2000 ARCHIVE JEO 4.1 Now Online December 31, 2000 - The latest issue of Jaguar Explorer Online has now been posted on the web for all to enjoy. JEO 4.1 includes the latest news about Jeff Minter, as well as reports about JagFest 2000 and Classic Gaming Expo 2000. Jaguar Explorer Online. Tempest 3000 Available Now December 13, 2000 - Those with NUON enhanced DVD players will be happy to know that Tempest 3000 has begun shipping nationwide. The updated classic Atari arcade game has once again been developed for VM Labs by award-winning game builder Jeff Minter, aka. "Yak". It contains an infinite number of algorithmically generated webs and carries a price tag of $29.95. Official NUON Homepage. Official Tempest 3000 Page. Jeff Minter's Page. NUON Dome, The Premier NUON Informational Site. Atari Has Been Sold... Again! December 6, 2000 - For the second time in four years, Atari has changed hands, this time to french-owned videogame publisher Infogrames Entertainment. Hasbro is handing over its entire Hasbro Interactive division along with its Games.com website for $5 million in cash and $95 million in stock. Click on the link below for the official press release. Official Press Release. Games.com Opens To The Public November 23, 2000 - Games.com, a new online gaming site by Hasbro, is now open to the public. In addition to light duty board and card games, the site also has Java versions of classic Atari arcade games, such as Asteroids, Asteroids Deluxe, Battlezone, Centipede, Gravitar, Lunar Lander, Millipede, Missile Command, Red Baron, Space Duel, Super Breakout and Tempest. Check it out and see if you've still got skillz. Hasbro's Games.com. Chris Crawford Writes About Interactivity In His Latest Book November 11, 2000 - His book, entitled Understanding Interactivity, focuses on interactivity design. "This book will help you design better, more easily usable software and websites," Crawford says. His credentials include Eastern Front and Excalibur for the Atari computers, and Balance of Power for the Macintosh. You can learn more about this self-published book at the link below. Understanding Interactivity. New Gaming History Book Released November 1, 2000 - The First Quarter : A 25-year History of Video Games by Steven L. Kent just went on sale today. The book covers the entire history of electronic entertainment and retails for $21.95. It is available for purchase at Amazon.com. Galaga Redux October 10, 2000 - A PlayStation and PC update to the venerable arcade shooter has been released. Galaga: Destination Earth carries an MSRP of $29.95 and is published by Hasbro Interactive under the Atari label. Date Set For PhillyClassic 2001 October 2, 2000 - The second annual classic gamers' gathering in PA will be held on April 20 and 21, at (where else) Philadelphia. For more info, hit the link below to check out the official site. - PhillyClassic website Combat Two To See The Light Of Day September 29, 2000 - The recently discovered Atari 2600 prototype cartridge will see a simultaneous cartridge and ROM image release in the very near future. Keep your eyes peeled on this site for the latest info regarding the sequel to one of the most popular Atari games of all time. In the meantime, check out our review of the game, if you haven't read through it already. - Combat Two Review Championship Rally Coming To Lynx September 28, 2000 - Songbird Productions currently is doing final testing of this multiplayer overhead racer for the Atari Lynx portable. Songbird expects to have the game available sometime before Christmas. - AGH Championship Rally Preview - Songbird Website Twin Galaxies Brings Its High-Score Database Online September 28, 2000 - The definitive curator of video game high scores now offers its database online for everyone to enjoy. The hot-shot video avengers will now know what to shoot for in the fight for gaming supremacy. - Twin Galaxies page 2600 Gets A Boost September 25, 2000 - Thomas Jentzsch has finished his 2600 port of the popular Commodore 64 game Thrust, and is available for purchase in cartridge form from Hozer Video Games. Those who'd like to play it on their PC can download it and play it on their emulators as well. - AGH Thrust Review - Download the Thrust ROM - Hozer Video Games A Trio Of Updated Atari Classics Now Shipping September 25, 2000 - Hasbro's latest remakes -- Galaga: Destination Earth, Frogger II: Swampy's Revenge and Breakout: The Great Escape -- for PC and PlayStation are all shipping and should be available momentarily for purchase at your favorite gaming retailer. Hobbyist Creates 2600 Portable September 24, 2000 - Ben Heckendorn has hacked together something that most 2600 fans can only dream of -- a portable VCS! For the full story on the unit, including pictures and an explanation of how it was made, click on the link below. Atari VCSp Majestic Threesome For Game Boy Color September 18, 2000 - Majesco has announced that it is now shipping Galaga, Frogger II and Q*Bert for Nintendo's portable fun machine. Ms. Pac Gets Her Own Update September 13, 2000 - Ms. Pac-Man: Maze Madness has been released by Namco for the Sony PlayStation. New Crossword Puzzles and Contests at GDG August 18, 2000 - Good Deal Games has expanded their classic gaming puzzles to include a new section -- word finds. A whopping 13 word search puzzles are now online for the launch. GDG is also holding a 5200 crossword contest, with the winner receiving a PlayStation trak-ball. - Good Deal Games Jum's 5200 Emulator Now Supports Tempest August 16, 2000 - Asteroids already worked on the emulator, and now you can enjoy true 5200 bliss by downloading the latest version of the emulator along with the Tempest ROM. - James Homepage - 5200 Asteroids & Tempest ROMs JUGS Finally Available August 14, 2000 - No, not the jugs you're probably thinking about. The Jaguar Unmodified Game Server allows the ability to load and run underground Jaguar software provided that you also have the available underground Jaguar development tools. - Full Press Release - JUGS Home Page 5200 Asteroids and Tempest ROMs Released! August 12, 2000 - Together with Classic Gaming Expo, Atari Gaming Headquarters has publicly made the Atari 5200 Tempest and Asteroids ROMs available for everyone to enjoy. You can grab the ROMs from either the CGE site or by clicking on the link below. - 5200 Asteroids & Tempest ROMs Classic Gaming Expo 2000 Thrills Showgoers Yet Again July 31, 2000 - Tons of fans, media and industry pioneers flocked to Las Vegas to attend this year's CGE event, and they were not disappointed. You can check out some of the various news sites for coverage of the show. The official CGE page itself should have a recap momentarily as well. - Classic Gaming Expo Super Huey Revamp Announced July 24, 2000 - The Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit Computer and Atari 7800 classic will be the latest title to be updated for the new century. Cosmi Corporation, the original creator of the game, will bring Super Huey III to market and will also be demonstrating the game at their booth at Classic Gaming Expo 2000 this weekend. - Full Press Release - Cosmi Corporation Home Page New 2600 Game Celebrates Release Of New Book On History Of Videogames July 21, 2000 - Van Burnham, author of the upcoming book Supercade: A Visual History of the Videogame Age 1971-1984, announced today her plans for a Atari 2600 cartridge to commemorate the release of her new book. Called Escape From Supercade!, the game was developed by Ebivision, the group that was responsible for recent titles such as Alfred Challenge, Pesco and Merlin's Walls. - Full Press Release - Supercade Home Page - Ebivision Home Page Blue Sky Rangers Announce 20th Anniversary Plans July 21, 2000 - Information has been posted on their site outlining their plans at Classic Gaming Expo 2000 for the Intellivision's 20th Anniversary Bash. Among other things, they will be selling copies of several unreleased 2600 and ColecoVision titles and will be showing off Intellivision Rocks!, the latest CD compilation of Intellivision games, this time featuring classics from Activision and Imagic. - Intellivision Bash At CGE2K Jum's 5200 Emulator Updated July 21, 2000 - Version 0.3a of Jum's 5200 Emulator has been made available by its author, James Higgs. Jum's 5200 Emulator is for DOS, and the archive also includes a version of 5200 Pong. Head on over to his page to download it now. - James Homepage Odyssey2 Wico Trackball Discovered July 20, 2000 - Lee Seitz of the Classic Video Game Nexus reports that an Odyssey2 trackball made by Wico has been "discovered" by an anonymous collector. For full details and photo, hit the link below. - O2 Trackball @ CVG Nexus Pitfall II+ Released July 19, 2000 - Can't get enough of Pitfall and Pitfall II? A beta release of Pitfall II+ for the Atari 2600 VCS has been made available by Otaku. It's essentially a complete new level based on the original Pitfall 2 "engine." The work-in-progress still has some bugs (the treasure collecting bug mainly), and it's about twice as hard as the original 2600 game. Hit the link below to download the ROM and test it out. Of course, you'll need to have the PC Atari emulator installed as well. - Otaku's Page Atari Swap Meet Announced July 12, 2000 - Plans for an Atari Swap Meet to be held in Columbus, Ohio are well under way. Details are sketchy, but we do know that the date is set for September 9 and the hours will be from 9AM to 3PM. Maps and additional information are available at the link below. - Ohio Atari Swap Meet Page Space Harrier Update Confirmed July 6, 2000 - A follow-up to the much beloved and revered Sega arcade classic has been confirmed by Amusement Vision, a subsidiary of Sega. Not much is known about the tentatively titled Planet Harrier, except that it will again be a third-person shooter that requires the player to collect money in order to acquire power-ups. We are assuming that a coin-op (Naomi) version will come out first, followed shortly thereafter by a Dreamcast port. Shadoan Hits DVD June 28, 2000 - Digital Leisure, the publisher of old Laserdisc arcade favorites Dragon's Lair and Space Ace, has announced the release of Kingdom II: Shadoan, the 1997 follow-up to Shadoan, for DVD video and DVD-ROM. The combined two Shadoans make up the complete adventure of Thayer's Quest, which was originally released in 1984 for arcades and the RDI Halcyon interactive home Laserdisc machine. Dark Tower Sequel On The Way June 17, 2000 - Salsa Shark Production is working on a modern update to GCE's Dark Tower, a 3-D rendition of the unreleased Vectrex console edition. As one would expect, Shadow of the Lost Citadel is chock full of enhancements such as new enemies, expanded dungeon exploration and spiffy new graphics. Expect to see this action/adventure game out on PC sometime this Summer. New Old Games On Dreamcast June 6, 2000 - What's old is new again.... Midway has released Midway's Greatest Arcade Hits Volume 1, which features six arcade classics for one low price. Defender, Robotron: 2084, Sinistar, Joust, Bubbles and Defender II are all properly emulated so they're exactly as you remember them. A second volume will hit store shelves this fall, and will include Moon Patrol, Root Beer Tapper, Joust 2, Spy Hunter, Rampage and Satan's Hollow. Finally, a 12-pack of Atari goodness is also coming Dreamcast's way, also courtesy of Midway. Atari Arcade Hits Volume 1 will have Asteroids, Asteroids Deluxe, Battlezone, Centipede, Crystal Castles, Gravitar, Millipede, Missile Command, Pong, Super Breakout, Tempest and Warlords. Yak Preparing Awesome Twosome May 22, 2000 - In his personal website, Jeff Minter -- also known as Yak -- has revealed that Virtual Light Machine for the upcoming NUON DVD players is now complete, and that Tempest 3000 is just about wrapped-up. In a major diversion from Tempest 2000 on the Jag, the levels will be generated altorithmically after level 128 for those who are skilled enough to get that far. In addition, a demo disc bundled with the Samsung DVD-N2000 will feature T3K as one of the four included game demos.. levels 1, 9, 15 and 24 from the retail version of the game. Finally, T3K will include all of the music from Tempest 2000 along with brand new tracks. Hit This Link to read all about Yak's latest and greatest works. Snow White Auction Ends May 20, 2000 - The eBay auction for the recently discovered unreleased prototype cartridge of Snow White has ended, with the final bid at $1,500. What's even more surprising is that it did not meet the reserve price! We'll fill you in on any new details surround the game and auction if there's any new news to report. Yet Another Classic Event May 16, 2000 - Classic Computer and Gaming 2000 (CCAG) is set to take place June 17 at the National Guard Armory in Lorain, OH. VM Labs and Hasbro Join Forces May 11, 2000 - At the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles, it was announced that Hasbro would be releasing Tempest 3000 for NUON DVD players. The multi-title licensing agreement also includes Monopoly and The Game of Life, among others. Full Press Release Classics Shock The World May 5, 2000 - Shockwave.com now has ten classic Midway arcade titles available for free play. They are: Defender, Joust, Spy Hunter, Rampage, Defender II, Satan's Hollow, Root Beer Tapper, Sinistar, Robotron and Bubbles. Excitebike 64 Hits Store Shelves May 2, 2000 - The sequel to the Nintendo arcade and NES classic is now available for Nintendo 64. The Left Field-developed, 128-megabit cartridge features a wide variety of indoor and outdoor tracks, and can be enjoyed by up to four players simultaneously. Steve Woita Interview At GDG April 28, 2000 - Good Deal Games has posted an interview of Atari 2600 designer, Classic Gaming Expo '99 distinguished guest and AGH friend, Steve Woita. Hit the link below to read about his glory days. Steve Woita Interview Intellivision Cartridge Emulator Announced April 19, 2000 - Called the Intellicart, the device connects to your computer's serial port to allow you to download Intellivision ROM images and play them on your actual Intellivision. For complete details on this almost-finished product, Click Here. New Jaguar Titles From Songbird Announced April 14, 2000 - The hobbyist publisher's lineup for 2000 is as follows: Atari Lynx -- Cybervirus, Championship Racing and Planar Wars 3D; Atari Jaguar -- Virtual VCS and a Rapid Fire Controller. Check out the press release for the complete scoop. Full Press Release Unreleased Prototype 2600 ROM Uncaged April 11, 2000 - The ROM for the unreleased Atari 2600 protoype game Kabobber is now available for download. There's also a contest to create an instruction manual for Kabobber, with the winner getting a copy of the Twin Galaxies Official Video Game & Pinball Book of World Records, courtesy of Walter Day. Hit this link for more details. Orders Now Being Taken For BattleSphere March 14, 2000 - ScatoLOGIC is now accepting pre-orders for the long-awaited Jaguar blast-a-thon, BattleSphere. For information on how to reserve your copy, visit the Official BattleSphere Page. Atari Featured In Freaks and Geeks March 13, 2000 - Tonight's episode (NBC, 8:00 p.m. EST) is said to show some Atari items such as 2600 and 5200 games. Be prepared to have your VCR set for tonight! Game Boy Color Gets Another Classic March 9, 2000 - Yet another update is coming to GBC, courtesy of Midway. Toobin' is being developed by Digital Eclipse and will hit stores in the middle of April. PhillyClassic To Kick Off April 14 March 8, 2000 - The classic gaming event is scheduled to take place at the Villanova Conference Center in Radnor, Pennsylvania. For additional information about PhillyClassic, hit the link below. PhillyClassic Page BattleSphere #1 Goes For $1575.00 March 7, 2000 - The auction for the first production cartridge of BattleSphere is over, and diabetes researchers will be happy to know that the winning bid was a whopping $1575. Two New Classic SKUs From Midway March 6, 2000 - According to MCV, Midway is preparing two new classic gaming remakes. A new 3D version of the arcade classic Spy Hunter on its way for PlayStation2 and other next-generation platforms in 2001. MCV believes Dolphin, Dreamcast and X-Box versions of the game will be released sometime next year. In addition, the company is bringing its N64 version of Paperboy over to PlayStation. The updated classic introduces fully 3D game play and over 45 new levels. Midway will ship Paperboy later this year. BattleSphere Finally Warps To Jaguar February 29, 2000 - At long last, BattleSphere is finally set to take flight on Atari's 64-bit Jaguar console. All profits from the sale of the game will be donated to diabetes research. Full Press Release Exclusive: Galaga Preview For PlayStation February 7, 2000 - Namco's loss is Atari's gain..... Fresh off of Atari's testing labs comes the first signs of development of Galaga on PlayStation. It looks promising so far, and we can only hope that it helps rekindle interest in shooters -- the dominant gaming genre of the classic era. One question: who's the guy at Namco who allowed this legendary franchise to be licensed out? AGH Galaga Preview First Pics Of The Atari Stamp January 25, 2000 - Last fall, we all voted for our favorite 80's stamps, and videogames won. Now, here's the official pic of it! It's none other than an Atari 2600 (VCS) with two children playing Defender. Thanks for all who contributed, and let this be a reminder that each and every voter can make a difference. By the way: nothing against NES, but aren't you glad that the post office agreed that the big fuji was THE videogame icon of the 80's? :) - Click on the stamp to see a larger picture of the glorious 2600, then head on over to the post office to get yours! Atari Games Is No More January 17, 2000 - Rest In Peace, Atari Games. The namesake which originally was the coin-op division of Warner-owned Atari Inc. will no longer be used by current parent, Midway. Hasbro's push of its (home) Atari brand no doubt has something to do with it. For you history buffs, San Francisco Rush 2049 was the last arcade game featuring the famous logo. All future releases will bear the Midway name. Songbird Does It Again January 10, 2000 - Songbird Productions acquired full rights and source code to three unreleased Lynx properties from former Lynx and Jaguar developer Beyond Games. The three properties are: Cybervirus, Ultra Vortex, and Mechtiles. Full Press Release Mattel Hires Former Atari And Sega Exec January 3, 2000 - Bernie Stolar has landed his feet in El Segundo, where he will be heading up Mattel's interactive entertainment division. What relevance does this have on classic gaming and/or Atari? In addition to being COO of Sega and VP of Sony, his prior experience also includes two years at Atari Corporation, where he was President of the company's Lynx division. Full Press Release