Akka Arrh - Coming to mame hopefully

[mr_me]

You mean the guys in possession of the akka arrh prototype.  The only role they played is the prevention of this game being available in these products.  But without all the stories surrounding the leak, arcade1up might not have put akka arrh in their product.  Atari SA might not have the code, they don't really need it.  Marble Madness 2 would have to be on a Warner Brothers licensed product.  They might not be willing to license it, as they might not be convinced they own the copyright.  Aren't these emulators based on Mame put together by arcade1up.

[negative1]

1 hour ago, mr_me said:

You mean the guys in possession of the akka arrh prototype.  The only role they played is the prevention of this game being available in these products.  But without all the stories surrounding the leak, arcade1up might not have put akka arrh in their product.  Atari SA might not have the code, they don't really need it.  Marble Madness 2 would have to be on a Warner Brothers licensed product.  They might not be willing to license it, as they might not be convinced they own the copyright.  Aren't these emulators based on Mame put together by arcade1up.

Arcade 1up only used Mame in gen 1 cabinets about 2 years ago.

Ever since then, they've redone all the emulation through MOO.

 

These are standalone custom emulators that only work with those particular ROMS.

 

Once I get the machine, I will see what the copyrights and trademarks say about it.

 

later

-1

[+x=usr(1536)]

I'd be interested to know the details of exactly which Atari IP rights Fauxtari actually owns.  Given that Atari Games (the coin-op division) was sold to WMS in 1996 and that Atari Corporation (consumer products) was what Infogrames ultimately purchased to become Atari SA in 2001, Akka Arrh may not be Atari SA's title to licence.

 

If sources are to be believed, Warner Interactive should still be the rights holder to Atari's coin-op titles, released or unreleased.

Edited November 21, 2020 by x=usr(1536)

[ubersaurus]

1 hour ago, x=usr(1536) said:

I'd be interested to know the details of exactly which Atari IP rights Fauxtari actually owns.  Given that Atari Games (the coin-op division) was sold to WMS in 1996 and that Atari Corporation (consumer products) was what Infogrames ultimately purchased to become Atari SA in 2001, Akka Arrh may not be Atari SA's title to licence.

 

If sources are to be believed, Warner Interactive should still be the rights holder to Atari's coin-op titles, released or unreleased.

Atari Corp retained ownership to all Atari arcade games before the split, so if Akka Arrh dates back before mid-84 then it would be an Atari SA IP.

Edited November 21, 2020 by ubersaurus

[+x=usr(1536)]

9 minutes ago, ubersaurus said:

Atari Corp retained ownership to all Atari arcade games before the split, so if Akka Arrh dates back before mid-84 then it would be an Atari SA IP.

 

Interesting; I was unaware that Atari SA had any IP rights to the arcade side. Appreciate the clarification.

[negative1]

Does anyone know how Maze Invaders was licensed also to the Atari Flashback Volume 3 digital collection.

It is from 1981.

 

https://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=18871

 

That was another prototype game that was eventually released after not being commercial either.

 

Another great game that I'm enjoying on the XBOX one now.

 

later

-1

[mr_me]

4 hours ago, x=usr(1536) said:

 

Interesting; I was unaware that Atari SA had any IP rights to the arcade side. Appreciate the clarification.

Asteroids, Missile Command, Centipede; Atari SA has all the big golden age games.

 

Technically, Warner sold all their video game IP (including Maze Invaders) to Tramiel in 1984.  Warner through Atari Games continued to make arcade machines and licensed back the right to make sequels from Tramiel.

Edited November 21, 2020 by mr_me

[schuwalker]

On 11/21/2020 at 1:03 AM, negative1 said:

this brings up interesting questions.

 

so atari had the code, and licensed out the rom.

 

they wrote their own emulator of course to run it.

 

also, what does this mean for other unreleased games (marble madness 2) does this mean

they might come out too.

 

did the rom owner have a part to play in all this.

 

 

questions, questions.

 

later

-1

I know the owner of one of the Akka Arrh machines. Been a while since I talked to him, but I can shoot him a message for details.

[Atariboy]

Just because this product isn't utilizing MAME doesn't mean that they can't work with the very same rom dump that you downloaded last year after it leaked out.

 

I wouldn't hold your breath for other unreleased games. I imagine that they simply downloaded the rom off the internet like we all did. Seems unlikely that this would be resurfacing officially after all this time the year after the rom finally hit the internet, without there being a connection between the two events. So I highly doubt it's a coincidence.

 

Just because they didn't have it in their archives doesn't mean it wasn't still their property. And the appearance here doesn't mean that they had it all this time but just had never exploited the property. From what I can tell after decades of haunting this forum and other places like it, Atari SA inherited precious little where tangible items are concerned. Most all of that went into dumpsters at different points through the years before it became evident that there was money to be made by exploiting Atari's legacy.

 

It's the classic gaming community that has preserved Atari's legacy through efforts like the operation of this website and the member base that's developed around it, the dumpster diving for old hard drives and paperwork in days gone by, and the dumping of aging cartridges and arcade roms that enables today's "Atari" to make money off their investment. It's not Atari Corp/JTS/Hasbro/Infogrames/Atari SA that has been responsible for the continued existence of much of Atari's legacy. 

 

So I feel very safe in assuming it's from the classic gaming community that they sourced this rom from, re-establishing this property in their archives by the very act of hitting the download button off some rom site and which allows them now to commercially exploit this particular property rather than just hold a useless copyright to it.

Edited November 22, 2020 by Atariboy

[negative1]

1 hour ago, Atariboy said:

Just because this product isn't utilizing MAME doesn't mean that they can't work with the very same rom dump that you downloaded last year after it leaked out.

 

I wouldn't hold your breath for other unreleased games. I imagine that they simply downloaded the rom off the internet like we all did. Seems unlikely that this would be resurfacing officially after all this time the year after the rom finally hit the internet, without there being a connection between the two events. So I highly doubt it's a coincidence.

 

Just because they didn't have it in their archives doesn't mean it wasn't still their property. And the appearance here doesn't mean that they had it all this time but just had never exploited the property. From what I can tell after decades of haunting this forum and other places like it, Atari SA inherited precious little where tangible items are concerned. Most all of that went into dumpsters at different points through the years before it became evident that there was money to be made by exploiting Atari's legacy.

 

It's the classic gaming community that has preserved Atari's legacy through efforts like the operation of this website and the member base that's developed around it, the dumpster diving for old hard drives and paperwork in days gone by, and the dumping of aging cartridges and arcade roms that enables today's "Atari" to make money off their investment. It's not Atari Corp/JTS/Hasbro/Infogrames/Atari SA that has been responsible for the continued existence of much of Atari's legacy. 

 

So I feel very safe in assuming it's from the classic gaming community that they sourced this rom from, re-establishing this property in their archives by the very act of hitting the download button off some rom site and which allows them now to commercially exploit this particular property rather than just hold a useless copyright to it.

Some of that might be true. But I trust the companies with the licenses.

 

Star Wars was never quite right in MAME (wrong colored flashes), and is proper in Arcade 1UP.

Liberator has a bug which doesn't allow play after a certain level (Never fixed in MAME), code mystics fixed it in all their versions.

 

I've played the MAME version of Akka Arrh, so I'll know whether there are changes in an officially emulated version.

 

I don't know Maze Invaders closely enough to see the differences between the MAME version, and the official Atari Flashback version either.

 

So whether they got the Rom from somewhere doesn't really matter. If they had it on their own, it would be exactly the same as the dump,

because it's the same information.

 

It's all about how you use it. considering that only a handful of people would have ever heard about it,

i doubt its much of a selling point. i only got it because i knew what it was. most people will play it once,

and probably never play it again, and go back to centipede or missile command.

 

later

-1

Edited November 22, 2020 by negative1

[+x=usr(1536)]

1 hour ago, Atariboy said:

Just because this product isn't utilizing MAME

 

Is this confirmed to be the case?  I can understand not using a standard MAME binary and taking the roll-your-own approach in this case, but there's no reason to reinvent the wheel, either.  A build with support for the eight games and maybe their clone sets wouldn't be at all difficult to do, and the MAME licence permits commercial use.

Edited November 22, 2020 by x=usr(1536)

[mr_me]

Mametesters says the Liberator planet 19 bug was fixed in mame 0.146.

 

It's not hard to create an emulator when they can see how mame was programmed.  Whatever new emulators these guys create is only as good as the contractors they hire.  Some will hack the rom if necessary, which is something mame would never do.

Edited November 22, 2020 by mr_me

[Keatah]

56 minutes ago, mr_me said:

Mametesters says the Liberator planet 19 bug was fixed in mame 0.146.

It was fixed indeed!

 

I remember that day it came out we partied 2x double hard. I was bouncing all over the room like a crazed superball. Had my buddies turn the monitor upside down and stood on my head while kicking the walls. So imagine my excitement when Liberator came to mame in the first place!

[negative1]

1 hour ago, mr_me said:

Mametesters says the Liberator planet 19 bug was fixed in mame 0.146.

 

It's not hard to create an emulator when they can see how mame was programmed.  Whatever new emulators these guys create is only as good as the contractors they hire.  Some will hack the rom if necessary, which is something mame would never do.

 

good, that liberator bug always bothered me. i never could get that far playing from level 1, (which you have to do for MARP),

so that's why i couldn't test it.

 

you can choose which level to start from in the game if you continue, so i'll have to check that out.

 

there is a still a bug with minor graphical glitches of sprites staying on the screen though.

 

the ROMS are supplied by the manufacturer. NAMCO supplied the ROMS for all the NAMCO games,

SEGA for the SEGA games, etc. 

 

6 hours ago, x=usr(1536) said:

 

Is this confirmed to be the case?  I can understand not using a standard MAME binary and taking the roll-your-own approach in this case, but there's no reason to reinvent the wheel, either.  A build with support for the eight games and maybe their clone sets wouldn't be at all difficult to do, and the MAME licence permits commercial use.

They only used an early version of MAME for the rampage, atari 12-1, asteroids, centipede machines. everything else has been MOO, or others, 

such as the ones code mystics did for Star Wars, NBA Jam, and now Outrun.

 

They don't need MAME, because they already have their own emulation and options they want, without all the overhead. Most games dont

support dipswitches, scanlines, etc.

 

later

-1

Edited November 22, 2020 by negative1

[+x=usr(1536)]

5 minutes ago, negative1 said:

Most games dont support dipswitches, scanlines, etc.

I basically agree with everything you wrote above, but could you please give me a quick clarification on this part?  I'm not totally sure what 'most games' refers to in this context - MAME, Arcade 1UP's emulation platform, or something else entirely.

[negative1]

2 hours ago, x=usr(1536) said:

I basically agree with everything you wrote above, but could you please give me a quick clarification on this part?  I'm not totally sure what 'most games' refers to in this context - MAME, Arcade 1UP's emulation platform, or something else entirely.

Arcade 1up only has games coming out now (2nd gen/3rd gen), that allow user options for their cabinets.

 

The only games with these options like dipswitches, and graphical options are:

NBA Jam

Star Wars (with Empire Strike Backs, Return of the Jedi)

Outrun

 

The Mortal Kombat machine can access some settings through a trick, but is not supported by Arcade 1up.

 

There is talk of releasing a firmware upgrade for their Pac-Man/Ms. Pac-Man anniversary machines to add those in.

 

All their cabinets have no user options for difficulty, lives, screen settings etc, they are fixed, even though

their emulators have those options. They don't want users to get confused.

 

later

-1

[+x=usr(1536)]

Gotcha.  Thanks; appreciate the clarification.

[negative1]

Enjoying a fully licensed akka arrh today on arcade1up.

 

Never thought i would see this happen, but the atari copyrights are there....

 

green glow is from Glens trackball, so i can actually play games, stock one is terrible.

 

the tape on the screen is the killspot for centipede, will be going for 999k to max it out.

 

 

 

later

-1

Edited November 27, 2020 by negative1

[mr_me]

12 hours ago, negative1 said:

Enjoying a fully licensed akka arrh today on arcade1up.

 

Never thought i would see this happen, but the atari copyrights are there....

Were you expecting something else.  No reason to modify the rom.

[negative1]

5 hours ago, mr_me said:

Were you expecting something else.  No reason to modify the rom.

Copyrights, and credits might be different. Haven't compared them yet.

 

Also, who knows how many ROM revisions they went through, could have

been a lot.

 

later

-1

Edited November 28, 2020 by negative1

[mr_me]

I doubt any other akka arrh prototypes have been dumped and leaked.

[Supergun]

19 minutes ago, mr_me said:

I doubt any other akka arrh prototypes have been dumped and leaked.

Agreed. But then again, when Nintendo themselves released the SNES Star Fox 2 proto for the mini-SNES console, the rom set was yet again different from the 2 or 3 that had been found over the years. So anything is possible.

[negative1]

5 hours ago, mr_me said:

I doubt any other akka arrh prototypes have been dumped and leaked.

until someone does a careful comparison of the game, the levels and the graphics,

 

we won't know. i'm working on it.

 

later

-1

[mr_me]

12 hours ago, Supergun said:

Agreed. But then again, when Nintendo themselves released the SNES Star Fox 2 proto for the mini-SNES console, the rom set was yet again different from the 2 or 3 that had been found over the years. So anything is possible.

I'm pretty sure Atari SA doesn't have an akka arrh prototype rom set.

[negative1]

On 11/29/2020 at 8:27 AM, mr_me said:

I'm pretty sure Atari SA doesn't have an akka arrh prototype rom set.

what makes you think that.

every game there had to go through several versions.

test versions, debug versions, playable versions

 

'final versions', release versions.

every finished atari game had several versions before they came out.

 

i would expect there to be several of this also. now, as to where they are,

thats another issue. but someone must have kept track of them.

 

later

-1