Albert Posted October 18, 2002 Share Posted October 18, 2002 http://www.atariprotos.comAtariAge and AtariProtos.com have teamed up to give you a glimpse at four presently unreleased Activision prototypes. These prototypes are for the Venetian Blinds Demo, Bloody Human Freeway, Unknown Prototype #1, and Unknown Prototype #2. Most of these prototypes are of games that were in development, while Venitian Blinds is just technical demo showing off the 2600's capabilities. Matt Reichert has played each of these prototypes extensively, taken screenshots, and written up what he's discovered about them. You can find all this and more at his website, AtariProtos.com. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turnspike Posted October 18, 2002 Share Posted October 18, 2002 Bloody Human Freeway....Ha! I would love to see the label artwork on that. Too bad Activision favored screenshots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SS Posted October 19, 2002 Share Posted October 19, 2002 Any way to get ROM dumps of these? That Venetian Blinds demo looks kinda cool! (I'm only half kidding here) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Mitchell Posted October 19, 2002 Share Posted October 19, 2002 Dump the ROMs and let us play these games! Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwh Posted October 19, 2002 Share Posted October 19, 2002 This news once again proves that someone elses garbage is someones treasure.I do not even want to think about what else Activision threw out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legeek Posted October 19, 2002 Share Posted October 19, 2002 GREAT WORK TEMPEST!!!! Cheers, le geek Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D.Yancey Posted October 19, 2002 Share Posted October 19, 2002 Atariprotos.com is a great site. I have enjoyed reading through it. I wanted to e-mail the webmaster of the site with this, but there is no option to do so. Here are some things I have questions about that I believe differ from the info on the site: 1. Kung Fu Master: On my cart, I cannot jump kick. However, I can punch. Trivia states the opposite to be true. 2. Oink!: trivia states only 3 titles ever released with "!" in the title(Oink!, Boing!, and Pitfall!). Don't forget about Kaboom!. 3. Grand Prix: trivia states that a world record was achieved by letting a car push the player over the finish line to propel him to a 2 second better finish time than designer David Crane thought was possible. This may be a myth because there are no other cars near the finish line! You outrun all of them well prior to the finish line. You may have this story confused with a Dragster story which I could tell you about if requested. If I am incorrect, please elaborate, because I'm very interested! Activision forever! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubersaurus Posted October 19, 2002 Share Posted October 19, 2002 Now that's pretty cool...it would be a shame if these weren't on the activision game pack (which is a shame to begin with since I then I have to buy a PS2) but at least Bloody Freeway is. I'm also glad to know those unknown games got dumped. I'll admit I was a mite worried about that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Atari Posted October 19, 2002 Share Posted October 19, 2002 Bloody Human Freeway is definitely something that needs to be dumped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubersaurus Posted October 19, 2002 Share Posted October 19, 2002 I wouldn't expect them to get out for a while. As he stated on atariprotos, its a copyright issue, and at this time activision doesn't want any of their roms out where they can help it, due to the upcoming PS2 collection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liquid_sky Posted October 19, 2002 Share Posted October 19, 2002 yea.. but at least bloody human freeway is gonna be on it for sure.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted October 19, 2002 Share Posted October 19, 2002 @dyancey There is an option to e-mail me, jut click on the picture (I'll make another link). 1. You're right you can punch (I guess I never noticed). I swear you can do a jump kick, I got it to work once. 2. Forgot about Kaboom! 3. Turns out we were both wrong. It was for Grand Prix (not Dragster), but it wasn't about being bumped by a car, it was about avoiding an invisible car. I had seen a previous story about this, but it was obviously wrong (or misleading). Check out Scott Stilphen's interview with David Crane for the details: http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Lair/9260/dc.html Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Atari Posted October 19, 2002 Share Posted October 19, 2002 Has anyone ever shown Activision programmers the unknown games? Even if they didn't program them, they might know who did, or what the names were. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clint Thompson Posted October 19, 2002 Share Posted October 19, 2002 I know it may sound kinda stupid... but since we don't have the roms anyhow in hand... Maybe someone can make a short video of some of these protos and post it on the site. That would be cool to see in action=) Clint Thompson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted October 19, 2002 Share Posted October 19, 2002 Do any of the 2600 emulators take video? If so I can do that. Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted October 19, 2002 Author Share Posted October 19, 2002 Do any of the 2600 emulators take video? If so I can do that. Yes, you can take rather nice video with PCAEWin. ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Mitchell Posted October 19, 2002 Share Posted October 19, 2002 Dump the ROMs and let us play these games! We're talking about unknown protos/demos here .. not released games .. Run it by the Activision guy and post the ROMs! Just promise not to make carts of them. Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted October 20, 2002 Share Posted October 20, 2002 Do any of the 2600 emulators take video? If so I can do that. Tempest Use the video card and software that guy used to fake his Airworld proto! Only difference.... these are REAL Curt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted October 20, 2002 Share Posted October 20, 2002 We're talking about unknown protos/demos here .. not released games Doesn't make a difference. I thought I made this clear, but I guess we all need a refresher course... It's not up to me to release the roms. I was lucky enough to be granted permission to do a review on these prototypes witht the understanding that I not release the roms on any condition. Activision still owns the rights to these games, and they plan to release them as part of the Anthology project. Therefore if I released the roms I would not only get in major trouble from the people who trusted me with these roms, I could also be sued by Activision. I've been told that the roms will be released when the Anthology project is ready. I'm really not trying to be a hard ass here, It's just not my call to make. Sorry! Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Mitchell Posted October 20, 2002 Share Posted October 20, 2002 It's not up to me to release the roms. I was lucky enough to be granted permission to do a review on these prototypes witht the understanding that I not release the roms on any condition. Activision still owns the rights to these games, and they plan to release them as part of the Anthology project. Oh .. Ok .. Never mind .. I thought someone found these in a trash bin .. Funny how trash becomes a released product. Rob Mitchell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MegaManFan Posted October 20, 2002 Share Posted October 20, 2002 Oh .. Ok .. Never mind .. I thought someone found these in a trash bin .. Funny how trash becomes a released product. Rob Mitchell I think people have been saying that about 2600 collectors for years. Jokes aside, I'll be happy if these carts are released as part of the Anthology. HOWEVER, if it's all talk and they don't show up in the package one way or another, then they'll be just as bad as Nintendo is for pulling ROM's they never intend to release. Before you say "card reader," my ass. Do you realize how many "cards" you'd have to read just to load Zelda or Metroid alone? ABOUT THIRTY! And those are 20 year old games! You can forget about seeing anything MORE advanced than that. Super Mario Bros. 3? Kirby's Adventure? FUHGEDDABOUTIT. By shutting down ROM sites they're just being stubborn and greedy. Legally, they have the right; morally they don't - they just can't stand letting somebody get something for nothing whether they ever intend to make any more money off it or not. If they would release their OWN pc emulator and the ROM's for a reasonable price, maybe I wouldn't be so bitter about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oesii Posted October 20, 2002 Share Posted October 20, 2002 By shutting down ROM sites they're just being stubborn and greedy. Legally, they have the right; morally they don't - they just can't stand letting somebody get something for nothing whether they ever intend to make any more money off it or not. If they would release their OWN pc emulator and the ROM's for a reasonable price, maybe I wouldn't be so bitter about it. Hey, you would probably would win an arguement about corporations being greedy but I don't think you realize how copyright laws work. The way they are written Nintendo and other companies HAVE to go after copyright infringers or they would eventually lose their copyright to franchises like Mario or Zelda. If they didn't go after obvious copyright violations then I could release a Mario game in a couple of years and when Nintendo comes to sue me, I would point out to the courts that they weren't protecting their rights because they let people slide in the past and I might win and get to make money off Mario's name. By making some efforts to protect their properties now Nintendo is doing what the law says it has to do for this not to happen. You might now agree morally but that's the way the laws are currently, if you and I own a video game business and wanted to protect our ideas and franchises we would have to do the same thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MegaManFan Posted October 20, 2002 Share Posted October 20, 2002 Hey, you would probably would win an arguement about corporations being greedy but I don't think you realize how copyright laws work. The way they are written Nintendo and other companies HAVE to go after copyright infringers or they would eventually lose their copyright to franchises like Mario or Zelda. Actually I understand copyright law far too well. It *coughs* sort of goes along with my line of work. Just because I understand them, doesn't mean I agree with them. I could cite you any number of scholars who could say it better than I, but I prefer to sum their argument up like this: copyright was never meant to exist in perpetuity. It was meant to protect a creative work for the limited amount of time one could reasonably expect to profit from it, and then it would become part of the public domain for the benefit of all. The problem is that record labels, movie studios, and book publishers don't see any "public benefit" in giving away something for nothing, so they keep pushing Congress to expand the length of copyright over and over again to the point that things which WERE in the public domain 5-10 years ago no longer are, because some rights now extend to the absurdly long time of SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS when at one time they were *coughs* ONLY fifty! If they didn't go after obvious copyright violations then I could release a Mario game in a couple of years and when Nintendo comes to sue me, I would point out to the courts that they weren't protecting their rights because they let people slide in the past and I might win and get to make money off Mario's name. By making some efforts to protect their properties now Nintendo is doing what the law says it has to do for this not to happen. You might now agree morally but that's the way the laws are currently, if you and I own a video game business and wanted to protect our ideas and franchises we would have to do the same thing. The problem is that I don't honestly believe this comes down to protecting their "franchise players." Let's face it - anybody who makes a crappy clone of a Mario game and tries to sell it as a legitimately authorized Nintendo product deserves to have their butts sued off. That's not the same as letting people play Mario Bros. for free. If anything, giving people the ability to play these games would EXPAND the value of their current Mario titles, which deserve the legal protection as long as they are still marketable and worth what you pay for them. Letting people play old Mario games for nothing would get them interested in the NEW Mario games they have to pay $50 for. It's just too bad Nintendo is so short-sighted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liquid_sky Posted October 20, 2002 Share Posted October 20, 2002 id be content with a video of the blinds demo... because im sick of opening my blinds and never seeing a sunset Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Stilphen Posted October 20, 2002 Share Posted October 20, 2002 I know Blue Sky Rangers has a couple of complete protos that they won't release because of "legal reasons". What I don't understand is, they had the rights to release them 20 years ago and didn't. Basically they paid for something that they didn't use, so why is it such a problem to release it now? The exposure and profit from it will be far below what it would have been. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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