ATARI 2600 PAC MAN QUESTIONS
TTYrant
LIGHT BLUE and the "video wafers" yellow?? This is a TRUELY ugly game. It is as
if they said, "OK guys, we just paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for the
exclusive rights to Pac Man. NOW, let's see if we can change the way it looks
SO much that it no longer resembles the original game. Without changing any of
the "Programming" of the 2600 Pac Man, I feel that it would have been VASTLY
IMPROVED if they would have just made the damn background BLACK. Like it should
be. Like the real arcade game.
Davide Guida
The real question should be: it's not a technical reason; WHY did the
programmers make it so different from original, if a great "Ms. Pacman"
cartridge was programmed just one year after?
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Robert Morgan
>programmers make it so different from original, if a great "Ms. Pacman"
>cartridge was programmed just one year after?
I think it had been pretty well explained in the past (if not excused)- Pac-Man
was a rush-job that was forced out the door in order to cash in on Pac-Man
fever. IIRC, Ms. Pac also benefits from a larger ROM.
Smith raises an interesting point- why didn't they bother to make Pac-Man's
colors resemble the arcade? It shouldn't have affected the ROM size to do so
and it's kind of mind-boggling that no one bothered to make it look at least a
little like a real Pac-Man game.
Dennis Debro
The game was given to Todd Frye to program. The problem he had to face was
the 2600 only has 2 sprites but Pac-man has 5. The 2600 could do the
mutliple sprites but they had to be vertically separated to reuse them.
He actually created a kernal (later used in Ms. Pacman) that did varible
flicker instead of the flicker you see in Pacman. He also told management
that he needed 8K of ROM space to do the game justice. Management refused to
give him the extra ROM space because of cost. They figured they could make
more money by pushing a 4K ROM instead of 8K.
So given the restraints of management Todd created the Pacman we have today.
IIRC the colors were choosen because of the flicker. There is a thread on
the AtariAge message board about the coloring. Read
http://www.atariage.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=10723&highlight=understand+ha
cks there is some information there about the colors used in the game.
Robert Morgan <pure...@cs.comfrobozz> wrote in message
news:20020816070522...@mb-mg.news.cs.com...
Impmon
<dnsd...@netzero.net> typed:
>The game was given to Todd Frye to program. The problem he had to face was
>the 2600 only has 2 sprites but Pac-man has 5. The 2600 could do the
>mutliple sprites but they had to be vertically separated to reuse them.
>
>He actually created a kernal (later used in Ms. Pacman) that did varible
>flicker instead of the flicker you see in Pacman. He also told management
>that he needed 8K of ROM space to do the game justice. Management refused to
>give him the extra ROM space because of cost. They figured they could make
>more money by pushing a 4K ROM instead of 8K.
>
>So given the restraints of management Todd created the Pacman we have today.
There's another reason Pac Man just don't resembles the arcade version:
the programmer didn't like Pac Man and hadn't played one when he was
practically shoved into the project to make one in a short time. Had
Atari handed the PAC Man to another programmer that actually liked the
arcade version, the game would have looked more like the arcade version.
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Dennis Debro wrote:
> Here's the Reader's Digest version of the story...
>
> The game was given to Todd Frye to program.
He was also given <Dr. Evil voice> one Million dollars! </Dr. Evil Voice>
Alex
stonic
> the programmer didn't like Pac Man and hadn't played one when he was
> practically shoved into the project to make one in a short time. Had
> Atari handed the PAC Man to another programmer that actually liked the
> arcade version, the game would have looked more like the arcade version.
Tod wasn't "shoved" into doing it b/c it wasn't assigned to anyone; he
willingly accepted to do it. I've never read anything about what his
opinion of the arcade game was (good or bad) - where are you quoting this
info from?
Ryan P Gavigan
Pac man wasn't going to be any different in 4k, period. Even one of the
Atari programmers on the CGE panel this year said so, that Frye went back
to the managers saying he needed 8k and that wiht 4k, 'this and this and this
would have to be cut or couldn't be done'.
ryan gavigan
Al Alcorn himself
>
>
Michael Smeal
John in NH
Many have:
http://www.atariage.com/software_hacks.html?SystemID=2600
Including a super Pac-Man redo.
John in NH
~~~
My arcade pics, links & FS/FT stuff (UPDATED 07/27/02):
http://members.aol.com/rushpage/jamma.htm
eBay stuff I've got up:
http://tinyurl.com/yp6
-Exhibiting the willingness to risk defeat on a daily basis since 1994.-
TTYrant
>colors resemble the arcade? It shouldn't have affected the ROM size to do so
>and it's kind of mind-boggling that no one bothered to make it look at least
>a
>little like a real Pac-Man game.
I think they did it this way (blue background) because the "ghosts" would
flicker so badly that they may be hard to see on a black background.
Michael Smeal
system
and slap in Pacman cart and turn it on! It's like the Real thing accept for
the crappy joystick. Hacks are hacks, i like to see 2600 version like the
5200 is.
Pacman Fever is back!
SS
"Michael Smeal" <Msm...@paonline.com> wrote in message
news:3D5D574D...@paonline.com...
> I do agree there, someone should redo the game over like Ms Pacman.
Rob Kudla did. He posts here from time to time (or, at least, he used to).
Check it out at :
http://www.kudla.org/raindog/pac26.html
He hacked the 2600 "Ms. Pac-Man" ROM to get the "Pac-Man" game that we
always wanted. Beautiful. Get the ROM to try out on an emulator here:
http://www.kudla.org/raindog/pac26.zip
Hozer Video will also put it on a cart for you, if you're interested :
http://webpages.charter.net/hozervideo/atari/section6.html
A warning, though. The "A Better Pac-Man" cart wont run on my 7800, only on
my 2600. Randy *says* that it should be compatible with a 7800 but I've not
had any luck myself.
( general Hozer link : http://www.hozervideo.com/ )
Dane L. Galden
Has anyone done any improvements and stayed within the original 4K
allotment? That would be a real challenge and, I feel, much more
interesting.
Dane.
"SS" <jonpe...@NOSPAMjuno.com> wrote in message
news:ulr6u4f...@news.supernews.com...
Barry L. Laws, Jr.
pellets white, and so on.
There's a good Pac-Man game available for the 2600...the hack of Ms.
Pac-Man. You can buy this game in cart form at Hozer Video
(http://www.hozervideo.com).
"TTYrant" <drsmi...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20020816040443...@mb-fg.aol.com...
Robert Morgan
>flicker so badly that they may be hard to see on a black background.
...they flicker so badly they're hard to see on the current background, too.
I'd think the contrast of color on black would make the ghosts stand out
*more*, not less. Worked for Asteroids, after all. But, I'll admit to not
having read the thread at atariage.com yet (I kinda hate having to read stuff
on web-based message boards) so maybe there's something blindingly obvious that
I've missed.
A. Hershey
drsmi...@aol.com wrote on 8/16/02 4:04 AM:
Play the game in black & white using the b&w switch. Looks much much better.
stonic
> Pac man wasn't going to be any different in 4k, period. Even one of the
> Atari programmers on the CGE panel this year said so, that Frye went back
> to the managers saying he needed 8k and that wiht 4k, 'this and this and this
> would have to be cut or couldn't be done'.
You mean having 8K wouldn't have made any difference?? Uh, you might
want to take a look at Ms. Pac there.....
Tod wanted 8K mainly for the ghost kernel he designed (much less
flicker), which ended up being used in Ms. Pac :)
stonic
> So I'm assuming this is 8K (b/c it's from Ms. Pac Man).
>
> Has anyone done any improvements and stayed within the original 4K
> allotment? That would be a real challenge and, I feel, much more
> interesting.
Yes, Ebivision's Pac-Man is 4K. There's virtually no sound effects,
but the graphics are fantastic.
Michael Smeal
Pacman in the arcades. I wonder why??
Robert Morgan
>Pacman,Jr
>Pacman in the arcades. I wonder why??
I never saw Pac & Pal (was this even available in America?) or Professor
Pac-Man (I did see this at an auction, though- unfortunately, not working. I'd
like to play it at least once in my life.) I only ever saw Jr. in one
location- in the back of a drug store; Baby and Super I saw in several Showbiz
Pizza restaurants. Pac-Man Plus seems to be the Pac-Man title that no one
cares about.
Dane L. Galden
Thanks, Dane.
"stonic" <super_...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1ae4cf71.02081...@posting.google.com...
Impmon
typed:
>I never saw Pac & Pal (was this even available in America?) or Professor
>Pac-Man (I did see this at an auction, though- unfortunately, not working. I'd
>like to play it at least once in my life.) I only ever saw Jr. in one
>location- in the back of a drug store; Baby and Super I saw in several Showbiz
>Pizza restaurants. Pac-Man Plus seems to be the Pac-Man title that no one
>cares about.
I do remember seeing all of those arcades except for Pac Man Jr. I
never knew there was a Professor Pac Man until a few years ago. So yes
they all have been released in America but certanly not as common or
popular as the original Pac Man or Ms. Pac Man.
Geoff Voigt
>I never saw Pac & Pal (was this even available in America?) or Professor
>Pac-Man (I did see this at an auction, though- unfortunately, not working. I'd
>like to play it at least once in my life.)
I've had the privilige of playing a Prof. Pac once; at Castles and Coasters in
Phoenix, AZ YEARS ago; at least 10. It's a Quiz games with Pac animations,
that's all I can remember.
>I only ever saw Jr. in one location- in the back of a drug store; Baby and Super I saw in >several Showbiz Pizza restaurants. Pac-Man Plus seems to be the Pac-Man title that no one
>cares about.
JR.s are almost as availible as Ms. Pacs in some areas of So-Cal; anytime I see
a Pac for sale; it comes with a Plus board as a bonus... wierd.
Geoff "Would like to do to Super Pac what was done for Ms. Pac" Voigt
Geoff Voigt:gvo...@pacman.ridgecrest.ca.us
Yet another Peniless Artist(TM) also interested in
80's music-Classic Video Games-Anime-Techno Music-Coffee-US History
Maintainer and keeper of the rec.games.video.classic FAQ
Delete the classic game character to reply
TTYrant
>location- in the back of a drug store;
DID YOU PLAY IT?
James Alexander
I was a diehard atari 2600 fan when it came out (and I still have mine). I even
like a number of the games that are considered to be crap. But Pac man was one
game even I never liked. It boggled my mind that shops where I live (canada) were
charging $60 to $80 for it, including stores that hadnt sold video games
previously. I still dont understand how atari managed to so badly mangle the
conversion. At least they made up for it by making Ms. Pacman so much better in
comparison.
Michael Smeal
2600 and Pacman for the 5200.
Dane L. Galden
looks great. I think someone said there was no sound, but still I can't
believe it looks so good. Is the .bin file anywhere to play in an emulator,
or was it ever released on cart?
Also, I'd love to talk to the programmer to find out how he did it, how long
it took, and how much space was left over to see if there was any chance of
sound (even simple
sounds)?
Dane.
"James Alexander" <james-m-...@rogers.com> wrote in message
news:3D5EF435...@rogers.com...
Robert Morgan
>>location- in the back of a drug store;
>
>DID YOU PLAY IT?
Oh, of course. Before the days of unlimited info via internet, I used to keep
notebooks full of all of the released games for various systems and the arcade.
In my arcade notebook, I noted not only game titles, but whether I'd actually
seen the thing (as opposed to just seeing it in a trade magazine- I was a
pathetic child who went to the library and scoured bound volumes of "Vending
Times", "RePlay", and "Cash Box") *and* whether I'd gotten to play the game.
Kinda like bird-watching or train-spotting, I suppose, but even less popular a
sport.
So, yeah, I plunked a quarter into it. Wasn't a bad little game, but at the
time I was more taken by the giant-sized marquee the thing had.
stonic
> That ebvision version of 2600 Pac Man is awesome! That's a 4K ROM?!
All their games are 4K.
> It
> looks great. I think someone said there was no sound, but still I can't
> believe it looks so good. Is the .bin file anywhere to play in an emulator,
> or was it ever released on cart?
There are some sounds, but very little. The bin is not available. In
fact, none of Ebivision's games are available in bin format. Hozer
Games sells carts of them (except Pac-Man, which was redone as Pesco).
>
> Also, I'd love to talk to the programmer to find out how he did it, how long
> it took, and how much space was left over to see if there was any chance of
> sound (even simple
> sounds)?
I did a small interview with Eric Bacher (one of the 2 guys that make
up Ebivision; the other being Igor Barzilai) in #61 of the 2600
Connection. You can get their email address at their site:
www.ebivision.com
Greg Reimer
the the tv to get as close to original as possible. It helped. Couldn't do
anything with the sound though.
- Greg
CPE
wrote:
>Tod wasn't "shoved" into doing it b/c it wasn't assigned to anyone; he
>willingly accepted to do it. I've never read anything about what his
>opinion of the arcade game was (good or bad) - where are you quoting this
>info from?
Tod didn't like porting arcade games at all. Just because he did it
doesn't mean he liked doing it.
CPE
(Ryan P Gavigan) wrote:
>Pac man wasn't going to be any different in 4k, period. Even one of the
>Atari programmers on the CGE panel this year said so, that Frye went back
>to the managers saying he needed 8k and that wiht 4k, 'this and this and this
>would have to be cut or couldn't be done'.
He also mentioned that Ms Pac Man sacrificed 2-player mode. Tod used
more RAM in Pac Man to be able to store two playfield states on the
pellets. Ms Pac uses that RAM for more game logic and other frills.
The only way to make Ms Pac more authentic might have involved using
Superchip RAM, which wasn't around at the time, but was later used for
Jr. Pac Man.
TTYrant
agree it is very nice, why in the HELL is the screen still BLUE??? Please tell
me why the hell they did everything else "right" but made the screen the
"wrong" color!!
stonic
Again, where are you quoting this from??
Regardless of whether or not he liked porting them, the fact is he had
the option not to and he CHOSE to do it.
Kirk Is
Probably just to tick you off and see how many times they could get you to
say "hell" in a single post. Admittedly, given how young Usenet was, this
took a lot of planning and foresight, maybe not worth it since they only
got two.
Seriously, is it worth getting all worked up about? You couldn't have
asked this question calmly? (Not to lecture, but this ties into previous
posts about how Usenet doesn't have to ALWAYS be a battlefield.) 2600
programming is tough, yet you still want games as close to the original as
possible, so you don't make decisions like this lightly. I don't know for
certain, but often odd color choices like that are a tool to reduce
flicker, given that you have 2 sprites 2 missiles and a ball and
background to make everything that appears in the game.
I heard they used similar tricks to help make a quite presentable port of
Smash TV for the SNES...
--
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"An art form based on the computer should be impossible without it."
--Myron Krueger
Android
And, in retrospect, it was a wise decision since it earned him Atari's first
royalty check (didn't it?).
NE146
blue.. it'd probably be a relatively simple hack to do. Of course then for
most people the only options would be to play it on an emu or a cuttle cart.
"Kirk Is" <kirk...@alienbill.com> wrote in message
news:s_wa9.111$Y2....@news.tufts.edu...
TTYrant
>asked this question calmly? (Not to lecture, but this ties into previous
>posts about how Usenet doesn't have to ALWAYS be a battlefield.) 2600
>programming is tough, yet you still want games as close to the original as
>possible, so you don't make decisions like this lightly. I don't know for
>certain, but often odd color choices like that are a tool to reduce
>flicker, given that you have 2 sprites 2 missiles and a ball and
>background to make everything that appears in the game.
Changing the color of the background screen from blue to black, I'm sure, would
be just a matter of changing a single digit in the program code
>I heard they used similar tricks to help make a quite presentable port of
>Smash TV for the SNES...
>
SMASH TV began using a seperate computer chip inside the cartrdge itself to
achieve this. Most games had this after the first batch, and the more advanced
games like Starfox used what ya call an SFX chip which was essentially a
computer within a cartridge!!!
CPE
>Again, where are you quoting this from??
From the interview he gave me during the Stella at 20 shoot.
The term for porting at the time was doing "a copy" and it was not
something generally seen as a proud acheivement vs. an original title.
(Not that Swordquest turned out much better mind you... Tod's best
game for the VCS is the unreleased Save Mary.)
>Regardless of whether or not he liked porting them, the fact is he had
>the option not to and he CHOSE to do it.
The thing is, soon after Space Invaders, Atari chose to do almost
nothing BUT arcade ports, ports of its own titles and those it
licensed from others. That's not much of a choice if you ask me.
And if it wasn't a port, it was a TV or movie license...
Can anyone name a decent number of all original game concepts Atari
delivered on the 2600 between 1981 and 1984 that weren't tied to a
coinop game or a licensed character? Maybe Yars' Revenge and Demons
to Diamonds. I can't think of any others off the top of my head.
Meanwhile Activision was doing just fine coming up with mostly
original game ideas.
CPE
wrote:
>And, in retrospect, it was a wise decision since it earned him Atari's first
>royalty check (didn't it?).
I heard that he had to return at least some of his royalty check when
the shit hit the fan.
He told me he definitely did get called into management at which point
he basically said "I told you I could do better in 8K" and as legend
had it, from that point onward there were no more 4K games at Atari!
That's probably why so many games right before the crash had title
screens and stuff. Even if the game didn't need 8K, they were given
it by management thinking it was going to help every game, so maybe
they had space leftover for frills.
Certainly not every game needs even 4K to be good. Look at Kaboom, a
relative contemporary of Pac Man's and an altogether better game at 2K
(as are most of Activision's 1st gen titles). But then again, Kaboom
plays to the 2600's strengths with the vertical separation.
Kirk Is
>>You couldn't have
>>asked this question calmly? (Not to lecture, but this ties into previous
>>posts about how Usenet doesn't have to ALWAYS be a battlefield.) 2600
>>programming is tough, yet you still want games as close to the original as
>>possible, so you don't make decisions like this lightly. I don't know for
>>certain, but often odd color choices like that are a tool to reduce
>>flicker, given that you have 2 sprites 2 missiles and a ball and
>>background to make everything that appears in the game.
> Changing the color of the background screen from blue to black, I'm sure, would
> be just a matter of changing a single digit in the program code
Are you being dense on purpose?
Yes, it may well be a single line of code to change...BUT it might make
the flickering of the ghosts much more obvious. So they thought using the
color to hide the flicker was a better choice than making the color more
like the original.
>>I heard they used similar tricks to help make a quite presentable port of
>>Smash TV for the SNES...
>>
> SMASH TV began using a seperate computer chip inside the cartrdge itself to
> achieve this. Most games had this after the first batch, and the more advanced
> games like Starfox used what ya call an SFX chip which was essentially a
> computer within a cartridge!!!
Whoops, actually I meant NES, not SNES...there was a port for the NES that
someone talked about on this group (or in e-mail to me) and the guy knew
the author...amzing how many sprites they got on screen, considering how
badly something like Ultima flicker.
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Ryan P Gavigan
according to H.S. Warshaw, Tod's reaction when asked to do it was more
just a 'sure, why not' reaction. and as HWS continued..'Tod would try
anything, he even took a bath once.' also he said that he (HWS) was offered
the chance to do pacman first, but said 'you can't do a good pacman on the
2600?!' and the suits said 'ok' and moved on to the next person ^^.
ryan gavigan
NE146
MsPacman with a black background..
Here's your wish TTYrant! 2600 MsPacman with a black background so have at
it :-)
Yes it was a single thing to change...and to Kirk Is, I played it on a
Cuttle Cart and it looks pretty good! You figure the pacman hack changed the
background to black too. Also the attract screen had a black background as
well. The flicker isn't much more noticeable at all.
Enjoy:
http://www.users.qwest.net/~bapcruz/atari/ms.pac-man_black_background.zip
"Kirk Is" <kirk...@alienbill.com> wrote in message
news:AYJa9.113$Y2....@news.tufts.edu...
SS
"NE146" <bapcruz@SPAMSUCKS_hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:wT_a9.100$kl4.1...@news.uswest.net...
> Geeze Louize.. just so you guys can relax, I went ahead and made it, a
2600
> MsPacman with a black background..
>
> Here's your wish TTYrant! 2600 MsPacman with a black background so have at
> it :-)
>
> Yes it was a single thing to change...and to Kirk Is, I played it on a
> Cuttle Cart and it looks pretty good! You figure the pacman hack changed
the
> background to black too. Also the attract screen had a black background as
> well. The flicker isn't much more noticeable at all.
>
> Enjoy:
> http://www.users.qwest.net/~bapcruz/atari/ms.pac-man_black_background.zip
Hmmm ... very interesting. Very interesting, indeed. There's certainly a
lot less flicker than I would have expected. Now, I really do wonder why
the decision was made for the blue background.
Strangely, even though the colors are now closer to the arcade version, the
whole thing looks somehow wrong to me. So many years of playing with a blue
background makes a 2600 version in black look weird.
tssk
the Pacman license? I seem to remember a story about an Atari rep who
was sent to get the rights for a home version of Rally X and came back
with this license for Pacman instead. Result being, said rep gets
sacked and Atari sits on the license until the arcade game becomes big
in America. Any truth in this rumour?
tssk
Dane L. Galden
Dane.
"tssk" <tssk...@my-deja.com> wrote in message
news:1e17547a.02082...@posting.google.com...
TTYrant
make "DOTS" like the real arcade game.
CPE
>What I want to know is what is up with the DASHES??? How come they couldn't
>make "DOTS" like the real arcade game.
Because they are done with playfield graphics which is blockier. The
only game like this that used real dots was Alien which only had 3
enemies and the dots were staggered and there was still flicker on the
dots because they were sprites.
stonic
> On Tue, 27 Aug 2002 00:35:31 GMT, "Android" <andr...@attbi.com>
> wrote:
> >And, in retrospect, it was a wise decision since it earned him Atari's
first
> >royalty check (didn't it?).
>
> I heard that he had to return at least some of his royalty check when
> the shit hit the fan.
>
That's hard to believe because, bad port or not, it still sold a lot of
copies (I'm sure at least a million).
stonic
Ryan P Gavigan <gav...@soyokaze.biosci.ohio-state.edu> wrote in message
news:2002082714...@soyokaze.biosci.ohio-state.edu...
Well, according to Tod (from the Stella at 20 video), both him and Bob
Polaro were given Defender and Pac-Man to port. Tod gave Bob the choice of
which one he wanted to do.
stonic
> On 26 Aug 2002 08:04:06 -0700, super_...@yahoo.com (stonic) wrote:
> >Again, where are you quoting this from??
>
> From the interview he gave me during the Stella at 20 shoot.
I've watched both, and never does Frye state that he personally disliked
doing arcade ports.
There was a general consensus that doing an arcade port wasn't as
respectable or worthwhile since 1) you were copying someone else's work and
2) it was nearly impossible to translate the look and feel of an arcade
title with the 2600 hardware.
>
> The term for porting at the time was doing "a copy" and it was not
> something generally seen as a proud acheivement vs. an original title.
> (Not that Swordquest turned out much better mind you... Tod's best
> game for the VCS is the unreleased Save Mary.)
He had a few other titles (Airworld, Xevious, and Ballblazer) that would
have been great if he had finished them.
>
> >Regardless of whether or not he liked porting them, the fact is he had
> >the option not to and he CHOSE to do it.
>
> The thing is, soon after Space Invaders, Atari chose to do almost
> nothing BUT arcade ports, ports of its own titles and those it
> licensed from others. That's not much of a choice if you ask me.
Of the 7 games he worked on, only 2 were arcade ports: Pac-Man and Xevious.
He (and HSW) also had the choice to leave Atari to start their "own" company
with 20th Century.
Atari did a lot of arcade ports before Space Invaders. Don't forget that
Space Invaders was THE game that put video games on the "map" per say.
After that, you had all kinds of "block-buster" titles in the arcades, so it
absolutely made (business) sense for Atari and many other companies to focus
on porting arcade titles.
> And if it wasn't a port, it was a TV or movie license...
>
> Can anyone name a decent number of all original game concepts Atari
> delivered on the 2600 between 1981 and 1984 that weren't tied to a
> coinop game or a licensed character? Maybe Yars' Revenge and Demons
> to Diamonds. I can't think of any others off the top of my head.
Yars was the biggest-selling original title Atari did, but Yars is also a
close-cousin of Star Castle. Krull and Quadrun were 2 decent original
titles. Then you had whole series of original games: Swordquest, RealSports,
CCW, Muppets, Peanuts, Disney.
> Meanwhile Activision was doing just fine coming up with mostly
> original game ideas.
Activision arguably had the most talented and experienced programmers of any
company, which certainly helps :)
But people forget some of their early titles were arcade ports (Drag
Race/Dragster, Frogger/Freeway, Avalanche/Kaboom) or "unoriginal" games
(Checkers, Bridge), as well as some of their later titles (Kung Fu Master,
Commando, Rampage, Double Dragon). Even some of their "original" titles
weren't exactly all original- they were heavily derivative of other arcade
titles (Grand Prix/Monaco GP, Chopper Command/Defender, Robot
Tank/Battlezone, Enduro/Turbo).
Porting arcade titles wasn't a bad idea b/c it was much harder to be
successful with an original home title when arcades were at their peak.
SS
news:OKpc9.1003$Lo4.1...@nnrp1.ptd.net...
> CPE <c3yl...@disposable.spamcon.org> wrote in message
> news:ivimmus4cnot6hcqr...@4ax.com...
> > On 26 Aug 2002 08:04:06 -0700, super_...@yahoo.com (stonic) wrote:
> > The term for porting at the time was doing "a copy" and it was not
> > something generally seen as a proud acheivement vs. an original title.
> > (Not that Swordquest turned out much better mind you... Tod's best
> > game for the VCS is the unreleased Save Mary.)
>
>
> He had a few other titles (Airworld, Xevious, and Ballblazer) that would
> have been great if he had finished them.
{sound of tone arm sliding across a record} Hold the phone! You mean to
tell me that there was a planned 2600 port of "Ballblazer"? I need to know
more than that. Was it even started? If so, how much was completed? Hell,
2600 "Ballblazer" would be cool as shit.
stonic
> > have been great if he had finished them.
>
> {sound of tone arm sliding across a record} Hold the phone! You mean to
> tell me that there was a planned 2600 port of "Ballblazer"? I need to know
> more than that. Was it even started? If so, how much was completed? Hell,
> 2600 "Ballblazer" would be cool as shit.
It's true, and according to him, the display he had (at the time) was
really amazing. Unfortunately, the game was never finished, and he's
since lost the code listing for it.