Scott Stilphen

Here's everything I currently know about:
 
http://www.ataricompendium.com/game_library/controllers/controllers.html

Smaller companies sometimes used EPROMS with their released carts.  CommaVid, Games By Apollo, Spectravideo, Universal Gamex Corp, and Wizard Video Games all used EPROMS in their VCS carts.

Yet another update.

Yet another update.

Lost of sources listed, but the video unfortunately contains several recycled unfounded rumors (ex: 3.5 million E.T. carts returned to stores and buried? lol  no...).  But then again, when your sources are sites like Wikipedia and Atarimuseum, I suppose this is to be expected.

Lost of sources listed, but the video unfortunately contains several recycled unfounded rumors (ex: 3.5 million E.T. carts returned to stores and buried? lol  no...).  But then again, when your sources are sites like Wikipedia and Atarimuseum, I suppose this is to be expected.

Lost of sources listed, but the video unfortunately contains several recycled unfounded rumors (ex: 3.5 million E.T. carts returned to stores and buried? lol  no...).  But then again, when your sources are sites like Wikipedia and Atarimuseum, I suppose this is to be expected.

Lost of sources listed, but the video unfortunately contains several recycled unfounded rumors (ex: 3.5 million E.T. carts returned to stores and buried? lol  no...).  But then again, when your sources are sites like Wikipedia and Atarimuseum, I suppose this is to be expected.

List updated

In looking through some Analog mag issues, I saw this ad for Blackhawk.  I remembered I was always curious to how it looked, but never bothered to order it.  Damn, what a lousy game It's glitchy as hell.  So the ad says you have to fly to an embassy to pick up hostages ala Choplifter and fly back to your carrier. It also mentions features like color or b&w (Ooohhhh) and pause (Aaahhh).  You supposedly can select which difficulty level to start at.  Well, I can't find the color/b&w option or pause.  The *only* button that does anything from the title screen is the fire button, which starts the game.  SELECT changes the threat (?) level and OPTION lowers it one number (when you hold it down) but releasing it puts it back up a number.  I've flown as far north as I can until I ran out of fuel and I see the same buildings, tents, and airstrips (?).  Attempting to land anywhere does nothing, but I noticed the background color for the text changes to white when I'm over something, and if I hang around in that area long enough, I immediately appear back at the carrier (as though I was killed).  Pressing Fire shoots the cannon (and changes the counter) and pressing fire+down launches a rocket.   Even the score counter shows glitches.  If you run out of fuel and crash, you have to reload the game since there's no way to restart!  Your chopper will slowly drag itself back to the carrier (spinning all the while), but you can still shoot, though.
 
I did notice that if you fly down instead of up, you'll fly off the "map" and into random graphics data.  After a few minutes, you'll find the name of the game on the ground. If you keep flying and crash, your spinning chopper will keep going south.  Usually the game will completely crash out, but once the title screen appeared, only this time it was glitched out. 

Old newsgroup post of mine from 10 years ago:
 
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rec.games.video.atari/Ipchr6TACGc/PgfFzHiBxCsJ
 
There's a clip Van Halen's "You Really Got Me" on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRQ9Csb_Er0
There's also a few threads over in comp.sys.atari.8bit (just do a
search for "van halen").  I remember getting a copy of this back in
the day from a software catalog ("Marrs" or something like that),
which is long gone, and I don't have a copy on my PC (if anyone has
it, can they send me a copy?).  It might have also been available from
Antic's catalog at some point.  I know there were at least a dozen or 2
digitized song samples at the same time the Van Halen clip appeared.

Starship 1 designer Ron Milner let slip the secret, and Ron, Ed Fries, and Michael Albaugh (another former Atari alumni) helped to figure out the sequence to trigger it:
 
https://edfries.wordpress.com/2017/03/22/chasing-the-first-arcade-easter-egg/
 

http://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/interviews/michael_becker/interview_michael_becker.html
 
This interview was a long time in the making, but I think it was worth the wait.

Pac-Man one now available.

http://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/interviews/michael_becker/interview_michael_becker.html
 
This interview was a long time in the making, but I think it was worth the wait.

http://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/interviews/michael_becker/interview_michael_becker.html
 
This interview was a long time in the making, but I think it was worth the wait.

http://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/interviews/michael_becker/interview_michael_becker.html
 
This interview was a long time in the making, but I think it was worth the wait.

http://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/interviews/michael_becker/interview_michael_becker.html
 
This interview was a long time in the making, but I think it was worth the wait.

http://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/interviews/michael_becker/interview_michael_becker.html
 
This interview was a long time in the making, but I think it was worth the wait.

http://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/interviews/michael_becker/interview_michael_becker.html
 
This interview was a long time in the making, but I think it was worth the wait.

http://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/interviews/michael_becker/interview_michael_becker.html
 
This interview was a long time in the making, but I think it was worth the wait.

Ask Rik at http://handheldmuseum.com/ If anybody would recognize it, it would be him.

Just to reiterate Ross' comments regarding the naysayers, the only "currency" that has any value from here on out is hard evidence (sources, paperwork, etc) - evidence that everyone can research, investigate, and otherwise use to <ahem> vet information.  Or to state it more succinctly: "Put up or shut up."

Here's some from a local newspaper, proving that the game was indeed available a few weeks earlier.
 
Btw, I'm not sure why this thread is in the Arcade Life section since the whole Pac-Man Day event was about the VCS version

Just posted these on my site: http://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/interviews/interviews.html
 
Ross interviews:
 
B.J. West
Carrie Tahquechi
Dan Hunter
Lee Actor
Richard Costello
and Ted Tahquechi.