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Links Website Notes Composite output Single transistor design Premade kits available Ships from Turkey, can take a while to arrive Removes RF box Also offers a combo AV/Pause kit (I've used this one, it works pretty good!)

Links Website Review by Ben Heck Notes Composite and S-Video output Stereo Audio Design only, premade kits no longer sold

Links Ben's Website Notes Composite output Single transistor design Design only, not a premade kit Removes RF box

Game: Tapeworm System: Atari 2600/VCS/Sears Video Arcade Publisher: Spectravision Catalog Number: SA-205 Programmer: ? Cartridge Size: ? Copyright: 1982 I like to credit the programmer when I do a review, but I couldn't find out who it was through my research. Genre: Snake Controller: Joystick (Sega Game Pad Compatible) Players: 1; 2 (alternating) Rarity Rating: 3 FROM THE MANUAL Please welcome to your T.V. set our hero "SLINKY" the SPECTRA-WORM. Good OL' SLINKY loves fruit, and knows where to get it. The Trouble is, that before SLINKY can get to the fruit, he has got to eat all those fattening beans first. Every time SLINKY eats one of those beans he gets longer and longer, making it awfully tough to get around. Especially since he has got to stay in the bean patch all the time. Some time poor "SLINKY" gets all tangled up which is no good at all! And then these two villains "SPANKY" and "BEEKY" are always trying to make a meal out of "SLINKY". So, SLINKY wants you! To get your bean and fruit finding joystick of yours and help him out. "SLINKY'S" DIET Bean Apple Orange Grape Stawberry Banana BEEKY'S AND SPANKY'S DIET IS SLINKY !!! I didn't change a single word or punctuation mark. I typed every word of the above from the manual scan at Atari Mania. Every time that I typed "Slinky" all that I could think of was the TV commercial for the Slinky toy (which I had as a child. To this day I drive people crazy singing it). It’s Slinky; it’s Slinky. For fun it’s a wonderful toy. What walks down stairs, alone or in pairs, and makes a slinkety sound? A spring, a spring, a marvelous thing! Everyone knows it’s Slinky. It’s Slinky; it’s Slinky. For fun it’s a wonderful toy. It’s fun for a girl and a boy. But what I remember is the :30 TV Commercial. The song is even longer. FULL :60 TV COMMERCIAL FOR SLINKY Anywho, back to the task at hand, and my review of Sl..., er Tapeworm. This game isn't bad, but it does make sounds that hurt my ears. I'm talking about whenever Beeky or Spanky are on-screen. OK, I admit it. Whenever I type Spanky I think of the ancient "Our Gang" comedies, aka, "The Little Rascals." I'm old so that explains that, I think. There are 5 patches that Slinky must make his way through, eating the beans one at a time until the fruit can be reached. When he eats a bean the next one will appear. If he fails to reach the bean before the Beetle at the bottom of the screen reaches the fruit displayed on the bottom-right of the screen, more beans will appear. It's tempting to delay reaching the fruit by traveling in a circle, and if the game rewarded you by giving you bonus points for the length of his wormness once he has eaten the last bean and makes it to the fruit, it might be worth it. But it doesn't. So it isn't. Patch 3 is in the dark. The screen will light briefly (about :02 seconds) after Slinky eats a bean. If you hit the Fire button that will also light the screen for the same length of time. It's tempting to hit the Fire button repeatedly. Don't! Each time you use this feature you lose one of the beans that you've collected. Loose them all and you lose a life. SCORING The Patches appear in the following order: Apple Patch. Each bean is worth 5 points. Fruit 50 points. Orange Patch. Each bean is worth 10 points. Fruit 100 points. Grape Patch (Night). Each bean is worth 15 points. Fruit 150 points. Strawberry Patch. Each bean is worth 20 points. Fruit 200 points. Banana Patch. Each bean is worth 25 points. Fruit 250 points. With the Difficulty Switch set for A your worm is on a diet. I score fewer points this way (A Position). If it's in the manual I missed it. A bonus worm is awarded every 1,000 points, but you can only have 4 at a time. The game will allow a maximum of 30 beans per patch. Maximum Score: 9,995 points. YOUTUBE TAPEWORM PLAY VIDEO HOW TO PLAY HOME VIDEO GAMES, VOL. 2: THE HOT NEW GAMES: TAPEWORM SEGMENT (1982) I really struggled as to where to place Tapeworm in the ranking. I moved a few games in the end from how I was originally going to rank them. I originally ranked Tapeworm 7th, but figured with the sound turned way down it should rank higher. Don't get me wrong here, I like every game that I've reviewed so far to some degree, with the exception of Fire Fly. RANKING: 5 out of 8 Worm War I Demolition Herby Allia Quest (Home Brew) Naughty List (Home Brew) Tapeworm (with the sound turned down low) Bell Hopper (Home Brew) Alligator People (Prototype) Fire Fly REVIEWED GAMES IN THE DATABASE AT HIGH SCORE http://highscore.com Allia Quest Bell Hopper Demolition Herby Fire Fly Naughty List Tapeworm Worm War I OTHER GAMES PUBLISHED BY SPECTRAVISION Rarity only listed if above 5. P = Prototype Bumber Bash - Rarity 9 Challenge of Nexar (Own) Chase the Chuck Wagon - Rarity 8 China Syndrome Cross Force Gangster Alley Gas Hog - Rarity 8 Kreuzer - P Mangia - Rarity 10 Master Builder - Rarity 8 Planet Patrol (Own) Super Baumeister - Rarity P Please Like, Follow and Comment. I spent 5 hours on this thing, including the new lyrics to the tune of the Slinky jingle that I wrote as a review of Tapeworm. Be thankful I decided to not include it, although that was an hour wasted.

There are a couple of new games coming for the 2600 from Packrat Video Games. RAM-Pong doesn't have any info on it yet, so I'll focus on the one that does. In fact I've already ordered a copy. Funds are short at the moment for me and all but Packrat builds everything by hand and is a one-man operation, so hopefully he won't send an invoice to our Pay Pal account until late next week. Game: Spaceman Splorf: Planet of Doom System: Atari 2600/VCS/Sears Video Arcade Publisher: Packrat Video Games Programmed by Andreas Gustafsson Game Size: 8K TV Type: NTSC or PAL Controller: Joystick Players: 1 Game Description from the Packrat site (I expect this will be in the manual as the story element) You are Splorf, Space Corp Sanitation Engineer 5th Class, Lavatorial Division. A small yet vital cog in the corporate machine. You are good at your job. The rumors have reached even the lowest levels of Methane Station; the harvest ships have brought disastrous news concerning the defensive system protecting Space Corp's interests from space pirates and fierce competitors! "You there", a middle manager shouts at you, "Commander Splix needs a volunteer! Get your lazy plarp up to level 17 immediately!" The rumours were true! Exploding gasteroids have damaged the disintegration fence above planet doom, and Commander Splix wants you to fix it! Repairman Splorf to the rescue... It looks like it might be in the same style of play as Bell Hopper (itself a good game programmed by Tomas Härdin). You can't go by a single screenshot though, so it may be a shooter for all I know. http://www.packratvg.com/pictures/splorf5.jpg Price: Cartridge and Manual = $25 http://www.packratvg.com/pictures/splorf2.jpg Limited Boxed Run = $40 http://www.packratvg.com/pictures/splorf1.jpg The Limited Box Run is being limited to 100 copies, the first batch of which will be available exclusively at the Midwest Gaming Classic. The remainder will be for sale on the Packrat Video Gaming site some time in late April (yes, I realize that I ordered a boxed copy before they are even available, but the Packrat site let me do it). https://www.midwestgamingclassic.com/ http://www.packratvg.com/pictures/splorf6.jpg Here's a link to the game's page: http://www.packratvg.com/splorf.html Packrat makes home brews and hacks for the Atari 2600, Vectrex, and Odyssey 2 / Videopac. I've noticed that some of their games are also available here at Atari Age, although some have different label art. ATARI 2600 GAMES COMMON TO PACKRAT AND ATARI AGE A-VCS-tec Challenge Backfire Dark Mage Jammed Okie Dokie Skeleton+ This Planet Sucks! I own Backfire and This Planet Sucks! I bought both from Atari Age. Strangely, Packrat's release of This Planet Sucks has no exclamation point in the title. Atari Age is faster at filling orders, but you can take your pick as to which to order from. Personally, I go with Atari Age, except for the games that are Packrat exclusives. ATARI 2600 GAMES EXCLUSIVE TO PACKRAT VIDEO GAMES Astronomer (Ordered)* Cosmic Bowling (Hack) Dragon Chase (Hack) Explosive Diarrhea (Ordered) The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Muncher Packrat (Hack) Pressure Cooker Spaceman Splorf: Planet of Doom (Ordered) Space Invaders Vector Traffic Cop *Astronomer has been added to the database at http://highscore.com/

Game: Fire Fly System: Atari 2600/VCS/Sears Video Arcade Publisher: Mythicon Programmer: Bruce de Graaf Serial/Catalog Number: MA1002 Copyright: 1983 Genre: Shoot 'em Up Controller: Joystick (Sega Game Pad compatible); Ball Controller Players: 1 or 2 (Alternating) Game Variations: 5 RARITY RATING: 4 (Scarce+) Also published in Brazil by Canal 3 on tape. The manual has a long and rather silly story of the events that lead up to the game. Basics. The date is March 17, 2093. You're a test pilot of an interplanetary space ship called Delta 12. Your power plant malfunctions, and you wind up on a planet inhabited by giant mechanical bugs. But wait. The twist is that they aren't out to get you. No, your enemies are their enemies, called Bad-Bugs. How creative. Anyhow, they place you in command of their best machine-bug. Wait, they're mechanical bugs who fly machine-bugs? That makes no sense. So we'll ignore that part. You're tasked with saving their last remaining living creature, called the Pixie (or, in the very next sentence of the manual, Pixy). GAME VARIATIONS No menu of course. Use the Select Switch. Variation 1: Practice Mode, 1 Player. No Scoring; Unlimited lives. When this variation is selected a single human (or humanoid type) figure and a smiley face are displayed. Mythicon could have named this variation Pointless Mode. Variation 2: Level 1; 1 Player. Score points by shooting enemies. Additional points for picking up treasures and saving the Pixy (or Pixie, take your pick). Variation 3: Level 1; 2 Players. Play alternates by starting with the left controller. Makes sense. When this variation is selected two humanoid type figures are displayed, with a large gap between them. This is the game's subtle way to suggest that if there are actually 2 people who wish to play this atrocity together they should stay as far apart from one another as possible. Variation 4: Level 2; 1 Player. Enemies are more difficulty to shoot. This makes a really bad game worse. A single humanoid and a diamond are depicted on screen. Variation 5: Level 2; 2 Players. A diamond between them. The Difficulty Switches are not used. SCORING 10 points for shooting a group of enemies. 20 points for shooting the pumpkin. 30 points for rescuing the Pixy, or Pixie. Whatever. 99 points for recovering treasure. You start with 3 lives. There's no way to earn more. There is music in the game, but it's a short irritating sequence of tones that play on an endless loop. The maximum amount of points that you can earn are 9,999. The game continues on from there but no more scoring for you. Not even a roll-over. 3 players at http://highscore.com have scores of 9,999 achieved on actual Atari hardware (my current score is 5,690). 3 players have scores of 9,999 achieved through emulation. While I have this game imported into my emulator, I haven't submitted an emulated score yet. I'll save that torturous experience for another time. YOUTUBE PLAY VIDEO OF FIRE FLY - 9,999 POINTS ACHIEVED RANKING: 4 (out of 4) ATARI 2600/VCS GAMES REVIEWED SO FAR, AND THEIR CURRENT RANKING 1. Worm War I 2. Demolition Herby 3. Alligator People (Prototype) 4. Fire Fly OTHER ATARI 2600 GAMES PROGRAMMED BY BRUCE DE GRAAF Gee, they're all Mythicon games. I own a complete set of Mythicon games. All 3 of them. Lucky me. Sorcerer Star Fox

Remembering the game hack that started my love for game hacking, with a request by fans to have an original character for that hack I present.... BUSTER Buster is just your typical BBSing Bobtail cat (Felus Catus Atarius) who will not be stopped by rain, sleet, snow, or penguins to get his favorite Atari 800 computer and talk to his BBSing friends. Help Buster pounce over Galloway Guin and his Waddle Raft Pack to get all of his Babbles and unlock their SEKRET SURPRISE, and of course back to his computer! Buster_TBBSB R01.bin Buster, also lover of cosplay, dons his cape (or is it a plastic bag that he accidentally got caught in..??)

Hello all - I am wondering what years and what models of Atari 2600 systems came bundled with the Combat cartridge. I know their are two versions of labels and the one I remember was the label with text only. Or was it the only cartridge that ever came with it? Thanks, just trying to remember fuzzy memories.

Does anyone on Atariage know when Othello was released

Play online or download the ROM below. Simple fun colorful game for one or more players that is timeless! One or more players create increasingly larger patterns of any complexity constructed from primary colors and chromatic chord progressions. Who can build the largest pattern? Simple Instructions: This simple memory game starts immediately, reset will restart the game. One or more players create increasingly larger patterns using only up, down, left and right. Purple screen filter shows when it is the next turn to match the pattern Klaxxon noise and screen shake showns when a mistake occurs (unlimited turns to match the pattern). Score (version 2) progress bar at the bottom of the screen shows how big the pattern gets. Computer AI (version 3) press the button anytime (even mid turn) and the Atari 2600 will take a turn! Streamlined design optimizations for this genre: Computer opponent - press the button for the computer to go. TouchMe assistant - press the button anytime and the TouchMe assistant will help complete your turn. Party play considerations - There is no time delay penalty for composing and matching patterns. Intuitive audio visuals - color cues, tones and filter transitions are used to recreate the tactile feeback best implemented in Simon with it's four directional colored buttons rather than side-by-side buttons of Atari Touch Me. I set the buffer at 54 92, it could easily be expanded but I haven't seen anyone get 1/3 of that. Any Simon and Touch Me experts out there want to give it a go? New! Version 5 with chord progressions: SimonSays_TouchMe_V5.binSimonSays_TouchMe_V5_AFP.bin SimonSays_TouchMe_V5.wavSimonSaysAtariVCS_v5_AI.txt Version 4 with AI and more features crunched to fit in 10 lines of BASIC: SimonSays_TouchMe_v4_AI.bin SimonSays_TouchMe_v4_AFP.bin SimonSays_TouchMe_v4_AI.wav SimonSaysAtariVCS_v4_AI.txt New! Version 3 with AI, play against the VCS: SimonSays_TouchMe_v3_AI.binSimonSays_TouchMe_v3_AI.wav SimonSaysAtariVCS_v3_AI.txt SimonSays_TouchMe_v2.binSimonSays_TouchMe_v2.wav SimonSaysAtariVCS_v2.txt SimonSays_TouchMe.binSimonSays_TouchMe.wav SimonSaysAtariVCS.txt This game is only 10 lines of BASIC (a few lines more for version 3) and is competing in the 2019 BASIC Programming Contest, more info here on this Atari programming forum thread, hope to see more people writing 10 line BASIC games for the Atari 2600! EDIT: Palette adjustment, added video playing a few rounds, simple instructions and game design, v2 with a score, v3 added computer opponent, v4 added new features and crunched the code, cross-compiled an Atari Flashback Portable Version, v5 added chord progressions! TouchMe assistant inspired by Siri, Alexa and Cortana. Cover art inspired by the Virtual Reality version.