Imagic display kiosk - Incompatible games

I tested every single game I own (that was a long afternoon). The full list of results can be found here.

The biggest surprise was finding that my SuperCharger worked. However, you have to physically move the SuperCharger to a different slot if you want to load another game. Cycling the 2600's power between games didn't work. However, multi-load games worked normally. Something must be getting stuck in memory somewhere, and it doesn't get freed up until the SuperCharger is removed.

Odder still, is that some "bad" games negatively affected others. Apparently, the games aren't completely isolated from each other. Originally, Qb and Marble Craze didn't seem to work, nor did Jawbreaker and Marauder. However, it turned out that when I removed "bad" games from the kiosk (Polaris, for example), the other games worked fine. So whenever I ran into a "bad" game, I had to make sure it wasn't just a victim of something else. The "bad" ones listed here were each tested with nothing else in the kiosk, so they weren't being affected by other games. All of the games work on a regular 2600.

These games didn't load at all:

Activision Decathlon
Coleco Zaxxon
Tigervision Miner 2049er
Tigervision Miner 2049er Vol. II
Tigervision Polaris
U.S. Games Space Jockey

These games had garbled graphics, or other problems:

Activision Pitfall II
Even as weird as this looks, the game sort-of runs. You can hear some of the sounds, and see stuff move, but it's unplayable. I would assume the extra sound chip is the culprit.

Atari Crystal Castles
This was pretty weird - the levels would rapidly "finish themselves" as if you were playing. Your score would increase without you ever moving. Some were only on-screen a second or two. None of the levels had the gems in the right places.

Atari Dig Dug
It never draws any more than this part of the title screen.

Atari Stargate
This is all you see. The blip on the radar moves, and you hear sound, but that's it. After a short time, the level completes itself, and counts up all of your remaining humanoids.

CBS Electronics Mountain King
The picture rolls, and the mountain graphics (except the ladders) are missing. If you start the game, you just endlessly fall. This is probably an issue with the RAM Plus cartridges, since Tunnel Runner had problems too (see below).

CBS Electronics Tunnel Runner
All seems well until you start a game. The 2600 gets stuck in a loop trying to generate the maze map.

Coleco Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle
The picture rolls and the graphics are messed up. If you start playing, you still hear the music, but don't see anything but your remaining lives. I can't say I'm terribly heartbroken over this one.

 

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