Ozark Softscape (Antic Podcast 23) Revelations

[bbking67]

So the Antic podcast interviewed Alan Watson... easily one of the best interviews yet. One shocker for me was that Dan Bunten wasn't the big Atari guy I thought he was!

 

I always thought that he was an Atari 800 guy, but it turns out that he developed on an Apple computer... I guess Alan Watson was the Atari guy.

 

It's funny because in the case of MULE and 7-Cities, the Atari versions are the definitive versions of the games (in spite of the Atari storage limitations).

 

I also thought it was cool how much Dan Bunten was revered by Alan Watson.

 

 

[Savetz]

I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[bbking67]

Thanks for the call-out in the podcast. This was one of the best interviews so far... I still can't believe Dan Bunten wasn't a rabid Atari fanatic like I imagined him to be. But the Atari did get the best versions of these games (by far).

[+therealbountybob]

Did we know MULE plots did better the longer they were installed for? Is that true? Probably should re-read the manual as it's a joy in itself. I knew about the economies of scale and adjoining plots...

 

Hope he finds those floppies - what was that other Atari game he mentioned and is it already out there?

[Savetz]

@therealbountybob — the "lost" game was published without his knowledge back in the day. Here it is: http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-gold-mine_2244.html

 

When I asked him about it April 21, he told me:

 

"Wow! I didn't know it had ever been published. It is the same game. I down loaded Altirra 2.6, an Atari emulator, and loaded the rom image. Much harder to play with the keyboard than with a joystick.

Amazing that you were able to find it! Thanks for sharing your discovery.

 

My guess is Sirius sold off their unpublished works (and maybe their published as well) when they went under. My name used to be on the title screen where Spectra Video is now. And the date was probably 1980. I have a “Gold Mine” boot disk, but Atari and drive aren’t hooked up or I’d check the title page. I was paid for the game though - one time cash payment. I think it was $10,000. I did not retain rights once I accepted payment."

[8BIT 1337]

Did we know MULE plots did better the longer they were installed for? Is that true?

 

I won't definitively say it's true, but this wouldn't surprise me. I do seem to recall having plots like, say, food on the plain for a long part of the game seeming to do better as the game went along, outperforming the expected output. But that could be faulty memory on my part for sure.