Arenafoot

How large of an order was it? or how large would it have to be for another order?

http://www.techworm.net/2016/06/easter-egg-apple-ii-game-found-33-years.html Hacker Finds Easter Egg In Apple II Game That Was Hidden For 33 Years Do you know that Gumball, a game that was released in 1983 for the Apple II and other early PCs, was never all that popular? However, this week a secret that was kept hidden for 33 years was discovered by anonymous hacker who not only hacked his way through extremely advanced copyright protection, but also became the first people to notice an Easter Egg concealed by the game’s creator, Robert A. Cook. What was more incredible that Cook congratulated them for their work on Friday. The hacker known as 4a.m. for the last few years has been methodically cracking the DRM on old Apple II games and uploading them to the Internet Archive. 4a.m. is looked at as more of a game preservation hero than a bandit, since most of the games are entirely out of print, all-but-impossible to find, and run only on old computers. He told Motherboard that he has cracked 683 games until now and several games that came out in the early 1980s can be insignificantly cracked with automated utilities. However, Gumball was different. “Copyright protection developer Roland Gustafsson was legendary at Apple II copy protection. Roland was in a class by himself,” 4a.m. told Motherboard. “To give you a sense of how extraordinary it was, consider that this is my 683rd crack, and this write-up was almost twice as long as my previous longest.” However, the DRM was not the only astonishing thing about the game. He noticed a cipher while he was cracking the game with his sometimes partner (who goes by “qkumba”). “I stumbled on a site that had a vague reference to the initial step in revealing the egg. I told qkumba to try it, and he said it came back with these messages on screen after each level,” 4a.m. said. “I recognized it as a simple substitution cipher and put it into an online cipher solver I found through a quick Google search.” The game makes you in charge of a gumball factory worker who evolves to become foreman, supervisor, manager, and vice president of the factory—if you hit “ctrl+z” during the cutscenes between levels of the game, you get different codes of the cipher. Solved, the cipher discloses this code: ENTER THREE LETTER CODE WHEN YOU RETIRE During “retirement,” which is the end of the game, if you hit ctrl+z again there’s one final code: “DOUBLE HELIX.” 4a.m. and qkumba entered “DNA” at the end of the game and got this screen: This is the first time anyone has ever solved the cipher or found this Easter egg, according to 4a.m. Cook also thought the same thing, when he 4a.m about it: 4a.m. has become a bit of a folk hero in the Apple II community, which is still going strong. He says he got the copy of Gumball on loan from a friend who was a former developer that worked with Broderbund. Apparently, this copy of Gumball came from a shoebox in famous game designer Jordan Mechner’s garage. “I’ve never seen a copy of Gumball for sale on eBay or anywhere,” 4a.m. told Motherboard. “It really is quite rare.” You can find the game here.

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/it-took-33-years-for-someone-to-find-the-easter-egg-in-this-apple-ii-game-gumball?utm_content=buffer9e9fe&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer Gumball, a game released in 1983 for the Apple II and other early PCs, was never all that popular. For 33 years, it held a secret that was discovered this week by anonymous crackers who not only hacked their way through incredibly advanced copyright protection, but also became the first people to discover an Easter Egg hidden by the game’s creator, Robert A. Cook. Best of all? Cook congratulated them Friday for their work. For the last few years, the cracker known as 4a.m. has been systematically cracking the DRM on old Apple II games and uploading them to the Internet Archive. Because almost all of the games are completely out of print, all-but-impossible to find, and run only on old computers, 4a.m. is looked at as more of a game preservation hero than a pirate. Thus far, he’s cracked 683 games and told me over Twitter DM that most games that came out in the early 1980s can be trivially cracked with automated utilities. Gumball was different. “Copyright protection developer Roland Gustafsson was legendary at Apple II copy protection. Roland was in a class by himself,” 4a.m. told me. “To give you a sense of how extraordinary it was, consider that this is my 683rd crack, and this write-up was almost twice as long as my previous longest.” But the DRM wasn’t the only extraordinary thing about the game. As he was cracking the game with his sometimes partner (who goes by “qkumba,”) he noticed a cipher. “I stumbled on a site that had a vague reference to the initial step in revealing the egg. I told qkumba to try it, and he said it came back with these messages on screen after each level,” 4a.m. said. “I recognized it as a simple substitution cipher and put it into an online cipher solver I found through a quick Google search.” The game puts you in charge of a gumball factory worker who progresses to become foreman, supervisor, manager, and vice president of the factory—if you hit “ctrl+z” during the cutscenes between levels of the game, you get different codes of the cipher. Solved, the cipher reveals this code: ENTER THREE LETTER CODE WHEN YOU RETIRE If you hit ctrl+z again during “retirement,” which is the end of the game, there’s one final code: “DOUBLE HELIX.” 4a.m. and qkumba entered “DNA” at the end of the game and got this screen: As far as 4a.m. knows, this is the first time anyone has ever solved the cipher or found this Easter egg. When he tweeted about it, Cook himself thought the same: As I mentioned, 4a.m. has become a bit of a folk hero in the Apple II community, which is still going strong (read more about the community and its annual “KansasFest” festival each year here). He says he got the copy of Gumball on loan from a friend who was a former developer that worked with Broderbund. [Update:This copy of Gumball apparently came from a shoebox in famous game designer Jordan Mechner's garage.] “I’ve never seen a copy of Gumball for sale on eBay or anywhere,” 4a.m. told me. “It really is quite rare.” And now you can play it—and find its secret—for free online.

oh my bad............. they did!

I'm surprised this wasn't leaked (or mentioned) at this years E3 during the Nintendo Treehouse. Wonder if they saved it for some other reason.

Hey its 10 more games than the Atari Flashback (1)! Maybe in 5-7 years we'll have 100+ on it. (baby steps.....baby steps.....)

another t-shirt up for sale: https://geekscrate.com/products/atari-2600?variant=24042877446&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=original-videogame&utm_campaign=atari-2600

latest Crowdfunder............. https://www.80stees.com/products/atari-tempest-t-shirt

my Intv console (along with my Atari 2600 Jr.) are hidden away inside my bench in front of my HDTV......... and other pics are my boxed INTV games and overlays I bought (out) from GameOver Videogame stores in Houston.

Someone will prob be able to mod one in the future for those ports. Along with someone changing the case to woodgrain too.

Thanks nos!

at $69.99 for the portable - its much cheaper than having a homemade portable made....... Ben Heck's Atari portables $750-$1000 Charles Tweedy Atari portable $200+

thats what I'm thinking they are - unless thats an SD slot on the top....................

https://media.giphy.com/media/svcVqVsSvzm0g/giphy.gif

AT Games just started sending out their pre-order forms for this holiday season's Flashback systems. It includes: The Atari Flashback 7 (101 games and wireless joysticks) - no surprise there. and....... FINALLY! After years of the SEGA portable, we will see the Atari Portable!!!! List price $69.99 available starting in Oct 2016

My friend I grew up with from across the street, had this one which I later bought from him. I still have it with only 1 rocket (i think).

THIS WEEKEND ONLY! Celebrate the 4th with Bill Murray. Get a complimentary digital copy of Stripes on FandangoNOW. https://www.fandangonow.com/details/movie/stripes-1981/1MVadfdc9166c088f99c4d2aa3af7a1bb04?cmp=KNC_SP_Facebook_FandangoNOW_stripes_interest_single

another Crowdfunding: https://www.80stees.com/products/atari-asteroids-deluxe-t-shirt

another 3 Crowdfunding Atari t-shirts I found online: https://www.80stees.com/products/missile-command-gameplay-t-shirt https://www.80stees.com/products/missile-command-box-art-t-shirt https://www.80stees.com/products/atari-football-t-shirt

I actually got PavaJVE emulator (Vectrex emu) to go "Berzerk" on Berzerk!!! Didn't beat the score above, but it's the first time I've been able to get the emu to recreate this bug!