Birthday Mania
| Birthday Mania | |
|---|---|
 Screenshot of in-game birthday wish | |
| Publisher(s) | Personal Games Company |
| Programmer(s) | Robert Tokar |
| Platform(s) | Atari 2600 |
| Release | 1984 |
| Genre(s) | Shoot 'em up |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Birthday Mania is a 1984 shoot 'em up video game for the Atari 2600. Each copy was made to order and displayed an in-game birthday message personalized with a name. Birthday Mania was developed independently and only advertised in local newspapers. With about ten sales, it is one of the rarest and poorest-selling commercial video games.[1][2]
In the Atari 2600 library, the personalization aspect is unique to Birthday Mania except for very few custom copies of Spacechase and Raiders of the Lost Ark.[1]
Gameplay
[edit]Birthday Mania starts with a birthday message including a name specified when the game was ordered, while the "Happy Birthday to You" melody plays.
A hatted man, named "Mr. N. Ervous" in the manual, can be moved left or right along the bottom of the screen (he "nervously travels"). Candles fall downward from above; Mr. Ervous must blow them out by shooting gusts of wind upwards.
There is a limited amount of air available; air is depleted when unextinguished candles reach the ground, and some is replenished for every 100 candles that are blown out. The game ends after all air is exhausted.[3]
Development and release
[edit]
Robert Anthony Tokar (1941–2022) created Birthday Mania in 1984, after studying 6502 assembly. He spent several months working on the game and advertised it in The Star-Ledger, a Newark, New Jersey publication.[4] The advertisements contain an order form including fields for the first and last name, which Tokar programmed custom into each copy's EPROM for an on-screen birthday wish.[1]
The game was sold under the "Personal Games Company" label. It was advertised as a gift that "puts the birthday child's name right on the TV screen." Tokar sold only 10-15 copies, likely due to the limited advertising campaign and ongoing video game crash of 1983.[1][4]
Rediscovery
[edit]The existence of Birthday Mania was rediscovered in 2003 and is known from one surviving example.[1][5] An offer to buy a copy for $6,500 was turned down in 2009;[4] there are no other figures available to determine its possible value to collectors.
In 2012, an AtariAge forum user identified and contacted Tokar, seeking permission to create replicas of the game. Tokar agreed to transfer the copyright[5] on the condition that any proceeds would be donated to charity.[4] The game was rereleased using the source code and manual retrieved from the United States Copyright Office.[5] Birthday Mania's ROM image became available online in 2019.[5]
See also
[edit]- Air Raid (1982 video game)
- Birthday card
- The Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout
- Pepsi Invaders
- Red Sea Crossing (video game)
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e Hall, Stefan (September 6, 2018). "Indie Games in the Atari Era". In Media Res. MediaCommons. Retrieved March 30, 2025.
- ^ Tweedie, Steven (June 27, 2014). "RANKED: The Rarest, Most Expensive Video Games In The World". Business Insider. Archived from the original on January 4, 2024. Retrieved April 5, 2025.
- ^ Tokar, Robert (1984). How to Play Birthday Mania. Front, back
- ^ a b c d Morgus, Constantine (December 4, 2021). "One of the Rarest Atari Games Is an Indie Happy Birthday Game". CBR. Retrieved April 4, 2025.
- ^ a b c d Pryor, Ric (August 6, 2019). "Birthday Mania ROM Released". Old School Gamer Magazine. Retrieved April 4, 2025.
