Atari Time Pilot

Does the 1/2 marquee light up? Does it utilize the much hated marquee "overlay"?

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Wow I am really confused. Normally thinking that Time pilot is a Konami/Centuri game and Popeye nintendo, It just seems odd that Atari did this back in the day.

Why did this happen? Who owned the rights to the games? Did Atari make the game or Konami/Centuri for time pilot?
 
Wow I am really confused. Normally thinking that Time pilot is a Konami/Centuri game and Popeye nintendo, It just seems odd that Atari did this back in the day.

Why did this happen? Who owned the rights to the games? Did Atari make the game or Konami/Centuri for time pilot?

Konami created Time Pilot. Centuri manufactured it in the US. Atari in Europe. Others in other countries.

Nintendo created Popeye and manufactured it in US and Japan. Atari in Europe.
 
Wow I am really confused. Normally thinking that Time pilot is a Konami/Centuri game and Popeye nintendo, It just seems odd that Atari did this back in the day.

Konami developed Time Pilot. Centuri manufactured it under licence for the US market.

Similarly, Nintendo developed Popeye, but Atari manufactured it for the European market.

Why did this happen?

Sticking with the example of how Atari came to manufacture Popeye for the European market:

Let's say you're Nintendo. You want to sell games that you have created in a certain market - in this case, Europe. But you have no manufacturing capacity in that region, and shipping costs plus import duties and other taxes makes sending completed games over economically unfeasible; by the time the games arrived, they'd be priced out of the range that distributors would be willing to pay for them.

The solution: contract a third party in that region to manufacture your games locally under licence. In this case, the third party is Atari, who are just building a cabinet and putting PCBs in it for Nintendo. Atari hasn't designed the game, but they are manufacturing it on Nintendo's behalf.

Who owned the rights to the games?

Typically whoever it was that initiated the licensing deal with the third-party manufacturer. In the case of Popeye, Nintendo likely owned the rights to the game, but gave Atari rights to manufacture it for European distribution.

Did Atari make the game or Konami/Centuri for time pilot?

In Japan, Konami wrote the game's software, designed the PCBs, and built completed games for that region. However, they entered into licensing agreements with Centuri (who handled US manufacturing) and Atari (European manufacturing) to build and sell the games in those regions. The game software was always Konami's creation.

Bear in mind also that not all licensing agreements to build games were necessarily with a multinational company such as Atari. In the UK, local firms Streets and Electrocoin built a number of games under third-party licence for several original manufacturers such as Namco, Williams, Gottlieb, and Taito, to name a few.
 
I never knew there was an Atari Time Pilot, but I really like that cabinet and side art. Maybe even more than the Centuri version!
 
All I know is I love the cab, and would love to repro with a custom metal Atari badge for the coin door, maybe one of our European KLOV brothers can get measurements or heavy pics. Would look great next to a Gyruss in the line up.

I own the Irish Millipede that was linked earlier. I can get you measurements/pics if you want. It's a really unique cabinet that gets confused with Circus Charlie and/or Gyruss a lot.
 
It's probably the same guy that designed the Millipede/Crystal Castles speaker assembly with that nice glass piece that always falls out when the overlay cracks!
 
For that single reason alone... that cabinet is FAIL. I would like to kick whoever thought it was a great idea to use a marquee overlay like that right in the balls.
Kick away! Who really thought BITD that these games would still being played 30+ years later? Hence they probably never considered the marquees cracking or the negative results.

Scott C.
 
I own the Irish Millipede that was linked earlier. I can get you measurements/pics if you want. It's a really unique cabinet that gets confused with Circus Charlie and/or Gyruss a lot.

It would be awesome to get all the measurements so I can build one. But I know that would be asking too much of a person. Hopefully I can find one for sale on the various forums. It would be great to get this cabs specs to the vendor that CNC cuts arcade cabinets as a business.
 
For that single reason alone... that cabinet is FAIL. I would like to kick whoever thought it was a great idea to use a marquee overlay like that right in the balls.

Yeah...I think I would probably replace that glass with a glued in piece of plexi and then make sure there is a smooth transition from plexi to wood, maybe even with an epoxy to eliminate the seam between the plexi and wood, sand smooth, then apply marquee.
 
Atari released the following games in the "Euro" cabinet:

Atari Euro (Ireland) cabarets
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- Liberator
- Gravitar
- Red Baron
- Black Widow
- Dig Dug
- Fast Freddie
- Millipede
- Kangaroo
- Pole Position II

BTW, there is rumored to also be a Major Havoc Euro, but have not been able to find any pictures, flyers, etc. showing it.

Scott C.


Yeah, but within that list, some share the same cab, and some don't. I'm curious to find a list of all of the games generally produced by Atari, not just licensing deals for other manufacturers (e.g. Popeye), like in say the Kangaroo, Dig Dug, Gravitar "Euro" cab, versus the Millipede/Food Fight cab. I like some games, like Dig Dug, much better in the Euro cab.
 
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