Shawn Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 I think there is enough of the original direction Zoo Keeper 2600 was headed towards that someone could take what is avalible and make a pretty faithful homebrew along the lines of what Atari had in the works so long ago! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vdub_bobby Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 I think there is enough of the original direction Zoo Keeper 2600 was headed towards that someone could take what is avalible and make a pretty faithful homebrew along the lines of what Atari had in the works so long ago! The audio and the sprites/animations are very nice, but the real roadblock to this game on the 2600 is the playfield. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurt_Woloch Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 Well... maybe it was planned to turn Zeke into a monochrome character when he's standing sideways. Don't forget that when he's standing horizontally, there isn't an asymmetric playfield to draw on those scanlines, so they have more time to do Zeke's color stripes, for instance... while on the scanlines where the interior is (and Zeke moves on those scanlines when standing sideways), there may not be enough cycles to do any color striping at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godzilla Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 Wow that's an awesome discovery zoo keeper slowly crawls closer to reality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 The audio and the sprites/animations are very nice, but the real roadblock to this game on the 2600 is the playfield. Both sound/sprite FX fall under the catagory of "bells and whistles". Maybe a functioning kernel really is out there somewhere? We can only hope that BSR'ers don't find it first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phuzzed Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 It always boggled my mind why this game never made it to the 2600. Wasn't Zookeeper out in the arcades fairly early, and nowhere close to the Crash of 84? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dutchman2000 Posted January 28, 2009 Author Share Posted January 28, 2009 It always boggled my mind why this game never made it to the 2600. Wasn't Zookeeper out in the arcades fairly early, and nowhere close to the Crash of 84? Me too, the arcade game was out in 1982, the game was being developed in late 83 early 84. One document that surfaced indicated that the game was released from engineering on 4-11-84. I'm wondering if the game just wasn't coming together or if the license was the issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EoN Posted January 29, 2009 Share Posted January 29, 2009 (edited) I'm making no promises here but I just had a look at the video and I might be able to use it as a reference point if I strip it frame by frame. It's been a while since my last time of serious pixel grinding like in the old days on my Amiga in Deluxe Paint 4. But here's the catch...I don't know what graphical file format the Atari uses. I mainly use Paintshop Pro and it has the ability to save any pic to IFF format which I can use on my Amiga again. If I know the format I can check it out if I can save to that format. Or any other format used today like 8Bit GIF or BMP. But again I'm making no promises as it'll very time consuming to recreate these Sprites and I don't always have that much time. I'll see if I can use this WMV as source and hope it isn't too blurry when it gets transformed. Edited January 29, 2009 by EoN Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yuppicide Posted January 31, 2009 Share Posted January 31, 2009 Good point. So you are saying if you went off the screen on the top you'd wrap around to the bottom? Knowing what I know of the Atari 2600's method of drawing characters, I think it would be impossible for Zeke to stand sideways. The game would probably look like this to compensate for the system's limitations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yuppicide Posted January 31, 2009 Share Posted January 31, 2009 I remember that post. The audio was fabulous. And in case some of you missed it, here's the thread about the Zoo Keeper audio that was discovered back in 2005: http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=65629 ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hakogame 箱亀 Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 (edited) Here's a few frames cleaned up the best I could, I don't really want to bother with the rest, just playing around. Anyway, I think the appearance of the separate hair color on the girl might just be an effect of the video tape blurring. The post she's tied to is probably a missile. Edited February 3, 2009 by Raccoon Lad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hakogame 箱亀 Posted February 12, 2009 Share Posted February 12, 2009 Couldn't seem to edit the old post. Anyway, here's a better version of the girl (I missed a pixel on the mouth before), and a clean up of the lion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Psionic Posted February 12, 2009 Share Posted February 12, 2009 I'm wondering if the game just wasn't coming together or if the license was the issue. I think the license may have indeed been the issue. I seem to remember a certain internal memo of 2600 games in development - next to Zookeeper (in handwriting) it said "assignable rights dead" or something to that effect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess Ragan Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 Good point. So you are saying if you went off the screen on the top you'd wrap around to the bottom? Knowing what I know of the Atari 2600's method of drawing characters, I think it would be impossible for Zeke to stand sideways. The game would probably look like this to compensate for the system's limitations. Yep! I haven't decided if the controls should be reversed on the bottom wall, but I think the arcade game was that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Primordial Ooze Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 I'm wondering if the game just wasn't coming together or if the license was the issue. I think the license may have indeed been the issue. I seem to remember a certain internal memo of 2600 games in development - next to Zookeeper (in handwriting) it said "assignable rights dead" or something to that effect. What is "assignable rights dead" supposed to mean? Does it mean the original company lost the rights to it's game before Atari could buy them? Primordial Ooze Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 I'm wondering if the game just wasn't coming together or if the license was the issue. I think the license may have indeed been the issue. I seem to remember a certain internal memo of 2600 games in development - next to Zookeeper (in handwriting) it said "assignable rights dead" or something to that effect. What is "assignable rights dead" supposed to mean? Does it mean the original company lost the rights to it's game before Atari could buy them? Primordial Ooze Sounds like Atari lost the rights to use the game by either not renewing the contract or someone else grabbed them. Taito was still in business long after 1984. Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorclu Posted February 18, 2009 Share Posted February 18, 2009 Are those really VCS graphics? Hard to tell with Youtube's low quality. Currently you even seem to see some kind of shading, which is defintely impossible. Animated screenshots would be better. This video was taken directly from the original videotape. I apologize for the quality but youtube is what it is. I do have a better quality version that I will ask Albert to host so that should help. The video was recorded off of an Atari 800 using the ANIMAT program the animators at Atari used at that time. They would then export the source code and give it to the programmer. I talked to Courtney Granner about this footage and he confirmed that it was genuine and how it was created. He no longer has any of his disks so screenshots will not be possible. Being a big Atari 800 fan I wonder if the Animat program still exists? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dutchman2000 Posted February 18, 2009 Author Share Posted February 18, 2009 Are those really VCS graphics? Hard to tell with Youtube's low quality. Currently you even seem to see some kind of shading, which is defintely impossible. Animated screenshots would be better. This video was taken directly from the original videotape. I apologize for the quality but youtube is what it is. I do have a better quality version that I will ask Albert to host so that should help. The video was recorded off of an Atari 800 using the ANIMAT program the animators at Atari used at that time. They would then export the source code and give it to the programmer. I talked to Courtney Granner about this footage and he confirmed that it was genuine and how it was created. He no longer has any of his disks so screenshots will not be possible. Being a big Atari 800 fan I wonder if the Animat program still exists? Yes, it does. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Allan Posted February 18, 2009 Share Posted February 18, 2009 Are those really VCS graphics? Hard to tell with Youtube's low quality. Currently you even seem to see some kind of shading, which is defintely impossible. Animated screenshots would be better. This video was taken directly from the original videotape. I apologize for the quality but youtube is what it is. I do have a better quality version that I will ask Albert to host so that should help. The video was recorded off of an Atari 800 using the ANIMAT program the animators at Atari used at that time. They would then export the source code and give it to the programmer. I talked to Courtney Granner about this footage and he confirmed that it was genuine and how it was created. He no longer has any of his disks so screenshots will not be possible. Being a big Atari 800 fan I wonder if the Animat program still exists? Yes, it does. It was just posted over at DP in the thread about the new atari artist interview. I get the link later. Allan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Allan Posted February 18, 2009 Share Posted February 18, 2009 Are those really VCS graphics? Hard to tell with Youtube's low quality. Currently you even seem to see some kind of shading, which is defintely impossible. Animated screenshots would be better. This video was taken directly from the original videotape. I apologize for the quality but youtube is what it is. I do have a better quality version that I will ask Albert to host so that should help. The video was recorded off of an Atari 800 using the ANIMAT program the animators at Atari used at that time. They would then export the source code and give it to the programmer. I talked to Courtney Granner about this footage and he confirmed that it was genuine and how it was created. He no longer has any of his disks so screenshots will not be possible. Being a big Atari 800 fan I wonder if the Animat program still exists? Yes, it does. It was just posted over at DP in the thread about the new atari artist interview. I get the link later. Allan The link is here. The program is at the bottom of the page. http://www.digitpress.com/library/intervie..._churchill.html Allan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inky Posted March 15, 2009 Share Posted March 15, 2009 Thought I had on Zookeeper after perusing the back issues of the Atari Age magazine from "back in the day" IN the sneak Peeks section, they would hint at a gme coming up. THen I would say 90% of the time, the game was available for purchase in the next issue. Could this mean that Zookeeper was further along than we think it si? THat a complete prototype is floating out there? NOw that's just speculation on my part. They mentioned a few games that never came out -- Final Legacy, 5200 Tempest, and Dukes of Hazzard.. BUt for the most part, the pattern of Sneak Peek - Release - seemed to hold true more often than not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rom Hunter Posted March 16, 2009 Share Posted March 16, 2009 Thought I had on Zookeeper after perusing the back issues of the Atari Age magazine from "back in the day" IN the sneak Peeks section, they would hint at a gme coming up. THen I would say 90% of the time, the game was available for purchase in the next issue. Could this mean that Zookeeper was further along than we think it is? Interesting thought. Let's hope so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted March 16, 2009 Share Posted March 16, 2009 Zookeeper was completely finished according to some Atari employees involved with the project. Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atariwizard Posted April 8, 2009 Share Posted April 8, 2009 Here's a few frames cleaned up the best I could, I don't really want to bother with the rest, just playing around. Anyway, I think the appearance of the separate hair color on the girl might just be an effect of the video tape blurring. The post she's tied to is probably a missile. accualy i found out what that quote "missle" is i was looking at the arcade version of zookeeper on wikipedia and i was reading some and it says Zelda is tied to a palm tree on a stationary platform at the top of the screen, yelling "Save Me" so its not a "missle" its a palm tree and from the looks of it it was not finished so mystery solved Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickeycolumbus Posted April 8, 2009 Share Posted April 8, 2009 Here's a few frames cleaned up the best I could, I don't really want to bother with the rest, just playing around. Anyway, I think the appearance of the separate hair color on the girl might just be an effect of the video tape blurring. The post she's tied to is probably a missile. accualy i found out what that quote "missle" is i was looking at the arcade version of zookeeper on wikipedia and i was reading some and it says Zelda is tied to a palm tree on a stationary platform at the top of the screen, yelling "Save Me" so its not a "missle" its a palm tree and from the looks of it it was not finished so mystery solved What are you talking about? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.