Post by dauber on Oct 18, 2016 16:53:37 GMT -5
I for one am thankful that Ferg accidentally re-released his first 40 episodes, as it gave me an opportunity to catch up a tiny bit. I have a few comments on a few of those episodes, and I was actually going to record for an audio submission after recording Pie Factory Podcast last night....except due to various circumstances we had to cancel the recording....so I'll just comment here...
Communist Mutants from Space -- I found this in a video game store around Christmas time. Just based on the title alone, I bought it, along with some CIB 7800 games (including Karateka for $3 -- and I was told I got ripped off on that one). When I checked out, the owner of the store (the infamous Sean Kelly), who was working the counter, said, "Judging from your other purchases I'm guessing you know this, but just to be safe...you do realize you need a Supercharger to play this [CMFS], right?" oh, crap! I don't have one! Totally didn't see that! "Oh, yeaaaaaah, yeah, I know that! In fact...I don't even have a 2600 - I just a 7800 for my 2600 games, and it works on everything, including the Supercharger!" I actually knew that to be true because in 2007 I had a few folks from AtariAge over, one of whom brought a Supercharger and fired it up in my 7800 and it worked like a charm. I did eventually get a Supercharger so I could play Communist Mutants From Space "properly", and...love it! Very engaging. And there's something satisfying about loading a game into the Supercharger.
Tac-Scan -- I love telling this story. When I was a lad back in the Atari 2600 era, my next-door neighbor got a 2600 some time after I got mine. It was a pretty interesting situation: we both had small selections (under 20 games), and there was hardly any overlap, so we'd frequently trade cartridges. He had Tac-Scan. I frequently borrowed it from him. LOVED it. Now, Ferg, in the episode, you mentioned how you'd like to know if those Sega patches ever existed and that you'd like to see one. Well, my neighbor actually got a killer score on the game, definitely high enough to get a patch. So he took a picture of the screen and sent it off to Sega asking for the patch. Sega responded but apologizing because they couldn't give him the patch. I don't remember if they said they ran out or if they even gave that much detail, but as a consolation, they sent him the then-brand-new Thunderground. In my opinion, he made out like a bandit from that -- I'd much rather have a new game than a stupid patch, and Thunderground was a pretty cool game!
Breakout -- I had played Super Breakout many times, long before I ever played Breakout. So of course, when I was a wee lad I was all agog about playing the original Breakout. My biggest memory: being extremely cheesed off that it only has two screens. WHAT!?!? Thank God I didn't actually own it until around 2006, when it was part of an eBay lot of dozens of games for a buck or something...
And finally...in one of the episodes you mentioned a German company called Ariola. (Don't remember what episode, and none of the Ariola games listed on AtariAge rings a bell.) But I thought you'd be interested in this info: Ariola Software was a division of a record company -- Ariola Records. I don't know much about Ariola Records, except this interesting tidbit: shortly after The Beach Boys formed in late 1961, they had some recording sessions supervised and produced by Hite and Dorinda Morgan. This includes the first single they ever recorded, "Surfin'" c/w "Luau." Another song they recorded during their sessions with the Morgans was a very early version of "Surfin' Safari." It's much more primitive than the version that's on the radio all the time, but I know it was used in at least one Beach Boys documentary, and it's seen dozens of releases over the decades. Anyhoo...someone took that early version of "Surfin' Safari" and overdubbed a second drum backing and electric guitar...and the result sounds terrible, in my opinion...very jarring overdubs that often fall out of sync with the original recording. That overdubbed version of the original "Surfin' Safari" was released as a single...in Germany...by Ariola Records. The More You Know.
Communist Mutants from Space -- I found this in a video game store around Christmas time. Just based on the title alone, I bought it, along with some CIB 7800 games (including Karateka for $3 -- and I was told I got ripped off on that one). When I checked out, the owner of the store (the infamous Sean Kelly), who was working the counter, said, "Judging from your other purchases I'm guessing you know this, but just to be safe...you do realize you need a Supercharger to play this [CMFS], right?" oh, crap! I don't have one! Totally didn't see that! "Oh, yeaaaaaah, yeah, I know that! In fact...I don't even have a 2600 - I just a 7800 for my 2600 games, and it works on everything, including the Supercharger!" I actually knew that to be true because in 2007 I had a few folks from AtariAge over, one of whom brought a Supercharger and fired it up in my 7800 and it worked like a charm. I did eventually get a Supercharger so I could play Communist Mutants From Space "properly", and...love it! Very engaging. And there's something satisfying about loading a game into the Supercharger.
Tac-Scan -- I love telling this story. When I was a lad back in the Atari 2600 era, my next-door neighbor got a 2600 some time after I got mine. It was a pretty interesting situation: we both had small selections (under 20 games), and there was hardly any overlap, so we'd frequently trade cartridges. He had Tac-Scan. I frequently borrowed it from him. LOVED it. Now, Ferg, in the episode, you mentioned how you'd like to know if those Sega patches ever existed and that you'd like to see one. Well, my neighbor actually got a killer score on the game, definitely high enough to get a patch. So he took a picture of the screen and sent it off to Sega asking for the patch. Sega responded but apologizing because they couldn't give him the patch. I don't remember if they said they ran out or if they even gave that much detail, but as a consolation, they sent him the then-brand-new Thunderground. In my opinion, he made out like a bandit from that -- I'd much rather have a new game than a stupid patch, and Thunderground was a pretty cool game!
Breakout -- I had played Super Breakout many times, long before I ever played Breakout. So of course, when I was a wee lad I was all agog about playing the original Breakout. My biggest memory: being extremely cheesed off that it only has two screens. WHAT!?!? Thank God I didn't actually own it until around 2006, when it was part of an eBay lot of dozens of games for a buck or something...
And finally...in one of the episodes you mentioned a German company called Ariola. (Don't remember what episode, and none of the Ariola games listed on AtariAge rings a bell.) But I thought you'd be interested in this info: Ariola Software was a division of a record company -- Ariola Records. I don't know much about Ariola Records, except this interesting tidbit: shortly after The Beach Boys formed in late 1961, they had some recording sessions supervised and produced by Hite and Dorinda Morgan. This includes the first single they ever recorded, "Surfin'" c/w "Luau." Another song they recorded during their sessions with the Morgans was a very early version of "Surfin' Safari." It's much more primitive than the version that's on the radio all the time, but I know it was used in at least one Beach Boys documentary, and it's seen dozens of releases over the decades. Anyhoo...someone took that early version of "Surfin' Safari" and overdubbed a second drum backing and electric guitar...and the result sounds terrible, in my opinion...very jarring overdubs that often fall out of sync with the original recording. That overdubbed version of the original "Surfin' Safari" was released as a single...in Germany...by Ariola Records. The More You Know.