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All Your Protos Are Belong To Us!
| 12/17/14 |
Merry
Grouchmas!
Ho! Ho! Whatever... We've got a
special holiday treat for all you grouchy boys and
girls out there. Thanks to AtariAge member
Wickeycolumbus, we now have access to a very
different early version of Oscars
Trash Race. This prototype, while
incomplete, tells an interesting tale of flase
starts and abandoned ideas. Be sure to check
it out!
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9/17/14
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The
Deviousness of Xevious (and more)!
Just when you think you’ve got the whole
story on a game, some new information is
uncovered. Such is the case with Xevious
for the Atari 2600. Once thought to have been
cancelled halfway through development, an almost
complete version of the game has turned up.
Not only does this version have updated graphics and
gameplay, but features tons of new enemies and
ground targets. It’s simply stunning how much
arcade action can be crammed into an 8K cart.
Check out the Xevious
page for more information.
Xevious isn’t the only new prototype to
turn up unexpectedly. Morse
Code Tutor (which may or may not be its real
name) is an interesting prototype which was to be
used as an aid to teach people Morse code. The
origins of this prototype are a bit murky and it’s
not complete, but it’s still worth examining.
Keep an eye on this page for more information in the
future.
While it may not be newly discovered, Elf
Adventure is still a bit of an
enigma. Discovered in 2009 but only
released last year, this early sequel to Adventure
show a lot of promise but raises numerous
questions. It is said that other revisions of
this prototype and a design document exist, but
neither has been made public. Still, we’ll
examine a very early version of the game that was
released and attempt to unravel its mysteries.
The 3-D
Rubik’s Cube page has been updated to add some
recently discovered information about the origin of
this unique game. Was 3-D Rubik’s Cube almost
released on a cart with Atari Video Cube?
You’ll have to read the page to find out!
Next up, some programmer
recognitions. Lou Harp has been identified as
the programmer for the 2600 version of Sinistar
while Noelie Alito and Mark Ackerman are now listed
for 2600 Moon
Patrol.
Our last update has to do with prototype
boxes. This picture of the GCC
booth at the CES show shows a large number of
prototype boxes for varoius games. Of interest
is 8-bit Crystal Castles and Mario Bros (top row),
5200 Millipede and Xevious (middle row), and 2600
Xevious (bottom row). Info on these prototype
boxes have been added to the appropriate pages.
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| 7/30/14 |
Amiga
Power!
Two updates in one
month? Is the world ending? Dogs and
cats living together? Mass
hysteria?
Today we present
not one, not two, but FIVE different Amiga
prototypes all developed by VideoSoft, the company
started by Channel F creator Jerry Lawson.
Three of these games (Ghost
Attack, Genesis,
and Havok)
are in 3-D (sorta) and require the use of those
dorky looking red/blue glasses that you probably
have buried away somewhere and are ashamed to tell
anybody about (don't worry, we don't judge here on
AtariProtos.com), while the other two (Depth
Charge and S.A.C
Alert) are in 2-D but not nearly as
original. So sit back and explore the strange
and unusual tale of Amiga and their adventures on
the 2600.
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| 7/17/14 |
Survival
Run
Hey look, only two
months between updates! I'm getting
better. Today we take another look at
the strange world of Survival
Run. This Data Age prototype was
discovered back in 2004, but it was only recently
that an advertisement was unearthed that gave some
background on this unusual game. So take
another gander at what can only be described as an
'unusual' game.
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| 5/16/14 |
Corrections
Ok, so my plan to
get to those new updates in "a month or two" didn't
go according to plan. I really do plan on getting to
those updates, but I can't say when. Life it
seems is in full swing and I have no idea when it
will let me get to do some updates.
In the meantime, I
give you some corrections. Turns out that
Combat Two was assigned the model number CX-2663 not
CX-26156. What's interesting about this is
that this same part number was eventually assigned
to Road Runner in 1984. Neither game makes
sense occupying such a low space, but it would
appear that Atari was insistent on filling that
number with something (the original game slotted for
this number is unknown).
Secondly, Peekaboo
is actually CX-26135 not CX-26137. I chalk
this one up to a simple typo, but we want to be 100%
correct here on AtariProtos.
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| 7/31/13 |
Another Year,
Another Update
I really do plan
on updating this site more than once a year, but
sometimes life just seems to get in the way.
But enough of my whining, let's get down to
it. Today I offer you a glimpse into an alternate
version of Defender for the Atari 400/800 that
Atari may have been considering before releasing the
version by Steve Baker that we all know and love.
We'll try and get more answers on the origins
of this mysterious version in the future.
I know what you're
thinking: "A whole year and you only reviewed ONE
game?". To this I say: "Yep". Life has
been busy for the old Master of Prototypes, but more
reviews will be posted in the coming month or two.
Stay tuned. CX-26156
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Page and contents Copyright 2002-2013 Matt
Reichert
Any use of this material without prior written consent is a
violation of copyright law (so there!)
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