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Scott Stilphen

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  1. Like
    Scott Stilphen got a reaction from Justin in Why was Karateka so bad?   
    Yes, the 3600 was an early name for the 7800.  Here's a photo of a prototype 3600 pcb that's very similar to a 7800 pcb, aside from the lack of an expansion port and different locations for the chips: https://consolevariations.com/variation/prototype/atari-3600-atari-7800-prototype
    But the memo does mention the possibility of another machine priced between the 7800 and NES, the 3600.  Perhaps that was a mistake on Don Teiser's part and that he was talking about another machine (the 3200/Sylvia)?  The 3200/Sylvia/Super Stella was discussed as early as 1981 within Atari.  But with Atari's irrational fear of the Intellivision (which at best had like 10% of the video game market at its peak) and the impending Colecovision, Atari stopped work on the project and instead rushed out the 5200.
    Speaking of the 5200, I came across this news blurb in the June 1983 issue of Video Review that mentions Atari not being able to keep up with demand for the 5200.  That's something I don't think I've ever heard about before.  All I can say is, I'm in PA and I don't recall any trouble with getting one.  A friend of mine had a 5200 when it was first released (late fall 1982) and I had one in early 1983 (which by then was revised to the 2-port model).  Neither one had to be back-ordered - stores like Kmart had them.  The same issue also mentions Atari apparently had plans for a computer add-on device similar to the VCS Graduate, which is just a crazy idea considering the 5200 was originally a reskinned 400 computer with analog controllers.


  2. Like
    Scott Stilphen got a reaction from RickR in Why was Karateka so bad?   
    Atari and Nintendo met several times.  They first met in April 11th, 1983 in Japan while the NES was still being developed.  This memo, dated June 14th, 1983, outlines the deal: http://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/documents/nintendo_famicom_6-14-83.txt
    The memo mentions the Maria chip was being developed at the time:
    "On 4/15/83, Messers Kassar, Groth, Moone, Bruehl, Paul, Henricks, Remson, and myself met in Mr. Groth's office to view the videotape and discuss what we had learned from the meeting on the 11th and what we knew to-date on the MARIA chip being developed by General Computer. As both systems were seen as being in the same price range with graphics capabilities superior to the 2600 and comparable (and in some features, superior) to the 5200, it was felt that we needed to see what could be done with both machines for an intermediate priced game machine .... the 3600."
    Atari and Nintendo met again in Japan on May 17th, 1983.  Atari felt the 7800 was the superior machine at the time, probably because all they saw running on the prototype NES at the time were incomplete versions of Donkey Kong Junior and Popeye, although the Maria was still not finalized.  So Atari's plan was to stretch out the negotiations with Nintendo until the Maria chip was done and then make a decision.
    As for any unreasonable expectations and demands of Atari, the contract offer seems pretty straightforward.  Nintendo obviously wanted to keep tight control of the custom chips used in the NES, and didn't want to see the rampant piracy and 'shovelware' problem the VCS had, but they relaxed some of their demands later in the negotiations.
    As we all know, Atari dragged out the negotiations long enough that Nintendo saw that Atari was clearly hurting from the crashing market and at some point decided they would release the NES themselves in the U.S. w/o Atari, which they did in 1985.
    Dan Oliver mentions the Tramiels had a meeting with Nintendo in July or August 1984:
    http://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/articles/olivers_travels/olivers_travels.html
    By that point, Nintendo was looking for software for the NES.  The previous year, HAL Laboratory had ported 4 games to the NES:
    Defender II (Stargate)
    Joust (Frank Cifaldi found and released the prototype for this last year)
    Kangaroo
    Millipede (Atari Games was commissioned to do this, and Ed Logg programmed it).
    https://atariage.com/forums/topic/263324-kangaroo-for-the-nintendo-famicom-by-hal-laboratory/
    This unconfirmed info from "Gazimaluke" is interesting:
    "I heard that Richard Frick who was Director of Software development at Atari at the time was the source of the information that Kangaroo had been ported to the NES. Since I am researching the history of Sunsoft I am interested in finding out if this is true.
    I contacted Richard and asked him about it. What he told me was that when Jack Trimel took over Atari in 84 they cleared out some warehouses. And during that process Richard saw a cart marked Kangaroo. And I guess since he was Director of Software development he could see the difference between a Atari 2600 cart and a NES cart. But this was basically all he knew about it."
    From Frank Cifaldi:
    "Both Joust and Millipede on the Famicom have a 1983 copyright, but came out much later (1986/1987 I think) I believe HAL made both of them on commission for Nintendo specifically for the Atari pitch, and when that fell through they were sat on for a while."
    So Atari missed their chance to lock in exclusive U.S. rights to the NES for 4 years, with an additional 4-year option, for $5 million dollars.  Considering all the money Atari pissed away under Kassar developing products that were never released, $5 million was a no-brainer of a deal.  Unfortunately, Kassar and his cronies had no brains.  Plus they were thinking of an 'intermediate' console to be released prior to the 7800, the 3600?  
  3. Thanks
    Scott Stilphen got a reaction from Justin in Why was Karateka so bad?   
    Isn't that ironic, considering how Kassar treated GCC and funneled nearly every valuable title for development to them (because he has a financial stake in the company) and how he basically forced Atari's CED programmers to hand over all their source code to GCC to help jump-start their game development for the VCS, 800, and 5200.... but when Atari's programmers asked GCC to share their knowledge or software tricks, they got nothing.  That's a good example of karma in action.
    Then you have Jack take over Atari and refuse to honor Warner Atari's previous commitments and contract with GCC, and by the time he capitulated and paid GCC and released the 7800, it was 2 years later and the 7800 was already outdated compared to the current systems on the market.  It was 2 years old and needed to have its own 'killer app' within a year of being released for it to have any chance to survive, and all Atari had was the initial titles GCC had designed 2 years prior, and with Jack laying off most of the company's employees, and the few in-house game designers that remained being reassigned to work on the ST, they had no in-house game development to support the 7800.
    Less than 60 titles were officially released for the 7800, between 1984-1991 (7 years), and there's not a single 'killer app' in the bunch:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Atari_7800_games
    From that list, only 10 are noted as being developed by Atari Corp.:
    Galaga*
    Xevious*
    Asteroids*
    Centipede
    Barnyard Blaster
    Crack'ed
    RealSports Baseball
    Tower Toppler
    Planet Smashers
    Meltdown
    Wikipedia being what it is, is not 100% accurate because the first 3 were definitely done by GCC.  Perhaps as a result of Tramiel paying off GCC's contract, Atari didn't legally need to credit GCC in the manuals for the games they did.  Other than the handful of 3rd-party titles that were released by Absolute, Activision, and Froggo, I don't think Atari credited any 3rd-party developers for the titles they released.  Regardless, 59 titles over 7 years is pathetic (less than 1 per month on average).
    As far as the 7800's hardware, a POKEY chip should have absolutely been incorporated.  You had a system which was basically a 'super' VCS, with improved graphics on par with the 800, and the ability to move a lot of sprite around w/o the dreaded flickering (thanks to the Maria chip), but with the original 1977 TIA sound chip.  The 800 and 5200 incorporated the POKEY chip, so it's truly baffling why the 7800 didn't.  In hindsight, Atari should have released something like the 7800 in 1982, not a re-release of the 400 in a different case (the 5200), so the 7800 was already a bit dated in 1984.  Plus Atari already had previewed the NES as early as 1983 and had the opportunity to release it under their name; they saw the future, and ignored it.  So why did the 7800 even get to the point of nearly being widely released in 1984?  Again, Kassar had a personal investment with GCC, so why look into a licensing deal with Nintendo when they already had GCC developing a new system for them?
    Granted, there have been some excellent homebrew games released for the 7800.  Robert DeCrescenz has done more to keep interest in the 7800 than anybody else by far, but without a serious hardware investment made to improve games to be equal to what's found on the NES, as PenguiNet did with Rikki and Vikki, it's pointless to think it ever had a chance to compete with the NES.  And no, the 7800XM wasn't going to change that.  Everything the 7800XM promised to offer could easily been included inside the cartridge, and already has been, with the XBoard (which was created in 2006! - http://www.x-game.se/products/xboard.htm) and VersaBoard (which was created in 2013).
  4. Like
    Scott Stilphen got a reaction from RickR in Why was Karateka so bad?   
    Isn't that ironic, considering how Kassar treated GCC and funneled nearly every valuable title for development to them (because he has a financial stake in the company) and how he basically forced Atari's CED programmers to hand over all their source code to GCC to help jump-start their game development for the VCS, 800, and 5200.... but when Atari's programmers asked GCC to share their knowledge or software tricks, they got nothing.  That's a good example of karma in action.
    Then you have Jack take over Atari and refuse to honor Warner Atari's previous commitments and contract with GCC, and by the time he capitulated and paid GCC and released the 7800, it was 2 years later and the 7800 was already outdated compared to the current systems on the market.  It was 2 years old and needed to have its own 'killer app' within a year of being released for it to have any chance to survive, and all Atari had was the initial titles GCC had designed 2 years prior, and with Jack laying off most of the company's employees, and the few in-house game designers that remained being reassigned to work on the ST, they had no in-house game development to support the 7800.
    Less than 60 titles were officially released for the 7800, between 1984-1991 (7 years), and there's not a single 'killer app' in the bunch:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Atari_7800_games
    From that list, only 10 are noted as being developed by Atari Corp.:
    Galaga*
    Xevious*
    Asteroids*
    Centipede
    Barnyard Blaster
    Crack'ed
    RealSports Baseball
    Tower Toppler
    Planet Smashers
    Meltdown
    Wikipedia being what it is, is not 100% accurate because the first 3 were definitely done by GCC.  Perhaps as a result of Tramiel paying off GCC's contract, Atari didn't legally need to credit GCC in the manuals for the games they did.  Other than the handful of 3rd-party titles that were released by Absolute, Activision, and Froggo, I don't think Atari credited any 3rd-party developers for the titles they released.  Regardless, 59 titles over 7 years is pathetic (less than 1 per month on average).
    As far as the 7800's hardware, a POKEY chip should have absolutely been incorporated.  You had a system which was basically a 'super' VCS, with improved graphics on par with the 800, and the ability to move a lot of sprite around w/o the dreaded flickering (thanks to the Maria chip), but with the original 1977 TIA sound chip.  The 800 and 5200 incorporated the POKEY chip, so it's truly baffling why the 7800 didn't.  In hindsight, Atari should have released something like the 7800 in 1982, not a re-release of the 400 in a different case (the 5200), so the 7800 was already a bit dated in 1984.  Plus Atari already had previewed the NES as early as 1983 and had the opportunity to release it under their name; they saw the future, and ignored it.  So why did the 7800 even get to the point of nearly being widely released in 1984?  Again, Kassar had a personal investment with GCC, so why look into a licensing deal with Nintendo when they already had GCC developing a new system for them?
    Granted, there have been some excellent homebrew games released for the 7800.  Robert DeCrescenz has done more to keep interest in the 7800 than anybody else by far, but without a serious hardware investment made to improve games to be equal to what's found on the NES, as PenguiNet did with Rikki and Vikki, it's pointless to think it ever had a chance to compete with the NES.  And no, the 7800XM wasn't going to change that.  Everything the 7800XM promised to offer could easily been included inside the cartridge, and already has been, with the XBoard (which was created in 2006! - http://www.x-game.se/products/xboard.htm) and VersaBoard (which was created in 2013).
  5. Thanks
    Scott Stilphen got a reaction from 7800 Pro Gamer in Why was Karateka so bad?   
    https://atariage.com/forums/topic/36432-i-officially-like-karateka/
    From Mike Feldman: "Jack Sandberg was the lead programmer on the Karateka and Hat Trick Atari projects. I believe Jon Turner was lead on Choplifter. I was their boss at the time and I remember doing the PC version of Hat Trick that Jack ported to the 7800.  As the leader of the team at Ibid Inc who did these games, all I can say is the specs were tightly controlled by Atari -- they bought the rights to the game and subcontracted the conversion out to us. There was no room to improve, change or modify. The Tramiels (especially Jack's son) kept us on a very short leash.  I do remember that we had to create the development environment from scratch. We had had a lot of experience with C64s and Apples so we were familiar with the 6502. At that time, we wrote most of our stuff in Forth. This gave us the advantage of being able to develop debug on a PC and then port the results to the Atari. Forth is fairly portable and has the advantage of easily integrating with assembler code. The final product was probably mostly assembler, but the main control loops were written in Forth.  I vaguely recall having some kind of card that plugged into the cartridge slot that allowed us to download stuff our binaries and we also burned eproms and mounted them into blank cartridges. We also had a PAL 7800 and a PAL TV with some adaptation so it worked on US current.  I do not remember the work on these games as enjoyable. The environment was difficult, the 7800 is a pretty limited machine and the client was equally difficult. I clearly remember one trip out to Silicon Valley (we were Hartford based) where Len Tramiel spent an hour yelling at me because he didn't like the shade of blue used in the Choplifter sky."
    I have some more info about Karateka on my site: http://www.ataricompendium.com/game_library/easter_eggs/7800/78karateka.html
  6. Thanks
    Scott Stilphen got a reaction from Justin in Why was Karateka so bad?   
    https://atariage.com/forums/topic/36432-i-officially-like-karateka/
    From Mike Feldman: "Jack Sandberg was the lead programmer on the Karateka and Hat Trick Atari projects. I believe Jon Turner was lead on Choplifter. I was their boss at the time and I remember doing the PC version of Hat Trick that Jack ported to the 7800.  As the leader of the team at Ibid Inc who did these games, all I can say is the specs were tightly controlled by Atari -- they bought the rights to the game and subcontracted the conversion out to us. There was no room to improve, change or modify. The Tramiels (especially Jack's son) kept us on a very short leash.  I do remember that we had to create the development environment from scratch. We had had a lot of experience with C64s and Apples so we were familiar with the 6502. At that time, we wrote most of our stuff in Forth. This gave us the advantage of being able to develop debug on a PC and then port the results to the Atari. Forth is fairly portable and has the advantage of easily integrating with assembler code. The final product was probably mostly assembler, but the main control loops were written in Forth.  I vaguely recall having some kind of card that plugged into the cartridge slot that allowed us to download stuff our binaries and we also burned eproms and mounted them into blank cartridges. We also had a PAL 7800 and a PAL TV with some adaptation so it worked on US current.  I do not remember the work on these games as enjoyable. The environment was difficult, the 7800 is a pretty limited machine and the client was equally difficult. I clearly remember one trip out to Silicon Valley (we were Hartford based) where Len Tramiel spent an hour yelling at me because he didn't like the shade of blue used in the Choplifter sky."
    I have some more info about Karateka on my site: http://www.ataricompendium.com/game_library/easter_eggs/7800/78karateka.html
  7. Thanks
    Scott Stilphen got a reaction from Justin in Video games and the law   
    Came across an article in the June 1983 issue of Video Review magazine that offered several scenarios and asked if it constituted breaking the law: http://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/magazines/video_review/video_review.html
    Here's 2 video game-related ones.  The "copying a video game" question is actually asking about videotaping a video game, as copying games was and is still illegal (except if you're making one backup copy for yourself).  Ron Goldman from Mattel seems to think videotaping games could be illegal if copies of the tape were sold.  And yet, the year before, Vestron released their 3-volume "How to Beat Home Video Games" VHS tapes: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/49167/late-movies-how-beat-home-video-games-1982

  8. Like
    Scott Stilphen got a reaction from RickR in Why was Karateka so bad?   
    https://atariage.com/forums/topic/36432-i-officially-like-karateka/
    From Mike Feldman: "Jack Sandberg was the lead programmer on the Karateka and Hat Trick Atari projects. I believe Jon Turner was lead on Choplifter. I was their boss at the time and I remember doing the PC version of Hat Trick that Jack ported to the 7800.  As the leader of the team at Ibid Inc who did these games, all I can say is the specs were tightly controlled by Atari -- they bought the rights to the game and subcontracted the conversion out to us. There was no room to improve, change or modify. The Tramiels (especially Jack's son) kept us on a very short leash.  I do remember that we had to create the development environment from scratch. We had had a lot of experience with C64s and Apples so we were familiar with the 6502. At that time, we wrote most of our stuff in Forth. This gave us the advantage of being able to develop debug on a PC and then port the results to the Atari. Forth is fairly portable and has the advantage of easily integrating with assembler code. The final product was probably mostly assembler, but the main control loops were written in Forth.  I vaguely recall having some kind of card that plugged into the cartridge slot that allowed us to download stuff our binaries and we also burned eproms and mounted them into blank cartridges. We also had a PAL 7800 and a PAL TV with some adaptation so it worked on US current.  I do not remember the work on these games as enjoyable. The environment was difficult, the 7800 is a pretty limited machine and the client was equally difficult. I clearly remember one trip out to Silicon Valley (we were Hartford based) where Len Tramiel spent an hour yelling at me because he didn't like the shade of blue used in the Choplifter sky."
    I have some more info about Karateka on my site: http://www.ataricompendium.com/game_library/easter_eggs/7800/78karateka.html
  9. Like
    Scott Stilphen got a reaction from RickR in Video games and the law   
    Came across an article in the June 1983 issue of Video Review magazine that offered several scenarios and asked if it constituted breaking the law: http://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/magazines/video_review/video_review.html
    Here's 2 video game-related ones.  The "copying a video game" question is actually asking about videotaping a video game, as copying games was and is still illegal (except if you're making one backup copy for yourself).  Ron Goldman from Mattel seems to think videotaping games could be illegal if copies of the tape were sold.  And yet, the year before, Vestron released their 3-volume "How to Beat Home Video Games" VHS tapes: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/49167/late-movies-how-beat-home-video-games-1982

  10. Like
    Scott Stilphen got a reaction from RickR in Which do you prefer: Flip, Shields, or Hyperspace? - Asteroids (Atari 2600)   
    @RickR Asteroids Deluxe arcade came out first (March 1981).  VCS Asteroids came out a few months later (July/August 1981).
    I remember getting the game and reading about the shield option and thinking the cart included both Asteroids and Asteroids Deluxe!  Which of course it doesn't, but it was neat to see that feature from Asteroids Deluxe included.  None of the arcade sequels (Asteroids Deluxe, Space Duel, Blasteroids) included hyperspace.  Shields was by far the superior feature of the two.
  11. Thanks
    Scott Stilphen got a reaction from RickR in Atari XP Physical Releases - Atari Releasing New Atari 2600 Game Cartridges!   
    We've had Tod Frye's and Gary Shannon's names attached to Aquaventure for years.  Reichert has been in contact with both of them for years.  The only mystery is, why is this currently newsworthy?  Apparently Reichert convinced the current Atari that this was some huge, unsolved mystery worthy of headlines.  Even the real mystery about Aquaventure getting lost in the corporate shuffle isn't much of a mystery.  Atari was pretty much in chaos by the end of 1982.  They had so many games and projects under development, and without any real leadership from Kassar or his underlings, they were literally and figuratively just running around in circles w/o any solid plan on how to recover.  Reichert should have been interviewing people he's talked to for the past 20 years, instead of focusing on getting prototypes from them and getting a few crumbs of info about them and running with it to brag about it as fast as possible.  He's always been someone who enjoys bringing attention to himself, and these articles are just another example of that.
    Reichert also has the distinction of being the only person to be banned from the Classic Gaming Expo:
    https://forum.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?38373-The-Trouble-With-AtariAge-(drama-alert)
    In the above thread, Santulli mentions Reichert trying several times to sneak into the alumni dinner at the 2004 show. I forgot about the whole 'sinister' drama posts Reichert made prior to the show that year! He came off like a damn terrorist, as if he was going to be carrying a bomb or something to the show.  
    I was part of the staff and as such, I had the option to go to the alumni dinners, and didn't (I chose to spend Friday nights playing the arcade games on the show floor, since I had so little time for myself on Sat and Sun). The alumni dinners were the show's way of thanking them for coming and for all of their contributions to the video game industry. Any family members that came out to the show with them were of course welcomed to attend the dinner as well. There was a separate banquet room just down the hall from the show floor where the dinners were held. I know seating was always a balancing act because there were some 'cliques' that you wanted to make sure shared a table. For example, there were a few Atari cliques, and of course the Activision folks were their own clique. It was basically the high school lunch room all over again :) It wasn't as bad as say, "If any of these people sit next to Dave Crane, we might have a food fight", but the last thing you want to do is help to create a situation that causes some of them not to return. So once all of that was figured out, there'd usually be just enough tables and chairs for everyone (staff included), since they had to let the catering staff know how much food to provide. There was one door in and out of the banquet room, and there was always at least one staff member at the door to check and make sure only those allowed in got in (basically everyone with either an alumni or staff badge on them).
    But then you had some knucklehead like Reichert deciding he was going to get in there. What he planned on doing, who knows, as there wasn't going to be an assigned seat with a meal waiting for him. Was he going to go around the room from table to table and start questioning the alumni about some game they made 30 years ago? Well, that's what the keynote speeches are for... right? Right. Not good enough for him, I guess. He couldn't wait 12 hours until showtime, so he made repeated attempts to get in the room. It was Santulli who eventually came over and made it abundantly clear to him not only was he not wasn't getting in to the dinner, that it would be the last CGE he'd get in, period. AFAIK he was the *ONLY* person to have been forcibly turned away from the banquet room. Anyone else who tried and were told why it was a 'closed' dinner understood it. In other words, normal-brained people got it. Reichert is not one.
  12. Thanks
    Scott Stilphen got a reaction from Justin in Atari XP Physical Releases - Atari Releasing New Atari 2600 Game Cartridges!   
    Love the positive attitude, Justin :)  But the harsh reality is, these guys were in their 20s and 30s when they were at Atari.  Outside of the Audacity Games guys (Dave Crane, Garry Kitchen, and Dan Kitchen), we have Bob Smith at the 2015 PRGE claiming to have made a new VCS game (but it still hasn't been released AFAIK), and Tod Frye, who at the same show claimed he was rebuilding some/all of his VCS tech demos (and again, nothing more from Frye about it).  We might see Smith's "Dungeon" game some day, but despite what Frye and Warshaw have said (and Warshaw has states several times over the years he has zero interest in coding on the VCS again), I wouldn't count on either of them doing anything.  As Rob Zdybel mentioned in that video, unless you're able to sell enough copies to make it worth the effort, there's no reason to do it unless it's something you personally want to do, and not motivated by financial concerns... which is the only reason Audacity Games exists (and if they didn't make enough from releasing Circus Convoy, we won't be seeing anything else from them).  Btw, Warshaw has been talking about his ideas for a followup to Yars' Revenge ever since I asked him about it 25 years ago:
    http://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/interviews/howard_scott_warshaw/interview_howard_scott_warshaw.html
    Q: Was there any talk of doing a sequel?
    Howard Scott Warshaw: I actually had designs for a Yars series.  The next game was going to be Yarian Olympics, which was a game that Yars had to participate in that would develop the skills that they would need to be able to go up against the Qotile.  I was already under development to do them when I got pulled off to do Raiders of the Lost Ark and E.T.
     
  13. Thanks
    Scott Stilphen got a reaction from Clint Thompson in Unreleased Atari Super XE Game System   
    Btw, the photo of the black XEGS is from 2011:
    https://atariage.com/forums/topic/181654-custom-recolor-for-xegs-case/
    Some decided to repaint their XEGS black.  It's not a prototype, nor does it have anything to do with the Super XE.  Speaking of the video from the original post, that's from Kieren Hawken, who's rather infamous for peddling misinformation.  The Atari Mirai prototype shell that was found back in 1996 is still a complete mystery as to what it was intended to be, and Hawken's video adds nothing to suggest it might have been for the Super XE.
    @Clint Thompson Is this the 7800 poster you were looking for?


  14. Thanks
    Scott Stilphen got a reaction from Sabertooth in Unreleased Atari Super XE Game System   
    Btw, the photo of the black XEGS is from 2011:
    https://atariage.com/forums/topic/181654-custom-recolor-for-xegs-case/
    Some decided to repaint their XEGS black.  It's not a prototype, nor does it have anything to do with the Super XE.  Speaking of the video from the original post, that's from Kieren Hawken, who's rather infamous for peddling misinformation.  The Atari Mirai prototype shell that was found back in 1996 is still a complete mystery as to what it was intended to be, and Hawken's video adds nothing to suggest it might have been for the Super XE.
    @Clint Thompson Is this the 7800 poster you were looking for?


  15. Like
    Scott Stilphen got a reaction from MaximumRD in Unreleased Atari Super XE Game System   
    Btw, the photo of the black XEGS is from 2011:
    https://atariage.com/forums/topic/181654-custom-recolor-for-xegs-case/
    Some decided to repaint their XEGS black.  It's not a prototype, nor does it have anything to do with the Super XE.  Speaking of the video from the original post, that's from Kieren Hawken, who's rather infamous for peddling misinformation.  The Atari Mirai prototype shell that was found back in 1996 is still a complete mystery as to what it was intended to be, and Hawken's video adds nothing to suggest it might have been for the Super XE.
    @Clint Thompson Is this the 7800 poster you were looking for?


  16. Like
    Scott Stilphen got a reaction from Atari Creep in Squad Challenge - Bowling (Atari 2600)   
    263.  Had a perfect game until the 9th frame.


  17. Haha
    Scott Stilphen got a reaction from TrekMD in Warlords graphics. What the heck is that thing?   
    Sometimes with VCS graphics, it's.... whatever you imagine it to be :)
  18. Haha
    Scott Stilphen got a reaction from RickR in Warlords graphics. What the heck is that thing?   
    Sometimes with VCS graphics, it's.... whatever you imagine it to be :)
  19. Like
    Scott Stilphen got a reaction from DegasElite in Was Star Raiders a Good Game?   
    Some Supercharger games have issues with certain 7800 variations:
    http://www.ataricompendium.com/faq/faq.html#software18
    There's a mod you can do to the 7800 to make it fully compatible with the Supercharger, but I don't know of any mod for the Supercharger.
     
    VCS Star Raiders was certainly adequate at the time.  Not the best, and not the worst.  That, Starmaster, and Phaser Patrol all got rave reviews back then, with Star Voyager, Space Attack, and Star Ship bringing up the rear (http://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/reviews/reviews.html)  No, none of them are equal to the original 800 Star Raiders.  The entire VCS package was impressive for the reasons you mentioned.  I had hoped Atari would have utilized the VTP for more games, but much like the Driving Controllers, it was another 'one and done'.  Although Star Raiders wasn't the first "1st-person cockpit" space game (Atari's Starship 1 and VCS Star Ship get the nod), Star Raiders was the 800's first 'killer app' and influenced a slew of similar games, with 800 Rescue on Fractalus and VCS Solaris being the best for those systems IMO (XTAL for the 800 also gets my vote).  
  20. Like
    Scott Stilphen got a reaction from RickR in Was Star Raiders a Good Game?   
    Some Supercharger games have issues with certain 7800 variations:
    http://www.ataricompendium.com/faq/faq.html#software18
    There's a mod you can do to the 7800 to make it fully compatible with the Supercharger, but I don't know of any mod for the Supercharger.
     
    VCS Star Raiders was certainly adequate at the time.  Not the best, and not the worst.  That, Starmaster, and Phaser Patrol all got rave reviews back then, with Star Voyager, Space Attack, and Star Ship bringing up the rear (http://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/reviews/reviews.html)  No, none of them are equal to the original 800 Star Raiders.  The entire VCS package was impressive for the reasons you mentioned.  I had hoped Atari would have utilized the VTP for more games, but much like the Driving Controllers, it was another 'one and done'.  Although Star Raiders wasn't the first "1st-person cockpit" space game (Atari's Starship 1 and VCS Star Ship get the nod), Star Raiders was the 800's first 'killer app' and influenced a slew of similar games, with 800 Rescue on Fractalus and VCS Solaris being the best for those systems IMO (XTAL for the 800 also gets my vote).  
  21. Like
    Scott Stilphen got a reaction from Sabertooth in Was Star Raiders a Good Game?   
    Some Supercharger games have issues with certain 7800 variations:
    http://www.ataricompendium.com/faq/faq.html#software18
    There's a mod you can do to the 7800 to make it fully compatible with the Supercharger, but I don't know of any mod for the Supercharger.
     
    VCS Star Raiders was certainly adequate at the time.  Not the best, and not the worst.  That, Starmaster, and Phaser Patrol all got rave reviews back then, with Star Voyager, Space Attack, and Star Ship bringing up the rear (http://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/reviews/reviews.html)  No, none of them are equal to the original 800 Star Raiders.  The entire VCS package was impressive for the reasons you mentioned.  I had hoped Atari would have utilized the VTP for more games, but much like the Driving Controllers, it was another 'one and done'.  Although Star Raiders wasn't the first "1st-person cockpit" space game (Atari's Starship 1 and VCS Star Ship get the nod), Star Raiders was the 800's first 'killer app' and influenced a slew of similar games, with 800 Rescue on Fractalus and VCS Solaris being the best for those systems IMO (XTAL for the 800 also gets my vote).  
  22. Like
    Scott Stilphen got a reaction from AtariSphinx in Squad Challenge - Bowling (Atari 2600)   
    263.  Had a perfect game until the 9th frame.


  23. Like
    Scott Stilphen got a reaction from Sabertooth in Squad Challenge - Bowling (Atari 2600)   
    263.  Had a perfect game until the 9th frame.


  24. Like
    Scott Stilphen got a reaction from chas10e in Squad Challenge - Bowling (Atari 2600)   
    263.  Had a perfect game until the 9th frame.


  25. Like
    Scott Stilphen got a reaction from Justin in Squad Challenge - Bowling (Atari 2600)   
    263.  Had a perfect game until the 9th frame.


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