How BIG a hit would Saboteaur have been?

[pocketmego]

having spent more than a few marathon sessions playing Saboteaur on my *cough* *cough* Flashback 2 *cough* *Cough*, I am more than a little impressed with it. I think an untampered (no A-Team PLEASE!!!) version of this game would have been HUGE.

 

For one thing it is an indireact sequal, with cameos even, of an INCREDIBLY popular Atari Game. It is very fun to play, the difficulty ramps up at a pretty dramatic pace, but practice makes this not a big deal. I even found myself learning new strategies and unique gameplay manuevers after having already played the game several times.

 

Like I said...HUGE!!!

 

But, how big?

 

Would it have been Yar's Revenge or Pitfall big? Space Invaders or Defender maybe?

 

Might word of it being created by ET's programmer have hurt it?

 

All this assumes the crash never happened and the game was released in its original form, of course.

 

I certainly would hope we would have seen a comic with it.

 

-Ray

[ATARIPITBULL]

I like playing this game and I think it could have been pretty big, but I don't think as high as Pitfall or Yars Revenge and I don't think the fact that Howard Scott Warshaw made this game would have hurt it, the man is a good programmer.

 

[liveinabin]

I think it would have been pretty huge. Yars Revenge big.

 

Of course it didn't have the cool box artwork then.

[Lord Thag]

I agree! Saboteur is a great twitch game. As to how popular it would have been, I'm thinking it would have been fairly popular and a solid seller, but not up in the stratosphere like Pitfall or Asteroids (sales-wise). It's a good game, but I think it would have gotten lost in all of the late glut of games, had it been released. If they had marketed it well as a sequel to Yars, it definately would have helped (imagine another cool comic pack in ).

 

That being said, I don't think it stands up to some of the A-list titles for the system. While very fun, it lacks a certain depth that would make it stand out among the crowd of games that were out by '83. If I had to rate it, I'd give it a B+. One of the best, but not THE best, you know?

[Chickybaby]

I think it would have been pretty huge. Yars Revenge big.

 

Of course it didn't have the cool box artwork then.

 

It's a really fun game to play and I do think it would have been very popular especially with HSW's name associated with it. I am not sure where exactly it would rank, but definitely in the top percentage of games.

 

LOL!

Yes, very cool art indeed and I thank them for it as well as everyone who made it possible even for a bink of an eye.

Edited July 29, 2006 by Chickybaby

[Zach]

I think it would have been pretty huge. Yars Revenge big.

 

Of course it didn't have the cool box artwork then.

I was wondering who did the artwork. I think I've figured it out.

[+SpiceWare]

Per the manual, David Exton

[godzillajoe]

Where can I find an online manual for this game? I checked AA's 2600 manual page but came up empty.

 

Not exactly sure what I'm supposed to do in each stage

 

Seems like it randomly switches screens after I either succeed or fail each level but exactly what is the object of each level?

 

1: Shoot anything that moves and don't get shot

2: Shoot that blob thing in the middle

3: Shoot that dots that attack your ship

 

It's not that simple is it?

[sandmountainslim]

A-Team is superior!

[liveinabin]

Per the manual, David Exton

 

That'sa me Turned out quite nice. Shame it was pulled from the store so quickly. And that link doesn't work, whereas this example of shameless self promotion does.

[Tempest]

Where can I find an online manual for this game? I checked AA's 2600 manual page but came up empty.

 

Not exactly sure what I'm supposed to do in each stage

 

Seems like it randomly switches screens after I either succeed or fail each level but exactly what is the object of each level?

 

1: Shoot anything that moves and don't get shot

2: Shoot that blob thing in the middle

3: Shoot that dots that attack your ship

 

It's not that simple is it?

 

I wrote the manual for the game, but I'm not sure why it's not up on AA. You can read how to play the game on my website though: http://www.atariprotos.com/2600/software/s...ur/saboteur.htm

 

 

Tempest

[+SpiceWare]

Per the manual, David Exton

 

That'sa me Turned out quite nice. Shame it was pulled from the store so quickly. And that link doesn't work, whereas this example of shameless self promotion does.

Looks like I left off the .com. What's weird is when I right-click and "open in a new tab" using Firefox it works just fine That's why I didn't notice the problem when posted the reply, my test of the link worked OK. Edited July 29, 2006 by SpiceWare

[pocketmego]

A-Team is superior!

 

 

OK, I'm willing to humor this for a second. Let's say this DID come out as an A-Team game. I believe that the A-Team version would have been an even bigger bomb than ET. No one who watched that show would have been able to make heads or tails out of a Giant Mr. T Head that shot lazers at anything in sight.

 

It was a thuroughly bad idea to convert a current game to the license and new game should have been designed especially with the series having a few years of popularity in it. It wasn't like a movie where they had to rush the thing into production and a unique game would have FELT more like the sourcer material. I have NO doubt that had Activision or Imagic gotten that license the game would have ROCKED!

 

-Ray