Activision Checkers

[AAA177]

I'm just about to start another game of Checkers on the Game Boy Advance Activision Anthology cartridge (played through the Game Boy Player on the Gamecube). I have never beaten the Activision computer at the game. Curious if anyone here has.

[high voltage]

Seems like nobody but me....back in 1988

[AAA177]

High Voltage, that's pretty cool you were able to do it. To let you know how it tuned out for me the other day, I ended up playing two games and lost both. The second one I at least got down to two pieces, me with two kings and the computer with the same. I still lost.

[high voltage]

It wasn't in 1988, must have been like 1992 (early 90s anyway), when purchasing from USA became easier available.

Checkers was one of my first 2 NTSC games I ordered from USA. The other game I received was Oscar's Trash Race.

Even back in those days, Checkers arrived without box.

But yes, I played both games for hours.

[SoundGammon]

Back in 1980 I used to mail order 2600 games from a company in California outside of Sunnyvale. Anyway one day the lady told me there was a "new' company bringing out 2600 games and they waiting for them to arrive. She gave me their phone number and I called and Alan Miller answered the phone! He told me about the first 4 titles and took my name and address to send me a catalog. At the time, I didn't realize who I talked to until I got Checkers! Cool!

[davyK]

I thought I read that the Atari checkers AI is stronger than the Activision version?

[AAA177]

That is a great story, SoundG, must have been awesome to come to that realization later on.

 

Davy, I was wondering about that. I have never played Atari checkers, but I believe that must be on my Flashback. I will have to check later this week when I hopefully can get to some gaming sessions.

[davyK]

Interview with Carol Shaw - coded Atari's checkers among other titles.

 

http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/800

[AAA177]

Thanks for linking that interview, it was an excellent read. I liked the part where the interviewer attempted to ask how much she made from River Raid. She didn't answer, and I understand that, but does anyone know what a likely number might be?

 

Also, she mentioned in the interview something about not earning royalties because she was an employee. Any idea what that precisely means? I'm wondeirng if the later designers at Activision after Crane/et al. only earned salaries and bonuses, not actual payments based on each unit sold.

[Ranthulfr]

It's interesting how some games like Checkers fly under my radar until a thread like this makes me want to try them out.