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1 hour ago, zzip said:

The characters in Adventure could have potential if they were fleshed out more in sequels.   I'm sure "Sir Square" would have developed into a real character and the dragons would become less duck-like.   Another one with potential would have been SwordQuest.  The comics that came with those games established characters and lore that could have been used to build a SwordQuest franchise  (even if the first games were weak)

Character-wise I think you are forgetting Yar, although a giant space insect may not be the next Sonic the Hedgehog lol. A party combat game based around the different characters piloting tanks and spaceships could work best for the current roster, even I'm the only one who'd buy it. (Maybe Fred Chesnais could be the final boss)

 

The next platformer Graphite Labs makes should be a slightly Atari-fied kid's platformer. Mario, Sonic, and Super Lucky's Tale shows those still sell.

Not to put things back on topic but @Albert would it be possible to do an AMA on here with some of the new developers? I would love to be able to ask the Recharged team some questions. It's been great getting info more directly from Atari employees, but we rarely get people on the game dev end and it could be fun.

Edited by GraffitiTavern
1 hour ago, GraffitiTavern said:

Not to put things back on topic but @Albert would it be possible to do an AMA on here with some of the new developers? I would love to be able to ask the Recharged team some questions. It's been great getting info more directly from Atari employees, but we rarely get people on the game dev end and it could be fun.

You may find some on the Atari VCS discord server. 

https://discord.gg/atarivcs

or

https://discord.gg/gx7fdQmwzr

 

One of these should work.

 

Whether they will do such an AMA is hard to say.

 

22 hours ago, Mercenary said:

Why is it that most of the vast majority of items on the Atari website don't ship outside of the U.S?

A couple of the Atari 2600+ cartridges ship worldwide (Berzerk and Mr Run and Jump), but the Outlaw cartridge does not. Why?

Considering how much support Atari has had in Europe (it pretty much kept Atari alive in the mid to late 80s in particular), it doesn't look good to me. 

My guess: Berzerk and Mr Run and Jump are actually releases by European company Plaion (see the 2600+ thread). So they can be shipped to European customers by Plaion or one of their European distributors. For Europeans their is no need to order these games from Atari in the US. Plainon has official distributors in a lot of European countries, for example Amazon in a lot of countries.

 

Outlaw (and the other Atari XP cartridges) are made by Atari in the US and do not have an European distributor. Personally I think buying from Atari in the US is very expensive because of shipping costs and import duties. Also these cartridges are NTSC and will not play as intended on European 2600 consoles.

 

Sadly the Plaion cartridges (Berzerk and Mr. Run and Jump) are NTSC carts too, even those sold in Europe. But Ben from Plaion (see 2600+ topic) has offered an service to exchange the Plaion NTSC cartridges for PAL cartridges.

  • Like 1
7 hours ago, GraffitiTavern said:

a giant space insect may not be the next Sonic the Hedgehog lol

… a good designer can make anything cute, cuddly, cool or crazy-likeable… 

 

… and knowing that, they can start with Bubsy… who may only have gotten a rough ‘n shaky start in life…

 

… just a little redesign and he may be off to stardom… depends how much you refine that fur… and give him (poor creature) back some actual feline behaviours…

8 hours ago, GraffitiTavern said:

forgetting Yar, although a giant space insect may not be the next Sonic the Hedgehog

Yar got so angry at his poor character design and low mascot-status, he took a fly-by to Earth for s little revenge

 

 

IMG_6829.jpeg

  • Like 1
51 minutes ago, Giles N said:

The post-humor meme above, reminded me, We - the West - have actually a fourth goodlooking, charismatic character… in C64 Movie Monsters… Godzilla

 

Goodness, we aren’t that bad really…

 

Futurama Squinting GIF

@zzip @Lord Mushroom @Giles N This square-jaw Adventure guy talk inspired me to sketch something up...

image.thumb.jpeg.cb68d82d1fe01514b557429a12b2f1ed.jpeg

I tried him with appendages but ditched them in favor of keeping him true to his squarish nature, letting the action of his sword and shield fill in the blanks. I like the idea of an expressionless visor. As for a name: Sir Squarinn?

  • Like 3
4 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

Futurama Squinting GIF

Post-humor meme breakdown:

 

Yars revenge has a space insect as hero.

Thats yet another example of ‘Not typically cute/cool/charming hero-character’. 

But the a stupid Insect monster in Movie Monsters looks better, more charming than the generic mosquito-looks in Yars Revenge.

Both Yars Revenge and Movie Monsters are western games.

Movie Monsters however are based on japanese cartoon versions of Godzilla, and Godzilla-franchise monsters, or lookalikes. 
So even when western games actually features cool and cute-looking monsters, it actually all goes back to japanese cartoon designs.

 

We didn’t have another western cool and/or cute hero after all.

 

We still have to live with Chuck Rock, Earthworm Jim, Jack the Nipper and the rest of the gang of demo-maker anti-charm character-designs, which had less humor-impact (both as to content and duration) than the original meme/post and this breakdown.

Edited by Giles N
1 hour ago, Emehr said:

@zzip @Lord Mushroom @Giles N This square-jaw Adventure guy talk inspired me to sketch something up...

image.thumb.jpeg.cb68d82d1fe01514b557429a12b2f1ed.jpeg

I tried him with appendages but ditched them in favor of keeping him true to his squarish nature, letting the action of his sword and shield fill in the blanks. I like the idea of an expressionless visor. As for a name: Sir Squarinn?

I like the idea!   What if his sword looked a bit more like the Adventure sword?

  • Like 1
2 hours ago, Emehr said:

image.thumb.jpeg.cb68d82d1fe01514b557429a12b2f1ed.jpeg

I tried him with appendages but ditched them in favor of keeping him true to his squarish nature, letting the action of his sword and shield fill in the blanks.

Very nice. I prefer the one on the left.

  • Like 1
7 hours ago, Giles N said:

Yars revenge has a space insect as hero.

Thats yet another example of ‘Not typically cute/cool/charming hero-character’. 

Zool:  Am I a joke to you?

 

Now, I know Zool's designer George Allen says Zool definitely wasn't an ant (as every Amiga owner said he was). 

But he also says Zool wasn't written to be a Sonic clone, so...

;-)

2 hours ago, desiv said:

I know Zool's

Zool is ok. 
He may not have been intended to be a deliberate Sonic-clone, but the game feels very much like designed to show that the Amiga couid do a high-paced, frentic cartoon platformer with lots of colorful backdrops.

 

And not a bad one at that. 
Zool isn’t a bad character. Just that in the myriad of mascot-like platformer franchizes put out there at the time, he came of as fairly generic. 
He was fast. Like Sonic.

Was a Ninja-something, like the TMNT’s.

He could climb and hold on walls, like Strider. Throw … shurikens (do I remember correctly?). 
It was a fast platformer with colorful backdrops (the Chupa-chups … did I write that right?).

 

What was his mission? What was the arch-enemy here? What was really going on here? I’m sure the printed manual says. 
I’d rather just pop a button on a container and watch lots of mini-animals get released, or see one of Bowsers minions have his castle blown up. 
Like  show, not tell.

 

But Zool or Chuck Rock…? That’s not much to ponder.

 

Guess James Pond also is… very ok. It’s ok. I can be bribed to say Ok+. 
Not dreadful. That’s a start.

 

Beast-Man in Shadow of the beast has at least interesting looks in 1. 

May not be Brad Pitt, but heck he has some beast-problems … or just grown up in the local misty swamp. Raised by the swamp-things what can one really expect…? At least he - and the games atmosphere overall - catches the players attention: whats going on here? What kind of world is this? Why is everything so mystical and why do this eerie, surreal world get to have better music than ours…? Of course until Shadow of the StrawHat-Man 3 comes along … when its like… ok, its all about money-milking and lack of fantasy (or potentially subconsciously commiting franchizecide due to being fed-up overdue).
But Shadown of the Beast wasn’t meant to be a game for everyone; it just was artistically made, became popular and got ported far and wide.

 

Zool, is cool-ish.

James Pond, not dreadful. 

I try to come think of other ‘strong’ or ‘colorful’ franchize-like characters coming from the home-computer scene… 

Edited by Giles N
  • Like 1
On 10/9/2023 at 2:13 PM, Matt_B said:

-SNIP-

 

The over 40s of 2010 are now well into their 50s. They're getting to the point where relevant markets to branch into would be retirement homes and incontinence products.

Seriously?  I'm in my Mid 50's and far away from needing either of those, kiddo.

Edited by Zonie
On 9/8/2023 at 2:37 PM, BIGHMW said:

For @TrogdarRobusto

 

 Atari5100-front.jpg.ec5670bed26f518eaf3a8ac957a022f8.jpg

 

Atari5100-front2.jpg.aa2e9648855035c03908484832f41d10.jpg

 

Atari5100-side.jpg.6deea243cef03d424428275aa51d69f7.jpg

 

Atari5100vs5200.jpg.4492b57469a6108aab0f822c2dcced20.jpg

 

The unreleased Atari "5200 Jr." (a.k.a. the 5100 model no. CX5100) I mentioned in my previous post.

 

Please also note that if and when you do decide to put one out or do development on one, that please make sure that you incorporate a 4-port BIOS in her for full compatibility with all existing and future 5200 titles and also that she will fully support all future and current homebrews and both generations of the Atarimax Ultimate SD multicart and the 128-in-1 cart and USB cart too.

 

 

Both released versions are VERY big. I got the 2 controller port version at a very decent price but if this version was released, I'd have bought it instead.

On 10/11/2023 at 9:40 PM, Giles N said:

Zool is ok.

 

There is no Zool, only Dana.

 

youtu.be/lg7MAacSPNM?si=fSPv_mx0gVBF5chl&t=15

 

[Yes, I know that the spelling is not the same.]

  • Like 1
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