Tempest Posted December 5, 2023 Share Posted December 5, 2023 I meant to post this last week but it completely slipped my mind. A prototype for the Atari 2600 version of Choplifter has been found. The game is only around 50% and is unfortunately not playable, but what is there shows great promise and makes for a really nice demo. I'm not sure if the game got any further than this prototype, but a mock up box did appear in a French Atari advertisement so it's possible. At the moment I can't share the rom, but I'm working on it. Until then, enjoy this review I did. http://www.atariprotos.com/2600/software/choplifter/choplifter.htm 16 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bfstats Posted December 6, 2023 Share Posted December 6, 2023 Excellent discovery and write-up, Matt! Thank you for this. Now, if Marc Oberhauser and Rom Hunter are monitoring this thread, how about a 1982-style silver box for Choplifter and an entry in the Atarimania database? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted December 6, 2023 Author Share Posted December 6, 2023 The box in the ad is odd to me. The box style is the earlier 'red stripe' silver version instead of the later version with the large name and a little picture on the side, which given the year and part number is the style it would have come out in. Obviously it's just a mock up, but it's still odd. If you want an accurate looking box I'd take the 5200 box and change the blue text to red. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goochman Posted December 6, 2023 Share Posted December 6, 2023 Funny this didnt come out during its heyday - seems like a good fit for the limitations of the 2600, esp after what Activison did with Chopper Command. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted December 6, 2023 Author Share Posted December 6, 2023 14 minutes ago, Goochman said: Funny this didnt come out during its heyday - seems like a good fit for the limitations of the 2600, esp after what Activison did with Chopper Command. I agree. I have no idea why it was cancelled. There's plenty of empty space in the rom, so it's not that they couldn't fit in the rest of the gameplay or anything like that. Then again lots of promising games never made it to market for unknown reasons. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
www.atarimania.com Posted December 7, 2023 Share Posted December 7, 2023 More like a Canadian ad. I know France is a backward country and everything but, unless I'm mistaken, we still had our own currency and never used dollars. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+GoldLeader Posted December 7, 2023 Share Posted December 7, 2023 kind of hard to see, but yeah if those are in dollars (not francs), it's probably a French Canadian ad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted December 7, 2023 Author Share Posted December 7, 2023 Good catch guys, I'll correct my page. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rom Hunter Posted December 8, 2023 Share Posted December 8, 2023 Finally in the open. Many thanks, Tempest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Propane13 Posted December 8, 2023 Share Posted December 8, 2023 This is fantastic! Thanks for sharing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrekMD Posted December 9, 2023 Share Posted December 9, 2023 Wow, that's quite the find! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sramirez2008 Posted December 10, 2023 Share Posted December 10, 2023 The game looks really good. Nice review. Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emehr Posted December 10, 2023 Share Posted December 10, 2023 I'm amazed that prototypes are still being found after all these years. Choplifter was one of my favorite games on the 7800 and I would've loved to play a 2600 version. I'm curious to know what control scheme they were planning since the game requires two buttons. They got the chopper rotating but how would it fire? Seeing that silver Choplifter box in the ad was pretty surreal. Anyway, nice write up! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted December 10, 2023 Share Posted December 10, 2023 I remember the Apple ][ Choplifter being kinda special BITD. Seemed a great "hi-res" fit for the system and the two button play was fancy. Wouldn't have thought the 2600 could pull off the smooth and detailed animation of the tiny hostages back then, but looking at the screen shots, probably wrong about that. Regarding the single button play, imagine a long(er) button press would turn your chopper, while a quick burst type press would fire. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted December 10, 2023 Author Share Posted December 10, 2023 1 hour ago, save2600 said: Regarding the single button play, imagine a long(er) button press would turn your chopper, while a quick burst type press would fire. Yes that's exactly how it most likely would have worked. Choplifter was released on a few single button systems (the VIC-20 and C64 for example) and that's how it works on those I believe. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rom Hunter Posted December 11, 2023 Share Posted December 11, 2023 (edited) 16 hours ago, Tempest said: Yes that's exactly how it most likely would have worked. Choplifter was released on a few single button systems (the VIC-20 and C64 for example) and that's how it works on those I believe. Correct. I played the game many times on my C64 back then. If you just tap the fire button your chopper would fire, if you press the fire button longer your chopper would turn. It seems that the 2600 version has the parallax scrolling border line as well. That's awesome. Edited December 11, 2023 by Rom Hunter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted December 11, 2023 Author Share Posted December 11, 2023 7 hours ago, Rom Hunter said: It seems that the 2600 version has the parallax scrolling border line as well. Yes it does. It's a really nice effect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+CyranoJ Posted December 14, 2023 Share Posted December 14, 2023 Nice find Another small typo on the page: Quote Of course the enemy is just going to let you waltz right in and rescue the hostages unhindered, they've got other plans for you. Believe that should be "isn't" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lostdragon Posted December 14, 2023 Share Posted December 14, 2023 A fantastic find and great write up on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted December 14, 2023 Author Share Posted December 14, 2023 7 hours ago, CyranoJ said: Nice find Another small typo on the page: Believe that should be "isn't" Grrr... Thanks for pointing that out. Sometimes my brain moves faster than my fingers when I'm typing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rik1138 Posted December 15, 2023 Share Posted December 15, 2023 Echoing Emehr, I'm just amazed when previously unknown prototypes like this STILL show up after all these years... Can you provide any backstory about where this came from/where it was found? (Generic of course, unless the owner wants to reveal themselves, but I love hearing the stories of things found in estate sales, or a programmer found a box in his attic he forgot about, etc, etc... ) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted December 15, 2023 Author Share Posted December 15, 2023 7 hours ago, Rik1138 said: Echoing Emehr, I'm just amazed when previously unknown prototypes like this STILL show up after all these years... Can you provide any backstory about where this came from/where it was found? (Generic of course, unless the owner wants to reveal themselves, but I love hearing the stories of things found in estate sales, or a programmer found a box in his attic he forgot about, etc, etc... ) I'm talking to a former programmer who kept some prototypes when they left the company. They have about 20 Atari 2600 prototypes and some 7800 protos (no 5200 or 8-Bit stuff unfortunately). Choplifter was the only unknown game, but I'm sure several of their other protos are WIP versions. Eventually they'll dump them all, but they're very busy so it might be a while. It took almost a year to get Choplifter so patience is the key. Unfortunately I can't really be more specific right now. I don't want want to have people tracking them down pestering them to dump the other protos and having them disappear (long time members will know exactly what I'm talking about). Incidentally before anyone asks, they're not interested in selling any of them. They want to keep them all but will dump them. I'm working on getting permission to share the roms, but they have to ask a few other people and get their blessing first. It's kind of complicated. 3 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bfstats Posted December 15, 2023 Share Posted December 15, 2023 I hope I speak for the entire community when expressing respect for the way you adhere to the wishes of various ROM owners. We would ALL like to be treated in such an honorable way. Just knowing the ROM exists is exciting, so patience is easy. Please keep up the good work. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted December 15, 2023 Author Share Posted December 15, 2023 38 minutes ago, bfstats said: I hope I speak for the entire community when expressing respect for the way you adhere to the wishes of various ROM owners. We would ALL like to be treated in such an honorable way. Just knowing the ROM exists is exciting, so patience is easy. Please keep up the good work. Thanks, it's actually nice to hear that. I know a lot of people get mad at me for not sharing certain roms (which is only about 5 or 6), but if I didn't honor those agreements then people wouldn't trust me anymore. I don't horde roms for the heck of it, I want to share these and see what everyone else thinks of them. But I do respect people who wish to withhold roms for various reasons. You own it, it's yours to do with as you'd like. I do periodically go back and check with people to see if they've changed their mind though, just in case. In my book, as long as the proto has been backed up and preserved I'm ok with not being able to play it. It's those people with one of a kind protos that they've never backed up that drive me crazy. All those protos are ticking time bombs these days. I don't want to see a one of a kind game lost due to neglect. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rik1138 Posted December 16, 2023 Share Posted December 16, 2023 Yeah, it's cool to hear about someone that kept them back in the day and knows what they are to the community now. But the important thing is getting them dumped and having at least one or two backups somewhere. Those EPROMs won't last forever, and you also want to protect against some tragedy like a house burning down or someone not knowing what they are and throwing them away or something... I'm not too fussed about whether they are shared, just knowing they exist and we can at least read about them and see screenshots and stuff is good enough for me! I'm glad there's someone that people can trust to share stuff with the community, but not release it if that is their wish... Keep up the good work! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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