Atari SA releasing limited run 2600 cartridges.

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

Oh look, more over priced whoring of the Atari legacy…..

 

It's "lost games" that were released years ago on the original Atari Flashback 2 console where I will continue to play them ??

 

[Tempest]

1 hour ago, 6502wrangler said:

That sucks. Do you have a copyright on it?

I believe the manual does have a copyright.

[Xevious70]

45 minutes ago, MattPilz said:

The least they could've done is source a physical 2600, controller and produce some genuine runs of these three titles to create a much more appealing and authentic media kit. Their render of the 2600 isn't even accurate, the font above the cart slot is really off and doesn't even have the TM (I've seen similar renders like this on Turbo Squid / iStock).

Agreed 1000%. The mating of that original box with the crappy rendering of the console and joystick really sunk the ship for me. 

[Clint Thompson]

I'm not going to be impressed until they re-release Combat. There, I said it.

[Mikebloke]

I don't have anything made for the 2600 that's worth stealing but I'd say anyone who has ever made a homebrew for the system better keep an eye on this practice to make sure they don't get sidelined from this ebay style hijacking. I get the current games are slightly dubious instead of completely dubious, but if this is an idea that sticks... 

[Atariboy2600]

12 hours ago, Albert said:

Yes, those boxes are a bit of a mess.  Here's a photo from the press release I linked above:

Not only is "Video Computer System" missing from Saboteur, but,

• The position of the ATARI name at the top is different on each box. 
• The position of "Video Computer System" on the Aquaventure and Yars' Return boxes is not consistent. 
• The size of the ATARI name is not consistent (look at Aquaventure versus Yars' Return). 
• The Registered Trademark ® symbol is a different size on each of these boxes. 
• The box containing the artwork is a completely different size on each box. 

And this is just the front of the boxes. We know the Atari logo is upside down on the spines, for instance.  Yars' Return missing the apostrophe on the cartridge.  Etc.

 

I really hope they haven't printed anything based on what we've seen so far.

 

 ..Al

 

Im I the only one here who's feeling ill seeing this price cost for these games? Also I made this label art for Yars Return look like they wont be using it any more. I mean Im not complaining but still that super pricy for just a cart.

 

 

[+GoldLeader]

They do make it easy to say no, huh?   Let's put it this way,  if This version of "Atari" quit seeing us as easy marks (or much worse),  and released a game I wanted (and didn't already have), in a box I liked, with a manual that rocked, on a cart I thought looked cool, at a price 1/10th of this...I'd still say no.

[overgrouth]

I saw a video on youtube about this and I knew I had to come here and look it up because I absolutly knew Yar's Return was made here first. I was not sure about the other two but I recalled playing saboteur over my flash cart. I knew yar's return was on a flashback as well but still I knew it was an Atariage thing first.

 

It Would be nice if credit and pay went to the rspective individual's rather then stolen goods. I saw that Thomas Jentz got credit on the Atari Jacks pacific paddles and I wonder why this is so different. This is the kind of stunt that caused Atari to fold in the first place reguardless of it being owned by different people at this point. Factually those who own the name Atari simply own the name while real Atari fans know this and realize these 3 titles are far from a true collectors edition. Atari is not Atari anymore as so many hands have changed, so its just as if it were a generic knockoff because it is ither then the new owners paid for the name. Perhaps this will make the AtariAge boxed Saboteur a collectible as it might get removed from the store?

 

Atari has no respect for the people they are trying to sell their product to and yet if they did respect us for real their product would fly off the shelf and their attempt to make a collectible would become a collectirs item rather then this half baked garbage. Their to stupid to realize who they are trying to market to. How sad!

Edited November 17, 2021 by overgrouth

[Cousin Vinnie]

GTFO

[toiletunes]

I have Saboteur and Aquaventure on Harmony. It would be nice to try Yars Return, and I'd like to see what a new cart looks like, but $50 is pretty steep. Plus they act like it's some unreleased sequel they created and own from 1983, which is ignorant.

One step forward, two steps backward.

[+swlovinist]

I talk about it on my channel and just want to say that I hope that they give the proper rights to the person who programmed the games/manuals.    Most everyone here knows that this site will do a better job at honoring the legacy of Atari.   I am curious on what the carts will end up looking like in person.   

[digdugnate]

You know what these shells should be made of?  Delicious corn.

[Flojomojo]

4 hours ago, Atariboy2600 said:

 

Im I the only one here who's feeling ill seeing this price cost for these games? Also I made this label art for Yars Return look like they wont be using it any more. I mean Im not complaining but still that super pricy for just a cart.

 

 

The apostrophe is wrong. Should be possessive plural, Yars’ Revenge. The revenge of ALL the Yars, not just one Yar. Atari makes this mistake all the time, many people do. 

[+MrZarniwoop]

A company tends to show themselves to their customers at their very best when they're selling to you. If the confusing things from the marketing launch is an indicator ("1973! No, 1972!", weird renders, Yar's Revenge video, made-up Yar's Return story, "borrowing" copy from other places with no acknowledgement, upside-down Atari logo, is there a box?, a thin box? a thick box, why?) then the ultimate release may be disappointing.

 

If the date would have been April 1st, the whole thing would have felt like an April Fools' joke.

 

If the launch was clear and compelling, appealing to the love and attention to detail that collectors look for, they'd have a chance of the $149 being viewed as a good deal even with recycled games we've all seen. But in we've had expectations from the AtariAge releases, homebrew Kickstarter campaigns (like Star Castle) for Atari 2600 cartridges with far better marketing and really amazing gameplay, not to mention the tour de force expectations for game quality and packaging from Audacity with Circus Convoy.

 

But at least they've had the respect for tradition in maintaining what we've all felt in our bones: Activision (Audacity) games are better than Atari (XP) games.  

[hizzy]

Who is Raymond Yeung? It seems he programmed Yars' Return. 

 

See post 7

 

 

 

[hizzy]

Interesting to hear from HSW on the matter

 

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/atari-legend-denies-working-on-unreleased-games-atari-is-selling-for-up-to-150/

[DEBRO]

Hi there,

 

Looking at their site, it appears there was a copy-paste issue. For example, Aquaventure is credited to Howard Scott Warshaw and said it was to be released in 1983 however I believe this game was done by Tod Frye and not in any documented release schedule.

 

Here is my take on Yar's Return (yes..."Yar's" I'll get into that later). Marty may have to add. He has documentation where I'm going off memory.

• Curt Vendel came up with the idea for Yar's Return
  • Curt liked Yars' Revenge and wanted a sequel for the FB2 launch
• Curt worked with a firm in China that hacked Yars' Revenge into Curt's vision for Yar's Return
• The firm took Yars' Revenge and produced an 8K SARA chip hack in Curt's vision for Yar's Return
• This firm didn't truly understand the workings of the VCS and produced a game that was unplayable
• After the FB2 was released I voiced my disappointment to Curt
• Curt sent me ROM images for a number of games...Yar's Return being one of them
• I reverse-engineered  Yar's Return because Curt said he didn't have source code
• I fixed the video issues for Yar's Return to where it was playable
• John Champeau, Bob Decrenzo, and Curt were play testers and suggested game improvements
• I implemented these game improvements which in my opinion made for an even better game
• I can't remember when this revision started showing up on the FB units
• I did this as a favor to Curt. I wanted his FB2 to be the best it could be. The updates were not approved by the Atari at the time
• The "Yar's Return" as I understand it is the "Yar's Return" was sent to legal in 2005 before anyone caught that it should have been "Yars' Return"

I may have missed something things. I'm writing this kind of fast.

[Tempest]

8 minutes ago, DEBRO said:

Hi there,

 

Looking at their site, it appears there was a copy-paste issue. For example, Aquaventure is credited to Howard Scott Warshaw and said it was to be released in 1983 however I believe this game was done by Tod Frye and not in any documented release schedule.

 

Aquaventure was programmed by both Gary Shannon and  Tod Frye.  I believe Gary was the main programmer though.

 

The last time Atari used my manual without my permission (heck, I didn't even know they had done it until I got a FB 2 because I was curious as to what they had done for their manual) they said it was a mistake as they thought it was a real Atari manual from back in the day.   At first I was somewhat flattered that my manual could be mistaken for a real Atari manual so I was going to let everything slide (assuming it was truly an accident) but then I was sent legal papers to sign that basically said Atari now owns the rights to my manual with no compensation to me.  Obviously I wasn't going to sign those papers (I have no idea why they thought I would) so I got Curt involved and he basically told them not to do that again and to credit me properly.  Since the FB2 was already out they put something on their website for a few months crediting me and sent me two or three FB 2's which I gave away to friends. 

 

Other than having a cool story to share, I didn't think much of it after that.  However if the current incarnation of Atari is going to try and profit off my manual which they now know isn't a real manual from back in the day, then I have a problem with that.  That's just outright theft plain and simple.  I never signed anything giving Atari the rights to use my manual so they do not have permission to do so.  I have no idea what happens now but I'm very much not happy with all of this.  

[Nall3k]

8 minutes ago, Tempest said:

 

Aquaventure was programmed by both Gary Shannon and  Tod Frye.  I believe Gary was the main programmer though.

 

The last time Atari used my manual without my permission (heck, I didn't even know they had done it until I got a FB 2 because I was curious as to what they had done for their manual) they said it was a mistake as they thought it was a real Atari manual from back in the day.   At first I was somewhat flattered that my manual could be mistaken for a real Atari manual so I was going to let everything slide (assuming it was truly an accident) but then I was sent legal papers to sign that basically said Atari now owns the rights to my manual with no compensation to me.  Obviously I wasn't going to sign those papers (I have no idea why they thought I would) so I got Curt involved and he basically told them not to do that again and to credit me properly.  Since the FB2 was already out they put something on their website for a few months crediting me and sent me two or three FB 2's which I gave away to friends. 

 

Other than having a cool story to share, I didn't think much of it after that.  However if the current incarnation of Atari is going to try and profit off my manual which they now know isn't a real manual from back in the day, then I have a problem with that.  That's just outright theft plain and simple.  I never signed anything giving Atari the rights to use my manual so they do not have permission to do so.  I have no idea what happens now but I'm very much not happy with all of this.  

One of the problems is it's entirely new people running the show from who was in charge back in 2005(?). I'd give the benefit of the doubt that it may be the same mistake with new people.

[zzip]

13 hours ago, Nall3k said:

I know I sound like a broken record, but they really need to get a designer to work on their sites and marketing materials. 

I think they need a proofreader,  a lot of these errors should have been caught and fixed before they went out.

[+Andrew Davie]

11 minutes ago, Tempest said:

 

Other than having a cool story to share, I didn't think much of it after that.  However if the current incarnation of Atari is going to try and profit off my manual which they now know isn't a real manual from back in the day, then I have a problem with that.  That's just outright theft plain and simple.  I never signed anything giving Atari the rights to use my manual so they do not have permission to do so.  I have no idea what happens now but I'm very much not happy with all of this.  

 

I guess my first action here would be to write to them indicating you own the copyright and that they do not have your permission to use, and ask for them to immediately cease and desist use of your copyrighted material in any form.

 

[Nall3k]

3 minutes ago, zzip said:

I think they need a proofreader,  a lot of these errors should have been caught and fixed before they went out.

If this was worked on for awhile, I don't understand why they didn't reach out to @Albert, or Marty, or Howard Scott. In the grand scheme of things, all of these issues can be addressed, but could have been avoided if there had been some collaboration.

Edited November 17, 2021 by Nall3k

[Bill Loguidice]

The pricing today's Atari has for JUST a 2600 cartridge are double what other, much smaller companies and/or individuals charge. I mean, the least they could have done was secure some generic/universal game boxes and printed up some inserts or something.

 

I mentioned this in one of the Jaguar threads, and while I/we all acknowledge that homebrew prices are all over the map, homebrew creations from small companies and/or individuals shouldn't far exceed the value proposition from a larger enterprise. The topic of the 8-bit Guy's "Attack of the PETSCII Robots" came up. Sure, the main release that works on PET, C-64, and VIC-20, can leverage three different platforms (though all you probably need is the C-64 market anyway), but he was able to offer a full color commercial-quality box, disk and sleeve, manual, and a SNES user-port controller adapter for LESS than the cost ($45 if I recall) of a naked Atari 2600 cartridge from today's Atari.

 

Similarly, the limited edition costs a whopping $150, and I guess includes a box (I originally thought it didn't), the "special plastics" cartridge, poster, a printed instructional manual (with bonus material), a collectible pin, a collectible badge, a certificate of authenticity, and a digital copy of the game playable on the Atari VCS. Compare that to Retro-Bit selling (pre-orders) a commemorative edition of Gaiares for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive for just a little more - $55 - than Atari is selling ($50) naked Atari 2600 cartridges, and they include a Translucent Tektite Cartridge, Full-color Instruction Manual, Reversible Cartridge Sleeve, Certificate of Authenticity, Interview Booklet with James Bunker, Embellished Slipcover, and a Commemorative T-Shirt. Of course sales for such a thing are likely many multiples of what Atari or most others can sell in their respective niches, but it does show a pretty striking disparity on what exactly is on offer here, even setting aside Atari's sloppy developer/rights attribution and overall execution.

 

EDIT: It looks like with the updated VCS store page they show a cartridge and box for $49.99. To get a manual (and the other stuff) I guess you need the $149.99 limited edition, although you may get a manual with the regular edition. Either way, the regular edition for $49.99 doesn't expressly list what's included.

Edited November 17, 2021 by Bill Loguidice

[+Gemintronic]

6 minutes ago, Bill Loguidice said:

The pricing today's Atari has for JUST a 2600 cartridge are double what other, much smaller companies and/or individuals charge. I mean, the least they could have done was secure some generic/universal game boxes and printed up some inserts or something.

 

I can confirm this.  My Balloon Girl / Sharkstorm homebrew double ender had two boards in a single cart shell, box and manual for $50 retail.  So, twice the hardware and you still got a boxed product with instructions.

[vhzc]

10 minutes ago, Nall3k said:

If this was worked on for awhile, I don't understand why they didn't reach out to @Albert, or Marty, or Howard Scott. In the grand scheme of things, all of these issues can be addressed, but could have been avoided if the there had been some collaboration.

Totally agree.

I have designed boxes and manual for some AA releases, so I have lived and suffered the meticulousness of @Albert And I can say that compared with AA those renders looks so rushed that is kinda disrespectful, they are not even trying.