| 11/8/24 |
AD&D
Tower of Mystery for the Atari 2600 is a
prototype with an interesting
history. Although
it was known to exist and was even shown at CGE
99, it was considered a lost prototype as
the rom never found its way onto the internet
unlike many of the other M-Network
prototypes. It has long suspected that the
rom for ToM (along with several other M-Network
prototypes with problematic copyright issues) was
being safeguarded but could not be released.
This has all changed now that Atari has bought the
rights to the M-Network games and is making them
available to the public for the first time via
their Atari 50: The First Console War
collection. Was it worth the wait? Go
check out the newly updated Tower
of Mystery and see.
|
| 10/7/24 |
Some of you
long time readers might remember when the Atari
5200 Muppet-Go-Round prototype surfaced back in
2010. While pictures were taken, the
prototype was not dumped at that time and was then
was sold and disappeared. As luck would have
it the buyer decided to put the proto up for sale
last month on ebay where it was bought and
properly archived. The rom was then shared
with AtariProtos and we can now do a proper
review. Go check out the newly updated Muppet-Go-Round
page for more details.
|
| 6/15/24 |
Of Banks and Worms
Today we
have two new prototype reviews for the 2600.
First up is Bank
Heist which is a relatively unknown 20th
Century Fox game that's actually a lot of fun and
went through a variety of names before it was
released. Next we have Worm
War I which was one of the earliest efforts
by David Lubar who had a fairly prolific career on
the 2600.
|
| 6/12/24 |
While
everyone knows that RealSports Soccer was released
on the 5200, did you know that it was also ported
to the Atari 8-Bit computers? Atari even made
a few upgrades to the game before deciding
not to release it. Check out the new Atari
8-Bit RealSports
Soccer page for more details.
|
| 6/4/24 |
Thanks to
the tireless efforts of Ken Van Mersbergen, we now
have two WIP versions of Gremlins for the Atari
5200. These new versions were recovered from
programmer John Seghers own development disks and
provide an interesting peek at the development
process for this amazing game. Check out the
updated
Gremlins page for more details.
|
| 6/3/24 |
Today we
have not one, but TWO versions of Tarzan.
Best known from its release on the Colecovision,
Tarzan was also planned for the Atari
2600 and Atari
8-Bit computers. Although the Atari
8-Bit prototype has been floating around the
internet for a long time, the Atari
2600 version was still missing (although
rumors said that it did indeed exist). Now
it appears that two different copies of the 2600
version have been found! The first copy was
auctioned off on ebay back in February of 2023 and
the second one turned up in January of 2024 (this
one complete with a production style label).
So are either of these long lost prototypes worth
playing? Read the reviews to find out!
|
| 5/25/24 |
It's not
often you see a 2600 Coleco prototype, especially
one that turns out to be different from the
final. Today we present a late beta for the
2600 port of Roc
n' Rope that was recovered from some
development disks. While the gameplay is the
same as the final version, there are some small
differences in the level layouts. Check out
the brand new Roc
n' Rope page and tell them Tempest sent ya.
|
| 4/30/24 |
Thanks to
fellow prototype historian Ken Van Mersbergen
we've successfully compiled and archived four
different demos for the Atari 5200. While
some of these demos were already archived, they
were not compiled properly due to the lack of
proper tools and had missing features.
The first two demos (Galaxian
and Pac-Man)
were made for the Atari 5200 kiosk unit and are
the same as their home version counterparts minus
the splashy kiosk splash screen and the fact that
they reset after each game.
The other two are both personal demos made
by Atari programmer John Seghers. John made
Space
Race (based on the 1973 Atari coin-op) as a
learning exercise on how to program the
5200. He also made the 3-D
Asteroids demo as an example of how the 5200
might still be able to compete in light of the
then upcoming Atari 7800. Be sure to read up
about these interesting pieces of Atari history.
The Barroom
Baseball page has also been updated to
reflect information found on internal memos about
the project. A new
version for the game was also discovered but
it appears to only differ in some formatting on
the title screen.
|
| 4/14/24 |
It was a
tough job, but somebody had to do it. Well
ok, technically no one HAD to do it, but done it
was. Thanks to the generosity of AtariAge
members Shadow460 and Ianoid, we have a wealth of
Starpath/Arcadia prototype reviews.
Shadow460 first released his prototypes back in
2009, but somehow we missed them (those
responsible have been sacked), while Ianoid
released his today. Between these two finds
we now have prototypes for 11 out of the 12
released games (only Party Mix is not covered),
and two unreleased games (Going-Up?? and
Sweat). A third Starpath prototype cache was
found several years back containing tapes marked
as 'incomplete', but sadly not these were not
dumped at the time. We have included links
to the pictures of these tapes on the appropriate
pages.
Please enjoy these reviews... Or
don't. I'm not the fun police.
Phaser
Patrol
Communist
Mutants From Space
Fireball
Suicide
Mission
Escape
From the Mindmaster
Dragonstomper
Killer
Satellites
Rabbit
Transit
The
Official Frogger
Sword
of Saros
Survival
Island
Sweat
Going
Up??
|
| 2/12/24 |
Hobos & Spiders & Tanks, Oh
My!
Ianiod is
at it again! This time he has very
generously shared the roms for three previously
unknown Atari 2600 games by UA Ltd. Some of
you may already know of UA Ltd.'s three other
games (Cat
Trax, Pleiades,
and Funky
Fish) that surfaced as prototypes back in
2003 and were released by AtariAge. As it
turns out UA Ltd. had three more games lined up
for the 2600: Hobo,
Spiders,
and R2D
Tank. Interestingly all six titles
have now been found as production cartridges
complete with boxes and manuals. It would
appear that UA Ltd. was much closer to releasing
these games than previously thought. Are
they any good? You'll have to read on to
find out.
|
