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Keystone Kapers II Found


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Hi Supergun and ROM Hunter,

 

Thanks for writing. Keystone Kapers was a brilliant game created by my Garry Kitchen. When I started working on my "train game", it seems natural to bring Keystone back into action.

 

Regarding those unknown Activision games, they look to me like ones that were done by the Boston Design Center which was opened about a year after we started the Activision's Eastern Design Center. That group worked on a number of games that didn't make the "Activision" quality cut. I'll try to dig up the names of the programmer who were part of that center.

 

There doesn't exist any additional materials on Keystone Cannonball. The game never made it out of our East Coast Office to the marketing group in California.

 

Thanks for reaching out!

 

Dan Kitchen

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Hi Supergun and ROM Hunter,

 

Thanks for writing. Keystone Kapers was a brilliant game created by my Garry Kitchen. When I started working on my "train game", it seems natural to bring Keystone back into action.

 

Regarding those unknown Activision games, they look to me like ones that were done by the Boston Design Center which was opened about a year after we started the Activision's Eastern Design Center. That group worked on a number of games that didn't make the "Activision" quality cut. I'll try to dig up the names of the programmer who were part of that center.

 

There doesn't exist any additional materials on Keystone Cannonball. The game never made it out of our East Coast Office to the marketing group in California.

 

Thanks for reaching out!

 

Dan Kitchen

 

Many thanks, Dan!

 

Looking forward to the programmer names of the Boston Design Center.

 

8)

 

 

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I would be somewhat curious if any of the materials produced by the East Activision division still exist, whether on floppy discs or as eprom prototypes. Any games, complete or not, would be major finds from a historical perspective. As far as playability, they might be gems or steaming piles.

 

It would be worth investigating the possible wearabouts or existence of any materials produced. Sadly it is likely they were destroyed some time ago but you never know when stuff crops up. This is the first I have heard of this division. Thank you for sharing.

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No, but it has been determined that both games will be sold thru Tiki Interactive, which is Dan's company.

I have no qualms buying from reputable people. I look forward to the release. :)

 

Website appears to be just a placeholder with contact form at this time. Hopefully good stuff will come down the road.

https://www.tikiinteractive.com

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I finally located my Keystone Kapers review cartridge.

Perhaps this very cartridge was once in your brother Garys hands?!

 

post-17556-0-12253100-1537648388.jpeg

 

It came with these early instructions as well:

 

post-17556-0-20378700-1537648397.jpeg

 

Usually these are the same as final. But Ill play test it tonight to be sure.

 

(Garys actually. Sorry, wrong kitchen!)

Edited by Supergun
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Hi guys! Thanks again for the comments from Arenafoot, AtariLeaf, Supergun, Kosmic Stardust and Rom Hunter!

 

Regarding the Eastern Designer Center, Garry and I join Activision with three other programmers in 1981 and were based in New Jersey at the time. Instead of moving to Santa Clara, California, Activision decided to allow us to open the Activision Eastern Design Center. We were the first of a few satellite design offices they eventually opened. When Garry and I left Activision in 1986, we formed a development company called Imagineering which produced many games (C64, NES, SNES, 2600, Genesis, etc.) for a number of different publishers such as THQ, Acclaim, Activision and Atari. We eventually started Absolute Entertainment and started publishing our own games. Most of the equipment from our Activision Eastern Design Center was acquired and used by us at Absolute, while much of our original Activision development hardware and promotion materials from the early 1980's have been donated to our friends at the National Video Game Museum.

 

Keystone II will be published through my new retro game publishing company, "TikiVision". Tiki Interactive (which has a temporary web page up at the moment) is my development company which creates art assets for a number of publishers of F2P games PC & mobile. TikiVision will have a new site up soon.

 

I am doing some research and putting together a list of the guys that worked in the Activision Boston Designer Center and will post it here when complete.

 

Regarding the Keystone Kapers review cart, that is very cool to have! It probably did come from our office as we used to burn EPROM versions of our game for the marketing team to pass among to the video game magazine reviewers and the press.

 

Thank you again for all your support and comments. Keep 'em coming!

Edited by TikiDan
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Glad to know the articles in question are being documented and preserved. :thumbsup:

 

Neat to see how development studios evolve. Many folks believe a company (or it's assets) cease to exist when they disappear. Sounds like you nailed it with the Absolute deal. Lots of great games across a span of systems...

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Once again, I wanted to thank everyone for your accolades, support and comments.

 

I actually have a question for all of you that I would love your opinion on:

 

I'm thinking of starting a Kickstarter campaign for Keystone II (and potentially my other 2600 games to follow) to pre-sell the game and raise the funds for the game's manufacturing. I'm thinking about offering different pledge rewards that include:

 

- Receiving only the cartridge

- Receiving the cartridge with a box and full color manual

- Receiving a limited edition signed copy of the cartridge

- Receiving a full size poster with the boxed game

- Participating with me in the design of the game by designing an enemy character that I'll program into the game

- Securing an invitation to the game's launch event (date & location TBD)

 

As retro game players, collectors, historians and experts, I'd love to know what you think about a Keystone II Kickstarter Campaign.

 

Thank you in advance for your valuable feedback!

 

Dan K.

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Once again, I wanted to thank everyone for your accolades, support and comments.

 

I actually have a question for all of you that I would love your opinion on:

 

I'm thinking of starting a Kickstarter campaign for Keystone II (and potentially my other 2600 games to follow) to pre-sell the game and raise the funds for the game's manufacturing. I'm thinking about offering different pledge rewards that include:

 

- Receiving only the cartridge

- Receiving the cartridge with a box and full color manual

- Receiving a limited edition signed copy of the cartridge

- Receiving a full size poster with the boxed game

- Participating with me in the design of the game by designing an enemy character that I'll program into the game

- Securing an invitation to the game's launch event (date & location TBD)

 

As retro game players, collectors, historians and experts, I'd love to know what you think about a Keystone II Kickstarter Campaign.

 

Thank you in advance for your valuable feedback!

 

Dan K.

 

If Atariage is interested in it why not just let Atariage sell your game so you don't have to worry about any of that . Top notch quality for product and service .

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Potentially, I guess he could handle the release both ways. Maybe have Albert here at AtariAge selling the bulk of the cartridges made, with the average consumer being the customer base. But then also set aside a few of them, bundled with extras & such, geared & marketed towards the extreme collectors of the community.

 

Plus I think Dan might be thinking long term here. As in, rather then just the highly anticipated Keystone Cannonball game, hes thinking about possibly several future releases down the road.

 

For example, maybe a Crackpots 2 could be in the works! Anything is possible. I mean, this is unchartered territory. Imagine that. Official & legit ex-2600 programmers spending their retirement years programming games again for the classic & beloved 2600.

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As I understand it, the AA store uses re-purposed shells. If these games are being created using brand new 3D printed shells, that's not something Albert is doing AFAIK. At least not yet. Also isn't there a plan to use Activision style shells which again, Albert doesn't deal with.

 

Having said that, if there's a way to get these sold through the AA store I'm all for it. There's no better or more experienced team for making actual carts, manuals, labels, and boxes than right here IMO.

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As I understand it, the AA store uses re-purposed shells. If these games are being created using brand new 3D printed shells, that's not something Albert is doing AFAIK. At least not yet. Also isn't there a plan to use Activision style shells which again, Albert doesn't deal with.

 

Having said that, if there's a way to get these sold through the AA store I'm all for it. There's no better or more experienced team for making actual carts, manuals, labels, and boxes than right here IMO.

 

Someone had a mold made for 2600 and 5200 shells so AA uses those .

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Once again, I wanted to thank everyone for your accolades, support and comments.

 

I actually have a question for all of you that I would love your opinion on:

 

I'm thinking of starting a Kickstarter campaign for Keystone II (and potentially my other 2600 games to follow) to pre-sell the game and raise the funds for the game's manufacturing. I'm thinking about offering different pledge rewards that include:

 

- Receiving only the cartridge

- Receiving the cartridge with a box and full color manual

- Receiving a limited edition signed copy of the cartridge

- Receiving a full size poster with the boxed game

- Participating with me in the design of the game by designing an enemy character that I'll program into the game

- Securing an invitation to the game's launch event (date & location TBD)

 

As retro game players, collectors, historians and experts, I'd love to know what you think about a Keystone II Kickstarter Campaign.

 

Thank you in advance for your valuable feedback!

 

Dan K.

 

Good list! Some other options could be:

 

- receive downloadable ROM /.bin (might not want to do this immediately)

- receive cart and a manual

- receive boxed game and patch?? (if you can make them like the old Activision patches)

limited edition numbered carts/boxes thru Kickstarter only vs. unnumbered unlimited ones from TikiVision??

 

Just some ideas .....but you nailed most of them above Dan.

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Once again, I wanted to thank everyone for your accolades, support and comments.

 

I actually have a question for all of you that I would love your opinion on:

 

I'm thinking of starting a Kickstarter campaign for Keystone II (and potentially my other 2600 games to follow) to pre-sell the game and raise the funds for the game's manufacturing. I'm thinking about offering different pledge rewards that include:

 

- Receiving only the cartridge

- Receiving the cartridge with a box and full color manual

- Receiving a limited edition signed copy of the cartridge

- Receiving a full size poster with the boxed game

- Participating with me in the design of the game by designing an enemy character that I'll program into the game

- Securing an invitation to the game's launch event (date & location TBD)

 

As retro game players, collectors, historians and experts, I'd love to know what you think about a Keystone II Kickstarter Campaign.

 

Thank you in advance for your valuable feedback!

 

Dan K.

 

Dan, I would be happy to support the kickstarter. I may just buy the cart only or I may get the full deluxe package or something in between, depends on the price point and how much disposable income I have atm. The important thing is to have lots of options and not exclude loose or cib or limited edition collectors.

 

If you plan on fronting the costs for the cartridge injection molds as opposed to salvaging old activision and/or Atari carts, please consider making something compatible with existing 7800 pcbs and labels. Albert is having trouble securing enough 7800 cart donors to meet demand (plus cleaning and prepping cart shells for reuse is a time consuming process), and if you produce a cartrige mold compatible with existing 2600/7800 pcbs and labels at an affordable price point, you will have a continued supply of business from Albert and other homebrew/repro companies by selling blank cart shells.

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Hey Dan! I am an original activision player, so it's very exciting to hear and see that you are engaging with the community!

 

I will def be looking to support at CIB level if that is the same $50-ish that it is for other CIBs.

 

Wondering if it might make sense to offer a "signed manual" level in addition to a "signed cart" level?

 

really looking forward to seeing things as you released them; sounds like you have a lot of ideas!

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I finally located my Keystone Kapers review cartridge.

Perhaps this very cartridge was once in your brother Garys hands?!

 

attachicon.gifD64415A8-6739-4432-BA61-832454F65172.jpeg

 

It came with these early instructions as well:

 

attachicon.gifE3676EC7-8328-4984-A2FD-862F1E1C523A.jpeg

 

Usually these are the same as final. But Ill play test it tonight to be sure.

 

(Garys actually. Sorry, wrong kitchen!)

 

So what are all the others you are trying to hide in plain sight?

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...oh my bad...did I fail to obscure the labels on my carts for that pic? Oh damn, I gotta be more carefull next time! I almost let the cat out of the bag with that Seaquest II proto in there...err...sorry...I mean just Seaquest ! ...uh never mind!

 

Sarcasm does not become you Supergun. You are always cryptic but please, keep it up for I am sure you are enjoying yourself, somehow.

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