NovaXpress
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Posts posted by NovaXpress
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I meant that I would be happy enough if said people allowed just you, the man called Tempest, to play their games so you could at the very least tell us about them. At least then we'd all have a taste of it, and the ROMs still wouldn't be available to the masses. As you continue to develop your site and more people drift over to check it out, I suspect that many people wouldn't mind if you reported on their protos as a journalist. It could even be a great way for proto sellers to boost interest in the months before they finally sell. I'm sure you wouldn't mind this either.
I wouldn't even think of distributing protos. Why even risk getting sued when the ROMs are available elsewhere? Not being a ROM distributor also might aid you with gaining the trust of the programers who you want to impress in order to accomplish the above-stated goal.
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Thanks for the kind words, they've been in short supply latelyI want to sincerely thank you for making the site. Not only do you provide good information, you're writing is enjoyable as well. I hope that many of the proto-hoarders and programmers out there would give you a chance to at least play their stashed away games and allow you to give them the historical write-up that they are due. Trust me, AtariProtos is going to become more and more recognized by the classic gaming crowd as time goes on.
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Thanks for clearing things up and also telling a much better story!
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The site continuies to interest and impress. One of my favorite spots on the web. We seem to have different tastes in games. Space Dungeon has spent more time in my 5200 than any other cart and I'm a Berzerk junkie.
I loved the section on Astrochase. Does anyone remember how much hype this game recieved when it was released for the 400/800? The ads were covered with dubious awards and the designer was promoted as the god of programming. Electronic Games soiled themselves with praise for this innovative state-of-the-art shooter.
The game SUCKED!
Nice intro screen , which no one was accustomed to at the time. Excellent musical score. Notice that many of the ads and the pics shown in magazines were of the intro screen, not the actual game. This was a warning.
Then it comes time for the gameplay. What a disaster. Rudimentary float-and-shoot against Acsii-character enemies. When did the Earth become surrounded by miniature Saturn-like barriers anyway? At the higher levels the mines hit the earth within about 20 seconds, not even a chance of winning. I had this on cassette for my 800 and it wasn't worth more than a few loads.
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Sears was very good about letting peope try out games before buying. Every store had a Video Arcade running. I remember the first day Missile Command came out and I gave it a test play. My family and four other people watching immediately bought it.
Interesting note: Sears only carried the relabeled Atari games until September 1982. That's the first time any Activision games appeared.
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I wouldn't ask my damn parents to do it. Both are crazy, and drug addicts. I am completely self-sufficient, so fuck the hell off.Hi there, Eminem. Welcome to Atari Age!
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I think they are referring to the 7800 as far as the desk-throwing incident. Just more examples of the mindset at the time.
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Hey, I think I may have found something for you from WIRED mag:
Steve Bristow (Atari VP): In the early '80s, Atari debated whether to go with the internally developed successor to the 2600 or a new console that Nintendo wanted us to market. Regrettably, it was my decision not to license the Nintendo system. The corporate decision was to keep making games for the 2600, because there was no real competition, and for x dollars we could build a new factory and produce a lot more 2600s and make a lot more money, instead of taking a risk.It's not entirely clear, but this seems to indicate that 2600 support did continue after the crash. See, it's all about finding the truth here.
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Check out this bit from Wired. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.05/hi...history_pr.html
Michael Katz (president, Sega of America): In '88, when I was still at Atari, Hayao Nakayama and Dave Rosen brought us the Genesis. They asked if we wanted to license the product. At the time, we needed a next-generation system to take on Nintendo, and Genesis would've been perfect. But Jack Tramiel turned it down.Jerry Jessop (engineer, Atari): Brad Saville was a production guy at Atari during the Tramiel days. When the 780017 machine was finished, he went to Tramiel's office to present it. Brad said Tramiel swept the prototype right off his desk and onto the floor, yelling, "We're a computer company now!"
Don Thomas (director of customer service, Atari): Tramiel wanted Atari to produce consumer electronic products. I think he was hoping to turn it into a Radio Shack type of company.
Katz: Ironically, one year after Sega approached Atari, I took over Sega of America, where I was in the same position I'd been in all along: Nintendo had all the hot arcade licensees tied up. We needed a character to introduce with Genesis and compete with Mario. Nobody knew who Sonic was. American kids didn't even know what a hedgehog was, but it didn't matter. It was a terrific game that you could get only on Genesis.
Let that one soak in for awhile. Yar's Revenge for the Atari Genesis coulda been sweet. The webpage has a lot of great stuff on the 2600 era and interviews with the players of the time.
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Here's another site that states the Atari2600 was manufactured into 1991.Once again, I haven't found a site that says it was produced consecutively until 1991. Atari Age says that 1 million units were sold in 1985. Would this mean that production continued or that retailers were dumping their pre-crash inventory? I don't know. I'd like to find out.
After looking over MANY sites, I've yet to see an estimate of over 30 million 2600 units sold in total. Add the clones in and we're still way short. If there's any contradictory information, let's see it.
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After checking the "Old Computer" site that the Marks keep referring to, I had a good laugh.
Lesson to Godzilla: when you don't know what you're talking about it's generally a good idea not to be obnoxious about it.
Let's take a look at your reference material from http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=878
The first console idea was developed in 1975 by Atari and Warner Bros, its parent company.Okay fanboys, see anything wrong with that statement? Think hard.
a first series of 8 will be followed later by manyHmm, anything wrong with that? Check out the Atari Age 2600 page to see how many carts were actually in the initial release.
In two years, Atari sold more than 25 million consolesWhich two years? 77-79? 80-81? The site clearly has no real data and threw out an ramdom number and time frame. The Atari was sold over MANY years as we have seen, why didn't they give us the final total? Because they don't know. Because the Old Computer is loaded with false information.
You guys should have noticed the errors on this site. Not a very good reference to use, is it?
However, the 2600 continued to be produced and new games will appear until 1991. The VCS/2600 console thus lived for 14 years, a record longevity never equaled since by any console or computer.That's a lie and all you Atari experts should know it. The 2600 was not produced consecutively for 14 years. Period.
So here is the ultimate point of this thread: some of you spit out your knee-jerk system-centric reaction without any attempt to find the truth. All along I've been asking you 2600-boosters to prove that it outsold Gameboy but none of you can come up with a single fact to support your case. You just keep bitching. So come up with some data or go off and start a good "Atart rocks! Intellivision sucks!" thread that you can get off to.
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Check it, four people, over the past 14 years, and they bought a total of 25 gameboy systems. That's 6.25 gameboy's per person. So, assuming those numbers show how they've sold all across the map, then more individual people have owned the 2600 than have owne the GameBoy systems.I've had one Gameboy and one Advance. I don't know anyone who's gone through 6 per person. Your friends apparently can't take care of their toys and not many people bought 4 Gameboys just for Faceball. Your experiences are beyond atypical. And the 118 million is for the ORIGINAL Gameboy, so take all the other editions out of it. Your theory fails, my friend.
I would like to sa that I am 14 and I didn't grow up with no stinking Gameboy. I grew up with a Master System and a 2600. Don't think that all of us are just drones to the world of flashy graphics, I don't own, and never will own a PS1 or 2.So watch it next time before you accuse the current generation of playing Game Boy.
If this is true, then you're a moron for ignoring today's great games. Ask mommy and daddy to bring you into at least the 90s. And I flat out don't believe your story.
Even if true, what's higher: the percentage of minors who've played Gameboy or the percentage who've played the 2600? Hmmm?
Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance are all seperate systems, but Nintendo considers them all one when calculating sales figures.Read the damn posts, Nintendo DOES NOT roll the many Gameboy edititions into the same figures. The 118 million is the original black and white Gameboy standing alone. Deal with it, Atari Marks.
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This is all kinda weird. All of my Parker Bros games remain in great condition while Activision and M Network are slowly rotting away.
Are we going to need climate-controlled "Cart Humidors" for proper storage?
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It seems like we're all united in our hatred for post-AJFA Metallica. I guess their cynical "hey, we stopped wearing makeup-we're hardcore again!" and "Look, we're playing in a prison-we're hardcore again!" tactics aren't wroking. They're even trying to use an Neuro Linguistic Programming phrase as thei album title to brainwash a few more kids.
I'm gonna rip their new album just for the fun of it then delete it off my drive immediately. I really really hate them. They're metal for people who don't have the balls to listen to real metal.
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When did Sears start selling carts under the Atari label?The very first Atari-labeled game was Raiders of the Lost Ark. The last Sears labeled game was Star Raiders.
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NO ONE has been able to REMOTELY present ANY facts, aside from the fact that the 2600 sold 25 million units in two years.What a blatant, ignorant lie. Talk about a half-assed response. We have a factual total of Gameboy sales taken from Nintendo's public records. Not one of you so-called Atari experts can even suggest where we can find such data on the 2600. Has anyone ever heard an estimate of over 100 million sales for the 2600 before this thread started? Or are the Atari marks just upset cause someone isn't shouting "Atari rules all!"
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That weird squishy meat sucks and so do the Sears exclusives.
I kinda dig Stellar Track actually.
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I was going through my box of loose carts and noticed that my Enduro is looking pretty ugly. I started bitching about the Activision curse, then decided to look around and see which companies games held up the best.
Atari seems to take the prize. Many carts still looking mint. Spectravideo is looking good as well. Many Imagic hold up nicely but some labels are peeling.
I was surprised to see the Actiplaque effect on many of my M Network carts. I never really looked at them before, but there it is under those dark blue letters. Not all of them are showing it, but many of the ones that are came from the very first M Network release. I remember buyin em.
How are your carts holding up?
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I think its interesting how no one can imperically answer my questionIf atari sold 25+ mil 2600s in two years, what about all the rest? and what about all the other flavors I mentioned in my previous post?
I can't find any totals on the 2600. Apparently you can't either.
So does anyone have an idea how to find out? How many out there really that the total is over 100 million. I'd think not, but I don't know and no one else here does either at this point.
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There's quantity, there's quality, there's process, there's acceptance, there's endurance, the list is endless. What about the success of creating a whole new market, the success of being bold enough to try something new, the success of being the first to sell millions of consoles, the success of selling games from 1977 to 1995, etc etc. But if you want to stick to your statement that the GB is the most succesful system in the history of videogames, there indeed is no other measure for success than sales.For one thing, the 2600 wasn't the first programmable console. The Gameboy wasn't the first programmable handheld either, but both systems made the first big impact. I'm sure you knew this.
So which one of these above qualities does the Gameboy lack, other than a different time frame? They have quantity, quality, process, acceptance, endurance, millions sold. So how does it fall short of the 2600 then?
Higher sales in a much larger market can't be compared to high sales is a rather small still evolving market.If you measure sales, you also have to compare that to the absolute sales.
That's a good point. Although an important system such as these two can drive sales of the entire market and make it hard to evaluate. Did the Gameboy help sell more Nintendo consoles than the 2600 sell other Atari products? Hard to say. Gameboy certainly controls a larger percentage of the handheld market than the 2600 controlled the console market. As far as percentage of total systems on the market, the Atari would likely win.
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How can we measure success other than sales? Sales means profit, it means widespread acceptance, it means survival of the company and longevity for the system.
suc·cess ( P ) Pronunciation Key (sk-ss)The achievement of something desired, planned, or attempted: attributed their success in business to hard work.
The gaining of fame or prosperity: an artist spoiled by success.
The extent of such gain.
For a video game system sales=success. What is the goal of the game maker? Money. No one ever asked about most influential, most historical, or most beloved. Those points are arguable. I often say that sales doesn't mean QUALITY but it does mean SUCCESS for all those who produce the work. Being successful doesn't mean being good.
Thriller is a more successful ALBUM than anything Elvis released. Sales=the mumber of people who liked the music well enough to buy it. The entire CAREER of Elvis is far more profitable than than Michael the Molester. By the way, the #1 selling album of all time is The Eagle's Greatest Hits. Since all the songs were already paid for, this album was pure profit
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Curious, where did these figures come from....Source please.....Learn how to do a simple Google search, my friend. The info is everywhere. Here's some figures from magicbox:
GameBoy (Japan) 430,000 32,430,000
GameBoy (Foreign) 2,000,000 85,990,000
Total:118,420,000
GameBoy Advance (Japan) 2,160,000 5,980,000
GameBoy Advance (Foreign) 6,420,000 12,180,000
Total:18,160,000
Nintendo 64 (Japan) 30,000 5,540,000
Nintendo 64 (Foreign) 180,000 27,380,000
Total:32,920,000
GameCube (Japan) 1,570,000 1,570,000
GameCube (Foreign) 2,230,000 2,230,000
Total:3,800,000
These are the figures through just March 2002. There are other sales charts for late 2002 and 2003 which add several million more.
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I agree with my fellow Nebraskan on this one. I've went through 4 2600 consoles (plus 2 colecovisions, 2 5200s, 2 NES). I knew of other kids who moved onto a Gemini or whatever clone when their first system broke. The Gameboy I bought in 1990 still works. I don't know of any families with more than one Gameboy per kid, and only one rich family who even has that.
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"The VCS/2600 console thus lived for 14 years, a record longevity never equaled since by any console or computer."The VCS console was not produced consecutively for those 14 years. The NES is just going out of production this year. 1985-2003= 18 years of UNINTERRUPTED production.
Keep trying.
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Monogrammed Space Chase
in Atari 2600
Posted
Apollo had a magazine offer in which they would personalize the game by flashing the owner's initials on the screen when the player was destroyed. For only one hundred dollars.
Has anyone ever found one of these monogrammed games? Is there proof that anyone ever ordered one? Why didn't they do the same for Skeet Shoot? No, that game is good enough already.