Ferris

That list is everchanging. Every few weeks I have to make changes, especially with the CX designations. It’s like a huge jigsaw puzzle without half of the pieces. You may be right about Desert Falcon and Ballblazer not actually being released until 1986, but the only official paperwork I came across on these titles was presenting these two games as titles that were to be out by Christmas 1984. Could be wrong, if I am the database can easily be updated. Bentley Bear in Q-Bert sounds crazy but I have heard this title mentioned by one vendor of the era and two Atari employees who swore that they knew of this along with Crystal Castles on the 7800. Appearantly Atari acquired the rights to all of the Parker Brother’s games for the 2600 and had intended to replace the character of Q-Bert with Bentley Bear, to create a Mario or Sonic type of mascot for the Atari brand. He was a cute little guy, it would have worked out well IMHO. As for Pyromania, the gentleman who ran Froggo (which was a very tiny game company compared to the other third party vendors) had been telling vendors that Pyromania had been manufactured and was about ready to ship. Pyromania had been advertised for some time along with the rest of the Froggo titles that never surfaced. Next time the vendors went to contact Froggo, the line was disconnected and they were out of business. The official mantra out of Froggo was that they had been manufactured, so that’s what I’m going by. If this is indeed true, they probably manufactured the first line of them and then went out of business and most likely destroyed these titles in a bankruptcy proceeding. That’s the story I’ve heard. Again, that list is fairly fluid but it’s about as solid of a list as it can be. Things are bound to be incorrect and if they are then they can be changed. It’s important to keep this in mind when looking at the roster. If anyone has any solid information regarding corrections on the page feel free to drop me a private message.

Thanks man. I'm just returning after a long hiatus. Went to college, lost my email, and cant get into my old name. Nice to see everyone is welcoming.

I'm a big AtariProtos.com fan. Uncovering all of this old Atari vaporware is like archeology. Keep up the good work!

You know, out of everything in the Atari world, this is the thing that intrigues me most. I have been nearly obsessed with 7800 prototypes for almost the past 15 years. I have done some very extensive research on this subject and come to some interesting conclusions. The results of my studies are posted on my site, which you can view here at http://www.atari7800.com/html/gameshistory.htm This page contains an entire listing of all games that were released, developed, scheduled, or rumored to have been underway on the 7800. The page also discusses the reasons behind these games not being released and all the issues that factor in to the 7800’s dilemma when it comes to prototypes and vaporware. As far as new developments, I have been working on three of my own 7800 titles for about the past year and a half on a custom 7800 development board. The most promising of which is called Towers, a game that is sort of a cross between Rampart and Tetris. When it is done I will post it so everyone can play it in an emulator. I hope you guys find that 7800 software history page a little helpful. Cya!