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Finally I can post ... although to be honest I got a some spare time last Sunday, but I was busy... Yep, busy to PLAY it !!! ---[ and also to produce my own template for the cartridge box... (picture attached) ]--- ------------------------------ I translate from italian my own review/first impressions of VCS Scramble I already wrote in my "VideoGames Dawn" FB group, so please forgive me for any errors... ]--- ------------------------------ What can I say ? ... ah, I have to say IT'S AWESOME !!! We could really define it as "arcade perfect", for both gameplay and graphics ! I also tried to do the classic "gliding raids" and other maneuvers that I used to do on the arcade and I must say it really reminds me of the many games played on the coin-op at the "downstairs cafe", in '81 / '82 (and my father "slaps" when I came home late from school because I HAD TO to play Scramble, before !!!). The development of the bases, missiles, all the other enemies and their movement patterns are virtually identical to the arcade ! As well as the sounds and music ! On the emulator we can turn on the stereo audio output on, so we could hear the effects of the game on right channel, while the left one is "dedicated" to the classic and thumping noise typical of the arcade, the noise of the enemy ufos engine and the effect of explosion of our bold spaceship. --- [Note: it is SO urgent that I decide "in time" to fix my stereo Heavy Sixer... before I'll have buy the "true" cartridge !] --- The "AtariAge" logo instead of the "Konami" one on top of the tower block just before the enemy base (which is a bit more difficult to hit of the corresponding on the coin-op ...) is a" gem " !!! ... but the author of the game had already did "gems" before, precisely in the very first screen of his Lady Bug for the VCS, which I already bought about 7 years ago, that showed the typical "check" of the coin-op version just after turning on the console ! For now the only "defect", if we can call it that, is the usual "inclination" to the blinking / flickering, but we all know that is something "congenital" for the VCS... so, looking at all that objects that runs around the screen, I think it's kinda' the best that could be done ! ---[ on the emulator you can turn on the "phosphor" option and set it at 100%, and so blinking is reduced "to the bone", but of course in the scenes in which there is confusion of sprites also the phosphor can do nothing... ]--- Ok, I would say that in when we have to "dodge" the walls in the tunnel and we've to fire at the various fuel tanks placed there, the shooting of our spacecraft is a little less effective than in the coin-op. This is due to the fact that the arcade got TWO FIRE BUTTON, one for shooting the front and one for bombs, while the VCS does obviously "everything" with the only fire button of the good old CX-20... then, it's an alternate firing between missile and bomb. Those who owns a Sega Genesis / MegaDrive joypad must use it: the implemented "auto-detect" function activate the "two button mode", so you can have a control system accurately as in the coin-op (too bad the Sega joypad is horrible ... one button beside, our already mentioned CX 20 is so much better... ) ] --- ANYWAY this game is really a masterpiece and it ABSOLUTELY deserves original hardware and a CRT TV !!! The return of John "Champ" Champeau who, after several years of "inactivity" and after his incredible version of Lady Bug, has decided to give us another porting from the arcade world that no one had ever seen on our beloved VCS ! Another game, another awesome conversion from the original coin-op !!! Chapeau, Champeau !

Interesting... I still have two '82 joysticks from my own L6 and they're fully workin' although they have spent their mid-80's with the VCS (Decathlon), C=64 (Decathlon, Track&Field) and Amiga1000 (various) ! Just some cleaning . Never found better short stroke sticks (short sroke = it was never necessary to urge them beyond their limits, otherwise, yes, they prematurely end their life...) About the Decathlon, I was on the top-ten Track&Field (Arcade Coin-Op, joystick version) hi-score boards here in Italy in the '84, so I'm probably "biased" on Decathlon, which has *almost* the same control methode. Just to let you understand what was commonly known here about this two wonderful games' "human-interface", I translate (hope it's right...) a piece of my review of both Arcade and VCS' Track&Field game(s) : ---------- The controls Controls... big word ... how to "give back" the feeling of riding and fatigue to the player, usually equipped with a common joystick and a few buttons ? Nothing better than two keys to be pressed alternately to run: the higher the frequency with which keys are pressed for the run and the higher the speed that the player gives to his athlete ! BRILLIANT, no doubt about it ! The third button, which in the original cabinet is placed in a very uncomfortable position (between the two running keys) is used to jump/throw. Congratulations to Konami's game engineers... but it would be more correct to say: Congratulations to Activision's folk !!! Yep ! Indeed the beautiful AtariVCS/2600 "The Activision Decathlon" which was developed and marketed just a few months before this T&F already had a pretty similar control system (in addition to being in practice an almost equal game...) : the power stroke is given by the speed with which "fiddles" the good old CX-40 alternately left and right. In my opinion (as well as MANY other players), the latter solution is PERFECT : the sense of fatigue appears in this case dramatically more noticeable than with the buttons one ! Most of the T&F, typically bootleg versions named "Hyper Olympic" and distributed mostly in Europe were equipped with this control system (Joystick + button to jump/throw). A game that does SWEATING, in all senses ! The best "man-to-game" interface ever seen ! BRAVO to both Activision and Konami ! ---------- SO... "The best "man-to-game" interface ever seen"... this feature is pretty enough to make the Decathlon a very-special game. Gameplay, controls, graphic, challenge... all of those features would guarantee him a top-ten position in the ever hall of fame !

Hi Miss. AH ! Hehe, yep, like we use to say here seems that "I used the hoe on my own feet" Strange thing I didn't see my #361 post in the log on my account, and that's why I posted another *updated* list (not to mention my well-known lack of memory... )

In that "RH Arcade Competition 2013" videoclip it's me playing on the SEGA 1984 "Pitfall II - The Lost Caverns" coin-operated arcade game.

An interesting 10 years topic and I still didn't have placed a reply... Well, it's never too late ! [ I'm VERY surprised to find some of the very-best titles for our beloved console in a terrific position on this hit-parade ! Pole Position in 43th place and... The Activision Decathlon in 71th position !?!?!?!!! How could it be possible ?!??!! ] ORIGINAL - I base my choice on the best favourite games I had, already own and I used to play both in the early 80's as nowadays ! 1 - Pitfall II - Lost Caverns 2 - The Activision Decathlon 3 - Raiders of the lost Ark 4 - Pole Position 5 - Ms.Pac-Man 6 - Indy 500 7 - H.E.R.O. 8 - Combat 9 - Moon Patrol 10 - Fathom SUPERCHARGER - Since I had never own the Starpath device, I base my choice on the few games I used to play in the early 80's at a friend's house ! 1 - Survival Island 2 - Frogger HOMEBREW - I base my choice MAINLY on the best hb/hack favourite games I own and/or I have played on real hw and just a few on emulator(s) 1 - Space Rocks 2 - Juno First 3 - Stay Frosty 2 (emulator) 4 - Lady Bug 5 - Pac-Man Arcade 6 - Thrust + 7 - HALO 2600 8 - Space Invaders Arcade (emulator) 9 - Defender Arcade (emulator) 10 - Galaxian Arcade (emulator)

I'd like to contact the seller... just for curiosity

UH ! ... I forgot the "Activison-style" box layout !

[ "Post reprise" ] Yep, but since the "new" CV game is pretty much the same as the SG-1000 it lacks of MANY details typical of the coin-operated game ! Well, I didn't want to post here anything else about my "mockup"... but I changed my idea, hoping that someone would be interested... [ lo-res and compressed images ] Here it is the original Pitfall II map, done with Commodore 64 screenshots. It is IDENTICAL to the VCS version... just a little bit more graphic details and nothing else ! : It has 8 vertical columns and 27 horizontal "floors" in which Harry could run, PLUS other "virtual" 2 floors which are "occupied" by the river (and, of course, in which Harry could swim), for a total of 29 "floors". This is the coin-op arcade game map : The first level It has 32 sections. It's designed to "take" something from the Crane's very first Pitfall game, which is developed in horizontal way only and with just the possibility to climb up/down one ladder at a time to go in the lower level. The underground levels (second, third and fourth) They are developed on a 8 columns/28 floors map... so a structure very close to the home version's ! If you're interested but you do not already knows all the other differences between home and arcade versions (and they're MANY...) , please check the videoclip in post 5 [http://atariage.com/forums/topic/232066-pitfall-ii-arcade/#entry3118774] . At this pont, thinking about an "hack" of the Pitfall II home version, I imagined to "cut" much of the arcade's 1st level and to combine it with a NEW "27 levels-underground" (just one less than the arcade version), in the way I have a total of 29 "floors", perfectly matching the home version's development !!! And so here it is "my" Pitfall II - The Arcade game mockup map for the VCS : Here you can see the two maps of the home+arcade VCS versions mixed together (I made it just to see the differences...) :

Hi Iwan ! Good thought, but we do not know really much about the "official" european H6ers... could they had been sold with gatefold Combat ? My Light Sixer came with a "regular-boxed" Combat, not gatefold as the NTSCs did... but it's an L6, not an H6... Well, we discussed a lot yesterday on FB and at the end we concluded that the auction's VCS is definitely: 1> an NTSC Heavy Sixer : the seller posted some "false" pictures, at least they came from another (full PAL) setup 2> a mainboard-replaced "NTSC-to-PAL" Heavy Sixer : the seller had reconditioned, like already written in the auction description, the console ... maybe he changed a (probably not-working ?) NTSC H6 into PAL, replacing the whole PCB (yeah, we know it's not enough to transplant the 6507 and/or the TIA because all the electronics, clock first, "work" for a specific system... while PAL and SECAM TIAs are changeable and compatible ***!!!***, NTSC and PAL aren't !) ; pictures shown are "true" and came from that machine cabled to a PAL TV.

Hi Tom ! Well, we all know PAL H6s are much more rare than NTSCs, 'cause they were produced in few units compared to the US machines. So one of those console made for our european TV system may be worth a lot, especially if it's boxed+complete (CIB), working and in perfect condition as the one on the auction. So, some people in that FB group I mentioned before claims that this machine is a NTSC unit, mostly because it has a recognizable U.S. label attached underneath, with the typical "FCC Type... part15" approval (as mine, shown in the pic below) whereas to be PAL it should have had a label withOUT the U.S. approval, like this UK Heavy Sixer in the pic below or, again, like this one, sold in Italy in the 1978 by the official seller "Melchioni" and property of a friend of mine who worked for several italian videogames magazines in the 80's and 90's : Then, did the seller show pictures of another setup or he was really honest ?

Hi guys. The topic is a discussion we're having on the "videogames dawn" italian FB group, and it's about this (already ended) eBay auction : http://www.ebay.it/itm/ATARI-2600-HEAVY-SIXER-SUNNYVALE-PAL-IN-MINT-CONDITION-VERY-RARE-/281680926974?ssPageName=ADME%3AB%3ASS%3AIT%3A3160 Some of ous say it's NOT a PAL Heavy Sixer... I was undecided which side to take because I trust to the good faith of the seller... Then I made some tests with both Stella and *real* hardware to compare the game screens. First of all, as shown in auction's pictures, we could see "our" european Combat is one of the (few) games which PAL version isn't a NTSC-conversion: a very nice fullscreen without the "classic" black (scan)lines ( added to fill the typical empty lines of the games converted from NTSC... ). Berzerk, the other games shown, is so much different because it has those typical filling black scanlines. But, as far as I can see, and if the seller had not made a "trick" showing pictures coming from another setup , to me that H6 is PAL ! This is an AD from UK, 1977, marked "Ingersoll", official dealer for the UK in these years (on the auction, the Psupply of that VCS is also signed Ingersoll...) Combat - PAL cartridge in PAL console (emulator) [ colors match ebay auction's Combat TV picture ] Combat - PAL cartridge in NTSC console (emulator) ... (the same cartridge in my modded H6 NTSC S-Video cabled) Combat - NTSC cartridge on PAL console (emulator) Combat - NTSC cartridge on NTSC console (emulator) Berzerk - PAL cartridge in my PAL Light Sixer (RF cabled) [ colors match ebay auction's Berzerk TV picture ] Well... what do you think ? Could that console in the auction really be a PAL H6 or not ?!

Days ago I got a "TopScore" on Raider of The Lost Ark (modded 2600Jr., livingroom full PAL setup) with 20.5 "steps" and both the EasterEggs shown. [ Track & Field controller used as right controller... much more comfortable than a second stick between knees ] Space Invaders (same setup) : 9970 ... Which is actually 19970... Yep, because the "real" difficulty in Space Invaders is been able to "stop" the counter on 9995 points, killing the "right" number of aliens and avoid that the same counter will reset to zero (at 10 000 points) !!! ... which it's happened in that game ! I made it with one ship/life, but then I lost letting them invade while trying to reach that damn 9995 ! Moon Patrol (same setup) : 165330 Vanguard (same setup) : 180060 Pitfall II (same setup) : 199000 [ white score counter over light blue bng and camera flash reflections forced me to shot the pic very close to the screen... ] Pac-Man Arcade (garage/tavern/arcade room setup; CVBS+S-Video+Stereo+Internal Audio modded NTSC Heavy Sixer, PAL TV... LCD, unfortunately, because all my CRTs ***I have 8 of those TVs+++ does not sync an NTSC image over S-Video connection... ) : 111390 and... yep, E.T. (garage/tavern/arcade room full-PAL setup : Light Sixer and CRT TV ***RF***) : 20189

Keatah, only saw those two little Air-Sea Battle and Battlezone screenshots...

Clip, from 1:40 to 2:08 https://youtu.be/O7sdBLIG3os

Oops... Paul & Fred, forgive me .

Yep, and also Boulder Dash sounds pretty cool ! ... seems you have had a kind of "regard" in doing the score of your games, Tom !

... forgot... @ 82-T/A : http://atariage.com/forums/topic/228373-ntsc-heavy6er-as-they-first-intended/?hl=heavy&do=findComment&comment=3071622 @Tom : http://atariage.com/forums/topic/231224-heavy6-tube-preamplifer-brusaporto-retrocomputing-2014/?hl=heavy&do=findComment&comment=3100836

That priority matter is very interesting ! Although I'm not a programmer, I could understand how it works, and I mean it : Thrust+ score is NOT designed to have such a (nice !) stereo effect. But that's not my "point", Tom : it actually HAS a stereo sound, if you use an audio-out modded console ! You used both sound generators in Thrust+ code, then, what I want to say is : -Almost all VCS' games, with some exception (for example, Defender and Jungle Hunt audio runs on left channel only...), use both sound generators -On modded VCS every single generator is directly connected (yep, with the appropriate components such as the capacitor to avoid any undesidered ***and pernicious*** continue voltage) to its "proper" output thru RCA PinJack connector. -Finally, we have two separate audio outputs, and that's enough to identify this device as stereo, even if almost all its software collection is NOT intended to be "stereoscopic sounding" ! Believe me : use a stereo-mod VCS, "treat" Thrust+ music score with a tube-preamplifer, as I did in that retrocomputing/gaming "expo" shown in my previous picture, and you won't go back to a monaural output VCS .

Found and arcticle on PC Mag, March 1984. I "edited" and restored it... hope it would be fine

'course by definition, a stereophonic system, intended as "devices+software", should be able to re-build an appropriately recorded sound scene. Obviously this can be true for "messages" coming from a theater, a stage, an auditorium... while, we all know, post-production sound engineers "falsify" this scene by introducing effects, modifying the original position of the instruments and whatsoever... Darrell, the sound of your game(s) is outstanding and amazing, and it fully respects the definition of "stereoscopic sound" ! What you're talking about Medieval Mayhem is called "panning effect", which is really "sensible" in "our" video game matter as it is in the Cinema and almost all audiovisual productions. Then, the sound of Combat is not "hooked" to the corresponding image on the screen ? Yep, but do not misrepresent : simply, it's not a "well-intended" stereoscopic-sound game, but not definitely non-stereo as it definitely isn't monaural... We all know that a particular system, intended as a set of devices only, could be be called "stereophonic" simply if it's able to produce sound on two separate channels, regardless of the message being played. Thus, a modded VCS with proper separate audio outputs IS stereophonic ! Listen to some games' music is somewhat "regarding", considered that the VCS was marketed in 1977 (but designed since 1973...) : I think about Gremlins' tunes, Track&Field... Try to listen to Thrust+ score !!! It's really, really amazing ! In conclusion, I'm pretty sure it's correct this could (and should) be called "stereo sound". That's all

Rare and uncommon : Pepsi Invaders, Swordquest-Waterworld, Crazy Climber, Quadrun, Gravitar, Rubik's Cube, Elevator Action, Saboteur, Snow White, Donald Duck's Speedboat... And again, Frogger II, SW-Arcade, Tapper and some other... It's since 5 or 6 years I did not buy something else

Interesting ! ... I always see only CVBS mods for our PAL VCS/2600s ! It goes against things I ever knew of PAL TIAs... Well, at this point the only "disadvantage" of a PAL respect to a NTSC mod is that it can't come out with two separate audio channels for stereo sound. However, I'm happy I did the CVBS+S-Video+Stereo mod in my NTSC H6 (which I also "gave" an internal audio system) , while my Jr. has a Composite + Bi-Monaural Audio ouputs. MY ( underlined !!! ...because it's mine since the '82 and I always and already didn't want to "touch" it inside... ) L6 is still original in all its parts and so it is my '87 Jr."IrishBlack".

Yep, I really have to remove some dust from my garage/tavern/gameroom... Anyway, the Tempest-prototype is almost horrible and unplayable...

Mel, when you got some time could you explain details for the S-Video mod on a PAL VCS ??! I always knew an S-Video output is not possible on PAL TIAs, only CVBS...

Speakin' of games which won't run on older console... This is also an answer I ask on the AA FBgroup: "... what could be the reason why Elevator Action (NTSC) won’t run on my (NTSC) H6 but it does in the (PAL) L6 ? The older console does power on and display the first “screen” of the game, but when it has to start by pressing the firebutton, it crashes and I have to turn it all off… while on my PAL L6 it runs almost smoothly !" I will modify (again !) my H6, soon, following iesposta way (also because I'm saving some money to catch an Encore... AT LEAST ! ), then I'll report what I'll get .