Third VideoGame Generation Recap - Atari 7800 - Adam Koralik
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ก.ย. 2024
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This is a discussion topic video about the third generation of videogame consoles. This will be part four of my five part mini-series. This will be a video about the Atari 7800.
Hope you like it!
The 7800 was the first system I ever had. All my friends had the NES, and I would play at their house, so I begged and begged my parents for one for Christmas. I thought the box was Nintendo shaped under the tree, but then...7800. They were the king and queen of "close enough" when it came to that.
+Michael Niewald In my house in 1984 video games were for the grown-ups. I always wanted an Atari 7800 and eventually I got to use the 2600. Then I wanted an NES and I got one by the time N64 came out.
C64 would have been better for you.....
Me also I had to save money to get a nes.
same.. my mom wouldn't pay the 10 bucks more for an nes
@@shanepahman7377 If you have kids now you can understand where they were coming from but still $10 isn’t that much
2nd gen and 1st gen now i guess. Great vids keep them coming.
+Jon Draine Thanks.
If you want to get technical, the French Atari 7800 can output a sharper quality signal via a scart cable (though not RGB) So, some incentive for collectors there.
@MidnightHavok *Playing* collectors.
do gen 2
I bought my 7800 in 1993.bought it from Atari in California. I got it in the mail. In mass. Still works good. Over 30 years.
again this is the best TH-cam channel that actually has good information
+Connor Kutach Thanks!
+CAX 117 he does
+Harvez TrueGamerz I have an Odyssey 2000, which is a 1st gen pong clone.
Not the Odyssey 2, which is a 2nd gen console.
CAX117 GameCubed how much is it
A game called Ballblazer for the 7800 used the extra sound processor in the cart. It sounds better than literally any other game on the system.
Weston Sharpensteen, Commando had the poky chip too. It also sounds good and is one of the few games for the system that rivals, if not exceeds, the NES version. Sound makes such a difference.
I got this system with $10 allowance in 1988. It was in a milk crate with a mix of 2600 and 7800 games, maybe 60 all together. Everyone I knew who had a 7800 bought it in a similar sense; dirt cheap with a ton of games included. The 7800 was never anyone's primary system. Mine was plugged into my small black and white tv in my bedroom while the NES was plugged into the big color tv in the family room.
The 7800 wasn't family friendly. Sure there were multiplayer games, but my mom would never play the 7800 with me. NES games had music and parents had fun playing with their kids.
Weird but my mom is a video game console fanatic(Hoarder). For some reason she was so infatuated with Atari and convinced they were the greatest company. She owned a Atari Pong, 2600, 5200, 7800. Not just one of each, every edition and every game even ET. Also Atari stock. Until she discovered Super Mario Bros on NES and has now had every NES upto the Wii. Btw she has only played Ms. PacMan and Super Mario Bros
cartoonboi2 Your mom sounds awesome.
cartoonboi2 wow your mom has a good taste in collecting consoles
+charger master yee
Call dedication brother
+Adam Koralik Hey dude if you want the EU version of the controller you can have set of two , I know one works perfectly , I have no interest in ever replacing my console and I have already sold my games , so they are your's if you want them
Adam, with regards to some of your comments in this video about the lack of composite output on the Atari 7800 in 1986 --
In the 1980s, I NEVER saw a TV in our home, OR in any friends or families' homes that had composite input on it. In every TV set that I can personally remember seeing and hooking game consoles into, EVERYTHING actually connecting to the TV was done through coax.
In my experience, setting up (and later packing up) every console we rented from a video store involved several steps -- blindly reaching behind the TV, twisting the hexagonal coax connector with your fingers until it started to rotate and disconnect, connecting the RF adapter for the console in its place, and then twisting the coax cable onto the RF adapter. Unhooking it at the end of the weekend to return the rented console to the video store involved a similar ritual, but in reverse.
I can remember doing this same set of steps with both rented NES, Genesis and SNES consoles, and the SNES didn't come out until August 1991 in North America !!
I never, EVER saw anyone use a multi-out AV cable on an SNES, or the composite video and rca audio ports on the NES at the time -- only in the more recent fifteen or twenty years since coax has become less popular. These non-RF interface ports were a curiosity to most people I knew, just as much as the expansion port was (on the bottom of the units).
VCRs, etc did sometimes have composite input and output ports on them, so you could theoretically hook a composite cable from a game console into a TV through the already-connected VCR if you so desired, and then select the composite input source on the VCR instead of the RF tuner. Nobody I know ever did this, but I remember it was at least an option because I explored this kind of stuff on all our gadgets.
There were composite monitors (monitors, NOT TVs) around in the mid-80s -- there was a popular Commodore monitor (model 1702?) with composite inputs in many homes and schools, which is still commonly seen around today with retro systems. There were also other computer and AV monitors around that people used with simple home computers, security cameras, video editing suites, etc.
So, it would have made perfect sense for Atari to stick with RF for a console designed in 1983/1984 and released in 1986, because that's what the majority of people had on their TVs where I lived. Hell, many TVs didn't even have coax input -- they had these two screws which you needed to use a 75 ohm to 300 ohm adapter dongle in order to connect coax cable into.
If they had released the 7800 instead of the 5200, it probably would have done rather well.
Indy The Great
That channel icon is God like
The 7800 biggest problem that the 5200 didn't have was they should of put a pokey chip on the motherboard that would. Have made all the difference because the 7800 was support over the Nintendo and Sega master system but they didn't and it really was a disaster because it couldn't replicate the arcade sounds using the 2600 sound chip
Despite millennial rewrites of history, the 5200 actually did pretty well. Sales grew steadily and by the time the crash hit, the 5200 was outselling colecovision..... but it’s now cool to bash the 5200 relentlessly and people who weren’t there and didn’t experience it are always spouting falsehoods about it.
@@datacipher any historical translation, via oral storytelling or looking at a vase with a stick figure of two cows drawn on it, is inevitably going to be imperfect and has been proven for centuries...
ShamockParticle well that is generally true. There are also old fogeys like me who were there and know the facts - but indeed, nobody wants to listen to “crazy” old men... so it goes.... won’t stop me from debunking the myths from time to time even if it isn’t listened to! Lol
The 7800 actually has better graphics abilities. The 7800 can handle over 150 sprites per scanline. The nes can only handle 8
But the NES had a new style of gameplay the 7800 didn't really adopt.
Worse, NES has a very tinny sound chip but they used it very well and the gameplay was bigger and epic and not feeling repetitive even though it sorta was. :D
P.S. I had both systems and the 7800 was technically superior but lack of onboard POKEY and lack of new game styles to complement the perfecting of the arcade classics, the machine lost in the end
@@ShamrockParticle if Nintendo didn t have that monopoly in the 80's the Master System could have gone head to head title to title and done a number on the NES.
@@joeb2588 it may have been a smaller gap, but it's all ifs and buts. All the big four of the time made many mistakes in different markets.
@@ShamrockParticle Did they name it pokey after the chip
It’s that time again Adam. Time for the yearly rewatch of this whole series. See you in the Genesis video, where I will once again quote, “MICKDAWNALDS”
Please, do the Apple Pippin video.
+Ride The Lightning YES!
I SECOND THIS !!! That apple console is so obscure
+Ride The Lightning I've been wanting a video on that super obscure console for some time.
In US Atari 7800 was one of the last consoles that has a direct pedigree from a PC.
What does that mean? Seriously not trolling you
Jack's sudden change of heart did indeed come from Nintendo. You're right that the 7800 released in test status in 84 but you left out the fact that Atari were in talks to Distribute the NES in America under the Atari name. These talks lasted until a few months after the 83 CES and eventually fizzled out. So part of the reason for the 86 release was due to Nintendo ushering in a new opportunity for home gaming (the market needed someone to come in with that much marketing muscle) but the other part was because Atari was wrapped up in a lawsuit by the guys who designed the 7800 and that didn't get cleared up until late 85 IIRC. Some say that Atari had no intention of actually going through with the Nintendo deal and was just buying time but I don't think anyone has ever gone on record. Anyway, nice vid and great series in general!
I like the 7800, it's a good system. My favourite game for it is ms Pac man :D
Another thing is that the 7800 library has almost doubled in recent years because of the homebrew community. Some great arcade ports especially. The 7800 had so much unused potential. But if you love that classic arcade/Atari gameplay the 7800 is a very fun system even now.
it sad's but this is the console I remember playing first before Nintendo system. Out side of a commodore 64
The better Pokey sound chip was used in Commando and Ballblazer and sounds quite nice. They planned to make an inexpensive version for inclusion in the 7800 carts called "Gumby" but as with the other things you mentioned, it was not produced. You can still get those d-pad controllers and other accessories (and even games) from Best Electronics.
Master System and Megadrive controllers work n the 7800, you just can;'t use the 2nd button unless you get a Seagull 7800
The only time I have seen anything about the 7800 is when I was a kid, they had an Atari TV commercial trying to sell 7800s for $50.
If you could sum up this console in two words, it would be "half-assed".
But somehow, this console has 5x the colours of the NES, 4x the colours of the Master System. Kinda crazy.
It wasn't half-assed in its time of development, but the lack of upgrade by its wide-release is sketchy.
Only 2,games ever made leveraged the 7800's sound card in a cartridge option.....Ballblazer and one more....
Commando is the other one
it in fact uses outsourced chip GCC1702B aka MARIA from company GCC ... sad they didnt make it more sexy with C64-like stereo sound in 7800 mode, RGB out and full set of computer related peripherals (ext Keyboard, DOS, disk drive...) .. but again, reason is probably there was 400/800 computer line already and this MIT guys from GCC disrupted Atari by MARIA - if they could make it for RGB monitor and twice XY resolution, then Amiga wouldn exist now... yes, they used in two or so 7800 games POKEY chip inside cartridge for better sound (all the facts are from "Atari Inc. Business is Fun" book... )
@DejaVoodooDoll th-cam.com/video/9X37NS8b0C0/w-d-xo.html
7800 game have smol pixel
Back here because of the new Atari 7800+.
The "bad" audio and the younger Adam is somehow nostalgic!
Love you Koralik
Ballblazer and Commando were the only two 7800 games that took advantage of sound expansion in the cartridges. The 7800 version of Ballblazer is actually better than the NES counterpart in sound and graphics.
BallBlazzer was great supergame, even on 800XL, yeah...
Nailed it😉
yo dude I from California and my cousin own a Atari 7800 and said that he had since he was 4 and he was bron in 1980
Black Phoenix That's amazing.
will you ever do videos of the second generation (the one in like 82,83,84 with stuff like the 5200, sg-1000,etc)
The 7800’s initial release was delayed for several years due to legal issues & mgmt turnover, allowing competitors to catch up graphics-wise. Ultimately it was released with a sound chip designed exclusively for 2600 compatibility, which is why almost all the games sound terrible....plus the controllers were uncomfortable and awkward.
I know it's old news, but here goes. Yes it was possible for games to feature a sound chip on the cartridge to boost the game's audio capabilities, but only two games ever used this. One of them was ballblazer, and I can't remember the other one for the life of me.
comando
Last to time. Often especially when people review old consoles they mention the method of video output. As is present in this video. This console could and likely should have had composite video. However that concern most likely wasn't even in the conversation of that time. The primary focus then was the TV. Was it 20+ inch or massive 32 inch(LOL) or was it even in color? Yes I said it black and white tv's was still a thing during this Gen consoles, mostly for a kids bedroom but a thing non the less.
There where A/V geeks then that had large stereo and even projector TV(not like today's even a little). Most common was a square wood TV that was about 25 inches. Honestly I can't recall one conversation,not one, of the type of connection in relationships to picture quality in all of the 80's. At least not about a console. We did complain like hell over the 2 fork prong boxes but that's because we had to grab a screw drive or a butter knife. Not because we cared about the quality. The quality obsession is more of a late 90 early 2000's thing mostly. Besides friends those console are designed for those crap TV's. They don't even look as intended by developers on modern TV. Some things like light guns won't work. Dither for color enhancement look terrible on modern TV's. Get yourself an old CRT is my advice for pre-HD consoles. Try to get S-vid or composite if possible but again these games are designed for 240p or 480i or something close not a drastic difference really even from RF. But what do I know I'm just a retired engineer.
atari just f***ed up
until 1993 , jaguar is decent (if u know how to setup the thing)
I really like that you did 3rd generation too! I've watched all your generation videos and i really enjoy them.
+isakwatz11 Thank you.
It also didn't help that in 1985 there was a big advertising campaign pushing the 2600 version 2 for $50. With one Atari system for $50 it was hard for anyone to understand why the 7800 was better. I remember after our parents bought us the 2600 for Christmas of 1985, I saw the 7800 in the Sears Christmas catalog and I couldn't understand how it was any better. The first time I saw the NES was a TV commercial in 1986 or 1987 though and I knew right away that it was better than the 2600. Fortunately me and my brother caught the chicken pox in 1988 and we got an NES because my mother in particular felt sorry for me and my brother.
The real reason it had no support and was “cheap” with no promotion is that Atari was sold to Jack Tramiel who canned the video game plans. The 7800 was on the verge of launch and had been promoted and lauded in magazines like Electronic Games. It then sat on the shelf until the NES became successful in North America. Tramiel then sensed an easy cash grab and threw the 7800 out there (since it was already developed) with no support or effort.
The 5200 too was discontinued at the point where the 7800 was first planned to be released - which left a sour taste for many including myself and several friends. The 5200 was well liked at the time and had become very successful - outselling colecovision by the point. It’s fashionable now to bash it relentlessly but many of us loved it back in the day.
It is true that the first run of games was weak in that they were better versions of old arcade hits. Better yes (although sound was worse), but we already had first-rate versions of many of these games on the 5200 - while not arcade perfect as emulation is now, they were good enough to satisfy - unlike the 2600. For example for me personally, I already had joust, dig dug, centipede and others for the 5200. Now you want me to buy a new console and games just to play slightly more arcade authentic ports? .... and you’re ending the console I already bought well before it’s time? A slap in the face.
Please young people be careful. Whenever I watch retroactive millennial reviews (particularly classic game room) I see so much disinformation and ignorance.
Well this thing with Jack Tramiel don't want to release the 7800 isn't exactly true. The thing is that Tramiel thought when he bought Atari Time Warner had payed their bills for the development company of the 7800....but they didn't.....so they've argued about who have to pay this company and thats why it got released so late
Should have had a POKEY on board and a composite connection option. Asteroids, Centipede, Joust and Food Fighter are excellent ports. Not much else worthwhile - though there's a great home-brew cart called Pacman Collection that's worth picking up. But really - the NES library changed everything and had moved on from arcade style experiences.
Yeah, that was my biggest turn-off toward the 7800 was that most of the games were just new versions of old games. Which is fine to a certain extent. Even now days we're seeing HD remixed versions of older games but they also release new games. If Atari had done that, 7800 might have been more successful. Nintendo on the other hand was doing just that, releasing fresh new games as well has a few old games like Donkey Kong, Mario Bros.
My friend is offering to sell me his 7800 games or so for 60 bucks. Gonna have to jump in that
Adam, how would be the best way to get the video going into HDMI? RF to Composite Adapter, into a retro tink?
@@KevPez-ISthe 7800GD is the only way to get anything better than RF without modding the console.
@@KrunchyTheClown78 good to know!
Great video and series. You're not kidding about how easy it is to confuse 2600 and 7800 carts - I've done it myself. Must have been hard for them to be appealing next to the colorful NES carts.
+MrLeo34 Yep, I've gotten pissed quite a few times opening up packages to find a 2600 version instead of the 7800 one that was advertised on Amazon..half the sellers there cant seem to tell the difference, and it kinda makes sense when they started labeling late 2600 carts as "For Atari 2600 or 7800 systems"
I don't see how the two can be mistaken if they have labels.
In Germany I remember people comparing the 7800 to Ataris own home computers. Graphics on the 7800 was not better than Ataris 8 Bit home computers that had been around since the early 80s and sound was worse. The ST was introduced in 1984 and this was a much more capable 16 Bit system. It became a popular gaming platform while the 7800 was on the market. Compared to the ST (or the competing Amiga) the 7800 just seamed primitive.
I think the NES and Master System did not suffer from that because Sega and Nintendo did not make home computers while Atari did and they did it with success in the 80s.
I'm from France and bought an Atari 7800 to play 2600 games (i don't have any 7800 games ,should try somes i guess) because it have a SCART output which have better quality (not RGB i think) and is much more practical than RF where here (France) you've got to manually search the good channel and that don't always work on modern lcd.
You talk on the master system video of games that was already in the console ,i don't know if that was the case in the US but my 7800 have Asteroids in the console.
most of the games on release for the 7800 were direct 2600 port of the game, mario bros 1st appeared on the 2600 before it came a household hit for the NES..
try finding a correctly working Vectrex controller.
Ninja Golf for the 7800 is a great game
Plus the best 8 bit version of Commando and Mario Bros the arcade game
Just my opinion. The 7800 really offered very little. I enjoyed the Master System the most from that generation.
Extra audio chips were included in ballblazer for the 7800. They used the "pokey" chip
You should do a piece on the Atari XE. I only had one for a short time when I was 3 but it was a full video game system built into an ancient computer my half assed family actually just owned to send and receive E-mails or print word documents in 1994 (long after its relevance). It had a great line of game cartridges, worked with 2600 controllers as well as several other peripherals, and was backwards compatible with other Atari computer models game cartridges which there are many computers all with many games. I saw its picture in your intro but you never really talked about it. It's definitely distinct from the 7800 or just a 1980's computer. It's interesting that Atari had two different competing consoles at the same time, 3 if you count the 2600 still having games released at that time. It's worth talking about.
Do the XE! dessert falcon, centipede, star raiders! Do it! You'd be losing money not to best console ever! had a printer
loved my 7800 it was my main system for Atari 2600 and 7800 games for over a decade! The controllers sucked i wish we had the europium ones. For 2600 games I am a fan of the Sega Genesis controller. I don't have it anymore but have my Atari XE and found the games looked better on it. @
I was very fortunate to find one of those PAL 7800 controllers once at Gametraders for $10, but that is only time I've ever seen one in Australia. Apparently the French 7800 has a Scart connection, I don't know if it's True RGB or just scart.
THE NES HAD PLENTY OF GRIP IN UK AND OR EUROPE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I had the 5200 & loved popeye...but the controllers do suck
It would have been nice to get AV outs with out modding it. The UK gamepad would also have been a nice touch.
This is one of the most nostalgic consoles from my childhood, and after many years of collecting I have a complete set of games for it aside from Tank Command..I was worried you might be a little too harsh on it, but you did a honest, detailed review & just told it like it is pretty much..My parents got me one instead of the NES I was dying for one Christmas in the late 80's & I distinctly remember crying pretty bad over it =P but I learned to love it & have some fond memories...Bottom line is Jack Tramiel screwed up everything, it's such a shame because it had so much potential & was capable of putting out a library of the more modern kind of games the NES was getting at the time..Ballblazer & Commando used the "Pokey Chip" that should have been the standard, but like everything else..his cheapness prevented it..the music is great on Commando & unlike the NES version, there's no flicker or slowdown either (which I believe is the case with a couple other ports too)...I have a nice composite modded unit now that I got from Best Electronics & also picked up 2 "Euro controllers" a couple years ago..WORLD of difference! & AFAIK they can still be found for like $20-$25 new at Best or maybe another store or 2 online
i'm looking forward to the 0-Gen series, about some computer in a nasa lab or where ever it started ;)
+shenmueso Ha, good luck with that.
That would be a game called Tennis For Two developed at Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1958 by William Higinbotham. It was an analog computer with an oscilloscope for the screen.
Or Space War! on the PDP-1
Brian Griffin you want some cool whipped Brian lol
My brother got a 7800 at Toys R Us for probably $70 it was on clearance.
My brother got a 7800 at Toys R Us for probably $70 it was on clearance.
Atari had a chance to license the us sales of the NES . But the passed on it and went with there own brand. I thought u would at least mention this
Love your channel Adam! Keep up the good work man
+Robert Lane Thanks.
I believe the sound chip was used in two games. Ballblazer (really good port BTW, probably one of the best of its time), and Commando. I have ballblazer and it has pretty good music, but I don't have commando. I've heard that it's one of the best versions of the soundtrack (although most people prefer the C64 version's sound). Also, ballblazer uses just the extra soundchip (called POKEY), while commando uses both the POKEY and the onboard sound together for the music/sound.
loved my 7800 it was my main system for Atari 2600 and 7800 games for over a decade! The controllers sucked i wish we had the europium ones. For 2600 games I am a fan of the Sega Genesis controller. I don't have it anymore but have my Atari XE and found the games looked better on it. @
sorry if my post went multi times. I just clicked once and there were 5 posts. weird!
Reason why Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, and Donkey Kong Junior were able to be port to Atari 7800 was because Atari still had the rights to license those games. Any Nintendo 1st party arcade game not exclusive to the NES could be ported to any system including the Atari 7800.
+*** VOAN *** Guess that answers that. Thanks!
+*** VOAN ***
they still had the rights from the 2600 era...
Hey Adam, try out Rikki & Vikki it will make you change your mind about the Atari 7800. I just wish it got more awesome games like that... :(
a great game for the 7800 is Ninja golf. really amazing game for the system. Also surprised you didn't mention the built in game. my 7800 has a copy of asteroids built into the system
+Chris McKeague they didn't have that on the US versions
Just keep a cartage in the slot to prevent the corrodes of the 7800 hardware.
Here in sweden the atari st and amiga 500 almost count as consoles even if you could do other stuff on them most people would use them thru RF and for games only. Only music people would basically use them for other things like midi sequencing.
Consoles only gives a rather limited perspective; C64 and Amiga had their best years during this time as well.
7800 is one of my favorite consoles. You get the full 2600 library and the 7800 versions of games were a big step up.
Love the generational recap series! Actually, the 7800 is how I found your channel. Ironically, you mentioned finding your SMS at the Kane County toy show, I found my 7800 there earlier this year, and it too even had a strip of the protective film across the metal band on top of the console. Anyway, it needed to be cleaned badly, and the power button was sticky so I used your video and am happy to say my $10 7800 works (and looks) almost flawlessly now.
+Jason Ludewig Awesome! Congratulations. How is that show now? Haven't been there in years.
+AdamKoralik It was pretty good, not a whole lot of video game vendors, but there were a few. One had a 32x in the original box, not sure how rare that is, but I had never seen one before.
Have you ever tried using a Sega Master system controller on the 7800? Since it has the same amount of buttons as the 7800 controller does, it might work. I don't know, just an idea I had that I have no way of testing.
Works with 2600 games, not 7800 games.
@@AdamKoralik Oh man! That Jack Tramil's Atari Corp. did really f'ed up.
They kept with the joystick controller because during that era most arcade games we joy stick games... Playing joystick games with a d pad sucked. And it still sucks playing games like dig dug PAC man. Even Galga are still better with a joystick
only two atari 7800 games used the option for enhanced sound, ballblazer and commando
While Nintendo is credited with the plus shaped D pad. It is not the first D pad arguably. I had two systems that have a type of D pad before Nintendo. One was the Intellivision and the other Acadia 2001. Clearly they are not Plus shaped rather one a disc the other a disk and a removable stick on a disk. But they function the same. You press the direct with a thumb. Very very similar. I'd say the plus works better or is way more comfortable but if anything Nintendo simply revised the concept. A model T Ford is still a car. The 2023 Mustang is a car as well. They look drastically different but functionally both still a car.
It's back compat w 2600 making it automatically better than 5200. Terrible joystick though.
The games press at the time (winter 1986) were reporting that Atari were planning to unveil the 7800 for it's UK Launch at the Christmas Atari Show in the Royal Horticultral Hall, Westminster, London, where it would be the centerpiece of the show, expected UK launch price £69.95, lot of USA software and some UK titles ready for UK launch
Bob Gleadow then convinced Atari the 65XE was a better fit for the UK market, so Atari went with that, finally releasing the 7800 much later.
Jack didn't nix the 7800, its release was hung up by legal issues that came up during the sale of Atari. It's eventual release was due to those issues finally being resolved, not just because Jack suddenly changed his mind. Also, you absolutely can use Sega Genesis pads on the 7800 to play 7800 games, but the second button functionality won't be there. No big deal if all you want to play is classic arcade games, most of which use only one button or fewer. Finally, I've got to say, the difference between 2600 and 7800 games, visually speaking, is vast. Take a few minutes to actually compare some of the games that were on both, like Joust, Ms. Pac-Man or Dig Dug. There's no denying that the 7800 blows the 2600 away with its ability to handle 100 independently-moving, multi-color sprites at once, unlike the older system that struggled to put four ghosts onscreen with Pac-Man. True, not all of the 7800's games showed off the full potential of the system's graphics, but in general, they were light-years ahead of the offerings found for the VCS. One very last thing, two games, Ballblazer and Commando, included an Atari POKEY chip inside the carts to beef up the sound. There are a few homebrews out there that use the chip as well. Makes a biiiig difference. Thanks for letting me rant. Dig your videos.
1986 Atari needed $$ to launch the ST in Europe. They had a successful ST launch in the USA and had warehouses full of video game product. They put out the 7800, the 2600 Jr and about 50 carts between the two. It actually worked and they made a HUGE splash with the 520ST in the UK and sold a few million 7800 (not a huge splash, but $$ for ST push)
I've been enjoying your videos, especially the "3rd generation recap" series.
I'm fortunate enough to own a modded 5200 and 7800. They have composite output, but the difference in picture quality is pretty damn dramatic compared to RF.
Fun times can be had with the 7800, but Atari really hurt their chances by sticking to the old arcade classics; by 1986, "Ms. Pac-Man" seemed really dated compared to "Super Mario Bros."
So Adam, about that sound issue you put on screen at 8:40, there were games that used their own sound chips for the 7800. For example, The Atari 7800 port of Ball Blazer uses an Atari POKEY sound chip for the music and sound. Might I mind you that the Atari POKEY chip is a piece of hardware used for Atari's 8-bit line of personal computers like the Atari 400, Atari 800, and their second dabble into the video game market, the Atari 5200.
I had the original Atari Flashback “Mini 7800” as a kid (I was born in 1998, well after the 3rd gen), which came out in 2003 (almost 15 years before Nintendo released the NES Classic). I remember playing lots of the games on there and they were either original 7800 games, or upgraded and enhanced versions of the 2600 games that were ported to 7800. Mostly first party but some third party games. In this way, I probably had more experience with the 7800 than most kids in my generation, or even those born well before me. I enjoyed most of the games and I got used to using The North American controller which still came with the Flashback version. I think the audio was also upgraded on this mini version, which I still have and use sometimes. Definitely on par with the other 3rd gen consoles, and maybe better in some ways. It was only held back by market factors. I wish it had seen more success (was still much more successful than 5200, which may as well be forgotten by time). All subsequent Atari Flashback models were more focused on the 2600, but the 7800 will always be remembered fondly by me because of this. I had some of my earliest gaming experiences with it.
The out of date sound hardware is, to me, probably the greatest flaw the 7800 had. Bad marketing, lack of composite AV, etc, those things could have been fixed and the thing might have stood a better change, but still sounding like a 2600 while elsewhere video games were becoming more musically impressive than ever before was just asinine.
Games make or break a system. Its always been the case and why the NES dominated and Atari and the Master System floundered. Nintendo had all the great games. Atari and Sega had none.
So thats the 7800's greatest flaw. It lacked games. If it had a library of great games it's out of date hardware wouldn't of been a very big deal at all.
Sure, but at the same time, the bad hardware meant that the games you did get for it were lackluster compared to their arcade versions or versions for other consoles. And even without Nintendo's monopolistic practices, the specs were so lackluster that the 7800 would have problems attracting developers.
Tramiel probably saw profit in the 7800, but didn't really believe in this thing, and that lackluster
onexistant marketing campaign shows. He was at Atari because of his personal vendetta towards Commodore's management, and while at Commodore, you really saw when he believed in a product, it shows in the aggressive campaigns. Which is why the VIC-20 ads had 2600 owners looking like retarded children while VIC-20 owners were baby geniuses with a headstart to college, and the 64 ads were all about "We have four times the memory of our competitors at half the price!".
This was the first video game console I ever played! I don't remember it much though because I was only like 3-4 when I first played it. Not long after though my parents bought a Super Nintendo and traded off the 7800. I remember playing Poll Position 2 (It was my fave at the time), Centipede, Donkey Kong jr, and Crossbow. I'm sure there were others, but those are the games that I clearly remember playing. The SNES is by far my favorite console of all time, but the 7800 was a good starter console none the less, and I remember really enjoying it at the time.
WoooW so the atari 7800 did get nationaly released on may 1986 after a test market in 1984 while the get released nationally on september 1986 after a test market in 1985,
That’s interesting,
Now about those nintendo games on the 7800 ,nintendo did got the rights for mariobros to be ported to their systems,coleco did got the rights for donkeykong & DKjr BUT after coleco went bankrupt in 1988, atari saw the oppertunity and bought the license to get donkeykong & DKjr sothat they would be allowed to bring those games on their systems,
The atari soundchip may be shit ,but what i didn’t know untill recently that it actually could generate 4bit pcm sound,that’s right the atari 2600 soundchip could produce 4bit pcm audio BUT at the cost of lot’s of cpu power.
The atari 7800 deserves more credit then it actually did andtheres still a huge huge potential in that system, in fact i am a huge atari fan ever since i discovered that many nintendo & sega games also appeared on atari systems,but also since i discovered that nintendo weren’t the first & the best at all as those nintendo magazines did made us believe,
For instance they say that nintendo invented the dpad,WRONG it was tiger electronics who invented it 2 years prior before nintendo,with their playmaker handheld from 1980,so the pattent from nintendo’s dpad should belong to tiger electronics instead !!!
I played an Atari when I was too young to know anything. Don't know the model, it was an older relatives. It's possible that early nascent memory is what urged me to mither for a computer, I got a Vic 20. The Atari 7800 was invisible in the UK< just didn't exist in the pages of magazines, which covered everything, even the Atari GE, the AMstrad GX4000, the Commodore 64GS, and the soon to be made Konix. But I never recall the 7800.
The POKEY chip was used in a few games for sound - Commando is the game I've got with it. As for controllers, ebay.co.uk sometimes has pads - I was lucky enough to buy one recently with two working pads. I've also been able to buy games like Alien Brigade for PAL easily, whereas it's rare and expensive in the US.
The POKEY chip was used in a few games for sound - Commando is the game I've got with it. As for controllers, ebay.co.uk sometimes has pads - I was lucky enough to buy one recently with two working pads. I've also been able to buy games like Alien Brigade for PAL easily, whereas it's rare and expensive in the US.
7800 is a great system to have if you play retro games. Mainly cause it plays 2600 games as well. 7800 also has some solid classic arcade games like dig dig, robotron, joust, Ms. Pac-Man, Food Fight, ect. Problem with the system was back then people saw those games as old and you could play them on the 5200 or 2600 or Colecovision, there was very few original games on it that made it worth the purchase. Also having the same chip from the 2600 didn't help either
Although I kind of giggle when you said you'd have the best looking 2600 games if you modded the 7800...
I mean I grew up owning a 2600, how good can we really expect the 2600 games to look lol
I mean the angry Video Game nerd described Mini-Golf on Atari as a square hitting another square into another square 😂
Just look at games like basketball and you'll know Atari doesn't need high resolution to look it's best 😉
I had an Atari 7800 (as well as a 2600, 5200, 600xl, 800xl, and 130xe). My favorite 7800 game was probably Ms. Pac Man, although I really liked the 2600 version of Phoenix as well.
I forgot this thing was backwards compatible. My 2600 stopped working, but I think I might just get a 7800 instead of replacing my 2600. Maybe eventually I'll get another 2600, but since I need a 7800 anyway, I might just do that for now.
Lol. I know I post on every video that mentions the 5200.
Its a damn shame that it came out when it did cause it never had a chance.
Its even worse that all anyone that's never played it knows about it is the controller that breaks constantly.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. I played the 5200 a ton back then and I never had a problem with the functionality of the controller.
After a short time u get used to the fact that it doesn't self center. Its sucks for some games but it's helpful for others.
The 5200 games themselves are excellent. IMO they were by far the best arcade ports available at the time of release on console.
As far as I know it's the only console at the time that was putting out computer quality games.
The 5200 gets a really bad rap and I'd bet if 10 people got the system , the games , and a working controller.
8 out of 10 people would be happy with it.
I think that even if the nes wasn’t test marketed,atari would,ve still released their atari 7800 because of the pressure of atari fans who were positive about that system but also because otherwise it would,ve costed atari more money to pay renting costs for those wearhouses,even if they had decided to throw away those atarI 7800 systems,not only would it had costed them alot of money but they also would,ve make permanent loose,then sega would,ve jump in to compeat against atari.
Maybe then nintendo would,ve come later with their nes in the us with supermariobros.
Got one of these [consoles] in a box of 2600 stuff (this was in the mid 1990's). It only had one on one basketball for 7800 games, and all other games were 2600. I moved on to the Sega Genesis.
give us the second generation. seriously im a REAL FAN of this serie. I REALLY LIKE IT, i told my friends about it. plz do the second and the first. then do video game reviews for those old games that you got and no one knows. like dk 7800 on atarie
Perhaps the Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., and Mario Bros. games were simply put on the thing because they had 2600 versions. If the two consoles are as similar as you say, it should be easy to port it, and they can make a quick buck by doing so.
I think it is a shame the 7800 did not have the same sound capabilities the NES had (at least), as IIRC the 7800 had some games that could keep up with the NES. Also, the European controller is more better-made than the US model. It had a real d-pad like the NES, Genesis, etc. I need to find out what the best & latest games that came out for the 7800 were.
I don't know why people praise Tramiel so much. He missed such a chance to release a console before Nes launched in US. 7800 released in 1987 wasn't a good a idea, cause it was already obsolete. What were they thinking?
There are a few places where you can buy an adapter that allows you to use a Genesis controllers for 7800 and 2600 games. There is a guy selling some on the Atariage forums for $20 shipping right now. A lot of people mod the SMS and NES controllers to make them work on it, but I personally am not a big fan of either of those controllers.
how many consoles will you need for the second gen recap? Assuming the 2600, 5200, ColecoVision and in Intellivision. Maybe Fairchild?
Love the video like all of them, lot of work. Still bugs me hearing you say sega ms beat the nes here. I am not saying it's not true but I would need to see sales totals to believe it as it was very much all nes for my childhood and my family and peers. Odd exception had the sega or atari or commodore or whatever....like for every one of the others I would say realistically there were ten people I knew with the NES. And, if the master system did indeed sell more, I would argue that was likely due to it continuing to be sold like the 360 and ps3 with this generation, in the form of the say half the price of it's big slick new brother the megadrive, for many years after the nes was discontinued. I'm from the UK and I have seen other videos with comments stating the master system was more popular here but again, that just does not sit right with my memories! I'm far from a biased nintendo fan, quite the opposite in fact from mega drive on I have and love every sega. I chose game gear lol.