''Birthday Mania'' is a 1984

shoot 'em up Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs) are a Video game genre, subgenre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain typ ...

video game for the

Atari 2600 The Atari 2600 is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977 as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS), it popularized microprocessor-based hardware and games stored on swappable ROM cartridg ...

. Each copy was

made to order Build to Order (BTO: sometimes referred to as Make to Order or Made to Order (MTO)) is a production approach where products are not built until a confirmed order for products is received. Thus, the end consumer determines the time and number of ...

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. 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 ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' is a 1981 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Lawrence Kasdan, based on a story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman. Set in 1936, the film stars Harrison Ford as Indiana ...

''.

Gameplay

''Birthday Mania'' starts with a birthday message including a name specified when the game was ordered, while the "

Happy Birthday to You "Happy Birthday to You", or simply "Happy Birthday", is a song traditionally sung to celebrate a person's birthday. According to the 1998 ''Guinness World Records'', it is the most recognized song in the English language, followed by "For He' ...

" 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.Frontback
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Development and release

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 ''The Star-Ledger'' was the largest circulation newspaper in New Jersey. It is based in Newark, New Jersey. The newspaper ceased print publication on February 2, 2025, but continues to publish a digital edition. In 2007, ''The Star-Ledger''s ...

'', a

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, most populous City (New Jersey), city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, the county seat of Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, and a principal city of the New York metropolitan area. ...

publication. The advertisements contain an order form including fields for the first and last name, which Tokar programmed custom into each copy's

EPROM An EPROM (rarely EROM), or erasable programmable read-only memory, is a type of programmable read-only memory (PROM) integrated circuit, chip that retains its data when its power supply is switched off. Computer memory that can retrieve stored d ...

for an on-screen birthday wish. 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 The video game crash of 1983 (known in Japan as the Atari shock) was a large-scale recession in the video game industry that occurred from 1983 to 1985 in the United States. The crash was attributed to several factors, including market saturatio ...

Rediscovery

The existence of ''Birthday Mania'' was rediscovered in 2003 and is known from one surviving example. An offer to buy a copy for $6,500 was turned down in 2009; there are no other figures available to determine its possible value to

collectors Collector(s) may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Collector (2011 film), ''Collector'' (2011 film), an Indian Malayalam film * Collector (2016 film), ''Collector'' (2016 film), a Russian film * Collectors (film), ''Collectors'' (film), a 2020 So ...

. In 2012, an

AtariAge AtariAge is a website focusing on classic Atari video games. The site features gaming news, historical archives, discussion forums, and an online store. It was founded in 1998. Taking its name from the 1982–84 '' Atari Age'' magazine, the site ...

forum user identified and contacted Tokar, seeking permission to create

replica A replica is an exact (usually 1:1 in scale) copy or remake of an object, made out of the same raw materials, whether a molecule, a work of art, or a commercial product. The term is also used for copies that closely resemble the original, without ...

s of the game. Tokar agreed to transfer the copyright on the condition that any proceeds would be donated to

charity Charity may refer to: Common meanings * Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons * Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sha ...

. The game was rereleased using the source code and manual retrieved from the

United States Copyright Office The United States Copyright Office (USCO), a part of the Library of Congress, is a United States government body that registers copyright claims, records information about copyright ownership, provides information to the public, and assists ...

. ''Birthday Mania''{{'s

ROM image A ROM image, or ROM file, is a computer file which contains a copy of the data from a read-only memory Computer chip, chip, often from a ROM cartridge, video game cartridge, or used to contain a computer's firmware, or from an arcade game's arc ...

became available online in 2019.

References

1984 video games Atari 2600 games Atari 2600-only games Cute 'em ups Fixed shooters Indie games North America-exclusive video games Rediscovered works Shoot 'em ups Single-player video games Video games about birthdays Video games developed in the United States

Gameplay

Development and release

Rediscovery

See also

References