Well, since I'm one of the people that launched a
discussion about the pipe dream, I see a couple of
potential problems with a 7800 portable.
1) My 7800 doesn't like my Supercharger. Mine is the
made in China model, that will supposedly play Robot
Tank etc. (I say supposedly because, according to the
faq, it's a combination of cart and system and I don't
have the troublemakers in my actual cart collection.)
I also seem to recall people having trouble with Food
Fight on some of the 7800's from Taiwan after the
Mew-analogous first production run. Before anybody
even toys with the notion (assuming it ever comes to
fruition), someone would have to solve the mystery of,
"The 7800--What Gives?"
2) I have been adding 7800 titles to my collection
for a while now, I have well over half of them, and
two facts stand out: not only are there waaaaay fewer
games, but not many of the ones released were very
good. Making it 7800 combatible could be adding extra
equipment and cost to a unit when the feature isn't
really going to be used, kind of like Digital Pictures
making those 32X CD games (as I recall, the Sega CD
had a base of between 2-4 million units sold, while
the 32X had only half a mil in the States. Software
support is one thing, but the math on this combo
should have made them think twice). Not only that,
but there are quite a few games on the 7800 that just
make me shake my head. Fatal Run will never make me
abandon Road Blasters and my Nomad. Scrapyard Dog is
an example of a game that seemed to be made to
capitalize on the platform game craze championed by
Mario with not much attention paid to actually making
a playable game. Some titles, like Ninja Golf, tried
to do something different and didn't do it very well.
Unlike the 2600 titles which I still play constantly
(have I mentioned how much I love Oystron?), there are
only a few 7800 games that trip my trigger. Without a
lot of titles generating a buzz about them, calling
people back to play them, I wonder if buyers would
see, "7800 compatible," and say, "So?"
--- Glenn Saunders <cybpunks@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> But I was talking about a sub-gameboy pricepoint.
How far below? Are we talking like how the game.com
can be bought from Tiger for $30?
> Now maybe it's the color LCD which would make that
> impossible, in which case no degree of
> miniaturization of the 2600 chipset will help (and I
> don't think it's acceptable to go to a B&W LCD
> screen) but that's the idea, to find a niche
> between keychain games and pocket game systems like
> the Gameboy. Just think, include every single Atari
> brand title as well and sell it for $20.
I've been wondering about that...what is Nintendo's
secret with the Color Game Boy? I see it in stores
for about $70. The NeoGeo Pocket also runs about that
price (believe it or not, I still see it in the wild
once in a while). Are they selling the units below
cost and hoping to reclaim the money on software
sales? I can't believe that Nintendo and NeoGeo have
some magical way of creating a color screen at a
discount price and no one has bought one and discected
it.
Besides, just the Atari titles overlooks the great
games made by other companies like Activision, Imagic,
and Hozer (yes, I'm talking about Oystron again).
Atari fans may buy it, but I'm sure they'd feel a
little cheated that they are only getting one course
in the meal. Although a portable Quadrun would be
sweet.
> Have you seen the kind of limited graphics and sound
> that those keychain games feature? It's certainly
> nothing approaching the 2600, but they crank
> out a zillion of those things.
I just got my new EGM and it mentions a Playstation
One. It can be portable, with a special four inch
screen that can be added. It isn't a handheld, but it
still is great. What if we expanded the pipe dream to
include a set-up like that? That could be more
feasible. (If anyone needs a scan, I can provide
one.)
Dobre utka,
Pete Holland Jr.
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