Sinistar for Atari 8-bit!

AtariAge.com reports:

Atari 8-bit Sinistar Prototype Discovered!
http://www.atariage.com/index.html#5135

"Fans of classic arcade games are all too familiar with the roar,
'Beware I Live!' A long, lost prototype of the beloved (and difficult)
arcade game Sinistar has been uncovered for Atari 8-bit
computers. Thanks to the hard work of Atari Archivist Ken Van
Mersbergen, this unreleased arcade to home conversion has finally been
found. Sinistar combines fast action, mind numbing speed, and evil
sounding voice synthesis into one explosive package. Your goal is to
destroy Sinistar, a giant metal creature bent on destroying the
universe and whatever else that gets in its way. However, to destroy
Sinistar you must make Sinibombs out of Sinisite crystals harvested
from floating plantetiods.

"The Atari 8-bit version is a wonderful port, capturing all the
action and excitement of the arcade game. The graphics are amazingly
accurate, the controls are sharp and precise, and the digitized voice
rings out loud and clear. Sinistar was just about finished, but there
are a few minor issues and bugs that needed to be addressed before the
game saw a commercial release. The biggest issue is the computer AI,
which isn't quite polished. Sinistar will be displayed in public at
this weekend's Dallas vgXpo show, and plans are to release the
Sinistar binary in the near future so everyone can enjoy it. You can
read a thorough review of Sinistar over at AtariProtos.com, and
discuss this exciting find in our Prototypes Forum."


You can learn about it, and see lots of pretty screenshots, here:

http://www.atariprotos.com/8bit/software/sinistar/sinistar.htm


"So why wasn't Sinistar released? Around the time Sinistar was
being completed (mid 1984), the video game market was crumbling fast
and many games were canceled. Apparently marketing decided that the
game wasn't going to make enough money and canceled. the project?
without telling the programmers! Jeff and his team continued to work
on the project for almost two months after it was canceled. due to
lack of communication between marketing and the programming
department. Incidents like this were not uncommon, and just goes to
show how badly out of touch the managers were at the time of Atari's
collapse."


I cannot WAIT until that's released! Oooooooooooooh yeah!

--
-bill!
bill.RemoveThis@newbreedsoftware.com
http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/