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Stephana, you are too humble! In addition to diligently maintaining the best Atari 2600 emulator and debugger out there, he gave me a great deal of assistance preparing Star Castle 2600 and Stella for a proper release on all the platforms. In addition to his all around help and testing, without him the Linux and Mac versions would not have been nearly so easy to use. I'm glad you like the cart and materials and once again, Thank you! D. Scott Williamson

Thanks Master Phruby, and I do apologize for the delay Waterborn. We are still making the cartridges as fast as we can possibly cast the cartridge cases. Everyone should have theirs soon... within a few weeks I hope. Rip Off is another Tim Skelly game (you may have known that). My uncle, Don Bahr, who really got me hooked on Atari with Star Raiders on his 400, who owned and let me work at his Atari exclusive store in St. Charles, IL, CompuCellar West, was fanatical about that game and wanted to make a version on the Atari 8Bit. I believe these are his bitmaps and notes on the right in this image: I used to own a Black Widow, and a Tempest cabinet. The Tempest monitor went out and we used to hook the Tempest harness up to Black Widow's monitor to play... sideways Hahaha, Unfortunately, I have no pics of my coin op collection era. My Dad fixed that cab, he's an electrical engineer, one of the coolest things we did was hook that Tempest up to a regular oscilloscope and play on the little 4" green CRT screen - I owe a lot of my technical interest and ingenuity to him. He lives about half a mile from me and still helps me with electronics from time to time. I have another Atari 2600 related project I'm slowly working on in the background of Star Castle 2600 and other backlogged projects. It's not something you can play but I think a bunch of people here will like it if I ever get it show-able.

I just talked to Matt on the phone, he still has my old Amiga and some stuff in storage. He's not sure what's on it or if he has any Amiga floppies anymore. When convenient, he said he'd get it out and let me take a crack at recovering whatever I can. FUN! Coincidentally, he is in the middle of a similar big process of copying data off of a huge quantity of old DOS floppy disks to more modern media - one floppy at a time, many of us know that grind all too well, aaah, the good old days.

I just emailed Matt and asked if he still has my old Amiga 2000 from Atari. I think he was the last one to have it along with a Pinky/Mandy. It probably doesn't run but if he has it I can try to recover what I can from the hard drive(s) and any floppy backups - I was successful with mine, though it wasn't at all easy. I recovered the source to S.T.U.N. Runner earlier this year (AA thread that inspired me) and just finished recovering the source to Toki and RoadBlasters yesterday - The last thing I had to finish was reverse engineering the Amiga Quarterback floppy disk backup format. I'll keep you posted.

It doesn't sound like anyone has ripped the ending song from RoadBlasters or the alternate title music from Toki. There are eggs to access both of them. In Toki, you can see and hear the alternate title egg if you hold option and up for the entire boot title sequence through the credits dropping on the screen. Also if you hold option and up during the continue screen you will get the developers (Bob Nagel, Robb Mariani, Matt Scott, and yours truly) button mashing inflatable heads egg, but there is no music for that. In RoadBlasters, there is a cheat that can allow you to get to the end very quickly. If you play the first level and crash into the first tree on the right with the A button pressed you will get the Ghost in the Machine egg with my picture (from 23 years ago, ugh). While on that screen you can press option to change the number in the upper right corner which will be the next level you play after pressing A or B to return to the game and complete level one. So set that to 49, press A, complete level one, and play 49 and 50 to hear the end music. There was no end music in the Coin Op as I recall, so we had Matt whip that tune up, I really like it. To see Matt's ancient picture instead, do the same thing but hit the first tree on the left in level one while pressing A. The music for both those and many other Lynx games was done by Matt Scott of Byte Size Sound. We've been friends since we were about 19 years old and he's made sound and music for video games on just about every console, handheld, and mobile platform ever made. If you are a game developer in need of audio, he is your guy! http://www.bytesizesound.com/ (sorry about the shameless plug, I just got his Christmas card and am feeling all Lynxy and nostalgic ) Anyway, I hope those of you who haven't heard of these eggs enjoy them!

Thanks Omegamatrix! As far as GFX vs DATA is concerned, it's no matter, what is of most importance to me are the CODE sections, especially in 8K or more multibank cartridges. If anyone else comes upon this thread and has cfg files they would like to share, I would appreciate them.

Thanks Thomas!

Thanks for the links guys! I noticed that a lot of the disassembled & documented source files I found were done by you, Nukey, Dennis, and Manuel. Thanks for doing them and sharing the results. I'd be interested in any cfg that you or anyone else is willing to share. I'm fond of the raw undocumented disassemblies. Maybe there is a place on Atari Age that the the cfg files should live - just like manuals and box art - it's not like posting the source or ROM images of the games themselves.

Is anyone aware of a collection of Distella (or other) disassemblies of 2600 games? Or, maybe even better... is there a collection of Distella config.txt files for games? If so are there config.txt files for split games larger than 4k? I see some out there, Nukey Shay's posts on GameSpot for example, but no official collection. If not, does anyone have any interest or ideas about starting one?

I would be very careful using cyanoacrylate (super glue) on electronic parts because it can be conductive. I used to use it to place surface mount chips before soldering them but I stopped once I got it on the pins of the micro-controller and spent a ton of time debugging it. Cyanoacrylate has fantastic tensile strength, good compressive strength but is very weak laterally, so depending on how the joint is stressed it may not be adequate. If the issue is mechanical - i.e. the board can be pushed back into the housing; I agree that something stronger like Epoxy or JB Weld has a better chance of working. Another idea would be to back fill the cartridge shell with hot glue - just enough to stop the PCB from being pushed back into the shell, it doesn't even need to adhere to the board, though it could. It's unlikely to damage electronics and can usually be removed. If you really want it to be removable, spray the inside of the shell and PCB with a little mold release like WD-40 or Pam cooking spray. BE SURE NOT TO GET EITHER OF THEM ON THE LABEL. Then later, usually the hot glue casting can be removed if the shape of the cartridge permits it to be (and if not, needle nose pliers and dental tools are very, shall we say, persuasive with hot glue, especially if it has not bonded to surfaces). Also be sure not to melt any of the housing when depositing the glue - keep the metal hot glue gun nozzle out of the shell. All that being said, if shadow460 found anything that worked, I defer to his experience - he has way more first hand knowledge about M Network cartridges than I do.

It is tighter under the cart than above; .215" as opposed to .35" but you should be able to find some way to get an eraser in there. Can you cut a wedge style "Pink Pearl", or arrow/cap style eraser to be thin enough to get in there? These are also long-shots but just to be sure, are you sure your cartridge is seating fully and the doors aren't jamming or something. Also, do all other cartridges work fine in your console? Good luck.

Before trying to open it, I'd just try cleaning the pins of the cartridge. Most if not all cartridge problems I've had were dirty or oxidized pins. Accessing the cartridge printed circuit board pins I looked online for the 2600 Burgertime cartridge, but can't find any pictures of the mouth of the cartridge. Forgive me if I am stating the obvious here: Either the printed circuit board (PCB) pins are exposed like in Activision carts, or there is a protective door that slides up to reveal the pins like Atari cartridges. If there is a door, it can be slid up to reveal the pins on the edge of the PCB by gently pressing in the slots in the door. If you look at the cartridge port on the Atari 2600 you will see it has two slots to receive pins and two pins that go into slots in Atari cartridges. Each set of pins pressing into each set of slots mechanically moves a protective door away to allow the edge of the cartridge PCB to be inserted into the card edge connector inside the Atari 2600 cartridge slot. To clean the pins of a cartridge with a door, you simply trigger the latch and gently push and hold the door up out of the way while cleaning. Cleaning To clean the pins, I have two favorite methods: 1. Use a pencil eraser. Pencil erasers on pencils, or "Pink Pearl" type erasers are slightly abrasive and slightly gummy and will shine up PCB cartridge pins if you patiently keep rubbing them with clean parts of the eraser. Be sure to clean ALL the pins - both sides and all the way into the corners. More rubbing is generally better than more pressure, but you will see what is working and will get the hang of it. Be sure not to damage the PCB traces by scraping the with the metal eraser holder on the back of a pencil for example. Make sure you allow all the eraser dust to fall out of the cartridge and not in. For heavily oxidized connectors I have used typing or ink erasers - If you were around when the 2600 was new you probably know what I'm talking about, if not... anyway, they tend to be white or grey, harder, more brittle and more abrasive. I DO NOT RECOMMEND ANY SANDPAPER, STEEL WOOL, EMMERY BOARDS, ETC. they are too abrasive and will probably do more harm than good - steel wool is also conductive and stray fibers can short out your cartridge or console. 2. Rubbing alcohol. Rub the pins clean with clean cotton swabs dipped in rubbing alcohol. You know you are on the right track if the cotton swab looks dirty after the first rubbing. Once again, angle the cartridge slightly mouth down so that any alcohol and dirt run out of and not into the cartridge body. Clean both top and bottom well into the corners. Since it is not abrasive you can scrub pretty hard if it is giving you results... well as hard as the swab will allow. Try not to leave cotton fibers all over in the cartridge. When done, wipe out with a clean swab or paper towel end to absorb any left over alcohol and mop up any stray cotton. I've used both on the same pins, usually the alcohol first then the eraser. Good luck and share your results here - successful or not.

Thanks for straightening me out there, your details are right on. I should have known better, I was head of Lynx Developer support, but that was a long time ago. Were you an original Lynx developer? Might we know each other? We only used Pinky/Mandy for audio development and QA while I was there because of the limited debugging ability. I don't know how many Howard boards or Pinky/Mandy's were made but I unearthed my Howard Development kit this morning just to check the serial number for this thread. Can you find it in this pile of Atari/N64/PlayStation/SNES/Genesis/GameBoy+ game development equipment? (those scrolls are the original Bubsy level design storyboards) There it is! It is #028 Stating the obvious here: Some Lynx development documentation is here http://www.atariage.com/Lynx/archives/developer_docs/index.html?SystemID=LYNX I have no way of knowing if the Howard board still works, my Amiga 3000's motherboard was destroyed by the all-too-common leaking motherboard battery problem. I did recover the data from the hard disks and the source for my three Lynx games from floppies but that is a story from another thread. The link in the original post is not working for me, did the Howard board sell, and for how much? Cheers!

The first one is indeed a Howard board, the second one you post looks like a Handy unit. The Howard board was the first devkit I ever used in a multi-threaded windowed development environment with source level debugging. The thing is crammed full of PALs and GALs - programmable logic that got me interested in TTL, then CMOS, then PLD/PAL/GAL, then FPGA. I believe it's named after the engineer that designed the board.

I need to focus on getting everyone who I've already promised a game their cartridges. Beyond that, there are a lot of moving pieces to getting this game out there - not only printed boxes, liners, labels, and manuals, but a custom cart with LED's and a clear shell which has been non trivial to produce. Nothing is impossible, but I need to stay focused on my obligations now.

I'm nothting but proud of every aspect of this project and seeing a Star Castle 2600 cartridge sell for more than I sold it for would make me even prouder. I can't remember any title that I've done that has appreciated in value. I'd consider it flattery. I'm still amazed that in over 300 people bought Atari cartridges that I made, and I'm getting several requests a week for more that I have to turn away.

I just sent an email to Joel Fashingbauer, VP Product Development at Atari Inc. asking permission to release the RoadBlasters, Toki, and S.T.U.N. Runner source materials to the Lynx home brew community. Lets all cross our fingers.

I am making some extra carts for myself, I always try to keep some original boxed sealed units of all the games I've done. As far as spares to sell on eBay are concerned, I have a better idea in the works but I'll keep that to myself for the moment . Right now I just need to focus on making sure everyone who has already ordered the game gets it as soon as possible.

You should request that on the Kickstarter site, people could share their custom screens or give me permission to share the screens.

We actually considered 3D printed shells and made some using stereo lithography on a commercial machine. We also considered extruded plastic (MakerBot / RepRap...) but I didn't care for the results and opted for casting. The ones we printed (amazingly I never took pictures of them) looked like they came out of MineCraft, all voxely, and each layer of material was clearly visible - they were almost like mini plastic wicker carts. We couldn't make an optically clear surface either - the Star Castle 2600 cartridges are frosted on the inside to diffuse the light but there is a clear window in the bottom to see the serial number on the PCB. Fred Quimby has a design, CAD and STL files for a 3D printed cart. It's discussed on another thread here. Don't get me wrong, I love 3D printing, I just ordered a MakerBot Replicator 2 for my Dad for Christmas - I can't wait for him to get it, he's a good sharer D. Scott Williamson

Not as far as I know. The entire run is under 350 units, and everywhere I looked it would cost $10,000-$20,000 to machine the injection molds for the carts. No one wanted to bother with such a short run either, I'll take that as a sign the economy is getting better I guess. The per unit cost is very low, but the number of units was not high enough to overcome the cost of the molds. I did not look overseas either, that may also have been an option - well an option to either get them made cheaper or get ripped off. As it is it is the cleanup on the cast shells is very laborious and I would enjoy receiving finished cartridges ready for assembly, but I don't regret doing it for a minute.

Hi folks, I just posted a Kickstarter update for the project: 59% of all Kickstarter orders have been fulfilled including over 40% of the custom made cartridges. I'd like to thank those of you who have received your cartridges for your kind words and thank those of you who have yet to receive yours for your patience. We are now averaging 20-30 cartridges a week and every week we make more cartridges than the previous week. Cartridges are being made as fast as the shells can be cast and we are casting in many molds simultaneously. Orders are being fulfilled in order of pledge amount and order chronology within each pledge level. Each cartridge is hand made and I have to say, I am proud of each and every one I'm sending out. ... Then there are some more pictures of cartridge production. I'm really sorry about the delay folks, thanks for your patience, I know it's been a long wait. If I could cast the shells any faster I would, but at least I think the finished products are turning out great and I'm really proud of each and every one. I just thought I'd let you guys here know too. Also I understand quite a few people have started Atari 2600 development since they received the Star Castle 2600 CD and a couple have asked where to get information about development and possibly selling a homebrew games etc. Of course I sent them right here to Atari Age. D. Scott Williamson

Well, the NES came out in the US in 86, I graduated high school in 85 and I was a freshman or sophomore I think when this commercial was airing. I remember using my friend Burt's Atari 400 to program the Space Munchies joke game at his house before I had my computer.

No, it was earlier, I'm guessing 1979-1981-ish maybe Colecovision or Intellivision, but way before NES.

Hah, I didn't know that, but the Space Munchies in the commercial resembled PacMan *I think*. I hope someone someday can come up with a link to this lost treasure.