This source is basically the FAQ compiled by Galen Komatsu
(gkomatsu@hawaii.edu) but HMTL'ized and indexed for easier, faster reference.
I've also added a few things here and there, correcting a few errors along the
way. Galen thanked the 2600 Connection by Tim Duarte as well as these folks:
Christopher Mark Donnell (7236@ef.gc.maricopa.edu)
Ed Federmeyer (ed@iitmax.acc.iit.edu)
Vineet Gossain (vin@po.EECS.Berkeley.EDU)
Kirk Israel (kisrael@Jade.Tufts.EDU)
David C. Jones (djones@ponder.csci.unt.edu)
Kris Kelley (gt6005a@prism.gatech.edu)
Brian Kendig (bskendig@netcom.com)
Ken Kuhns (ken@genesis.mc.maricopa.edu)
Craig Pell (VGR) (vgriscep@wam.umd.edu)
Mark (mrathwel@uoguelph.ca)
Joshua See (smtc104@uoft02.utoledo.edu)
Scott Stone (TAFOID@delphi.com)
Bob Schultz (ras2441@engult.lxe.com)
Marc Sira (ub675@freenet.victoria.bc.ca)
Phil (stewarpj@bigvax.alfred.edu)
Noel Tominack )NOEL@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU)
Frying the 2600 (READ THIS FIRST!)
"Frying" refers to drawing out weird effects
in 2600 games by rapidly switching the power on and off. An easy way to do this
is to attempt to set the power switch "exactly" between on and off,
this is rather impossible, but the power will go on & off in your attempts.
(The older style 2600 is also recommended, I haven't had much luck
with the newer 2600jr.)
Activision games
Activision
Decathlon
Adventure
Asteroids
Astroblast
Atlantis
Barnstorming
BASIC Programming
Basketball
Battlezone
Berzerk
Bump N Jump
Burgertime
Breakout
Carnival
Canyon Bomber
Centipede
Chess (Video Chess)
Combat
Communist
Mutants From Space
Cosmic Ark
Crazy Climber
Crystal Castles
Crossbow
Defender
Demon Attack
Desert Falcon
Dragonfire
Dragonstomper
Empire Strike
Back, The
E.T.
Fast Eddie
Fatal Run (PAL)
Fathom
Frogger
G.I. Joe
Gorf
Halloween
Haunted House
H.E.R.O.
Human Cannonball
Indy 500
Joust
Laser Blast
Kaboom!
Krull
Maze Craze
Missile Command
Moon Patrol
Mountain King
Ms. Pac-Man
Omega Race
Pac-Man
Pete Rose Baseball
Phoenix
Pitfall!
Pitfall
II: Lost Caverns
Planet Patrol
Popeye
Q*Bert
Quick Step
Raiders of the
Lost Ark
Realsports Boxing
Return of the Jedi
Reactor
Road Runner
Robot Tank
Skiing
Sky Jinks
Solar Fox
Sorcerer's
Apprentice
Space Invaders
Space Jockey
Spider Fighter
Stampede
Star Raiders
Star Wars:
Death Star Battle
Steeplechase
Street Racer
Sub Scan
Super
Challenge Baseball
Supercharger games
Super Football
Superman
Swordquest: Earthworld
Tapeworm
Tax Avoiders
Tunnel Runner
Turmoil
Tutankham
Vanguard
Video Pinball
Xenophobe
Wizard of Wor
Yar's Revenge
Activision games
Many games will turn the score into !!!!!! (or some
other message in some games) when you max it out.
Activision Decathlon
Fry until running guy is split by the screen.. Then
run, run, run. It's a never ending race. The numbers even go up to 1900 but then
they go back to 1000..
On the Pole Vault, quickly tap the button as you release the pole, you'll go
soaring. Put Bruce Jenner to shame!
Adventure
Start a game then press SELECT to get the game
selection screen (with the number in the center). Pull down and your character
will appear. (You can't do anything but move around the screen however.)
Hit SELECT as soon as you finish and you'll hear the ending fanfare play really
slow.
Placing the bridge at the bottom of the screen and crossing it (off the screen)
will sometimes get you "stuck" on top of a castle.
On game two or three, go to the maze in the Black Castle. One screen left of the
first maze screen will flicker if you carry an object in there meaning one
thing, there's ANOTHER object in there. At the bottom center of this room is a
closed off cubicle, use the bridge to get in there and you should pick up a
"dot". Carry this to the
screen just above the catacombs (one screen down and to the right of the Gold
Castle) and be careful not to lose it as it's the same color as the outside
ground. Drop it there and bring two other items onto
the screen, run right through the line on the right side of the screen and
witness the first ever Easter Egg.
Asteroids
Fry the machine until the opening log is all messed
up. All games will have white Asteroids and be positioned on the right side of
the screen. Also, UFO's and Saucers will emerge from the same place and
consistently fire in the same direction.
Astroblast
If you force the system to track the maximum number of
objects with separate velocities (about five) and then shoot a large rock, it
will disappear without fragmenting into smaller rocks.
Atlantis
Fry until the game starts automatically, all ships
will be of the same type and fly right to left.
Barnstorming
Fry until you see the plane drop from the top of the
screen and land on the bottom. You can play game one by hitting reset, but
several objects will look distorted, going into the barns doesn't decrease the
counter. The game runs forever and you play until you drop.
BASIC Programming
Turn off all the windows except "program",
and keep pressing "new line" (effectively entering NO-OP lines). After
line 9 of this empty program, you will get "line 10" and "line
11", except that the line numbers will be random blobs instead of
"10" and "11". Apparently, they didn't think people would
write more than 9 lines of code.
Basketball
Plugging in the second joystick lets you get some
control over the computer player (and bring it down to a level humans can
handle.
Battlezone
Frying may cause the mountains to be flattened, or on
rare occasions, infinite lives.
Berzerk
Horizontal robot fire will travel harmlessly through
your neck (or lack of one).
Bump 'N Jump
Don't destroy anyone and you'll get 50,000 points plus
an extra car at the end of each course.
SELECT lets you continue from where you last finished your game.
Burgertime
Fry until your chef appears on the top ledge on the
left, you won't be able to move and you'll die, but you'll have 100 lives (minus
that first one). However you won't be able to make any burgers.
Breakout
Select a "catch" game and catch your last
ball. Press SELECT and release the ball. You'll play in the attract mode
(complete with color shift!) score no points, but you'll keep getting new balls
when you miss.
Carnival
Holding down the fire button as you power the system
on causes a dot to appear in the top row of targets. Shooting the dot before it
leaves the screen (it then turns into a duck) will reveal the programmer's name.
("Programmed by S. Kitchen" S=Steve)
Frying the game until the screen is blank except for one duck may produce the
following results: pipes stay the same color, invisible pipes, high game speed,
and the dot (see above).
Canyon Bomber
The game calls for paddles, but the Land Bomber games
can be played with a joystick. Pushing right and left causes the red and yellow
planes to fire, respectively.
Centipede
Frying results in a white background instead of a
black one. Gameplay is otherwise normal.
Chess
Select game 6 or 7, while thinking it's next move, the
computer will move pieces! [well, these are the _hard_ levels. ed.]
Combat
Holding down RESET and the fire button lets your shot
travel all the way across the screen.
Positioning your tank just right and firing into the upper left corner causes
your shot to "warp" and come out from the top right corner.
Open up your joystick and push down on all the contacts to let your tank do warp
speed. Similiar can also be done by plugging in paddle controllers and pressing
both buttons.
"Dancing Tanks" Get the tanks together and set things up so one's
turret is flat against the other tank, turn the tank so the turret runs into the
other tank and both tanks will sometimes go spinning in circles.
Flying Tanks - Pick game 9. Rotate left player's tank 180 degrees, and fire. The
shot will ricochet around and hit the opposing tank, causing both tanks start
flying to the left, scrolling the screen 3-4 times, then stopping. Using the
right player's tank in the procedure will cause the two tanks to switch sides.
Move your tank into one of the corners along the edges of the screen, flush up
against the clockwise wall (the one to your right if you point into the corner),
and face the counterclockwise wall (such that you have one wall to your right
and the other in front of you). Now push your stick up, and you'll start bumping
into the wall in front of
you. Then move your stick to the up-left diagonal. Your tank will turn left
slightly, bump into the wall in front of you, and get moved back through the
wall to your right a little bit, and deposited in the next corner
counter-clockwise from you (which can be at the far side of the screen). This
can be used strategically.
Communist Mutants from Space
Hold down the joystick button while loading and the
"HI" on the score screen will change to "SHL", the author's
initials. (Steven H. Landrum)
Cosmic Ark
Some carts lets you turn the star field to be turned
on and off with the TV-Type switch (these have smaller & lighter type on
their labels).
Frying causes all meteors to come from the left. Various sprites in the game
will be scrambled however (your score for one).
Crazy Climber
Pressing SELECT at certain points will produce various
effects:
-before the opening tune ends, the game will freeze on the last note, RESET
unfreezes the game.
when a girder falls, the game will pause momentarily as all sprite data is
cycled through the girder's location.
-when the evil doctor drops things everything will pause things momentarily, as
sprite data is cycled through the dropping item. He will not drop anything else
after and the last sound for him will play for a bit longer.
-when the eagle is dropping eggs, breaks them!
-while you're climbing or hanging on, freezes things. RESET resumes.
-while you're falling, produces a momentary pause.
Crystal Castles
Frying gives unlimited lives until 20,000 points.
Crossbow
Frying until a lot of dots appear on the map produces
a generally easier game.
Defender
Get to the 25th wave, and capture a humanoid. Fly to
the 25th line of resolution (the height your ship starts from) and any remaining
enemies will change to "BP", Bob Polaro.
Fry until the game starts (automatically) with only bombers on the screen. You
get killed, but don't lose lives (you may just have a lot of guys.. I haven't
tried dying that much yet).
If a Baiter is chasing you, position yourself so it is above you, screech to a
halt and it will "land" on you.
Demon Attack
On some/most/all? copies of the game, the game will
"shut off" after wave 84 is completed. (games 5-8 begin on wave 13 so
it "appears" to stop after 72)
Fry until game starts. The guys won't fire at you (well, they CAN'T) you can
move normally except after moving for about 10 seconds you have to take a 10
second break. (your ship changes colors) also guided missile is on.. [I haven't
tried it yet but I think it's in the "alternating-player" selection
(the last game option) ed.]
Keep shooting the middle demon until only the top & bottom ones remain. Now
shoot the bottom one and go get something to drink, the remaining demon (at the
top) won't drop down.
Desert Falcon
Get a superpower and swim near the top of a lake
(before you lose it) to make the programmer's initials appear. Easiest way is to
get invincibility (bird-cane-feather).
Dragonfire
Let a fireball catch your legs just as you leave the
treasure room, this seems to hurt the next player more than it does you.
Jump, then immediately pull opposite the direction you're facing (keeping the
button down), you'll seemingly run "backwards" for a bit before
turning around. (nothing useful really.)
Frying may cause all prizes to be of one type and in a column. If you fry until
the game starts with a black and white castle, all prizes will be in a row and
look like the word "in". The dragon will spout few, if any, fireballs.
Touch one of the prizes without running it over and you just keep collecting
points, nonstop!
Dragonstomper
Enter "use shield" command while the image
of the axe is on the screen and "SHL" will appear. (SHL = programmer's
initials, same as Communist Mutants. On a side note, the Supercharger version of
Frogger, SHL's 3rd game, does not contain a "name" egg.)
During the first load, arrange to die near a castle. Then press reset and run
into a castle trap before the copyright at the start of the game clears the
screen, and you may leave it without any loss of strength or use of normal
escape trap procedure, though the trap will appear and the screen will say
"Trap". The trick only seems to work 1-3 times, though.
The Empire Strikes Back
If you have a rapid fire controller (or very fast
fingers) you can destroy the Walkers twice each and be awarded double points.
Every 8 shots weakens it one color, and 48 shots destroys it. Blast a yellow
Walker to hell and if you can hit it 8 more times after the 48th hit before it
disintegrates you'll destroy it again. Saving the last shot for the bomb hatch
will give over 250 points.
Frying produces various effects with the walkers such as fast walkers, backward
walking ones, or walker-free planets.
E.T. The Extra Terrestrial
Fry until E.T. falls in a well, hit SELECT and game
"0" will appear. The only power zone available are a few "Call
Elliot" zones, who by the way, is not present in game 0.
Extend E.T.'s head just as the mother ship arrives. E.T. will be too tall and
his "butt" will stick out the bottom of the ship.
"Kill" E.T. on the landing pad while waiting for the ship. If Elliot
is able to make it to the screen, but not save you when the ship arrives, the
ship will crash down and so will the game.
E.T. can be turned purple, which is the first step for revealing the author's
signature, "HSW3". Procedure?
Fast Eddie
TV-Type pauses the game. When paused, the maze cycles
through a rainbow of colors. Flip it up and it stays on that color. With good
timing, you can choose the mazes color! Holding down Reset lets you choose a
ladder arrangement.
Frying once in a while produces Rainbow Eddie. In this game, the bodies of the
enemy critters disappear, leaving only their feet and making them much easier to
jump over.
Fatal Run
Frying will sometimes cause the ending victory music
to play.
Fathom
After releasing the mermaid the seventh time, Imagic's
address will appear at the bottom of the screen.
Frogger
Set the difficulty so that your frog may travel off
the screen (on the back of a turtle or log), jump on a right-moving log and go
off the edge of the screen. The instant you see your frog re-appear on the left
side, jump left and you'll be warped to the middle of the screen (and perhaps
die if nothing is there.)
G.I.Joe
In the two player cooperative game (difficulty 1), the
eighth hit on the fifteenth cobra causes "JE" to appear. [what's
"JE"? ed.]
Gorf
Rolling the score produces weird digits. More so every
time you roll it over. Secret message at some point?
Halloween
As you're about the leave the left or right edge of
the screen, gently edge up to the exit (without leaving) and a dash will appear
on your head. Most likely just a glitch in the software.
Haunted House
Fry until there are no walls and possibly an enemy
walks by the screen. Reset the game and there are no objects in any of the
rooms. Useless but interesting.
H.E.R.O.
Fry until all you see is a miner and spider (but no
hero), let the power run out. The game will start with about 250 lives.
Human Cannonball
Frying can cause the "window" to invert
itself. In other words, you have mostly open space and a small rotating wall.
Indy 500
In the race variations, an invisible line down the
center of the screen is used to count laps. You can fool the computer by driving
small circles in the center.
If you don't have the driving controllers but have a keypad controller (the
touch pad with Star Raiders and children's controllers will work too) you can
still play. Pressing 0 and # simultaneously gives you
gas. To turn 90 degrees clockwise, press and hold 5, press and hold 2, release
5, release 2. Do the reverse to turn counter-clockwise.
Joust
Fry until the game starts automatically, the game will
begin on level 0, with one life.
Laser Blast
Fire quickly so you don't leave aim mode, this will
prevent you from being pushed up after shooting the three tanks.
Kaboom!
Score 10,000 points and "surprise" the Mad
Bomber.
Krull
A rapid fire controller will make grabbing objects
much easier.
If you're touched by the spider in the web, keep jumping and you'll hear the
sound effect even after you've been killed.
On the web screen, just aboveand below the Cocoon are spots where your score
will increase if you keep jumping there. It only works when web strands are
moving away (on the easy levels).
Maze Craze
Fry until you see rows of alternating blocks and
spaces. For all the games the red player will appear to be "shifted"
one place to the right. He can move around the maze normally, but to see where
he really is you need to look at the block on his left.
Missile Command
SELECT game 13(?). Let missiles rain on all your
cities and waste all your missiles without scoring any points. The rubble of the
rightmost city will change to "RF", the programmer's initials (Rob
Fulop)
When the game first begins, fire three missiles at the top part of the screen
(the highest the cursor will go). Then, RESET the game before the missiles
explode. You'll still see the missiles, and when they explode you may get some
free points. Sometimes it takes a few tries, but once in a great while you get a
jackpot of points (I think my highest cheat was around 1200 points on a Level 1
game).
(This one is rather useless) Frying Missile Command can give you a variation of
the game where you can move the little targeting dot VERY VERY fast, but your
shots are all fired continuously at wherever the pointer is, so they get used up
really fast. Your score starts at roughly 400000, but once you start playing
kinda' flickers around between various scores and garbled messes...
Moon Patrol
Frying can start you with anywhere from 10,000 to
900,000+ points.
Mountain King
There is a whole secret level (room). It is very hard
to find, but with practice you can reach it in a few minutes. If you go to the
very top of the mountain where the fire is, and go one ledge below standing just
to the left under the flame. Then jump to the left and hold it. If you do it
right the character will sort of hop skip and take a very high flying second
leap. As you are flying upward, just when you are about to start descending,
there will be a pattern of 4 dashes
- -
- -
If you hit the dash correctly and hop, you will go even higher to a ladder. Grab
the ladder and welcome to the secret level. There is all kinds of weird stuff,
usually your character will turn very large and the game will freeze, but
sometimes you can go pretty far. As you move ladders will disappear and objects
will move on the screen. There was a pattern, and every time I made it up there
I would get a little farther without locking the game. There may very well be
something up there if you keep trying. The location of the dashes and ladder
leads me to believe that they wanted someone to find it and it was just not by
accident!!
Ms. Pac-Man
Press up & down at the same time. Ms. Pac-Man will
go left and get stuck in a wall.
Let the game enter the demo mode, then play with Game Select. The monsters will
appear and disappear as they move around, depending on the difficulty that's
currently selected. Useless, but amusing.
Omega Race
If you don't have the booster grip, you can use a
Colecovision joystick to play, using the left and right buttons. or...
You can "play" with paddles. The buttons turn your ship, and turning
the paddles clockwise will fire and thrust, but you must turn them back
counter-clockwise to keep firing or stop thrusting.
Pac-Man
Enter escape-tunnel, quickly go up & down in
tunnel a few times without coming out. Go down as your last move and Pac-Man
will "wipe" into the screen. He can now move up & down in this
vertical plane
through the walls, but not sideways. Hey may eat vitamins and get killed by
ghosts. (Not particularly useful, but interesting.)
Frying can cause the walls to starting "glowing" at irregular
intervals during the game. Game play is otherwise the same, but its pretty
annoying (consider it another level of difficulty).
Pete Rose Baseball
When your team is coming off the field after the third
out, hold down the button. As soon as you come up to bat the opponent's pitcher
will automatically throw a strike over the place for an easy hit (for two player
game).
Fry until the screen is garbled and RESET. The computer will always bunt. Your
batting options too will be limited.
Phoenix
Frying will fairly consistently give you a garbled
mess for the number of lives, which appears to be infinite. It changes everytime
you die, though so if not infinite, it might be some large number.
Pitfall!
Frying can sometimes produce "ninja" Harry,
dressed in black. Pressing the button makes him drop from trees. There's only
one screen however.
Use the stock Atari joystick, climb to the top of a ladder and pound straight
down on the joystick (I usually slap flat down like I'm trying to
"impale" my palm.) Harry will jump straight up...and fall back down.
Nothing useful, just interesting.
Pitfall II: Lost Caverns
Frying the game may let you start from one of three
locations.
Planet Patrol
Pull down to the bottom of the screen immediately
after rescuing the stranded pilot, and the "randomly located" enemy
bases will always be in their three lowest positions.
Popeye
Fry until the screen rolls. Wait until it stops
(rolling) and the game will start automatically with 255 lives.
Get nine or more hearts, and then purposely die. Once you start your next life,
you go to the right off of the ledge, immediately get the spinach and hit
Bluto/Brutus. If you do it quickly, your score will become 155,120 (or
thereabouts), and if you have died twice already, your score will be 144,120 (or
something like that).
Start playing and then hold down the reset button--the music will play about an
octave lower. Seems only to work on the older 2600 console, and not on the
2600jr and 7800.
Q*Bert
Jump to the top of the pyramid. When Coily's on one of
the cubes below you and ready to pounce, jump up-right off the pyramid. Coily
will follow you, you'll get the points for killing him, and you won't lose your
life!!! With this trick you could potentially reset the score counter without
ever leaving the first pyramid.
If you time it carefully, you can jump right through coily or a red ball; jump
toward the square something is on just as it's about to move toward you (this is
easiest just as coily coils to spring). Once you get the timing down, it becomes
difficult to actually die.
Quick Step
Fry the game until it begins automatically. The
squirrel won't jump as much, and the waves will be either 3 or 4 trampolines
across. The exit will always be the third row from the left, the fourth row will
always be gold mats, but there won't be any magic mats.
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Go to the flying saucer mesa with the Chai and
parachute (latter optional). Walk off the mesa and drop the Chai when you start
falling. The "Yar" will appear at the top of the screen.
With a sufficiently high score (which will include the above) puts
"HSW2" in your inventory when you finish the game. ("HSW" =
Howard Scott Warshaw, the game's author "2" indicates his second
game.)
Realsports Boxing
Fry until there are no fighters in the ring. Press the
button to begin the game. This results in a two player game with Jabbin Jack v.
Jabbin Jack. Once you hit select you lose this.
Return of the Jedi
If you lose your last ship while avoiding the Death
Star explosion and you are about 200 points from earning an extra ship, you'll
get the extra ship, but the game will still end with the extra ship being
displayed!
The game can be fried until it begins with the Death Star blowing up. Other
effects may happen but with less frequency.
Reactor
While in "attract mode" you can move your
ship around. After the game ends, if you move your ship to the top of the screen
and get as close to the top corner as you can, your ship will bump some sort of
invisible thing and you will get points.
top wall
------------------------
the * represents the "magic corner" / *\
By bumping into this "magic corner" after the game is over, you
can earn enough points to get a free guy and continue the game where you left
off. It's ok if you hit the wall while you are trying to do this, but it may
slow your progress down a bit.
Road Runner
There are rumors of the programmer's initials in the
game.
Robot Tank
Fry until you get to a night scene. The game will
already be in play mode. Tank shots are less accurate and the only damage you
can take is your turning capability. You basically have an invincible tank that
turns slow, but you can work with it well enough to play sucessfully.
Skiing
To make the game easier, flick the left difficulty
from B to A to B to re-enter your skiier.
Sky Jinks
Frying produces a row of trees on the left side of the
screen. Starting a game from this creates a course spanning one-third of the
screen width.
Solar Fox
The layouts on the first six screens spell out
H-E-L-I-O-S.
Sorcerer's Apprentice
Frying will sometimes create a "super"
expert level. Fry until you see the mountain screen.
Space Invaders
Fry the game until the UFO flies by. Start the game,
and you'll have double shots. This will only work for game #1. A much easier way
to get this is by holding RESET when you power on the system.
Space Jockey
Frying can result in games in which everything is
backwards (including the numbers in the score.) Play really isn't all that
different. Sometimes without any enemies and without any terrain below you, and
with odd garbled little dots for enemies...
Spider Fighter
The left difficulty switch sets the game easy or hard.
The hard (A) setting gives you more points, but if you switch it back to the
easy setting, you'll get the "hard difficulty" points while the game
is at easy difficulty.
Stampede
Frying the game until your horse moves slowly produces
a slow version of the game. The game will eventually return to normal speed
after a few minutes.
Rolling over the score causes steer heads to appear.
Star Raiders
After finishing the game you can sometimes change your
rank & rating by pressing the Hyperwarp Key (3):
Scout 3 --> Cook 5
Pilot 1 --> Atari 3
Star Wars: Death Star Battle
Hitting SELECT pauses the game (blanks out the screen)
touching the joystick resumes play.
Steeplechase (Sears)
Play with joystick instead of paddles to control two
horses (push left and right)
Street Racer
In Number Cruncher, "wiggling" paddle will
sometime cause you to get "jammed" on a number. Usually you'll rack up
points to 99 quickly.
Sub-Scan
Fry until no zeros appear in the score counters, your
ship in pieces, and the lower right counter under the sonar garbled. Hit the
first command sub (gold) and you'll jump to the eigth level. Sometimes the game
may begin with the subs moving fast.
Super Challange Baseball
Normally the player at bat can only run clockwise or
counter clockwise around the bases. However, if you move the joystick back and
forth fairly quickly, your man will "walk" out into the outfield. You
can make him go off the top of the screen and appear back at the bottom! Many
strange effects can happen when the man is far from his normal place, such as an
invisible batter, the pitcher will be in the wrong place, etc.
Use the 2600 trackball (in trackball mode) while pitching. Unpredictable
results!
Supercharger Games
On all multi-load games (Dragonstomper, Escape from
the Mind Master, possibly others), the Supercharger may "feint" if you
play the wrong load when it says "Press Play". In a feint the
Superchager will go through the loading sequence with the screen filling with
purple, but after loading the "Stop Tape" message does not appear and
the screen turns black again. I believe this qualifies as a majorly annoying
bug, and is not mentioned in any of the Starpath game manuals I have (I don't
have a manual for the Supercharger unit itself, however). It is worst in Escape
from the Mindmaster, where if you lose all you lives on the first or second
level the unit will feint twice before reaching the load that tells you your
score.
Super Football
When a team kicks a good field goal or extra point as
the time expires, both teams wave in victory. Also happens if the winning team
score rolls over, giving a seemingly lower score.
Superman
Hold down the button down as you power on the game.
Wait for two seconds to pass and release. Superman won't change into Clark Kent,
and the bridge won't explode. You'll find the bridge pieces in the subway, but
don't worry about them. All you need to do is capture Lex Luthor and his men
(and return to the Daily Planet). This bug may only work on text-label copies.
Swordquest Earthworld
Fry until only a sword appears on the title screen,
start the game and you'll have six keys.
Tape Worm
Good timing and a gentle touch on reset will allow you
to choose where the first prize dot appears.
Tax Avoiders
If you pick up ALL the objects on the first screen
(including the Red Tape which you normally want to avoid) the screen will begin
to flicker, like the vertical hold on your TV was mis-adjusted!
Tunnel Runner
Instant Transport - Anytime during a run, if you are
in need of a quick escape, HOLD the button down and rotate the joystick in a
circle (either clockwise or counter-clockwise) and it will perform an emergency
transport. Can be used only ONCE per run.
The game will go completely crazy after you complete 127 levels.
Turmoil
TV-Type pauses game. When paused, the maze cycles
through a rainbow of colors. Flip it up and it stays on that color.
Tutankham
Hold down RESET while turning the system on, release
after the intro music begins to play. The game will begin with no key, gun,
special weapon or meters. When you die, two of your meters will reappear, and
you'll get your special weapon. You can't exit this level.
Vanguard
Fry until your ship is black instead of pink (it will
either start playing automatically, or on the map screen, where you won't be
visible because the background is black too). The number of lives will be
random, and not change accordingly when you die. Eventually, your ship will
revert to pink, and you'll have to use the other controller, but you'll still
have unlimited lives. If you fly long enough on the board where you have to kill
all the enemies on the screen, you will automatically veer into a wall and the
board will be finished. So you can play more or less forever. When you get the
little E-boxes, you can extend the duration of the invincibility a long time,
because every time you run into an enemy while the music plays, it plays that
bit of the music over again from the beginning, so if the enemies are spaced out
right, it can last for a really long time...
In the Stripe Zone, you can choose to go either right or left. If you go right,
then only the enemies which reside on that side will show up, and the same goes
for the left side. The trick: stay on the right side until the Energy Pod
appears. Then take the left path. The Energy Pod will rhythmically switch
between a forward E and a backward E.
Toggle SELECTand you can see what appears to be .531 (the one is
underlined) or .53L (the L is backwards) in a vertical column flash on the
screen. Freeze framing it on a VCR reveals that there are two variations: one a
brief flash, the other a picture of the first level with the number and an
unusually colored background.
Video Pinball
When you hit the bonus-points rollover a few times,
RESET the game. When you lose the first ball on the next game, the bonus points
will count down!! Depending on how many times it counted, it'll stop on some
number other than 1, and that will be the base number for the rest of the game.
When you shoot the ball, hit the SELECT button and enjoy the 2600's first true
"Demo Mode". Complete with the color-cycling!
Xenophobe
Flip the TV-Type switch back & forth once to pause
the game. For 7800 users, this means just pressing the Pause button once.
Wizard of Wor
Two different things can happen on frying. The first
produces really strange looking mazes, ones where you can walk through walls but
can't shoot through and other weird stuff. The second thing is harder to
produce, and starts with the two players standing at the bottom of the field as
if someone had reset the game, only there are no aliens on the screen. The left
player appears to have infinite lives (or at least a lot of lives) but the right
player only had 3. Resetting returns the game to normal.
Yar's Revenge
Kill the Swirl in mid-air. Position Yar so that spot
on it's back is in the same vertical plane as the black "streak".
Programmer's initials will appear after explosion (HSWWSH = Howard Scott
Warshaw)