Comments on: Atari BackWater Produces First Page Post

Atari BackWater Produces First Page Post

undule — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 18:42:19 -0800

The Atari Games That Never Were -- and then some. A community dedicated to rooting out prototype or unreleased titles such as Alligator People,Monstercise and -- hey cool -- a genre-busting color-field. While all this may seem a tad on the esoteric side, the glimpses into the the art is cool, hey?

By: svenvog

svenvog — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 18:55:11 -0800

The philosophy behind the Puffer was to try and make exercising fun. Just imagine what games would look like today if thier progenitors high scores were based on athletic abilities like peddeling?. The cigarette/conviencestore/afterschool videogame subculture of the suburban rapscallion would have been a much bleaker life than remembered.

By: JeffL

JeffL — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 19:18:12 -0800

This One brings back memories. I can remember seeing this cartridge in the Atari catalog and wondering whether to save up my allowance to get it. Based on the description on the site, it's a good thing that I waited a few years to get an Atari 800 and learn 6502 assembly language, instead of being introduced to programming with this thing. I've gotta question whether you could really only enter 9 or 11 lines of code, though... surely it wasn't that limited?

By: gluechunk

gluechunk — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 19:34:19 -0800

Not updated a lot, but there's also lostlevels.org. I got to briefly play Ixion for the 2600 earlier this year - it's a very fun game.

By: glenwood

glenwood — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 19:55:52 -0800

[this is berry cool]

By: Otis

Otis — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 19:59:04 -0800

This is a great find. For those who haven't seen it, also check out Atari Age.

By: Faint of Butt

Faint of Butt — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 20:10:17 -0800

What a neat site. Thanks, undule. It's nice to see a video game nostalgia site that's not loaded with sex jokes and profanity (*coughseanbabycough*), since while that can be funny, you can't really show it to your grandmother. This one is great. I'd love to see it updated with Lynx and Jaguar stuff.

By: homodigitalis

homodigitalis — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 20:28:32 -0800

I killed my VCS 2600 after they released ET ... argh!

By: undule

undule — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 20:50:15 -0800

That game was horrible, I agree, but I also think it was kind of a work of accidental genius -- in the purely surrealistic sense. About the only thing I remember from playing E.T. was how absolutely bizarre watching his neck extend was -- in retrospect, it strikes me as some particularly droll penile doodadery. That and absolutely nothing made any sense whatsoever, the primary goal being basically -- get over this hole here, kid. Which isn't Freudian, really, so much as it is existential. *woot!*

By: tomplus2

tomplus2 — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 21:56:06 -0800

I don't get me. I quickly flipped through the site and got giddy when I saw the Dumbo 2600 game. I'm not a Disney fan, nor a Dumbo fan, but my brain jumped back to the day when I used to get excited about the littlest advancements in the graphics on the 2600. I used to freak when new games were pushing the hardware - anything looked better than tank or super breakout.

By: undule

undule — Thu, 02 Dec 2004 02:51:02 -0800

Tomplus2, I think the poetry here is that you can associate any emotion whatsoever, with this .. ! I truly believe this electronic archaeology is the unearthing a profoundly convulsive art.

By: Mick

Mick — Thu, 02 Dec 2004 04:20:55 -0800

Great link, thanks

By: hughbot

hughbot — Thu, 02 Dec 2004 06:22:43 -0800

I had a dream once that I went into a videogame store and found the Earthbound Zero (or Mother, for you Nintendo hipster) prototype in a bin for five dollars. I felt like crying when I woke up.

By: retronic

retronic — Thu, 02 Dec 2004 10:23:54 -0800

this is a great site. reminds me of the time i relived my Vectrex obsession in the early 90s...poor Tom Sloper! i tracked him down at activision--he was VERY gracious and generous with his time. those first-wave game developers are classy folks. heh! another memory springs to mind--when i tracked down the developer of the atari 8-bit classic "dandy" (the precursor to the arcade juggernaut "gauntlet"). anybody here a recovering dandy-addict? that game STILL has playability--and the built-in level editor = endless hours of fun (where fun = tormenting your friends with evilly difficult level-design). yes, i am a dork.

By: Otis

Otis — Thu, 02 Dec 2004 14:35:57 -0800

retronic, have you read the interviews here? (My mom weathered a Detroit snowstorm at Christmas to get me a Vextrex when they first came out. I still play it today.)

By: retronic

retronic — Thu, 02 Dec 2004 18:15:34 -0800

Otis, thanks! that site is a treasure-trove of videogame nostalgia...sorta like folklore.org is for mac geeks. by the time my speccy young self could afford to buy a vectrex, it was already on the way out, selling for $50. i bought a system and as many carts as i could get my hands on, but sadly, never managed to find a pair of the elusive 3D goggles (the holy grail of vectrex lore). i ended up selling that system to a good friend (the bastard!)...so years later, i had to go scavenging for a replacement. one thing i'll say--it held its value!