Atari 2600 Games SuperCharger Add-on - Rare!

[@LGR]

Love my Starpath Supercharger, and the extra technical capability it adds to the system. You can also use Makewav software on your PC to convert ROMs of games over to a format it recognizes to play "backups" if a Harmony cart proves elusive/costly!

[@LGR]

***** Quite possibly, I know it was an American company.

[@googaagoogaa12345678]

I would love to see a review of it from you your view rock I just saw the sexy mouse one by the way

[@miciso666]

u got a superpath lgr? never knew :P

[@LeSarthois]

***** Laate answer, but there are PAL versions. I have one I got from the UK, and there is one I saw online for sale from Italy with a PAL sticker on it. There are some Supercharger tapes with PAL on them on online auctions from European coutries, rarely, but it was released there. By who? Maybe Epyx, since they bough Starpath in 83.

[@paulgraves1392]

Clint mentions it in his review for the Atari 2600 from 2008.

[@Ovalbugmann]

Great collection John!, I noticed you have a Atari Age Harmony Cart - Pre-production Special Edition #7 thats cool!!, i have #34 - there were only 50 of these pre-prod ones avail from Fred Quimby, the developer, on atariage - i was very excited about the project and got one of these early ones too. It doesn't play every single 2600 game but the later Harmony carts did get 100% compliance. I've been a member of atariage.com since about 2005 and have the same avatar and username there. I am a big Jaguar fan tho and spend much of my time in the Jaguar forum of the site. Albert Yarusso, Owner of AtariAge really has a great Atari site with AA and its the definitive Atari fan site on the internet. Hope to see some of your posts there.

[@slade307]

FYI - Like with the CD in the video, all of those data cassettes can be converted to MP3 files with capture hardware. Cassettes can wear out, but you can use an MP3 player to play the data for the system.

[@PJH1968]

This was a really great video this week - thanks John for sharing your stuff, MJR keep up the good work! More of this obscure stuff please!

[@wifflegames2325]

Always informative and a pleasure to watch. Thank you Metal Jesus!

[@slade307]

I remember that add-on, but I never got one. I had cassette on my TRS-80 Model III.

[@TRUESEPH]

Mr. Hancock has very kind eyes. He seems like a real chill dude.

[@l--..--l-i3m]

Super interesting like always. Thanks a bunch for the video!

[@trebuchetgunt2432]

You could have the sound files turned into a vinyl record and then load it with a turntable!

[@mrserv0n18]

Metal Jesus you should do a few guitar videos, maybe a lesson or tricks or something

[@sandal_thong8631]

I saw the Supercharger in an electronics / computer store. I remember it being expensive. I wasn't impressed with the first few games, and watching this video I could see why. Looks like 5, "Escape from the Mindmaster," and 6, "Dragonstomper" were the first good ones. Decided to spend money on comic books, and my Vic-20 instead.

[@bland9876]

ah I remember having to load game of of discs that was back befor we had cards that could load games instantaneously

[@terrariorecords]

Opeth poster = total win

[@thebestinthecitycmpunk400]

Hey,Metal Jesus you should do Best Compilation & Collection Sets Part 3 or PS2 Collecting - Hidden Gems Part 2!!!!!!!!

[@rayallen144]

I remember this, I actually wanted one, but never got it :)

[@llamaboy1991]

I love when john smiles and his eyes disappear lol

[@handrewmillan4293]

ive successfully scammed you simps happiness

[@brianwalker7771]

Maybe some one can make a GOOD version of Pac man for the 2600 with this adapter.

[@iespostavid]

BRIAN WALKER Done! (Although the author of this has made an even better “New Pac-Man 8K” that is too large for the Supercharger.) His 4K with cut scenes that will run from the Supercharger is here: atariage.com/forums/topic/241694-supercharger-gamesbetter-pac-man-asteroids/?do=findComment&comment=3300842

[@10p6]

The 2600 Ram part mentioned here is mistaken as the 2600's 128 bytes of Ram is work ram, and the rest of the game was stored on Rom in the cart. Here no cart rom is available to store the game, so the game is loaded into the 6KB Ram. This does not suddenly make more physical Ram available for the system.

[@mission-toast]

Escape from the Mindmaster is actually a pretty fun game. As for Dragonstomper, it is forever the title that I think of when someone mentions the Starpath Supercharger. An early RPG well ahead of its time.

[@nerfherder4284]

I used to play a first person 3d style game with master in the name, that must be it. When you died I remember it giving you an IQ score and mildly insulting you 😂

[@MizzahTee]

I love this obscure gaming stuff. Awesome vid MJR!

[@MetalJesusRocks]

I'm glad you enjoyed it! I like to mix things up every once in a while :)

[@Diabolo2014]

MetalJesusRocks Thats nice of your channel and also you made videos of all companys (nintendo, xbox, ps, sega, etc)

[@gorfulator]

Wow! just met one of the STARPATH founders at a garage sale this weekend! I bought an jacket with an EPYX logo!!!

[@MetalJesusRocks]

+gorfulator seriously?! That's very cool!!

[@gorfulator]

+MetalJesusRocks They're might be more info later...

[@gorfulator]

+gorfulator there

[@Iliek]

+gorfulator Keep stroke'n that e-peen!!

[@emmanuelmckoy5899]

@@gorfulator update

[@Barnacules]

I used to live at KB Toy's and Toy 'R US growing up and I never saw one of these. They must have had horrible marketing :D

[@craigunderhill5682]

That's where I got mine way back in the 80's. It was on clearance at Toys R Us.

[@PSYK0MANT1S]

I used to have a SUPERCHARGER, and DragonStomper was one of my most favorite games of all time. Never forget.

[@get2joe]

Thumb ups for the Snake Plissken shirt alone but the rest of the video was great too.

[@SeaJay_Oceans]

At the ending of Escape from New York, Snake calmly rips up the data tape everyone was fighting and dying to get a hold of... the best ending ever ! :-) [feel the irony of the T-shirt as he is talking about the Supercharger, which runs programs stored on data tapes...]

[@landonlunsford4714]

John has the passion I really like to see from collectors,you can tell John and mjr really love gaming and all that comes with it.

[@TheCoolDave]

I've had a super charger for many years. But, only saw one or 2 games for it, thanks for showing all the games I didn't know about. I do know they are very hard to find as it was such a odd ball item...

[@TheShamusOfSlots]

I had a SUPER CHARGER back in the day ... my favorite game was Dragon Stomper ... you were right on ... I played it A LOT! Best Atari 2600 game, easily! Eventually sold everything to buy my first computer! It was amazing what they came up with for so little money!

[@Video-Games-Are-Fun]

i can imagine if adventure were made for the super charger. would have been a nice 2.0 version of that game. it was the chrono trigger of the 2600

[@NewAgeGigolo]

Dragon Stomper was so superior to everything else. And, like you, we probably felt like we were the only kids experience seeing that special world and novel early RPG concepts.

[@MetalJesusRocks]

What are some of the other funky add-ons or attachments for other consoles are you aware of?

[@punja73]

I had this add on device for my SNES that let me play NES cartridges on my SNES. The device was called a Tristar i think and it wasnt endorced by Nintendo of course and after a while it stopped working, sadly i no longer have it

[@TheFightak]

The add-on for the GameCube that let me play GameBoy games on the big screen.

[@aerosmithgamer]

Steel Battalion controller for the XBox is probably my favorite, but I also love the Intellivoice and ECS modules for the Intellivision. Scooby Doo's Maze Chase for the win!

[@SpookySkellyGurl]

Those bongos for the GameCube, the only way to play Donkey Kong Jungle Beat. Donkey Konga was pretty lame, though.

[@Trogdor1984]

The portable TV unit for the Game Gear was pretty badass back in the day - plus you could poke people from a distance with the oversized antennae :P

[@farmhousemedia3000]

The fact that is runs from an audio headphone jack, MetalJesusRocks, how AWESOME would it be to have the Starpath SuperCharger games collection on VINYL!

[@theannoyedmrfloyd3998]

The Adequate Gamer CyberPunks already mastered them on to CD.

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

@@theannoyedmrfloyd3998 True. That being said, there were a few (very small) programs released for the Commodore 64 on vinyl: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bJCmi6N8ptt3h9E

[@anthonynorton666]

Nice presentation. Good to know that I'm not the only one fascinated by those pioneering days of 8-bit computing and gaming.

[@Barnacules]

My Texas Insturment computer growing up also had a cassette loader. I remember it taking 15 - 20 minutes to just load up gold digger.

[@shawnschaller]

Nothing like dinner and shower while your game loads. Almost as enjoyable as powernaps while Link fights his way onto the next screen on the Faces of Evil for the CDI

[@richardherzog5405]

Waiting is the best part. Anticipation

[@GeoNeilUK]

+Barnacules Nerdgasm I like how the Commodore 64 had music to play while the loading took place, but I'm having a bit of a 'gasm myself over this Supercharger. Perhaps it got killed off due to the 1983 American Crash, but could you imagine a disk based Supercharger (or Turbocharger as they were probably planning on calling it)

[@zachh4260]

I like John because he's one of the few collectors with a massive collection that isn't a total dick. I know a lot of these guys and most of them are stuck up, arrogant, a-holes who have little cliques with other collectors and if you don't have as much stuff as them then you aren't "cool" enough to even talk to them. I also like that John got his stuff in the wild and didn't just spend 100k on ebay within 2 years like a lot of other "collectors"

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

"Dragon Stomper" is considered by many to be the first RPG video game, and I have very fond memories of it. Getting to the dragon at the end of that cave was incredibly satisfying (because it was so darn hard to do!) "Escape From the Mind Master" has just the right amount of problem solving and anxiety over being found by the "mind master" (that changing sound depending on how close he was to you used to have me and my friends on pins and needles!) Great fun, even with crappy graphics (but amazing for the system because of the extra RAM and storage capacity compared to cartridges). Do a search for "Stella Gets a New Brain" by CyberPunks for the CD with all of the games on it, including an unreleased game, "Sweat". [edit: Oops! Guess I should watch the whole video before posting...] Cyberpunks is a great friend to the retro computing crowd because they also produced a series of VHS (remember those?) and DVDs of "Stella At 20", which was a collection of Atari 2600 videos with the guys and gals that designed the system and software. You might be able to find "Stella at 20" somewhere here on KZbin... For example... kzbin.info/www/bejne/eX-tZmSloLN-p6s

[@a.i.privilege1233]

I drew a map of all the traps in the cave by trial and error lol

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

@@a.i.privilege1233 I may have as well, though I seem to remember there was a scroll or potion you could get somewhere that revealed where the traps were. It's been AGES since I played it though. [edit: Found this playthru that shows you can get the 'Vision' scroll, but this guy didn't bother with it: kzbin.info/www/bejne/b5vHc5JnnsapjZI ]

[@robertdulany6811]

I played Dragonstomper back in the day. It was amazing at the time.

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

Considered by many to be the first true RPG. [edit: Okay, ONE of the first ones]

[@justinrvarga7236]

There's still a lot of charm with these old retro games. It's becoming my new obsession.

[@JL0ndon]

I love how all these game covers are a mix of the best 80s metal album covers, B movie titles and space communists 😂 I’m just sad survival island didn’t have great packaging like the rest because that name SCREAMs a great and funny cover with a man like Indiana Jones and woman like Kelly LeBrock running away from some insane weapons and explosions lol

[@Puddingfuzz]

it's 2014 and I'm still amazed that this exist and works through the headphone jack xD

[@richardadams4928]

I had the Supercharger back in the day, it was AWESOME!!! Fireball's better than the guys gave it credit for, it's more like Arkanoid than Breakout. I had everything but Frogger and the mail order titles. Dragonstomper and Mindmaster were really great.

[@MarkWandRobBobPresent]

Dragonstomper was perhaps the first RPG for any home console. (So, not counting "computers".)

[@OmarRamzi]

Atari was just before my time and I had something pretty similar known as an msx. Still very cool to see these old games play.

[@Rorotte]

MetalJesus I'm planning on coming to LA from the greatness of Britain and wanted to know if you could recommend some cool shops to go visit, and rob them of all their glorious retro goodness. (If anyone else could recommend some good places please feel free!)

[@gamerhood950]

Don't think I've ever commented on a video, only had my channel a few days, but just wanted to say I love your videos man. Been watching for a couple years, and love your content The Atari was my first console in the early 80's, still have fantastic memories. I remember getting addicted to Frostbite lol.

[@MetalJesusRocks]

Frostbite is totally badass! Love that game :)

[@gamerhood950]

MetalJesusRocks Sometimes late at night, when everything is quiet....I can still hear the jumping lol. Such a distinct sound.

[@syntaxerror9994]

You stopped playing survival island too soon. After you get to the shore you have to find a temple with whatever your stats and items collected from the previous game. I never got to the temple myself. Progress is saved via a password system.

[@majorhemroid]

Ingenuity back in the 80's was off the charts

[@timg2727]

Good video, but it's impressive how much you've improved in the last couple years.

[@MaximumRD]

I do not have this, considered it, fortunately many of the games have been converted for use on my HARMONY CART.

[@KevinTwiner]

That is awsome Rob..what games work on it?

[@MaximumRD]

Kevin Twiner I believe most if not all, they must be converted from .wav to rom format to work on the Harmony cart for the 2699/7800 fortunately the fine people at atarimania did just that including them in the vcs rom pack collection you can get here www.atarimania.com/rom_collection_archive_atari_2600_roms.html either way it is a awesome organized and sorted thorough vcs rom pack for harmony cart or just emulators. enjoy.

[@KevinTwiner]

thanks Rob...your awsome

[@alexbrookner5331]

I don't watch either of these guys, but I get a much better vibe FrOm metal Jesus than John hancock, I'm not sure why

[@SystemSyko]

Snake Plisskin LOL. Im not one for the Atari 2600. I would usual skip vids about Atari stuff but i watched just cause i think John Hancock is a down to earth guy. I enjoy watching vids where he guest stars.

[@ShinAnimaid]

This was great to discover! I had a TRS-80 (after getting an Atari VCS), and I had game carts, but I also had games on cassette they sold for it. Someone also gave me some too. But I didn't know about the cassette games for Atari. Pretty cool.

[@geraldford6409]

Had a Supercharger back in the day circa mid 80s. Played Mindmaster for hours.

[@misturchips]

I may still have my SuperCharger and several tapes. Would you like it? One thing: Patry Mix has an AWESOME Tug-o-war game in it; quite fun! I'm wondering why you didn't actually show the loading screen... Those tones were so killer to hear!

[@misturchips]

I was going to mention that damned tug-o-war game... LOVED it! Wish I hadn't ditched all my supercharger stuff in the move... Wondering about the loading screen, too...

[@madz2855]

Just came across this video, Wow I still have my Starpath and the Atari 2600 will have to dig it out again sometime

[@juliadelphia936]

Wow! Thanks for the memories. I have the Atari 2600 console, the supercharger, and I think most of the original games on cassette. Haven't played them since the early 1980's. Maybe someday I'll get them out and see if I can clean up the console and games and see if they work.

[@MrKroogur]

Great episode! The only thing I can remember for crazy add-ons was the Sega Channel which you got through your cable company and it had an adapter to put in your Genesis and there were about 50 games available and they switched up the games every month.

[@Dorelaxen]

I have a SuperCharger and a Harmony Cart. I use an old Gen 1 I-Pod with the original cassette audio on it. Works great once you learn how to fiddle with the volume. I do need to get me a Stella CD sometime, though.

[@ryanyoder7573]

7 years later and MJR content is still being recommended and rightfully so.

[@mulletmcnugget]

I always wanted one of these as a kid after seeing adverts for it in my comics. Never got one.

[@samfrito]

John is frickin cool. Dig that Snake Plissken shirt. Great vid. I loved the Super Charger back in the day. Glad you guys reminded me of the wild times. Phaser Patrol was so amazing to me.

[@kranibal]

Thanks for introducing me to this obscure 2600 device!

[@eriks3260]

I had one the first week it came out. And still have it with 5 games!!!!!

[@acruz339]

MJR you rock! I thought I knew almost everything about atari too, but never heard about this. Thanks for sharing the knowledge. Keep up the good work.

[@KevinR1138]

I love my StarPath, Survival Island is not given enough screen time here, they never even showed what happens when you get to the island & everything you have to go through to finally escape the island. It is one of my favorite games from back in the 80s.

[@ryanbarker5217]

i had a supercharger back in the day. if i remember correctly, it was $80 ~ a lot of money for a kid! but, again if i remember correctly, the games themselves were a lot cheaper. to be honest, the games i had for it rather sucked, *but* 'dragonstomper' sucked away many, many, *many* hours of my life! lol. that was one cool game in that era. my friend had an apple II and all those classic early computer games, and this competed with those fairly well.

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

The games were generally better, too, since the unit had additional memory and could multi-load games. The 2600 on its own only had 128 bytes (yes, BYTES) of RAM, so any additional memory is helpful.

[@JoeSiegler]

My brother and I loved Mindmaster & Dragonstomper. Played a LOT of Dragonstomper. :)

[@METALL_SURGERY]

Нихрена себе приблуда! Я тож такую хочу! What an amazing accessory! I want it!

[@robertmanley4597]

Harmony Cart FTW!!! Worth every penny and works great on original ROMs and homebrews alike. After I got this I bought a modified A2600 Vader console (with RC jacks for Video/Audio), then turned around and sold off my entire 2600 collection of 200 carts, Supercharger, and Heavy Sixer with controllers. And I have never regretted my decision! Awesome!

[@ctg8563]

Hey I'm from the future you have mold in your game room. Lol jk

[@treksterjsc]

Nice video thanks for the nostalgic look back. I still own my original. I was blown away by the graphics back in the day. Phasee Patrol looked better and had more option than it's Atari Computer Big Brother Star Raiders And the Official Frogger is pretty awesome as well.

[@Luvkraaft76]

Nice vidéo, did not know this could exist. Just a question : cassettes are quite fragile, do they still work after more 30 years?Thanks for your vidéo and Keep the good work!!! Luvkraaft

[@CrazyJoe]

Obscurities are my favorite! I learned something new today. Thank guys.

[@TheGebs24]

Beautiful.... What more cans I say?!!

[@SolidSonicTH]

Apparently Frogger exists due to a loophole. The rights given to Parker Bros. were only under the terms of releasing on cartridge media, which left tape media up for grabs. Learned that from Larry Bundy, Jr. There are other versions of Frogger that are published on tape for a similar reason.

[@Greathall75]

Great video, but you guys should have mentioned that Survival Island also contains a completely different "dungeon-crawler" style game that kicks in once you reach the island.

[@xucaen]

You mentioned that the Harmony cartridge is the best way to stream or youtube Atari 2600 games... The problem I have run into is some of my cartridges won't stream at all because they has an odd resolution that the software can't handle. Does the Harmony output a constant frame rate and resolution?

[@GeoNeilUK]

The Supercharger seems like an awesome addon! It shows what the 2600 could have done if only it had the RAM, of course, it was released in 1977 when RAM was prohibitively expensive and because it's a console, you can't expand on it over time (though I guess you can install RAM in the cartridge, which is possible considering I was seeing the 2600 advertised on TV in the 1990s "The fun is back, oh yes siree!!") lso, I find that the covers are more like 1990s Psygnosis game covers (which were probably in turn based on prog rock album covers)

[@ravelprelude]

Question: I am a 13 year old who loves retro gaming. I love n64, nes, ps1, and sms games. But I am intrigued by these awesome atari games.Simple, but absolutely fun. I have wanted to get an atari for a year, but I also want an snes. I can only have one, so what should I get? Should I get an atari?

[@thegreaterg8r148]

32 Bit gamer I'm exactly the same and either get a retron 5 or SNES ( SNES also has a homebrew adapter to play genesis and GBA games!) and the snes has great games too!

[@Video-Games-Are-Fun]

you are a 32 bit gamer fan? why this generation?

[@JarodMoonchild1975]

32 Bit gamer Get the snes.

[@AnalogX64]

John Hancock is always a great guest.

[@xucaen]

I would love to own a Supercharger but they're just too expensive for me. Thanks for reviewing these games, some of them I've never seen before.

[@MostlyAwesome]

Man I had one of these as a kid but could never remember the name, I've told people about it over the years and never found anyone else that remembered it. I had begun to think I made it up in my mind, thanks for helping me keep my sanity, or is this all part of the simulation?

[@nephildevil]

yeah on my spectrum which was with cassettes you also had to just go watch some tv or something while the game was loading, and then later after all that waiting it happened many times that you just got loading error, then tweak the volume, treble and so on and then had to start all over again. Oh the joy when it finally loaded and you could play the game :D

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

Dragonstomper is considered by some to be one of the greatest games ever made and also one of the very first RPGs. In November 2005, Ed Lin writing for Forbes named "Dragonstomper" as "the best title ever made in the history of U.S. video gaming" by a single person. It is actually a lot of fun and I spent many an hour playing that game as a kid! JW3HH

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

The Starcade/Arcadia Supercharger suffered the same fate as the Vectrex: It came out too late and/or cost too much. Both are excellent systems, though. GCE had big plans for the Vectrex, but most of them never materialized. JW3HH

[@Midori_Hoshi]

I never knew the 2600 had games on cassette tape.

[@SkotNealey]

I always wanted KC Munchkin as a kid. I have it now, but my Odyssey 2 won't work....I can't win with this! But maybe that KC Atari game will work to satisfy that need for fulfilling my childhood.

[@rubendlove]

hey Metal Jesus... you want to know why i love to see your videos?.. because you're a humble man... keep it that way man!..

[@tomsuzyinfluencerinfj2712]

What do you mean "smooth scrolling for Atari'. The VCS was made with scrolling in mind.

[@thesman32]

it's unfortunate that magnetic tape only has a life expectancy of about 50 years so your games are going to stop working in about 30 years.

[@ZombieDancer]

Go want John Hancock's hat! Great video I had no idea this existed. I have a cassette tape drive for my Atari 400

[@johneygd]

In my opinion, frogger is the only real serious hardware pusher for the supercharger ,all other games still just look berally simple,what this addon actually needed was pac man,donkeykong and space invaders in enhanced form to become the killer app for it ,but who had ever tout that atari upgrade their old system to become a sort of stop gap between old and new gen consoles,who had ever tout that the 2600 became such upgradible.

[@metallimaniac]

Cool video. I never got into Atari stuff (a little bit before my time) but the first video games I played were on the Amstrad CPC. I miss those cassettes and the god awful loading tone. Sounded like connecting to AOL in the late 90s, haha.

[@bazdaniels7420]

I know a guy who goes around buying craploads of old video games and he comes to me with his pre-NES stuff to let me test and put everything together... then he gives me something cool from the lot... well one time he gave me a Supercharger! So now I can play Dragonstomper and Phaser Patrol. ...Then, I actually met the guy who programmed Phaser Patrol, at a flea market.

[@carlosbragatto]

Hey MetalJesus, here in Brazil we had the SuperCharger but it had a twist: it was a pirate cart, and it didn't play starpath games. Instead, it played regular games that have been pirated onto cassette tapes ! I have HERO, Enduro, PacMan, Ms PacMan, all on cassette tapes !

[@NewAgeGigolo]

Guys! You missed the best part..... escape from the main master, although a fairly decent game when you know how to play it, has the best ending of any Atari 2600 game out there! It is the first Atari game to have a fall celebration sequence I’ve ever seen.

[@rengarcia5189]

I remember standing there at Sears. They had a display case set up with all the Starpath games, and I was drooling over Communist Mutants from Space. I begged my dad to buy it for me, but he wouldn't , so I stood there, my hands on the glass, dreaming of it. It stayed in my thoughts, and, when I began publishing books, I spoofed the name and added it to my world.

[@Dankcatvacs]

came home one day to find all my boxes to my snes games that i had stashed behind the wood stove we didnt use , gone , my mom threw them away , that included the earthbound box.as well as like 15 others cant remember which ones though

[@OnlyEpicEmber]

Sonic 06 would like to talk to you about load times

[@NotMoreGames]

Some of that artwork would make some cool t-shirts! Those games are still too primitive for my tastes and hard to really enjoy compared to later consoles - nostalgic perhaps as we did have a 2600 when I was a kid, but not something I would choose to play for hours on even if super charged! 8 and 16 bit offers a lot more rewards in my opinion!

[@theodorerelic2718]

I remember hearing about the Supercharger back in the late 80s-early 90s I recall (must have been one of the old gaming mags from the time), but unfortunately have never owned one. I really need to remedy that.

[@ThePbrook1967]

Will we ever be able to get a ROM for this to play on an emulator??

[@zudemaster]

OK, could you play this through your Colecovision with the Atari 2600 adapter? Or would that cause a distortion in the space-time continuum, destroying the entire universe?