Atari 2600 "did you knows"

[CFMM]

(07-04-2012 12:27 AM)Sohakmet Wrote:  Some interesting stuff, indeed. This Gamma Attack game ahs only 2 copies of it? Impossible, there must be more but they might be buried somewehere due to, maybe, of how bad the game was. I mean... they buried all those ET games for a reason.

The Atari 2600 saw many "fly-by-night" companies who did not have the resources or funding to operate with mass production factories and assembly lines, so the cost of producing a cartridge wasn't cheap. In 2004 I published a homebrew title for the 2600 and I believe the cost of EPROM burning, cartridge assembly, and label printing was about $12 per game. I pressed 20 copies for about $250 I think. I can't imagine it being cheaper than that on an independent level in the 1980's.

Gammation was (is, they are apparently still around but their site looks like trash) a company that specialized in console accessories, not games. Their claim to fame was what is honestly the world's first controller mod, they had a device called "FP-100" which was essentially an autofiring mechanism for your Atari joystick. They knew very little of the how-to's regarding game publication which is why their title didn't see the light of day. It was announced and it appears some sample titles were pressed, but that's it.

The rarest games for the system are the ones that had a few copies made but were not released or were from companies who lacked the resources to reach a national market.

(07-04-2012 12:23 AM)DidYouKnowGaming Wrote:  There are a few arcade and atari images already on the site just fyi. Thanks for these.

Ah, I could've sworn I browsed almost everything I guess I missed them. Mybad! XD