Octopussy - Some of the mystery solved?

[Guybrush]

Well, a little while back I managed to track down Joe Gaucher, who was the lead designer and programmer for the Atari 2600 version of James Bond 007. Here's what he had to say about it:

 

Actually the company [They we’re located somewhere in Florida and I believe their name started with Western (something).]that was previously working on that game never finished it and that’s why Parker Bros came to my company [On Time Software] because they were 1 year behind schedule in releasing a Bond title.

 

He also spoke a bit about the finished version of the game and how it was designed:

 

Actually, Parker let us have free reign on what the design was going to be. It just had to have the James Bond 007 opening, correct music and proper James Bond action. So, with that said....it was really our idea.

 

If anyone has any more questions they'd like me to ask him, feel free to contribute anything!

[CPUWIZ]

Funny, I know Joe, I worked with him for many years. I should ask him if he has a proto in the basement. LOL

[Josh]

Q: Why Was The Version Of James Bond That Was Seen In The Parker Bros Catalog Scrapped? , And Also Is There A Partly Programmed Version Of This Scene Somewhere?

[Guybrush]

Q: Why Was The Version Of James Bond That Was Seen In The Parker Bros Catalog Scrapped? , And Also Is There A Partly Programmed Version Of This Scene Somewhere?

 

The partial answer to that is in the first quote.

[Rom Hunter]

Interesting info, Guybrush.

 

Thanks for sharing.

 

Let's hope that the train scene proto will be found some day.

 

[+Allan]

Ask him if his company had anything to do with the 5200 version.

 

Allan

[Guybrush]

Just found out that the Western (Something) company he was talking about was Western Technologies.

 

1. Did On Time Software just work on the Atari 2600 version of the game or all the versions of the game? (Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 8-bit Home Computers, ColecoVision, Commodore 64, SG-1000)

 

We generally did all versions of a game, but I don’t think we did all versions of Bond.

 

2. At the risk of sounding like a software pirate, do you know if there is still an existing prototype of the unreleased Bond game created by Western Technologies?

 

I have absolutely no contacts for that company. You must remember that they we’re a little perturbed that we “stole” their contracts with Parker Bros for development. But in the words of Parker, we did a much better product and we were “ontime” with our deliverables.

[Zwackery]

That was a great little bit of info! I've been curious about this particular movie license. Thanks for posting this.