Hack Name:  Crackpots – Atari 2600 – PAL 50Hz Version HACK
Hack of: 
Platform: 
Genre: 
Released by: 
Language: 
Status:  Complete
Patch Version:  2.0
Last updated:  July 19, 2025
Type of Hack:  Graphics, Other
Downloads:  11

Yes you are reading right. A real PAL 50Hz version of Crackpots.

Here is the PAL Version of Crackpots for the Atari 2600 (Closest game for it is from H.E.S’s Boom-Bang) that is like a similar styled game to the one released by Activision from 1983.

After digging up and searching deep online. I came across archive.org that has a list of Atari 2600 ROMs on there. One caught my eye on there that showed a “Unknown” Publisher of the game Crackpots from “archive.org”

After downloading it and opening it up on Stella. I was surprised to came across a legitimate PAL release of Crackpots ( minus the Activision sprite logo and with the wrong colours making it like a NTSC50 release) I said to myself “You beauty”

I gather around by opening this ROM on Hack-O-Matic 3. went ahead with checking the addresses.I emplimented the Activison logo with the rainbow banner on it along with the “Copyright 1983” HEX data into this ROM. Saving bits and pieces as I go of course.

Now everything here is now been done up with the following fixes:

Corrected the sky colour and sunset colours

made the buildings int he background a caramel brown.

restore the Activision logo with the correct rainbow banner colours

bricks, bugs and pot plants with planst now have the right colours.

player character has a more beige colour skin than a yellow skin like it’s NTSC version counterpart.

Game ROM Hack works well on a real Atari 2600 4-Switch Vadar PAL console I used to test it on.

Works flawlessly on Stella (Atari 2600 Emulator.)

Lastly, Works well on the Atari 2600+.

Give this PAL version a go and enjoy it on real PAL 50Hz speed.

Hashes: 
Filename: Crackpots (1983) (Activision).bin
CRC-32: ecd891b3
SHA-1: 6ee0a26af4643ff250198dfc1c2b7c6568b4f207
Staff/Credits: 
Originally Conceived and Designed by Dan Kitchen by Activision 1983
PAL Version Hack by J.Russell - Colour Palette changes, logo and text restored.
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