| 3/13/25 |
Thanks
to the efforts of Ken Van Mersbergen we
now have a new WIP version of Blueprint
for the Atari 2600. This particular
version was found the a former Roklan
programmers disks. While fully
playable, this prototype is missing many
features and graphics found in the
released version. Also of note is
that this prototype is only 4K whereas the
released version was 8K.
|
| 1/10/25 |
Fishy Business
What a way
to start the new year! Thanks to some
serious detective work by Ken Van Mersbergen, we
have a brand new 2600 game to look at. Fish
(or at least we *think* that was the name) is a
simple little action game where you control a fish
who must eat everything in sight. While
simple, the game seems very polished and is a lot
of fun. Check out the review here
and download the rom from AtariAge.
Also from Ken we have a new earlier version of Animated
Puzzle and an odd beta of Pole
Position for the Atari 8-Bits. Check
out these new discoveries and start your new year
off right!
|
| 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.
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