New Atari Corporation Website

[Atari Master]

Umm, may I propose that you lern HTML instead of using Geocities. If your going to run a buisness run it like an expert. Go to www.htmlgoodies.com to lern HTML. Then you will be able to write a good webpage for Idea Revoltuions. This is just a suggestion. If you need, and if I have the time. I could possibly build you a new layout. But in order for you to manage it you would need to know HTML. If you need a template fast just go to www.freelayouts.com . And if you want to edit without the use of HTML get a program called FrontPage Express. But if you can afford it buy FrontPage 2000.

[Idea Revolutions]

Well, I just got done e-mailing somebody who said that he would help us with our website(he said he knew how to make it look good!!! ) Also, we do have some mock screenshots, but we're having a problem getting them loaded. We have a really good screenshot idea for Fighter Squadren, but it just won't load. As to the "company" thing, we really do have 3 people(including me) that meet here. We check up on the message board, and a lot of stuff. We also do the screenshots, which, as I said, WON'T LOAD!! So, that's about it.

[Chris++]

It's cool that you're having fun. Perhaps your enthusiasm will lead you to real-life game design someday.

 

You might want to spell "Squadron" correctly, however. :wink:

 

 

CF

[Big_Mo]

As someone who works in game design professionally -- and just spent the afternoon hashing over the front-end interface for a series of J2ME cell phone games -- I can offer some suggestions on developing game ideas.

 

First off, forget story. Story is window dressing. Story is narrative. I've been brought onto games that were nearly completed and come up with stories for them. Stories are easy. Good gameplay is what's hard.

 

Concentrate on gameplay. As I always challenge people at work, "What's the interaction?" That's the important question. More specifically:

 

What's the play mechanic? What do you do?

 

What are your specific goals?

 

What are the obstacles?

 

How do you control it?

 

Can you win? If yes, what specific conditions do you have to meet to do so?

 

Can the game you envision be done within the technical limitations of the target platform? And, even if the hardware can do it, it is feasible to put everything you want into the code space you'll have?

[Stella'sGhost]

Maurice, you have worked on some cool projects. Echo the Dolphin was a very good Atari game.

 

I think all game developers today should spend time playing Atari games as well as old NES and Sega games to really get the feel for what good gameplay is all about. Though I'm sure most have, it doesn't seem like it if you look at all the horrible games coming out on a regular basis.

 

Story is not the end all of games, I agree there, but in some cases, when great story and great gameplay combine you end up with beautiful games like Silver by Infogrames. You know that this game was made by people who loved making it, who really wanted to make something special, and not end up forgotten in a stack of crummy games in a bin at Walmart.

[Jack-Ass Tramiel]

Cynicism and insults are ugly message board traits that I rarely ever find here at AtariAge. It's refreshing and one reason why I enjoy coming to this site. I don't know if Alex and Albert do any major editing of these boards, but, for some reason, I doubt they have to. There's just something about the old school Atari culture, combined with the colorful design of this site, I think, which lends to the pleasant atmosphere here.

 

With that in mind, I'm not really sure what to think of these guys and what they are doing and or want to do. Using an analogy, it's like people coming up with ideas for novels or movies and asking others to write/produce them. (That might work in Hollywood, if you're already a super-producer, but this is another topic of discussion.)

 

So I have some genuinely friendly and constructive advice to give: Somebody once pointed out that ideas are like ***holes (<--my own censorship) -- everybody has them. Thus, ideas onto themselves aren't really worth much. It's whether you can execute them that matters. Do you have the ability, or access to the means, to execute your ideas? If the answer is no, then your ideas are worthless.

[+Cafeman]

Maurice, you have worked on some cool projects. Echo the Dolphin was a very good Atari game.

 

[Inky]

Here's my thought At least try doing a mock up in 5200BAS. I know you want to do 2600 games, but 5200 is supposedly easier to get the hang of. (I have the 5200BAScompiler,but have not done anything with it. yet.)

[Big_Mo]

Maurice, you have worked on some cool projects. Echo the Dolphin was a very good Atari game.

 

Really? Gosh, I didn't know Atari made the Dreamcast! I better speak to "Ecco"..

 

I think all game developers today should spend time playing Atari games as well as old NES and Sega games to really get the feel for what good gameplay is all about. Though I'm sure most have, it doesn't seem like it if you look at all the horrible games coming out on a regular basis.

 

That's funny, because whenever I start a new job I always end up bringing in my old game systems and set them up there. At my office right now there's a 7800 w/a pile of 2600 & 7800 carts, a 5200 w/multicart, a Vectrex, and my old original Atari Pong. I always use these things to illustrate simple and addictive gameplay mechanics. Oh, yeah, we also have a PSX and Dreamcast, but those get turned on less often.

 

Last spring we had to do a promotional thing for a superhero movie that I can't name. When we hashed over what it should be, I said, "It's a cross between Pitfall and Superman", meaning the 2600 games, and that's pretty much what it ended up being. Simple!

 

Story is not the end all of games, I agree there, but in some cases, when great story and great gameplay combine you end up with beautiful games like Silver by Infogrames. You know that this game was made by people who loved making it, who really wanted to make something special, and not end up forgotten in a stack of crummy games in a bin at Walmart.

 

Story has its place in some games, but my experiece at game companies is that wanna-be designers and actual designers get all caught up in the scenery and the backstory and forget that the most important thing is the gameplay. Another problem is that most people don't really understand storytelling, or even that there are narrative forms outside of movie type plots, many of which are much better suited to games than what's typically done.

 

Unfortunately, there seem to be few good references on game design how-to. It's one reason I've been thinking about writing some articles of it for Game Developer Magazine or some other venue...or maybe even a book.

[Inky]

Maurice??!?!?!

 

We have a celeb here at AtariAge! I never put 2 and 2 together.

 

You worked on titles for the ST, right? Which ones?

[Stella'sGhost]

Maurice, you have worked on some cool projects. Echo the Dolphin was a very good Atari game.

 

I could have sworn the dolphin in the Activision game "Dolphin" was called echo, or ecco...I was wrong...it must have been another game entirely perhaps an earlier version of the Dreamcast game right???

[Miles Tails Prower]

Maurice, you have worked on some cool projects. Echo the Dolphin was a very good Atari game.  

 

Umm... dude, Ecco the dolphin was a Genesis and a Dreamcast game...

[bloatedmonkey]

I was thinking of how you could do something unique with your "idea website" concept. As it is I'm having trouble seeing it succeeding. Atari promotion is handled pretty well right here, so it would be tough to compete with AtariAge on that front. You could manufacture games, but then you're competing with Hozer and Junies.

 

So I thought, what if you specialize in games made by kids? Do you know any nerds at school who can program games? You could market them as "made by teenage geniuses". Some people would buy them because they were made by kids, even if they weren't so great. You could then go to the conferences to sell them. Some clever packaging would help. I think there would be alot of interest and support for something like that. Just an idea....

[somePUNK]

ok not to sound cridicle but just from personal experences i'm a teenager who is a regestered company we make web sites we contract all our people to advoid tax problems we run it out of a friends house not too much going right now. I have also programed some basic and qbasic hope to learn how to prgram atari games someday to me it just sounds like you and your friends are just having fun nothing else. Is your company registered. Why don't you have the modivation if you love to try to learn how to programe not atari games cause their had but even a basic game i ean you guys just don't sound commited enough.

 

I like to say oyu progarmers out there rock and are reallly hard working peopel i know thanks guys

[Big_Mo]

Maurice??!?!?!

 

We have a celeb here at AtariAge!  I never put 2 and 2 together.

 

You worked on titles for the ST, right?  Which ones?

 

My (nearly) complete resume is on the website linked in my signature. There's a Game Designs section and and Art Direction section. What's missing are details on all the games I've worked on since coming to my current job. The only ST games I worked on were Omnitrend titles...Paladin, Breach 2 and Universe 3.

 

I was best known in the Atari ST circles as a contributing editor to ST-Log magazine, for whom I wrote a boatload of articles and the "beginners" column called Step 1, and a series on computer animation. I also did co-created two "design" discs for Antic's Cyber Studios series, discussed here.

 

As to Ecco, the Atari game was just "Dolphin". The original Ecco the Dolphin was developed for the Sega Genesis, as was Ecco 2: The Tides of Time. I was working on DS9 for the Genesis at the same time Ecco 2 was in production.