Christmas 2019!

Happy Holidays to you all, thank you once again for your patience and for listening.

Music from https://filmmusic.io
"We Wish you a Merry Christmas" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

"Jingle Bells" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

"Wish Background" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

"Deck the Halls B" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

"Oh Holy Night" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

"Angels We Have Heard on High" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

"The Terminal " by Luca Fraula (http://www.lucafraula.it/)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Other music from the Free Music Archive by
Borrtex
Dee Yan-Key
Kai Engel
Podington Bear
Squire Tuck
TRG Banks


Ornament photo from Dreamstime

2667, Roc 'n Rope by Coleco

The last game I'm covering this year is Roc 'n Rope by Coleco, from the Konami arcade game. Thank you for a wonderful if stunted year, I really needed the break. I'm really loving doing the research again and I hope to get ahead a little bit in the month of December. I will be doing a Christmas show, if you have ANY Christmas memories you want to share with us, please send them to 2600gamebygame@gmail.com by the end of day December 16. Sarah and I will be reading and listening to your messages in the show. Also, the next game I will cover in January is the Activision Decathlon. If you have any feedback on that game, why not get an early start and send it to me by January 12th. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving if you are in the USA; I am very thankful for all of you, and I thank you for listening.

Roc 'n Rope on Random Terrain
Roc 'n Rope on KLOV
Ed English's company Elerts web site
Ed English in a news story about Hasbro's Frogger, 1997

4L-2738, Mountain King!

This episode's game is Mountain King by CBS Electronics. It contains bats, which should tell you everything you need to know. Next up is the last game of the year, Roc 'n' Rope by Coleco. Please get your feedback to me at 2600gamebygame@gmail.com by end of day 1 December. I'm also planning another Christmas episode, if you have any Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa stories you would like to share (it doesn't have to be about video games), please get them to me by December 16th. As always, thanks for listening, and thanks to all who donated and watched along with my Extra Life half marathons. It was a lot of fun and I made my goal, which is awesome.

The King's Links

Mountain King on Random Terrain
Mountain King Easter egg page on Atari Compendium
Tony Roy's Mountain King Easter egg site
Ed Salvo interview by Scott Stilphen
Ron Hartman interview by Kevin Savetz
Anitra's Dance by Grieg
In The Hall of the Mountain King by Grieg
No Swear Gamer 567 Mountain King
NSG Mountain King Easter eggs
NSG Mountain King gameplay

AK-046, Tomcat The F-14 Fighter Simulator!

In this episode I cover the only plane flying simulator on the 2600 that I am aware of, Tomcat F-14. It certainly was an adventure! Up next is the CBS Electronics game Mountain King, so if you have thoughts on that game, send it to me at 2600gamebygame@gmail.com by November 17. My Extra Life half marathons are coming up this weekend on the 8th and 9th starting at 6 pm. Thanks to all who have donated so far, I'm still trying to reach my goal! You can donate at the link below, thanks for that and thanks as always for listening.

My Extra Life donation page, thank you!
Tomcat F-14 on Random Terrain
Dan Kitchen's web site
Interview with Dan by Classic Gamer 74
Interview with Dan by ZeroPage Homebrew
No Swear Gamer 374 - Tomcat F-14
No Swear Gamer Tomcat F-14 full mission
Eugenio's PRGE 2019 photo album
Arcade Blogger - Atari Bradley Trainer
Hugues Johnson's Console Timeline

PB 5540, Star Wars the Arcade Game!

Greetings fellow droids, in this episode we take a gander at Star Wars the Arcade Game by Parker Brothers, a port of the Atari vector arcade game. If you think that's confusing, wait until you hear THE REST OF THE STORY. It's a fun one! Coming up next is Tomcat F-14 Flight Simulator by Accolade, a late 80s release. I would especially like to know if you had this game when it originally came out. Please send your thoughts to me at 2600gamebygame@gmail.com by end of day November 3rd. I can't believe it's almost November. As always, I thank you for listening.

Star Wars on Random Terrain
Star Wars on KLOV
Bob Smith interview by Kevin Savetz on the ANTIC podcast
Michael Becker interview by Scott Stilphen
Atari Age Trakball modified games thread
Star Wars Trakball Series in the Atari Age store
Stragglin' Jim's Star Wars controls hack
Dan Kitchen interview by Classic Gamer 74

CX2691, Joust!

Hello there, thanks for waiting for this episode that features Joust by Atari! It's one of my favorite arcade games and is done pretty well on the 2600 (spoilers), probably because it was in the capable hands of GCC. Next up is Star Wars The Arcade game by Parker Brothers, which has an extremely interesting provenance. If you'd like to contribute to that episode, please send your feedback to 2600gamebygame@gmail.com by end of day October 20th, and I'll put it in the show. Thanks so much for listening!

My Extra Life donation page, thank you!
List of Radio Shack in store catalog games for sale by Kevin Gatland
Joust on KLOV
Kevin Osborn's Bald Wisdom blog
Michael Feinstein's Fein Line blog
Patricia Goodson at Atari Women site
Joust on Random Terrain
Joust on Atari Protos
Joust prototype photos on Atari Compendium
Joust prototype recreated by Thomas Jentzsch on Atari Age
Source code used for Joust prototype reconstruction (Wayback Machine)

1603, Quest for Quintana Roo!

In this episode we look at the game Quest for Quintana Roo, which I mispronounced for most of the show. Thanks to Eugenio for correcting me. I loved the game and I hope you will too. Next up is a big game, Joust by Atari via Williams. If you have any thoughts on this game, please get them to me by end of day 5th October and I'll put it in the show. Remember, just tell me your thoughts on the game, I'll take care of the game play. you can send those thoughts to 2600gamebygame@gmail.com. Thanks so much for listening!

Quest for Quintana Roo on Random Terrain
Atari Age thread on Quintana Roo Carbon Dating
Sunrise memo on Atarimania Page 1  Page 2
Ed Salvo interview by Scott Stilphen
Atari Compendium Quest For Quintana Roo Easter egg and bug page
No Swear Gamer 461 - Quest for Quintana Roo
No Swear Gamer - Quest for Quintana Roo gameplay

11011, M*A*S*H!

In this episode we take a look at the 20th Century Fox game M*A*S*H, and also do a mini Bonus Track on the TV show, sorry about that. Next up on the show will be Quest For Quintana Roo by Sunrise. If you have any feedback on this game, please send it to me at 2600gamebygame@gmail.com by end of the day September 21. NO STRAGGLERS. :)

There were no entries for the surprise contest in the Malagai episode. Either no one listened to the end of the show, or the clues were too, wait for it, obtuse.

As always, thank you so much for listening, I love each and every one of you.

Doug Neubauer interview by James Hague
David Lubar interview by Scott Stilphen
MASH on Random Terrain
MASH on Atarimania
Photo of Jamie Farr in Character with MASH game, Billboard magazine
Check out Bill Pepper's books!
Check out Marc Allie's books!
Check out my books!
Check out Please Stand By!

ASC 1001, Malagai!

Hi there, thanks so much for your patience for the last 6 months of my podcast drought. Today I bring you Malagai by Answer Software, and I also discuss their Personal Game Programmer. Next up on the show will be M*A*S*H by 20th Century Fox. If you have any feedback for that game, please send it to me at 2600gamebygame@comcast.net by September 7th. Thank you very kindly for listening, and once again I am grateful for your patience and kind thoughts and words.

There's still time to donate to Geekade's PITAthon to benefit the Colorectal Cancer Alliance!
Shoot The Moon Stitches
Al Backiel's review of the PGP-1 on Digital Press
PGP-1 on Atarimania
Malagai at Random Terrain
Malagai Easter Egg page at Atari Compendium
Wilson Oyama rolls Malagai
Malagai Kill screen by GregDeg

Video Store Golden Age with Greg!

In this episode I talk with Greg aka SoulBlazer from the SNES Podcast and the Playstation Power Podcast. He helped establish NES game rentals in the video store that his mother managed in the 80s and 90s. It's a fun interview and I hope that you enjoy it. As always, I thank you for listening.

The photo used as the artwork was found on Roger Ebert's web site without a photographer credit. Please don't sue.

AX-029, Crackpots!

Today's episode is about Crackpots, the Activision game that was the first 2600 game by Dan Kitchen, who went on to make many more (and is still making them!). I hope that you enjoy the episode.

Next on the podcast is Malagai, by Answer Software. If you have this game, I would love to see a photo of it on Facebook or Twitter, see the links below for those. If you have any thoughts on the game, please send them to me at 2600gamebygame@gmail.com by end of day 17 February. Just tell me what you think of it, I will take care of the nuts and bolts of the game. As always, I thank you for listening.

Crackpots on Random Terrain
Crackpots on Atari Protos
Dan Kitchen's web site
Dan Kitchen's Games site
Dan Kitchen interview by Classic Gamer 74
Atari Age thread on Keystone Kapers 2 discovery
Crackpots patch on Digital Press
...and accompanying letter
Crackpots commercial
Jim's Ferg Quest sprite hack
Ryan's Atari Age High Score Showdown post for Crackpots
Wilson Oyama's Crackpots playthrough video
No Swear Gamer 521 - Crackpots
Sean's Autobiography of a Schnook Podcast Chapter 5

CX 2690, Pengo!

This episode is all about the very cute Sega arcade game Pengo, as ported by Atari. Not by GCC, which is surprising for this time period. I hope that you enjoy the episode. Next up is Crackpots by Activision. If you have any thoughts on Crackpots, please get them to me at 2600gamebygame@gmail.com by 6 PM EST on 5 February.

Thank you for your patience, and for listening.

Pengo on Random Terrain
Pengo on Atari Protos
Pengo on KLOV
Mark Hahn interview by Scott Stilphen
Mark Hahn's web site
Andrew Fuchs' web site
Courtney Granner on San Jose State web site (features some artwork)
1984 Atari dealer catalog on Atarimania
Jim's hack of 2600 Pengo with Popcorn!
Pengo arcade soundtrack on Youtube
No Swear Gamer 299 - Pengo
Arcade USA - Pengo minisode
Atari 5200 Super Community Podcast - Pengo
Memory Machine Podcast - Christmas Menagerie
Gen X Grown Up Podcast

Interview: Jeff Ronne, Tron Deadly Discs

Greetings and welcome to my hopefully new feature, interview episodes! First up is Jeff Ronne, who was the programmer for Tron Deadly Discs from M Network. I really enjoyed talking with him and I am grateful to him for his time. He's an interesting guy and also one of the few programmers at that time who programmed games for multiple systems. If you have any comments, you can email them to me at 2600gamebygame@comcast.net, or leave them on the Facebook or Twitter pages. Thanks so much for listening!


Jeff Ronne on Quora
Takeover on Intellivision Lives
Tron Deadly Discs on Intellivision Lives
Tron Deadly Discs episode

MT 5662, Tron Deadly Discs!

Happy New Year! The first episode of 2019 is all about Tron Deadly Discs, by M Network, a tiny little division of Mattel Electronics. Please stay tuned to the feed for an interview with programmer Jeff Ronne. I enjoyed talking with him and I hope that you will give it a listen. Next up will be Pengo by Atari. If you have any feedback for Pengo, please get it to me by the end of the day 20th January. You can send it to 2600gamebygame@gmail.com.Thank you all so much for listening!

Tron Deadly Discs on Random Terrain
Jeff Ronne on Quora
Takeover on Intellivision Lives
M Network decal card on Atarimania
Tron Deadly Discs on Intellivision Lives
Encom 2600 mod by Russ Caslis
Atari Bytes 153 - Mega Force the Movie!
Tron for 2600 Atari Age Thread
Only Solutions by Journey