former Activision designers form new company to release new games for the 2600

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ASalvaro
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former Activision designers form new company to release new games for the 2600

Postby ASalvaro » March 8th, 2021, 4:35 pm

sounds pretty cool!

https://www.nme.com/news/gaming-news/ex ... es-2896084


A co-founder and two ex-game designers from Activision have joined forces to form Audacity Games, a company dedicated to the Atari 2600.

The original Atari 2600 was released in 1977 and experienced a huge boost in sales during the ‘80s when Space Invaders was released. Fans of the retro console have since crafted emulators like Stella and Retron which run the games through an ordinary PC.

David Crane, one of Activision’s co-founders, has teamed up with Dan and Garry Kitchen, a pair of game designers he met while at his old company. Their goal is to create games that will run on the Atari 2600 under the banner of Audacity Games.

In their first press release, Audacity Games described themselves as “focused on designing and publishing boxed game products for a variety of retro game systems”. Garry Kitchen later clarified on Twitter that each release would come with “a download of a digital version”, so those without the hardware can still enjoy the new games.

“For years our fans have been asking us to create new games. We heard you, and have decided to do just that,” said David Crane. “I have always said that I have as much fun making games as others do playing them, and the retro game systems are my favorites.”

Both Garry and Dan Kitchen previously worked on games for the Atari 2600, including Ghostbusters, Donkey Kong, Pressure Cooker, and Kung-Fu Master. David Crane was also involved with Pitfall and Dragster, so the team brings “over 40 years of game design experience” to the console.

SpiceWare
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Re: former Activision designers form new company to release new games for the 2600

Postby SpiceWare » March 10th, 2021, 9:12 am

Their first new game, Circus Convoy, will be premiered on ZeroPage Homebrew! Audacity Games will also be participating in a live interview.

When: Friday March 12 @ 4PM PT/7PM ET/12AM GMT

Where: twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/


David Crane's tweet about it: https://twitter.com/PitfallCreator/stat ... 2638019595


Orders for Circus Convoy will be taken Saturday 3/13 at 2PM PST, shipping begins the week of March 22.

https://www.audacitygames.com/countdown.html

CircSTbox.jpg
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VideoGameCritic
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Re: former Activision designers form new company to release new games for the 2600

Postby VideoGameCritic » March 10th, 2021, 5:37 pm

When I first saw this, I figured they were making download games for the Intellivision Amico or something like that. But brand new physical games for the Atari 2600? From programming experts who know the system inside out??? Please take my money!!

SpiceWare
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Re: former Activision designers form new company to release new games for the 2600

Postby SpiceWare » March 10th, 2021, 9:31 pm

They've posted a preview of Circus Convoy on YouTube - I love the snake graphics.

Garry Kitchen tweeted that it's a 128K game.

newmodelarmy
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Re: former Activision designers form new company to release new games for the 2600

Postby newmodelarmy » March 11th, 2021, 5:44 am

Very fond memories, like most of you, of playing Activision games on my Atari 2600. It is unbelievable to me that we are talking about this in 2021! Very cool project.

snakeboy
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Re: former Activision designers form new company to release new games for the 2600

Postby snakeboy » March 11th, 2021, 8:53 am

Damn. If they start making making more games like this, I may never have a reason to get a PS5.

DocHix
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Re: former Activision designers form new company to release new games for the 2600

Postby DocHix » March 11th, 2021, 9:36 am

Very exciting news...especially the bit on their webpage about new high score patches! Hopefully this will be the start of a trend. There are a lot of very talented original 2600 programmers still with us (Howard Scott Warshaw, Rob Fulop, Carol Shaw, Larry Kaplan, Al Alcorn to name just a few)...I'd love to see some of their "I had a great idea for a game that I never got to do" projects actually get completed.

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Re: former Activision designers form new company to release new games for the 2600

Postby VideoGameCritic » March 13th, 2021, 5:49 pm

I was ready to buy today, but the game got pushed back a day due to server issues...

SpiceWare
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Re: former Activision designers form new company to release new games for the 2600

Postby SpiceWare » March 14th, 2021, 11:28 am

For those who missed the interview and reveal on Friday, you can now watch it on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7jbf3FGEcA

Cafeman
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Re: former Activision designers form new company to release new games for the 2600

Postby Cafeman » March 14th, 2021, 1:08 pm

I didn't watch all of the YT version of the video, but it seems the gameplay of the Convoy game is more complex and deep than you'd have expected BITD on 2600. All kinds of trailers or cars to explore, many unique obstacles, things to collect as you play, and various types of tools to use. Its deeper and more interesting than I had assumed based on 1 screenshot (even though the graphics are colorful, detailed and very appealing). My interest is piqued.


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