Atariboy2600 Posted August 1, 2018 Share Posted August 1, 2018 Im trying to do a list of first launch video games list and made some on Atari 2600 and 5200 that I have and dont have but I dont know what 7800 launch video games are? Im trying to fine info online but no luck can anyone help? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DamonicFury Posted August 1, 2018 Share Posted August 1, 2018 According to this link https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmXoypizjW3WknFiJnKLwHCnL72vedxjQkDDP1mXWo6uco/wiki/List_of_video_game_console_launch_games.html, the titles are: Asteroids Centipede Desert Falcon Dig Dug Food Fight Galaga Joust Ms. Pac-Man Pole Position II Robotron: 2084 Xevious 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atariboy2600 Posted August 1, 2018 Author Share Posted August 1, 2018 According to this link https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmXoypizjW3WknFiJnKLwHCnL72vedxjQkDDP1mXWo6uco/wiki/List_of_video_game_console_launch_games.html, the titles are: Asteroids Centipede Desert Falcon Dig Dug Food Fight Galaga Joust Ms. Pac-Man Pole Position II Robotron: 2084 Xevious Thanks^_^ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sixersfan105 Posted August 2, 2018 Share Posted August 2, 2018 According to this link https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmXoypizjW3WknFiJnKLwHCnL72vedxjQkDDP1mXWo6uco/wiki/List_of_video_game_console_launch_games.html, the titles are: Asteroids Centipede Desert Falcon Dig Dug Food Fight Galaga Joust Ms. Pac-Man Pole Position II Robotron: 2084 Xevious That's not correct. Desert Falcon has a color label, so it couldn't have been a launch title. Only black and white (aka gray) picture labels were launch titles. AtariAge user ubersaurus wrote the following info in a post two years ago, which breaks things down well. I would only consider the May 1986 games as true launch titles... 1986: May: Pole Position II, Asteroids, Joust, Ms. Pac-Man. Dig Dug, Food Fight, Robotron August: Galaga November: Xevious 1987: August: Choplifter October: Karateka, One-on-One Basketball 1988: Winter/spring: Ballblazer August: Summer Games, Winter Games, Desert Falcon November: Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr. December: Hat Trick, F-18 Hornet, Super Skateboardin, Mario Bros, Impossible Mission 1989: Winter/Spring: Pete Rose Baseball? Spring: Title Match Pro Wrestling? January: Tower Toppler March: Tomcat, Touchdown Football, Realsports Baseball April: Cracked, Crossbow, Dark Chambers, Fight Night May: Ace of Aces, Super Huey September: Jinks, Xenophobe November: Commando, Double Dragon, Rampage 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+jeremiahjt Posted August 4, 2018 Share Posted August 4, 2018 That's not correct. Desert Falcon has a color label, so it couldn't have been a launch title. Only black and white (aka gray) picture labels were launch titles. AtariAge user ubersaurus wrote the following info in a post two years ago, which breaks things down well. I would only consider the May 1986 games as true launch titles... 1986: May: Pole Position II, Asteroids, Joust, Ms. Pac-Man. Dig Dug, Food Fight, Robotron August: Galaga November: Xevious 1987: August: Choplifter October: Karateka, One-on-One Basketball 1988: Winter/spring: Ballblazer August: Summer Games, Winter Games, Desert Falcon November: Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr. December: Hat Trick, F-18 Hornet, Super Skateboardin, Mario Bros, Impossible Mission 1989: Winter/Spring: Pete Rose Baseball? Spring: Title Match Pro Wrestling? January: Tower Toppler March: Tomcat, Touchdown Football, Realsports Baseball April: Cracked, Crossbow, Dark Chambers, Fight Night May: Ace of Aces, Super Huey September: Jinks, Xenophobe November: Commando, Double Dragon, Rampage You forgot Centipede. It should be up there in May of 1986 with the rest of the launch titles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sixersfan105 Posted August 4, 2018 Share Posted August 4, 2018 You forgot Centipede. It should be up there in May of 1986 with the rest of the launch titles. Agreed. I just copy pasted the cited user's post haha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebor Posted August 4, 2018 Share Posted August 4, 2018 Agreed. I just copy pasted the cited user's post haha Source for the above. Here is information from a reference article (Captured in the spoiler below), regarding number of 7800 launch titles and other interesting tidbits: Computer Entertainer - September 1986 - Page 13: "Delays, Shortages in Atari 7800 Software Although eight titles have now been released for the Atari 7800, only about half of them are readily available at such locations as Toys'R'Us, according to numerous reports from our readers around the country. After the release of the 7800 ProSystem unit and the first seven titles in June, GALAGA is the only follow-release so far. (GALAGA is reviewed in this issue) And three titles have disappeared from the most recent list of 7800 titles from Atari: MOON PATROL, STARGATE, and RESCUE ON FRACTALUS. We were not able to find out whether the first two have been merely delayed or totally cancelled. We were told that the release of RESCUE ON FRACTALUS is "up in the air" due to programming problems. Looking at the balance of Atari's schedule of 7800 games set for release between now and Christmas, we think it's likely that quite a few of them will be "bumped" to early 1987. Even with some delays and cancellations, though, Atari can still make a good showing for the important Christmas selling season if they manage to release at least half of their announced games (10 or more between now and December). Anything less than that, however, will make it difficult for Atari's system to compete effectively against the two Japanese giants, Nintendo and Sega." The accuracy of the article information can be questioned, at least regarding (only) seven release titles. Unless the author was excluding the PP II pack-in as a part of the seven titles "released"; rather, including it under as part of the system unit mentioned. The total number is eight with the aforementioned Centipede added. The complete list would then be: Asteroids, Centipede, Dig Dug, Food Fight, Joust, Ms. Pac-Man, Pole Position II, Robotron. The two more titles that followed in '86, article mentioned (just released) Galaga, and the previously listed Xevious, fits the time frame of the compiled list by ubersaurus posted in the thread linked to earlier. Pretty sad, but not surprising, regarding only ~4 games for the 7800 is what "numerous reports" from individuals have seen in at least the first half of '86. What was supposed to be available by September '86, according to the same referenced magazine: Ballblazer, Choplifter, Desert Falcon, Impossible Mission, Karateka, Skyfox, Summer Games, Touchdown Football, One-On-One Basketball. By Q4 1986 the following was stated to become available: Demolition Derby, F-15 Strike Eagle, GATO, Hat Trick, Rescue on Fractalus, Super Huey, Winter Games... If ubersaurus' timetable holds true, the reality is the majority didn't see a release until two years later with a few titles never seeing the light of day. Desert Falcon is an odd one though, seems to be a lot of disparity regarding its release. Curt Vendel stated it was a launch title. From the article above, that appears to not be the case (Galaga and Xevious being a launch title per the same post would also be inaccurate); however, uncertain whether ubersaurus' August '88 dating is accurate either. Side note, Christmas '86 sales could have looked a lot different if the releases went according to the announced plan, with a library like this available for the 7800: Asteroids, Ballblazer, Centipede, Choplifter, Demolition Derby, Desert Falcon, Dig Dug, F-15 Strike Eagle, Food Fight, Galaga, GATO, Hat Trick, Impossible Mission, Joust, Karateka, Ms. Pac-Man, One-On-One Basketball, Pole Position II, Rescue on Fractalus, Robotron, Skyfox, Summer Games, Super Huey, Touchdown Football, Winter Games, Xevious. Even with all the mishaps over the prior two years, having the above 26 games lined-up ready for holidays on store shelves, instead of a paltry ~4-10 games people actually saw that year, could have made a huge difference in the way things unfolded. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DracIsBack Posted August 4, 2018 Share Posted August 4, 2018 Desert Falcon was one of GCCs original games, not programmed by the Tramiel’s contracted devs later 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+jeremiahjt Posted August 5, 2018 Share Posted August 5, 2018 Considering Atari sold 4,285 copies of Desert Falcon in 1987 according to the sales data released by Curt Vendel, I think we can safely say that the August of 1988 release date is wrong. We can also add Winter Games to 1987 with sales of 4,753 units. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Stamos Mullet Posted August 5, 2018 Share Posted August 5, 2018 Considering Atari sold 4,285 copies of Desert Falcon in 1987 according to the sales data released by Curt Vendel, I think we can safely say that the August of 1988 release date is wrong. We can also add Winter Games to 1987 with sales of 4,753 units.but are those sales figures what Atari recorded as sales processed through their mail ordering service, that were fulfilled and shipped at a later date? In my anecdotal experience, those later shipment dates are accurate, or at least they were on the east coast. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+jeremiahjt Posted August 5, 2018 Share Posted August 5, 2018 Looking at those sales numbers for 1986, I am not sure Robotron: 2084 was a launch title and that Galaga was not. Asteroids (26,970), Centipede (27,383), Ms. Pac-Man (23,452), Joust (30,641), Dig Dug (24,135), Food Fight (26,490), and Galaga (26,221) all had similar sales, which were substantially more than Robotron: 2084 (13,926) and of course Xevious (2,524). Maybe Galaga was not a launch title and Atari just thought it would be a big seller so it produced more of it than Robotron: 2084, much to swvolinist's disappointment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+jeremiahjt Posted August 5, 2018 Share Posted August 5, 2018 but are those sales figures what Atari recorded as sales processed through their mail ordering service, that were fulfilled and shipped at a later date? In my anecdotal experience, those later shipment dates are accurate, or at least they were on the east coast. That is a possibility. I was thinking those were how many physical copies were shipped, but I could be mistaken. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atarilovesyou Posted August 5, 2018 Share Posted August 5, 2018 I always wanted to try a 7800 back then, but was not easy to find in stores and nobody I knew owned one. Considering I was still rocking my CV full-time at the time (even a 2600 Jr, Moon Patrol and Jungle Hunt, lol!), I would have been stoked to play those games. Certainly not in 88 after I tried both NES and Master System, but I loooooved arcade titles, especially those ones. What were the prices like in comparison to NES? Did they ever blow em out? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted August 5, 2018 Share Posted August 5, 2018 Yes, by 1990/1991... the 7800 system was sold in stores like Montgomery Ward for $69 and the games were $7.99-$14.99ea. IIRC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atariboy2600 Posted December 20, 2019 Author Share Posted December 20, 2019 (edited) On 8/2/2018 at 3:09 AM, sixersfan105 said: That's not correct. Desert Falcon has a color label, so it couldn't have been a launch title. Only black and white (aka gray) picture labels were launch titles. AtariAge user ubersaurus wrote the following info in a post two years ago, which breaks things down well. I would only consider the May 1986 games as true launch titles... 1986: May: Pole Position II, Asteroids, Joust, Ms. Pac-Man. Dig Dug, Food Fight, Robotron August: Galaga November: Xevious 1987: August: Choplifter October: Karateka, One-on-One Basketball 1988: Winter/spring: Ballblazer August: Summer Games, Winter Games, Desert Falcon November: Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr. December: Hat Trick, F-18 Hornet, Super Skateboardin, Mario Bros, Impossible Mission 1989: Winter/Spring: Pete Rose Baseball? Spring: Title Match Pro Wrestling? January: Tower Toppler March: Tomcat, Touchdown Football, Realsports Baseball April: Cracked, Crossbow, Dark Chambers, Fight Night May: Ace of Aces, Super Huey September: Jinks, Xenophobe November: Commando, Double Dragon, Rampage Yes but what games came out in 1984 test market? Edited December 20, 2019 by Atariboy2600 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_me Posted December 20, 2019 Share Posted December 20, 2019 (edited) There's no evidence of a 1984 test market. According to this, Atari launched the 7800 with the following cartridges in June 1986. https://mcurrent.name/atarihistory/tramel_technology.html Pole Position II, Asteroids, Joust, and Ms. Pac-Man Then later in June, and also for the 7800, Atari shipped Centipede, Dig Dug, Food Fight, Robotron: 2084. Then Galaga in August and Xevious in November. ---------- The same web site has the following launch titles for the Atari 5200. Super Breakout, Galaxian, Missile Command, Space Invaders, Star Raiders Pacman for the 5200 shipped a month later in November along with Soccer. In December 1982, Atari shipped Defender and Football. Edited December 20, 2019 by mr_me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goochman Posted December 20, 2019 Share Posted December 20, 2019 Thats just sad the gap between 11/86 - 8/87 with no releases. Want to know why the 7800 had not impact, just look there. All old titles and nothing new for almost a year. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phattyboombatty Posted December 20, 2019 Share Posted December 20, 2019 1 hour ago, mr_me said: There's no evidence of a 1984 test market. I guess you’ve never seen this? https://www.atari7800.org/museum/PressDoc1s.htm ...or this? ...or this? It’s discouraging to see misinformation passed along with all the available resources we have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_me Posted December 20, 2019 Share Posted December 20, 2019 I see a Warner/Atari announcement in May 1984 saying the 7800 will ship in July. However, on July 1 all Atari 7800 stock along with the rights were sold to Tramiel. My understanding is that there was a dispute with GCC that delayed the 7800 release. There's no question that the Atari 7800 was manufactured in 1984 but I don't see anything that says any were sold that year. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atariboy2600 Posted December 21, 2019 Author Share Posted December 21, 2019 Hum so the first grey ones for 84 arePole Position II, Asteroids, Joust, Ms. Pac-Man. Dig Dug, Food Fight, Robotron? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atariboy2600 Posted December 21, 2019 Author Share Posted December 21, 2019 (edited) No wait aren't the 84 games Pole Position II, Asteroids, Joust, Ms. Pac-Man. Dig Dug, Food Fight, Robotron labels are more likt this image I found? from AtariProto.com - 'In 1984 Atari had plans of launching the 7800, with a neat looking silver label and a gridlike pattern. The picture was in color, and tilted at a 45 degree angle.' Edited December 21, 2019 by Atariboy2600 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Mitch Posted December 21, 2019 Share Posted December 21, 2019 I believe in 1984 the 7800 was only released for a short time in test markets in LA and NYC. The only game available was the pack in game Pole Position 2. A fellow collector here in SoCal told me he purchased a 7800 in 1984 in LA. The other games planned for 1984 release didn't make it out. You can see more of the stuff planned for the 84 release here: https://www.atari7800.org/museum.htm Mitch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atariboy2600 Posted December 21, 2019 Author Share Posted December 21, 2019 The the first grey games in May 1986 are the first wave of games? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Atari Posted December 21, 2019 Share Posted December 21, 2019 (edited) 1 hour ago, Mitch said: I believe in 1984 the 7800 was only released for a short time in test markets in LA and NYC. The only game available was the pack in game Pole Position 2. A fellow collector here in SoCal told me he purchased a 7800 in 1984 in LA. The other games planned for 1984 release didn't make it out. You can see more of the stuff planned for the 84 release here: https://www.atari7800.org/museum.htm Mitch Since that 1984 Joust box has an old Lionel sticker on it but only Pole Position II made it out that year, is it safe to assume that the old '84 stock of boxes/labels/etc. was used up during the 1986 wide release? (If that was indeed the case, I wonder how "far reaching" it was? I mean, is it possible I could stumble across an '84 labeled Joust or whatever here in Northeast Ohio?) Edited December 21, 2019 by King Atari Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Mitch Posted December 21, 2019 Share Posted December 21, 2019 The 84 Joust box had a later version cart and manual in it. I can't remember now if it was 86 or 87. Given how few have survived I would guess only a handful of them were found and reused for the later release. Mitch 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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