Coinopspace.com best tool for coin-op collectors to share photos

Hands down. Where other sites limit how many photos you can attach in a forum post Coinopspace makes uploading photos using a bulk image uploader and labeler. You can upload photos of your arcade or pinball machines in one click, or add additional information and be done in less than a minute or two and then share those photos as an album around the web. That might be why we have over 2,700 browse-able arcade photos from hundreds of different members.

We have experienced tremendous growth because Coinopspace continues to have a number of points of difference – fully customizable profile pages including graphics (collectors can change to look like their personal website or favorite game), live discussion sessions with former arcade / pinball creators, live member chats on Wednesday and Sunday nights (Like IRC but with all of the other arcade content at your fingertips) as well as contests like the $200 prize arcade restoration content coming to a close in Sept. 2009.

September should see the release of Open Social applications. What does this mean for the average collector? It means many possibilities, like personalized free online stores to see your coin-op parts, open connections to your game registry profiles that can be autoupdated then in one place, or even sharing some of your collection data back and forth with other social networks like Facebook or Twitter.

Thanks to the hardcode arcade collectors

Who have helped Coinopspace grow up to this point. Thanks to the active members of the advisory panel who have taken the reins and enacted new events and things they wanted to see happen. Our growth has been better in the first year than every other arcade game forum than RGVAC, and no one would beat that back in the heyday of coin-op collecting. This is largely to due to the passionate collectors who have invested in the site to continue to make adjustments to make things better.

Looking forward to see more entries in the restoration contest, and to see how many members we have at the one year mark. And thanks to ‘Jeremy‘, who unwittingly became the 1,000th member. I wish I could have dropped a virtual plethora of balloons and graffiti on him.

You're reading Coinopspace.com races past 1,000 members in 10 months is a post from: Jeff Rothe, originally posted on Rotheblog - An Arcade Game Blog. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Jeff on Twitter, Facebook, and Google +.

Here is the formatted version of that transcript. You can view the raw chat log with Jeff at Coinopspace.com. I have taken the information relevant to our conversation with Jeff and formatted it so that this post can be better referenced for historical purposes. The original chat was over 15 pages so paring this down was imperative for anyone serious about reading

Jeff Kulczycki DK2 (Donkey Kong 2) – Questions and Answers

Jeff has been making arcade mod enhancement kits for awhile, starting out on Dragon’s Lair. But making four new levels of gameplay for Donkey Kong was an animal that even he couldn’t have imagined. From the naming of the game D2K:Jumpman Returns, not Donkey Kong 2 to the use of barrels and jumping Jeff had a ton of questions that would be the turning point to whether the game was acclaimed or ridiculed.

As always, thank you to all that came by and asked some interesting questions and were respectful of our guest. Again, for simplicity stake, all questions will be asked by Coinopspace and all answers are by, of course, Jeff Kulczycki.

Coinopspace
Why did you choose Nintendo’s Donkey Kong to create the additional levels for?

Jeff Kulczycki
First I own the game and I love it.. I also think it lends itself well to being modified. There are several elements that can be changed You can change colors and add new and interesting objects. It’s got a lot going for it compared to say Pacman or Frogger.

Coinopspace
So, you placed more value on the depth of the game, not the popularity? In this case, those two things just happened to align.

Jeff Kulczycki
Yeah, I didn’t pick DK because it was popular really. I think it was just a coincidence that King of Kong came out about the same time, worked out well .

Coinopspace
I notice the fireballs behave differently on D2K than on regular Donkey Kong on the rivets screen. What changes did you make to the “artificial intelligence” (AI) of the fireballs?

Jeff Kulczycki
I didn’t change any of the AI intentionally… but I have noticed that the probability of them climbing the ladders… specifically the direction is different. I actually rewrote some of the behavior for them early on because I had changed a level so that there was both an up AND down ladder in the same spot. You can see it at hyperspacearcade.com on the early… Refinery level. The ladders are usually staggered which makes climbing them easier. The fireballs now had a choice to go UP or DOWN… I eventually realized that it was too hard to climb ladders that weren’t staggered and dropped the idea. I think the AI is still modified though.

Coinopspace
I love D2K but am not very good. Do you have any tips on how to improve my score?

Jeff Kulczycki
It’s probably a surprise but I’m really bad at D2K… I don’t really play it too much. I guess I got sick of it after working on it for so long . I guess it pays to have patience and that’s really my only tip. I should be asking you guys for tips!!

Coinopspace
When are you going to get working on new levels for Donkey Kong Jr., or better, an original game that plays on DK hardware?

Jeff Kulczycki
Great question. I would really like to make some more DK levels… I have some other ideas and it seems to be well received. I hope to maybe take on some other projects soon. Who knows, maybe DKJR2?

Coinopspace
Can you share them? Chris Moore

Jeff Kulczycki
Yes… Originally I haven’t added any new sprites but the new ideas I have will add some new “objects” and that’s all I can say.

Coinopspace
Will your California Extreme presentation on assembly/game programming ever be made available so that those who weren’t fortunate enough to attend (… like me …) could study the material?

Jeff Kulczycki
It was great speaking at CAX. People had some great…. questions there. I’ve been saying for a while that I should post the presentation on my site but I’m pretty lazy. Hopefully I’ll get around to it one of these days. I think I need to shrink it down. I hope to be at CAX this year so say hello.

Coinopspace
Obviously Donkey Kong and Mario are the intellectual property of Nintendo. I would imagine that they are closely protected as they are still huge money makers for them. I know that NAMCO goes after anything and everything Pac-Man related. Did you have any conversation with Nintendo about using the characters, code, etc. in a game you intended to sell for profit, and if so, did you have their blessing?

Jeff Kulczycki
Good question. I can share some details. Yes there was contact with Nintendo… I did send them the game and a “promo package” with artwork and concept sketches and a bunch of stuff… Things seemed positive at first but unfortunately nothing ever came of it. They have strict policies about accepting outside submissions. If you all like the game then let Nintendo know… It would be nice to get them on board “officially”.

Coinopspace
How do you feel about the Twin Galaxies setting of six Jump Men. Personally, I think it should be the same settings as the original DK – three jump men.

Jeff Kulczycki
Greg Erway and Blaine Locklair and I came up with the settings… …we wanted to accomplish a couple things… 1) we knew D2K was harder and we didn’t want to discourage people from playing 2) We wanted to get some higher scores. Somehow geting 34,000 on a game doesn’t grab headlines like scoring 1,000,000. 3) This is the highest setting so there is no way to “cheat”, you know what I mean, and finally we figured Gary at Funspot would probably want to keep the 6 man setting during normal hours for casual gamers.

Coinopspace
An unlimited men setting for the DK part of the ROM would be fantastic.

Jeff Kulczycki
LOL! I intentionally left out the “unlimited lives” and here’s why… I really wanted to take gamers back to “the day” where you had to sit at a game for hours to get to the next level… ..this is what I remember from my youth… today it’s all about “re-spawing” and death doesn’t mean much in today’s games…

I wanted you all to “earn” it. It’s more fun that way!!!! Not sure if I’ll add unlimited but you never know.

Coinopspace
Did the idea to create a new version of all the dk cab art come before, during, or after you completed the new version? Did you come up with the idea entirely on your own?

Jeff Kulczycki
I did the art myself (with the help of some cut and paste) and I knew almost nothing about creating artwork… Rich (at thisoldgame) help me get things sorted out… I used Printshop Pro which I found out is not the way to go…. I think the “pros” use Illustrator. I also had way too many colors in the first version… I forgot that silkscreen was a simple process. Rich was like, “I hope you don’t have more than 5 colors”…. and I had like 27…

I decided to do artwork once the game was complete… I thought it would be cool to go the full mile and try to present it as a new game… plus being a collect myself I know people like new stuff to buy Also, I don’t know when Rich is planning on shipping but he assures me it’s “any day now”

Coinopspace
Are you aware of whether Shigeru Miyamoto has seen D2K, and what his opinion might be?

Jeff Kulczycki
I don’t know if he’s seen it. I would be interested to know. I told my wife if Japan calls to let me answer it

Coinopspace
I see you’ve done lots of freeplay kits. Which was your first kit and why?

Jeff Kulczycki
LOL I think it was Kangaroo! I know it wasn’t exactly my best seller. LOL I think someone was asking me about it and I really took an interest. I don’t even own the game! My first hacking was with Dave Hallock on Dragon’s Lair Enhanced.

Coinopspace
I noticed that all the springs on the elevator level starting at level 4 are identical. With each passing level after that, the springs shift positions slightly making it a little more difficult on each proceeding level to have enough time to make it up the final ladder. It appears that level 14 might be impossible to pass. Have you looked into this at all? If this is the case, will there be a v1.3?

Jeff Kulczycki
Oh yeah, I think someone found a Killscreen. I’ve never played the game that long. I don’t think that was done on an actually game though. Hard to get that far without save states I imagine.

Coinopspace
So, you might need a video showing this to be able to look at it more thoroughly, if it exists at all? Apparently people have, 2-3 guys look like they must have or have been talking about it.

Jeff Kulczycki
Wow. That’s pretty far. I’m impressed.

Coinopspace
Like some collectors, I can do some simple game board repairs, but understanding the programming eludes me. It looks more complicated than basic programming. What’s the best way for a newbie to learn about game programming? Also, how did you get started?

Jeff Kulczycki
It sounds old school but you need to learn assembly language… It’s not that hard. I learned early on with my C64. There aren’t that many resources out there but I’m sure you can find some …it sort of a dying art. I feel old. Hacking into old code is a lot of fun though. Feel free to email me with questions.

Coinopspace
So finding an assembly language training guide is the key? Old books maybe? So no specific bible type book or informational links that you would say, “I learned a ton from ‘X’ ”

Jeff Kulczycki
Grab a disassmbler and start tearing through stuff. I just sort of taught myself. You might find an old book on assembly in a museum

Coinopspace
What’s a good dissassembler? Mark Hooks

Jeff Kulczycki
I use dZ80. THere is a windows version. No frills, but it’s free.

Coinopspace
How can I tell when Donkey Kong is about to throw a “wild barrel” in the original game?

Jeff Kulczycki
Funny but I get these questions all the time. I think King of Kong has people shooting for High Scores and they want to get the inside scoop on how it works.

I got a call from Walter Day one day out of the blue… This was right after the movie was shown at CAX… He wanted to know all about how hard it would be to cheat in DK… We talked for hours. To answer your question, it’s random. I know it’s a lame answer but I don’t really think that you can tell.

Coinopspace
Some of the prizes seem impossible to or not worth getting. For instance, on the “heart level” there is a hat on the top right. How do you get that?

Jeff Kulczycki
LOL. The Incinerator was the last level I did made. I sort of rushed it because Richie Knucklez wanted the game to come out.

I always felt that some of the prizes were located in such a way that there was no choice but to get it… It’s hard but I wanted people to think “Hmm, should I try and get that?”…. Like on the Foundry level…should you really get that? Probably not! There is really no way to get that. It’s just for looks and balance.

Coinopspace
I think you should add a ladder on level 1 so you can get the lower right prize.

Jeff Kulczycki
Good point. Let me answer that. If I added a ladder on the bottom right so that people could go down and pick up the prize then people would just shoot across and climb UP the ladder and miss the whole “hit your head” frustration!

Coinopspace
How many new core routines did you add to the code?

Jeff Kulczycki
I really wanted the prizes to be more random too. Stay tuned. I reused MOST of the core routines. Running jumping and prize collection is all. I probably only wrote 10 or more routines. I can’t really remember.

Coinopspace
Now that D2k has come to fruition, are there any non Nintendo titles you plan on making new levels for?

Jeff Kulczycki
I love Nintendo games. Like I said they have the tools and elements there that lend themselves to modifiing.

Coinopspace
A Tron 2.0 would be cool? DKJr is something I think would be cool too. We’ll see.

Jeff Kulczycki
I try to stick to games I own. It’s easier to play test them. There are lots of good ideas in here though.

Coinopspace
When did you start collecting arcade games and what inspired you to do so? What was the first game in your collection? What was your first grail?

Jeff Kulczycki
I own Dragon’s Lair, Space Ace and Burgertime first… I started collecting because of Dragon’s Lair…I used to play it at the bowling alley once a week. I would save all week to play and then some bigger kids would be hogging the machine so I would have to wait until next week. I guess I needed the game to to complete my childhood quest! I also have Phoenix, Karate Champ, Q*Bert, Track & Field, Ms. Pac-man, Dragon’s Lair II and a handful more. I try to shuffle them around a bit so my wife doens’t notice when I get a new game. I don’t own DKJR.

Coinopspace
Did you invest in creating this game and has your toolset changed any from what is detailed on the jeffsromhack website?

Jeff Kulczycki
¬Toolset is the same as what’s on the site… I use an assembler and a dis-assembler and MAME and that’s about it. TURACO is cool too. People should check that out. As far as investing, I didn’t really invest money, just time.

Coinopspace (Member Question)
I know that Pauline has a habit of losing her hat, purse, and umbrella. In a future update do you think she could get naked during an intermission scene. Mario deserves it by now.

Jeff Kulczycki
LOL. Prolly not! Jeff Kulczycki

Coinopspace
Are there ways to predict fireball behavior based on the original code?

Jeff Kulczycki
I had to change the fireball movements on the new levels. I wanted people to be able to jump over them without dying. They’re very predictable. I also had to make sure that really good people wouldn’t just sit there and jump fireballs all day to rack up points Like on the L2 Mixer at the top…if a fireball gets going really fast you could sit there all day, so I had to put somethin’ special in there for anyone that tries that.

As far as the orignal code it is random, the fireballs change direction after so much travel, but the direction is random Also I was really stumped by the “hold bounce” fireball, the ones that block the ladders and just stay there, not sure but that’s some wild random chance too. Never really understood that one. Use probability, but there is no really way to predict.

Coinopspace
I know about the Easter Egg at the end with Jr. in the barrel. Any more Easter Eggs? Cheats? Did you sneak anything else into the code?

Jeff Kulczycki
I wanted to add an easter egg but I really didn’t want it to be in the game. I knew TwinGalaxies and HS people don’t always go for that. So I added it at the end. I waited and waited to see if anyone would find it on their own. No one did so I had to drops some hints.

It’s small but its fun to look for. The end of DK is supposed to tie in with the beginning of DKJR. I used DKJr to model the cage. I think Jr says PAPA or something too. No other Easter Eggs though.

Coinopspace
Are you talking about the DK Jr. cage?

Jeff Kulczycki
Yes, I tried to match the colors and shape…fruit too.

Coinopspace
Where are the barrels? 4 new levels and no new usage of the trademark Donkey Kong barrels?

Jeff Kulczycki
The barrels are so unique! I was really afraid to touch them. How do you really follow up with another barrel level? Believe me I thought about it though. I know some people count on them for high scores. Sorry no barrels

Coinopspace
Why did you change the fireballs? You made many aspects of the game harder but the fireballs are for the most part much easier to jump over than in the original game. I am grateful for this but it makes it hard to go back to playing the original game – it’s a significant AI change.

Jeff Kulczycki
The new levels are much “tighter”. I didn’t want people to “wait it out” for a fireball to leave…like the top one on the Foundry. I gave this a lot of thought. I realized that the guys name is JUMPMAN. JUMPMAN…Not WAIT AND WAIT FOR IT TO LEAVE MAN. It may sound silly but I really wanted people to jump over them. That’s why they are now jumpable.

I watch people that were afraid to jump them at first, it’s in your DNA to stay away!!

Coinopspace
It is DK2, D2K or Donkey Kong 2? It is impossible to find the HS info on Twin Galaxies. Why did they name it Jumpman, and not Donkey Kong 2? Any idea?

Jeff Kulczycki
I started calling it D2K. Sort of like Y2K. I know it sounds corny. Official it’s D2K: Jumpman Returns. I think people just said DK2 or DKII or whatever. It doesn’t really matter to me.

Coinopspace
Did you put as much thought into the name as the levels? Or saying that just stuck?

Jeff Kulczycki
D2K is more searchable in google then Donkey Kong 2. Plus I didn’t really want to use Mario or Donkey Kong in the name. Just incase I think there was a Donkey Kong 2 game and watch as well.

Coinopspace
As a result, you have to know to search for it.

Coinopspace
Some people prefer to call it the pie level or cement factory, which name do you prefer?

Jeff Kulczycki
I prefer the Cement factory…hence the Mixer…Cement Mixer. Good question!! Thanks to Jeff for the site and the chance to chat and thanks to everyone for playing the game. It really makes it worth it watch you guys play!

Coinopspace
Huge thanks to Jeff, again, for answering so many questions.

Thank you Jeff for a truly unique contribution to the hobby, that has spawned a brand new cabinet, artwork, and a buzz unseen in recent years. I am sure there have been many requests made for your time and similar questions asked repeatedly, we just appreciate your excitement and passion.

If you are interested to find out more about his enhancement kits and freeplay mods, visit Jeff’s website – Jeff’s Rom Hack, including D2K Donkey Kong 2 information. If you liked this chat, you might also check out the transcript from our chat with Rusty Dawe of Atari fame (Agent X, I, Robot, Marble Madness).

You're reading Transcript from Jeff Kulczycki (Donkey Kong 2) chat at Coinopspace.com is a post from: Jeff Rothe, originally posted on Rotheblog - An Arcade Game Blog. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Jeff on Twitter, Facebook, and Google +.

Alan’s artistic work on Atari’s classic games

Following the trend of all of our chats at Coinopspace, this live session will be moderated. If you want to ask Alan a question, submit it to the Alan Murphy thread. I will be able to ask about 10-15 questions and then in the last twenty minutes of the chat session we’ll open up the floor to members to ask any question they want. (Within reason )

Since Alan has been interviewed a number of times, here are some links to get acquainted with his body of work. Alan has worked on quite a few games over the years; much more than the several released coin-op titles developed in his time at Atari. Alan worked on a ton of well known games for Atari’s consoles;

Alan’s Atari 5200 Credits

• Pacman
• Galaxian
• Breakout (pong)
• Soccer
• Xari Arena
• CounterMeasure
• Space Dungeons
• Xevious

Alan’s Atari 2600 Credits

• Defender
• Bugs Bunny
• Demons to Diamonds
• Volleyball

Alan has also worked for well known modern game company Electronic Arts (EA) as well as Sega on games like Spiderman and X-Men. Let’s not forget Alan’s credits at everyone’s favorite Atari – A.P.B, Indiana Jones and Gauntlet to name just a couple;

• Alan Murphy Creator Credits at Moby Games.com
• Alan Murphy – Classic Game Credits at Arcade-History.com
• Alan Murphy’s personal portfolio website
• References to Alan’s strange house in an interview with Marilyn Churchill
• Zynga – Social Gaming (Current Company)
• Brief appearances in Once Upon Atari Part 2 and Part 3 (Part 4 as well, no video available)
• Alan worked on Atari console games including Pac-man 5200 as well as a prototype game called ‘Countermeasure’

The most recent interview Alan did was for a Russian gaming website called gameland.ru. If you can speak Russian, you might be able to find the interview online. Here are a couple of snippets from that interview;

I was an illustrator for ‘InfoWorld’ magazine before in the late seventies. I don’t know if you could call it a game industry job, but I did a lot of illustrations of computers, nerdy programmers, that sort of thing.

I originally wanted to work on box art for video games but I was offered a job as an animator at Atari and took it, thinking that it would be more interesting working on computers instead of painting them.

I’d never animated anything in my life but I guess Atari figured that with pixels as big as legos, how good did you have to be, right? Anyway, it was a gamble.

Another interesting change has occurred lately, time was artists were second-class citizens and programmers were god. Now a talented artist makes more money than most programmers. It’s a good day to be alive if you’re a game artist if you’re up to date with modern art tools. The potential is even more inspiring. One look at a next gen console game is all the proof you need that game artists are pushing the limits of visual art itself.

Other things of note that might give some context about Alan;

• He works remotely – In Hawaii
• He enjoys swimming
• His first career path choice was that of an oceanographer
• He is a huge Halo fan – He and a couple of co-workers got the opportunity to play some of the Bungie guys in a game or two

Hope you all can join us, it should be a good chat. If you want to submit questions now, visit the Alan Murphy questions thread and then drop by ready to roll on August 8th. See you then.

You're reading Alan Murphy live chat at Coinopspace – August 8th, 2009 is a post from: Jeff Rothe, originally posted on Rotheblog - An Arcade Game Blog. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Jeff on Twitter, Facebook, and Google +.

I don’t know if there will eventually be a nice formatted version of the chat from the King of Kong, but I am hoping that at least some information from the session will end up in Gameroom Magazine soon. The chat saw nearly 100 members in attendance, it got to be a little crazy at times but it was still refreshing to talk with someone so relevant to the hobby here an now. If we do another chat with Steve next year, hopefully it will be a little more high tech – video conference using Skype or some other third party software.

Read the full Wiebe transcript on Coinopspace.com – Social network for arcade game collectors. You can also read the original King of Kong announcement post and the summary from the Wiebe event.

You're reading King of Kong chat transcript now online at Coinopspace is a post from: Jeff Rothe, originally posted on Rotheblog - An Arcade Game Blog. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Jeff on Twitter, Facebook, and Google +.

The well known history of Warren Davis and Gottlieb

The interesting thing about Warren was that Q*Bert was his first major game. Warren had helped program some other game at Gottlieb with another programmer (which I am assuming was either Argus or Videoman), and then he took over a project that was basically some characters developed by Jeff Lee and a three dimensional grid designed by Kan Yabumoto. A number of times Warren is quoted as wanting to make things ‘easy to implement’ and had a true focus on simple usability. Q*Bert wasn’t an obvious hit at first, but had some significant staying power.

From there, Warren appears to have rocketed forward. He didn’t really have too much of an interest to work on a Q*Bert sequel, even though FMHC Q*Bert (Faster, Harder, More Challenging) was developed a year later and was never released (too close together with the original and players were just getting down the controls of the first Q*Bert). Warren went on to a huge project in US vs. Them, a laser disc game with the theme of protecting the earth against aliens, the game involved some serious outdoor photography and live action footage. Warren supervised the video footage shoot over Chicago (which involved some helicopters) and forest scenes in Kalamazoo. A massive, bet the farm type undertaking, if I were to read into the situation at the time.

Warren’s work on US vs. Them

US vs. Them is released in a time when the interest in games and laser discs as a whole has dwindled and never sees any true success, even though the development team raised the bar on what could be done with the technology. Gottlieb had already been spun off as Mylstar and didn’t have much juice left.

From there, looking at Arcade-History.com, it appears that Warren had made enough industry contacts to do some work for Williams. Warren worked on Joust 2 and NARC. Hopefully in the chat he’ll talk a little bit about that transition, whether he was a consultant, or a full time employee of Williams.

Then, somehow, he made a return to Mylstar, which was now Premier and work on a game called Exterminator before he started to work for Midway for 6-7 years in the 90′s.

So, it will be interesting to hear his insights into how a creative talent with such a great resume moves from one game company to another. How the politics worked, what his status was, what a reputation did for you and how much pressure there was to recreate former successes in a declining market.

And of course, I am interested to hear how Warren then got into acting, if his production and supervision on US vs. Them spawned some of that interest, or if there was something else.

So, it should be a great chat.

Relevant Warren Davis / Q*Bert Links

Much of the paraphrased information above can be found on the following links concerning Warren. Warren has done a handful of interviews over the years, the most prolific one published at Coinop.org. I know he’s done a live interview for Retro Gaming Radio, but I haven’t been able to get a copy of that content to hear the questions that were asked.

If you want to learn more about Warren and his game development history and Q*Bert history, read up on these links, they’re some of the better ones in the myriad of Google results.

• Warren Davis interview at Coinop.org
• Warren Davis’ game credits at Arcade-History.com
• Warren’s involvement on US vs. Them at Spyhunter.com (Warning! Your eyes will burn – enormous long black pages with white text, horrible source to read
• Wikipedia entry on history of Q*Bert and Warren’s involvement
• Warren Davis Wikipedia Entry – Actor History
• General Q*Bert history and information
• Interview with Jeff Lee, fellow Q*Bert creator

You're reading Warren Davis (Q*Bert) Creator Chat Coming Today! is a post from: Jeff Rothe, originally posted on Rotheblog - An Arcade Game Blog. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Jeff on Twitter, Facebook, and Google +.

Here is the formatted version of that transcript. You can view the raw chat log with Rusty at Coinopspace.com. I have taken the information relevant to our conversation with Rusty Dawe and formatted it so that the arcade history is more easy to pick out. The original chat was over 17 pages so paring this down was imperative for anyone serious about reading

Rusty Dawe – Questions and Answers

Finding information about Rusty and his career at Atari wasn’t all that difficult. Rusty worked at Atari for over ten years, and maintains a personal website that touches on that tenure. However, I didn’t see any previous interviews with Rusty, and as the chat extended to the two hour mark it came out that this was one of the first times Rusty has gotten to share about his experiences at Atari.

As always, thank you to all that came by and asked some interesting questions and were respectful of our guest. Again, for simplicity stake, all questions will be asked by Coinopspace and all answers are by, of course, Rusty Dawe.

Coinopspace
What was the reason that Accelerator never saw the light of day? I heard that it might have been a budget issue at the time.

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
No, it was not a budget issue. The game was really fun to play as long as you had two people who were about evenly matched. Dennis Harper, the other developer (who went on to do Toobin’, and others) and I had some fabulous times playing the game. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t as much fun alone, or with someone who was radically different level.

Coinopspace
So, it didn’t test well then?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
Accelerator tested just “ok”, but at that point, due to the financial issues, all games really needed to be stellar to get into production.

Coinopspace
How many test locations was it on?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
It was in just one location. We never made more than one of them. We did a lot of work to try to equalize the levels (if you were too far ahead, “bad things happened”, etc, put in more jump pads for the behind player, etc., but just not compelling enough unless you were head-to-head.

Coinopspace
You know where that one is right Rusty? Scott Evans currently has it; he’s bringing it to California Extreme this year.

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
Very cool. Had a lot of fun doing the game, even though it never made it.

Coinopspace
Did you put any Easter eggs in any of your games, such as your name, initials, or hidden messages?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
Oh yeah, let’s see… Well, Cloak & Dagger had all the hidden teleporters… Not quite easter eggs, but a start. Paperboy has many things show up if you hit hidden targets (the submarine periscope, gopher, etc.) In Race Driven’, if you crash off the cliff in a certain way, you may see the designers initials in the sky . Very rare though. You have to roll the car to see the sky, so it isn’t easy or obvious. We weren’t supposed to put in easter eggs back then that weren’t directly connected to the game play.

Coinopspace
The hut, was that the name of a hang out? In Race Drivin’, the small building behind a house has a sign that says “The Hut” on it

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
Ah, no, I believe that it got that name from the artist who created it – it looked like a hut… I could be wrong here though – long time ago and far, far away

Coinopspace
Any other easter eggs in any other titles you worked on?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
Not really…

Coinopspace
You receive a ‘special thanks’ on the credits screen in 720°. What was your involvement with that game?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
I was only peripherally involved with 720, but it was otherwise the same team that did Paperboy (which I was much involved with). Still, I helped out with some of the design issues and a couple of game play sequence issues, plus was one of the patsy skateboarders who got banged up on our half-pipe we built in the warehouse . I created the motion-object engine used by 720 and a batch of other titles that came out then, too.

Coinopspace
Rusty, there are random blue flags that pop up in Skate City and award the player points. Are those in fact ‘random’ or are they based on something else? (i.e. your previous skate park performance, etc.) It’s been a topic of much debate.

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
They are NOT random. They were placed there carefully by Dave Ralston. (Who did that playfield, along with Paperboy) However, the timing of when they show up is hidden deep in the recesses of his and John Salwitz’s (the programmer) devious minds.

Coinopspace
Of the titles you worked to create do you have a favorite?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
Well, I really liked Agent X / Cloak & Dagger. But very close is Paperboy. Certainly, for me, Paperboy was the financial winner . But C&D was lots of fun to create both technically, and game-wise.

Coinopspace
What was the relationship like with Universal when you were the main point of contact for Cloak and Dagger? Were you really just there to play the game and nothing else?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
It was a fabulous relationship between us. They came looking for a “spy game” and we had Agent X already well along in development. The two were a nice match, so the royalty scheme didn’t favor either company. We sent them a cabinet and when I went down I worked closely with the editor of the movie, who was my “escort” the whole time.

We discussed everything from syntax used in the move (the word “tape” was already recorded and so couldn’t be replaced with ‘cartridge’ for example) to how credits could be done with a game motif. (like flashing on/off/on, etc.)

I was the one who actually plays the game in the film, though it looks a lot like the boy is playing. That was tough! I had to play on the cabinet, but they removed the monitor so that it could be filmed. The monitor was down and to the right of where I was standing, not in front! Try to get the world’s high score that way!

Not only that, but the movie frame rate is 24hz, the game is 30hz. So, if you closely watch the movie, you’ll notice the action is a bit slow, and the sounds a bit low. We put in the “Final scene” in C&D with the secret stolen plans, just so they could film it for the movie. Course, it didn’t do the game any harm either. I had a blast the week I was at Universal, got to wander over most of the lot at will.

Coinopspace
Did you see anything of note on the Universal lot?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
Not too much, except for Dabny Colman and … Thomas filming a couple of scenes. There wasn’t much happening there at that moment. On the other hand, my trip to Mexico to talk with the Dune staff (incl. David Lynch & Rapheala) for a game we didn’t do was full of stuff. But that is another story .

Coinopspace
Do you currently own any games? If so which ones?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
I owned 13 titles when I left Atari, but I’ve moved 5 times since and dropped a couple with each move . I’m now down to a sit-down Star Wars, a prototype Paperboy, and one I didn’t do – A “signed” Ted Nugent pinball (that sees ALOT of play). Actually, so does the Paperboy.

My daughter (12) holds the world record (unofficial) for all three roads on that. When she’s 13, I’ll submit a video so it’ll be legit. Every time I’ve beaten her, she just comes back and thrashes me again. She’s found at least 3 easter eggs I didn’t even know were there.

I miss my C&D, and Roadblasters, out of the ones I sold off.

Coinopspace
Which ones?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
There’s a gopher on hard way that comes to mind. Have to ride next to a house to get it. It’s hard to get out without losing a life though.

Coinopspace
If you were designing a coin op game today, what genre would you like to work in? Also would you make it a button masher like most are today or would you keep it a little more linear like the classics?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
I’d do a good driving sim (I enjoy those) that involved the need for some stunt work (jumping bridges, etc.) if there was a good theme to go along, like a “Bond racer” or some such – or something that had humor and strategy as a part. The Dune game I proposed but didn’t do comes to mind.

It actually would have had you try to become “prescient”, to know the future, by giving you subtle hints and highlighting the colors of these differently so you would look on the screen in a special way. It would be cool with today’s graphics. No button masher, no intense violence, no shoot-em-up. Humor and strategy – that is what I like. The story, the graphics, the fun are the thing!

I spent a lot of time after Atari doing social on-line environments. Taught me a lot about interaction when you have a limited “tool set”. I think I could do some fun games again these days. Too bad the money aspect isn’t there like back in the day.

Coinopspace
How old were you when you worked at Atari?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
I was 29 when I joined Atari, left there when I was 39. Most fun job I ever had! It was a great group of guys (& girls) to work with.

Coinopspace
I know the plan for the System II cabinet was to have more than just 2 games become available for it. Were there any other games besides Paperboy and Championship Sprint on the drawing board for that cab before it was deemed that there wouldn’t be anymore?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
Not really. They turned Paperboy into a System II only because they couldn’t get many pre-sales. Paperboy tested uniquely for a video game. Most games do spectacular for a week or two then drop off. Paperboy started at a mid-level and never dropped off. But it was hard to convince the arcade owners it was a win proposition. By turning it into a “system” game, they thought they could make a better sales pitch.

Championship Sprint was the solution to doing another game on it to satisfy the folks who bought a system game that it really was a system. Supersprint used the same processor and basic technology, so the conversion was relatively easy. Of course, Atari made out like a bandit with Paperboy. It was the only game they ever did a profit share on with the arcade owners (Let us put this in your arcade, we share profits 50-50, you never have to buy it). Because it never fell off in its revenue, Atari made more than 10x as much as they would have if they’d sold them outright! That is trusting in your own market research!

Coinopspace
Not a bad model for certain games. I didn’t know it was a profit share title.

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
The only one. Need to be very picky there.

Coinopspace
I bet the distributors were not happy with that

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
Those owners who didn’t want them anymore after awhile returned them and those were turned into Championship Sprint. No, the distributors were not pleased, but then, had they sold them, we wouldn’t have done that!

Coinopspace
Any other awesome insights into Paperboy and its history?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
Well, Paperboy almost never saw the light of day. I took over as project leader when I first became a manager for Atari, and it was scheduled to die based on the previous project lead. We changed it to a humorous game instead of a “psycho” game, worked well.

Coinopspace
I’ve heard rumors that Atari had considered making Indiana Jones a laser disc game. Since you worked on Temple of doom I’m wondering if you had any info on this or had even heard of this? If there is any truth to the rumor do you have any clue what stage of development this got to?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
That one is news to me as well, heard about it first here. Sorry, no insight to add there.

Coinopspace
My favorite System 1 game is Indiana Jones. What was your involvement on the game? Was anything dropped? Any bugs or easter eggs? Did you know anything about the laserdisc version?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
Again, for Temple of Doom, I did the motion object driver (quadrupling or more the number of items the game could display). Had fun with it though!

Coinopspace
What game do you really love but would like to own?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
My favorite game I’d LIKE to have – Robotron 2084.

Coinopspace
Cloak & Dagger was inspired by Robotron, correct?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
Yes, C&D was my salute to Robotron — lots of stuff moving around, the dual-joystick controls; have to be very “zen” to play it. Very tough! I believe I have a set of original side panels from C&D, but I can’t bloody find ‘em right now. Buried in the basement somewhere, I’m guessing.

Coinopspace
Were the cabinet sides really drawn with marker directly on the cabinet? Or hand drawn?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
No, they would run off these printouts on these monstrous decals that were the size of the cabinet. They were hand drawn and colored by our art staff, like all the other artwork. However, they were going for a certain “style” that made it look that way. Solid colors, blocked shapes, etc.

Coinopspace
What is the reason you went with the crystal castles cab for C&D instead of an original design?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
That was the production staff’s call. I was more interested in the audio quality, etc. and wasn’t too critical of the cabinet for that game, anyway.

The Crystals Castles cab worked, and besides, we were only doing a pre-prod run of 20. So, we used what was on hand.

Coinopspace
How hard was it to bring I, Robot to market what with all its hardware complexity and the technological “1sts” it brought to the table?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
Atari held 3 patents on that technology. It had the first large-scale custom ICs, it had two “quad-pokeys” — a new way of getting more sound effects in, challenging! Not only that, the market was going through one of its cycles which is always a tough time for innovation.

Coinopspace
What are your thoughts on (Atari’s) Batman?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
Well, I thought it was pretty weak. They were being rushed to get it out and some of the more subtle game play features never made it in, and the graphics were also rushed. The team did an amazing job considering the timeframe. Most games took 12-18 months. Batman took 6.

There were going to be additional goodies to pick up that would let you fly, etc. There was a whole scene that never made it with aerial stunts. Kelly and Norm did Batman (also SuperSprint, Vindicators). They were a good team.

Coinopspace
Ah, we have heard similar things in the past 5-6 chats, those darn licenses.

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
Yup, license issues.

Coinopspace
We might have already covered this in the Robotron reference, but, what is your “holy grail” arcade machine if you could only own one?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
Yup, Robotron. I really got into that game. Had an ongoing challenge with another developer and we really got deep into that game.

I have a top score around 3M, stopped moving the eyes – just kind of blank stared and moved the controls. Amazing.

Coinopspace
Did you work on Marble Madness II: Marble Man at all?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
Nope, Marble Madness II happened after I left. Not sure if that was only being done to support the home market, either. Some games like Paperboy II were done for that. Mark Cerny did Marble. Fabulous designer. Really brilliant.

Coinopspace
I didn’t understand the gap in release btw Marble Madness 1 & 2.

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
Me neither. I was there at least 5 years after Marble and it never came up as something to do seriously (almost all games get talked about a little that way).

Coinopspace
Do you have any crazy late night Atari stories similar to Eugene Jarvis’s wild parties and game creation sessions?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
Hehehe. Well, have you heard the Firefox team’s version of what went down before the show yet?

They had a very cool proto cabinet that looked like the Firefox fighter cabinet, but they were having serious issues getting the laserdisc to behave. So they sent the cabinet on to San Antonio with the hardware while the team stayed behind to finish programming. However, even with a multi-day 24 hours non-stop effort, they still didn’t have it done, so Warner sent their private jet to wait for them in San Jose to bring the ROMs.

But, they still didn’t get it (even after calling in some of the rest of us from other projects to help — which IMHO only made things worse )… Planes can’t take off from San Jose after 11, so they moved the jet to Oakland.

The team still wasn’t done at 4am and the show opened at 10am, so they stole the EPROM programmer and PAL programmers from the chip lab, took all their computers, hardware, etc. and got on the plane. On the way, they called ahead for pizza to Albuquerque where the plane landed and picked it up for them and met ‘em on the runway. Calling ahead for pizza from the plane is a classic.

Got to the show before it opened, but still couldn’t get it to work right. They went one day, then two, then the whole show with this incredible cabinet that people got to sit in BUT NO GAME. It was a huge success. The rest of us decided we didn’t need to do games anymore!

Let’s see, then there was the Pole Position rehab for me. I was playing that one in the lab after hours A LOT! Had it very wired, held record on every track in the labs. So, with Pole Position, after playing for about 3 hours one night, I drove home. At that time I was driving a Porsche 924S… I only lived about 3 miles away, BUT here I am on Montague Expressway and there is an “S” curve with two cars sitting on it.

It was identical to the PP setup on one of its curves – speed limit of 50 with 3 lanes. Shot between the two cars and was going 140 when I came out the other side. Zipped through the signal (green, thank god) and realized what I’d done. Needless to say, no more Pole Position for me for awhile, had to do some rehab! Also fortunately, no cops in the area. Kept telling myself after that “This is NOT Pole Position!”

Coinopspace
Did you come up with the idea for the game play of Rampart? It’s pretty inventive; many have described it as Missile Command meets Tetris.

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
Ah, Loved Rampart. It was actually a takeoff on a game we were playing in the labs at the time (much simpler game, and not the same, but had the “lobbing” effect). When the ships were added, it really took off – another Salwitz / Ralston creation. But I would say I certainly had a piece of that one too, as I was living in that lab for awhile.

In a way, you could say it was inspired in part by the old 2600 Game Warlords. The multi-player action was what we were after that Warlords gave.
That, plus the old 800 games Mule and Archon still get play in our house.
Thought about linking (the two games) them. About a year ahead of being able to do it easily, though.

Coinopspace
Did you design more than 6 levels for Marble Madness, and just ended up using 6 because of RAM limitations?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
Time limitations more than anything else, had to button it up and sell it.

Coinopspace
How long did it take to make a level of Marble Madness?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
Well the first one took 6 months to figure out the physics and game play devices we could use. After that, about 1-2 months each. I believe there were 12 that had been designed. I remember a black hole obstacle that didn’t get used.

We had also recently gotten the Yamaha music chip to use (and I programmed to add to the RPM sound board), so our audio group was going wild with it (Marble Madness and Paperboy being two of the first to use it). RPM = Rusty’s Pokey Music (which later became the defacto standard all Atari music/sound effects. RPM was a predecessor to MIDI. Would have used MIDI if it had been around .

Coinopspace
What happened to the unfinished Marble Madness levels? Is it something somebody has copies of the code still? Were the other levels playable / finished?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
Marble Madness was Mark Cerny’s baby. I was Project Lead for about the first half or so of its lifecycle (Mark became his own lead at that point as I was getting bogged down with I Robot, Paperboy, and others).

He would have the answer to that, but I believe that a couple of levels were in production but never finished, and the rest just jotted down as potentials.

I seem to remember one level having been mostly done, but was nearly unplayable by most folks, so it was canned in the interest of time and playability, both – “expert only” level if there ever was one.

Part of the problem of Marble Madness (besides keeping the two players in sync) was that it was SO easy to make it too hard.

Coinopspace
Mark Cerny has come up on my radar as someone we might try to get, maybe we’ll make more of a push now.

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
Ask him about “Quack” .

Coinopspace
Do you wish you could’ve worked under Nolan (Bushnell)?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
Hehe. Not really a big issue, would have been okay with that too. His legacy lived on with the Arcade group for years. Though, I think they were “mostly” more responsible after his departure . We still had many recreational moments, so-to-speak.

I was at Stanford nearby when Nolan did his first Pong, played it at the local bar in fact.

Coinopspace
How was it to work with Dave Theurer on I, Robot, and also, who were some of your favorite people to work with during your 10 year tenure?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
I loved working with Dave – he was very serious about his work but still had fun. Dennis Harper and I collaborated on a couple (like Accelerator) and I really liked working with him. John Salwitz and Dave Ralston and I teamed up for a couple – lots of fun. I’d have to say I enjoyed nearly everyone there I worked with. All of ‘em were talented, a bit whacked (a good thing), and enjoyed it.

Ed Logg is another that comes to mind. Had a lot of games of Spaceward Ho over our local intranet with him .

Coinopspace
Did you know the head of the Atari graphic department, George Opperman, at all before his tragic passing in 1985?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
Yes, worked with him on several titles including C&D, really had an eye for color and style. He left his mark on almost all the early Atari arcade titles.

Coinopspace
Did George have a huge team to work with or was the dept. more close-knit?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
He had between 5-8 really talented folks. Between them they turned out incredible work, game graphics, marketing graphics, sales brochures… Did any of you see the “R” rated Centipede poster?

It’s an incredible art poster. They made 10k of them but got cold feet about putting ‘em in the game as a promotion and ended up destroying all but a couple hundred that they game to engineering and other staff.

Coinopspace
The rumor is that girl worked in the HR dept. at Atari, that true?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
Heard that about the girl too, not sure if it’s true.

Coinopspace
Any tricks or hidden stuff on Toobin’? What role did you have in creating it?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
Toobin’ was Dennis Harpers baby. My role was (again) supplying the motion object driver, but also to play test and help suggest some game play fixes/mods to help in certain situations that could cause players to get stuck. Dennis and I had just come off doing Accelerator, so were still good game-playing buds.

I remember that there ARE easter eggs in Toobin’, but couldn’t tell you where they are or even what they are anymore, been awhile since I last played it.

Coinopspace
Were there other ideas for the controls? Or was it always a buttons-only plan?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
We tried a couple controls in the lab – trackball being a fav, but the buttons lent a certain panic to the game that played (and tested) well.

Coinopspace
Talk about the Atari key club concept that never came to be.

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
That was marketing’s idea to try to get repeat play. C&D was a game that they felt it could be applied to that was currently approaching production, so we fixed up one cabinet with it to give it a try.

Coinopspace
How did it work though?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
It was basically a flash PROM stick — could hold a whopping 1k of memory. (or was that 256 bytes).

Either way, it showed promise, but not for a game like C&D so much. It would have been better tested on a role-playing type game, or something that you really needed multiple sessions on to complete.

Coinopspace
Shouldn’t need too much (memory), right? And the player would by it and bring it with them, plug it into the front of the game or something?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
Yup, it allowed the player to save their current state of the game. They gave away a bunch of keys to players at that Arcade. About 1 in 10 actually used it. Gauntlet or any adventure based game would have been good. Even Tempest could have used it!

Coinopspace
How much would they have cost? (Either wholesale for Atari or for the consumer?)

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
They were about $30 for the reader and about $3 per key. Today it’d be about $10 for the reader and pennies for the key.

Coinopspace
I would have thought more expensive, interesting.

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
They were planning to let the individual arcade owners sell/give away the keys. That (price) was “in bulk”. The test reader we used was close to $100. Keys were about $3.75

Coinopspace
What was the Atari parts dept like?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
Candyland! Loved to wander through there. Picked up old controls, cover plates, you-name it that was in their scrap piles. An amazing set of rows and shelves. Have a bowling-ball sized trackball still out in the garage from there .

Coinopspace
Rusty, can you dispel the myth of 500 I,Robot(s) being dumped into the Pacific Ocean?

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
Not true. Total myth. I would have LIKED to dump about 500 I Robot controls into the Pacific – they were a nightmare, but that didn’t’ happen either. We were using the Hall Effect.
We had an arcade in Seattle we were testing and it was playing itself sometimes! Turned out the arcade was next to a scrap yard with a monster crane magnet – was playing the game from 100 yards away! Turned out the control needed to be separately grounded (and shielded) to the PC board. All the production controls that used the hall-effect did that after that test.

Not sure which arcade, but we kept exchanging controls with them for months and never found the problem until they explained where they were located. Finally, the mechanical group just grounded the SH*T out of it and it started to work.

Coinopspace
Twin Galaxies will want to go thru your Paperboy with a fine tooth comb!

Breighton (Rusty) Dawe
No problem, maybe they can find the intermittent loose chip I’ve got .

Coinopspace
Just wanted to say thank you for inviting me to your chat! This has been great fun. This is the first time after all these years I’ve been able to chat about these games. Thank you all! Enjoyed your questions and feedback. Rare chance to connect with like-minded folks .

Look for my daughter come November to hold the Paperboy records, she really is an ace at it. I enjoyed it. Bye all!

Thank you Rusty for all your creative contributions to a great hobby. Over the years I am sure there have been many requests made for your time and questions repeatedly asked about the history of these games. We just appreciate that you are still so accessible and willing to talk about the past and keep this hobby alive and going. If you liked this chat, you might also check out the transcript from our chat with Data East programmer John Carpenter.

The next creator chat is with Warren Davis (Creator of Q*Bert), on June 27, 2009 from 2-3 EST. Don’t miss it. RSVP at Coinopspace.com or on the Coinopspace.com Facebook page.