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Two 7800 scans from UK sources from Lost Dragon


high voltage

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Wanted to get these 2 lots up in particular because:

Regarding the C+VG article, i feel it adds balance to the magazines earlier 'look' at the 7800 by Tony Tak.The recent RG 7800 article quoted Tony's article, yet i personally felt to get the 'true' picture of C+VG's views on 7800, note had to be made on the (later) look at it, when it's compared to what the NES and MS were offering UK gamers.Plus, there's the claims of:Elimanator, Black Lamp, Technop and Deflektor all headed 7800's way.
The ACE article? i'd love to know more on that claim of a team of ex-Imagine programmers being contracted to write 7800 games.If true....who? and just which games?.
Over to you good people....
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Yeah - Eliminator, Black Lamp, Technocop (I'm assuming they meant Electrocop) and Deflektor? I at least I think I've followed things pretty closely about the 7800 for 10 years plus, had my system since 1988, and I've NEVER heard of these titles ever mentioned before this article (other than obviously Electrocop). Weird to have these titles just brought to our attention now after all of these years. Or perhaps I'm wrong, I usually am. Regardless, anyone else able to shed any light on these aforementioned titles, and if any of them were ever worked on if so?

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Yeah - Eliminator, Black Lamp, Technocop (I'm assuming they meant Electrocop) and Deflektor? I at least I think I've followed things pretty closely about the 7800 for 10 years plus, had my system since 1988, and I've NEVER heard of these titles ever mentioned before this article (other than obviously Electrocop). Weird to have these titles just brought to our attention now after all of these years. Or perhaps I'm wrong, I usually am. Regardless, anyone else able to shed any light on these aforementioned titles, and if any of them were ever worked on if so?

I can tell you that Digital Press Collector's guide 7th edition had an Atari 7800 Master Part listing that Atari themselves had a record of. The 7th edition of DP Collector's guide was released in 2002. The list does includes rumor mill game that Atari game a number to, but never saw the light of day. There is no information on if there was on work done on the games though. I can tell you that some of the rumor mill games for the Atari 7800, Atari had plans of releasing for the Atari 2600 and the XEGS.

 

I know Deflektor was planned for the Atari XEGS by the fact a prototype was for found for it, and was released for the Atari St. There is information if the 7800 version was started.

 

Eliminator was numbered for the Atari 7800 and the Atari XEGS, but neither was found or any information is known. The Atari St version of the game did come out and there is youtube video of the St version.

 

I can tell you that Black Lamp was one the games that Atari UK either was doing a port or had plans of developing for the Atari 7800 . The Atari XE version of the game was released. I can tell you that Atari UK also had plans of an Atari 2600 version of Black Lamp also. The Atari part number listing for Atari 7800 had 13 rumor mill games that Atari UK was involved with including Black Lamp.

 

Some of the 13 games Atari UK had plans of releasing for the Atari 7800 also were planned for the Atari 2600 and the Atari XEGS.

Edited by 8th lutz
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@thursday83:The C+VG article refers to Technocop, from Gremlin Graphics which did appear on console, Genesis version by Razorsoft:

The C+VG article is the only time i've seen all those titles grouped in as planned/forthcoming titles, so thought here was the best place to have the scan put up and see what the good people on here could shed light on.
Thanks again to High Voltage for taking time out to post them on my behalf.
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@8th lutz:Really appreciate your information as well.I was lucky enough to be part of the RVG community interview with Andrew Hewson, so i know his 'feelings' on the Atari 8 Bit range and how Tower Toppler came about:

 

Q) Can you explain how Atari 7800 version of Nebulus came to be in hands of US Gold for the USA release and why the name change to Tower Toppler?

 

A)US Gold made us an offer and it went from there. The change of name is a fine example of clueless marketing people misunderstanding the product that’s been put into there hands. For the Yanks it was just another game…

 

 

Q I See the Atari 7800 listed among supported formats, but you never did any Atari 8-bit Micro games did you? (I only discovered your works when I moved from the 800XL to the C64) did you never consider the Atari 8 Bit range a worthy market? Not even for your budget range? If not, why?

 

A)Dunno, it never really crossed my mind to get involved. Atari seemed a step backwards to me.

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Having 'looked into' a number of Lost Atari Games over many formats over past 18 months or so, 1 thing always seems to stand out:Atari wanting Games for their platforms, lot of talk about working closely with developers/publishers to get most popular games converted to 2600/XE/ST, then in later years Lynx/Jaguar but so much of it never seemed to get beyond the stage of talks with publishers.....

 

 

I'd guess as often in life, it all fell apart when it came down to the money aspect.Atari not willing to pay top dollar to either obtain conversion rights or have a team code game in question and or publishers looking at say the size of the XE/7800 market compared to C64/NES/MS and realising it simply was'nt commercially viable to release the game themselves.

 

Pure speculation on my part of course here, but just the impressions i get.

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  • 1 month later...

Ok, updates, such as they are...

1)Son Of VCS article writer was contacted by myself, scans of said article forwarded and he was asked where the info for the various upcoming games came from....nothing ever heard in response.Cue...chalk up yet another dead end.
2)The above saw myself then contacting an Ex-Gremlin coder i 'knew', he'd worked alongside Gary Priest when he was doing Technocop, so i asked him if there was ever talk in the 'office' of a 7800 version of Technocop, he was kind enough to say althought the 7800 was occ.discussed, he was'nt aware of any plans and if there were any, Gary would'nt of been doing the conversion as he never did any 7800 work.
so, not much to report in terms of progress, just a potential coder who's name can be removed.
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  • 3 months later...

Update time:So far the question of any in-house 7800 development done by Gremlin Graphics has been put to 4 Ex-Gremlin Coders (2 by myself, 2 on behalf of myself...)

 

They were aware of no 7800 titles being developed (and as i said above, a 5th coder, Gary P.was known not to have worked on any 7800 games), so it's looking like any potential 7800 titles 'talked of' (ie Technocop) would of been done 'out of house'.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 years later...

Taken a long time to get credible info but:

 

Eliminator 7800:Never got beyond the planning stages, possibly because Hewson couldn't agree terms for it's conversion with Atari.

 

It was Atari who wanted Nebulus renamed Tower Toppler..

 

2600 versions of Tower Toppler and Jinks were planned, no coding done as both deemed unworkable.

 

There was another UK 7800 title in development, sea based affair with you depth charging fish, mermaids, subs etc...not meant to be very good, coder working on it's own words

 

He quit company and deal with Atari fell through soon after.

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2600 versions of Tower Toppler and Jinks were planned, no coding done as both deemed unworkable.

 

Tower Toppler would have been unworkable for sure without some very severe simplification, but I don't see why Jinks couldn't work. The 7800 version wasn't particularly impressive.

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I've never been a fan of Tower Toppler in it's original format as Nebulus, had it on the C64 and later the ST.

 

It's a very frustrating affair , wrapped up in a very impressive game engine.

 

I was surprised to see a 2600 version was even suggested to be honest.

 

Jinks i have never personally played, it seems to split opinion's down the middle, it seems an interesting variation on Breakout and i love the music in the C64 version.

 

It does seem simple enough a title to downgrade to the 2600 without loosing too much.

 

As for the Alien Brigade level?

 

Again, not a title i am personally familiar with, but the cancelled 7800 title had you controlling a surface vessel...game premise sounded very basic to myself.

 

Would of liked to of seen 7800 Eliminator attempted though.

 

Still, at least we can now clear up what became of it.

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Quote about it being Atari who wanted name changed came from US Gold source at the time..not some my memory is hazy but..type reply.☺

 

They might of been going on little more than information they themselves had been told..but it read as credible and was more than what i had found from an earlier source.

 

 

As i had mentioned earlier, i did ask Andrew Hewson about the name change and he gave a very....open reply

Edited by Lost Dragon
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  • 2 years later...
On 9/26/2014 at 7:57 PM, high voltage said:

Son of VCS (I like that) from C&VG magazine

 

cvg9400008_zps603e299a.jpg

cvg9400009_zpsb701dd72.jpg

 

Awash with consoles from UK Ace magazine (which wasn't a bad magazine)

 

ace2100009_zps6e2020cf.jpg

? Massive Necrobump i know but, I think I can hopefully clear up that ACE magazine claim about a team of Ex-Imagine coders being contracted to write 7800 titles. 

 

It's basically part of what became Atari's ARC Label, Atari Uk's ill-fated attempt to take on likes of US Gold and Ocean Software. 

 

The original plan was for 4, seperate labels. 

 

Atari Frames:Publishing Arcade titles. 

 

Atari Mind Games:Publishing puzzle games. 

 

Atari Battlescapes:War games. 

 

Atari Hyper Series:Business and Graphics Packages. 

 

 

Atari Frames was created by Ex-Imagine staff... 

 

Chronicles Of Cute started out as a 7800 title, before switching to the ST and Amiga and being renamed as Chronicles Of Omega and released under the ARC label. 

 

 

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