ubersaurus Posted May 13, 2022 Share Posted May 13, 2022 I'm incredibly excited to share with you all a story I've been working on with Kate Willaert for a few months now. Meet Van Mai (formerly Van Tran), the woman who wrote Wabbit for Apollo before going to MicroGraphic Image to develop their unreleased Solar Fox 5200 conversion! Her career in games was short, but I'm really thrilled that her story is out there. https://gamehistory.org/wabbit/ 16 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted May 13, 2022 Share Posted May 13, 2022 Wow, great job! Nice interview. Do you know what game Van was working on after Wabbit? Was it possibly Pompeii or Squoosh? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cjherr Posted May 13, 2022 Share Posted May 13, 2022 Very cool stuff. Thanks for all the hard work. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubersaurus Posted May 13, 2022 Author Share Posted May 13, 2022 7 minutes ago, Tempest said: Wow, great job! Nice interview. Do you know what game Van was working on after Wabbit? Was it possibly Pompeii or Squoosh? I ran both of those by her and she didn't recognize either of them, so I'm guessing it was either something unrelated or she really just didn't remember the details. That thought had occurred to me! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted May 13, 2022 Share Posted May 13, 2022 Thanks for trying 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+jgkspsx Posted May 13, 2022 Share Posted May 13, 2022 This is an amazing story. Thanks for the detective work!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+jeremiahjt Posted May 13, 2022 Share Posted May 13, 2022 6 hours ago, ubersaurus said: I ran both of those by her and she didn't recognize either of them, so I'm guessing it was either something unrelated or she really just didn't remember the details. That thought had occurred to me! Did you ask if it was Kyphus? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted May 14, 2022 Share Posted May 14, 2022 1 hour ago, jeremiahjt said: Did you ask if it was Kyphus? That was Tim Martin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+jeremiahjt Posted May 14, 2022 Share Posted May 14, 2022 13 minutes ago, Tempest said: That was Tim Martin Wabbit II? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rom Hunter Posted May 14, 2022 Share Posted May 14, 2022 13 hours ago, jeremiahjt said: Wabbit II? Was AFAIK never planned. Or are you suggesting a new homebrew title? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Cafeman Posted May 14, 2022 Share Posted May 14, 2022 Very interesting story and interview, thanks to all involved. While reading the article, and watch footage, I realized that I know little about Apollo games and I don't believe I ever got to play Wabbit. The game looks well programmed with nice art in my opinion. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mockduck Posted May 14, 2022 Share Posted May 14, 2022 Thank you for helping to make this happen! It's a great contribution to video game history. I didn't realize there was an AA connection to this story; she mentions in the article an interest in maybe making a new game someday, but some reluctance to have to learn the new tools. Were you able to tell her that she kind of doesn't have to? She can take whatever knowledge she remembers, re-learn the rest, and make an indie/homebrew game that could even play on old and new hardware. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+D Train Posted May 14, 2022 Share Posted May 14, 2022 This is a great story! Thank you for sharing! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted May 14, 2022 Share Posted May 14, 2022 Out of curiosity does she know why the game freaks out at the higher levels? Eventually the round never ends and you're stuck. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubersaurus Posted May 16, 2022 Author Share Posted May 16, 2022 On 5/14/2022 at 7:37 PM, Tempest said: Out of curiosity does she know why the game freaks out at the higher levels? Eventually the round never ends and you're stuck. It didn't come up in our conversation, I never made it far enough to experience it ahead of our interview! I can probably run it by her whenever I reach out next but I couldn't say how much she'd remember of that specific item. I personally would love to see her do another game, whether it's on the 2600 or something else. Maybe all the positive attention her story's getting will convince her to give it a shot! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted May 16, 2022 Share Posted May 16, 2022 Are there any screenshots of the 5200 Solar Fox anywhere? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubersaurus Posted May 16, 2022 Author Share Posted May 16, 2022 I haven't come across any yet, but I think Leonard Herman saw it in person? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+wongojack Posted May 16, 2022 Share Posted May 16, 2022 Great interview and detective work! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Psionic Posted December 16, 2022 Share Posted December 16, 2022 Interesting read...I'm glad you were finally able to track her down. The spelling error makes sense now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
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.