AtariAge Holiday Greetings 2007: Stella's Stocking

Overview

Stella's Stocking is a promotional homebrew Atari 2600 cartridge made for the annual AtariAge.com sale in 2007.  It is a collection of five minigames which span the genres of driving, action, and platforming.  The game is compatible with both joystick and driving controllers.  The catridge was never available for retail sale, and was only available for a short period of time in the winter of 2007/2008, where it would be free with a purchase of over $100 in the store.  It is notable that although this is a holiday-theme cartridge, it did not arrive in time for Christmas 2007.  Each cartridge is individually numbered and came with a full-color 8 page manual, but no box.  Stella's Stocking is the first 64k game produced by AtariAge.

Gameplay

Stella's Stocking contains five minigames and displays a menu when you boot it up.  The menu contains a graphically impressive fireplace graphic along with an equally advanced musical score.  The games are as follows:

Stay Frosty - This is a platformer where the player controls a melting snowman.  Magic fireballs are scattered around Santa's barn due to a short circuited string of Christmas lights and it's the player's goal to put out the fire's without melting.  As the player puts out the fires, they start to melt, and must pick up ice cubes to retain their state.  The platforming in Stay Frosty is basic and repetitive.

Elf Dash - In the platformer Elf Dash, the player controls one of Santa's elves, Holly, in an out of control toy warehouse with 6 floors connected by elevators.  The warehouse is thrown into chaos when the magic the elves use to make the toys causes toys to scatter everywhere and the elevators to constantly run.  Ms. Claus commissioned Holly to collect a bunch of Christmas-themed items scattered around the warehouse before the big year-end party begins!  Littered throughout the floors of this game are items such as candy canes, presents, and ornaments that the player must collect.  Enemies in the game include tanks and teddy bears.  If the player completes the game within 8 minutes, the remaining time is used a score bonus.

Cold War - This is an action game for two players which simulates a snowball fight between a group of snowmen.  Each player controls two snowmen and moves around the screen throwing snowballs at the other player, and avoiding incoming snowballs.  As an added hazard, fire spawns randomly around the playing field which causes the snowmen to melt.

Grandma's Revenge - This game is a driving game based around the song "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer" which uses the driving controller.  The player controls "grandma" in a sports car, running down reindeer which causes them to splatter on the screen as bloody messes.  The screen becomes cluttered with road-kill obstacles the player must avoid, and the game includes power-ups that make the player's vehicle huge or turn it into a snowmobile.

Tossing Cookies - This game is a two-screen action game in which Santa must round up all his scattered reindeer by luring them in with the magic cookies that make them fly.  In the first screen of each of the 12 stages, the player guides Santa's sleigh around maze-like obstacles collecting cookies and avoiding lightning.  In the second screen of the game, the player tosses cookies at reindeer to lure them back to the North Pole.