Good Endings

[Good Endings]

Alright you jerks. How in the holy hell did you guys beat Scrapyard Dog? Were the big sewer jumps in world 3 the hardest part? If so, I may give it another go.

 

Cousin Vinnie

949918[/snapback]

 

This coming from the man who beat Karateka?

And, what about Planet Smashers? I always get the Earth Shield nuked, and then find out that all of my reserve men are toast.

 

For Scrapyard dog, IIRC *most* of the bad sewer jumps can be worked around. You just have to find a tube/pipe/hole that warps you past them. I believe this can be done in 80% of all "hard jump" situations. You just have to be willing enough to explore a little. Of course, while exploring, you'll probably end up screwed in one of these bad-jump situations anyway, but, well, they all "techincally" can be beaten. But, they still do suck.

 

if you have one in particular you're stuck on, let me know. Maybe I can plot a path for ya.

 

-John

[Does the sun ever set in Sneak 'n Peek?]

The moon! Of course; it happens to be night. How slow I am.

 

Anyway that this game could be hacked to be... more interesting?

Or, maybe after a few beers, it would be somewhat fun.

 

I do remember playing it when I was a kid with my sister, and I had an awesome move where I could get behind the couch in less than 1 second. And, when my sister would "seek", she'd always be screwed (because there was less than a second to search the whole house). I guess that if you had a fixed location and knew how to get in there right away, everyone else was pretty much hosed. Good tactics, I say!

 

-John

[Does the sun ever set in Sneak 'n Peek?]

Never been that bored to find out. Does the game actually end?

 

-John

[Good Endings]

Scrapyard Dog has an ending.

 

The difference between the "lose the last puzzle" and the "beat the last puzzle" endings are so minor though. Too minor.

 

I was distraught sitting there and waiting to watch the poor little dog squirming in that last scene (snif!). I'll never let you down again, Scraps! Never!

 

-John

[Impossible Mission]

Oh, it's definitely beatable, if you have the working version .

I had to prove that myself before distributing the NTSC ROM. What's a release without beta testing, after all?

 

The beatable ROM is available in a thread somewhere.

 

-John

[Atari 2600 Boggle Prototype Discovered]

Hey everyone,

 

1) Is there a good story as to how this was found?

2) How was it found out that David Crane programmed it?

 

-John

[Electro Cop....was this made?]

First of all, I'll say up-front that I do not have a prototype, have never seen a prototype, or anything of that nature. But, what I will say is this-- I did talk with the developer, and interviewed him a long while back. But, he wishes anonymity, and I can respect that. I believe he said he had finished the game, but sadly, he no longer had a copy. If he did, he sounded like he was very willing to share.

 

Anyway, that's all I know (and I have probably said too much-- remember, the guy wants to remain anonymous and unfound). So, for this title, it's "confirm by hearsay" with the man who wrote it. It was either complete, or very close to it.

 

-John

[Electro Cop....was this made?]

The developer no longer has any copies either.

 

I've said too much

 

-John

[Electro Cop....was this made?]

It was done. No, I don't have it-- slipped through my fingers.

 

-John

[Missing In Action - Let's Make The Dream A Reality]

Hello,

 

Not that anyone cares, but the negativity in the community is just one reason that I've become much less involved with Atari stuff as of late. Digital Press is not evil. John Hardie is definitely not evil. I don't even think that Randy Crihfield is evil, although the community was very fast to completely destroy his reputation and nuke his business. In Randy's case, I know there were intellectual property concerns that were legit, but those should have been between the developers affected and Randy. I remember seeing hate threads about boycots, and I believe Randy even shaid that his hate mail had gone from zero to 50 in a matter of hours. You guys can be nuts sometimes. That's why I don't develop for the community anymore.

 

Anyway, on to the point-- Instead of everyone just jumping on the bandwagon with pitchforks and torches saying "hey-- this guy won't share something-- he sucks!", think before you post that kind of crap. I'm starting to think that if I ever had a prototype game, that I wouldn't even bother sharing it anymore. Whoever owns a prorotype has either a) stumbled across it, or b) got it with significant effort and cost. They have no obligation to share with anyone. If they do, well, that's nice, but just because you're a part of the community doesn't entitle you to anything. Maybe you should be the one out there looking for prototypes, digging through trash bins, attending Atari estate sales and putting your hard money on the line before making such a claim that someone is not sharing because they're an evil bastard. John Hardie and DP have shared a lot up to this point-- don't forget that.

 

For anyone's info, there are known issues preventing a cartridge run of those 7800 games. They work on dev boards only. Actual hardware has issues (as evidenced with the Plutos screen rolling comment). Even MIA has issues on actual hardware, from my understanding. So, will these be resolved? Perhaps someday, but it would probably be done by someone that DP chooses to help. I'm glad to see the community excited about this game, but c'mon! Let it go. I'm sure it will be released as soon as it can be.

 

-John

[Four player games on the 2600]

Pressure Gauge 2 was a 4-player paddle game too (and, I thought it was kinda fun, at least when testing it).

 

This topic has been raised before; I'm sure someone could provide a link to either that topic, or the link to PG2 in the Dig.

 

If anyone ever tries it out, drop me a line.

 

Regards,

-John

[Lunar Lander on Flashback 2?]

Ok; this title exists on the Flashback 2-- any idea where it came from?

 

I did some searching that came up nil; perhaps a better searcher can redirect me to the right thread / post.

 

Anyway, for the "non-release" games that are on the Flashback 2, where do they come from?

 

Regards,

-John

[Paul Slocum, congrats]

Hey-o,

 

Actually, Paul is apparently referenced in the DVD too (although his name needs an update per the unofficial wiki site):

 

http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php/personal_favorites

Check under "commentary transcript"

 

-John

[Raiders of the Lost Ark Parachuting & Frustrations]

Hmm... perhaps I should add a small request--

Can someone take a small video of them getting into a Mesa?

 

Then I could study it and become a master.

 

-John

[Raiders of the Lost Ark Parachuting & Frustrations]

Hi guys,

 

I dug out ROTLA last night, and showed a buddy of mine that there were indeed more than 3 screens to that game (since he had never figured out the grenade thing). In doing so, I walked through the game, and got close to the end, but remembered some painful Atari experiences with this game from my younger days.

 

I decided to share my horror stories.

 

Namely,

1) Accidentally selecting the eyepiece when you're standing just a pixel off, and dying

2) Waiting for 5 minutes for the sun, and then accidentally moving the wrong controller, getting confused, and dying

3) When returning to the marketplace from the black market, going up to the opener screen only to get hit immediately by a snake (grr!)

4) Parachuting, hitting the branch, and dying (grumble, grumble)

5) Making it into the mesa, but having those final little thieving jerks steal your shovel the minute you arrive

6) Making it into the mesa, making it past the little thieving jerks, but then accidentally pressing the wrong controller's button, and deleting the shovel

7) Making it into the mesa, making it past the little thieving jerks, using the shovel properly, only to learn with horror that you were digging in the wrong mesa.

 

I'm sure a lot of people can relate. This game can be hard. Very hard.

 

Well, we didn't make it to the end. But, I decided for fun to try to parachute into the initial mesa, and just keep resetting the game. It took 20 attempts. I got in their once by accident.

 

So, does anyone have a "tried and true" method for getting in there?

 

I have a few other obvious questions (I've figured out how to bribe the raving lunatic without dying for example, although, I don't know what exactly you gain from this).

 

Regards,

-John

[what homebrews do you have]

I have:

- Space Treat

- Edtris 2600

- SoundX

- Jammed

- Pressure Gauge (gee-- I wonder why)

- Marble Craze

- Alfred Challenge

- Merlin's Walls

- Allia Quest

- Mental Kombat

 

If I had to pick just one, I couldn't. Each has their own merit; I think the homebrew community for Atari is amazing! But, the 2 that I reach for most often are Marble Craze and Merlin's Walls.

 

-John

[So... What IS the deal with Air Raid??]

Tangental thought-- Has anyone hacked Space Jockey to turn the ship into:

a) a pair of underwear, or

b) a horse with a little guy on it

This would truly make the player a Space Jockey.

 

Bringing it back around-- how close are the ROM's (%-wise)?

 

-John

[Party Mix's rank among the 4-player simultaneous 2600 games?]

Is this it?

 

http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/archiv...1/msg00047.html

 

The next time I get four Atari players together, I'll load it in my Supercharger and see how it ranks with the others.

 

Bingo-- that's it! I'd actually love some feedback on it. When I posted it to StellaList a long time ago, I never got any feedback, since no one could seem to get 4 people together. So, I have no way of knowing if it's any fun, or if it was really a pretty crappy demo. Any feedback (even extremely negative, just so long as it's better than SSSnake) would be cool.

 

Regards,

-John

[Party Mix's rank among the 4-player simultaneous 2600 games?]

So anyway, he made it and we tried all the 4-player simultaneous 2600 games. Here is how I would rank them, in order of best to worst:

 

Warlords

Video Olympics

Steeplechase

Street Racer

 

You're missing one

I once had a Pressure Gauge 2 demo that was 4-player simultaneous action. It had a little bit of a learning curve, but it was nevertheless quite enjoyable. It's probably available at "The Dig" somewhere.

 

Regards,

-John

[Burger King story: manager knew an Atari programmer]

That's pretty cool.

 

This could be Alex Demeo (he did some Atari 7800 stuff for Absolute).

 

http://atari2600.mobygames.com/developer/s...eloperId,58987/

 

Regards,

-John

[Atari 2600 Zoo Keeper Audio Released!]

Any wav samples available. I don't have my emulator available at the office.

 

-John

[Shuttle Orbiter]

I've finished it--- once.

Oddly enough, there is an ending, although it is rather anticlimactic (to be expected per 2600 games).

 

-John

[California games is too good]

This brings up a good question.

- You can max out the footbag event.

- You can get the max points for skateboardin'

- I even think you can max out Surfin (there's only like 5-6 tricks, and if you do them enough, you run out of things that give you points

 

So--- what's the max score possible on BMX?

 

-John

[Top Ten RAREST 7800 Games]

I think it all has to do with when you started collecting.

 

I actually got all of the "hard" Atari games (Mean 18, Ikari Warriors, etc) through Video 61 like 10 years ago. At that time, Tank Command was an awful pain to obtain. And, a BOXED Tank Command was even harder.

 

But, nowadays, Video 61 has dried up, and these Atari titles are now much scarcer. So, I guess things have shifted.

 

So, a better question to add on is:

1) What was the hardest game to obtain

2) When did you start collecting from the 7800? Recently (last 5 years),

or not-so-recently (over 5 years ago).

 

I'm finding the same difficulties in finding Virtual Boy games nowadays. Apparently, it's the same type of market.

 

-John

[New contest!]

Can I ask how many sections there are (or, is that something we need to figure out too)?

 

-John