Re: [stella] SuperDuperCharger interest check

[Lee Krueger <resqsoft@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Glenn Saunders wrote:
> I'm a big fan of this kind of hardware.  I didn't
> get an Intellicharger but
> that was mostly because I don't own an Intellivision.  There were
> a couple
> other devices like this in the pipeline a while back for the 2600 but
> they
> never really became shippable products.  It's going to be the
> only way I'll
> probably ever be able to play games like Save Mary on a real 2600,
> for
> instance.  Emulation is convenient but not nearly as satisfying
> as playing
> the real thing on a regular television set.
>  
I couldn't agree more. Emulators are nice, but nothing beats the real deal.

I made a list of games that most folks will never get to play play on real atari hardware. Here are just a few:

Acid Drop
Aquaventure
Bionic Breakthrough
Bugs Bunny
Combat2
Crazy Climber
Donald Duck's Speedboat
Dumbo's Flying Circus
Elk Attack
Fatal Run
Gremlins
Grover's Music Maker
Holy Moley
Magic Card
Mega Boy
Millipede -Proto
Monstercise
Motorodeo
Pick 'N' Pile
Q*Bert's Qubes
Quadrun
Saboteur
Save Mary!
Shooting Arcade
Sinistar
Surf's Up
Swordquest Waterworld
Telepathy
The A-Team
Tooth Protectors
Video Life
Wing War
Xevious

These games alone are worth the price of a SDC, if not for play value, but just to see what they actually look like. 
Also, for folks wanting to move away from developing more than just 4k games the SCD makes for great staging hardware for testing with minimal effort.
The only other hardware that is readily accessible for this type of development, is the 7800 devlopers kit (but it requires modifying 7800 hardware). The SDC is a cheap alternative for 2600 developers and game players alike.

I have got to see first hand what Chad's SDC can do. So far there is not an Atari 2600 game yet, in my testing,  that doesn't work on this hardware. The Atari Super Chip games work as do the CBS Ram Plus games, the CommaVid games and even the 64K Megaboy cart!  There will be live demonstrations of the SDC at the NorthWest Classic Games Enthusiasts Expo tommorow. (http://NWCGE.org). If you are in the area, come on by :-)

In any event, nice work Chad. I hope that you can get enough interest to justify making these. It'd be a shame not to.

-Lee
--

ResQsoft Research & Technology: <http://home.earthlink.net/~resqsoft>
Check out the Atari 2600 CD Compilation for play on your Supercharger: <http://home.earthlink.net/~resqsoft/wtw.htm>

"No Atari; no fun" <==> "Know Atari; know fun" /|\
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