Scott Stilphen Posted January 2, 2003 Share Posted January 2, 2003 Videolivery often advertised in EG and other classic gaming mags. The picture is just to give you an idea of how most of them looked (it's a scan from a poor photocopy), but some of the more interesting titles listed are: Atari Fox Bat (Dec.) $29.86 Airworld (Dec.) $29.86 Frog Pong $29.86 M-Network Pro Football $29.86 Big League Baseball $29.86 Tank Battle $28.86 Parker Bros. Jaws (Jan '83) $29.86 Vectrex Auto Race $28.86 Colecovision Smurf 2 $30.86 Coleco Turbo (Sept.) $69.86! U.S. Games Weird Bird (Jan.) $22.86 Guard of Treasure (Nov.) $22.86 Gopher Attack (Dec.) $22.86 Apollo Kyphus $24.86 Guardian $24.86 Pompeii $24.86 Squoosh $24.86 Imagic (for Mattel) Big Bully (Dec.) $31.86 CommaVid Mission Omega $28.86 Underworld $28.86 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
broncoman Posted January 3, 2003 Share Posted January 3, 2003 that's neat i guess only some of those were ever made to bad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NE146 Posted January 3, 2003 Share Posted January 3, 2003 hahah! That's the same company who'm I ordered my 2600 Zaxxon from! It had yet to be released and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it in there. (I had no idea a Zaxxon would come out for the Atari VCS). Needless to say it came about 6 months later ... and my impressions of the game when I first played it is another story alltogether. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted January 3, 2003 Share Posted January 3, 2003 Many software houses operate on securing pre-orders for games (the larger the pre-order package, the more they save from OEM). Back in the day, there was no reason at all that they would give you the slightest hint that the games would not be shipped to them. At least they had things like (Dec) to signify that they didn't actually have the games there yet. The things that I would find funny is when you would see Used Game houses giving "buy" ads for vaporware games. Like this one: AirWorld...we buy for $10.00 used Only $10?!? I think that I'll hang on to ones I find. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted January 3, 2003 Share Posted January 3, 2003 Wow, major flashbacks!!! Video Livery! I remember those ads, yeah I like how the prices were good for a limited time, too limited for the games to actually be released though! Curt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foxglove9 Posted January 3, 2003 Share Posted January 3, 2003 I remember ads like that, I forget if that was the company or not. I guess those types of ads were common weren't they? But anyway I remember seeing one of them and they had Adventure II and Adventure III advertised in the listing (among other games that never were released) and I begged my parents to order it for me but they wouldn't. This was around 82 or 83 I think. I used to have some old ads lying around here in some box, and I'll have to try and dig it up if I can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
broncoman Posted January 3, 2003 Share Posted January 3, 2003 i wonder if adventure 2 and 3 were the swordquest series ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Witchfynde Posted January 3, 2003 Share Posted January 3, 2003 Now THAT would be a severe insult to Adventure if that's true!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted January 3, 2003 Share Posted January 3, 2003 Yep...you can blame that one on bad reporting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted January 3, 2003 Share Posted January 3, 2003 Companies like this would add games to their pricelists at the drop of a hat, just so they could get the pre-orders before anyone else. Even the mere mention of a title once seemed to be enough for inclusion in these ads. And it's not just the consoles that people did this with, I remember not too long ago seeing companies selling PC games doing the same exact thing, a long time (sometimes years!) before a game would actually come out, if ever. I don't know if companies are still doing this in print magazines since the advent of the Internet. ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted January 3, 2003 Share Posted January 3, 2003 I think they still do...didn't VCS Doom get printed up? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted January 3, 2003 Share Posted January 3, 2003 I think they still do...didn't VCS Doom get printed up? You mean as in someone legitimately printed it as a "coming soon" game for the 2600? I can't imagine anyone taking that hoax seriously enough to fall for it, and since it was done well after Atari abandoned the 2600, I doubt anyone would have listed it for sale anyway. But I'd sure love to be proven wrong. ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted January 3, 2003 Share Posted January 3, 2003 lol It wouldn't surprise me...but I was jokingly referring to the full spread that EG did that started the whole mess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted January 3, 2003 Share Posted January 3, 2003 lol It wouldn't surprise me...but I was jokingly referring to the full spread that EG did that started the whole mess. Did they run that in an April issue? ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted January 3, 2003 Share Posted January 3, 2003 Classicgaming lists it as being a January issue #102...I dunno. The spread can be seen here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moycon Posted January 3, 2003 Share Posted January 3, 2003 I think EGM came forward and anounced it was a joke in the April issue though. I have those mags at home, I'll have to dig them out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slapdash Posted January 3, 2003 Share Posted January 3, 2003 Videolivery often advertised in EG and other classic gaming mags. [...] some of the more interesting titles listed are: Some explanations... Frog Pong $29.86 Typo for Frog Pond VectrexAuto Race $28.86 Hyper Chase U.S. GamesWeird Bird (Jan.) $22.86 Guard of Treasure (Nov.) $22.86 Gopher Attack (Dec.) $22.86 Respectively, Eggomania, Name This Game (I think US Games realized they couldn't come up with a decent name and that's why they had the contest) and Gopher. ApolloKyphus $24.86 Guardian $24.86 Pompeii $24.86 Squoosh $24.86 It's interesting that two of these have shown up as prototypes... Yeah, I used to dig their ads. I remember they had Rubik's Cube listed as Atari, and as a cube fan, I was really looking forward to it. I eventually figured out that they meant the Atari 8-bit, and the game was the Thorn-EMI one. Funny that Rubik's Cube has actually turned up now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Stilphen Posted January 3, 2003 Author Share Posted January 3, 2003 Typo for Frog Pond That's one of mine, actually Funny that Rubik's Cube has actually turned up now! You meant this version of R.C. has turned up now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slapdash Posted January 3, 2003 Share Posted January 3, 2003 Funny that Rubik's Cube has actually turned up now! You meant this version of R.C. has turned up now Er, right... And nice how that ties up the numbering confusion between the titles too. Hmm, since they obvious had permission to use the trademark, perhaps somebody just sent the wrong ROM to fab? I mean, maybe Rubik's Cube and Atari Video Cube are really supposed to be different games after all? That would be a cock-up of high order... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SS Posted January 3, 2003 Share Posted January 3, 2003 maybe Rubik's Cube and Atari Video Cube are really supposed to be different games after all? That would be a cock-up of high order... That would help to explain the somewhat mysterious name change. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted January 3, 2003 Share Posted January 3, 2003 Apollo Kyphus $24.86 Guardian $24.86 Pompeii $24.86 Squoosh $24.86 It's interesting that two of these have shown up as prototypes... And actually, Guardian was released, it's just pretty rare. ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted January 3, 2003 Share Posted January 3, 2003 i wonder if adventure 2 and 3 were the swordquest series ? Actually I have a lab loaner cart, someone cruelly marked Airworld on it, and upon testing it for the first time back around 96-97, unfortunately it turned out to be Fireworld, when I opened the cart up, the eprom was marked Adventure II on it. So it may have been the running name for the game internally within Atari even though it had nothing whatsoever in common with the original Atari Adventure. Curt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted January 3, 2003 Share Posted January 3, 2003 That is correct. "Adventure #" was the zork title for the games before the concept was fleshed out. There was more than one "insider's" report of an "Adventure 2" before the contest was officially announced in Atari Age magazine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Stilphen Posted January 3, 2003 Author Share Posted January 3, 2003 Er, right... And nice how that ties up the numbering confusion between the titles too. Hmm, since they obvious had permission to use the trademark, perhaps somebody just sent the wrong ROM to fab? I mean, maybe Rubik's Cube and Atari Video Cube are really supposed to be different games after all? That would be a cock-up of high order... Hopefully one or both programmers can be contacted and shed some more light on this. Btw, does anyone know who programmed Atari Video Cube/(2D) Rubik's Cube? My guess would be that the 3-D version appears to be accurate in how you manipulate the cube - maybe this proved to be too confusing a control scheme for kids? Resulting in the simplified (i.e. dumb) version we got, which plays nothing like a real cube, except that only the goals are similar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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