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pacman000

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Posts posted by pacman000

  3. Posted

    Another quick description, from memory:

     

    Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

     

    Side-scrolling shooter. Pilot a snow speeder over the ice planet of Hoth trying to defend the Rebel Base from the Empire's Walkers. Each Walker takes several hits to destroy, but your ship can take multiple hits too. You can land for a limited number of repairs. Has parallax scrolling. One of the more highly-regarded Star Wars games for the VCS.

     

    (It looks like you don't have the complete manual for this game. I think I have it at home. I can't provide scans, but I might be able to take pictures. Do you need such?)

  4. Posted · Edited by pacman000

    Forgive me if this is a bit terse, but I haven't played this game much. If someone needs an exact description, the manual's available:

     

    Sky Skipper

     

    Vertically-scrolling maze game based on the rare Nintendo arcade game. Fly around the maze avoiding walls and clouds. Gorillas have locked several animals in cages. Free the animals by shooting the gorillas, then grab the animals before the cages close to advance to the next, faster level. You have a limited amount of time to successfully complete a level.

     

    Trivia: The arcade version of this game may never have been released. The boards may have been converted to Popeye boards.

     

    KLOV article on the arcade version: http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=9575

     

    History of the arcade game, with information on an restoration attempt: http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2017/06/sky_skipper_arcade_restoration_revealed_to_the_world

  5. Posted

    The Alien movies have great atmospheric music in the background! Several albums and compilations have been released throughout the years of James Horner, Jerry Goldsmith's, etc. scores. And, something I just remembered... the music is so good (eerie and spooky, especially great this time of year), that the soundtracks are available on the Blu-ray versions of the movies as isolated scores. In other words and besides the Director's Cuts, you get the movie AND the soundtrack on the same disc. Wish more movies and studios gave you that kind of value. :love:

     

    So there you go, can listen to the official Alien soundtracks while playing AvP if you want. ha

    You're right; I'm listening to it right now. Curse my memory! (And bless YouTube.)

  6. Posted

    AvP is definitely one game where I don't miss music. It's more eerie just having background sound effects.

    I don't remember Alien, Aliens, or Alien 3 having much music. It's probably appropriate for the games to follow the movies' examples.

  8. Posted

     

    What I object to is elevating it as the end-all-be-all perfect programming language (as you sometimes seem to be doing), with such flexibility to invite the novice and support the expert. I disagree with this because BASIC has many flaws and does not lend itself to learning good habits, which in my mind is very important for a novice; and for experts, there are many other languages better suited to advanced applications and higher cognitive thinking.

    On the contrary, BASIC's flaws help one learn good habits. As soon as someone tries to debug a program they wrote, they think "Well, maybe I shouldn't have used GOTO so often." ;)

    • Like 2

  13. Posted

     

    Not every day you get a reply to a 4.5 year old forum post icon_razz.gif Maybe what we need is a generation between the 2nd and 3rd? I think we're stuck at the current numbering though.

     

    Example

     

    Generation 2: Fairchild VES/Channel F, RCA Studio II, Atari 2600, Magnavox Odyssey 2, 1292 Advanced Programmable Video System and clones, Bally Astrocade, Intellivision

    Generation 2.5: Colecovision, Atari 5200, Vectrex, Arcadia 2001, the Intellivision III would end up here had it actually been finished and released

    Generation 3: NES, Master System, Atari 7800

    Wikipedia used to divide the generations up like that. I never really liked it; the Arcadia was meant to compete with the 2600; the 5200 was meant to compete against the Intellivision. If we divided the generations that way it wouldn't correctly represent what was happening in the market.

     

    If we did divide it that way, wouldn't we need generation 4.5 to cover the CDi, 3DO Jaguar, and other mid-90's systems?

  16. Posted

    Here's a breakdown of what happened, from their forum:

     

     

    Executive summary
    Everything is now back to normal. All of the site's sections are available and accessible. This includes the forum and the other sections of the site. Joe, the store, and the museum are good too.

    Timeline breakdown

    • Aug - Oct: Joe, the site's owner, accidentally doesn't pay the bill for this site's hosting to its Web host, DreamHost.
    • Oct 10: Everything hosted by DreamHost "disappears" due to non-payment. The forum is hosted at DigitalOcean so it continues. (Everything DP can't be stored at DigitalOcean due to file size concerns with the hosting plan.)
    • Oct 12: I, the site's admin, notice the missing parts of the site and write an e-mail to Joe. I also write about what's happening on the forum.
    • Oct 13: Still not having heard from Joe, I call his phone number. The number is disconnected. I call the museum. I talk to John Hardie. I explain. He takes a note to convey to Joe. I ask for Joe's phone number. I am given a dummy phone number meant for solicitors, yet I don't know that's what it is at the time. I call the dummy number and it endless rings with no answer. Meanwhile, Joe gets the message from John about the site's situation. At this time, I am talking with one of the store's employees who says she will also convey my memo to Joe. Joe attempts to send a text message to my phone number - however, it is a number that doesn't have text messaging service as it is a "regular phone number," so the message silently disappears into the void. Joe pays a DreamHost bill that is for another Web site of his (not the digitpress.com group) and presumes that the situation is resolved as he doesn't hear from me afterward.
    • Oct 15: Still not having heard from Joe, I call the dummy number 2 - 3 times throughout the day. Concerned, I make a post about the situation here at the forum.
    • Oct 19: The store's employee(s), having a meeting with Joe (over the phone I guess), mention the "sites are missing" situation.
    • Oct 19/20: Joe, having spoken with PapaStu (a longtime mod here), delves back into his records, and realizes that there is another DreamHost account to pay (the digitpress.com one). He pays the bill. The non-forum site sections are restored to the Internet.
    • Oct 20: Joe writes an e-mail to me in the morning, explaining some things from his side. He gives a current cell phone number in the message. I call and we discuss things further. Everything is smoothed.

    What now?
    For now, things go back to normal. Though I have some backup copies, I am going to make additional, more recent copies and of everything both recent and old. I have a slow Internet connection, so I'll first make an off-site backup of these servers to my server, then copy that to my local computer. Later, I'll still research migrating an offline copy of this forum from vBulletin to phpBB... you know, Just-in-Case.

  18. Posted

     

    But even 2600 Ms Pacman didn't exactly have a black background either, but they managed to find a color scheme that wasn't completely terrible.

     

    Also this alleged policy makes no sense given that they made Pacman for the 800 + 5200 with black backgrounds around the same time

    As I understand it Atari was split up into several different divisions, each with their own marketing department, management structure, finance department, etc. It's conceivable that the Home Computer Division and the Home Video Game Division worked under a different set of rules.

  19. Posted

    In reference to something RandomTerrain said:

     

    I read an essay once which suggested Atari's poor Pac-Man port hurt the public's confidence in video games, or at least Atari. The author compared reviews of games before and after Pac-Man. The reviews from before tended to defend games as if to justify them as a legitimate hobby; the reviews after tended to pick the game apart. Even if the game got good reviews the reviews seemed jaded; the reviewers had to remind everyone how bad Pacman was

     

    Here it is: http://www.8bitrocket.com/2017/04/05/pac-man-electronic-games-magazine-and-the-exact-moment-atari-lost-the-video-game-war/

    • Like 4

  21. Posted

    some other early non-space games with black backgrounds, and I'm sure there's a few more:

     

    Basketball

    Breakout (Super Breakout apparently takes place in outer space - lol)

    Dodge 'Em

    Missile Command

    Night Driver

    Pengo

    Taz

    In later levels Missile Command has colored backgrounds. Besides, I always thought the cities you were defending were space colonies. :)

  24. Posted

     

    http://jwcody.tripod.com/Goodbye

     

    Goodbye

     

    Did you hear anyone say "Goodbye"? ================================== by Donald A. Thomas, Jr. (10/4/96) It's odd to imagine an institution, which was as big and as powerful as Atari once was, to have been shut down in recent days. The real amazement for me is that it was all accomplished without a measurable flinch from within or outside the gaming industry. I can understand that gamers wanted to push Pong out the door early in the timeline. I can appreciate that the classics such as Missile Command and Asteroids do not push 32-bit and 64-bit systems to any technological limits. I know all these things intellectually, but the heart cannot face the truth that the world and the corporate machine known as Atari could not find an amicable way to coexist. On Tuesday, July 30, 1996, Atari Corporation took each and every share of it's company (ATC), wrapped them all in a tight bundle and presented them to JTS Corporation; a maker and distributor of hard disk drives. On Wednesday, the shares were traded under the symbol of JTS. Within a few weeks, the remaining staff of Atari that were not dismissed or did not resign, moved to JTS' headquarters in San Jose, California. The three people were assigned to different areas of the building and all that really remains of the Atari namesake is a Santa Clara warehouse full of unsold Jaguar and Lynx products. It was only as long ago as mid '95 that Atari executives and staff believed things were finally taking a better turn. Wal*Mart had agreed to place Jaguar game systems in 400 of their Superstores across the country. Largely based on this promise of new hope and the opportunities that open when such deals are made, Atari invested heavily in the product and mechanisms required to serve the Wal*Mart chain. But the philosophical beliefs of the Atari decision makers that great products never need advertising or promotions, put the Wal*Mart deal straight into a tailspin. With money tied up in the product on shelves as well as the costs to distribute them to get there, not much was left to saturate any marketplace with advertising. While parents rushed into stores to get their kids Saturns or PlayStations, the few that picked up the Jaguar were chastised by disappointed children on Christmas day. In an effort to salvage the pending Wal*Mart situation, desperate attempts to run infomercials across the country were activated. The programs were professionally produced by experts in the infomercial industry and designed to permit Atari to run slightly different offers in different markets. In spite of the relatively low cost of running infomercials, the cost to produce them and support them is very high. The results were disappointing. Of the few thousand people who actually placed orders, many of them returned their purchases after the Holidays. The kids wanted what they saw on TV during the day! They wanted what their friends had! They wanted what the magazines were raving about! In early 1996, Wal*Mart began returning all remaining inventory of Jaguar products. After reversing an "advertising allowance" Atari was obligated to accept, the net benefit Atari realized was an overflowing warehouse of inventory in semi-crushed boxes and with firmly affixed price and security tags. Unable to find a retailer willing to help distribute the numbers required to stay afloat, Atari virtually discontinued operations and traded any remaining cash to JTS in exchange for a graceful way to exit the industry's back door. Now that JTS has "absorbed" Atari, it really doesn't know what to do with the bulk of machines Atari hoped to sell. It's difficult to liquidate them. Even at liquidation prices, consumers expect a minimal level of support which JTS has no means to offer. The hundreds of calls they receive from consumers that track them down each week are answered to the best ability of one person. Inquiries with regard to licensing Atari classic favorites for other applications such as handheld games are handled by Mr. John Skruch who was with Atari for over 13 years. In spite of Nintendo's claim that their newest game system is the first 64-bit game system on the market, Atari Corporation actually introduced the first 64-bit system just before Christmas in 1993. Since Atari couldn't afford to launch the system nationwide, the system was introduced in the New York and San Francisco markets first. Beating the 32-bit systems to the punch (Saturn/PlayStation), Atari enjoyed moderate success with the Jaguar system and managed to lure shallow promises from third-party companies to support the system. Unfortunately, programmers grossly underestimated the time required to develop 64-bit games. The jump from 8-bit and 16-bit was wider than anticipated. In addition, Atari was already spread thin monetarily, but were required to finance almost every title that was in development. After the initial launch, it took Atari almost a year before an assortment of games began to hit store shelves. Even then, having missed the '94 Holiday Season, many of the planned titles were de-accelerated to minimize problems caused by rushing things too fast. Consumers were not happy and retailers were equally dismayed. The few ads that Atari was able to place in magazines were often stating incorrect release dates because that information changed almost every day although magazines deadline their issues up to 120 days in advance. It was in 1983 that Warner Communications handed Jack Tramiel the reins of Atari. By this time, Atari was often categorized as a household name, but few households wanted to spend much money on new software and the systems were lasting forever. No one needed to buy new ones. That, combined with Warner's obscene spending, amounted to a *daily loss* of over $2 million. Atari was physically spread all over the Silicon Valley with personnel and equipment in literally 80 separate buildings; not considering international offices and manufacturing facilities. Mr. Tramiel took only the home consumer branch of Atari and forced Warner to deal with the arcade division separately. Within a few years, Jack took the company public, introduced an innovative new line of affordable 16-bit computers and released the 7800 video game system. To accomplish these miracles for Atari, Jack implemented his "business is war" policies. While people who publicly quoted his statement often felt that policy meant being extremely aggressive in the marketplace, the meaning actually had closer ties to Tramiel's experience as a concentration camp survivor. Of the 80 buildings in Sunnyvale, Santa Clara and Milpitas, almost every one of them were amputated from Atari's body of liabilities. The people, the work, the heritage, the history were fired or liquidated. Those who survived were unsympathetically required to fill in the gaps and while most tried, few actually found a way to be successfully do what a dozen people before them did. Atop the mountain, Jack pressed with an iron thumb. All Fed/Ex mailings were required to be pre-approved by one of a handful of people. "Unsigned" purchase orders went unpaid regardless of the urgencies that inspired their creation. Employees found themselves spending valuable time trying to find ways around the system to accomplish their jobs. Many of them lost their jobs for bending the rules or never finding a way to make things work. As horrible as it all sounds, it actually was the only way to protect Atari as a company and give it a chance to survive as it did and did very well. Jack's introduction of the 16-bit computer was initially hearty in the United States but it went extremely well in Europe. Europeans were not accustomed to "affordable" technology and although the Atari computers were not IBM compatible, it didn't matter because people could afford them. Jacks' private laugh was that the computers were sold at prices much higher in Europe than Americans were willing to pay. As a result, most of the machines made were being shipped to European destinations to capture the higher margin. This enraged the people in the United States that had been Atari loyalists. While waiting months for stores to take delivery domestically, international magazines were touting ample supplies. Those in the know within the U.S. became dismayed. The remainder never knew Atari was slowly abandoning the value of Atari's name recognition as it became easier and easier to forget some assuming Atari had long filed for bankruptcy. On a technical level, Atari 16-bit computers were designed beyond their time. For less than $1,000, consumers could enjoy "multimedia" before the phrase was ever really widely used. The icon-based working environment proceeded Windows popularity although the essential attributes of the two environments were very similar. MIDI was built-in and became an instant hit in the high-end music industry. Tasks were activated and manipulated with a mouse and the system accepted industry standard peripherals such as printers, modems and diskettes. With all the genius that went into the technology of the machines, very little of equivalent genius went into the promoting and marketing the machines. Mr. Tramiel was the founder of Commodore Business Machines. When he introduced the PET computer in 1977, Jack discovered he didn't have to call a single publication. Instead they all flocked to his door demanding an opportunity to see the product. News magazines. Science Journals. Business newsletters. Newspaper reporters. They were all there with microphone, camera and pen in hand. And they kept coming back. Adding a switch, announcing a new 4K application or signing a new retailer were all big stories the press wanted to handle. Today, a new video game announcement may generate a request from any of the dozens of gaming magazines for a press release, but a lot of costly work has to be done to assure fair or better coverage. Editorial people are literally swamped with technical news. Samples are mailed regularly to their attention. Faxes fly in through the phone lines and e-mail jams up their hard drives. It takes a lot to grab their attention. While Atari retained hopes to be successful with the Jaguar, Atari's marketing people were fighting established standards in the industry with severe handicaps. Since cartridges (the Jaguar was/is primarily a cartridge-based system) were so expensive, editorial people were required to return them before new ones would be sent. Editorial people like to assign review projects. So finding cartridges they sent out was not always easy to do. Additionally, reviewers often love their work because they get to keep what they write about. Regardless, the few magazines willing to cover Atari products were more often turned away because of a lack of programmable cartridges or any number of other indecisive barriers. In-store signs and posters were sometimes created, but many retail chains charge premiums to manufacturers that want to display them. Some direct mail campaigns were implemented, but Atari often could not afford to keep those things being advertised on schedule. Therefore, the advertisements were published and distributed, but the product was not available. Clearly, Jack's experience with the world beating a path to the door of a company making a better mousetrap no longer applied. The world had revolved a few times beneath him and he never noticed. The tactics used to successfully sell Commodore computers were simply antiquated notions from the past. Meanwhile, Sony launches the PlayStation with over $500 million in marketing funds. Today, the PlayStation is considered the most successful next-generation gaming machine throughout the world. Sony bought the market. Tramiel's Atari never learned how to do that. Actually, they never could afford it anyway. After the 1990's got underway, Europe as well as the rest of the world, discovered that IBM-compatible computers were becoming more powerful and more affordable. The world always did want computers at home just like in the office and companies like Dell and Gateway exemplified the industry's trend toward home-based office computers. As a result, companies like Commodore, Atari and Next couldn't compete any longer. While the dedicated user base of each of them felt abandoned by these companies having to leave the computer market, the inevitable prevailed. Commodore jumped ship, Next changed business goals completely and Atari invested what they had left in the Jaguar game system. Even today, Apple is kicking and screaming. As good as Apple was at creating a huge niche for themselves, they focused more heavily on education. When kids grow up and get jobs, they want business machines. IBM was always the business standard. When one examines the history of Atari, an appreciation can grow for how many businesses and people were a part of the game over the years. Chuck E. Cheese Pizza was started by Atari's founder, Mr. Nolan Bushnell. Apple Computer was born in a garage by ex-Atari employees. Activision was founded by Ace Atari programmers. The list goes on and on. But for some pathetic reason Atari's final days came and went with no tribute, no fanfare and no dignified farewells. Why? Where did all the talent go? Where are all the archives? Where are the vaults? Where are the unpublished games and where are the originals of those that were? Why has no company stepped forward to adopt the remaining attributes Atari has to offer? Where are the creditors? What has happened to all the properties and sites? Where are the databases, warranty cards, promotional items, notes on meetings, unanswered mail? Who owns P.O. Box 61657? Who goes to work in Atari's old offices? Where do consumers have their systems fixed? Who is publishing new games? Who still sells Atari products? Why are there still a lot of people talking about Atari on-line? I'm an ex-Atari employee and proud to have been. I'm still an Atari devotee and proud to be. To me, these are questions which all deserve an answer, but who will ask them? The best people to ask these questions are those who have exposure to the public. If you believe Atari left us without saying goodbye, contact Dateline at [email protected] If you REALLY believe, then send this article to 10 of your friends in e-mail. AND if YOU REALLY, REALLY believe, mail a few to newspapers or other news programs. A letter in your own words would be great! I'd spend money for a thorough retrospect on Atari. Wouldn't you? Wouldn't it at least be nice to say "Goodbye"? --Don Thomas [email protected] 209/239-3898

    • Like 2
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