New to RetroPie

mediamogul

the games were about $50 back then to purchase and games now are still roughly the same price.

Adjusting for inflation, they were quite a bit more.

If the games sucked you were SOL , which was very common.

Exactly, and out of a handful of reasons attributed to the video game crash of 1983, that might be the biggest when you consider how much garbage was being released. The odds were just not in favor of a positive consumer experience.

backstander

I remember going with my dad to Walmart to pick up an Atari 5200 when I was like 6 years old. It must had just came out because there was a lot of people looking at them. Back then we didn't have YouTube and the internet to read reviews of games to find out if they're any good.

mediamogul

@backstander

Do you remember what games you had for the 5200? It had some pretty good ones. The 5200 version of 'Berzerk' was the definitive home console port. It still amazes me that they were able to pull off the voice samples.

backstander

I literately had a shoe box full of 5200 games because I would store them in a shoe box.

Here's what I remember having:
Breakout
Centipede
Defender
Dig Dug
Frogger
Galaxian (I think?)
Missile Command
Pac-Man
Pole Position
Popeye
Q*bert
Qix
Star Wars - The Arcade Game

I might be missing a couple that I can't think of right now.

To this day I still think Defender has the coolest sound effects!

mediamogul

@backstander

Those were all top-notch conversions. You and your dad basically had your own private arcade. Did he play much?

backstander

@mediamogul

Did he play much?

He did at first but he wasn't that much of a gamer. I think we picked those games out because they where arcade games and we'd played/heard of them before (plus he probably paid for a majority of those and we didn't buy all those at once). I do remember playing a few NES games with him like River City Ransom and also my whole family would compete for high score in the Gameboy version of Tetris (my mom got pretty good at that game).

mediamogul

@backstander

That's great. My family never really played games together. My Mom and Dad weren't interested and brother and I would just shove each other out of the way for whatever one player game we wanted to play. It was basically the exact opposite of Atari's marketing.

atari

backstander

@mediamogul
Haha...I think that photo was taken the first time the 5200 was plugged into the TV because once the novelty wears off, only the true gamers will continue playing it.

Plus I don't think I've ever seen my dad wear a turtle neck.

jamesbeat

If you want something a little unusual, try 'Kult' on the Atari ST.

My advice is to not read anything about it beforehand - it's better to just experience it.

One of my very favorite games of all time.

mediamogul

@jamesbeat

If you want something a little unusual, try 'Kult' on the Atari ST.
My advice is to not read anything about it beforehand - it's better to just experience it.

My interest is piqued. I'll give it a go this evening.

backstander

Wow! When I got home I checked my 5200 box and I listed every game I own with the only correction being I have "Super Breakout". My memory is better than I remembered :-)

Also I'll have to give "Kult" a try.

mediamogul

@backstander

Nice collection! The 5200 has some of the coolest looking carts.

buddyscott

@jamesbeat said in New to RetroPie:

My advice is to not read anything about it beforehand - it's better to just experience it.

i always say something along those lines whenever i suggest someone watch the movie Red State. wonderful movie that is easily ruined if you read about it first.

backstander

@mediamogul

The 5200 has some of the coolest looking carts.

I agree! But you can't judge a video game by it's cover!

mediamogul

@backstander

Unless of course it's this cover:

clash

mediamogul

@jamesbeat

If you want something a little unusual, try 'Kult' on the Atari ST.

I think I'm going to use the Amiga emulator to play this, but 'Kult' looks very interesting. The artwork alone is amazing.

Kaveman42

I need to figure out how to install the Atari ST emulator now. Can anyone direct me to directions on how to add emulators to RetroPie? I haven't been been able to find it yet.

mediamogul

@Kaveman42

These links should help.

https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/First-Installation#installing-additional-emulators
https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/Atari-ST-STE-TT-Falcon

I just ran 'Kult' under Amiga emulation and while the audio is superior, there's a problem with how the cursor is displayed in game, so Atari ST looks to be the best option.

Kaveman42

Thanks @mediamogul

Kaveman42

@backstander

I tried Kult and man there is a huge learning curve for that game. Have you beat it? How long did it take you to figure out WTF is going on? It does have a really cool splash screen.