Artwork from Ancient Atari History

Matey-O writes: "Safestuff.com contains some early information on Atari's arcade games. Internal memos, brainstorming sessions, and artist renderings that accurately predicted what arcades would look like. (Except there seems to be a LOT more women in the arcades than I seem to recall.) The artwork has been there a while, so it's archived on the wayback machine."

Comments

Those games were fun to play...

[Doctor O]

...and I have very rarely had more fun with any "modern" game than I had with my old VCS2600. Maybe it was the fact that the graphics were so bad you had to use your imagination which made the game experience so much fun. Sure, interactive movies with 5.1 sound are impressive, but mostly they aren't as fun as a good match of David Crane's "Decathlon" with two joysticks and some friends.

Re:Those games were fun to play...

[Eskimo Bob]

It probably has to do with the fact that all a "modern" game needs to sell an assload of copies is to look pretty. having lots of space to make things pretty sort of does that. Original 2600 games were limited to 2k in size. And, many of the standard game types weren't invented yet (the shooter, the maze game, and the porn video game were basically it, oh and the single screen platformer and racing game). To make a game sell a lot o' copies, it had to be fun, cause it looked like ass. Which is why Custer's Revenge wasn't the best selling 2600 hundred game, and many E.T. carts currently occupy a nice, big, landfill. Those 2 games sucked.

Fun games are fun, even if they look like my ass. I'd rather play Super Breakout and Yars Revenge than most games released these days. Or even Dodge 'em.

Costs

[Noodlenose]

If you look at picture of this chaps "game room", I wonder how much money and space he has invested in this impressive collection of eighties arcade machines and pinballs. What does a Centipede Console actually cost these days?

Dirk

Interesting games

[FastT]

You know, looking at the list of items from the brainstorming session in February 1980, I see many games listed that would be more interesting that the clone games that have been in arcades for the last 5 years:

5) 1st person Space Invaders

11) 1st person Adventure - player moves through rooms (25 cents each) and encounters situations and characters in each

13) 1st person Cockroach - like wack-a-mole, but using feet (my personal favorite!)

15) Hang Glider - Hang from controls, terrain scrolls on video under feet

16) 1st person Mole - find your way out of 1st person maze. Screen is black except when you hit a wall. (Doesn't sound fun at all, but interesting nonetheless. It's the licorice of game designs.)

17) 1st person Skydiver -use fans or stereo sound to indicate wind direction.

18) Color/pattern generator based on player input. Could be located in discos and keyed to audio input from P.A.

It really sucks that Atari can't take these ideas and revitalize the arcade market. I'd love to see something new and unusual like these games.

Missile Command II

[Apreche]

I can't believe it. Missile command 2 has finally been found. It's the first frickin' picture I'ver ever seen. I remember back in the day there was a long article on the atari historical society's page http://www.atari-history.com this guy wrote about his long and arduous journey to find a MC2 machine. He ended up speaking to many former atari employees, and in the end he found a board, but the person wouldn't give it to him, and he found the side art. Can't find the article though, dang.

Speaking of Atari

[BladeMelbourne]

A couple of weeks ago I found my Atari 2600 back from early 80s. It was the only console my parents ever purchased. It only had 3 games, Tennis, Donkey Kong and Enduro (car racing).

After some time I found that it plugs into the antenna connection, not the AV. After switching many channels, I just made out the image on the screen. Black and white and badly distorted.

I opened the console, and found inside a variable resister with a plastic cap. Some fine tuning with a flat head screwdriver brought up the image perfectly on the screen. I was overjoyed.

I drilled a hole through the plastic in the top of the console, so I could adjust it again as needed, without opening the console.

Speaking of Atari

[hyyx]

It's such a shame that a company with so many on point ideas and cutting edge innovation had to be laid to rest. I have always enjoyed the content of this site, as they have made a respectable effort to preserve Atari's legacy. Take a look at their arcade exhibit, especially the 1970-1974 page. There is also solid content on some interesting projects and prototypes that you probably had no idea Atari even attempted, like the AtariTel division, which developed phones designed by Porsche. Many interesting pictures...

Atari's efforts on copy protection

[bbh]

This document, Protection For Coin-Operated Games is pretty interesting. Looks like copy protection was a worry for Atari in 1980. The memo discusses how to handle copy protection issues of PCB's and ROM's. In particular it mentions using checksums to detect violations and then put in unexpected events. It mentions giving away free credits (that'll put someone outta business :P) and causing the graphics to go screwy. The funny thing it says is to wait until later in the game before you start messing it up. Everyone really gets pissed when just before you blow up the death star the game resets!

bbh

Re: Arcades cannot be beaten

[Squirrel Killer]

...Disney World...apparently they have a new attraction in the complex...a giant arcade, focusing on the games of old.

It's called DisneyQuest, and the old-school arcade is just a small part of it (or at least it was when I went a couple of years ago.) They have about as many games as a mid-sized mall arcade from the '80's and they're mostly the well known titles (Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Frogger, etc...) Supposedly there's one in Chicago too. The rest of the building is taken up with a Cheesecake Factory Express (not as good as a real CF,) a bumper car where you can shoot other cars, some odd remote-control car adventure, a learn-to-draw classroom, and some other stuff.

It was cool, but I don't think I'd pay $40 to get in though, too many tikes who don't know how to play hogging the machines. I kinda wished that it did cost to play, so that I could put my quarter up and wait my turn instead of of watching "Jimmy" try to "catch" the ghosts (without eating the power pill first.) I'd rather go to Dave & Buster's.

-sk