Arkyology - New prototype discovered - Finished Game!

[Swami]

 

Yes, as I recall the head (wish I could remember his name) had mortgaged his house to pay for the development of these games.

 

It's a long story not relevant to this forum, but he and I had a conversation about faith one time over lunch. As a young adult I was struggling with some faith based issues, and it really struck me how kind, caring and non judgmental he was in our discussion. That was new to me and I still appreciate his words.

 

I've tried searching for any link to him and any of the other principals that I remember, but haven't found anything. He wasn't 'Billy Ray Hearn' who is listed on Wikipedia as the founder of 'Sparrow Records'.

 

I had one contact with him a few years later. The hardware engineer from the Unitronix project (odd coincidence I thought at the time) was working with him to release Arkyology -- this was probably 1986(?) as I had the equipment and source code from the EnterTech bankruptcy auction. They had some concerns about the timing when it ran in their prototype hardware cartridge. That was the last contact I had with any of the principals and the last time I heard about Arkyology outside of my copy.

 

Here's a list of the people who worked on The Music Machine II album in 1983. Maybe it was one of them:

 

• Story by - Agape Force
• Executive Producer - Tony Salerno
• Producers - Tony Salerno, Fletch Wiley, and Ron Krueger
• Arrangers - Fletch Wiley, Buddy Miller
• Recording Engineers - Wally Duguid, Brian Tankersley, and Bob Singelton
• Recorded at - Rivendell Sound Recorders in Pasadena, Texas, Robin Hood Studio in Tyler, Texas, Easter Song Studio in Garden Valley, Texas, and Omega Audio in Dallas
• Mastered at - Future Disc Systems in Hollywood by Steve Hall
• Mixing Engineer - Ron Capone
• Mixed at - Westwind in Westlake Village, California
• Cover and inside art - Mark Pendergrass

Also Matthew Jackson, Greg Lanson, Steve Harrison, Ken Light, Frank Hernandez in Agape Force, but sounds like there were about 300 people involved in that group around that time.

 

-end of hypothetical game artwork tangent

[Mitkraft]

 

Here's a list of the people who worked on The Music Machine II album in 1983. Maybe it was one of them:

 

• Story by - Agape Force
• Executive Producer - Tony Salerno
• Producers - Tony Salerno, Fletch Wiley, and Ron Krueger
• Arrangers - Fletch Wiley, Buddy Miller
• Recording Engineers - Wally Duguid, Brian Tankersley, and Bob Singelton
• Recorded at - Rivendell Sound Recorders in Pasadena, Texas, Robin Hood Studio in Tyler, Texas, Easter Song Studio in Garden Valley, Texas, and Omega Audio in Dallas
• Mastered at - Future Disc Systems in Hollywood by Steve Hall
• Mixing Engineer - Ron Capone
• Mixed at - Westwind in Westlake Village, California
• Cover and inside art - Mark Pendergrass

Also Matthew Jackson, Greg Lanson, Steve Harrison, Ken Light, Frank Hernandez in Agape Force, but sounds like there were about 300 people involved in that group around that time.

 

-end of hypothetical game artwork tangent

 

Wow, what a small world. Around 1996 I interned at "Rivendell Recorders" here in Houston which I think may have proceeded "Rivendell Sound Recorders". I know they worked with a lot of Christian artists so that makes sense.

[+Atari_Warlord]

Maybe Mark would be willing to do some commissioned art for Arkyology in the same style as Music Machine?

[+stupus]

Maybe Mark would be willing to do some commissioned art for Arkyology in the same style as Music Machine?

Wow, that woulkd be amazing and well worth a few extra bucks a copy imo!

[Serrameade6]

Just want to thank Pwalters for taking his Arkyology game to the light and to congratulate him as it really is a great addictive game. Been enjoying it for hours!!.

[hizzy]

Nice video!

 

 

Please finish the game and make a cart!

[+D Train]

Nice video!

 

 

Please finish the game and make a cart!

 

It makes me happy when the immortal john hancock is happy.

 

which is basically all the time!

[+save2600]

Yeah, stuff like this surfacing after all these years sure reminds me why I love the VCS so much.

 

Nice vid! And couldn't agree more when it comes to graphics on the VCS. Always exciting to see new things and the way the programmer(s) chose to draw them.

[Swami]

Took a while, but I tracked this down: Pendergrass's illustration for Noah's Ark song lyrics from an insert in the album Bullfrogs and Butterflies (1977) from Sparrow. This is from the insert with lyrics from the album with accompanying illustrations. The unreadable low res text is song lyrics to the song "Noah." I found a new copy of the vinyl album online cheap, so I'll try to get a better scan later...picture has nothing to do with opening the pens and feeding the animals, except maybe that they survived the 6 months on the ark, so he musta got a pretty high score, but you can use your imaginations. If you missed it earlier, Pendergrass did all the illustrations for The Music Machine game, which was also from Sparrow.

 

Edit: Also, just realized he's got his arm out like he probably does when he's jumping for the latches.

.

[+stupus]

I have the album if you need a scan. Forgot there was Noah in it.

[Mitkraft]

My wife loved the Music Machine album as a kid so I've since gotten a few copies on vinyl as well as some of of the other Sparrow albums (including Music Machine 2) so if there is any artwork y'all need from them let me know.

[+stupus]

My wife loved the Music Machine album as a kid so I've since gotten a few copies on vinyl as well as some of of the other Sparrow albums (including Music Machine 2) so if there is any artwork y'all need from them let me know.

We loved them as kids too. I still have both our original albums of music machine and bulldogs and butterfly.

I also saw the live stage production of music machine when I was maybe 8-10 years old.

[Supergun]

Interesting information. And great research. Many thanks to everyone contributing here. Also just noticed that Matt (Tempest) posted an Arkyology entry on his site. An accurate review as I agree that the games difficulty is harder then expected.

[AtariWarlord]

I imagine there was this kind of excitement around here around the time Activision's Thwocker was discovered. This really made my day, and it helps that it's a pretty good game as well. I suspect there may be a few more programmers from the era holding on to stuff like this but think no one would care about it.

[Supergun]

Truthfully, if you put aside the hard difficulty, which would likely have been tweaked with some play control adjustments prior to it being released, Arkyology is an above average game as far as 2600 games go. It has very nice visuals & detailed graphics. The graphics are nice & colorful. The various animals are drawn well. And it also has a high fun factor to it, especially by having the two different stages of play per level. Add to that the log book & intermission scenes and you have an excellent & complete game. It has lots to see & lots to do and it rewards the player by telling an ongoing story through the passing days. And I find it challenging yet also interesting, which makes me want to keep playing so it even has replay value.

 

It really is fun and Im enjoying it quite a bit. Even my daughter, who has been watching me play it over the past few days, has asked me questions about it and has started playing as well. So were happy & thankful that this gem was kept safe all these years and not lost to the sands of time. Thank the lord!

[high voltage]

 

made myself a cart

[Rom Hunter]

I think the difficulty is ok in this game, even for kids.

There are ways to learn how to avoid most of the stuff flying around and lining up your hand with the hammer isn't that difficult to master.

Granted, Day 4 and up are brutal because of the insane speed of the 'drops', but practice makes perfect.

IMO Tempest's review is a bit too hash towards the game's difficulty.

[Swami]

I think the difficulty is ok in this game, even for kids.

 

There are ways to learn how to avoid most of the stuff flying around and lining up your hand with the hammer isn't that difficult to master.

 

Granted, Day 4 and up are brutal because of the insane speed of the 'drops', but practice makes perfect.

 

IMO Tempest's review is a bit too hash towards the game's difficulty.

 

 

I'd say the difficulty is not much different from arcade pac-man. Maybe a couple more tricks to learn. Definitely easier than Aardvark, but mainly because of the spider. The latches are fine, I think. Getting on and off of ladders could use a little tweaking, but you get used to it.

[Swami]

BTW, this Pendergrass investigation is just some supplemental research for fun. From an earlier post, it sounds like CPUWIZ's wife has already completed what I am sure is fantastic and well suited illustrations for the cart, box and manual. I'd still like to get the CIB version currently in the works when it is released, hopefully as the full 100 cart run and even more if there is demand. If the community want to use anything - when it is much nicer - as a nostalgia insert or something, though, feel free.

[pwalters]

I think the difficulty is ok in this game, even for kids.

 

There are ways to learn how to avoid most of the stuff flying around and lining up your hand with the hammer isn't that difficult to master.

 

Granted, Day 4 and up are brutal because of the insane speed of the 'drops', but practice makes perfect.

 

IMO Tempest's review is a bit too hash towards the game's difficulty.

 

 

On the difficulty, while the game was designed to be sold through the ministry, it was targeted at teens and above in difficulty levels.

 

Granted, getting on and off the ladders do behave differently than most other games. I really wavered on this and was ready to change it several times.

 

Here's how I designed that part -

When getting on a ladder, anytime Noah's feet are on the black area he will 'jump' onto the ladder if you push up or down.

When getting off a ladder it is designed for the player to push the joystick in a diagonal direction while moving up or down. Meaning of you are going up and want to go left at the top, then push the joystick in the upper-left direction so both of those inputs are active. When Noah gets to the top, he will automatically stop whereupon you simply move the joystick fully in the direction of travel.

 

This game was also designed to favor patience. Hide in the 'tube' part of the ladder where no part of Noah is visible and wait until is is favorable conditions to jump out and hit the stall you are after.

Hang out mostly on the far right or left side as the bird and turtle will always appear from the farthest side from you - giving you the most time to react.

 

I'm sure gamers on this forum have figured this out pretty quickly, but it can be frustrating the first few times its played.

[Swami]

 

On the difficulty, while the game was designed to be sold through the ministry, it was targeted at teens and above in difficulty levels.

 

Granted, getting on and off the ladders do behave differently than most other games. I really wavered on this and was ready to change it several times.

 

Here's how I designed that part -

When getting on a ladder, anytime Noah's feet are on the black area he will 'jump' onto the ladder if you push up or down.

When getting off a ladder it is designed for the player to push the joystick in a diagonal direction while moving up or down. Meaning of you are going up and want to go left at the top, then push the joystick in the upper-left direction so both of those inputs are active. When Noah gets to the top, he will automatically stop whereupon you simply move the joystick fully in the direction of travel.

 

This game was also designed to favor patience. Hide in the 'tube' part of the ladder where no part of Noah is visible and wait until is is favorable conditions to jump out and hit the stall you are after.

Hang out mostly on the far right or left side as the bird and turtle will always appear from the farthest side from you - giving you the most time to react.

 

I'm sure gamers on this forum have figured this out pretty quickly, but it can be frustrating the first few times its played.

Thanks for insights, Paul. I think at least one insight you mentioned will be new to most people. For instance, I never noticed the bird/super-turtle always comes from the far side. I think I assumed I was just being careful and lucky, but was always fearful of them popping out when going to the far ladders. I never paid any attention to the "black area" by the ladders, either. I think I just picked up getting on and off from feel. I did pick up the importance or diagonals with the ladders when I thought using a 4-way joystick might work better during my early experience playing, and found getting on and off the ladder sometimes impossible then.

[pwalters]

On most days while developing the game, George, Rick and I used to have a competition to see who could get the highest score. I think this pushed us into feeling the game was too easy and we tightened up the difficulty.

 

My criticism of the game is I think we made the difficulty increase too quickly. I think it should have ramped up slower.

[ultima]

Wow pwalters you guys made a great game! This is truly a treasure! The graphics are great and the gameplay is tight it gets pretty scary on the top floor. I like that you don't have to jump over the ladder holes unlike pitfall! Just out of curiosity how many days are there in game? How long was the development time from idea to final rom? Did you have access to any atari 2600 asm programming materials when you were working on it or did you reverse engineer programs like the guy who wrote empire strikes back?

 

Anyway here's my best score so far ...looks like I need to get better at dodging lol

[boogieman!]

Thanks for releasing the .bin of this. I tried it in my harmony cart and am blown away. It's a really good game. I really like the different animals that pop up in the windows/doors. The ladders take a bit to understand, but like you posted, you have to be on the black bar to exit them. Thanks a lot, would also purchase if there's a physical release.

[Shawn]

 

made myself a cart

 

 

What kind of burner do you have? I assume you used a telegames cart to make that. Did you also switch the banks around yourself? To be totally honest I don't think you made that cartridge at all and you just bought it from someone else.