That looks like an Atari cartridge you say! Yes it is! I know your Geeky, exercise starved heart is on the verge of exploding when you experience the fond memories of games like Missile Command, Gravitar and Combat Tank. Well what we have for you today is an Atari 2600 cartridge that will allow you to play any Atari game ever made! We just had to get out the old beast of a console and test out this retro gadget for you!

A26 Maxicart Review

Provided By: Videogame-Wiz
Retail Price: $85
Review Date: 6-20-05
Review Author: Rusty Newton

What do you Get?

The Goodies:

 You know its got to be a good gadget when it comes in a "Homebrew" style box. Some of you may remember oh so long ago when all computer software and home coded console games came in bland boxes and plastic baggies hung on utility shelves. Ah the memories.

What's Included?:
• 1 x A26 Maxicart
• 1 x USB cable for PC connection
• 1 x CD with Flashing Software and Instruction Manual (in PDF format)

What does it Do?

Jump back in Console History

 First of all you need to know what an Atari 2600 VCS is; if you don't then bow your head in shame and please take a look at this web site to brush up on your Geek knowledge of videogame history.

 For those of you who do remember the Godfather of all modern videogame systems I will now explain. The A26 Maxicart is a very simple device, it is basically a special Atari 2600 game cartridge that allows you to take any Atari 2600 game downloadable off the net and transfer them via USB cable to the Flash memory of the cartridge. Voila! The game is then playable on your Atari 2600! Sweet!

 This is obviously useful to those of us that love to relive the good ol times when games were programmed in only 4KB. These days you can't even make a 1 byte text file in windows without it taking up 4KB of space on your Hard Disk due to the File System Clusters!

How Does it Work?

  The objective here is to flash an Atari game to the A26 Maxicart and then play it on our Atari 2600 system.

 How do we go about doing that?

1. Install the drivers and software provided on the CD
2. Connect the A26 Maxicart to the PC via USB cable
3. Run Maxicart Loader software and flash your chosen game ROM to the Maxicart
4. Unplug Maxicart, Insert into Atari 2600 and play your game!

Easy as that right!?

Maxicart Loader Software

 You may have noticed that in step 3, you first need to obtain Atari 2600 game ROMs in order to flash them to the Maxicart. Well, being the nice Geeks that we are; we have already done the work for you and found some great ROM archives where you can probably find any Atari game ROM you will ever want.

 In the links below you will find places to download ROMs, and get info on all the different games and ROMs. Also sites where you can download Emulators. ( You can use Emulators to play ROMs on your PC )

Is it easy to use?

 Yes. It is quite simple to use. There are several buttons on the Maxicart Loader software but most of them you don't use unless you are doing some advanced operations. For example the creator did include features to read and write, to and from specific memory addresses just in case you Geeks want to do that sort of thing.

 Using the software to flash a game to the Maxicart is as simple as selecting a ROM file and then clicking the "Write File to MC" button.

Any weird problems?

 We did not run into any major issues flashing the ROM files or getting them to play. You will need to read the instruction book though as for some ROMs you will need to add text in the programs .ini file. ( This is because certain games used a bank switching scheme )

 
(The Maxicart plugged in our 6-switch Atari 2600)

 All in all it took about 10 minutes to read the instructions, flash a game to the cart and then we were playing Chopper Command!

 Props to Videogame-Wiz for making an easy to use and fun product!

Review Summary

 The A26 Maxicart is obviously a product made by Geeks for Geeks. It works great, performing exactly as the manufacturer says it will. It is very easy to use and the software will even allow for some more complex operations such as editing specific data bytes in the flash memory. The price is high but when you consider that there are not many other products that will let you play all Atari games on your actual Atari system, it could be worth the price!

( For those Atari 5200 fans, they also make an A52 Maxicart! ) 

PROS 
• Works exactly as stated.
• Play any Atari ROM that you can download, on your actual Atari 2600 system.
• Software is very easy to use.

CONS
• Can load only one Atari ROM at a time into the flash memory.

FINAL RATINGS

You can only purchase the A26 and A52 Maxicarts at Videogame-Wiz

We would like to thank Videogame-Wiz for giving us the opportunity
to review their unique Atari Gadget and inform the Geek masses!