+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted August 18, 2022 Author Share Posted August 18, 2022 EVERY Atari 2600 Game released in 1983 (Part 5)! The Atari 2600's 45th Anniversary Countdown continues tomorrow afternoon with the FIFTH part of all the classic 2600 games released to the public in 1983 such as Battlezone, Pole Position, Popeye, Super Cobra, Frostbite and Joust! What are your favourite games from the fifth part of 1983? (list below) Fri Aug 19, 2022 @ (LIVE @ 12PM PT | 3PM ET | 7PM GMT)WATCH LIVE: https://twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/WATCH LATER: https://youtube.com/zeropagehomebrew/ Spoiler The Activision Decathlon Mogul Maniac Battlezone Pole Position Tooth Protectors Fathom BurgerTime Crash Dive Alpha Beam with Ernie Krull Donkey Kong Junior Mr. Do! Quick Step Kool-Aid Man Popeye Super Cobra Thunderground Ghost Manor Spike's Peak Frostbite Pressure Cooker Dig Dug Gravitar Joust Moon Patrol Swordquest: Waterworld Time Pilot Laser Gates Red Sea Crossing Fire Fly Sorcerer Star Fox Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+TwentySixHundred Posted August 18, 2022 Share Posted August 18, 2022 Oh yeah another great list! Decathlon: Break ya joysticks trying to beat a friend, super fun though. Used to get in trouble for breaking the joysticks even though it was actually the games fault... Battlezone: It's great and very much like robot tank in ways. Most people have a favorite of the two and Robot Tank is for me however battlezone is still a good game. Pole Position: Well i like racing games and this was ambitious at the time. Just wish there was more tracks but Atari 2600 so understandable. Pressure Cooker: Brilliant game and find myself playing this one for long periods of time trying to beat my PB Dig Dug: I remember getting digdug as a kid and thought it was one the coolest games ever. Spent countless hours on this gem and everything about it is great. Graphics, music and gameplay it's all there. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted August 18, 2022 Share Posted August 18, 2022 Didn't play any of these back then, but I sure broke some joysticks with Decathlon (C64) until I bought myself a Competition Pro 5000. Besides that, I think Frostbite (another Activision classic), Pole Position (I am a fan of good racing games, Revs+ anyone?) and Gravitar (which shares quite some gameplay with Thrust) are my favorites from the list. Only very few stinkers this time. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dionoid Posted August 18, 2022 Share Posted August 18, 2022 22 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said: ...until I bought myself a Competition Pro 5000 The Competition Pro was by far the best joystick available back then. Did you know that the original models were made in The Netherlands by a company named Suzo International? Before entering the consumer market, they were already a supplier of arcade cabinet components, so they knew how to make 'unbreakable' joysticks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted August 18, 2022 Share Posted August 18, 2022 4 minutes ago, Dionoid said: The Competition Pro was by far the best joystick available back then. Definitely! 4 minutes ago, Dionoid said: Did you know that the original models were made in The Netherlands by a company named Suzo International? Before entering the consumer market, they were already a supplier of arcade cabinet components, so they knew how to make 'unbreakable' joysticks No, it was sold in Germany by Dynamics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dionoid Posted August 18, 2022 Share Posted August 18, 2022 (edited) 15 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said: 15 hours ago, Dionoid said: Did you know that the original models were made in The Netherlands by a company named Suzo International? Before entering the consumer market, they were already a supplier of arcade cabinet components, so they knew how to make 'unbreakable' joysticks No, it was sold in Germany by Dynamics. Hmm, I might have confused the "Suzo prof competition" with the "Competition Pro"... The names sound very similar and these joysticks even look very similar [Edit: There is a German wikipedia page about the Competition Pro which mentions both Suzo and Dynamics: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competition_Pro] Edited August 19, 2022 by Dionoid 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason_Atari Posted August 19, 2022 Share Posted August 19, 2022 My favorites from this lot are Mr Do, Popeye, Super Cobra, Frostbite, Pressure Cooker, Dig Dug and Joust. Laser Gates and Gravitar are 2 games that are great too that I've only discovered recently. The 3 Mythicon games are definitely the stinkers of the bunch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted August 19, 2022 Share Posted August 19, 2022 10 hours ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said: The Atari 2600's 45th Anniversary Countdown continues tomorrow afternoon with the FIFTH part of all the classic 2600 games released to the public in 1983 such as Battlezone, Pole Position, Popeye, Super Cobra, Frostbite and Joust! What are your favourite games from the fifth part of 1983? I didn't like Battlezone back-in-the-day because it strayed too far from the arcade game (which is my all-time favorite). But I've come to appreciate it a lot more now (in part thanks to playing it in the High Score Club). Pole Position was (and still is) a disappointment. At the time, I didn't understand why the cars were big orange blobs. I get it now... but I still don't like it. Krull had some cool graphics. That must be the only reason I bought it... never saw the movie. Super Cobra served as an inspiration for Champ Games to remake it properly, so it has that going for it. (It was still impressive for its scope, but the chunky maneuvering killed it). I always liked the graphics in Popeye. I thought they did an amazing job of capturing the likenesses of the characters. One of Parker Bros.' best efforts. Thunderground was (I think?) another Columbia Video Game Club purchase. Either that, or something I got post-crash. It's pretty good though: Dig Dug with tanks. I bought Gravitar through the Atari Age Magazine, and managed to earn a patch for sending in a score. I played that a lot using a custom five-button controller I'd built for the 2600 version of Asteroids. I can't imagine trying to play Gravitar with a joystick. Fun game, but brutally hard. Laser Gates was pretty disappointing - I think it was one of Imagic's last games. I don't recall exactly what I disliked about it, except I seem to recall the collision detection was merciless. Of this lot, I'd say my favorites are Joust and Moon Patrol. Both are really excellent arcade ports, have great graphics and controls, and are a lot of fun. They really capture the feel of the arcade games. It's just a shame Atari was getting so good at making games... right before they were doomed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveM Posted August 19, 2022 Share Posted August 19, 2022 I always preferred Battlezone over Robot Tank. Robot Tank I think may have looked better, but was too repetitive for me. Battlezone had a nice variety of enemies, you had two enemies at once, and you actually had to worry about them when they weren't on the screen in front of you. Moon Patrol is another favorite. I think it kinda gets lost in the shuffle among the other excellent arcade ports from around this time, but I think it's one of the best. I like that you can turn the BGM on or off with the difficulty switch. Other favorites are Pressure Cooker, Frostbite, Dig Dug, and Joust. Quick Step is a fun 2 player game and a bit of a hidden gem. Decathlon is the only game I ever gave away for free. I had it, broke a few joysticks, and decided it was just costing me too much money in repairs so I gave it away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted August 19, 2022 Share Posted August 19, 2022 (edited) Regarding the Mythicons: You played the wrong variation. The smiley indicates the practice mode. Other variations have score and even a two player option. Not that this makes the games that much better... BTW: All games calculate and verify a checksum at the very beginning. They do not continue if the check fails. QC? Edited August 19, 2022 by Thomas Jentzsch 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkarner Posted August 20, 2022 Share Posted August 20, 2022 The Mythicon games were the first budget titles. They retailed for $9.99 but Kay Bee Toys sold them for 99 cents. For that price I enjoyed Star Fox. The other two were still rip offs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted August 22, 2022 Author Share Posted August 22, 2022 On 8/19/2022 at 3:48 PM, Thomas Jentzsch said: Regarding the Mythicons: You played the wrong variation. The smiley indicates the practice mode. Other variations have score and even a two player option. Not that this makes the games that much better... Thanks for the heads up on this, I replayed FireFly and the score and lives are there now, and you're right the gameplay was not improved even the slightest bit. - James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted August 22, 2022 Author Share Posted August 22, 2022 On 8/19/2022 at 3:48 PM, Thomas Jentzsch said: BTW: All games calculate and verify a checksum at the very beginning. They do not continue if the check fails. QC? That's very interesting! Are you aware of any other 2600 games that implemented something like that? Could it be for possible (very weak) piracy protection? - James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 (edited) Yes, I remember that there were other games, just don't their name. Probably I posted them here on AA. I don't think this is a piracy protection. Except for very bad graphics-only hackers, everybody could easily remove it. I think its meant for easy quality control. Which is pretty funny considering the "quality" of the games. EDIT: Found the old thread and another one. Maybe it is a piracy protection? The Mythicon code is slightly more advanced, but still... I compared the three codes. Video Gems and Mystique are very similar, they must have the same origin. Spoiler ; Sorcerer (Mythicon) lda #$f0 ;2 sta ram_95 ;3 lda #$01 ;2 sta ram_94 ;3 ldx #$00 ;2 stx ram_96 ;3 stx ram_97 ;3 = 20 Lf011 inc ram_94 ;5 beq Lf02e ;2/3 = 7 Lf015 lda (ram_94,x) ;6 tay ;2 eor ram_96 ;3 lsr ;2 bcc Lf01f ;2/3 eor #$95 ;2 = 17 Lf01f sta ram_96 ;3 tya ;2 eor ram_97 ;3 asl ;2 bcc Lf029 ;2/3 eor #$65 ;2 = 14 Lf029 sta ram_97 ;3 jmp Lf011 ;3 = 6 Lf02e inc ram_95 ;5 bne Lf015 ;2/3 lda Lf000 ;4 cmp ram_96 ;3 = 14 Lf037 bne Lf037 ;2/3 lda Lf001 ;4 cmp ram_97 ;3 = 9 Lf03e bne Lf03e ;2/3 ; Missile Control (Video Gems) L3c58 lda #$30 ;2 sta ram_9A ;3 = 5 L3c5c ldy #$00 ;2 lda (ram_99),y ;5 clc ;2 adc ram_9B ;3 sta ram_9B ;3 inc ram_99 ;5 bne L3c5c ;2/3 inc ram_9A ;5 lda ram_9A ;3 cmp #$40 ;2 bne L3c5c ;2/3 lda L3ff0 ;4 cmp ram_9B ;3 bne L3c79 ;2/3 rts ;6 = 49 L3c79 lda #$09 ;2 sta AUDC0 ;3 sta AUDF0 ;3 sta AUDV0 ;3 jmp L3c79 ;3 = 14 ; Bachelor Party (Playaround, Mystique) lda #$30 ;2 sta ram_E1 ;3 = 5 L3fbf ldy #$00 ;2 lda (ram_E0),y ;5 clc ;2 adc ram_E2 ;3 sta ram_E2 ;3 inc ram_E0 ;5 bne L3fbf ;2/3 sec ;2 lda #$00 ;2 adc ram_E1 ;3 sta ram_E1 ;3 cmp #$40 ;2 bne L3fbf ;2/3 lda L3f5a ;4 cmp ram_E2 ;3 bne L3fdf ;2/3 rts ;6 = 51 L3fdf lda #$09 ;2 sta AUDC0 ;3 sta AUDF0 ;3 sta AUDV0 ;3 jmp (L3ffe) ;5 Edited August 22, 2022 by Thomas Jentzsch 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted August 23, 2022 Author Share Posted August 23, 2022 EVERY Atari 2600 Game released in 1983 (Part 6)! The Atari 2600's 45th Anniversary Countdown continues tonight with the SIXTH AND LAST part of all the classic 2600 games released to the public in 1983 such as Mario Bros., Bump 'n Jump, Congo Bongo, Pigs in Space and Buck Rogers! What are your favourite games from the sixth part of 1983? (list below) Tue Aug 23, 2022 @ (LIVE @ 7PM PT | 10PM ET | 2AM GMT+1Day)WATCH LIVE: https://twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/WATCH LATER: https://youtube.com/zeropagehomebrew/ Spoiler Star Wars Return of the Jedi: Death Star Battle Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator Glib Chase the Chuck Wagon Party Mix Springer Space Shuttle: A Journey into Space Big Bird's Egg Catch Cookie Monster Munch Pigs in Space Snoopy and the Red Baron The Smurfs Save the Day Boing! Bump 'n' Jump Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom Survival Island Sword of Saros Artillery Duel Chuck Norris Superkicks Mario Bros. Sorcerer's Apprentice Mountain King Omega Race Tunnel Runner Subterranea Masters of the Universe: The Power of He-Man Congo Bongo Miner 2049er II 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+TwentySixHundred Posted August 23, 2022 Share Posted August 23, 2022 Mountain King is definitely on my list of good 2600 games. Glitch world is always fun when needing a break for trying to beat your PB. Mario Bros is the only other standout title for me on this list. Not a bad port for the 2600 and plays well. Probably some others im overlooking but i haven't had my morning coffee yet lol 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason_Atari Posted August 24, 2022 Share Posted August 24, 2022 Mario Bros is great especially in 2 player mode. Mountain King is not a pick up and play type of game, you need to know your objective. Tough and frustrating but is rewarding. Subterranea is one of the best original shooters on the 2600, a hidden gem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted August 24, 2022 Share Posted August 24, 2022 (edited) @ZeroPage Homebrew Actually you can play Smurf Saves The Day, but it looks like I forgot to give you the trick. You should give it a 2nd second chance next show. Quote There is an undocumented feature that allows you to play without the Kid Vid Voice Module. To activate it, start the game with the TV Type switch to Color, push Down on the left joystick, move the TV Type switch to B&W, hold down Select and push Up. The difficulty switch settings determine which game appears: Greedy Smurf – Both on B; Harmony Smurf – Left on A, Right on B; Handy Smurf – Left on B, Right on A. Having both switches on A allows you to reset the game. Edited August 24, 2022 by Thomas Jentzsch 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+TwentySixHundred Posted August 24, 2022 Share Posted August 24, 2022 By memory Space Shuttle game mode 1 is an autopilot demo from launch to landing. IRCC you can make subtle inputs however it will still guide the player. Think other modes are full manual control and alot harder. It's been a few years since playing it so im not exactly sure 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted August 25, 2022 Author Share Posted August 25, 2022 On 8/24/2022 at 4:03 AM, Thomas Jentzsch said: @ZeroPage Homebrew Actually you can play Smurf Saves The Day, but it looks like I forgot to give you the trick. You should give it a 2nd second chance next show. Thanks for the tip, we'll have to give it another go on the next one! - James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted August 25, 2022 Author Share Posted August 25, 2022 ZEROPAGE HOMEBREW WILL RETURN ON SEPT 10, 2022 We're off to the desert for some adventures and will return with more Atari homebrew goodness on September 10, 2022! See you soon! - James 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted August 25, 2022 Share Posted August 25, 2022 (edited) 14 minutes ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said: Thanks for the tip, we'll have to give it another go on the next one! - James If you are extra brave, use z26 with the KidVid tapes. 😉 Edited August 25, 2022 by Thomas Jentzsch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
p1FqO3 Posted September 6, 2022 Share Posted September 6, 2022 Did you bring a portable system and extra batteries to get through that Burning Man 10-hour traffic jam? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Cafeman Posted September 7, 2022 Share Posted September 7, 2022 20 hours ago, p1FqO3 said: Did you bring a portable system and extra batteries to get through that Burning Man 10-hour traffic jam? They are still stuck in it. 🤪 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted September 8, 2022 Author Share Posted September 8, 2022 Back from the desert! I'll be updating the 2022 Atari homebrew lists and answering all your PMs as quickly as I can! Looking forward to getting back to streaming some amazing new Atari homebrew games again! 🙂 - James 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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