 The Supercharger and a few game boxes | |
| Design firm | Starpath |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Starpath |
| Introduced | August 1982; 42 years ago (1982-08)[1] |
| Discontinued | 1984 (1984) |
| Cost | 69.95 US$ (included one game: Phaser Patrol)[1] |
| Type | Expansion peripheral cartridge |
| Memory | 6KBRAM |
| Connection | Cableearphone jack forcassette |
TheStarpath Supercharger (originally called theArcadia Supercharger) is an expansion peripheral cartridge created byStarpath, for playing cassette-based proprietary games on theAtari 2600video game console.[2][3][4][5]
The device consists of a long cartridge with a handle on the end, and an audio cassette cable. It adds 6KB to the Atari 2600's 128 bytes ofRAM for a total of 6,272 bytes of RAM,[6] allowing for the creation of specially compatible games which are larger and have higher resolution graphics than normal cartridges. A cable coming out of the side of the cartridge plugs into theearphone jack of any standardcassette player, for loading all Supercharger games from standard audio cassettes.
All Supercharger games were developed by Starpath.[7][8]
Listed in order of release:
These games were available only via mail order after Starpath declared bankruptcy.
The Supercharger is compatible withAtari 2600,Atari 2600 Jr., and theSears Video Arcade consoles.
Due to the shape of the Supercharger, it does not normally fit into theColecoVision's Expansion Module #1, which is an adapter that allows theColecoVision to playAtari 2600 games. However, if the cover of the expansion module is removed or an extender is used, the Supercharger will work. Extenders were sent to customers who called Starpath about such issues.[11]
The Supercharger does not work on manyAtari 7800 systems (which is typically backward compatible with theAtari 2600), although it does with some early models of the system. After Atari installed a circuit to fix a compatibility issue with the 2600 version ofDark Chambers, it subsequently caused incompatibility with the Supercharger and some other games that use the FEbank switching method.[12]
Danny Goodman ofCreative Computing Video & Arcade Games said that the Supercharger's "graphics are something else", reporting that the diagonal lines in one game under development were among the smoothest he had seen in any console.[13]
The complete library of games, including the prototypeSweat, was also released on audio CD asStella Gets A New Brain by CyberPuNKS (Jim Nitchals, Dan Skelton, Glenn Saunders and Russ Perry Jr.). There are two releases, both sanctioned byAtari and Bridgestone Multimedia, who had obtained the rights to the Starpath library some time ago. The first release is a limited number not-for-profit product, which also includes the previously unreleasedAtari prototype,Polo byCarol Shaw. The second release includes the Supercharger prototypesMeteoroid (an early version[14] ofSuicide Mission) and Excalibur (an early version[15] ofDragonstomper), in addition to a number ofhomebrew games by permission of their respective authors, and the songAtari 2600 bySplitsville, fully licensed from the band.