HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: mbrockma@bank.ecn.purdue.edu (Matt Brockman)
Newsgroups: alt.games.video.classic
Subject: Re: Pong, etc...
Date: 12 Dec 92 00:44:57 GMT
Distribution: alt
Organization: Purdue University Engineering Computer Network

In article <JVIGNEAU.92Dec10120738@cs.pong.lovers.edu> jvigneau@cs.pong.lovers.edu (|Joe Vigneau|) writes:
>Does anyone remember those game systems with two paddles that only moved up
>and down, and you could play 'pong'-like versions of hockey, tennis and
>raquetball? I had one... Brings back memories... I remember playing those
>when I was 3... Amazing how games have grown up in the past decade and a half.

Yeah, we had one of those. The 'paddles' were more like the things
you push down on the side of a toaster. You could also select
fast/slow ball, big/little 'men', sharp angles, etc.
And four games: tennis, hockey, squash and practice.

It was beige and brown I think...anyone know what the name of it was?


===============================================================================
Matt Brockman                                           mbrockma@ecn.purdue.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    "While a llama may produce some of the world's finest of wools, prized
        around the world, their breath, on the other hand, could only 
            be prized somewhere in the far reaches of llama hell."
===============================================================================
Newsgroups: alt.games.video.classic
From: Scott.Marks@launchpad.unc.edu (Scott Marks)
Subject: Classic games can be found!
Organization: University of North Carolina Extended Bulletin Board Service
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 17:50:15 GMT

For those of you who(like me) are interested in having one of these
classic games, please respond to me via E-mail.  I do know a couple of
people who can get these games.  If you're interested, drop a line...

Scott...

scott.marks@bbs.oit.unc.edu
markss@carlisle-emh4.army.mil

--
   The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the University of
     North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Campus Office for Information
        Technology, or the Experimental Bulletin Board Service.
           internet:  laUNChpad.unc.edu or 152.2.22.80
Newsgroups: alt.games.video.classic
From: foregone@stein.u.washington.edu (Carl Chavez)
Subject: Re: History of Home Video Games
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 21:05:09 GMT

In article <1992Dec17.155511.10425@infonode.ingr.com> drudetb@infonode.ingr.com (Ted B. Drude) writes:

>>  As a few years passed, the NES became almost as much a household name as did
>>the Atari 2600.  Many different kinds of tapes were released---although none
>>included many (if any) variations as did the classic Atari 2600 tapes.  Right
>>now, the NES has around 200 tapes available.
>
>Just FYI,  there were about 800 different titles produced for the 2600.
>Admittedly,  many of those titles are poor quality.  But the same can be
>said of many NES titles.
>

Only 800? Geez, it sure seemed like a lot more. I myself own 80 cartridges,
and I thought I wasn't even close to having 2% of all of them. Now I find
out I already have 10%...:)

There must be more than 200 NES cartridges out! Maybe the correct statement
should be, "the NES has around 200 tapes available at one time"...

Newsgroups: alt.games.video.classic
From: tvp@gibdo.engr.washington.edu ()
Subject: Re: Pac-Man pattern in Playboy magazine
Organization: clearer than blir
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 13:47:35 GMT

In article <jpenne.724408154@ee.ualberta.ca> jpenne@ee.ualberta.ca (Jerry Penner) writes:
>marv+@cs.cmu.edu (Marvin Germany) writes:
>
>
>>I don't know what issue this was in, but I had a book on all the
>>pac-man patterns and they were quite accurate.  I forget the name of 
>>it,  but I'll post the name of it if I fnd it.
>
>>I haven't seen a normal pac-man machine for years!  I have seen versions of
>>p-man (i.e.-Like the one that looks like Ms Pac man!), but it would be
>>really cool to find a normal version with the normal boards.
>
>>Memories!  :-)
>
>Yeah!
>
>I have all the patterns written down somewhere (I think).  If I was
>coaxed I could probably pull them out and ASCII-ify them.

Gawd, no! Please! Those patterns worked, sure, but they didn't score
many points, they were slow, and they were damned boring considering
that *everyone* used them.

I have nicer patterns where you can get a perfect score through the
orange boards (original Pac Man) and 4-out-of-4 monsters for three
energizers and 3-out-of-4 monsters on the last energizer for boards
Apple thru Bell. Plus they're fast. Then I can give a 9-th key pattern
that takes just 47-seconds per board to run. These patterns are what
you *really* used during the Pac Man Contest mania of the early 80's.
I didn't win all the contests in this area by any means, but everyone
who did was using *these* patterns.

We laughed at people who used the Playboy/Guide to Pac Man patterns
because they'd usually come into a contest thinking they were going to
walk a way with 1st place (because the author talks about how you can
make money by using those patterns in contests) and then get blown
away.

Now, if you just want to use those patterns for their nostalgia
factor, because that's what you're used to, that's another matter.
Please ignore everything I said here.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tad Perry      Internet:    tvp@gibdo.engr.washington.edu
               CompuServe:  70402,3020
               NIFTY-Serve: GBG01266
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Organization: Penn State University
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 20:11:29 EST
From: <SML108@psuvm.psu.edu>
Newsgroups: alt.games.video.classic
Subject: Re: Cloak and Dagger

In article <9_m21yj@rpi.edu>, tringg@rs6311.ecs.rpi.edu (George Joseph Tringali)
says:
>
>  Anyone out there know what the game to the movie
>Cloak and Dagger was?  Was it the movie title name?
>Was there an actual game like that?
>
>
>-- Jake

The game actually existed...  In the movie there was even an Atari 800
version I don't think ever got released.  I played the game once in
a newsstand in Saratoga, NY which I entered solely because I saw the
cloak and dagger game from outside.  It was sort of a cross between
Elevator Action and Shamus...

Scott

Newsgroups: alt.games.video.classic
From: marv+@cs.cmu.edu (Marvin Germany)
Subject: Re: Pac-Man pattern in Playboy magazine
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 22:11:18 GMT


I don't know what issue this was in, but I had a book on all the
pac-man patterns and they were quite accurate.  I forget the name of 
it,  but I'll post the name of it if I fnd it.

I haven't seen a normal pac-man machine for years!  I have seen versions of
p-man (i.e.-Like the one that looks like Ms Pac man!), but it would be
really cool to find a normal version with the normal boards.

Memories!  :-)

Marv
marv@cs.cmu.edu
mg2s@andrew.cmu.edu


 


Newsgroups: alt.games.video.classic
From: clf3678@ultb.isc.rit.edu (C.L. Freemesser)
Subject: Re: Caleco Football (handheld) anyone?
Originator: clf3678@ultb
Organization: Rochester Institute of Technology
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 22:53:26 GMT

In article <1992Dec10.142004.29952@eplrx7.es.duPont.com> walker@eplrx7.es.duPont.com (Scott Walker) writes:
>I also remember playing those hand-held games like football, basketball
>(ta-DA), and hockey.  It sure helped pass those long bus rides away.  It
>got to the point where I could score a touchdown on level 2 on just 
>about every play.  Every kid had one, but the only kind I remember were
>by Caleco, although there were many other manufacturers.

Jeez, do I remember those things!  When I was in grammar school,
EVERYBODY had those hand-held games!  I think I still have an old Mattel
Football I around here somewheres (but some of the LEDs are burned out).
Circa 1979 or so.  I remember that they had FOOTBALL, FOOTBALL II,
BASEBALL, and SOCCER.

My brother also had one of those old "Merlin" handheld games.  As I
remember, it was red and looked like a one-piece phone.

Anybody remember the "hand-held" game LeBOOM?  It was in the shape of a
bomb, and was big enough that you couldn't really hold it in your hands.
You had to disarm the bomb before it blew up.

 _______________________________________________________________________
 || Chris Freemesser, RIT Comp.Eng.Tech.     I'd rather have a bottle ||
 || "A professional college student" :^)     In front of me.....      ||
 || Usenet: clf3678@ultb.rit.edu             .....than have a frontal ||
 || GEnie: C.FREEMESSER                         L O B O T O M Y ! ! ! ||
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: alt.games.video.classic
From: jpenne@ee.ualberta.ca (Jerry Penner)
Subject: Pac-man Jr.  (was Re: How about...)
Organization: University Of Alberta, Edmonton Canada
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 21:54:01 GMT

uplink@cwis.unomaha.edu (uplink 2099) writes:

>jmfuchs@unix.amherst.edu (JESSE MICHAEL FUCHS) writes:

>	Pac-Man Jr. was just Pac-Man with a larger maze.  Whenever you went
>to the left or right the screen would scroll with you.  In that way the
>programmers enabled you to play in mazes about 2.5 times the size of the
>original.  The everpresent monsters were still there but they gave you
>more energizers because of the bigger maze.  Oh-- there were no side
>tunnels; the mazes were all enclosed.

Another things about PacMan Jr is that the fruits would turn any dots
it passed over into fat dots that took much longer to eat.  And the
fruits would also go towards power pills and much those.  Pacman Jr is
pretty fun as well.  Still wish I could find an original Pacman
though.

-- 
Jerry Penner   jpenne@ee.ualberta.ca   Try a 1-line .sig today.
Newsgroups: alt.games.video.classic
From: dmarshall@trentu.ca (Dave Marshall)
Subject: Re: Star Raiders
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: Trent Computing and Telecommunications Department
Distribution: alt
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 19:32:00 GMT

>Commander, Class I. Anyone else out there grow up on Star Raiders?
>	-Chris Grasso
>	 Univ. of Colo., Boulder

I was already kinda growed up when I bought my Atari 400, Program Cassette 
Recorder (remember they had "special" in/output for this so you could not 
use an ordinary cassette recorder?), Basic, 2 Joysticks and a game -Star 
Raiders. I left over one thousand dollars on the counter (Canadajen eh).
 Atari was miles ahead with their system - separate graphics driver chip, 
complete Operating System, Player/Missile Graphics (sprites to 
non-Atarians) etc. I even sent for the OS and Hardware users manual - what 
was it? De Facto sumthin or other.
 Remember how explosions would slow down the time? I always figured this 
was because there was so many things moving on the screen. I remember being 
the co-pilot as someone else mentioned: running the keyboard "Sheilds! 
SHEILDS! ON", "turn that darn tracking off, I'm gettin dizzy!" and helping 
out when we lost the computer assisted crosshairs in hyperspace by putting 
my finger on the TV screen to orient the middle. 
 Remember the ads? "Bye bye Star Raiders"


David "Garbage Scow Captain" Marshall
dmarshall@trentu.ca
Newsgroups: alt.games.video.classic
From: amgaudra@neumann.uwaterloo.ca (Alain M. Gaudrault)
Subject: Re: Computer Reminisces (ZX-81, TI-99/4A, VIC-20, C-64)
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 11:38:09 GMT

In article <1992Dec12.063432.19973@infonode.ingr.com> drudetb@infonode.ingr.com (Ted B. Drude) writes:
>In article <Bz0pyK.1tI@math.uwaterloo.ca> amgaudra@neumann.uwaterloo.ca (Alain M. Gaudrault) writes:
>
>>Guess I'll have to get myself a Vic-20,
>
>Just let me know when you're ready.  I've got three of them sitting in
>storage in my garage! ;-)
>
	Really?  I imagine they're in working condition?  Do you have cables,
tape/disk drive, ... TV RF modulator, etc?  You wouldn't happen to have a C64
lying around too, eh?  Give me prices (include shipping, and don't forget, I'm
in Canada).  I just can't get the games I LIKE on my PC, so I suppose I'll have
to resort to lesser machines for my vid-fix.

Dealing out the decibels of pain,
						  Big Al the Devil's Pal!!
                                                     __   __            
                                                    /  `-' /          ,,
                                                    |[====|||||||||||[::}
                                                    \__.-._\          ``
Newsgroups: alt.games.video.classic
From: swarren@convex.com (Steve Warren)
Subject: Re: My Heartfelt Thanks.
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 17:30:17 GMT
Organization: Engineering, CONVEX Computer Corp., Richardson, Tx., USA
X-Disclaimer: This message was written by a user at CONVEX Computer
              Corp. The opinions expressed are those of the user and
              not necessarily those of CONVEX.

In article <7081@sersun1.essex.ac.uk> lacaa@sersun1 (Lacatena A) writes:
>Some of my favorite games were/are still:
>
>1/ Phoenix. (No. 1 IMHO).
>2/ Vanguard.
>3/ Marble Madness.
>4/ Cliff Hanger.
>5/ Tempest. (Oh how the hours went by.)
>6/ Star Wars.
>7/ Crazy Climber.

And what was that color vector-graphics take-off on asteroids where
two players had ships that were connected together?  You had to work
together to get anywhere.  The ships would sustain increasing damage
until they could no longer thrust, at which point the other guy would
fly around in circles with this dead weight attached to his tether.

We spent every quarter we could find and laughed our heads off playing
this game at Putt-Putt Golf-and-Games.
-- 
            _.
--Steve   ._||__    Welcome to the World's First GaAs Supercomputer
  Warren   v\ *|    -----------------------------------------------
             V
From: okes@essex.ac.uk (Simon Oke)
Newsgroups: alt.games.video.classic
Subject: thank you
Date: 14 Dec 92 14:43:41 GMT
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Essex, UK.
Posting-Software: GNUS 3.14.1

To all those who have mailed telling me that my posts are getting out:
Thank you very much. There is now no need to reply.

The matter seems to be that *I* cannot see my posts, which was making me
think that the NNTP-server was eating them. I will shortly take up this
matter locally.

Thanks again,
--
Simon Oke, 3rd year Computer Science
undergraduate at the University of Essex, UK.
Newsgroups: alt.games.video.classic,rec.games.video.arcade
From: Gregg Woodcock <woodcock@bnr.ca>
Subject: How to return games to active service...
Reply-To: Gregg Woodcock <woodcock@bnr.ca>
Organization: Bell-Northern Research, Richardson, Texas
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 15:47:39 GMT

I have started to collect some of my favorite old arcade games and
have often wondered about returning them to active duty.  I did some
calling and in Texas it seems that on top of registering your business
(about $5) with the state, you have to register the company as a vending
company with the comptroller in Austin ($500-$600) and you also have
to register *EACH GAME* with both the county ($40) and the state
($60).  This is ridiculous; no wonder arcades are dropping like S&L's!
I have no info on how often you pay these fees (forgot to ask) but I
assume the last 2 are annual fees.  I don't even think any of my games
could pull $100 each in profit in a year!!!  What is the situation
like for other states?  I had dreams about becoming a vending company
a little bit at a time in my spare time but this completely dashes
them!  Is there a better way to do it?

Also, what is the arrangement of the vender and the proprietor who has
the game on his property.  The few people I have asked have said they
go 50/50 for videogames (which seems fair; the vendor pays for the
wear-and-tear and the proprietor pays for the electricity and
survailence).  Is that the case most places?

Gregg "still a working stiff" Woodcock
-- 
THANX...Gregg   woodcock@bnr.ca   day 214.684.7380   night 214.530.2495
*CLASSIC VIDEOGAME COLLECTOR BUY/SELL/TRADE PRE-NINTENDO (ARCADE/HOME)*
"If you quote me on this I'll have to deny it; I won't remember because
my memory is so terrible.  Not only that, but I have a bad memory." -Me
Newsgroups: alt.games.video.classic
From: foregone@stein.u.washington.edu (Carl Chavez)
Subject: Re: street fighter II
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 05:01:15 GMT

In article <1992Dec16.175117.14525@cc.tut.fi> k138836@cc.tut.fi (Korhonen Tommi) writes:
>
>***************************************************************************
>>In the street fighter II series,there's a comment from Ryu after he
>>defeats his opponents.Does anyone happen to see this character in the
>>final stage? 
>***************************************************************************
>
>STREETFIGHTER IS NOT A CLASSIC VIDEOGAME!!!!
>
>This groups exists so that we do not have to bear SF II here!
>This is for Video GAMES, not for those... those...
>
>Please keep the newer stuff like that OUT OF HERE.
>
>

I think SF II qualifies as a classic now. After all, it's more popular
than Pac-Man ever was! (Don't get me wrong, I'm sick of SF II also)

Newsgroups: alt.games.video.classic
From: ac374@yfn.ysu.edu (Stanley Kaminski)
Subject: Re: Colecovision Games
Reply-To: ac374@yfn.ysu.edu (Stanley Kaminski)
Organization: St. Elizabeth Hospital, Youngstown, OH
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 03:13:05 GMT


In a previous article, jmfuchs@unix.amherst.edu (JESSE MICHAEL FUCHS) says:

>Matt Edwards (medwards@qualcom.qualcomm.com) wrote:
>> 
>> I've made a list of all my Coleco Vision Games.  Are there any I'm
>> missing?  (I'm sure there are :) ).  I'm interesting in finding
>> the rest!  If you know of any others please e-mail me!
>> 
>> Blockade Runner
>> Bump-n-Jump
>> Burger Time
>> Campaign '84
>> Carnival
>> Cosmic Avenger
>> Decathalon
>> Destructor
>> Donkey Kong
>> Donkey Kong Junior
>> Front Line
>> Ladybug
>> Looping
>> Miner 2049'er
>> Mr. Do
>> Omega Race
>> Pepper II
>> Pitstop
>> Popeye
>> Q*Bert
>> Rocky
>> Sammy Lightfoot
>> Slither
>> Smurf
>> Space Fury
>> Space Panic
>> Star Trek
>> Subroc
>> Super Action Baseball
>> Super Action Football
>> Time Pilot
>> Turbo
>> Tutankham
>> Up & Down
>> Victory
>> Venture
>> War Games
>> Zaxxon
>	The only other one that springs to mind is Ken Uston Blackjack. Good
>version...including a handy help feature that helped me learn b-j strategy 

Sierra-On-Line was planning to release a colecovision version of B.C.'s
Quest For Tires, don't know if they ever got around to it.

---Stash

-- 
ai815@cleveland.Freenet.Edu        ///   "Bourbon and beans;
ac374@yfn.ysu.edu                 ///     an explosive combination!"
GEnie: S.KAMINSKI             \\\///    --James T. Kirk, STAR TREK V
-------------------------------\XX/---------------------------------
Newsgroups: alt.games.video.classic
From: irving@halcyon.com (Larry Gilbert)
Subject: Re: Apple II: It lives (but not forever) in the LC
Organization: Northwest Nexus Inc. (206) 455-3505
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 05:25:59 GMT

tjg2946@ritvax.isc.rit.edu writes:

>I second the Karateka and CHoplifter and HardHatMack as a good Apple ][ 
>classic.

Yes, I agree, and I interject at this point only to relate a favorite
memory of mine.  I remember spending $40 on Choplifter (sheesh.. could
probably buy it for 40 cents now), despite having no joystick for playing
it.  Nevertheless, I think I managed to rescue all 64 hostages by
flying with a pair of paddles (Etch-a-Sketch style).  

-- 
Larry Gilbert       |  "Now it's over I'm dead and I haven't / done anything
irving@halcyon.com  |  that I want / or, I'm still alive / and there's nothing
                    |  I want to do"
finger for PGP key  |                  -- They Might Be Giants
Newsgroups: alt.games.video.classic
From: borgen@stud.cs.uit.no (Boerge Noest)
Subject: Re: Who's heard of this one ?
Organization: University of Tromsoe, Norway
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1992 19:22:56 GMT

In article <HOYME.92Dec9162046@schrodinger.src.honeywell.com> hoyme@src.honeywell.com (Ken Hoyme) writes:
>Yup.  I have this game.  Wasn't too impressed with the port, though.  I
>thought that the last few games they put out were rushed and didn't have
>the quality of the earlier Coleco stuff.  (I thought Ladybug was great!
>And Cosmic Avenger was a good port, and one of the first games they put
>out.) 

Did Cosmic Avenger have any kind of ending? (Colecovision version)

>Ken Hoyme                    Honeywell Systems and Research Center
-- 
|/// borgen@stud.cs.uit.no (Boerge Noest) | Amiga B2000			 \\\|
|//  Box 218, 9001 Tromsoe, Norway	  | Remember to :-) when needed	  \\|
|/   The worlds northernmost university	  | Life is worth living.	   \|
#Disclaimer: This university and me does not agree.
From: Zio zZz <zio@Garg.Campbell.CA.US>
Newsgroups: alt.games.video.classic
Subject: Re: Atari (tuff as nails)
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 92 00:57:05 PST
Distribution: us
Organization: The Land of Garg

iam@stiatl.salestech.com (Ian Mercado) writes:

> tphailey@eos.ncsu.edu (THOMAS PATRICK HAILEY) writes:
> 
> 
> >Anyone ever notice how Atari 2600 were indestructible? 
> >I always had a bad temper as a kid and I remember playing
> >moon patrol and getting quite frustrated. I hit my Atari 
> >with a croquet mallet. I felt quite a bit better and the 
> >thing still worked. Of course, there was a few times my
> >mother had to send it to a place to get it fixed, but I'm 
> >not sure what I did to break it. My brother and I found
> >cheats by taking stuff apart. One time we found that by
> >taking the joystick apart and operating it with the little
> >pads inside, one could score far better on Decathalon.
> 
> Hee, hee, hee!  I remember the good ol' days of cheating on 2600 games.  For
> most games, all you had to do was flip the power off and back on real fast
> to get some interesting results.  A friend of mine won a free Atari 5200
> when they had some Centipede contest for the 2600 after we found a way to
> cheat the score all the way to 999,999 :-)  It would only count up by ones,
> though, so we had to leave a chair standing on the joystick button all night
> long!  (I can remember us sitting around with our calculators figuring out
> exactly how long it would take for the score to get to that number.)
> 
> Dawg, I love all this reminiscing!!
> 
> Ian
> 
> -- 


Also, on Reactor (Parker Brothers - 2600), you could kill yourself off, 
get the chambers on the upper section, then search the upper wall for an 
energy leak.  find the central flat of the leak, press up and keep 
holding up.  You will score endless points, and another life every 10,000 
points.  You can then die, and continue where you died from, with all 
these extra lives!

One of my fave ways was to get an old joystick cable, and wire the Up and 
+5V together to simulate a held up joystick.  Plug it into Port A of a 
DB9 switcherbox.  Plug a full joystick in Port B.  Select Port B, play 
the game, and when I got the leak, and was racking the points, switch to 
Port A, and let the wired cable do the work.  I then went out with some 
friends to dinner, and when I came back, I had 82 lives waiting for me, 
and it was still counting!

Note, that it will not always work.  The Energy Leak seems to have 3 
"shapes", and one of the shapes will not let you do this properly.  The 
other two are just fine.  There can also be small extra leaks on the 
top, but they don't work.  Just keep searching!  If you hit the leak too 
hard, you will break through it and crash into the wall.  You must 
balance your upward motion with the Repulsion field of the energy leak, 
on impact.  Keep trying, it is easy once you get the hang of it!


-- 
zio@Garg.Campbell.CA.US (Zio zZz)
The Land of Garg BBS -- +1 408 378-5108
Newsgroups: alt.games.video.classic