This is a copy of Lee Krueger’s review posted to rec.games.video.classic. It is presented here unedited.

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I have been bestowed the honor to test and review the newest product form Schell Electronics (

http://www.schells.com/index.html). I apologize for this shameless plug, but after having played with

Chad Schell's latest creation, the SuperDuperCharger, I thought I'd let the rest of you folks know what

you may be missing if we don't all act NOW. This is the best thing to happen to classic gamers and the

Atari 2600 since... well... since sex was invented. It is almost that good ;-)

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What is a SuperDuperCharger?

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The SuperDuperCharger (SDC) is an Atari 2600 RAM cartridge inspired by the original Starpath Supercharger

(SC). It allows one to download games to an Atari 2600, 7800 or compatibles. It uses an audio interface

so that games are loaded in the same fashion as the original StarPath SC. Games can be loaded from any

convenient audio storage medium whether it be a cassette, compact disc or a wav file on your computer.

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Why is this different then the StarPath SuperCharger?

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The Star Path SC was designed specifically to load 6K StarPath SC games and more recently, utilities have

been made available so that all 2K and 4K games could be loaded into the StarPath SC. A CD collection

like "Worship the Woodgrain" contains every 2K and 4K game on it (about 400 games). However, many more

games were still not able to load into the Starpath SC because they exceed the 6K limitation of the SC

design. The SDC has been designed to play all known Atari 2600 games (about 600 unique titles - more than

1200 if you count all the pirates and variations).

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Why you need one

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It has been my experience that there are 3 types of people that like the Atari 2600

1. The avid game player - This person loves to play the really good games.

2. The avid collector - Collects boxes, manuals and memorabilia of anything related to Atari

3. The hobbyist - These are the folks that like to tinker with altering games or writing new ones

Most folks fall between 1 and 2, or if you are really sick, then you are like me, you fit into all 3

types.

If you are type (1) an avid game player, you got to have this, every good Atari game ever made can fit

onto one measly CD. If you fall into type (2), there is not doubt that you must have this. Now you can

play all those rare games you can only hope to own someday like Tooth Protectors, Miner 2049er, Video

Life, etc.. AND every prototype known to date (Xevious, Sinistar, Tempest, Surf's Up, etc..) on a real

Atari 2600. People of type (3) are usually hardcore programmers with an itch to take up a challenging

programming assignment. The 2600 makes for a formidable programming nightmare, so there is a bit of

"machismo" for those who can master it. For these folks, the SDC is the perfect staging tool to test new

game ideas on real hardware. Emulators are good, but they don't always capture the subtle nuances of the

2600 that can only be experienced on real hardware.

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Why you need to act now

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Chad is in the midst of considering canceling this project. He is not seeing the response needed to make

a run of these SDC carts. He needs at least 100 firm commitments from folks to make this possible.

Besides working towards his PhD, he has other commitments as well, not to mention that he will need to

invest about $8000 in components (labor aside) to make these before he even sells one SuperDuperCharger.

He has alluded that he may have to take pre-payments to help out on this endeavor. I ask that all of you

Atari 2600 fans, please consider and drop Chad a line to show your support.

Chad Schell

(email address deleted)

For those of you interested in the technical aspects of the SuperDuperCharger (type 3 folks :-)

Check out his webpage:

(http://www.schells.com/index.html).

Chad is no stranger or Johnny-come-lately to classic games. He has also developed another similar product

for the Intellivision (aka the Intellicart). A very good product endorsed by the Blue Sky Rangers.

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Where can I see one or try it out?

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If you live in the Pacific NorthWest (in or around Seattle) drop me an email, I can arrange for you to

try it out for yourself.

Feel free to ask me questions.

Lee Krueger

(resqsoft@earthlink.net)

On behalf of Chad, thanks for your support.