Sabertooth

Great pick @TrekMD! I'll kick it off with a little pepper! 39,600 on a 2600+ with a CX-40+.

It is hard the first couple of tries, but for me it was a bit more intuitive than Donut Dodo.

Here are the contest totals for the Series IV Giveaway ended December 31, 2023. There are 38 entries total and an official Tempest Dad hat is up for grabs! If anyone does not wish to participate, please let me know by Thursday, March 15, 9:00 PM PST. A winner will be named this month and the SERIES V prize will be revealed. @D.joe - 5 entries @jbmindtrick - 1 entry @Mockduck - 8 entries @RickR - 5 entries @Sabertooth - 8 entries @socrates63 - 2 entries @Smell Dawg - 8 entries @Yorkies TV - 1 entry

From the maker of Donut Dodo, Sigi - a Fart for Melusina, and Sir Lovelot comes Ca$H Cow DX! Like Donut Dodo, this one screams 80s arcade vibes with gameplay, art style and difficulty right out of the smokey halls of your favorite dive circa '83. I'm thrilled that this has been confirmed for the VCS. Of course, we knew it could handle it. Here's some gameplay footage of the Steam demo simultaneously played and recorded on the VCS in PC-MODE:

Release Date: 3/29/24 Retail: $5.99 Developer: pixel games SARL-S Publisher: pixel games SARL-S Official Site Synopsis: Holy cow, it's all about the moooney! Embark on an udderly jolly adventure to rescue Cash Cow's riches from the clutches of the greedy Pig Pockets and reclaim what's rightfully hers! Get ready for a blast from the past with an 80s inspired arcade experience released 40 years late... Features 5 multi-screen levels, bonus stages and secrets player speed selection: normal or turbo arcade, speedrun and marathon modes delightful chiptunes by Vincent Verger aka Tuï illustration and official merch by Pete Ellison B/W and color TV compatible (unplug antenna first) cross-platform, worldwide leaderboards

Welcome to the official topic for CA$H COW DX

Cosmic PANIC is definitely a unique party game and has a fun art style. I am not sure that all of the concepts wholly work, but where it does, its pretty cool. What do you think?

Release Date: February 23, 2024 Retail: $9.99 Developer: Sumoshell Bombfunk Publisher: Sumoshell Bombfunk Official Site Synopsis: Cosmic PANIC is an arcade style chaotic party game for one to four players. Choose a unique character in the Cosmic PANIC universe to duke it out or team up with your friends in a variety of arcade style games! Will your friends survive or thrive in the chaos? ARCADE VARIETY Engage in a variety of Cosmic PANIC twisted arcade style game types! Set high scores as you run from monstrous blobs, or race around the arcade to collect the most points in platforming style gameplay. Survive the pull of the wormhole, blast through portals, and defend the space station in top-down space adventuring gameplay. And dodge asteroids and chase down energy crystals to thrive in 3D space flight style gameplay. There's a chaotic mix of gameplay styles to challenge everyone! CHALLENGING GAMEPLAY, SIMPLE CONTROLS All game types are crafted to be arcade-friendly with simple controls, and the gameplay is increasingly challenging. To really set the highest of scores, you will need to survive AND thrive long enough to persist through environment changes and/or boss encounters each game type offers as the difficulty ramps up. TEAMSIZE HIGHSCORE CHARTS High score charts are separated by team sizes: 1, 2, 3, and 4 players. Play solo or together to top the charts and leave your mark.

Welcome to the official topic for Cosmic Panic

Release Date: February 23, 2024 Retail: $3.99 Developer: Tree Fall Games Publisher: Tree Fall Games Official Site Synopsis: Annihilation is a top down arcade shooter from Treefall Studios. Defend your base from waves of enemies that spawn in random variations for endless fun. Try to earn high scores and go for perfect scores! Grab a friend and fight off waves of enemies together in a special Co-op mode, or go head to head in versus mode! Prepare for the onslaught in, Annihilation.

Welcome to the official topic for Annihilation

Spear Master was a launch title for the VCS. Out of no where it gets an update with a new co-op mode. Now up to 4 players can take up the spear to fight Tarr!

Congratulations MOCKDUCK! Congratulations @Mockduck! He takes the win in our Caverns of Mars: Recharged Challenge! @Mockduck deftly piloted his craft to the center of the red planet, destroying the Martian core and taking the top spot with 221,935! @Sabertooth broke the 200K barrier to take second with 201,265. @Cryptocoffee13 blasted through Martian defenses with 199,365 for a third place finish. @Atari 5200 Guy blistered underground cities with a solid score of 87,025. @socrates63 and @RickR rounded out the final standings with 50,480 and 5,410, respectively. If you want to see a solid run and gameplay strategy, I encourage you to check out Mockduck's video in the post above. As the winner of this round @Mockduck will receive three entries, plus a bonus entry for sharing his attempt on YouTube! That's four (4) entries total! Everyone else will receive one entry! I'd like to encourage @Mockduck to post this high score on the Scoreboard so we can make sure this Challenge continues on! The red planet is a hostile place where only the best pilots survive. Congratulations to Mockduck on a fantastic win and to everyone else who jumped in! MPG was the MVP of this round! NOTE: Series Five of the Recharged Squad Challenge continues with Berzerk: Recharged! Be There!

New to Berzerk: Recharged? Check out this review by @Funkmaster V!

Let's get the word out about this Recharged Squad Challenge! The more people participating the more fun the challenge! Spread the word and invite friends to play!

Berzerk: Recharged (2023) Atari VCS Controller: MODERN CONTROLLER / CLASSIC CONTROLLER / PLAYER'S CHOICE Difficulty Level: Normal Game, Arcade Mode Play on: Real Hardware ✔ Squad Challenge ends 11:59 pm PST March 31, 2024 Objective Play for the highest possible score using the difficulty settings defined in the challenge. Post a photo or YouTube video of your score in this thread. Scores must be achieved between February 1st through February 29, 2024. Screen captures are not allowed as they are more easily manipulated for falsified scores. Multiple submissions are permitted. The player with the highest score at the end of the competition is the victor! Eligibility This is a Club VCS Exclusive Challenge. All Club VCS players are welcome! Play Rules Games may be played on real Atari VCS hardware. Choosing which controller to play on is part of formulating your strategy. Enhancements, rewinds and hacked versions of this game are not allowed. Difficulty Level We are playing BERZERK: RECHARGED in ARCADE MODE! Select your score modifiers of choice and fight like a robot to achieve the highest possible score! Fair Play Your integrity is everything. Players should play fairly, be honest, and have fun! Falsified scores will result in your immediate removal from the site. It goes without saying that we will not allow cheats, hacks, cartridge frying, enhancements, rewinds, deceitful photo manipulation, subterfuge, or any other unfair advantage. Everybody hates a cheater. More To review detailed rules on how to play, please visit the High Score Squad page here: Message Welcome to our 25th Club VCS Recharged Squad Challenge!!! For this challenge, we're taking on SqueakyBox and Atari's take on the classic Stern arcade title Berzerk! When Atari announced its acquisition of a dozen Stern Electronics retro game IPs in March 2023, including Berzerk, everyone wondered how long it would take for the publisher to release BERZERK: RECHARGED. Nine months later, a frenetic twin-stick shooter with a divisive art style and play mechanics. As we wrote in Issue 01 of the Club VCS Fanzine preview, the design has received a mixed response from fans. Some have likened the player character to a ‘50s sci-fi version of Conan O’brien. Others pine for a more traditional take on the robots and Evil Otto. Taken on it's own, BERZERK: RECHARGED is a solid twin-stick and a lot of fun. But don't take my word for. Join in the challenge and fight like a robot! Play in ARCADE mode from level one and take the game as far as you can for the high score! Club VCS Recharged Squad Contest This game is the third title in our fifth Club VCS contest giveaway! Prize details will be announced shortly. This time we're going a full 12 rounds with the winner announced in January 2025! 1) All challenge participants will receive one (1) entry for each challenge in which they submit a valid score! 2) The top scorer of each challenge will receive two (2) additional entries - for a total of three (3) entries in a single challenge! 3) On Twitch or Youtube? Stream or record and post your ClubVCS high score attempt for one (1) additional entry in each round. You must post a public link to the video in the Challenge. This contest is open to everybody, including Atari I/O Moderators, with a U.S. or Canada mailing address. It's really easy, all you have to do is participate be a Club VCS member and participate in our Recharged Squad Challenges.

I wanted to follow-up Mouse Trap with my "other" first game: Donkey Kong. As mentioned above, this and Mouse Trap were the pack-in titles with my Coleco Gemini recieved Christmas 1983. This port of Nintendo's smash arcade game is subject to bizarre conspiracies that echo in the halls of the internet to this day. While some folks continue to insist that Coleco intentionally made a subpar port to make the 2600 look bad compared to the Colecovision, that's just hogwash. They wanted to sell as many copies as possible and the 2600 was the mass market system of the day. The reality is that programmer Garry Kitchen did a fine job of porting the game to a 4K cart in short time. Sure it's limited in terms of screens and some enemy logic, but it conveys the feeling of DK. It also has virtually no flicker, great control and nice animations. Is it the best version of DK? Not by a long shot. But it's a nostalgia trip in the same way Atari's Pac-Man is. History hasn't treated it kindly, but for some of us younger Gen Xers, this was our DK.

I look forward to hearing more about this discovery. Thanks for sharing Lance!

The Rev2 and experimental firmware are still up at AA. I think that you have to be logged in to download the files. REV 2: https://forums.atariage.com/topic/360038-atari-2600-beta-update-11-rev2/ Experimental: https://forums.atariage.com/topic/361600-experimental-2600-firmware/

They appear to be treating it like a private label, so there have been no formal announcements. However, if you Google the return address for "Atari XP", you'll see that it's Mega Cat's address: 3559 Bigelow Blvd, Pittsburgh, PA. Coincidence? You be the judge.

Here's an update from the Atari Games Discord server on the long delayed Mt. Run & Jump XP carts offered last summer. They are apparently shipping in April.

Out now for $19.99! Also, the code VCSLOVE works for this through the end of February if you haven't already redeemed it.

201,265. I was having a good run until I wasn't. I think I was on the last level. Hadn't played it since the last challenge, so I'm not sure. LOL