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I now have an Atari Games Hydra Prototype


Shaggy the Atarian

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I recently picked up a couple of games from Dennis Harper, coder & game designer who worked at Atari Games coin-op back in the 80s and 90s. His most famous work was Primal Rage. I was chatting with him a few months back about the E.T. Arcade game which he remembered seeing in development and in the process said he had a couple of games in his garage that he wanted to sell, both were games he designed, so I took him up on that offer.

 

Now, I have one of the few (perhaps only?) Hydra prototype cabs. This game was rare as it is - only 200 units were ever manufactured (201 counting this cab I suppose). If anyone is in Utah, they can stop by my arcade (Arcade Galactic) to give it a try or two (or until you get that high score ;) )

 

Software wise I haven't checked to see which version of the software was the latest but everything I've played it seems complete. The cabinet itself is different from the production models, being silver instead of white and coming with no artwork. 

 

 The second game I grabbed from Dennis isn't quite as rare but it's better known - Toobin'. While the cab he had wasn't a proto cab, it does list the serial number as TBN002, making it super early in the production run. I also had Dennis sign both cabinets (on the inside). My big misfortune with this one is the day after it arrived the monitor completely crapped out so I had to spend an extra $200 to get it working again. At least the cool marquee works though...

 

 

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10 minutes ago, sirlynxalot said:

Cool. Love seeing these. 

 

So is the Hydra just a prototype of the cabinet design, or is the software itself a prototype that might have an earlier build of the game with it compared to the final product?

As best I can tell it's just the hardware - I'm not sure what was the final release of the software for Hydra but there are handwritten labels on the ROMs that have dates on them (all would be 1990). The dates range from the middle of April to the middle of June. Although some ROMs are missing labels so not sure if there are any later. From what I've played, the game seems complete.

 

Here's the tag fixed to the back of the machine:

 

 image.thumb.jpeg.5c404b58144d805cdc2505f31ad9cc56.jpeg

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congrats on the purchases! I had a hydra proto. It came from atari's gameroom. I forget what number mine was. I think I sold it to a big collector in TN.

 

Interesting yours has grey bezel. mine was white. I would say mine was more of the field test proto where yours is probably internal proto(hence no art). mine did have a marquee, but it did not have the atari games logo on it that the production ones has.

 

here are pics of mine you can see the instructions are not the same as the normal production. Also mine did not have the side art.

 

front.thumb.jpg.491479c4d7885f3182473f3eaeb2e846.jpg

side1.thumb.jpg.88129fb28e788b9954117bda1243e3b7.jpg

side2.thumb.jpg.69728405c679c2c6dd6dc524b213c866.jpg

 

as for your toobin, if you ever have a monitor problem, send the chassis to buffet on klov. He is an expert at fixing wells medium rez k4900(champ sprint) and k7000(whats in toobin).

 

ken and tj  have a proto toobin. it has a hand drawn marquee.

Edited by mr.bill
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On 9/19/2022 at 2:54 AM, mr.bill said:

congrats on the purchases! I had a hydra proto. It came from atari's gameroom. I forget what number mine was. I think I sold it to a big collector in TN.

 

Interesting yours has grey bezel. mine was white. I would say mine was more of the field test proto where yours is probably internal proto(hence no art). mine did have a marquee, but it did not have the atari games logo on it that the production ones has.

 

That's really cool! I have wondered how many protos for it are out there - can't be many since the production on it was so low.  At least the grey shell seems to be one-of-a-kind.

 

I do wish I had the artwork for mine but it's such a rare game I haven't found any repro work on it. Guess I'll just have to come up with it at some point :)

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I am pretty sure they molded it with color. So yours was probably a test sample since its grey. Considering the body laminate is grey, they might have considered the color for production. I dont think there would be a need for more than 4 of the ones like yours. It probably was never meant to be seen outside of atari.

 

Although atari did do testing at the milpitas golfland. my buddy worked at atari and would call me when things were out at test. I remember going to see primal 2 there. thats where they probably put out my proto. they would probably also have sent it to an amoa show too. you figure they would have had need for 8 to 10 of those. the early test games, you would see atari employees watching people play them on test.  later they had cell phones in them to gather info.

 

here is a page with hydra side art pics.  Maybe contact the owner and see if he has good pics.  luckily the the art is pretty simple. 

 

http://www.arcadetreasure.com/projects/hydra.htm

 

here is instructions and yoke overlays

https://arcadeartrepro.com/product/hydra-yoke-and-instructions-decals/

Edited by mr.bill
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13 hours ago, mr.bill said:

here is a page with hydra side art pics.  Maybe contact the owner and see if he has good pics.  luckily the the art is pretty simple. 

 

http://www.arcadetreasure.com/projects/hydra.htm

 

here is instructions and yoke overlays

https://arcadeartrepro.com/product/hydra-yoke-and-instructions-decals/

Awesome, thank you!

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11 hours ago, Shaggy the Atarian said:

Awesome, thank you!

I found a few more pics. maybe you can compare the rom checksums to see if they were the same. If I remember correctly, the cab did not have a paper label on the back. But when I removed the front bezel, it did say  proto 2 written into the wood with sharpie. I found my post on klov about it and I wrote it was proto 2.

 

pcb4.thumb.jpg.e71c9fa5b5ed8a7e4283d3e4871d1701.jpg

pcb1.thumb.jpg.95092dc9c62232b8f2e2f34391242af5.jpg

pcb2.thumb.jpg.c458d9eb0e03e518db0fdf01074a6c36.jpg

 

here was my marquee. It looked printed and did not have the atari games logo the production had.

marquee.thumb.jpg.dedbc66d1775198366dd4007d14f35bf.jpg

Edited by mr.bill
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Yes, mine did have the cash box and all that - just not the artwork and that grey/silver bezel. Several bolts are missing from the bezel. From what Dennis Harper said, it and the Toobin were never put out into an arcade but from the looks of it, they were arcade ready. 

 

Only other difference mine would have is that Dennis signed them, which was nice of him.

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