Activision patch #5, Pitfall !! I am a natural

Yep, still no Kaboom .... Although I consistently hit 2000 + mark, I still can not get to the 3000 points.

So Pitfall.... First game in 30 years and I exploded the patch score (20 000 points), with a whopping 79840 points.
Not much to say about this attempt, as I wrote, first try, I was done after 4 minutes, the rest of the game (20 minutes total), I tried to go as far as possible. This really felt easy to do, I know that finishing the game is not easy on the other side, I did not try this. Finishing Pitfall! should be a topic for a
post series one day, how to complete Pitfall!, I already know that you have to go left and not right, like for any other platformer, and making a map of the tunnels is key.

I remember buying this game for Christmas, with my grandparents, and convincing them that waiting for Christmas day was silly, so I should play it right away. I also saw a Compumate that day, back when I thought that my Atari would one day become a computer of some sort (to do what, who know). The outcome of this is that I now only have Kaboom and Enduro to beat, then I will really need to win some eBay auctions to get games like Frostbite, Chopper Command, Megamania etc...

Compumate for Atari 2600

I remember Pitfall as a deep game with many levels that no 8 year old (in my mind) would ever finish, I discovered that it is also very nice, the colors are vibrant, a typical Activision theme. And the reason why I am a late bloomer to Activision colors is because I grew up with that F'ed up Secam color system, were the Atari 2600 could only produce 8 colors (!!!) as opposed to 128 in NTSC, it makes a big difference,
Darrel Spice made a great comparison on his site, see below. This is crazy, but I did not know better back then, you lucky bastards in America.

PAL 8 colors

NTSC 128 colors

So fifth patch, my collection is starting to look like something

Pitfall! patch Activision Atari

Activision patch #4, Skiing 28.14sec !!! WWeeeeeee

Activision Skiing Atari 2600

I got tired of miserably failing at Kaboom, especially after looking at threads on AtariAge were people routinely beat 5000 points, and some end up in the hundreds of thousands (reminder, I am stuck at 2754 :), but last evening I beat 2000 multiple times so I might be improving).

Anyway, got bored, so I decided to try my luck for 5 minutes on another Activison. After trying 2 (!!) bad Decathlon cartridges, I settled on Skiing.

Another great game were you have to learn to do small adjustments to your trajectory and get as close as possible to the gates so that you can pass multiples in a row. 5 minutes became an hour, but I finally beat the 28.2 sec patch score, barely by doing 28.14 seconds. I read that Skiing introduced scrolling to Atari games, not sure if this is true, but it is really a well made game. And the controls are there also so simple, right and left only, the down direction being used for starting your run only. And the button ? well it is so useless that it is used to retry your run. No jumping or anything else, just reset. After Kaboom, another super simple to learn game, but probably hours of gameplay.

Skiing Atari 28.14s

So here you go patch #4 !!

28.14seconds and patch #4 Activision Skiing.

I am really getting low on Activision games now, I think I still have kaboom (errr) and Enduro to beat. Time to browse eBay/CL/Goodwill for more. I also want to try out these game son other consoles, either exclusives like the ones on the Intellivision, or the Atari 5200 renditions of the 2600 games.

Activision patch #3, Laser Blast, 100 000 pts+ ZZzzzzzz

I was very surprised with Laser Blast as I tend to think of Activision games of that era, to be some of the best, but this one is bad, really bad. Even more surprising, it was designed by David Crane, himself, unbelievable. I have to remember this the next time I see him in a convention.

Laser Blast, you snooze, you loose, otherwise you win

I managed to get the patch score (100 000 pts) on my second try, the first try was just to lean the commands, and there is not much to learn. 3 enemies, half of the time they sit idle, you shoot them, next screen (aka next 3 enemies). The other half of the times, one of them tries to shoot at you, either you are lucky (80% of the time) and you shoot first, or you are not and you lose a ship. Done, end of the game. Since it is very generous in giving extra lives (every 1000 points, aka 3 screens), you quickly max out (6 lives), and you browse to the patch score without any problem, the only challenge is to stay awake.
90 points per enemy, 270 points per screen, 371 screens to get to 100 000, or 1112 enemies. Probably 30-45 minutes.

I can safely say that little Billy who is excited in the commercial is a loser and was always picked up last at recess.

That game is an interesting discovery, for the ones who thought that  the 1983 crash was caused by poor games from fly by night companies, well, the greatest of them all also produced crap.

Laser Blasting my garage

Proof that I did it, David, send me a patch please

Federation of Laser Blasters ....

I hope the next game is going to be much better. I think I might try the Activision Decathlon challenge, I remember playing this one to death, I might be able to do it.

The one fun thing is that if you really have 5 hours of boring time you can hit the million, apparently the score shows 1!!!!!!! and you get a special badge. Without me, I was picked up first.

Laser Blast 1 million points patch

Activision patch #1 Freeway

Freeway Atari 2600 Activision.

Well, so I have no shame to admit I don't remember ever beating a score that would give me an Activision patch back in the days, or perhaps I did, but I did not care to get the patch, or perhaps I cared, but did not send these patches to France.

Anyway, I decided today to go on a quest, and to get some patches (well I initially said all, but come on..), using my ever expanding collection of carts. Turns out I miss many Activision games, so good excuse to spend time and money on eBay.

If you don't know what these patches are, they were fabric patches, that you could get by beating certain score on Activision games. Apparently they would make you look cool on your jean jacket, next to the Ac/DC button and the peace and love sign. Very similar to the acheivements that you have everywhere today (gamificaiton of games.... Hooray for Activision)  Link to AtariAge that explains a little more.

So I had to pick game to start, I was hoping to find a list by order of difficulty, but couldn't so I tried at random a game that I always wanted to dive a little more into but never really had the time, Freeway. Similar to Frogger, but less known, maybe better, at least on Atari, you nee to help a chicken cross the freeway. And for whoever witnessed a chicken crossing a high traffic road, this has promises, a lot. So, quick look at the patch rules, I need to score 20 points on either game 3 or 7. I have no idea what are the differences between the games, typically, speed changes, and onscreen enemies change also. I went to game 3, and tried.

And tried, and tried again. It took me about half an hour and I did it, I feel like I am on the top of the world, I score 20 points, and I am sure I can push this score by a little more if I had to. So this gives me the honer to send a picture of my screen to Activision (btw, back then w/o digital, how many kids took a picture , had to wait a week for it t be printed, then realized it was black, or the flash on the screen etc..). And supposedly, I should receive a save the chicken foundation  patch.

Save The Chicken Foundation Patch

and here is the proof.

20 points, freeway game 3.

My game room, also known as my garage. (yes I am beating records on a Heavy Sixer)

Atari Music Machine complete in Edmonds

Can't figure out why, but Edmonds was not the place I thought you would go to get one of the rarest Atari 2600 cart. But this is going to change, this guy is selling on CL a complete copy of the Music Machine, along with the record that goes with it. This game was only sold in religious bookstores. It’s based on a line of The Music Machine products that also included LP’s sold by Sparrow. 

Cart only go for $200+ on eBay (well some ask for more, but they sell for $200+).

Atari Music Machine with LPs

Boxed Ultima 1 going for much dollars on eBay

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=111095530816&item=111095530816&lgeo=1&vectorid=229466

$800 and 1 day to go.

nice find, i think, but the box is not that exciting for me (not that I am anywhere ready to spend that much on a game.

Atari 800 Ultima 1

Atari 800 Ultima 1

Atari 800 Ultima 1 box content

Atari 800 Ultima 1

Found my second Heavy Sixer, in the wild this time

Heavy Sixer on Craigslist Seattle

Last weekend I found this post on Craigslist Seattle with a photo of a heavy sixer in box, a box with the chess piece no less !!! I texted right away asking for availability and price and got a text back, how does $50 sounds ? Sweet. I might have been bale to get it for less, but I was not going to risk having somebody bid over me and I wanted to be fair, so $50 was good.
I drove and met the original owner who was clearing hid dad's garage. The console has been in storage for 30 years it sounds like.
I got what I saw on the picture, a heavy sixer in nivce condition with a box that has the chess piece on it.  But I wanted to check the joysticks, I opened the box, and saw the marvelous Cx-10 joystick, loaded with springs. It makes a nice click click on every direction, and the fire button has to be depressed deeply.  I asked the owner, but apparently, there was no game in the garage, which I found strange seeing how cleanly the console was kept. And I saw 3 carts in the box when I fully opened it at home. Lose carts though, not too nice, but they must be from the first run. There was a coupe of catalogs from early 80s inside the box, so they might have bought more games, they are supposed to contact me if they find some.

Heavy Sixer Chess box

I have seen many of these on eBay, except, I did not want to pay $200+ prices. I am glad I fund one by myself, just browsing for some stuff on CL.

Not I have an older one I won on ebay, but that doe snot come with complete rays, CX-10s or the chess piece, so it is going back to eBay.

Heavy sixer chess box !!

Heavy sixer box, back

It has the complete cardboard trays inside. Heavy sixer atari 2600

Cx-10 Atari in tray 

And the paddle controllers

Atari game catalogs

First edition (c) 1977 of the manual and a $5 voucher from 1981. 

Atari Cx-10 joystick

Atari 2600 Heavy Sixer serial number. Made in Sunnyvale, CA

Back of my heavy sixer