99001, Spike's Peak, & 99002, Ghost Manor!

Happy New Year Everyone! Unfortunately I am still on the old year's procrastination schedule. It has been really hard getting back into this, it felt like I had to learn it all over again. Lots of awkward silences to edit out. I hope this episode measures up to my usual standards. Next week I'll be talking about Turbo and Venture by Coleco, which I remember playing a lot in the arcades, but not so much at home. Especially Turbo, since I did not have a Colecovision. Upcoming games include Maze Craze and Video Checkers by Atari, He- Man and Loco-motion by M-Network, Cosmic Ark and No Escape! by Imagic, Missile Command and Dodge 'Em by Atari, and Space cavern and Racquetball by Games by Apollo. Send your stories for these games, and games I've already covered that you missed, or anything you'd like to share about your experience with the 2600 to 2600gamebygame@comcast.net. Your contributions really are the backbone of the show. Plus they make the show twice as long! I keed, I keed. Thanks to everyone for listening, have a great week!

Pertinent Links

Steve Beck's web site
Xonox article by Jim Gorzelany, March 1984
Ghost Manor manual on Atari Guide
Focus on the Podcast with me!
Xonox television commercial

2013 Wrap Up

Hi everyone, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, and Happy New Year! This has been a great year for me, and one of the reasons is that I finally started this podcast and met so many of you online. I am very grateful for all of your positive comments and feedback, thank you so much. Again, no games today, just a quick wrap-up of the year and what you can expect next year (hint: podcasts about Atari 2600 games). I also inserted something you might be interested in, which is kind of fun and kind of depressing for me to listen to. Next week I'll be talking about Xonox and their games Ghost Manor and Spike's Peak. Upcoming games will include Turbo and Venture by Coleco, Maze Craze and Video Checkers by Atari, He-Man and Locomotion by M-Network, Cosmic Ark and No Escape! by Imagic, and Dodge 'Em and Missile Command by Atari. I know we're all out of practice, but if you have any stories or memories about any of these games that you'd like to share, please send them to me at 2600gamebygame@comcast.net. You can also post them on Facebook or (less likely if you have a long story) Twitter. I encourage you to also send them as audio submissions! I love getting those.

To thank you for a really wonderful year, I am having a spur of the moment contest. You can win a complete in box (CIB) copy of Starmaster by Activision. In this episode, I talk about my most downloaded show, which I also mentioned on FB and Twitter. The first person who can tell me my second most downloaded show will win the game, and maybe even receive it in the same month! You can enter through email, Facebook or Twitter. If no one guesses by Sunday January 5, I'll put it back in the hopper for a future contest. Thank you so much to everyone for listening, I cannot express that enough, it means the world to me. I hope to bring you many more episodes featuring your favorite and not-so-favorite games for the Atari 2600 in the coming years!

Atari 2600 (and VCS) Christmas Memories!

As I have been mentioning, this episode features your Christmas memories of the Atari 2600! I didn't get any Hanukkah or Kwanzaa submissions, so we'll just go with Christmas. There's some great stories here, thanks to everyone for contributing and for listening! Thanks especially to Ryan who let me use his Christmas photo from 1978! Next week will be a short episode containing a surprise, I won't be discussing any games. Think of it as a end of year wrap-up show. Merry Christmas everyone!

CX 2633, Night Driver, and CX 2634, Golf!

Still feeling a bit under the weather, but I did manage to get this week's episode featuring Night Driver and Golf out this week. Thanks for your patience! Next week is the Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa memories show, you can send me your memories to be read on the show by December 20th. The games will resume on January 8th with Ghost Manor and Spike's Peak by Xonox. You can send any stories and feedback to 2600gamebygame@comcast.net. Whatever Holiday you celebrate, I hope that it is merry and happy and safe, and that you can play some Atari 2600! Thank you all for listening!

Pertinent Links

Night Driver on KLOV
Odyssey 2 Computer Golf!
Favorite Atari 2600 Games of FocusRS: Night Driver!
Night Driver post on The Retroist site
Atari fonts on Atari Age. You can download them!
Atari Inc. - Business is Fun by Marty Goldberg and Curt Vendel

Show postponed due to illness, I am very sorry.

Hi guys, I am unable to get the show out this week due to my being sick, and I really can't fit it in anywhere on my schedule until next week. The Night Driver and Golf episode will come out next Wednesday, followed by the Holiday memories episode the following week. I was planning on taking the week after Christmas off to be with my wife, who is off from school. I feel bad about that now, but I still want to spend time with her. There will be an episode on New Year's Day, but it won't have any Atari games in it. It will be a short episode and hopefully interesting to you. The month of December is one of the reasons I was hesitant to start my podcast, I am busy at work and this year has been extra crazy with extra-curricular activities. Which is probably why I'm sick in the first place. Anyway, I hope you understand and I apologize to you all. I will see you next week.

AG-009, Freeway, and AG-010, Kaboom!

No, this is not a rerun. I was just so happy that I finally got the paddles to work with Stella so I could record sounds from paddle games, and I corrected what in my opinion was a horrible oversight in the Circus Atari episode. Anyway. This episode is about one of the greatest paddle games ever, Kaboom!, and Freeway. I can't say enough good things about Kaboom. Next week I'll be looking at Night Driver and Golf by Atari, followed by Ghost Manor and Spike's Peak by Xonox, Turbo and Venture by Coleco, and Maze Craze and Video Checkers by Atari. Sandwiched in between there will be, let's just call it the holiday memories show at this point. If you have any stories or memories of any of these games, please send them to 2600gamebygame@comcast.net. For the holiday memories show, please get those in by the 20th so I can put it together over that weekend. Thank you everyone, hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving, and mazel tov!

Pertinent Links

Good Deal Games interview with David Crane
Freeway patch
Bloody Human Freeway on Atari Protos
Avalanche at KLOV
Kaboom Easter Eggs on 2600 Connection
Wow.
How To Beat The Home Video Games - Kaboom!
Favorite Atari 2600 Games of FocusRS - Kaboom!
Favorite Atari 2600 Games of FocusRS - Freeway!
Kaboom patch
2004 Activision Keynote Address at CGE

CX 2632, Space Invaders!

Happy Hanukkah and Thanksgiving everyone! Let us celebrate and give thanks for the mighty Space Invaders, savior of the Atari VCS (later the 2600). We'll talk a little about the arcade game, the 2600  programmer Rick Maurer, and a whole lot about the different packaging variations. One thing I didn't mention in the podcast was my assumption that Atari had an iron grip on the US console rights for Space Invaders for many years. It came out on many systems in Japan, but didn't see any kind of US release until the 90s. That's pretty amazing. Next week, I'm going back to the Activision well with Freeway and one of my very favorites, Kaboom. Hopefully I can get my USB paddle adapter to work so you can hear my amazing prowess at this game! I am good at some games! As always, send your stories and memories to 2600gamebygame@comcast.net. Also, please send me your Christmas and Hanukkah Atari related memories by December 20th, there will be a special Christmas show released (he says) on December 24th. I am thankful for all of you! Enjoy your holidays!

Pertinent Links

Space Invaders on KLOV
Excerpts from James Hague's interview with Rick Maurer
Pepsi Invaders page at Atari Protos site
Coke Wins article at Digital Press Archives
2005 CGE Keynote Address: Jerry Lawson
2004 CGE Keynote Address: Atari 2600 Programmers (with Rick Maurer) mp3
Feb 2012 World Coin News article by Mark Fox disproving the yen shortage thing (I also forgot to mention this on the show, dammit!)
Now You're Playing With Podcast's Comic Sans Invaders shirt
Favorite Atari 2600 Games of FocusRS - Space Invaders
Double bullets trick on Youtube
How To Beat The Home Video Games - Space Invaders

RC100-X 02, Pooyan, RC101-X 02, Strategy X, & RC102-X 02, Marine Wars!

This episode deals with Konami's entire released output for the Atari 2600, Pooyan, Strategy X, and Marine Wars. I tried not to be too heavy handed with the editing, because it was taking forever. I hope that it's still an enjoyable listen! I heard some mistakes during editing that I couldn't go back and fix: I said NTC where I should have said NTSC; I misused the words "diatonic" and "chromatic;" I forgot to mention the islands in Marine Wars that block you from hitting the ships; and lastly, Gakken released the PAL versions of these games. Next week is a big one: Space Invaders! I forgot to mention on the show that I am working on Wednesday next week, so the show may be released later on Wednesday instead of early in the AM. If you can, please send your stories to me as early as possible next week. Upcoming games include Freeway and Kaboom by Activision, Night Driver and Golf by Atari, Ghost Manor and Spike's Peak by Xonox, and Turbo and Venture by Coleco. Send your stories and memories of these games to me at 2600gamebygame@comcast.net. Also, please send in your Atari-related Christmas stories! Listen to the episode for full details, but please have those in by Friday, December 20th. Thank you all so much for listening, I am very grateful to all of you!

Pertinent Links

Pooyan at KLOV
Strategy X at KLOV
Favorite Atari 2600 Games of Focusrs - Pooyan!

7-001, King Kong, & 7-002, Jawbreaker!

King Kong and Jawbreaker are two games that I was pretty unfamiliar with prior to this episode. I only own 3 out of the 10 Tigervision games, they are pretty rare. I wasn't pleasantly surprised by both of these games for the most part! I hope you'll give them a try. Next week I'll be talking about the 3 Atari 2600 games made by Konami, Pooyan, Strategy X, and Marine Wars. On Thanksgiving Eve (I hope), I'll be looking at the first killer app for the Atari 2600, Space Invaders! I am expecting a lot of feedback for that show, you can send that to 2600gamebygame@comcast.net. I love hearing your stories, please keep sending them in! Thanks to all of you who have done so so far, and of course I thank you for listening and making my show so much fun for me to do! I am very happy that you are enjoying this as much as I am.

Pertinent Links

Tiger Electronics page at Handheld Museum
John Harris interview by James Hague
John Harris interview (about the AmigaDE OS) by Boing Attitude
Paul Slocum's 2600 Music and Sound Programming Guide
Atari 2600 Console Repair Tutorial on Youtube

CX2630, Circus Atari, and CX 2631, Superman!

This week's extra large episode deals with Circus Atari and Superman, another two of my favorite games for the Atari 2600. (I have a lot of favorite games.) Big giant extra special thanks this week to John Dunn, Susan Jaekel, and Mike Lorenzen for graciously sharing their memories of their time with Atari! It was very cool hearing from all of them! Next week I'll be doing King Kong and Jawbreaker by Tigervision. If you have any memories of these games that you'd like to share with the class, please send them to 2600gamebygame@comcast.net. Please check out the episode for more upcoming games, I am running late and don't want to type them all. As always, thank you for listening, I hope you enjoy it!

Pertinent Links

Exidy's Circus
Bally-Midway's Clowns
James' interview with Jerry Lawson
John Dunn Interview by RH Ball
John Dunn's Algo Art website
Susan Jaekel's website
Atari art article by Andrew Webster
Superman map by Maurice Molyneaux
Favorite Atari 2600 Games of Focusrs - Circus Atari
Texas Chainsaw Massacre on Atari Protos
Nurmix' post about the TCM prototype