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From: K. Day I have been playing games for over 20 years now (must be one of the oldest gamers). I have just been browsing around your Atari Gaming Headquarters site. It brings back some really good old memories. I originally had a 2600 console, then moved on to an Atari 400 and then an ST. Two of the best games ever were Star Raiders (I think it was only 4K of memory!) and Carrier Command. I wish they would do an update of those games. I now have a PC, Dreamcast & PS2. I still think the old 400 was the best (oh well). I shall be looking more into your website but I'll need a ton of time to browse through all your content. P.S. -- My son works for Eidos so something must have rubbed off!
Subject: Swordquest Airworld I wanted to know if 4 Swordquest games were made, I have Earthworld and Fireworld. Your website talks about the rare Waterworld but I was told there was a final game, Airworld. Did it come out or ever get completed? I did not see anything in your website so I was wanting to know if you know anyting about Swordquest Airworld? Only the first three -- Earthworld, Fireworld and Waterworld -- were completed. Atari canned the final game (Airworld) before it was ever completed. In fact, it's debatable that development ever started on the game.
I believe that at least one more of these units exists out there somewhere, but I cannot say for sure whether or not it is a working unit or another mockup. Around 1988 or so I recall going to a liquidation sale at a local Gold Circle store. At the time, being a kid, I was not particularly interested in shopping so I stood around and played their video game systems while my parents shopped (being early on in the sale there was still a large amount of stuff left). Liquidation sales were not really commonplace here in the Buffalo NY (this store was on Lake Ave. in the Blasdell area) area at the time (later many retailers folded), so my parents took a while which prompted me to examine the video game selection. I noticed something I had never seen before, a box (in mediocre condition) for something called the Atari Cosmos. The asking price was $80. At the time I was unable to afford such a purchase so I asked my dad what it was, he said he had never seen one before so we both assumed it was a new system, unable to locate any games for it we obviously didnt purchase it. I do remember opening the box and looking at it, it had a membrane type pad, similar to those used in those ultra thin remote controls. Whether or not this thing actually worked I will never know, perhaps Atari sent it as a demo and it was dug out of a warehouse somewhere as Gold Circle folded. Unless it ended up in the trash (a possibility since it had no games, and in 1988 it was kind of expensive) either someone here has it or it was sold when the closeout buyers came in to buy the remaining inventory in the final days, in which case may have travled to a closeout store or auction of somesort. Mockup or not I speculate that at least one more Cosmos exists out there somewhere.
Thanks for the interesting site. It was referred to me by the Hasbro website. My interest is in the ST series, which I couldn't find on your site. The referral came when I asked whether the ST ROM code was available for non-commercial use. When I bought a 1040-ST there was no emulator for a 6809 so I wrote one in machine code. It was miserably slow, running the old Flex operating system (6809 based) darn near backwards. Recently an Atari ST emulator was released by EMULATORS.COM for non commercial use on the PC and on a 266 Mhz Pentium you can actualy get reasonable speed. However, you need the Atari ROM code. I have an old Atari, but it was easier to download the code from an Internet site than transfer it. If Hasbro really owns the rights to the code, they seem to be saying it is too much trouble to even think about. I liked the ST, and Tramiel seemed to want everybody out of "his" computer. What a stupid move. Reminds me of an old Datamation article called "When Lemons Loom" about failed companies where proud and not so proud old names bit the dust.
I have a simple request. I am looking for an email address or other means of contacting the Taito corporation that is not Japanese language based. I have searched the web and can only find sites that I can not read. If you are interested in why I would like to contact them, it is to request that they revive a classic game for home pc use. I appreciated your site's review of the classic laserdisc game "Cliff Hanger", and agree that it is sad that a seemingly simple conversion to home CD-ROM has not been accomplished. It is in the interest of coin-op nostalgia that I will make the request. As far as we understand, Taito had nothing to do with Cliff Hanger, but rather it was Stern that brought the arcade LD game to market. Even if Taito was involved, the company is Japan-based and no longer has a U.S. presence. Its website is http://www.taito.co.jp.
Help me settle a bet I made with my friend. Did the Atari 1450XLD come with one disk drive or two? Neither of you win the bet. The XLD came in two models, one with a single floppy drive and another with dual drives.
Is it true that Yak (aka Jeff Minter) was involved in the ill-fated Konix Multi-System project? You know, the one that had the jet fighter-type controller and a seat controller? Yes.
This caught my attention, and I figured I'd mention it to you on the off chance you come across this email. In the brief article concerning Zimag, it is stated that Dishaster is a "game in which you must prevent plates from falling off your head". This is incorrect. The object of Dishaster is to spin poles, atop which are dishes. Neglect spinning a pole and the plate comes crashing down. The plates are never on your character's head, nor does the character's head play a role in the game. Just for credibility's sake, I do own the game, and have played it.
Subject: Star Wars On the Atari Headquarters 2600 game page you have listed Revenge of the Jedi 1 and 2 prototype boxes for viewing. Is there any evedience or knowledge that production had began on these games? There are many rumors surrounding both games. The most plausible one is that "Revenge of the Jedi" simply became "Return of the Jedi." There are two games on the 2600 that were released under the Jedi theme -- "Return of the Jedi: Death Star Battle" and "Star Wars: Jedi Arena." It's possible that "Revenge of the Jedi 1 and 2" were merely working titles, and the box art were just early artist drawings. |
