Wednesday, September 24, 2014

SoundX and Edtris 2600!

This time I talk about the first two homebrew games made for the Atari 2600, SoundX and Edtris 2600, both written by Ed Federmeyer. There are arguments that some other games are the first, but these were first after the 2600 ceased to be. SoundX is a sound utility program, and Edtris 2600 is a version of Tetris. Next week I'm looking at In Search of the Golden Skull, AD&D Treasure of Tarmin, and Burgertime by M Network. Only one of these games was actually released! Coming up I'll be yakking about Frogger and Amidar by Parker Brothers; Swordquest: Fireworld by Atari; Sssnake and Airlock by Data Age; Fire Fighter and Sky Patrol by Imagic; Math Grand Prix and Raiders of the Lost Ark by Atari, and Mega Force and Alien by 20th Century Fox. If you have any feedback for any of these games or any of the games I've covered so far, please send it to 2600gamebygame@comcast.net. Thanks for listening everyone!

Homebrewed Links

Hozer Video Games web site (order the games here)
Inverse Atascii Podcast
Player/Missile Podcast
Player/Missile Podcast Space Invaders contest! Submit your guesses!
Channel F Files podcast
Colecovisions Podcast
Arcade USA on Youtube

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

CX 2656, Swordquest: Earthworld!

This week I am looking at Swordquest: Earthworld and the ill fated contest that this game started off for Atari (SPOILERS). Very interesting stuff, please make sure you check out the links for great photos and even more info. Next week I am discussing Edtris 2600 and Sound X, both homebrews by Ed Federmeyer. From what I have read, Edtris 2600 is considered the first Atari 2600 homebrew cart. Upcoming games include In Search of the Golden Skull, AD&D Treasure of Tarmin & Burgertime by M Network; Frogger and Amidar by Parker Brothers; Swordquest: Fireworld by Atari; Sssnake and Airlock by Data Age; and Fire Fighter and Sky Patrol by Imagic. Got any feedback for these games, or any of the other games I've covered so far? Send it to me in text or mp3 form at 2600gamebygame@comcast.net.  

Don't forget, Rob from Player/Missile Podcast is very generously sponsoring a contest! He is giving away an e-book copy of Racing the Beam, by Nick Montfort and Ian Bogost (it is an Amazon gift e-book, you need to be in the US and have an Amazon account, sorry about that). The next episode of his podcast is devoted to Space Invaders; both of us will be playing the game on the other's system, and you have to guess our combined scores (without going over) to win the book. You have until October 6th, and you can send your guesses to my email address above or post it to the pinned post on the Facebook page.

Thank you for listening everyone!                                              

Earthlinks

2600 Connection Earthworld Solution page
2600 Connection Swordquest Revisited article (Lots of links here)
John Michael Battaglia's web site
John Michael Battaglia interview by Scott Stilphen
Contestant James Schweitzer interview
Robert Ruiz's Earthworld solution
AVGN Swordquest Video
Swordquest: Earthworld at Atari Protos.com
Contest EPROM entry on Atarimania
Masquerade book
The Secret book Wiki (FASCINATING and still unsolved for the most part)

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

5001002, Death Trap, and 5002002, London Blitz!

Hi there. Thank you for your patience for this show, I had some issues that I talk about in the episode.

Today's episode talks a little about Avalon Hill and the first of their games on my show, Death Trap and London Blitz. Coming up next week is Swordquest: Earthworld by Atari. There's a lot of info on that game and the accompanying contest, so I thought each of those should get its own episode (except Airworld, which never came out). Coming up will be Edtris 2600 and SoundX by Ed Federmeyer; In Search of the Golden Skull, AD&D Treasure of Tarmin & Burgertime by M Network; Frogger and Amidar by Parker Brothers; Swordquest: Fireworld by Atari; Sssnake and Airlock by Data Age; and Fire Fighter and Sky Patrol by Imagic. If you have any feedback on any of these games or any of the games I've already covered, please send it to me at 2600gamebygame@comcast.net. I love hearing from you!

In the meantime, Rob from Player/Missile Podcast is very generously sponsoring a contest! He is giving away an e-book copy of Racing the Beam, by Nick Montfort and Ian Bogost (it is an Amazon gift e-book, you need to be in the US and have an Amazon account, sorry about that). The next episode of his podcast is devoted to Space Invaders; both of us will be playing the game on the other's system, and you have to guess our combined scores (without going over) to win the book. I will give a cutoff date soon, but it will be sometime in early October. That will be fun!

Extra thanks this week to Avalon Hill CEO Jackson Dott, and Avalon Hill artist Jim Talbot for contributing to my show. Thank you for listening!

Links, Jolly What!

Rebecca Heineman interview by Scott Stilphen
Rebecca Heineman's web site
Jackson Dott's Realtor page
Jim Talbot's web site
Avalon Hill's current site (now owned by Hasbro/WOC)
Now You're Playing with Podcast
Player/Missile Podcast
Atari Age thread about new 4k Pac-Man rom (you can download the rom here)
London Blitz manual