Tengen Gauntlet on the Atari 7800 Pro System

[Tidus79001]

I would love to see the Atari 7800 tackle this with Pokey once the 7800 XM is completed. I actually prefer some elements of this release over the arcade version. It was a bit disappointing that the NES got Atari arcade titles while the 7800 was being starved for games. Yes, I know that that Atari Corporation, and Atari Games were separate companies, but you would have thought that considering their shared history, and mutual dislike of Nintendo's anti competitive & monopolistic business practices that Atari Corporation, and Atari Games would have banded together against Nintendo. Oh well, a guy can always dream of what it could have been like

Edited November 6, 2018 by Tidus79001

[Flojomojo]

Can't fault a publisher for supporting the market leader console. And Tengen stuck it to Nintendo pretty hard with their unlicensed cartridges, Activision-style.

[Tidus79001]

Can't fault a publisher for supporting the market leader console. And Tengen stuck it to Nintendo pretty hard with their unlicensed cartridges, Activision-style.

Oh, I don't blame them for going where the money was, and Tengen was instrumental in starting the stop of those anti competitive business practices of Nintendo. I still can't help, but lament that the two Atari's never did come together for the greater good of each other. At the very least Tengen could have licened the source code of their NES titles to Atari Corporation since they weren't bound by Nintendo's exclusivity contract being a independent publisher on the NES.

[John Stamos Mullet]

I'd still like to see the Atari/GCC version that was started that still hasn't surfaced.

[Tidus79001]

I'd still like to see the Atari/GCC version that was started that still hasn't surfaced.

I haven't heard of that before. Atari & GCC were were working on Gauntlet for the Atari 7800?

[DracIsBack]

Oh, I don't blame them for going where the money was, and Tengen was instrumental in starting the stop of those anti competitive business practices of Nintendo. I still can't help, but lament that the two Atari's never did come together for the greater good of each other. At the very least Tengen could have licened the source code of their NES titles to Atari Corporation since they weren't bound by Nintendo's exclusivity contract being a independent publisher on the NES.

They went down that path late in the 7800s life but many of the titles were cancelled at various stages of development. Most ended up at Lynx titles Edited November 6, 2018 by DracIsBack

[MrMaddog]

As much I would love to see Gauntlet and other Atari Game copin-op ports on the 7800, the Tramiels would have screwed them over in non-payment of royalites like the Lynx titles (ie. RoadBlasters).

 

At least the 7800 got the original version of Gauntlet called Dark Dungeons (orginally Dandy Dungeons)...

[John Stamos Mullet]

I haven't heard of that before. Atari & GCC were were working on Gauntlet for the Atari 7800?

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/175100-gauntlet/

[Inky]

I had thought of doing a graphics hack of Dark Chambers to make it look like Gauntlet.

But I didn't

[peteym5]

This would be a good game for the 7800. Can do many more on screen colors than the 8-bit/5200. Can probably get it much closer to the arcade Gauntlet.

[R_Leo_1]

This would be a good game for the 7800. Can do many more on screen colors than the 8-bit/5200. Can probably get it much closer to the arcade Gauntlet.

 

I could see the game using the 160B mode and adding even more fidelity to the graphics, would kill to see that.

[Tidus79001]

Things I like about the Tengen version of Gauntlet for the NES.

 

1) Music

2) Powerup items

3) Story

4) Game has an definitive end after beating the last level

5) Game has an end game boss

 

Things I don't like about it

1) Flickering graphics

2) Slowdown

3) Only 2 players instead of 4

[R_Leo_1]

Things I like about the Tengen version of Gauntlet for the NES.

 

1) Music

2) Powerup items

3) Story

4) Game has an definitive end after beating the last level

5) Game has an end game boss

 

Things I don't like about it

1) Flickering graphics

2) Slowdown

3) Only 2 players instead of 4

 

The 7800 would definitely fix the flickering problem, the MARIA is great with sprites, but I'm not sure if there's a way to get 4 controllers hooked up to a 7800.

[Flojomojo]

Oh, I don't blame them for going where the money was, and Tengen was instrumental in starting the stop of those anti competitive business practices of Nintendo. I still can't help, but lament that the two Atari's never did come together for the greater good of each other. At the very least Tengen could have licened the source code of their NES titles to Atari Corporation since they weren't bound by Nintendo's exclusivity contract being a independent publisher on the NES.

 

I don't understand why that was the case. There were a bunch of Atari Games on the Atari Lynx, but nothing on the Jaguar or 7800. Were there any Atari Games titles on the 2600? I can think of Road Runner, but no others.

[8th lutz]

 

I don't understand why that was the case. There were a bunch of Atari Games on the Atari Lynx, but nothing on the Jaguar or 7800. Were there any Atari Games titles on the 2600? I can think of Road Runner, but no others.

 

The 2600 version of Klax was released in Europe.

 

The 7800 had prototypes of Klax, Rampart, and Pit Fighter. Klax was very complete.

 

Rampart and Pit Fighter were very incomplete. Pit Fighter only had one screen. Rampart only had the title screen and a shooting stage. The shooting Stage in Rampart was very incomplete.

Edited November 6, 2018 by 8th lutz

[Flojomojo]

Thanks Lutz, I forgot about Klax.

 

I'm thinking early Atari Games stuff like Paperboy, Marble Madness, Gauntlet would be a good fit for 7800, but maybe it was too close to the split or something. Don't know if they had rules about not crossing the beams or whatnot. At least those games appeared on the NES and were pretty good there.

[H.E.R.O.]

Can't fault a publisher for supporting the market leader console. And Tengen stuck it to Nintendo pretty hard with their unlicensed cartridges, Activision-style.

 

Or like Accolade to Sega

[Tidus79001]

 

The 7800 would definitely fix the flickering problem, the MARIA is great with sprites, but I'm not sure if there's a way to get 4 controllers hooked up to a 7800.

Easy enough to fix. The NES had the Four Score. I bet the only reason they use that and make it a 4 player game is because of how bad it already flickered and slowed down with just 2 players. I am sure that Atari could have easily released a 4 player adapter as I doubt that designing one would have been that complicated.

[R_Leo_1]

Easy enough to fix. The NES had the Four Score. I bet the only reason they use that and make it a 4 player game is because of how bad it already flickered and slowed down with just 2 players. I am sure that Atari could have easily released a 4 player adapter as I doubt that designing one would have been that complicated.

 

Oh yeah, you're right I had totally forgot about the Four Score and other adapters similar to it lol. I think that if gauntlet released on the 7800 with 4 player support as a launch title, that would've been a huge system seller, since the arcade game would've been fairly new at the time.

[peteym5]

Is the 7800 RIOT able to send an output signal through its joystick ports? On the 8-bit, they have a "multijoy8" http://atariage.com/forums/topic/260287-multijoy8-pcb/The reason why you need output is the 2nd joystick port needs to be written to for selecting which joystick is to be read through port 1.

[Tidus79001]

Is the 7800 RIOT able to send an output signal through its joystick ports? On the 8-bit, they have a "multijoy8" http://atariage.com/forums/topic/260287-multijoy8-pcb/The reason why you need output is the 2nd joystick port needs to be written to for selecting which joystick is to be read through port 1.

 

If there was any issue of creating controller expansion adapter that would work interfaced through the 9 pin controller port I suspect that the an adapter could be created that uses the expansion port on the Atari. Only drawback with that is most Atari 7800 consoles don't have the expansion port as the Tramiel's phased it out on later revisions of the console to reduce the cost (lost that and got a tight cartridge slot. Such a wonderful redesign of the console! I can say for sure that since I own multiple consoles that the earlier revisions of the console that have the expansion port don't thed to have the tight cartridge slot. I was a bit surprised by the tight cartridge slot on a later console I purchased as I never had experienced that back in the day with the console I had witb an expansion port.

[Flojomojo]

Or like Accolade to Sega

Which was started by Activision people prior to failing into Infogrames which was renamed Atari. It's like there's only a few companies in this business. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accolade_(company)

[Lost Dragon]

Thanks Lutz, I forgot about Klax.

 

I'm thinking early Atari Games stuff like Paperboy, Marble Madness, Gauntlet would be a good fit for 7800, but maybe it was too close to the split or something. Don't know if they had rules about not crossing the beams or whatnot. At least those games appeared on the NES and were pretty good there.

 

And look who Atari gave Pitfighter, Rampart and Paperboy 7800 conversion duties to...

 

 

Imagitec Design for the 1st 2..Tiertex for the 3rd.

 

Both lowest bid wins and production line type development houses.

 

Conversion work just an easy means of securing enough cash to try and keep the company afloat.

 

The idea of either being likes of Gauntlet or Marble Madness to do as well doesn't sound like my kind of idea of great choice.

 

Bob Armour's A8 Gauntlet published by US Gold was pretty shocking.

 

I would of hoped if he and his team for an example had been asked to do a 7800 version (which they weren't) it might of been better.

 

C64 Marble Madness looked the part, but slow scrolling killed it:

 

 

https://youtu.be/vk2sgxPKLjU

 

Elite screwed up C64 and C16 Paperboy..so the right people were essential.

Edited November 7, 2018 by Lost Dragon

[peteym5]

We can always build the game with just 2 players. According to what I read, the RIOT chip supports output through the ports, so it should be able to send a signal to Multijoy 8. What the Multijoy 8 needs is a way to know which joystick the program needs to access. The Atari 8-bit has porta and portb control through its PIA chip. We really need a response from someone familiar with 2600/7800 programming and information on the chips registers.

Edited November 8, 2018 by peteym5

[DracIsBack]

I haven't heard of that before. Atari & GCC were were working on Gauntlet for the Atari 7800?

 

I've never heard of GCC working on a home port of Gauntlet. In fact, the timing is quite suspect as the arcade version wasn't out until 1985 after Atari had already been sold to Jack Trammiel for a year.