The 8bitrocket Daily Briefing – Sunday, April 24, 2011
First off, Happy Easter to all those who celebrate it.
Try out these new Flash Game Distribution games.
We liked them the first couple times we played them.
- X Missile (once you find the game through all of the ads and Free Tower defense logos). This is fun shooter / physics puzzle mix.
-Pryoscape 3 - Not the greatest game ever made, but these guys are pretty funny and creative.
-Temple of Death - Well crafted over-head zombie shooter
-G Blocks - The best puzzle game I have played all day.
-Rapid Machine - A fun, over-head racing game. (Seems familiar though)
Once Upon Atari Documentary @ IGN
A good portion of Howard Scott Warshaw's Once Upon Atari documentary is now available in multiple parts at IGN. Actually, it's been there since 2008. If you have not seen this yet, it's a fascinating look into Atari from the golden age.
Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3, Vol. 4 & Vol. 5, Vol. 6 & Vol. 7, Vol. 8 & Vol. 9, Vol. 10 & Vol. 11, Vol. 12 & Vol. 13
By the way, both Dad Hacker and Chris Crawford had some interesting things to say about it too.
Speaking Of Chris Crawford...
Chris Crawford just posted an in-depth account of his talk at The games academic group at UC Santa Cruz . He now thinks games are not dead any more.
"The causes of my positive outlook are simple: the publishers have been eclipsed by a passel of creative new actors. There are gobs of startups hawking all manner of new ideas. The indie games movement is showing wonderful creative energy. And the maturation of the web has made it possible for indie developers to earn a living just by putting their stuff up there. Indeed, the single most salient factor in the reversal of my opinion arose when Jason Rohrer told me that he was earning plenty of money selling his products on the web."
Atari recently announced a new version of Centipede for the Nintendo DS
Last week, Atari and developer WayForward have announced the upcoming Fall release of the re-imagine legendary video game franchise Centipede for a new generation of gamers with Centipede: Infestation. The game will be available on Nintendo 3DS™ and Wii™ Systems.
See the trailer. It looks pretty bitchin'! Here is the rest of the press release.
Centipede: Infestation is a post-apocalyptic action experience that features run-n-gun shooting style gameplay with tower defense-style objects, paying homage to the original Centipede while bringing the brand into the 21st century. Players assume the role of an orphaned teenager hero named Max as he trudges through the wasteland, fighting off giant bugs. During Max’s travels he encounters a young teen named Maisy who possesses a collection of seeds that hold the secret to bringing plant life back to the wasteland. Max and Maisy join forces to grow these gardens and protect the last natural resources on earth.
There are a lot of rumors about a new Nintendo Console
- 1Up Says that it could cost $400 and have 2 distinct controllers.
- Kotaku says that Miyamoto doesn't want to talk about it
- Then 1Up says that Miyamoto says it will just be a few days
Hmm, very interesting. I wish Atari would put out a new console.
What does Atari mean to you?
Head on over to the Atari Age Forums and let your voice be heard. There are some great stories and posts already in this cool thread.
Ever wanted to learn 68000 C or Machine Language?
You could do much worse than firing up an Atari ST emulator and then going through these two Abacus books full books posted at AtariMania.com: Atari ST Basic to C and Atari ST Machine Language.
Popular Movie Scenes Re-Created with Legos
My sons have pretty much every available surface in the house covered with Legos. No matter how much time my wife and I spend organizing them, they always end up right back where they were. The boys tend to re-make scenes from movies and TV shows with them, but if they ever made a Clockwork Orange scene (or some of the other's here), I would have to take them to a therapist.
The full, uncensored Beastie Boys Fight For Your Right To Party Revisited Short Film
I have to admit that I absolutely hated this shit when I was 16, but I have grown to appreciate a lot of things that I never thought I would. This new video Comedy Central kicks ass though.
Nerds Ruin Everything
There is so much right about this site.
Galaxy Win!
The Galaxy, sporting their first choice team for only the second match this campaign, beat the upstart Portland Timbers 3-0 on two Landon Donovan goals and the amazing tally from Chad Barrett.
The 8bitrocket Daily Briefing is compiled and edited by both Jeff D. Fulton and Steve A. Fulton. Send news items that you would like covered to info[at]8bitrocket[dot]com
8bits in the Attic – Atari (and Intellivision) Treasure Trove
About 12 years ago I realized that I wanted to play my original 1986 Atari 7800, but had no idea where it was. After searching the garage at my parents house, I found the original system in its original box, but no games. This set me out on a mission to find games to play on it. This mission ultimately resulted in my acquiring smallish stock of retro games and systems. We moved houses 2 years later and all of those games and systems seemed to have been lost somewhere along that way...until today. Today, while searching for Easter baskets and decorations in the attic, I uncovered 5 boxes of retro gear. The first contained many of of the 8-bit Atari games (400/800/xl/xe, 2600, 5200, 7800) and a couple Intellivision games.
2600 Games
The box contained 51 Atari 2600 carts. Only 2 of them were doubles, and 4 were signed by the original programmers/designer. While at Mattel we had the pleasure of working with David Crane and Gary Kitchen (both with Skyworks at the time). They agreed to sign some carts that I brought in.
(click to enlarge photo)
The games starting from the top row and moving left to right and down:
Super Breakout, Asteroids, Casino, Video Pinball, Defender, Human Cannonball, Surround, Video Olympics, Home Run
Adventure, Maze Craze, Warlords(2), Football, Haunted House, Street Racer, Pele's Soccer, Space Invaders
Yar's Revenge, Pac-Man, Mario Bros, Pole Position, Real Sports Tennis, Centipede, Vanguard, Real Sports Baseball, Kangaroo,
Ms Pac-Man, Sears Tele-Games Golf, Bowling, Combat, Breakout, Basketball, Sears Tele-Games Pinball, River Raid, Sea Quest
Enduro, Pitfall (signed by David Crane), Grand Prix (signed by David Crane), Keystone Kapers (signed by Gary Kitchen), Spider Fighter(2), Megamania, Donkey Kong (signed by Gary Kitchen), Frogger, Phoenix (in Box)
Riddle of the Sphinx, Q-Bert, Star Wars (the Empire Strikes Back), Trick Shot, Atlantis
A couple of these games I got from Steve as he had been care-taking most of our older 8-bit stuff (I got the Atari ST). Some of these games I found at garage sales, mom and pop thrift stores, and on the internet, but by far the largest portion were grabbed from the TV department of the local Salvation Army for $1.50 a piece (you can see the shitty non-removable sticker on many of them). The Phoenix cart (in box) was purchased with a lot of 7800 games off the internet.
7800 Games
The box contained 18 Atari 7800 carts (9 in box, 9 loose).
(click to enlarge photo)
Pete Rose Baseball, Xevious, Food Fight, Desert Falcon, Robotron, Touchdown Football, Galaga, Asteroids
Baseball (in box), One on One (in box), Ms Pac-Man (in Box), Dark Chambers (in Box)
Donkey Kong (in box), Donkey Kong Junior, Choplifter, Tower Toppler, Centipede
Like the 2600 carts, a few of these came from Steve's stash of our originals while all of the in-box carts were purchased over the internet.
Atari 400/800/xl/xe computer game carts
My favorite retro machines are the Atari 8-bit computers (the mini-Amiga as Jay Miner had his hand in creating both). It was the most elegant and arguably one of the most powerful of the 8-bit computers. Game-wise it was much more powerful than the early IBM's, Apples, and Timex's, and it fought on even ground with the C=64 (each machine having it's own advantages).
This is the machine I was (and maybe still am) most interested in collecting carts for. I don't know If I will ever start up my collection again though. I was burned too many times by e-bay sellers who never sent he carts that paid for. This was the major factor that stopped me from collecting in the first place.
There are only 9-carts in this box for the Atari 8-bit computers, but I am sure I have more some place (or did they never arrive in the mail?).
(click to enlarge photo)
Millipede, Demon Attack (will not work on my 65xe or 800xl), Qix, Dig Dug, Star Raiders, Miner 2049er (I know the cart pic is obscured by my lame photography skills, but most of the printing is also gone form the label), XE Game System Food Fight, XE Game System Donkey Kong, and River Raid.
5200 Carts
I never had a 5200, but when these two babies showed up at the bottom of a pile of junk on the 99 Cent store "media isle" I jumped on them.
(click to enlarge photo)
The two carts are Pole Position and Pac-Man, but I could have sworn I have an in-box Berzerk some place also.
It has been 12 years, but I still go to that 99 Cent store media section hoping to see Atari carts at least a couple times a year. No more have ever shown up.
Intellivision Carts
I have a soft spot in my Atari heart for the Mattel Intellivision. Steve and I used to play the system all the time at Eric Barth's house down the street (he might be your professor now if you attend college in the South). I worked at Mattel for 13 years and was astounded by how little homage they paid to this lovely device (none-what-so-ever). That, in a nut shell, explains (to me at least) why they will never "get it" and will never be the digital company that they hope they can be.
Anyway, I found these four babies at a Goodwill Shoppe (the expensive one with the boutique). These were actually only a couple bucks each because they didn't have the word Nintendo written on them anywhere.
(click to enlarge photo)
The games are Mission X, Football (was NFL Football), Triple Action, and Burger time.
There are more boxes in the attic. I know there are Genesis, 32x, Jaguar, Atari ST games and much more up there. Maybe I'll get to them next week, or maybe it will be 10 more years. It all depends on how busy Zynga keeps me. (By the way, Zynga is a an awesome place to work)
(8bitjeff is Jeff D. Fulton)