As one of the developers from Parker Brothers who worked on this game, it was so nice to see it again. There are reasons we did what we did with these games that other game mfgrs did not. Thanks for letting me remember simpler times.
That's amazing Rick. Thank you for your comment and your contribution to video game history. What was your role on the game? I'm sure your perspective of it was very different to my one depicted in this video!
At the time, Atari did not make available to other manufacturers how to code for their platform. So, under strict controls we reversed engineered the whole system, chips included. We knew things this system could do and commands available that Atari didn’t know about. We used this information to create a development platform that was truly ahead of its time.
@@DrRRH Fascinating. At the end of the video I mention that I was told that game was doing something special with the scanlines which was causing the vertical hold issue on my old CRT. Any idea what that was? Maybe something to do with the parallax scrolling?
"I'm gonna just, if it's okay, I'm gonna pretend that you were one of my friends when I was 10...and we're playing this game together." That comment right there made me smile so bright. Every one of your videos makes me feel like I was invited to your house, and we were having a playful chat, or we decided to do a project together. You make content that resonates the feeling of welcomeness. I don't know if it's the soothing voice, the gentle music in the background, or the simple editing, but it's something that very few content creators can really do. I love it, and I hope that this vibe never goes away. May the Force be with you.
In my youth, I wrote video games for the Atari 2600... It was a real pain due to the CPU directly controlling the video data output bits for each scan line..
This was one of my favorites as a boy. One tip - the walkers move much more slowly when damaged. A good strategy for higher scores is to knock the lead walker down to the yellow status, slowing the entire column, and then the last one down to yellow as well, slowing the arrival of the new walkers. Then destroy the six between them. By the time you've done that, the last walker will be the lead walker, and you can repeat the process until they finally get you or you have to go to dinner. May the Force be with you!
When I got this game back in the early 80's it was a loose cart with no instructions. Until this video and comment section I had no clue about the walkers slowing down when damaged, the landing your ship to repair it, or the different game variations.
@@homiedclown i had the same experience. To my 10 year old eyes it was a horrid game of repetition with no goal or objective, nothing going on but shooting at an eternal tain of walkers. Sadly it was one of our least played games
I tripped over the power cord of my light sixer 2600 when I was about ten, and that was it. Felt like losing a friend! I did save it, though. Thirty some years later I finally dug it back out and opened it up. Turns out I cracked the solder on the power jack. One gentle touch with the old soldering pencil and it's back! Sure cleaned up nice, too.I even recovered the penny that I lost through the vents when I was 6 or 7, which is now taped to the top of the case.
Watching the nostalgic satisfaction you got reassured me that my own nostalgic high I get from my vintage computer collection is not just a me thing. Love your videos.
I am so amazed! Your patience is "Out of this world!!" I so felt for you I remember seeing this cartridge as a kid, but we never got it (But we had "Space Invaders" & "Pack Man" - Both fab ulous games too) So great to see that happy smile on your face when it all works in the end!
For the Empire Strikes Back: shoot the first Walker until it is yellow (it will be moving at its slowest), then go all the way to the end of the line and do the same to the last one. Then destroy the middle three completely. Then destroy the first Walker. Repeat with the new last one, and keep completely destroying the middle ones. This will keep them from getting to your base.
Awsome fix - as an amateur radio operator (2E0FWE) I was right away - yep thats Radio Frequency interfering with the video. Its worth investing in some good power strips *only* for your consoles and monitor to run from (Tacima 6 Way Mains Conditioner and Radio Frequency Interference Filter) , the best ones will have a choke filter in them and you done the right thing in putting on some good old ferrites on your power supplies. Amazing rebuild, your persistance and determination are amazing !!
Your excitement was palpable... and I’m sure every chap watching can see through a ten year old’s eyes, because we never really stop, no matter how old we become!
That was lovely to see. You carried that around for all these years and so good that you weren't disappointed when the dream came true. Very sweet. Cheers
Glad you got to play it even 37 years later. It was my favorite when I was 10. And it still is today. Just played it a couple days ago on the console my lifelong best friend (who passed away in July) left me.
This absolutely made my day. So impressed that you held on to that cart for all these years. I still own games I received as Christmas presents back in the 80’s, I’m 55 now and could never part with them :-)
It always surprises me how powerfully nostalgic small things like vendor video game brand packaging, artwork, and logos can transport me instantly right back to 1981 in anticipation and excitement browsing in my local Sears or toy store at all the new Atari hardware and software boxes stacked on display on the store shelves and behind the glass display cases. I can exactly relate to your feelings in this video. Trip back to a better, simpler, happy time. Kids today having instant gratification don’t understand or know the feeling and experience of that long car ride home from the store holding that prized new Atari game cart box, carefully analyzing and reading every word on the box in anticipation of finally getting it home, opening it, and plugging it into the console for days/weeks/months of shared exploration, enjoyment and experiences with friends.
Right with you there at the end when you paused to soak it all in. I have major nostalgia feels for that game. Played the HELL out of it for months. Great game when the world was Star Wars and ESB crazy. I wish I had kept my 2600. Great troubleshooting video... know that must have felt great to get everything resolved. That looked like a lot of work. Nice job!
Empire Strike Back on 2600 was the very first videogame I ever played at home. :) I was probably 5 or 6 years old around 1986 or 1987 when I found the woody 4-switcher in the original box with a ton of games in the hallway closet, left behind by my older sister and brother who had flown the coup. It was missing the TV/Game RF switch but my twin brother and I got it working through shear force-of-will. :) We literally stripped twist ties from bread bags to make wires that we used to short the RF lead to different screws on the back of our black and white TV set. We had no concept of VHF or UHF but figured out which two of the four screws to connect it to through brute-force troubleshooting. :) We knew we were getting close when we would see the static change if we turned the console on or off, so we kept at it. Suddenly, we heard the Star Wars jingle that Empire Strikes Back plays when you turn it on. We we're lucky we used that one since most Atari games are silent at boot and don't have music even when you start the game... and we didn't own Pitfall II: Lost Caverns. ;) We panicked when something we changed resulted in us losing the audio but we quickly backpedaled until we found ourselves on the right channel and adjusted the fine tuning to get an image. Victory! The problem then was that we had no idea how to play the game. It felt like you just flew around endlessly and could shoot but no amount of shooting seemed to work against the AT-ATs. I know how to play now but, back then, we ended up running to our stingy friend with a Nintendo Entertainment System and told him "You can't play our Atari unless you let us play your Nintendo!" :D That isn't to say we didn't have a lot of fun with the Atari. To my twin bro and me, Slot Racers was the precursor to Mario Kart Battle Modes and Combat was a heck of a lot of fun for two kids figuring out how all the different game modes worked. Figures I'd single those two out since they were the two launch titles that didn't have a single-player mode but, well, they had a special impact on us... being twins. We played and enjoyed Pac-Man with no concept of how inferior it was to the original. We played Pinball and Circus and Tennis and Basketball and so many others. I totally hated Stampede until my sister came to visit and showed me how it was done (I'm still impressed to this day). I know I had at least one other Activision title since I noticed way back then that their carts deliberately slotted together and stacked but I can't recall what it was. I think I played Canyon Bomber at a babysitter's place before that but I suddenly had it at home. :) I recall borrowing Donkey Kong, Congo Bongo, and more from my sister's friends who were still around. A friend at school gave me Demon Attack and I was totally confused by the label mentioning a Sears Telegames console, since I only know of Atari VCS/2600 and Nintendo Entertainment System back then.
"Sears Telegames console" ==I've never heard of that. We have a Colecovision console and it plays the Atari 2600 games. I still don't understand that. Is it because of a crosslicensing deal between Atari and Coleco?
@@louistournas120 The Sears Telegames variant is what he's refurbishing in this video. It isn't actually an Atari 2600 according to the box and badge! ;) The Coleco Gemini console and the 2600-compatible add-on for Colecovision were not authorized by Atari but they didn't actually need to be since Atari didn't have anything unique/proprietary/protected. IIRC, Atari even sued over those or an Intellivision module that played Atari games. It was a wild time! This is exactly why Nintendo put the lock-out chip in the NES.
@@emmettturner9452 Interesting. That is one heck of a mistake. We seem to live in a world where companies encrypt DVD movie discs, blu-ray movie discs, some VHS have an anti-copy thing, Apple doesn't let you download the songs to your PC, I think XBox One and PS4 games need to be signed and do some kind of communication with the CPU, and so on. Atari should have designed their own instruction set for their CPU. Probably a tiny modification would have helped.
There are few things I am ashamed of when I was a child...I will reveal one of them. I had one friend who had an Atari 2600 with over 30 games. I would sleep over at his house...pretend to sleep then just play, play play until dawn...he would then wake thinking I had just woken up myself in the morning...but nope. It would be years before I had my own and the excitement of playing one game after another...the 10 year old me being put in the zone and having night turn to dawn in the blink of an eye all those decades ago...sigh..and yes did tell him years later.
The movie theater near me showed the empire strikes back a few months ago and I took my kid to see it, that was the first time I have seen it in the theater because I was born a few years after it came out, it was amazing.
Congratulations on achieving a childhood goal. We should never let our dreams end despite our age. I feel your joy, and for me I have ZX Spectrum tapes awaiting the Next batch 2 in 2021. Okay, the tape probably won’t work still, but I will eventually load the game and play it. Spy Hunter.
I hope your tapes work. I know MSX programs were recorded at 1200 baud and that's a pretty robust signal. Depending on the type of tape there's a good chance they still work.
This was probably my favorite game on Atari 2600. Lots of memories came back to me watching this. I remember that you could line you're speeder up at the exact right height to hit all the walkers attacks and land as many hits as your thumb could manage before you had to move back and realign your ship. So much fun!
Defender like. I can hear the beautiful Atari Space Invaders sound effects as I write. On the other side of the world, in NY, there was a little boy. I was in love with it. I went to see Empire Strikes back for my 11th birthday. 2 friends I was allowed to bring and my Mom snuck in 4 brown bags of popcorn from our “New” air popper.. And went on a great adventure when the world had not fogged my wide eyes yet. Thank you.
More fun watching you play than playing it myself! You had a nostalgic smile throughout. Parker Brothers had other good Atari 2600 games. Frogger and Spider-Man are two that I had. Cheers!
My local video shop (VHS & Betamax films) also stocked a whole bunch of Atari VCS games in the early 80s and along with Pitfall, Enduro and Frogger, Empire Strikes Back was almost always out on rental. If I was ever fortunate enough to be in the video shop when it was available for rent I immediately picked it up for a couple of days of compulsive play. Such a great game for its time and something that also holds a special place in my heart. I’m so pleased your journey had been completed satisfactory.
This is such a wholesome video! I was worried it was going to turn into a length Ship of Thesius thing where you replace every part but the formic "essence" of the VCS still carries some interference haha
Wow. A few things: * Thank you for taking us with you on this journey! It was a treat from a story perspective, but also seeing the many steps you took that didn't pan out is really encouraging to those of us who find ourselves frustrated by electronics projects that don't work out as easily as they're usually portrayed in RU-vid vids. * How did watching someone play an Atari cartridge become such an emotional experience?? Not ashamed to admit I started to get just a little bit misty. * HOW DID I NEVER KNOW THAT YOU CAN LAND AND REPAIR YOUR SNOW SPEEDER?!? I've logged many, many hours in this game since I borrowed the cart from a friend as a kid, through getting my own cart, and also playing in Stella, and I never knew about that feature. Looks like I'll be firing firing up the emulator, at least until I get around to recapping my heavy 6!
Sigh of relief and joy! Awesome, well done 👍 I never got to play it either 😟 but then Chuckie Egg came along on the Acorn Electron and I was completely engaged with that. 😊
You really have no idea how much I dearly loved watching you get this experience after all these years. I'm a 50 year old OG Star Wars fan who saw it first in '77(turned 7 years old the day I went to see it) in a nearly 100 year old theater. I had so many SW toys and games that I played with, hard, and really wish I still had them to this day for nostalgia and love over their value. I got that Empire game shortly after it first came out and remember paying around $40, maybe closer to $60. I had to mow a lot of yards to get that money. And, I remember first getting it home and playing it all day that Saturday and then telling my friends about it on Sunday they all came over to my house while we relived the movie, played with the game, my Death Start Play set and X-Wing and Tie Fighter. Micheal brought over his Millennium Falcon, Jason brought over his Darth Vader Tie Fighter and we went outside(Yes OUTSIDE) and played Star Wars versions of Cowboys and Indians because we had the Han Solo Pistols and Storm Trooper Rifles and the 2"D" cell flashlights with opaque plastic tubes on them in various colors. Man, I really miss those days. Thanks for flooding my memory for awhile.
Success is great isn't it??..especially after all of the frustration! I love the 35+ year Reminiscing... I do it all the time! That is why we love these old systems so much....pretty simple designs...charming games....and the love for them never ends...! Kudos to the fix! :)
Thank you so much for sharing this moment with us, Chris! Patience is the mother of many virtues, and you finally made it! This brings me loads of tender and emotional memories from my youth, as it must have done to many other chip dippers too -btw here in France we’re more « frite dippers » than « chip dippers » actually :-D
Everyone loves a happy ending ❤️ You certainly have a great degree of patience! Great 2-parter, thoroughly enjoyed it. Love your work. Have a great Sunday!
Just happened upon you randomly while at lunch today. Your sense of wonderment was appreciated and reminded me of my younger days of colecovision, vic-20, and PC games. Thank you for making a dreary day more enjoyable
Wow, what a mission! I was starting to worry that you wouldn't be able to fix the machine. That much soldering and desoldering to no avail, but the Force is obviously still with you. 'Patience my young Jedi'!
You don't need to transport yourself to that 10-11 years kid from way back. This is the first video I see in your channel, and I could tell that that kid never left you. Your passion and dedication are very inspiring. Here's my two clicks: Thumbs up and subscribe!
I love watching videos like this because it takes me back to my Navy days modding PS2's in Japan. I haven't messed much with it in the past 20 years, but I enjoy watching. Also my old Gunny HATED wire strippers, he swore they were the cause of like 75% of problems. When I see you using them it always makes me chuckle. Me now would just earn a free trip to the ER, but old me could strip the end of a bundle of wires one handed with a straight razor and not bat an eye.
@@RetroRecipes a lot of mod makers arent aware of twisted shielded pair cable. it would work really well to keep signal noise down in the composite cable
@@ferrumignis twisted pair is for any analog signal. And the only reason i mention it is usually you cant get shielded wire unless it is alsp twisted pair
You may be able to reduce the number of ferrites you used on your DC adapter by looping the cable around a single ferrite a few times instead. Additionally your 1084 monitor excessive blooming during explosions may point to a B+ regulation issue. As always thanks for the memories!
@@RetroRecipes heh.. if it works no need to try and fix it more! I am however a little worried about your CRT and how the picture seem to jump on sudden brightness changes. (E.g. explosions) This could indicate some failure for drive voltage regulation.
Apologies if this has already been mentioned, but fun fact: Parker Brothers also hold the IP rights in Ouija Boards. Ouija was itself originally released just as a game. It has all the occult significance of Hungry Hungry Hippos.
The sound effect when you were doing board level mods/repairs and trying the dog as an outlet had me pissing myself laughing. And the look of joy on your face when you plugged the game in and it fired right up :)
Brilliant! Amazing work! You made me realize just how awesome the Hakko desoldering gun is. That looks like it’s worth it’s weight in gold. I guess I’ll have to buy one to accompany my Hakko soldering iron.
How nice. Was on my want list, but then time came and ... now I want to make a tribute somehow (probably programming the game in Phaser 3) ... Thanks. :-)
When I was 10 none of that existed and when it did come out it was like magic. Very hard for kids today to understand however all is not lost because my little army of 5 Grand Kids was here recently and I had them playing retro stuff for hours and hours. Just to see them enjoying games from the old Atari 2600 though to the Amiga stuff was totally awesome.
Only just discovered your channel and love what you do..I'm a 1972 guy with an interest in all this stuff too..my uncle had the Atari 2600 and was my first console experience..we spent hours playing space invaders, pac man, asteroids and my all time favourite centipede..keep up the good work my friend and I'm binging on your vids looking for more..ie zx81, spectrum & Amiga content.. 👍
4:03 as all Trekkies (yet another franchise) know since their encounters with the Borg:"Resistance is futile". You can remove R215 safely :) Speaking of franchise, the look&feel of the Imperial Walker in game reminds me of ... the Return/Revenge of the Jedi ?.. no the "Revenge of the mutant camels" on C64. ;)
Great work! You really are good at setting the nostalgic mood. I think many of us out there has that missing childhood experience we yearn for, and your visceral descriptions and the hard work you put into ironing out the kinks before finally playing it for the first time was very cathartic. I wonder if any of the PSU's of some of your vintage computers has a failed RIFA capacitor that's introducing noise into your local power circuit. I never would have thought about trying ferrite chokes, so good on you for figuring it out!
Given the capabilities/limitations of the Atari -- designed for Pong and Combat -- they actually made a decent game. Nice colors, shapes, parallax scrolling. I'm not aware of any other game using parallax this early?
Hands down the best restoration video I've seen on RU-vid. Very thorough and never wanting to give up is a natural trait for tech guys, we know something is able to fix it and we'll keep trying until it is! Loved this game as a kid, played it for hours on our 2600, music was amazing @23:13 love it!!
Not surprised new stranded wires helped. You could configure them as twisted pairs with an extra ground wire, that should help too. Maybe add bypass caps to the cheap power supply lines.
I've seen other videos where they say the right 2600 PSU is crucial to stop interference on the screen. He had started with a modern cheap switch mode but found the old fashioned transformer style was much better.
I played Empire on a 2600 when I was a child. I did not know that you could land the snow speeder to repair! I did, however, get good at hitting the flashing boxes for a one hit kill. Thanks for the trip.
I don't wanna grow up, I'm a Toys 'R' Us kid, they've got the best for so much less it'll really flip your lid! From planes to trains to video games it's the biggest toy store there is. I don't wanna grow up cause maybe if I did, I wouldn't be a Toys ' R' Us kid!
I spent many, many hours on this game as a kid. The 2600 was the only game console we had until 1988 when my Dad got us an NES, and when that happened the ATARI was taken from the living room to reside in my room. So much time was spent in front of that tiny little 13" TV screen playing ESB, Pitfall, Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Donkey Kong, Mario Bros., and even E.T. (we didn't always make great game-buying choices). Kudos to you for getting that ATARI working and finally being able to enjoy this game!
Thank you for sharing that! Took me back to my middle school years sitting and watching someone take a turn on the Atari. Great stuff, good memories! Glad you believed and achieved!
Surprisingly touching personal story, quite lovely, actually. I identified strongly with this as I was born in 79 and had an Atari 2600, woodgrain and all. I feel this sort of strong nostalgia when finding and playing classic arcade games that I never got to play as a kid bc we were from a small town. Never did have this game so I'll have to give it a try. Thanks for sharing ☺️ Cheers
I did the same mod and had similar interference. I stopped using a cheap you know where from switching power supply and powered it with an old original type linear heavy brick type PSU. Think it came from an Atari Lynx. Now works great... No rolling screen interference bars etc.
Pffffffff, the Atari 2600 PSU is just a transformer and nothing more. It puts AC into the 2600 and the AC is turned into DC inside the machine....what are guys talking about switching power supplies ??
Thanks for taking me back with you. :) We're about the same age. I did get to play ESB back then and owned it. Unfortunately, I lost my whole Atari 2600 collection (about 20 games) and console over the years. :(
I remember playing this game at my brother friend's house. At the time, I thought the game was about killing camels. At some point, one day thinking about old Atari games, I figured: those weren't camels were they? Then I checked and yep, that "camel game" was, in fact, Empire Strike Back. Edit: I recheck the whole thing... I remembered when the camels die, they turn their heads up. In this version they do not. So, there IS a similar game called: "Attack of the Mutant Camels". That's one mystery solved I guess...
I can't believe how much work you put into your videos! They are so very well done! High quality production value for sure and very under appreciated in my opinion! CHEERS!! 🍻😄
This was really an entertaining video "Anakin." I remember when my sisters and I had gotten our first Atari. The 2600. My mother asked us a deal for that Christmas. "Do you want more presents and no Atari?" "Or an Atari with a couple of games and not so many presents?" We all voted the Atari. Such fun times with it. A couple of friends in the Mobile home park in which we lived had gotten one to and my friend Shane no doubt had "The Empire Strikes Back." Now all you need is the hardware to rip your own Atari cartridges to play in emulation and preserve the cartridges itself.
never had this particular game, but...boy the memories flooded anyways... Missile Command, Yars Revenge, Space Invaders..etc... such a great and amazing console for it's time...
Regulation isn't great when a government gets involved but it's often critically important in a power supply. :-) Glad to see clean power solved the problem. It's actually good you didn't try that first as it seems you made a lot of good and important improvements to the circuit you might otherwise have not made. Bravo!
This is officially my new favorite channel/content creators. Well done! We are binge watching to get caught up. Both of you keep up the fantastic work.
You mean to tell us you've had the actual same boxed copy of that game ever since you bought it and only now you're able to play it? That's dedication! Does this mean you're going to collect all the Star Wars cartridges for the Atari 2600? You'll need paddles for the Jedi Arena game. You've got 4 more games to collect, with Ewok Adventure being a prototype. I hear it's playable.
Your ferrite ring trick works beautifully on my old Atari 2600 - I have been making all visitors play my Atari Surround game on a 50inch plasma with crisp graphics to marvel at the picture quality. You my friend are a star. :) You've made a happy man very old.
I have to admit, totally worth the subscription price, even if I am a pence or two poorer I am shillings more entertained! Now if I could only find the time to clean up my old original vcs that my parents bought...muahhahaha Atari pinball will be match!
awesome video and so much patience but it’s Love ❤️ !! wow these game have such great special effects, never thought this system could do this, i really understand your feelings, such good vibes !!!
"This is way cooler than I thought it would be" Manual is pulling some heavy weight there. I had a copy as a kid in loose cartridge form. And with no Internet or manual it was WAY less cool than I expected.
Man that gameplay takes me back, and my friends copy had the flashing too, I just thought that was a cool effect to replicate the movies use of flash frames for impact.
Wow, that brought back some cool memories. I lived overseas in the far east the 80s and had a PAL system Atari 2600. My dad bought the game for me when he was away in the US and brought it back. It was then that we realised that it was for the NTSC system would only display in grayscale when used on a PAL console. While I enjoyed the game a lot as a Star Wars fan, it wasn't until about 25 years later when I ran the game in full colour via an emulator on a PC. What an experience and journey.
So I also coveted this game, my memories off it were a day home from school sick and my dad phoning me to ask if he could get me something, I asked him to rent me the game from the video shop who started renting Atari games recently, and he duly delivered. Watching your video it brought back a lot of good memories and memories of the manual that I had forgotten about until I saw you flicking through it. Thank you for a lovely memory trip!
I had the same reaction when I played on an Atari after years and years. I never was able to get rid of the interference but I was using an RF to composite adapter. Hated it. Ended up getting an RGB modded console. Great episode!
I love your handywork and your patience. Nice job! I'm glad you managed to finally fix it and that it is working so well! So nice to see you finally play it on the proper machine. Yaaay! :)
Dog poo would probably work as a very low amp battery. You could string enough of them together to power a device like that guy who got his graphing calculator to run Doom powered by potatoes.
At last! Nice to see an Atari again. I had a Space Shuttle cart in 1980; you were in the cockpit and when you launched, the sky in the windows turned black and the stars came out! I think you were supposed to rendezvous with something.....
