Starpath Supercharger

The Starpath Supercharger was an add-on module created by Starpath to expand the game capabilities of the Atari 2600 video game console. The device resembled a long game cartridge with a handle on one end. The "Supercharger" interface multiplied the Atari 2600's RAM 49-fold, from its meager built-in 128 bytes to 6,272 bytes, i.e. giving it an extra 6 KB, allowing for larger games with higher resolution graphics. A cord coming out of the side of the cartridge plugged into the earphone jack of any standard cassette player. Games for the "Supercharger" were stored on normal audio cassettes.

By providing these capabilities, the "Supercharger" made the Atari 2600 much more like the low end home computers of the era, aside from the alphanumeric keyboard the console lacked (simple numeric keypads were available from Atari as add-ons, however).

With a small modification, the Supercharger can be used to easily test homebrew code for the Atari 2600 on a real system.

Note that the complete library of games, including the prototype "Sweat", was also released on CD as "Stella Gets A New Brain" by CyberPuNKS (Jim Nitchals, Dan Skelton, Glenn Saunders and Russ Perry Jr),. There were two releases, both sanctioned by Atari and Bridgestone Multimedia (who had obtained the rights to the Starpath library some time ago) - the first release (a limited number not-for-profit release) also included the previously unreleased Atari prototype, "Polo" by Carol Shaw, and the second release included the Supercharger prototypes "Meteroid" (an early version of "Suicide Mission") and Excalibur (an early version of "Dragonstomper"), as well as a number of homebrew games by permission of their respective authors, and the song "Atari 2600" by Splitsville, fully licensed from the band.

upercharger games

All Supercharger games were developed by Starpath.

* "Communist Mutants from Space"
* "Dragonstomper"
* "Escape From the Mindmaster"
* "Fireball"
* "Frogger, The Official"
* "Killer Satellites"
* "Party Mix"
* "Phaser Patrol"
* "Rabbit Transit"
* "Suicide Mission"
* "Survival Island"
* "Sword of Saros"

Known prototypes

* "Labyrinth" (early version of "Escape From the Mindmaster")
* "Sweat: The Decathlon Game"

External links

* [http://geocities.com/hozervideo/atari/carts/stella/brain.html Stella Gets a New Brain V.2 Order Page ]

ee also

* Cuttle Cart