What Do You Think Are The 5 Most Important 2600 Prototypes?

[Tempest]

What do you think are the 5 most important 2600 prototype discoveries of all time?

 

For me the list goes something like this:

 

1. SQ: Airworld – True it hasn't been discovered yet, but it's still in my mind the most important 2600 proto out there. There's just so much intrigue and subterfuge about it and the SQ contest in general. Because the programmer has confirmed that it did indeed exist at one time (meaning its not vaporware), it makes the list.

 

2. Saboteur – Not only is this a HSW game, but it's fun to play! It's very rare that unreleased 2600 games turn up so complete. Saboteur was also the first unreleased 2600 game I acquired, so that counts for something (in my mind at least).

 

3. Elevator Action – While not complete, this prototype is very playable. EA was one of the first mainstream prototype releases to catch the attention of non-prototype collectors.

 

4. Kabobber – One of the first rumored unreleased Activision games to turn up, Kabobber turned out to be a pleasant surprise. It's not often that non-Atari prototypes surface and are this complete. Due to its 3rd party status and its fun gameplay, Kabobber makes my list.

 

5. Pleiades – Hard to spell, and even harder to play. Pleiades is special not only because it was a obscure port of a rare arcade game (only appearing on the Arcadia 2001), but due to the fact that it was created by a previously unknown 3rd party company. The fact that it’s a fun game as well is just icing on the cake.

 

 

Honorable mention

 

Mind Maze – Wins the award for 'Most Whacked Out Concept For A 2600 Game'. However when it comes to gameplay, Mind Maze is a real dud.

 

Garfield – Notable for being one of the first 2600 games to be given the green light for release by copyright holders (in this case Paws Inc.).

 

Xevious – Any game that was partially developed while under the influence of drugs deserves a special mention.

 

Wizard – One of the last 2K games to be created. Poor old Wizard was swept aside in favor of new 4K games.

 

 

Tempest

[Radio F Software]

5. Bionic Breakthrough

I really liked the MindLink idea, even though it totally blew. Of all protos THIS is one I would kill to get in cartridge form.

 

4. Saboteur / The A-Team

Both of these almost identical protos had a really visually appealing gameplay and nice sounds to go with. Its a shame it never saw the ligh of day.

 

3. Miss Piggy's Wedding

Dude. Who WOULDN'T want to play a game where you DITCH a wedding?!

 

2. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

Since Wizards (SATAN) is now in ownership of these rights, the ROM is not released. All we have is like, 3 or 4 pictures of a TV screen to help us "guess" the games playout.

 

1. The 2 known existing "Unknown" Activision games

Need I say more? No one knows the names or purposes of these games! So much mystery!

[+davidcalgary29]

1. Snow White

 

I don't collect for the 2600, but even I've been subject to endless debates, sniping, and griping over this one. Just how many fights can a video game cause?

 

2. Tempest

 

Just because they tried to do the impossible for the 2600.

 

3. Sinistar

 

See above (2).

 

4. Obelix [NTSC]

 

Was it a regional release or a bona fide proto? Put Quebec on the classic gaming map.

 

5. Save Mary

 

How many gamers purposely let Mary drown when they play?

[Student Driver]

Hmm. Kind of difficult to think of the 5 most important protos- by not having been released originally, I can't say what kind of impact these had. I'm kind of concentrating on what I feel actually affected the collectors; protos began leaking in the early 90s, and a lot of the fights, questions, and controversies that are around now were first prefigured by the 5 I list below.

 

(I also hesitate to include protos that haven't been discovered; as much as I wish SQ: Airworld were around, but since there hasn't been any sort of find, it has had zero impact. Perhaps there should be a separate poll of what the 5 most wished-for protos would be? )

 

In no particular order:

 

1) The BEST prototypes: There are a slew of various titles, and some are thought to be reproductions, but the BEST protos that were being sold in the mid 90s were the first chances players got to try things like Holey Moley, Sinistar, Klax, etc. If it hadn't been for BEST, these things would have gotten out in a more piece-meal fashion (or simply tossed out), with less of an organized effort by collectors to snap them up. People hated the commercialism, but it was commercialism that got these into our hands.

 

2) Tempest: This was out-of-left-field when it surfaced; everyone figured a 5200 proto was around because of the catalog announcements, but when a couple of copies of this surfaced in the mid-90s, it was a surprise. And, like usual, it took years for a dump to be made and then released. I believe that the first inkling that this existed was when a magazine did an article about the inner-workings of mid-90s Atari, and a lot of weird stuff came tumbling out; 2600 Tempest, Bionic Breakthrough and the Mind-Link controller, Rabbit Transit on cart.

 

3) Star Wars: Ewok Adventure: There were a lot of bad feelings about this one for years; the owner of the only known proto wouldn't let a ROM be released. Though that problem has plagued other protos, SW:EB was a *very* high-profile title thanks to Parker Bros. catalogs and Star Wars fandom. Discovered in 1997, the same year as Save Mary and Good Luck Charlie Brown. (My personal fave from 1997 would be GLCB, just cos I'm a Peanuts fan.)

 

4) Alligator People/Planet of the Apes: The ROM release of Planet of the Apes in 2000 was another long-sought game... too bad everyone thought it was Alligator People. This was a proto that took nearly 5 years to release; again, the owner wouldn't let it get dumped or released. The true Alligator People ROM, however, was kind of anticlimactic. (As an aside, Tempest, I note that the original owner of Planet of the Apes in 1995 thought it was Alligator People only by guess-work, not because of a mislabelled cart casing as noted on your site. See this archived post on Google to see the logic that led to the game being called Alligator People. Here's a separate post by a reliable early RGVC'er who apparently compounded this misnaming error by "confirming" that it looked like an Alligator People-esque game; his post set off a heated argument about the morality of hoarding protos. If nothing else, the background story of this "original AP" and incredibly angry feelings engendered would make for a good write-up on your site.)

 

5) Atari Kids prototypes: Separately, these games might not have caused players to salivate back in the day, but the sheer number of unreleased kid-friendly Atari titles from the mid-80s left a lot of question marks on 2600 release lists. The eventual discovery of Donald Duck's Speedboat, Snow White, Garfield, Good Luck Charlie Brown, Grover's Music Machine, Asterix/Obelix, Peek-a-Boo, Dumbo's Flying Circus, Miss Piggy's Wedding answered a lot of questions.

 

Honorable mentions: Combat II (another mystery from old Atari catalogs solved), Polo (another out-of-thin-air game), Elk Attack (kindly released by its original programmer, and a pleasant surprise; no one knew it had existed), the Amiga protos (sold through a now defunct mail-order company, its mention in an old Game Doctor column was the first time I discovered the world of 2600 protos), Pink Panther, the licensed Mattel protos.

[MattyXB]

Donald Duck's Speedboat Good graphics. Gameplay not so good, but its from Disney.

 

Garfield Great game, I love Garfield. And it has something from Asterix / Taz, too one from my favourite games.

 

Rabbit Transit Nice game, nice rabbits. But its released official from Starpath, so maybe not so importent.

 

Save the Whales One from my favourites animals with Dolphins.

 

Snow White Great gameplay with 3 different screens. So better then most other games, where all screens looks near the same.

 

Star Wars: Ewok Adventure Great graphics, and its Star Wars. I want this one too as Cartridge.

 

Tempest Funny fast game. Looks not so great on the Atari 2600, but it was programmed, whats near impossible.

 

Sorry these are 7 Prototypes, but they are all great, and there some more, which I like to see released some day.