rare apollo games

[abostonboy]

Ok... Here is what i have:

 

Guardian w/ instr manual

Skeet Shoot (early version with the rolling issue not solved. Remember apollo made a mistake and some of the carts wouldnt work, so they recalled them?)

lochjaw

Also have an apollo prototype with speech. Very unfinished game.

I also have access to a development system used at apollo (atari 800).

anyone interested?

[Tempest]

I'd be very interested in getting my hands on those. E-mail me with what your looking for (cash, trade, whatever). Do you have any pictures?

 

http://www.msu.edu/user/reicher6/

 

Tempest

 

[email protected]

 

[ 08-30-2001: Message edited by: Tempest ]

[Alex]

Please tell us more. What is the nature of the speech game? What kind of speech does it use? Can you tell us more about the development system?

[abostonboy]

When I was at apollo we had big plans at the end. I worked on the 800 versions of some of the games. I believe they had a ti speech chip that they were going to use on the 2600. The 2600 guys there really had no clue what they were doing for the most part. Ed and Pat just refused to build a talented bunch of guys.

 

As for the speech "game" it is pretty much just a voice saying "fire" "fire" and what appears to be a spaceship (pretty hard to tell what anything is with apollo games). Somewhere I have a Pompei eprom as that was one of the games that we were going to port to the 800. I know that one was completed.

 

The develovpment system was actually sold as a product. i believe Ed Salvo did this a year after apollo folded.

[Tempest]

Do you know which games Apollo was going to port to the 800? I never knew they even had plans for 400/800 games.

 

As I stated earlier, I'm very interested in your games and prototypes (hence my nickname). Please e-mail me and we can discuss prices.

 

Tempest

 

 

[ 08-30-2001: Message edited by: Tempest ]

[Alex]

Okay, now you've really got me interested, I'd really like to talk to you about this in email or AIM. I don't believe that Pompeii has ever been archived, were you aware of that? Please email me at [email protected] when you get a chance.

[jahfish]

i am also interested in

Guardian w/ instr manual

&

lochjaw

 

let me know what you're looking for or what you want to have for it!

 

greetings

[abostonboy]

concerning apollo's 400/800 plans:

 

The reason we died was becuase we got in the computer thing too late. If apollo had not folded you would have seen a couple of atari computer games as well as some 5200 titles. That really goes w/o saying as it was very easy to port a 800 game to the 5200. I know space cavern was like 99% done and almost ready to go. There were a couple of original titles as well. I was working on the pompei game for the 400/800 series. What a mess that was!

 

The whole place was in total chaos. I remember one of Pat's last great ideas was to advertise in the coupon sections of the sunday papers. We had a buy one get so much off, buy 2 get even more, buy 3 get even more. Like moms are going to clip the coupons and run to the grocery store and buy games. Whatever.....

 

There was one really cool 2600 game that I saw that never saw the light of day. I think one of the guys who founded sunrise was going to do something with it, not sure.

[Tempest]

Do you know anything about the other two unreleased games: Kyphus and Blue Angles? What about Squoosh?

 

Sunrise only released Quest for Quintana Roo for the 2600 and sold Glacier Patrol to Telegames. Were either of those games the one your thinking about?

 

Even if Apollo had gotten into the 400/800 market you probably would only have been around for another year or so. The market crashed so badly in 84 almost no one survived.

 

You've got me really interested with those prototypes, let me know what your looking for when you get a chance. Reasearching new prototypes is my hobby. That development system would be interesting to have too since I'm currently developing a new game for the 5200. (http://www.msu.edu/user/reicher6/cypher.htm)

 

 

Tempest

 

[email protected]

My Prototype Page

[abostonboy]

Don't know anything about Blu Angels, the other two were almost done i recall. I remember seeing the ads for them from the advertising acency.

 

I think apollo would have made it a little longer than you think. There was some serious cash that was promised, but Pat refused to give up control of the company. The bottom line was the guys that wanted to bail out apollo got pissed when pat told them where to go, so they put pressure on the advertising agency to force us into bankruptcy.

 

There was some really cool stuff in development at the end.

 

I might (and I repeat might) be able to get some eproms of some of the other stuff we were working on.

 

I know that there was discussions about creating a new game system at the time and mgmt really wanted to go ahead with it.

 

But anyway, Pat Roper got what he deserved....

[Tempest]

What happened to him anyway? And Ed Salvo for that matter?

 

Tempest

[rolenta]

Tempest said:

"Do you know which games Apollo was going to port to the 800? I never knew they even had plans for 400/800 games."

 

I guess you never read Phoenix. In Chapter 9 (1982), I wrote:

"Games By Apollo turned one year old in October 1982. By that time the company had ten games behind it. It also had big plans for the future such as a game for the 2600 that talked without any need of a voice module like Odyssey and Mattel used. The company also planned to release four games for the Intellivision and Colecovision. Games By Apollo also looked beyond dedicated videogame consoles and was getting ready to release two games for the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A computer. There were also plans made to translate several 2600 games for the Atari 5200 and 400/800 computers."

 

By the way, Pat Roper died several years ago.

 

Leonard Herman

Phoenix: The Fall & Rise of Videogames

[abostonboy]

Leonard:

 

Do you know where ed salvo is now?

[rolenta]

quote:

---

Originally posted by :

Leonard:

 

Do you know where ed salvo is now?

---

 

No, sorry

[jahfish]

so what about gardian and lockjaw?

[Tempest]

Actually I did read Pheonix (I forgot to get your signiture at CGE though), I must have forgotten about that or glanced over that paragraph. I'm the master of prototypes, not the master of Atari history (that's your job )

 

Wasn't Venturevision formed by some ex-Apollo employees? Anyone you know?

 

 

BTW, I don't think he's contacted anyone about those games yet so we can all quit asking. I suppose he'll get to it when he's good and ready. That being said, I am still very interested in those games, especially the prototypes and the development system. I did ask first...

 

Tempest

[email protected]

[Scott Stilphen]

Issue (#6) of Slap-Dash has some notes that Ed Salvo had mentioned to Russ(?). It was a few years ago, and I don't know if it's all still valid (and Russ may be able to help here) but to quote:

 

"Ed programmed Mountain King (in 12K) for the 2600, and the "secret kingdom" was something he put there intentionally, not a bug, though some of the "unstable" areas are not intentionally glitchy"

 

"Ed was one of four partners in VSS, who contracted to write games for other companies (such as Xonox and Sunrise) as well as developing the READS 2600 system for 2600 game design."

 

"Ed programmed Skeet Shoot, Racquetball, Lost Luggage, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Glacier Patrol for the 2600, and Gustbuster for Colecovision."

 

"Pat Roper, president of Apollo, had a dream about building 2-person helicopters for commuting, thinking they could clear up traffic congestion, and a lot of money was wasted in that pipe dream, killing Apollo."

 

"A monogrammed Space Chase was made on camera for Leeza Gibbons of Entertainment Tonight (or maybe it was PM Magazine at the time?)."

 

"Wabbit was designed by a female programmer, but Ed doesn't remember her name."

 

[ 08-31-2001: Message edited by: Scott Stilphen ]

[rolenta]

The book is probably worth more without my signature

 

Venturevision was formed by Dan Oliver who I believe did work for Apollo. He programmed Venturevision's only release: Rescue Terra I.

 

He announced two more games (but didn't show)at CES: Innerspace and Solar Defense. Innerspace was eventually released by Imagic as Laser Gates. I have no idea what happened to Solar Defense, or if any work had even been started on it.

[abostonboy]

Actually, Tescue Terra 1 was released by Imagic. That is still in my opinion one of the best games out there.

 

So, do we know where Ed is?

[rolenta]

Rescue Terra 1 was not released by Imagic, it was released by Venturevision.

 

A sales flier for the game can be found on my web site at:

http://www.rolentapress.com/memorabillia/rescue.jpg

[Tempest]

I believe Leonard is corrcet, Rescue Terra I was released by Venturevision or at least under their label (I don't know if Imagic had anything to do with that or not).

 

Let me know when your ready to talk about those prototypes.

 

Tempest

 

[email protected]

[MattyXB]

I am interessted on Lochjaw too. How much will you for that?

 

And ship you to germany?

 

Matthias

[Tempest]

I called first dibs!

 

Hmm... Only 10 more posts to go.

 

Tempest

 

[ 08-31-2001: Message edited by: Tempest ]

[Tempest]

Ebay is a fair way I guess. I was hoping to get a hold of that development system and prototypes without resorting to Ebay because they always go way too high.

 

If I could get a hold of any of that prototype stuff I'd let Alex and Al dump it first, I'm not interested in hording stuff. I just like researching the prototypes as you can tell if you look at my webpage (I'm strange like that).

 

If your not interested in money (that's a first), are you interested in trades?

 

Tempest

 

[ 09-01-2001: Message edited by: Tempest ]

[Albert]

quote:

---

Originally posted by

:

If i can find pompeii I want to give it to atariage so they can do a dump and maybe they can auction it off for a chaity or something like that. Not really interested in money.

---

 

That sounds like a great idea! I think charity auctions usually bring in more since people know the money is going to a good cause. So you would just need to pick a charity that the auction winnings would go to.

 

..Al