Atari 2600 Starpath Supercharger Tapes


The Supercharger was a device produced by Arcadia Corporation to increase the memory capacity of the Atari 2600 to 6272 bytes and to make use of cheaper media, cassette tape, to produce and distribute games. A by-product of this was that it was also possible to create games which loaded in separate stages thus giving more longevity and gameplay to a particular title. Both sides of the tape were used. Side "A" was created in Fast-Load format and followed by several game previews for other Supercharger games. Side "B" was in Slow-Load format and was provided in case the cassette recorder being used was unable to read the higher density signal of the Fast-Load version. The Supercharger itself was like an oversize cartridge with a thin co-axial cable, fitted with a phono plug for connection to the cassette recorder, coming out of the top of the unit. When the Atari 2600 was turned on, a scolling starfield was displayed with the legend 'Rewind Tape, Press Play'. During loading expanding blue bars on both sides of the screen, accompanied by a tone increasing in pitch, showed the progress of the load. Once the load was complete 'Stop Tape' was displayed and then the game began. On multi-load games this sequence was repeated for each of the sections. Arcadia Corporation changed its name to Starpath Corporation shortly before the unit was released in the U.K. although some games still bore the earlier name (this is indicated in the comments column). The last two games were released after the company ceased trading and came, with instructions, in plain black cassette cases.

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No. Title Cass Inst Box TV Comments
AR-4000
 		Phaser Patrol
Y
Y
Y
 		PAL  
AR-4101
 		Communist Mutants from Outer Space
Y
Y
Y
 		PAL Arcadia
AR-4102
 		Suicide Mission
Y
Y
Y
 		PAL Arcadia
AR-4103
 		Killer Satellites
Y
Y
Y
 		PAL  
AR-4104
 		Rabbit Transit
Y
Y
Y
 		PAL  
AR-4105
 		Frogger
Y
Y
Y
 		PAL  
AR-4200
 		Escape from the Mindmaster
Y
Y
Y
 		PAL Multi-Load
AR-4201
 		Sword of Saros
Y
Y
Y
 		PAL Black cassette case
AR-4300
 		Fireball
Y
Y
Y
 		PAL Arcadia / Uses Paddle controllers
AR-4302
 		Party Mix
Y
Y
Y
 		PAL Multi-load / Uses Paddle controllers
AR-4400
 		Dragonstomper
Y
Y
Y
 		PAL Multi-load
AR-4401
 		Survival Island
Y
Y
Y
 		PAL Black cassette case / Multi-load

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