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