June 2017
June 2017 Edition
be at SPACE with my my fellow Atarian comrades. Anyway, I will go on. I will make it brief, since I missed the May meeting. I am glad to be Secretary and Newsletter Editor of one of the few remaining Atari user groups in North America.
Message from Captain Irata: “Over hill, over dale, we have hit the gaming trail, as the pixels go moving on…” HOO-RAH!
Another flurry of Atari chronology research lately. I don’t know if members of SPACE would find it interesting, but did you know that Atari acquired a company called Amplifone Corporation of Brownsville, Texas, to quickly grow their Coin-Op component production capacity in the early 1980s? I tracked down some details. Amplifone was started way back in 1950 in Illinois. The acquisition by Atari happened earlier than I had thought, July 1981. There’s an Internet story that the specific purpose was to help catch up on making the specialized monitors for Tempest arcade machines. It’s possible, but Tempest wasn’t even introduced until October 1981 so that particular story doesn’t quite make sense to me. As an Atari subsidiary Amplifone did not just make components for Atari, they continued to make things like flyback transformers (their big speciality before Atari; what is a flyback transformer?), printed circuit board assemblies and electronics assemblies for other companies as well. Warner Communications kept Amplifone in summer 1984 since Jack Tramiel didn’t want it. Then that summer/fall the employees of Amplifone managed to buy the company from Atari, with the help of financial backing from local government, saving about 85 jobs at the time. The deal was closed on December 14, 1984. Not sure what happened to Amplifone after that though, it doesn’t seem to have lasted much longer. Thanks, keep using that Atari, and come to your next SPACE meeting, Friday June 9, 2017.
What a surprise when I pulled into the parking lot. I saw Glen go over to a black Chevy truck and got in. I didn’t know who drove the truck because I hadn’t seen it before. I opened the doors to let members in and really did not know who to expect. What a pleasant surprise to see Glen followed by Rich Mier. After ten plus years Rich hasn’t changed; he has kept up his annual membership dues even though he couldn’t make the meetings. We had a great reunion and even though Rich had a three hour drive to get back home he stayed until the end of the meeting. Only thing holding him back from getting back into the game is a place to set up shop. With Lance being out of commission because of his arm we sure could use Rich’s experience with Atari repairs and upgrades. Anyway we sure did welcome him back to our meetings. I know some of you already has mentioned that they can’t make the June meeting so I just want to remind all of our members that we will once again have tacos for our July SPACE Birthday Party. I hope most of you will be at the July meeting and don’t forget to bring a dish for all to share. For our treasury recap in May we had a beginning balance of $375.54 and we added receipts of $27.00 ($9.00 for 8-bit DOMs and $18.00 for ST DOMs) to bring our ending balance to $402.54. If you weren’t at the May meeting you really missed out. Catching up on old times with Rich and another great DOM from Glen along with a demo of the upgrade of Lance’s new game. It was a fun packed evening and I would like to see more meetings like that one. Anyway, hope to see you next month.
HELLO WORLD! Well, I know was not there to make it to the SPACE, and I apologize for that. The Conference was sort of OK, but I would rather
I am sure that you have heard that before, but I just wanted to reiterate it. I am glad to hear that Richard Mier came to the meeting last month. I have curiosities to inquire about and maybe he can answer them. I am also glad that Lance and Brian made it to the meeting, otherwise I could not create a DOM review. Thanks, guys for being there. It is appreciated. I owe you one. Anyway, that concludes the Secretary’s Report. In the words of the great Stan Lee: EXCELSIOR! TABLE OF CONTENTS: President’s Corner: Treasurer’s Report: Trivia Time: Secretary’s Report: Recent Atari News: ST/8-bit DOM Reports: Multi-Platform Game Review: TRIVIA TIME
1 1 1 1 2 2 4
“Dragon’s Lair” creator, Don Bluth, is a former Disney animator instrumental in creating the movie “The Fox and the Hound.” He also created “Space Ace.” Both games were ported to the Atari Jaguar.
Recent Atari News IDW GAMES ANNOUNCES ATARI® PARTNERSHIP Some of the Greatest Games of All Time Get New Life as a Tabletop Game Series San Diego, CA (March 8, 2017) Atari®, one of the world’s most recognized publishers and producers of interactive entertainment, and IDW Games, announced today that they have entered into a partnership to produce a line of tabletop games based on several classic Atari videogame titles. Centipede®, Asteroids®, and Missile Command® are all headed to the tabletop by way of Jon Gilmour, co-designer of Dead of Winter, and his hand-picked crew of upand-coming co-developers. Set to capture the feel of these classic titles, the Atari line of board games are fun, intense and fast-paced. While each game in the series will play differently from the others, they will all have you nostalgic for the days of being hunched over a CRT in a dark arcade with your eyes on the prize: top of the high-score chart. “Atari is one of the hallmarks of our generation,” says Jerry Bennington, VP of New Product Development. “We’re honored with the opportunity to be able to bring the Atari classic archive to the tabletop.” “IDW Games has a fantastic history of bringing licensed products to market, and we’re thrilled to work out a partnership and see our classic games on the tabletop,” says Fred Chesnais, Chief Executive Officer, Atari. The Atari series of games will launch with Centipede in the Fall of 2017 with future titles releasing intermittently shortly after. For future details on the Atari tabletop games, follow IDW Games on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/idwgames/ About Atari Atari ( www.atari.com) is an interactive entertainment production company. As an iconic brand that transcends generations and audiences, the company is globally recognized for its multi-platform, interactive entertainment and licensed products. Atari owns and/or manages a portfolio of more than 200 games and franchises, including world-renowned brands like Asteroids®, Centipede®, Missile Command®, Pong®, and RollerCoaster Tycoon®. Atari has offices in New York and Paris. © 2017 Atari Interactive, Inc. All rights reserved. Atari word mark and logo are trademarks owned by Atari Interactive, Inc. About IDW Games IDW Games publishes both creator-owned and licensed tabletop games. The division was launched in 2014 and has quickly found success with one of the top-selling card games of the year with the Japanese
import card game Machi Koro. IDW Games offers a mix of popular licensed games such as The X-Files and CHEW as well as strategic hobby games such as Tammany Hall and Yedo. About IDW IDW Media Holdings, Inc. (OCTQX: IDWM) is a fully integrated media company, which includes publishing, games, entertainment, and the San Diego Comic Art Gallery. IDW Publishing’s comic book and graphic novel catalog includes some of the world’s most popular entertainment brands, including Transformers, My Little Pony, Star Trek, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Ghostbusters, and Disney’s classic characters. At IDW’s core is its commitment to creatorowned comics including 30 Days of Night, Locke & Key, Wormwood, Ragnarök, VWars, and Archangel by bestselling sci-fi author William Gibson. IDW Publishing is also home to the acclaimed and award-winning imprints; Top Shelf, The Library of American Comics, Yoe! Books, and Artist Editions, showcasing the greatest original art ever published in American comic books. IDW Games’ diverse line-up includes the international phenomenon Machi Koro, as well as hit licensed games such as X-Files, Back to the Future, The Godfather, and TMNT. IDW Entertainment currently serves as the worldwide distributor of Wynonna Earp airing on the Syfy Channel in the U.S. and is producing BBC America’s Dirk Gently, based the best seller by Douglas Adams starring Elijah Wood and Sam Barnett, and Brooklyn Animal Control.
Atari 8-bit DOM Report By Steven Peck Well, welcome back to the latest DOM Review for the A8 computer! We have a bunch of stuff that goes back to the beginning of this year, as well as a C64 port and some SID chip music. Off we go! JUNE 2017 DOM, SIDE A: Fairlight is an RPG ported from the Commodore 64 computer, and it has the same perspective as the game “The Great Escape,” another Commodore port for the Atari. But, I have reservations with it. It is very difficult to control with the European joypad for the A7800 platform. I chiefly use that for my gaming pleasure. I pressed ESC to get out of the game. I really need to bone up on how to play it. It looks like a great game, but it might have a learning curve for some. Patience is needed for this one. Score: Graphics: Animation:
7 7
Sound: Gameplay:
7 7
Happy 2017 is an intro for the new year. It has a real-time text ticker, nice music, and great graphics. This one is quite technically ahead of other demos that I have seen in the past. It is a good one, nonetheless. Score: Graphics: Animation: Sound:
9 8 8
TOTAL:
25/30
My Toy is a pic that shows an evil green demon holding a little faerie hostage and displaying her for all to see. I like the graphics. They are excellent with a lot of diction in the detail. Nice! TOTAL:
8/10
NYD 2017 is another new year intro for 2017, showing nice real-time effects and great music. It is very well produced, and I quite enjoyed it. Score: Graphics: Animation: Sound:
8 9 8
TOTAL:
25/30
Small Effect is an intro with a PAL problem, but that does not stop it from being great. It shows a snowman on a snowboard, with a text ticker mask over the snowman. Press START to read the text. It was an awesome demo with cool effects. It makes me wish I could do that sort of thing with an Atari 8-bit computer. Kudos to the programmers. Score: Graphics: Animation: Sound:
10 9 9
TOTAL:
28/30
This pic shows a demonic sorcerer conjuring up a dark green demonic mist with an older wizard in the background. My guess is they are supposed to be locked in combat. This is a great-looking pic and I love it.It makes me wonder if it was done with a Koala Pad. Kudos, again. TOTAL:
9/10
Multi Twisters is probably the best demo on this side of the DOM, IMHO. It shows five twisting columns of different colors. I love it, so I am sold! Score: Graphics: Animation:
10 10
TOTAL:
20/20 (perfect) (Continued Next Page)
SIDE B: Camelight 2017 is a wonderful intro. It shows interesting wavy effects, a cool text ticker, rocking music, and fluid animation. This is by far the best intro I have seen so far in the entire DOM. Fabulous! Score:
have ten shields. You lose a shield after every collsion with object. It’s game over when the shields are depleted. Great game, but I thnk the graphics need some OOMPH. Cool, though. Score:
Graphics: Animation: Sound:
10 10 10
Graphics: Animation: Sound: Gameplay:
5 6 5 9
TOTAL:
30/30 (perfect)
TOTAL:
25/40
Christmas is a medley of Christmas music that comes from a Commodore SID chip emulator. The sound is fine, but as always I do not know about the little color demo during the music.
Neon 2017 is a TIP animation with a flashing neon sign welcoming the year 2017 in. This is the Bee’s Knees, as the British say, and I have an affinity for TIP graphics and animation. This is prowess at its finest!
I guess it is to keep things from becoming boring. It is a good musical piece, nonetheless.
It really shows what the A8 can do and pushes its technical aesthetics. Way to go!
Score: Graphics: Animation: Sound:
5 5 9
TOTAL:
19/30
Another SID chiptune is Do they Know It’s Christmas, from the classic Christmas rock song from the 1980s. It is a re-interpretation of it as the computer ascertains it. It is a pretty good chiptune as well. Score:
Score: Graphics: Animation:
10 10
TOTAL:
20/20 (perfect)
Score:
5 5 8
Graphics: Animation: Sound: Gameplay:
4 7 5 8
TOTAL:
18/30
TOTAL:
24/40
TOTAL:
10/10 (perfect)
Get Lucky is an intro showing a neon sign commemorating the new year. It is fantastic, too. Great graphics and fluid animation. It really pushes the aesthetics of the A8’s capabilities. Sweet! Score: Graphics: Animation: Sound:
8 10 9
TOTAL:
27/30
Guardian is a pic showing a caped woman armed with a crossbow holding a leashed dog back, as if on the hunt. It is detailed and show prowess. Although not a perfect score, it is well done. Kudos. TOTAL:
8/10
Kaverns of Kfest is a challenging game where you freefall down a bottomless cavern collecting things along the way. You
We hope to see you there!
Snowplow is a cute and funny game where you control a snowplow clearing snowy roads while avoiding menacing storms and depleting fuel. The graphics and sound need work, but it is a great game. Cool!
Graphics: Animation: Sound:
Goodbye 2016 is an excellent pic of a girl leaping with a sunset in the background. The cacophony of colors really works on this pic. Marvelous!
The next SPACE meeting is on Friday, June 9, 2017, at 7:30 PM.
The final demo is called Cubesex, but do not let the name fool you. It isn’t sexy at all. It only shows cubes spinning on the screen of various colors. That’s all. But, what it shows is marvelously done. Great 3D effects. Plus, the animation is very fluid and in real time as well. Good job! Score: Graphics: Animation: Sound:
10 9 10
TOTAL:
29/30
So, there you have it, men! That is the 8-bit DOM Review for June. I will be back next time for another DOM Review. I will see you then. TTFN, and carpe diem, guys!
“Support SPACE, and don’t be long! Buy a DOM and you can’t go wrong!” DOM sales help SPACE grow! Please consider a purchase! DOMs are always $3.00 eac Thank you!