How Centipede Co-Creator Bailey Got The Bug
I didn’t start at Atari with an idea for a game burning inside me,” she recalls, “but I was supposed to envision a game and program it from my first day there.” According to Bailey, Atari used the “sink or swim” method of new employee acclimation back then.
Bailey turned to a notebook of game concepts collected during Atari brainstorming sessions. “I was freaked out by the magnitude of this and pretty much everything else about the atmosphere at Atari. Atari was a definite case of ‘be careful what you wish for,’ and I wanted something good from the brainstorming notebook in order to get started.”
She flipped through its pages looking for an idea or inspiration. “Most of the other games in the notebook were based on lasers, wars in space, and shoot down this and that aircraft.” The inspiration for Centipede, on the other hand, was described as “a multi-segmented bug crawls out on the screen and gets shot, piece by piece.”
Thinking it sounded different from everything else in the book and on the market, Bailey warmed to the idea. “It sounded the most different from the other game descriptions and was the most appealing to me,” she said.
Her recollection of Centipede’s beginning is a window into the earliest days of the industry. “I began by making Centipede’s drawings at my desk, by hand, on graph paper. I would draw a box the size of the motion objects, now more commonly called ‘sprites’, color in ‘pixels’, graph paper squares, flip the drawing on its side, convert it to hexadecimal, and then hand-code the hex pattern into a PROM. That was the method of the day, and that was the place to start.”
Link: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=14967
playing pong on a 500 square foot display
Some guys from a theatrical lighting supplier decided to crank up their fancy LED light curtain with a little round of Atari’s classic 1970’s arcade game, PONG. The light curtains create a digital grid using thousands of individual LEDs. Two panels were used together to create a display that measures in at over 16-feet tall and 33-feet wide, making it the biggest game of PONG I’ve ever seen. The folks over at Creative Stage Lighting normally use these LED curtains for concerts and other events, but I can’t think of a better use than a good old game of electronic paddleball.
Link: http://technabob.com/blog/2007/08/03/playing-pong-on-a-500-square-f...
Atari...Why I'll Never Give Up My 2600
I clearly remember the Christmas of 1981. I was almost 12 years old and eagerly awaitng my passage into the cool teenage world of video games. I was beyond excited and stayed up as late (Ok 10pm) playing Asteroids. By then I was addicted to Atari. I had the Atari VCS - CX2600A with wood grain. Mine only had the 4 switches on the console as 2 had been moved to the back of the unit. Darn I wish I still had that one. I do have 3 vintage 2600 units that I have picked up over the years and about 50 games.
Link: http://www.squidoo.com/Atari2600/
Atari Unveils A Whole Bundle Of Gaming Fun At GC 2007!
Atari is celebrating its 35th anniversary year by unveiling two eagerly anticipated titles to the public at Games Convention 2007 in Leipzig, Germany, from 23-26 August: the first playable version of The Witcher and Ace Combat™ 6: Fires of Liberation. In addition, a whole host of other games will be playable at the show with Eternal Sonata™, Asterix At The Olympic Games, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3, Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 2, Tamagotchi: Party On! and Atari Germany distributed titles Race 07 and Obscure 2 all on hand to thrill visitors.
This year Atari has something to offer all gaming fans, the range of titles that await visitors in Hall 2, Booth E 02 extending from fighting and survival horror through to flight action and role-playing games. One undisputed highlight is PC role-playing game The Witcher from Polish developer CD Projekt. This keenly anticipated title will give visitors their first chance to slip into the role of white-haired witcher Geralt, a legendary monster hunter and master swordsman. Additionally, the specially constructed Witcher Cinema at the Atari booth will give visitors the exclusive opportunity to watch the full 7-minute CGI opening movie from the game.
Link: http://games.edge.ca/index.php?page=news/fullstory.php&indid=3095
Atari Force Special (1986)
The folks at Free Comic Books are offering... free comic books. One is an Atari Force special from 1986 that I never saw before. The complete Atari Force series appears to be available for download.
Link: http://freecomicbooks.blogspot.com/search?q=atari
Atari T-shirt list updated
T-shirts with Atari-related logos and characters have been spotted at the following locations:
http://www.matranet.net/
http://teamsugar.com/bookmarks/tags/Atari+T-shirt
http://www.80stees.com/pages/t-shirts/totally-80s-t-shirts/Atari_di...
http://search.80stees.com/?category=Video+Games&i=1&u1=category
http://www.midwest-games.com/nintoymer.html
http://pongnation.com/shop/customer/home.php
http://www.best-electronics-ca.com/collecta.htm
http://store.yque.com/8tractapgoly1.html
http://www.markhyde.plus.com/atg.html
http://www.supremepublication.com/atari_jaguar/do_the_math_shirt.html
The latest version of this list can always be found at http://www.cheek.org/atari/vendor.htm
If you've spotted Atari T-shirts at other locations, please email me
Atari 2600 Theatre: Space Invaders
Somebody with entirely too much time on his hands made a movie about Space Invaders for the Atari 2600. "We just blew up!"
Link: http://www.ifilm.com/video/2884598
Video Game Summit 2008
The Atari Video Club/Jaguar Community United have announced thier plans for thier next Video game and Computer trade show in 2008 entitled The 2008 Video Game Summit. The date of the show will be July 12th, 2008 from 9am to 6pm at the same location we had the last four years: Fairfield inn and Suites (Heron point building), 645 West North Ave, Lombard, IL 60148. Admission is free to public and Tables Spots are 29.50 each(space limited(table spots are two 2 by 6 feet tables)). We will also have free internet access(We are currently planing to do a live chat at through out the show with updates and concluding with the online raffle about 1hr before the show closes.more on the raffle to become availble before show date) For more information on how to register visit our new registration page at: [avc.atari-users.net] (Registration begins 12/31/07) Join the Video Game Summit mailing list for updates on the event (VideoGameSummit-Subscribe@yahoogroups.com) We are curently looking for some more people to help organize the show if your interested please conact me. For more information about the 2008 Video Game Summit Visit the VGS website: http://avc.atari-users.net/
About Atari Video Club: Atari Video Club is a Club that has been supporting Atari Vido games and computers For more then 13 years. We have also been involved with Atari Jaguar Festival since 1997. for more information on AVC visit: http://avc.atari-users.net/
Contact information
-------------------
Daniel Iacovelli
Atari Video club
(Video Game Summit)
()
Link: http://www.atariforums.com/read.php?28,1909,2748#msg-2748
Retrogaming Times Monthly #39 Published
Issue #39 of the Retrogaming Times Monthly has now been published. Features in the August 2007 issue include:
* Many Faces of Xevious
* Nintendo Realm - late July - early August 1986
* NEScade - "Popeye"
* Apple ][ Incider - Part ][, Apple ][ GS Vs Competition
* Mastering Sega (SMS - new series)
* Old wine in new bottles - Retrogaming on modern hardware
You can find these articles and more inside the Retrogaming Times Monthly, which has been published 119 months in a row. If you've missed any back issues, you can browse through their archives to get up to date.
Link: http://my.stratos.net/~hewston95/RTM/RTM_Home.htm
From: http://www.atariage.com/
Label Maker 2600
This Atari 2600 Label Maker produces authentic looking Atari 2600 "Picture Labels" using your own image and title. The "Picture Label" is the most common Atari 2600 label and features a large image on a black background. The game title is always in upper case but varies in color. An Atari logo along with the games CX model number is placed on the image.
Link: http://www.labelmaker2600.com/