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AtariAge Welcomes AtariSoft Programmer Matt Householder


thevnaguy

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There have been a couple reproductions of the Atari prototype game that have been made available on cartridge by different people. Marc O. has even produced a replica Atari orange box which is probably the one pictured in this auction.

 

As far as I know, no one has received the CollectorVision release yet and this is THE ONE that you will want to get.

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I think I would be slightly pissed to bid on a game advertised as "Moon Patrol" with a box that says Moon Patrol and when I got it have the screen come up saying "Matt Patrol."

 

The one in the auction is a cartridge repro of the well-known Matt Patrol prototype.

The one which will be released by CollectorVision is actually a hack of the Matt Patrol prototype, which makes it look more like the arcade game.

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I think I would be slightly pissed to bid on a game advertised as "Moon Patrol" with a box that says Moon Patrol and when I got it have the screen come up saying "Matt Patrol."

 

It's not just about a title screen! Wich was changed to Moon Patrol BTW

Graphics were changed as well to make it look like the arcade game

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I think I would be slightly pissed to bid on a game advertised as "Moon Patrol" with a box that says Moon Patrol and when I got it have the screen come up saying "Matt Patrol."

 

 

I asked the guy, and if i have well understood, the Title is Moon Patrol and there is other graphic changes to make look as Moon patrol. When i asked if it was done from a prototype , He says me , it is an Homebrew version of Moon Patrol... I think Daniel Bienvenu made a Hack of Matt Patrol few year ago to makes look like a more classic Moon Patrol , may be it is that one a cartridge.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm the guy who did the original Moon/Matt Patrol for ColecoVision in 1984.

It was canceled by Atarisoft 30 years ago just as I was finishing it up and was about to do the title screen.

I still have my original design/development notes - including my artwork and code.

I looked through them today and found the final approved box design and manual mark-up. I also found my title screen art for CV Joust.

I could code changes/improvements to CV Moon Patrol.

Anybody care? Any questions?

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I'm the guy who did the original Moon/Matt Patrol for ColecoVision in 1984.

It was canceled by Atarisoft 30 years ago just as I was finishing it up and was about to do the title screen.

I still have my original design/development notes - including my artwork and code.

I looked through them today and found the final approved box design and manual mark-up. I also found my title screen art for CV Joust.

I could code changes/improvements to CV Moon Patrol.

Anybody care? Any questions?

Welcome! I'm pretty sure lots of people will care and there will be lots of questions. :)

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I'm the guy who did the original Moon/Matt Patrol for ColecoVision in 1984.

It was canceled by Atarisoft 30 years ago just as I was finishing it up and was about to do the title screen.

I still have my original design/development notes - including my artwork and code.

I looked through them today and found the final approved box design and manual mark-up. I also found my title screen art for CV Joust.

I could code changes/improvements to CV Moon Patrol.

Anybody care? Any questions?

Matt, I just replied to your email :)

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Anybody care? Any questions?

Oh yeah! A lot of people around this forum will care and as soon as everyone notices that you have joined AA, i'm sure there will be a flood of questions and Retroillucid will come calling to ask if you are interested in joining the CollectorVision programmer's ranks! :lol:

 

Welcome to the AtariAge Forums!

 

As far as your unreleased version of Moon Patrol, it has been said that you customized a number of versions for co-workers and made cartridges for them after you learned that the game would not be released. One survived/was shared and this I'd how the game was finally shared with the community.... called Flying Broadsides originally as well as Matt Patrol. It was said this version was made for a female with certain physical traits. It would be interesting to learn if this story is indeed true.

 

Have been told that a complete Joust with full sound and Ms. Pac-Man prototypes might see a release.... any info you know about these that can be shared?

 

As far as Moon Patrol, AtariAge member Ikrananka has completed a hack of it that completes the title screen and changes a number of other game elements to match the arcade version more closely and this is the version that has been mentioned in this and other threads on here.

Edited by NIAD
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I didn't work on the Joust game -- just the logo for the title screen. Not sure if Larry Clague (CV Joust programmer) ever put it in his game.

 

After I submitted my Moon Patrol ROM for the "final" time -- and was waiting for manufacturing approval -- I started coding a CV art tool = Coleco Screen Editor (CSE).

Meanwhile, Larry wanted a nice-looking title screen for Joust. So, I finished my CSE tool and drew the Joust logo with it as a test-case.

The CSE code ran on the ZAX Z-80 emulator plugged into the ColecoVision -- so you could see your work on the TV -- which helped greatly for anti-aliasing and such. It used the CV controller for all functions.

CSE was designed to allow editing of 1/3 of the screen (top/middle/bottom) at a time. The other 2 (1/3) sections were for showing the character set and editing of 1 character in the character set.

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NIAD -- That's basically correct.

I made several customized copies of "Matt Patrol" for Atari colleagues - in particular - Helyett, who was in QA and had tested it for a month straight, and Selma, who was in marketing.

I remember I gave Helyett her copy, but Selma had been canned already. So, I kept that one (and I still have it).

I must have burned some customized copies for my fellow ColecoVision programmers -- like Larry Clague, Mike Hendricks, Dave Cartt, and Jim Eisenstein. But I don't recall exactly who got one.

 

The bra UFOs were just silliness. I had been a DEVO fan since 1978, hence the "energy domes".

 

I don't have final versions of Joust or Ms Pacman.

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This is an excellent day to be a ColecoVision fan and an AtariAge member! Welcome to our little island of ColecoVision fandom, Matt! :)

 

NIAD has already asked the more "pressing" questions, so my only question is whether you have worked on any other ColecoVision game besides Moon Patrol. Also, would it be possible to have a sneak peek at your Joust title screen? This CSE tool sounds fascinating. :)

 

EDIT: And kudos to you, dear sir, for keeping your source code of CV Moon Patrol all these years. Many other programmers ditched their source code when the companies they worked for went under, back in the day.

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This is an excellent day to be a ColecoVision fan and an AtariAge member! Welcome to our little island of ColecoVision fandom, Matt! :)

 

NIAD has already asked the more "pressing" questions, so my only question is whether you have worked on any other ColecoVision game besides Moon Patrol. Also, would it be possible to have a sneak peek at your Joust title screen? This CSE tool sounds fascinating. :)

 

EDIT: And kudos to you, dear sir, for keeping your source code of CV Moon Patrol all these years. Many other programmers ditched their source code when the companies they worked for went under, back in the day.

I did not work on other ColecoVision games. I was a month into designing a scrolling engine to port Vanguard to ColecoVision when I was switched to Moon Patrol instead.

I have hand-written/drawn notes on my code and the other design data -- I don't have source code, as such. But I could dis-assemble my Matt Patrol ROM and produce source code.

The Joust title screen does not exist, but I have my hand-drawn notes on how to render the Joust logo on the ColecoVision.

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Welcome, Matt!

Atarisoft was ironically the most skilled bunch producing games for the CV, so it is indeed a honor to have you here and have the chance to ask questions. That means we can now hopefully track back who was working on which games at Atarisoft...

 

So we have the 4 released games: Defender, Centipede, Jungle Hunt and Galaxian

And the prototypes: Moon Patrol, Pac-Man, Dig Dug and Joust

 

And we have names: Larry Clague, Mike Hendricks, Dave Cartt, Jim Eisenstein and of course Matt Householde.

 

And we now know that Larry Clague was working on Joust. How about the remaining games, or games not in this list?

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Indeed, the games developed by AtariSoft for the ColecoVision are amongst the best for the system, especially Galaxian and Moon Patrol. There definetely wasn't anything held back as far as AtariSoft programmers' efforts which actually is something that has been suggested by the masses that Coleco purposely made inferior versions of their games for the 2600 and Intellivision... we all know much better now that it was mostly just the ridiculous time constraints put on the programmers.

 

As far as other AtariSoft games in development or planned, there are only a couple of others that I can link of including Missile Command (supposedly there is a title screen demo rom out there somewhere), Pole Position, Robotron: 2084 (would have loved to have seen this one with two controller support using the Roller Controller to house the controllers), StarGate and Vanguard that Matt mention.

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Welcome, Matt!

Atarisoft was ironically the most skilled bunch producing games for the CV, so it is indeed a honor to have you here and have the chance to ask questions. That means we can now hopefully track back who was working on which games at Atarisoft...

 

So we have the 4 released games: Defender, Centipede, Jungle Hunt and Galaxian

And the prototypes: Moon Patrol, Pac-Man, Dig Dug and Joust

 

And we have names: Larry Clague, Mike Hendricks, Dave Cartt, Jim Eisenstein and of course Matt Householde.

 

And we now know that Larry Clague was working on Joust. How about the remaining games, or games not in this list?

Defender - Chris Merkel (not sure of spelling)

Centipede - Larry Clague

Jungle Hunt - Dave Cartt

Galaxian - Jim Eisenstein

 

Moon Patrol - Matt Householder

Pac-Man - Mike Hendricks

Dig Dug - Larry Clague (w/Mike Hendricks?)

Joust - Larry Clague (w/Mike Hendricks?)

Ms Pac Man - Jim Eisenstein

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