--------------------------------------------------------------------- START OF FAQ --------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ATARI 2600 FUN FACTS AND INFORMATION GUIDE FAQ Volume 0.26 Beta By Christopher James Pepin cpepin1@grfn.org at710@detroit.freenet.org Copyright (c) 1997 by Christopher James Pepin All quoted sections are Copyrighted by their respective owners. 03/09/97 This FAQ should be available at my web site. THE FORGOTTEN ARCHIVES http://www.grfn.org/~cpepin1/index.html [As a beta version, don't expect a ton of info or that things are completly neat. Enjoy!] Having been on the net for a while, I've come to realize that I still don't know much about some of the games for the 2600. So if I don't know about some of these things ( I check rec.games.video.classic and alt.atari.2600 almost every day) then how would new people to the group know some of these things or even know what to ask about. This is not a FAQ about the 2600 nor is it a list of game descriptions and reviews. Instead it's a list of interesting facts and such about various 2600 games. This list is far from complete so please email me with any information I don't have. If you think something is false, misleading, not descriptive enough or whatever, please let me know. Any info, no matter how small or insignificant is appreciated. The games are roughly in the same order as VGR's rarity listing. The model numbers are also taken from the list as well. I won't be listing rarity because it is so hard to define and VGR is already semi-in-charge of determining rarity anyway. Also, I sometimes mention label variations if I think they are interesting enough, but not always. There's already a pretty decent label variations listing out there. John Earney is in charge of that. (See end of document.) Kevin Horton has an interesting document explaining the different types of bankswitching used by companies to make their games larger than the limited 4K allowed by the 2600. It's called SIZES.TXT and is available from his web page. (See end of document.) [NOTE: The following quote is included because in several instances, I plan to quote Kevin about different technical things and he has a tendency to talk about different bankswitching methods. I've included the following chart to help you understand what he means when he refers to F6, F8, etc. To better understand bankswitching methods, I implore you to check out his web page. (See end of document.)] "3F STA $3F bankswitching found on Tigervision carts E0 FE0-FF7 bankswitching (aka Parker Bros.) E7 FE0-FE7 bankswitching found on M-Network carts F6 FF6/FF7/FF8/FF9 bankswitching F8 FF8/FF9 bankswitching FA FF8/FF9/FFA bankswitching (aka CBS' RAM Plus) FE 01FE/11FE bankswitching (aka Activision Robot Tank) ?? Unknown at this time " -- Kevin Horton Tim Duarte has graciously allowed me to reprint information from his "2600 Connection" newsletter in this FAQ. This should greatly enhance several sections as the "2600 Connection" is, for the most part, the only source of information for several games. Question marks (?) indicate where I am in need of information or where the information I have could be incorrect. Release dates are probably where you will see them the most. Games for the 2600 have been released for several different television formats around the world. The most widely distributed versions are NTSC (North America and Japan) and PAL (parts of Europe, Australia, etc.) There are other television types but these are the two main ones. Normally, especially with newer video game systems, one can't play NTSC games on PAL machines and vice versa without a special adaptor. With the 2600, on the other hand, PAL games will play on NTSC machines and NTSC games will play on PAL machines. The only problems are the colors will be messed up and the screen might roll. The rolling comes from the different resolutions between PAL and NTSC television sets. If the game rolls, just adjust the vertical hold or try a different tv set. Since the Internet is constantly changing, web pages and email addresses may vanish overnight. If you notice that any of the email addresses or web pages listed in this document no longer exist, please let me know. For those of you whose web page or email address is listed here, please let me know if they've changed. Thanks. Now, let the games begin. :-) ------------------------------------------------------------------- ATARI - ATARI - ATARI - ATARI - ATARI - ATARI - ATARI - ATARI ------------------------------------------------------------------- Atari is the company that created the wonderful 2600 Video Computer System (2600 VCS). They also released more games than any other video game company for the 2600. Some they made themselves and others were licensed from other companies, usually arcade companies that didn't have a programming division to do ports for home machines. Atari also released some of their games through Sears These games bore a Sears label, part number, and in several instances, totally different names. (See Sears) Atari also released many of their games in PAL format. Carts from the United States are in NTSC format. PAL games were released in several European countries as well as Australia. Atari also licensed several of their games to Polyvox for release in South America. (See Polyvox.) Activision has just recently licensed several games from Atari for release with their Action Pack Atari 2600 emulator for PC and Mac. (See Activision.) Atari also released a handful of games in Japan with Japanese labels and boxes. Best Electronics had some Japanese boxes (no carts though) for sale. I believe Keita Iida ended up with some of them. Instead of releasing the Atari 2600, they released a Sears Super Video Arcade II renamed the Atari 2800. Since Japan is an NTSC country, I would assume the carts are in NTSC format. After the video game crash of 1984, Atari bought the rights to some older games from other companies (such as Coleco and Parker Brothers) and re-released them under the Atari brand label. ------------------------------------------------------------------- COMBAT - MODEL NUMBER CX2601 - ATARI Sears Model Numbers "66" prefix - 99801 "49" prefix - 75124 NTSC & PAL versions available Size = 2K Release Date = 1977 (1978?) ------------------------------------------------------------------- The first game released for the 2600 is also the most common. When searching for Atari games at thrift stores, flea markets, garage sales, etc. one is bound to run across at least several copies of this game. Having been the pack-in game for almost the entire life of the 2600 (eventually being replaced by Pac-Man) almost everybody owned a copy of this great two-player game. Originally Combat was intended to be built right into the system itself, but at the last minute (for whatever reason) they decided to just pack a cartridge in with the system instead. If you open up an old Atari 2600 six switcher you will notice a spot on the motherboard where the chip would have been. "I decided to stick a ROM socket into my 6-switch and then desolder a Combat ROM and stick it into the socket. I figured I would then have the system that Atari originally intended to market. A 2600 with Combat built in. Well I got it... unfortunately that's all I got. I guess there was extra hardware planned to go into the system to detect whether there was a cartridge in the machine or not. Because if I plug in a cart with the Combat ROM installed, the machine just freaks out. It's too bad. It would have been neat to have a built in game. Has anyone had any luck figuring out what else needs to be added to the system so it will tell when a cart is plugged in and ignore the internal ROM?" -- Crackers (Chris Cracknell) Combat was one of the games also released through Sears. Sporting a new name, it appeared on the shelves as Tank Plus. (See above for model numbers.) The Sears version was only released in the U.S. (See Sears.) Combat also found its way onto Atari's (PAL only) 32-in-1 cartridge. (See 32-IN-1 - Model Number 26163 - Atari.) Combat's a miniscule 2K in size. Since it was the first Atari 2600 game, I guess that also makes it the first 2K game. :-) Combat was originally supposed to have a separate score screen that would appear whenever one of the tanks was hit, but the programmers were (thankfully) able to figure out a way to display the score on the same playing screen. Most Atari games were usually the work of one programmer, but Combat had three programmers working on it; Larry Kaplan, Joe DeCuir, and Larry Wagner. Software bugs abound in Combat's code. Tanks traveling through walls, getting stuck, etc. None of these are serious enough to detract from the game but instead seem to add an extra bit of upredictability. The jet fighting sections of the game were added because the programmers had an Atari Jet Fighter arcade game sitting in their lab that everyone liked to play. A sequel had been planned (Combat II) but was never released. (See Combat II - Model Number CX26156 - Atari.) Combat has popped up in Activision's Atari Action Pack Vol #3 for Win95 and Mac. (See Activision.) Combat was one of the games licensed to Polyvox for release in South America. (See Polyvox.) A pirated copy of Combat was also released as a 2600 COMPATIBLE cart called Frontline. (See 2600 COMPATIBLE) ------------------------------------------------------------------- ADVENTURE - MODEL NUMBER CX2613 - ATARI Sears Model numbers "66" prefix - NONE "49" prefix - 75154 NTSC & PAL versions available Size = 4K Release Date = 1978 ------------------------------------------------------------------- One of the first adventure games released for the Atari, it is still one of the best in my opinion. Adventure was also released through Sears under their brand label. (See above for model numbers.) The Sears version was only available in the U.S. (See Sears.) A DOS program that displays a recreation of the Adventure manual in color is available from VGR's web page. (See end of document.) A map of Adventure is available as advmap.gif on Cudabert's FTP site. (See end of document.) VGR has created a freeware DOS version of Adventure called Indenture. It is not an exact recreation of Adventure since he created it based on his observations while playing the game. It is quite close though and fun to play. Not only that, but he has expanded the game to include five levels instead of the original three. The newest version is 1.7. It is available for download at his web page. (See end of document.) Since Atari in those days did not want the public to know who programmed their games (I believe they were afraid other companies would try to steal them away.), they did not allow programmers to put their names in their games. Fed up with this practice, Warren Robinett, creator of Adventure, placed a secret message in a secret room hidden in the game. To acess this secret message, you must be on game 2 or 3. First, kill off all three dragons in the game. Then go down from the Gold Castle and travel right one screen where one of the force fields are. Drag two or three objects to this room and drop them. Then go to the Black Castle with the bridge carried beneath you. Go straight up on the left side of the screen until you are forced to turn left. Follow this path for a bit until you have a choice of going up, down (where you just came from), left, or left and down. Go left and down and follow this until you see a small rectangular room just below the path. Use the bridge to get down into this room. Go all the way down and to the right into a corner as far as you can go. You will hear a noise indicating you've picked up something. This is the Black Dot. Drag this to the force field with the other items. Drop the dot just on the other side of the force field and it will start blinking. You can now pass through the force field and enter the secret room. (If anyone wants to describe this trick better, please do so and send it to me for inclusion. Thanks.) A sequel was rumored, but I don't believe it even made it to the design stage. A company called Applevision released a 2 in 1 game cart called 2 in 1: Adventure & Air Sea Battle. I'm assuming this is an unlicensed pirate copy of the game. (Does anyone have any information on this cart?) I believe, and correct me if I'm wrong, that Adventure is one of the games Activision has licensed from Atari for inclusion in one of their Action Packs, but they haven't included it in any of them yet. (See Activision.) ------------------------------------------------------------------- VIDEO CHECKERS - MODEL NUMBER CX2636 - ATARI NTSC & PAL Versions Available? Size = 4K Release Date = ? ------------------------------------------------------------------- Carol Shaw produced this fun adaption of the classic board game for the 2600. Alan Miller over at Activision was also working on a version of Checkers for the 2600 at the same time. Neither of them were aware of what the other was doing and, as a result, we ended up with two different versions of the game for the 2600. (See Checkers - Model Number AG-003 - Activision.) Video Checkers is 4K while Activision, on the other hand, managed to squeeze their game into a miniscule 2K. The version of Checkers available on Atari's 32-IN-1 cartridge is not Video Checkers. Instead it is actually Activision's version of the game. (See 32-IN-1 - Model Number CX26163P - Atari.) ------------------------------------------------------------------- GOOD LUCK, CHARLIE BROWN - MODEL NUMBER CX26112 - ATARI NTSC only? Size = ? Release Date = Unreleased ------------------------------------------------------------------- A sequel to Atari's earlier Peanut's game (See Snoopy and the Red Baron - Model Number CX26111 - Atari), the game was never released. "Matt Lewandowski, a 2600 Connection reader, recently found an Atari 2600 game that has been previously undiscovered. Matt's brother bought several games for him at a flea market in Kenosha, WI. When he came home and showed them to Matt, one of the cartridges was a prototype version of Good Luck Charlie Brown (by Atari). The cartridge is black and the words "LOANER CARTRIDGE" is on the top of the front label. There are also two handwritten labels across the middle of the front label. One states "Good Luck, Charlie Brown" and the other is "18 Apr 84." Beneath the two labels is "Prototype Lab Consumer Division Software Dept." The Atari logo also appears at the bottom." -- Tim Duarte (2600 Connection #33, Page 1) Currently this is the only known copy of the game in existence. The 2600 Connection also printed Matt Lewandowski's address in case anyone wanted to write to him. He is, as far as I know, not on the net. Matt Lewandowski 2918 Union St. E. Troy, WI 53120 "The actual game consists of one screen. Charlie Brown has to fly his kite while avoiding birds, balloons, rockets, and some other weird shapes. At the bottom of the screen, there is a wind gauge which tells how fast and which way the wind will push your kite. There is also a timer which counts up, but it doesn't seem to effect the gameplay. There are no sounds in the game, but the graphics are better than average. Pushing up and down on the joystick determines how much string is let out for the kite and moving left and right will change the position of the kite. Sometimes there are flashes of light in the air - which is most likely lightning. According to Matt, there doesn't seem to be any object to the game. It almosts sounds like the game was not completed and still had some things that needed to be added to the game. Perhaps Atari wanted to get the game out for an evaluation, even though it was still in its rough stages." -- Tim Duarte (2600 Connection #33, Page 1) For more information, please contact either Matt Lewandowski at the above address or Tim Duarte. (See end of document.) If anyone has contacted Matt about this game, let me know. If anyone else runs across a copy of this game, I would like to know that too. :-) "Good Luck, Charlie Brown is mentioned on ATARI's ehm.. Super Stars poster, the silver fold-out catalogue from '83 that came with Joust. There's no art. It just shows a black box and a "Coming Soon" banner." -- Dr. Deleto ------------------------------------------------------------------- DONKEY KONG - MODEL NUMBER CX26143 - ATARI NTSC and PAL versions available Size = 4K Release Date = 1987 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Re-released by Atari in 1987, this Nintendo created game was originally released for the 2600 by Coleco. (See Donkey Kong - Model Number 2451 - Coleco.) ------------------------------------------------------------------- DONKEY KONG JR. - MODEL NUMBER CX26144 - ATARI NTSC and PAL versions available Size = 8K Release Date = 1988 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Re-released by Atari in 1988, this Nintendo created game was originally released for the 2600 by Coleco. (See Donkey Kong Jr. - Model Number 2653 - Coleco.) ------------------------------------------------------------------- COMBAT II - MODEL NUMBER CX26156 - ATARI No versions available Size = ? Release Date = Unreleased ------------------------------------------------------------------- It was rumored to have been at least partially programmed, but no prototype or concrete evidence have surfaced...yet. There was apparently some information about it in the November '83 - February '84 issue of Atari Age (Volume 2 Issue 4) where they mention that the game had been started on, but shelved in favor of Battlezone. I haven't seen the issue in question, so this information could be incorrect. ------------------------------------------------------------------- 32-IN-1 - MODEL NUMBER CX26163P - ATARI only PAL version available Size = 64K (32 banks of 2K) Release Date = 1988? ------------------------------------------------------------------- I'm not real sure about the exact story behind this cart, but I'll put down what I think I know and if anything is wrong, incomplete, etc. please let me know. Thanks. "I very carefully peeled the label back on my 32-in-1 cart to see what made it 'tick'. It's very simple, just a 27512-style ROM (64K), a binary counter (4024), and a hex inverter (74C14). Every power on/off/on cycle increments the counter once, which brings up the next game. Sounds good in theory, but it doesn't work too well in practice! :-) Usually it'll skip counts, so that you have to keep turning it on/off/on/off to get to the game you want to play. I manually incremented the counter and read the games one at a time. This allowed me to tell the exact order the games are really in, and to fairly easily get each one. Each game is 2K, and since there are 32, the total amount of memory is 64K. Also to note is there are really only 31 games; Fishing Derby appears twice." -- Kevin Horton Atari packaged the 32-IN-1 (loose) with the Atari 2600 Jr. in Europe. This might explain why most European collectors own at least one. Though it should be noted that not every 2600 Jr. came with a 32-IN-1 packed in with it. Since there are some that come with boxes, it must have been available separately. Boxed 32-IN-1 carts are pretty hard to come by. Dr. Deleto has a scan of the 32-IN-1 box on his web page. (See end of document.) Since it was a PAL release only (as far as I know) a 32-IN-1 cart is quite common in Europe but extremely hard to find in the U.S. So, if you're from Europe it might be a good idea to collect up 32-IN-1 carts for trading with Atari fans from North America. There are also several pirate games out there with a the title of 32-IN-1. They are (I believe) totally different from Atari's 32-IN-1 cartridge. Not only are there Atari released games on the cart, but several Activision, one Commavid and one U.S. Games / Vidtec release as well. The 32-IN-1 cartridge did not come with an end label. Atari must have decided to save a few pennies. My 32-IN-1 cartridge was produced in China. I don't know if they produced them anywhere else though. In Australia, Atari also released the 32-IN-1 with a 7800 label, but it is actually the same as the 2600 version. "The 32-in-1's were included with late-release 2600's and 7800's (in Australia anyway, not sure about o/s). The cart is the same, but the label is different for the 7800 (and has it's own 'label number'): Cart Product Number Label Number --------------------------------------------------- 2600 32-in-1 CX26163P CA400226-163 7800 32-in-1 (no product number) CA400266-163" -- Dennis Remmer Here is a list of games available on the 32-IN-1 cart. game # Game Name ------ --------- 1 Space Jockey (U.S. Games / Vidtec) 2 Human Cannonball 3 Basic Math 4 3-D Tic-Tac-Toe 5 Flag Capture 6 Reversi (Othello?) 7 Golf 8 Surround 9 Checkers (Activision) 10 Casino (Blackjack?) 11 Freeway (Activision - Rabbits) 12 Miniature Golf 13 Football 14 Slot Racers 15 Fishing Derby (Activision - Burgermeisters and Crabs) 16 Space War 17 Boxing (Activision) 18 Air-Sea Battle 19 Freeway (Activision - Chickens) 20 Tennis (Activision) 21 Combat 22 Slot Machine 23 Skiing (Activision) 24 Stampede (Activision) 25 Outlaw 26 Fishing Derby (Activision) 27 Skydiver 28 Laser Blast (Activision) 29 Basketball 30 Cosmic Swarm (Commavid) 31 Bowling 32 Baseball ------------------------------------------------------------------ SAVE MARY - MODEL NUMBER CX26178 - ATARI NTSC version only? Size = 16K? Release Date = Unreleased ------------------------------------------------------------------ [NOTE: Save Mary is sometimes called Saving Mary.] Previously unreleased, several prototypes were discovered recently in an Atari warehouse. "Best Electronics, going through what is rumored to be the last Atari warehouse, uncovered eight copies of the game Save Mary and were able to rescue them. The eight copies were recently auctioned off, and I ended up with one." -- Russ Perry Jr. (2600 Connection #35, page ?) Save Mary was produced for Atari by a company called Axlon. This was a company started up by Nolan Bushnell (who founded Atari) and Todd Frye (who created that wonderful version of Pac-Man for the 2600 that we all love. :-)) The object of the game is to build a tower at the bottom of a river gorge so Mary can climb up it to avoid being drowned by the rising water. You have an unlimited number of bricks, so you don't have to worry about running out. Just don't drop one and skoosh Mary or you're out a life. You're also out a life if you don't build fast enough and the rising waters drown poor Mary. Nolan Bushnell, talking about letting Mary drown, says, "The guilt you feel is tremendous." "You have a sort of crane that you can extend toward the river and back up. You use it to grab bricks that slide out from the sides at the top of the gorge, then lower them as far as you can to drop onto the platform Mary walks on. You have to be careful not to drop the bricks on her though-while Nolan says you feel tremendous guilt, I feel more frustration because you can only lower the crane halfway to the river bed, and oftentimes Mary will walk under the falling brick after you've let go, and there's nothing you can do but watch her die. However, Mary is smart enough to seek the high ground as you build, so when you lay down one brick, she will climb up and stay there, allowing you to lay other bricks on that level without risk. In fact you have to lay other bricks on that level, as Mary can only climb up one level at a time, and if you tried to build one pile only, you will squash her with the second brick. It is a bit difficult to line bricks up directly side by side, having to drop them from so far up, and often they will break, but there is also a fair amount of leeway, so you can leave gaps and still build Mary's way out. Eventually the pile is high enough that you can grab Mary with the crane, and once you've deposited her on the river bank, that round is over." -- Russ Perry Jr. (2600 Connection #35, page ?) The game, according to the auction notice, has three levels. Before the discovery of the eight prototypes, no known copies of the game were believed to exist. For more information, please check out 2600 Connection #35. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 2600 COMPATIBLE - 2600 COMPATIBLE - 2600 COMPATIBLE ------------------------------------------------------------------ "Some of these say imported by Zellers. They're red boxes that say "2600 Compatible" across the top of the front of the box. The carts don't give any indication of who made them." -- John Earney ------------------------------------------------------------------- FRONTLINE - MODEL NUMBER ? - 2600 COMPATIBLE NTSC version only? Size = 2k? Release Date = ? ------------------------------------------------------------------- This game is either a copy of Combat or a modified version. If anyone has this game, please let me know. (See Combat - Model Number CX2601 - Atari.) It does not have any relation to Coleco's game Front Line. ------------------------------------------------------------------- ACTIVISION - ACTIVISION - ACTIVISION - ACTIVISION - ACTIVISION ------------------------------------------------------------------- Activision produced numerous top-quality games for the Atari 2600. Their first 2600 game, Dragster (See Dragster - Model Number AG-001 - Activision), appeared in 1980. Activision carts had little slits in them so when they were stacked on top of each other they would lock into place, preventing them from falling all over the place. Some of the early Activision carts had foam padding surrounding the cart connector. I'm assuming this was an attempt to prevent dust and dirt from building up. Unlike other game companies (such as Atari), Activision went out of their way to let everyone know who was programming their games. They put their pictures and names in the manuals and even went so far as to print their names right on the cartridge label itself. Activision also ran a high score club where players would recieve special patches if they sent in a picture proving they had beat the required score for a game. Sometimes, if Activision ran out of certain patches they would send patches for other games instead. Several Activision games mysteriously ended up on Atari's 32-IN-1 cartridge. (See 32-IN-1 - Model Number CX26163P - Atari.) After the video game crash of 1984, Activision ended up with the rights to several Imagic games. (See Imagic.) Several pirated Activision games have found their way onto both the NTSC and PAl versions of the TV-Boy. Activison recently released several Atari 2600 emulators in Win 3.1, Mac and Win 95 versions. So far three different volumes have appeared, each with a different set of games. They not only have Activision games, but some Atari and Imagic games as well. Activision also has some strange relationship with Absolute. Does anyone know the full story of this? (See Absolute.) Sometime after the crash, Activision re-released several of their older games and a couple of the Imagic games they had gotten the rights to in generic blue labels with black text. Activision (apparently) also licensed some of their games to Polyvox for release in South America. (See Polyvox.) ------------------------------------------------------------------- CHECKERS - MODEL NUMBER AG-003 - ACTIVISION NTSC (PAL?) Size = 2K Release Date = ? ------------------------------------------------------------------- An electronic version of the ancient and classic board game Checkers. Alan Miller, a former employee of Atari, was the creator of Activision's Checkers. While work on the game was underway, a version of Checkers was also being worked on by Atari's Carol Shaw. Neither of them knew the other was working on a checkers program. That's why there are two different versions of Checkers available for the 2600, one from Atari, the other from Activision. (See Video Checkers - Model Number CX2636 - Atari.) Checkers was originally planned to be in 3-D with the use of colored 3-D glasses, but the plan proved to be unfeasable. Alan consulted Stanford professor Arthur Samuels on ways to construct his checkers playing algorithms. Alan managed to squeeze his game into only 2K worth of space versus Atari's 4k. Checkers was one of the games that was available with a foam circuit board protector. When it's the computer's turn, the screen goes black in order to allow the computer to do more thinking calculations. Checkers, strangely enough, shows up on Atari's 32-IN-1 cartridge. (See 32-IN-1 - Model Number CX26163P - Atari.) They probably used Activision's version of Checkers instead of their own because Activision's was 2K and they were only using 2K games on the cart. Though how they got the rights to use Activision games is beyond me. Checkers was Alan's first game for Activision. ------------------------------------------------------------------- ARCADIA - ARCADIA - ARCADIA - ARCADIA - ARCADIA - ARCADIA - ARCADIA ------------------------------------------------------------------- Arcadia was the original name for Starpath. (See Starpath.) ------------------------------------------------------------------- ECKHARD STOLBERG - ECKHARD STOLBERG - ECKHARD STOLBERG ------------------------------------------------------------------- Eckhard is currently hard at work on making a version of Tetris for the 2600. (See Cubis - Model Number ? - Eckhard Stolberg) ------------------------------------------------------------------- CUBIS - MODEL NUMBER ? - ECKHARD STOLBERG NTSC and PAL versions available Size = 4K Release Date = Unreleased ------------------------------------------------------------------- On December 2, 1996, Eckhard uploaded PAL and NTSC prototype copies of his game to the Stella mailing list. (See end of document.) [NOTE: I seem to have lost the original post. Could someone send me a copy of it?] Since the game was in playable form, he received many suggestions on ways to improve it. I personally did not like the fact that pushing up on the joystick advanced me to the next level. Fortunately, he said he would try to change that, among other things. It should be noted that both versions of the game appeared to play exactly the same on my NTSC tv. The colors of the pieces were exactly the same in both versions. Upon talking to Eckhard, the colors I was seeing are not the same as the ones he was seeing on his PAL tv. Overall, the game appears to be coming along quite well. Hopefully a newer version is released soon. :-) ------------------------------------------------------------------- GAMELINE - GAMELINE - GAMELINE - GAMELINE - GAMELINE - GAMELINE ------------------------------------------------------------------- Gameline attempted to create a rental-type system for the 2600 where users would download games into a special cartridge called the Master Module. (See Gameline Master Module - Model Number ? - Gameline.) "GameLine would provide Atari VCS games via phone lines from a central computer in Vienna VA, charging a fee per download. The downloaded games would cease to function in a few plays, requiring the player to re-connect and download again." -- Dan Skelton (2600 Connection #31, Page 4) The service wasn't exactly cheap, for customers had to pay a yearly fee of $15.00 plus they had to pay for every game they downloaded. The Master Module cost $49.95. "Electronic Games readers were permitted to enroll in the service as charter members, at a slightly cheaper price than the usual cost of $49.95 (which included one year's service)." -- Dan Skelton (2600 Connection #31, Page 4) "The complete setup consisted of a GameLine Master Module, telephone cable, introductory poster, membership card, sign-up agreement, premiere issue of Gameliner magazine, and a very attractive binder containing summarized rules for all available games. Over the years, as my game cartridge collection has expanded, those pages have become more and more valuable to me as original rule booklets have become more and more scarce. Through this binder, I have complete rules for some of the most obscure cartridges in my collection." -- Dan Skelton (2600 Connection #31, Page 5) After connecting to Gameline, the user would enter their Personal Identification Number (PIN) and then a three digit number specifying which game they wanted to play. The number 999 would allow the user to scan through a complete listing of all the games available from the service. After the game was downloaded into the unit, the user would be allowed to play $1.00 worth of credit, which was about eight plays. After the eight plays were used up, the unit would prevent one from playing the game any further. If one wanted to keep playing, they would have to reconnect to Gameline and download the game once again. [Hmm, I wonder if anybody hacked into their units to prevent the game from being deactivated once they used up their credit? Would it have even been possible? Not that I'm saying anyone should do something like that. I'm just curious.] "No X-rated games were accessible via GameLine, whose focus was family-oriented play. The companies present included many third-party publishers, the largest of which was Imagic. However, there were some crucial omissions. Since GameLine was unable to sign Atari, Activision, Coleco, Matttel, and Parker Brothers, many of the industry's biggest hits never appeared on GameLine." -- Dan Skelton (2600 Connection #31, Page 6) The service ultimately did not prove very popular and Gameline went out of business. They didn't quite disappear though, leaving the Atari 2600 behind they eventually moved on and became...America On-Line. Games Available on Gameline: Airlock Alien Atlantis Bank Heist Bermuda Triangle Boing Bugs Cakewalk China Syndrome Coconuts Commando Raid Cosmic Ark Cosmic Creeps Cosmic Swarm Cross Force Crypts of Chaos Deadly Duck Demolition Herby Demon Attack Dragonfire The Earth Dies Screaming Eggomania Encounter At L-5 Entombed Fantastic Voyage Fast Food Fire Fighter Flash Gordon Frankenstein's Monster Gangster Alley Gopher Guardian Infiltrate Jawbreaker King Kong Lost Luggage M. A. D. Marauder M*A*S*H Megaforce Mines of Minos Moonsweeper Name This Game Nexar Nightmare No Escape Picnic Piece O' Cake Planet Patrol Polaris Porky's Raft Rider Ram It Revenge of the Beefsteak Tomatoes Riddle of the Sphinx Room Of Doom Save The Whales* Shark Attack Shootin' Gallery Sneak & Peek Solar Storm Space Cavern Space Jockey Spacemaster X-7 Squeeze Box Sssnake Stargunner Star Voyager Tape Worm Threshold Towering Inferno Trick Shot Turmoil Warplock Word Zapper Worm War I *Save The Whales was a Gameline exclusive. (See Save The Whales - Model Number ? - Gameline.) For more information on Gameline, please check out 2600 Connection #31. (See end of document.) ------------------------------------------------------------------- GAMELINE MASTER MODULE - MODEL NUMBER ? - GAMELINE NTSC only? Size = ? Release Date = 1983 ------------------------------------------------------------------- "The GameLine Master Module itself was a silvery gray box considerably larger than even a Starpath Supercharger. It measured 1 1/3 by 4 2/3 by 9 1/2 inches. Its smaller end, which plugged into the 2600's cartridge slot, was long enough to accommodate emulators such as Coleco Expansion Module #1. The user plugged a standard modular phone cord into the side of the GameLine unit, and plugged the other end into the wall." -- Dan Skelton (2600 Connection #31, Page 5) The Master Module contained a 1200 baud modem. That may seem slow by today's standards, but in 1983 it was super zippy. "The GameLine unit was capable of both tone and pulse dialing, and it had a sophisticated method for trying several ways to reach the central CVC computer. Once connected, it remembered how to reconnect later. This was a very well-designed, easy to use system for such a complex process." -- Dan Skelton (2600 Connection #31, Page 5) One would have to enter a number between 000 and 998 to select a game to be downloaded into the Master Module. (999 would bring up a list of games available.) "Once a game was selected, the central computer would download the game to your unit, and you would be able to play the game. The onscreen loading process consisted of vertical bands of color progressing from the edges of the screens toward the center, very similar to the Supercharger loading sequence." -- Dan Skelton (2600 Connection #31, Page 6) So far I haven't heard of any hardware or software hacks for the Master Module. ------------------------------------------------------------------- SAVE THE WHALES - MODEL NUMBER ? - GAMELINE NTSC Version only? Size = 4k? Release Date = ? ------------------------------------------------------------------- A game exclusively available from Gameline. This was, as far as I know, never released in cartridge form. "Sensing that the GameLine was about to breathe its last, I videotaped short segments of every game I could download until the 9V battery that powered the unit finally gave out. I made it through the letter "P," or about two-thirds of the game library. Unfortunately, I was not successful in videotaping a segment of the most unusual game to grace the GameLine, Steve Beck's Save The Whales. What was so different about this game other than its unfamiliar title? Well, it has never, to this day, been released in cartridge form. It was available only from the GameLine, and following the demise of the service, its fate is unknown." -- Dan Skelton (2600 Connection #31, Page 5) I'm assuming that Steve Beck was the programmer of Save The Whales. I've heard that a game called Save the Whales is listed as being produced by Spectravision / Spectravideo, but does it have any relation to the one on the Gameline? If anyone has any additional information about this game, please contact me. ------------------------------------------------------------------- HOZER VIDEO GAMES - HOZER VIDEO GAMES - HOZER VIDEO GAMES ------------------------------------------------------------------- Ed Federmeyer has written several Atari 2600 games so far and is planning on doing several more. Both SoundX and Edtris 2600 have been selling quite well and are still available. (See SoundX - Model Number EF-1 - Hozer Video Games.) (See Edtris 2600 - Model Number EF-2 - Hozer Video Games.) "I will say as an interesting fact that both are still selling, at about 1 SoundX per 2 Edtris 2600." -- Ed Federmeyer Authorized carts of his games are being produced by Randy Crihfield. (See end of document.) If you wish to order one of Ed's games, the orders must go directly to Randy. "Coming soon: (maybe!) Pitfall 3, or Ed's pit 3, or something similar. Ed is dabbling with a pitfall style game to be released some time soon (hopefully!) - If you would like to leave comments to Ed about what you would like to see in a game, drop him a line at fedeedw@charlie.cns.iit.edu. Coming later: (well, not soon!) Some game using the driving controllers! Ed would like to write up a cart that uses the driving controllers, if you can think of a good game for him drop him a line on that as well." -- Randy Crihfield Currently busy with other projects, Ed has had little time to work on more 2600 games. He is still planning on doing a Pitfall- type game, but it will be some time yet before he gets a chance to work on it. A game using the driving controllers is still under consideration but won't appear until after the Pitfall-type game. Both games are still a long ways off, so don't expect them anytime soon. By the way, Ed would like to hear from anyone who has tried playing either of his games on a PAL system. ------------------------------------------------------------------- SOUNDX - MODEL NUMBER EF-1 - HOZER VIDEO GAMES NTSC version only Size = 4K Release Date = 1994 ------------------------------------------------------------------- "SoundX with Dazzledemo: A sound generating cart, that allows you to set pitch, volume, etc for both voices of the 2600. Basicly, you can make any sound the stock 2600 can make and the values are right there for your use if you would ever want to write your own game cart. Dazzledemo is an extra bonus, it cycles through all the color combinations of the 2600 in an eye-catching style. In the center of the dazzledemo screen your custom serial # appears, each cart has a serial number built into the game." -- Randy Crihfield SoundX was Ed's first Atari 2600 cartridge. While not an actual game, it is still an interesting program. A version of SoundX with an unique serial number was included on the Supercharger CD as a binary and as a supercharger audio track. The source code was also included. (See Supercharger CD - Model Number AR-4601 - Cyberpunks.) Here is Ed's comment on how long it took him to write SoundX. "It was about 3 months, working a few hours on the weekends, and once in a while a few hours on a weeknight for SoundX." -- Ed Federmeyer SoundX is currently still available from Randy Crihfield, who is the authorized cart manufacturer for Hozer Video Games. The price per cart is $16 U.S., international is slightly more. To order a cart, please contact Randy Crihfield directly. (See end of document.) Orders for carts MUST go to Randy and not Ed. ------------------------------------------------------------------- EDTRIS 2600 - MODEL NUMBER EF-2 - HOZER VIDEO GAMES NTSC version only Size = 4K Release Date = 1994 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Ed Federmeyer produced a Tetris clone for the Atari 2600 called Edtris 2600 or Edtris for short. "A Tetris clone game for the 2600, features good sound effects, 9 levels of speed, a music soundtrack that speeds up with the game, and color changing bricks (the harder the game gets, the different the colors are). This game also features a title screen, where your personal serial number appears." -- Randy Crihfield Edtris 2600 is currently still available from Randy Crihfield, who is the authorized cart manufacturer for Hozer Video Games. The price per cart is $16 U.S., international is slightly more. To order a cart, please contact Randy Crihfield directly. (See end of document.) Orders for carts MUST go to Randy and not Ed. For more information about Edtris 2600, please contact the author, Ed Federmeyer, at his email address. (See end of document.) It took about three months for Ed to complete Edtris, but it should be noted he worked about 50% more per week on it then he did for SoundX (which also took three months). ------------------------------------------------------------------- MARK HAHN - MARK HAHN - MARK HAHN - MARK HAHN - MARK HAHN ------------------------------------------------------------------- Back in 1987, Mark R. Hahn, creator of Pengo and The Dukes of Hazzard for Atari, decided to write one more VCS game. The result was a very fun game called Elk Attack. (See Elk Attack - Model Number ? - Mark R. Hahn.) ------------------------------------------------------------------- ELK ATTACK - MODEL NUMBER ? - MARK R. HAHN NTSC Version Only Size = 8K Release Date - ? ------------------------------------------------------------------ I emailed the author of Elk Attack and he was gracious enough to respond. "The history of Elk Attack is not very interesting. In the spring of 1987, finding myself unemployed, I wrote a VCS game based very loosely on an arcade game called Electric YoYo. I named my cart Elk Attack as a joke. I sent the cart to Atari and Epyx for them to evaluate. Neither was interested, so I stuffed my test eproms in a drawer and forgot them until I ran across the STELLA emulator. Brad Mott had a wonderfull emulator but no binaries to distribute with it. I gave him permission to include Elk Attack with distributions of STELLA." -- Mark R. Hahn A rom image of the game is being distributed along with STELLA. This is an Atari 2600 Emulator for DOS. CP: Had you written any vcs games prior to Elk Attack? MH: Pengo and the ill-fated "Dukes of Hazzard". I worked for Atari for over 3 years. CP: How long did it take you to write the game? MH: It took about 3 months to write. CP: What did you use for a development system? MH: I used a Microtek Mice-II In Circuit Emulator and a PC as my development system. CP: Is there any particular reason you went with an 8k cart? MH: I went to 8K because I wanted to be able to have several different levels (mazes) in the game. ------------------------------------------------------------------- PIERO CAVINA - PIERO CAVINA - PIERO CAVINA - PIERO CAVINA ------------------------------------------------------------------- On the fifth of February, 1997, Piero Cavina released a rom image of an unplayable version of an upcoming game he has been working on for the 2600. (See Mondo Pong - Model Number 1.0 - Piero Cavina.) ------------------------------------------------------------------- MONDO PONG! - MODEL NUMBER 1.0 - PIERO CAVINA PAL version only [NOTE: An NTSC version is planned.] Size = 4K Release Date - Unreleased -------------------------------------------------------------------- On Feb. 5th, 1997, Piero uploaded a preview copy of his upcoming Atari 2600 game to the Stella Mailing List. (See end of document.) Only a Pal version was released, but the game is planned to be made NTSC compatible when it is completed. "In the best Supercharger tradition :) , please find enclosed a preview release of my very first game for the Atari 2600. [NOTE: The game was encoded and attached to the announcement. If you wish to get a copy, contact Piero directly] You can download it to an unmodified Supercharger, burn an Eprom or run it on emulators (I tested it on PC Atari emulator 1.5 by John Dullea without problems). Remember that it's only a preview and it can't be played! MONDO PONG! is currently PAL-only (though it might work on NTSC machines, who knows) but will be hopefully convertd to NTSC for the final release. Any help from you in US with NTSC TV sets will be appreciated. Comments etc. are welcome..." -- Piero Cavina The preview works fine on my NTSC 7800 and my brothers tv seems to deal with it (no rolling), but the colors are probably different than intended. Hopefully we will see the completed game soon. ------------------------------------------------------------------- POLYVOX - POLYVOX - POLYVOX - POLYVOX - POLYVOX - POLYVOX - POLYVOX ------------------------------------------------------------------- "The official Atari 2600 licensed manufacturer and distributor in South America was Polyvox. Polyvox released a wide variety of games and three distinctly different systems for the 2600. Included among these releases were Activision owned games as well as titles from the Atari library. One of the more unusual of these was Space Tunnel, which was really Spacemaster X-7, the rights to which Activision had laid claim in one way or another." -- Jerry G. Were Polyvox releases in PAL, PAL-M, PAL-N, or NTSC format? If anyone knows, please let me know. ------------------------------------------------------------------- COMBAT - MODEL NUMBER ? - POLYVOX PAL-M (?) Version Size = 2K Release Date = ???? ------------------------------------------------------------------- (See Combat - Model Number CX2601 - Atari.) ------------------------------------------------------------------- SEARS - SEARS - SEARS - SEARS - SEARS - SEARS - SEARS - SEARS ------------------------------------------------------------------- In the 1980's, Sears was a big force in the marketplace. Sears contracted with Atari for them to produce Atari 2600 compatible machines, as well as cartridges, under the Sears brand label. Atari could have refused and Sears would not have carried Atari games or machines, but it was in Atari's best interest to do as Sears asked. If Atari games were not available at Sears, they would have lost out on reaching a large segment of the buying population. Sears games are, for the most part, just regular Atari releases in new packaging with new labels. For some reason, they changed the titles of some of the games when they released them through Sears. (Maybe in hopes of suckering people into buying the same game twice? I'm not sure why they did it.) Oddly enough, there were a couple of games that were available only at Sears. It seems Atari never got around to releasing them under their own label, though, as far as I know, they were planning too. Sears also had two different sets of model numbers, one starting with "49", the other with "66". Sears games were, as far as I know, only available in the U.S. (Do they have Sears stores in Canada?) ------------------------------------------------------------------- TANK PLUS - MODEL NUMBERS "66" PREFIX - 99801 - SEARS "49" PREFIX - 75124 NTSC Version Only Size = 2K Release Date = ? ------------------------------------------------------------------- Tank Plus is just Atari's Combat in disguise. (See Combat - Model Number CX2601 - Atari.) ------------------------------------------------------------------- ADVENTURE - MODEL NUMBERS "66" PREFIX - NONE - SEARS "49" prefix - 75154 NTSC Version Only Size = 4K Release Date = ? ------------------------------------------------------------------- Adventure is just Atari's Adventure with a new label and new packaging. (See Adventure - Model Number 2613 - Atari.) ------------------------------------------------------------------- ZIMOT - ZIMOT - ZIMOT - ZIMOT - ZIMOT - ZIMOT - ZIMOT - ZIMOT ------------------------------------------------------------------- "zimot brand cart labels are made by me, arton..." -- Arton Arton, for whatever reason, has been taking actual carts and making up his own painted foam labels for them. He has been giving them out free to whoever trades with him. The funny thing is, the pictures on the new labels usually have no relation to the games he's putting them on. For example, a Pac-Man label on a Combat cart. For more information check out his web page or email him. (See end of document.) ------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------- CREDITS ------------------------------------------------------------------- Here is a listing of the numerous people whose help (directly and indirectly) made this FAQ possible. If they have an email address or web page it's shown in brackets. (ex. [gumby@pokey.com] or [http://www.pokey.com/~gumby/index.html] These are in no particular order. GOD - Without him none of this would have EVER been possible. [Try praying, it's faster then email. Besides, GOD doesn't have an email address anyway. :-)] Mark R. Hahn [hahndo@teleport.com] [?] Ed Federmeyer [fedeedw@charlie.cns.iit.edu] [?] Randy Crihfield [randy@rmtc.central.sun.com] [?] RodneyS433 [rodneys433@aol.com] [?] Chris Cracknell (Crackers) [ad329@james.freenet.hamilton.on.ca] [http://www.freenet.hamilton.on.ca/~ad329/Profile.html] Kevin Horton [khorton@iquest.net] [http://www.iquest.net/~khorton/index.htm] Brian Hammack [brian.hammack@rook.wa.com] [?] Doctor Deleto [drdeleto@dds.nl] [http://oudedoos.hku.nl/PUBLIC/~atari2600/] Julie Brandon [julie-web@merp.demon.co.uk.] [http://www.valendor.demon.co.uk/acn-uk/] Jerry G. [JerryG@hevanet.com] [http://www.atari2600.com/] Craig Pell (VGR) [vgr@clark.net] [http://www.clark.net/pub/vgr/] Keita Iida [keita@mindspring.com] [http://www.mindspring.com/~keita/agh.html] ACTIVISION [support@activision.com] [http://www.activision.com] Bert Whetstone (Cudabert) [cudabert@aol.com] [ftp://ftp.magicnet.net/pub/users/cudabert/] Warren Robinett [?] [?] Dennis Remmer [dennis@dstc.edu.au] [http://www.dstc.edu.au/BDU/staff/dennis.html] Arton [arton@servtech.com] [http://www.servtech.com/public/arton/] Tim Duarte & The 2600 Connection [tduarte@umassd.edu] [tduarte@juno.com] [http://www.pictac.com/~tduarte/] Dan Skelton [73742.464@compuserve.com] [?] John Earney [jearney@best.com] [?] Russ Perry Jr. [?] [?] Piero Cavina [p.cavina@mo.nettuno.it] [?] Eckhard Stolberg [Eckhard_Stolberg@public.uni-hamburg.de] [?] -------------------------------------------------------------------- MAILING LISTS -------------------------------------------------------------------- STELLA - THE ATARI 2600 PROGRAMMING LIST To subscribe you can do 2 things: 1) send a message to stella-request@biglist.com with subscribe [your@email.address] in the body. The [] is optional. If you don't include it, it subscribes the account you're sending from. If you do, it'll subscribe that account. 2) send a message to majordomo@biglist.com with subscribe stella [your@email.address] Same deal with the email address. In both cases, the Subject line doesn't matter. You can get the whole list of available commands by sending a message to stella-request@biglist.com with help in the body. ATARI 2600 FUN FACTS AND INFO GUIDE UPDATE LIST If you want to be notified when the guide is updated, just send me your email address and I'll email you when a new version is available on my web page. Send me a message at cpepin1@grfn.org. -------------------------------------------------------------------- END OF FAQ --------------------------------------------------------------------