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NovaXpress

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Posts posted by NovaXpress

  2. Posted

    Is it hard to find on cart? I suspect so. I have to turn on MESS to play it. I'm sure there are some nice repros floating around.

     

    EG did a huge piece about this game at the time so I figured it was released before the crash. Atariprotos is a kick-ass site for such information.

  4. Posted

    It looks more like a turn-based RPG than turn-based strategy. Could be interesting, though.

     

    The last RPG I played through was Arcanum. It was so amazingly good that no other RPG has lived up to it since and now I tend to avoid the genre atogether. Arcanum was so spectacular it ruined all similar games for me.

  5. Posted

    I've always noticed that certain games seem to appeal to women.

     

    One is Centipede. I don't know why, but girls like this game. Other ones which I've seen appeal to multiple females: Frogger, Fishing Derby and Circus Atari. Girls also like those puzzly games so Strat-O-Gems would be a good homebrew option.

     

    But seriously, chicks dig Centipede.

  6. Posted

    Same here, Millipede was one of the few sequels which truly improved upon the original instead of just altering it.

     

    There are a lot more on screen enemies than we got in Centipede, so that must be the difference maker.

  8. Posted

    Indeed, the Atari/Sega suit wasn't over the connector. It was over certain programming tricks that Atari had a claim on. Not sure if it was all software-related or hardware as well.

     

    What I found:

     

    This lawsuit, over Atari's claims that Sega infringes its patents, was

    settled out of court on 9/28/94. Sega got to use Atari's patents. Sega

    had to pay Atari, immediately, a total of $50 million covering the remaining 7

    years of patents. Sega also had to buy 4.7 million shares of Atari stock for

    $40 million. Sega and Atari get to cross-license 5 games a year, excluding

    Sonic games.

  9. Posted

    The two games have no similarity at all. I think the 5200 version is easily a "top ten" for the system. And one of the few games that wasn't available on any other system or even 8-bit.

     

    According to atariprotos, Gremlins was manufactured in 1984 but held back when Tramiel cancelled the 5200. But when the 5200 had a brief renewal via mail-order the Gremlins carts were finally released. It's probably a hard cart to score.

     

    Other 5200 greatness that most don't mention: Blue Print is spectacular (especially compared to the shitball 2600 version). The other 5200 game I've been playing a lot is Zone Ranger, a Bonconian-style shooter.

  10. Posted

    Wow, I made a good guess. Guess I'm slowly picking a few concepts up from you tech wizards.

     

    So Centipede didn't require extra RAM? Is that because there were fewer enemies to contend with?

     

    I always forget that simply putting a score on the screen is a big deal on the 2600. Was that the last system which made it so difficult? I think that even the O2 had scoring features all ready to go.

  11. Posted

    I'm gonna show what a technological idiot I am . . .

     

    What situations call for more RAM as opposed to more ROM? My guess is that more RAM is needed to keep track of large numbers of objects while more ROM is needed for static content that doesn't change, such as background graphics.

  13. Posted

    This game is sweet. Fun, clever and action-packed. I didn't play it until recently and I've really been missing out. It reminds me of a PC game called Spare Change. If you kids haven't checked out 5200 Gremlins then you should at least give it a spin in MAME. It's truly one of the finest 5200 titles around and not available on any other system.

  15. Posted

    Not true. The company that became Namco was formed in 1955 to produce children's arcade rides. The name "Namco" was adopted in 1971. In 1974, they purchased Atari's Japansese distributor and entered the video game market. In 1978 they began to make their own games.

     

     

    Wasn't NAMCO's original name "Nihon Amusement Machine COmpany"?

     

    The original name was Nakamura Manufacturing Ltd

     

    Man, I love investigations into classic gaming history.

  18. Posted

    Namco actually started out as Atari Japan. Atari wouldn't or couldn't produce enough Breakout machines to supply demand, so they were getting killed with clones. So Namco (Atari Japan) started cloning it themselves. Eventually, Atari just sold the division to the guy who was running it, which then became NAMCO.

    Not true. The company that became Namco was formed in 1955 to produce children's arcade rides. The name "Namco" was adopted in 1971. In 1974, they purchased Atari's Japansese distributor and entered the video game market. In 1978 they began to make their own games.

     

    This is why stuff needs to be written down at some point in one place, too many bullshit stories are getting passed around by classic gamers. A kernel of truth usually gets misinterpreted then spread and becomes accepted as canon.

  20. Posted · Edited by NovaXpress

    It's known that Activision ended up paying a royalty in an out-of-court settlement (I found dozens of online references and its even talked about in a 1983 issue of EG). So if Atari had lost the case then there would have been no need to pay. Res ipsa loquitor.

     

    Coleco was in position to win the Expansion Model lawsuit, but decided to pay a small royalty to Atari rather than duke it out in court. Intellivision then made their own expansion module and Atari backed down, knowing they'd lose due to the "off-the-shelf" issue. So, as with the Universal lawsuit, Coleco was apparently a chump. Since the 2600 contains no coyrightable software or proprietary hardware, it was open season for clones.

  22. Posted

    Other lawsuit fun from the classic era:

    Universal Studios sued Coleco and Nintendo over Donkey Kong. Coleco paid up while Nintendo fought and eventually won. Coleco then had to sue to get their money back.

     

    Activision blatantly ripped off Konami's Loco Motion with Happy Trails and even beat the official license from Mattel into stores. Mattel thought that Konami should sue, to which Konami said "we get paid either way so it's your problem." In the end, nobody sued and the home version of Loco Motion was a flop.

     

    GCC stirred up a lot of fun. They released a Missile Command mod which angered Atari but resulted in GCC becoming an outside producer for products such as Food Fight and the 7800. GCC also made a Pac bootleg called Crazy Otto which was so good they sold it to Midway and it became Ms. Pac-Man. After GCC and Midway sued each other over royalties, they realized that Namco was the actual damaged party and both gave up the rights to the game.

     

    When Atari hired Intellivision programmers, Mattel sued for "corporate espionage" but that didn't go anywhere.

     

    Atari sued over Sierra's Jawbreaker for the PC but lost. Still, when Tigervision released Jawbreaker for the 2600 they significantly changed the gameplay and actually made a better game (which was then licensed back to Sierra and became Jawbreaker 2 on the PC)

  23. Posted

    We completed a by-month release list for 1982 a couple years ago, that's the year when 2600 games had the most coverage and distribution so there's a lot of info available. It's in a past thread which will probably be hard to narrow down a search for.

  24. Posted

    Mario Bros. game Atari used Mario without permission. I can't remember how it turned out but Nintendo took Atari's original character Luigi and used him in virtually all major Mario games.

    That is a total freakin' lie. Nintendo created the original game and licensed it to Atari. There's nothing more to that story.

     

    Atari also sued Activision, although that wasn't over any specific games. Thankfully Atari lost that lawsuit, which opened up console development to third parties.

    Atari did not lose that lawsuit. Activision settled out-of-court, agreeing to pay a royalty for every game sold.

     

    Atari did successfully sue Magnavox over KC Munchkin.

     

    They sued Imagic over the Intellivision version of Demon Attack but lost.

     

    There was never any lawsuit over Robot Tank.

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