Editing Dragonstomper (section)

==Development==
[[File:Starparth.jpg|thumb|The [[Starpath Supercharger]] (pictured) was required to play ''Dragonstomper'' on the [[Atari 2600]].|alt=Starpath Supercharger (a pice of hardware made to connect to the Atari 2600, with another wire to connect to a tape player.]] ''Dragonstomper'' was created by Stephen Landrum for Arcadia, later rebranded as Starpath.{{sfn|Harris|2018}}{{sfn|Software Merchandising|1983|p=16|ref=SM}} The game was made for a peripheral for the [[Atari 2600]] called the [[Starpath Supercharger]], which allowed for the system to operate through [[cassette tapes]].{{sfn|Harris|2018}} It was developed in [[Santa Clara, California]], by ex-Atari Director of Research Bob Brown and ex-Atari development engineer Craig Nelson.{{sfn|Gutman|1983|p=62}} The system allowed for 6 [[kilobytes]] of [[RAM]],  while the Atari 2600 had only 128 [[bytes]] built into the system.{{sfn|Ahl|Staples|1983|p=26}} The Supercharger plugged into the cartridge slot of the system and loaded games from audio cassettes by connecting an audio cable on the side of the cartridges to the earphone jack of an external tape player.{{sfn|McAlpine|2019|p=30}}

Landrum worked for Arcadia/Starpath from March 1981 to November 1983, creating games like ''[[Communist Mutants From Space]]'' and a port of ''[[Frogger]]'' as well as completing the code for ''Suicide Mission''.{{sfn|Gutman|1983|p=62}}{{sfn|Hague|1996|p=30}} ''Dragonstomper'' was developed under the name ''Excalibur''.{{sfn|Weiss|2014|p=77}} Landrum stated that the game took several months to develop and chose to make it a role-playing game, as he felt nobody had yet made a "real" fantasy role-playing game on the Atari 2600.{{sfn|Weiss|2014|p=78}} Like all the Supercharger games made by the company, they were developed on [[Apple II]] computers.{{sfn|Hague|1996|p=30}} By 1982, the Atari 2600 use of music was primarily functional in nature and was mostly for intros to games and in-game events.{{sfn|McAlpine|2019|p=26}} ''Dragonstomper'' features music such as "[[Rule, Britannia]]" when completing the game, "[[Taps (bugle call)|Taps]]" when the player dies, and "[[The Gold Diggers' Song (We're in the Money)]]" when gold is found.{{sfn|Weiss|2014|p=78}}