Mothership in Demon Attack...

[joeybastard]

We all know Atari sued Imagic over Demon Attack's similarity to Phoenix. Is that why the VCS version doesn't have a "mothership" level like some other versions of DA?

[NE146]

No. I think it's because the VCS version of Demon Attack was the very first one. 2600 Demon Attack came out at a time when the standard Atari carts were Bowling, Surround, and Flag Capture, etc.

 

It was only much later when the other versions of DA (like the Intellivision one) came out that they put in that mothership. And of course, Atari's port of Phoenix came out even later than that.

 

Personally, I've never considered them to be the same at all... aside from the fact that they're both shooters and the first wave of attackers in Demon Attack has birdlike creatures similar to the second enemy type in Phoenix, the similarity ends there. 'Course I'm just talking 2600 DA. The other versions... well, ok. They're very Phoenix like

[joeybastard]

I agree that VCS DA isn't that similar but I assume that was due to the lawsuit too. Is the VCS DA the only one with no mothership?

[NE146]

I assume that was due to the lawsuit too.  

 

Like I said, there is no Mothership is because it was the first one. i.e. the first Demon Attack ever made and conceived.

 

There was no lawsuit when 2600 Demon Attack came out so it couldn't have been a response to anything.

 

 

Is that why the VCS version doesn't have a "mothership" level like some other versions of DA?

 

No. I think it's because the VCS version of Demon Attack was the very first one.

[Adrian M]

I could have sworn that there WAS a mothership level in teh Intellivision (or Atari computer) version. Am I right?

[alienblue]

No,no! MOST versions of demon attack

had NO mothership (the ONLY ones

that did were INTV and IBMJR)..the

Vic,C64,TI, Atari 400/800, et al.

were identical to the 2600 version.

(except some had fancy "space"

backdrops).even the Oddysey2 game

was like the 2600.

 

Remember, it was getting so bad at

the time one magazine said "ATARI

is suing ATARI for using ATARI!"

[joeybastard]

I assume that was due to the lawsuit too.  

 

Like I said, there is no Mothership is because it was the first one. i.e. the first Demon Attack ever made and conceived.

 

There was no lawsuit when 2600 Demon Attack came out so it couldn't have been a response to anything.

 

 

Sorry, I misread you the first time. I thought the lawsuit happened before DA was actually released to the public.

 

@Adrian M The INTV version does have a mothership. I think the TI one did too.

[SteveW]

The TI-99/4A version did have a mothership in it. It might be why the game's called "Super Demon Attack".

[Adrian M]

 

@Adrian M  The INTV version does have a mothership.  I think the TI one did too.

 

I thought so!

 

I remember looking over the Imagic game catalog that came with some Imagic VCS games and seeing the pics of the mothership from the INTV version. I felt so ripped off by my VCS back then...

[Chris++]

There is a mothership in the 2600 version. It's solid black, fills the screen, and locks the game up.

 

 

[NovaXpress]

The VCS version was released in the summer of 82, the Intellivision edition in the winter. The other versions appeared throughout 83.

 

Rob Fulop designed the original game on the 2600, then Imagic's marketing department passed it on to an Intellivision programmer who took advantage of the cool background abilities to do the mothership level. They did the same thing with Atlantis.

 

The lawsuit specified that only the Intellivision version was in question. As with the KC Muchkin suit, I feel Atari should have lost this one.

[KaineMaxwell]

Got any pics of this supposed mothership in the versions that did have it?

[Chris++]

http://www.mobygames.com/game/shots/p,4/ga...meShotId,58864/

[NovaXpress]

I thought the Intellivision version was horrible. The demons were huge ugly blocks. They look like somethign Froggo would program. The mothership looks cool, but not cool enough to override the rest of the game.

 

If you weren't around at the time, you can't understand how shocking the look of Demon Attack was when it appeared. We'd never seen any home video game look that cool. Even Atari's Phoenix, with all the levels and the damn mothership, didn't sell nearly as well or get played nearly as much. We moved on to Zaxxon shortly afterwards, but for a time Demon Attack was the coolest game in the world.

[NE146]

Whoah! What version is that?? the 8bit version? Gawdamn I've never seen that!

 

 

I'm more familiar with the Intellivision mothership...

[NovaXpress]

Whoah! What version is that?? the 8bit version?  Gawdamn I've never seen that!

That looks like the IBM PC version. Does the TI version look the same?

 

The 400/800 edition was identical to the 2600 one.

[Chris++]

I'm not sure. I used Google, to demonstrate how easy it is to use Google. If y'know what I mean.

[NovaXpress]

I've played the IBM version back on the PC Jr (remember when that was supposed to be the computer of the future?) and that screenshot looks identical. I think thaere was also a souped-up Atlantis for the IBM.

[jhd]

No,no! MOST versions of demon attack

had NO mothership (the ONLY ones

that did were INTV and IBMJR

 

Tiny correction... the little-known TRS-80 Color Computer version also included the mothership level.

 

I only played it a few times (the cart belonged to my friend), but it was there.

[Numan]

The TI had the mothership.

[Godzilla]

That version pictured is the pcjr version, which won an A/V award in EG magazine back in the day. I remember drooling over the screenshot, wishing I could see that version of Demon Attack.

[NovaXpress]

My babysitter was a shopping mall. I spent a lot of hours left at a Sears or PC store and tried out pretty much everything that came in the doors. You could find an Atari kiosk if nothing else in most electronics, toy and departments stores.

 

The PC Jr was hyped as the gaming PC, but it's price tag put a stop to that idea and the C-64 took the crown. I still think that 800 was an amazing game-playing computer, it justs didn't get hacked as much as the C64 did so not everyone has played all the games.

[Godzilla]

Well, the 800 follows the sad tradition of superior hardware recieving inferior dev time and what that does. C64 games get much more dev time and end up making the 800 look sad, also sheer quantity. It's been happening ever since. (saturn/psx, dreamcast/ps2 etc.)

[Rekrul]

No,no! MOST versions of demon attack  

had NO mothership (the ONLY ones  

that did were INTV and IBMJR)..the  

Vic,C64,TI, Atari 400/800, et al.  

were identical to the 2600 version.  

(except some had fancy "space"  

backdrops).even the Oddysey2 game  

was like the 2600.

 

The C64 version has the mothership also.

[am1933]

The TI version had some dodgy collision detection but In my opinion had the best mothership and the best sprite definition of all the versions. Speaking of which-was the TI version the only one with a disembodied vampire head that shoots fireballs at you before the mothership explodes?