Jump to content
IGNORED

Is Laser Gates really Inner Space?


SpaceDice2010

Recommended Posts

A few followups:

 

1. I think that EMI game Chris was talking about must have been Submarine Commander: http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-submarine-commander_5129.html

 

2. Interesting about the serial number in the Final Legacy carts. I wonder how many other prototypes had that feature and we just didn't know it? At least one other copy escaped from your group (it was still called The Legacy at this point): http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-legacy-_20787.html

 

3. This is the Icon version I was talking about. Can you fill us in on why there was an Icon version? http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-final-legacy_20786.html

 

4. Yes that picture on my 2600 page IS from the Final Legacy. I always loved that picture so I decided to use it. You have a framed version? Very nice! Was that something Atari was planning on selling or is yours the original art print? That scan is from the manual, is there an actual poster?

 

5. Yes, someone at Imagic ported Quick Step, Laser Gates, and Wing War to the Atari 8-bit computers, but they were never officially released. I think there was one disk based budget release that included all three, but this wasn't the way they had officially planning on releasing them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've said this in other homebrew topics but it is an amazing time to be a 2600 gamer right now. Some of the work that guys like Darrell are doing is incredible and some of the tools we have like the harmony cartridge make playing those games a breeze. If you get yourself setup with a working Stella emulator on your PC, there's a lot of good freebies just sitting around on the boards or in the AtariAge archives and some of the new cartridges in the store are terrific. Actually, it was the active homebrew community that attracted me to 2600 gaming in the first place. I'm 27 so I wasn't even alive in the glory days lol.

Finding time is the only issue. I'm kind of obsessive so I can't really just dip my toe in. What I'm going to do is see if I could work a game into future projects. I was thinking of trying to track down Bob Hesler, my partner at VentureVision, and see if I can use the name. And then maybe do an Inner Space sequel. The Melody board is really mind blowing, I'm kind of thinking about the possibilities.

 

BTW, I was 26 when I started at Apollo.

 

IMO some of the label and cart designs are looking better now than they ever did back in the day. Dungeon in particular is gorgeous. It also comes with a full-color poster and manual (well, and box...but mine hasn't arrived yet) so it isn't just the games that are high quality but the production values on the packaging that goes with the games.

I would have given my left nut to have any of these people do the packaging for Rescue Terra I. We found a guy who painted really great oil paintings of space nebula type stuff. But packaging is a different thing and we probably didn't pay him much. Of course in the end it didn't matter.

 

The difference, which to me is kind of amazing, is the internet. Finding an artist in Dallas - Forth Worth was really hard. Finding one who could do packaging was just about impossible. Today, click, click, type, type, pages of great artists found around the world.

 

Video Game Critic has reviewed many different homebrew games. Unfortunately there is no way to filter by system, but as you'll see many of the homebrews he has reviewed are for the 2600 or other classic game systems. So if you're curious about what some people have been doing with these old consoles in the last 15 years or so, it's a good site to check out!

I saw the reviews of my games. The Video Game Critic can eat my shorts. I hate honest reviews.

 

Anyway, welcome to AA Dan. You've got at least a few fans here and I'm sure we'd be very excited if you got back into programming 2600 games!

It's been very nice to hear all the kind words, Makes me happy that people are getting some entertainment from what we did so long ago.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

So there's a bunch of Rescue Terra 1 in SA warehouses. Time to get on to our friend in Venezuela and see if there's something to find out.

Good luck with that. My guess is they ripped out the boards and stuffed the carts with cash to smuggle it back to SA. Just seemed really shady. They never wanted to even look at the game as I remember.

 

Love The Final Legacy, btw, one of my Top 5 A8 games, it's an absolute classic.

Made my day.

 

Also, we had a successful Atari VCS fanzine during early 90s - 2009, maybe you are willing to give an interview for Scott Stilphen at Digital Press:

http://atariage.com/...ion-newsletter/

 

http://www.digitpress.com/

look under Library, Interviews

Thanks for the links. I just read the interview with Ernie Runyon which was great. Funny how these things jog my memory. I wasn't sure about the room for reverse engineering games, but seems right. I did take listing back to my desk and studied them.

 

And the picture of Ernie...William Shatner? Has anyone here ever seen Ernie and William Shatner in the same room together? I haven't.

 

Ernie said "I remember Dan had it roughest. I think he may have had a new-born at home" which made me laugh. I didn't have a new-born at home, but sounds like something I would say. I did have a fairly new wife who was freaking out at all the hours. And I lived 55 miles away so travel time didn't help. I remember talking to her on the phone one night, I was at Apollo, and she was really upset. This computer stuff was so new then people just had no frame of reference. She kind of gave me an ultimatum. I remember looking at my computer screen and had to make a choice. What I learned was never give a person an ultimatum, which I found useful in my next marriage which has been great.

 

Ernie also said "I also remember coming in late one night to do some coding and happened upon a co-worker chasing a scantily-clad young lady around the production line. I was sworn to secrecy." HAD TO BE LARRY! Chasing, not catching, sounds like Larry.

 

Ernie is right about not being a tight group. We were all in one large room, no walls, working 80 hours a week or more, and hardly knew anything about each other. Just total focus on the game. Not just the code, but the game. You lived in there. Everyone liked everyone, and I certainly enjoyed their company, but we just rarely had time. After Space Cavern and after reading the Forbes article about how other game programmers were being treated I did get to talk to people a bit more. And when I gave my 2 weeks notice Apollo made me stay so I basically sat around, so that was nice.

 

But it's a weird thing programming. A very individual task.

Edited by DanOliver
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Melody board is really mind blowing, I'm kind of thinking about the possibilities.

 

The source for my Melody projects can be found in my blog. You can use the categories for Space Rocks and Frantic to make it easier to find. Just about every blog entry has source included, so you can see how the projects developed over time.

 

For Space Rocks this entry has the initial 50 sprite test while this one has the source for the final build.

 

Frantic isn't finished, plus it was rebooted at one point when I realized a way to rewrite the kernel to enable one more object. I plan to resume work on it soon.

 

Once Frantic is done I'm planning to work on a bus-stuffing driver for the Melody. It'll enable TIA updates in 3 cycles of time and would allow a kernel to be written like this:

 ldx #$FF
KernelLoop:
sta WSYNC
stx GRP0 ; updates GRP0 with data from datastream DS_GRP0
stx COLUP0 ; updates COLUP0 from DS_COLUP0
stx COLUP1 ; etc
stx COLUPF
stx ENABL
stx ENAM0
stx ENAM1
stx PF0
stx PF1
stx PF2
lda #<DS_CONTROL ; reads DS_CONTROL datastream
bne KernelEvent ; end-of-kernel, reposition object
stx GRP1 ; VDEL1 on so update can be mid-scanline w/out shearing
...
stx PF0 ; for other half of screen
stx PF1
stx PF2
jmp KernelLoop

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Dan,

 

 

Laser Gates is a great game. I love the detailed graphics in it, and the especially the explosion. I never got a good high score as I'm no great gamer, but as soon as I played it I knew it was a game I had to have.

 

 

An Inner Space proto rom is on the web, so the changes Imagic did to the rom could be determined, assuming it is not a really early prototype.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1. I think that EMI game Chris was talking about must have been Submarine Commander: http://www.atarimani...ander_5129.html

Yes, that's it. I couldn'd find it, thanks.

http://youtu.be/ywz8zZCU3fY

OK, so those screens are a lot closer to Final Legacy than I remember. So maybe Chris had a lot more input on the design than I remember which sounds like me. The map screen and the scope screen, very similar. For sure Chris showed me the game and must have had a lot of ideas about what game I should do at least initially.

 

I'm sure I came up with the post apocalyptic angle, which to me was the design. I think Chris wanted Submarine Commander but with more action. That's my impression. But when brainstorming a person isn't always aware where an idea actually came from. All ideas you like become your ideas and all rejected ideas must have been someone else's. It's not a fair process.

 

2. Interesting about the serial number in the Final Legacy carts. I wonder how many other prototypes had that feature and we just didn't know it? At least one other copy escaped from your group (it was still called The Legacy at this point): http://www.atarimani...acy-_20787.html

I did think it strange my cart only said "Legacy". I thought "Final Legacy" was used earlier. I think I came up with "Legacy" pretty much right off, but remember distinctly who came up with "Final Legacy". Myself, Chirs and his friend and Product Manager who I can't remember his name, were talking about the name. Maybe the PM and Chris had already been talking about this, but there was some issue with Legacy...already used, too general to clear legal...anyway the PM came up with Final Legacy. Chris and I instantly liked it. Guess that happened later than I remember, after focus test.

 

This was the same PM that asked me to do Telepathy.

 

So it does make sense that a screen with Legacy would indeed be prerelease. That's weird. HOW DO YOU PEOPLE FIND THESE THINGS! Of cource as good as my memory is I probably gave someone my cart to down load? Seems like a few years back I ran into the collector thing and talked to some people about this.

 

But in the database where Chris gets credit for programming and graphics...I don't think so. I don't remember Chris doing any programming at all on anything. Maybe I remember seeing him trying to program for a day or two on something and asking a lot of questions where we were in the warehouse. I kind of thought he was trying to learn programming because Atari was falling apart at that time. He really looked stressed at the keyboard. Pretty quick, like a day or two, he put his suit back on and went back to whatever VPs do. He must have been very good at it because he saved our butts many times. Certainly Final Legacy wouldn't have ever been done without Chris doing all those VP things. But I sure don't remember him working on Final Legacy. And no graphics. Sure hope I'm not mistaken, but I'm 99.9% sure.

 

Robert Weatherby did the music score I believe.

 

3. This is the Icon version I was talking about. Can you fill us in on why there was an Icon version? http://www.atarimani...gacy_20786.html

I'm not sure. It certainly was a standard thing to use icons to internationalize products at least in my little world. It was preferred to localizing text.

 

4. Yes that picture on my 2600 page IS from the Final Legacy. I always loved that picture so I decided to use it. You have a framed version? Very nice! Was that something Atari was planning on selling or is yours the original art print? That scan is from the manual, is there an actual poster?

Yes a poster. I'll try to take a pic and post. I assumed you'd gotten the image from the poster but have since seen that was the picture on a box. It's a cropped part of the poster.

 

The poster would have been a give away to retailers. The one I have looks like from a production run. I assume Atari printed a bunch of them.

 

I was very proud of the poster when they gave it to me. To think such a good artist created that for my game was very flattering. Probably my must prized game related possession because I've kept it and have never considered getting rid of it.

 

But the production run may have been stuck in a warehouse when the Tramiels took over. Weird it never occurred to me to go to the warehouse, wherever the hell that was, and grab as much of the Final Legacy stuff as I could. Whoever gave me a copy may have gotten it from a warehouse, can't remember. Instead we were going thru 40 yard dumpsters pulling out office supplies and piling up $100k computer systems in our offices like packrats. I got so many staplers that in the past 30 years I've never had to reload a stapler. I just toss an empty stapler and use the next one. I don't do a lot of stapling, but geez. Staplers I save, games I leave. Weird. Freakin good staplers though, never jam. Warner may not have known disk about games but they knew their office supplies. I also still have boxes of staples just in case I run out of staplers.

 

When the Tramiels took over it was a post apocalyptic world. Empty multi-story office buildings, warehouses with absolutely not a single person. The people just left. Then they just put everything into dumpsters. Millions of dollars of computer systems all sitting there still on. The dozen or so programmers left carried away as much as we could and stacked it like cord wood in our "new offices" and in the hallway. But the Tramiels pretty quickly got a handle on that.

 

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Robert Weatherby did the music score I believe.

I think the reason I have Brad Fuller down for music on my page was because the title screen music is exactly the same as the music from the unreleased Superman III prototype (http://www.atariprot...supermanIII.htm). When I spoke to Dave Comstock he told me Brad Fuller did the audio for that game so I assumed that it was simply 'recycled' for Final Legacy due to it being too good not to use (or they just needed music in a hurry). Can you shed any light on this?

 

BTW I always thought The Final Legacy was a great name. It makes the game so much more 'epic', like a "This is it, you're the last hope" kind of a thing. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just got an email from Scott Stilphen, not sure if he's posting here...sorry I have the social skills of a rock except rocks have the advantage of not talking...or typing...and he brought this up. Here's my reply:

 

OK, I'm glad you mentioned Brad Fuller. I almost wrote that "Rob Fuller" did some sound effects on Final Legacy, but yes Brad Fuller. I remember being in his office, very cool digs, and maybe begging him to help with the audio on Final Legacy. I don't remember him wanting to. So yes, I think Brad doing at least the sound effects would be right. And it follows if he did the sound effects he also did the score. But I still have Robert Weatherby stuck in my head, being in my office, and coming up with the music. But they would know better than me.

 

I do have Robert Weatherby stuck clearly in my head talking, in my office, looking at the game, pad in hand taking notes, discussing a theme song. But I'm well aware of how memory works and I may have just replaced Brad with Robert. Hope not. Up until yesterday I'd forgotten Robert worked at Atari until I saw his LinkIn page and the memory got jogged. My brain is rebuilding these memories on the fly. Going to be mistakes. Hope you guys can track down the real deal.

 

All these years I think the theme song to Star Trek NG sounds like Final Legacy and I always think of Robert.

 

However, like I told Steve, the impression I have is Brad wasn't interested in Final Legacy for whatever reason. I don't think I had a lot of interaction with him. So maybe he just sent me some audio? Maybe only had time for some effects?

 

I'm less than 99.9% sure now who did the music. I'm 100% sure I had nothing to do with the composition in any way. And I sure would have liked Brad to do the audio that's for sure. He was very highly respected as I remember.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

BTW I always thought The Final Legacy was a great name. It makes the game so much more 'epic', like a "This is it, you're the last hope" kind of a thing. :)

I love post apocalyptic new beginning themes. Always have. It was fun being able to be in that story for the 7-12 months Final Legacy took. It's may fav theme by far.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Laser Gates is a great game. I love the detailed graphics in it, and the especially the explosion. I never got a good high score as I'm no great gamer, but as soon as I played it I knew it was a game I had to have.

 

 

An Inner Space proto rom is on the web, so the changes Imagic did to the rom could be determined, assuming it is not a really early prototype.

Thanks. I'm now learning Imagic may have redone more graphics than I realized. The explosion is probably the thing I'm most proud of in any game. One of the few things I can say was all mine. Not stolen from another game.

 

If I did another VCS game it would have lots and lots of explosions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

But the production run may have been stuck in a warehouse when the Tramiels took over. Weird it never occurred to me to go to the warehouse, wherever the hell that was, and grab as much of the Final Legacy stuff as I could. Whoever gave me a copy may have gotten it from a warehouse, can't remember. Instead we were going thru 40 yard dumpsters pulling out office supplies and piling up $100k computer systems in our offices like packrats. I got so many staplers that in the past 30 years I've never had to reload a stapler. I just toss an empty stapler and use the next one. I don't do a lot of stapling, but geez. Staplers I save, games I leave. Weird. Freakin good staplers though, never jam. Warner may not have known disk about games but they knew their office supplies. I also still have boxes of staples just in case I run out of staplers.

 

When the Tramiels took over it was a post apocalyptic world. Empty multi-story office buildings, warehouses with absolutely not a single person. The people just left. Then they just put everything into dumpsters. Millions of dollars of computer systems all sitting there still on. The dozen or so programmers left carried away as much as we could and stacked it like cord wood in our "new offices" and in the hallway. But the Tramiels pretty quickly got a handle on that.

Maybe that's the "real" loot that got buried at the Alamogordo, New Mexico landfill. Kind of funny, I have read Curt and Marty's Atari: Business if Fun book, and the more stuff I read about the old Atari days, the more it sounds like the Wild, Wild, West in terms of the stuff people got away with. (I wish you could have been on the scene a couple years back when they were doing interviews and research for the book). When the NES finally came out in 1985, it was like Nintendo was the new sheriff in town, putting an end to the lawlessness of the new frontier that was video gaming.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This may be a long shot, but do you recall a Paul Donaldson at Atari, who also worked on the Mindlink project? He supposedly got pulled from it to work on a CCW (sesame street) game?

Sorry, I don't. To give you an idea of how much I know I had to Google Mindlink. I thought it was called Mind Controller.

 

I didn't meet anyone who worked on the Mindlink, just the Product Manager who asked me to do something in a rush. He dumped a bunch of stuff on my desk. He hung around a lot and offered encouragement which helped. I think I had a reputation for getting something done fast. Might not be the best, but at least you'd get something. I'd just finished the instant assembler and that was like a secret weapon.

 

On Wikipedia it says 2 games were developed Bionic Breakthrough & Mind Maze. Looking now at what I think Atari Proto probably has it right that Bionic Breakthrough would have been just to user test the Minlink. And it looks like the programmer spent too much time on the splash screen. A classic mistake I've seen made a few times on different projects. Splash screens, about boxes, easter egg initials should all be added toward the end if there's time imo.

 

It is unfortunate the Mindlink was known for making faces sore...it's true but unfortunate. I did have to force myself to make smaller and smaller movements. After that it was comfortable and kind of fun. I think we strapped controllers around our legs and arms, so you'd have 4 controllers on you. I forget how that went, might have been just screwing around.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe that's the "real" loot that got buried at the Alamogordo, New Mexico landfill.

No way. That's not how the Tramiels operated. They sold everything. Warner yeah, they didn't seem to have a clue. The Tramiels were serious business people. That's good and bad. You also need to create great products.

 

Kind of funny, I have read Curt and Marty's Atari: Business if Fun book, and the more stuff I read about the old Atari days, the more it sounds like the Wild, Wild, West in terms of the stuff people got away with. (I wish you could have been on the scene a couple years back when they were doing interviews and research for the book).

I have to read that. I was so at the tail end. I saw only a little bit of the old Atari. The best stories I ever heard were from Dave Staugas. He had some beauties. Funny as hell.

 

When the NES finally came out in 1985, it was like Nintendo was the new sheriff in town, putting an end to the lawlessness of the new frontier that was video gaming.

A month or two, I think, post Tramiel some of us at Atari were called into a fancy conference room where a game console was set and I think they told us the specs which were impressive. I assume they wanted Atari to port games to it. We were just asked real fast what we thought and no one was excited. The mushroom clouds were just starting to dissipate, we were surrounded by abandoned office buildings. "Why would anyone want to put out a new platform?" was the thinking. I don't know but I think that machine was NES. Looked like it.

 

At that time the Tramiels had kept a dozen or so programmers specifically to do games, but word was he was charging them rent on their cubes, phones, etc. They were kept separate from the ST project, I never even met them. I don't know why the Tramiels did that.

 

I was surprised when Atari got back into games. They'd called me do some debugging work on the 7800 Desert Falcon after I left. Bitch of a bug. Locked up after running in demo mode for like 10 hours. I got it down to running for 40 hours but never found the bug. But I wasn't really that interested either. Don't know who the original programmer was or why them didn't finish it. Not even sure I had the source code.

Edited by DanOliver
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dan, first of all, it's really kind of you to come here and share your experiences and memories with us....well, geeks. :) A lot of people are even surprised that anyone cares about this stuff, but....it's video game history. I majored in history in college so I understand all too well the importance of preserving the past, documenting things, and so on. I was a little too young to really experience the Atari generation....born in 1976, so I was quite young when I had a 2600 and really cut my gaming teeth on the NES, SNES, and C64. But from everything I've read and heard about that period of the late 70's to the mid 80's, it was a wild, crazy time. Don't think for a second EVERYTHING has changed 30 years later....designers and companies STILL rip off ideas from each other willy-nilly (FPS games, I'm looking at you!). The major difference is that cost and staff has exploded so much they have to make the game for several consoles at once to recoup the costs, and often (unlike the 8 bit days) the ports are very similar to each other. I have played Final Legacy and it's a really fun game, a nice blending of game ideas from other games. Reminds me of Gorf a bit in that sence. Anyway, thank you again for your time and contributions here and you have been most kind to all of us. BTW, if you like post-nuclear games, you should check out the Fallout games. Do you still game at all these days? Did you have anything besides the Apple and 2600 for consoles and computers?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dan, first of all, it's really kind of you to come here and share your experiences and memories with us....well, geeks. :) A lot of people are even surprised that anyone cares about this stuff, but....it's video game history.

My pleasure. All the history you all have preserved have brought back a lot of memories I'd about lost. So I thank you all.

 

I majored in history in college so I understand all too well the importance of preserving the past, documenting things, and so on.

Hope some historian documents the Harmony project. Hint, hint.

 

But from everything I've read and heard about that period of the late 70's to the mid 80's, it was a wild, crazy time. Don't think for a second EVERYTHING has changed 30 years later....designers and companies STILL rip off ideas from each other willy-nilly (FPS games, I'm looking at you!).

I'd never expect that to ever change. I think the same stuff goes on in Hollywood. Happened with Painters back in the renaissance where each painter would mix their paints in secret. Creative endeavors seem to always have the highest paranoia. Just part of the fun.

 

The major difference is that cost and staff has exploded so much they have to make the game for several consoles at once to recoup the costs, and often (unlike the 8 bit days) the ports are very similar to each other.

I kind of hate to call both what we did back in the 80's and what they do today as both being "games". So different. I went back to games in 94 and did some larger games at Digital Pictures and Any River Entertainment, but I didn't really enjoy those kinds of games at all. The programming was great fun.

 

I also interviewed a few years back at Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment to write tools for Stargate Worlds out here in Phoenix. Huge project. Gigabytes flying everwhere. More artists than I've ever seen. They had a full size Stargate in the lobby and the typical hot are they of age babe receptionists. Seemed like the old days, except everyone was working on the same game.

 

All I could think of is "why is this all in Phoenix?" Tons of people, sharp engineers, and I love Stargate so I thought that was a super license. They really seemed to know their stuff in every way. I would have liked making tools for them but the headhunter made a total mess of it plus the offer was pretty low which told me why they were in Phoenix. Looking for cheap labor. That's a red flag to me so I passed. I've ridden a lot of companies into the beach, I can almost smell death being right around the corner.

 

Companies like Digital Pictures got it. Boss would pop his head in "need anything?" "yeah bigger monitor" 20 minutes later "where do you want it". Meals every night, anything you wanted. Anything that would take you away from programming they eliminated. And we loved that. Really great game designers, great management, wrong medium. Which I guess is a management fault. Loved working there.

 

I have played Final Legacy and it's a really fun game, a nice blending of game ideas from other games. Reminds me of Gorf a bit in that sence.

That was my style, throw a lot of different stuff in and hope something sticks. When I started at Apollo I'd never seen an Atari game and they had me play some and I noticed some of the boxes had "30 different games!" and they were just changing the background color. I thought that seems to be important and Space Cavern had some absurd number of "games". That kind of "lots of stuff" stuck with me. A crutch though.

 

BTW, if you like post-nuclear games, you should check out the Fallout games.

I checked out some videos...not for me. Doom with great graphics. It's amazing stuff, just not for me.

 

Do you still game at all these days?

I liked FreeCell and would play it 12, 15 hours at a time. FreeCell! That's not healthy. I had to block it from my browser. So Catch-22, if I liked a game I'd have to stop playing it. I go out of my way to not play games for fear of addiction. I won't play golf or try Altoids either. My addiction to programming at least pays the rent...some months. Typing in forums is another addiction I have a problem with, obviously.

 

Did you have anything besides the Apple and 2600 for consoles and computers?

I don't even have my 2600 any more. Sold it like 10 years ago at a yard sale. The guy who bought it really lit up seeing the 2600, Brought back memories for him. His wife didn't seem as thrilled. I had what I thought was a high price, maybe $50, because I just as soon keep it. I probably should have told him I programmed games for it, maybe he would have paid full price. ;)

 

Got rid of all my Apples probably. I had a Woz machine, might still have that. Trying to be more of minimalist. If I kept everything I'd worked on I'd be buried.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was just looking around your database, Atarimania, and saw Last Starfighter for the 5200, and also AtariProtos. Gary Stark's name seem really familiar, so does the opening screen. I thought our group was involved with Last Starfighter. Do you know what group he was in?

 

I don't remember seeing the game play which I just looked at on YouTube. Looks like a great game. Multiple explosions on the big ship is cool, never seen that before. Great idea.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's a review from the German magazine Telematch Computer August 1984, thing is, Germans have a problem with 'shooting games', especially Hartmut Huff (He totally ruined Battlezone in a review).

In Germany Final Legacy plays on another planet. Germans, bold enough to start two WWs, but some computer simulation, tail between their legs.

 

13_158_zps890a0e7c.jpg

 

I'm not in the mood to translate everything, but basically he said it is an excellent game, and it passed with 'flying' colours (kudos to Hartmut Huff (rip)).

 

13_157_zps6388689e.jpg

 

In Germany, 1 is 'Best Score', 6 is 'worst'.

Edited by high voltage
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was just looking around your database, Atarimania, and saw Last Starfighter for the 5200, and also AtariProtos. Gary Stark's name seem really familiar, so does the opening screen. I thought our group was involved with Last Starfighter. Do you know what group he was in?

 

Don't know, Dan.

 

I only maintain the Atari 2600 section of Atarimania.

 

I do know The Last Starfighter on the VCS, programmed by Douglas Neubauer:

http://www.atarimani...ter-_14024.html

 

Which was the prototype of Solaris, one of the most imressive VCS titles ever programmed:

http://www.atarimani...aris_s6941.html

 

8)

Edited by Rom Hunter
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...