Supercharger games are way over rated!

[PressureCooker2600]

there was a topic somewhere here where a dude was playing supercharger games off of an ipod

[+remowilliams]

I first learned how to program on my Timex Sinclair 1000

So did I. That poor cheap TS1000/ZX81 just never gets the credit it deserved.

 

 

I have all of SuperCharger tapes (no prototypes, however). Sounds like you can transfer these to CD. What is the best technique for this. Do you use MS Sound Recorder to make a .wav file, then burn to CD as a music CD?

A somewhat easier method would be to get your hands on the .bin files that exist already, and then convert them to .wav with a program such as makewav. That eliminates playing with tape recorders and digitizing, and eliminates the errors as you will get a perfect .wav file. Then you can burn that .wav to CD.

 

Also for those who still have never heard - you can use PlayBin to "play" the .bin files on your PC (or pocket PC even) directly into the Supercharger. Very handy!

[Zoyx]

A somewhat easier method would be to get your hands on the .bin files that exist already, and then convert them to .wav with a program such as makewav. That eliminates playing with tape recorders and digitizing, and eliminates the errors as you will get a perfect .wav file. Then you can burn that .wav to CD.

 

Also for those who still have never heard - you can use PlayBin to "play" the .bin files on your PC (or pocket PC even) directly into the Supercharger. Very handy!

 

 

Very cool! Works great. I was trying to get my old tapes to work, and was having a tough time. My tapes are over 20 years old now, and have degenerated a bit.

[godzillajoe]

You can still get the Stella Gets A New Brain CD for just $5

[Zoyx]

You can still get the Stella Gets A New Brain CD for just $5

I googled that with no luck. Who sells that?

[Mezrabad]

You can still get the Stella Gets A New Brain CD for just $5

I googled that with no luck. Who sells that?

 

The Stella CD is awesome, well worth not messing around with 30 year old warped tapes.

I think I got mine from Hozer Videogames. They publish hombrews.

 

http://webpages.charter.net/hozervideo/

[shadow460]

Kinda odd you have problems with the tapes...all the ones of mine I've tested still work. In fact, they work better nowdays since the technology in today's cassette players is better. The one thing they didn't work in was my DCC portable. I think its auto reverse mechanism is too sensitive for the tapes, or the belts in it might be slipping.

 

Not like I'm planning to play from them much anyway. I want to play Escape from the cassette for a Twin Galaxies record, but that's about it.

 

I have all of SuperCharger tapes (no prototypes, however). Sounds like you can transfer these to CD. What is the best technique for this. Do you use MS Sound Recorder to make a .wav file, then burn to CD as a music CD?

 

Make sure when you transfer them to CD that the sound output from that CD is in the left channel only. That is how the original tapes were manufactured.

Edited December 11, 2006 by shadow460

[Zoyx]

Kinda odd you have problems with the tapes...all the ones of mine I've tested still work. In fact, they work better nowdays since the technology in today's cassette players is better. The one thing they didn't work in was my DCC portable. I think its auto reverse mechanism is too sensitive for the tapes, or the belts in it might be slipping.

 

Not like I'm planning to play from them much anyway. I want to play Escape from the cassette for a Twin Galaxies record, but that's about it.

 

Make sure when you transfer them to CD that the sound output from that CD is in the left channel only. That is how the original tapes were manufactured.

 

My music tapes from the 80s are pretty worthless right now. They all have that muffled sound to them. Something must of happened to them. Probably the way I stored them.

 

When I listen to my Phaser Patrol tape on the fast side, the sound drops down toward the end. I was able to load that game on the slow side, but not on the fast side.

[PressureCooker2600]

some of my old 80s tapes work.....my anthrax- state of euphoria cassette and all my Fat Boys tapes

[Godzilla]

well im in the supercharger loving camp, i got my unit and games back in the day (it was $19.99) (and got every game except for frogger and party mix,) and it's games are still some of my favorites for the 2600, especially mind master, dragon stomper and survival island. really amazing stuff imho.

[Zoyx]

Here is the wikipedia entry for the supercharger.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starpath_Supercharger

 

Looks like it needs more info. For instance, I would like to know the people behind the unit as well as the game coders.

[mos6507]

This page is now ancient. I'll have to work on the Wiki entry sometime and transfer the information over.

 

http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/1698/cyberpunks/faq.html

[Mezrabad]

.

 

Not like I'm planning to play from them much anyway. I want to play Escape from the cassette for a Twin Galaxies record, but that's about it.

 

 

I've never gotten a higher rating than "Cheating" is there something after that?

[Zoyx]

Dammit, can't find my maps to Escape from the Mindmaster. According to my high score sheet, I got a score of 298 back in the day.

[shadow460]

.

 

Not like I'm planning to play from them much anyway. I want to play Escape from the cassette for a Twin Galaxies record, but that's about it.

 

 

I've never gotten a higher rating than "Cheating" is there something after that?

 

I don't know if there is on this version. I've hit something like 647, and that's it. To get over 700, you'd need to:

-Play with fast stalkers and five chances

-Finish each maze in under six ticks of the clock

-Earn a perfect score on each of the skill tests, which is at least 36 points per test

-Never die to the Alien Stalker

 

So that's 54x6 for 324 points, then 36x5 for 180 points, plus the 200 point bonus, which would give you a score of 704.

Spaces for six words were found in the game's source code. Whoever decompiled it was not able to score over 600 points, but they identified the other five.

 

Now for the issue of wear and tear, I think that has to do with what kind of tape player the cassette were used in. We used a high quality shoebox recorder that was meant for computer cassettes. I imagine Walkmans and boomboxes of the day were much harder on the cassettes.

You gotta bear in mind that the reason these things have any value is not so they can be played. I think Starpath's value lies purely in collectability since the media they used is so fragile and so easily copied.

[Mezrabad]

I've never gotten a higher rating than "Cheating" is there something after that?

 

I don't know if there is on this version. I've hit something like 647, and that's it. To get over 700, you'd need to:

-Play with fast stalkers and five chances

-Finish each maze in under six ticks of the clock

-Earn a perfect score on each of the skill tests, which is at least 36 points per test

-Never die to the Alien Stalker

 

So that's 54x6 for 324 points, then 36x5 for 180 points, plus the 200 point bonus, which would give you a score of 704.

Spaces for six words were found in the game's source code. Whoever decompiled it was not able to score over 600 points, but they identified the other five.

 

Your math is similar to mine. Perhaps 700+ is not unreachable if there's a bonus for playing through a game and not dying. Do we know if such a bonus exists or not? I always seem to die. My recent high score is 599, but I remember taking a screenshot of a a "cheating" rating from about four years ago. Now, the memory of it laughs at me! Heh.

[Zoyx]

298 is my high score for escape

 

I can't find the map that I made either.

[shadow460]

There is no bonus for not dying, however, each time you touch the stalker, you lose a point, according to the manual. It says nothing about the force fields.

 

I might give it a go tonight--I still have to test the B side of my cassette. I scored a meager 601 when I tested the A side.

 

I also want to find out if my cassette allows one to go over 36 on the first skill test. I don't think it does. Later on, I played Escape via emulation, and it did allow scores over 36 on that test. This leads me to believe that there are two released versions of the game.

 

EDIT: The tape works, and so far I've found none of my originals that don't work flawlessly. I need to con my dad out of that shoebox recorder...

Edited December 14, 2006 by shadow460

[Mezrabad]

I also want to find out if my cassette allows one to go over 36 on the first skill test. I don't think it does. Later on, I played Escape via emulation, and it did allow scores over 36 on that test. This leads me to believe that there are two released versions of the game.

 

 

Funny you should mention the first skill test, I got 37 on it last night. I'm playing mine on a Cuttle Cart 2 so my "dumped" bin must be a different version.

 

I've got the Stella gets a New Brain CD, I wonder if it will do it on that. Hell, I wonder if I can do it again, I seem to suck at that level lately (last night was a fluke).

[Godzilla]

i remember getting some pretty positive rankings back in the day, like 'intriguing' (or something like that,) even got up to mind master iirc.

[Tempest]

Can't someone hack the rom to find out?

 

Tempest

[Video]

I personally loved my Super Charger, of course, I paid about $25 for the system and the first 7 games also. So that may have something to do with it.

 

My favorite games I have is,

Fireball, yeah, a ripoff of Breakout, but nobody mentions the juggling of multiple fireballs at once. That added a lot to the game for me, I don't know if you can play multiball on Breakout or not, seems you could, but I never did on the 2600.

Phaser Patroll, this is the best of the space fighters, and I played it for hours. This is one of the first games I got a pirate copy of, because my legit copy died one me. Just couldn't stand all the playing I guess

Mind Master, Hey, that was the smoothest First person on the 2600, ever. And a lot of the mini games are quiet fun, actually. This is a really good game that really showed off the supercharger IMO.

 

And my favorite of don't haves, is Frogger. Yes, Parker bros frogger is good, great even. But that doesn't change the fact that the SC version blows it out of the watter. It had better (slightly) graphics, and a lot better sound FX and music. But it's still a great game.

[shadow460]

Can't someone hack the rom to find out?

 

Tempest

 

That's how we found out there were only six different ratings. I can probably hit 36 or more on that first test--last night I hit 34 with little trouble. I was using my cassette, BTW.

I'm hitting 35 tonight, but I'm pretty drugged up. I'm going to have to try again when this virus goes away.

Edited December 15, 2006 by shadow460

[Zoyx]

Yay! Found my map that I made for Mindmaster. See attached. Probably made in 1982 when the game first came out. I think that 359 is my all time high score. Map is only useful when first learning the game. Need to have the maps memorized to get the good score.

[Mezrabad]

Yay! Found my map that I made for Mindmaster. See attached. Probably made in 1982 when the game first came out. I think that 359 is my all time high score. Map is only useful when first learning the game. Need to have the maps memorized to get the good score.

 

Cool, you even drew all the shapes. I agree, having the maps memoriezed (door directions, nooks for items/slots/tests) is the only way to get the higher scores.

 

Anyone else have nicknames for the shapes? I call them one-leg, two-leg, swaztika and mess for levels 3 and 4. Level 5 I call them left-butt, right-butt, worm and stable-stack. Level 1+2 I call them square, circle, zap and clover. It's just how I refer to them as I'm running around and trying to remember where they each are, makes it easier for me to remember. Hey, don't look at me like that, I'm not crazy! I'm not! *twitch* *twitch*