2600 Planet of the Apes

[Noble Kale]

Tempest, you are the man!

Thanks for revealing this mislabeling

[StanJr]

This game looks awesome! Too bad it never got completed and released. It would have been a total hit!

 

Damn dirty Stan

[Rhindle The Red]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Adrian:

If there's going to be a mock 'Planet of the Apes' label to slap onto a Hozer cartridge, it should be done in the 20th Century Fox label style, NOT Atari's. Authenticity, people! (I'm sort of a stickler for that.) Oh wait, I do graphic design, maybe I should make one!

---

Already on it.

 

I should have it done before the night is out.

 

(I already have a 20th Century Fox template.)

This gives me a plan. Put the big one away.

[atarifan49]

That interview with John Marvin was a great story.

 

Brought back memories of my time going over to 20th Century Fox in Santa Clara doing game testing.

 

I remember playing that alternate version of Porky's that John Marvin mentioned. They gave us the game and put us in a room and said play it. We played it and then gave them our thoughts. We were thinking, "What's the point? What does this have to do with Porky's?"

 

I remember the office we went to was across the street from Marriott's Great America (now Paramount's Great America) on Great America Parkway. They would only let us play test for an hour or two and then we had to leave. They usually tried to give us something as a thank you. Movie posters or other stuff from 20th Century Fox.

 

So the timeframe Atari Age has on the game "1983" is pretty close to that era. I can't be sure if me and my friends ever tested the game, but I do remember MASH and Porky's.

 

Ahhh...those day's in Silicon Valley were very magical.

[Tempest]

So describe this alternate version of Porky's. What was it like? What was the plot?

 

Tempest

[DEBRO]

Good work Tempest.

 

For all prototype owners that don't want their prototypes played. Here's a perfect example of why they should. Just think you could have a prototype labeled Save Mary and it actually be a Combat cart.

 

Well, maybe not that extreme but you get the idea

[cyro]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Cybergoth:

The guy running Cyberroach himself did it. Click the Home-button, there you'll find it.

---

 

Yeah that was me, see the link above or

John Marvin Interview

 

One request: Please do NOT post John Marvin's email address or ask for it on this public board - thanks! If you want to: email me and I can forward emails to him (like I did for the Epyx interview), I work for the same company

 

Cheers,

-CyRo

[Rhindle The Red]

Okay, here's the label:

 

 

If you want to print it, use the .zipped full image that Al has down below. (Be warned. It's big.)

 

Print with a width of 2.6 inches and it should fit perfectly. (At least it does for me. Let me know if anyone has any problems.)

I look at this slush, and try to remember: at one time I made good movies.

 

[ 03-25-2002: Message edited by: Rhindle The Red ]

[Tempest]

Umm ok maybe I'm missing it, but who did that interview? I can't seem to find a name anywhere.

 

Interestingly there's a little blub about Alligator People in there:

 

quote

There was also Alligator People. Alligator People was a really bad 1950ies movie about people that are being injected with a drug by a mad scientist and they are slowly turning into alligators. It takes place in the swamps in Florida and it was a perfect Mystery Science Theater 3000 movie! A developer found out that Fox owned it and so he worked on it. It was almost like a Frogger where you have to run through a moving maze and all these alligators. But there were also syringes that you had to dodge and if a syringe touched you, you slowly turned into an alligator. Now this was the VCS so we're not talking too graphic but I was quite amazed by it, I think I still have an Alligator People t-shirt somewhere, it doesn't fit me anymore, my son wears it as a night shirt, I really miss that game  

 

So this game is obviously not Alligator people in any way shape or form. Just another example of a reused prototype case.

 

Tempest

[jahfish]

good research, matt!

 

it's MAD MAD world ....

 

[Albert]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Rhindle The Red:

It won't stay there for long. (I can't afford to lose that much of my web space.) So, grab it now if you want it. (If anyone wants to host it, just let me know.)

---

 

Your label looks great! And it uses an image from the original movie, which is of course what Fox would have used back then. I have copied the file to the AtariAge server, and it can be found here (until I found a more suitable place to put it):

 

Planet of the Apes Label

 

It might be time to create a place on AtariAge to showcase labels that people create for prototypes and fictional games. This has come up before and will certainly come up again..

 

..Al

[Adriana]

Rhindle... now THAT'S what I'm TALKING about! That label looks authentic... great job!

[Alex]

Great bit of detective work Matt! That game and its title never made sense to me, but it never occurred to me that it might be Planet of the Apes. Brilliant!

 

And nice label Rhindle. I need to get a color laser printer (yeah right).

[berzerk]

In that interview, the programmer made a quote I had to put up here as it made me laugh quite hysterically:

 

"We would go to CES shows and the amount of people doing VCS games grew phenomenally - there were even people doing pornographic VCS games which if you consider how blocky things were... that was disturbing on many levels "

[Scott Stilphen]

quote:

---

Originally posted by cyro:

If you want to: email me and I can forward emails to him

---

 

Your email is blocked here

[Snider-man]

"For what it's worth" and "FYI:"

 

I believe the apes were going to be able to move up and down as well as the side-to-side they do now. I booted the game up (Worship the Woodgrain) and watched the movement patterns of the enemies. When they reach the far edge of the screen, you can see the sprite change for just a moment to either a "stick" figure or a "stick figure with one foot raised." This animation technique was usually used to show a character moving up and down screen (think "Berzerk robots.") Anyway, the gameplay would be nearly finished had they given the enemy sprites more than just a "right to left" movement. And it appears that it was in the works.

 

Just thought I'd toss in my 1/50 of a dollar.

[Tempest]

Yeah I saw that too, but I assumed it was a glitch in the game (there are more than a few). For some laughs move your character towards the right side of the screen, at some point you'll notice his hair disappears and he's bald! This may only happen while your in the river though (I'll have to check).

 

Time for someone to start diassembling this puppy and see whats lurking inside.

 

Tempest

[Lost Monkey]

I always thought Alligator People was going to be a "Frogger" type game, from something I seem to remember reading in Electronic Games (~20 years ago!)...but I might be confusing it with "Preppie". I always had the idea that 'Alligator People' referred to Izod wearing yuppies rather than mutant Alligator People.

 

[ 03-25-2002: Message edited by: Lost Monkey ]