[Genesis "yank the cart" tricks]

On 12/11/2022 at 12:53 PM, fiddlepaddle said:

This thread has piqued my curiosity...

If yanking a cart and replacing with another is effectively using some ram locations modified by the yanked cartridge, then couldn't you get the same effect using the Game Genie?

I'm not certain.. I guess it would be worth trying.

[Frying tricks with the ATARI 2600!]

2 hours ago, Atarian7 said:

It's when you put the cartridge in a little crooked or "tilted" and turn it on thinking you have it in all the way.  It happened by accident to me trying to put

the cartridge in like normal.  I guess some cartridges are more prone to do it than others. And I guess you can do it on purpose if you try.

 

 

If neat/useful tricks can be created by tilting then we can add them here.

[Frying tricks with the ATARI 2600!]

4 hours ago, Atarian7 said:

How about tilting?  I accidentally did this several times with Hunchy 2, a homebrew.  I got all sorts of weird stuff  to come up including the score just running up incessantly.

 

 

Not sure what tilting is.  Can you explain it to me?

[Frying tricks with the ATARI 2600!]

2 hours ago, zzip said:

My favorite game to fry was Adventure.   You'd get interesting world layouts and other goodies.

 

My friends and I used the "on/off toggle" method constantly, never did any damage to the units.

I was unable to get this through Stella-- maybe I needed to try on a real Atari 2600/VCS.

 

Another trick: H. E. R. O. (1984 Activision/John Vanryzin)

 

You need to fry the game until only a single miner awaiting rescue and a spider appear in the cave (though there may be other ways to get this trick).  The timer will be ticking down.  Your character is not seen; he is stuck in a wall! (you can hear him fire the laser when you press the button)  You must wait till the timer runs out.  When he dies he will return to the beginning of level 1, and have, at least, approximately 250 lives.  Just try not to run out of bombs!

 

[Frying tricks with the ATARI 2600!]

Hey all.

I hear about numerous tricks with numerous home consoles that some would label as "dangerous" to your cartridge or actual console.  I have tried at least some of them (yank the cart/swap the cart, frying the cart) and never once have I had anything bad happen to either game or console.  With that said:

FRYING is a method on the Atari 2600/VCS in which the ON/OFF switch is jiggled slightly, between the ON and OFF positions, making usually some odd screen jibberish occur, like jumbled, incoherent sprites; weird graphics; truly awful audio; lines and colors across the screen where they shouldn't be; etc.  But sometimes-- just sometimes (and you may have to turn the game off and try again)-- you may uncover a trick that totally helps you out and makes the game easier, or maybe slightly easier.  

Or it may just make something interesting of note happen.

Whether it be helpful or exceptionally interesting, what "Frying" tricks can you folks come up with?

 

 

Oh, by the way: the awesome emulator STELLA (or variants of it) has a Frying option (hit the BACKSPACE key), obviously guaranteed not to harm the Atari 2600 that isn't the real thing.

 

One I want to throw out there:

PITFALL! (1982 Activision/David Crane)

If you can get your character Pitfall Harry to look like he's pink and wearing only a tube top (!), he will float through the air as you move the joystick.. high above the dangers below.  UNTIL you press the button, which drops him back to Earth.  If your goal is to get all the treasures before the timer elapses, you can go right 11 screens without dealing with any obstacles (until you need to drop and get a treasure), saving you perhaps a little bit of precious time.  Note that brick walls, score, Activision blurb and the scorpion are weird looking too.  If Pitfall Harry becomes a different color through frying then the logs probably won't look right and the screens will repeat over and over, and you can't complete the game like normal (and the treasures may not appear).

 

 

Feel free to post any interesting/helpful "Frying" tricks you know of, folks!  And maybe play around with Stella to find new ones!  

[The Official NEO-GEO Thread!]

Hey folks.

A new review of LEAGUE BOWLING.  I decided to re-upload my 1990 series of 20 arcade games, with at least a couple 1990 song clips at the beginning and end for a little extra nostalgia flavor.  Where were you in 1990? (Me, I was one year removed from High School graduation and working at my first job-- Pizza Hut-- and living at my stepdad's house with his kids and my mom)

 

 

[Genesis "yank the cart" tricks]

On 12/1/2022 at 4:20 PM, DarthDuke said:

Very interesting stuff! I'm not sure that I'd want to risk ruining my Genesis to try it though. Maybe with a bad looking, barely working one that I could find at a thrift store or something. 

I've tried tons of tricks that were generally labeled as "dangerous to the game/console" like these, but never had any problems afterwards.  I've never heard of other gamers having problems either.  I wonder if any Genesis emulators have a "yank the cart"/"swap the cart" function, like Stella for the Atari 2600 has a "frying" option.

[Last 3 games you played?]

LEAGUE BOWLING

SNOW BROS.

ALIEN STORM

all arcade

[THE "MAKE A GAME LABEL/BOX INTO SOMETHING FUNNY/COOL" thread!]

Revisiting the disastrous tenure of Urban Meyer as the Jacksonville Jaguars' head coach, and especially his kicking of the kicker Josh Lambo.. and transporting it onto the awful NES game URBAN CHAMPION:

 

[THE "MAKE A GAME LABEL/BOX INTO SOMETHING FUNNY/COOL" thread!]

1 hour ago, zzip said:

I had to look into Mr. Minter's history to know more about the weird fascination he has in camels, llamas, etc. and his incorporating them into his games.  I didn't know he did a "remake" of the urban legend POLYBIUS.

[THE "MAKE A GAME LABEL/BOX INTO SOMETHING FUNNY/COOL" thread!]

[THE "MAKE A GAME LABEL/BOX INTO SOMETHING FUNNY/COOL" thread!]

The surf rock pioneers find themselves in a perilous situation in an Exidy arcade classic port..

[The Official NEO-GEO Thread!]

10 minutes ago, Charlie Cat said:

Man, I've been after Waku Waku 7 for the AES for years VGE. I can never purchase one at a good price seeing how enjoyable this game is. Everything about is just fantastic. I hope more of the newcomers will appreciate this gem of a title. Thank you for sharing this with us on the Neo-Geo thread bro. 

 

Anthony...

Great game; got that for my MVS.  That Fernandez/Fernandeath is way up there in cheap bastard boss lore.

[Genesis "yank the cart" tricks]

Can't remember for sure if you are supposed to yank it (eh heh, the cartridge) right at the Sega logo or not but that's what I'm starting to see with some of these tricks. 

Some I just read:

Insert AFTER BURNER II and pull it out at the SEGA logo.  Now put in MERCS and hit Reset.  You can choose any level in Arcade or Original modes.  Also, if you hold A, B and C together when choosing your level you get invincibility too.

 

Insert ALTERED BEAST and pull it out at the SEGA logo.  Now put in RAMBO III and hit Reset.  Start a game.  You now have infinite lives.

 

Put in ALTERED BEAST and pull it out at the SEGA logo.  Now put in SPACE HARRIER II and hit Reset.  You will have 99 lives.

 

Put in ALTERED BEAST and pull it out at the SEGA logo.  Now put in STRIDER and hit Reset.  You will have infinite lives (counter won't drop below 9).

 

Put in ESWAT and pull it out at the SEGA logo.  Now put it back in and press Reset.  When the level 1 information screen appears hold Left and press A, B and C at the same time.  You can now select your starting level by pressing up or down.

 

Put in GOLDEN AXE and pull it out at the SEGA logo.  Now put in ALTERED BEAST and hit Reset.  You will have infinite lives.

 

Woah-- this one is different, it seems!  Pop in SPACE HARRIER II and hold A and C to go to the options menu.  NOW you yank the cart, and pop in ALEX KIDD IN THE ENCHANTED CASTLE and hit Reset.  You will have infinite lives.

 

Go to the options menu in SPACE HARRIER II again and pull the cart.  Pop in LAST BATTLE and hit Reset.  At the words "Legend Of The Final Hero" press A, B, C and Start together.  Press Up to select your level.

 

This time with SPACE HARRIER II, yank the cart at the title screen.  Now pop in MOONWALKER and hit Reset.  You will have invincibility.  

 

Pop in STREETS OF RAGE.  At the SEGA logo yank the cart and put it back in.  Hit Reset.  You will now have over 15 lives per continue (check the options menu-- the difficulty should read 6677; this confirms the trick worked).

 

Pop in STRIDER.  When the purple logo appears in the background yank the cart.  Pop in SPIDER MAN VS. THE KINGPIN and hit Reset.  Go to the options menu and it should have a bunch of exclamation marks to confirm the trick worked.  You will start with 60 web cartridges and when you run low pause, press A and then unpause to refill.  If you pause and press B and C together then unpause you will be invincible for a few seconds.  If you pause and press A, B and C together then unpause you will skip one level each time you do this.

 

Pop in any Genesis game.  At the title screen yank the cart and then pop in BATMAN: THE VIDEO GAME and hit Reset.  You'll have infinite lives.

[Genesis "yank the cart" tricks]

Hey all.

Have you ever heard of "yank the cart" tricks that are supposedly bad for your Genesis carts, but could produce some interesting effects on the gameplay?

This usually involved pulling out one cart while the power was on (a no-no) and then putting in another cart and pressing RESET.  When you played the new cart some useful effects may take place.

 

I had the okay TOMMY LASORDA BASEBALL and would yank either an ALTERED BEAST or STREETS OF RAGE I believe, and then put in TOMMY LASORDA BASEBALL and hit reset.  When I played the computer would only be able to pop the ball straight up.  If you serve up a meatball to the batter it might hang in the air for an exceptionally long time and then be counted as a walk.  Otherwise IIRC the catcher would get under it and catch it for an out.

 

There's some YouTube videos on this but I just wanted to throw out the topic and let you all divulge tricks you learned.

 

[What is your favourite gridiron football game cartridge for Genesis/MegaDrive?]

Madden 92 or 97.

 

Though the "ref rap" from the first Madden will always make me smile.

[Strider]

I had seen the arcade machine at a Circle K so I'd heard about it before I saw the Genesis port at a Toys R Us.  The box art was lame ("Strider" looked like a high school PE coach) but the price tag ($60) and the 8 MEGA MEMORY blurb (didn't know specifically what that meant but it had to be a positive) pulled me in.  When I bought it and played it.. I could not believe this was Genesis graphics!  It is fortunately much easier than the arcade (on non-difficult setting anyway).

[Last 3 games you played?]

On 10/30/2022 at 2:22 PM, lushgirl_80 said:

 

I tried out Battlantis! lolz That's a crazy Space Invaders clone,and not a bad game compared to Dark Adventure. I also tried the Japanese version of Dark Adventure called Devil World which is supposed to be better,but I still found it sucky.

 

 

I disliked both Battlantis and Dark Adventure equally; I have also played Devil World and it still sucks.  Can't remember the difference between it and Dark Adventure but it wasn't enough to save it.

 

Next:

ANIMACTION

ART MASTER

MELODY MASTER

all Vectrex

 

I am trying to figure these out through emulation.  They are light pen games for the Vectrex.  Some I can figure out through trial and error (using both mouse and keyboard) and some I have no idea what to do.  I may have to see if I can order a light pen online somewhere and the 3 games (listed above) for it too.

[THE "MAKE A GAME LABEL/BOX INTO SOMETHING FUNNY/COOL" thread!]

From the Atari 2600 game COSMIC CREEPS to a 70s/80s dental hygiene commercial:

[Last 3 games you played?]

SONIC CD

FINAL FIGHT CD

LORDS OF THUNDER

all Sega CD

[THE "MAKE A GAME LABEL/BOX INTO SOMETHING FUNNY/COOL" thread!]

[Last 3 games you played?]

1 hour ago, lushgirl_80 said:

Dark Adventure (Arcade) ........................... worst game Konami ever made imo. Gauntlet ripoff but not as good.

 

Yes, it is pretty bad.. but so is BATTLANTIS.  Might want to give that one a look if you haven't.

 

STRIDER

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES

GOLDEN AXE

all arcade

[Memories of where and when you first played/saw this game]

Next game:

STRIDER (1989 Capcom)

Woah.. what a kick the graphics were at this time!  Beautiful, big, smooth, shiny characters and landscapes.  Multiple appearances by the wavy-haired ninja protagonist would be seen in the Capcom fighting games.  Multiple followups and sequels also materialized, including a visually arresting arcade sequel in 1999.

Take a ninja through various locations, including Russia, a space station with zero gravity, the Amazon jungle, an airship, the Arctic, and others.  Fantastic Genesis port!

I think I first saw this at a Circle K while I was living in Auburn/Federal Way, WA.

[Who's attending PRGE this year?]

Next year, sorry.  Was thinking for sure this year with the pandemic dying down and people getting out more, but some projects involving my fence and shed popped up and need my attention.

[Memories of where and when you first played/saw this game]

Next: 

MIDNIGHT RESISTANCE, 1989 Data East

HOLY S**T was this game cool!  A very well-done Contra-like run and gun, but with not only a rotational knob to turn your guy's firing arm in 8 directions but also you get to BUY weapon upgrades by collecting keys from certain fallen foes.  Homing missiles, bombs, spread shots, etc., you name it; this has tons of cool weapons.  A drug kingpin kidnaps your family (your father is a scientist working on a serum that makes people resistant to drug addiction), and you must rescue them solo or with a partner.  Saw this at a movie theater lobby, and can't recall if I saw it elsewhere.  Got it for my Genesis and thought it was a terrific port.