else

Someone with too much time on his hands.... http://cgi.ebay.com/RARE-Apple-Prototype-P...1QQcmdZViewItem (Not mine!)

I'd guess the $18.00 shipping to the U.S. is scaring a lot of people off.....

For one function you use the red button on the controller. What button would you use for the other function? Using two controllers is not a friendly solution (HSW did that in the game before ET). BTW, the use of the button in the pit is indicated by the "levitate" icon. Atarifever was saying he'd rather have one button than the multiple buttons of modern systems. I was merely trying to point out that sometimes it is nice to have multiple buttons, for reasons exactly like ET. So in cases like this, I like the multiple buttons that modern systems have. Much as I love the 2600, I just don't believe that having only one button is the pinnacle of gaming. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion though -- some people like having one button on their Macintosh mouse as well.

I assumed the tip sheet wasn't added in until later in production, after all the flap the game got from the public. Am I wrong? I have a few used copies of the game, and some have the tip sheet and some don't -- I guess that's where I got my assumption from. But it's certainly not proof, so if I'm wrong and it was always included I admit it.... Either way, my main point was the button has a few more functions than just "push button to do action you're on" as was stated.

Now hold on -- its not all as simple as you make out out to be. The game uses the button for two purposes*, and it can be easy to do the wrong thing at the wrong time (especially in the heat of the moment -- when you're being chased). If you're standing still, it performs the action pictured (as you say). If you're walking, it makes you run. Personally, I think two buttons would have been better and less confusing for these two functions, rather than one context-sensitive button. *three actually, it has another function when you are in a pit. Finally, lets not forget that using the controls to levitate out of a pit IS very frustrating and confusing -- unless you know the "trick". And this trick ISN'T explained in the manual; you need the "hints" sheet that Atari published later on that explained how to do it. I think even the most die-hard E.T. lover would admit the controls for getting out of the pits leave a little something to be desired.

Glad you're okay Curt! Here's to a speedy recovery!!! -Derek

Just curious what difficultly you guys play on? I don't mind the easiest setting (the one without the FBI Agent and Scientist). I find the other levels really annoying and difficult though. I've never liked how the FBI Agent and Scientist can cheat by "flying" over the pits, not having to go around them like ET does. What are those guys wearing, top-secret jet-packs? Think about it -- if anything, shouldn't it be ET that can fly over the pits??? I always felt that if the game didn't cheat like this, it would have been immensely better. Of course, I realize doing so may have been beyond the limits of what the 2600 is capable of....

I'm pretty sure Walmart was one of the major retailers for the Jaguar. They had the whole "buy American" campaign going back then, and being that the Jaguar was American made it fit in nicely with that strategy. Anyhow, I have a fair amount of used games that I have bought that have a Walmart price sticker still on them. I bought the games through Tiger Direct back when they were clearing them out, so they must have bought up Walmarts remaining stock.

Do they have any of the rare games? (Spiderman or Marvel Heros or Avatar although im not sure if that one made it to market) I'd say it's pretty doubtful, but I've honestly never paid that much attention. I'll take a look the next time I go there and let you know. They still want $5 for each item, which I think is still way overpriced for the flop that it was. When they get to under a dollar, I might be tempted to pick them up -- for eBay material. But at the rate they've been marking them down, that won't be for another ten years or more...

My local Walmart still has TONS and TONS of Hyperscan games and controllers. I'm wondering just who they think is ever gonna buy them....heck I'm wondering who in my area even knows what a Hyperscan is besides me....

Okay. Thought you were citing experience in using the Exatron/Entrepo wafer drive that was released for the TI99/4A. I still have a hard time believing that random access are that great. I can see sequential accesses being pretty good, which is how games are generally arranged on a tape or disk. I just remember from back with my experience with the Adam, and access to random files wasn't all that hot. And the Adam had the ability to search both ways on the tape, something the Exatron/Entrepo wafer drives didn't have. Access to sequential data on the Adam (such as data on games) was pretty good though. But I have no experience with the Exatron/Entrepo tape drive, so I gotta go with what you say....

Have these performance numbers been verified on an actual Exatron/Entrepo wafer drive? The wafer drive is a continuous loop tape, much like an 8-track tape is. Meaning random accesses have to potentially wait for the whole tape to cycle around if the data that is needed is just before the current tape position. I would think performance wouldn't be very good for random accesses.

Nah, it's all good. Just given ya a hard time. Makes my post look really weird, that's all....

Hey, no fair. You changed your post....

The original 5200 pack-in was Super Breakout, not Pac Man. Yes, later is was Pac Man, but later the 2600's pack in was also Pac Man. A lot of systems have had their pack-in game switched over time, so it's conceivable that had the Jaguar lasted longer it also would have had different pack-ins.

That's too bad -- his interviews were excellent!!! Maybe he could be convinced to do one final interview with the Exatron/Entropo folks that were going to produce the Super Game Module, seeing as how the company is still around. I bet they might have some interesting stories they could share... :)

Well, the Adam used the Colecovision's Z80 processor and memory -- but other than those two little details, it wasn't used for much

Anybody know what happened to the web site?

Unfortunately, not that I've found. Yes, it is a pain switching users. I have to help my kids navigate through all the menus so that they can "take turns" playing. A party mode would have greatly benefited the game.....

It's been a while, but I always found the game play to be quite reminiscent of Tarzan on the Colecovision.

Another interesting article I turned up. Talks about the Exatron / Entrepo connection: Stringy Floppy So maybe what happened is Exatron spun off Entrepo, which became to A&J Microdrive, which went out of business??? EDIT: Scratch that: More searching turns up that A&J Microdrive became A&J Programming. And ***Holy Cow*** they're still around today too!!! A&J Programming Well, I guess that solves a few mysteries....

Wanted to put my money where my mouth is.... Here's scans from the June 1983 issue of Video Games magazine. As you can see, it states that Exatron and Entrepo are the same company. Note that when this was written, the Keyboard Unit (page 48) and the Super Game Module (page 49) were two separate products. Obviously these "merged" to become the Adam at some point later. So given this, the mystery to me is why is the company currently called Exatron and not Entrepo? They must have either changed their name back at some point, or never actually went through with the name change after all. It would be interesting to get to the bottom of this mystery....

What makes you so confident? And where can I find some of these employee/lab/loaner carts that are just "floating about" as you say? Wow, that's a really strong accusation of someone just asking for a screenshot. Ouch!!!

Well, the auction describes the tape as about the size of a credit card. If you look at the opening on that picture you posted, it seems to be a little smaller than the opening for the expansion port (I'm taking in to account that there is a LED on the one side of the tape opening). And the expansion port is a little wider than the cartridge port. So I'd estimate that tape opening to be about the same width as the cartridge port. And the width of a cartridge is about the same as the width of a credit card. These are all just rough estimates of course, but based on these rough estimates I'd say the size of the tape in the auction agrees (more or less) with the size of the tape in your picture. But as you say, who knows for sure....

I don't know about different technologies, but they definately WERE the same company. Obviously since the Super Game Module was never produced it's hard to say if it was the same technology or not (does vaporware even count as a technology?). So being that they were the same company, I'd say it's very likely that the technologies were at least quite similar. Please see my earlier post with reference to an article that explains the confusion about the two company names.