In this episode:

• Ron Howard’s Call To Action video on Funny or Die featuring Andy Griffith and Henry Winkler,
• Stephen Baldwin challenging Barack Obama to a boxing match,
• the pointlessness of student government,
• wearing costumes to the October NAVA meeting at the Digital Press video game store in Clifton, NJ (www.digitpress.com),
• Greg trying to buy a Crosley Keepsake USB record player from Craig’s List,
• Greg trying to buy an Indiana Jones costume,
• crowded Halloween stores,
• 16 rpm records,
• pole vaulting in dreams,
• receiving Sega video games from Juan in Missouri,
• Sega’s obsession with Michael Jackson,
• our review of the ColecoVision, the Atari 5200, and the Atari 7800,
• the upcoming Pac-Man Collection for the ColecoVision (www.opcodegames.com),
• a customer looking for an Osama bin Laden costume,
• Michael Bay, Mike Tyson, and Jerry Seinfeld looking stupid,
• our movie review of Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist (2008) starring Michael Cera,
• and our movie review of Religulous (2008) starring Bill Maher.

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Other than Nintendo, Atari is the most widely used and associated name with
video gaming. Though the company, as many of us knew it, has been largely
out of business for 15 years, it still rules the roost in terms of classic
gaming. Like many, the Atari 2600 was the first video game system Rob and I had.

Here are some great web sites dedicated to the Atari family of home consoles
and computers:

• Atari Age is unquestionably the central hub for Atari enthusiasts, with its heavily used forum. All the news, finds, information, expertise, and game trading is there. It also has scans of cartridges, boxes, and manuals, plus screenshots, emulators, and ROMs for the Atari 2600, 5200, 7800, Lynx, and Jaguar.
• Atari Guide has a huge amount of game, box, and manual scans for Atari and the NES. It also has a master list of Atari 2600 games and pictures of the cartridges, all in one page.
• Atari Mania takes the visual archive to the utmost degree. There’s an enormous amount of scans of games, catalogs, you name it. All Atari systems are covered.
• Atari Protos has the most updated and thorough information and research on the many Atari prototypes and unreleased games that exist. Check it out and find out why games like The A-Team, Garfield, and Planet of the Apes never got released.
• Pitfall Jones has done the unthinkable! He has consolidated all of the scans of cartridges and screenshots of every Atari 5200, 7800, and 8-Bit Computer game! You can see what every cart looked like, all in one place.
• Atari Gaming Headquarters has a wealth of information for all the Atari consoles and computers, as well as Atari developed arcade machines. Marquees, artwork, advertisements, screenshots, and more.
• Atari 8-bit Forever is a tremendous source of information for the long line of Atari 8-bit computers.
• Atari 2600.com is an online store for a large number of hard-to-find classic console parts and games. It is very well maintained.
• Atari 7800.org has the most detailed technical information on the oft-forgotten Atari 7800 Pro System.
• Atari Museum is just what it says it is.
• 4 Jays has a ton of products to purchase for classic systems.
• Best Electronics has untold amounts of official Atari vintage products, especially for making repairs.
• The Video Game Critic is my favorite video game quick-review website. He’s got just one screenshot, a short paragraph or two, and a grade for each game. His opinion is unbiased and his web site is organized so much better than the overkill you get on sites like IGN.
• Digital Press Video Games has the tremendous game rarity and price guide. Of course, the forum is the hub for all classic and modern gaming discussion, no matter what console or computer.

There is one more website I’ve come across, the Atari 2600 Label Maker. The Atari 2600 had fantastic and unique artwork on the cartridge labels. Well, now you can make your own Atari game, so to speak! To that end, I’ve gone a step further (probably right off the cliff) and with the help of Photoshop…

Here are 140 fake labels of Atari 2600 games. Some are prototypes and unreleased games, but most are licensed titles that could have been made in the late 1970s and early 80s for the 2600: TV shows, cartoons, movies, etc. Some of these labels I found on the Atari Age forums and were done by members Marc Oberhäuser, Atariboy2600, and user42. I took some of their work and put it on scans of real cartridges. I created the majority of these labels, though.

In any case, I think this is the largest custom, faux, “what-if” Atari 2600 label archive in one place!

Popular 1970s and 80s TV Shows:

Magnum P.I., The Fonz, T.J. Hooker, Rockford Files, Knight Rider, Starsky & Hutch, Chips, Columbo, and Kojak

Space: 1999, Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who, Charlie’s Angels, Bionic Woman, and The Six Million Dollar Man

Popular 1970s and 80s Children’s Shows:

Batman, Wonder Woman, The Hobbit, The Secret of Nimh, Scooby Doo, and Woody Woodpecker

Fraggle Rock, Inspector Gadget, Rainbow Brite, Voltron, Transformers, Thundercats, Dungeons & Dragons, Transformers, and Alf

Popular 1970s and 80s Sci-Fi Movies:

Diamonds are Forever, Moonraker, Close Encounters, Logan’s Run, Star Wars, The Black Hole, Escape From New York, The Island of Dr. Moreau, and Blade Runner

Popular 1970s and 80s Action Films:

First Blood, Rocky II, Death Wish, Escape from Alcatraz, Jaws, The Poseidon Adventure, Conan the Barbarian, The Beastmaster, and The Road Warrior

Popular 1970s and 80s Cult Movies:

Deliverance, Swamp Thing, Clash of the Titans, Death Race 2000, Evil Dead, Hercules, The Warriors, Gone in 60 Seconds, and Rollerball

Popular 1970s and 1980s Childrens Movies:

Grease, Annie, Herbie the Love Bug, Bad News Bears, The Muppet Movie, and Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure

Popular 1970s and 80s Comedy Movies:

Smokey and the Bandit, Caddyshack, Slap Shot, Cannonball Run, Revenge of the Nerds, 1941, Police Academy, Blues Brothers, and Daffy Duck’s Fantastic Island

Children’s Game Prototypes by Atari:

Dumbo’s Flying Circus, Donald Duck’s Speedboat, Snow White, Garfield, Good Luck Charlie Brown, Miss Piggy’s Wedding, Grover’s Music Maker, Bugs Bunny, and Sport Goofy

Licensed TV and Movie Game Prototypes:

Care Bears, Star Wars: Ewok Adventure, Incredible Hulk, Planet of the Apes, Dukes of Hazzard, The A-Team, Dune, The Pink Panther, and The Lord of the Rings

Other Game Prototypes by Atari:

Rubik’s Cube 3D, Elk Attack, Polo, Wizard, RealSports Basketball, Aquaventure, Boggle, and Combat Two

Other Game Prototypes by Third Party Developers:

Secret Agent, Meltdown, Pompeii, Wings, McDonald’s, and Save Mary

Ports of Popular Arcade Games of the Era:

Monaco GP, Le Mans, Galaxy Ranger, Space Ace, Dragon’s Lair, Mappy, Destruction Derby, Lode Runner, and Lady Bug

Goofy Games:

The Paunch Stevenson Show, Super Mario Bros., Alien vs. Predator, Jerry Hunt, Kiss: Destroyer, and Once Upon A Spy

Almost All of Mattel’s M Network Releases, Had They Featured the Intellivision Artwork and a Standard Cartridge:

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Treasure of Tarmin, Adventures of TRON, Anteater, Armor Ambush, Astroblast, Bump ‘n’ Jump, Burger Time, Dark Cavern, Frogs and Flies, Master of the Universe: The Power of He-Man, International Soccer, Kool-Aid Man, Lock ‘N’ Chase, Loco Motion, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Space Attack, Star Strike, Super Challenge Baseball, Super Challenge Football, and TRON Deadly Discs

In this episode:

• Election Day in the U.S.,
• a voice mail message from Joe Piscopo,
• Carrot Top,
• annoying car horns and alarms,
• the Casino Royale (2006) trailer,
• difficult Atari 2600 video games (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Riddle of the Sphinx, etc.),
• the Atari 7800,
• cartridges vs. CDs,
• Larry King interviewing a George W. Bush impersonator,
• Tom Cruise as the head of United Artists,
• Heaven’s Gate (1980) starring Kris Kristofferson and Jeff Bridges,
• movie rolls that actors have turned down (www.notstarring.com),
• Christopher Walken as Han Solo,
• and Puff Daddy as James Bond 007.

Happy birthday to Adam in SC!

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In this episode:

• Pat Cooper’s temporary death on wikipedia.com,
• celebrity deaths (Jack Warden and Mako),
• Sidekicks (1992) starring Jonathan Brandis and Chuck Norris,
• Who Wants to Be a Superhero? starring Stan Lee,
• Fossil’s Atari watches,
• the new planets,
• David Copperfield’s Fountain of Youth,
• the upcoming Batman movie The Dark Knight (2008) starring Christian Bale,
• Tom Cruise helping car accident victims in Utah,
• Dustin Diamond’s assault,
• annoying people in NYC selling water and M&M’s,
• the upcoming video game movie DOA: Dead or Alive (2007) starring Jaime Pressly and Eric Roberts,
• and our movie review of The Night Listener (2006) starring Robin Williams and Toni Collette.

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In this episode:

• the new Nike+iPod sneakers,
• stupid styles (big shoes and young white guys with afros),
• Chris Tucker’s ridiculous Rush Hour 3 salary,
• Family Matters,
• Tom Green’s new show vs. Amazon Fishbowl with Bill Maher,
• Definitely Maybe by Oasis being voted the best album of all time on NME.com (www.nme.com),
• the upcoming release of the original Star Wars trilogy on DVD,
• Star Wars Jedi Arena on the Atari 2600 by Parker Brothers
• Star Wars Louie Anderson Special Edition,
• Thumb Wars (1999),
• and The Old Jingle of the Episode (Sanford and Son theme song).

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In this episode:

• Minute Maid fruit punch,
• the book So You Want to Be a Dancer (1979) by William E. Thomas,
• Gallagher,
• water up the nose,
• the International Federation of Competitive Eating world records (www.ifoce.com),
• champion eater Sonya Thomas,
• old video games (Airwolf, River Raid, Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!, etc.),
• Michael Jackson and his web site (www.michaeljackson.com),
• and a skit about customer service call centers in foreign countries.

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