Just came across this article. Great job! For years I've occasionally searched for information about Atomic Castle. Believe it or not, I actually had the good fortune to play the game in 1983-84! It was at the now-defunct Western Trails Arcade in Oak Lawn, IL. (I always chuckle when sites claim it was never released). It was a conversion kit, so the cabinet was non-descript with no graphics. Amazing game; a quantum leap over all the games of the period. There were lots of cool scenes, including a cut scene, when you lost a life, of a woman wearing a live snake on her shoulders, and a scene where you enter the spaceship within the castle from first-person perspective. I had a hard time adjusting to the 'hand' icon when trying to grab the various objects. The objects were animated and overlayed on the live video. Impressive for the time.
All I ever found online was the flyer, a few screenshots, and brief descriptions on Michael Harris' website and atarihq.com. You've compiled more info than I ever thought was out there. I hope that the rom turns up someday. AC is too unique a game to be lost. Didn't know about Pitchman; sounds like it was a cool concept.
Great article. It's too bad these games never saw the light of day.
ReplyDeleteThis all makes me think of the RDI Halcyon, which apparently did get released in small quantities supposedly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeI5zKeGELA
Just came across this article. Great job! For years I've occasionally searched for information about Atomic Castle. Believe it or not, I actually had the good fortune to play the game in 1983-84! It was at the now-defunct Western Trails Arcade in Oak Lawn, IL. (I always chuckle when sites claim it was never released). It was a conversion kit, so the cabinet was non-descript with no graphics. Amazing game; a quantum leap over all the games of the period. There were lots of cool scenes, including a cut scene, when you lost a life, of a woman wearing a live snake on her shoulders, and a scene where you enter the spaceship within the castle from first-person perspective. I had a hard time adjusting to the 'hand' icon when trying to grab the various objects. The objects were animated and overlayed on the live video. Impressive for the time.
ReplyDeleteAll I ever found online was the flyer, a few screenshots, and brief descriptions on Michael Harris' website and atarihq.com. You've compiled more info than I ever thought was out there. I hope that the rom turns up someday. AC is too unique a game to be lost. Didn't know about Pitchman; sounds like it was a cool concept.
See also:
Deletehttp://web.archive.org/web/20140516215850/http://atomiccastle.com/