Tempest Posted December 7, 2001 Share Posted December 7, 2001 I've been playing Save Mary alot lately because I'm getting a different prototype of it and I want ot be ready to compare them (yes I know I lead a sad life...) Anyway I figured out the game pretty well (although it's damn hard), but the one thing I can't figure out are the bonus items. Every time I try to drop one on Mary it disappears. Is there a point to them or is this just a part of the game that never got finished? My prototype doesn't even have them so they must have been added at the last minute. Anyone know the reason this one never got released? Did it just come too late to get out the door? Normally I'd buy that excuse, but games like Klax, Xenophobe, and Motorodeo were designed just as late (1990) and got released. I'm starting to wonder if there wasn't something going on between Atari and Tod Frye since none of his games seemed to get released (other than the craptacular Pac-Man and Swordquest series that is). Tod's Unreleased games for Atari -------------------------------- Xevious Shooting Arcade Save Mary Ballblazer (believe it or not they were trying it) SQ: Airworld and one other I can't think of... Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legeek Posted December 7, 2001 Share Posted December 7, 2001 Hey Tempest, you don't drop them on Mary. You grab the items and drop them on one of the top shelfs of the canyon(left or right) the bonus items do the following all for a brief period: >one of them stops the water from rising >one of them stops Mary from jumping around >one of them makes the crane move fast >one of them allows the blocks to fall on top of Mary with out squishing her There are also numbers that will increase score, and an item that looks just like Mary (I wonder what that does!) There's also a bird (or a plane) that flies over and knocks the girders if I remember correctly. legeek Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atari70s Posted December 7, 2001 Share Posted December 7, 2001 temepest you live a sad sad life . i wish my life was as sad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marco(2) Posted December 7, 2001 Share Posted December 7, 2001 Tempest, You live a sad life indeed. Abusing a post about gameplay to make us jealous about yet another proto acquisition Cheers, Marco PS: I thought you'd stick to 5200 and leave the VCS to me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted December 7, 2001 Author Share Posted December 7, 2001 Actually I was abusing this post to bring up my Tod Frye conspiracy. Either he's the most unlucky guy in the world (as far as getting his games released) or Atari had something against him. Thanks for the info on the bonus items, I'll have to try that tonight. Anything that would make Mary quit jumping around would be great. Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted December 7, 2001 Share Posted December 7, 2001 quote: Originally posted by Tempest: Ballblazer (believe it or not they were trying it) SQ: Airworld I don't think it's really fair to include these two games in the list of those that weren't released, since it appears virtually no work was done on either of them. Has Tod actually confirmed that he was working on a Ballblazer for the 2600? I know there's the speculation due to the Red End Label 7800 Ballblazer, but I didn't know this was a fact. While the conspiracy theories are intriguing, I doubt Atari would have willingly sacrificed the money they could have made by releasing these titles, even if they did have something against Tod. I think he was just an unfortunate victim of bad timing. At least it makes an interesting topic of discussion here in the present! ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mos6507 Posted December 7, 2001 Share Posted December 7, 2001 >> Has Tod actually confirmed that he was working on a Ballblazer for the 2600? << Yes, in Stella at 20: Volume 2. I think he was doing it just as a proof of concept. Maybe not an official project, although had he finished it, it might have become official. That's how it seemed from the context of his discussion about it. As for Save Mary, the powerups are key to playing the game effectively. Without it, the game may seem way too hard. It's really a pretty good game when you know what everything does and you apply that knowledge to your technique. It's by far Tod's best 2600 effort and it's a shame it wasn't released. Had it been finished earlier, it might have gotten released. Tod worked on the game for Axlon seemingly forever, like 2 years or something. Part of the problem was a good amount of micromanagement that forced him to change the kernel at least once (i.e. "can you make the sides of the canyon smoother?") but I suspect the other part was that Tod must have been only working on it part-time. I'm pretty sure all the Axlon games were contracted like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DEBRO Posted December 7, 2001 Share Posted December 7, 2001 quote: Originally posted by Albert: Okay, time for me to order these so I can watch them and glean useful nuggets of information out of them like this. ..Al [ 12-07-2001: Message edited by: Albert ] I would HIGHLY recommend both volumes. I've watched mine so much I might need to order them again so I can have that first time run picture quality My son (2 now) comes running into the room when ever he hears the Atari 2600 song by Splitsville because he knows Daddy is watching the Atari videos again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atarimastermarty Posted December 7, 2001 Share Posted December 7, 2001 I was playing that game alot on my emulator. I think the gameis very fun, i was actually rather dissapointed that they didnt release it. Its very hard but also very fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
godsey1 Posted December 7, 2001 Share Posted December 7, 2001 HI. Can anyone tell me what video's, and where can I get them? Thanks, Tony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slapdash Posted December 7, 2001 Share Posted December 7, 2001 The videos are available at CyberPuNKS. Debro: we'd love to put them on DVD for the permanence, but I'm not sure it'll ever happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liquid_sky Posted December 8, 2001 Share Posted December 8, 2001 you know.. i saw a vhs to dvd peheriphial in tiger direct.. 179.99 if i remember.. but you would need a dvd burner also.. thats the costly part Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Night Phantom Posted December 8, 2001 Share Posted December 8, 2001 quote: Originally posted by legeek: the bonus items do the following all for a brief period: >one of them stops the water from rising The “stopper” looks like a red inverted triangle with a black ring on top. quote >one of them stops Mary from jumping around The “stop sign” resembles a red square standing on one of its corners. It prevents Mary from jumping and pacing, but not if higher ground is accessible. quote>one of them makes the crane move fast The “oil can” (if that's what it's supposed to be) is a white inverted triangle with a short black horizontal line on top. quote>one of them allows the blocks to fall on top of Mary with out squishing her This item looks like a set of golden blocks. When the powerup is active, both the crane and the blocks not yet part of the pile are brown. Warning: blocks can turn back to the usual hazardous gray in mid-fall, crushing poor Mary! quoteThere are also numbers that will increase score, The “1”, “2”, and “5” each earn the player 100 times their face value. quote: and an item that looks just like Mary (I wonder what that does!) Bonus life! quoteThere's also a bird (or a plane) that flies over and knocks the girders if I remember correctly. It's not a bird—it's a plane (were you expecting Superman?) and it causes you to drop your blocks if it touches them or the line holding them. Save Mary appears finished, and it was one of the better long-missing games to surface in recent times. Have fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
godsey1 Posted December 8, 2001 Share Posted December 8, 2001 Thanks Russ, I'll go there and see what the deal is. Tony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted December 8, 2001 Share Posted December 8, 2001 quote: Originally posted by Glenn Saunders: Yes, in Stella at 20: Volume 2. Okay, time for me to order these so I can watch them and glean useful nuggets of information out of them like this. ..Al [ 12-07-2001: Message edited by: Albert ] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted December 8, 2001 Author Share Posted December 8, 2001 I finally got my Save Mary proto today. It tutrns out that it is very different from the final(?) version that had been dumped. I'm updating my page today with all the differences, but the biggest one is that Mary is invincible in this version! There is absolutely no way to die yet. You can't squish her, she can breath underwater, and there's no time limit of any kind. Very intersting... Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Atari Posted December 9, 2001 Share Posted December 9, 2001 Everyone here is luckier than me, "Save Mary" doesn't even work right on my emulator. However, from what I've heard about it, is there any question as to why it wasn't released? At the time, Atari was throwing everything in a last ditch effort to combat Nintendo. Now, would you EVER see a game like "Save Mary" on the NES? I think the resounding answer is no, unless you count their arcade series of games, that's as close they got to Atari produced games. quote but games like Klax, Xenophobe, and Motorodeo were designed just as late (1990) and got released. That's because they were all excellent, and perhaps what you'd see on an NES. "Xenophobe" was actually released for the system, not sure about "Klax", pretty sure "Motorodeo" wasn't. It's also intersting to note that "Klax" is a PAL only release. quoteI finally got my Save Mary proto today Geez, Tempest, you've got to be one of the luckiest Atari collectors, not one but TWO "Save Mary" protos! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted December 9, 2001 Author Share Posted December 9, 2001 Nope, I only have one. I was comparing it to the dumped rom on the emualtor. I almost had a second one but the deal fell through. It's really not about luck, but searching stuff down. I got most of my prototypes off people I've met in my years of collecting. when they came across prototypes they thought of me and asked if I was interested. I've never actually found a prototype in the wild. Of course most collectors never do. Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ze_ro Posted December 9, 2001 Share Posted December 9, 2001 quote: Originally posted by King Atari: Everyone here is luckier than me, "Save Mary" doesn't even work right on my emulator. However, from what I've heard about it, is there any question as to why it wasn't released? At the time, Atari was throwing everything in a last ditch effort to combat Nintendo. Now, would you EVER see a game like "Save Mary" on the NES? I think the resounding answer is no, unless you count their arcade series of games, that's as close they got to Atari produced games. It's actually a pretty good game... try another emulator and give it a try (It works in Stella for me) --Zero Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Atari Posted December 9, 2001 Share Posted December 9, 2001 That's the problem, I can only get PCAE and MAME32 to go, the rest won't pick up the roms I download (I'm probably doing something wrong, though). Does Hozer have any copies? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marco(2) Posted December 10, 2001 Share Posted December 10, 2001 quote: Originally posted by Tempest: It's really not about luck, but searching stuff down. I got most of my prototypes off people I've met in my years of collecting. when they came across prototypes they thought of me and asked if I was interested. I've never actually found a prototype in the wild. Of course most collectors never do. Was it you who got Ben Langberg's copy? Whoever got it, got a damn good trade! Cheers, Marco Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted December 10, 2001 Author Share Posted December 10, 2001 Yes that would be me. Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marco(2) Posted December 10, 2001 Share Posted December 10, 2001 Man, you're a smooth talker - dunno how you talked him into that trade Cheers, Marco Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackjax Posted December 10, 2001 Share Posted December 10, 2001 Well I'll be swashbuckled! I never thought those little bonus items did anything. Time to update my Save Mary page now, and give this one another try! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cschell Posted December 10, 2001 Share Posted December 10, 2001 quote: Originally posted by King Atari: Does Hozer have any copies? I'm pretty sure Save Mary requires Superchip (extra RAM), so I don't think Hozer has any copies. I think Tempest's new version doesn't use the extra RAM, but it doesn't sound all that playable. Chad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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