#Starpath Supercharger

[teckheck]

The Starpath Supercharger

For the atari 2600

Seen here loading Dragonstomper from microcassette, an early console RPG

[spiffyinfo]

Game 12 for the Supercharger (Pitfall on steroids?) | Starpath Supercharger | part 9

[vintage-tech]

Some people found a way around the limitations of the Atari 2600's 128 bytes of RAM, such as by putting extra memory in the cartridges or, as we see here, making a peripheral that plugs into the cartridge slot and you attach a cassette tape player to it. It's the Starpath 'Supercharger'! Load Atari games off cassette like it was a Commode computer into the expanded memory and get better graphics and gameplay. Here we see five of the best games -- Escape From The Mindmaster, Phaser Patrol, Communist Mutants from Space, Fireball, and Suicide Mission.

While Parker Brothers had the cartridge license for Frogger for the 2600 in 1981, Sierra Online had the magnetic media rights for computers... so in 1983 made "The Official Frogger" on cassette, which looks a lot better.

Also, Gremlins by Atari, after the 1984 movie featuring Mogwai, which you probably shouldn't play after midnight.

[tvpromopod]

Phosphor Dot Fossils: Killer Satellite (Atari 2600 with Starpath Supercharger, 1983)

Killer Satellites are mounting an all-out attack on Earth, and you're the planet's last line of defense. Honestly, this is a planetary defense strategy with far too many potential failure points for comfort. https://youtu.be/ibXl_e7ish8 Read the full article

[icarusthelunarguard]

This Week’s Horrible-Scopes

It’s time for this week’s Horrible-Scopes! So for those of you that know your Astrological Signs, cool! If not, just pick one, roll a D12, or just make it up as you go along. It really doesn’t matter. Better yet! Check out “Heart of the Game, Fredonia” and see if they can sell you those D12’s with the symbols on them. Tell them “Shujin Tribble” sentcha. And “Hail, Hail, Fredonia!” Home of the Blue Devil!

After some work and research, we’re FINALLY getting to the theme suggested before: using OTHER than Atari 2600 games. Well, never let it be said we didn’t try. So this week we’re looking at the 2nd generation of home game consoles, but we’re leaving Atari2600 out.

Aries 

Described as “The Home Console Nobody Remembers”, you’re getting the machine that beat the Atari to the marketplace: the Fairchild Channel F. It had a price tag of over $800 today and a lackluster game selection - although it had several games hardcoded into the unit. AND it was the system that brought “TV Powww” gaming to after school kids with a phone. This week… You’re the first one ready to take on a job. If you don’t excel at it you’re gunna get overshadowed. So get to work!

Taurus 

You’re getting the ColecoVision - a machine that, honestly, how it didn’t get sued by Mattel for copying the controller design is beyond us. Having the first home version of Donkey Kong and Zaxxon couldn’t overshadow the blight that was the Adam: the THIRD expansion for the device to turn it into a full-on computer. One problem with it was the power supply destroying any magnetic media in close proximity every time it was turned on. So This Week… figure out a way to have your coffee made before you’ve even stepped foot out of bed.  

Gemini  

There’s a lot that can be said about your system and its premier game. Welcome to the world of the Magnavox Odyssey 2, aka the Philips Videopac G7000 in Europe! The joysticks looked like something used to remotely pilot a Space: 1999 Eagle and the keyboard on the unit was a horrible plastic dimple system that no amount of training could make a touch-typist happy. And as far as games go, well… the less we talk about “Attack of the Timelord!” the better. This week… just remember that you’re not the bottom of the list in anything, just like the Odyssey! IGN named the Odyssey 2 the 21st greatest video game console, out of its list of 25. So you’ve got THAT going for you. 

Cancer Moon-Child 

We’re pretty sure you’ve NEVER heard of this console before: the Arcadia 2001 released by Emerson Radio. And before you think, well this can’t be THAT bad, right? The unrelated Arcadia Corporation, manufacturer of the Atari 2600 Supercharger add-on, was sued by Emerson for trademark infringement. Arcadia Corporation then changed its name to Starpath, proving that Emerson, once upon a time ago, was a Feared Company Brand. This Week… I mean, we don’t know what you want from us. The console was discontinued after 18 months, so how about… don’t make any long-term plans right now?

Leo 

Also from the dregs of the Barely Known, you’ve gotten the Bally Astrocade… aka the Bally Arcade aka the Bally ABA-1000 aka the Bally Professional Arcade. The keen-eared might have wondered, “Wait - is that the same company that made Bally-Midway Pinball Machines?” Well, actually, yes. But they did a lot of arcade video games too - like Space Invaders! And yes, they DID make a home game version of it, but ended up calling it “Astro Battle” for some reason. So This Week… if you fail at something, just change your name and try again. Just don’t expect any improvements until you change yourself.

Virgo 

Hate to do this to you, Virgo, but we’ve been secretly rolling a D20 behind the scenes. And guess what? You got the Nat1. So… you’re not getting a notable console. You’re not getting an unrecognizable console. You’re getting saddled with one of the worst games and its resulting aftermath: the Atari2600 game “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial”. Some of you knew this was coming, didn’t you? Back in the day there were rumors that a secret shipment of these cursed games were buried and concreted over in the hopes that they’d never see the light of day again. And on April 26, 2014, remnants of E.T. games were found, confirming this story. So just like the game back in the day, we blame YOU, Virgo, for all the crap that’s happened to the world since 2014! Thanks a lot! Don’t roll a “1” again!  

Libra 

There are only a handful of game consoles that came complete with their own 9-inch CRT Display. So you’re a unique winner this week with the Vectrex. Originally produced by General Consumer Electronics and later licensed to Milton Bradley, it used vector graphics to draw lines on a CRT display, not unlike many arcade games like Asteroids, which was included in the base system under the name “Mine Storm”! And as a surprise to everyone, one of the special accessories for it was a Light Pen to “draw” on the screen. They wanted to make a color version but plans were shelved because a better unit came along to claim that niche of the market: The Game Boy! So This Week… someone younger, smaller, and more power efficient is looking to take your job from you. Don’t Let Them!

Scorpio 

We finally get to the Big Daddy Competitor to Atari, the Mattel Intellivision. It had its flaws, sure, but in SO many ways it was the superior system to the rest of the pack. You could get a full computer add-on, a speech synthesizer, an Atari2600 game cartridge and joystick adapter, a 49 piano key music synthesizer, and the PlayCable, allowing cable TV companies to send playable games to connected systems on a subscription service! This week… You are light years ahead of everyone around you but your self-promotion skills are for crap. Study some online courses to improve your game.

Sagittarius 

It’s likely you’ve never heard of this machine for various reasons. The Interton Video Computer 4000 aka the Interton VC 4000 was released in Germany, England, France, Spain, Austria, the Netherlands, and Australia by the German hearing aid manufacturer Interton. The weird part about it is that no one knows if they developed it themselves or licensed the technology, since a number of clone compatible systems are out there. This Week… keep track of your sales receipts. You’re going to need to look back on what you bought.

Capricorn 

We promised not to talk about the Atari 2600 system for this list. So, with a huge nod to the nice subreddit group, “R-slash-TechnicallyCorrect”, you’ve been, and we’re using this term VERY loosely… “Gifted”... the Atari 5200! Yes. A game console that was hardly more than the 2600 on the inside, but with an incompatible cartridge connection port and vastly inferior joysticks, it was supposed to bring sales back from the losses of the Console Market Crash, but it was just a poor stepping stone to the soon-to-be-released Atari 7800. This week… Don’t try to bamboozle people with half-step promises. Just commit to the bit and surprise everyone with how good you can really be.

Aquarius 

We want you to enjoy this product, because it might be possible to bring it back in a fun way. Yours is the RCA Studio II: a very simple product that was obsolete pretty much as soon as it was sold. It plugged into your TV, made “some” sounds, produced black-and-white images, and instead of any controllers per-say, it used a ten-button keypad for two players directly on the unit. Here’s the thing: imagine this product being changed from being barely a game machine, into a specialized two-handed controller! Who needs a mouse and keyboard when you could have just… a keyboard controller in your lap! But with RGB and tilt controls and vibrations. So This Week… if you DO prototype this product, don’t play-test it in public with the “Buttplug-dot-io” system enabled. 

Pisces  

We know the only reason why you’re getting this machine is because of the name. Produced by VTech, it had MANY aliases. It was known as: the Educat 2002, as well as The Dick Smith Wizzard, the FunVision Computer Video Games System, the Hanimex Rameses, and the VZ 2000. ALL of those names were official and sold in various markets. We know you don’t care what games it had, you just want to collect one of each of them, don’t you? Well then This Week… get your passport in order ‘cause you fly out to South Africa at the end of the month!

And THOSE are your Horrible-Scopes for this week! Remember if you liked what you got, we’re obviously not working hard enough at these. BUT! If you want a better or nastier one for your own sign or someone else’s, all you need to do to bribe me is just Let Me Know! These will be posted online at the end of each week via Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, Discord and BLUESKY.

[davetheinverted]

I somehow completely missed the existence of the Starpath Supercharger back when I actually owned a 2600. It looks like it never achieved great commercial success, but it's certainly a Damn Cool idea.

Dragonstomper for the Atari 2600

[atariforce]

starpath supercharger by satan165

[enron-intern-1998]

The Starpath supercharger is a bizarrely-shaped accessory for the Atari 2600, it allows for games to be played on tape with a whole extra 6 kB of memory which I guess must have been worth it to them. Only about a dozen games used it and none were anything to write home about. No shade, it was Atari there was a limit to how good most games could be.

It was originally called the Arcadia supercharger until it came to light Emerson Radio owned the Arcadia naming rights because of an obscure console they’d manufactured for a few months in the 70’s.

[dvdfever-blog]

Berzerk Friendly Fire - Let's Play Atari 2600 Starpath Supercharger (VCS...

[teckheck]

I posted 13 times in 2022

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#starpath supercharger

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

The Starpath Supercharger

For the atari 2600

Seen here loading Dragonstomper from microcassette, an early console RPG

See the full post

34 notes - Posted December 2, 2022

#4

The apple II+ behind the CGI in independent 1982 film Asteroid. Each frame rendered individually and captured on film.

A similar scene captured through the same process, and the end results after colorization.

See the full post

73 notes - Posted March 22, 2022

#3

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270 notes - Posted March 22, 2022

#2

MAGI Synthavision sampler (1974)

"Me and my hat!"

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290 notes - Posted March 25, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

The atari 800XL

See the full post

382 notes - Posted June 16, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[skone164-blog]

Obscure Gaming #1: The Starpath Supercharger

So, while researching some obscure games for my first entry, I stumbled upon Communist Mutants From Space. I figured it’d be a great entry (and it will be), but I also wanted to write about the peripheral it was released for. I decided it’d be better to cover that THEN the game, just to give more background.

In 1982, Starpath released the Starpath Supercharger, a cassette peripheral for the Atari 2600. The Supercharger was basically a cartridge with more RAM and an earphone jack. It was as simple as popping in the Supercharger cartridge, plugging the earphone jack in to any cassette player you might’ve had laying around, and putting the game cassette in your cassette player.

Its design had a purpose, though. See, the Supercharger truly earned its name. The Atari 2600 had 128 bytes of onboard RAM, which was fine for the games being released at the time. Starpath, however, wanted more. The Supercharger was more than just a cassette peripheral, it actually increased the RAM of the 2600 to just over 6 kilobytes, 49 times more than it originally had. The cassette was loaded on to the Supercharger cartridge and stayed there until the system was shut off. This allowed Starpath to produce the cassettes as cheaper alternatives to cartridges. On top of that, it led to larger and better looking games, since cartridges at the time were limited to 4kb.

Starpath released 12 games (two by mail order) for the Supercharger, including a well-received port of Frogger. Unfortunately for the Supercharger, cartridge technology continued forward and led to 8kb, 12kb, and 16kb cartridges. This, alongside cartridges becoming cheaper, turned the Starpath Supercharger’s benefits into a hindrance. After only two years, production of the Supercharger was halted and was soon followed by Starpath’s acquisition by Epyx, which was also bought out in 1993 by Bridgestone Multimedia Group.

While the cassettes may not be the easiest to find, there have been three releases of the Supercharger’s library on audio CD. CyberPuNKS released the games as Stella Gets A New Brain, which included the prototype game Sweat. A limited not-for-profit run, which included the Atari prototype Polo, was released by Carol Shaw and sanctioned by Atari and Bridgestone Multimedia, with a third including two prototypes and several homebrews released by Splitsville.

[replaygamesfargo]

35th Anniversary: Dragonstomper by Starpath

35th Anniversary: Dragon Stomper by Starpath

Released in 1982, Dragonstomper was considered by Forbes to be “the best title ever made in the history of U.S. Videogaming.”

Interesting facts about Dragonstomper -You needed a special peripheral to play this game: The Starpath Supercharger, an analog cassete player -The supercharger added 6KB of RAM to the Atari’s 128 bytes, increasing it to 6,272 bytes or 49x larger!

Dragonstomper on Wikipedia

[game-levels]

Lately I have been really busy with my raspberry pi and RetroPie. 

How the hell does this image fit into that?

It is kind of a long story. I have been trying to add the box art for my favourite games. At least to add the art for the games I have been checking out recently.

The Atari 2600 had an attachment called the Supercharger and it was made by starpath. It had about 12 games and they were on tapes so they held a lot more information. As far as shooters go it is not very varied but a lot of fun. Some of the “modes’ you can turn on are really interesting.  Shield, slow mo, seeker missiles.

The artwork is by Alton Kelley who did some album artwork back in the day.

[kurhl]

Mais memória e jogos para seu Atari 2600 com o Starpath Supercharger. Mais informações

[atariforce]

Retro Game Spotlight 052: Communist Mutants from Space (1982)

Publisher: Starpath (formerly Arcadia) Platform: Atari 2600 Designer: Stephen H. Landrum Box Art: Alton Kelley, Pat Ryan

Trivia: Created for the Starpath Supercharger expansion peripheral, Communist Mutants from Space contains an easter egg that activates when holding the fire button during power-on of the Atari 2600, and causes the programmer's initials (SHL) to appear on screen.