Missing Vectrex stuff :(

[VectorX]

I remember how depressing it was (still is! Even though it's been offline for a while now) upon first finding out about the Vectrex database site. There was all this stuff on it in regards to rumored games and such that would never be, due to the gaming crash. What the hell was "Chomp"? Another Pac-Man clone? How about Berzerk II? What would the version of Pole Position for the 3D Imager look like, what improvements would it have? I still want that Solar System educational program, dammit! And on and on.

There was a Vectrex keynote address years ago from one of the ex-employees, saying they still might have some of their files lying around. With the occasional ROMs still to this day coming out here and there for games for the Atari 2600 that were never finished, probably many of these Vectrex projects will be lost forever due to disks going bad and such, sadly. We've (the Vec community) barely gotten squat over the years: MonStorm ("Monster Mine Storm", just discovered a few months ago, done by a GCE employee), a few somewhat working (in various stages) versions of Mail Plane, Dr. Spin (Spinball, although that one appears to be complete) and Pitcher's Duel, among maybe a few others I'm forgetting, and that's IT!

Sad. And these ex-GCE/W. Technology/Smith Engineering employees need to dig up some of their stuff and see about getting it out to the public before it's too late!

Well, enough of this depressing post...comment/lament away...

[gamezone]

Totally agree! But since you started this site I think Vectrex prices have gone up again on Ebay so maybe someone will think it's time and pull the ROMS out of mothball storage.

[VectorX]

Oct 12, 2011 21:28:49 GMT -5 gamezone said:

Totally agree! But since you started this site I think Vectrex prices have gone up again on Ebay

Wishful thinking on the latter! But I like it ;D

Oct 12, 2011 21:28:49 GMT -5 gamezone said:

so maybe someone will think it's time and pull the ROMS out of mothball storage.

Well we have gotten a few recently. I hope Mine Storm III gets released, if it's still around (I hope that guy didn't toss out that game years ago when he was a kid...and I mean the GCE-released M S III, NOT the similarly-ly titled hack called MineStorm 3, there's a big difference!). And we need to hear more about any potential others too.

[50tbrd]

Just read about the complete/ near complete versions of Atari2600 which recently surfaced and it gives me hope that maybe one day that a copy of 3D Pole Position might surface especially after the complete/ near complete copies of Mail Plane surfaced last year. Maybe even a game will surface which we never even knew existed.

[VectorX]

Oct 11, 2014 15:06:13 GMT -5 50tbrd said:

Just read about the complete/ near complete versions of Atari2600 which recently surfaced

What's come up recently?

Oct 11, 2014 15:06:13 GMT -5 50tbrd said:

Maybe even a game will surface which we never even knew existed.

Since old e-mails have been cataloged and all, I kind of doubt it, but you never know. Even stuff that has been mentioned but was never seen out of the offices of GCE/Western Technologies would be nice, like whatever the "Chomp" game was supposed to be (I assume Pac-Man, but maybe not, as there was already Clean Sweep).

[50tbrd]

From AtariAge,
"Our friend Matt Reichert has posted reviews AtariProtos.com of several recently discovered Atari 2600 titles. The first title is Elf Adventure, revealed about a year ago, appears appears to be a possible sequel to the classic game Adventure. This version of Elf Adventure looks to be fairly early in development, but it uses a similar graphics style to Adventure. One title amongst a batch of newly discovered prototypes is Morse Code Tutor, which seems to be just that: a program to help hone your Morse code skills. It's not known if this was being developed officially at Atari or by the programmer in his spare time, but it's a surprising find after all these years. Also discovered was an updated and nearly complete version of Xevious for the 2600. Prototypes of Xevious had been discovered in the past, but this new version appears to be just about finished. One additional new prototype, an FM Synth cart, was also found in this batch of prototypes (from a box owned by a former Atari employee), but Matt has yet to review this prototype due to its technical nature and lack of visuals."

More information can be found at AtariProtos.com.

[VectorX]

Thanks, I'm gonna go there now!