Video 61

hi rickr, and that was just towards the end. he was in charge of the 8-bit stuff from the mid 1980's. he had to navigate jack, no easy thing to do. he once sent me two letters telling me what games he hoped to bring out, one was california games for the atari 7800. later on i asked about it, i was told a higher up already said no to california games, because it was available on the 2600. you simply can't make this stuff up! lance www.atarisales.com

hi rickr, BINGO!!! hey did you want a 2600 bowling tournament? if so, where is your announcement? lance www.atarisales.com

thanks, my son tried to contact him in may about some hardware i bought out of atari, there was no response, then he found a announcement. lance www.atarisales.com

hi rickr, yep they did it right. quite a game. jack t. always bragged about his hardware. i was told it was not atari's job to support their hardware, its the job of third parties. atari was there just to produce hardware. but i used to say it looks like no one is taking you up on supporting your hardware. it was ridiculous relying on others who had no stake in your market, to come forward and advertise and support your system. it was ataris job to support and advertise, others come on board after seeing results. lance www.atarisales.com

hi everyone, i was informed a good friend of mine back in the atari days passed away in may, a to young 70. not sure if its true, but it seems to be. in case you are wondering, john wore many hats at atari, we called him the lifer. he was the last one left when jack finally pulled the plug and sold to hasbro. John called me the day before hasbro bought it. he hoped to get a bonus from jack for years worked. as far as i know, he never got it. here is some of his work, he started in the 8-bit days, ended with the jaguar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman_Returns_(Atari_Lynx_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Soldier_2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-War_(1995_video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempest_2000 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybermorph https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakout_2000 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_Larry:_Renegade_Cop https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Lightning_(1995_video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missile_Command_3D https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checkered_Flag_(1991_video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defender_2000 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Lightning_(1989_video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyhammer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FlipOut! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checkered_Flag_(1994_video_game) thanks, lance www.atarisales.com

JACK T. i once got a two hour lecture from someone at atari(will not reveal who it was, it was not jack t. but almost as high up), on the evils of video games. i was once told that the reason why there was a lack of games, because atari was overwhelmed trying to keep up with orders for their current library. but they once faxed out to me their entire inventory of games for all of the systems they were supporting. there were only a few titles that fit that. and they never reordered those titles. when i tried to order 7800 euro pads from them. they said it was not their job to make them available to me. it was my job to import them from europe. that is how i ended up dealing so much in europe. they gave me contact information for atari of europe. i think i ended up in the Netherlands. i ordered tens of thousands, sold them like crazy to hungry atari dealers and end users. told that to atari, they did not even blink. lance www.atarisales.com

hi, on the nes, they tried to get to many sprites at once. i wonder if that's why the XEGS versions seems a little baron? the 7800 clearly if used correctly, that is a expensive ram board with a pokey, clearly could have beaten the nes. lance www.atarisales.com

hi rickr, yep, they went all out for the 7800 version. i wonder how they ever got it past jack!! agreed, the XEGS version could have been better! if used correctly, the 7800 could have easily beaten out the nes. lance www.atarisales.com

agreed!!! lance www.atarisales.com

hi everyone, now here the 7800 really shines. a proper size board was used, as well as a pokey. very smooth, very colorful, really gives the nes a run for its money. clearly a superior machine if used correctly. XEGS version, still quite good, colorful, sounds good, smooth, but not as fleshed out as the 7800 version. lance www.atarisales.com

hi trekmd, yep, i gotta own them all. lance www.atarisales.com

hi trekmd. yea the 7800 version is much better, its hampered by to small a board, but much better than a apple port on the XE, that is for sure. lance www.atarisales.com

hi rickr, wow, they squeezed that into a vic 20 cart, amazing!!! yes choplifter is over looked, or many do not know about the XEGS version. atari sold all 100,000 carts of the game they had made. yet jack still could not figure it out! yes the 7800 version has some drawbacks, but it was squeezed onto a 32k cart, and there simply is not enough ram to utilize the full potential of the maria chip. that being said, the programmer did really good, and the music is great for a non pokey board. lance www.atarisales.com

hi, BINGO!!! lance www.atarisales.com

hi rickr, agreed. the more i find out about 7800 programming, the more i see the programmers may have been forced into cutting corners, because they were not allocated a cart board with enough rom and ram. lance www.atarisales.com

hi everyone, now here is where the 7800 really shines. the programmer knew his/her stuff, and most likely the choplifter is a double sprite. music good to. now the xe version, i will include the original 16k apple port also. it will show you why this one is so bad and choppy. the apple port is a port of apple basic with machine code, its why its pink. the 1988 atari version just updated the lousy apple port. its obvious its not a complete rewrite in atari machine code. 16k apple port. choplifter was released originally as a 16k game on cart., 48k disk. by broderbund. thanks, lance www.atarisales.com

hi everyone, i think the xe version is better. no reason for it, except a proper sized 7800 board was not used 7800 version, its colorful, but seems a bit baron, and doors are a little bit sluggish. overall though, still a good version. thanks, lance www.atarisales.com

yes i can see that scenario being true, thanks for the info!! lance www.atarisales.com

AGREED!!!!

its not so easy to get today. lance www.atarisales.com

it was very cool how it was done. lance www.atarisales.com

hi rickr, AGREED! if its done right on the 7800, it shines!!! what a 7800 game needs is a very talented programmer, and the right size board. it makes all the differences. lance www.atarisales.com

hi, i used to play it all of the time. the local arcade place had sinsitar, hat trick, food fight and crystal castles all sitting next to each other. went through quarters like crazy!!!! lance www.atarisales.com

hi, i play it every once in a while, just to remind me that bad games happen! lance www.atarisales.com

hi, yep, its on a xegs super cart. its almost like the programmer said who cares. i know the 7800 can shine sprite wise, but the xe can do some complicated stuff. lance www.atarisales.com