...if this would have come out the same time as the Atari 2600's horrible version or if someone (Activision perhaps) had this port for the 2600. How things would be different today I wonder.
The Fairchild was all but dead by 1979 anyway, so even if the game came out in 1981 it wouldn't have made a difference (the recent ColecoVision homebrew is also amazing, as it's as arcade perfect as can be for a system of that vintage). All that really mattered at that point was the Atari 2600, Intellivision and Odyssey2, as the Fairchild, RCA Studio II, Coleco Telstar Arcade, Astrocade and APF all had either misplayed their hands or never got off the starting blocks. However, the fact that the game puts the original 2600 version to shame is pretty telling, as is how good even Atari's own Ms. Pac-Man was, which came out not too long after and was not under "rush" programming conditions. The crash certainly wouldn't have been averted with a good version of Pac-Man (or ET for that matter), but it sure would have not created such obvious scapegoats (and frankly, contributors).
...if this would have come out the same time as the Atari 2600's horrible version or if someone (Activision perhaps) had this port for the 2600. How things would be different today I wonder.
The Fairchild was all but dead by 1979 anyway, so even if the game came out in 1981 it wouldn't have made a difference (the recent ColecoVision homebrew is also amazing, as it's as arcade perfect as can be for a system of that vintage). All that really mattered at that point was the Atari 2600, Intellivision and Odyssey2, as the Fairchild, RCA Studio II, Coleco Telstar Arcade, Astrocade and APF all had either misplayed their hands or never got off the starting blocks. However, the fact that the game puts the original 2600 version to shame is pretty telling, as is how good even Atari's own Ms. Pac-Man was, which came out not too long after and was not under "rush" programming conditions. The crash certainly wouldn't have been averted with a good version of Pac-Man (or ET for that matter), but it sure would have not created such obvious scapegoats (and frankly, contributors).
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Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.
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Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.