Commodore 64 – Centipede In Small Box Found
Collector Peter Eikenboom informed us that via an Ebay deal he got a C64 Centipede in a small box. Very interesting … and confusing! If anyone has more info about that, please let us know. Thanks for the info, Peter!
Update 13-Dec-05: Some time ago we got info from Mayhem in the UK. He writes: „Have a good look at the top left hand corner here. Note the languages being used. I have been reliably informed (but by whom I can’t recall) that a number of European releases of Atarisoft games came in small boxes where the original US release was a big one, though I have never come across one until seeing that picture. So that probably explains that. Why change the box size … probably a space issue.
Update 14-Jul-06: Peter informed us that he also found a C64 Pac-Man in the small Euro box.
Thanks to Peter Elkenboom and Mayhem
IBM PC – Hidden credits in Pac-Man
Stephanie Krutsick sent us a message: „Hey there! Thought you might want to include these hidden dev credits by my parents and their story in the trivia for the IBM PC version of Pac Man (1983). :) Found at Cutting Room Floor:
https://tcrf.net/Pac-Man_(DOS,_1983)
https://tcrf.net/Talk:Pac-Man_(DOS,_1983)
Thanks to Stephanie Krutsick
Texas Instruments TI-99/4A – Some Notes From A TI-99 Collector
The interesting thing is that systems were being pulled from the 3rd batch like crazy. By the time the ads from Atarisoft came out, the VIC-20 was said to only be getting „Typo Attack“, but as we all know, more were planned and programmed. I luckily was able to talk with the programmer of „Donkey Kong Jr.“ and „Track & Field“ of the VIC, and they programmed them all in 1983! The fact that Atarisoft mentioned the TI and the 3rd batch release after the programming was done for other systems is good news for me at least, since I’m a TI collector. Since the 3rd batch was started in 1983, it is very possible many were completed for almost all the systems originally in the mix.
Another interesting note is that the 2nd batch was started in early 1983, since the Coleco version of „Joust“, „Moon Patrol“, and other 2nd batch releases on other systems were planned for release March 1983. So, the licencing for these games had already been obtained by Atarisoft and I can only assume they expanded the games to the other systems at some point in the first half of 1983. One more thing of interest, is on a July 1983 issue of „Enthusiast ’99“ magazine, beta copies of 4 TI Atarisoft games (the first 4) were shown (since it was a July issue, the picture must have been from June 1983, making these games at least completed in 2Q/1983). I was able to contact Charles LaFara who ran the magazine, he said that those manuals were from fully debugged, beta versions of the cartridges. Programming was done pretty early on these cartridges.
Another fact you may want to note: The reason „Galaxian“ and „Battlezone“ were cancelled (did the list say cancelled for both?) was because of Sega. I found a TI employee named John Phillips who told me TI got Sega to do the ports for the TI-99/4A. John was so certain, he said I could quote him on that! Since I am making a TI cartridge page, can you confirm from the list that Battlezone and Galaxian were planned through Atarisoft on the TI, up until they got word Sega was doing them? What would really be neat is if both versions (Sega and Atarisoft) were programmed, then we could compare the two! My bet is Sega would come out on top, nothing against Atarisoft (they put out GREAT games actually), but Sega really made all their games with high quality for the TI, so I could only assume Battlezone and Galaxian from them would have been the same.
Thanks to Bryan Roppolo Boulder