Anyone here "fry"?

[Hoodoo]

Okay, I didn't remember this until browsing a site with Atari tips, but it mentions "frying", a term described as "rapidly turning the game on and off, resulting in strange things happening in the game like higher scores,more lives,etc."

 

 

Is this harmful to my VCS/cartridges? I wouldn't mind testing some of the weird things this does, but I have only ever had ONE VCS, and I intend to keep it that way, the same for my carts. I have a pretty impressive collection (a few r9s, several r8s and many 6s and 7s) and would not risk ruining the good ones, but I have multiples of Asteroids,etc. that I could use to try this,if it does damage to carts and not systems.

[potatohead]

Okay, I didn't remember this until browsing a site with Atari tips, but it mentions "frying", a term described as "rapidly turning the game on and off, resulting in strange things happening in the game like higher scores,more lives,etc."

 

 

Is this harmful to my VCS/cartridges? I wouldn't mind testing some of the weird things this does, but I have only ever had ONE VCS, and I intend to keep it that way, the same for my carts. I have a pretty impressive collection (a few r9s, several r8s and many 6s and 7s) and would not risk ruining the good ones, but I have multiples of Asteroids,etc. that I could use to try this,if it does damage to carts and not systems.

 

Used to.

 

The one I remember best was easy. Insert Space Invaders, hold reset down, then turn the console on. You get double shots. If you flicked the switch a lot, sometimes you would get deep purple space invaders as well!

 

A friend klonked the sound on his Sears Telegames unit frying... Pissed him huge. Everything worked fine, just no more sound. We all stopped doing it about that time, but for the space invaders trick. That one seemed safe.

[Deteacher]

I remember our original heavy sixer (back in '79) fried very easily. We used to fry it all the time. Fortunately, it never killed the system.

 

I've tried to fry my current heavy sixer, but I just can't get it to fry. I guess that's a good thing, though. Now that I read the previous post, I don't think I'll try it again.

[Evil Otto]

When I was a kid my cousin and I used to do that with Kangaroo, and it would make you walk backwards throughout the game. We also used to fry Pitfall!, and Adventures of Tron, I think, but I don't remember what it did exactly, other than make it look really strange. It was amusing, but probably not a good idea.

[rockman_x_2002]

Somehow the topic title makes that sound a little bit dirty...

 

Actually, I've never been able to fry. Most of my 2600 gaming gets done on a 7800 out of convenience, and given its power button and whatnot, it's just a bit impossible to fry using it.

 

However, I have been able to simulate some of the frying effects by jiggling some cartridges in the cartridge slot. Most Activision games seem to react to that, in particular Pitfall II. I can get garbled graphics, a randomly-falling Harry into somewhere on the map, and sometimes this strange effect that causes the music to play weird and the screen to have a finicky vertical hold. Interesting stuff to see, really.

[Rik]

It would probably wear out or break the on/off switch!

[Prodos8]

You can do the space invaders cheat (hold down reset while powering up) on the 7800 and it'll work. Glitching the power switch on the 7800 probably can't be done.

[Nukey Shay]

You can do the space invaders cheat (hold down reset while powering up) on the 7800 and it'll work. Glitching the power switch on the 7800 probably can't be done.

I can't recall...but SI uses a ram location to hold flip state of the reset switch IIRC. The upshot is that powering up with the switch held down makes the game mistakenly begin a single-player game with both shots (from a 2-player game) being allowed. This happens by program design flaw (it'll even happen with emulators...start it up while holding down it's "reset" key). Once you use game select, the error fixes itself. Frying the console causes it to jump to a random location rather than boot normally tho...so other RAM may still remain corrupted on a 2600 (the boot routine is only executed on powerup). The 7800 has to decide between 2 modes of operation beforehand, so that random jump can't happen.

 

A 2600 cartridge could be written to avoid glitches caused by frying, simply by checking unused ram that's only set during the boot sequence for a particular value set by that sequence. If it doesn't match, run the boot sequence again. AFAIK, no game has ever used this method (tho some games that have no game variations just reboot the cartridge whenever Reset is used).

[Hoodoo]

Okay, I went ahead and tried it with some commons I have,here are my findings so far (along with the speed/difficulty needed to properly achieve certain effects)

 

 

Phoenix: Fry until you get two vertical lines down the screen, start the game, you'll start with points (usually some random number between 10-1000) and you'll have a LOT of reserve ships.(switching speed: FAST, difficulty: moderate)

 

Frogger: Fry until the road turns blue and the water turns purple, you'll get extra frogs,plus start on a MUCH higher level,although the game will lock up if you either get another extra man or advance a whole lot of levels (switching speed: steady, difficulty: hard)

 

Space Invaders: "easy fry" (hold reset switch down and power on.not technically frying, just confusing the game's player count), "Strange fry": Fry until you get nothing but the ship and a blue UFO, you have to be FAST to shoot him, but once you do, various things can happen ( I got lockup, infinite lives and a weird glitch where the screen is black, nothing is firing at YOU, but you can shoot and hear the sound effect of the Invader eating dust AND you'll score) (speed: VERY fast, difficulty: VERY hard)

[Deteacher]

There's a "complete" list of Easter Eggs/Frying results at the following site:

 

www.digitpress.com

 

 

I say "complete" because it's the most complete list I've seen. Check it out! It's pretty cool!

[Vic George 2K3]

One time as a teenager, when my family owned a 4-switch woodgrain 2600, I was playing around with Space Invaders by jamming wires into the controller port, causing a unique variation of the game where the player's laser tank was invisible and invulnerable to enemy bombs.

[Lord Thag]

I used to fry all the time. The technique I used was different, though. We would jiggle the cart in the slot so it barely made contact, and turn the system on. You'd rarely get repeatable glitches, but you could get some random and/or weird things to happen. I remember Phoenix being one we did that too a lot. It was pretty fun, and much easier on the system that messing with the power switch.

[BassGuitari]

Frying doesn't have to be hard on the power switch. Instead of flipping the power off and on really fast, try (gently) to get the switch halfway between on and off positions. You'll be able to power on/off much more rapidly this way, and is much easier on your power switch.

[ulij20]

Frying doesn't have to be hard on the power switch. Instead of flipping the power off and on really fast, try (gently) to get the switch halfway between on and off positions. You'll be able to power on/off much more rapidly this way, and is much easier on your power switch.

I once fried Adventure and ended up with a very glitchy game. Many of the rooms connected to other rooms that they shouldn't have and one of them was the Level Select screen, though I'm not sure where it was - possibly on the screen where the Gold Castle would be. As I recall, I couldn't get to the room the chalice was in and the game was unwinnable (actually, if the Gold Castle was inaccessible, it would be unwinnable in the first place!) Anyway, it sure was weird!

 

Another time, the white key appeared selection screen and Rhindle was in the game, and I found out that he had even been programmed to attack slow (pausing for a few seconds after you touch him). I later found out that, to preserve the continuity of the game, the rooms and objects that don't appear in Level 1 do exist, only they're inaccessible. As I recall, the White Key is located in the light blue room two screens below the White Castle, along with Rhindle. As for the dot, it's in the room that it always appears in the black castle maze. As for the bat, he's "frozen" in the White Castle (which is why he's always flying in place when he appears on the Level Select screen).

 

Yeah, Adventure was by far my favorite Frying Game.

[Keith Weisshar]

You can do the space invaders cheat (hold down reset while powering up) on the 7800 and it'll work. Glitching the power switch on the 7800 probably can't be done.

I can't recall...but SI uses a ram location to hold flip state of the reset switch IIRC. The upshot is that powering up with the switch held down makes the game mistakenly begin a single-player game with both shots (from a 2-player game) being allowed. This happens by program design flaw (it'll even happen with emulators...start it up while holding down it's "reset" key). Once you use game select, the error fixes itself. Frying the console causes it to jump to a random location rather than boot normally tho...so other RAM may still remain corrupted on a 2600 (the boot routine is only executed on powerup). The 7800 has to decide between 2 modes of operation beforehand, so that random jump can't happen.

 

A 2600 cartridge could be written to avoid glitches caused by frying, simply by checking unused ram that's only set during the boot sequence for a particular value set by that sequence. If it doesn't match, run the boot sequence again. AFAIK, no game has ever used this method (tho some games that have no game variations just reboot the cartridge whenever Reset is used).

Is Raiders of the Lost Ark one of those games that just reboots when reset is used?

[+Random Terrain]

I love cheat codes and hacks, but abusing my Atari doesn't interest me.

[Foxsolo2000]

I only fry chips, occassionally chicken if I am in the mood

[+doctorclu]

Oh man, I remember the space invaders double shot trick!!! Wow it has been a while here. I really stopped playing the 2600 when I got an Atari 400 in 1983. I think we might have even tried frying some games on the 400 just to see what would happen. Of course on the 400 it would sometimes just make a weird crash screen that was usually bizarre.

[ulij20]

Is Raiders of the Lost Ark one of those games that just reboots when reset is used?

Not sure, but I had a very weird frying experience with that game about 25 years ago. The title screen appeared with the Raiders Of The Lost Ark theme playing, which is what happens when you turn on the game normally. But the Flute music was also playing, in the same simulated organ music as the Raiders theme (only about two octaves lower than the flute music sounds normally). My brother and I could not stop laughing, since it sounded so weird.