rolenta

The book looks excellent. I was surprised how short the book was but Marty explained that the proof shown at CGE only comprised on the first five chapters of the book. I will be purchasing the color hardback when it is available. A little history here: In 2001, Curt approached me to write a book about Atari with him, which I agreed to do. Curt even had a publisher interested in it. At the same time, Marty was also writing a book about Atari. I remember Marty telling me about it on the phone one night, but because of my book with Curt, I didn't want Marty to go into details about his book, nor did I give him specifics about ours. Unfortunately, due to an incident that I cannot go into, my project with Curt's came to an end, Curt naturally found Marty and the result was this book. This was a good thing because I know that I could never have dedicated the time that Marty and Curt had to this project. I believe though that this book is more like the one that Marty had originally planned, rather than the one Curt and I had intended to write. I still have the original outline that we prepared (neither Curt nor I ever actually began writing it), and I still think it would make a hell of a great book and wouldn't compete at all against this one. Curt, I hope you're feeling much better! And Marty, it was finally great to actually meet you in person after all of these years!

The 4th edition of Phoenix, when it is available late next year, will contain hundreds of photos, but they too will be in high-quality b&w rather than color, which is what I preferred. My publisher explained that to print the book (which may run around 700 pages) in color was just too costly, although he did offer to put a color section in the center, wihch I was against. He explained that for offset printing, color pages have to run through the presses four times and that takes time and money. When I inquired about digital printing, he said that that was good fo short run books (print on demand), but the quality doesn't match that of offset printing. He also said with high quality color, every little flaw in the photo will come out, while with high quality B&W, it's not so bad. So I bit the bullet and agreed to the b&w photos for Phoenix 4.

I had to buy a Gameline module but the company gave me a free subscription. Big deal. That lasted about three months.

I got a boxed one off of Ebay last year. And I didn't pay too much for it

I ordered it yesterday but I had to get it from Amazon UK, as the US Amazon no longer has it in stock.

It worked for me

Both are covered in the next edition of Phoenix, but of course not in the detail that Marty and Curt would cover it

MINE JUST ARRIVED!!!!!!!!!!!

Just got an email that mine was shipped!

The 4th edition of Phoenix: The Fall & Rise of Videogames will be available in late 2013. The third edition is still available from Amazon or www.rolentapress.com. In 2008 Game Informer named Phoenix the #2 videogame-related book of all time. More info about Phoenix can be found at: http://en.wikipedia....e_of_Videogames

Super Breakout was Sears branded and in Sears stores for a few months before it was Atari-branded and availalble everywhere. I first saw it in Sears but didn't buy it because I wanted the Atari one. However, when time passed and the Atari one never came out, I finally bought the Sears one. Maybe exclusive is not the right word but Sears sure did have a head start with it,

I don't know if this pertains to anything, but Super Breakout for the 2600 was a Sears Telegames 'exclusive' for a while before it was finally Atari branded.

Activision: Dragster Checkers Boxing Fishing Derby Imagic: Demon Attack Star Voyager Trick Shot Games By Apollo really didn't have a 'launch' but the first game it released was Skeet Shoot followed shortly by Spacechase and Space Cavern.

Video Life - 10 Eli's Ladder - 10 MagiCard -10 Music Machine -10 X-Man - 9 All with manuals (ecept Music Machine). The only boxes I had were for Video Life and X-Man and I threw them out long ago. Eli's Ladder and X-Man were given to me free by the manufacturers. Video Life and MagicCard were purchased from Video Takeout in West Hollywood. Only Music Machine came off of e-Bay and I think I paid less than $300.

Video Chess was the result of a misrepresentation lawsuit that had been filed against Atari by a customer because the original VCS box had a picture of a chess piece, indicating that a chess game was available, even though there wasn't. The marketing people went directly to the programmers and asked them to create a chess game for the VCS only to be told that such a game would be impossible.

I'll get one after my Boulder Dash arrives. Who knows, maybe this book is one of the free extras that's coming with the cart?

Here's old photos of my collection: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150639602565203.691666.688490202&l=9ffb77d40a My software list: http://www.rolentapress.com/rolenta/collection/games.htm My hardware list: http://www.rolentapress.com/rolenta/collection/systems.htm

Nah..it can't be better than QB, which is one of my personal favorite 2600 games.

I pronounce it SssssHIT

Definitely Sssnake, the worst-looking, most unplayable game on any system!

It is nearly official. Yesterday I received a contract from a 'real' publishing company to publish the 4th edition of Phoenix. If all goes according to schedule, the 4th edition will be published (not self-published) in late 2013. More details to follow when everything is finalized.

I haven't heard from him in some time. I hope everything is ok. I spoke to him around two weeks ago. He's okay.

I don't see how. First, the games are totally unlike each other, aside from the 6x6 grid. Boing! doesn't have a preset pattern of squares that you have to navigate. And when I saw the game (January 1983 as you state in the thread, although your site says Summer 1983), I was given preview copies of Ram-It, Demolition Herby, and StarGunner. Here was my copy of Stargunner: http://www.atarihq.com/museum/2678/games/index.html (click on Stargunner prototype) which means that the labels were not yet printed when I saw The Impossible Game, so at the time at least, I didn't play the game that was in the Stargunner cart that you have posted.

The same person probably also refers to the year as Two Thousand Twelve. It's Twenty Twelve!

Just found this post. The link is no longer working.