What are these 'mystery' Atari ads?

[Scott Stilphen]

I have a brochure (actually just an 11"x17" piece of paper folder in half) for the Atari Age magazine. One of the inside pages has a full-page picture of 2 kids - one is holding the 1st issue of AA, and other is looking at a mag that's open, which shows (turned side-ways):

 

 

The left page shows nine 2600 boxes (I can make out the center one as Breakout); the right page is titled "A Double-Barreled Challenge!" and shows 2 game boxes and screen shots (the right one appears to be Night Driver).

 

Here's the mystery - neither one of these ads appear in any issue of Atari Age, and I don't recall ever seeing either in any other magazines (has anyone?). If so, then what is this publication being shown? An early draft of an AA issue? Some in-house publication? A CES brochure?

 

[ 03-05-2002: Message edited by: Scott Stilphen ]

 

[ 03-06-2002: Message edited by: Scott Stilphen ]

[+Andrew Davie]

I had a bit of a play at rotating/englarging the rightmost 3 of the 9 images. It's not much clearer, but this might help somebody identify these games.

 

[Nukey Shay]

Adventure, Space War, and Warlords...I think.

 

BTW mock photos are not uncommon in publishing.

[Galaga_Freak]

I believe the top most photo is of berzerk, If I'm not mistaken

[Nukey Shay]

You're right...it looks like Berzerk more than Adventure.

 

BTW...still nowhere on figuring out Double Dunk's scoring code.

 

[ 03-06-2002: Message edited by: Nukey Shay ]

[themushroom]

Not Adventure, that box was yellow. Not Berzerk, that box was a lighter green and didn't come out for awhile after this ad was made. Looks to me more like Tennis due to the person holding a racquet.

[Jeffy Arensmeyer]

This is what I'm sure of for now...

 

Back Cover

Top Right - Unknown(possibly Berzerk)

Middle Right - Space War

Bottom Right - Othello

Top Center - Unknown

Middle Center - Breakout

Bottom Center - Unknown

Left Column - ?????

 

Front Cover

Left - Night Driver

Right - Asteroids

 

My observations:

• Don't rely on the colors. they are out of whack and aren't coming back.

• The white "splash" appearing on the back cover twice probably indicates a 'Coming Soon' logo which would explain part of the mystery.

• The back-cover, top right game is most likely Berzerk. But when they printed this brochure, they had not yet changed to the box style with Atari at the top instead of the game name, nor had they finished the artwork.

I'm still looking at the others, but the scan is kinda crappy. It's not the scan job, but rather the material. More later.

 

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[Scott Stilphen]

The original isn't clear to begin with, and the scan was at 600 dpi. There's just no way to get a better picture.

[Tempest]

Ok, my turn to take some educated guesses:

 

Top Right: Sky Diver?

Left Middle: Street Racer?

Bottom Left: Codebreaker

 

 

Tempest