Turbo Debuts at CGE!

[+pboland]

...And we're debuting Atari 2600 Cartridge Magnets at the show, adorned with rare and prototype labels.

That sounds like a great idea! I had a similar one about 12 years ago. I still have my prototype (yeah, it is a little beat up after 12 years of use on my refrigerator). I know your guys will be much much better than mine but, here is my prototype anyway:

 

 

I use to have a few mini game box magnets as well. Unfortunately, I can't find those.

[eegad]

I will say up front that there WILL be copies available after CGE even if I do sell out, but they may not be available for another month or so afterward

 

..Al

 

 

 

First time on the site in a month or so. VERY glad to hear about Turbo! Can't wait to see it available in the store so I can order a copy (or maybe I'll have my wife order it for me and hold it til christmas. I just love getting new Atari games on christmas morning! )

[rjchamp3]

Put me down for a Turbo Ill buy for sure

[psquare75]

/thinking aloud

 

I wonder if it uses driving controllers?

[Albert]

/thinking aloud

 

I wonder if it uses driving controllers?

No, it uses the joystick, as the original prototype did. We did consider adding support for the paddle controllers, but I believe that would have required significant changes to the kernel due to the amount of time it requires to process paddle controller input.

 

..Al

[+save2600]

 

I use to have a few mini game box magnets as well. Unfortunately, I can't find those.

LMAO!

 

At first glance, I thought someone had made Shrinkydinks out of 2600 cartridges!

 

 

[+Cafeman]

I got my copy of Atari 2600 Turbo today! My thoughts:

 

First impressions were stunned silence at how high quality that box is, along with the Coleco cartridge, you could convince anyone what it was mint in the box from 1983. I read the manual and plugged it into the 7800.

 

Now, I knew the history of this game - it is a recently discovered prototype, and the AA'ers who enhanced it. So I wasn't expecting much. So I plugged it in, appreciated the steering wheel on the screen and selected the original prototype to try it first.

 

Thoughts on the original prototype: too much acceleration, you go from 0 to 200 in a second or two of your button press, and typically will crash-crash-crash. It doesn't make a good first impression, especially since the road edges are static which kills any sense of speed.

 

Then I selected the enhanced version. Thoughts: much better, it is playable now. The road edges don't move or cycle colors like most every other racer from this era, so you have to use your imagination a bit, but overall the visuals are nicely done. The 'scaling' of the roadside images is nice too, as are the city in the distance and the sunset and different scenes. You know, as is, I'd have liked this back in the day quite a lot. If only the original coders had gotten the road edges to move to convey speed! Especially on the curve screen - it looks SO NICE, but there is no scaling side-track images going by here at all, so again - I use my imagination.

 

Is the game fun? Oh yeah. I was frustrated. But tried again. And again, for over an hour. Finally I beat 20k and was satisfied for tonight. You do get a good feel the cars' movement and you learn to press the button then release, perhaps tapping it methodically to maintain a speed. And don't forget everyone who used to play Turbo in the arcade -that game was hard & frustrating too. I hated in the coin-op how your car got further up the screen as you accelerated, making it easier to crash into oncoming cars. Not a problem here.

 

I'm quite happy with the game. Because it is an enhancement of an unfinished prototype, it really shouldn't be compared to something like Ladybug, and isn't quite as good as 2600 Enduro or even Pole Position IMHO. But we never got Turbo and now we have it, and its so purdy to look at the box alongside it, and the game frankly *works* and its as-is pretty much a better experience than many 2600 games.

 

Those 7800 sticks' buttons were really cramping my hands. I switched to Sega Genesis 6-button pads, much better! Thanks all involved for this nice game and package!

 

Finally ... I'd like to see an exhaustive list of *all* the improvements to the enhanced version. So we can look for them! I can't get very far in the original so I'm not sure if you guys added scenery or the sunsets, or if that was in the original.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Excellent post!

 

Thanks!

[Albert]

Great review Cafeman!

 

..Al

[Lord Thag]

swlovinist picked me up a copy while he was at CGE. I've had some time to play around with my copy, and my impressions are pretty close to Cafeman's.

 

The box, label, and artwork are absolutely phenomenal. I can't tell the difference from a real Coleco release. GREAT work Al!

 

As to the game itself, the original prototype mode is interesting from a historical standpoint, but almost unplayably hard. You go way to fast, way to quick.

 

The graphics are an odd point. In the updated version, all of the updated graphicsa for the backgrounds, cars etc are stellar. High end Activision quality. The Cityscapes and backgrounds are as pretty as anything gets on a VCS. Like Cafeman, the really jarring negative is the blocky playfield graphics used for the road, which do not move. On the first play, I almost thought it was a deal breaker.

 

Yet like Cafeman, I was still playing an hour later. The odd road graphic stopped mattering after the second or third play. The game itself is incredibly challenging, fast, and fun. It reminds me strongly of Enduro crossed with Kaboom. Learning how to carefully nudge your speed along and letting off on the gas when oncoming cars approach is critical. It's actually very fun, and while it may not be quite as good as Enduro ... it's close, and certainly a different kind of animal.

 

There are tons of new scenes too. All in all, this is one of the most fun protos I've played. Anyone on the fence would do well to pick up a copy, especially considering the insanely high quality of the box and cart. It really is like someone yanked a crate of coleco games through a time machine from 1983.

 

All in all, I give it a 4 out of 5. Very fun, and very addicting.

[Albert]

swlovinist picked me up a copy while he was at CGE. I've had some time to play around with my copy, and my impressions are pretty close to Cafeman's.

 

The box, label, and artwork are absolutely phenomenal. I can't tell the difference from a real Coleco release. GREAT work Al!

 

As to the game itself, the original prototype mode is interesting from a historical standpoint, but almost unplayably hard. You go way to fast, way to quick.

 

The graphics are an odd point. In the updated version, all of the updated graphicsa for the backgrounds, cars etc are stellar. High end Activision quality. The Cityscapes and backgrounds are as pretty as anything gets on a VCS. Like Cafeman, the really jarring negative is the blocky playfield graphics used for the road, which do not move. On the first play, I almost thought it was a deal breaker.

 

Yet like Cafeman, I was still playing an hour later. The odd road graphic stopped mattering after the second or third play. The game itself is incredibly challenging, fast, and fun. It reminds me strongly of Enduro crossed with Kaboom. Learning how to carefully nudge your speed along and letting off on the gas when oncoming cars approach is critical. It's actually very fun, and while it may not be quite as good as Enduro ... it's close, and certainly a different kind of animal.

 

There are tons of new scenes too. All in all, this is one of the most fun protos I've played. Anyone on the fence would do well to pick up a copy, especially considering the insanely high quality of the box and cart. It really is like someone yanked a crate of coleco games through a time machine from 1983.

 

All in all, I give it a 4 out of 5. Very fun, and very addicting.

Great review, thanks for taking the time to put this on paper.

 

Yes, we spent much time discussing the lack of movement on the road itself. Nobody involved in the project liked that, but it would have required a complete rewrite of the game in order to facilitate showing some type of movement on the road. And at that point, what we would have had is a homebrew version of Turbo, as opposed to an "Enhanced" version of the prototype. And that very much went against the grain of what I wanted to present. We (and by "we" I mean Thomas Jentzsch and Nathan Strum) really squeezed as much as possible into an 8K version of the game without rewriting it from scratch.

 

I'm glad you like the physical materials (box, cart, manual)--Nathan Strum gets top honors for his work in creating all the designs and artwork and mimicking Coleco's original releases as closely as possible. And the printing came out great--the boxes and manuals were printed printed professionally and I printed the labels using custom Coleco die sheets (the labels are a different size and shape than Atari's labels, for instance, they are tapered at the end where the label wraps around the cart). If you hold up an original Coleco release next to Turbo, you'd be hard pressed to tell Turbo from the original release. The main giveaway would be the glossy sheen of the paper--both are glossy, but they are a touch different. The only way to get the labels to look EXACTLY like Coleco releases would be to use the same exact paper they did and run the labels on an offset press. Not really feasible.

 

It would be fantastic if you and Cafeman could put your reviews in the store.

 

Thanks!

 

..Al

[Lord Thag]

Yes, we spent much time discussing the lack of movement on the road itself. Nobody involved in the project liked that, but it would have required a complete rewrite of the game in order to facilitate showing some type of movement on the road. And at that point, what we would have had is a homebrew version of Turbo, as opposed to an "Enhanced" version of the prototype. And that very much went against the grain of what I wanted to present. We (and by "we" I mean Thomas Jentzsch and Nathan Strum) really squeezed as much as possible into an 8K version of the game without rewriting it from scratch.

 

Yeah, I totally agree with that. If you had rewrote the entire thing, it wouldn't really be the proto. Thomas and Nate get major props for the job they did. The enhanced version is lightyears better than the original proto.

 

And I will be glad to post the review in the store ... as soon is there is a link to it from the front page again

[Albert]

And I will be glad to post the review in the store ... as soon is there is a link to it from the front page again

It's on the front page of the store, but here's a direct link to the game in the store:

 

http://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=960

 

..Al

[Lord Thag]

Review added

[Albert]

Review added

Thanks!

 

..Al

[Keatah]

Gimme da ROM.BIN file so I can fire'it up on Stella.. I'm going to an arctic research station on photo assignment and CANNOT bring much along, definitely no heavy-sixer can go..

[+LS650]

Gimme da ROM.BIN file so I can fire'it up on Stella.. I'm going to an arctic research station on photo assignment and CANNOT bring much along, definitely no heavy-sixer can go..

"You forgot to say please."

[accousticguitar]

I'm going to an arctic research station on photo assignment and CANNOT bring much along, definitely no heavy-sixer can go..

How about a Junior in a Bible cover?

 

 

[Lord Thag]

How about a Junior in a Bible cover?

 

That is a strangely excellent idea

 

I should do that with a few good games and keep it behind the seat of my car for emergencies

[accousticguitar]

Or a Harmony cart.

[Keatah]

Gimme da ROM.BIN file so I can fire'it up on Stella.. I'm going to an arctic research station on photo assignment and CANNOT bring much along, definitely no heavy-sixer can go..

"You forgot to say please."

 

 

puhh-weeze??

[Albert]

puhh-weeze??

Sorry, I'm not releasing the binary at this time. A large sum of money was invested in making this game a reality and I'd like to recoup that first.

 

..Al

[Lord Thag]

And it is so worth supporting the folks who put together this release. Buy it, you will not regret it

[Rom Hunter]

puhh-weeze??

Sorry, I'm not releasing the binary at this time. A large sum of money was invested in making this game a reality and I'd like to recoup that first.

 

..Al

And what about the .bin of the original proto, Al?

 

Will it be released soon?

 

[Heavy26R]

Got my copy this week! Thanks Al! You guys do great work! I'm finding it extremely entertaining. My wife is a fan of good racers and she really likes it.

Edited September 5, 2010 by Heavy26R