Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Atari 2600 Lord of the Rings Discovered

Posted by Hemos on from the unearthing-the-past dept.

TheAlchemist writes "Eighteen years ago a Lord of the Rings game appeared in a Parker Brothers catalog for the Atari 2600. Unfortunately, the game was never released, along with several other titles that appeared alongside it. Just in time for the first Lord of the Rings movie release next week, AtariAge.com has discovered a long lost prototype of this game, probably one of the most sought after 2600 vaporware titles. You can look at screenshots, a picture of the prototype box, the prototype cartridge, and download the binary image that you can then run in one of several Atari 2600 emulators. More information about the game can be gleaned here."

14 of 277 comments (clear)

  1. atari emulator by nocent · · Score: 2, Informative

    try z26, an open source atari 2600 emulator for dos/win95.

  2. Another site by the_radix · · Score: 3, Informative

    This is another site with a screenshot and box cover (and is not /.ed yet).

    --
    This .sig is either false or a paradox.
  3. Sonny Bono says it's still illegal by yerricde · · Score: 5, Informative

    Its interesting, though, that apparently the binary image can be posted w/o fear of copyright infringement.

    Wrong. Much abandonware falls under the "no suitor, no judge" rule. For example, it's OK to distribute the "Zero Wing" ROM because Toaplan, its publisher, no longer exists and therefore can't sue. However, in this case, both Hasbro (Parker Bros parent) and Tolkien's estate (licensor of LotR franchise) still exist and still maintain legal departments.

    Are all 2600 games 'free' now?

    Copyright on corporate-authored works lasts ninety-five years plus the rest of the calendar year. Blame Sonny Bono and Di$ney for such a counterproductively long copyprivilege term.

    I recall that for SNES games and the like the ROMs are still considered warez or bootlegged.

    You're probably thinking of mask work copyright, which Nintendo claims prohibits even fair-use backups of software that happens to be stored on a semiconductor ROM chip. (A careful reading may show that it prohibits only burning the data back onto a ROM chip; however, this depends on how the courts interpret "reproduction" of a mask work and whether or not ROM is a "commonplace design" that goes unprotected.) Such copyright lasts only ten years plus December 31.

    --
    Will I retire or break 10K?
    1. Re:Sonny Bono says it's still illegal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Since 1978, all works are automatically copyrighted upon creation. Your information about the library congress is decades out of date.

  4. Direct link... by edgrale · · Score: 2, Informative

    Direct link to the ROM:
    LOTR and the emulators:
    Stella & z26


    Note that in order to get it working: "Because this is a new release, you will have to do a little extra work in order to get the ROM to work in either emulator, although the emulators will probably be updated shortly to support them natively." taken from http://www.atariage.com/features/lotr/

    --
    09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
    1. Re:Direct link... by edgrale · · Score: 2, Informative

      doh! darn cut&paste, it should have read

      Note that in order to get it working: "Because this is a new release, you will have to do a little extra work in order to get the ROM to work in either emulator, although the emulators will probably be updated shortly to support them natively. In z26, you will need to pass the -g3 parameter (8K Parker Brothers mode). In order to play Lord of the Rings with Stella, you'll first need to download the latest Stella Profile from Voch's Stella Profile Page. Then you'll want to append the contents of this file to the end of the Stella.pro file you downloaded. This will allow Stella to properly recognize this prototype. " taken from http://www.atariage.com/features/lotr/

      --
      09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
  5. Dumb game (+ mirror) by plumpy · · Score: 2, Informative

    I realize it's only an Atari 2600 game, but it really sucks. What the fuck are you supposed to do?

    Here are the files, since people are complaining that the site is /.ed:
    http://skylab.org/~plumpy/lotr/

  6. The other LOTR game by c=sixty4 · · Score: 2, Informative

    There was a computer game version of Lord of the Rings actually published. It was made as a computer game on other platforms, the Commodore 64 among others. It was an Infocom-style adventure (except with some static pictures) which quickly became infamous. This was not just because the games were not exactly faithful to the books, but because they came on floppy disks and the game appeared to grind through the entire disk whenever a command was entered. Never before did the 1541 strike more fear into the hearts of men. You can find more information about the game here.

    --
    "The good die first." "Most of us are morally ambiguous, which explains our random dying patterns." --- MST3K
  7. I didn't notice a (C) in the sshots by shepd · · Score: 2, Informative

    I think back then if you didn't put a (c) in your work it was by default in the public domain.

    Nowadays everything is copyrighted unless the author decrees otherwise.

    --
    If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
  8. Re:Yay! by RazzleFrog · · Score: 2, Informative

    I was able to plug my Sega Genesis controllers in and they played much better than the old joysticks. If I remember correctly I don't think it worked for paddle games though.

  9. Other LOTR games: 1979 to 2000 by mccalli · · Score: 3, Informative
    Go here for a look.


    The first Tolkien game I played would be The Hobbit. The next? Shadowfax, on the Spectrum. Great animation for its day.


    Cheers,

    Ian

  10. Re:Direct Links to the Pictures and Pictures by Evil+Grinn · · Score: 2, Informative

    Woops, missed one. Here's the link to the page in the Parker Brothers catalog with the blurb about the Lord of the Rings game:


    I think you mean:


    http://www.atariage.com/catalogs/ParkerBrothers/ Pa rkerBrothers_12.jpg

    --
    where there's fish, there's cats
  11. Guys! Ignore the links in the Message, go here... by PalmAddict · · Score: 1, Informative

    The SysAdmin is a little more hip than most of you are giving him credit for. He has aleady taken down the ENTIRE rest of his site just for speeds sake for /. The fastest way there is: http://www.atariage.com You will get all you need. Good luck, and make sure you keep all your fingers and toes in the ride at all times (just ask Frodo!)

  12. Re:MySQL. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    This has nothing to do with MySQL - but rather with the HARDWARE the site owner was using. Forget the deep links - see the home page. The owner states that he took the DB offline because /. was killing the entire site...

    Nothing we haven't done to anyone else b4 :-> , but this guy wanted things to be accessable (*kudos*) and took the DB offline temporarially...

    That's it... So forget the Holy War of MySQL v. PostgreSQL