Zach

Cartridge sides:

Close ups of Combat 2:

Close ups of Elevator Action:

If you didn't make it to the 2001 Classic Gaming Expo in Las Vegas, here is a rare opportunity to pick up prototype reproductions Combat 2 and Elevator Action for the Atari 2600. eBay Auction -- Item Number: 270777128919 I marked the condition as "good" because there are some slight scuff marks on the boxes. I'll post more detailed photos soon so you can see the exact condition. By the way, it's an auction for charity supporting the Sacramento SPCA.

Some of the best examples of sprites built with missiles are the animated bells in Hunchy II. See here for screenshots.

Well if you feel like it, I'm curious whether the Chetiry glitch reported on mugenmidget's console happens on other 7800's.

My condolences, Nathan.

I find these scores to be fair overall, including the 4 for Four-Play (nice pattern there). The last three Holiday Carts have been consistently good. If someone ever decides to take up a new one they'll have some big shoes to fill.

Hey, I just realized this record is by the same K-Tel that produced two rarity 9 cartridges.

Haha. Nice work.

(bump) It's this Saturday.

Maybe. I wasn't doing anything obviously unusual though. Have you ever looked for the EE in the code, batari? I've been tempted.

No one has yet reported seeing this before. I could go into the assembly to investigate how it happened, but it's not the best use of my time to look into it even though I'm curious about the rare behavior.

Yeah, funny we were writing our replies at the same time, Devin. What are you doing up so early?

The first thing to understand: let go of the term sprite. When people say there are two sprites, that naturally leads to confusion when there are games like Berzerk with a player and multiple robots. Instead, learn the language of 2600 programming. The "two sprites" are actually the player 0 and player 1 objects, also known as P0 and P1, and their behavior is different from any other video system. There are lots of resources that explain how P0 and P1 work. Sprite is a useful term for design only after you've figured out how the Atari 2600 works.

TATE? Oh, I get it. It's a game played on a screen oriented like a portrait rather than a landscape. Good timing. I finally tried rotating the TV to try Merlin's Walls the other day. The colors were messed up, but there doesn't seem to be permanent damage. Made me wonder what VCS games could be rotated 90 degrees and still be playable. So far I've come up with Othello and Combat. A TATE Pac-Man would make an awesome homebrew.

Thanks for investigating. Oh well. Can't blame the programmer for missing a bug that wouldn't have shown up during testing.

I'm often unable to shoot the center object: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PV4ZHCGnGWk ROM is the one from the AA database. It works fine in Stella. My CoM cartridge from the AA store also works well, although I'm unable to know if it has the same ROM. How does CoM work on other people's Harmony Carts?

Maybe someone with the ability to dump ROMs can answer that. If this had happened while I was playing off my cartridge I would have posted in the main 2600 forum.

I was playing an ordinary round of Go Fish! when I realized I didn't have to move. The little green fish were coming to me! Several fish later, I decided this was too much fun not to share and rushed to fetch my camera. Couldn't find my tripod in a hurry, so the video quality isn't that good. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSCMbuOvTVQ There were seven green fish caught on video, and at least 15 in between takes. The fun finally ended when the level changed and an eel got my fish. Has anyone else had this happen? I haven't been able to repeat it so far. Game was running on a preproduction Harmony Cart and the ROM is the one from the AA database.

Just watched Paraphernalia, and it's astoundingly good. I may be just a layperson, but it's hard to believe that was a student film production.

Hey Nathan, your students are pretty talented. Congrats on a successful show.

Computers move numbers around, and by numbers I mean electrical pulses that run through circuits designed to mimic arithmetic.

That's cool. I was considering the same approach back when I was working on an unannounced project a while ago. In my case, I decided to put the reposition signal in the PF0 data instead.