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lapetino

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    Chicago, IL

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  1. Super exciting! I love the combo of an 80s-looking bowling alley and more robust Bowling itself! Excited to see the next version!
  2. Well, then we just need Doc Brown and the DeLorean--and blammo!
  3. Hey, I appreciate that you're so passionate about this game. That's what I love about this hobby and our connections to specific games, and strong feelings abound. You feel this way (and I happen to disagree), but I guess then we can still play Atari and like the games we like. I was trying to show a different side. So, how do you feel about Dennis Debro's 4K Pac-Man and DINTA816's 8K? They are both impressive, IMO.
  4. I totally get it. Well, hopefully some of what I wrote was worth the cover price. And thanks for picking it up!
  5. I can't speak to the other events or articles of RG--I'm just a writer who has done 2 pieces for them, and don't know anything about their editorial approach. I wrote basically what I wanted to write. And while I don't know that I'd call RG "mainstream," I just don't think there was something that needed to be challenged in Tod's accounts. I had other older sources that confirmed any of the questions I had. I'm willing to allow some slippage for events that happened nearly 40 years ago, which is some of why I wanted to make this a more definitive account of the process, correcting some things that have come out, like the time he had to complete it. But also, it's a case of intent--MY intent with this piece was to paint a fuller picture of the man himself, and how he feels about the label of "terrible game," how he deals with the fallout as a real person in the public eye, and where he came from. Almost none of that other stuff had been stitched together before, which I think provides a more fleshed out version of the history of video games. People might think I was more or less successful in doing that, but that's their prerogative.
  6. Good stuff! Yeah, I want to push back on this idea that there was THE WAY to do things that seems obvious in hindsight. History always compresses decision-making and makes things seem clear. But I appreciated the perspective of Tod Frye, even if people don't believe his story. After all, even if you think his answers aren't credible, you have to believe that Atari management (the "greedy money people!") would want the thing that would keep them in the clear. If they thought beforehand that the colors or maze arrangement wouldn't fly with customers, they would have made Frye change it. They even changed the box art probably at the 11th hour so that Pac-Man looked flat and 2-dimensional, so that there would be no mistaking the character! People who are that fixated on the details wouldn't have let something they perceived as sloppy fly through.
  7. Digging this up--it's funny, because I stumbled on this thread while working on a new project I'm doing: https://twitter.com/365ofpac But I also wanted to say that I wrote this article. It was an editorial oversight that they didn't print my byline in the article. See below: And as for criticisms of this article, people asking why I didn't "call Tod on the carpet" on past discrepancies or ask "tough questions" about the game development, I think you're missing the point. This wasn't a GOTCHA article, and if you've ever been in a journalist's shoes, that's not generally how it goes. But my larger aim was to put this game in context, and to give him a chance to reflect and share his views. It wasn't my goal to prove that his approach or justifications were a cop-out, but to understand his process. They did what they did, and if you think anyone at Atari was half-assing it on a game that was so hugely hyped (and expensive to license!), then you're sorely mistaken. Everyone wanted to make money. The idea that there was already an established WAY to make arcade ports is silly--if there were, Atari would have been happy to embrace it. Easier, simpler, more money made. You can't ret-con the idea of what we think of translations today to what was going on in the pioneers' basement in 1981. But everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I just wanted to shed more light on this game and the topic.
  8. Just as an update, I’m considering selling this prototype controller. If you’re interested, please PM me with an offer. I’d love for it to go to either one of the great video game museums or a collector who will care for it. Thanks!
  9. Yeah, I saw that it has been taken down. What happened? I was going to download this tonight and give it a whirl. That's too bad, as it looked pretty amazing.
  10. Killer! Can’t wait to try it out! (End of line)
  11. You're absolutely right. Companies write these things this way because it's way easier for them to absolve themselves of any work or the issue of keeping track of rights down the line. That's the kind of paperwork and due dilligence companies want to avoid. But that's no excuse for an exclusive and permanent transfer of copyrights. It might be different if this was a PAYING gig, but since it's not, this seems silly. This is a first stab, and I wouldn't write them off because of this. Smells like lawyer work. If anyone wants to include their work, I'd encourage you to redline this agreement and send it back for some back and forth. Hopefully you can get a human being to work with you on something reasonable. It'd be nice to see the community's efforts showcased here. Would love to have Andrew from Hyperkin weigh in on this.
  12. So, this won't have Harmony support, but will the SD card be like defacto Harmony? And if not, would its open-source nature allow others to build in support for it, or things like the oddball controllers like the driving controllers, or the Foot Craz pedals, etc? Glad to hear they are licensing Stella the right way.
  13. Glad you're doing this work. I know first-hand how tough it is to do the rights research, much less negotiate something you can sell commercially.
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