Rhindle The Red

It's gone now, but out of curiosity, what was the Buy It Now price?

Ikari Warriors - the only 2600 game of an SNK title Cuttle Cart - for my home-brew work EPROM Burner - ditto Qb - still waiting for the release... Spice Invaders - if I ever finish the ROM hack

Submarine Commander (Sears) - Salvation Army - $1.00 Picnic (U.S. Games) - Local Game Store - $.50 Steeplechase (Sears) w/ Inst. - Local Game Store - $1.50 Unfortunately, the guy at the game store sold a Spy Hunter to "Sumguy" before I got there. Oh, well...

quote: Originally posted by Ze_ro: I'm still surprised they released Pong for the Gameboy Color. Man, whose idea was that?? --Zero Pong for the PSX and PC actually sold quite well. That's why they went ahead with a sequel: Breakout. The Game Boy Color version must have seemed like a natural, but Majesco just wasn't up to the challenge.

quote: Originally posted by Tempest: Well since 95% of the companies that made 2600 games have gone out of business your almost home free. The only companies I know of that are still in business are Activision, Sega, Konami, Nintendo (if you count the fact that they licensed many games), and Atari if you count Infogrames. Tempest Here's a list of 2600 companies whose works are probably still under copyright: 20th Century Fox Activision Atari (Infogrames) Avalon Hill CBS First Star Intellivision Productions INTV (Intellivision Productions) Konami Mattel (Intellivision Productions) Milton Bradley Parker Bros. (Some to Atari/Infogrames some not) Sega Spectravision Sunrise (Telegames) Telegames Tigervision (Tiger Electronics) If any are wrong, sorry. Still, I think it's clear that most games are not in the public domain. Even those games whose companies are out of business probably had their assets legally transferred somewhere. Even if whoever owns them now doesn't even know it. [ 08-25-2001: Message edited by: Rhindle The Red ]

quote: Originally posted by Tempest: What infringes on the 2600 multicart? Tempest Unless the maker has a license, or the owner of the copyright has released it, technically everything on the multicart infringes.

quote: Originally posted by atari70s: Sega is gone Sega's not gone, dude. In fact, without the burden of hardware, they are closer to the company they were in the days of the 2600: an arcade game leader and a well regarded third party for other companies' systems.

Forgot one. In the 70's when Atari dominated the arcade market, they created another company called Kee Games, which existed solely to release Atari games under new names to make it seem like there was more competition than there was. They even considered releasing a Kee Games version of the 2600, but didn't.

Once upon a time, there was one company, Atari. Inc. They made arcade games and home video games for their systems, the 2600, 5200 and their home computers, the 800, 400, etc. Around 1982/83 they came to the realization that everyone else (Coleco, Mattel, etc.) was making money not only producing for their own systems, but also for Atari's. They also realized they had one of the largest collections of titles under their belt and decided to start producing for other systems. Atarisoft was the realization of this decision. Any games that Atari made for other people systems (ColecoVision, Intellivision, Commodore, etc.) carried the Atarisoft name. This was not a separate company, just a different label. After the crash of '84 Atari, Inc.'s owner Warner Communications, sold off half of the company to the Tramiel family. This half consisted of all home-based products, essentially everything except the arcade stuff. This new Atari was known as Atari Corp. The arcade portion of the old Atari, Inc. became Atari Games Corp., still owned by Warner. Warner eventually sold to Namco, who got Atari Games Corp. back into the home market through a new label of it's own, Tengen. After a while, Namco sold Atari Games Corp. back to Warners (now TimeWarner) and the Tengen division was rechristened TimeWarner Interactive, the label Atari Games Corp titles such as Primal Rage generally carried. TimeWarner eventually sold Atari Games Corp. again, this time to Midway. Midway kept the company going as an independant arcade division, releasing home games under their own Midway label. Meanwhile, Atari Corp. attempted to reinvent itself as a computer company, eschewing the video game market. Although successful for a while, Atari Corp. eventually got back into video games with the 7800, Lynx and Jaguar. In the 90's, Atari Corp. got itself a new label in the form of Atari Interactive, intended for releasing games for the PC. The only title to see release under this label (while owned by Atari Corp.) was Tempest 2000. But nothing helped and Atari Corp. was reversed merged into JTS Corp., a disk drive maker (if I remember correctly) and essentially shut down as a game producing company. It's assets were eventually sold to Hasbro Interactive, the game arm of Hasbro Inc., the world's second largest toy company (behind Mattel). They revived the Atari Interactive label (this time as an actual division of Hasbro Interactive) for PC and console games for the PSX, Dreamcast and even the game.com. Meanwhile, a dispute arose between Hasbro Interactive (the successors to Atari Corp.) and Midway (the successors to Atari Games Corp.) over the ownership of pre-split arcade titles. To settle the dispute, new contracts were written up settling all issues and Midway renamed Atari Games, calling it Midway Games West. They eventually shut down all arcade operations. Midway currently hold rights to all post-split arcade titles from Atari Games Corp. (such as Gauntlet,the Rush series of racing games, and others). Hasbro Interactive didn't do too well in the long run, however, and sold the Hasbro Interactive division to Infogrames, a french game company. Infogrames renamed the division Infogrames Interactive and currently hold the rights to all Atari Corp. properties. So all the Atari companies are: Atari, Inc. - original company Atari Corp. - home product, post-split Atari Games Corp. - arcade product, post-split Atari Interactive - subsidiary of Hasbro Interactive then Infogrames Interactive, releasing PC and console games. Labels that are not actual companies and/or subsidiaries: Atarisoft - used by Atari Inc. on non-Atari machine titles Tengen - used by Atari Games Corp. (while owned by Namco) on home video titles TimeWarner Interactive - used by Atari Games Corp. (while owned by TimeWarner) on home video titles Atari Interactive - used by Atari Corp. on PC game product. It's getting late and I'm tired. Can anyone think of anything else or correct anything? [ 08-24-2001: Message edited by: Rhindle The Red ]

quote: Originally posted by Burgel: If you have time, would you please send me the template too? I would love to play around with it. Elizabeth Done.

This seems an odd subject to come up now. All I've been reading in computer gaming magazines (such as Computer Gaming magazine ) is how the computer game market is dying because of the increasing popularity of console gaming. While some genres do well (RTS, Sims, etc.), they are niche products compared to the Marios, Zeldas, and Sonics of the world.

quote: Originally posted by El Destructo: So, I refuse to profit, or help anyone else profit, from these ads. But if he 'did the right thing' as you say and gets permission and/or a license from Infogrames, would you allow the use of your copies of the material?

I have just e-mailed you my end label template. As I stated in the e-mail, print with a width of 2.75 inches and it should fit perfectly.

I have just e-mailed you my end label template. It features the white border of the Atari text labels (for games that would require one), but it is easily removed. As I stated in the e-mail, print with a width of 2.75 inches and it should fit perfectly.

Wow! Quite an inflammatory topic heading for a rather pedantic message.

I wonder if they'll kill the Combat II auction as well.

quote: Originally posted by Eduardo: BTW when u click on Sunshine Lady & Jar Jars thumbnails it shows SWEpisode1Watto Thanks. Fixed. And I think someone had already done Doom 2600 and Quake 2600, but I've got a few more that I just need to find the archives for and restore, plus a few that I'm working on. Stay tuned.

Okay, I'd been seeing a lot of 'What If' cartridge images being posted or linked to recently, so I decided to get off my duff and put mine up on the Web. They are located at my homepage: Phil Frey's Exciting Interactive Online Theatrical Resume Because I can't trust GeoCities to let you go to the pages directly, enter the Site, scroll to the bottom of the resume and look under 'Special Skills.' Click 'Graphic Design' to get to the thumbnails page. Click on the thumbnails for the full image. (There's a special group of carts for you ColecoVision people out there.) Let me know what you think! I hope we're good like that.

quote: Originally posted by jurpar: Any chance DC did the final comic? None. I wrote to George Perez (the artist on the comics) myself. Here is his response: quote: There was no artwork drawn for the final chapter. I don't think it even got to the plot stage. Take care, GPz

Hey, I've been reading about Doom for the GBA lately, and it got me to thinking. What happened to that Lynx version of Wolfenstein 3-D that was being worked on? I know whoever it was had an official license to do it, so why was it never finished? Anyone know?

quote: Originally posted by rolenta: This is completely ridiculous to say that he made this up just so he could 'better' Willy Higinbotham. I disagree. My opinion is based on many articles and interviews with and about Ralph Baer. His references to thinking about video games prior to 1966 only began to appear after several video game web sites and magazines made reference to Higginbotham and his game. It seems incredibly coincidental that he should suddenly remember (or be reminded of) conceiving of video games in 1948 after a reasonable counter claim was made to his being first. Even now, his own web site merely mentions the 1966 patenting of video games and has no reference to 1948. I just find the validity of his story hard to accept. This does not even touch upon my other point: the dubious nature of how he defines a 'video game.' The definition he uses (given above) stems from a court case where Higginbotham's game was shown to have no relation to Baer's. But does that make it not a video game? Compare Baer's definition to this from the American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: quote: video game n. An electronic or computerized game played by manipulating images on a video display or television screen. The only possible reason I can think for Baer to doggedly stick to his definition is to keep the claim of Higginbotham at bay. I'll give him credit where it is due. I just don't want to give him more. I'll just call him "The Father of the Video Game Patent." That much is clear.

I'm certain there was an SNES paddle accessory for Super Arkanoid (I think that's the title.) Kaboom! would suck without one.

All I have to say about Mr. Baer is read the following quote from his own article: quote This is, of course, a legal definition and has little to do with reality. Baer brings up this issue because of a lawsuit by Nintendo to try and get out of paying for the patent (which I beleive has run out now, they do, you know). Nintendo used Willy Higginbotham's video game as an example of why they shouldn't have to pay for the Baer's patent. But the legal status of the type of video game the patent covers (which doesn't relate to Higginbotham) is irrelevant to the greater discussion of what is the first video game. Baer has a lot invested in this (beside the financial aspects). He bills himself as the 'Father of Video Games.' Never mind that he divies that up in the article mentioned, it is the way he always is billed for things like CGE: 'Father of Video Games." If Willy Higginbotham made a video game before Baer did, what does that make Baer? Even in the article where he divies up the title, he carefully points out that he was still first. He made the patent before either Steve Russell made Spacewar (to be the "Father of Computer Video Games") or Nolan makes Computer Space (as the "Father of Arcade Video Games"). But Baer is the "Father of Home Video Games" in Baer's estimation. And being first, he is still the "Father of Video Games" overall. But not if Willy Higginbotham made one first. Hence the ridiculous definition of a video game. If Baer's definition is correct, then all Game Boy, Lynx, Game Gear, etc. titles are not video games. If they are not video games then (pardon my French) just what the Hell are they? Call Famitsu and tell them to take Pokemon off their best sellers lists, cause Ralph Baer says they ain't video games. The final tenent of his disqualifying Willy Higginbotham as the "Father of Video Games" is, perhaps, the most insulting. That Higginbotham deserves no credit because he didn't intend it to be a commercial product. This is a slap in the face of an academic (whose mind obviosuly was not on the almighty dollar) from a shameless self-promoter who never did anything to really advance the industry. The fact is, Baer or no Baer, video games would have happened. I'm not sure that's true if there were no Nolan Bushnell. Baer saw a novelty product. Nolan saw an industry and a household institution. If Baer had not come along, Nolan would have found another way (or the same way from a different source) to fulfill his dream. If Nolan hadn't come alond, Baer's plans would have ended with the Odyssey. A moderately successful novelty item, over after its first run. As a final note, compare this statement from Mr. Baer's article: quote to this one from his interview with Good Deal Games quote Seems Willy has been creeping into the public's consciousness, so Ralph found an even earlier date for 'his' invention, so he could still be first.

I recently got a Xonox with no label on it, so I opened it up. (Thought I might make myself a Donkey Kong/Donkey Kong Jr. or Defender/Stargate double-ender for fun.) There are two completely separate boards inside, so there's no reason it wouldn't work at least electronically. I tried it for fit (because of the pins) and it seemed to make good contact. (I didn't use 'live' 2600s, just a couple I have lying around the basement.) Why you would want to do it on the other hand...

Sorry. It's late and I'm so tired, I couldn't help myself.