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Let's talk about Thexder!


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Sierra Online supported Atari till 1990 or 1991, Atari ST only at this point but still any Atari support is good.

 

My point being, they could still pick & choose what titles they wanted to bring to the Atari platforms like they did for the Apple II.

 

This was still being done by companies like Eypx for Spy vs. Spy 2 and the BoulderDash Construction Set (released under their Maxx play label) and FireBird for The Pawn, Guild of Thieves and Jinxter.

 

Thexder came out for the Apple II so an Atari version would definitely be possible. It was a shame this game wasn't considered because the Atari audience would've appreciated this title. These types of action games would've fit right in perfectly. Definitely a potential for a hit title on the Atari platform.

 

I was referring to Atari 8-bit, which I thought you were as well considering you referenced Mr. Cool. Obviously they supported the ST. Again, if they didn't bother to port it to the Commodore 64, there'd be no reason on Earth to port it to the Atari 8-bit. Of course they weren't great about supporting the C-64 by that time either, probably because of the 128k thing (not as much of an issue with Apple IIs, whose users did a good job of upgrading).

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I was referring to Atari 8-bit, which I thought you were as well considering you referenced Mr. Cool. Obviously they supported the ST. Again, if they didn't bother to port it to the Commodore 64, there'd be no reason on Earth to port it to the Atari 8-bit. Of course they weren't great about supporting the C-64 by that time either, probably because of the 128k thing (not as much of an issue with Apple IIs, whose users did a good job of upgrading).

 

Truth is, Sierra Online could've created a version of any game to any platform if they wanted to. There were reports that there's a version of Kings Quest 1 for the Commodore 128 that was never released somewhere out there so anything is possible. Kings Quest I, II and II was on the Apple II along with a couple of the Space Quest games so they were definitely cherry picking which 8-bit platforms they were supporting back then since the Commodore 64 had the biggest number of users.

 

King's Quest V made it to the NES and no one was expecting that to happen. I loved that game and definitely love having the NES version in my collection.

 

Atari owners even pushed for a Kings Quest I for the Atari 130XE. The old J&R Computer World catalogs (the huge one) even had the Atari 130XE as a version that would soon be available at one point alongside the rumored Commodore 128 version.

 

I was musing about an Atari version having the potential to be a nice hit regardless of any other platforms at the time. It would have been a nice to have (a great game to have been cherry picked for the Atari). A miss opportunity there for Atari owners.

Edited by TheGreatPW
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Unfortunately, Ken Williams, the President of Sierra On-Line, hated what he considered the toy-like computers from Atari and Commodore. He took a bath with 8-bit computer cartridges and after the crash practically never looked back. The AGI engine his company designed was as unfriendly to the Atari and Commodore computers as it could get. He did maintain a soft spot for Apple IIs, hence Thexder and almost the whole quest lineup for both the IIe/IIc and IIgs.

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I'm sure if Atari or Commodore funded development of the AGI engine and games, they would have appeared on the Commodore 128 and Atari 130XE, respectively, much like it did for the CoCo 3 (although those three game ports required 512k, rather than the stock 128K); ironically, Ken Williams has zero memory of the CoCo 3 versions, so it probably would have been the same result for the other platforms he didn't really care about. It ultimately wasn't worth it for Atari or Commodore, though, and probably wasn't a great loss, especially since the two "new" platforms Atari and Commodore were pushing had those games. It's not like having those games would have pushed many more sales of the 8-bits, either.

 

I'd also wonder aloud if it would even be worth it for Atari to fund anything specific to the 130XE considering it probably was a niche of a niche in terms of sales amongst the overall Atari 8-bit line. At least on the Commodore 128 side, there was a large user base to target.

Edited by Bill Loguidice
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I'm sure if Atari or Commodore funded development of the AGI engine and games, they would have appeared on the Commodore 128 and Atari 130XE, respectively, much like it did for the CoCo 3 (although those three game ports required 512k, rather than the stock 128K); ironically, Ken Williams has zero memory of the CoCo 3 versions, so it probably would have been the same result for the other platforms he didn't really care about. It ultimately wasn't worth it for Atari or Commodore, though, and probably wasn't a great loss, especially since the two "new" platforms Atari and Commodore were pushing had those games. It's not like having those games would have pushed many more sales of the 8-bits, either.

 

I'd also wonder aloud if it would even be worth it for Atari to fund anything specific to the 130XE considering it probably was a niche of a niche in terms of sales amongst the overall Atari 8-bit line. At least on the Commodore 128 side, there was a large user base to target.

 

IBM and Tandy essentially provided the funding for the AGI engine, and Ken Williams never forgot the company that propelled his company into the major leagues and the company that saved his team after a few bad managerial decisions. Hence support for some of those companies more marginal devices like the Tandy CoCo 3, the Game Blaster (marketed by Tandy), the IBM Music Feature Card, the PS/1 Audio/Game Card, PS/2 MCGA, continuing PCjr. support for years after its discontinuance

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  • 2 weeks later...

As a kid I lived in an area of the world where Apple II games weren't distributed, but we'd get a few of them brought by relatives. I first found out about Thexder in a Sierra catalog and it looked amazing. I mean this was the time when Robotech was all the rage so a robot transforming into a plane pushed just the right buttons.

 

Fast forward several years later and a neighbor had a copy for PC. I gave it a try but it wasn't as mind-blowing as I'd expected. Mind you this was a different time and we'd be playing early Lucasart SCUMM games. At least the game tune stayed with me aince then.

 

Last year I got it for Famicom, and finally made it to the second level. :)

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