Tempest's Atari 2600 Prototype Collection

[Tempest]

It's been a while since I posted my Atari 2600 prototype roms, so I thought I'd start a thread.  This zip file contains all the Atari 2600 prototype roms I posses, with a few exceptions (roms I cannot share for various reasons).  If you find a difference in one of the prototypes that isn't documented on my page (http://www.atariprotos.com/2600/software/2600software.htm), or you have some rom versions that I'm missing, please let me know!  

 

I was asked to list all the prototypes that I have not included in this collection due to promises I made to the prototype owners.  Here is a list of the roms that are NOT included:

 

Anteater
Astro Chase (early version)
Jedi Arena (early version)
Locomotion
Mark of the Mole

 

As you can see, this is a rather small list.  Every other rom in my possession is in this archive.  If you don't see it, then I don't have it.

 

I'm often asked about the AD&D roms and In Search of the Golden Skull since I have reviews of them on my page.  I've never owned these roms or have had them in my possession.  My reviews are based on screenshots and by talking to people who have actually played the games.  I hope this puts those rumors to rest.

 

2600 Protos.zip

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Didn't Atari buy the Blue Sky Rangers? Maybe that will make some protons finally available. 

[Tempest]

9 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Didn't Atari buy the Blue Sky Rangers? Maybe that will make some protons finally available. 

They bought the M-Network games.  I'm not sure if that included the licensed games or not. 

[+bfstats]

Awesome of you to post this! On behalf of the community, THANK YOU!

 

Thanks, too, for maintaining your website, which continues to be an extraordinarily comprehensive resource. Please keep up the good work.

 

[Tempest]

18 minutes ago, bfstats said:

Awesome of you to post this! On behalf of the community, THANK YOU!

 

Thanks, too, for maintaining your website, which continues to be an extraordinarily comprehensive resource. Please keep up the good work.

No problem.  To quote Mott the Hoople "I've wanted to do this for years".  My reasoning is threefold (wow that's a lot of folds...)

 

1. I never intended to hoard anything, I've always wanted to get the roms out into the hands of people.  I always appreciate it when people share their roms, so why shouldn't I?

2. The more people who have these, the more things they can discover about them.

3. While I do have numerous backups, if something were to happen to me or my house, the roms are now safely archived in cyberspace.  They won't die with me.

[Rom Hunter]

Thanks for sharing, Matt.

BTW, AFAIK every ROM in the proto ROMs collection that Matt uploaded is included in my ROMs collection as well (except for the proto ROMs that are 100% identical to the released version).

All other VCS proto ROMs I own I don't have permission to share, but I promise I will share them as soon as I get permission to do so.



 

Edited May 13 by Rom Hunter

[DeafAtariFromKansas]

Kiss-fist at Air Sea Battle.. 🤣 already add early version of ASB to prototype folder.... Thanks Tempest!

[Tempest]

3 hours ago, DeafAtariFromKansas said:

Kiss-fist at Air Sea Battle.. 🤣 already add early version of ASB to prototype folder.... Thanks Tempest!

 

That Air Sea Battle 'prototype' is a bit odd.  Robert Coppock was an employee at Atari, I think he was a technician or something, but he wasn't a game programmer.  This demo was found on an Atari mainframe and it appears that he was fooling around with the ASB source code and attempting to add a copyright screen to it.  His code is badly broken and doesn't work at all, Thomas had to fix it to make it work.  All we can guess is that he was playing around trying to learn coding or something.  It's historical but not very interesting

[DeafAtariFromKansas]

20 hours ago, Tempest said:

 

That Air Sea Battle 'prototype' is a bit odd.  Robert Coppock was an employee at Atari, I think he was a technician or something, but he wasn't a game programmer.  This demo was found on an Atari mainframe and it appears that he was fooling around with the ASB source code and attempting to add a copyright screen to it.  His code is badly broken and doesn't work at all, Thomas had to fix it to make it work.  All we can guess is that he was playing around trying to learn coding or something.  It's historical but not very interesting

Thank for information, At first start up. 2 colored horizontal bars appear, 2 of few airplanes hits, puzzles out of me. I said "WTF!" which it acts like 9/11...  it's pretty screw up,..

[Tempest]

1 hour ago, DeafAtariFromKansas said:

Thank for information, At first start up. 2 colored horizontal bars appear, 2 of few airplanes hits, puzzles out of me. I said "WTF!" which it acts like 9/11...  it's pretty screw up,..

I actually like how it breaks and mixes two variations that normally don't mix.  You get auto-moving guns that you can aim.  That's a neat idea.

[4ever2600]

Thank you so much Tempest!  I knew you said you were going to, but didn't think it would be that quick!! That escalated fast!

[Tempest]

Glad to do it.

[ubersaurus]

Boy, how did I miss that the Texas Chainsaw Massacre alternate version prototype got dumped a while back?

[Rom Hunter]

5 hours ago, ubersaurus said:

Boy, how did I miss that the Texas Chainsaw Massacre alternate version prototype got dumped a while back?

11 years ago, to be precise.

[atari181]

On 5/15/2023 at 8:49 PM, ubersaurus said:

Boy, how did I miss that the Texas Chainsaw Massacre alternate version prototype got dumped a while back?

and released in limited edition after limited edition

[Place Logo Here]

Many many thanks for this effort.

 

I realize it is always dicey answering such questions, so I understand if the one I am about to ask can't be answered...

 

As a huge Residents fan, I wondered why Mark of the Mole can't be released.  Is somebody planning to finish it (all appendages crossed)?

Edited May 19 by Place Logo Here

[Tempest]

20 minutes ago, Place Logo Here said:

Many many thanks for this effort.

 

I realize it is always dicey answering such questions, so I understand if the one I am about to ask can't be answered...

 

As a huge Residents fan, I wondered why Mark of the Mole can't be released.  Is somebody planning to finish it (all appendages crossed)?

 

The owner never gave me permission to release it and I haven't been able to get back in touch with them.  One of the Residents themselves wanted to put the rom on one of their fan pages (one of the official pages contacted me about it), but since I don't have permission I couldn't give it to them.  I honestly don't think the person would mind, but I can't do anything without their permission.