2600 3D Rubik's Cube Discovered!

[Tempest]

Wow I go on vacation once a year and all the cool stuff happens... Ok I know you're all wondering why I haven't weighed in on this yet, and the answer is because I'm going to have very limited computer access over the next week. Expect a full Tempest report on Monday.

 

But I can say this, I know David Winter and I'd trust him. He's been around longer than I have and he really does have one awesome collection. I'm really impressed by this prototype. One has to wonder why no one ever knew about this until now. Makes you wonder what else is out there waiting to be discovered.

 

Just one question for you David, Where did you find this? Can you make a scan of the prototype itself? I'd love to have a picture of it for my page.

 

Tempest

[Nukey Shay]

It's cool...the only reason that it was doubted to begin with was that the method of creating that display was not very well known. Now that it was shown to be possible (by example), that removed any doubt whether the proto was fake (almost immediately after I made my "prediction" ). Always bet against me and you'll never lose!

[david.winter]

tempest wrote:

Just one question for you David, Where did you find this? Can you make a scan of the prototype itself? I'd love to have a picture of it for my page.

 

I found it 2 years ago from an ex atari employee, IF me memory is correct. Be both did not know it was the "3D" version, so indeed I did not pay $4000 for it. As for a picture: it came as a loose 2-eprom board, and there were no stickers on the eproms (yet it shows that there were some, but they didn't stick over the time).

 

My father just got a new digital camera that can do short videos. I will try to make a short mpeg video of that game in action on a real 2600.

 

 

Concerning the game:

You can rotate the whole cube in 3 directions to see the faces. Of course, you won't see an animation of the cube rotating. It's a one-shot color shift.

 

The "solve" option will solve the game by rotating the cube as with a real one, showing an arrow of the rotation used.

 

However, I still didn't manage to try it again to see if I can really rotate it manually with a real 2600.

 

Stay tuned and I'll bring more news sometime in january.

[Albert]

That reminds me...AtariAge could use a BattleZone forum

 

I know you're probably kidding (judging by the winking smiley), but that will never happen here.

 

..Al

[Nukey Shay]

Hehe...

Yes...I posted it after noticing the direction the discussion was taking

 

Results from the question of the afterlife:

God exists two falls to a submission

[MegaManFan]

Hehe...

Yes...I posted it after noticing the direction the discussion was taking

 

Besides which, I think it's covered by the Arcade Games section.

[FND]

For some reason I thought I saw this on E-Bay a while back, the reason It stuck in my mind was I noticed the 3D after the title and talked myself out of it figuring it was just a regular Rubik's cube ? But then again I am kinda

old and my mind could be playing tricks on me.

 

FND

[david.winter]

I noticed the 3D after the title

There was NO "3D" in the title, as the prototype board had nothing written on it. The seller tried the game, saw the title on screen and didn't notice it was in 3D. Or he didn't knew the 2D release...

[rolenta]

Baer did NOT invent video games; he invented a system to display video games on a raster-based CRT.

 

Last week, my family visited Edison's laboratory in West Orange NJ. Despite popular opinion, Edison DID NOT invent the light bulb. He invented a better light bulb and today most people attribute the light bulb to him.

 

Maybe Baer didn't write the first videogame, but he did come up with the idea for a commercial version of it and he was awarded the patent.

 

I'm on my way to visit him now. I'll send him everyone's regards

[FND]

I noticed the 3D after the title

There was NO "3D" in the title, as the prototype board had nothing written on it. The seller tried the game, saw the title on screen and didn't notice it was in 3D. Or he didn't knew the 2D release...

 

Sorry Dave

I really must be loosing it and mixing up my occasional video game dream and reality as I have no doubt what you say is the truth.

In the future I will try not to talk about things when my unreliable

memory is involved.

 

FND

[froggger2]

FND is correct that a 3-D Atari game was/is recently listed on e-Bay. It is the Atari 5200 Haunted House II 3-D Homebrew.

[rolenta]

Last week, my family visited Edison's laboratory in West Orange NJ. Despite popular opinion, Edison DID NOT invent the light bulb. He invented a better light bulb and today most people attribute the light bulb to him.

 

Maybe Baer didn't write the first videogame, but he did come up with the idea for a commercial version of it and he was awarded the patent.

 

To David Winter:

 

David, I had already told Ralph Baer what I wrote here, before your out-of-context message reached him. So tell me, what facts about videogame history am I wrong about?

[Nukey Shay]

Um...the thread's about a 3D cube.

< ducks >

[david.winter]

David, I had already told Ralph Baer what I wrote here, before your out-of-context message reached him. So tell me, what facts about videogame history am I wrong about?

 

To Rolenta:

 

The out of context message was a quick mail to Ralph (NOT a denunciation) to let him quickly explain you where you were right and where you were wrong.

 

I know you'er a VG historian and I was quite surprised to read your quote so I just mailed Ralph to let him tell you what was right & wrong. Hence why the message didn't appear here, yet I could have posted it too

 

Basically, you are right in the sense that the first game displayed on a screen dates 1952 and preceeded Ralph. However, you are wrong in the sense that the first VIDEO game was invented by Ralph. None of the pre-1966 games used video signals, so how can we consider them as video games ???

 

Nothing against you Lenny, don't worry

[david.winter]

Sorry Dave

I really must be loosing it and mixing up my occasional video game dream and reality as I have no doubt what you say is the truth.

In the future I will try not to talk about things when my unreliable  

memory is involved.

 

Forget it, we all happen to get confused someday.

 

See how I got confused with this 3D game: I got it 2 years ago, thought it was same as the original until I saw a screenshot on this site last week and then realized that it was different (after what I dumped the eproms and made the shots etc).

[rolenta]

Basically, you are right in the sense that the first game displayed on a screen dates 1952 and preceeded Ralph. However, you are wrong in the sense that the first VIDEO game was invented by Ralph. None of the pre-1966 games used video signals, so how can we consider them as video games ???

 

Sorry David, but I have to disagree with you and Ralph on this point (and I've gone over this with Ralph several times). Technically, a videogame is one that uses video signals and in that respect Ralph was first (as he always points out, Higinbotham used an oscilioscope). But today the term videogame goes beyond its technical origins. Thus, a Vectrex and Gameboy game both can be considered videogames. I draw the line between Computer games and videogames but this is only a personal preference, naturally there isn't any major difference between the two.

 

As far as my Edison reference, all I was saying was that even if Ralph wasn't the first (I'm not saying he was or wasn't and you know that Phoenix does mention Higinbotham and Russell), Ralph is still The Father of Videogames.

 

On a sidenote, three weeks ago, Entertainment Weekly, a magazine put out by Time, did a cover story about videogames. They mentioned in their timeline that Ralph did the first videogame console. I wrote them to thank them and told them that this was the first time I saw Ralph's acheievement acknowledged in a mainstream magazine. They wrote back and said they were considering printing my letter and if so, it should be out today.

 

On another sidenote, I have been trying to find out who first coined the term "Videogame". I asked Al Alcorn in August and he wasn't sure but he thinks it was Atari.

[david.winter]

More news about Rubik's Cube "3D" !!!

 

I tried the game again under Z26. Unless I'm wrong, the z26 guys didn't provide a doc so I played with the keys to see what would change the game behavior. So far I noticed the following:

 

Cube Solving seems to runs manual mode only:

I couldn't get the game to solve automatically as I recalled, so I guess I kept Fire pressed to see the cube solving continously. However, this mode works in a clever manner. You can put as many faces of the same color as you want. However, the game knows all original colors, even if you rotate and change them. If you put the right colors back, the game will solve again. Else, you will get a yellow background color if you try to solve after changing something. Technically, the program stores two colors for each face: the original color, and the one you see on the screen and that you can change in "Cheat" mode. This said, I didn't find a way to restore all original colors if you change them and don't recall the original ones... But what the heck, you cheat at your risks !!!!!!

 

Game plays in Cheat AND Real modes:

I also noticed that I could either play in cheat mode (where you switch the colors), or in real mode where you can rotate the slices or the cube. This is done using player 1 A/B switch.

 

 

Therefore, I think the game is quite complete, if not complete. It will obviously take a very long time until I play the game and see whether the 2600 does something once I have solved the cube myself, but who is going to play that long anyway ?

[Thomas Jentzsch]

More news about Rubik's Cube "3D" !!!

 

I tried the game again under Z26. Unless I'm wrong, the z26 guys didn't provide a doc..

There is a very good online help while you are in the game select menu (press F1) and the normal ZIP-file contains a file called readme.txt containing the full instructions.

 

Game plays in Cheat AND Real modes:

I also noticed that I could either play in cheat mode (where you switch the colors), or in real mode where you can only rotate the slices !

Are there any restrictions when changing the colors (or can you make the whole cube in one color)? If not, then I would guess the cheat mode was only for debugging purpose. Only with restrictions this mode makes sense in a finished game.

 

...but who is going to play that long anyway ?

[Nukey Shay]

Using the James Norse solutions, one should be able to solve even the most scrambled cubes in 300 or so moves.

 

Note: Switching the color manually of one cube would make an actual cube unsolvable. Does the game stay in this mode once it's been selected?

[Curt Vendel]

On another sidenote, I have been trying to find out who first coined the term "Videogame". I asked Al Alcorn in August and he wasn't sure but he thinks it was Atari.

 

Len,

 

In Atari's original advertisement for PONG, they do call the coin-op a "Video Skill Game" so that may be the first close reference in print to such a term.

 

 

Curt

[Inky]

I still wonder if this new discovery could be used to produce a better Zaxxon for the 2600....

[Nukey Shay]

The problem with Zaxxon is that the 2600 cannot 3/4 scroll the background. Desert Falcon does this scrolling for it's objects only (static background). How about a hack?

[david.winter]

Even more infos in this message !

 

There is a very good online help while you are in the game select menu (press F1) and the normal ZIP-file contains a file called readme.txt containing the full instructions.

 

True, I tried the emulator too fast, searched for keywords (except F1) until I read that I could run the emulator without argument and press F1 for the doc.

 

 

Are there any restrictions when changing the colors (or can you make the whole cube in one color)? If not, then I would guess the cheat mode was only for debugging purpose. Only with restrictions this mode makes sense in a finished game.

 

That's a good question, here's the answer: you can put as many sides of the same color as you want. However, the game will refuse to solve until all faces are put back to their original color. To test this, I changed some colors, rotated some slices and tried the solve mode, which failed and put a yellow background color. Once I put the correct colors back, the game would solve again. Therefore, each face has a dual-color memory: the original color (for solving), and the altered one. I couldn't find a mode to restore the original colors.

 

Also: the rotations are not straight. There is a "slide" effect in the sense that when you rotate a slice for example, the colors will shift three between faces. Same with the cube sides when you rotate the cube. That was pretty much needed to see how you rotate, because you can rotate in 6 directions, and the joystick would let you do 4 of them.

 

To finish, I think I was wrong in my previous post concerning the Solve option. I can't get it to work automatically, I think I did it by keeping Fire pressed to have the cube solving continuously. Anyhow...

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I still wonder if this new discovery could be used to produce a better Zaxxon for the 2600....

No, I don't think so. There is nothing really "new" for programmers.

 

The 3D cube is a very static display compared to the scrolling one Zaxxon requires.

[rolenta]

In Atari's original advertisement for PONG, they do call the coin-op a "Video Skill Game" so that may be the first close reference in print to such a term.

 

Curt,

 

Can you send me a scan of that?

 

Thanks!