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I don't have a direct answer to your question, but last summer I got the cart in an auction, and yes - some levels are definitely longer than others, and I do remember that one seemed to be like twice as long as the others. I also recall that the levels (at least some) aren't always the same. The placement of enemies seems to be at least partially random.

Yep, Frostbite and Dark Cavern are 2 others that I agree with - a couple of great under-rated games. To the person that mentioned Sky Diver.... that was the 2nd or 3rd game I got as a kid for the Atari, and I loved it - thought it was so funny when the guy would "splat" on the ground. Doesn't stand up so much these days though. To those who mentioned Carnival and Bump & Jump....they don't count, since they are arcade conversions. (To the person that mentioned Journey, that one counts since unless I am mistaken, they made the 2600 game first, then made a very different game for the arcade) We all have our own opinions, but the one nomination that I just have to disagree with is Gangster Alley. Got that one last year in an ebay auction lot and, after playing it a couple of times, relegated it to the "worst games ever" list.

My first Atari (and the one I play semi-regularly) is a light sixer. Got it July 1980. It has speaker slots, has channel select switch. My question is in regards to the sticker on the bottom with a serial number. Mine has none. I don't mean that it has fallen off through the years. I *KNOW* for a fact that it never had one. Yes, I'm anal - I keep all boxes, instruction manuals, etc; and have always kept my things fairly clean & complete. This unit never had a sticker on the bottom. (a few years later, I won a heavy sixer from a friend on a bet - yes, that one has a sticker w/serial on the bottom). Anything known about a batch of light sixers without serials? Or maybe they got stickers for the first year or so, and then they stopped doing that? Just wondering.

Sorry if it's been discussed before. Just wondering what people think are the best "lesser-known" games on the 2600. There have been many conversations for faves and "top 10's" overall. But if you had to pick just a few "faves" that WEREN'T mainstream "hit" releases, what would they be? I know that's a little tricky....exactly what qualifies as "lesser-known"? Basically you can't pick any of the big hits of the day - no top Atari titles like Adventure; no arcade conversions like Space Invaders, Donkey Kong, etc; and no very popular 3rd party games like Kaboom. I'll also exclude homebrews - yes, there are several of those that I think are great - but I'm thinking more along the lines of things that were released "back in the day". For starters, I'll pick: Laser Gates, HERO, Space Shuttle, Space Attack, Frankenstein's Monster

Well, it's almost 2 years since I first asked, so I thought I'd follow-up... Does anyone yet know of a stella.cht file that been posted anywhere with cheats for a decent number of games? Seems odd to me that you can easily find cheat database files for MAME, but none seem to exist for the Stella. When it was a new feature in Stella I figured, okay it'll take a while for people to figure things out and post them....but I've yet to stumbled across a cheat file. Hmmmmm.

Thanks for the link. I'll play around with that info over the weekend....hopefully I can finally beat the game legitimately.

Wow, I'm really surprised - you guys on AtariAge are always so knowledgeable with everything Atari.....I'm shocked that nobody here has a strategy/walkthru for such a long-desired proto like Lord of the Rings. Well, I spent the day playing around with it again, and no, I still can't beat it. At least not by playing it normally. I got frustrated to the point of firing up Stella and going into the debugger mode with it. Found the X,Y coordinates after a bit, and saved out a hacked ROM image that lets you start on the other side of the river. I've attached the file for anyone else wanting to see the ending who, like me, can't win it yet without cheating. Just load this up and when you start the game, immediately go to the right for 12 screens or so, and then up about 6 or 8 screens to enter Rivendale and "win" the game. Yes, I feel ashamed at my lameness at needing to cheat. But I wanted to see the ending, and was getting too frustrated! Back in the 80s I would have just remained frustrated. Thanks to todays technology, I can hack the game to finish it!!! Lord of the Rings (cheat).bin

Hmmm.....Hard to narrow it down to 10. But off the top of my head, I'll say.... Alternate Reality (both city & dungeon) Zombies Pharoah's Curse Jumpman Necromancer Spare Change Sea Dragon Preppie Shamus Fort Apocalypse

I finally got some time this past week to continue playing around with my Harmony cart on the Atari. Was playing through the Parker Brothers games. Wow! Back in the day, the only thing I played from them was Frogger. But they've got some other great games.....I love Gyruss, and Montezuma's Revenge is without a doubt one of the best 2600 games ever made. The Star Wars stuff isn't bad either. Anyway, I ended up getting caught up in Lord of the Rings... I played it for a couple of hours just trying to figure it out myself. Couldn't beat it and was confused about a bunch of things. So I searched online and found some info on "how to play" (I think on atariprotos). Okay, so then I played it a couple more hours today and it made more sense......but I still can't beat it! Does anyone have any tips/strategies/walkthroughs/cheats to help me get through it? I can't help thinking that there must be a path to get through it that pretty much works every time (ie - up 4 screens, left 2 screens, up 6 screens, right 2 screens, etc). I can usually get up to the river, but that's it.....i either die before crossing, or die within a couple screens after crossing. (and how do you know where to go once you cross the river, since I have yet to hit a forest and therefore can't access the map?!?!?!) Help!

I know I beat the original intellivision version, "Space Battle", on hard difficulty perfectly.....way back in '82 or so when I was in high school. On the Atari version, which I never played until a year or so ago.....nope. I can win it, but I always lose a couple fighters along the way.

Heck yes, information will be forthcoming soon, I promise. ..Al Just keeping tabs....any estimate how far away we still are from a release?

As far as sticking to the movie plotline, perhaps. (I always thought ET was a decent game and didn't deserve as much criticism as it usually gets). But as far as best movie-licensed game, I'd vote for Raiders of the Lost Ark. That was one game that I really played a lot back in the day (though I never did get the "perfect" score on it!). I'd also put Superman above ET if it counts (comic book versus movie based?)....that was (and is) one of my all-time favorites.

Interesting thread. It's all a matter of personal preferences. I've always loved both Superman and Adventure. Without a doubt I'd put Adventure at #1, because it's the one single game that I never ever got tired of playing at all, even after 30 years. But Superman definitely is in the top 10. The biggest criticisms seem to be that Adventure is boring after you beat it or figure out the layout of the rooms/mazes. Well, what game isn't like that? Any of the arcade like games are pretty repetitive, aren't they? I don't know WHY, but Adventure (and to a slightly lesser degree, Superman), just always seemed DIFFERENT from most other games. There was that bit of "exploration", where you could go where you want, when you want....you weren't confined to one screen, nor did you have to progress from level 1 to level 2, etc. I guess that's why I liked Adventure so much, and why I then fell in love with text adventures from Infocom and such, and for the past 10+ years have liked the modern RPG type games. And as for the mention of ET.... I do have to agree with the comment that it's one of the most underated games on 2600. While it was less-than-expected when I got it for Christmas in (82?), it still was a decent game. Definitely one of those example where the hype built it up SO much, that it was doomed for failure. It ain't great, but it's not bad either.

Hmmmm.... Earliest memory of Atari in arcade? Probably around 11 years old, 1978-ish. My dad and I used to like to play pinball at the arcades when we were on the boardwalk at the jersey shore in summer. When the first few video games came out (Pong, Seawolf, Breakout) I pretty much ignored them. But then one time there was Lunar Lander and Starship, and those just looked so cool that I had to play them. Earliest memory at home? I don't remember Atari Pong units. I and my friends all got Coleco's in '77/'78. But my friend Dave got a 2600 for christmas in '78 and it was SO COOL because it was in COLOR!

Hey, thanks for that tip. Yep, I like it non-pulsing like that much better!

Ouch; sorry to hear about that. It does raise another interesting question though.....do any hardware guys think there's any way that running games off a harmony could actually damage the console? It doesn't make sense to me that it's possible....then again, it also seems strange that some games could run via harmony on one console and not another. On another note, last night I tried 4 games mentioned earlier in this thread by others as being possibly problematic : Berzerk - both real cart and loading from Harmony work fine on both my heavy and light Starmaster - both real cart and loading from Harmony work fine on both my heavy and light Home Run - works on both via Harmony (don't have real cart to try) River Raid II - works on both via Harmony (don't have real cart to try) So, thus far only Moon Patrol won't work for me with Harmony. Initially I had trouble with Congo Bongo giving a black screen, but I was able to fix that by changing the extension on the file. Tried changing the extension on Moon Patrol also, but no luck with that one.

Hi. I had also posted in the main 2600 forum asking if anyone had an experience where a cart would work on one console but not another. A couple of others have also experienced similar issues, including one person who also had games on a harmony cart that would not run on a heavy sixer, but would run on a light sixer. See post : http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/156884-games-that-run-on-one-but-not-another/

Much thanks for the reply....I'm glad to know that I'm not alone and that I'm not going crazy! If/when you come across more games that aren't working on your heavy, please post here.....I'll also post if I come across more as I play through all the games on Harmony in the coming weeks.

Hi all. I'm just wondering if anyone has ever had an experience of a cart working on one Atari console, but not on another. I'm not talking about an issue with dirty contacts or anything like that. I mean a good clean cart, and 2 consoles that seem to be in perfect working order, but one particular game won't play on one of the consoles. If so, which game was it, and what model did the problem appear with? The reason for my curiosity.... I have a heavy sixer and a light sixer, and maybe 100 old carts. All carts work fine in both units. For christmas I got a Stella Stocking game cart. It works fine in my heavy. But in my light, it locks up after the intro screen. A week ago I got one of the new Harmony carts (which are very cool and let you load all your Atari games on one cart and you select which game you want to play from a menu when you turn the unit on). A few days ago I discovered an interesting glitch. Most games load and play fine from the Harmony cart on both of my consoles...but Moon Patrol ONLY works on the light sixer. On the heavy, it just shows a black screen. Note that my original Moon Patrol cart works fine on both of my consoles. (so, it works on light, doesn't work on heavy...the OPPOSITE of what Stella Stocking does for me!). So I'm stumped and wondering if anyone else has ever experienced something similar. And I'd also be curious to hear from some knowledgeable hardware-oriented people out there as to what differences might exist between different console models that could cause the same cart to work on one but not another. I was almost willing to believe that it was some type of "dirty contact" issue with Stella Stocking....but clearly that CAN'T be the case with Moon Patrol on Harmony.

Okay, I've got a challenge for all of the smart and knowledgeable Atari people out there. Read the summary of my situation below, but what it really boils down to is that I'm really REALLY curious to know what differences in hardware exist between different atari 2600 consoles (slight voltage differences? slightly different addressing issues? timing tolerances?). Apologies if this topic is evolving into not strictly a Harmony issue.... My Hamony cart is the regular unit with 1.03 of the software and a 2 gig PNY card plugged into it. I have a heavy sixer and a light sixer, and maybe 100 or so old carts. All of the carts work fine on both the heavy and the light. Including my Moon Patrol cart. As mentioned earlier in this topic, Moon Patrol is just a dead black screen for me on Harmony on my heavy. After it was mentioned that Moon Patrol worked fine on someone else's Harmony, I figured I'd dig out my light sixer and try it for the heck of it. Guess what? Moon Patrol works fine on the light sixer, but will not work on the heavy. A bunch of other games I've tried playing so far work on both systems (I'll follow-up if I discover any others that don't work as I play more). So does anyone have any guesses (just to satisfy my curiousity) as to what difference in hardware could exist between my two units to cause the same thing to work on one but not the other??? And, oddly enough, this is the 2nd time in several weeks that I've run into this type of issue. I've never had such a thing happen with old original-era carts. But for christmas this year, I got myself the Stella's Stocking (64k) cart. It does the OPPOSITE of my Moon Patrol problem. Stella Stocking works just fine on the heavy, but on the light it shows the first initial intro screen and then just locks up (can't get past it to start any of the games). Is this bizarre or what??!?! Anybody have any ideas???

I'll attach my Moon Patrol in case you'd like to take a look. This file does work fine in Stella for me (though I'll note that the version of Stella I use is from a year or two ago...not the latest version). But on my heavy sixer, it produces just a black screen. My Congo Bongo also produced a black screen like Moon Patrol, but changing the file extension to .F8 fixed that one. Moon Patrol (1983) (Atari).bin

Greetings all. I received my Harmony Cart a week ago, but only just had time to sit down and really play with it the past 2 days.... First I would like to say that this is a VERY cool product. To be able to put every game on one cart that plays on a real Atari is amazing. After my brief time with it, I have 2 questions and 1 bit of feedback/request. My most important question is in regards to games that don't seem to work for me. I've only tried playing maybe 30 or so at this point, but I did find a couple that don't work. The main one that I recall at the moment is Moon Patrol. Trying to play it resulted in a dead black screen. So I tried renaming it with an .F8 extension (based on a list I found online, I believe that is the correct bank switch scheme for it, correct?). Same black screen. So I tried re-downloading the ROM from AtariAge. Same black screen. If it matters, this is on an NTSC original heavy sixer model....I did not try it on my light sixer yet. Does Moon Patrol work for anyone? With what extension and on what kind of hardware? And a more general "part 2" of this question.....maybe we can start a list here of games that don't work, or that need a particular extension on the file to work??? My next question is more of a "curiosity" question. What does everyone think the advent of Harmony will do to the "collectibility" of "real Atari carts", and their prices on the open market? Was just wondering about this because I just got back into Atari the past 2 years. Have picked up a few cart bundles on ebay and from atari2600.com the past 2 years.....to play games I never had or knew of as a kid. I wanted to play them on a "real" system rather than on an emulator. But now that I can load everything on one Harmony cart, why would I bother buying the "real" cart anymore??? Just curious for opinions of others. Any finally my one minor bit of feedback about Harmony itself it (I hesitate to call it a 'complaint'). It's the menu. It works just fine, but is kind of hard to read. Now, yes, I realize the limitations of Atari graphics, so I *am* impressed that they were able to make a menu of the game names like that work at all! But I also can't help but think it would be easier to read if it was just in one solid color instead of the pulsating rainbow effect. Maybe a retro "green screen" type of look??? Don't know if this is a 'flashable' type of thing or hard-wired into the cart, but just thought I'd toss in my 2 cents. In any case, to the developers of Harmony - a very impressive job indeed!

what?!? superman was always one of my favorite games on 2600. and although i wouldn't put it in a list of "best 2600 graphics", i always thought they were decent enough. especially since it was released somewhat earlier in the machines' lifespan.

Well, for me there were a lot of games that felt like let-downs....donkey kong, defender, asteroids, gorf, and more. And yet, each of those game were "okay" and I did play them quite a bit. But I must say the biggest deal-breaker for me was pac-man. I was *SO* wanting that game to finally be released, and within 10 seconds of playing it I yelled "this sucks". It really was quite bad.

Hi. Just wondering about the status of things....I see that some people have gotten email that carts were ready to order, and that they have received them already, which is great news. I did add my name to the waiting/pre-order list a couple of months ago for a standard version (got a confirm at the time), but haven't yet received an email saying I could order one. Are you still "working your way down the list", or did I miss that email during the hectic past couple of weeks? [email protected]