5 replies to this topic

[professormurder]

My favorite band 'The Residents' have been around for just about 40 years, have 60+ albums out, 10 dvds, have gone on multiple world tours, and dabbled in just about every medium.

They were in the process of creating an Atari 2600 game called Mark of The Mole. As far as I know, there are only a few screen shots of it, it was scrapped, and it never saw the light of day. Here's info from their website:

Quote

Mark of the Mole game for the ATARI 2600

This was a music game that Atari designer Greg Easter was working on, based on the Residents 1981 album of the same name.
Greg described Mark of the Mole's fundamental these as thus: "First a line of music plays (one of the songs from the Residents' Mark of the Mole record) - you are a mole with a hammer who travels down into a cave and taps on walls with a hammer. Different parts of the cave make different musical notes, and when you find the next note you need to complete the line of music which was just played. You are building a song note by note, and you have to remember the tone of the next note you need in order to get it right. Each time you play the caves are different, so you can't just remember where to go. The game actually teaches you what is called 'perfect pitch' in music - the ability to hear notes and know where they are on the staff."
(no Zombies)

Does anyone know anymore about this game? Is there a prototype out there? I mean, there should be if there were screenshots right?

[Tempest]

There's a prototpye out there owned by somoene on the Residents page.

Greg said he doesn't have his prototype anymore, but he sold off some of his development materials last year. You can see the pictures on my rumor mill page: http://www.atariprot...2600rumor.htm#M

Greg's prototype (the more complete version) is probably lost, but I'd kill to get my hands on the one that the Residents still have.

Tempest

[professormurder]

Tempest, on Wed Aug 12, 2009 1:53 PM, said:

There's a prototpye out there owned by somoene on the Residents page.

Greg said he doesn't have his prototype anymore, but he sold off some of his development materials last year. You can see the pictures on my rumor mill page: http://www.atariprot...2600rumor.htm#M

Greg's prototype (the more complete version) is probably lost, but I'd kill to get my hands on the one that the Residents still have.

Tempest

So are you a Rez fan too? Or just that into Atari that you'd go crazy for a copy? Or both? haha

Thanks for the bit of info. I almost bought the stuff Greg put on ebay awhile ago, but it got a little pricey for a no-job-having college kid such as myself.

So The Residents themselves have a copy, and someone on the Residents page does too... I bet I can name the user that has it, probably 'Tweedle_Twiddler'. He's got the most insane collection I've ever seen in my life. I'm a member of the Rez forum and was one of the few chosen to do a fan top ten list on their website last winter.

[Wickeycolumbus]

Here is a mock up I made about a month ago of one of the screenshots that was found.

Attached Files

•  MarkOfTheMole.bin   4K   132 downloads

[moycon]

Any idea why it was scrapped?
I vaguely recall seeing this game before (probably on Tempests website) looks really cool.

[Tempest]

moycon, on Wed Aug 12, 2009 2:35 PM, said:

Any idea why it was scrapped?
I vaguely recall seeing this game before (probably on Tempests website) looks really cool.

Greg left Atari before it was finished I believe. My understanding was that it was more of a side project than an official game.

There's a clilp over on DP of the game in action. It's only about 1 second long and shows the mole guy moving across the screen with little/no animation. It was from some old Atari promotional video I believe.

Tempest