
Magazine #2 2/98
World Of Atari '98

Here are some pics from the recent World Of Atari show in Las Vegas, August 21 - 23, 1998. A few more to come so check again in a week or two. Here are also a few general comments and descriptions for the pictures.
Update 10/06/98: added all the remaining pictures - that's it. Enjoy and please send me your trading lists (and please be patient it may take me a while to answer - thanks!).
If you have any additions, corrections etc. please let me know - thanks!
I am interested in trades! I am looking for pretty much anything related to classic video games and computers but especially stuff for the Odyssey2/3, Videopac and Jopac. Consoles, games, promo-items - anything! I have lots of items to trade so please send me you trade-lists!
Thanks,
CyRo (remove the REMOVEME part)
Pictures From The Show:
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This is the original Pong machine as invented by Nolan Bushnell and Al
Alcorn, one game was a quarter and it played 100% flawless despite its significant age
(built in 1978). Nolan founded Atari and later sold it to Warner Brothers for $28
million. Afterwards he started up Chuck E. Cheese Pizza. |
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A yellow Computer Space by Nutting and Associates. This is the first
coin-operated video game ever. Designed by Nolan as well it was not very successful but
the cool fiberglass is something really unique. The graphics are remarkably hi-res. Could
be played at the WOA as well and gameplay well... sucked :) Here is a link to a blue one. |
Neutron Star, a pinball machine prototype by Atari. Pretty cool and fun to play although the bonus counter had a logic flaw and sometimes 'hung up' in an endless loop. Only two known to exist, this one belongs to Dan Kramer. |
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Freeze, another Atari prototype with a Tetris-like feel
to it. Great graphics (a la Donkey Kong Country) and very unique characters. Too bad this
one didn't make it, I feel it could have become quite successful. |
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Here is Scott LeGrand explaining the controls of Battlesphere. The great Battlesphere-Tournament was pretty cool. Trust me, Battlesphere is as good as the hype around it and will be a major milestone in games for the Atari Jaguar! The code went gold (release) at the beginning of August, now they have to get that puppy encoded | ![]() |
Did I say that Battlesphere rocks? Kind of like a Star Raiders2 and with more action, better graphics (of course!) and just a lot of attention to detail. It plays great in multi-player games (didn't play a single player game) and is really really cool! |
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This is Jerry Jessop, showing off the CX2000, a useless attempt to lower production costs of the 2600 with built-in joysticks (ouch!). In the background is the failed attempt to market that thing to kids (= blue color). |
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Here is Jerry with a Marshall Rosenthal (spelling?) from the LA Times (???) who came to report on the WOA. Cool! Both of them hold the the remote controllers of the CX2700 (???). |
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Here is Dan Kramer, the guy that designed the 2600 and 5200
Trackball controllers. Without his relentless pursuit of the (stupid?) management suits
the Trackballs would have never made it to the market. Dank was selling holographic backgrounds of COSMOS (he must have at least a few hundred of these) and copies of the original sales brochure. |
Here is COSMOS, an Atari tabletop prototype (only one known to exist). It had an LED matrix and 'cartridges' that had holographic backgrounds. Planned games were (among others) Space Invaders and Asteroids. Some reviewers complained about the distracting backgrounds and the thing was scrapped. Kind of cool, but the LED matrix looked pretty coarse. |
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This setup demonstrated the Laser Disc from the Firefox game (remember that one?). I never liked the game but it was kind of cool to see the scenes in linear order. Typically a scene where the player had missed the enemy would be followed by the same scene where the player had hit the enemy plane which would blow up in a big explosion. They (B & C) wanted $50 or $60 for the Laser Disc. |
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B & C Computervisions sold this Jaguar Display unit for $500. They tried to auction off the top-part (without the bottom piece - kind of useless!). Pretty cool item though. Wonder why I never saw these demo units in the stores... |
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Sign-In Friday night, just before the reception. There was a pretty long line and some of the other hotel guests were surprised that this 'old junk' could draw such a big crowd. | ![]() |
WOA had quite a few arcade machines (most on free-play): Gauntlet II, Freeze, Escape From The Planet Of The Robot Monsters, Marble Madness (ROM was messed up), Battlezone, Star Wars (no sit-down though), Tempest, Computer Space, PONG and a few others. |
There was also a museum (extra fee of $1 for entrance and exhibition catalog - $1 well spent!) with all kinds of prototypes and rare/unique items. Here are the two guys who guarded these treasures. |
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Some of these items a lot of us had never heard of :) This is how it looked Friday night, boxes and laundry baskets full of goodies were brought into the room and by Saturday it was filled with an awesome collection! |
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25 is the CX-3000 Atari Graduate Computer proto from
1982/83. 26 is the Atari Mindlink Controller proto from 1983. 27 is the CVC GameLine Modem from 1983. |
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24 is the Atari G1 Light Gun prototype from 1986. 23 are the CX-2000 VAL (for Value) protos from 1981. A useless precursor of the Atari 2600 jr. console with built-in joysticks :) |
58 Atari XC11 Cassette
Player |
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50 Atari 1200XLS proto from
1982. |
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64 Atari Video Music from 1976, a crude percursor of the Jaguar's Virtual Light Machine, groovy man! | 56 Atari Portfolio DOS palmtop (I have
one, they are pretty cool!). |
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5 Coleco Telstar Arcade (1977) |
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11 Magnavox Odyssey from 1972. The very
first home video game system designed by the legendary Ralph Baer. It had colored overlays
for the TV screen. |
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20 Atari 2600 with nice box |
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27 CVC GameLine Modem for the 2600 (1983) |
| 60 Atari XF351 3.5" Drive, prototype from 19XX 61 Atari XTC-2-1 Thermal Color Printer prototype 34 Starplex Deluxe Video Game
Controller |
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37 Atari 5200 Kid's Controller prototype from 1983 above 37: prototype of the Trak-Ball Controller (1982) 39 Atari 7800 Keyboard (1984) - only prototype known to exist! |
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| 43 Jaguar Voice Modem prototype from 1994 (Ultra Vortek was
the only game for this). 44 Atari Lynx from 1989 45 Atari Mirai ??? what is it??? |
38 clear Atari 7800 Pro System prototype from 1984 41 Atari Game Brain prototype from 1977 |
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The Running Design Team from Germany, playing their cool Doom-clone on an Atari Falcon. Pretty impressive game but kind of misplaced in this 'classic' show. Or is the Falcon already a classic? :) | ![]() |
Brad Koda of Best Electronics while setting up his booth. Brad had some really unique items and although some of them were a bit pricey they were well worth it. |
Eric Bacher from
France sold 40 numbered copies of his new game Alfred Challenge at the WOA. Great game
(though I haven't found the secret level yet) and he even signed my copy - pretty cool
guy. |
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A rare Video Jogger, mint in shrink-wrap! It went in the auction for $85 - that's a very very good price! |
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This guy had some great Q*bert stuff (see the pic) and no, he is not
related to Arnold :)
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This was the booth from B& C Computervisions. Some good stuff and a few rare items. Also tons of Atari 8Bit titles (I bought quite a few of those) and some interesting and unique joysticks. |
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The Atari X console - prototype of the Atari 5200, pretty cool! | ![]() |
An Atari 8-Bit-based Videodisc (Laserdisk not CED) Information System. |
Atari 8-Bit Expansion Box, and the ST-based Pen Computer, in the upper left there is a Atari 8-Bit-based Videodisc information system. |
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The ST Notebook Computer and the groovy Atari Video Music machine (stay mellow man!). |
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Action Mac Video Game System (with Sonic Fury video tape) | ![]() |
Atari ST Tapedrive (prototype) |
Original Cookie Monster artwork, 'printed in USA' Donkey Kong labels and other stuff from the auction. |
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Rare stuff from the auction. |
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Various prototypes and rare games from the auction. | ![]() |
Video Game Brain, original Pong and Romscanner at the auction. |
Boards for the 8-Bit Dual Floppy Drives at the auction. |
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Mystique adult Atari 2600 games and a box full of Atari 5200 cartridges at the auction. |
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ST Notebook and Atari Videocube cartridge at the auction. | ![]() |
Jerry and Dan are talking about various Atari screw-ups and humerous anecdotes. |
Scott, Eric Kaljumagi and Stehpanie in front of the Battlesphere setup. |
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Dan Kramer's special version of Centipede on the Atari 2600. |
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More stuff at the auction: official Atari Letterhead, original Cookie Monster artwork, some Atari award and a cartridge copier. | ![]() |
Dan and his baby - the original Atari 5200 Trak-Ball prototype (handmade!). He was really cool to talk to and had tons of stories and fun stuff to tell. |
Some Auction Results:
| ITEM DESCRIPTION | SOLD FOR | BID WENT UP TO $$$ (BUT DIDN'T REACH THE RESERVE) |
| Video Jogger in shrink wrap | $85 | |
| Vectrex with Joystick | $115 | |
| Video Game Brain in box | $37 | |
| ROM Scanner in box, shrink wrap | $39 | |
| ST Notebook Computer | $350 | |
| Atari 2600 Crazy Climber in box with manual | $140 | |
| Atari 2600 Donald Duck's Speedboat in box with manual | ??? | ??? |
| Atari 7800 Klax prototype | $100 (started at $500) | |
| Atari 2600 Video Cube | $45 | |
| Atari 2600 Waterworld prototype | $100 | |
| Atari 2600 Coke Wins prototype | $140 (started at $500) | |
| Saudi XE65 machine (prototype?) | $170 | |
| Atari 2600 Bugs Bunny prototype | $70 | |
| Atari 2600 Klax prototype | $50 | |
| Atari 5200 A and E prototype | $70 | |
| Atari 2600 Frog Pond prototype | $70 | |
| Atari 8Bit Mier 2049er in shrink wrap | $35 | |
| Atari 2600 Track and Field + controller, in shrink wrap | $50 | |
| Atari 7800 Donkey Kong label (framed) 'Made in USA', claimed to be 1 of only 3 existing | started at $500 | |
| Atari 2600 three Mystique games complete in boxes | $65 | |
| Action Max system in box | $15 | |
| ST Tape Drive prototype(?) | $45 |
The auctioneer was totally clueless about classic videogames and some of the starting prices had everybody laughing (like the Donkey Kong label for $500 - please!). For the most part the items didn't reach the reserve but there were some really good deals (Video Jogger, Action Max etc.). The prototypes were actually not to expensive compared to some of the rip-offs I've seen on Ebay. They also auctioned off some of the arcade machines and quite a few prototype boards for various Atari projects but I didn't wrote down the prices (can anybody help me out here?).
The Official World Of Atari Links:
Check Out This Cool Urban Assault Page:
Coming Soon:
(my official homepage - about 4 more weeks)
Thanks To:
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And:
Clay Halliwell
Donald A. Thomas Jr.
Pictures and texts © 1998 by CyberRoach Publishing, no content may be duplicated without the written consent of the author!