Chris,
At 06:30 AM 6/29/01 +0000, you wrote:
Hey,
I'd like to throw in my two cents on the whole 2600 B-Sides
thing. I don't have a list to submit or even much opinion about
which ones to include, but I do think it should be done with great
care. If this comes off like some cheap quick buck scheme like so
many of the Hasbro Interactive "Atari" releases it's going to
tank and do nothing for the developer, the publisher or the existing fan
base. I think it should be approached as a real homage to the great
system. The 2600 and Atari built the multi-billion dollar
videogame industry of today and this should be a showcase of how and
why. The inclusion of art galleries, box art collections, and maybe
even small interviews or articles would make it much more
interesting. Focus on the exact style of the period and the people
involved. Maybe drop the games in along a timeline with a little
information about each. As you progress through the games you could
earn points with which you can buy new sections of the timeline or unlock
the box art, or prototypes or whatever. Keep it fun, keep it
interesting and keep it form being a new emulator. If I wanted
another 2600 emulator I could take my pick of the 20 or so floating
around the internet and download them for free ROMS included, but a real
walk down memory lane that is priceless.
Cool stuff that collectors would enjoy? Bring it on. I've
played Boxing a million times but I've never once seen it's box or the
face of the man who programmed it. If you want me to pick up my
shiny new Gameboy Advance and deal with emulated controls and
approximated version of the games I loved after Boy Scouts in the early
80's you need to give me something more.
Something that appeals to me now. My feeling is that most of the
audience that is still paying attention to the Atari line are collectors
and catalogers. Give them a reason to play and you might pull them
out of their den and make them buy games they already own six copies of,
have dissassembled, rebuilt, emulated and know very well.
On the whole Paddle debate that I've seen flare up and die down I'm
afraid I have to side with the purists. You can not capture the
paddle experience on a 8 direction d-pad no matter how hard you
try. Centipede is not the same without the trackball and Pong is
not Pong with out the paddle. It is as much part of the game as the
the bouncing ball itself. That being said I still think paddle
games should be included with some emulated, highly tested and tweaked
control schemes because the games where a very cool part of the Atari
2600 line and they absolutely rock 2 player(or 4 player as the case may
be). Leaving them out would be to do the collection and the fans a
great injustice.
And now to Swordquest. If you're going to include it, do it
right. Do it big. Include the series, the comics, and a newly
written final chapter complete with contest and prize. I mean, you
could just include the story and pics of the winners etc. and that would
definately be cool, but if you really want to dazzle people you have to
stun them with something they would never have expected in a million
years.
For me this whole thing boils down to whether you're doing it for
the money or the love of the game. The fall of Atari (in my mind)
has always been because they were doing it for money and didn't even have
an understanding of the love of the games. Marketing and management
wanted another big hit and didn't care of the game was fun to play or
not. Was it in the arcades at some point? Does it have a
movie franchise attached? Is it a sequal to one of our popular
franchises? Do these questions really matter? Yeah, they make
it easy to advertise and do increase sales, but what happens after they
get it home and plug it in. It sucks. It's unplayable.
Why didn't they ever ask whether it was fun to play? I think if you
focus on capturing that fun to play element that we all remember from
those early days and take that through every part of the developement
process you can have a marketable product that will make it to market
instead of a few messages on the Stella list and a beautiful dream that
only we get to share in. I say good luck and god speed. If
you make it to market with more than another emulator you've definately
got my buck regardless of which games you happen to include.
Christopher "if you build it they will come" Rydberg
solitaire0@xxxxxxxxxxx
afterlife.100megsfree4.com
I admire your courage to say such things and I agree with you 100%.
Being the person who wants to make Atari a reality for everyone who
hasn't played it, I want to do all of that. I loved the idea for
Super Mario All Staris. They had box art and did a nice way of
scrolling that information. I want more though, I do want to have a
quick background behind it and I do want a timeline. You hit a big
nerve on me that makes me remember such great games falter because of not
adding those little personal touches. Namco Museum does remind me
of such as well as the Hasbro ones as well.
If Infogrames lets me make this game, I will try to get this game to look
so awe-inspiring that Infogrames and Hasbro kick themselves for not
making it themselves. Unfortunately big game companies don't know
what people want, but when a game fancier creates one, it is
brilliant.
Later Days,
Christopher A.
Haslage
HaslageNetElectronics
http://www.haslage.net/
"We Work For
You!"
