GCC Programmed Jr. Pac-Man

[Super7800]

Aside from the brilliant work of Bob DeCrescenzo's homebrew, my post concerns the original Atari/GCC effort under development in Spring and Summer of 1984.  The apocryphal CX7813.

 

It's been claimed that fairly substantial work was done on it, 65% or more of the way to its being a complete title. 

 

Even more remotely, I've heard it rumored that it was close to being finished and fully playable at the time it was shelved, dusted off from the archives when searching for titles to polish for final release in lieu of licensing and fully developing new titles ~1986, but never released in favor of the Tramiels' frugal 2600 Jr Pac-Man release, which natural could serve both prospective console markets.

 

Is there any more information about this one than the scant amount found on this forum?

[Super7800]

Possibly some engine or other code reuse from Wells’ and Burns’ Ms. Pac-Man, although the project was assigned to a different programmer.

[+Defender_2600]

Jr. Pac-Man for 7800 is not mentioned in this Current GCC Credits list:

 

GCC Credits List V.7 9/1/2023

 

Compiled by Doug Macrae, Michael Feinstein and Steve Golson

 

https://intotheverticalblank.com/gcc-credits/

 

 

[Bakasama]

I looking at the credits list and I see there's few 7800 games listed that don't get a mention in atariprotos, like "Track and Field" and "Rescue on Fractalus". I'm not sure if any exists now but it's an interesting look at the history.

[Super7800]

Weren't there some loose references to the development of this title in the 'leaked' internal Atari Corp e-mail minicomputer data backups?

[Tempest]

2 hours ago, Bakasama said:

I looking at the credits list and I see there's few 7800 games listed that don't get a mention in atariprotos, like "Track and Field" and "Rescue on Fractalus". I'm not sure if any exists now but it's an interesting look at the history.

Rescue on Fractalus has it's own page: http://www.atariprotos.com/7800/software/rof/rof.htm

 

I'll have to add Track and Field to the Rumor Mill list.  I thought I already had it on there actually.

[+Mitch]

7800 millipede is interesting. I wonder if that was supposed to be for the 5200.

 

Mitch

[Tempest]

10 minutes ago, Mitch said:

7800 millipede is interesting. I wonder if that was supposed to be for the 5200.

 

Mitch

No, 5200 Millipede was done in-house at Atari.  Stephan R. Crandall (Programmer), Gary Johnson (Graphics), Brad Fuller (Audio)

 

There are a number of interesting things listed in that document, some of which contradicts things that other GCC employees told me such as the Atari 400/800 conversions being done by the same programmers as the 5200 versions.  I was told that GCC didn't do anything with the Atari 400/800 and that the games must have been converted in-house at Atari.  I'd really like to know which it is.

 

Here's what I see:

 

2600 Choplifter - We now know the name of the programmer.

 

5200 Jungle Hunt - This was done in-house at Atari by Alan Merrell (Programmer) & Jerome Domurat (Graphics) and is documented on several internal Atari lists.  I wonder if GCC did their own version?

 

5200 Phoenix - Would love to see this show up.  I'd never heard of this and never seen it mentioned other than on this list.

 

5200 Jr. Pac-Man - Interesting they have that Mike denies programming it.  I guess I'd take his word over the list, but this is the first time I've heard that he denied programming it.

 

7800 Adventure - This is a new one to me.  I've never heard of it before.

 

[+Mitch]

7800 adventure and 7800 game construction kit are both new ones for me. I am assuming the later was for the keyboard module.