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Kangaroo
Original System: Atari 5200
Kangaroo has a bit of an interesting history. The
original game was only programmed for the Atari 5200 by GCC who
had programmed many 5200 arcade ports in the past. Oddly
enough even though it was planned for a 400/800 cartridge release
and even assigned a part number (RX-8074), no programmer was ever
assigned for the port. Atari employee Jim Leiterman decided
to port it to the Atari 400/800 as a way of testing his reverse
disassembler. After it was finished Atari decided to release
the 400/800 version through the Atari Program Exchange (APX) which
was usually limited to user submitted software. Why Atari
decided to allow a professionally written game to be published
through their shareware subsidy instead of releasing it as a
commercial title is anyone's guess.
The 400/800 port of Kangaroo is pretty much exactly the same as
the 5200 version (not surprising given its origin), but has a few
minor differences. During the porting process Jim decided to
fix the color of the strawberries, changing them from a pinkish
red to a solid red. Also, the 400/800 version plays sound
effects during the demo for some reason.
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