Atari 2600 Boulder Dash (R) Announced!

[+Nathan Strum]

Well, since I already did renders of the box and cart...

 

[+Nathan Strum]

Can't go back and edit my post...

 

Fixed the texture map (should've used cubic UV mapping):

 

And rendered the whole set:

[+Random Terrain]

And rendered the whole set . . .

 

That's some cool looking Vaporware!

 

(I am not a Boulder Dash atheist. I believe it exists out there . . . somewhere.)

[Andrew Davie]

The manual has now been approved by First Star Software, with the comment "...looks GREAT! (Not sure I've ever seen another like it - indeed a GREAT item for collectors!)". While the manual is being printed, we await final approval by First Star Software of the final binary. This requires a cart in their hands (which is already on the way). Everything else is ready to go. No programming/manual design/artwork/boxes/anything... Just approval of the final binary, and printing of the manuals, and then we ship.

So, it's very very close now. Thank you for your patience.

Cheers

A

[Andrew Davie]

Can't go back and edit my post...

 

Fixed the texture map (should've used cubic UV mapping):

 

And rendered the whole set:

 

Nathan, how about rendering an OPEN manual? Not enough detail to read everything clearly, of course, but enough to get the gist...?

I'd suggest pages 6/7.

[+Nathan Strum]

Nathan, how about rendering an OPEN manual? Not enough detail to read everything clearly, of course, but enough to get the gist...?

I'd suggest pages 6/7.

 

I'll take a look... I didn't build a model of an open manual.

[fernando marrin]

And rendered the whole set . . .

 

That's some cool looking Vaporware!

 

(I am not a Boulder Dash atheist. I believe it exists out there . . . somewhere.)

 

so much for my christmas 2011 present...

Edited April 20, 2012 by fernando marrin

[Dino]

And rendered the whole set . . .

 

That's some cool looking Vaporware!

 

(I am not a Boulder Dash atheist. I believe it exists out there . . . somewhere.)

 

so much for my christmas 2011 present...

 

Are all those that reside south of the border sooks or just the ones that frequent AA?

[Albert]

so much for my christmas 2011 present...

 

Dude, stop complaining. Do you want me to refund your order?

 

..Al

[Andrew Davie]

Al, please just refund Fernando's money and cancel his pre-order immediately. I can't see any way to make him happy, but at least he'll have no more cause for complaint.

Obviously he has reason to be upset, and our efforts to keep people informed aren't improving that, so a refund is entirely warranted. Sorry, Fernando. I can only apologise so many times.

Cheers

A

[atari181]

Al, please just refund Fernando's money and cancel his pre-order immediately. I can't see any way to make him happy, but at least he'll have no more cause for complaint.

Obviously he has reason to be upset, and our efforts to keep people informed aren't improving that, so a refund is entirely warranted. Sorry, Fernando. I can only apologise so many times.

Cheers

A

NO SOUP FOR YOU!!!!!!!!!!!

[+SpiceWare]

I think he lives to complain - he keeps slamming the Harmony cart in other topics.

[ColecoDan]

I think he lives to complain - he keeps slamming the Harmony cart in other topics.

 

He also pissed off everyone in the colecovision forums. Not sure why he got an account if all he does is piss everyone off.

[Andrew Davie]

Let's not shoot the messenger here. Fernando was a customer of mine, so to speak, and has every reason to incessantly complain. I don't want to derail this thread with some sort of character assassination.

He'll get a full refund, we'll sell that cartridge to someone else, and everyone can move on to more important things. That's as close to a win-win as I can arrange.

Cheers

A

[mtshark7]

Let's not shoot the messenger here. Fernando was a customer of mine, so to speak, and has every reason to incessantly complain. I don't want to derail this thread with some sort of character assassination. He'll get a full refund, we'll sell that cartridge to someone else, and everyone can move on to more important things. That's as close to a win-win as I can arrange. Cheers A

 

 

Well I'm a customer and I'm not complaining

[+HatNJ]

Let's not shoot the messenger here. Fernando was a customer of mine, so to speak, and has every reason to incessantly complain. I don't want to derail this thread with some sort of character assassination. He'll get a full refund, we'll sell that cartridge to someone else, and everyone can move on to more important things. That's as close to a win-win as I can arrange. Cheers A

 

 

Well I'm a customer and I'm not complaining

 

Same here

[+Propane13]

I just wanted to say that this release looks better and better. Thank you for sharing the pictures.

My excitement over this just keeps growing.

 

To add to that, I am really excited about the positive feedback from FSS.

It seems like they actually are somewhat invested in the project, instead of just a "meh, you can release whatever you like" kind of attitude.

I say-- kudos to them for supporting the classic gamers out there. And, a mega-thanks goes out to those who coordinated this "official release".

This is something unheard of, and it's simply awesome.

 

I still really have some curiosity about what the testing room at FSS will look like. In my opinion, that would be a heck of a thing to document on film-- an actual software company's reaction to licensing an actual old-school video game. Heck, they probably could get crazy publicity if they filmed it and posted that video, or if they did playtesting within the company.

 

I picture a package coming in the mail with a few packages, a 2600 and controllers, and a note.

Then, they open the box, fiddle for awhile to hook it up to a TV, turn in on and-- well, I just expect an interesting reaction.

I hope that at that point, they invite their QA department full of college kids into the room and ask them to test.

 

Who knows what they're gonna do? But, I think they could really get some cool things happening.

I mean, google's april fools joke involved the 8-bit google maps--- this, however, is real.

 

Regards,

-John

[+Nathan Strum]

I still really have some curiosity about what the testing room at FSS will look like. In my opinion, that would be a heck of a thing to document on film-- an actual software company's reaction to licensing an actual old-school video game. Heck, they probably could get crazy publicity if they filmed it and posted that video, or if they did playtesting within the company.

 

I picture a package coming in the mail with a few packages, a 2600 and controllers, and a note.

 

Actually, here's another comment from FSS, related to that very thing:

Looking forward to playing the game on our original 2600 we've kept here all these years!

 

I smiled when I read that. Is that the 2600 that might have been used to originally test Boing? Could be!

 

Even so, the fact a software company has kept around a working 2600 all this time gives them some serious old-school gamer cred.

[Miss 2600]

Al, please just refund Fernando's money and cancel his pre-order immediately. I can't see any way to make him happy, but at least he'll have no more cause for complaint.

Obviously he has reason to be upset, and our efforts to keep people informed aren't improving that, so a refund is entirely warranted. Sorry, Fernando. I can only apologise so many times.

Cheers

A

NO SOUP FOR YOU!!!!!!!!!!!

 

So much for his Christmas 2012 present!

[+Random Terrain]

so much for my christmas 2011 present...

 

Dude, stop complaining. Do you want me to refund your order?

 

..Al

 

I thought he was joking. He's really serious?

[Amstari]

so much for my christmas 2011 present...

 

Dude, stop complaining. Do you want me to refund your order?

 

..Al

 

I thought he was joking. He's really serious?

 

I'm sure he is serious. He also complains about the Harmony cart not being powerful enough!

 

Next he will complain about Seaweed Assault being too random!

 

Fernando, you have to realise this a hobby for those involved, they do it in their spare time, sometime things can be delayed!

[+Nathan Strum]

Open, sez me:

 

[Rubio80]

Thanks for the pics, that manual looks great!

[+TrekMD]

That looks awesome!

[lapetino]

This is going to be a great release. I'm stoked about it. I was wondering, Albert -- do you have any plans to do a press release when this thing ships? I think the uniqueness of the 2600 release (officially licensed by a company, not a standard homebrew) might be worth writing about to some news outlets. At the very least, places like Gamasutra (http://www.gamasutra.com/) and Kotaku (http://kotaku.com/) seem like they would dig it. Just a thought, when "retro" 80s has really filtered into the mainstream.