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Looking for hard to find magazine TYPE IN GAME "Chicken Out"


seastalker

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That is a great idea, and yes it was a basic Snake type clone or Wrap Trap. I am 100% certain of the name "Chicken Out" (I have disks that borrowed some of the code to make multi-file directories boot automatically and can relist the menu by typing RUN"D:CHICKEN.OUT") and can describe it: It used the blue screen like when you boot an XL, with various colors to represent your character movement. One color was even the basic white like text. As you move, it made a repeated sound similar to holding down any character key in basic but slightly different pitch. It changed to a low buzz when you crashed into a wall of the trail left behind by you or your opponent. Three hits and it made a high pitched musical tone to indicate the game round ended.

 

The game IS listed on Atarimania but with no ROM dump/atr etc.

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I doubt Chicken Out was a type-in from one of the big magazines, Google would've found it otherwise. Maybe from an unarchived publication such as the ACE Newsletter?

 

Are you sure you typed in the program? The reference on Atarimania comes from an old list of pirated games. Author Bruce Adelstein worked on Lost Tomb and some of those cheap General Masters Corporation / ALA Software games so I guess it was most likely a public domain program from 1982 or 1983... or one of those lost budget ALA Software / K-Tek Software / PI Software commercial titles.

 

--

Atari Frog

http://www.atarimania.com

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Yup, totally agree with Atari Frog, most stuff has been lovingly typed in if it wasn't on disk and with emulators like Altirra allowing C&Ping from an OCR'ed source it speeds up the archiving of these type ins. So if it had been one of note I'm sure it would have made the places like Atarimania by now.

 

I hope it turns up, I'm still trying my avenues to find it and Aaron..

 

Who knows...

 

Paul..

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some of those users groups made software better than the 'commercial' stuff... In the beginning type ins and users groups were sometimes the only way people could get software, and was also how so many people learned how to program. The magazines paid for some of these programs, and we paid for them when buying them. Don't forget dues paid by users groups and how many of them bought and sold hardware and software at reduced cost.... This was a big deal at the time.

 

I did find outhouse for the trs and coco computers :) so we're getting somewhere.... It might be a candidate for a re-port ... lol

 

 

In any event there are a crap ton of Type ins out there that were good and are in magazines like Micro etc... that we don't currently have because they weren't in Atari centric magazines... it's amazing that this many years later so much could still be done. Chicken Out will turn up. The more we dig in strange places the more we will be rewarded. Don't be .... 'chicken' :)

Edited by _The Doctor__
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I am mostly certain it was a type in game but not 100%. The only other way we could have reasonably got hold of the game was it was one of those 'disk-only in a bag' bargain bin titles or it came bundled with a magazine. Whatever the format, I went through many web archived places and feel bad it seemed to have disappeared and I once had a copy. It's not the greatest game but it was a fun one to two-player game memory of mine.

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Atari Frog,

 

Atarimania has no dump of the game "Age of Adventure" which is 'Return of Heracles' and 'Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves' as a double sided compilation. I have this title but in .ATX format - Is that helpful? I'm still learning about some of the lesser used file extensions and yet know even how to convert them.

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So, had a discussion and have updated info: seems the game was a store bought bargain bin title with no artwork (disk in a bag- probably printed label), but it was fascinating in that it was coded in basic and you could LIST command the code. It had an AUTORUN code that we copied to make some of our own disks boot at startup with a directory. Our copy is likely with HOLMES in NZ, or at least its last whereabouts.

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  • 1 year later...

Nope, still nothing… As I wrote, it was on a list of pirated software so it's likely still "out there". 

 

Once again, I'd like to convince users with old to very old disk collections to dump everything they can before it's too late.

 

I missed the part where you stated it was actually a commercial release. It was probably something regional or even local. How did you find out?

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A while ago I asked my brother about it too. I found out about it merely by just having it back in the day.  It was the 80s in upstate NY. He said it was not a type in game but something we got from a bargain bin, probably at a mall's computer store, probably at a Babbage's or Electronic's Boutique. I don't ever remember a box, cover art, nor disk label and I do for most every title I had since we didn't have a ton of games. I think a store used to have a circular clearance bin of software titles like Aztec Challenge I think I got actually for 25 cents.  He was able to edit the text displayed in the game when a player crashed 3 times and died. We would laugh at writing something inappropriate only adolescent siblings would find funny.  Apparently,my brother found an interesting bit of code in the game he copied which made it easier to make a menu of software titles display on a disk or maybe auto-boot a title on his own work. 

 

I did find a video that displays the basic gameplay, though it is obviously neither the title nor Atari 8-bit platform shown. Imagine playing the following game on an 800xl, essentially using the regular blue boot up background and the two lines were white (maybe 2nd player was a darker shade): 

 

 

It's such a shame that this title was so nearly preserved, and I only have my personal memory and a mention on Atarimania anymore to verify it even existed. Maybe it was actually a local coder made the game and got a test of copies into a store that didn't sell and my family bought maybe the only copy?

Edited by seastalker
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Ah, its a tron game....

 

Righty, here's a link to a video I just made of what tron games I have in a Gamebase, I don't linger on the game screens long as I wanted to keep the file size so its just the game name and some screen shots.

 

It may not be in there but you never know, none were named chicken..File size is 5mb

 

https://mega.nz/#!ZxJiAIKb!PaxBOQAZK7ftE2ac5zCeWz-5_h6Jf9d_vlGEQEmlOpc

Edited by Mclaneinc
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Hello again!

The game was indeed called "Chicken Out" - I remember that crystal clearly and that was also before I ever saw that there is a mystery game with the title on the Atarimania page as linked earlier in the thread. I did go thru the video, and the closest it might resemble would be the simple blue background (like Atari Basic) seen in 'Barrier' at the start but with the simplicity and path sizing somewhere in the range of 'Tron II' and 'Zip!'

 

Such a simple game could likely be recreated very easily but it is a shame that the game (for now) has a lost in time status when it so nearly wasn't. Maybe if someone with a big following on youtube can mention a search for this title? You never know, someone might view it and say "oh sure- right here" and then send it off to be preserved or maybe upload it.

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  • 3 years later...

GREAT NEWS! After my initial June 2018 post, FIVE years later, this game 'Chicken Out' has been found and preserved! I had to spend some serious coin to do so for such primitive games, but for me it was worth it. Some info:

 

'CHICKEN OUT'

By Bruce Adelstein

ALA Enterprises,

General Masters Corporation 

Copyright 1983

 

...and!!! I am very happy to report that THREE other titles never dumped til now from ALA Enterprises have been preserved as well!!! I hope to share them immediately.

 

 

For download status updates (coming soon- I am scanning the instructions), please follow the end/latest page on this thread real soon:

 

 

 

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