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A.E.Original System: Atari 400/800
The Atari 5200 prototype is a slightly stripped down conversion of the Atari 8-bit disk original. This means that instead of five different levels we now only have four. However these four levels appear to be new and unique levels not found in any version of the game so it's not all bad. Unfortunately the Atari 5200 version introduces 'load times' as it fills the outline of the screen with colors (much like old Apple II games). Why Atari decided to do this is unknown but it may have had something to do with reducing the size of the game from 48K to 16K.There are a few other minor changes between the two versions. First, the Atari 5200 version also displays the number of lives as a number next to a picture of your ship instead of displaying each life as a picture of your ship. Second, the 5200 version also slightly redrew the ship itself, making it solid and a little taller, losing the second color in the process. Third, the numeric font in the 5200 version is different, being much thicker than the original Atari 800 font. Finally the 5200 version has a different title screen which doesn't feature the animated stingray.
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