tenoch Posted March 20, 2006 Share Posted March 20, 2006 So I love to look for Atari 2600 games at flee markets and garage sales like we all do. I have about 400 - 500 or so normal atari games. Not a big collection, but I can say I have never paid more than $ 3.00 for a game and that is what I love about collecting Atari 2600 is the hunt for something rare and not paying a lot for it. I have no Prototypes and I never really seen one up close. I don't research them or know a lot about them. Until this week. This Saturday I found 12 prototypes laying in the sun. I barging down from 3 carts for $10.00 to 12 carts for $25.00. I think it is the best money I ever spent. I love having them and looking at them. I can not explain the emotion I felt when I saw them. It was a rush nothing could create. It justify all the looking and hunting I do and all I knew is I had something, but I did not know what it really was. Fun Day. So I found this site www.atariprotos.com and email Tempest with what I found as well as this message board to tell the experience. Here is the list: Snow White 2-9-83 (in handwriting) Donald Duck 4-12 (in handwriting) Xevious Cartridge 09-12-83 (in typewriting) Sorcerer's Apprentice 3-28 (in handwriting) Sorcerer 1-28-83 (in handwriting) Pigs in Space 07-29-83 (in typewriting) Tennis EPROM Cartridge (in typewriting) 020-01 (in handwriting) Oscar Race EPROM Cartridge (in typewriting) 12-3-82 (in handwriting) Battlezone Cartridge 144 (in typewriting) Moon Patrol 207 (in handwriting) TAZZ 6-15 (in handwriting) Pole Position 142 (in handwriting) Should have some pictures soon. Best Houston P.S. Tempest is a very cool and knowledgeable person. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted March 20, 2006 Share Posted March 20, 2006 Some of those prototypes are WIP versions, but that Snow White proto is the one I want to see most. It's possible that you have a later version than the version that is currently out there. I can't wait to find out. Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tenoch Posted March 20, 2006 Author Share Posted March 20, 2006 Here is some snow white picts. The game seems to be like something they wanted to add on or the the first part of the game. It has no sound and just 3 screens. First is the start page with snow white moving into her house then the witch comes in. second screen objects move from bottom to top that you have to dodge. There are diamonds that come up from either side that are worth 100 each and 5 points for object you dodge ( you start with 10 diamonds and 1 is removed when you grab it or it goes to the top. A latter comes in to climb and it moves you to the next screen. Third screen there are 3 different objects that rotate in and these object come from the top down. Nothing more seems to happen. If you get hit the witch moves closer to the house. take about 15-20 hits for that and then the screen blinks and boarders go black. best Houston Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tenoch Posted March 20, 2006 Author Share Posted March 20, 2006 Here are the other carts and Oscar Race screen grab. Has only this screen showing. Nothing else happens. -h. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted March 20, 2006 Share Posted March 20, 2006 Wow! That is completely different than the version that was found earlier: http://www.atariprotos.com/2600/software/s...e/snowwhite.htm When I talked to Greg Easter (the programmer) he mentioned the game went through several iterations, but I assumed they were all basically the same. Although your version appers to be an ealier game concept, the date on the prototype is later. My best guess is that they decided to scrap Greg's version after he left Atari and got someone else to do a new version. I'll try and get ahold of him and see what he says. Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted March 20, 2006 Share Posted March 20, 2006 Here are the other carts and Oscar Race screen grab. Has only this screen showing. Nothing else happens. -h. Sounds like an early 'concept' demo. I can't wait to see it. Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tenoch Posted March 20, 2006 Author Share Posted March 20, 2006 I noticed 1 thing the copy right has only Atari on it from the link you sent me and mine has both Atari and Disney on it. Interesting. -h. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tenoch Posted March 20, 2006 Author Share Posted March 20, 2006 Not knowing prototypes. Is there sometimes code that does not show up, but can be accessed some how to show more animation of the game? houston Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted March 20, 2006 Share Posted March 20, 2006 I noticed 1 thing the copy right has only Atari on it from the link you sent me and mine has both Atari and Disney on it. Interesting. -h. Yeah, adding the second copyright is usually something that was done later on. I don't know if this was because the programmer just didn't think about adding the 'intellectual property' copyright until they were reminded, or if this was done on purpose. I have alot of early versions of games where they only list an Atari copyright. Sadly it appears that my e-mail addy for Greg is no longer valid, but while digging through some of our old e-mails I did find some quotes about the game going through at least 5 different iterations, so I suppose it's possoble that this was yet another idea for the game. Although it seems odd that they would scrap the earlier one since it was so far along. Maybe it was considered to be too hard for a childerns game and they wanted to dumb it down a bit so they took the first screen and expanded on it? Just a guess. Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted March 20, 2006 Share Posted March 20, 2006 Not knowing prototypes. Is there sometimes code that does not show up, but can be accessed some how to show more animation of the game? houston Sometimes. Occasionally someone can hack a game to show a partially finished screen or some code that was never activated in the final version. It all depends on how complete the code is. No way of knowing until the game is dumped. Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tenoch Posted March 20, 2006 Author Share Posted March 20, 2006 I noticed 1 thing the copy right has only Atari on it from the link you sent me and mine has both Atari and Disney on it. Interesting. -h. Yeah, adding the second copyright is usually something that was done later on. I don't know if this was because the programmer just didn't think about adding the 'intellectual property' copyright until they were reminded, or if this was done on purpose. I have alot of early versions of games where they only list an Atari copyright. Tempest One other interesting point Atari© is above Disney© and in the others games Dumbo, Donald Duck, Sorcerer's Apprentice Atari is below. Like finding differences. -h. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rom Hunter Posted March 20, 2006 Share Posted March 20, 2006 Nice find, tenoch. Another piece of Atari 2600 gaming history revealed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted March 20, 2006 Share Posted March 20, 2006 Some very cool finds! IMO you should check the place again, maybe the seller has even more protos to offer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omegamatrix Posted March 20, 2006 Share Posted March 20, 2006 Some very cool finds! IMO you should check the place again, maybe the seller has even more protos to offer. I'll second that! You never know what people have until you ask. It's great to see stuff like this come up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foxsolo2000 Posted March 20, 2006 Share Posted March 20, 2006 Its fascinating to see a completely different game from the one we all know. Snow White look spretty cool. Its amazing how many of these things are suddenly turning up in working condition Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tenoch Posted March 20, 2006 Author Share Posted March 20, 2006 Some very cool finds! IMO you should check the place again, maybe the seller has even more protos to offer. The guy said he got them from a friend and might be able to get more. I told him I was going to come back the next week to see. I was trying not to sound to eager for them. So I will let yall know. Tempest I do want to have these dumped. could you PM me your friend in Cali? Thanks. -h Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
galaxy warrior Posted March 20, 2006 Share Posted March 20, 2006 wow thats quite a good day. cant wait to see what else you could get a hold of the snow white is cool. i hope the dumps can reveal some more(crosses fingers) i wish i had flea finds like that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tenoch Posted March 21, 2006 Author Share Posted March 21, 2006 wow thats quite a good day. cant wait to see what else you could get a hold of the snow white is cool. i hope the dumps can reveal some more(crosses fingers) i wish i had flea finds like that What do you mean " i hope the dumps can reveal some more" Is there more game play that will not show by just plug in playing it, hidden inside of the EPROM -h. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keilbaca Posted March 21, 2006 Share Posted March 21, 2006 wow thats quite a good day. cant wait to see what else you could get a hold of the snow white is cool. i hope the dumps can reveal some more(crosses fingers) i wish i had flea finds like that What do you mean " i hope the dumps can reveal some more" Is there more game play that will not show by just plug in playing it, hidden inside of the EPROM -h. He means the differences between the two snow whites. I wish I had flea market finds like that too... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NovaXpress Posted March 21, 2006 Share Posted March 21, 2006 In these WIP games we've seen large sections of code which are not accessible through gameplay. It takes an expert to see what all the possibilities are and discover tricks which may not be discovered by a regular gameplayer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supercat Posted March 21, 2006 Share Posted March 21, 2006 In these WIP games we've seen large sections of code which are not accessible through gameplay. It takes an expert to see what all the possibilities are and discover tricks which may not be discovered by a regular gameplayer. That can sometimes be the case even today. For example, a person who's working on stage 4 of a video game might temporarily hack one instruction so the game will start at level 4 instead of level 1. This will allow the programmer to test level 4, but might make the first three levels inaccessible. Later, once level 4 is completed the programmer would modify that instruction to (depending upon the target size of the game) either start at level 5 (which he'd work on next) or level 1 (if there were no more levels to work on). In some cases, the code for the first few levels may be "if"'ed out while the fourth level is constructed. If that's the case, there won't be any trace of it in the EPROM. But in other cases, the programmer will leave code for the first three levels alone and simply change the instructions that set the starting level. In that case, changing one byte in the ROM image will make the first three levels available for play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorclu Posted March 21, 2006 Share Posted March 21, 2006 In these WIP games we've seen large sections of code which are not accessible through gameplay. It takes an expert to see what all the possibilities are and discover tricks which may not be discovered by a regular gameplayer. That can sometimes be the case even today. For example, a person who's working on stage 4 of a video game might temporarily hack one instruction so the game will start at level 4 instead of level 1. This will allow the programmer to test level 4, but might make the first three levels inaccessible. Later, once level 4 is completed the programmer would modify that instruction to (depending upon the target size of the game) either start at level 5 (which he'd work on next) or level 1 (if there were no more levels to work on). In some cases, the code for the first few levels may be "if"'ed out while the fourth level is constructed. If that's the case, there won't be any trace of it in the EPROM. But in other cases, the programmer will leave code for the first three levels alone and simply change the instructions that set the starting level. In that case, changing one byte in the ROM image will make the first three levels available for play. Reminds me of Phase Zero for the Atari Jaguar. Some levels are done and you can only get to them by jumping to them. Other earlier levels are not. Same with Soul Star, but sadly no jumps, just have to barrow through bad levels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Posted March 21, 2006 Share Posted March 21, 2006 Makes me think of "Hot Coffee" Those guys at Rockstar sure had a lesson learned from using such types of methods and not pulling the code didn't they Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Oberhäuser Posted March 29, 2006 Share Posted March 29, 2006 Here are the other carts and Oscar Race screen grab. Has only this screen showing. Nothing else happens. -h. Sounds like an early 'concept' demo. I can't wait to see it. Tempest Yeah, would like to see the SW as well, looks awesome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassidy Nolen Posted March 29, 2006 Share Posted March 29, 2006 Amazing. Simply amazing. I would have dropped my jaw too far to fake my excitement. Man, even at 50 bucks each you stole that lot. Congrats. Looking forward to seeing differences between the one Marc did and the SW you have there. Now, the question....what are you going to do with them all? Cassidy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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