Gunstar Posted November 2, 2006 Share Posted November 2, 2006 (edited) Actually, THREE versions of Dig Dug exist: there are two different title screens for the 1982 game. ++ RC ++ The three versions are the original 800 version, the much better 5200 version, both from '82(and both programmed by different people, IIRC, hence the drastic differences and title screens), and the Datasoft version. I know the 5200 version is great (it was converted to work on the 8-bit), I don't remember if the Datasoft version was better, worse or the same as the 5200 version. The worst, IIRC, was the original 800 version that would be the brown labled cartridge, but even it was as fun as the arcade, just not as good looking graphically. If you think the 800 cart version is great, then the 5200 version will blow you away, and apparently, from other's opinions, the Datasoft version would too. But I think there might actually be four versions (including the 5200 hack), as I thought Dig Dug was re-released as an XE cart and most of those were reprogrammed and not just the originals in new cases (Most XE cart titles). But someone needs the verify the XE cart version as I don't know for sure. Edited November 2, 2006 by Gunstar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Almost Rice Posted November 2, 2006 Share Posted November 2, 2006 The three versions are the original 800 version, the much better 5200 version, both from '82(and both programmed by different people, IIRC, hence the drastic differences and title screens), and the Datasoft version. I know the 5200 version is great (it was converted to work on the 8-bit), I don't remember if the Datasoft version was better, worse or the same as the 5200 version. The worst, IIRC, was the original 800 version that would be the brown labled cartridge, but even it was as fun as the arcade, just not as good looking graphically. If you think the 800 cart version is great, then the 5200 version will blow you away, and apparently, from other's opinions, the Datasoft version would too. But I think there might actually be four versions (including the 5200 hack), as I thought Dig Dug was re-released as an XE cart and most of those were reprogrammed and not just the originals in new cases (Most XE cart titles). But someone needs the verify the XE cart version as I don't know for sure. I have 2 versions of Dig Dug and they are both brown label. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted November 3, 2006 Share Posted November 3, 2006 (edited) The three versions are the original 800 version, the much better 5200 version, both from '82(and both programmed by different people, IIRC, hence the drastic differences and title screens), and the Datasoft version. I know the 5200 version is great (it was converted to work on the 8-bit), I don't remember if the Datasoft version was better, worse or the same as the 5200 version. The worst, IIRC, was the original 800 version that would be the brown labled cartridge, but even it was as fun as the arcade, just not as good looking graphically. If you think the 800 cart version is great, then the 5200 version will blow you away, and apparently, from other's opinions, the Datasoft version would too. But I think there might actually be four versions (including the 5200 hack), as I thought Dig Dug was re-released as an XE cart and most of those were reprogrammed and not just the originals in new cases (Most XE cart titles). But someone needs the verify the XE cart version as I don't know for sure. I have 2 versions of Dig Dug and they are both brown label. You are saying that you have two brown label 400/800 cartridges that have two different versions of the game on it? They have different title screens? Are they different graphically in-game too? If so, then there are at least 4 versions counting the 5200 hack and possibly 5 if there is indeed an XE cartridge version. Let's see; 2 brown label, at least 1 silver label(though that may be the same as one of the brown label versions), 5200 hack, Datasoft disk, and possibly and XE version. Hmm...I think it's time to start comparing screen-shots of the different versions...I definately want to know the copyright dates on them all, especially your 2 brown label 400/800 cartridges. I know by '83 that everything 2600, 5200 and 8-bit computer went to silver labels, and then the 8-bits got the grey XE carts after the release of the XEGS in '87 (also the 2600 went red-label with the release of the 2600jr, but the 7800 stayed silver label, except for the included Pole Position cart). But I'm a bit foggy on when the 8-bit carts went from brown to silver, if it was still during the 800 lifespan, or if it started with the release of the 1200XL or even later with the 600/800XL. I'm not even quite sure if the 2600 went silver label before the 5200 was released or at the same time or after. Some where between '81-'83 though. The main thing about different versions isn't the label color, cartridge style, title screens or other formats like disk or 5200 hack, but if the actual in-game graphics and gameplay are different or not. How many versions are there and how many of them are uniquely different in-game. Edited November 3, 2006 by Gunstar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
www.atarimania.com Posted November 4, 2006 Share Posted November 4, 2006 (edited) 1982 / Atari / commercial http://www.atarimania.com/detail_soft.php?...ERSION_ID=12263 1982 / Atari / prototype http://www.atarimania.com/detail_soft.php?...ERSION_ID=14035 1983 / Atari / commercial http://www.atarimania.com/detail_soft.php?...VERSION_ID=1627 1984 / Datasoft / commercial (disk) http://www.atarimania.com/detail_soft.php?...ERSION_ID=14036 1985 / US Gold / commercial (cassette) http://www.atarimania.com/detail_soft.php?...ERSION_ID=14037 The cassette version was made in the US though it was never distributed in North America. It says FOR SALE OUTSIDE US AND CANADA ONLY (just like Pole Position). -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com Edited November 4, 2006 by www.atarimania.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Almost Rice Posted November 4, 2006 Share Posted November 4, 2006 (edited) You are saying that you have two brown label 400/800 cartridges that have two different versions of the game on it? They have different title screens? Are they different graphically in-game too? If so, then there are at least 4 versions counting the 5200 hack and possibly 5 if there is indeed an XE cartridge version. Let's see; 2 brown label, at least 1 silver label(though that may be the same as one of the brown label versions), 5200 hack, Datasoft disk, and possibly and XE version. Hmm...I think it's time to start comparing screen-shots of the different versions...I definately want to know the copyright dates on them all, especially your 2 brown label 400/800 cartridges. The 2 version I have are the ones below. I just picked up the top version on my last ebay purchase. I was going to ignore it, but decided to check out every cart and noticed it was different from the one I had for over 20 years. So its just probably a label variation and cart case variation of the 2nd rom. Here is the scan of my 2 carts. 1982 / Atari / commercial http://www.atarimania.com/detail_soft.php?...ERSION_ID=12263 <snip> 1983 / Atari / commercial http://www.atarimania.com/detail_soft.php?...VERSION_ID=1627 <snip> Edited November 4, 2006 by Almost Rice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
urborg Posted November 5, 2006 Share Posted November 5, 2006 Mr. Do! is a great conversion. Also: Bang Bank! and Global War Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted November 5, 2006 Share Posted November 5, 2006 (edited) 1982 / Atari / commercial http://www.atarimania.com/detail_soft.php?...ERSION_ID=12263 1982 / Atari / prototype http://www.atarimania.com/detail_soft.php?...ERSION_ID=14035 1983 / Atari / commercial http://www.atarimania.com/detail_soft.php?...VERSION_ID=1627 1984 / Datasoft / commercial (disk) http://www.atarimania.com/detail_soft.php?...ERSION_ID=14036 1985 / US Gold / commercial (cassette) http://www.atarimania.com/detail_soft.php?...ERSION_ID=14037 The cassette version was made in the US though it was never distributed in North America. It says FOR SALE OUTSIDE US AND CANADA ONLY (just like Pole Position). -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com And here is the 5200 version, which is important to include, becuase it was converted to the 8-bit. But, it's the same graphically as both DataSoft and Atari '83 releases. http://www.atarimania.com/detail_soft.php?...ERSION_ID=13593 I thought I'd come across an 8-bit version that has multi-colored sprites (player/missles) but I don't see it in any of these version pics...is there an XE cart version?!? I prefer the 7800 version myself, which has the best graphics, closer to the arcade version. Edited November 5, 2006 by Gunstar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carmel_andrews Posted November 6, 2006 Share Posted November 6, 2006 (edited) Hmmm, so let`s vote for the worst game (and conversion): Frenesis !! other bad + buggy conversions by mastertronic: - colony (when you order new items, and they arrive, the screen gets filled with garbage...) - universal hero: no music, uses the keyboard a lot (instead of diferent joystick directions with+out button), the tape version has the codeword-bug: it does not accept the given codeword (you merely can correct this on disk) - rockford: an average conversion, but the tape includes a bug: level 9 (if I remember correct) could not be solved (there were not enough diamonds to collect...) - one man and his droid: awful and boring game (but with a few similarities to Lemmings, i.e. you can give 3 different commands to your droid while trying him to get the lemmings/nasties out of the level...); but almost no changes from one level to another... - amauroute: great graphics, nice sounds; anyone ever finished it ?!? Is it possible to finish it ?!? (25 levels and no save feature nor a level password, etc. etc.) - there are many more buggy or average mastertronic games (I remember two more games with bugs, but I don`t know their names right now...) Andreas Magenheimer re Pole Position, only the DATASOFT (or was is DATAMOST) version came out on Tape, not the ATARI released version, the UK version was released under the USG/Datasoft label and was eventually packaged with 3 other coin op conv's as USG's 'Premier Arcades' Compilation (Digdug, Mr Do and Pacman were the others) In regards to charlie chaplins missive about M.A.D software (mastertronic, and their still going) As far as i'm aware no Atari versions of Mastertronic games were ever released on disk (especially universal hero) although there was talk of a 'bug free' version which cured the printer problem and also the password problem Andreas must have a hacked or pirated version (if it's on disk) The only bug i noticed on rockford was an inbuilt cheat to disable the countdown level timer OMAHD (1 man + his droid), owned it, played it, not much of a game there, even if you did 'cheat' with the EOL passwords Frenesis was programmed by a journalist working for C&VG (computer and videogames, a UK computer/videogaming magazine), i think his name was tony takouski so something like that Zybex, the c64 version was slightly better (though i did like the re-released or hacked versions, zybex 2 and 3) Mr. Do...Good Conversion Gauntlet....Not upto much (reminds me of Amoroute, i.e very monochrone) Pacman... Not a bad conversion...even though some well dodgy Uk games magazine claimed that the speccy version was the best of the computer versions (don't think so) You can't beat A8 Star raiders...(was there either a 5200/7800. lynx or jaggie version done) A8 and C64 leaderboard...about the same I played a game on my a800win+ emu that looked asshamedly like the c64 game hawkeye, can't remember the game's name, looked good though Hacker...Not a bad game Dig Dug (prefered the version with the less text in the title screen) Edited November 6, 2006 by carmel_andrews Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deathtrappomegranate Posted November 6, 2006 Share Posted November 6, 2006 As far as i'm aware no Atari versions of Mastertronic games were ever released on disk http://www.atarimania.com/lst_soft.php?MEN...&VISU=TABLE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted November 6, 2006 Share Posted November 6, 2006 (edited) Mastertronic games were released on disk ONLY, in the U.S., and usually as "flippies" with Commodore on one side and Atari on the other .Though I have also come across a couple Mastertronic games with Apple/Atari and Commodore/Apple flippies...very rare though as I don't think too many of their games were converted to Apple computers anyway.. Edited November 6, 2006 by Gunstar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carmel_andrews Posted November 7, 2006 Share Posted November 7, 2006 according to 'deathtraps' link, only the very early mastertronic games were released on disk (US only) I guess that means that those games will only work on US (NTSC) systems and not EU/UK (Pal) systems...which was the point i was making in the first place, that Mastertronic Never release disk versions of ANY of it's A8 games on disk in the UK/EU that were PAL compatible I guess that some of the later games like ghostbusters/uni. hero etc, never quite made it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
www.atarimania.com Posted November 7, 2006 Share Posted November 7, 2006 I guess that means that those games will only work on US (NTSC) systems and not EU/UK (Pal) systems...which was the point i was making in the first place, that Mastertronic Never release disk versions of ANY of it's A8 games on disk in the UK/EU that were PAL compatible Mastertronic games released on disk in the US work fine on PAL systems. The company only distributed tapes in Europe because it just wasn't viable to sell disks, that's all... FYI, games like Ninja or Los Angeles SWAT were coded by Sculptured Software which was US-based... -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
www.atarimania.com Posted November 7, 2006 Share Posted November 7, 2006 re Pole Position, only the DATASOFT (or was is DATAMOST) version came out on Tape, not the ATARI released version, the UK version was released under the USG/Datasoft label and was eventually packaged with 3 other coin op conv's as USG's 'Premier Arcades' Compilation (Digdug, Mr Do and Pacman were the others) No, Pole Position was distributed on tape both by US Gold and Atari UK. The cassette version sold by US Gold was made in the US by Datasoft but the game only appeared on disk in North America. -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrathchild Posted November 7, 2006 Author Share Posted November 7, 2006 FYI, games like Ninja or Los Angeles SWAT were coded by Sculptured Software which was US-based...But these were specificly under the M.A.D (Matertronic Added Dimension) range which were primarily imports of U.S games, old and new. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+CharlieChaplin Posted November 7, 2006 Share Posted November 7, 2006 Well, and when I said you can only correct the mastertronic game-bugs on disk, I meant this: 1) copy your original Tape to a disk using a good C/D copier 2) initialize a C-Simulator on that disk (which will now load the copied version from disk) Thats how I did it in the past *without* using a pirate copy !! To correct the game bug, one had to use a disk/sector editor, go to a certain sector (or search for a certain combination of bytes) and then change one or more byte(s) there... If I find the time to take a look at my collected solutions (with tips, tricks, hints, codes and solutions), I may post some hints on how to solve/correct the mastertronic game-bugs here... but it will surely take a while... -Andreas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrathchild Posted November 7, 2006 Author Share Posted November 7, 2006 I wouldn't trouble yourself Andreas, these have already been considered in the past - don't know why Carmel has fogotten/not searched? http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=71245 or search for this forum for "+universal +hero" Regards, Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TMR Posted November 7, 2006 Share Posted November 7, 2006 In regards to charlie chaplins missive about M.A.D software (mastertronic, and their still going) No, they're not; the company was sold to Virgin and mutated into Virgin Mastertronic, was later closed down. The current Mastertronic has no real connection to the original (apart from one of the original founders, Frank Herman, being involved) in the same way that the current Atari is pretty much Infogrames in drag. FYI, games like Ninja or Los Angeles SWAT were coded by Sculptured Software which was US-based...But these were specificly under the M.A.D (Matertronic Added Dimension) range which were primarily imports of U.S games, old and new. MAD wasn't specifically an import label, just a different price break; it and the standard Mastertronic range were both populated by games brought in from other developers both in Europe and the U.S. and i believe there were either no in-house development teams - but a lot of fairly influential people passed through at some point or another. Checking a bit, SWAT wasn't a MAD title and was put out by Entertainment USA - a sub-label set up for games brought in from the U.S. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pengwin Posted November 13, 2006 Share Posted November 13, 2006 I would have to say that one of the worst conversions I have ever had the misfortune of playing was the Jet Set Willy port. I played the original on the Spectrum and thought it was great, when I found it for the Atari, I was really pleased. But then I played it. The music was different, the graphics were terrible and control dire. Even the animation isn't a patch on the Speccy version. As far as I'm concerned, this is an 'avoid at all costs' game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrathchild Posted November 13, 2006 Author Share Posted November 13, 2006 Probably why we never got Manic Miner on our platform, some games don't seem to lend themselves well to being ported to the A8. We missed out on a whole swathe of platformers from the C64/Spectrum. (did anyone do a clone of Manic Miner, or attempt a port for the A8?) Saying that though, some did work out OK, e.g. Spiky Harold. Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emkay Posted November 13, 2006 Share Posted November 13, 2006 I would have to say that one of the worst conversions I have ever had the misfortune of playing was the Jet Set Willy port. I played the original on the Spectrum and thought it was great, when I found it for the Atari, I was really pleased. But then I played it. The music was different, the graphics were terrible and control dire. Even the animation isn't a patch on the Speccy version. As far as I'm concerned, this is an 'avoid at all costs' game. Particular the music of Jet Set Willy is a point of discussion. Rob Hubbard did a great job with the melody, but the tune itself was horribly "high" pitched.... I liked Moon Patrol very much. OK, the vehicle was very blocky, but the game felt like the original. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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