Scott Stilphen

You can't be serious. What difference does that possibly make? Whatever... I'd hate to think that's a reason why you didn't release it sooner. Either way, it's an impressive program for being only 2K, and pretty fast (for its time), but I doubt it will see much use from anyone now- not when you can download free PC versions like Life32.

>>The 4K version also does not take advantage of z26's RAM randomization routine, so every time you start that version of Video Life you'll see what was in the contents of the PC's memory that dumped the cart. The 2K version we released will show random data each time in the main window before the data is cleared. >> I honestly don't see any difference between the two versions, other than your version auto-runs with the new Z26. Both start up with a screen full of "garbage", which is immediately wiped clear, and then the title screen appears.

I got both versions of Frog Pond from Best Elec. The one with the Frog on the title screen is the later version of the two.

No need to wait - it's on the Digital Press site! Tempest is right though, I doubt anyone will mind much that emulators don't auto-recognize it. It's not something that will appeal to very many people.

How can it offer support for Thwocker when the ROM wasn't released yet......or was it? Hmm... Ok, where's Video Life!

Just found that there's a picture of a prototype Locomotion box for the 5200 at the Atari HQ site. How is it that both Atari and Mattel were working on versions? If one of them got the console rights to do it, wouldn't that cover both the 2600 and 5200?

I've heard the PAL version was fixed. As anyone ever verified this?

Tod has really been 'burned at the stake' for Pac-Man over the years, which is unfortunate b/c but he did some fantastic work on the 2600 later on. I think Pac-Man was his first actual game, and to even get something like that in 4K is pretty amazing. Xevious was promising, and Ballblazer sounded interesting (from his comments on the Stella tape). Shooting Arcade and Save Mary are very good. He also had a hand in Summer Games and Winter Games.

Not really. I did it - only takes about 5-10 minutes.

Couple other games with weird rollover problems - Big Bird (slight scoring error appears), Pele's Championship Soccer (garbled characters), Blueprint (rolls at 20,000), and Decathlon (scores of 20k only show as 10k).

I was the one Tempest spoke of, with the Defender ROM. All the others were blank. Don't waste your time bidding on those auctions. He/She isn't selling protos of anything - it's all the same worthless stuff

The scoring digits in GORF get garbled when it's rolled, and gets worse with each successive roll.

If it works the same as Magicard and it works with the current Z26, then why not release it now?

...unlike Open Sesame. How they can even call that a voice sample is beyond me....

> Yeah, but if you notice, it is a solid background and all the bg elements are generated via sprites. The playfield isn't even being used. Although the hardware may be incapable of doing *background* diagonal scrolling, it certainly gives the illusion of it. What about games like Skiing or Laser Blast? Skiing is widely regarded as being a "scroller" but Laser Blast is not.

> DIAGONAL scrolling is something the 2600 really can't do. I can't think of a single game that does it. Desert Falcon

I don't know about anyone else, but I can definitely live without another version of Tetris....for ANY system! I'm not much for puzzle games, but how about a version of the unreleased "The Impossible Game"? From Leonard Herman's description, it doesn't sound like it would be that difficult for someone to recreate.

There were also 3 Atari patches, for the 2600 Video Game Masters contest games (Gravitar, Quadrun, and Battlezone). All 3 were on display at CGE.

Hey Temp, I beat ya to the 'wire' on a few of these Check out my post on DP..

Yep, Jerome's initials in E.T. are still hidden. Two people emailed me, saying they stumbled upon it years ago, but don't remember the exact method to reveal it. One said it may have depended on the number of candies E.T. had. The other mentioned it happened on a certain screen with one of the other characters present. It could be a combination of both. At this point, it seems about the only way to uncover the method (for both E.T. and Raiders) is to disassemble the code (which I wish I knew how to do..) Anybody up to the challenge?

>>By the way, trying jumping while you're at the very bottom of the screen Then push UP after doing so

Awesome! The CGE guys do it once again.

The programmer was Charlie Heath. Tim Duarte interviewed him for the 2600 Connection (this was first mentioned in ish #34). According to Heath, the game was about 80% complete, sometime in 1984, and is best described as Joust with musical instruments. Tim has been trying to get permission from him to release the ROM for some time, as he has the only known copy (until now?).

The programmer for Dragonfire was Bob Smith, I think. He was at CGE last year.

[bad news for anal-retentives, now you need to try to find end-of-production epoxy carts for a complete collection ] LOL! - I can just see people taking their collections up to the nearest airport to have them X-ray'd.....