johnnywc

jahfish - Thanks for the info. I'm actually looking for what the original title for these games were. Was Concentration originally called Hunt & Score, or vice-versa? etc... Thanks again..

RangerG, For me, my goal is to collect the following: - NTSC only releases - major label variations This includes the Atari Club releases as well. I also collect what I like to call "label variation oddities"; for example, the yellow text Atari Blackjack (more commonly available in green) or the mis-spelled POLE POSITION end label, but I don't include these in my "goal". I do not collect PAL games or pirate games. As many will say, the goal I have set may not only be unreachable, but also undefineable, as there are many exceptions and ambiguities, but I do it just for fun so that doesn't bother me. I'm also not even close to my goal to worry about the little details, but I may someday!!! Hope this helps...

Hello everyone - I'm making a database of all 2600 games (as I'm sure many of us have) and had a few questions about "what came first". The reason is that I want to designate which games are orginal releases and which are clones or re-releases (i.e. Defender II was a re-release of the original Stargate). So, which came first? BASIC MATH or FUN WITH NUMBERS? PELE'S SOCCER or CHAMPIONSHIP SOCCER? HUNT & SCORE or CONCENTRATION? SUPER BREAKOUT (sears) or SUPER BREAKOUT (atari)? Also, do Atari release Concentration as "Hunt & Score", "Concentration" and "A Game of Concentration"? Thanks!

Ask and you shall receive... Combat Two

Good battle MoonlightKnight - I'm sure you'll get the next one. My quest for Q*Bert is over!! (anyone want a Q*Bert's Qubes? I have 6 of them now... ) Seriously though - wished I would have caught that auction last week - could have saved 40 bucks. Although the label on mine looks a little nicer (just trying to make myself feel better... ) Until the next battle....

Thomas, Thanks for the help with RS Basketball. Can you explain in layman's terms why the screen rolls and what "it only displays 290 lines" would do? I'm just curious... As for the palette, I have no clue. I do know that the game looks alot better color-wise in z26 than Stella - hope that helps! Anyway the hack could be tested on a real Atari using a Cuttle Cart once it's done? If Randy burns me a cart, I (and he) want to make sure it's actually going to work... Thanks again!

Hello everyone - I just went to play a game of RS Tennis that I received in a "lot" of games on eBay and much to my dismay I discovered it's a PAL cart!! I get the scrolling screen/blue tennis court thing, making it unplayable... My concern is that I looked at the cart and there are no discerning marks on the label that clue you in that it's PAL until you play it!! My question is: does anyone have an NTSC RS Tennis in decent shape that they would like to trade for a PAL RS Tennis in great shape? Oh - and I also have a text label "Brain Games" in PAL if anyone wants to trade... Thanks...

Monster - That is exactly what mine says: Just TENNIS on the front. It also doesn't have the "Use with Joystick Controller" on it, and it's © Atari Corp., not Atari Games. Very weird...

Hello everyone, Does anybody know if the RS Basketball proto ROM on this site is NTSC or PAL? I'm trying to get a cart made of it with Randy down at Hozer video, and when he makes a cart from the ROM and trys it on an Atari, the screen rolls!!! Anybody have any idea why? I *thought* the RS Basketball proto was NTSC, but maybe I'm wrong. Does anybody know if there are any special hardware requirements for the proto(like Klax has with the super chip)? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks,

Scott - No - there's nothing on the cart that suggests it's PAL. The copyright on the cart is 1988 - not sure if Atari stopped using the 'P' insignia for PAL games by then... Oh well...

Victory.

To all the techies: I recently bought an Atari 4-switch on eBay and the power supply that came with it is not the stock Atari brand. It's rating is OUTPUT 12V 300mA. The regular Atari is 9V 500mA. My question is: Will the 12V hurt the system? I know the Atari steps down the voltage to 5V, but I'm not sure how it would handle the 12V coming in. Also, is 300mA enough current to drive the system? Thanks,

Thanks Rick for the vote of confidence. I'm not about to pay 500 bucks for the thing, but I'll contend! This is the last NTSC game I need to complete my Parker Bros. collection!!

I'm on it...

wasn't that "Cloak & Sandwich"? I think the second name was Mission Bologna X. Very cool game. Love the elevator animations...

Not sure if it counts as a system, but I went from the 2600 in 1978 to the Atari 800 (and later the 800XL) in 1984. Man - the arcade conversions were awesome (just like the 5200, but without the crappy joysticks). Didn't pick up my 2600 until last year - a full 16 years! Now, of course, it's all I play...

Thomas - thanks for the Omega Race update!!! Does anybody know how I can play this on a "real" Atari (without a cuttle cart?)... I noticed that Randy down at Hozer doesn't make Omega Race (probably because of the RAM+ chip that is needed). Does anybody know anything about the RAM+ CBS architecture? Is it possible to replace the ROM in an old Omega Race cart with the hacked ROM and use the RAM+ chip that's already inside it? Thanks

Albert - I agree with you that Asteroids and Space Invaders are not really "silver" label games. Who knows how good these could have been if they were programmed in the "silver-label era"??? (not to say they aren't good games anyway, especially SI)...

KBeXpress - thanks for the tip! I used to play Missile Command all the time back in the day, one of my favs. I fired it up for ol' times sake tonight (played game #4 with the "smart" bombs and fast cursor) and got 99,420. Damn - I hate it when I get *that* close to a bonus city... BTW - I consider Missile Command a "second generation" game for anyone keeping score.

From what Thomas has said in earlier posts, I think it will be difficult (if not impossible) to hack a game that uses a joystick to use a paddle controller because most of the CPU cycles are probably used already (which would be required to emulate the paddle). It does look like the DC requires less CPU time and memory to implement than the paddle, making it at least feasible to hack that controller into a joystick game.

Well, for a test, I tried Kool-aid man in Stella by editing the stella.pro file to set the left difficultly to 'A' when the game started. I added the line: "Console.LeftDifficulty" "A" Lo and behold, I got the "lock up" screen! Here's the pic if anyone is interested:

Thomas, My vote goes for Omega Race for use with joystick. Unlike Asteroids, I don't think the DC would work well since you really need to thrust and fire.. I think I speak for the entire Atari community when i say "Thank you!!!"...

Well, I finally got Kool-aid Man about a month ago. Things were hectic so I didn't get to try it out until last week, at which time I was upset to find out the cart didn't work!! (or so it would seem) The title screen came up, but nothing would happen and there were a bunch of brown dots on the right. So, I picked up another copy on eBay for $1.95 and got it today and guess what - the same thing happened!!! After some "troubleshooting", I figured out that the game locks up if you power on with the left difficulty switch in the 'A' position. Weird!! Anyway, I'm happy to say BOTH carts are working fine (and on a related note, I have a Kool-Aid Man cart for trade if anyone is interested... ) Anyone ever heard of this?

Thomas - thanks for the info. Anyone care to post the stella.pro entry for the DC version of Sprintmaster? I'll see if I can get it together...

I'm also a big fan of Golf! Utamav91 - I got 28 in Golf once - not sure how I did it. I figured out that the lowest score you can get is a 22 - but that would require a bunch of chip in's from the green - no easy task!!!