Pressure Gauge
Pressure Gauge is a homebrew Atari 2600 game written by John K. Harvey as a college exercise. It is a pure timing test with a single control: press the button at exactly the right moment. The idea came…
Play ▸Developer: John K. Harvey
John K. Harvey is a homebrew programmer for the Atari 2600, known on the AtariAge forums as Propane13. He started with Pressure Gauge, a one-button timing test he wrote around 2000 as a college exercise, inspired by a mini-game in Brave Fencer Musashi. Its hidden text demo was his first try at scrolling text on the 2600.
His bigger project was Mean Santa, which he programmed from a design by Tim Duarte of the fan newsletter 2600 Connection. Released in October 2009 to mark the newsletter’s 100th issue, it casts Santa as a burglar who empties houses instead of filling them. Harvey spent more than a year on it and filled the 8K cartridge. The site has both TV formats:
Mean Santa (NTSC), the North American build
Mean Santa (PAL), the European build
Pick one of his games below and give it a go in your browser.
Mean Santa (NTSC)
Mean Santa (NTSC) is the North American build of Mean Santa, a 2009 Atari 2600 homebrew in which Santa does the opposite of his usual job: he lands on rooftops, climbs down the chimney and takes everything in…
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Mean Santa (PAL)
Mean Santa is a 2009 Atari 2600 homebrew that turns Christmas upside down: instead of leaving presents, Santa sneaks into houses and takes things away. Tim Duarte of the fan newsletter 2600 Connection came up with the idea,…
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