Rainbow Walker / Countdown

Information

Genre

Various

Language

Machine Language

Controls

Joystick

Players

1, Demo

Programmer(s)

Coleman, Steve, Rose, Ken

Graphic Artist(s)

[n/a]

Sound

[n/a]

Cover Artist(s)

Boxell, Tim

Year

1984

Publisher

Synapse Software

Developer

[n/a]

Country

USA

License

Commercial

Medium

Disk

Rarity

9

Serial

ATDSK-2501

Votes / Statistics

Rating: 8.4/10 · Votes: 145 · Downloads: 6,976 · Hits: 38,363

Additional Comments

Screenshots (6)

Cover Art (2)

Comments (6)

• rave.N — 8 Feb 2016

  Countdown, see the game "Kangaroo" for a more convenient demo of the same color flicker bug, wont have to wait like 10 mins for the rocket launch to see it. Kangaroo has both model 800 and model 5200 versions they act alike, bug on my best emulator, maybe not everybody's emulators. I've identified so many bugs in the latest Atari800MacX v4.6, they stopped releasing updates long ago. The next update will probably stop supporting Tiger OS/PowerPC but I wish they wouldn't. See "Megalegs" for the bad smooth scrolling, see "Stellar Shuttle" for collision detect bug where PMG meets artifacting (old vs. new artifacting, I forget which), see "Choplifter!" (1982) and "Death By Solitaire" for rendering bug where PMG meets artifacting, and see "Ultima IV" / "Ultima V" for everything wrong with artifacting in general.

• rave.N — 3 Jan 2016

  Nukes are all about cheating. As mentioned, C O U N T D O W N CHEAT MODES unlimited shield (lives), disk image. Change 3 bytes $38 $E9 $01 (with $8D $DB $81) into $EAEAEA, found here at offsets 1BFE,1BFF,1C00 CHEAT MODES unlimited explosives, disk image. Change 3 bytes $38 $E9 $01 (with $85 $D8) into $EAEAEA, found here at offsets 281F,2820,2821 CHEAT MODES unlimited ammo, disk image. Change the 2 byte sequence $C6 $D7 into $EAEA, found here at offsets $2857, $2858 Might as well duplicate the disk image then bundle all 3 cheats together, calling it "Countdown Cheater". This also works on your favorite file-version of the game. There's an emulation bug in NTSC but not PAL, in which the rocket when lifting off should flicker its tail flame between red and yellow so that it appears to glow orange. My emu only sparsely intermittently changes the color, it's mostly all red or all yellow, but if I rapidly pause/unpause during liftoff some flickering shows thru. Another quirk Countdown has is the Reset button wasn't originally trapped, then those crackers who tried mostly ended up with either broken graphics or broken sound after pressing Reset. Trapping Reset involves more work than usual on this game, it can be done, I just succeeded.

• sparkle — 23 Dec 2015

  must see Comments for "Rainbow Walker" in the non-Countdown entry(s) found in Atarimania's games database. werks best in PAL mode, how to get unlimited lives, more...

• meddle — 22 Aug 2015

  Countdown needs a game listing of its own. Now it only appears here joined to Rainbow Walker. Countdown is best played with its cheat version, unlimited ammo, unlimited tnt, unlimited shield. If nukes were anything but ficticious, countdown would be a true story.

• cohones — 11 Nov 2013

  Both games awesome!

• Paul Westphal — 7 Jan 2009

  Sweet! This is one helluva fun game. This is a good example of great programming. I rate it right up there with alley cat in terms of replayability. Kid's love this game too!