Gateway

I hope you are still working on this. I have encountered the doppleganger at least once so far and am wondering if you will still be adding something to defeat him as I wasn't able to get rid of him and therefore was stuck in that room and had to reset the game. Also, thanks for the manual! Good info!

Nice artwork! I hope you are able to fit most if not all of your graphics work in each game. On Metal Max, I notice you show the gray playfield in one set of rooms like a top-down view with a 3D effect for the walls and door way. Looks cool! Also, the Robot Man Big boss character is awesome, however I hope he won't flicker too much by the time you get the extra sprites working in the multisprite kernel. I, myself have a project using the multisprite kernel and have been referring to Robert M's posts and blog about how to make full use of the extra sprites without too much flicker. His Hero-themed shooter project has been helpful to understanding how he can get all those sprites on the screen. However, keep in mind that in most cases he is still keeping each sprite vertically seperated from the others. So, making your big boss character 3 players wide may cause more flicker than you want it to. If you find a way around that, let us all know. Good Luck! http://www.atariage....themed-shooter/

Some nice work so far! Here are some comments about each game. Keep in mind I am giving feedback based on my first impression of trying each of these out a few minutes ago. I may go back later and my opinion could be different, but wanted to give you some thoughts like you may expect from the average gamer out there who may not understand all the blood, sweat and tears that go into programming a good game on the 2600. - 1. My Little Pony: I like the animations of the ponies and the unique abilities for the fire button that you have programmed so far. The animations for death and running, etc, are good, especially in such a small character size. Though I am not sure what the ponies are supposed to do yet. This may make more sense when you get more of the game added. I did notice that some of the background colors in the rooms blur with the pony colors, so see if you can find a few colors for the background to use throughout the whole game that doesn't clash with any of the 6 pony colors, otherwise it will be hard to see your pony on the screen. In other words, I assume you don't want to change the pony colors because they should match the characters on the show, so the easiest thing to change is the playfield colors. 2. Robot Man Nice animation! I can see the inspiration from Mega Man and it looks good. The different weapons are a nice touch, however I am not sure what the gray Robot Man weapons is supposed to do? Is it a bomb you drop or something? Also, I noticed the graphic appears to be 9 or 10 pixels wide rather than the usual 8 for a player. Are you using player1 and player 2 both to draw him? If so, this will limit the kind of enemies you can have in the game for him to fight. 3. Snik the Horgehug I saw your first demo for this a while back and this one is improved and expanded on that last demo. Again, good work on the animations for the rings and the bouncing rings when you fight the Robotnik expy. However, the screens that Snik ( aka Sonic ) moves through have a lot of holes to fall into. I haven't played all of the Sonic games out there, so maybe this is from one of those games, but the Sonic games I have played in the past mostly had large areas to run and gain speed with very few holes. My instinct is that I want Snik to run fast, therefore I skip through the other screens quickly and jump over to face Robotnik immediately. This may be difficult to program because of the limited nature of the 2600, but Snik needs a longer path to run with very few holes and more enemies if they can be put in somehow. 4. Solar Force Again, good animations for the shooting for each uniques character, however I couldn't tell if they were blobs or what until playing for a few minutes. Finally I realized it is a top-down perspective.. sort of, for the characters. One thing that confused me was that if your goal is to shoot upward and also journey to the top (reach 0000 on your counter) then why can you scroll down the screen? The only logic I see is if you need to get under the enemy you are shooting at. However it seems he hangs out in the upper part of the screen anyway until you kill him, so maybe you need a limit of how far down you can scroll- Perhaps once you pass a certain point you are not allowed to go back (similar to Super Mario Bros. horizontal scrolling on the NES. You could only backtrack the size of the screen currently.) - Anyway, overall, you have got some good progress here! I am also interested to see more done on your Metal Max game. Did you complete that game or still adding to it?

Very cool! Good to see the younger crowd learning about the classic computers and game consoles! Did Chris know that the retro community is still alive and well and that there are more homebrews for the 2600 and other classic game consoles other than Halo 2600?

I have been searching on Atarimania this whole time, Okay this HAS to be it! Kung Fu Superkicks - Pursuit of the Ninja *The paths or forks in the road on the game screen spread out like branches the further along you get, and looks similar to a menorah with the 8 candles. Also, "Chinese" stars on the XONOX label. *Speaking of XONOX all of your original clues started with the word "NO" which can be spelled even if you flip XONOX upside-down *Also letters X O X O in XONOX can refer to hugs and kisses, but you don't get any! LOL! *CHUCK NORRIS is so tough, he could just sit silent in the center square of Hollywood Squares and you would automatically win prizes, LOL! *If you don't choose wisely the path you take, you may find a barrier blocking your way and you will have to go back and pick a new path. Also if you pick the wrong attack method, the bad guys with whoop your backside! *Telegames released this game PAL only with the XONOX box. Later, it was available for NTSC same box artwork but no mention of XONOX this time. *"Paint it black" could refer to the pursuit of the Ninja(dressed in black) and your goal of earning your Black Belt in the gameplay. *"No staying home" can mean get off of AtariAge! LOL, and look elsewhere. . . . "Choose wisely, Grasshopper"

I will be interested in a box/manual for this game ONLY on the 2 conditions listed below: 1. If it looks like a miniature of this, and: - - - - 2. If the following doesn't happen when I unseal the package so I can play the game: - - - -

Ok, I am gonna guess Kite! by Simon Quernhorst *It is PAL only, as far as I know at this writing. *Blue skies on the label, but most of the game screens are black until later in the game *Choose wisely could be referring to the controls for the game, you can choose 1 or 2 joysticks: using 2 joysticks is more authentic to flying a real kite like the one in the game. *excessive enthusiasm or desire could be another way to say Mania or a mental disorder. New Order's/Joy Division's singer suffered epileptic seisures and later commited suicide. You could say he suffered Mental Kombat in his head, a reference to another of Simon's 2600 games(Which has squares and gameplay somewhat similar to Tic-Tac-Toe) *Kite-flying is popular in Pakistan and Afghanistan (when it's not banned by the Taliban, that is). *Somebody who is not depressed could instead be "high as a kite". Let's Go Fly A Kite was the happy song sung at the end of the Mary Poppins film. EDIT: I am having Mental Kombat right as to whether Kite! is the right answer or not, so I am gonna hit reply before I change my mind

Jungle Fever or Burning Desire by Mystique(PAL) ? Mystique was in the X-men movies and comics. The lables have a cross-hatch "square" pattern and the guy on the label for Jungle Fever looks similar to the player in Jungle Hunt Mystique, IIRC was PAL and sold their game right to Playaround in No. America? If you, ahem, get you bodily essence on the woman in Burning Desire, the fire grows larger instead of dies down (it backfires) The game screen when trying to rescue your "lover" is pitch black, though the later "reward" scenes have blue skies. The sky on the labels for either of these titles is anybodies guess as it is hard to tell. That's all I got. I'm tired, LOL. Goodnight.

Sorry to hear about your cat. Glad the rest of your family is safe!

Open Sesame! aka Apples and Dolls aka I Want My Mommy ? In the story 1001 Arabian Nights Schezarnade-something had to "choose wisely" the stories she told in order to stay alive long enough for the King/Sultan guy to fall in love with her and not kill her. One of her stories included Ali Baba and the 40 thieves and the phrase "Open Sesame" in order to open the cave of treasure (in the Middle Eastern part of the world). I think it was his brother who could not remember the password and it backfired on him, getting him caught by the thieves, etc. The gameplay itself is all black screen with difficult joystick control, etc., however it includes voice synthesized speech in the PAL release.

I'm with you guys above.. My job assignment ended early, so I am too poor ATM to get this game. @Atari4You: Please add me to the list of those interested if you do more carts beyond 50. Hopefully in a few months, this repro will still be available. And thanks for making this game available finally!

No Escape! ? Haven't figured out the first 3 clues yet, but I am guessing #4 refers to having to kill the furies indirectly with the bricks otherwise a direct hit causes them to multiply! And #5 I think refers to the gamescreen being black yet the label art suggests the sun hasn't set in the sky yet( or it is dusk ).

Mean Santa ? It looks like the kid is "presenting" the gift to Santa like to royalty (albeit at gunpoint, LOL) EDIT: I see Christmas games are out, but I will post it anyway, because the artwork for the game is awesome

Lord of the Rings: FOTR ? The movie, A Christmas Story features Ralphie getting in the mail, a secret decoder ring. Auctioneers have ringmen to help spot people bidding. Aragorn was to be crowned the king by the end of the novels and movie series.

Crash Dive Logic: A 20th Century Fox game: Their slogan is: "Games of the Century" hence the roman "hundreds" numerals. Also, Up n' Down would refer to part of the gameplay as you move your ship from the air into the sea and back to collect treasures. (Fathom has already been used, I think) It has sharks like Fishing Derby and Name this Game as well as a "refueling" gameplay mechanic to get more fuel (Name this Game you get more oxygen). Fishing Derby has your player control his line from above the water. Crash Dive has your player able to interact both inside and outside the water. EDIT: Okay I just did the math for fun.. Crash Dive is software page 112 here on AtariAge: DLXXIV = 574 : CCCXXII = 322 : CLXXXII = 182 574 - 322 = 252 252 - 182 = 70 112 - 70 = 42 ( Which we know, is the answer to life, the universe, and everything )

Very clever!

Juno First ? Juno is the Roman goddess of marriage and counterpart to the Greek Hera. First- as the goldenband suggested Prime numbers, would make sense. I also saw some prime numbers in my math, but couldn't make sense of it until now.

Okay, I will go out on a nim and guess Codebreaker (CX2643)

Gyruss The planets you travel between in our solar system have Roman names: Neptune, Uranus, etc... Johann Sebastian Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor is in the game. Bach lived in the 1700's but I am going around in circles as I can't seem to find the right year for when he wrote the tune.

Centipede "C" = centi = 100 in Latin. 3 clues each number adds up to a "hundreds" total: 322, 574, 182 = combined total = 1078 swapped around you get 7801 = First Atari brand game on the 7800 console was Centipede. I tried this with Millipede too, but it doesn't work because it wasn't released on all 3 consoles(only 2600 and a proto for 5200)

This part doesn't compile, claiming there are duplicate labels. So, do I need to dimension a new "cell"? I tried changing it to cellx, but that causes more problems.

My guess is Extra Terrestrials I don't own it yet, but I have heard that it shares many similarities with E.T. (pic not mine)

Yeah, I had fun putting all the clues together to make them work out. I got a bit carried away and probably sent some of you on a wild goose chase, LOL! In my defense, it tied in with the theme of Easter Eggs being hidden while you are searching for the answers to the movie clues. Which brings up an interesting dillema.. @bomberpunk: Did you expect each new round to get more difficult to figure out? We started with Pitfall! which was easy to figure out-- and now we are up to page 25 with ever more and more brain teaser- type clues. Some of you guys have made my head spin with how complex the game has gotten! So, shall we continue with brain-teasers or would you guys rather go back to "easier" and shorter clues?

A WINNER IS Nathan! Yars' Revenge is correct! 1. Raiders of the Lost Ark has a Yar as an Easter Egg. Harrison Ford plays Indy, of course. 2. E.T. has another Yar as an Easter Egg. Debra Winger was one of the voices for E.T. 3. Jamie Foxx was in Ray by Hackford (Yar spelled backward), and The Great White Hype by Hudlin. 4. Geena Davis was in Hero by Frears. (about a protagonist nobody believes could be a hero, but he actually did save the day) "Debra Winger, for example, was in an obscure movie called Thank God It's Friday (1978)" with JEFF GOLDBLUM 1. Goldblum appeared in Morning Glory with Ford. 3. Goldblum appeared in The Great White Hype with Foxx. Ray is the wildcard. 4. Goldblum appeared in movies and even was married to Davis. They both appeared in The Fly (1986) in which his character becomes a mutant fly. The rabbit is on top of an Easter Egg, of which HSW and the Yar character were eggs. Frank Sinatra sings "Fly Me to the Moon" which should make sense now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQR0bXO_yI8&feature=related