Atari Road Runner laserdisc prototype

gumball7839

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Give me a story about the obscure unreleased laserdisc version of Road Runner by Atari! Was it supposed to be on System 1 hardware at the time?
 
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I don't remember when Scott was talking to Jed about it, but I think custom hardware that was never made or modified Firefox hardware.
 
Wasn't there a working laserdisc version at CAX one year? I feel like I've seen a video of one as well, somewhere.
Remember seeing that video and thinking that the released, regular-pixel-version was absolutely the correct call.
 
I've played the one at Funspot pretty regularly (well before the joystick developed issues and won't register 'up' anymore) and it does look to me like the core game is the same as the non-Laserdisc version (though I don't remember that part landslide/boulders section) from a quick glance at the blurry video.

Perhaps the LD was only used for the cut scenes, as previously mentioned.
 
I think the background graphics in the scrolling action scenes are also taken from the LD if I remember correctly…
 
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This site claims with the prototype the road and background images were from the laserdisc:


Which would explain how the 'page flipping' effect was done when you complete a level.

Game Trivia : Information from The Dragons Lair Project.
This unique laserdisc game used footage from the Road Runner Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon series. The Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote and other objects and obstacles in the game were computer graphics, while the road and background images were streamed from the laserdisc.
When you or the coyote died, the game would cut to a scene from the cartoon series of the Coyote getting killed in one the many humorous death scenes.
Before the game was released Atari decided that laserdisc technology was no longer viable for arcades due to reliability so Road Runner was shelved. A year later the game was released as a conversion kit for their popular System 1 cabinets, but as a computer graphics only version, with the road and background images now rendered by the PCB and all of the cut scenes removed.

(From Owen Rubin) : Road Runner was similar. It used video game graphics for the game play almost identical to the game that was released except that it used LD video instead of graphics for the background. Very cool to have the game graphics go in and out of cartoon footage. When the Road Runner would "get" the coyote (like making him fall off a cliff or hit a truck) the game would pause and a LD "video replay" would show a real cartoon segment with that same thing that just happened. For example, in the game where the coyote has to avoid stepping on the land mines, when he does, the game shows him getting blown-up in graphics, and then (not always) a video would show a real cartoon excerpt from a Road Runner cartoon of the coyote getting blown up. It was very cool.

The entry and photos for Road Runner on DLP is gone, but this page still has the comments from Owen Rubin about the game:



Michael Albaugh also contributed to the laserdisc prototype:

Michael felt the laserdisc was dropped due to the cost, where Owen felt it was dropped due to it repeatedly failing when out on test location.

More info and video about the prototype version on this page:

 
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Interesting on how the background is from the laserdisc itself! The cabinet also looks like a combination of a System 2 with the front of an I, Robot, dedicated Major Havoc or a Firefox which I find fascinating... Do we know who possess this famed piece of arcade laserdisc history?
 
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With the age of this Laserdisc and the issues surrounding Laserdisc rot... I hope somehow this is preserved for the future
 
There was one at CAX in 2010. I don't seem to have taken a good photo of it.
 

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Minor details :) .

Or just disguise the trip as "video arcade historical research" for some type of school project or something like that and get your parents to fund the venture ;) .

Jonathan
 
I think dluck has the board and player . I have an original atari cabinet it would have come in but no evidence it ever housed a RR . Very cool looking cabinet had a centipede in it when i got it .
 
This site claims with the prototype the road and background images were from the laserdisc:


Which would explain how the 'page flipping' effect was done when you complete a level.



The entry and photos for Road Runner on DLP is gone, but this page still has the comments from Owen Rubin about the game:



Michael Albaugh also contributed to the laserdisc prototype:

Michael felt the laserdisc was dropped due to the cost, where Owen felt it was dropped due to it repeatedly failing when out on test location.

More info and video about the prototype version on this page:


>>
>> The entry and photos for Road Runner on DLP is gone,
>>

We still have the information on the laserdisc version of Road Runner... including pics of the hardware used. Click the link below...

It's actually kinda cool.... the laserdisc player had the ability to play the background footage forward and backwards seamlessly depending on if you were moving the joystick left or right on the screen.



.
 
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