Prototypes laying in the sun

[Marco]

Yeah it's alot shorter than it used to be. People finally wised up I think and started releasing the games.

You're the authority, but as far as I remember, the list has never been all that long. I've always felt "the evil 2600 ROM hoarder" was mostly a myth, that was kept alive by avid ROM collectors. Sure, there were a couple more non dumped / shared protos on the list, but most of them were so for a plausible reason, and not hoarding.

 

I think it would be nice if we could - for once and for all - could get rid of this urban 2600 myth

 

Cheers,

Marco

[Tempest]

ou're the authority, but as far as I remember, the list has never been all that long. I've always felt "the evil 2600 ROM hoarder" was mostly a myth, that was kept alive by avid ROM collectors

 

Well I suppose it depends on what you mean by being available. For a long time many prototypes were available for purchase (at CGE for instance), but the roms were not distributed. This finally changed, so many prototypes came off the list.

 

Tempest

[uosipa llamxew]

What about Anteater? I've seen screenshots... apparently the ROM is dumped, but I haven't ever seen it available.

 

[edit]

 

The ROM is unavailable due to copyrights. I should have looked that up before, I know, but I'm ignorant.

Edited May 2, 2006 by mojofltr

[tenoch]

Here are the other carts and Oscar Race screen grab. Has only this screen showing. Nothing else happens.

 

-h.

 

 

:!: So I found out some news that the proto I have was the version used by marketing - here's a pic from a magazine:

 

At this time I do not know what magazine this came from.

 

What do ya'll think

 

-h.

[Rom Hunter]

Very plausible indeed, tenoch.

 

Thanks for sharing.

 

BTW: do you have a working .bin of Oscar's Trash Race?

 

[tenoch]

Sadly it appears that my e-mail addy for Greg is no longer valid, but while digging through some of our old e-mails I did find some quotes about the game going through at least 5 different iterations, so I suppose it's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

 

 

I was given Greg Easters last contact email from the person who told me about OTR being a marketing cart. I emailed him last night and the email did not bounce back so I hope it was a valid email for Greg. I just asked if he could shed any light on the subject.

 

I will let you know if it worked or if I find anything else interesting.

 

-h.

[tenoch]

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

 

 

I was given Greg Easters last contact email from the person who told me about OTR being a marketing cart. I emailed him last night and the email did not bounce back so I hope it was a valid email for Greg. I just asked if he could shed any light on the subject.

 

I will let you know if it worked or if I find anything else interesting.

 

-h.

 

 

 

Here is Greg's reply to me. The story is very cool and I wanted to share it.

 

 

"Indeed you found one of the other versions of this game. I began calling the

game "Snow White and the Seven Versions" because of all of the different

marketing lunatics who each insisted on changes. Most of their changes were

contradictory to each other's requests, which is the main reason that the game was

never released by Atari.

 

Of course the second reason is that the company was in deep financial trouble

by the time that was done, mostly due to the insane decisions made by those

same marketing people. The game went through focus testing with children ages

6 to 11 and the summary in the report described the game as "very exciting"

for the children in the age range that this product was targeted for. Jewel

Savadelos, who was vice president of marketing at Atari at the time read me the

report personally, and said that this was why the game should NOT be released -

"it is too exciting for children." When I said that should be considered a

good thing for a video game, she said, "children spend too much time in front

of the television already, and it rots their brains." Just the person that

should be in senior management of a video game company, huh?"

 

-h.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Priceless!

[Foxsolo2000]

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

 

 

I was given Greg Easters last contact email from the person who told me about OTR being a marketing cart. I emailed him last night and the email did not bounce back so I hope it was a valid email for Greg. I just asked if he could shed any light on the subject.

 

I will let you know if it worked or if I find anything else interesting.

 

-h.

 

 

 

Here is Greg's reply to me. The story is very cool and I wanted to share it.

 

 

"Indeed you found one of the other versions of this game. I began calling the

game "Snow White and the Seven Versions" because of all of the different

marketing lunatics who each insisted on changes. Most of their changes were

contradictory to each other's requests, which is the main reason that the game was

never released by Atari.

 

Of course the second reason is that the company was in deep financial trouble

by the time that was done, mostly due to the insane decisions made by those

same marketing people. The game went through focus testing with children ages

6 to 11 and the summary in the report described the game as "very exciting"

for the children in the age range that this product was targeted for. Jewel

Savadelos, who was vice president of marketing at Atari at the time read me the

report personally, and said that this was why the game should NOT be released -

"it is too exciting for children." When I said that should be considered a

good thing for a video game, she said, "children spend too much time in front

of the television already, and it rots their brains." Just the person that

should be in senior management of a video game company, huh?"

 

-h.

 

Just goes to show that a trained chimp could have probaly done a better job of running Atari then these well educated busines stypes

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Just goes to show that a trained chimp could have probaly done a better job of running Atari then these well educated busines stypes

Look what she is doing now! (verified!)

[NovaXpress]

How scared will she be when her webmaster mentions that they're suddenly getting constant hits from some website about Atari?

[tenoch]

Very plausible indeed, tenoch.

 

Thanks for sharing.

 

BTW: do you have a working .bin of Oscar's Trash Race?

 

 

 

So The finale installment of my collection has come to an end.

Tempest has dumped Oscar's Trash Race for me this week and here is his review

 

http://www.atariprotos.com/2600/software/oscar/12382.htm

 

I want to say thank you to everybody who help get these roms to the community.

 

Until the next find

 

-h

Oscar_12_3_82.bin

[Keiyentai]

Awesome finds man. Also the reply back from the programer is priceless. I wish I could have seen his face when the lady told him that. Almost as bad as HP's president saying in the 70's that "Normal cosumers will never have a need for a personal computer"

[madhatter667]

That is an amazing acquisition, and at such a low cost to you! I think it is great that you have been able to contact the programmer..very interesting insight in regards to the beloved hobby that is video games. If only people knew then the repercussions that their choices would have on various future aspects of the industry...

It is an intriguing piece of what I like to call pop culture history (having recently done an essay on the social impact of video games).

 

Too exciting for children... peh... did someone forget that video games are SUPPOSED to be entertaining?

[supercat]

Look what she is doing now! (verified!)

 

Wedding videographers? Interesting. I don't know what video my cousin has of his wedding, but I have some real film from it (some gorgeous Kodachrome of the bride and groom being pelted by rice as they leave the church). Too bad Kodachrome was discontinued--it's nice stuff.

[dejapooh]

Wouldn't dumping the program reduce the value of the prototype?

[Shawn]

Wouldn't dumping the program reduce the value of the prototype?

 

Yes, but he has the original. And I think most folks call it the kindness of sharing

[Tempest]

Wouldn't dumping the program reduce the value of the prototype?

 

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It all depends on the prototype. Usually the more complete and fun to play a prototype is the more it retains its value after dumping. If the proto was very incomplete or a complete dud gamewise then the value can go down since the 'curiosity factor' has been taken away now that everyone can play it.

 

Tempest