2021/1/1: Atari 2600: Open Sesame, Time Warp

[lynchie137]

lynchie - wow, I forget that Time Warp was actually a real cartridge at one time (I reviewed it on my Harmony Cart). I wonder if it's worth anything?

Hmm... That is a good question. On one hand, it's not a well known title. And some of those can fetch a pretty penny. Especially if it's a complete copy with the box and everything. But then again, I don't see a lot of people exactly lining up to track one down. So that could drive the value down a little bit. It's not exactly a lost classic or a hidden gem or anything like that. If anything, I think the best word to describe it would be "generic"..

That being said, if somebody was willing to pay me top dollar for my loose copy, I might think about selling it. Or perhaps not...

[VideoGameCritic]

didn't know Zeller's released so many games..$1,095.50 for the complete set
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Atari-2600-ZEL ... SwMeNeqgDt

Wow I had never heard of most of these, but some sound pretty exciting, like dragon treasure, scuba diver, and inca gold. I think I've only reviewed a few. If someone has the .bin files for these please email them!

[ASalvaro]

didn't know Zeller's released so many games..$1,095.50 for the complete set
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Atari-2600-ZEL ... SwMeNeqgDt

Wow I had never heard of most of these, but some sound pretty exciting, like dragon treasure, scuba diver, and inca gold. I think I've only reviewed a few. If someone has the .bin files for these please email them!

alot of those roms are available to download at Atari Age
https://atariage.com/company_page.php?S ... mpanyID=61

[goldenband]

Alas, Critic, they're almost all ripoffs of established games:

Busy Police = Keystone Kapers
Challenge - original/unique
Circus = Circus Atari
Dragon Treasure = Dragonfire
Earth Attack = Defender
Farmer Dan = Gopher
Freeway = Freeway (Activision)
Frontline = Combat
Inca Gold = Pac-Kong, Spider Kong, etc.
Laser Volley = Laser Gates
Ocean City Defender = Atlantis
Pinball = Video Pinball
Radar = Cruise Missile aka Exocet
Scuba Diver = Sea Hunt (Froggo), Bi! Bi!, Skin Diver, etc.
Sea Hawk = Sea Hawk by Froggo
Space Adventure = Flash Gordon
Time Warp = original/unique
Turmoil = Turmoil (20th Century Fox)

So the only two of those games you haven't covered yet are Challenge and some version of Inca Gold. It'd be great to see both of those reviewed! The latter game has a dizzying array of alternate titles, including Donkey Kong (!!!).

Of course if you want to try the Zellers ROM variants, they're all available in that ROM Hunter set I PM'ed you about a while back. The big trick there is that the "original" versions of games, i.e. the ones believed to be the ones that companies like Zellers ripped off , are usually marked with a tilde character.

[ASalvaro]

Alas, Critic, they're almost all ripoffs of established games:

Busy Police = Keystone Kapers
Challenge - original/unique
Circus = Circus Atari
Dragon Treasure = Dragonfire
Earth Attack = Defender
Farmer Dan = Gopher
Freeway = Freeway (Activision)
Frontline = Combat
Inca Gold = Pac-Kong, Spider Kong, etc.
Laser Volley = Laser Gates
Ocean City Defender = Atlantis
Pinball = Video Pinball
Radar = Cruise Missile aka Exocet
Scuba Diver = Sea Hunt (Froggo), Bi! Bi!, Skin Diver, etc.
Sea Hawk = Sea Hawk by Froggo
Space Adventure = Flash Gordon
Time Warp = original/unique
Turmoil = Turmoil (20th Century Fox)

So the only two of those games you haven't covered yet are Challenge and some version of Inca Gold. It'd be great to see both of those reviewed! The latter game has a dizzying array of alternate titles, including Donkey Kong (!!!).

Of course if you want to try the Zellers ROM variants, they're all available in that ROM Hunter set I PM'ed you about a while back. The big trick there is that the "original" versions of games, i.e. the ones believed to be the ones that companies like Zellers ripped off , are usually marked with a tilde character.

yup and here are the differences from the originals
Busy Police (AKA Keystone Kapers by Activision) - The Activision logo has been erased while the Activision color bars and copyright still remain the same.

Challenge - NTSC version of a suspected Funvision PAL original. Challenge also exists in an ultra-rare NTSC Halley's Comet cart. AFAIK it exists nowhere else in NTSC.

Circus (AKA Circus Atari by Atari) - Hacked to use the joysticks instead of the paddles.

Dragon Treasure (AKA Dragonfire by Imagic) - None

Earth Attack (AKA Defender by Atari) - © 1981 Atari has been erased.

Farmer Dan (AKA Gopher by US Games) - Copyright 1982 U.S.Games has been erased.

Freeway - (Freeway by Activision) Activision logo has been erased.

Frontline (AKA Combat) - None

Inca Gold (AKA Spider Maze) - The Funvision logo has been erased. Spider Maze (K-Tel) NTSC is exactly the same game, but with Funvision logo still intact. Funvision is probably the original company, but this game has been pirated so many times that it's hard to tell.

Laser Volley (AKA Laser Gates by Imagic) - When you die © 1981 Imagic has been replaced with the word "END".

Ocean City Defender (AKA Atlantis by Imagic) - The ufo sprites and some city sprites have been changed. The © 1982 Imagic has been replaced with the Funvision symbol and logo. Might be a few more changes.

Pinball (AKA Video Pinball by Atari) - none

Radar (AKA Cruise Missile, pirated by Froggo) - none

Scuba Diver (Scuba Diver, pirated by Froggo) - none

Sea Hawk (Sea Hawk, pirated by Froggo) - none

Space Adventure (AKA Flash Gordon by 20th Century Fox) - none

Time Warp - NTSC version of a suspected Funvision PAL original. I've seen other NTSC Time Warp roms, but I am unsure of what carts/built in game consoles they belong too. The Zellers version is a good one to pick up. I don't know of another NTSC cart of it.

Turmoil (Turmoil by 20th Century Fox) - The game name "Turmoil" has been erased.

[VideoGameCritic]

Wow, thanks for educating me know about these. Kind of burst my bubble but saved me a lot of time too! I can't believe Zellers got away with all these hacks!

Sounds like I really only have two to be concerned with, and they're already on my Harmony Cart. Stay tuned!

[pacman000]

Zellers was a big discount department store chain from Canada; they didn't make the games themselves. They just bought them from some no-name manufacturer without checking to see who actually owned the copyrights.

Thanks for reviewing these games, by the way. I'd been interested in Open Sesame for a while. Didn't know Zellers had anything but pirated games in their catalog, so Time Warp was fun to read about, even if it is a lousy game.

[SpiceWare]

There's only so much you can do with 4-bit digital audio and sample playback, especially since Open Sesame is a 4K game. I was surprised to see that, thought it'd be an 8K game like Quadrun.

I had similar space constraint with Draconian, my port of Bosconian. There was only 4.5K of space available for the 5 samples. Additionally the samples were converted from the arcade samples, which are a little difficult to understand to begin with. Each phrase is distinct enough that you'll recognize each one over time.

Final Draconian ROM is here for those who'd like to check it out. You'll need a Harmony cart to play it on a real 2600. ROM will work in Stella as well, I think you need at least version 5.0.2

[lynchie137]

Found a few price listings for Time Warp on EBay and Pricecharting.com for a loose copy, a complete copy, and for a new unopened copy. And to be honest, I'm more than a little surprised that it's selling at those prices. Here they are if interested...

https://www.pricecharting.com/game/atari-2600/time-warp

https://www.ebay.ca/p/56236780