Scott Stilphen

There's some info about Frye in the VCS FAQ:
 
http://www.ataricompendium.com/faq/faq.html#general25
 
Frye has contradicted himself more than once, especially when it comes to specifics. But generally, he wasn't rushed with making VCS Pac-Man (Atari signed the licensing deal for it sometime in 1978, well before the game became a huge hit) and all the design choices were his and his alone. Frye is a very good technical programmer, but not one for making games that were interesting or having a lot of replay value. The fact is, VCS Pac-Man is atrocious. Most of his VCS games were either never released (Save Mary, Shooting Arcade) or finished (Ballblazer, SwordQuest AirWorld, Xevious). Even his Atari 8-bit computer Asteroids is clunky. The one SwordQuest game he did finish and release (FireWorld) was a disaster, along with the whole contest. He actually never understood why people flipped out over the fact the tunnels in his Pac-Man were on the top and bottom, instead of the sides, as the above video shows.  And that's the essence of why his games (especially his arcade conversions) really aren't anything special. Todd wasn't a gamer, he was a programmer. To him, making games was simply a project to be completed, like making a deck. You get some boards, you put some posts up, and you nail all the boards together. Pac-Man was a maze game with dots and tunnels and 4 enemies, so he made a maze game with dots and tunnels and 4 enemies:
 
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebr9caOVlaU&feature=youtu.be&t=12m25s
 
(jump to 12:25 to hear his comments about Pac-Man)
 
In his mind, it was "Mission Accomplished". Making the game look or sound even remotely close to the arcade version simply wasn't a priority of his, and yet... that was the first thing everybody noticed before they even played it. And of course once they played it, they realized it had even less in common with the arcade game. Nobody expected it to be as good as the latest homebrew version (http://atariage.com/forums/topic/229152-new-pacman-for-atari-2600/) but there's been several hacks and homebrews in the last 15+ years to prove a better version could have absolutely been done with only 4K, so there's really no excuse for why it's so bad other than he was the wrong person for the job.
 
   
Yep, Hiro's original artwork makes perfect sense since he depicted them as monsters and not ghosts

There's some info about Frye in the VCS FAQ:
 
http://www.ataricompendium.com/faq/faq.html#general25
 
Frye has contradicted himself more than once, especially when it comes to specifics. But generally, he wasn't rushed with making VCS Pac-Man (Atari signed the licensing deal for it sometime in 1978, well before the game became a huge hit) and all the design choices were his and his alone. Frye is a very good technical programmer, but not one for making games that were interesting or having a lot of replay value. The fact is, VCS Pac-Man is atrocious. Most of his VCS games were either never released (Save Mary, Shooting Arcade) or finished (Ballblazer, SwordQuest AirWorld, Xevious). Even his Atari 8-bit computer Asteroids is clunky. The one SwordQuest game he did finish and release (FireWorld) was a disaster, along with the whole contest. He actually never understood why people flipped out over the fact the tunnels in his Pac-Man were on the top and bottom, instead of the sides, as the above video shows.  And that's the essence of why his games (especially his arcade conversions) really aren't anything special. Todd wasn't a gamer, he was a programmer. To him, making games was simply a project to be completed, like making a deck. You get some boards, you put some posts up, and you nail all the boards together. Pac-Man was a maze game with dots and tunnels and 4 enemies, so he made a maze game with dots and tunnels and 4 enemies:
 
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebr9caOVlaU&feature=youtu.be&t=12m25s
 
(jump to 12:25 to hear his comments about Pac-Man)
 
In his mind, it was "Mission Accomplished". Making the game look or sound even remotely close to the arcade version simply wasn't a priority of his, and yet... that was the first thing everybody noticed before they even played it. And of course once they played it, they realized it had even less in common with the arcade game. Nobody expected it to be as good as the latest homebrew version (http://atariage.com/forums/topic/229152-new-pacman-for-atari-2600/) but there's been several hacks and homebrews in the last 15+ years to prove a better version could have absolutely been done with only 4K, so there's really no excuse for why it's so bad other than he was the wrong person for the job.
 
   
Yep, Hiro's original artwork makes perfect sense since he depicted them as monsters and not ghosts

I wrote an article about this years before that book came out, where I detailed the history of when the monsters in Pac-Man became ghosts.  Here's a copy of the article:
 
http://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/articles/pac-man_monsters_ghosts/pac-man_monsters_ghosts.html
 
 
The authors of that book took issue with it because it didn't jive with their pre-conceived assumptions.
 
 
 
Yes, yes they are.  But more than that, their book is full of incorrect information, which I mentioned a few examples of in my article.

There's some info about Frye in the VCS FAQ:
 
http://www.ataricompendium.com/faq/faq.html#general25
 
Frye has contradicted himself more than once, especially when it comes to specifics. But generally, he wasn't rushed with making VCS Pac-Man (Atari signed the licensing deal for it sometime in 1978, well before the game became a huge hit) and all the design choices were his and his alone. Frye is a very good technical programmer, but not one for making games that were interesting or having a lot of replay value. The fact is, VCS Pac-Man is atrocious. Most of his VCS games were either never released (Save Mary, Shooting Arcade) or finished (Ballblazer, SwordQuest AirWorld, Xevious). Even his Atari 8-bit computer Asteroids is clunky. The one SwordQuest game he did finish and release (FireWorld) was a disaster, along with the whole contest. He actually never understood why people flipped out over the fact the tunnels in his Pac-Man were on the top and bottom, instead of the sides, as the above video shows.  And that's the essence of why his games (especially his arcade conversions) really aren't anything special. Todd wasn't a gamer, he was a programmer. To him, making games was simply a project to be completed, like making a deck. You get some boards, you put some posts up, and you nail all the boards together. Pac-Man was a maze game with dots and tunnels and 4 enemies, so he made a maze game with dots and tunnels and 4 enemies:
 
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebr9caOVlaU&feature=youtu.be&t=12m25s
 
(jump to 12:25 to hear his comments about Pac-Man)
 
In his mind, it was "Mission Accomplished". Making the game look or sound even remotely close to the arcade version simply wasn't a priority of his, and yet... that was the first thing everybody noticed before they even played it. And of course once they played it, they realized it had even less in common with the arcade game. Nobody expected it to be as good as the latest homebrew version (http://atariage.com/forums/topic/229152-new-pacman-for-atari-2600/) but there's been several hacks and homebrews in the last 15+ years to prove a better version could have absolutely been done with only 4K, so there's really no excuse for why it's so bad other than he was the wrong person for the job.
 
   
Yep, Hiro's original artwork makes perfect sense since he depicted them as monsters and not ghosts

Last updated 1-27-2024
 
All cartridges are tested before shipping.  Photos of cartridges available upon request.
 
ATARI
3-D Tic-Tac-Toe (missing end label)
Adventure (picture label - missing end label)
Air-Sea Battle
Air-Sea Battle (picture label)
Asteroids
Asteroids (no copyright onscreen)
Backgammon (picture label)
BASIC Programming (missing end label)
Basketball (yellow text)
Basketball (orange text)
 Basketball (1987 Atari Corp) ($2)
 Basketball (picture label)
Battlezone (screw hole exposed)
Berzerk
Blackjack
Bowling (red text)
Bowling (picture label)
Breakout
Breakout (picture label)
Canyon Bomber
Canyon Bomber (picture label)
Championship Soccer (missing end label)
Circus Atari
Circus Atari (picture label)
 Combat
 Combat (with box and manual) ($3)
 Combat (picture label)
 Crystal Castles (missing end label)
 Defender
 Demons to Diamonds
 Dodge 'Em
 Dodge 'Em (picture label)
 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (orig. label variation)
 Flag Capture (green text)
Flag Capture (orange text)
Flag Capture (red text)
Football (green text)
Football (picture label)
Galaxian
Galaxian (missing end label)
Golf
Golf (picture label)
Haunted House
Home Run
Home Run (picture label)
Human Cannonball (picture label)
Indy 500 (picture label)
Indy 500 (missing end label)
Indy 500 (spring dust cover) (1988 Atari Corp) ($3)
 Jungle Hunt
  Kangaroo (1988 Atari Corp) ($3)
 Maze Craze (picture label)
 Miniature Golf
 Missile Command (lower-case letters)
 Missile Command (lower-case end label only)
 Missile Command (upper-case letters)
 Missile Command (no "RF" Easter egg variant!) ($5)
 Ms. Pac-Man (missing end label)
 Ms. Pac-Man (1987 Atari Corp) ($2)
 Ms. Pac-Man (1988 Atari Corp) ($2)
 Night Driver
 Outlaw
 Outlaw (picture label)
 Pac-Man
 Pac-Man (dust spring cover) ($2)
 Phoenix
 Pole Position
 Raiders of the Lost Ark
 RealSports Baseball
 RealSports Baseball (1987 Atari Corp) ($2)
 RealSports Football
 RealSports Football (1987 Atari Corp) ($2)
 RealSports Soccer
 RealSports Tennis ($2)
 RealSports Volleyball
 Sky Diver (1986 Atari Corp) ($3)
 Space Invaders (text w/o Taito copyright)
 Space Invaders (text w Taito copyright)
 Space Invaders (picture label)
Space War (missing end label)
Space War (picture label)
Star Raiders
Street Racer (yellow text)
Super Breakout
 Super Breakout (1987 Atari Corp.) ($3)
 Superman (picture label)
 Surround
 SwordQuest EarthWorld
SwordQuest FireWorld
Vanguard
Video Checkers (missing end label)
Video Olympics
Video Olympics (picture label - green end label)
Video Olympics (picture label - yellow end label) Video Olympics (picture label - yellow end label)
 Video Pinball  (1987 Atari Corp) (screw hole exposed) ($2)
 Warlords
 Yars' Revenge


20th Century Fox
 M*A*S*H
Meltdown ($15)


ACTIVISION
Bloody Human Freeway ($15)
Boxing
  Dragster
 Enduro ($3)
Grand Prix
Ice Hockey
Megamania (with box) ($5)
Laser Blast
Stampede ($2)
Starmaster
Tennis


COLECO
Carnival
Donkey Kong
 
DATA AGE
 Airlock
 Bermuda Triangle ($3)
 Journey Escape
 
GAMES BY APOLLO
 Infiltrate (Apollo variant - missing top label)
 Spacechase personalized/monogrammed edition ($35)


IMAGIC
Atlantis (daylabel version)
Cosmic Ark
Demon Attack (text)


M NETWORK
Air Raiders (missing label)
Armor Ambush
 Astroblast
 Dark Cavern
Football
Lock 'N' Chase
 Space Attack
 Super Challenge Baseball
 Super Challenge Football


PARKER BROTHERS
Amidar ($2)
 Star Wars: Jedi Arena ($3)


SPARROW
Arkyology ($20)


TELE-GAMES
Asteroids (64 variations)
 Asteroids (64 variations)(no copyright onscreen)
 Asteroids (66 variations)
 Basketball
 Blackjack
 Breakaway IV (missing end label)
 Canyon Bomber (missing end label)
 Chase (missing end label)
 Circus (missing end label)
 Haunted House ($3)
 Missile Command
 Poker Plus (missing end label)
 Space Combat ($2)
Space Invaders
 Speedway II (missing end label)
 Tank Plus (missing end label)
 Target Fun (yellow text)


U.S. GAMES
Commando Raid ($3)
 Space Jockey
 Towering Inferno
 Word Zapper


XONOX
Artillery Duel/Chuck Norris Superkicks ($10)
  
  Price:
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PM me to order or with any questions

In the book, "Art of Atari" by Tim Lapetino, the following info appears on page 264:
 
 
 
 
Both Vendel and Goldberg are mentioned in the acknowledgements section, so it seems their book of errors has started to contaminate others.  At least Lapetino states the crown was "allegedly" awarded (since, as I mentioned, no evidence has been shown to prove it ever happened).
 
There's also some neat promotional artwork for the Philosopher's Stone that appears in his book, as well as a nice copy of the AirWorld box art:

I've done more research on the SwordQuest games than anyone else in the hobby.   Here's my SwordQuest Revisited article, which is a compilation of everything to date:
 
http://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/articles/swordquest_revisited/swordquest_revisited.html
 
I also recovered the SwordQuest Archive of Adventure website that Lafe Travis created in 1997, which featured Russy Perry Jr.'s solutions for the first 3 games in the series which originally appeared in the 2600 Connection newsletter:
 
http://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/articles/swordquest_archive_of_adventure/swordquest_solutions.html
 
My Revisited article was meant to be a companion to the AoA. I also created the interview webpage for the Michael Rideout interview (on Digital Press).
 
After reading Eric Grundhauser's article (which btw, features some of my photos but doesn't credit me for them) and seeing that he quoted Vendel and Goldberg, who are less historians and more historical revisionists, I expected it would include some incorrect and/or unproven "facts".
 
 
In the Volume 2, Number 10 issue of Atari Life (Atari's internal newsletter), CED Product Manager Joel Oberman claimed more than half a million EarthWorld cartridges were sold in the U.S., and of those, only 1% - 5,000 - were semi-finalists.
 
According to Robert Ruiz Jr., who created the "Adventurer's Club" in 1984, over 4,000 entered the contest.
 
 
 
Should have said neither were either completed.
 
 
 
 
Was this confirmed with Bell himself?  If so, why is there no proof of it online?  Why has this never been mentioned anywhere?  As of now, it has NOT been confirmed.
   
   
  Again, where's the proof behind this statement?  If someone won a $25,000 crown, you better believe we would have heard about it before now, either from the person who won it or someone who knows them.  Also, the SwordQuest Challenge was a nationally-advertised contest.  Vendel's claim that the WaterWorld contest had to be completed for the sole reason the game was released and people submitted entries for it doesn't ring true because the contest was comprised of FOUR games.  Each game's contest was part of reaching the overall contest- to win the sword!  Why else would Atari have paid off the winners of the EarthWorld and FireWorld contests if they legally didn't have to (because AirWorld was never released)?   From Michael Rideout:    
  So if Atari indeed had some "super secret" playoff, what of the rumor of Atari paying off the WaterWorld finalists?   If Atari paid off the 10 finalists at least $2,000 each, that would be nearly as much as what the Crown was valued at!   But again, no finalists have ever come forward to corroborate this semi-secret, non-public playoff, and IMO until someone does, this is just another unfounded rumor.   Finally, as to the whereabouts of the remaining prizes, there lies the ultimate rumor.    
  The Philosopher's Stone was housed in an 18K gold box, but the stone itself was actually a large piece of white jade, and not something that could be "smelted back down".  If the remaining prizes ended up back with the Franklin Mint, I'm surprised nobody there would have the foresight to hold on to them because, even though their base materials would always fluctuate in value, the prizes themselves would have eventually been worth more, being they would always be unique, one-of-a-kind items.    
  For one thing, that rumor stems from Vendel himself, from a post Vendel made on the rec.games.video.classic newsgroup back in 1998:   http://tinyurl.com/lqcybvk    
Curt Vendel   4/13/98   Other recipients: ah...@freenet.carleton.ca   Hi Bill,     Go to www.atari.nu, goto the Atari Archives Section and read the Other Atari Projects area titled: Atari SwordQuest, you'll find out quite a bit, also if you decide to play the game, there is also a link to the SwordQuest Solution Site, also go to www.atarihq.com, there is an interview with the winner of the Fireworld contest.      In breif, Earthworld and Fireworld were widely released, both contests were run, WaterWorld was only released to Atari Club members through Atari Age magazine, since it was released in limited quantities and the company was in the middle of being sold, the Waterworld contest was cancelled, as to what happened to the crown prize is unknown, AirWorld was never started and as for the Knowledge Stone prize, that too is unknown.   However I found out several months ago from a close friend of Jack Tramiel the former owner of Atari, that the $50,000 sword of ultimate power is hanging over his fireplace in his home in California.   Curt     So which story is it, and who was involved?  Was the unnamed person a close friend or an Atari employee?  What's the person's name?  Were they a man or a woman?  lol  He offered no other information other than it was a close friend... or an Atari employee.  In my experience, you need to identify your source(s) of information, so that others can independently verify the information, because without that, your story is just that - a story - and it has no value or meaning.   Vendel also claimed in his RGVC post that the WaterWorld contest was cancelled and that AirWorld was never started.  See my Revisited article for statements from Tod Frye regarding how far he got with programming AirWorld (20% completed, by his estimate):   http://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/articles/swordquest_revisited/swordquest_revisited.html#aw   All I know is, if Tod Frye - the person who CREATED the SwordQuest contest to begin with believes the prizes ended up with Jack Tramiel, then until I see some definite proof otherwise, at this time that's the story.   Lastly, the Atari-Warner Bros.-Franklin Mint connection was found by John Hardie, as he mentioned in his Michael Rideout interview:    
   

I wasn't about to spend 1 cent on that book, especially since most of it is online for free at Google Books:
 
https://books.google.com/books?id=3FwGMtRafrAC&pg=PA001&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false
 
 
 
 
Of all the books I've ever read, I have never come across one so appallingly bad as that one, that contains nearly every conceivable grammatical error possible.  It's as though it began as 2 separate books that ended up having a head-on collision with each other, and that's the result.  The punctuation and spelling errors alone should have been enough for any publisher to refuse it (their posts on Atariage are pretty much the same.  I'm quite certain Goldberg still doesn't know Berzerk contains a 'z' instead of an 's'...), but when the tense starts changing all over the place, and you have photos with the incorrect captions (or quite often, no captions)...  it's just a mess from cover to cover, and an insult to anyone with a basic grade school education to try and read it, let alone those with higher education, but then to charge people some $80 for a copy?  And at the end of the day, that's what it comes off as - a money grab.  Leonard Herman told me he sent a copy to Ralph Baer, and he put it down after a few pages.  Shame he attached his name to it.
 
The editor, Loni Reeder, used to write articles for RePlay magazine.  She was never an editor, and judging from the condition of the book, she still isn't.   She happens to be a friend of Vendel (and I'm guessing her name was attached for no other reason than she used to be associated with an industry mag).  They go back as far as 1999, when Vendel was involved in a scandal involving that year's CGE show:
 
https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!topic/rec.games.video.classic/3Hlg1l8T16U
(major thread on CGE/Nolan scandal.  Loni is posting under "LONBO")
  https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!topic/rec.games.video.classic/6m6KDatifpo (vendel’s famous backing-out letter, posted under the fake account “mylar”)
 
What happened was, Vendel wanted to be part of the CGE show, and the people organizing the show had prior (bad) dealings with him, so they weren't about to team up with him.  Vendel decided to try and sabotage the show, using a fake email address that appeared as though he was part of it.  He succeeding in convincing Nolan Bushnell (who was planning on attending the first CGE show) via Loni Anderson (who was the contact person between them) to back out.  When the organizers found out what he had done, they publicly outed him on the newsgroups, and a huge flamewar broke out over it.  Vendel responded by erasing not only his posts, but some from others as well, which resulted in even more backlash against him.  He broke a cardinal rule of the newsgroup in an effort to "calm things down" (ie. save face), but that's typical Vendel.
 
Even the much-touted photos need to be fixed.  Photos from the 80s and earlier commonly suffer from incorrect color saturation (usually too much red).  The photos on page 786 are a perfect example of this:
 
https://books.google.com/books?id=3FwGMtRafrAC&pg=PA786&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false
 
How much time would it have taken someone to color-correct them?  Well, it took me less than 5 minutes with Photoshop to drastically improve them.  I'm not sure what they did in the claimed 7 years of putting this book together, but I can tell you what they didn't do...
 
Lost Dragon, it sounds like you've done some comprehensive research in the Panther's history, as far as which games existed for it.  If everyone you've talked with said there were no "cross-over" games between the Panther and Jaguar, then you're probably right.  If they want to claim the opposite, they need to reveal their source(s), especially since as you mentioned, they're charging people to buy their book.

The +5v isn't used for the joysticks, so if it's completely dead, the first thing to check would be the ground pin.  It's always worth reflowing the solder on those controller ports, especially after nearly 40 years of use  Next would be the 4050 chip as someone else mentioned.  Last would be the RIOT chip.

And there lies the problem with their book, for all the claims it makes are 'absolutes'.  They claim they vetted all their information from multiple sources, and would like you to believe that somehow every previous book and article on the history of the company somehow got it wrong (because they can't be wrong).  I have links to some of the more egregious errors they've made in my Pac-Man article (http://forums.atari.io/index.php/topic/915-).  I pointed out another one on Keith Smith's site, The Golden Age Arcade Historian (https://allincolorforaquarter.blogspot.com/2015/01/atari-depositions-part-1.html), courtesy of a professional author and historian, Leonard Herman.  Vendel and Goldberg claim Bushnell still worked for Nutting when he attended the Magnavox Calvacade and first saw the Odyssey, even though he didn't work for them. They claim Bushnell left Nutting on June 1st, but they picked that date out of a hat because they have no physical evidence to back it up.  From Leonard:    
  So there's a perfect example of them putting a spin on a specific event to fit their opinions (assumptions).  If they're willing to make an unfounded statement like that,  then you have to scrutinize and question everything they say.   Your info about the Panther/Jaguar games is another example.  I remember reading somewhere the claim that the early Jaguar titles were originally designed for the Panther (which was the excuse for them being lackluster).  They claim to have spend 7 years investigating and interviewing people, and yet the book is filled with very few direct quotes from anyone.  And when such errors are pointed out to them, their reaction is instinctively to attack and insult.  
  With every interview I've done (50+), I not only include a person's replies to me verbatim, I give them the courtesy of proofing the final draft before it gets published; in other words, they have the last word.   I bought Lapetino's book (both versions) and it's very well done, but I do have some issues with it (most books on the subject do).  On the other hand, Atari: Business is Fun has more than a few; it's nearly impossible to read due to being an incomprehensible mess, and is the sort of book that's ultimately a disservice to the company and its rich history, if not an outright danger to it..

The +5v isn't used for the joysticks, so if it's completely dead, the first thing to check would be the ground pin.  It's always worth reflowing the solder on those controller ports, especially after nearly 40 years of use  Next would be the 4050 chip as someone else mentioned.  Last would be the RIOT chip.

There's some info about Frye in the VCS FAQ:
 
http://www.ataricompendium.com/faq/faq.html#general25
 
Frye has contradicted himself more than once, especially when it comes to specifics. But generally, he wasn't rushed with making VCS Pac-Man (Atari signed the licensing deal for it sometime in 1978, well before the game became a huge hit) and all the design choices were his and his alone. Frye is a very good technical programmer, but not one for making games that were interesting or having a lot of replay value. The fact is, VCS Pac-Man is atrocious. Most of his VCS games were either never released (Save Mary, Shooting Arcade) or finished (Ballblazer, SwordQuest AirWorld, Xevious). Even his Atari 8-bit computer Asteroids is clunky. The one SwordQuest game he did finish and release (FireWorld) was a disaster, along with the whole contest. He actually never understood why people flipped out over the fact the tunnels in his Pac-Man were on the top and bottom, instead of the sides, as the above video shows.  And that's the essence of why his games (especially his arcade conversions) really aren't anything special. Todd wasn't a gamer, he was a programmer. To him, making games was simply a project to be completed, like making a deck. You get some boards, you put some posts up, and you nail all the boards together. Pac-Man was a maze game with dots and tunnels and 4 enemies, so he made a maze game with dots and tunnels and 4 enemies:
 
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebr9caOVlaU&feature=youtu.be&t=12m25s
 
(jump to 12:25 to hear his comments about Pac-Man)
 
In his mind, it was "Mission Accomplished". Making the game look or sound even remotely close to the arcade version simply wasn't a priority of his, and yet... that was the first thing everybody noticed before they even played it. And of course once they played it, they realized it had even less in common with the arcade game. Nobody expected it to be as good as the latest homebrew version (http://atariage.com/forums/topic/229152-new-pacman-for-atari-2600/) but there's been several hacks and homebrews in the last 15+ years to prove a better version could have absolutely been done with only 4K, so there's really no excuse for why it's so bad other than he was the wrong person for the job.
 
   
Yep, Hiro's original artwork makes perfect sense since he depicted them as monsters and not ghosts

In the book, "Art of Atari" by Tim Lapetino, the following info appears on page 264:
 
 
 
 
Both Vendel and Goldberg are mentioned in the acknowledgements section, so it seems their book of errors has started to contaminate others.  At least Lapetino states the crown was "allegedly" awarded (since, as I mentioned, no evidence has been shown to prove it ever happened).
 
There's also some neat promotional artwork for the Philosopher's Stone that appears in his book, as well as a nice copy of the AirWorld box art:

I've done more research on the SwordQuest games than anyone else in the hobby.   Here's my SwordQuest Revisited article, which is a compilation of everything to date:
 
http://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/articles/swordquest_revisited/swordquest_revisited.html
 
I also recovered the SwordQuest Archive of Adventure website that Lafe Travis created in 1997, which featured Russy Perry Jr.'s solutions for the first 3 games in the series which originally appeared in the 2600 Connection newsletter:
 
http://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/articles/swordquest_archive_of_adventure/swordquest_solutions.html
 
My Revisited article was meant to be a companion to the AoA. I also created the interview webpage for the Michael Rideout interview (on Digital Press).
 
After reading Eric Grundhauser's article (which btw, features some of my photos but doesn't credit me for them) and seeing that he quoted Vendel and Goldberg, who are less historians and more historical revisionists, I expected it would include some incorrect and/or unproven "facts".
 
 
In the Volume 2, Number 10 issue of Atari Life (Atari's internal newsletter), CED Product Manager Joel Oberman claimed more than half a million EarthWorld cartridges were sold in the U.S., and of those, only 1% - 5,000 - were semi-finalists.
 
According to Robert Ruiz Jr., who created the "Adventurer's Club" in 1984, over 4,000 entered the contest.
 
 
 
Should have said neither were either completed.
 
 
 
 
Was this confirmed with Bell himself?  If so, why is there no proof of it online?  Why has this never been mentioned anywhere?  As of now, it has NOT been confirmed.
   
   
  Again, where's the proof behind this statement?  If someone won a $25,000 crown, you better believe we would have heard about it before now, either from the person who won it or someone who knows them.  Also, the SwordQuest Challenge was a nationally-advertised contest.  Vendel's claim that the WaterWorld contest had to be completed for the sole reason the game was released and people submitted entries for it doesn't ring true because the contest was comprised of FOUR games.  Each game's contest was part of reaching the overall contest- to win the sword!  Why else would Atari have paid off the winners of the EarthWorld and FireWorld contests if they legally didn't have to (because AirWorld was never released)?   From Michael Rideout:    
  So if Atari indeed had some "super secret" playoff, what of the rumor of Atari paying off the WaterWorld finalists?   If Atari paid off the 10 finalists at least $2,000 each, that would be nearly as much as what the Crown was valued at!   But again, no finalists have ever come forward to corroborate this semi-secret, non-public playoff, and IMO until someone does, this is just another unfounded rumor.   Finally, as to the whereabouts of the remaining prizes, there lies the ultimate rumor.    
  The Philosopher's Stone was housed in an 18K gold box, but the stone itself was actually a large piece of white jade, and not something that could be "smelted back down".  If the remaining prizes ended up back with the Franklin Mint, I'm surprised nobody there would have the foresight to hold on to them because, even though their base materials would always fluctuate in value, the prizes themselves would have eventually been worth more, being they would always be unique, one-of-a-kind items.    
  For one thing, that rumor stems from Vendel himself, from a post Vendel made on the rec.games.video.classic newsgroup back in 1998:   http://tinyurl.com/lqcybvk    
Curt Vendel   4/13/98   Other recipients: ah...@freenet.carleton.ca   Hi Bill,     Go to www.atari.nu, goto the Atari Archives Section and read the Other Atari Projects area titled: Atari SwordQuest, you'll find out quite a bit, also if you decide to play the game, there is also a link to the SwordQuest Solution Site, also go to www.atarihq.com, there is an interview with the winner of the Fireworld contest.      In breif, Earthworld and Fireworld were widely released, both contests were run, WaterWorld was only released to Atari Club members through Atari Age magazine, since it was released in limited quantities and the company was in the middle of being sold, the Waterworld contest was cancelled, as to what happened to the crown prize is unknown, AirWorld was never started and as for the Knowledge Stone prize, that too is unknown.   However I found out several months ago from a close friend of Jack Tramiel the former owner of Atari, that the $50,000 sword of ultimate power is hanging over his fireplace in his home in California.   Curt     So which story is it, and who was involved?  Was the unnamed person a close friend or an Atari employee?  What's the person's name?  Were they a man or a woman?  lol  He offered no other information other than it was a close friend... or an Atari employee.  In my experience, you need to identify your source(s) of information, so that others can independently verify the information, because without that, your story is just that - a story - and it has no value or meaning.   Vendel also claimed in his RGVC post that the WaterWorld contest was cancelled and that AirWorld was never started.  See my Revisited article for statements from Tod Frye regarding how far he got with programming AirWorld (20% completed, by his estimate):   http://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/articles/swordquest_revisited/swordquest_revisited.html#aw   All I know is, if Tod Frye - the person who CREATED the SwordQuest contest to begin with believes the prizes ended up with Jack Tramiel, then until I see some definite proof otherwise, at this time that's the story.   Lastly, the Atari-Warner Bros.-Franklin Mint connection was found by John Hardie, as he mentioned in his Michael Rideout interview:    
   

In the book, "Art of Atari" by Tim Lapetino, the following info appears on page 264:
 
 
 
 
Both Vendel and Goldberg are mentioned in the acknowledgements section, so it seems their book of errors has started to contaminate others.  At least Lapetino states the crown was "allegedly" awarded (since, as I mentioned, no evidence has been shown to prove it ever happened).
 
There's also some neat promotional artwork for the Philosopher's Stone that appears in his book, as well as a nice copy of the AirWorld box art:

In the book, "Art of Atari" by Tim Lapetino, the following info appears on page 264:
 
 
 
 
Both Vendel and Goldberg are mentioned in the acknowledgements section, so it seems their book of errors has started to contaminate others.  At least Lapetino states the crown was "allegedly" awarded (since, as I mentioned, no evidence has been shown to prove it ever happened).
 
There's also some neat promotional artwork for the Philosopher's Stone that appears in his book, as well as a nice copy of the AirWorld box art:

In the book, "Art of Atari" by Tim Lapetino, the following info appears on page 264:
 
 
 
 
Both Vendel and Goldberg are mentioned in the acknowledgements section, so it seems their book of errors has started to contaminate others.  At least Lapetino states the crown was "allegedly" awarded (since, as I mentioned, no evidence has been shown to prove it ever happened).
 
There's also some neat promotional artwork for the Philosopher's Stone that appears in his book, as well as a nice copy of the AirWorld box art:

Up on Ebay:  http://www.ebay.com/itm/291930793389
 
Cool stuff, though I don't think it's worth anywhere near what it's listed at.  The seller even copied the text and a photo from one of my articles:  http://www.2600connection.com/faq/vcs_nr/vcs_nr.html#combattwo
 
Michel Allaire also did the box art for VCS RealSports Baseball and RealSports Football.
 

Mostly in the early 80s, when the VCS popular worldwide.  Here's a list of several more:
 
http://www.2600connection.com/faq/vcs_system/faq_atarivcs.html#hardware4

Up on Ebay:  http://www.ebay.com/itm/291930793389
 
Cool stuff, though I don't think it's worth anywhere near what it's listed at.  The seller even copied the text and a photo from one of my articles:  http://www.2600connection.com/faq/vcs_nr/vcs_nr.html#combattwo
 
Michel Allaire also did the box art for VCS RealSports Baseball and RealSports Football.
 

Up on Ebay:  http://www.ebay.com/itm/291930793389
 
Cool stuff, though I don't think it's worth anywhere near what it's listed at.  The seller even copied the text and a photo from one of my articles:  http://www.2600connection.com/faq/vcs_nr/vcs_nr.html#combattwo
 
Michel Allaire also did the box art for VCS RealSports Baseball and RealSports Football.
 

Up on Ebay:  http://www.ebay.com/itm/291930793389
 
Cool stuff, though I don't think it's worth anywhere near what it's listed at.  The seller even copied the text and a photo from one of my articles:  http://www.2600connection.com/faq/vcs_nr/vcs_nr.html#combattwo
 
Michel Allaire also did the box art for VCS RealSports Baseball and RealSports Football.
 

They removed the comment about neither VCS game being released, but didn't mention that Pigs in Space was released (I even sent them scans of the box, cart, and manual).  Ah well.  
 
That site doesn't have much archived material anyway.  I found this bit about some special recordings the 'real' Pigs in Space made for an early NASA space shuttle mission: http://www.ebay.com/itm/132018022818
They have 2 of the scripts they wrote, but not the actual audio recordings.

You only showed 31 games:
 
Space Jockey Football Flag Capture Golf BASIC Math Basketball Slot Racers Blackjack Tennis Bowling Air-Sea Battle 3-D Tic-Tac-Toe Combat Skiing Human Cannonball Miniature Golf Stampede Othello Sky Diver Checkers Space War Slot Machine Bugs Dragster Outlaw Sky Jinks Home Run Surround Fishing Derby Boxing Laser Blast   Here's a photo of it with the box:
 
http://www.2600connection.com/faq/vcs_system/faq_vcs_system_2600_console.jpg
 
 
That page says it either has 64 games or 128   If you notice, the sticker in the upper-left says 22 games with the switch to the left, and 64 to the right (for a total of 86?):
 
http://itools.com/tool/google-translate-web-page-translator
 
Looks similar to this JR with 128, but the sticker in the upper-left corner may be different:
 
http://www.2600connection.com/faq/vcs_system/faq_vcs_system_vcc_2600.jpg

Mostly in the early 80s, when the VCS popular worldwide.  Here's a list of several more:
 
http://www.2600connection.com/faq/vcs_system/faq_atarivcs.html#hardware4