Bonus Track - What Makes A Man Start Baking?

Merry Christmas everyone! I recorded this episode while I was baking Christmas cookies, so please excuse the sound quality and background noises. I thought that would be a good time to talk about what I do for a living (and for leisure too!). I hope that you will enjoy listening to it. Thank you once again for a wonderful year!

Rainbow Cookie recipe (TRY IT)
Books by Peter Reinhart (I have Crust and Crumb and Bread Baker's Apprentice)
Standard Baking Company in Portland ME
Bing's Bakery in Newark DE (my favorite in the state)

2017 Super Christmas Spectacular Holiday Extravaganza!

Welcome to the 5th annual Christmas show. Thanks to all of you for contributing over the years to make these special shows so much fun for everyone to listen to. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all. Thank you so much for listening!

Puerto Rican Christmas music
Puerto Rican Christmas music Part 2
Crimbo by iddod

Atari 2600 2017 Holiday Gift Guide

Need something for the Atari weirdo in your life? Look no further! Here are some gift ideas that will make you scream "STELLAAAAAAA!!!" That makes no sense. As always, thank you for listening.

WHERE TO BUY

You can support the Throwback Network by doing your Amazon shopping through this link
Scramble
Anguna
Star Castle
AtGames Flashback systems
Willie's 2017 Flashback Portable review
Bridge Direct Plug and Play Joystick
Jakks Plug and Play Joystick
Art of Atari by Tim Lapetino
Art of Atari Poster Collection
Atari Flashback, the Essential Companion by Bill Loguidice
Unauthorized Atari 2600 Arcade Companion by Michael Salzman
Unauthorized Atari 2600 Sports Almanac by Michael Salzman
Adventure Game Journal
Phoenix IV by Leonard Herman
In The St. Nick of Time by Bill Pepper
Atari Bytes 67 - Interview with Chad Bowers and Chris Sims
Swordquest Comics
Centipede Comics
Original Swordquest Comics Trade Paperback
Original Atari Force Comics Trade Paperback
IDW Centipede tabletop game
IDW Missile Command tabletop game (available March 2018)
Packrat Video Games
Good Deal Games

Bonus Track - John Lennon 1940-1980

John Lennon has been a huge part of my life for decades. In this Bonus Track episode, I talk about how his murder affected me then and now. I know it's not the most happiest of topics around the holidays, I probably should have put this out on his birthday. But it didn't make sense to me to do that.

One thing I forgot to talk about during the show was one of my trips to NYC in the late 80s. I went with some friends to the Dakota building, where John Lennon lived and was murdered. I left feeling a renewed sadness about the murder, because the area where he was shot was so small. I had built it up in my head that since this was such an earth shattering event for me, the area where it happened would be bigger somehow. But it wasn't, it was just the entrance to an apartment building, albeit an expensive one. We went to Strawberry Fields in Central Park across the street afterwards, which made me feel a little better, but not much. I wasn't expecting so many flowers and trinkets left by fans on the Imagine mosaic almost a decade after the murder. I think a part of me was hoping to find some answers there as to why this happened, but I was disappointed. I don't think now that there are any answers. I would like to go back to Strawberry Fields someday, but I will stay away from the Dakota.

Regardless of the morose subject matter, I do hope you enjoy the episode and I thank you for listening. We all shine on.

John Lennon's Final Print Interview with Jonathan Cott
Lennon Remembers Part 1
Lennon Remembers Part 2
NYC Radio the night Lennon was killed
John Lennon's Last Radio interview with Andy Peebles

My favorite photo of John Lennon, by Richard Avedon. Unsurprisingly, it appears on the cover of the first Beatles album I was aware of, Love Songs. A copy of this poster hangs in my living room.

CX 2686, Quadrun!

Alfred E. Neuman once said, "Better late than never. Unless you're going to the dentist!" Oh, how we laughed. This episode is about the extremely elusive Atari Age magazine mailaway game, Quadrun. It is the first home video game to feature speech without having to use an add on unit, like those OTHER systems. It also makes its own gravy! Coming up in January is Popeye by Parker Brothers. If you have any feedback for this game or any I've already covered, please send it to 2600gamebygame@gmail.com and I will read or play it on the show. Also, if you have any Christmas memories you'd like to share for the Christmas episode, please send it in by December 15th. I would love to hear from you! Thank you so much for listening.

Steve Woita's web site
Steve Woita interview by Ken Horowitz
Steve Woita interview on Planet Virtual Boy
Steve Woita interview by Michael Thomasson
Steve Woita interview by Scott Stilphen
Steve Woita interview by 8 Bit Rocket
Tiny Games web site
Quadrun Easter Egg page on Atari Compendium
Quadrun on Random Terrain
Atari Age magazine Quadrun announcement Nov 83 - Feb 84 issue
Atari Age magazine Quadrun Contest extended Mar-Apr 84 issue (last issue)
Quadrun Video Game Masters patch on Atarimania
Mighty Squirrel plays Quadrun 
No Swear Gamer 279 - Quadrun
Turbotastic Podcast on Facebook
Virtually Human Podcast - Waterworld

Extra Life 2017 Wrap Up

Here's a short episode about the Extra Life Marathon I did which happened this past weekend. It is a great charity and an event that I look forward to doing every year. Thank you so much for all of your support, please check the links below if you'd like to make a donation. I believe you can donate until the end of the year. Thank you for listening!

My Extra Life donation page
Ryan's Extra Life Donation page
Rick's Extra Life Donation page
Greg's Twitch page

MT 5661, Armor Ambush!

Hi there, it's time for another episode! This one features Armor Ambush by M Network, plus a lot of great feedback from youse guys. Next time I'll be talking about Quadrun by Atari, so if youse guys have any thoughts on the game, or any game I've covered, please send it to me at 2600gamebygame@gmail.com.  Please also consider donating to my Extra Life marathon to benefit the Philadelphia Children's Hospital. It starts this Friday at 6 pm, and at 2 pm Saturday,  let's all get together on Steam to play some Atari Vault. See you then and thanks so much for listening!

You can donate to Extra Life here. Thank you!
Armor Ambush on Random Terrain
Armor Ambush on Intellivsion Lives
VG Update newsletter 9/82 on Atari Compendium
VG Update newsletter 1/83 on Atari Compendium
Hal Finney interview by Scott Stilphen
M Network button on Atarimania

2017 Halloween Spooktacular - Top 10 Scary Spiders on the Atari 2600!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Did I scare you? I hope so. Join your host Urrrggggghhhhh as he counts down the top 10 scariest spiders appearing in Atari 2600 games. Theres lots of them, WATCH OUT THERE'S ONE BEHIND YOOOOOUUUUUUUUU!!!! Haha, got you again! I hope you enjoy the episode, and the Happiest of Halloweens to you and yours!

Check out music from Zerbinator on Bandcamp
Holiday Special Podcast, hosted by Rick Reynolds
Robert Nichol's Soundcloud page (allcastcoUK)
wut

2663, Time Pilot!

Why hello! In this episode I discuss the Coleco game Time Pilot, based on the Konami arcade game of the same name. I hope that you enjoy it. Next time I'll be talking about Armor Ambush by M Network. Have any thoughts on that game, or any others I've already covered? Please send them to 2600gamebygame@comcast.net. As always, thank you so much for listening.

Please donate to Extra Life Charity if you can, Game Day is November 3-4!
Time Pilot on Random Terrain
Time Pilot on KLOV
Video Games article about the Coleco Gemini Dec. 1983
No Swear Gamer Time Pilot gameplay video
NSG 347 - Time Pilot review
Brian's Noise From The Basement web site
Willie's AtariCade 2600 series on Arcade USA
Willie's ABCs of Favorite Atari 2600 Games on Arcade USA
Portland Retro Gaming Expo
Charity Navigator site
Holiday Special Podcast
Our Brooklyn Bytes Podcast
File Under Water Podcast

112-007, Bermuda Triangle!

Thanks for your patience this week everyone! This episode is about the Data Age game Bermuda Triangle, I hope that you enjoy it. Congratulations to John Sturgis, he won the Ladybug cart provided by David at the Atari 5200 Podcast. Thanks to everyone who entered the contest. Next up will be Time Pilot by Coleco. Have any thoughts on this game? Send them to me at 2600gamebygame@gmail.com. Thank you so much for listening!

Bermuda Triangle on Random Terrain
J Ray Dettling interview by Phil Wiswell
Marc Erickesen's blog
Marc Ericksen's illustrations site
Marc Ericksen prints for sale (includes Galaga)
Yellow Submarine hack by Kyle Pittman
Tangentg's Atari 2600 remakes
No Swear Gamer 350 - Bermuda Triangle
Ed's Tunnels of Doom page
Atari 5200 Podcast

Atari VCS/2600 10-20-30-40

Hello friends, please celebrate the Atari 2600's 40th anniversary with me by listening to the 10-20-30-40 of the Atari 2600 for 2017! Apologies to the Stone Age Gamer podcast (link below). Don't forget to send in your feedback for Time Pilot to 2600gamebygame@gmail.com. Also, I am playing in the Extra Life charity marathon again this year for the Philadelphia Children's Hospital, starting November 3rd. If you are able to donate to the cause, I would greatly appreciate it. I think you are able to donate until the end of the year. Thanks so much for listening!

Donate to Extra Life here, thank you so much!
Michael Current's Atari WCI Games 1977 Timeline
Stone Age Gamer podcast on Geekade
AA thread on 2600 launch pricing
Batari Basic website
Atari 2600 Homebrew website
AA development thread for Elevators Amiss
Buy Elevators Amiss on AA
Elevator Repairman - Atari 8 bit game video
Spy's Demise - Atari 8 bit game video
AA development thread for Gosub
AA development thread for Colony 7
Buy Colony 7 on AA
Colony 7 on KLOV
Cubis on Atari 2600 Homebrew (rom available here, whoops)

Atari Party East 2017!

This past weekend, Bill and Lucy Lange hosted the Atari Party East at their home in Somerset NJ, close to where Atari had an office back in the 80s. Atari Party was started by Bill Kendrick in CA, and Bill decided to pick up the torch for those of us on the East coast! It was a great time, and this is just a short episode about the day. Thanks to Bill and Lucy and everyone who attended, we are looking forward to next year. Thanks for listening!

The Original Atari Party
Bill Lange's writeup in Old School Gamer magazine
Bill's web site
Pete Fletcher on Twitter
Rob on Twitter
Rob's photos of Atari Party
Jamie Lendino at Extreme Tech
Jamie's book Breakout: How Atari 8-Bit Computers Defined a Generation
Paul Rickards on Twitter
Paul's web site
Jason Scott's web site
Internet Archive
Jason Scott Talks His Way Out Of It podcast
Atari 5200 Super Community Podcast
Star Castle 2600 on Atari Age
Scramble on Atari Age
Edladdin Controllers
Scramble and Star Castle unboxing video
Atari Party East walkthrough video

CX 2685, Gravitar!

In this episode I discuss the Atari Club mailaway game Gravitar, as well as the Video Game Masters contest of which it was a part. I also announced a contest sponsored by the Atari 5200 Podcast! You can win a copy of John Champeau's wonderful 2600 homebrew version of Ladybug, complete with manual! To enter, just send your favorite Atari 5200 game to me at 2600gamebygame@gmail.com with 5200 Contest in the subject line. Please get your entries in to me by September 19th and I will announce the winner on the next episode. Which will be Bermuda Triangle,  so if you have feedback for that game, be sure to send it to me at the aforementioned email. Thanks so much for listening!

The Atari 5200 Podcast
Atari Retro Handheld at Funstock
Gravitar at KLOV
Gravitar at Random Terrain's site
Gravitar on Atari Protos
Atari Age magazine vol. 2 no. 3
Video Game Masters Gravitar patch
Gravitar box schematic (?) on Atarimania
Dan Coogan's Gravitar web site
Gravitar longplay by Dick Moreland
No Swear Gamer 348 - Gravitar
Charity Navigator - Hurricane Harvey relief

AX-026, Enduro!

So. This episode is about Activision's racing game Enduro, but it is not the only episode about Enduro that I will be doing. I expected a good amount of feedback for this game, and I got an enormous amount instead. Which is absolutely wonderful, I am ecstatic to get so much feedback this far into the podcast. However, it is late and I am tired. Rather than wait to put out the whole show, I am putting out what I have so far, and the rest will go out this weekend. I kept telling Sarah that I was getting a lot of feedback, and she kept telling me to split the show into two parts. Of course I said I didn't want to do that, because I'm dumb. I had almost everything recorded before yesterday, and it still took forever to edit. So, enjoy this first half and I will see you again this weekend. Thanks for listening!

Part 2 can be found here. Thanks for your patience!

Links

Enduro at Random Terrain's site
Enduro pace car photo from Atarimania
Dan Devendorf photo in Billboard
Enduro blurb in Billboard May 28 1983
Article about Enduro remake on IOS
No Swear Gamer 337 - Enduro

Space Raid by Oscar Toledo Gutierrez!

Space Raid is a homebrew game by Oscar Toledo Gutierrez that is what Zaxxon should have been on the 2600. I had a lot of fun playing it, Oscar did a great job programming it. I hope you enjoy the episode. Next up will be Enduro by Activision! Please check the blog page for the list of other upcoming games. You can send any feedback you have on any upcoming game or any game I've covered to 2600gamebygame@gmail.com. Thank you so much for listening!

Pertinent Links

Oscar's web site
Interview with Oscar by Tim Duarte
Original AA Space Raid thread by Oscar
Interest Check AA thread by Oscar
Preorder AA thread by Collectorvision
Get IntyBasic Showcase 1 at Intellivision Revolution
Team Pixelboy Budget Series (no longer available; scroll down to see the games)
GoSub for Intellivision by 2600 Connection
Ms. Hack by Nukey Shay AA thread
Anguna WIP AA thread
Jala's GoFundMe page
Jala's Twitch page

4362, Survival Run and the Cosmic Commander controller!

This long-gestating episode is about the Milton Bradley game Survival Run, as well as its accompanying controller, the Cosmic Commander! I talk a lot about Milton Bradley as a company in this episode, I hope you like old commercials. I will also announce the winner of the Survival Run cartridge in the Strudders' Score segment at the end of the show, thanks to both Strudders and Mini Strudders for doing that! Next time will be Space Raid, the homebrew game by Oscar Toledo Gutierrez, aka nanochess on Atari Age. If you have any thoughts on this game or any that I've covered in the past, please send it to me at 2600gamebygame@gmail.com and you'll hear it on the show. Thanks so much for listening, enjoy your summer!

Pertinent Links

Buck Rogers thread on AA
Review in Computer Games magazine April 1984
Review in Electronic Fun with Computers and Games magazine February 1984
Video Games article on Milton Bradley's 2600 controllers April 1984
Article in Videogaming and Computer Gaming Illustrated Dec 1983 (cont. p. 48)
Creative Computing blurb on MB controllers Sept 1983
Cosmic Commander video by Sharkie
MBX Expansion System
HD2000 joystick ad
Space Age joystick
1983 Atari Catalog with Space Age joystick and drawing of Voice Commander
Voice Controller on Atari Compendium
Unreleased MB games on Atari Compendium
2600 High Score Showdown on Facebook (Dragonfire)

Summer Podcast "Progress" Report

Here's a little update on what I've been doing instead of working on the Survival Run episode. That episode will be out next Wednesday. And don't forget the contest!  If you'd like a shot at winning Survival Run (provided by Strudders hisself), all you have to do is guess the combined Strudders' Score of Strudders himself and also Mini Strudders. So for example, if Strudders rates it 6 out of 10 and Mini Strudders gives it 5 out of 10, the entrant who comes closest to 11 (over or under, this ain't the Price Is Right) will win the game! In case of a tie, I will use random.org to determine the winner. Please get your entries in to me by July11th, and if you have any feedback you'd like me to read on that show, please try to have it in by then as well. As always, thank you so much for listening! Happy 4th of July!

Pertinent Links

UDairy Creamery in Newark DE
Coleco thread on Atari Age
Stone Age Gamer Podcast 2017 Too Many Games panel discussion
Tube Tunes Podcast
Crabtowne USA
Follow AtariSpot on Twitter! He posts awesome pictures!
Gauntlet Slayer Edition review on IGN
Atari's Forgotten Arcade Classics by Benj Edwards

Bonus Track: Batman

Batman is my favorite super hero of all time, which oddly enough I did not mention in the episode (I'm assuming a podcast episode makes that obvious). I talk a little about my history with Batman in all its permutations, which is a lot. I hope you enjoy this episode, thank you so much for listening!

PS - I thought Bill Finger was the artist of the original Batman comics, he was one of the writers. I think Dick Sprang did some of the art for the early comics.

Pertinent Links

A26GBG - Favorite Childhood Toys Other Than The Atari 2600
Mego Batman Figures
Batman Colorforms commercial, holy crap!
Batman From The 30s to the 70s book
Toy Biz DC Heroes figures
Kenner Batman Returns action figures
Batman at DC Comics
Geek Show Podcast
Fat Man on Batman podcast

Atari 2600 News Break!

This is a short episode rounding up the multitude of news that has recently been happening in the Atari 2600 world. Much later than all the other podcasters and Youtubers have done, of course. :)

As always, thank you for listening.

Pertinent Links

Hyperkin video of RetroN 77 from E3
Ataribox
Atari Codebreaker TM
Atari Games TM
Atari Touch Games TM
Flashback 8 Gold Activision edition (I didn't know abnout this one)
Flashback 8 Gold
Flashback 8 Classic
Flashback Portable
Dynamite Comics Atari offerings
Intellivision Lives web site
Tribute to Keith Robinson by Kishi from Retronauts
Keith Robinson's Making It comic strip

005-01, Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom!

Biddi biddi biddi my friends, here's an episode about the Sega arcade port Buck Rogers, Planet of Zoom! I hope that you enjoy the game and the episode. Next up will be Survival Run by Milton Bradley, which was packaged with its very own controller! Thank you to Strudders for sending me a copy of the game to give away to one lucky listener. If you'd like a shot at winning the game, all you have to do is guess the combined Strudder's Score of Strudders himself and also Mini Strudders. So for example, if Strudders rates it 6 out of 10 and Mini Strudders gives it 5 out of 10, the entrant who comes closest to 11 (over or under, this ain't the Price Is Right) will win the game! In case of a tie, I will use random.org to determine the winner. Please get your entries in to me by June 26th, and if you have any feedback you'd like me to read on that show, please try to have it in by then as well. As always, thank you so much for listening!

Pertinent Links

Buck Rogers on KLOV
Buck Rogers Pinball on KLOV
Buck Rogers on Atari Protos
No Swear Gamer 301 - Buck Rogers
Buck Rogers on Random Terrain's site
Video Game Player Aug/Sep 1983 (page 21) on Atari Compendium
Buck Rogers vs. the Tiger Men from Mars
Creation of Q*Bert, by Warren Davis on Coinop.org
All Things Considered segment on E.T.

AK 045, Pete Rose Baseball!

Play ball! This episode looks at Pete Rose Baseball by Absolute Entertainment, a late entry in the 2600 library. How does it measure up to Home Run? Listen and find out! I apologize for the sound issues I was having within the episode. Next up will be Buck Rogers Planet of ZOOOOOOOOMMMMM by Sega. If you have any feedback for this or any game I've covered, I would love to hear it! Send your text or audio submissions to 2600gamebygame@gmail.com. Thank you for listening.

Pertinent Links

Mediagenic article by Jimmy Maher/The Digital Antiquarian
Digital Press review of Pete Rose Baseball
No Swear Gamer 190 - Pete Rose Baseball
Ballblazer's collection thread on Atari.io
Tim's Atari inspired music on Bandcamp
Stone Age Gamer 150 - If Mountain Dew Was A Sound
Colecovisions Podcast 29 - Miner 2049er and Quest For The Golden Chalice
Atari Bytes - Swordquest Earthworld with Chad Bowers and Chris Sims
Swordquest #0 (not sure if it's still free)

Protocast: Secret Agent by Data Age

In this Protocast episode, I cover the Data Age prototype Secret Agent. It would have been a late paddle game release, had Data Age not gone out of business. I hope to have Pete Rose Baseball for you to listen to next week. If you have any comments on that game or Secret Agent, or any other game I've covered, please send them to me at 2600gamebygame@gmail.com. Thanks for listening!

Pertinent Links

Secret Agent on Atari Protos
Secret Agent 2001 release on Atari 2600 Homebrew
Secret Agent on Atarimania
Secret Agent from Data Age catalog (Atari Age)
Secret Agent trademark information
Atari Spot finds video featuring Data Age sample cartridges (starts at 18:45)
Box made by Shyone
Box made by Marc Oberhauser
Another picture of Marc Oberhauser's box with a cartridge
Marc Oberhauser's web site for 2600 boxes
Fan site for Celal Kandemiroglu
Crime Time for PC

CX 2684, Galaxian!

Join me today as I talk about the wonderful port of Galaxian for the Atari 2600! There's lots of great feedback, as well as the song Galaxian from Dya's album Neon Dreams. Thanks to Aaron Hickman for giving me permission to use the song. Next episode will be about Absolute's Pete Rose Baseball. If you have any thoughts on this game or any game I've already covered, please send it to me at 2600gamebygame@gmail.com. Thank you so much for listening and for your support!

Pertinent Links

Galaxian on Atari Protos
Galaxian on Random Terrain
Galaxian on KLOV
Galaxian patent by Mark Ackerman and Glenn Parker
Mark Ackerman's web site
Hiro Kimura's web site
The basketball art by Kimura that I mentioned.
Galaxian comic on Atari Age
Get the Neon Dreams album by Dya (Aaron Hickman)
Atari Age - Nukey Shay's Galaxian Expanded
Atari Age - KevinMos3's Galaxian Arcade Expanded & Galaxian Vector
Atari Age - espire's Galaxian Expanded Graphics hack
No Swear Gamer 273 - Galaxian
Willie and Ferg play Salvo!
MS Walk Donation Page - Thank You!

Atari 2600 and Games Contest Winner!

Congratulations to Robert Zambon, he won the Atari 2600 with games by correctly guessing all 10 of the games in the contest. he was one of many and then picked at random. I am too lazy to copy/paste the clues here and then type the answers, so please listen to the episode. Thank you all for entering the contest, and special thanks to Tim for donating the prize. Stay tuned to the feed for another contest soon! Thanks for listening!

Happy International Bat Day! Top 10 Atari 2600 Bats

April 17th is National Bat Appreciation Day! Celebrate with me by listening to this short episode featuring bats from 2600 games (hint: they're jerks). Thanks for listening!

Warren Robinett interview by A. Merrill
Crackbats by OmegaMatrix on Atari Age
Our attic in 2004

Bonus Track: Herman's Hermits

This episode was inspired after Sarah and I went to see Peter Noone play down the road, something I have been waiting most of my life to do. I talk a little about the history of the band, but more about MY history with the band. Some of the things I forgot include the fact that their name came from the fact that Peter Noone resembled Sherman, from the Mr. Peabody and Sherman cartoon. I also forgot their movie appearances. They starred in 2 films of their own and appeared in another (none of which I've seen, I'm ashamed to admit). I did check Spotify after I recorded the episode in hopes of making a playlist, but most of the regular albums aren't there. There's a LOT of re-recorded stuff though, which I avoid like the plague, and I suggest you do the same if you have any interest in listening. I did find some cool live stuff that I hadn't heard before, so that was good.

I hope you enjoy the episode! There's still a few days to get your contest entries in, so if you haven't done that yet, please do. I will be on vacation after Easter, so there won't be any episodes of any kind until after that. Thanks for listening!

Links

Peter Noone's web site
Barry Whitwam's web site
Keith Hopwood's Pluto Music
Cool (but old) Herman's Hermits web site

Bonus Track: My Year as a Paperboy

Hi there, here's my first Bonus Track episode about working as a paperboy back in the 80s. The inspiration for this was an episode of Klickitcast, which is a podcast about Beverly Cleary books. In one of her early books, Henry Huggins has a paper route and it reminded me of my own paper route. One thing I had wrong was that the News Tribune merged with the Home News, not the Courier News. Thank you all again for your kindness and for listening, I hope you enjoy these bonus tracks.


Links? For what?

Courier News Online
Hangly Man on KLOV
John Lennon Whiskey Decanter
Cornell Dubilier Electronics Superfund site in South Plainfield
Corner Deli in South Plainfield on Yelp

Atari 2600 SPECTACULAR GIVEAWAY ZOMG

Hi! would you like to win an Atari 2600 and games donated by my friend Tim? You would? Well, here's how you do that. I have taken 10 2600 games and retitled them with similar words (kind of like crossword puzzle clues), thanks to my friends at the Stone Age Gamer podcast (which means I ripped them off). You have to identify all 10 of them and send the answers to me at ONLY 2600gamebygame@gmail.com. Be sure to put "Contest" in the subject line. I will pick a winner at random from all of the correct entries (or as close to correct as you can get, some of these are hard).

As an example, if the clue is, "1960s TV Show About World War 2 Starring Vic Morrow," then the answer would be Combat. See? Okay, here are the clues:

1. Butter, Wheat Chex, Rice Chex, Nuts, Salt, Worcestershire Sauce, Baked in 300 Degree Oven for 30 Minutes
2. Golden State Festivities
3. Without Underwear
4. Timrek
5. Mispronounced Punctuation Mark
6. Isosceles Onions or Shorts
7. Terrible 1970s Sci-Fi film shown on MST3K
8. Owner of Grieg's Hall
9. Pitch Black Enchanter
10. Diarrhea in Mexico

I have two hints for you all: one is a homebrew game, and another is a game that's more plentiful in the PAL format.

Please send your answers by April 15th. 2600gamebygame@gmail.com, and don't forget "Contest" in the subject line. This contest is open to everyone! Good luck and thank you for listening.

SCSIside/Ultra SCSIside with Joe Grand

I had the extreme privilege to speak with Joe Grand, the creator of this week's game, SCSIside/Ultra SCSIside. Why are there two versions? You'll have to listen to the episode to find out! I would again like to thank Joe for taking the time to talk with me for the podcast, it was a great experience that I hope you will enjoy as much as I did.

There's an announcement at the end of the episode that I really would like your feedback on. You can send it to me at 2600gamebygame@gmail.com. You can also get a jump start on feedback for the next game, which is Atari's Galaxian. As always, thank you all so much for listening and for your support.

Joe's Grand Idea Studio
SCSIside page on Grand Idea Studio site (lots of goodies here, especially the SCSIside archive download and roms)
SCSIside on Atari Age (roms available here too)
Gamasutra: SCSIside Post-mortem by Joe Grand
Atari Age pictures from Philly Classic 3
AA Ultra SCSIside label contest
Joe Grand's Youtube page
All Prototype This episodes on Youtube
Dakotacon March 31- April 2 2017 (you can livestream the con on the site)
GRay Defender on Youtube

Cx 2601, Combat! (4th Anniversary Remaster)

My first game episode was episode 2 about Combat. It came out March 3, 2013. I discovered later that I screwed up the sound (I had Audacity experience before doing the podcast, but not with a microphone). Since it's the 4th anniversary of that show (or it was, THANKS AUDACITY), I decided to clean it up the best I could and re-release it as a treat. If you think tortorous first podcasts are a treat. Anyway, thank you for four wonderful years (with many to come) and for my Facebook page reaching 1000 likes. I'm glad you all are here, and I thank you for listening.

Pertinent Links

Racing The Beam, by Nick Montfort and Ian Bogost
Combat Machine Code (within Combat in Context, by Nick Montfort, scroll about halfway down)
Tank at KLOV
Jet Fighter at KLOV
Digital Press Interview with Joe DeCuir
Atari History Museum Interview with Joe DeCuir
Steve Fulton article on the early history of Atari
Larry Wagner resume
Larry Wagner's Combat design notes
Larry Wagner's programming notes for the 9 launch titles
Cliff Spohn's artwork
Kee Games VCS prototype (photo by Earl Green)
Michael Current's Atari Timeline
Sears Wish Book Blog by Greg Maletic (also features unreleased Tank console)
Scott Stilphen's Atari Compendium - Combat Easter Eggs
AA Combat page (hacks listed here)
Tank-Plus picture label on Atarimania
Arcade USA on YouTube

Protocast: Racer by Roklan Software

Welcome to the first Atari 2600 Game by Game Protocast. This series will focus on prototypes that do not have a part number. This episode features Racer, which was made by Roklan Software for Atari, but it never came out and is not in the part list. I've been wanting to start this for a while, but this episode is due to the fact that I was having trouble getting to the SCSIside research, so that episode will have to wait. Also, I picked this game and started research, but I had trouble getting the game on my Flashback portable. Later I found out that the rom from Atarimania will not work. But I started the research and I wanted to get something out this week, so here it is. My idea was to insert these episodes in between the main episodes; I normally don't get much (if any) feedback on prototypes (especially if you can't play them, I guess), so it wouldn't take long to put the episodes together. Like always, if you have thoughts on these prototypes, I will be happy to read or play it on a subsequent episode. Thank you for listening and for your understanding.

Racer on DP Rarity Guide
Racer overview on Atari Protos
Racer photos and screen shots on Atari Protos
Scott Stilphen's Racer video
Original AA Racer thread
AA Racer artwork contest thread
AA Racer production bids thread
AA Reserve Sale thread
AA 2nd Racer prototype found thread
Roklan Software on GDRI
Antic Podcast - Ronald Borta interview by Kevin Savetz

The Atari Game: GLIB by Mike Montana

This essay is printed here with the kind permission of the author, Mike Montana. Mike is the son of Rich Montana, who was the programmer of Glib for the Atari 2600. You can hear my interview with Mike in episode 134. I am indebted to Mike for all of his help with this episode. If you have any questions for Mike, please send them to me at 2600gamebygame@gmail.com, and I will make sure he gets them. Thank you for reading!


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Concept Genesis

Selchow & Righter are known for pretty much one thing – the classic board game “Scrabble,” where points are made by forming words drawn from random letter-tiles, each letter having a particular point value.

In the early 80s' execs at the company wanted to expand the brand into the marketing explosion "all things Atari." Friends of friends were contacted and ultimately Pete Farentinos of Qualtronic Devices in Smithtown Long Island was brought in. His company was selected as they were the regional distributor of Rockwell’s 6502 processor – which, as you know, is the CPU in the Atari 2600. Qualtronics and Selchow & Righter’s marketing people put together a game concept that was essentially Scrabble. Each player would be assigned 7 random letters, and together, in real time, they’d race to complete a word for the most points. Multiple players would run across a field of letters, grab one (thus denying the other player), and run the letter to the word-block (imagine Wheel of Fortune meets the Hunger Games) Variants on the idea were pushed around, and the game-concept was christened “Head of the Class”.

Qualtronics brought in Rich Montana of NJ to evaluate the feasibility of writing the game on the Atari. He had often worked with Qualtronics as their electronics-engineer for many 4 and 8 bit CPU related projects (Mattel’s hand-held football game was the Qualtronics/Montana team’s previous project, which was on a 4bit CPU).

Getting Technical

At the time, for consumer grade products with CPUs, there was no Operating System. There was no BIOS. There was often enough, no ROM with prebuilt functions for interfacing with the hardware. The Atari 2600 was as close to useless as such a product could be. No pre-packaged ROM set, no BIOS, meaning, there was no published API on how to write software for it. Writing software for it was more about understanding which interrupts were available, how to interface with the Sound and “Video” chip, and which bytes of zero-page memory were used by the hardware (and how it could be used). Knowing how to write software for the Atari was a closely guarded secret and the “SDK,” which was more of a collection of electronic parts data-sheets than a list of function pointers, was not public domain. It was available through Sunnyvale’s very expensive licensing. Key to getting the “Head of the Class” cartridge off the ground was getting that documentation. A few calls, a few wink winks, and a few weeks later a Xerox copied sub-set of somebody’s design documentation was delivered in a nondescript three-ring-binder to Rich so that he could begin. The cost of the Xerox copies and binder was a then-staggering $25,000.

Getting Started

After reading through the design-documents, and weighing the design constraints of 1982 technology, Rich looped back with the Marketing people and burst the bubble between “expectations” and “reality”. Cost was, and is, a driving factor in any product development. “High-Tech Consumer Products” were even more expensive – the typical Atari cartridge was 4k of ROM. This was the sweet spot of cost/availability/useful-size. Selchow&Righter weren’t looking to become a software-house. They wanted a product to expand the brand, and make some money. They were not interested in bank-switching ROM nonsense, and they were not interested in doubling the component cost by stepping up to the next available sized ROMs.  All these constraints made perfectly good sense.

Except: with 4k of ROM, there would simply be no room for a dictionary. The reality was clear – there’d be no way for the game to judge if the word created was legitimate. Probably a fatal flaw already, it was decided that the “other player” would “accept” or “reject” the formed word.

Except: if the “other” player was the judge on word acceptance, there could only be 1 active player at a time.  The Hunger Games would have to wait another 35 years.

Except: Atari’s player missile graphics had real hardware trouble with getting more than 8 “high-res” images to display on the same horizontal raster line. The 2600 has very limited number of display modes – “low-res” was something on the order of 20 blocks per scan-line, and the video-chip could do some basic modes such as "mirror right to left," “mirror top-to-bottom” without having to tie up the CPU/memory to describe the layout (which is why most every “maze” game is mirrored geometrically and very blocky). You could use this very-blocky mode to display score (such as the very early games with giant-score digits). Or, if you were clever enough to be careful with counting CPU cycles, you could use the video-chip’s “player missile graphics” to build text/digits out of the sprites, and then switch out of that sprite once the scan lines were beyond the “zone” of where you displayed text/digits. …so much for displaying a field of Scrabble tiles for players to race around and grab.

Except: the amount of RAM in this CPU was worse than “limited”. The CPU was a variant of the 6502 – with only 128 bytes of RAM. BUT, you don’t get 128 bytes. About 16 are actually controlled by the video/sound chips. Another block is the CPU’s stack. Each call to a subroutine would extend the stack’s memory use by 2 bytes, every PUSHX, PUSHA, PUSHY instruction would extend the stack by a byte.  As is typical in assembly programming, you would often push values onto the stack, jump to a subroutine, do some work, and depending on your philosophy you might POP the registers before returning, or after. And if you mixed your philosophies you’d easily blow the stack. Not a big deal right? You’d get a runtime exception of stack-corruption. Except this isn’t C code. There are no “exceptions.” You would destroy a return address on the stack, and on the return from subroutine you’d jump to an undefined location, and who knows what happens. Usually, just a hard lockup with an annoying sound on the TV set.

At this point the game probably should have been dropped. But, deals were made, documents were procured, campaigns were being formed.

Development Begins

Qualtronics, being a regional distributor for Rockwell International’s 6502, was also a distributor for their computer – the AIM-65. It was a 4k device, about the size of an APPLE-II, with a full-stroke keyboard, but, a 40 column scrolling LED display and a 40 column thermal printer. The unit wasn’t meant to be a “desktop” computer, it was more of a design-base for industrial control applications requiring a computer. As such, it was meant to be expanded in whatever application capacity would be useful. The full CPU bus was available as an expansion port. Rich started off with one of these AIM-65s as the development environment for the “Head of the Class” game.

However, it needed upgrades. First off a 3rd party dual-floppy drive system was purchased. To use the floppy drives, the case was opened, and two “expansion” ROMs were inserted into the C000-D000 sockets.  An 80 column Zenith VT-100 terminal became the 9600 baud TTY “development interface” as the AIM had no ability to drive a video monitor directly. A box of floppies was mail-ordered and would arrive sometime within a month as there was no way to retail purchase floppies in 1982. The Rockwell licensed Assembler Language was part of the package.

All that was needed was memory – every developer always needs more memory. There was no “memory expansion kit,” it had to be made. Development time was burned up handcrafting a 48k memory expansion. Data sheets were collected, schematics drawn up, a dozen or so RAM chips purchased,  and rather than wasting time having a one-off PCB board made, all the pins were manually made by wire-wrapping the interconnect of the two dozen wires per chip.

An ultra-violet lamp was purchased, and a sleeve of 27032 EPROMSs were purchased. A development target was selected – the family Atari 2600 was now commandeered to never return from Development Hell.

The Development Cycle

Typically, embedded systems are done with an “in-circuit emulator” which is a surgical replacement of the CPU with a connector that replicates all the CPU signals and branches them to an external controller so that code can be injected, debugged, and the system state can be programmed. However, no such in-circuit emulator was available for the Atari, and if it was available, it would have only been for Sunnyvale blessed developers. Instead, why not just create a cartridge, pop it in, test it and repeat until done.

Using an oscilloscope and data-sheets for the chips identified on the Atari motherboard, Rich found that all the data lines and address-lines for the CPU were brought out to the Atari cartridge port, and that in the end, the cartridge was merely a 4k ROM wired up in a standard Address bus/Data bus configuration. Meaning, just popping in another ROM was simple. The least liked family game (“Combat”) was chosen as the sacrifice. Its ROM chip was unsoldered, and a “rom socket” put in its place – this gave the ability to pop out the chip, and pop in another without needing to solder anything.

Code was written, compiled by ping-ponging source/object/binary files between the two floppy drives with a binary file that was put on to a ROM at the AIM-65 side. The ROM was popped into the surgically mutilated Combat cartridge, the Atari powered up, and the code was there to test by playing the game itself. If the game crashed, or hung, or didn’t go as planned, the only debugging tool was an oscilloscope to probe the data lines. Code would be changed, a new ROM generated, and a new cycle would begin.

EPROMs are the great-grandfather to flash-memory. They are the grand-father to “E-EPROMS.” Flash memory is permanent memory that can be changed under CPU control (like your SD cards used in phones – they don’t require power to keep the data retained). E-EPROMS are “Electrically-Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory” – which is similar in concept to Flash Memory, but to erase the memory a long tedious process was required. EPROMS, the most ancient, was “Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory” – and the only way to “erase” the data was to put the chips under intense ultra-violet light for an hour. The design of that generation of read-only memory was that all the E-EPROMS/EPROMS/ROMS were physically interchangeable. You could pop in a 2732 EPROM directly into the socket of a 4k ROM chip, thus an erasable PROM could be used directly in place of the original Combat ROM.

Programming the EPROM was nearly as slow as erasing one. To program the EPROM a “burner” board was required, and it was configured via a 9600 baud serial port. It would take 16 bytes at a time, burn them sequentially into the EPROM, and within a few seconds be ready for the next 16 bytes. Writing 4096 bytes would take several minutes. Development cycles were lengthy bouts of patience as there was no internet to be amused by while the chip was being burned.

Once it was realized that the ROM was a standard off the shelf 4k component that was directly accessible by the CPU, and all the hardware was already in place, it didn’t take much effort to wire up a cartridge receiver that could simply dump the contents of memory to disk, and copying friend’s Atari cartridges to disk was painless. Burning them back to EPROMS was painless. Having a library of dozens of Atari games, on a floppy, was a secret kind of joy known best by developers to this day.

Game development was slow, but, picked up as infrastructure code was developed around trying to understand the 2600 Design Document. The 6502 CPU ran at 1.8mhz, which was just barely enough to get things done. The electronic design of the 2600 was such that the CPU would receive an interrupt from the video circuitry saying “It is now time  to draw the screen,” and the CPU would have to set up the display mode chip, setup the player-missile-graphics, and “draw” the screen. Each assembly instruction takes up a fixed amount of time – some instructions would take 2 cycles, some would take up to 6 cycles. Each scan line of a TV takes about 55 microseconds. Each 6502 CPU cycle is approx. 1 microsecond, so on average, each assembly instruction is 4 microseconds. You don’t have a lot of time to do much once the scan line is started. Manually counting instruction cycles is required if you want to switch things up on the display, as its being drawn. Once the display is drawn, the interrupt is cleared, and the CPU code returns to ‘whatever it was doing before.’

In the case of Atari games, this “vertical blank time” is when scores are updated, enemies are moved, etc.

Finished game released to Manufacturing

Atari games are ROMs. An EPROM at the time was probably two or three dollars each. Whereas a ROM could be as cheap as a few cents each – if you had hundreds of thousands made. Making a ROM was a special process involving microscopic photography. When code was considered “finished” and ready for a ROM, the raw binary content was given to a ROM manufacturer. The manufacturer would make a series of photo-masks that represented, in literal physical terms, the 1’s and 0’s of the raw binary content. The raw “ROM Blank” was a slab of photo-reactive silicon alloys that, with a repeated series of photo-exposures and acid washes, would physically burn the data onto the chip. Once created it could not be changed. Once the photo-mask was created for a “run” it could not be changed. One incorrect bit, and the entire process would have to be repeated from the start. The ROM manufacturers weren’t interested in 100 units. Not even 5000 units was mutually worth the money. 10,000? Now you’re talking. 100,000? That’s where the per-unit costs get really cheap. It is best to buy in 100,000 unit quantities.

There was a long lead time on getting the finished binaries to the ROM manufacturers, the plastic cases ordered, the packaging created, and the marketing efforts ramped up. Much effort was put into play for the anticipated holiday rush. This was going to be Selchow&Righter’s splash back into Modern Family Life. Even if the game wasn’t as exciting as originally planned. Even if the game was actually not very much fun. It didn’t matter – the public wanted, and loved, all things Atari.

“Head of the Class” was developed and tested on the family 2600, played on neighbors 2600s to judge feedback and to verify it worked. The marketing folks long since dropped the “Head of the Class” name in favor of “Glib.” Delivered on time, the binaries made their way to the factories; cases were sourced; stickers, labels, and manuals were printed. It all came together and arrived on store shelves as planned. Tens of thousands of them all over the US in Sears, Kmart and Crazy Eddie.

Then the problems came in. It seemed that too many people simply couldn’t get the game to work – no matter how forcefully they blew into the cartridge. Kids across America were being scolded, “Did you put that tape near a magnet Johnny?! How many times did I tell you to be careful with them tapes!” No, it wasn’t a tape issue. No, it wasn’t a dust issue. It was a timing issue.

As it turned out, the “Xerox sub set of xeroxed design documents” was intended for European televisions. Recall how the CPU had to carefully count instruction cycles once the display interrupt started – being off by a few instructions would be wrong. The requirement that the CPU be tightly bound to the video-chip meant you had to be really careful on what you did, when, and for how long. Too many people (10% ? 20%? Something like that) were finding the display to be unstable, or rolling, or even just “freaking out” on their television sets. Technically, the timing was right on the edge of what would work on US televisions. Those televisions with the ability to handle overscan (which was new at the time) were the unexpected problem.

There was no way to deliver a “patch.” There was no way to “reprogram” the games. The only way to fix the situation was to create an entire new ROM, which meant another 100,000 ROMS. The customers wanted their money back. And the game wasn’t much fun anyway.

Realizing there wasn’t a financially viable avenue out of this, Selchow&Righter accepted returns. Only the returns weren’t from the 10 or 20% of the affected customers, they were the entire inventory from Sears, Kmart’s and Crazy Eddie’s. All the useless inventory was collected in a warehouse, written off as a loss, and never heard from again.

Timing is everything.

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The Author: I’m Mike Montana, son of Rich Montana the developer. I was 14 at the time, and my father took me on as his apprentice and Chief Coffee Fetcher. He dumped the grunt-work of generating the hex-encoding of the player missile graphics to me, writing some small code (BCD math in assembly), and pretty much doing the drudgery he did not want to do - for which I thought I was the Coolest Kid in the World.  I learned how to do programming, soldering, debugging and how to copy Atari cartridges in this experience. This put me on the path of being the developer I am today some 35 years later.

87, Glib by Selchow and Righter!

This week I'm covering Glib by Selchow and Righter, the only released adult word game for the Atari 2600! I would like to offer a huge thank you to Mike Montana, the son of Glib programmer Rich Montana, for talking with me on this episode! I apologize for some buzzing during the interview, it did not sound like that during the recording. Mike was extremely nice to me and I'm so glad that he contacted me about Glib, in addition to telling me about his part in the programming. I will also be publishing a write up about Glib that Mike did, with his blessing. Thank you again Mike!

In two weeks I will be covering the homebrew game SCSIside/Ultra SCSIside, by Joe Grand. If you have any thoughts on this game, please send them to me at 2600gamebygame@gmail.com. Thank you so much for listening!

Pertinent Links

Random Terrain - Glib
No Swear Gamer 297 - Glib
Scrabble tile distributions and score values (English)
Don Sauter's Scrabble pages
8 Bit Workshop by Steven Hugg
Arcade USA - Q*Bert Minicade by Basic Fun

PB 5360, Q*Bert!

Thanks for your patience for this new episode on Q*Bert by Parker Brothers. Q*Bert is a fantastic arcade game and has a great port on the 2600, as well as many other systems! I hope you enjoy the episode. Next up in 2 weeks will be Glib by Selchow and Wrighter, the only adult word game released for the 2600 (I guess Hangman and Word Zapper are word games, but in my opinion they're skewed toward kids). If you've played Glib and would like to share your thoughts on the game, please send them to me at 2600gamebygame@gmail.com. Thank you so much for listening!

Pertinent LinQ*s

Tom Sloper's Sloperama
Tom Sloper interview by Scott Stilphen
Tom Sloper interview by CRV on Game Developer Research Institute's site
Q*Bert on KLOV
Random Terrain's Q*Bert page
Atari Age thread about gap in pyramid
Q*Bert 2600 arcade hack by RevEng
The No Swear Gamer 295 - Q*Bert!
SNES Podcast 4 - Q*Bert 3 with meeeeeeee
Arcade USA Minisode - Q*Bert!
Intellivisionaries Podcast 11 - Q*Bert, again with me!
Kenner Q*Bert 5 pack figure auction
Arcade USA Q*Bert Minicade by Basic Fun
Atari 2600 Homebrew Facebook group

MT 5659, Space Attack!

In this episode I discuss the M Network game Space Attack, which is the 2600 version of Intellivision's Space Battle. Coming up next is Q*Bert, which I'm sure some of you have heard of. If you'd like to submit feedback on Q*Bert or any other game I've already covered, please send it to me at 2600gamebygame@gmail.com. Thank you so much for listening!

Retro Gaming Discussion Show A to Zed of the Atari 2600
Space Attack on Random Terrain's site
Hal Finney interview by Scott Stilphen
Sea Battle for the 2600
Favorite Atari 2600 Games of Willie! Space Attack
The No Swear Gamer 281 - Space Attack

2016 Year in Review!

Happy New Year! I was hoping to get this out before 2017, but we had super extenuating circumstances that prevented that from happening. Sarah and I played through all the games that I covered in 2016, some of which I couldn't remember everything about, but that was kind of the point. I have forgotten many of the games I've covered, so going forward I think this will be a yearly tradition of helping me remember. Like I said in the show, listening on an AUDIO podcast to people playing VIDEO games may not be everyone's cup of tea, so you have been warned. All in all it was a fun way to celebrate New Year's Eve! I wish you all health and happiness for 2017, thank you for sticking with me for so long. I will see you very soon!