martyg
New member
I get the same experience, and I coded the things, heh. Never got any set aside for me from Atari or Taco Bell, so I have to go in and get them like the rest of you.
Marty
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Taco Bell Kids Meals
- Thread starter jeffsgames
- Start date
I get the same experience, and I coded the things, heh. Never got any set aside for me from Atari or Taco Bell, so I have to go in and get them like the rest of you.
Marty
OP
OP
Sorry, Marty, no intention to offend. At the time I only tried out the Centipede, and it was really hard to control. I assumed it was due to the Adobe tool you had to use. Centipede needed to be able to use the mouse without having to use the rectangle "control area" below. That was the only one I tried. After seeing the Lunar Lander, I really liked how it looked and sounded. Centipede was not as good, but you did a good job with Lunar Lander!
aboy1411
New member
I still have an atari. Im gonna sell it soon to fund my new arcade addiction. So I need to go get this too.....
smello
Member
spacebaby
New member
Just picked up two of each for a total of eight for under $5.00 ,I think I stunned the Cashier.
martyg
New member
Thanks re Lunar Lander. Regarding Centipede, Flash (which is what these were done in) only gives literal mouse pointer position on the screen, not raw mouse input. I.E. when the pointer reaches the edge of your computer screen, input stops. That creates issues for something like collision with a mushroom where your player stops but your mouse keeps going. I had another version that allowed tracking of the mouse pointer, i.e. wherever your mouse pointer goes the player graphic tries to go to it in the shortest path in that direction. Atari and Taco Bell didn't care for that, because they thought it'd be to confusing for kids to be watching that and pay attention to what's happening everywhere else on the screen. They wanted mouse control out completely, and I gave them a compromise: the trak-ball simulator. It's literally meant to be "massaged" like a literal trak-ball. Small motions in it will create small motions of the player. Large swipes across it will produce large motions with an ending decay just like a trak-ball. With some practice, you can get it working just like an actual ball. It was never meant to be used as a pointing device like a mouse. I actually had another version where the graphic was a literal trak-ball, but they wanted the non-descript block area that looks like it's part of the bezel.
Regarding Lunar Lander, we actually wanted to do a lot more with the evolved version, there just wasn't time. That was the only evolved game we were given full creative license on. I was extremely disappointed with the PSP version, as it deviated to much from the original concept - which was of course the lunar landing. Curt and I had the shared goal of trying to do the update in a manner that kept the original game play intact while bringing it closer to the original vision of the game (which is our formula for any updates we do), and tying it in to the 30th anniversary of the landing (as this was done last summer). My vision was to pay homage to the original vector version of the game by including a vector overlay for the surface as I did, and of course for the landing numbers and readouts. So it looked more like you were looking at a guidance system. The controls and options were dumbed down on both versions (classic and evolved) for the kids per Taco Bell and Atari's request so they wouldn't loose interest.
WadeLanham
Well-known member
Can someone post screenshots or youtube videos of these games in action? I missed out on the Taco Bell offer.
Wade
Wade
martyg
New member
Curt and I, being the Atari historians/researchers that we are, had access to the original developers in some cases, original source code, design notes, the actual games, etc. In the case of Breakout for instance I worked several years ago with Al Alcorn on getting a logic based PONG simulation engine going, which the Breakout engine uses. We also play tested it directly with an actual Breakout machine as well. I also wanted some authenticity, so I took the time to simulate the color overlays as well. The sounds are direct samples from a Breakout pcb. I went through several versions of this, with one of the original ones having the full control panel complete with spinning knob reproduced.
Unfortunately we could only go so far with what we wanted vs. what Taco Bell/Atari wanted. I.E. they wanted skill levels, and the tradeoff was no extra lives for instance. We wanted more cabinet simulation and they wanted nothing but the bezel and even that had to be trimmed down. They gave me an insane design schedule (one game a week), so there wasn't time to say...add the full scrolling landscape that you can do at a distance in Lunar Lander, or work through to get every single color change cycled accurately in to Centipede, etc.
Same with the evolved versions, where they insisted we use the graphical and sound assets from the already done Stainless evolved versions (PSP, etc.). We forced a compromise and cut out all the ridiculous Jeff Minter wanna-be colored light fests that were in the original Evolved versions. Some specific instances of negotiations I remember - 1) I took the time to design an updated ship that was actually a cross between the one shown in the coin-op artwork and 2600 box artwork, since that would bring it closer to the original vision. They said no and that it was to confusing to tell which was the front vs. back (even though the front has the blasters and the back has the thrust flames). So we took the graphic and dumbed it down to the pie slice shape. 2) They wanted us to start spinning the asteroids and such. We said no, then it would be Asteroids Deluxe Evolved.
3) They thought the saucer mad it to hard, so they had me completely pull it out of the intermediate and beginner versions and dumb it down more in the arcade. I came up with compromise of keep the arcade normal, varying the appearance frequency and in the others.
martyg
New member
They already did, post number 17:
http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showpost.php?p=1099166&postcount=17
smello
Member
Wow, what a bunch of jerkoffs. So did you have to approve them with Taco Bell, and Atari? Who had more pull?
Sounds cool. I still haven't opened mine yet though. It must be cool to see something you programmed givin out all over the country. I would feel very proud.
martyg
New member
Taco Bell had the most pull ultimately, they were the clients. They contacted Atari to license the games and produce them, who in turn contracted us to actually do them.
We had to go through two tiers of approval. Atari and Taco Bell.
And the week a game schedule was insane. I wound up coding 20 - 21 hours a day, seven days a week, for 8 weeks straight. Then there was the debugging and "change request" weeks after that.
Yah, it was really cool actually. Considering the many false starts of similar projects we had over the previous 3 years (I recoded several other games as well), it was also a relief just to have one of the projects make it out there.
That and the Flashback units.
smello
Member
Oh you did the flashbacks? Both of them? I think it's cool that the 2nd revision? one can be modded with a cart port. I am going to do that to mine someday. I forget which is which now.
martyg
New member
Yes, Legacy did the Flashbacks - all 3 of them (the Flashback 1, 2, and 2+).
The 2 and 2+ can be modded with a cart port, those systems are based on our 2600-on-a-chip.
