Tengen and the 7800

[ninjarabbit]

Sages of the 7800 let me as kyou a question, why weren't Tengen games made for the 7800. If I understand correctly Tengen was a subsidary of Atari it would make sense to support their own system. Tengen Tetris alone could have been a killer ap for it. So was there a reason why Tengen games weren't made for the 7800?

[Lost Monkey]

Tengen was a different company.. there were two Ataris at the time - Atari Games and Atari Corp. Tengen was the "console" name of the arcade based Atari Games.

[+FujiSkunk]

As Lost Monkey said, Tengen was the subsidiary of a different company, one that also happened to be named Atari. For whatever reason, Tengen didn't see a reason to produce games for the 7800. Neither did most other companies, for that matter.

 

Still, a few games that would have been licensed from Tengen and Atari Games almost made it to the 7800, like KLAX and Pit Fighter. These were to be published by Atari Corp., not Tengen.

[Ferris]

It all comes back to Jack Tramiel and Atari Games finding that they could make more money licensing games to the NES as opposed to the 7800. Atari arcade games post 1984 include:

 

Tetris

Paperboy

Marble Madness

Gauntlet

Roadblasters

Indiana Jones

Peter Pack Rat

 

need I name more? Imagine had Tetris been the pack-in title for the 7800 in the later half of its life? Or Paperboy?

 

...I'm going to go vomit now. Cya guys.

[ninjarabbit]

Yeah, Tetris would have beaten the hell out of Pole Position 2.

[NovaXpress]

It all comes back to Jack Tramiel and Atari Games finding that they could make more money licensing games to the NES as opposed to the 7800.

I thought that Tramiel's Atari didn't own any part of Tengen or those post-Paperboy/Marble Madness arcade games.

 

Forget about Tetris as a pack-in, Atari Corp thought they had the license but it turned out they bought it from the wrong people, which is why Nintendo was able to swoop in.

[DracIsBack]

Sages of the 7800 let me as kyou a question, why weren't Tengen games made for the 7800. If I understand correctly Tengen was a subsidary of Atari it would make sense to support their own system. Tengen Tetris alone could have been a killer ap for it. So was there a reason why Tengen games weren't made for the 7800?

 

Tengen (initially) was a Nintendo licensee, which also would have precluded them from making 7800 versions of titles on the NES. The NES was obviously more profitable so they went for that. When Tengen fell out of favour with Nintendo, they began to start making arrangements to bring their titles to competition from Atari and Sega. But, as has been noted, the 7800 died off before 7800 versions of KLAX (almost finished), PIT FIGHTER (barely started), RAMPART, GAUNLET (supposedly out there in proto form) and others made it to market.

[Gregory DG]

Tengen was created by Atari Games to get around the "no compete" clause they had with Atari Corp. Atari Games was not allowed to make home video games, so they did it under the Tengen label instead.

 

Atari Corp. did plenty of licensing with Atari Games to port their games to the Lynx though. The 7800 was such a non-player Tengen/Atari Games didn't have much interest. Although KLAX is the exception (licensed by Atari Corp.)

[DracIsBack]

Atari Corp. did plenty of licensing with Atari Games to port their games to the Lynx though. The 7800 was such a non-player Tengen/Atari Games didn't have much interest. Although KLAX is the exception (licensed by Atari Corp.)

 

Tengen didn't really have interest in the Lynx either ... Atari had to license those games from Atari Games as well.

[Gregory DG]

Tengen didn't really have interest in the Lynx either ... Atari had to license those games from Atari Games as well.

Isn't that what I said?

[DracIsBack]

Isn't that what I said?  

 

Just trying to get across the point the Lynx was a complete non-factor in their eyes too.

 

Two "Ataris", but one with zero interest in making games for the other unless paid.

[rexreed]

"It all comes back to Jack Tramiel and Atari Games finding that they could make more money licensing games to the NES as opposed to the 7800. Atari arcade games post 1984 include:

 

Tetris

Paperboy

Marble Madness

Gauntlet

Roadblasters

Indiana Jones

Peter Pack Rat "

 

Jack was never in charge of Atari Games- he had Atari Corporation. They were two seperate companies at the time so all the arcades mentioned above were not Jack's to license. Tramiel was not in the arcade business.

[rockman_x_2002]

While it may be irrelevant, I find it stange that Atari Corp. put into Jinks' intro several sound clips from the arcade version of Atari Games' Gauntlet. So there's a connection there, in a way, to Tengen.

 

Besides, is there any reason why they decided to get those particular sound clips? Other than just the fact that they were probably what sound clips were on hand at the time?

[gdement]

While it may be irrelevant, I find it stange that Atari Corp. put into Jinks' intro several sound clips from the arcade version of Atari Games' Gauntlet.  So there's a connection there, in a way, to Tengen.

 

Besides, is there any reason why they decided to get those particular sound clips?  Other than just the fact that they were probably what sound clips were on hand at the time?  

 

My guess is the author had already written speech code for an unreleased gauntlet port so it was convenient to use it in Jinks to play music. As long as he was doing that, he/they just decided to show off some clips. If there was any further purpose, maybe it was some subtle campaigning to get the fans to start asking about gauntlet.

[Trip_Cannon]

My guess is the author had already written speech code for an unreleased gauntlet port so it was convenient to use it in Jinks to play music.  As long as he was doing that, he/they just decided to show off some clips.  If there was any further purpose, maybe it was some subtle campaigning to get the fans to start asking about gauntlet.

 

Oh man, wouldn't that have been fantastic if 7800 Gaunlet had the digitized speech!

[Atariboy]

There's Gauntlet for the 7800?

[DracIsBack]

There's Gauntlet for the 7800?

 

There were plans for there to be GAUNTLET and (reportedly) a version either programmed or partially programmed.

 

*** DISCLAIMER ***

 

No it isn't DARK CHAMBERS

 

*** DISCLAIMER ***

 

It was reported in ACE MAGAZINE around 1990 and was developed in the UK.

 

To date, it has not surfaced, but most 7800 protos are rare to surface.