Should I buy a Starpath Supercharger?

[Atari Dogs]

I am thinking of buying a supercharger and four or five cassettes from a local video game store. He is selling them as is. Do the tapes have any problems working after all these years? How are the games?

Edited August 19, 2017 by Atari Dogs

[CPUWIZ]

Why don't you just get a Harmony cart?

[Atari Dogs]

I did not know Harmony Carts could play those games.

[up2knowgood]

I recommend the Supercharger, it's super cool, and for the most part, the tapes still work.

 

That said, the Harmony Cart should play those games too if you can find the ROMs. The multiload ones might not work, but that's a maybe and an exception, not a rule.

[TrekMD]

I love the Supercharger. I still have my original tapes and they work. I guess it all depends on how they are stored. The games can indeed be played using the Harmony cart but I still like having my Supercharger. You can even find the games in mp3 format and load them that way.

[RamrodHare]

You can play them all on a Harmony encore. The roms are readily availible online.. The only reason to buy a supercharger would be as a collectable. I'm not saying you shouldn't get it, since it is something VERY cool to have, but if you just want to play the games and aren't interested in collecting stuff like that, get the Harmony. Heck, get both if you can afford it. If I found a good deal on anything Atari related and I had the money, I'd buy it.

[hizzy]

Get a supercharger, and try a mp3 player or a Discman!

[tdp]

Go fo the Supercharger. It just adds a unique dimension to your 2600 gaming.The cassettes are like any other. As long as they have not been by magnets (resting on speakers, etc....) and not covered in dust/dirty you should be good. lus there is always Stella got a new brain and Worship the Woodgrain. These can be burnt to CD, or be used via an mp3 player. Or you could go full retro and convert the games to audio and copy them to a blank tape.

[+sramirez2008]

Do it! I love my Harmony cart, but there's only one way to play Supercharger games IMO.

 

[bohoki]

tapes are pretty durable but their labels tend to fall off

 

you need a good working tape player and they are recorded mono

 

if its cheap its a cool device

[enthusi]

Another argument here :-)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RaE7qcRDivo

[Mayhem]

If you feel like buying one, I've got a full NTSC set going currently

[Flojomojo]

This thread is the definition of "self selected sample." Just so you get a diversity of opinion, I'll opine: do you really want the extra wires? Are you really going to collect analog cassettes from 1982? Do you really need another way to load ROMs that is slower, less compatible, and more wire-happy than emulation or a flash cartridge?

 

I got one waaaay after it was new, when the Stella Gets A New Brain CD came out. I got it to play the games. That was long before we had better alternatives, and if I'm remembering right, before cheap writeable CDs!

 

I think you missed the boat on this one by a decade or more. If it were me, I'd BUY a Harmony cart and READ about the Supercharger.

 

Anyone who disagrees -- I'll gladly trade you my Supercharger for your Harmony Cart.

 

("Why not both?" Enjoy your piles of money!)

[+cvga]

I am thinking of buying a supercharger and four or five cassettes from a local video game store. He is selling them as is. Do the tapes have any problems working after all these years? How are the games?

 

Did you buy it?

[up2knowgood]

This thread is the definition of "self selected sample." Just so you get a diversity of opinion, I'll opine: do you really want the extra wires? Are you really going to collect analog cassettes from 1982? Do you really need another way to load ROMs that is slower, less compatible, and more wire-happy than emulation or a flash cartridge?

 

I got one waaaay after it was new, when the Stella Gets A New Brain CD came out. I got it to play the games. That was long before we had better alternatives, and if I'm remembering right, before cheap writeable CDs!

 

I think you missed the boat on this one by a decade or more. If it were me, I'd BUY a Harmony cart and READ about the Supercharger.

 

Anyone who disagrees -- I'll gladly trade you my Supercharger for your Harmony Cart.

 

("Why not both?" Enjoy your piles of money!)

You're a major buzz kill Flo. No appreciation for the original hardware the games we all love, and I know we all love them else we wouldn't be here.

 

That said, it's not like you don't have a point. Though I still have to ask, does the Harmony work with the multi load games?

[Atari Dogs]

Not yet. The store is near my job. And I have been busy this weekend. I am not worried about the wires as the are only going to be seen when I play a few games. My water proof Sony Walkman, you know the yellow one, still works. I had looked up Stella Gets a New Brain on eBay and those are crazy expensive.

[toiletunes]

I play multiload games on a standard Harmony, no problem. Mindmaster rocks

[Flojomojo]

You're a major buzz kill Flo. No appreciation for the original hardware the games we all love, and I know we all love them else we wouldn't be here.

 

That said, it's not like you don't have a point. Though I still have to ask, does the Harmony work with the multi load games?

I think I'm more of a major "asshole" than a buzz kill. Though if I saw a Supercharger in person in a retail store, I would probably buy it, too.

 

Red flag: why is it sold "as is" if they're a game store? They should test it out. I'm sure someone could send the OP some MP3 or Wav files to use with it, no cassette player needed. It would make for a neat in-store demo. Unless it's broken, in which case it shouldn't be sold.

 

I know you didn't mean to speak for everyone. I like the old GAMES because they're fun, and I tolerate the old hardware because it used to be a necessary evil. I think the software is the soul, and the consoles are just the vessel to contain them.

[Video]

Old stuff is cool, I got one and love it. If I had a ram cart (harmony or whatever) I'd use that, but minus the loading screen ACD cool factor of "I'm loading stuff from outside the ateri!" Which will only be cool/desirable or not to you. Like others have said, get both (if price is no issue) and enjoy the best of both worlds.

 

But only you can answer if the device would be worth it to you.

 

How much is it? Would the store let you test it? If so bring a console and an mp3 copy of a game. The store may lack a 2600, cassette player, both, or just worried about wrecking unknown condition tapes.

[Mr SQL]

Lots of great perspective on the SuperCharger! imo the device is so much fun because it feels so retro to press play on tape or to load a game from your discman or ipod, blends nicely with the gaming experience.

 

I have a Harmony cart too and it's great for playing the fat binaries the SuperCharger cannot play but I don't like navigating the Harmony menu because it clashes with the gaming experience - I'll try to pick out a few games to play ahead of time to minimize time spent with the menu because that is the opposite of what I want to do.

 

When playing a tape or selecting a new game from your ipod there is no menu on your Television, only uninterrupted gaming.

 

 

The cassettes are fun to collect too, you can convert the WAV output back into a binary and put it on a flashcart but you don't get that same authentic vintage feel you can only experience from using your Television for classic gaming rather than as a modern file browser.

 

Here are some recently released SuperCharger Tapes and a new BASIC for making SuperCharger games with enhanced graphics that are compatible with the Atari Flashback Portable:

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/267146-supercharger-audit/?p=3794180

 

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/267146-supercharger-audit/?p=3799657

 

[TrekMD]

Here is another video to check out on the Supercharger:

[up2knowgood]

I think I'm more of a major "asshole" than a buzz kill. Though if I saw a Supercharger in person in a retail store, I would probably buy it, too.

 

Red flag: why is it sold "as is" if they're a game store? They should test it out. I'm sure someone could send the OP some MP3 or Wav files to use with it, no cassette player needed. It would make for a neat in-store demo. Unless it's broken, in which case it shouldn't be sold.

 

I know you didn't mean to speak for everyone. I like the old GAMES because they're fun, and I tolerate the old hardware because it used to be a necessary evil. I think the software is the soul, and the consoles are just the vessel to contain them.

 

I don't think you're an asshole. You still appreciate the old games, you just don't like the old hardware. I'm on the opposite side of things, I like the old hardware just as much as I do the old games. Which is why I probably own more cartridges than you, but you probably blow me out of the water with the number of ROMs you have. Neither is right or wrong, just different, I know that. This site is geared for both collectors like me and emulators like you for just that reason.

 

My reason for not owning a Harmony Cart is more of a comedy of errors than any sort of principle. I first heard about it on the forums here, but because it wasn't in the Atari Age Store, I thought that meant it was no longer available. I learned where it was on sale about a month ago, but by then I had already bought a Cuttle Cart off of eBay, and see no reason to buy the Harmony now.

[zzip]

This thread is the definition of "self selected sample." Just so you get a diversity of opinion, I'll opine: do you really want the extra wires? Are you really going to collect analog cassettes from 1982? Do you really need another way to load ROMs that is slower, less compatible, and more wire-happy than emulation or a flash cartridge?

 

I got one waaaay after it was new, when the Stella Gets A New Brain CD came out. I got it to play the games. That was long before we had better alternatives, and if I'm remembering right, before cheap writeable CDs!

 

I think you missed the boat on this one by a decade or more. If it were me, I'd BUY a Harmony cart and READ about the Supercharger.

 

Anyone who disagrees -- I'll gladly trade you my Supercharger for your Harmony Cart.

 

("Why not both?" Enjoy your piles of money!)

 

But then you miss out on all the 'fun', like this:

 

 

and this

 

 

not to mention this

[enthusi]

Tapes do not just suck.

They suck slowly

But in fact I love 'em. I played Dragonstomper via Supercharger. It simply feels different from launching individual ROMs.

[RamrodHare]

I can't deny that a supercharger would be an awesome thing to have. It's got some history and it's something that even today, has a cool factory because of what it does. If I had the money and found one I could afford, I'd buy it. I'm not a fan of cassettes, since I remember what it was like to have them eaten by even the best of my cassette players. While the Harmony does make the supercharger unnecessary, the Harmony is modern technology, so it doesn't have the same "Magic", if you know what I mean.