Untested Meteors PCB
- Thread starter MajorHavoc
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HudsonArcade
Well-known member
I've got a few of those -- not particularly in demand, but it's pretty fun.
Amusement World's Meteors right? Pretty cool game. I have played the orignal prototype machine.
I can't say that it has high demand but it's certainly gonna be more uncommon outside the Maryland area. Awesome piece of coinop history.
I can't say that it has high demand but it's certainly gonna be more uncommon outside the Maryland area. Awesome piece of coinop history.
HudsonArcade
Well-known member
If it actually comes up as Meteors, it's a bootleg / ROM hack of Ventureline's Meteoroids.
Seems a little up in the air as to which really came first. Though venture line has a better case.
I think Meteors is the cooler version because the horizontal monitor works better for it. And they're the ones that got sued by Atari, though their cabinet did look almost exactly like asteroids also. Even though it was actually bespoke (and heavy as fucking shit).
HudsonArcade
Well-known member
Could disassemble the ROMs and see which one looks like a clean code base and which looks patched.
OP
OP
An article written in 2022 (see link at bottom) seems to point to Venture Line or some other company being the originator of the hardware and software. I'll quote the relevant paragraphs here:
Holniker had procured his PCB (printed circuit board—the "guts"/"brain" of any arcade cabinet—which contained the actual game information) for Meteors from a company called Venture Line, who were themselves supplied with design schematics Holniker had sourced from another company called "Processor Control, or Control Technology, whatever." at Venture Line's suggestion.
Holniker testified under questioning that Amusement World, Inc., aside from a few physical alterations to the PCB to address overheating and other operational issues, had no direct input in the main content of the game received from Venture Line as a completed (and presumably legally produced) product. Additions such as a starfield background, assignment of color characteristics to certain game elements (i.e. the player ship, alien craft, etc.), improved audio reproduction, and the game's specific splash screen were handled by Holniker and a contracted engineer by the name of Gary Lutters.
Holniker had procured his PCB (printed circuit board—the "guts"/"brain" of any arcade cabinet—which contained the actual game information) for Meteors from a company called Venture Line, who were themselves supplied with design schematics Holniker had sourced from another company called "Processor Control, or Control Technology, whatever." at Venture Line's suggestion.
Holniker testified under questioning that Amusement World, Inc., aside from a few physical alterations to the PCB to address overheating and other operational issues, had no direct input in the main content of the game received from Venture Line as a completed (and presumably legally produced) product. Additions such as a starfield background, assignment of color characteristics to certain game elements (i.e. the player ship, alien craft, etc.), improved audio reproduction, and the game's specific splash screen were handled by Holniker and a contracted engineer by the name of Gary Lutters.
Asteroids and Meteors and Lawyers: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Copyright Law
This post highlights Maryland Civil Case No. 81-803, Atari, Inc. v. Amusement World, Inc., Box 1123, which is one of the many court records held at the National Archives at Philadelphia. It comes f…
prologue.blogs.archives.gov
HudsonArcade
Well-known member
A cursory poke through the code of all 3 games make it look like they were somewhat independently assembled from the same code base -- there's a lot of share subroutines, but at different locations in the different ROMs, so it doesn't look like one was the base code and the others were just hacks on top of it.
