Major Havoc questions

[Robb Sherwin]

I am putting together an article on Major Havoc for my website at
caltrops.com, but specific information on the game is a little tough
to find. I'm basically hoping to introduce the game to people who have
not heard of it.

I've found Owen Rubin's webpage, which answers some questions (along
with all the other haunts for this sort of thing like KLOV) but still
have a few questions:

- It appears as if 300 dedicated cabinets were made along with a kit.
Why so few dedicated units? Major Havoc appears to be like the
ultimate vector game (at least, I am unaware of any vector game having
stages like MH does besides Gravitar) so it's odd that so few were
produced.

- Was the roller used on any other game?

- Dave Theurer has stated that the Tempest monitors were flaky when
they were out in the field. On siggraph.com there is an interview with
Owen Rubin where he states, "We discovered a problem a bit too late
which caused the displays to blow out. [...] Unfortunately, if you
drew too far off the screen, you could blow out the deflection amps in
the monitor." I would assume that MH cabs suffered from the same
monitor problems as Tempest, but this is just speculation on my part.
Does anyone know for sure?

- How many levels are there in MH? I'm not very good at the game, so I
have only seen the first three and the one you get through the red
warp.

- Did the real version of the game store high scores? (It does seem to
do so in MAME.)

Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to help me out; I will
source and attribute comments properly for the finished piece, of
course.

[goo...@brentradio.com]

I'm no expert but I think I can answer some of these.

They only made 300 because the game was too hard and nobody played it
more than once or twice, before going off to play Ms Pac Man. Op's
didn't make any money so they put them in storage or converted them or
robbed them of the XY monitors.

The roller was not used in any other game.

All MH Dedicated games came with the Amplifone monitor that of course
would break down. So alot of them were replaced with the WG6100 XY
monitors that of course would break down. Another reason the game was
not popular as it most likely was broke down. You could also use the
Amp Monitor in Star Wars, so people would take them for that reason
too.

I think there are 22 levels or more, not sure on this one.

Most Atari games of that era held the top 3 hgih scores, not sure on
this one either.

Here's some more info:

http://www.gamearchive.com/Video_Games/Manufacturers/Atari/major_havoc.html

Hope this helps, and post the article when finished!

Brent

[super_...@yahoo.com]

Though not an Atari game, Bally/Midway's Kick(man) used a roller
controller.

[goo...@brentradio.com]

It did, but not THE roller controller.

;-)

[Joe M]

Didn't Moon War use a version of the roller controller too?

Joe (joemagiera at ameritech dot net)
joema...@ameritech.net

<super_...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1183786289.4...@c77g2000hse.googlegroups.com...

[Chumblespuzz]

Correct.

Major Havoc used what Atari called the Whirly-gig controller which is
constructed much like a trakball. The plastic roller sits on top of 2 metal
rollers each of which are on bearings, and one of which is connected to an
encoder wheel. This method of construction pretty much prevents any long
spins.

The Kickman controller, on the other hand, has a single shaft pressed
through the ball. This shaft is on bearings and is connected directly to the
encoder wheel. This method of construction allows for *very* long spins. I
have timed my Kickman controller to spin for over 2 1/2 minutes.

I have always wanted to make a MH style controller with a single shaft like
a Kickman. It would seem that it would make the game easier to play. But
alas, some of the gameplay fun of many of these games is learing how to deal
with the controls.

-roy-

<goo...@brentradio.com> wrote in message
news:1183795723.6...@i38g2000prf.googlegroups.com...

[microlo...@yahoo.com]

On Jul 6, 3:12 pm, goo...@brentradio.com wrote:
>
> All MH Dedicated games came with the Amplifone monitor that of course
> would break down. So alot of them were replaced with the WG6100 XY
> monitors that of course would break down. Another reason the game was
> not popular as it most likely was broke down. You could also use the
> Amp Monitor in Star Wars, so people would take them for that reason
> too.

i never could figure that out. vector monitors use simpler circuitry
than raster monitors, right? so why do they have such a lousy service
record?

[chicodj...@yahoo.com]

> i never could figure that out. vector monitors use simpler circuitry
> than raster monitors, right? so why do they have such a lousy service
> record?

Its my understanding that not all vectors are service nightmares. I
have heard that the B&W vectors in games like Battlezone and Asteroids
are fairly bulletproof. Keep in mind that they are over 20 years old
and everything breaks with time. However, when they moved to color or
Quadrascan monitors, WG tried to make them do too much and multiplied
the complexity of the monitors by 3(one for red, blue, and green).
The more complex, the more parts to break. Then Atari got in the mix
with a (new and improved) monitor. They had a problem with the
flyback and something called (wet wire) issue. Basically, all the
flybacks died, which made Atari look bad, so they got out of the
monitor biz pretty quick rather than fixing the problems. This left a
lot of Vector games down and out. The Atari Amplifones are actually
the most impressive Vector Monitors when they work correctly. The
wells k6100 also had issues that were corrected in later
revisions(i.e. the 6104 if mem serves). Once a Vector is rebuilt and
brought up to code so to speak, they should last for quite a while.
Keep in mind that Vectors are a very different piece of hardware
compared to a raster. Televisions had been made since the 40's and
had 30 years to work the bugs out. The closest thing to a vector
monitor is an oscilloscope which has also been made for years but
ussually only has a 5" screen and is in black and white. Any new tech
takes time get the bugs out. Lets face it, while the techs in the
arcade industry are tops when it comes to fixing problems, many
operators were/are less than enthusiastic about having a piece of
expensive equiptment down and costing them money. I know some here
will disagree with parts of this answer, but its the way I understand
it from reading many sources and talking with my tech friend on the
matter often.