Your favorite "fry your Atari" effects

[+H.E.R.O.]

Well, there was Vanguard where upon frying, you could carry the E box around with you (long as you stayed on the same plane as the box) and Pitfall II where you could start in other locations besides the start.

[tetrode kink]

Well, since no one's mentioned it, there's the age-old fry trick of Space Invaders allowing you to have two active shots on-screen at the same time, rather than the normal one. But then later we all learned that that exploit was available in the game by just holding down the reset button while you turned the power on.

 

We all learned that, right? None of us are still frying our Space Invaders, prematurely wearing out our power switches for that exploit, right?

 

I can understand the appeal, especially to a kid. Kids are always excited to experiment and discover new things, new ways to play, etc.

 

But I just don't do it today (nor at all since I "rediscovered" my Atari). As I get older I don't want to put my VCS(s) through any more wear and tear than necessary. Just playing the games normally is fun enough for me.

 

-tet

[+Random Terrain]

Didn't know about frying. Didn't want to fry once I heard about it on the Internet. That Space Invaders trick seems harmless enough, though.

[Emehr]

When I was a kid I never knew that "frying" Space Invaders gave you the double shots. I just held down Reset while I powered it on. I thought everybody did it that way.

 

I used to fry Maze Craze on occasion just to see the funky maze pattern, which was a grid if my fuzzy memory serves me well.

[+save2600]

Growing up, I had more respect for my expensive cartridges than to "fry" 'em. Even if I was aware of the practice back then, I would have worried they'd be irreparable. Never heard of the technique until the mid 90's.

[Gigabyte]

Is it possible to fry in Stella?

 

EDIT: I didn't have an Atari growing up, but I used to glitch out NES games on purpose by pulling them out slightly. And down forget all those weird Ocarina of Time glitches I did in High School by pulling up part of the cart. One time, I remember my friends and I found the debug mode in Sonic 2 by pulling the cart up a little on the side, years later I learned the codes and realized what had happened. Not the same as frying, but still other cart system "hacks."

Edited July 9, 2010 by Gigabyte

[+FujiSkunk]

My favorite fry, which I only ever saw once, was in Outlaw.

 

Normally, frying Outlaw revealed game variation #0, which was a two-player game with a wall. It wasn't anything really special, but #0 did use the "getaway" feature that officially was only available in game variation #2, so it did add some extra variety to the game.

 

But one time I fried Outlaw and discovered game variations #26 through #99. Some of these were pretty funny, others were funny and unplayable. There were walls that couldn't be shot through, one-player games involving the six-shooter (which the target would never use, for some reason), and moving cactii. Programming experience now tells me the variation counter is involved in the math used to determine where that particular variation's features are stored in the code, and anything beyond #16 is reading data actually meant for something else. But still, it was funny to see all these other possibilities (and impossibilities).

 

Another interesting fry is Centipede. Usually you'll start with few or no mushrooms on the screen, a scorpion moving across the bottom, and the player's wand at the very top of the screen. If you move the wand down to the bottom, the game will play normally. But if you move up and off the screen, interesting things happen. Keep going up and eventually you'll warp back around to the bottom. But if you fire while off-screen, your shots will appear at random places on the screen. Continue firing as you're moving up, and the playfield will literally explode. Maybe the game tries to divide by zero? Resetting the game at this point sort of works, except the background is now grey and and the game plays sort of "backwards."

 

Then there's Pitfall "Ninja" Harry, dressed in black and floating through the air... only he really has nowhere to go because now every screen is the same, with no treasure to be found.

 

There's poor E.T. with no way to get home, because the only zone to be found is the "Call Elliot" zone.

 

tetrode kink mentioned Space Invaders, but sometimes frying SI did more than just activate the two-shots exploit. Once, frying my SI caused the second player's score to increase whenever the shields were shot, even during a one-player game.

 

Asteroids was a boring fry. All the asteroids started with the same shape and color, and all but every other medium-sized asteroid moved from left to right. The UFOs and satellites followed the same path across the screen and always fired in the same direction. I remember sometimes while playing the game normally, the asteroids would start in a pattern that almost looked like the fried pattern, but never exactly matched it.

Edited July 9, 2010 by FujiSkunk

[Wickeycolumbus]

Is it possible to fry in Stella?

 

 

Yes, press backspace

[potatohead]

On "Space Invaders", I used to get a deep purple color for the invaders. Haven't thought about it since I was a kid. For some reason, this thread caused me to remember that. The color is NOT in the palette. That was the intriguing thing about it. I never saw that color on the VCS anywhere on any game, or any demo I've seen here.

 

Back then it was a light sixer. Hmmm.... I'll have to try it again, as I still have both. If I can get it, I'll do a capture. Back then, I thought it was just interesting. Now, I wonder whether or not some counter in the TIA didn't get stuck on an odd value, or something... The color was purple / blue, almost black, and not something I remember seeing on any Atari color demo.

[SekOner]

I'm actually not familiar with frying Games, I believe the practice is to just flip the on off switch rapidly? If not can someone enlighten me, also Does anymore know the technical reason(s) why these games would glitch from being "fried".

[Rex Dart]

First I've heard of this, too. I remember yanking carts out of their consoles in order to snap a photo because whatever game didn't have a pause feature... but not quite the same.

Is there any actual risk of damaging the carts (or system), and if so, how great? I might mess with some of my duplicates later.

[Gigabyte]

Well, it's an electronic device, so powering on and off will cause some wear as the circuits have blasts of electricity flowing through them off and on.

 

"Yes, press backspace "

 

Sounds like the best thing to do is experiment with Stella, thanks for the backspace tip!

[tz101]

Is there any actual risk of damaging the carts (or system), and if so, how great? I might mess with some of my duplicates later.

 

Some systems, like Atari 5200, were made to hot-swap game cartridges safely. Others, like Super Nintendo came with a warning sticker (and locking tab) later in the console's life to prevent you from removing the game with the power turned on. I do know that the SNES has a touchy .5 amp fuse on board that is easy to blow. That is one system I would not play around with "frying" or anything like removing game carts halfway.

 

I never tried "frying" because it cost my parents too much to buy me my Sears Tele-Games console. I was not about to mess it up over some dumb stunt like that.

[eegad]

Regularly used to fry Asteroids. Only because I hated the pastel, easter-egg colored asteroids on the 2600 version. Fried it to get all white Asteroids because I thought it was more "arcade-like".

[potatohead]

I'm actually not familiar with frying Games, I believe the practice is to just flip the on off switch rapidly? If not can someone enlighten me, also Does anymore know the technical reason(s) why these games would glitch from being "fried".

 

There were variations. Turning on the power, then inserting a cart, toggling the power switch, or moving it to just where the contact is made, then getting it to "scrape" on, jiggling the power adapter input, and or combinations of those done with controllers and or console switches in various positions.

 

Not recommended, BTW. That is just what was done.

 

When the machine is powered on, the logic is in various states. Sometimes those states would cause the game code to behave differently. That's the general reason it worked as it did.

[retrorussell]

I never thought of frying back when I had my 2600. But upon reading about the frying tricks, one of the best is for HERO.. you can get 250 lives!

[tetrode kink]

I'm actually not familiar with frying Games, I believe the practice is to just flip the on off switch rapidly? If not can someone enlighten me, also Does anymore know the technical reason(s) why these games would glitch from being "fried".

Well, I probably shouldn't answer this, since doing so could contribute to the possible ruination of someone's console. But, apparently, I just can't help myself...

 

Starting with the power switch in the "on" position, quickly flip the switch off and then back on as fast as you can. Usually you can't turn the switch off and on fast enough for that technique to work. So what you have to do is maneuver the switch into an "in-between" position, where it rests at power-on but if you tap it with your finger it goes off for a tiny instant. The momentary power-off event must happen fast enough so that the VCS's internal electronics don't force the CPU to reset, thus the CPU continues executing instructions where it left off before power loss. This means it doesn't get to execute the memory zero-out routine normally found at the beginning of most game programs. Since the console's RAM contains random information at power-up, preventing the CPU from zeroing it out (and presetting it with normal game parameters) results in various kooky, unintended game behavior.

 

There, I said it. I leave it to the VCS owner to assume responsibility for any damage, however slight the chance it happens.

 

First I've heard of this, too. I remember yanking carts out of their consoles in order to snap a photo because whatever game didn't have a pause feature... but not quite the same.

Is there any actual risk of damaging the carts (or system), and if so, how great? I might mess with some of my duplicates later.

Yes, there is a risk of damage, which is why all video game manuals warn against it.

 

As someone mentioned previously, excessive power cycling could potentially send the console to an early grave. Any time you turn it on, the console takes a very small "wear & tear" hit; both the power switch (mechanically) and the circuit board (electrically). If your particular console contains a part or parts which will someday fail because of power cycling, frying will bring that day sooner. Understand, the chance is very small, but it exists. In the end, it rests on whether or not the console's owner is a gambler.

 

One should never pull a cart while power is on. The chance of frying (to death) the cart is much greater doing this than with power-switch "frying." Fortunately there is no advantage to be gained by pulling an Atari cart, because the game program itself has constant, direct control of the video; so when you pull the cart the screen will either display garbage or go black.

 

-tet

Edited July 10, 2010 by tetrode kink

[Kripto]

I tried "frying" with every game I had back in the day. I remember the Pitfall! guy in the trees distinctly.

It never resulted in any kind of issue with the machine breaking or anything.

 

I also don't know what the deal is with this guy who claims to have coined the term "frying" for this process. All of my friends called it that in the early '80's and it's highly unlikely that we got it from the media or some other outside source.

[potatohead]

As kids, we all knew about the one kid who fried and ended up with a silent VCS!! His was a tele-games light 6'er, and one day, after trying to get goofy graphics on "FROGGER", that was it! No more sound I imagine his parents were not entirely upset about that.

 

The whole thing got a lot less popular after that. Some tricks, like holding down reset for a double shot in "Space Invaders" are no big stress, but the glitching is. IMHO, it's a small stress, but it is a stress.

Edited July 11, 2010 by potatohead

[Herbarius]

I remember yanking carts out of their consoles in order to snap a photo because whatever game didn't have a pause feature...

 

Did that work? I don't see how it could have worked, all you would get is either vertical coloured bars, or random garbage/black screen...

[SekOner]

I'm actually not familiar with frying Games, I believe the practice is to just flip the on off switch rapidly? If not can someone enlighten me, also Does anymore know the technical reason(s) why these games would glitch from being "fried".

Well, I probably shouldn't answer this, since doing so could contribute to the possible ruination of someone's console. But, apparently, I just can't help myself...

 

Starting with the power switch in the "on" position, quickly flip the switch off and then back on as fast as you can. Usually you can't turn the switch off and on fast enough for that technique to work. So what you have to do is maneuver the switch into an "in-between" position, where it rests at power-on but if you tap it with your finger it goes off for a tiny instant. The momentary power-off event must happen fast enough so that the VCS's internal electronics don't force the CPU to reset, thus the CPU continues executing instructions where it left off before power loss. This means it doesn't get to execute the memory zero-out routine normally found at the beginning of most game programs. Since the console's RAM contains random information at power-up, preventing the CPU from zeroing it out (and presetting it with normal game parameters) results in various kooky, unintended game behavior.

 

There, I said it. I leave it to the VCS owner to assume responsibility for any damage, however slight the chance it happens.

 

First I've heard of this, too. I remember yanking carts out of their consoles in order to snap a photo because whatever game didn't have a pause feature... but not quite the same.

Is there any actual risk of damaging the carts (or system), and if so, how great? I might mess with some of my duplicates later.

Yes, there is a risk of damage, which is why all video game manuals warn against it.

 

As someone mentioned previously, excessive power cycling could potentially send the console to an early grave. Any time you turn it on, the console takes a very small "wear & tear" hit; both the power switch (mechanically) and the circuit board (electrically). If your particular console contains a part or parts which will someday fail because of power cycling, frying will bring that day sooner. Understand, the chance is very small, but it exists. In the end, it rests on whether or not the console's owner is a gambler.

 

One should never pull a cart while power is on. The chance of frying (to death) the cart is much greater doing this than with power-switch "frying." Fortunately there is no advantage to be gained by pulling an Atari cart, because the game program itself has constant, direct control of the video; so when you pull the cart the screen will either display garbage or go black.

 

-tet

 

Thank you for the answer, i NEVER intended on doing this to any of my consoles, I just wanted an explanation for how it was done so that i can think through the logic of how and why it acheived these results. Thanks for also added your understanding of why as well.

[Tr3vor]

I sometimes fry my atari2600 games just to see what happens, I like barnstorming alot, it makes some wierd graphical glitches.

 

I never got the Asteroids blue/white asteroid trick to work...

Maze craze makes the the screen have dots.

Spider Fighter makes some wierd graphical glitch to happen on the left side of the screen.

[A.J. Franzman]

I remember yanking carts out of their consoles in order to snap a photo because whatever game didn't have a pause feature...

Did that work? I don't see how it could have worked, all you would get is either vertical coloured bars, or random garbage/black screen...

Not on the VCS. Rex must be thinking of another system.

Edited July 12, 2010 by A.J. Franzman

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

Yep only after reading this thread was I reminded that I did this back in the day LOL! I "discovered" this as I am sure others did when I went to flick the switch off but my finger slipped then I noticed a glitch on the screen. I do not recall the game at the time but I recall something weird like the colors had changed and the backgrounds were glitched, I became obsessed with trying this "trick" on all my games. Strangely I thought I was the only one back then who did this! On a related note, something similar, years later when I got COLECOVISION I do not remember WHY I tried it, I was probably bored, but with the game plugged in and power ON I would run a bread knife along the contacts of the front Expansion port and MAN that had some crazy effects! Popeye would mix up background graphics from different screens! Of course colors would get mix up, also weird things like the Seahag throwing bottles was invisible. In my limited hacking or programming skills this was the closest I came to altering games lol! Funny how I would never even consider doing such things today...................well maybe not.

[Skylark68]

Not exactly frying, but I always thought it was cool to hit the game select switch after putting the Chalice in the Yellow Castle... Love those funky sounds!