An Atari 2600 model of Tarzan from the early Eighties, which had as soon as been thought misplaced ceaselessly, was just lately rediscovered and made obtainable to play on-line.
A collector often called Rob “AtariSpot” was capable of purchase a replica off a former Coleco worker in 2022. The yarn of the hassle to salvage it working on emulators was a bit extra sophisticated, nevertheless, and the hassle to maintain it’s detailed in an article written by online game historian and writer Kevin Bunch.
Tarzan is exclusive in that it used a (then) current sort of bankswitching, which mainly helped the Atari 2600 and its then-4KB storage restrict learn bigger video games. Tarzan was round 12KB, so the approach allowed for a bigger, scrolling expertise the place the gamers didn’t know what was coming subsequent. This was certainly one of the obstacles that made it troublesome to emulate, though because of Atari homebrew programmer Thomas Jentzsch, it’s now playable on the Web Archive.
The recreation was a share of a licensing deal for the 1984 film Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, and was being developed for the ColecoVision. There have been plans for it to launch on different consoles, together with the Atari 2600. (That’s why the recreation has a facet view the place Tarzan runs, jumps, and fights; the ColecoVision may deal with side-scrolling platformers properly.) The Atari model was outsourced to James Wickstead Design Associates (JWDA), which had to revamp fairly a little bit of the recreation to account for the 2600’s limitations.
Whereas the ultimate product was lacking just a few particulars current within the ColecoVision, it ran properly total and was all however completed. The Atari model was introduced for a 1984 launch. Nevertheless, these up on their historical past will acknowledge this time interval as the primary main online game recession, spurred alongside by an inflow of obtainable consoles, the rise of private residence computer systems, and an improve in third-party builders. Atari and Coleco each stopped producing video games for just a few years, and ultimately, Coleco filed for chapter. So whereas the recreation got here out for the ColecoVision, the Atari model vanished regardless of being in a completed state till now.
The complete article is price studying, particularly if you’ve got an curiosity in retro online game historical past or simply need to seek out a “current” Atari recreation to play.
