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Sigh. I had such high hopes that this would be some incredible
pre-release work-in-progress version of Asteroids, maybe with unfinished game play, or different
characters, or something to that effect. Unfortunately, none of that is the case here. What we have
is probably a final candidate for release of Asteroids, back before the Tramiels took over Atari.
As most of you reading this page know, the Atari 7800 was due for release in 1984, but due to some
factor - there are too many stories and theories to be able to tell them all here - the Atari 7800 was
shelved until the release of the NES in 1986. This effectively made the Atari 7800 dead on arrival, and
smashed all hope of an Atari comeback. |
Back to the ROM itself. It's not any different than the final release
version of the game as far as game play is concerned. However, the copyright date on the game states
"1984" instead of "1986" like on the release version. Not a really big difference, but it IS a difference
none the less.
One other thing of note is that on the proto cartridge, this game is unencrypted -
this new encrypted and fully playable ROM was kindly provided to us by Dan Boris. |
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The cart itself is dated 6/20/84, which places it right inside that very
turbulent time in Atari history where the Tramiels took over. It's too bad that this is pretty near,
if not complete, because I was really looking forward to a cool pre-release ROM. Oh well, can't win
em all!
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