rolenta

C&VG beat Electronic Games by about two weeks. The cover date of EG was Winter 1982.

The first letter printed in that second issue of EGM was by me. Since the first issue consisted of letters written by people in the industry before the magazine came out, I have the distinction of having the first fan letter ever published in a videogame magazine.

I have one, which I bought the day it came out. I have idea of its worth.

Two new books that I contributed on will be published this year. The first is Before The Crash: Early Video Game History. This is a collection of essays concerning the state of videogames before the 193-1984 crash. It's coming out in May. $27.95 http://wsupress.wayne.edu/books/1137/Before-the-Crash The second is the two-volume Encyclopedia of Video Games: The Culture, Technology, and Art of Gaming. This one comes out on August 31. The price? A mere $189 http://books.google.com/books/about/Encyclopedia_of_Video_Games.html?id=nsOnpwAACAAJ

I just learned that the first two books are coming out in paperback for $25 each at the end of April!

I'm sure Andrew was happy to be compared to Hitler.

I found it, thanks!

I'm reading these posts and I noticed that mine didn't come with a DVD.

Mine came yesterday. Looks great!

Most of these games were never shown at CES, only in the Press kits. Tarzan for the 2600 was shown, but it was a video, not an actual game.

I'm not complaining about the price and I ordered mine the day they went on sale. I'm just curious why the 5200 version, which was limited to 100 copies and created with the permiission of First Star in 2006, was only sold for $40.

The programmer of Superman once said that he "got permission to use the larger ROMs because Warner was about to release the first Superman movie, and they wanted Atari (which they had just acquired) to do a companion Superman game." It sounds like Atari upgraded to 4k, at least in part, because they wanted a good Superman game. Full interview: http://www.mindsprin...ball/gcDunn.htm Thanks for the info. However, Casino was released much earlier than Superman. When I bought my first VCS in May 1979, Casino was one of the titles I purchased with it. Superman didn't come out until much later.

I bet that's what it was. The six Special Edition carts were all 4k, with the exception of BASIC Programming, which was 3k (according to my ROM). Still that made all of these programs larger than all of the others available at the time, which were still 2k and under. Is Casino the first program that broke the 2k boundary? Backgammon BASIC Programming Casino Championship Soccer Supeman Video Chess

Oh, okay. I have the ROM. I thought someone released it on cartridge.

The same prototype that was eventually released or a different one? I wasn't aware that one had been released!

CBS Electronics threw a press party at the Automat in NYC in 1983, a week before the summer CES. They showed a box for the Madden game for the 2600, but there was no actual game shown. They did have a working copy of Wings, however! That party was memorable for me because it was the first time I met Bill Kunkel and Arnie Katz.

Yes you may have hit the nail on the head...the Special Edition boxes I've seen all contain picture label carts and they came out rather early (I think 78 or 79). This might have finally solved this mystery. Note true. I bought Superman the day it came out. It had Special Edition on the box and a text label.

I would suggest either Amidar, Kangaroo, or Reactor.

1) You should mention Ed Federmeyer, who wrote the first two homebrew applications for the VCS. 2) I wouldn't say Home Pong flopped. It didn't. 3) I'm not sure what you mean by that it was the first system to get 'Broad distribution'. I belive Home Pong was widely distributed after Sears' exclusive first year. 4) Under arcade ports, how could you not include Breakout, or Space Invaders, the first licensed home game. Remember, it was Space Invaders that made the VCS a gotta have machine.

From the THE VIDEOGAME STYLE GUIDE AND REFERENCE MANUAL: HOMEBREW: Adjective used to describe software created in a non-professional capacity by amateur programmers, or the process of creating such software. Do not use homebrew as a noun Of course, the definition of an amateur programmer would need to be clarified. Although I am a professional business application programmer, I have never programmed a game in my life, so I assume I would be an amateur programmer if I attempted one.

One other thing to consider is the production process. To me, a game that is hand-made and not numbered in the thousands is a homebrew.

Payment sent. #24 would be nice. If not 24, then 124.

Actually, you meant Gateway. Stargunner is a ranking.

Michael Thomasson of GoodDealGames announced the release of Escape It!, which he believes is the FIRST 2600 HOMEBREW GAME TO USE BANK-SWITCHING TECHNIQUE. The game is based on the European VideoPac (Odyssey2) game "Labyrinth." It is a two-player race to the exit game through a maze that is constantly changing while you navigate through it. Only thirty copies of the game have been made. It is available from http://www.gooddealg...2600%20VCS.html

Please add me to the list. Number doesn't matter PM sent.