Cat Trax by UA Limited

[san-d-2000]

quote

AtariAge: This game showed up on a European multi-cart with the name Cat N Mouse, but it is very obviously Emerson’s Cat Trax.

 

I was wondering which multi-cartridge (brand/type/label/etc..), what does it look like, and who discovered the game?

Maybe it might be worth checking all of my multi-cartridges.

 

Sandy.

[Jess Ragan]

I've played that game on an emulator. It was, eh, all right... a little easier to play than the Arcadia version, although kind of slow. I'd say it was just a touch better than Atari's version of Pac-Man.

By the way, does anyone know what the deal was with UA? Was this company a subsidiary of Emerson? Did Emerson just plan to make 2600 games before deciding to make their own disaster of a game system? Or did UA plan to make third party games before Emerson started paying them to design Arcadia titles? You've just gotta wonder...

 

JR

[Alex]

UA is still a mystery to me. I've talked to Ward Shrake, who is very knowledgable about the Arcadia, and I don't think he knows much about them either. If anyone knows anything about UA, I'd love to hear about it.

[Jess Ragan]

Neat! I just gained a level! Only three more to go before I become an expert Dragonstomper!

 

JR

[Scott Stilphen]

I'd like to know who the programmer for Cat Trax was. It's obvious he/she had some prior experience, as it doesn't look or play like the typical "1st effort".

[Alex]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Scott Stilphen:

I'd like to know who the programmer for Cat Trax was. It's obvious he/she had some prior experience, as it doesn't look or play like the typical "1st effort".

---

 

No idea. I haven't been able to dig up anything on UA.

[Tempest]

I'd guess it was the same programmer (programmers?) that did the Arcadia version. I don't think UA was a big company or we'd be able to dig up something on them by now. All we know about the programmer(s) from UA is this internal message found in the source code of Space Attack for the Arcadia:

 

"To my wife Daisy and my son Jonathan From Choi Andrew Jul 1982"

 

 

Anyone ever find this guy?

 

 

Tempest

 

[ 10-09-2001: Message edited by: Tempest ]

[Alex]

Unfortunately, I don't have that information. However, someone recently sent me a pic of a cartridge expander/romscanner type device that has Cat Trax as a built-in game. Very strange. I'll be posting some pics of it soon. It was found in Canada.

[san-d-2000]

I downloaded the rom today, I think its not that bad as gameplay is concerned, sort of a mousetrap clone.

 

Also did some reading up in the DP, it states the following:

 

One actual 2600 cartridge was found by Bill Esquivel,. Before he found it, the only known copy of this game was found built into a 128-in-1 European 2600 system´s internal ROMs.

 

Mybe I order a copy from Hozer and stick the label of the Emerson version on it

[Eckhard Stolberg]

The "limited" in the company name might be a hint that the copany is from somewhere in the British empire. And with a programmer named Andrew Choi, who writes his name with the family-name first, I'd guess that UA is from Hong Kong. That would also explain, how the ROM for an unreleased game could get into a pirated multi-game system.

 

If the company was from somewhere in south-east Asia, it might also explain why there are so many PAL clones of the Arcadia, even though the Emerson version wasn't much of a success, and why there were several games released for the system, that weren't available from Emerson.

 

If Funky Fish was licensed properly from Sun Electronics, then someone who speaks Japanese could ask them, if they know anything about UA Ltd. The software devision of Sun Electronics is now known as Sunsoft, and on one of their webpages I think there was a message about how they even had their games on the early Atari consoles, which refers to Kangaroo, which was licensed to Atari. So there might be a chance, that they still have information from that far back available.

 

 

Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg