159 replies to this topic

[Shaggy the Atarian]

ZylonBane, on Wed Aug 17, 2005 4:11 PM, said:

Obviously there are some things you need explained to you...

The 8-bit Atari computers and the Atari 5200 have precisely the same graphics and sound hardware. Moving games from one to the other is a relatively simple matter (memory usage allowing).

The 7800, on the other hand, uses COMPLETELY DIFFERENT graphics and sound hardware. It would take as much effort to port a 5200 game to the 7800 as it would to port it to a C64 or an Apple II. In other words, an almost complete rewrite.

So the discovery of this prototype is of absolutely no relevance to the 7800.

*sighs

I know all that but you obviously have no idea what I meant so I'll just leave it at that. I was just stating a desire of mine, whether it could happen or not wasn't the issue and I understand it would take a lot of work involved.

[Dutchman2000]

I'm trying to find that one too (EA), but the progress is slow....

[Atariboy2600]

Well in case some one do port it on the 5200 Im ready for it

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[Atariboy2600]

Also here's a old Sinstar Poster from Atari that I use for the label art^_^

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[jnice]

Curt Vendel said:

The disk was horribly bent (literally like a right angle) took quite a few days under a heavy stack of books to flatten it back to a point where the disk was readable.

That's one tough disk!

[www.atarimania.com]

Holy crap!

--
Atari Frog
http://www.atarimania.com

[Allan]

Atariboy2600, on Thu Aug 18, 2005 11:18 PM, said:

Well in case some one do port it on the 5200 Im ready for it

Since we won't see this for the 5200 right away, it would be nice to have an 8-bit label for Sinistar for those that make an XE/XL cart out of it. Classics Flash carts are going to work great with this.

Allan

[voiddweller]

This is a great find!

The arcade version will always be in my top 5.

[Shawn Jefferson]

You folks who are retrieving these things from the dustbin of history, kick a$s!

[Bakasama]

Uber Troll, on Wed Aug 17, 2005 11:29 AM, said:

Great news! Sinstar is an awesome, evil, blood pressure-raising shoot-fest. The graphics here look great and faithful.

I have heard rumour of an "original" ROM for the arcade machine, finalized before the jackass corporate guys made the programmers crank-up the difficulty. Anyone know more? HHMmmmmmmmm....

Hmm, according the one of the guys that worked on Sinistar, the programmers didn't like the idea of making the game harder. So they burnt some copies of the original Sinistar WIP code and kept the ROMs. The idea was that someday the programmers would treak the gameplay to their liking and release that.

[jaysmith2000]

I had a chance to try this out today at the VGXpo. Game is awesome. Really impressive for the 2600. The computer AI is a little off, but other than that an awesome title. Looking forward to some sort of a release on this one....

[Atariboy2600]

Curt Vendel, on Thu Aug 18, 2005 3:06 PM, said:

sku_u, on Thu Aug 18, 2005 1:57 PM, said:

www.atarimania.com, on Thu Aug 18, 2005 7:40 AM, said:

and... Agent X 50%.

Finding that one would be akin to finding Airworld in Holy Graildom. I hope someone did start this one and got it to where it was somewhat playable, but until then, Agent X, like Black Widow are just vapors in the rumor bin.

In the interim, between Sinistar and Blaster, it's been a great year+ in the 8bit world.

Well... On November 11, 2003 a rumor became a reality as an 8bit holy grail was in fact found...

Before going all ape-sh*t on this, let's just get a few things mentioned:

The disk was horribly bent (literally like a right angle) took quite a few days under a heavy stack of books to flatten it back to a point where the disk was readable.

The game code is in tact and working on an Atari 800

The game is in fact about 50-60% complete.

The game code will NOT be released at this time (this will be described in great detail soon on a new website devoted to this game) as myself, Matt Reichert and Ken Van Mersbergen have been working for the last year and a half very closely with its author and he wishes to complete the game and only when the completed game is ready will it and this original WIP be released, so we've all be patient for 20+ years, your all going to have to be patient for a while longer.

Please OGM PLEASE tell me thats the real thing!!! I got the movie on Beta, VHS Laserdisc and DVD so I can see that mockup game cart everytime .

[Tempest]

After watching Sinistaar on display all weekend at VGXpo I can now see the AI problems Jeff was talking about. Many times people would play the game for a little bit and just leave it sitting there when they walked away. In a normal game of Sinistar the Warrior ships would have swarmed the player and blasted him to bits, however in this version the ships were unable to hit the player at close range. They still swarmed the player, but their shots either went just above or below the player, and occasionally right through him! It wasnt until one ship came up and got the player on a diagonal that he was destroyed. It was kind of funny seeing the player just sit there for a severla minutes and not be killed, try as the Warriors might. There is definetly a little polishing needed for the AI.

Tempest

[Allan]

Do you guys have an ETA on when you are going to release this? My 130XE is hungary!

Allan

[keilbaca]

Will the proto be available to play at Philadelphia in November? I am ITCHING for some sinistar action!

[Dutchman2000]

Yes, I think I can say with some authority that Sinistar will be at VGXPO in Philly.

The main reason why it has not been released is that I have yet to go through all of the versions I discovered. Some are in binary form and some exist only as source code printouts. Basically I want to make sure the version I release is the best, playable version. The one that was shown was the latest version, but that doesn't mean that it is the best version. Plus I want to create a ROM version that can be easily distributed.

Please be patient, it will be worth the wait!

[keilbaca]

Dutchman2000, on Thu Aug 25, 2005 1:57 PM, said:

Yes, I think I can say with some authority that Sinistar will be at VGXPO in Philly.

Absolutely kick ass. I just scored 765k on the 2600 proto of Sinistar, I can't wait to try my hand at this

[JB]

jnice, on Thu Aug 18, 2005 8:12 AM, said:

Amazing find!  I, too, hope the game could be ported over to the 5200, although I worry about the controllers being a bit of a problem (like Asteroids).

I'd think the 5200 controllers would be well-suited to Sinistar, as the arcade game was intended for pseudo-analog input, and 2 fire buttons.

Of course, I can see where centering/deadzones would rapidly become an issue in this one, too.

Bakasama, on Sat Aug 20, 2005 12:24 AM, said:

Uber Troll, on Wed Aug 17, 2005 11:29 AM, said:

Great news! Sinstar is an awesome, evil, blood pressure-raising shoot-fest. The graphics here look great and faithful.

I have heard rumour of an "original" ROM for the arcade machine, finalized before the jackass corporate guys made the programmers crank-up the difficulty. Anyone know more? HHMmmmmmmmm....

Hmm, according the one of the guys that worked on Sinistar, the programmers didn't like the idea of making the game harder. So they burnt some copies of the original Sinistar WIP code and kept the ROMs. The idea was that someday the programmers would treak the gameplay to their liking and release that.

Way I heard it was that they thought the game was perfectly balanced as-is, but you can't tell your boss" You're crazy and I ain't changin' nothin'" so they all burned sets of the then-current ROMs off before they started in on the "upgrades."

They couldn't tweak it to their liking and then release it, because Willaims owned the game, and still does.



And a set of ROMs believed to be from the AMOA show Sinistar first appeared publically at have long since been dumped(surfaced back in '98), and are believed to have the perfect gameplay(it's known that they're easier, and that it was made harder based on feedback from vendors at the AMOA).
MAME calls the set "sinista1" or "Sinistar (prototype version)" depending on if you're looking at the 8-char game name used for ROM image sets and loading purposes, or the full-length name used for informational purposes.

[MegaManFan]

Hey Matt, did you ever get a sample of the voice from the 8-bit version? I know you were dissapointed you couldn't get a complete Sinistar to hunt you down before I had to leave the show, or as you put it "Always happens when I don't need it to, but not when I do."

[8bitarcheologist]

I can tell you from first hand experience that this game is great!!!! - I bought it at a flea market in Georgia about 4 years ago, it is the 1/4/84 version. There was no label when I got it and I had no idea until I used the 2600 rarity guide a few days ago and read this piece that it was even a rare game. If anyone is interested I will be putting it up for auction Saturday 9/17/05 on ebay. I was emailing back and forth with a Matt Reichert at atariprotos.com he said it might be a copy and not a real prototype - I do not know how to tell the difference, but did not want to open the cartridge as Mr. Reichert requested in fear of damaging it.

Edited by 8bitarcheologist, Wed Sep 14, 2005 11:26 PM.

[birdie3]

Any news on this? I am sure there are quite a few of us who been patiently waiting. Pretty please.

[KaineMaxwell]

Atariboy2600, on Thu Aug 18, 2005 11:30 PM, said:

Also here's a old Sinstar Poster from Atari that I use for the label art^_^

That is a kickass poster. What amazing news though!!

[Dutchman2000]

I still haven't gone through all of the materials recovered. There is a lot of it and I don't want to rush things.

[voiddweller]

Dutchman2000, on Mon Nov 7, 2005 12:03 AM, said:

I still haven't gone through all of the materials recovered.  There is a lot of it and I don't want to rush things.

When you have some updates, please post back.

Thanks!

- VD

[pkblack]

wow this has been worked on since last August, there must be a lot of different versions ) I look forward to this as well Dutchman2000