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Sometimes you just can't stop a man and his dream. In this case, the man is Ed Fries, the former vice president of Microsoft's game publishing division, and the dream is a version of Halo for the Atari 2600. That actually started out simply as a way for Fries to learn to program for the 2600, but quickly turned into a full-fledged, Adventure-style game that made its debut at this past weekend's Classic Gaming Expo -- in cartridge form, no less, and with a label that'd look at home in any... shoebox full of 2600 carts (check it out after the break). Just as impressive as the game itself, however, is the story behind it. Here's just a sample:

It's around this time that I discovered the existence of what I call "Magic Land". I was working on a bug with the boss encounter and accidentally found myself completely outside the 64 room map. I was wandering through memory that was never intended to be interpreted as part of the map but the code was doing the best it could to interpret what was being thrown at it. Strange, misshapen monsters attacked me in even stranger ways as I wandered through this bizarre land that I had unintentionally created. I left a bug or two in the final game to allow others to find and explore this strange landscape as I did.

Oh, did we mention you can play it right now? Hit up the source link below and prepare to forget that Halo Reach even exists.

Continue reading Former Microsoft VP brings Halo to the Atari 2600

Former Microsoft VP brings Halo to the Atari 2600 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Aug 2010 13:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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