





AtariAge / Jeff Minter











The term "Easter egg" has long been used to describe hidden goodies inside of software and video games, but it's not often that game companies use the designated Easter holiday to actually announce the things. That changed on Sunday with an out-of-nowhere announcement from AtariAge, a modern-day retro publisher known for releasing games for Atari systems like the 2600 and the Jaguar.

AtariAge released the Jeff Minter Classics collection last year, which was billed as two '80s Minter games combined on a single Jaguar cartridge. (Minter, for the uninitiated, is the founder of bizarre '80s game studio Llamasoft and continues making stunning games like Tempest 2000, TxK, and Polybius to this day.) Sunday's news confirmed that AtariAge's sales pitch was a mistruth; three Minter classics shipped on the cart, and its owners can now access the third game, a refresh of 1982's Gridrunner, by entering the code "modern day wizardry" into the cart's password screen. Do this once, and the retro-looking bullet-hell game will permanently unlock on your cartridge via the main menu.

If you're wondering: no, this is not an April Fool's joke. Avid fans at the AtariAge forums immediately began posting personal screenshots to confirm that the unlock works (and used their screens for high-score bragging rights). Turns out, the project actually hid in plain sight on YouTube for over a year, though that February 2017 video didn't include any clues as to how to access this version.

Though Gridrunner originally launched on joystick-enabled home computers like the Commodore 64 and Vic-20, its sensitive control system particularly shines with trackball-like precision. Jaguar owners who've lucked into today's surprise will appreciate another tweak baked into this version: support for Amiga and Atari ST mice. (If you're the kind of person playing with an Atari Jaguar in 2018, chances are you own one of these mice, as well.)

Should you not have an Atari Jaguar handy, Minter is set to launch a PlayStation 4 update of Gridrunner in the near future, which will follow 2010's Gridrunner Revolution for Windows PCs. Minter is also currently working on new game Tempest 4000 as an official release under the Atari brand—but we have no idea when this is launching, and last week's weird "launch-then-retract" move by Atari even has Minter himself confused.

Listing image by AtariAge / Jeff Minter