Cyberpunks (Projekt-FAQ) (e)

Subject: Cyberpunks Project FAQ
From: Glenn Saunders 
Newsgroups: rec.games.video.classic

Here it is, all in one massive document, finally updated.

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                        "CYBERPUNKS" Project FAQ

Previously Atari 2600 VCS-STARPATH/ARCADIA FAQ

last modified 5/6/97 by krishna@primenet.com (Glenn Saunders)
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INTRODUCTION - WHO ARE CYBERPUNKS?

============================================================================

  I. What is the Starpath Supercharger?

 II. Game list

III. What happened to Starpath?

 IV. What was the hobby Starpath CD project?

        A. Why was it done?
        B. What was on it?
        C. How was it done?
        D. How do I get one?/How much?

  V. Can one program the Atari 2600 through the Supercharger?

	A. What you need
	B. Support--The Stella mailing list

 VI. Aftermath

	A. Preserving the integrity of the Starpath rights.
	B. The Press

VII. The Future

	A. Long-range goals for the stella mailing-list programmers' coop	
	E. The commercial run
	F. A 2600 side-project, the 20th anniversary 2600 documentary

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=============================================================================
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INTRODUCTION - WHO ARE CYBERPUNKS?

Cyberpunks is a hastily named organization of four Atari 2600 enthusiasts,
each with their own field of expertise, that came together about two and a
half years ago to do the Starpath CD project, and continue to collaborate
on Atari-related projects.  Cyberpunks operate as an internet-based
entrepreneurial skunkworks of sorts.  Very grass roots, very casual, and
very low-budget.  In other words, whatever we will do right now will be by
the skin of our teeth, and projects do take quite a long time from start
to finish.  It's a democracy in which I (Glenn Saunders) am
considered the overall decisionmaker, but there have been times where I
have been outvoted by the majority.  We all have our "real lives" so to
speak, so Cyberpunks activity is just a hobby, but that may not last long
if the commercial CD and documentary project come to fuition.  I've grown
to trust and respect these people and hope to work with them in future
projects if events allow.  Even if not, I'll always feel part of the
Cyberpunks club.

RUSS PERRY

Russ is a contributor to the Digital Press newsletter and has served
Cyberpunks as the "man on the phone".  He does the dirty work that most of
us would prefer not to do, and as such earns my respect.  He was
responsible for doing the necessary detectivework to find out how to
legalize the Starpath CD project, and then followed through from feelers
to final written contract.

In his work at Digital Press, he has come in contact with many ex-2600
programmers.  As such he has and is assisting in gathering information and
courting these figures for the documentary project.

But most of all he's helping to negotiate royalty agreements for the
commercial CD.  A MAJOR TASK.

DAN SKELTON

Dan has been utilized as a graphic artist and archiver (scanner) for the
Supercharger CD.  He has much to be proud of for his great contributions
to the CD, like the faux artwork to Polo, Sweat!, and Survival Island, the
Excalibur>Sword of Saros conversion artwork, the graphical walkthroughs of
Survival Island and Mindmaster, and so much more.

Dan recently got a Net Yaroze and is devoting much of his time to learning
to program the Playstation.

Dan is very busy but I'm hoping he'll be able to contribute graphic art
for the documentary when and if the time comes.

JIM NITCHALS

Jim is an Apple ][ programmer from way back who now does Mac software
development, mostly sound-related.  He helped unlock the mystery of the
Starpath memory management and audio schemes.  Through his affiliation
with Steve Hales he was also the agent by which much of the original
technical information and source code was rescued, and it was through his
contacts that I first had the notion for a 2600 documentary.

Jim is mostly serving in an advisory capacity for the commercial CD and
the documentary.

GLENN SAUNDERS

I was responsible for determining the economic viability of the Starpath
CD project, and being a liason between Cyberpunks and the public, and for
distributing the product itself.

I also acted as a production supervisor, often making hard decisions,
cracking the whip, assigning deadlines, and setting the overall goal for
the content of the CD and its aftermath, like forming the programmer's
mailing list.

I'm more of a filmmaker than a programmer, so while this may not seem as
hands-on technical as the others, this will soon be rectified with the
video documentary where I can use my own technical skills directly.  I'm
also serving as a liason between Cyberpunks and the developer (Bill
Heineman) who is adapting our CD for commercial release. 

BILL HEINEMAN

Until now I've kept the identity of this developer a secret because I
wasn't sure the project would ever mature.  I am more confident now and
there is no reason not to start the hype machine a little bit.  His
name is Bill Heineman and he wrote 2600 games way back when for Avalon
Hill but also wrote for many different systems.  He's in charge of writing
the new emulations, upgrading some of the dev software, doing the actual
CD mastering, and shopping the CD around to distributors.

Although Bill is likely to be an interviewee on the documentary, he
probably won't be directly involved in other projects outside of the
commercial CD run.

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Cyberpunks is a testament to the power of the internet and points towards
the global village that is our future.  If you can find a few talented
people with a similar passion and persistence, you too can accomplish cool
projects like this.  It doesn't matter how far away they are.  I've only
met Jim in person once, and have only spoken to Russ over the phone.  I've
only seen Bill in person 3 times.  Other than that it's been nothing but
Email.

Yet we've accomplished something really cool together and hopefully by
year's end we will have helped finish 2 more projects.

Below you can read the Starpath story, the hobby CD's evolution, it's
aftermath, and what lies ahead...

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  I. What is the Starpath Supercharger?

This post is from VGR, but I made a few edits.  Hope he doesn't mind:

The Supercharger was made by Arcadia (who was later forced to change
their name to Starpath).  It is an extremely long cartridge, longer than
a Xonox double-ender.  The Supercharger has a blue label on it.  The
end of the cartridge (the end which doesn't plug into the 2600) is a
large handle.  Coming out of one side of the cartridge is a cord, ending
in a plug which can plug into any cassette player's earphone jack.

Basically, then, the Supercharger is a giant cartridge which connects to
any cassette player.

The games for the Supercharger are not cartridges.  They're normal audio
cassettes.  Needless to say, that allows for a lot more program space. The
Supercharger cartridge interface itself has 6K RAM.  Games have to run
from RAM rather than ROM because the memory has to get written-to every
time you load in new games.  The result is twelve games which are superior
to a lot of other 2600 games.  Dragonstomper and Escape From the
Mindmaster are two of the best.  These two and Survival Island in
particular take advantage of the ability to save portions of the Starpath
memory and load in new data for new levels.  These are known as
'multiloaders'.

Since the games can be copied, we put them all on a single CD.

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 II. Game list / CD game contents

Title{Programmers}                                       Notes   BoxID#  Cat#
-------------------------------------------------------- ------ ------- -----
Supercharger {Craig Nelson} + Phaser Patrol {Dennis Caswell}    1       AR-4000
Communist Mutants From Space {Steve Landrum}                    2       AR-4101
Fireball {Scott Nelson}                                         3       AR-4300
Suicide Mission {Steve Hales, Steve Landrum}                    4       AR-4102
Escape From The Mindmaster {Dennis Caswell}               1     5       AR-4200
Dragonstomper {STeve Landrum}                             2     6       AR-4400
Killer Satellites {Kevin Norman}                                7       AR-4103
Rabbit Transit {Brian McGhie}                                   8       AR-4104
The Official Frogger By Sega {Steve Landrum}                    9       AR-4105
Party Mix {Dennis Caswell}                                      10      AR-4430
Sword Of Saros {Jon Leupp?}                                     11      AR-4201
Survival Island {Scott Nelson}                            3     12      AR-4401

Sweat!: The Decathlon Game {Scott Nelson}                 4     N/A     N/A
(Semi playable prototype included)

Notes: 1 - originally named Labyrinth
       2 - originally named Excalibur
       3 - originally named Jungle (no PAL found)
       5 - Contains at least 2 loads, at least 2 events.
           This is the most complete Sweat! in existence.
           (NTSC only)

Bonuses include:

All known "preview" demo versions:

Commie Mutants
Fireball
Suicide Mission
Mindmaster
Dragonstomper
Killer Satellites
Rabbit Transit
Frogger
Party Mix *

Legally included Polo proto *
Dragonstomper beta "Excalibur" *
Suicide Mission beta "Meteroids" * +
Ed Federmeyer's SoundX utility *

* = NTSC only
+ = closest thing to vector asteroids you'll get on the 2600.


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III. What happened to Starpath?

Company was originally Arcadia until Emerson released their Arcadia 2001;
made change to avoid potential legal troubles (and probably needn't have
bothered).

Starpath Demo Unit -- advertised in Electronic Games, apparently for store
use but apparently unreleased.  These demo versions were more elaborate
than the demo portions of the tapes, perhaps imposing the time limit
restriction commonly used today?

The end of Starpath: apparently some "firm commitments" for sales didn't
come through, and they ran out of money.  At roughly the same time Epyx
lost a lot of staff who formed another company.  Since they shared some
common investors, the two companies merged in Nov 83.  Later Epyx went
bankrupt too, and were bought by Bridgestone Multimedia.  No Starpathers
seemed to go this far... Bridgestone owns the copyrights, but Atari was
given exclusive usage rights on all Epyx games written for Atari systems
when they bought the Lynx.  This therefore may retroactively include
Starpath games since Epyx owned those after the merger.

What happened to Sweat?  The market was crashing, Starpath didn't have any
$$, Eventually inspired Epyx's Summer Games but only a few basic Starpath
routines were kept. 

The mail order games:  At the end, Starpath needed to get rid of stock (to
pay bills no doubt), so they sold everything to A&B Sales, who got the
up-til-then unreleased Swords Of Saros and Survival Island.  These never
had boxes or "normal" instructions and were shipped in a baggie. 

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 IV. What was the hobby Starpath CD project?

        A. Why was it done?

Supercharger tapes are uncommon to rare yet easy to copy, in a state of
deterioration after more than a decade, and Arcadia/Starpath has long
passed away.  So was about about time, in light of what good happened with
the Vectrex, to look into a preservation effort by transferring the tapes
to an audio-CD.  Not only that, but the Supercharger interface can
conceivably be used as a development system once the audio encoding scheme
is understood, therefore the prospects of new game development and easy
internet distribution was too exciting to ignore.  There was talk on the
net about this, and finally it was decided to organize this project.

As time went on, I really became more interested in the odds of
encouraging further programming of the 2600 so that this project shifted
beyond mere preservation to a big experiment to see whether there is any
enthusiasm left to push the boundaries of the 2600, since this system is
absolutely ideal in the 90's to program and distribute 2600 games. 

With this system, it is truly possible to develop easy-to-distribute
shareware games on the internet just as easily as for other home
computers: through traditional binary files. 

The 2600 has now become an "open" system, as programmable as any [less
than 8K] home-computer.  Even more "open" than the Astrocade with it's
crippled 1800 byte basic implementation w/tape.  Multiloads open the
possibility for more complex games than are possible in just 6K RAM.
Random-Access (CD or via computer) make mega-load (dozens or hundreds of
loads) finally practical and less painful to play.  Imagine complex RPGs,
Lode Runner clones, multi-wave scrollers, and so on.

The title for this project???

                   "STELLA GETS A NEW BRAIN"

Named after the internal Atari codename of the 2600 VCS chipset.

           B. What was on it?

Every Starpath/Arcadia game released, in PAL and NTSC formats (except
Survival Island for which no PAL version was found) and an NTSC version of
the most complete SWEAT! extant.  Also, SoundX, a great Asteroids-clone
pre-release version of Suicide Mission, and Carol Shaw's unreleased 1978
game POLO are present. 



This CD acts as a standalone audio-CD, but also has an ISO-9660 data
portion readable by a CD-ROM.  Included on this data portion are a lot of
image files as well as some development software which allows you to talk
to the Supercharger to write your own games.  A Vectrex portion includes
all of high-quality cleaned-up overlay scans and ROM dumps, and more.

And don't forget the booklet.  It is 4.25x5.5" in size, with an intro from
Steve Hales, instructions, reviews, color cover and backcover, and more. 
The first 100 or so booklets were hand-initialed by Steve Hales.  The
pressing was limited to 400 units, about 350 of which were sold to
consumers, the rest reserved as personal backups by the "Cyberpunks".

This CD is not for use with emulators.  This is not an emulation!  This
CD is primarily an audio-CD to replace original Arcadia/ Starpath audio
tapes and MUST be used with a genuine Starpath Supercharger cartridge and
Atari 2600-compatible console (2600, 2600 jr., most 7800s, and so on).
There is a data portion which requires a computer w/CD-ROM to use, but the
computer will always only be a cross-compiler and file-server for the
actual Atari 2600 hardware.  Neat, huh?



        C. How was it done?

This whole project was organized on the internet.  Calls went out for
'tape donators' and a special hook was put into my email address to
collect names onto a list of people interested in the CD once it is done.
Eventually I gathered a team of people to help me.  Russ Perry handling
rights negotiation, Dan Skelton handling CD artwork, Jim Nitchals handling
the initial tape remastering.

Believe me, it's a long story and I don't even remember the whole thing.

        D. How do I get one?/How much?

The CD has been sold out for a long time now.

It _was_ sold for only $15 plus shipping.

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  V. Can one program the Atari 2600 through the Supercharger?

	A. What you need

Software was included on the CD for PC and MAC to encode audio
 from 6502 ML into Starpath audio .WAVs for playback (bin2tape), as well
as decode the Starpath audio signal and put it back into 6502 ML.  The PC
version of Bin2Tape was not properly beta-tested and was DOA but was
rereleased by Bill Heineman in a working form on the net.  Still, for now,
Bob Colbert seems to have the lead in making the better program (see
below).  These tools, combined with a 6502 cross assembler, can be used to
write 2600 games.  The Supercharger has 6K RAM onboard which, due to it
being more than the 4K ROM limit, and it being RAM, opens up a lot of
doors for the 2600 which writing for ROM simply keeps shut.  Jim also
included some hints on 2600 and Starpath programming to get you started,
as well as sourcecode to many of the games.  I think any 16-bit or greater
machine with at least 8-bit sound should be able to run the software. 

Bob Colbert (hatchets buried permanently, knock on wood) is currently
supporting his own standalone freeware program called "makewav".  If you
are an Amiga owner like myself, makewav is the only choice for you.  If
you are a PC owner, you may also want to use makewave over bin2tape.  For
instance, due to CD pressing concerns, most the .BINs on the data portion
of the Supercharger CD are padded to 32K.  I don't believe the current
version of bin2tape will read these effectively.  Makewav will!  Makewav
has other compatibility enhancements and optional flags as well.  Check it
out.

Both bin2tape and makewav can be used to send preexisting 2 and 4K ROM
dumps of commercial cartridges to the supercharger, although I do not
endorse this if it is used for piracy.

Bob Colbert's Cheetah program can be used in conjunction with this to
modify games for infinite lives, etc similar to Game Genie.  Since some
commercial games bang on the Supercharger bank select register, causing
crashes, Bob Colbert designed a hardware modification which write-protects
the Supercharger RAM and allows most incompatible games to run. 

Relevant 2600 programming information and support files to be found at
this URL:

http://www.novia.net/~rcolbert/super.htm#super

        B. Support--The Stella Mailing list

Subscribe via     stella-request@biglist.com
post to                   stella@biglist.com

This is an Atari 2600 programming cooperative and discussion group. 
Beta-test source code and binaries are often published here.

Past archives are available at this URL:

http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/archives/

There is also a way to subscribe via the above pages.

So, if you wanna code, get a Supercharger, get the software, and get onto the
stella list.  Even if you plan on coding via an emulator a Supercharged
2600 is important to verify the integrity of your games.  Many games will
run fine on emulators but screw up on authentic 2600s.  Even if you intend
to distribute via cart it's much more convenient to debug with a
Supercharger.  No more test-EPROM burns...

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 VI. Aftermath

	A. Preserving the integrity of the Starpath rights

It took some subtle negotiation to get the permission to produce this CD
legally and by the book.  This CD does not signal that the games are
suddenly public domain or freely distributable, therefore I will frown
upon any effort to upload the Starpath games onto web sites (we've had
some close-calls of late, with lots of nasty email exchanges to boot.)
Other ROM images, it's really too late to do anything, but the rights of
these games have been well established.  Considering that there is now an
active effort to rerelease this CD commercially with a new emulator,
trading these games openly on the net may hurt me in the pocket book and
suddenly it will get personal.  It is in the best interest of the "classic
community" to respect these rights to facilitate the commercial release.
(For details of the commercial release read on.)

Also the developer software should not to be used as a pirating device. 
This would defeat the purpose of including "DEVELOPER" software.

	B. The Press

The CD was written up in the following periodicals:

Digital Press had a blurb on it
2600 Connection devoted a whole issue on it
Replication News, a CD manufacturer's trade journal, had a piece on it
	(I have yet to see this one, BTW)
Wired magazine had a collumn on it (January 1997, p. 171)

VIII. The Commercial Run

The premise was that 300-350 units was enough to satisfy this niche
market.  Maybe 500 would have been more like it as I got a slow but steady
stream

VII. The Future
 
        A. Long-range goals for the stella mailing-list programmers' coop 

A poll conducted a couple months ago revealed that about a half dozen
people are planning to have completed a mature game in one year's time. 
Since then I've seen steady progress in at least a few individuals.  I am
hopeful that there will indeed be some interesting software by the spring
of 1998. 

Although I was hoping that this software would be distributed as .BINs,
most of the programmers are going the route of 4K ROM as the final
distribution method so they can get physical carts made.  This raised a
whole "cart vs. bin" debate on the mailing list.  However, at least one
person is planning to release a multiload Supercharger game.  I hope
others follow as the Supercharger environment is much nicer to work with
thank the constrained 4K ROM workspace.

If enough software is written, a followup Stella CD is a possibility with
deluxe manual et. al.  Should economics permit, a prize will be offered by
Cyberpunks for the best new game written by March 1998 . 

        E. The commercial run

Current status 5-6-97

Negotiations with Bridgestone are complete.  Negotiations with Atari
continue.  We are attempting to license the ENTIRE Atari catalog including
prototypes.  As for distribution, if we go through Activision we'd likely
put the entire Activision, Absolute, and Imagic catalog on it.  The small
Avalon Hill catalog will be represented.  Coleco, Parker Brothers, and
20th Century Fox are possibilities.  Curios like Tooth Protectors and
Chase the Chuckwagon are also likely.  Due to the huge volume of games,
not all of them will receive the deluxe multimedia treatment the Starpath
catalog had.  The games will likely be sorted in order of importance with
the best games getting the deluxe treatment, and the rest put in a
no-nonsense basic .BIN drawer. 

Dan will hopefully update the manual and it will NOT be cheapened for
mass-production.  The cover is likely to change, though.  Plus, the price
is going to be higher. 

Cross your fingers and hope.

This is potentially a real mass-production mainstream product on the lines
of Activision's Action Pack that you may see on your store shelves this
fall or winter, and with the superior emulators, the larger catalog, and
the nicer production, it may do quite well.

        F. A 2600 side-project, the 20th anniversary 2600 documentary

Current status 5-6-97

This on-again-off-again idea is now on again--bigtime.  It is going to be
a birthday party for Stella, and a coming-together of many famous figures
in Atari past where they discuss their groundbreaking work.

The current schedule is to shoot in the beginning of June in the SF Bay
area. 

I will try to frantically edit something together by the end of the year. 
Potential end product could be cable broadcast, PBS broadcast, and/or
direct video sales.  Broadcast version will be either 1 hour (PBS), 1 hour
minus commercial breaks (cable) and the home version will likely be
expanded to 2 hours. 

I still need an assistant or two to help me interview.  If you know a lot
of 2600 trivia and think you can come up with some good technical or
design questions, email me at krishna@primenet.com. 

I also need someone who knows about BetaSP camerawork, video lighting, and
decent audio production to help me with the technical aspects. 



-fin