slapdash

Try Stellalist.

I love the Jr... I found it at a rummage sale, having never seen one before. I thought it was damn cool.

What bums me out is that she hadn't kept any code or carts, and couldn't remember which truck company before -- "maybe Mercedes"!?! (did they ever make garbage trucks? that's what she thought it was for).

I have a scanner if you don't mind risking sending it. Otherwise, are there any PS online sites?

Ken, I haven't heard of these before at all! Please, if you can't get all of these on the new product you're trying to get going, or can't get it going, consider trying to release them through Hozer or as BINs.

quote: Hozer Videogames sells most games on cartridge, including the two most recent Ebivision games, so hopefully they will have Allia Quest in the future. You can also buy Combat 2 from Hozer. Randy & Igor both confirmed that Allia's Quest will be available from Hozer soon.

According to Ed Salvo, the guy who ported the 2600 version, the whole "hidden kingdom" was intentional, but he couldn't remember why. I didn't think to ask if the glitching was intentional, but I kind of suspect it wasn't. Perhaps it was an easter egg that wasn't quite ready for release, but the cart had to be released?

quote: This reminds me, how come this site has no copies of Charlie Brown or Pink Panther, etc. on it, if the game was found? Did the owners never get it dumped? They MAY have been dumped, but not released. I worked on both of these guys to no avail. The guy who owns Charlie Brown was going to at least get it dumped, but then he kind of disappeared. Pink Panther may still be possible, but it might take some doing.

Scott Stilphen wrote: quote: The scoring digits in GORF get garbled when it's rolled, and gets worse with each successive roll. My brother Dave rolled that game so many times... I think his best was in the 400-500k range, which makes "Buz Pryzby"'s 32k highscore in the ads ludicrous... I always wondered if the digits were rolling up to a secret message or something, but we never did find out.

Can't remember Cali... Summer; I think I agree that Skeet was the best, but can't remember the worst. Winter; biathlon was the worst, yeah, and the ski jump (was that "hot dog"?) the best. Did anyone else out there figure out how to get a perfect 10.0 score, and then achieve it?

I got some details from Tod Frye way back... The game was based on the I Ching, and since the number 64 comes up there, he was using some kind of attribute system (yes/no) to give 64 possibilities of some such. Not sure how many rooms though... This is from an aging memory though, so I've forgotten a bit I'm sure.

I'll second CBS. Wizard of Wor, and to some extent Gorf, were pretty decent titles -- got lots of play out of those. But don't forget Tunnel Runner and Solar Fox. Those are pretty cool too. Odd, but I can't remember what I thought of Omega Race... Haven't played that one in forever.

It's not voice, but don't forget the sound sample done for the "Sucky Zep" cart. Hozer has it and it's in the Stellalist archives, way back.

I don't know much other than Six Pack was advertised in the early manuals and then dropped. I'm guessing it was done by Sirius (who TCF bought their early games from) and not released for some reason. It may have been released for the 400/800, I'll have to check. Sirius released the same game under different names (one name for the 2600, another for the 400/800) so who knows. I'm pretty sure it wasn't Sirius, as it was based on a movie property. No one remembers it, but I THINK it was a Burt Reynolds movie and/or the lead actor played a stock car driver (I don't think it's both, because that would be Stroker Ace). Ah, according to IMDB (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0084690) it's Kenny Rogers as a racer. Damn, I can be so trivial...

There was to be a fifth contest to pick the ultimate winner from the four games. I don't think there was necessarily going to be a fifth game though.

quote: I could probably get him to scan the cartridge (or borrow it to scan it myself). Please do. Though, is it a "production" label, or a prototype/loaner label?

To Superjenn: quote: As for girls generally not enjoying classic videogames, I dunno -- my best friend Cassie has an *amazing* 2600 cartridge collection. Perhaps we girls just don't know where to congregate. I'd say to some extent there might be the fear of being welcomed as the target of a roomful of dorky males rather than fellow collectors. To Jeffy Arensmeyer: quote: I've subscribed to the Stella e-mails, but those guys are very technical in there. I'm almost afraid to post in there for fear of looking like a total green horn or something. Please, don't be afraid to post on Stellalist because you're afraid to be a greenhorn! Obviously, the people there with the skills aren't going to want to answer the same questions over and over, but if you read old posts and ask a question more specific, or explaining what it is you don't understand, no one is going to be mad at you or anything. Stellalist is a forum designed to get people coding, and if you have questions that are keeping you from doing so, ask them. We all want to see more games, right? :-)

I wanted to comment on one thing: quote: Most 2600 games (or any games for that matter) are considered what is called "work for hire" so the copyright goes to the company for whom the game was made. However, in a case such as 'Garfield' the copyright continues to be held by Paws, Inc. just as it was at the time. That is why a special arrangement was set up with Paws, Inc. to allow the release of the Garfield ROM. (You are legally allowed to download the ROM and retain ONE copy of the ROM on a cartridge for personal use only.) So, certainly any licensed games (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Alien, etc.) are still technically owned by their respective companies. This isn't entirely clear. It's not quite the way this reads (though I'm not a lawyer...). Basically, the game company owns the program code, period. The licensing is typically of the names, characters etc. That's more of a trademark issue, not a copyright issue, though you'll often see copyrights from the originator (Disney, for example) indicated too. But with these old games, the originator has no rights concerning the ROM itself. They could potentially sue for infringement over the likeness of the game graphics, but I think this is unlikely. They would have no right to complain if the graphics were changed enough so that the game no longer appeared similar to the licensed work(s), and the title/documentation was also changed. For a living breathing example, look at Telegames's "Adventures of GX-12", which is actually the same game as "Adventures of Tron". They got the rights to make the games from M-Network, but not the rights to the trademark "Tron" (etc) from Disney, so they had to change the name. The graphics weren't derivative of the original work (the movie "Tron") enough to be a problem, so they weren't changed.

I've tried this on Stella for Mac too, and you can make the jump on the secret kingdom, but the layout up there isn't the same, and you can't find a ledge to land on, but rather you bump your head and fall back down.

I always wanted Gamma Attack, as it was so obscure that I'm now certain it doesn't exist. But on the off chance it did, or would've with my order, I sure wish I'd been able to order one.

It shouldn't be on prototype lists as far as I know. I've heard rumors that it exists, but I've never seen it confirmed. Should be listed as "NR?" instead of "PR".

quote: The arcade version had Budweiser, Root Beer and Suntory (some Euro-beer I think) versions. Actually, Suntory is Japanese if I remember correctly.

I only know one guy with the game, and when I asked a while back if he'd dump it he said he was still enjoying its unique status. I tried to talk him into at least dumping it before bit rot gets it even if he doesn't release the ROM, but I'm not sure he did that or will.

Note that the job position, and "Atari Labs", sounds more like a small division of Infogrames than a name change. I'm assuming this is for the phones/PDAs/etc group. In other words, Atari will become a division specializing in "low res" games for alternate platforms, and Infogrames will remain Infogrames. That's how I read this and all the rumors so far.

Oops, nearly forgot... There's also Tomb Raider. James Catalano did a screen shot, and Jess Ragan did a screen shot and box. All have been printed in 2600 Connection.