Chadivision

1. Two player games of Pac-Man (on the Atari 400). My brother would be the first player. His first life would last about 15 minutes. I would forget that I was playing, so I would just sit there. Right before the ghost killed me I realized that it was my turn, but it would be too late. My brother would play for another 15 or 20 minutes and then the same thing would happen again. 2. The fact that I was horrible at just about every single game. 3. I spent about 5 hours writing a text game on my 400. I hadn't saved my program yet. One of my friends said "What's in here" and opened the cartridge lid, which turned off the power and wiped out my program. 4. My brother let someone borrow all of our Atari stuff and we never got it back, but that's not the worst part. The worst part was when I got into collecting and realized how much my Swordquest: Waterworld (with the poster) was worth.

I started thinking about getting back into Atari when I saw the Seinfeld episode where George tries to get the Frogger machine across the street.

I actually do have some Atari 2600 controller extension cables. I'm not sure who made them. I got them in a box of Atari stuff that I bought at a flea market. I don't even know if they were made specifically for Atari, or if they're just general purpos DB9 extension cables.

Ken I may be interested in donating Backfire, but would that mean that I would give up the right to sell it? In other words, would I be giving you the intellectual property rights, or just giving permission to use it in this one particular project?

That text just means that MAYBE I programmed the game to burst into flames right before you break my high score. The preceding statement was intended for entertainment purposes only. ATARIAGE, ATARICART AND CHAD LARE are not implicitly or explicitly advocating the use of combustible material in conjunction with Atari cartridges, or any other gaming devices including but not limited to Colecovision, Intelivision, or Nintendo cartridges, Playstation, Playstation2, XBox, or Gamecube discs, joysticks, control pads, paddle controllers, or memory cards. Any person or persons who engage in using combustible material in conjunction with gaming devices do so at their own risk and take full responsibility for the consequences of said actions.

I want to change my answer. I completely forgot about Space Shuttle. Yars Revenge was cool, but Space Shuttle was really great. It's still one of my favorites.

Backfire!!!! (A little shameless self promotion never hurt anyone.) Seriously, I would have to say Yars Revenge. I have always thought it's one of the most enjoyable games for the 2600.

You're going to rob me of the only world record that I'll ever have (unless I quit my job and practice juggling 24 hours a day). I think I'm going to write another game and not let anyone else play it, just so I can be the best forever!

I should have gotten a screen shot of my high score. Then again, I guess if I really wanted to I could hack my own game to make it say whatever score I wanted, so it would be kind of pointless. Does anyone know if Twin Galaxies will accept high scores for homebrew games?

This is off the subject, but I just realized that we both have "Back to the Future" quotes for our signatures.

Sorry about that. Since I haven't played it in a while, you're probably better at it than me at this point. I'm sure you'll break the record soon. I have a 19" TV that I used for developing the game (with my Cuttle Cart). Now that I have Backfire on cartridge, when I do play it, I play it on my 27" TV in my living room. The difference in screen size really throws off my timing. How about this... The first person who breaks the score I mentioned in the instruction manual and emails me a photo (of an actual TV, not an emulator) will get their name and score mentioned in the manual for the next game that I write (whenever that is).

I'm glad that you like it better on a real VCS. On the VCS it's challenging. In an emulator it's impossible. My current high score is 6,045. If you can beat that, you'll probably have the record for a while. I've been so busy with other things (not Atari related) that I haven't played Backfire in about two months.

I must be pretty talented! I made a Demons to Diamonds ripoff without ever even playing Demons to Diamonds (I'm not motivated enough to hook up my paddle controllers) Backfire only got a 60/100, but if Thrust is a 70/100, I'll take that as a compliment!

I think that at CGE we should get one of each homebrew and go out and bury them in the desert. It could become an anual tradition. We could add all of the new homebrews for the year to our "landfill".

Here is the list of carts. Unless otherwise noted, the labels are in good to fair condition and are the labels with a picture (except for the M Network carts, obviously). Sorry it took so long to get the list posted. Atari 7800 carts (I have one of each) Choplifter Food Fight One on One Atari 2600 carts Name Qty Notes Adventure 1 Air Sea Battle 1 Asteroids 3 Atlantis 1 Basketball 1 Battlezone 2 Bowling 2 Circus Atari 1 End label peeling Circus Atari 1 Combat 2 Text label Defender 3 Demon Attack 1 Label is fairly worn, Text Demon Attack 1 Label is fairly worn E.T. 2 Frogger 2 Label is missing Frogger 1 Label is fairly worn Frogger 1 Label has holes in it Frogs and Flies 1 Frogs and Flies 1 Label is ripped slightly Grand Prix 1 Haunted House 1 Hole in label Haunted House 1 Homerun 3 Ice Hockey 2 Label is fairly worn Joust 1 Label is slightly ripped Laser Blast 1 End label peeling Laser Blast 1 Megamania 1 Label fairly worn and ripped Missile Command 2 Ms. Pac-Man 1 Outlaw 1 Pac-Man 2 Pac-Man 2 Label peeling/ripped Pac-Man 1 Has price tag on label Q-Bert 1 Label slightly worn Q-Bert 1 Label missing Raiders of the Lost Ark 1 Realsports Volleyball 2 Riddle of the Sphinx 1 Space Attack 1 Splattered with paint Space Invaders 1 Stampede 1 Star Raiders 1 Vanguard 1 Bubble in label Warlords 1 End label peeling

Thanks for the link

I'll post a list as soon as I can, but I haven't had a chance to sort through all of them yet. Hopefully I'll have some time tonight.

Actually, I have just decided to trade my 2600 carts for Atari 8 bit carts. I put a post in the Marketplace forum.

I have about 80 or 90 carts for the 2600. Most are fairly common. I will try to post a list soon. I am looking for any Atari 8 bit (400/800) carts. The only cart I don't need is the Basic programming cart. I will trade you your choice of any two 2600 carts off of my list for each Atari 400/800 cart you send me. Post a list of your Atari 8 bit carts for trade. I have never traded/bought/sold here, but I promise I'm a nice, honest guy!

I have about 80 or 90 common carts that I'm planning on selling on ebay. I also have a storage case for the system, and a few systems that don't have power supplies. I've never sold anything on ebay and I was wondering what would be the best way to group these items for sale. I assume that small lots of carts would usually sell for more per cart. I was thinking about groups of 5 to 10. Also, would it be worth selling the systems without the power supplies and just listing the specs so that the buyer could go buy the correct one? I'm not expecting to make a ton of money, but if the systems are going to sell for $1 each, I think I'll just keep them.

You know what would be cool... having a homebrew game that was made from the case of a really rare game. I think that my next hombrew will be made entirely from scrapped Quadrun cartridges. That would really get me in trouble with PETC!

I have a Cuttle Cart 1, and it's about the coolest thing in the world (next to the 2600 itself). The only bad thing is that I never use my cartridges anymore.

A couple of people have asked whether or not Backfire will work with the 7800. I finally got around to getting my 7800 out of the closet and testing it and it runs fine.

Sounds good. You first!

Ok, you caught me. I just took one of those common "loaner" cartridges that I have lying around an put an E.T. label on it.