Stella's Stocking - Atari 2600

Stella's Stocking is a fun compilation of Christmas games and Christmas music from a collaboration of talented programmers. Dave Exton did a great job on the manual and label artwork. My two favorite games from this cartridge are Stay Frosty and Grandma's Revenge. Stay Frosty is a fun little platformer with great graphics by Darrell Spice Jr. Grandma's Revenge is a holiday-themed version of Death Race that has Driver Controller support and two-player support. As for the other 3 games, Elf Dash is an interesting one, but has some confusing controls. Cold War and Tossing Cookies are two rather simple games that might be better for the little ones. Overall, it's an excellent value and it's even fun to just turn it on and watch the 8-bit fireplace while listening to the Christmas tunes on the main screen.

I annoyed Al to restock this game when I first got into collecting for 2600. When he finally did, I was not disappointed with my order--got all of the available 2600 Christmas themed games!

Great variety and of course solid gameplay. Stay Frosty is a classic, Elf Dash is a hidden gem, and using the driving controller with Grandma's Revenge is twisted fun!

This is an older collection, but no less fun than some of the newer titles! It has an amazing themed menu selection screen, and five Christmas-themed titles:

Stay Frosty: This is my favorite of the collection, and worth the cost of the cartridge all on its own. You are a snowman putting out stray fires while finding ice blocks to avoid melting completely. It's a great combination of puzzle and platform game, with amazing graphics, and good sound effects. Great concept, and excellent execution!

Elf Dash: Collect the items you need, and avoid haywire toys that can knock you down along the way, I like the countdown timer instead of lives and score, and the strategy of timing with the elevators. This one is a lot of fun, and my second favorite of the collection.

Cold War: This is a simple but fun two-player game. You control one of two snowmen on your side, trying to hit the snowmen on your opponent's side with snowballs. It's much like an enhanced, holiday-themed Outlaw.

Tossing Cookies: You are Santa trying to capture your wayward reindeer! Collect cookies, pacify each reindeer with a cookie, then catch them. The gameplay is pretty straight-forward, but could use a little more variety. Still, it's cute, and an original concept.

Grandma's Revenge: After her untimely demise due to careless reindeer, grandma's spirit is seeking revenge by trying to run over all 9 reindeer with a car. Brilliant concept for sure. :) I appreciate that this game can optionally make use of the driving controller, and it plays much better that way. While not my favorite of the collection, it may grow on me as I get good enough to pass the first level, and try out the two-player variant.

Overall: This is a fun collection, and very well packaged with a festive menu / game selector. It's well worth the price, and I highly recommend it.

One of the best original multicarts you can get on the Atari 2600! Though it has been surpassed by The Byte Before Christmas, this is still a very nice collection of games.

Games included:

Stay Frosty: The golden game of this package! Addictive puzzle-platform game in which you have to absorb all fireballs present in order to proceed on; each level and loop will literally get more heated and challenging! Expanded and improved in every way in Stay Frosty 2, but still a damn awesome game on its own!

Elf Dash: Very nice speed game where you play as an elf in a big rush to finish his errands of collecting the remaining gifts inside a closing Santa's Workshop! However, there are rogue toys out to prevent the elf from finishing his work and want him to stay in the workshop. I really like the variety of each toy you have to avoid and is the 2nd-best game on the package!

Cold War: Holiday-themed Outlaw; not really my cup of tea, but if you enjoyed Outlaw, then you'll most likely enjoy this.

Grandma's Revenge: Grandma gets here revenge on this cool remake of Death Race 2000 (late-1970s Exidy game). Makes great use of the Atari Driving Controller and a fun little game where you turn Reindeer into guts! I'd consider this to be the 3rd-best game of this package.

Tossing Cookies: Perhaps the worst game on this collection (no offense to the creator); you pilot Santa and his reindeer to get cookies to keep up his energy, avoid clouds that slow him down, as well as avoid lightning to save Christmas. It's too easy and sounds better on paper than it actually is.

While technically weaker than The Byte Before Christmas, which I enjoyed all the games on there, I'm still giving this package the same score, if only for Stay Frosty; it's that good! Also, that interface; damn nice looking!

Stella’s Stocking a video game review

Recently I received the Atari Age homebrew game Stella’s Stocking, which is actually a 5 games in 1 cart. This cartridge I always wanted to purchase from the Atari Age game store, but as luck would have it, this game turned up on ebay.de, eliminating the US to DE postage costs.
Not that this would make any difference, if I want a title from the USofA, I buy it, no matter what postage and customs charges occur.

My cartridge is one of the limited editions, it being number 69 out of, I presume, 100, which is in itself cool already.
First off, my Stella’s Stocking cartridge is PAL, meaning it was developed for the European Television format. Basically insert the cart into the old VCS, it works straight out of the box, no TV line adjustment needed.

Stella’s Stocking comes with a well-printed colourful 8-page manual made with sturdy paper and it is of very high quality indeed. The title “Stella’s Stocking” is not printed on the instruction title page, instead it says “Happy Holidays”, which, personally, I find kinda weird, but why not. We also have a great picture of Stella putting gifts into stockings.
Open the page you’ll find an explanation of the Stella cart, for example that it utilizes 64K, a first for Atari Age (this game cartridge is from 2007), that there’s 5 video games on the cart, and that the menu selection screen has some great music, and I quote: Quite possible the best music ever heard in a 2600 game”.
I always like little back info like that.

Onwards, the next pages are devoted to the games, every game instruction is one page long, which also includes some excellent game art. Game 1 is called COLD WAR, controls and gameplay is explained within the instructions. Game number 2 is TOSSING COOKIES, number 3 is STAY FROSTY, number 4 is called ELF DASH, and last but not least, we’ll find GRANDMA’S REVENGE as the fifth game.
Humorous headlines accompany all the games, that gives a nice touch.

A box for the cartridge is not available, that is a bit of a shame, as I like my video games in boxes, but nevermind.
The cartridge label is also of high quality, and it shows the same girl, Stella, she herself wearing stockings, putting gifts into stockings hanging on the chimney wall. The name of the game is printed on the label, and down on the bottom of the cart, the number 69 is written within a small, white square. Underneath is says, “AtariAge Holiday Greetings 2007”. An end label is provided as well.

Now let’s fire up this little beauty and see what’s the games are all about in a quick overview:

COLD WAR:
This 2-player game is a great snowball fight, select small snowballs or big snowballs and let your opponent have it. Level 2 onwards has obstacles like ice walls and other nasty elements. Great fun for two players.

TOSSING COOKIES
You are Santa in this game but all your raindeer have flown away and it’s your job to catch the deer and then to get on your way for whatever a Santa has to do on the night before Christmas. Basically in the first level you have to collect all the magic cookies within a time limit of 30 seconds. Beware of the lightning bolt, this will, of course, kill you. If you don’t manage to collect any cookies within 30 seconds you will lose a life. On the second level you have to catch the raindeer by tossing the cookies towards them. The raindeer will slow down once eaten a cookie, and you’ll have 15 seconds to catch the deer.
Original game and very challenging.

STAY FROSTY
Here’s AAs most famous snowman, who made a return in Stay Frosty 2 just recently.
Put out all the fires on each level, but watch out, the Snowman’s melting in the process. Collect ice blocks to replenish your energy. This game is great fun and a classic.

ELF DASH
Holly the elf has to collect 40 items. Manic toys are her enemy as they are trying to kill her. Basically a platform and ladders game, collect the items, collect the key for the next level, avoid enemies at all costs. I like this game a lot.

GRANDMA’S REVENGE
Kill all raindeer by running over them with your car? How nasty for Christmas, I like it. I’m gonna keep this for playing in Dec 2016.

All in all, a super great cartridge well worth the money.
I guess I better get Stay Frosty 2 next.

Thomas