The Arcade Game Space Zap Has AlreadyReceived A Homebrew Port To The 2600
As you may have noticed I have deleted the Blog entry that I made requesting someone create a homebrew port of the arcade game Space Zap. This is because, as it turns out, someone already has, and it's being sold right here at Atari Age. Nathan Strum wrote me quite a nice comment to that Blog entry, informing me of the existence of the game Vault Assault, a nice version of Space Zap for the 2600 sold right here at Atari Age. As deleting the entry that I wrote would result in Nathan's informative comment also disappearing, I thought that I could both preserve his information while also deleting the embarrassing entry (with some content retained for context).
What I originally wrote edited
{Space Zap was manufactured by Midway and released to arcades in 1980. I really want to play this game, either on the 2600 VCS, or 7800 ProSystem. The homebrew game for the 2600 called Alien Revenge! borrows some elements of this game. Not enough though. Either Champ Games or SpiceWare could do this game justice. These two outfits have other things in common besides making awesome games. On the arcade conversions Michael Haas handles the Music, Speech (where applicable), and Sound Effects. Nathan Strum designs and produces the excellent artwork, which can be appreciated on the cartridge face labels, the manuals, and posters (where applicable). I have no doubt that Michael Haas can handle the sound work. In fact I know from experience that Darrell. Michael, John, and Nathan produce quality work because I own many of their games (or wish that I did).}
I then listed the homebrews by Champ Games and SpiceWare, and indicated which ones I own copies of
Atari 2600 homebrews by Champ Games (John W. Champeau)
- Conquest of Mars own
- Lady Bug own. I wish I owned the boxed limited edition, but ordered the cartridge/manual release by mistake
- Mappy own
- Scramble wishlisted
-
Super Cobra Arcade own
Atari 2600 homebrews by SpiceWare (Darrell Spice Jr.)
- Draconian own
- Medieval Mayhem wishlisted
- Space Rocks wishlisted
- Stay Frosty own. One of the games included on the Stella's Stocking multi-cart
-
Stay Frosty 2 own
Nathan's comment
While I appreciate the acknowledgement, there are others who should be credited. Dave Dries has created label artwork for both Darrell and John (Scramble, Space Rocks and the forthcoming Wizard of Wor Arcade), Dave Vazquez created the artwork and game graphics for Medieval Mayhem and developed the game graphics for Darrell's upcoming game Frantic, and Dave Exton created the label artwork for Stay Frosty 2 and Stella's Stocking (Stay Frosty).
There have been others who have worked on audio, too. Bob DeCrescenzo worked on Lady Bug, Space Rocks, and Scramble, and John Payson and Darrell worked on the audio driver used in Stay Frosty 2, plus another programmer will be working on the audio for an as-yet unannounced game for John. As this is a hobby, people come and go, or have different availability, different interests, or are just a better fit for a particular game. The end goal is always the same though: to make awesome games.
As for Space Zap, there's already Vault Assault. It's not 100% feature-complete with the arcade version, but the basic gameplay is there.
As with any homebrew though, the trick is that a programmer has to want to make the game, and most programmers already have a backlog of games they want to make. Given that homebrews take months (or years) to create, it's a long shot. For something as straightforward as Space Zap though, you might look into learning batari Basic and giving it a shot yourself.
How I would write it now
Space Zap was manufactured by Midway and released to arcades in 1980. The homebrew game Alien Revenge! uses some of the elements from Space Zap, but not enough to satisfy my desire to play this arcade gem on an Atari console. Fortunately Brian Prescott created a port for the 2600 called Vault Assault, but as Nathan Strum mentioned in his review it is missing the Attack Satellite, which circles the station after each round. I agree that it would have helped the game to keep it in, but beggars can't be choosers, and in the case of Space Zap I begged plenty. At $20 ($19 after the Subscriber Discount) this game on cartridge with a color manual, well that's a good deal in my book and a must have. So I have ordered it.
https://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=113
YOUTUBE PLAY VIDEO OF SPACE ZAP
Sound starts after the attract sequence; approx. :42 into the video
YOUTUBE PLAY VIDEO OF VAULT ASSAULT
Thank you Nathan Strum, and everyone else.
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