7/8/21
|
Ok so this
isn't exactly prototype related, but hear me
out. Most people know that the Atari 400 and
5200 shared almost the exact same hardware.
The 5200 just had a different OS and lacked the
keyboard that the 400 had. Therefore you'd
think that the games ported to these two systems
would be exactly the same aside from some changes
made to accommodate the 5200's different
controllers. While this is mostly true,
there are a surprisingly large number of games
that have some big differences. So if this
sounds interesting to you (and I hope it does),
mosey on over to the new Game
Differences section of the site (under the
Other Stuff button) and take a look. I'll be
adding more entries as I find them. Feel
free to email me with anything I missed.
|
| 7/1/21 |
Today we
have something a little different to share.
Not a game, but a tech demo. 3-D
Asteroids (or just Asteroids as the title
screen calls is) is a tech demo for the Atari 5200
created by John Seghers in order to show that the
5200 could do the same three dimensional asteroids
that the 7800 could do. Be sure to read all
about this long forgotten demo.
|
| 4/30/21 |
Yes you're
reading that title right, we're talkin' about
Cheez Wiz! No not the processed cheese
spread of questionable taste, but rather a new and
completely unknown prototype for the Atari 8-bits
starring Seraphena the Mouse. Go on over to
the Cheez-Wiz
page and check out the full review.
Thanks to John Hardie for graciously providing
this rom.
|
| 3/17/21 |
A minor
update this time, but we like to make sure that
things are as accurate as they can be here at
AtariProtos.
First up is a correction to the well known demo
Red vs Blue. For years this demo had been
attributed to Tod Frye but in a recent interview
with Retro Gaming Roundup Rob Zdybel mentioned
that he himself did this demo, so I've moved the
Red vs Blue page to the RS Football page.
Make sure you update your links!
Second, in the same interview Rob confirmed that
Brad Stewart did indeed program Morse Code
Tutor. We long suspected this, but it's nice
to get some confirmation on it.
Finally graphics artist Dave Joly (who has now
been credited for the games he did) mentioned that
Suki Lee was the programmer for Donald Duck's
Speedboat and that she was not involved with Miss
Piggy's Wedding as had long been assumed. So
who did program Miss Piggy's Wedding? That
would be Gary Shannon who also programmed
Aquaventure.
|
| 1/27/21 |
It seems
that Ken Van Mersbergen can't be stopped!
This time around it's three new Rockball
prototypes to analyze and admire. The first
one dated 7/25 appears to fall right between the
earliest known version and the final, while the
second one labeled 9/7 is a little later than the
7/25 despite being from over a month later.
The final version appears to be the same as the
final, but has a lot of code missing from the
start of the rom which may be a disable copy
protection scheme.
We also have a new prototype of Midi
Maze for the Atari 8-bits courtesy of long
time Atari collector John Hardie. Although
this new prototype sports a 1991 copyright, it
appears to be more or less the same as the known
1989 prototype. Expect to hear more about
this one after we perform some code
analysis. John was also generous enough to
send us yet another version of Rockball.
This version is very similar to the final version
and is missing the same code at the beginning as
the rom Ken sent, but has a few bugs still present
which dates it a bit earlier than that one.
Go check them all out!
|
| 12/7/20 |
Thanks
to the generosity of collector extraordinaire
Ianoid, we now have a copy of the long rumored 6K
version of Video Chess. While this
prototype may not differ much from the final, it
still has some interesting changes including two
new difficulty levels (hope you have a few weeks
to play a game). However the most
interesting thing about this new prototype is that
it appears to be some sort of combo cartridge with
Othello. Was Atari planning on releasing a
2-in1 strategy game cartridge or is this simply
the work of some bored programmer? We may
never know.
Note that I've rolled the Computer Chess prototype
page into the new Video Chess page. Please
update your bookmarks!
|
| 6/13/20 |
It's
not often that a new 7800 prototype surfaces, much
less one for an unreleased game. While Toki
has been known to exist for some time, the rom was
never released and all that existed was a few
screenshots and a brief gameplay video.
AtariProtos was granted access to the rom to do a
review, but the owner of the rom disappeared and
the review never happened. After much
thought and consideration, I have decided to
finish the review and post it so everyone can see
this amazing game. Enjoy!
|
