Questions about GCC games...

[Room 34]

I have a few questions about the games GCC produced for Atari on the 2600. I suspect Tempest will be able to answer these, but maybe they can spark a discussion as well...

 

1. Does anyone have a complete list of the 2600 titles produced by GCC? I can think of several, based on the distinctive font they used for the score display, such as Dig Dug, Centipede, Battlezone, Galaxian, Moon Patrol, Kangaroo, etc.

 

2. Did GCC only do arcade conversions or did they produce original titles as well?

 

3. What was the last non-GCC arcade conversion Atari produced (pre-crash)? (I think it was Berzerk but I am not sure.)

 

4. What was the last title GCC produced for the Atari 2600?

 

5. Who were the programmers who worked on the GCC games?

 

Thanks!

[Tempest]

1. Does anyone have a complete list of the 2600 titles produced by GCC? I can think of several, based on the distinctive font they used for the score display, such as Dig Dug, Centipede, Battlezone, Galaxian, Moon Patrol, Kangaroo, etc.

 

No not yet, but I hope to very soon.

 

Did GCC only do arcade conversions or did they produce original titles as well? 

 

So far it appears that they only did arcade conversions, but that might be a coincidence. Hopefully when I get a complete list I'll know for sure.

 

What was the last non-GCC arcade conversion Atari produced (pre-crash)? (I think it was Berzerk but I am not sure.)  

 

I think it was either Stargate or Millipede if I had to take a guess.

 

4. What was the last title GCC produced for the Atari 2600?

 

Probably Jr. Pac-Man.

 

5. Who were the programmers who worked on the GCC games?  

 

I have a few names, but I'd need to check my list when I get home. No one you would probably recognize though.

 

Tempest

[Room 34]

What was the last non-GCC arcade conversion Atari produced (pre-crash)? (I think it was Berzerk but I am not sure.)  

 

I think it was either Stargate or Millipede if I had to take a guess.

 

Thanks for the answers... on this particular one I guess I should have clarified... what I meant was:

 

What was Atari's last in-house arcade conversion before they contracted them out to GCC?

[Tempest]

Thanks for the answers... on this particular one I guess I should have clarified... what I meant was:  

 

What was Atari's last in-house arcade conversion before they contracted them out to GCC?

 

I'm not exactly sure what you mean. There were several arcade conversions done by Atari themselves after they started contracting them out to GCC. Do you mean the last one Atari did before contacting GCC for the first time?

 

Tempest

[Room 34]

I'm not exactly sure what you mean.  There were several arcade conversions done by Atari themselves after they started contracting them out to GCC.  Do you mean the last one Atari did before contacting GCC for the first time?  

 

Tempest

 

Right... what was the last one Atari did in-house before starting to contract them out to GCC? Although, I was not aware that they kept doing any in-house, at least not for a while. It seems like all of the arcade conversions for quite a while in the "silver label era" were GCC. So I guess a better question would be two parts:

 

What was the last arcade conversion Atari did in-house before the first GCC contracted game, and what conversions did Atari do in-house during the time when they were contracting games out to GCC?

[+Allan]

I'd really like to see a good article on GCC. I know Curt Vendal was going to write one but it never happened. Anybody know any interesting things about this company. Between all the great 2600 and 5200 games they wrote and the 7800 itself, they really had a lot of talent. They were like the secret Atari within Atari. Anybody up to the task of writing an article on them?

 

Allan

[Tempest]

Anybody know any interesting things about this company. Between all the great 2600 and 5200 games they wrote and the 7800 itself, they really had a lot of talent. They were like the secret Atari within Atari. Anybody up to the task of writing an article on them

 

I know a few things, but it's all really just a jumbled pile of misc. facts and tidbits at the moment. Once I get some more information (I have a source or two), I can start putting together some concrete information (and possibly an article).

 

Tempest

[gavv]

Anybody know any interesting things about this company. Between all the great 2600 and 5200 games they wrote and the 7800 itself, they really had a lot of talent. They were like the secret Atari within Atari. Anybody up to the task of writing an article on them

 

I know a few things, but it's all really just a jumbled pile of misc. facts and tidbits at the moment. Once I get some more information (I have a source or two), I can start putting together some concrete information (and possibly an article).

 

Tempest

 

the story i heard from the atari guys who were around them (at their cge2002 panel) was that Kassar threatened to sue GCC for their arcade game hacks if they didn't give him controlling interest in their company, and with kassar's 60% interest in GCC, somehow all the prime assignments seemed to go to them. (Battlezone being a good example where two atari guys were assigned it, were a month in, and all of a sudden saw a full version running on an execs desk, it had gone out to GCC months before unbeknownst to the dev teams)

 

gavv

[Tempest]

the story i heard from the atari guys who were around them (at their cge2002 panel) was that Kassar threatened to sue GCC for their arcade game hacks if they didn't give him controlling interest in their company, and with kassar's 60% interest in GCC, somehow all the prime assignments seemed to go to them.

 

Yeah that's basically what I was told. The hack in question was Super Missile Command (which is actually really neat). Atari also got Quantum and Food Fight from the GCC guys along with one other unreleased game (I want to say Nightmare, but I don't know if that's correct). GCC also developed Crazy Otto which later became Ms. Pac-Man.

 

 

Battlezone being a good example where two atari guys were assigned it, were a month in, and all of a sudden saw a full version running on an execs desk, it had gone out to GCC months before unbeknownst to the dev teams

 

Yes I had heard about this. Wasn't that Steve Woita and Dan Hitchens? I think Steve was telling me how their version was going to use a first person perspective (like the arcade game) with vector looking graphics. That would have been really neat. I also heard that Carla Meninsky did another version of Battlezone, but I haven't been able to verify that rumor.

 

Tempest

[prostx23]

Hi,

 

I'd like to bump this. Has anyone come up with a complete list of the 2600 games produced by these guys? For that matter is there a list of exactly who programmed every single atari produced game?

 

Thanks,

MIke

[Rom Hunter]

No, but when you download my ROM collection, you'll come as far as you can get.

 

http://www.atarimania.com/rom_collection_archive_atari_2600_roms.html

 

All GCC titles are mentioned in it as well.