The Great Games Company...?

[Jess Ragan]

Does anyone know what happened to The Great Games Company, the game designers who had planned to release 2600 versions of popular game shows like The Price is Right? Did they abandon the system in the crash of 1984, only to resurface later as the NES licensee GameTek?

 

JR

[Ze_ro]

That's what a number of entries in the DP Guide seem to hint at.

 

--Zero

[rolenta]

Great Games Company never showed any games at any CES, although they did distribute a flier at the 1983 Toy Fair (the flier can be found on my website at:

http://www.rolentapress.com/memorabillia/g.../great-game.jpg

 

Whether Great Games Company and Gametek are the same company is a question that I've asked also, since both companies were based in the same area (Miami, I believe). However I've never found any absolute proof that they are the same.

[Ze_ro]

they did distribute a flier at the 1983 Toy Fair

 

In the bottom right hand corner, it says they're a "Division of IJE"... anyone know who IJE was?

 

--Zero

[rolenta]

I just did a search of Gametek and IJE and found that Gametek is also a division of IJE. So I guess The Great Game Company and Gametek were the same!

[Jess Ragan]

Wait a minute! That DOES prove the two companies are one and the same! I've seen the IJE logo on the NES version of Jeopardy. It's on the title screen, when you first boot the game up.

 

JR

[Cootster]

Aren't the GameTek NES games just ports from the C64 versions by ShareData?

 

Of course, the Great Game flyer lists 2600 versions of Joker's Wild and Tic Tac Dough, which, AFAIK, don't exist for any platform . . .

 

The C64 got TPIR, Wheel, Jeopardy, Family Feud, Concentration, and another one (Card Sharks, possibly?). Only the middle 4 exist as NES carts.

 

There is also a C64 Pyramid, but it wasn't done by them and I think it's based on either the UK or Aussie version of the show.

[SS]

the Great Game flyer lists 2600 versions of Joker's Wild

 

That would have been so cool! Imagine a pixilated Jack Barry staring at you from the screen. Creepy!

[Jess Ragan]

the Great Game flyer lists 2600 versions of Joker's Wild

 

That would have been so cool! Imagine a pixilated Jack Barry staring at you from the screen. Creepy!

 

Says the man with the Richard Simmons avatar.

Seriously, though, I don't know how GameTek (which is how I'll refer to the company from now on... the Great Games Company sounds like a carnival equipment distributor from the 1930's) could have pulled off some of those games on the humble 2600. It would have taken at least twelve cartridges for a reasonable simulation of The Price is Right.

 

"Hey, the Showcase Showdown is almost over! Quick, put in the 'Spay and Neuter Your Pets' cartridge!"

 

JR

[Cootster]

the Great Game flyer lists 2600 versions of Joker's Wild

 

That would have been so cool! Imagine a pixilated Jack Barry staring at you from the screen. Creepy!

 

Would we be able to tell him apart from the devil on the reel? But sadly, no system has it, since, IIRC, it and TTD got cancelled in '83 when ABC dropped game shows entirely in favor of soaps, and so, even if the C64/PC versions were finished, they weren't released . . .

 

If they had been, I'd own them, I was a big game show freak then. Still have the C64 floppies of the other six somewhere, although the system crapped out and got thrifted a long time ago.

[Saikyo]

It would have been interesting to see how the 2600 could have handled

Wheel of Fortune!

 

I know I keep saying this but lets hope there are some prototypes that were

made that have managed to survive!

[Tempest]

Would we be able to tell him apart from the devil on the reel? But sadly, no system has it, since, IIRC, it and TTD got cancelled in '83 when ABC dropped game shows entirely in favor of soaps, and so, even if the C64/PC versions were finished, they weren't released . . .

 

IIRC there was a Jokers Wild (and Jokers Wild Jr.) game released for the CD-i. Not 100% sure though.

 

Tempest

[Cootster]

Would we be able to tell him apart from the devil on the reel? But sadly, no system has it, since, IIRC, it and TTD got cancelled in '83 when ABC dropped game shows entirely in favor of soaps, and so, even if the C64/PC versions were finished, they weren't released . . .

 

IIRC there was a Jokers Wild (and Jokers Wild Jr.) game released for the CD-i. Not 100% sure though.

 

Tempest

 

Not based on the original show, though. They redid the show for a short while in 1990 with some random dork hosting (Pat Bullard?). It sucked.

So does the CD-i, come to think of it.

[Cootster]

 

"Hey, the Showcase Showdown is almost over!  Quick, put in the 'Spay and Neuter Your Pets' cartridge!"

 

JR

 

That's a bit of a disturbing image, if you think about a bit too much. . . Surprised the ASPCA never licensed that one out.

 

It'd be impossible . . . Wheel could probably be done by a dedicated enough homebrewer w/ the enhanced Dark Mage kernel (or Eckhard's ASCII kernel also), but I think the rest are slightly less doable than Halo 2600 w/ all the enemies.

[moycon]

I'd bet they would have had to of included a big booklet in with the game that you read questions and answer choices from. That seems like it could be do-able. Like say Jeopardy for instance. The screen has a color bar for the category.

Say red for history, blue for famous people, green for culinary arts etc.... and then a number.

You open up the booklet, red (history) # 117

 

On screen you move the cursor over A. B. C. D. etc.....

 

 

Hmmmmmmmm But I wonder how you answer in the form of a question??

[rockman_x_2002]

I suspect that if they had done that, the game would give you the complimentary "Who is" or "What are" or "Where is" type starters. I know that the PC and SNES versions of the game give you that much of the response, so you need only type the answer that really counts for the money.

[Jess Ragan]

I'd bet they would have had to of included a big booklet in with the game that you read questions and answer choices from. That seems like it could be do-able. Like say Jeopardy for instance. The screen has a color bar for the category.

Say red for history, blue for famous people, green for culinary arts etc.... and then a number.  

You open up the booklet, red (history) # 117

 

On screen you move the cursor over A. B. C. D. etc.....

 

Well, they have made Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune handhelds, so never say never...

 

I thought the ADAM version of Jeopardy! was pretty keen. It was based on the newer Alex Trebek television series and the keyboard made it a lot easier to play than, say, the NES version.

 

JR

[Cootster]

ADAM version? Never knew that existed . . . Is it also a product of ShareData or Great Game/GameTek?

[bigdcaldavis2k]

It would have been interesting to see how the 2600 could have handled

Wheel of Fortune!

 

I know I keep saying this but lets hope there are some prototypes that were

made that have managed to survive!

 

Ping. (More like an extreme ping.)

 

Anyway, I'm pretty sure that if those Atari 2600 game show games had seen the light of day, they would have been some hybrid video game/board game package. For instance,

 

1. Tic Tac Dough would just display the game board while two players would play with a third player acting as the emcee and reading questions from a "questions & answers" book...and the board would have numbers 1 through 9, with each number representing a different category. Score would be kept on the TV screen. And of course the "Beat the Dragon" game would be played solely on the Atari.

 

2. Joker's Wild...hybrid video/board game like TTD, with the "Beat the Devil" game played solely on the Atari.

 

3. Wheel of Fortune...the Atari would be used solely for spinning the wheel. The puzzle board would be like those puzzle boards found in the Pressman Games board game versions of WoF...although the Atari could possibly handle displaying a WoF puzzle board, I don't think there would have been enough cartridge ROM back in that day to store enough puzzles.

 

4. Password. There would be two teams with two players on each team. The TV screen would display the password, and the rules would be like the old 1960s version of Password (10 points for getting it right on the first clue, 9 points on the second clue, and so on), with 50 points determining the winner and a chance at a 60-second "speed round" where you had to solve 10 passwords to win $5,000, and if you fail to solve all 10 you get $100 per word.

 

Seriously...the Atari 2600 was (and still is) woefully underpowered for an accurate version of any game show short of Concentration.

[bigdcaldavis2k]

the Great Game flyer lists 2600 versions of Joker's Wild

 

That would have been so cool! Imagine a pixilated Jack Barry staring at you from the screen. Creepy!

 

Or a pixelated "Mean Old Dragon" from Tic Tac Dough...even though the Mean Old Dragon was already pixelated on those Apple II displays. The actual Tic Tac Dough board was set up like this : The graphics on the nine monitors were provided by nine Apple II computers and written in 6502 assembly language. Each Apple II acted as a display slave to an Altair 8030 system. The Altair determined which Apple II would display which whatever (category, X, O, money amount, TIC, TAC, or the dragon). The display slaves were loaded each day from cassette recorders. The Altair interfaced to a custom-built control console for the game board.

[bigdcaldavis2k]

Would we be able to tell him apart from the devil on the reel? But sadly, no system has it, since, IIRC, it and TTD got cancelled in '83 when ABC dropped game shows entirely in favor of soaps, and so, even if the C64/PC versions were finished, they weren't released . . .

 

IIRC there was a Jokers Wild (and Jokers Wild Jr.) game released for the CD-i. Not 100% sure though.

 

Tempest

 

Not based on the original show, though. They redid the show for a short while in 1990 with some random dork hosting (Pat Bullard?). It sucked.

So does the CD-i, come to think of it.

 

Pat Finn...his biggest claim to fame is owning an infomercial production company called In-Finn-Ity.

 

However, worse than the 1990 version of The Joker's Wild was the 1990 version of Tic Tac Dough. Not only did the host suck (The Duke's son Patrick Wayne, whose trademark phrase on there was "YOUUUUUUUU WINNNNNNNNN"), but the bonus game had - are you ready? - a RAPPING DRAGON and a RAPPING DRAGONSLAYER.

[bigdcaldavis2k]

Would we be able to tell him apart from the devil on the reel? But sadly, no system has it, since, IIRC, it and TTD got cancelled in '83 when ABC dropped game shows entirely in favor of soaps, and so, even if the C64/PC versions were finished, they weren't released . . .

 

IIRC there was a Jokers Wild (and Jokers Wild Jr.) game released for the CD-i. Not 100% sure though.

 

Tempest

 

Not based on the original show, though. They redid the show for a short while in 1990 with some random dork hosting (Pat Bullard?). It sucked.

So does the CD-i, come to think of it.

 

Pat Finn...his biggest claim to fame is owning an infomercial production company called In-Finn-Ity.

 

However, worse than the 1990 version of The Joker's Wild was the 1990 version of Tic Tac Dough. Not only did the host suck (The Duke's son Patrick Wayne, whose trademark phrase on there was "YOUUUUUUUU WINNNNNNNNN"), but the bonus game had - are you ready? - a RAPPING DRAGON and a RAPPING DRAGONSLAYER.