Arcadia Supercharger [Archive] - Retrogaming Roundtable

View Full Version : Arcadia Supercharger

HyruleHero

08-21-2010, 10:53 PM

Not sure exactly what this thing is so I read up on it. Supposedly it is an add on to the Atari 2600 that can play only certain games for it. I have a person I know willing to give or sell me this and some of the games. I am not sure about the rarity of it and I couldn't find it on the rarity guide. If anyone has any opinions about I am curious to what you all think. Unfortunately I do not have picks or game titles. I saw pics myself but did not jot down any info. But I never heard of this so maybe some you can shed some light...Thanks in Advance!!!

horseboy

08-22-2010, 12:27 AM

They changed the name mid-run to Starpath Supercharger. You may find more info that way. The supercharger is fairly common. All but two of the games are pretty common as well.

3rdman

08-22-2010, 12:41 AM

uncommon accessory, but not exactly rare. However many of the games for the sugercharger are some of the coolest games released for the 2600. It really pushed the boundaries of what the system was capable of, and should be appreciated in that context.

Steve W

08-22-2010, 02:44 AM

The games were loaded off cassette tapes through an audio cable attached to the very long cartridge. The games are mostly pretty impressive, using the extra memory the Supercharger had to make better games. Escape from the Mindmaster is still my favorite Atari 2600 game. And the Supercharger version of Frogger makes the Parker Bros. game look like crap in comparison. Suicide Mission is what Atari's Asteroids port should have looked like.

Rabbit Transit, Fireball, Killer Satellites, and Party Mix are the only games I would consider duds for the system. The rest are all pretty great. And you don't need to track down other cassette games (along with a tape deck to play them on), there's a CD of all the releases floating around out there called Stella Gets A New Brain. Just play them through a CD player, or do what I did and rip the CD to your computer and put them on your iPod or other MP3 player.

slapdash

08-24-2010, 12:45 AM

What? Rabbit Transit and Fireball are awesome! And I dig the tug of war game on Party Mix for pure simple fun.

And yeah, the Starpath version of Frogger kicks Parker Bros's version's ass, and the PB version was pretty damn good actually.

The Stella Gets a New Brain CD totally kicks ass too, and I'm not just saying that because I helped get it released. :-)

tom

08-24-2010, 04:49 AM

Carey85

08-25-2010, 05:14 AM

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4141/4926170062_c4c122e2b5_z.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4081/4926170068_2d58d27966_z.jpg

Got the manuals for all 12 Starpath games as well as boxes 1-4, although I have no real intention of obtaining the remaining Starpath boxes. Those case inserts for Survival Island and Sword of Saros are both inkjet repros that I made awhile back. Feels good man.

atariboy

08-25-2010, 08:12 PM

I too just picked one of these up at the local goodwill store. Where can I get a stella gets a new brain cd? I've tried looking for a place to get one and just keep hitting a dead end. There is one on ebay for $100 but I think it way over priced. (maybe I'm wrong). any help would be appreciated
Thanks

Aswald

08-26-2010, 02:32 PM

This was actually a pretty good product, especially in those days. I was really looking forward to the CV version of Phaser Patrol.

It proved that upgrades can work.

Steve W

08-27-2010, 01:13 AM

I've got a reproduction of Escape From the Mindmaster for the Colecovision, and it's pretty good. I'd love to see a prototype of Phaser Patrol for the CV. Although I can't imagine it playing better than the 2600 version, that one was fast.

You guys are making me wonder if my dismissal of Rabbit Transit and Fireball is founded. I was bored of 'Super Breakout' style games fairly quickly so Fireball wasn't too fun for me, but I don't remember much about Rabbit Transit, which means it wasn't very fun. Killer Satellites is still a dud, though. Nice box art, though. In fact, most of the box art for their games stood out.

Looks like I need to pull out the ol' Supercharger, plug in my iPod, and try the games out again.

Jisho23

08-27-2010, 10:42 AM

DRRRRAGONSTOMPER!!!!!!!
:rockets:

Ze_ro

08-27-2010, 11:22 AM

No one has mentioned it yet, but with a little screwing around, you can load lots of other games into the Supercharger as well. The device itself has 6k of RAM in it, so most (all?) 2k and 4k games can be loaded into it by converting them into a wav file, and either playing them through your PC's audio out and into the Supercharger, or by recording the wav files to a CD and then playing them into the Supercharger.

This might sound a little ghetto, but before we had stuff like the Cuttle Cart and Harmony Cart, the Supercharger was a fairly effective multicart type solution.

--Zero

CRTGAMER

08-27-2010, 10:55 PM

Got lucky years ago and got the kiosk demo cart for my Starpath. Unbelievable what one finds at swap meets.

http://www.atariage.com/2600/prototypes/proto_StarpathDemo.jpg

slapdash

08-28-2010, 08:59 PM

I've got a reproduction of Escape From the Mindmaster for the Colecovision, and it's pretty good.

On cart? Who makes that? Sounds like something I might like...

You guys are making me wonder if my dismissal of Rabbit Transit and Fireball is founded. I was bored of 'Super Breakout' style games fairly quickly so Fireball wasn't too fun for me,

Well, I suppose I could see that, but Fireball lets you get up 6 or 7 balls at once, which is a hoot.

but I don't remember much about Rabbit Transit, which means it wasn't very fun.

It's Q*Bert-esque, and fairly fast-paced. Maybe I just liked seeing all the baby bunnies being escorted across the menu after every level.

Got lucky years ago and got the kiosk demo cart for my Starpath. Unbelievable what one finds at swap meets.

Before they started showing up, I managed to get my minds on one from one of the Starpath guys; no lid, and sadly it didn't work. But at the time, unique. Then a bunch of the demo units showed up, and worse, I didn't manage to get one. :-{ Talk about a bummer!

slapdash

08-29-2010, 10:54 PM

I EVENTUALLY got one, and yeah, it might have been yours. But I was primarily going off about how depressing it was to go from a one-of-a-kind item, to working, complete ones showing up out of the blue.

[EDIT: PS: Scott, THAT was one of the games I thought about for the avatar contest!]

Rickstilwell1

08-30-2010, 02:21 AM

I've had mine a while I got mine CIB with the game Phaser Patrol that it came with. Not my type of game but it's nice having it in this condition. I think it was only $30 on ebay.

The cool thing is that if you are not collecting the tapes and just want to play the games, just like Commodore VIC-20 and Commodore 64 you can find the .wav files and record them on blank tapes and just use that. I think that since this Atari's tape player is just a normal one, these files could even work off a CD or mp3 player too.

slapdash

08-30-2010, 11:55 PM

Oh, Rick, where have you been? The complete library was released on CD. Oh, and to those who've asked, Hozer still had the CDs last I knew, only $5, unless the price has gone up.

phreakindee

09-06-2010, 12:09 AM

Oh, Rick, where have you been? The complete library was released on CD. Oh, and to those who've asked, Hozer still had the CDs last I knew, only $5, unless the price has gone up.

I was looking for a "New Brain" CD as well. Checked at Hozer's, and it says they are out. Only have "books" for the CD now, whatever that is.

Tupin

09-06-2010, 12:16 AM

phreakindee

09-06-2010, 12:24 AM

There's a utility out there, I believe it's called PlayBin that allows you to take 2600 .bin files and play them as audio suitable for a Supercharger. Any game under 4 or 8k (can't remember) will work, not just Supercharger games.

I've got several Windows utils that do that, I usually use MakeWav, but it would be sweet to have the CD just because... I dunno, I want it :D