islandnerd Posted December 4, 2001 Share Posted December 4, 2001 Hi, I'm new to this message board so please bear with me. I'm a 3 year collector of Atari 2600 games and accessories (islandnerd at eBay), and I have a question for the experts (you!). What exactly is the difference or relationship between "Spectravideo" and "Spectravision"? Thanks, Kevin Bosh St. John, VI Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyXB Posted December 4, 2001 Share Posted December 4, 2001 First I have think, one is PAL and one NTSC. But this is not the reason. I have both variants by PAL games too. I think the reason is the year, when the games are released. I have look here on AtariAge, and I have these games the other Lables then here: Gangster Alley Planet Patrol All others have the same lable. Matthias Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted December 4, 2001 Share Posted December 4, 2001 Spectravision changed their name to Spectravideo sometime in 1983. That's why you see carts with both names on them. Tempest 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari-Jess Posted December 5, 2001 Share Posted December 5, 2001 and why is something telling me that spectravideo is still around...is it because that it is and i just recently went to their site? or is it cause im still all caught up in Wico still being around and i went to that site as well. that is if i am right about spectravideo.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rolenta Posted December 5, 2001 Share Posted December 5, 2001 quote: Originally posted by Atari-Jess: and why is something telling me that spectravideo is still around...is it because that it is and i just recently went to their site? or is it cause im still all caught up in Wico still being around and i went to that site as well. that is if i am right about spectravideo.... You are right about Spectravideo still being around. I visited their booth at E3 two years ago. They're either from England or Hong Kong and they market controllers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Asmo Posted December 5, 2001 Share Posted December 5, 2001 Are you sure they're the same company. From their website, it seems that the current Spectravision changed their name to that in 1998, and were called something before that. Maybe it's just a coincedence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ze_ro Posted December 5, 2001 Share Posted December 5, 2001 I would assume it's a different company... Spectravision was one of the better companies out there at the time, but very few of them survived the crash... especially ones that dealt only in Atari games... --Zero Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted December 5, 2001 Share Posted December 5, 2001 It's definitely the same company, I just took a look at their website and on their About Us page they state they've been in business since 1977. What probably helped to keep them in business was the fact that they weren't just creating games for the Atari 2600. They also created games for the ColecoVision (I have several in my collection), as well as controllers for many different systems. Had they only been producing 2600 games they, too, would probably be gone. ..Al 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwh Posted December 5, 2001 Share Posted December 5, 2001 This is a timely topic for me since I was just entering the info for this company's games into cart commander last night.I have one copy of Gangster Alley with 'Spectravision' on the end label.Is this cart rarer than the other,or just a curiosity? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
islandnerd Posted December 5, 2001 Author Share Posted December 5, 2001 Thanks for all the great input. And what is "Cart Commander"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lemmi Posted December 5, 2001 Share Posted December 5, 2001 here is the info on what the cart commander is and does enjoy ! its a helpful little program for collectors of videogames http://www.arcaderestoration.com/index.asp...ATA=4394&CBT=20 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Atari_Warlord Posted April 5, 2017 Share Posted April 5, 2017 Sorry to revive an old topic, but didn't really want to start a new one. I have a call scheduled tonight with a former employee of Spectravideo that worked on a game in 1985. Any questions I should make sure I don't forget to ask? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
high voltage Posted April 5, 2017 Share Posted April 5, 2017 Just say I always thought their games were of high quality, I like Tapeworm, Master Builder, Planet Patrol, Mania, Gangster Alley. And I got both Compumate tapes. Ask him if they had more Compumate tapes planned, as Wiki says twelve. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Innit Posted April 5, 2017 Share Posted April 5, 2017 I always wondered why in Planet Patrol they chose to scroll the screen in the opposite direction to the usual way for horizontal scrolling shooters. Not that it bothers me, I really like the game. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted April 5, 2017 Share Posted April 5, 2017 Sorry to revive an old topic, but didn't really want to start a new one. I have a call scheduled tonight with a former employee of Spectravideo that worked on a game in 1985. Any questions I should make sure I don't forget to ask? Well there are a ton of unreleased games that were shown in catalogs. Ask him how far they got with those. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
high voltage Posted April 5, 2017 Share Posted April 5, 2017 Glactic Tactic, I always wanted that one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted April 5, 2017 Share Posted April 5, 2017 Master Cylinder, Eagle Mountain, Drive Em Krazy were some others. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rom Hunter Posted April 5, 2017 Share Posted April 5, 2017 (edited) Any of these unreleased/vaporware VCS titles: Cave In Drive 'Em Crazy Eagle Mountain Glactic Tactic Master Cylinder Protobob Romper Room Sector Alpha Time Scape VertinkoVortex Any info about these will do. Edited April 5, 2017 by Rom Hunter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Atari_Warlord Posted April 5, 2017 Share Posted April 5, 2017 Thanks for the suggestions, I've added these to my list. I don't have high hopes on much 2600 information. The research I've been doing on him suggests he only did one computer game and he was 17/18 at the time. It also appears that Spectravideo mostly contracted out the work but I will ask if he remembers any other programmers working there. Whatever I find out I'll do a little write up here. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moycon Posted April 5, 2017 Share Posted April 5, 2017 Very cool. Spectravideo produced some decent games back in the day, but it seems like most people don't talk about them. I had Planet Patrol as a kid and thought it was really cool. They really paid more attention to little details that made the games seem a higher calibre than most IMO. For instance in Planet Patrol you had day and night screens, the need to refuel (complete with fuel truck) and even the little shadow of your ship was a nice, unexpected at time, touch. They also had cool boxes. I don't really have any particular questions, but looking forward to hearing about any unreleased games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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