Unreleased Arkyology game now available for free

[Scott Stilphen]

http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-arkyology_30287.html

 

Thanks to programmer Paul Walters, who decided to release the binary of the game for free after plans to sell cartridges fell through.

 

This is a 1-player 8K game based on events in the life of the biblical character Noah.  Paul Walters announced in 2015 that he likely had the only existing copy of the game.  From Walters: "Back in 1982 - 1984 I worked for Enter-Tech Ltd.  We developed video games, coin-op, cartridge, and gambling as well.  We developed a few games for the Atari 2600.  We had the contract to develop Arkyology and David and Goliath for the 2600 back in 1983.  I and my co-worker George Hefner were the programmers on the Arkyology project.  My co-worker Rick Harris was the lead on the David and Goliath project, and Andy Teague helped.  Barb Ultis did the graphics for both games.  The games required a cartridge board that handled ROM banking.  The final games fit inside 8K bytes. Arkyology was finished and ready for release; I don't think David and Goliath was ever finished.  Arkyology was about Noah's ark.  The player controlled 'Noah' and the goal was to feed the animals on the Ark.  The game showed three floors separated by ladders that contained animal stalls.  Each level had two parts.  First was to run around and open all of the animal stalls, the second was to 'feed' each of the animals.  Of course, there were obstacles.  There were birds flying past, alligators running on the floors, and a couple others if I remember right.  Each level sped up with more obstacles.  We ended up having to edit out some of what we wanted to put into the game because we were running out of space... The cut scenes between days were shortened down to just Noah snoring.. we had bigger plans for it.  I have a game ROM of Arkyology, probably the only one still in existence."

[RickR]

Thank you! 

[Atari 5200 Guy]

This is AWESOME!!! Always cool to see things like this finally show up.

[MaximumRD]

Thanks for the post and share!

[chas10e]

What makes this a "legit lost game" is a newspaper article in the Chicago Tribune of Jan. 15 ,1984 announcing it's release https://chicagotribune.newspapers.com/

 

an Atariage member discovered the article in Christmas of  2009 http://atariage.com/forums/topic/155420-arkyology-new-prototype-discovered-finished-game/

 

Just shy of six years later in 2015 the game designer stumbled upon that thread with an awesome "necrobump"  http://atariage.com/forums/topic/155420-arkyology-new-prototype-discovered-finished-game/?p=3316771

 

Within that thread it was also discovered he was the designer of other perhaps obscure arcade games as well, like "Tugboat" & "Leprechaun"