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Hi all. I finally got Stella's Stocking for myself for Christmas. Nice little game collection....I especially like Stay Frosty, which I'd rank among the best games available for the 2600 (how many levels are there? I can't get past about 10 or 12 so far). I did have one odd glitch that I was wondering if anyone else here who has the cart has come across. I have two 2600s - a light sixer and a heavy sixer. Lately, I've had the light sixer set up. When I first tried to play SS, I couldn't. The initial screen with the "have you played atari today" jingle played, then the screen went black for a second, then it went back to that same inital screen.....and just kept doing that over and over. No joystick inputs, reset, select, etc would advance to the menu screen. I tried removing and re-inserting the cart numerous times with the same result. Then I dug out the heavy sixer.....and the game works just fine on that. Has anyone else experienced problems on a light sixer with this game? Why would a game work on a heavy but not a light??? My light sixer plays every other cart in my collection just fine, so I can't see it being a hardware prob with the unit itself. Just curious as to what might cause this.

There's one thing I notice about that release date list that I think is wrong, and that concerns "Adventure". I got my first 2600 just after Space Invaders was released in 1980. After I got the system, I saw Adventure listed in the catalog enclosed with one of those first carts I got. It was the game I most wanted from the stuff listed in the catalog. But when we tried to buy it, we couldn't find it at the local stores and were told it would be "coming out soon". My grandmother put down a deposit on it and I ended up getting the game a month or two later. I'm thinking Adventure was on the list of carts to be released in '79, but got delayed til mid '80. Can anyone confirm?

ummmmm......will the store be back anytime soon? i have a couple of carts i'd like to order for christmas delivery......

What exactly is involved in converting a PAL game to an NTSC game? I know the timing/speed on ntsc/pal machines are different, but if someone made a game for PAL Atari's which kind-of-runs,but-not-totally on NTSC machines, how much work would it be to patch it? Sorry if it's way too generic or complicated to really answer, but I'm curious. I have a few PAL games from downloaded archives that sort-of-run on my800xl.....but after a while the graphics get garbled or they just lock-up. Can't help but think that disassembling the binary and adjusting the value of a timing loop might be all that's needed.

I know that official arcade ports were never done on the 8-bits for Phoenix, Pleiades, Venture or Turbo. But were there ever any games that were made that are very similar to any of these?

Just thought I'd ask before I ruin one by trying myself.... Is there an easy way to remove the larger end piece from a mattel cart; thus just leaving just the smaller 'intellivision' part of the cart intact? (and of course, still have it be able to be inserted and work in the atari) I have my loose carts stacked on a shelf, and the mattel ones are a pain because they don't stack well.

Wow. A Studio II discussion. As someone who has owned one since 1979, I can attest that the system is pretty bad. That year I wanted an Atari 2600 for christmas. My parents said it was too expensive. I ended up getting an RCA Studio II (which was on closeout at Radio Shack for like $50, including all the games available for it). Despite my big disappointment, I will say that I did in fact play it a fair amount over the next few months. I actually did like the built-in bowling game, as well as the pattern-making kaleidoscope game (whatever they called it). Thankfully, I did finally get my atari the following summer for my birthday, and the studio II was packed up in its box and tossed in the back of the closet. I've actually kept it all these years & I hooked it up 2-3 years ago just to see if it worked. Still worked just fine. Still laughably bad to play. And to the person who commented about Pong being broken - if you hit the ball on the edges of the paddle WHILE the paddle is in motion, the ball will take a sharp turn part-way across the screen....that was supposed to simulate putting "english" on the ball.

first atari game? 2600, with space invaders as my birthday present (in 1980?) first '8-bit' atari game? saved up and bought myself an atari 400, 410 program recorder, and pac man cart in summer of '82.

mmmmm....enduro, with pole position for 2nd.

Plug it in, hold the button down and you will have 'rapid fire'. As mentioned already, not all games will experience a rapid fire, because many require a shot to reach its destination before the next shot can occur. But it still can be convenient, because you can just hold down the fire button continuously for a 'repeat fire' effect, rather than pushing the fire button over and over to fire each shot. Try it with your favorite games....for some games, it's a real 'thumb-saver', for others it really makes no difference.

Some old favorites of mine : Astro Blaster Astro Fighter Astro Invader Lunar Rescue Star Fire ....and Pleaides, but isn't there a proto of this one???

My favorite : the repro sticks that come with Flashback II. Runner up : Wico.

If you're talking about the 'flashback ii' then I definitely agree. After getting a Flashback II, I went and ordered a 2nd one JUST to get the extra pair of sticks to use with my original Atari. I think they've got a better feel than the originals, and the top of the stick for whatever reason doesn't leave my thumb feeling sore after extended use like the originals could.

The Jewels of Darkness version is mostly the same, but a little bit different-- I think primarily in the above-ground area before you enter the Colossal Cave. Michael Thanks for the replies. Yep, that's it. Turns out I already had it in a large atari8 archive I downloaded long ago. But I was looking for "collosal cave" or "original adventure" or just "adventure". Never thought to look under "jewels of darkness"!! And yes, I also remember there being a BASIC version from Compute or some mag, but I was looking for this binary load version. Again, thanks for the input guys.

wow. really? i guess i'm glad i just threw them in the closet and never wore them. even more glad i didn't use them as rags to dry the car with!!! anybody want some shirts?

Does anyone have a working file of the old Colossal Cave Adventure for Atari 8-bits? This was the "original" interactive text adventure created on a mainframe back in the 70s. I know for a fact that an Atari translation was made at some point, because I used to own it....on cassette no less. Ads for it used to run in Analog/Antic (small black and white ads, not large colorful ones back around '83 or so) and I ordered it. Anyway, I've currently got hundreds of Atari game files for the emulators, which I've downloaded on the net. But I can't seem to track down a copy of that Colossal Cave Adventure. If anyone could point me in the right direction, I'd appreciate it.

Hmmmm. You know, back in the day, I never took notice of different power supplies. Just lately I've set up one of my 800xl's to play with. I have three of them. Two stock, one with 256k Rambo upgrade. I kept the original boxes, and they've each been packed away for the last 17 years. Each of the three came with a different power supply. One with the HUGE black one; one with the medium sized brick with silver label on top; one with what is being called the bad "ingot". Funny thing is, I *know* that the only power supply that ever really got used back then was the "ingot". I guess I used it because it was the smallest and was similar in size to the 1050 disk drive supplies. I'm going to guess that my 'ingot' was plugged in 24/7 from early '84 til late '92, when I finally 'retired' my Atari and bought a Mac. So I'm just wondering, after stumbling upon and reading about how bad the 'ingots' were, how much trouble did people REALLY experience with them? Was I just THAT lucky??? 8 years or so, non-stop with no trouble? In any case, I'm currently using the silver-labelled brick nowadays.

Back in the day, this game frustrated me and I never got anywhere with it. This past week, I spent a while playing it again, and came away with the same feeling - it's potentially a great game. But it's really hard and frustrating! (at least for me!). Any tips, hints, maps, walk-thru's or anything for Montezuma??? And also....same thing for Amaroute. Game impressed me when I stumbled upon it in the late 80s. Could never get anywhere with it. Maps, hints, cheats, etc????

yeah, you know, even though the graphics of Mercenery weren't fantastic, i was always impressed (at the time) with the ability to move freely through a 3D space like that. The other games at the time that impressed me (more so, but for the same reason) were the Alternate Reality games. Both Mercenery and Alternate Reality were ahead of their time, and what's interesting to note is the coincidence that both were released by DataSoft.

Thanks. Back to the original question, since I am curious. Any guesstimates from the Atari pros around here as to what that set of stuff might fetch on ebay these days? (in any combo.....everything together.....or just the set of 3 shirts....or just the waterworld game with its shirt?) Not sure I want to get rid of the games, but the shirts I have no use for (which is why they spent 25 years in my parents closet!

Good question. The 2600 was my favorite toy in the early 80s. It's use kept slowly declining as I started playing more games on my 800xl from '84 onward. But the 2600 remained hooked up and got played occasionally. Around '89 or so, when I finished college, I packed all the Atari stuff away in a closet at my parents. Didn't touch it for many many years. When the emulators for PC started surfacing about 10 years ago, I thought that was the coolest thing ever, and for the next several years would use them every now and then for a quick game of Adventure or Superman, etc. But my real Atari remained packed away, now in the basement of my own house. For some reason, in the summer of 2008 I was looking for something and came across the Atari stuff. Figured it might be fun to hook it up and see if it worked. Oddly enough, I got re-addicted to it. So I started looking online for Atari info....found this site.....found the database showing hundreds of games I'd never had. So I started ordering a handful every few months from atari2600.com. A year later, I'm still playing the 2600 once a week or so. It's strange, but in these days of LONG playing games with great graphics (like say, Oblivion) and complex, detailed games (SIMS3, Spore), I feel like I need to just play something quick and simple sometimes, and the 2600 fits the bill perfectly.

here's the set of what i've got....

Yes, I have the box, comic, instructions, hint sheet, tshirt......basically everything that came originally with the one exception being the 'entry form' cut-out for the contest. I do have the main part of the entry form, but at the time i cut off the bottom part and sent it in. Same situation for my Earthworld and Fireworld games....everything but the bottom cut-off entry form part.

Never worn. Got them with each game. Packed 'em in a box in a closet at my parents. Claimed them and brought them to my house 2-3 years ago. They smell musty, but they've never been worn (or washed!). I'm actually on the fence as to whether or not I want to sell the Waterworld game, but I definitely wouldn't mind selling off the shirts.

Christmas came today....I opened my mailbox to discover the sticks I ordered 11 months ago. Anyway, they work fine and I'm pleased with them. I will agree with the 'mushy' fire button issue, but it really doesn't bother me. One of my original Atari sticks back in the day had a button that felt like this also.