unknown Genesis arcade game

coinopper

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Has anyone ever heard of this game before or have any information about it? It's not listed on KLOV or on the unMAMed website. Home versions were done by Data Soft for the Apple II, Atari 400/800/XL, and C-64. This site has a picture of the box and on the back is a picture of the arcade game and a screenshot:

http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-genesis_2182.html
 
Has anyone ever heard of this game before or have any information about it? It's not listed on KLOV or on the unMAMed website. Home versions were done by Data Soft for the Apple II, Atari 400/800/XL, and C-64. This site has a picture of the box and on the back is a picture of the arcade game and a screenshot:

http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-genesis_2182.html


Interesting. The cabinet pic looks like a mock up since the coin door is mirrored - the locks are on the wrong side!
 
Nice catch. I attached a larger pic of the cabinet. It reminds me of Sega's SubRoc-3D or Shooting Master, so maybe this was some obscure Sega game? Datasoft seemed to credit all the other arcade ports they did (Juno First, Lost Tomb, Pooyan, Zaxxon, etc)
 

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Interesting find! Details that suggest it may not have been an arcade game:
- coin door is backwards (ataritoobin)
- catalog makes no mention of an arcade port like it does with all the others (coinopper)
- generic marquee on an otherwise nicely decorated cab
- Genesis was an alternate title for the 1983 DECO game Boomer Rang'r
- Design Labs looks like it was a home software company. Game Programming: Kevin Furry, Graphic Art: Whitney Caughlan, Documentation: Laurel Belkin. Maybe one of these team members can be reached? Caughlan worked on games for platforms as recent as the Sega Master System and also did the graphics for the Lost Tomb C64 port. Kevin Furry turns up in a few places as a programmer for Epyx.

But then again, Blaster was developed for the Atari 8-bit computers before it became the arcade game, so it's possible Design Labs' Genesis was some kind of prototype arcade game that never saw the light of day or was released under another title.
 
I found this Datasoft ad, which mentions versions for various home computers back then. It also says it was based on an arcade game and the screenshot is the same one that was on the box.

There's also information about another Design Labs arcade game called Triple Draw Poker: http://maws.mameworld.info/maws/romset/tdpgal
There's no page on KLOV for it, but according to that page it was added to MAME in version 1.33. It's credited to (c) 1983 Thomas Automatics, Inc.
 
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I found this Datasoft ad, which mentions versions for various home computers back then. It also says it was based on an arcade game and the screenshot is the same one that was on the box.

There's also information about another Design Labs arcade game called Triple Draw Poker: http://maws.mameworld.info/maws/romset/tdpgal
There's no page on KLOV for it, but according to that page it was added to MAME in version 1.33. It's credited to (c) 1983 Thomas Automatics, Inc.

Good grief, in that ad they have the screenshot upside down! :rofl:
 
Programmer Kevin Furry also worked on some titles for LucasArts, he might be the best lead on tracking down someone who could remember the Genesis project.

How does Genesis play? Is it a Tempest wannabe?
 
I've talked with Kevin Furry but he doesn't remember anything about the arcade game, so I'm hoping one of the hardcore collectors here might know something about it. The game plays like Tempest would with a joystick, and with a few differences.
 
Thomas Automatics showed Genesis at the 1982 AMOA show in November.

Design Labs was a "sister company" to Thomas Automatics.

Thomas Automatics was cofounded by Thomas Tol and Kyle Fields (Fields served as VP of engineering).

Fields was the president of Design Labs and supposedly designed Genesis.

Here is a blurb on the game from the November, 1982 RePlay:
"Paul Jacobs of Thomas Automatics says that the firm will be showing off three videos at the AMOA. The big buzz is on 'Genesis', the firm's first (and very authentic) 3-D video (rumor has it that several leading manufacturers have inspected the pieced and found the 3-D effect 'first rate'). Paul, along with firm chief Tom Tol and staff will also show their current 'Holey Moley' video, plus a new one called 'Time Bomb'. The 'Genesis', by the way, was designed by Kyle Fields, main man at their sister company Design Labs, Inc."

The December issue had a brief mention of the game (which they did show at the AMOA)
"Thomas Automatics showed a new piece called 'Genesis', which got high marks for its 3-D special effects (they may license the game to a larger factory)."

I do have a picture of the game at the AMOA show from the December, 1982 issue of RePlay. Unfortunately it is from an old black and white scan I have of the issue, but you can tell that it is the same cabinet that appears in the ad that was linked to in the first post in this thread.

Keith Smith
allincolorforaquarter.blogspot.com
 
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Wonder how the 3D effects compared to SubRoc-3D, the Genesis cabinet in the photos looks similar with the scope section over the front. Maybe Fields can shed some more light?
 
Cool!

I've talked with Kevin Furry but he doesn't remember anything about the arcade game, so I'm hoping one of the hardcore collectors here might know something about it. The game plays like Tempest would with a joystick, and with a few differences.


I have worked with Kevin Furry (nickname is Fuzzy) several times over the last few years. He owns an LED display & software development company, Kiboworks:

http://www.kiboworks.com/gallery/gallery.html

Just last year, I was talking to him about myself being an old school video game & arcade collector. That was when I found out that he did stuff for Atari, EPYX & others....I was totally freaking out!

He's done really well for himself and has a partner in his company that also worked with him back in the video game development days. I haven't seen him in a few months - but plan to tackle him next time I see him and get more info :)

-GackAttack
 
Google-fu turned up this AtariProtos.com page on the Amiga version.

I archived and released copies of that version 4 years ago. That site doesn't like to credit its sources for information.


Thomas Automatics showed Genesis at the 1982 AMOA show in November.

Design Labs was a "sister company" to Thomas Automatics.

Thomas Automatics was cofounded by Thomas Tol and Kyle Fields (Fields served as VP of engineering).

Fields was the president of Design Labs and supposedly designed Genesis.

I do have a picture of the game at the AMOA show from the December, 1982 issue of RePlay. Unfortunately it is from an old black and white scan I have of the issue, but you can tell that it is the same cabinet that appears in the ad that was linked to in the first post in this thread.

Keith Smith
allincolorforaquarter.blogspot.com

Thanks for the information, Keith. Can you post a scan of that RePlay article? I would be interested in seeing a photo of the cabinet, even if it's b&w.
 
Update........

I have worked with Kevin Furry (nickname is Fuzzy) several times over the last few years. He owns an LED display & software development company, Kiboworks:

http://www.kiboworks.com/gallery/gallery.html

Just last year, I was talking to him about myself being an old school video game & arcade collector. That was when I found out that he did stuff for Atari, EPYX & others....I was totally freaking out!

He's done really well for himself and has a partner in his company that also worked with him back in the video game development days. I haven't seen him in a few months - but plan to tackle him next time I see him and get more info :)

-GackAttack

Here's an interview I recently did with Fernando Alvarez, who did the Atari 8-bit port of Genesis:

http://www.2600connection.com/interviews/fernando_alvarez/interview_fernando_alvarez.html

Unfortunately, he didn't have anything to add about the coin-op version beyond confirming they had one to use for some of the home ports.

By some crazy coincidence, Kevin Furry walked by my desk just a few minutes ago!

I asked if he had been contacted recently about your Genesis game research which he said yes....did he respond back to you?

He mentioned something about forwarding another contact to you who would possibly have more info....also mentioned he remembered it having game play similar to Tempest.

I only got to bend his ear for about 3 minutes before he had to go to some meeting (big wheel kinda guy, lol)

The last time I talked to him he mentioned being one of the developers for Zaxxon arcade machines for ATARI and if you check the inside of the back door of a cab you might see his autograph which he did on a lot of those cabs when he was testing/approving them. I didn't think about it at the time, but Zaxxon is a Sega game. I asked him about that today - he claimed Zaxxon was actually made by Atari, then licensed to Sega....I didn't know that!

He mentioned briefly how he (and others) used to make really good money in the beginning on console games, they would typically get 10% royalty on each game. One of them sold like 500,000 copies! Then later companies started to just offer salaries at around $30k-$40k per year for a full time position doing the same thing. At the time, I'm sure that was probably decent pay....but nowhere near the possibility of what a successful game would make!

I also asked if he still has cartridges/files from when he developed back in the day. He said yes, that he still has most/all of that stuff in his own collection :)

.....Next time I see him, I'm just gonna ask straight up if I can see/take pics of his stuff!!


-GackAttack
 
By some crazy coincidence, Kevin Furry walked by my desk just a few minutes ago!

The last time I talked to him he mentioned being one of the developers for Zaxxon arcade machines for ATARI and if you check the inside of the back door of a cab you might see his autograph which he did on a lot of those cabs when he was testing/approving them. I didn't think about it at the time, but Zaxxon is a Sega game. I asked him about that today - he claimed Zaxxon was actually made by Atari, then licensed to Sega....I didn't know that!

Never heard this... Unfortunately I think my Zaxxon came minus the back door.
The company I read that made a lot of the farmed out games -Zaxxon included, is named Ikegami Tsushinki. They were supposedly involved with games for Nintendo as well, but didn't get credit for any of it due to the nature of the contracts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikegami_Tsushinki
 
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