Chadivision

I predict that 50 years from now the three most valuable cartridges will be Combat, Pac-Man, and E.T. because by that time just about all of them will have been scrapped to make homebrew carts. Those of us who are wise enough stock up on these currently common games will have collections that are worth millions of dollars. On a completely unrelated note, does anyone want to buy a Combat cart for $100?

My best Atari memory would be have to be writing text games in Basic on my 400 at the age of 9. I also made one program with graphics. I had a guy that gets hit by lightning when you move the controller. The runner up would have to be when I got my Cuttle Cart.

Are you using a 2600, or is it a 7800? The 7800 can play most 2600 games, but I've found that cartridges made by Imagic will not fit in the 2600. Also, I've seen some cartridges that look a lot like 2600 cartridges, but are for another system. I'm not positive, but I think that Intellivision cartridges look like some of the Atari cartridges made by M Network (Frogs N' Flies, Dark Cavern, etc.) The seller might have mistaken the two.

Do you know what I love best about Ebay? Type in 'Atari Rare' and you get RARE ATARI COMBAT CATRIDGE!!!!!!!! ONCE IN A LIFTIME CHANCE TO OWN THIS CLASSIC GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You know, none of this really matters because half of the time the red dragon eats you in the first five seconds of the game anyway!

I got some work done on Cyclostar this weekend. It's kind of hard to tell how close I am to finishing it, since this is my first game. I would say that the display code (everything except the code in between frames) for the first scene is a little over half done, but depending on how much space I have left, I will probably add a few more scenes. Cosmic Ark had the space scene and the planet scene. I want to make three different scenes, but it all depends on how much I can fit into 4K of ROM and 128 bytes of RAM. When I get around to it I'll probably make a website for showing the progress of the game. Chad

I plan on making cartridges at some point. I am not much of a graphic artist, so I think that my two options are a label contest or stick figure art. I think I'll go with the label contest. I have never tried making a cartridge before, but I have read some of the stuff on HozerGames.com. If anyone out there has an idea of the production cost per unit including labels and instructions, I would appreciate your input. Right now I'm testing the game using a Cuttle Cart (which is awesome, by the way), so I know it will run OK on the VCS. I've found that the emulators are a little more forgiving than the actual machine. -Chad

I just wanted to let everyone know that I am in the very early stages of developing a new game for the Atari 2600. It is called "Cyclostar". It's a lot like Cosmic Ark, but the game play will have several new elements. So far I have about half of the kernal done. I have also worked all of the bugs out of my horizontal positioning routine (finally!). I'll try to keep you updated on my progress. -Chad Lare

I just got my first coin-op game. It is a Master of Weapon machine. I got it for $80 (the guy was asking $75 but he didn't have change.) Does anyone know about how many of these machines were made? I had never heard of it before. Can anyone point me to a rarity list for coin-ops. I'd like to know how common it is, but I'm sure that $80 was a pretty good deal.

I would trade you my Waterworld cart with the poster, but first I would have to track down the guy that my brother loaned all of our Atari stuff to in about 1990 (he hasn't returned it yet). I was a little irritated when I got back into Atari and found out what Waterworld was worth. As for Gravitar, I think I'll just leave it sealed so that I can pretend MAYBE it is the silver label one. It just seems wrong to open games from their original shrink wrap. Even common ones.

I have Gravitar still sealed in the original packaging. It's probably the red label one, but I don't want to open it. Does anyone know if the box was different also?

So far all I have done with my VCS programming is make a vertical line move back and forth across the screen. I thought it was boring, but my cat seemed pretty amused. She stood up next to the TV and started batting the screen. Does anyone out there feel like paying me an extremely large amout of money to buy the first Atari game ever designed for cats?

"Cosmic Ark" (paddle controller version) "Standing in Line" "Nose Picker" "Pac Man" (1k version)

They were mostly commons. The only one I didn't have was Carnival. What I was really excited about were the controllers. The 6 joysticks all worked. The was also a book on programming for the atari 8 bit systems, a set of paddles, a star raiders controller, and two controllers for the Sears video arcade II. I'm assuming this is the same as the 7800. I haven't tried them yet. I have my 2600 hooked up because I am using a Cuttle Cart. Actually I did have someone give me some uncommon carts recently. I guy that I work with had a box of Atari stuff that he didn't want. There was a 2600 console ,some controllers, and some commons, but it also had M.A.D, Flash Gordon, Moonsweeper, and Revenge of the Beefsteak Tomatoes.

Ok, we're not really celebrities, but my wife and I do a radio show on AM 1400 in Zephyrhills, FL. She mentioned that I collect Atari stuff. One of her fans came by the station during the show and gave us a box full of carts and another box full of controllers (every controller worked perfectly). It was pretty cool. By the way, anyone who wants to listen can go to www.radio-kaos.com from 9:00 - 10:00 AM eastern time every Saturday. It's called "The Rachel Wiley Show".