Jon

Jon Reddick is a well-credentialed nerd of the 80s, classic game fan, and technology geek. He merged those interests into the creation of GenXGrownUp: a weekly podcast and YouTube channel which explores and celebrates media, games, tech, toys, comics, and pop culture of yesterday and today through the eyes of Generation X'ers.

Defective $1000 Atari XP Carts & the State of Modern Atari | An Editorial

About two weeks ago, a user on X by the name of Cear Dragon posted that two of their limited AtariXP carts – Haunted House & Crystal Castles – were defective. Haunted House, he claimed, had the PCB inserted backwards and Crystal Castles, he said, was buggy and unplayable. As these were limited releases, it […]

Jon

May 20, 2024

106

Atari 2600 Thunderground from SEGA | It’s All About Design!

Thunderground is an Atari 2600 video game developed by Sega Electronics and released by Sega in 1983. It appears to have been inspired mainly by one section of arcade game Borderline (1981), which sees a player drive a tank underground firing at other tanks while avoiding not to get hit. Your task is to tunnel […]

Jon

May 17, 2024

Comparison of 2019 vs. 2024 Pac-Man | Basic Fun Arcade Classics AGAIN in 2024!

Basic Fun’s line of Arcade Classics tabletop video game toys were all the rage in the late teens, but new released evaporated around 2020 – or so we thought! Just in the past week, sightings of a new Pac-Man with a 2024 copyright and updated box art started to appear in Walmart retail stores. Could […]

Jon

May 15, 2024

174

Vintage Oil Drilling Game that NEVER WAS! | Oil Strike ’75

Get ready to earn while you learn in Oil Strike ’75, a fun, exciting, and educational new game from Cadal Corp. where you’re tasked with running a rig and discovering new oil deposits at the bottom of the sea – no matter the cost. Who knows what you’ll find! Utilise super-safe seismic exploration to discover […]

Jon

May 14, 2024

103

The Ultimate U.S. Games/Vidtec/Atari 2600 Tier List – ALL RELEASED GAMES RANKED

During this renaissance of Atari 2600 games in the wake of the release of the 2600+, prices for those decades-old cartridges continue to climb. So it’s even more important now to know the caliber of the game inside the increasingly-expensive little plastic boxes. In this video I rank every title published by third-party developer, U.S. […]

Jon

May 13, 2024

188

Atari 2600 Raiders of the Lost Ark – “Why did it have to be snakes?”

Raiders of the Lost Ark is an action-adventure game for the Atari 2600 released in 1982, based on the 1981 film of the same name. The game was designed by Howard Scott Warshaw. When the opportunity to write an Atari VCS game based on the film was offered at Atari, Howard Scott Warshaw – fresh […]

Jon

May 10, 2024

132