cessnaace

Thanks, but it is a rather pitiful score, especially compared to the WR.

I figured that the Genre was Paint, as that is what you are doing. Fair point about 'Gridder,' because they all use a grid. Well, except City Connection, which is why I didn't include it.

Game: Demolition Herby System: Atari 2600/VCS/Sears Video Arcade Published by Telesys Programmer: Don Ruffcorn Serial/Catalog Number: 1006 Copyright: 1983 Genre: Arcade - Paint It Controller: Joystick (Sega Game Pad compatible) Players: 1 or 2 Rarity Rating: 6 (B&W label); 7 (Color label) Also released in the USA by Romox on a reusable cartridge. In Europe it was released by Telesys. In Brazil it was released by Genus and Dynacom. My copy is a Custom Reproduction Cartridge from Atari Age. The least expensive option, as this game is quite pricey. This game is played on a grid, in the style of Amidar. You drive around the track painting it red as you go. There are other vehicles to contend with (chase cars). You must also watch your fuel, although there is a whopping sound to warn you when it gets too low. Run out of fuel and your car explodes! The bar at the bottom of the screen acts as your fuel gauge. The scoring is simple. Blacking out a single square earns you 32 points plus fuel. Completing two squares with one line will earn you 145 points plus more fuel. Ramming a chase car will earn you 117 points. For each 1000 points scored you earn an additional car, up to a maximum of 6. You must ram the chase cars from behind, or you will lose that car. So if another vehicle is traveling up a line, you ram it from below. If it is traveling down a line you must ram it from above. Be careful though, because once you ram them they will be shot off of the course. If they strike your car in the process you lose it. It's even possible for a rammed chase car to bounce off of your extra cars, even though they aren't on the track. If this happens you will lose any that are struck. I've lost 4 cars at once because of this! Once a chase car is rammed off of the course they are in a sort of time out. Chase cars will stay off of the track for :08 to :10 seconds. Pushing the action button on your controller will shift your car into Overdrive, increasing your speed. But it also increases the rate at which your car burns fuel. Normally you can't paint the track while in Overdrive, however if you manage to knock all three chase cars off the track you do lay down paint even in Overdrive. Three Game Variations. Each one is displayed on-screen before the race. Out of the manual: Game 1: Children's Race The other demolition racers are fairly slow. The speed stays the same every lap. Game 2: Beginner's Course Pace starts out slow, but gets progressively faster with each lap. After 7 laps, the other racers get going so fast, they don't even erase your red lines - they don't need to! Game 3: Dastardly Derby Start out quick, and then try to keep the pace! After just two laps, your opponents don't bother to erase the red lines anymore. They're just after you! Play video demonstrating the 3 game variations: This game was obviously patterned after the arcade game Amidar, which was programmed by Konami and published by Stern. Parker Brothers released their port for the Atari 2600 in 1982. Eventually the game got a make-over, in the form of new sprites and sound effects, and was released by Froggo Games as Spiderdroid in 1987 (also for the 2600). I've played them both, and in all honesty I prefer Demolition Herby over them. Game Ranking: 1 (out of 1) OTHER GAMES BASED ON AMIDAR: Kid Grid (Commodore 64) Play video by High Score user ILLSeaBass Omidar (Commodore 64) Cancelled release. I first heard of this game when someone at High Score posted a video for it as evidence of their score. Potty Painter (Commodore 64) Rollin (Commodore 64) I'd love to see this game ported to either the 2600 or to the 7800. Traxx (Commodore 64) I thought of including City Connection (Arcade), but while it is a paint game it uses platforms instead of a grid. Please Like, Comment, and Follow. Thank you to fellow Atari Age member and High Score user RetroRob for being the first to follow Cessnaace's Blog. EDITED: When trying to find a decent cartridge to buy on eBay I kept finding cartridges ranging in price from $50 (horrible looking Standard Cartridges) to $80 (presentable Handle Cartridges w/peeling end labels). Boxed copies were over-priced even further, so I ordered a Custom Reproduction from Atari Age. Then, a couple of weeks after receiving it (a job well done, I might add), I stumbled onto a Handle Cartridge in near-mint condition, also on eBay, for $24.98 (w/FREE shipping). I've replaced the Entry Image with a photo showing the Custom Reproduction and Handle Cartridge side-by-side. I will probably continue playing using the Reproduction Cartridge, as it's a struggle to get the Handle Cartridge into the cartridge slot of my 7800, and I don't want to damage anything.

Well, today was a big day package wise. My wife informed me that I "had a tower' on the front porch. This referred to 3 packages containing a total of 7 games. Package 1 @eBay Deadly Duck (2600) An enjoyable shooter that I had only played via emulation. Package 2 @eBay Thunderground (2600) Published by Sega (w/manual). Port of part of the Sega Arcade game Borderline. I already own the SG-1000 port, which contains more elements of the Arcade original (based on the catalog number and year of release Borderline must have been the very first release for the SG-1000. I play all of my SG-1000 and Mk. III games on my Japanese Master System). I had never played Thunderground until I tried it via emulation. I enjoy both takes on the same original game. Package 3 @Atari Age Demolition Herby (2600) Custom Reproduction. I'd played this game via emulation and loved every bit of it. S.BAZ currently holds the World Record at High Score for Demolition Herby: Game 3/Emulation. Game 3 is the toughest variation. http://highscore.com/scores/Atari2600Emulated/DemolitionHerby/49147 Flappy (2600) Homebrew. Very difficult for me to make so many rapid inputs at my age and with my health status, but I wanted to try it. A user posted a score for it at High Score. It is the current World Record holder with 917 points! http://highscore.com/scores/Atari2600/Flappy/80348 Galactopus (2600) Homebrew. Shooter. I really like this one. It kind of reminds me of Name This Game (aka Octopus), a game I also like (and own on cartridge). Currently not in the database at High Score. As soon as I post this Blog entry I'll submit requests for it with all of its difficulty options. Meteor Shower (Red label variant; 7800). Shooter. I already own the Blue label variant. This game reminds me of Astroblast, or a vertical take on Meteor Defense (aka Astrowar, Astro War, Astro-War, Missile War, War 2000, etc.) Rainbow Invaders (2600) Homebrew. Another shooter. I haven't tried it yet (give me a slight break here, as I received quite a few games today). Comment and be the first to do so on one of my Blog entries.

Here's the thing. A user at http://highscore.com posted a play video of a game for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Actually, this shoot 'em up has all the makings of a great homebrew conversion for the Atari 2600. The Game is called The Pyramid. It was designed by Bob Hamilton, Darren Hamilton, Ian Hamilton, and published for the Speccy in 1983 by Fantasy Software. Here's the video. Take a look and please comment on this idea:

It's not easy keeping my Atari 7800 ProSystem well fed with 2600 and 7800 games that it has never experienced before while staying on a budget. I received 3 emails from Atari Age today confirming that three of my orders have shipped, leaving 2 still being processed. So what did I do? Placed another order of course. Plus which, I buy games on eBay. I'm not as mobile as I once was, so I do most of my game shopping online. Here's some of what's coming: Atari Age (Homebrews/Hacks) Bentley Bear's Crystal Quest (7800; POKEY) Berzerk: Voice Enhanced (2600) Draconian (2600) Elevators Amiss (2600) Flappy (2600) Galactopus (2600) Meteor Shower (7800; Red label variant. I already own the Blue label variant) Rainbow Invaders (2600) Atari Age (Custom Reproductions) Demolition Herby (2600) Gas Hog (2600) River Patrol (2600) Packrat Video Games (Homebrews) Astronomer (2600) Explosive Diarrhea (2600) eBay (Games from back-in-the-day) Deadly Duck (2600) Planet Patrol / Wall Defender (2600; 2-in-1; PAL) Thunderground w/Manual (2600) I only order Custom Reproductions of games that I can't otherwise afford. Sure, they play through emulation. But I'd rather play on actual Atari hardware. I especially like Demolition Herby, which is a take on Amidar/Spiderdroid but with some vehicular combat added for extra spice, and River Patrol, an extremely rare port of the arcade original for the 2600. It even has music throughout. I only recently started playing Gas Hog thru emulation. An interesting game. You probably noticed that I bought a PAL 2-in-1 on eBay (from a seller in Germany) - Planet Patrol / Wall Defender. I already own the NTSC release of Planet Patrol, however Wall Defender is another matter. Not only do I not own it on cartridge, but it will not run properly on my emulator - EMU7800 (version 2.2). I downloaded the latest version of Stella for Windows 10 (64-bit), but I have a problem. It seems to have many games already pre-loaded (such as Wall Defender), but when I select a game it only runs an attract mode for that game. I can't start an actual game. Maybe someone here can help me with this. -Mark

I bought my copy of Mappy earlier this month, and I find myself unable to stop playing it for any appreciable length of time. John W. Champeau and his team at Champ Games have really done an excellent job at porting this arcade game to the 2600. John W. Champeau has done a marvelous job with the Coding and Design work. The Music and Sound Effects, by Mike Haas, are standouts as well. Darrell Spice, Jr. provided the Music driver. Not wishing to leave anyone out, Thomas Jentzsch worked on optimizing the code. Nathan Strum did a marvelous job designing the label, manual, and box artwork. I will be expanding my collection of Atari 2600 games by Champ Games. I already own Conquest of Mars and Super Cobra Arcade, but still need to add Lady Bug and Scramble (both are in my Wishlist). I will certainly be purchasing their Wizard of War Arcade when it releases. If I'm not mistaken there was another Mappy arcade game called Hopping Mappy. If we're lucky we will get a port of that some day. Now don't get the wrong idea and think that I don't buy homebrews made by other designers/coders. I most certainly do. Currently I have 6 orders being processed here at Atari Age (for the 2600 and 7800), and 2 being processed at Packrat Video Games. I went there to buy a copy of Astronomer for the 2600, which I did, but also bought a copy of Explosive Diarrhea, also for the 2600.

I'll take a look at your link after I go into some details about Meteor Defense. It is a Horizontal Scrolling shooter. It was released in various PAL territories under various titles by various publishers. Besides Meteor Defense it was released as Missile War, War 2000, Astrowar, etc. I've built up 20 extra lives on several occasions, but it's easy to loose them in batches. A fellow member at http://highscore.com submitted a play video, which is in color, played on actual hardware. And he's in California! Anywho, here's his play video: http://highscore.com/scores/Atari2600/AstrowarMeteorDefenseKampfimAsteroidenGrtel/67392 -Mark

Last night I ordered an Atari 2600 Custom Cartridge from Atari Age. This was after reading the description for it, because It appears that you can order a reproduction of a rare game with the original artwork, with added text saying "Reproduction Cartridge." This is fine for me because I only want to be able to play games on actual Atari hardware that I would never be able to afford otherwise. And I don't much like Everdrives. Before getting to the PAL question, the rare game that I wish to have a reproduction of is Demolition Herby. It's like Amidar and Spiderdroid, except it's faster, adds a touch of vehicular combat, and is loads of fun to play. So far I've only been able to play it thru emulation, but I want to be able to play it on actual Atari hardware. After I ordered and paid for an Atari 2600 Custom Cartridge, I added the following note to the order: I need a reproduction of "Demolition Herbie" for my own use. https://atariage.com/software_page.php?SoftwareLabelID=132 (I meant Herby) Now on to the PAL question. Can PAL games be placed onto an NTSC cartridge? There are PAL exclusives that I want to be able to play on my Atari hardware, which use the NTSC standard. Those games include Acid Drop and Meteor Defense for example. Can anyone answer the PAL question for me? Both of the mentioned PAL exclusives run on my emulator, EMU7800, but Acid Drop cuts of the bottom 30% or so off the screen, and Meteor Defense runs, but in black and white only. Most PAL games run fine though. Thanks in advance. -Mark

Good to know. I've started following this seller and saved the POKEY chip as a saved search.

Didn't know that. Thanks for the info.

I just placed placed an order for this POKEY chip https://www.ebay.com/itm/Atari-Pokey-chip-C012294B-01/113670943284?hash=item1a7750f234:g:jF0AAOSwq5dcesi~&frcectupt=true I then placed an order for Bentley Bear's Crystal Quest here at Atari Age. I have received confirmation emails from both jasperman (the dealer for the POKEY chip), and Atari Age. After I became an annual subscriber I thought that I would be sent an email with a 5% discount code number, but I haven't as yet. So, I left that field blank when ordering Bentley Bear's Crystal Quest.

I've been dying to buy POKEY games for the 7800, but it's getting to be expensive and troublesome. Copies of Ballblazer for the 7800 are getting harder to find and this was to be expected. On eBay things are quite limited. Boxed copies can be had for about $30 to $50 dollars, but I'm not buying a mint or sealed boxed copy just to get the cartridge. Loose copies, well I'm only finding the ones with the red end labels, and they tend to go for $50 to $80. I sometimes see loose PAL cartridges for around $25, but I don't even know if they are compatible. POKEY chips can be found in a 5200 console, but then I'd have to buy one, pay to have it shipped to me, destroy the console to get at the POKEY chip, remove the POKEY chip (which I don't even know how to do), and then ship it to Atari Age. POKEY chips can be found in some Atari Arcade games, but no way am I going that route either! The cheapest option that I can find is to buy just a board with a POKEY chip on it. Cost $30. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Ballblazer-Atari-7800-Pokey/152564067928?hash=item238586ee58:g:RJ8AAOSwjKtccao9 The one POKEY version that I'd really like to own is Bentley Bear's Crystal Quest. Cost? $52.25. So if I could go with the board that I found on eBay, which includes free shipping, my cost would be $82.25 not counting the shipping charge from Atari Age, and assuming that I can have this board shipped directly to Atari Age. And that's the CHEAPEST option! If these boards like the one that I've linked to are common, and I have no idea if they are, perhaps Atari Age could buy them in bulk. The seller seems to be offering that option (for $25). If Atari Age passed that expense along I'd be willing to do it. Actually, I'd also be willing to buy the board, have it shipped directly to Atari Age, and have them use that. But I am disabled now so my options are limited.

By 'Homebrews' I am including homebrew ports from other systems, prototype reproductions, hacks, and demos. Here is what I own as of today. ATARI 2600 Alfred Challenge Alligator People (Prototype Reproduction) Amiga Boing! Demo 2.0 Allia Quest AStar Bee-Ball Blinky Goes Up (Boxed) The Byte Before Christmas (Multi-cart; Boxed) Chetiry Colony 7 Conquest of Mars Crazy Brix FailSafe Mappy (Boxed) Mental Kombat Oystron Pinata (Multi-cart; Discontinued) Pleiades (Boxed) Power Off! (Boxed) Space Game (Boxed) Stay Frosty 2 Stella's Stocking (Multi-cart; Includes "Stay Frosty") Super Cobra Arcade (Boxed) This Planet Sucks Trust+ Platinum Turbo (Finished/Enhanced Prototype Reproduction; Boxed) X3V0LuX Atari 5200 Beef Drop VE ATARI 7800 Asteroids Deluxe Astro Blaster Beef Drop VE Crazy Otto Frenzy (Boxed) Meteor Shower (Blue label) Jr. Pac-Man Worm! ATARI LYNx Tournament Cyberball Zaku (Boxed; Super Fighter Team) ATARI JAGUAR/JAGUAR CD Treasure Island Dizzy (Boxed; Clear Shell Option) Jagware Collection 1.0 (Case) Kobayashi Maru: Final (Case)

Just an update letting you know that the Limited Run boxed edition of "Astronomer" is sold out. Only 34 were made. I've placed my order for the cartridge/manual option, although there may be some delay before it is processed because he's a one-man operation.

I wish more 2600 homebrews offered patches, the way Activision did back when they were cool. Thanks for letting us know about this.

It amazes me that I haven't lost many subscribers. When I go active again several people may be shocked to see me back. I'm trying to decide if I should start a second channel for play videos and game reviews, and use the Cessnaace channel to post game add videos and such. I'm looking into going the Patreon route, but only with the second channel. "Guru Larry" Bundy, Jr. has already told me that he'd promote my channel once it goes active. I would like for it to be "super awesome," as he says in his videos, when I do start up again. You must have kept your old videos up because I still watch them.

Thanks for the confirmation.

Thanks for the info. That was the one thing preventing me from buying one. I run across them in retro gaming stores all the time.

Thanks for responding. A friend of mine both here and at High Score mentioned that there are paid subscriptions. I've been a customer here for nearly 5 years and didn't even know that there was such a thing. I went ahead and paid for an annual subscription, which entitles me to 5% off on Atari Age store purchases (that explains the thing about Discount Coupons). I wish I had known earlier. In the past 4 weeks I've been averaging $80 each week on my orders here. 2 of the orders are still being processed. Thanks again!

I've been a member here for 4 or 5 years, but there are aspects of this site that I don't understand. There are quite a few awesome people here, so maybe I can fill in the blanks in my knowledge. MY ACCOUNT Customer Information I know all about this one. Address Book I kinda know what this is, but I've never used it here. Order History I am totally up to speed on this. In fact I use it frequently. DOWNLOADS This is the part I don't get. Is this used for purchasing Digital Downloads? I'm really curious about this one. Wishlist I use this quite often as well. If I click on the button for Share Your Wishlist, who am I sharing it with? ​ MY PROFILE (AND YOURS) I've recently updated my Atari Age Profile. I've noticed that people can vote on what they think of the Profile. At least that's what it looks like. I'd like to vote on the Profiles of my friends here, but I can't find a hyperlink or button to click on to vote. How is this done? COUPON CODES I've been an Atari Age member and customer for nearly 5 years but I've never seen a Coupon Code in all that time. When are they given out, and is it a promotional thing or a mechanism for dispensing refunds? REPLACEMENT MANUALS I'm missing several manuals due to illness. Basically, I put all of my manuals for loose carts that I've bought from Atari Age in one place so that I'd know where they were. Ironically, I can't remember where I put them (I was kind of loopy after being released from the hospital). I posted about this elsewhere in the Forums, and was told to send a message to Albert but I haven't heard back from him. I offered to pay for them. I'm sure that he's a busy guy. HIGH SCORE CLUB I have an interest in this, but I cannot record videos at this time. Here is what I have gathered from Friends of mine both here and at http://highscore.com/. And some questions that I still have. Videos are not required. Photos are excepted as evidence. Scores submitted to the HSC must have never been posted elsewhere prior to their submission for HSC consideration. So scores first submitted to High Score or Twin Galaxies and voted Legit are not permitted under the rules. I don't post any scores to Twin Galaxies, but I have posted (probably) thousands of scores at High Score. If I join the HSC, will I be notified on the game currently being played through the Atari Age messaging portal, or sent an email, or what? THE CUSTOM CARTRIDGE If I buy the Custom Atari Age 2600 cartridge, how do I submit the image that I want placed on the label? The image that I would like to use is the one that I am now using here as my Profile Image. (Made for me by a fellow User at High Score. FRIENDING ME I encourage it. You can also find me elsewhere: High Score Username Mark (MSH) Steam Username MarkMSH GoG Galaxy Username MARKMSH Youtube Channel name cessnaace (I haven't been active there for quite awhile, but that is about to change. Anyway, there are quite a few videos already there). I've bought a new sound system, but need a new Web camera. I have smart phones that can record videos, both Android and iOS, and I have a tripod. But no way to mount one of the smart phones to it. TWITTER My Twitter handle is https://twitter.com/MarkSHinds If you have a Youtube channel then let me know. Chances are I may be subscribed to you already, either under my cessnaace channel or under my name. I also provide support to a few gamers through Patreon. This includes "Guru Larry" Bundy, Jr., Top Hat Gaming Man, SLOPES Game Room, and most recently, The No Swear Gamer. Thanks in advance for your help and advance.

Well, I have a Dreamcast. I pre-ordered it. And it still works. You need one that was manufactured prior to November of 2000 if you want to play homebrew or aftermarket games on it. This is when Sega removed Mil-CD support due to rampant piracy. You can confirm this by looking at the barcode on the console, and also by checking for the Sega Corporation branding. Sega made the name Sega Corporation official on November 1, 2000. So that automatically rules out the black Dreamcast with Sega Sports on the lid, as it was released after that date. The irony is that Sega invented Mil-CD as an enhanced CD format, although only 9 albums were released using it, and only in Japan.

I wish that I could play it, but I don't own an Amiga and have terrible luck with emulators, as I'm rather hopeless at using them. The only emulator that I have long term experience with is EMU7800 (currently using version 2.2), which can emulate the 7800 and the 2600. I use WinRAR to archive my .bin files.

I'm not gifted in that area. I leave it to people who can actually do it.

It does seem that most games ported to the Jaguar originated as an Atari ST release, although some games were obviously released for both the Amiga and the ST. One game that came out for the Jaguar back when Atari supported it that came out for the Amiga but not the ST is "Pinball Fantasies." But then it was also released on PC.