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Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Boulder Dash for the Atari 2600 - how the retro community can work

Andrew Davie (the guy Atari are currently wanting to nab atari2600.org from) has been working for several years with fellow Atari Enthusiast Thomas Jentzsch on an Atari 2600 port of First Star Software's popular eighties classic - Boulder Dash.

The game was originally programmed by Peter Liepa and Chris Gray back in 1984 and released first for the Atari 8-bit. One of the most classic and original games of its generation, Boulder Dash went on to be released across various platforms including the NES and Commodore Amiga.

So far a working 2-cave demo has been released and it looks fantastic. Now what makes this unique is that Davie has been working closely with First Star Software who he describes as being very supportive and generous in allowing the demo to be released freely to the Atari Community.

Whilst the game is certainly a work in progress it looks amazing so far and there is hope that the finished product could get a full commercial release, endorsed by First Star Software, which will be a significant historical event in itself.

Sadly, since Atari waded in to move on Davie's atari2600.org domain name,  Boulder Dash might be the last Atari 2600 related project Davie works on.

First Star Software have shown that in 2011 they remain the same great company they were back in the eighties. This is a perfect example of how a rights holder can work constructively with the retro community - if only Atari could learn from them.






1 comments:

StickHead said...

Unfortunately, large corporations only ever have the widest possible demographic, or the mainstream, in mind. :( It's really sad to see 'retro gaming' become just another commodity for suits to buy and sell.

On a more positive note, Boulderdash looks incredible. Who would have thought that was a possibility back in the eighties?

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