Dutchman2000

Yes, he has that too but I got this from a VAX/VMS backup tape of a VAX that belonged to Atari Coin-Op.....

Here's another memo: Since everyone else seems to be on the subject I might as well add my two bits worth. First, regarding testing and review of 2600, 5200, 800,... software. In the past I was given carts to review, and in some cases they ignored my comments. In particular, for the 800 Centipede I saw a bootleg copy and send my comments back only get see the shit hit the fan because I managed to see the cart which should not have been possible. Months later I was officially given a newer version to test. I noted some problems and asked that the game play match the Coin-Op version in several aspects. I was told that it was too late because they couldn't make the changes in time for the release. More recently I attended a meeting to decide which Millipede cart for the 2600 should be released. The release date was less than a week away and I was told that the programmer had just gotten one version working within the last couple of weeks (and only possible thru 7 day work weeks and considerable lack of sleep). I should also point out that I sent the complete documentation of Millipede to the team leader responsible for the VCS cart months prior to this meeting. I also called and left my name and number with the comment that I was available for any assistance. I received no response until a week or two prior to the above mentioned meeting. This leds me to believe that the game was not ready for help until the time of the meeting (thus verifying the hearsay that the game had just been developed in the last two weeks). Now for the good news! ATARI did select the VCS version of Millipede over the version done by GCC. I was told that GCC was instructed NOT to do this cart but they went ahead and did it anyway. I guess they felt that if they got it done first ATARI marketing would use theirs. Judging from the meeting I attended, I would guess that they were right. In any case I have worked with the VCS programmer since and hopefully the cart has improved. I do NOT mean to say that I necessarily helped but that the cart just needed time. I should point out that the cart was not released due to a bug! Now why didn't we think of this before? That sounds like a good strategy to follow. The only reason I was given why the cart was to be released within a week of the meeting was to have ONE week worth of sales for the first quarter. WHAT A SHITTY, GOD DAMNED, FUCKING CSDKFHAS FHLAVFHJ EXCUSE!!!! What ever happened to quality which the name ATARI is supposed to represent? Where was VCS management?? I would hope that someone would stand up and say "THE GAME IS NOT READY. WE WILL RELEASE IT WHEN IT IS DONE!!" Who are they trying to make look good? Why impress Warner with 1 weeks worth of production, when you can impress the consumer 2 weeks later? It seems short-sighted to make themselves look good at the expense of ATARI's reputation. Well enough of that, I want to get back on the subject of good news. Months ago I also reviewed a Millipede for the 800 (or 5200 I don't remember). I sent my comments back and just last week received a letter back for Richard Frick thanking me and giving me a list of changes they have implemented. When I talked to him he recalled when the comments came back and how the programmer grumbled about doing any more changes. However after the changes were made the programmer has become very excited about the new program. Now ISN'T that a heart warming story. It sure made my week. I hope we see more cooperation like that in the future. Second, as Franz hinted I never received a copy of Centipede to review from ATARISOFT nor was I even told about any Centipede carts. Ignoring the fact that is rather insulting, it is not in the best interests of ATARI. We should demand quality from any product ATARI puts its name on. Considering there is expertise here in Coin-Op to test and evaluate this product, they should be very interested in hearing from us. Since there were no designer credits, I guess it was hard for them to dtermine who to come to but they could have found out. Since there seems to be new policies regarding credits for our games and since there seems to be a lack of trust between certain individuals and management, couldn't we have some WRITTEN information of these policies. In particular, can someone reassure us that the current bonus program is still in effect and will remain so until xxxxx. Can the current policy on credits be written down and include if possible the current policy on credits with respect to 2600, 5200, 800, and ATARISOFT conversions. For everyones information I was not told that my name would appear on the 2600 Millipede documentation. I had to ask Steve Calfee. In fact it seems logical that the names of all members of the Coin-Op team responsible for developing the game should appear. Can someone write down whether the ASTARISOFT software will bring royalties to Coin-OP? Now for my pet pieve, can we get a little better accounting on the bonus program? I was given verbal assurance by John Farrand that this was possible but maybe he doesn't understand how hard or time consumming this is. In the past ATARI didn't want to do this because this would release information that the competition is not supposed to know. In fact if you want to know the VCS sales of a cart, just call your friends at Activision or Imagic or Starpath for the info. I was also told that the other divisions just paid monies to Coin-Op but did not supply the number of units sold or other info. With the new organization I would hope that this information would be available. The kind of information I would like to see with our bonus checks is 1) Coin-Op units sold (at full price) 2) those sold at a loss (thus no royalties for them) 3) Coin-Op kits sold (as above) 4) same for 2600, 800, 5200 and ATARISOFT. P.S. They (Marketing) released the 2600 Millipede on Monday before they could test the cart for the required 40 hrs. There was a screen roll failure after 35 hrs. So by the book they should not have passed the cart for release.

Found this interesting memo on a tape backup: Comments about 2600 Millipede cart dated 1/23/84, by Todd Walker, Eric Ginner, and Franz Lanzinger 1-31-84 Bar at bottom is probably there to show the edge of the screen. Is this really necessary? Bees are to wide, and they fall much faster than in the coin-op. DT should say DDT. They are transparent when they ought to be solid (you can see mushrooms behind the DDT sometimes). shooter ought to be different color than mushrooms 1200 score looks strange, yet 1000 looks good. Heads of millipede segments don't stay at bottom two full times across. DDT bomb explosion too tall, and not wide enough Inchworm slow down player too, not just the creatures No collision detect between millipede segments and other motion objects. This is a serious problem, causing segments to overlay one another sometimes. You'll shoot what looks like one segment, and there is another behind it to kill you (unfair!). The screen scrolls wildly sometimes on higher levels, completely screwing up the players orientation. We have this on tape. Doesn't tell you when the next bonus is at bottom of the screen. No collision detect between player and mushrooms. Segments come down way too fast after hitting poisoned mushrooms. After hitting inchworm, sidefeed sends out two segments at a time. No 2 player option. Sidefeed too fast (much more difficult than in coin-op, especially at higher levels, where it seems impossible to deal with, even at the start of a game). Bees leave an evenly spaced trail of mushrooms. Ought to be random. Beetle is counted as part of bonus wave (shouldn't be). Sequence of bonus waves may be off (too many bee waves). DDT explosion stopped short once, don't know why. Bonus waves don't increase in duration at higher scores (this is the "best part about millipede" according to FXL) Shots that hit millipede keep going to the top of the screen. We have this on tape too. The trick flower trick doesn't work (probably because there is no collision detect between player and mushrooms). The trick works like this: You sit directly underneath a flower, and when the screen scrolls down the flower gets erased. This lets you get rid of a particularly pesky flower in the coin-op version. If this was helpful in any way, give a copy of this to Steve Calfee.

Some comments about 5200 Millipede from Ed Logg: "Months ago I also reviewed a Millipede for the 800 (or 5200 I don't remember). I sent my comments back and just last week received a letter back for Richard Frick thanking me and giving me a list of changes they have implemented. When I talked to him he recalled when the comments came back and how the programmer grumbled about doing any more changes. However after the changes were made the programmer has become very excited about the new program. Now ISN'T that a heart warming story. It sure made my week. I hope we see more cooperation like that in the future."

Here is a memo about NIGHTMARE: GAME DEVELOPMENT STATUS NIGHTMARE DATE: 03 AUG 84 PROJECT LEADER: CODDINGTON START: LAB: CODDINGTON EXT: 7272 NUMBER: 457XX "RAS" | EVENT | SCHEDULE OR | MISSED DATES | | | <OCCURANCE> | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1ST MKT REVIEW ON MODIFIED 8/22/84 FOODFIGHT HDWR 2ND MKT REVIEW ON MODIFIED 9/18/84 PACKRAT HDWR 3RD MKT REVIEW ON BUDGET SYS 10/3/84 FIELD TESTS ----------- Field Tests continue at Gold Mine (Fashion Island) and Oakridge Bowl. A memo has been sent to GCC with recommended changes to improve game performance. A decision to convert Nightmare to Actionline is on hold pending upper management discussions for two weeks. Work continues in Mechanical on joystick with fire button.  

The previous dump had a lot of garbage data in it that was not necessary. This dump is 8k with no extra data in it.

Here is the fixed and proper ROM dump. Pursuit of the Pink Panther (Probe) (Prototype) [fixed].bin

Hopefully one day we will all get to play it.

I found these recently while going back through some boxes and folders in my archive. These look very close to final with very subtle differences. Enjoy!! PAL Popeye (7-20-83).bin Popeye (7-20-83).bin

Not sure, they can’t even terminate if they owe taxes.

Imagic still owns all of their IP. Imagic still exists as a company, just cannot operate due to suspension.

Nope, Imagic being suspended meant they could not protect their copyrights and trademarks. Basically they could not defend themselves. I believe Activision just took advantage of the situation.

The Imagic rights are not part of the Activision deal as they never acquired them in the first place. Imagic is suspended and has been since 1986.

When I was dumping this using ProSystem, it stopped reading about a third of the way through. It works but has issues due to being a partial dump. I forgot about this as I dumped it way back in 2005.

Only the 3-9 one is damaged. This new one I made last night is fine.