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BeatHead (prototype)

Game Information
manufacturer Atari Games
year 1993
genre N/A
downloads 13
Screenshots
beathead title
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Download Details
split set beathead.zip 2.89m
merged set beathead.7z 2.67m
standalone set beathead.7z 2.67m
Game Details
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Beat Head (c) 1993 Atari Games.

Jump on the tiles that match your color or that have your color and your opponent's color. Jump on enough to fill your spaces before your opponent fills his.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : ASAP (@ 14.31818 Mhz), MOS Technology 6502 (@ 1.7895 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.579 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 9.037 Khz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 336 x 240 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette colors : 32768

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

Beat Head has nothing remotely resembling Sprites or M.O.s., the hardware is a fairly naive bitmap, although it is implemented in VRAM, which allows, e.g. fast copies to reduce the CPU needed for static content.

Beat Head is the only Atari Coin-Op game to derive its 'time base' from the audio, and to do so uses a rarely used feature of CPU/Audio communication. A bug there would not affect any other game, and would manifest in Beat Head as timeouts and 'jerks' as the video was re-sync'd to the audio.

- TRIVIA -

At the time, Atari were very keen to fund 'unusual' game concepts, such as "Toobin'" and Beat Head was one of those chosen. However, the game mechanic was incredibly repetitive and once you'd beaten 5 opponents, not much really changed. The reason for the very limited number of 'waves' is that the game did not get past a 'short field-test' stage. It was intended to be out only a few days. Atari had a pretty bad rep in those days, which showed in the cash box. And Beat Head had fairly powerful enemies within Atari, so it was killed at a very preliminary stage of the program. It certainly was never intended to be so limited.

The phrase 'Stella on Steroids' on the POST screen is a reference to the old Atari VCS, codenamed 'Stella'.

- CONTRIBUTE -

Edit this entry: https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=221&o=2
Driver Details
source atari/beathead.cpp
status good
emulation good
savestate supported
Screen Details
display screen
type raster
orientation horizontal
width 336px
height 240px
refresh 60mhz
Input Details
player 1
type joy
buttons 2
directions 8
player 2
type joy
buttons 2
directions 8
Chipset Details
name Atari ASAP
clock 13.65mhz
name MOS Technology 6502
clock 1.71mhz
name Speaker
clock N/A
name Atari JSA III Sound Board
clock N/A
name YM2151 OPM
clock 3.41mhz
name OKI MSM6295 ADPCM
clock 1.14mhz
ROM Details
name size crc
bhsnd.bin 64.00k dfd33f02
bhprog0.bin 512.00k 87975721
bhprog1.bin 512.00k 25d89743
bhprog2.bin 512.00k 87722609
bhprog3.bin 512.00k a795d616
bhpics0.bin 512.00k 926bf65d
bhpics1.bin 512.00k a8f12e41
bhpics2.bin 512.00k 00b96481
bhpics3.bin 512.00k 99c4f1db
bhpcm0.bin 128.00k 609ca626
bhpcm1.bin 128.00k 35511509
bhpcm2.bin 128.00k f71a840a
bhpcm3.bin 128.00k fedd4936