pretty authentic because in the original arcade space invaders, the aliens were all the same color. Later arcade consoles used color overlays on the screen to give the appearance of multiple colors, but the original arcade versions didn't have those overlays.
I agree.
Also, I enjoyed the Smash TV reference!
Ms PAC man pole position one is the best....
@@patsfan4life I'd buy it just for Pole Position. :)
I had the Ms. Pac-Man one as a kid. I don’t think we ever figured out how to steer on Pole Position so we didn’t play it. I only ever played Ms. Pac-Man and watched my mom (aka the Galaga champion) play the rest. Hearing the Mappy music brought back some really good memories of sitting on the living room floor with my sister and watching my mom play. Great video!
You actually have to twist the joystick on that thing to steer the car on Pole Position
7:46 I might not be the first person that noticed it, but, why did he said 'Mr. Robotnic' Instead like it says on screen, 'Dr. Robotnic'?
Basically, what you have to do in Mappy is collect all of the goods in a stage, like computers and paintings. You can stop the enemies briefly by opening doors in their faces; the flashing doors send out a wave that pushes them out to the wall. Later stages add more gimmicks, like an attic and extra trampolines.
It's quite a neat item.
I vote for an episode dedicated to the C64DTV!
Ahhh, I remember that Space Invaders stick fondly. Used it for some time as a dedicated Qix machine before gutting it and turning it into a USB joystick and using it with MAME for some time.
The "tiny Genesis console" for 6:53's review is actually based off of the 2nd model of the system
Regarding the flashback 2, most of the games you have on your wishlist probably weren't available due to licensing. Activision titles like Pitfall were completely off limits.
there is a Sega one that is shaped like Sonic's head, and it comes with 2 Wii style remotes, it's wireless, and seems really good ... until you play it, it has too much lag!
I had that one...
Uncanny X-Clan jk
I saw that on Classic Game Room
Uncanny X-Clan i
It also had an SD card slot which allowed you to play Genesis roms.
Even the first few seconds of your intro take me right back in time. The sound of placing a cassette into the player, typing on the keyboard, pressing play (and crossing fingers for 5 minutes) really brings it all back to me. Even the smell of everything over heating!
That Jack really is specific! :o
Wow, came up with that own your own? Good one!
🙄😒😔
@@donkeybutt3239 fuck are you even talking about? How is anyone supposed to remember what they were talking about 2 years ago
@@ChristinaGXL well its not a hard thing to remember the joke is pretty lame enough. The producers was jaks pacific so put the pieces together numb nuts!
And also same for you to be saying something about it two yrs later also! So how much of a hypocrite are you!
@@donkeybutt3239 I see you've never heard of notifications.
The circuitry design of the C64 DTV was made by Jeri Ellsworth, not the toy companies listed. Just wanted to note that.
Was wondering if that was her design when he showed it.
If you had bothered to take a look at the Wikipedia page for the Atari Flashback, you'd know the Flashback 2 (The broken one you have) had both Pitfall and River Raid on it.
Both the Flashback 1 and 2 were designed by Curt Vendel, who owns the Atari History Museum; the motherboard has his wife's name, Michele, on it.
As far as hacking the system, the motherboard is actually printed with a soldering diagram for a person to add the cartridge slot.
furrymessiah 2 words Wikipedia unreliable.
I just realized the version of space invaders on the space invaders plug and play bears an uncanny resemblance to the version of the game from the Famicom. The sprites look identical, save for the colors being changed and it even has the scoreboard off to the side from the Famicom version. Furthermore, when playing this particular unit in Mame it says it uses a 6502 as it's CPU, same as what the Famicom uses.
Absolutely tons of arcaded machines, and a few home consoles, the Atari 2600 being one, as well as a few home computers, used the 6502 CPU.
That said you're very probably right, it's probably a NOAC again, somebody at Jakks Pacific, and wherever else, figured they were onto a goldmine with using that chip to play old games. The chip was surely dirt cheap, plenty of market stalls had knockoff 1-quadrillion-in-one NES consoles around that point, so putting in some classic games instead of a few MB of NES bootlegs is surely gonna be cheap. You just need to pay someone to actually write those games. Which isn't difficult, friendly enough hardware, tiles and sprites, and simple old games to port to it.
Great video thanks.nice to see the old games and the consoles, but I think now playing these old games properly
the 8:15 version of space invaders is the exact same version i have on my 365-in-one cart for the european NES, with the same colored aliens, the weird bunkers that dessolve weirdly etc, its the exact same thing. these games for the 365-in-1 were mostly cheaply made ports/remakes , and like 30 pure unmodified games thrown in too. So its highly possible that this version you are seeing was just one of those cheaply remade ones made for multicarts...
What I have noticed with these plug and play is that they are battery hogs. They suck up a lot of battery very quickly. I converted a plug and play to a hybrid where you could plug a wall wart into the plug and play and wouldn't have to worry about batteries. Of course you have to be careful because you don't want batteries in there and then plug in the wall wart because *BOOM*!!
Indeed.. the voltage regulators they use are meant to be cheap, not efficient. Some of the units I showed, like the space invaders version, actually have power sockets where you can run them from an adapter. Others, as you state, can be modified.
That's why the invented rechargeable batteries.
Easier said then done when you have small kids that need batteries for everything. My adaptation will allow either batteries or a wall wart provided you don't have the two together.
heheh. i had a spongebob and the namco pacman plug and play. they were definitely making little kid me run through a lot of batteries. i actually liked the last game on the namco pacman pnp.
I have the Nameco.
I put a Radio Shack 6v adapter on it.
Now to find a suitable display!
Several years later- my flashback 8 has a SD card slot you can use for sideloading. That made it into a useful console for me.
Really cool episode! Gives me some good hints which controller-games to collect.
Very interesting, you should make a sequel
I really enjoyed this video and I would really like to see you make a part 2 to this sometime in the future :)
We had the same struggle with Pole Position and the whole family, for the first several weeks, just thought that game was broken or something. Finally someone noticed that the joystick rotated and the mystery was solved.
I love watching your videos! I grew up in the 2000's but I wish I could have grown up in the 80's/90s to experience the older games back in their time. Luckily, I have an ORIGINAL Atari along with several joysticks and games. Also I have an old laptop that I put windows xp on so that i can play MS DOS games, such as Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, and Duke Nukem 3D, and I take it to school with me. I'm sure I'm probably one of the few if not only kids in my school who takes an old laptop to school and plays MS DOS games on it.
Atari is great
@isaacg4511 i forgot i made this comment XD. I graduated high school 4 yrs ago
@@nascarsimracing1 wow that was the fastest reply I’ve ever gotten, I just started high school😂
@@isaacg4511 XD. it came up in my notifications and so i checked it out lmao
10:02 Ooh big words... you will have to set up some matches against the Tetris Champs now :P
GET WUMBO, DOREMY AND JONAS UP IN HERE!
There's some Asian kid who's pretty good too ;]
haha @8bitGuy we need to see maxout video now!
I had that Atari paddle when I was a kid, I loved that Warlords game. I remember it had some Pong games and such too.
A while after I got my Sega master system I sold my Coleco vision with all the games, expansion modules etc, for £30, so I could go buy Impossible Mission for the SMS... I was really disappointed. I'd seen it get great reviews but I guess I was just much more into platformers when I was 8/9 and I've never forgotten how disappointed I was with Impossible Mission... :(
Excellent videos! At 46 I play hell with my teenage kids over too much YT, but your videos send me on a gripping nostalgia trip! I also the technology side and your fault finding of broken games, as well as your reviews. Great channel!
"Mr. Robotnik's mean bean machine"
Must have been before he had gotten his Doctorates.
Sonic: Look! It’s a giant talking egg!
eng3d Sonic: Hi Mr. Eggman!
Eggman: THAT IS NOT MY NAME!
hi again!
"I didn't spend six years in evil medical school to be called 'Mister', thank you very much."
Isn't the C64 DTV the one that Jeri Ellsworth helped design?
God, I had a lot of fun playing Championship Wrestling by Epyx on my old C64. Quite possibly the best 8-bit wrestling game I've ever played with maybe the exception of NES Pro Wrestling.
Your channel is great. Brings back a lot of memories.
Thats "Doctor" Robotnic. He didn't go 7 years to evil medical school to be called mister. Also the Atari Flashback units don't have the games that defined it because of licensing. All of the good games that you mentioned were licensed to Atari by Sega, Namco, Activision, and so on and so forth. So while it would be great to have those games on the plug and plays it not going to happen without paying licensing fees to their respective companies.
great video.. I'd def watch more about the all-in-ones.
Your response to the Tetris controller reminded me of when I used to play the original QUAKE in multiplayer with only a keyboard. Then someone introduced me to a 'mouse' and I no longer had to type frantically to look around the screen while jumping turning and firing.
Some of these are so nostalgic to me it makes me tear up
I remember playing those when I was lil kid
LOL Mr.robotniks mean bean machine
I actually rewound there once to make sure I didn't misunderstand him and then went "ouch"... xP
Super Puyo puyo
Right? He didn't go through 8 years of evil college and learn how to turn animals and beans into evil robots to be called "mister."
Just like Dr Mario!
i rewound it too
6:15 That’s the arcade version of Warlords.
As a collector of plug n plays, I HAVE to get one of the Commodore ones. I haven’t seen anyone else mention that one and it seems super cool and unique. Discovered your content a few weeks ago and have been loving the channel. 👍🏻
10:19 I still have this one! I used to play it all the time when I was younger! I also have another one with a red controller somewhere and a Disney Princess one. I got them all I think when I was around 5 or 4 when they must of came out around 2004 or 2005. :) I was really little when I got them, so I have no idea what year it was I got them but I think it was around that time. :) As far as I know they all still work pretty well! 😁
Oh yeah, everybody remembers Sonic's nemesis, the wily Mr. Robotnik
Dang, I wish I was there so I can buy one of those N64’s.
Me too! I just got interested in Star Fox 64, and would really like to get an original N64, along with an original copy of star fox 64 and doom 64.
@@nascarsimracing1 Starfox 64 is an awesome game. I still play it every once in awhile to this day. That said you are just are well off playing on an emulator. If you use the right plugin you can play it in widescreen 1080p and it will look much better then it ever could on an original system. I use an Xbox 360 wired controller and all the C-button functions are easily mapped to buttons on the controller.
@@HerecomestheCalavera awesome! And in fact i actually play it on an n64 emulator on my phone! Technology has vastly improved! In fact i even can emulate ps2 on my phone!
@@nascarsimracing1 how about doom 64 remaster
They actually added Xevious, Pitfall, and River Raid to the newest Flashback units
And Warlords on the paddle is the arcade version
As I said, I had one of those, that is, the Pacman one and another one, the SpongeBob one, but unfortunately the SpongeBob one, I cut the cables to untangle the Pac-Man one, but I seriously wish I still had them since I feel that it is a historical piece. important part of my Gamer history… 🥺
We want a sequel!
"Mr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine"
I laughed
That Ms. Pac-man game was my first experience with gaming
Mine was the PlayStation 1 with GTA3
Glx
Xvccbxxfhcxcb,, vgvsxczcjtcig x
Rff, బాడీ బాడీ బాడీ బాడీ బాడీ బాడీ
@@zackstopzackstop8091 me
Mine was sonic the hedgehog on the megadrive classics disk
11:13 that statement actually shocked me, it's actually a pretty popular game. other than that, I enjoyed this video!
I used to love playing that when I had da projection tele
I'm giving this video a thumbs up because of the good quality and presentation 👍
I want to see you turn that dinky joystick into a full C64. That'd be so cool
^ this... cubed! ^3!
He did a few years ago (more than a decade at this point) but he used a hummer plug and play which while based on the DTV has a slightly newer ASIC.
I had a bunch these in the family as a kid and we all loved them! Really the only reason we stopped playing is the lack of RCA ports on new TVs. So much fun for the whole family.
Thank you, very nice rundown on these systems.
MAPPY IS MY FAVORITE ARCADE GAME EVER. It has great music and tough but fun mechanics
I love Mappy so much bro whenever me and my family went on vaca we'd bring that plug n play console and me and my sis would head up to the TV nobody uses and just sit down to play Mappy, it was great.
Mappy is the greatest, remember Boss Goro the Big Bit?
I used to play the crap out of it as a kid. In fact i still play it to this day. I love this game. To score big points, remember to get the radios, then the TVs, the computers, the paintings and finish with the safes, in this exact order.
I agree. I recently got back into Mappy and the music is so good.
DINOLORD27 it was probably the game I played most on the namco/ms Pac-Man system
What are your thoughts on emulators, like the ones people make out of Raspberry Pis and dedicated MAME PCs? Given that you have such a collection, I know they might not be particularly enticing to you. Still, you've probably got a pretty unique perspective on the topic as a result.
I've been planning to build an arcade with a Raspberry Pi for a while..
There's a cool little keyring mega drive plug and play that i've always thought would make a cool mini arcade
The 8-Bit Guy Looking forward to that video. :D
Do it! I've setup a Raspberry Pi 3 with Retro Pie installed, very easy to do and i mounted mine in a broken mega drive case.
+The 8-Bit Guy Have you ever thought about collecting Silicon Graphics (SGI) computer's? I would love to see a video about an SGI Indigo2 or Indy.
Great reviews and break down of games and showing mods. I have several of theses plug N play systems. I enjoy them. I would like to be able to be able to get a empty system and download games of my choice. Thanks for the great videos
Thank you so much, I could not figure out pole position, and then you told me you had to twist the stick, and I was like, I need to try this right now, and it worked thank you so much
you have never heard of mappy...... you.... have never heard if mappy. YOU HAVE NEVER HEARD OF MAPPY
Mappy has that snazzy banjo soundtrack. A shame it took so long for a home version.
A Floyd eet was so gud doh
i dont know what mappy is.
boi.
That commodore 64 one sounds awesome.
Especially since it has design allowances for being hackable.
That makes it really impressive actually...
I have the Atari Flashback 9 and it comes with some of the games you mentioned, particularly Frogger, River Raid and Pitfall.
I chuckled at "Mappy... I've never heard of it." I've played Mappy multiple times in arcades, and I've played home versions of it (without looking that up, I think the ColecoVision had one?), and I have NEVER figured out what the hell it's supposed to be about. You play as a mouse thief, I guess? Who robs... trampoline houses? Some day, I'll look up what it's official backstory is, and I'll probably smack my forehead, but it's almost more fun playing it without having any idea WHY the player character is doing the things he(?) is doing.
1. You are a police mouse who is trying to recover stolen goods from a criminal cat organization
2. There did exist a ColecoVision Mappy, but it was never official and was made in 2016.
Actually Space Invaders the FIRST arcade game only used white for colour so actually the Space Invader plug and play is pretty accurate.
I worked at KB Toys when these things were big and I demo-ed (read played) the Namco Pac-Man one for hours on slow nights.
I used to buy PC games from KB.
I was sad when the signs went up saying they were going out of business.
I did the same thing for Need For Speed on the N64 when I worked third shift at walmart in the 90s... long before it became a supercenter.
My aunt used to have the namco Pac-Man plug-and-play and I used to love it as a kid
I remember my dad giving me the Ms.Pacman joystick when I was little, the game I most played was Mappy, and it has been one of my favorites games I ever played. I also remember bringing it to my cousins house and we would play it.
Mappy is a really great game :)
10:54 where could you find the MS PAC MAN one for sale? I wonder if there is a way to replace the chips inside and create a MAME with your own games. Even so, it has MS PAC MAN _and_ GALAGA, so this one for the win! If it had DIG DUG and GRADIUS, it would be perfect!
I know this is a few years old, but have you done a video on which of these types of emulators are the easiest to modify and put your own games on, as well as which ones have the hardiest/best joystick/controllers?
There was an add on "key" that plugs into the back that has Dig Dug and Rally X included...awesome additions
Growing up I remember having Ms. Pacman. It was so much fun! (The most vivid memory I have of it was buying clogs then sitting down in the living and playing one of the games haha)
I don't know why I bought clogs but I did lol
Woooooah ! This is really the first time I got to see this ! Thanks a lot for this video !
I had the Sega one the Atari one and the first Pac-Man one you showed and I took those on EVERY vacation I went on for most of that decade.
That Pac-Man one is an incredible build and I played that thing so much.
We also played dozens of hours of Kid Chameleon we had it mapped out with secrets and never finished it
There's a man on the internet that goes by the RUclips name Theodd1sout that may be able to beat you in Tetris. Try to contact him
I want to see ibook/8-bit guys gameplay before he goes against him.
Lol I really like Theodd1sout. but I think this guy could beat him >:3
He should challenge James Clewitt from Numberphile/Computerphile xD
Boyborg690_ if he gets paid to beat him
No one can beat Jeff. Boom! Tetris for Jeff ruclips.net/video/RlnlDKznIaw/видео.html
Would love to see another is it obsolete video
Edmundo studios popo
If you ever do return to this (or maybe you have, I dunno), a video on how to mod the C64DTV to use a PS/2 keyboard and a disk drive would be very interesting to see.
I own the Pacman and Ms Pacman games which I bought at the time, and about a week ago, dug them out of my closet and played them again and they're still perfect! I had the same problem with Pole Position until I remembered to twist the knob! Mappy was a classic back in the arcades in the 80s. My wife liked it more than I did. This version is extremely faithful to the arcade. In fact, I would say they all are. Great review!
11:07 shift up with I think the small button
and the winner is RASPBERRY PI!
And the winner is MAME
Great video. Well narrated and presented.
First time watcher, and I have to say that I like your style. Not overly excited, but not boring. Like a nerdy Antiques Roadshow. I like it. I'm subscribing.