MitkemBP Posted April 12, 2006 Share Posted April 12, 2006 Hi Everyone- New to the forum. Thought I'd say hey, introduce myself, etc. Long story short. I'd been meaning to hook the 2600 up as the first step in my master plan to have multi-consoles running and last night I took that first step. The console is my wife's, so we dusted it off, broke out the box of games and started going through them. Both my wife's mom and dad worked for Parker Bros., Hasbro, Etc. for many years. As you might imagine we have a lot of funky prototype toys laying around. If you remember Nerfuls...we have 100's of NIB prototypes. Her Dad worked in electronic development so we have a lot of unlabeled carts. As I was going through them I found 4 or 5 that had small labels on them that said LOTR 8K WIP. I was curious, so I fired one up and sure enough they are dev carts for Lord of the Rings. As I said there are multiple copies and they are all obviously different WIPs (Work in Progress.) I'm not sure that anybody would be interested in these ROMs and I'm not even sure how to go about copying them, but I figured I'd check here to see. Anyway, looks like there's a wealth of info here so I'll be busy reading and catching up. Brett Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foxsolo2000 Posted April 12, 2006 Share Posted April 12, 2006 You need to contact Tempest at www.atariprotos.com and tell him of your find for he is the resident prototype historian around here. Hopefuylly he will read this and message you himself. Would love to learn what he makes of them. Welcome to the forums Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted April 12, 2006 Share Posted April 12, 2006 Wow! That's quite a treasure you have there. Up until now there was only one LOTR prototype known to exist. I sent you a PM, hopefully we can find out more about the prototypes you have. Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yuppicide Posted April 12, 2006 Share Posted April 12, 2006 I've never dealt with Tempest, but I've been a member here a long time and will vouch for him as well. I've seen a few times he's taken great care with people's prototypes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godzilla Posted April 12, 2006 Share Posted April 12, 2006 w00t.. it would be so cool to see a more playable/finished 26k lotr... fingers crossed... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rom Hunter Posted April 12, 2006 Share Posted April 12, 2006 Miracles still happen. Great to read this, MitkemBP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MitkemBP Posted April 12, 2006 Author Share Posted April 12, 2006 Miracles, indeed. Have to thanks the in-laws for not throwing stuff out. Brett Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpfalcon2003 Posted April 12, 2006 Share Posted April 12, 2006 Great to have you around and for you to share your find with us. Please let us know what they all turn out to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elviticus Posted April 12, 2006 Share Posted April 12, 2006 Very cool news! Good to have you here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MitkemBP Posted April 13, 2006 Author Share Posted April 13, 2006 Hey All Just finished taking pics and what not. Had to clean out the shed when I got home. I'll post pics of the shed later. I'd have just posted them here but they're pretty huge. Wanted to get as much resolution as I could. http://jeepweasel.multiply.com/photos/photo/5/1 http://jeepweasel.multiply.com/photos/photo/5/3 http://jeepweasel.multiply.com/photos/photo/5/5 http://jeepweasel.multiply.com/photos/photo/5/7 Brett Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 Hey AllJust finished taking pics and what not. Had to clean out the shed when I got home. I'll post pics of the shed later. I'd have just posted them here but they're pretty huge. Wanted to get as much resolution as I could. http://jeepweasel.multiply.com/photos/photo/5/1 http://jeepweasel.multiply.com/photos/photo/5/3 http://jeepweasel.multiply.com/photos/photo/5/5 http://jeepweasel.multiply.com/photos/photo/5/7 Brett Final version! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanJr Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 Holy poopskis! This could be the find of the year! If one of those is a final release candidate we are in business! That freaking intro screen is beautiful! Great great, important find. I await the results of Tempest analysis with much anticipation! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D.Yancey Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 Welcome to AtariAge! You have quite a find there indeed. Some of these guys can dump the roms to binary format on a PC. Then folks can share in the fun by experiencing these gems on an emulator. I can't wait to see them! The photos look amazing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 The last one is interesting. RS.1 stands for Release 1 (ie. release canidate 1). Basically this is the version that the programmer felt is ready for release. When the play testers and managers agreed they would change this to FIN.1 (Final 1). Your version could be different than the version we have now. I implore you to get these dumped to preserve them. Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godzilla Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 holy gallon of drool in a bucket! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Helmet Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 (edited) Wow! -this is part of why this hobby is so freaking cool! What a lucky find! Tempest is right, these have got to be dumped to they can be preserved. Edited April 13, 2006 by Lord Helmet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maximebeauvais Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 OMG......LOTR !!!! Do you image how many people really want to play this game!!!! This is the best deal of the year....I'm glad that you did not throw out those old atari game. You should really contact tempest so he could have a look, copy it and after that he will be able to share it with us Atari communauty will be very please After all that, it will be time to ebay it DOH!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MitkemBP Posted April 13, 2006 Author Share Posted April 13, 2006 Hola Everybody- I'll get it dumped sooner rather than later. I'm glad it's something that's fairly important. Tempest and I have exchanged a few messages and in the event that I can't get this done, I'm sure that we can work something out. The chances of this ending up on ebay are slim to none. I'd rather own it than make some small amount of money. Honestly, it just makes me happy to know that people here will be able to enjoy it. Truthfully, I'm shocked that nobody wanted to see pics of my shed.... Brett Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickHarrisMaine Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 That is one of the cool things about working at a toy company. Every now and then you get little bits like this tossed your way. My wife works for Mattel now, but used to work for Wizards of the Coast. They literally gave her boxes of MTG cards and other games. But to have 4 LOTR copies, ready to have the ROMs dumped.....well, that is too cool. Maybe a belated Atariage store product? I'll donate ETs and Combats for the project! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NightSprinter Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 Yes, I whole-heartedly agree n that. When I was a toddler in '84 my older brother was dying to have this game released. He would be ecstatic if the game was available to play in some form. In the name of preservation and bringing a long-lost treasure to the public, please have the game dumped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
else Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 Between this and Good Luck Charlie Brown soon to (hopefully) be dumped, it is shaping up to be an incredible year!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 I think it's great that four prototype carts of Lord of the Rings have been found, but it sounds like a few people don't know that we obtained what was (at the time) the only known prototype of Lord of the Rings and released the binary here on AtariAge: http://www.atariage.com/features/lotr/ This was over four years ago, back in December of 2001, so I'm not surprised some people are unaware of it. The game is quite playable, but we won't know if these new discoveries are more complete until they are dumped. I'm looking forward to seeing how the prototypes Brett has discovered differ! ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atariboy2600 Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 Between this and Good Luck Charlie Brown soon to (hopefully) be dumped, it is shaping up to be an incredible year!!! Yea Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
else Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 Nice, but it really needs a Parker Bros label instead...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rom Hunter Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 (edited) Four LOTR proto's in one picture. What a fantastic sight. Let's hope that one of them is a more complete version than the one we all know. Edited April 13, 2006 by Rom Hunter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.