A true curiosity from the Atari 2600 catalog, Aquaventure had never been released on cartridge before an expensive $50 edition sold by Atari. This enigmatic prototype, designed by an anonymous person and never officially published, is now within the reach of all owners ofAtari 50. The concept is simple: in the shoes of a frogman, you dive to the bottom of a cave to recover treasure before coming back up. You have to dodge the marine fauna along the way, or exterminate it with our harpoon.
Another prototype unearthed, Save Mary, an old project thought up by Tod Frye – developer behind the Atari 2600 port of Pac-Man. Planned for the end of the 1980s, this construction game remained in development for two years – an eternity for the time! – before disappearing. The boat was missed. Save Mary asks us to save a young lady stuck at the bottom of a canyon by building basic structures using a crane. To think that in 1989, the game was officially dubbed by Nolan Bushnell in the columns of Atarian magazine, congratulating “the first game where you save the princess by building rather than destroying“…
The good smell of homebrew
Beyond these intriguing prototypes, the update ofAtari 50 also highlights the community’s homebrew creations, including Return to Haunted House and Adventure II. This tasteful selection accompanies a handful of sports games, like Double Dunk, but also Warbird, an early Ace Combat released on Atari Lynx.
The winter updateAtari 50 is already available. Digital Eclipse will continue to supply the compilation in the future with new games, but also making-ofs and interviews for the most curious.