Saboteur 6-15-83

 

This is the one of the earlier versions of Saboteur, and it is still quite a bit different form the final.  Notice how it's misspelled Sabateur on the labels, apparently Atari had a hard time spelling Saboteur as it's spelled at least three different ways on the various prototypes (it's always spelled correctly in the game however).  One of the biggest differences in this version is the the pair of numbers on the third board have been replaced by a strange pulsating shape.  The board plays the same way, except now the shape will change color when it takes damage (going from orange to gray) and eventually blow up.  Oddly even if you 'win' this stage the shape blows up at the end (although it doesn't count against you).

The flow of the game is still different from the final version.  If you succeed at the goal on the current stage, you will skip the rest.  This was finally changed in the 9/2/83 version and made the game play much better.

 

Differences

There is nothing written on the rocket on the title screen.
There are no instructions at the bottom of the screens telling you what to do.
Hotot's death sound is different
There is no sound effect for when the blue robots add a piece to the rocket or when a Gorfon steals one.
The lightning bolts you shoot on the second board are brown instead of green.
The boarder surrounding the second board is a light orange color instead of light green.
The sounds are slightly different.
The word BONUS is not displayed as your bonus points are added up at the end of each level.
Your firing rate is slower
The Yar from Yar's Revenge is missing
The 'shape' on the third level is different
The shape will change color as it takes damage, going from orange to gray
The shape does not blow up after taking fatal damage
The difficulty ramping is much easier in this version.  For example the Master Robots bullets don't start reflecting back until level 5 instead of level 2 and the side bullets don't show up until level 9!
There is only one difficulty level
The random colored bars in the "score box" at the bottom of the screen extend the full length of the box and overlap the score and copyright.
This version has a copyright date of 1982 (even though the prototype was made in 1983).

 

Notice nothing is written on the rocket

 

Copyright 1982!

 

Orange walls do not a prison make...

 

Is that really Hotot?

 

 

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