Raiders of the Lost Ark circa Atari 2600

You know, besides Adventure, Raiders of the Lost Ark was one of the most impressive action-adventure role-playing games to come out of Atari 2600's long-standing video game dynasty.

At the time, it was The Legend of Zelda, the Doom, the Grand Theft Auto, of this particular game console.

I spent days and days (more like months and months) trying to solve this damn game. Then, after six months of ownership, I received a little piece of advice from a kid at school. I believe it was in the bathroom. Aren't all great business conversations completed in the bathroom?

I don't remember the exact dialogue, but the key words 'Parachute', 'Secret Lair' and 'Ankh' came up a lot. I'm also pretty sure 'Beware the Tsetse Flies' was brought up, but that was something I knew about already. Duh.

So, on my run today. I was thinking about Atari 2600 and the various games I played on that particular game system as well as Intellivision, Colecovision, Odyssey2 and my precious Commodore 64.

Then, my mind reverted back to Raiders. That's when I thought to to myself, "I wonder if there is an Atari 2600 Raiders of the Lost Ark walk-through on YouTube?"

Well, thanks to azzarox661, guess what?

Here's Part 1:

And here's Part 2:

So, the endless, endless hours of blood, sweat and tears, in reality, took only 12 minutes to complete - from start to finish. I could have been writing a book or something!!! Sigh.

Mother Fucking Ark of the Covenant!!!

By the way, I love YouTube.

Eimer's List of Old School Video Games

So, yet another little treasure from Eimer's boxes of goodies stored in my basement.

I'm not sure on when this was created. It could have been anywhere from 9- to 13-years old.

But, for whatever reason, I made a list of video game titles from Intellivision, ColecoVision, Atari 2600 and Aladdin's Castle (the video-game emporium at the Ohio Valley Mall, which housed all of the big-box games).

In any event, below are 138 video games that I played, in one shape or form, during my early video-game playing tenure (Which, as I understand, are one's most fordible years):

(click image to enlarge)

Couple highlights about this list:

• The odd thing about this list is that the numbering is all screwed up - beginning with #1 in the right-hand side and ending in the 100's on the left-hand side.
• What about Space Invaders, Missle Command, Congo Bongo, Double Dragon, Kangaroo, Dragon's Lair, 10-Yard Fight, Marble Madness and a wide array of pinball games such as Pinbot and Cyclone?
• I remember that Atari came out with Jungle Hunt to battle the success of Activision's Pitfall. Truth be told, it actually wasn't that bad of a game.
• Remember when you achieved a high score in any Activision game, they asked you to take a picture of your television screen and send it away for an offical Activision patch of that video game?
• Remember Atari 2600's crappy Pac-Man rip-off? Boy did that suck!
• Concerning the games on the list, what the hell is Bally-Ho, Barbie, Sub Roc, Temple of Apshai and Lost Luggage?
• Personally, I recall some of my favorites during this time as Donkey Kong (of course), Frogger, Adventure, Burger Time, Defender, Warlords, Pitfall, Jumpman Jr. 2, and Megamania (remember the commercial?) 
• I have a story about Satan's Hollow (#127). I was playing this video game at Super X (a local pharmacy in Martins Ferry, which is now a CVS). An old lay approached me and quietly stood over my shoulder as I rocket-launched the shit out of Lucifer. During a brief pause in the game, I glanced over at her and offered up a nervous smiled. She had a very perturbed look on her face. "You're going to hell for playing that game," she told me matter of factly and exited the store. I freaked out, lost my mojo and proceeded to get my ass kicked by the Devil. As a matter of fact, I was so freaked out that I stopped playing Satan's Hollow altogether. However, 20+ years later, I recently revisited the game at Cedar Point's Main Arcade on the midway. Hell be damend, I still rocked that high score.
• After reviewing this list, I have many, many fond memories of most of these video games. In particular the video game battles that my brother and I would get into...which I may share a little later.
• Isn't it ironic how this list compares to the length of my list of all-time favorite movies? Also, notice the Raiders of the Lost Ark Atari 2600 video game in the linked movie post. Very odd.

Mike Tyson Punch-Out!! Eimer World Records.

Waaay back in the Mid-80's, there was no such thing as PlayStation. Nintendo was king.

Waaay back in the Mid-80's, mix-martial arts was non-existent. Boxing was the bloodsport of choice. 

Waaay back in the Mid-80's Mike Tyson, the actor, was underheard of. Mike Tyson, the heavyweight boxer, was feared!

Waaay back in the Mid-80's Gears of War was something in a Sylvester Stallone movie. Mike Tyson's PunchOut!! was the most badass game of it's time.

Waaay back in the Mid-80's, I was a geeky eigth-grader with no life, no girlfriend and no easy way to access online porn via the World Wide Web, since it wasn't invented yet. What's an angry 13-year old to do?

Well, this angry 13-year old donated 100% of his energy to mastering video games. You know, the classics like Castlevania, Mega Man (the first one!), Super Mario 1 and 2, Legend of Zelda and, of course, Mike Tyson's Punch Out!! (two exclamation points!)

Remember the box of goodies I talked about a while ago?

Well, I went digging into that box last night and came out with another young Eimer gem:

It's all of my world records from Mike Tyson's Punchout!! Nice list by the way. I was looking online and couldn't seem to find any other gamer's records. So I'll accept these as the current world records.

As you see, in the beginning I beat Tyson by decision. However, I finally TKO'd Tyson with 16 seconds left in the third round. Not sure you can defeat Tyson by knock out. But I came close.

On a related note, the wikipedia entry for Tyson's Punch-Out!! stated there was a sequel in the works where Mike Tyson travels into space to take on extra terrestrials. Production was stalled because of Tyson's rape conviction. Damn you Mike Tyson's penis! Damn you!

This is just one of many, many more hidden treasures lurking in my box of young Eimer goodies.

Who knows what's going to pop up next?