The three cartridges no Atari 7800 fan should be without

That is, nerdism on my part...yup, I'm an Atari video game nerd.

In my prior post, I mentioned that the Atari Video Computer System, later renamed the Atari 2600, is my favorite system. Well, that's pretty much true, but my favorite console is the Atari 7800. A little background info might be helpful, but beware that I might have some of my history wrong; I recommend reading the forums at Atari Age for the full story and comments and discussion about it...but here's Dauber's fuzzy-memory version:

Atari released a system called Atari 5200, which was meant to be both an improvement from the 2600 and a response to the Mattel Intellivision (and not, despite what many believe, a response to ColecoVision). The 5200 didn't sell very well, though, partly because of really sucky controllers (and you couldn't use 2600 controllers in a 5200 because the ports were different), and partly because not many people with 2600s bought the 5200 because the 5200 wasn't backwards-compatible.

In 1984, the folks at Atari designed the Atari 7800, which was meant to be an improvement on the 5200, and this time Atari got smart: the system was backward-compatible with the 2600, so games for the Atari 2600, for the most part, work with the 7800. To help maintain the backward compatibility, the Atari 7800 used the same chip for sound as did the 2600. Unfortunately, as a result, the sound in 7800 games isn't much better than that of 2600 games. Atari had planned to put a sound chip called POKEY (which was the sound chip in the 5200) into the system for improved sound, but that never happened, although a few 7800 games actually had POKEY chips inside the cartridges to give the games some better sound.

The joysticks packed with the 7800 weren't much of an improvement over the ones packed with the 5200, but the Atari 7800's joystick ports were of the same DB9 style that the 2600 used, so most joysticks on the market could be used in that port; luckily, very few games required the use of the second button that was specially wired on the 7800's controllers.

The 7800 had a very limited release (if any at all) in 1984, but due to various circumstances, the system didn't get a wide release until around 1986 or 1987, and was marketed as a rival to the Nintendo Entertainment System. By this time, the design of the 7800 was slightly modified -- an expansion port was removed; a lucky few consumers did end up with systems that had been collecting dust at Atari since 1984 and actually have the original designs with the expansion port.

Having said all that, the Atari 7800 is a great system, really, with arcade-quality graphics (at least for the 80s!), excellent gameplay, and nowadays a relatively easy system to find at retro stores and on eBay for pretty cheap. And, of course, it plays all the old Atari 2600 games -- for the most part: some Atari 7800 models have compatibility problems with a few select games, such as The Activision Decathlon. I'm one of the lucky ones: my 7800 so far has played every game that anybody has ever tried on it -- the ones that have known compatibility problems, homebrews, and even games from the Supercharger.

As a small guide to those who might be considering an Atari 7800 -- or who alread have one but need to be shown the light -- here are the three carts you absolutely cannot be without, in no particular order:

Food Fight -- I think this game is necessary simply because everybody knows that you gotta have it if you have a 7800! Tragically, the Atari 7800 was the only game system that has a home version of Food Fight; happily, it's an excellent conversion, including an Easter egg that was only recently discovered.

Beef Drop -- This is a homebrew version of the classic Burgertime and is a most excellent recreation. Without this cart, the only way you can play Burgertime on a 7800 is with that godawful 2600 conversion. There is currently an extremely limited supply of Beef Drop available for purchase on Atari Age -- best of luck in getting one! Also, it's pricey, but worth it. Rumor has it there will be another run later; however, the current (limited) run uses a POKEY chip for improved sound; later versions reportedly will only use the 7800's built-in sound.

Pac-Man Collection! -- another homebrew. Actually, this is an elaborately hacked version of the Atari 7800's pretty-good conversion of Ms. Pac-Man. Pac-Man Collection! is, by far, my favorite game cartridge ever. A longtime Pac-Man fan hacked the Ms. Pac-Man game and corrected some of the colors and graphics, made the game more accurate to the arcade version, and added many other Pac-Man options, including "standard" Pac-Man, Pac-Man Plus, and even versions based on bootleg arcade games! There's a high-speed option for those who like the occasional speedup hacks you'd see in arcades once in a while, and you can turn any of the games on the cart into a "Plus" version -- imagine, playing Ms. Pac-Man Plus, which never existed...now it does! This is another title you can get at Atari Age. You'll be thankful you have it.