This Company Copied Activision…with Surprising Results

[@jackeldogo3952]

Well, the actually story of Atlantis II was this: Imagic ran a contest for highest score on Atlantis, take a picture (no photoshop back then) and send it in. However, the score rolled over at 1,000,000. So if you mailed in to Imagic telling them this, they sent you back a letter to take a pic at above 999,000 and send it in. If you did that, they sent you Atlantis II--a jacked up version of the original and basically gave you a few days to get a high score, take a polaroid and send it in. SNAIL MAIL, my friends! Then Top 3 or 10 (don't remember which) went on to the finals. How do I know all these details? Because I was one of those who sent in the 999,xxx and got a copy of Atlantis II. I still have that copy. No box, but the white "Atlantis II" label on the box I peeled off and put on the cart (something a dumb teenager did back in 1982). I had the correspondence for 20+ years until my basement flooded and that was one of boxes of papers that got soaked. (No, I didn't make it to the finals)

[@pojr]

This is some interesting information. Didn't realize this. Thanks! Nice job getting the high score too.

[@delfmeek5481]

At 4:46, Rob Fulop didn't program Space at Invaders. That was done by Rick Maurer.

[@pojr]

My bad. Fulop worked on the Atari 400/800 version of Space Invaders, not the 2600 version.

[@sithcritic8906]

Rob’s hit game on the 2600 was the translation of Missile Command. There is an Easter egg where one of the bases can be turned into his initials RF.

[@RockyP77]

"I bet Todd Rodgers could get it" might be the best line and sickest burn ever.

[@seanshepard2000]

that was the best line I've ever heard on youtube! lol - it wins the internet! lol

[@cf105cp]

Never heard of Todd Rogers. Wonder if he is related to Todd Togers.

[@seanshepard2000]

@@cf105cp HA! Only guy in history to spell his name wrong ... as an adult ... on legal paperwork, lol

[@RetroTechChris]

Hah! That Demon Attack commercial... my goodness! I've always been amazed with the Activision titles on the 2600. And I did play Atlantis quite a bit... I guess we can thank a free turkey for its existence, LOL! Oh, and I LOVED Infiltrate, despite its weirdness. Thanks for another great video, pojr!

[@kins749]

Great to see a video on the lesser known (to most people) companies, more please!

[@pojr]

Will do! Thanks!

[@Offramp-z7p]

Imagic also made some of the best games made for the Mattel Intellivision, games which made good use of the superior hardware. I have fond memories Imagic's "Dracula". The Co-op feature allowed the second player to control people Dracula turned into zombies, which in turn could attack the Constable (the character trying to stake Dracula). It was the only way Dracula could turn the tables on Constable.

[@mysummerstuff]

Another quality video. I love it when you detail Atari stories, and would love to see more history and games from other 2600 developers. CommaVid has a unique backstory and unique titles, for instance, or how about how Quaker Oats joined the 2600 bandwagon. Anyway, I'm so thankful a quality youtuber is putting out interesting Atari videos, and quite a few.

[@tractorman287]

The Atlantis 2 cartridge was not a prize. The only reason it was sent out was as a tie breaker for the contest. Too many players maxed the score out on the normal game so they needed a tie breaker. The only difference with Atlantis 2 is the score goes up by smaller increments. The prize was intended to be a trip to Bermuda for the finals and a cash prize. It is believed the contest never occurred.

[@Mrshoujo]

It's obvious the contest happened because Atlantis 2 cartridges exist.

[@tractorman287]

@@Mrshoujo the contest in Bermuda is unverified to have happened. The Atlantis 2 cartridges were sent to the homes of the finalists to narrow down who would qualify for the finals in Bermuda.

[@rustymixer2886]

@@tractorman287 how many carts exist

[@tractorman287]

@@rustymixer2886 it’s not officially known. It’s estimated 10-100 carts were made

[@rustymixer2886]

@@tractorman287 awesome

[@rikp]

I never owned an Apollo game. Even in the crash, when bins full of games were as low as 50 cents apiece, I didn't see too many of them around.

[@zerobyte802]

I had Lost Luggage. It was fun.

[@Larry]

In all fairness, Activision did copy a number of games from Activision, like Kaboom! is a knock-off of Atari's Avalanche. Oh, Did you see someone made an Atari 2600 cart that allows you to watch actual videos on the system?

[@glennshoemake4200]

Dragonfire by Imagic was another great game for it's time.

[@AngryCalvin]

Yes the unreleased Texas Instruments Home Computer version looked incredible. Of course all their games looked great on that system. They did more than anyone else in showing off the hardware could do for that system and also sound as they offered speech synthesizer support which was rare for 3rd party titles.

[@MrClawt]

Great Video POJR, I really like the 2600 stories like this.

[@pojr]

I appreciate that!

[@AngryCalvin]

RIP Imagiic... Yeah right up there with Activision. If you had a Texas Instruments Home Computer than you were really special. Super Demon Attack was arcade graphics at the time. The Microsurgeon port was one of the most spectacular looking titles of the day and blew the other ports out of the water.

[@RacerX-]

Activision and IMAGIC were two great developers. Activision did things right and went on to a fantastic job in video games publishing and developing a lot of great titles for computer and consoles. Their C64 games were great. Nice video as always, POJR. Your attention to detail and research is first class. Keep up the good work.

[@Electrical.Perspective]

Yeah the fact that attari only wanted to give penny’s on the dollar to the people who actually MADE the games is one of the most greedy things I’ve ever heard

[@elgigante2001]

It's sad that Activision is today the very type of company that they hated working for back when they started.

[@EM-do9em]

That was some of your best work yet, awsome

[@scatteredfrog]

Scary how much David Crane looked like Terry Kath. Almost suspicousl

[@BenHughes81]

When I bought Activision Anthology for PS2 when it came out, I was surprised to see Imagic titles on there. Back then, I thought Activision bought Imagic. I found out later that Activision acquired those Imagic titles after its assets were liquidated due to bankruptcy, but didn't acquire Imagic itself.

[@PnC_GameZnThingZ]

Lol, I have Lost Luggage. This is the first time I ever heard anyone mention it

[@kurtmager1626]

POJR, you ought to explore Activision and Imagic with regards to their software for other platforms. For instance if I recall correctly, while both companies expanded to produce games for other systems other than the 2600, Imagic was the first to expand before Activision. In fact Imagic had games for the Intellevision with their initial releases.

[@tapeNJ]

I'm fairly certain that Rob Fulop had nothing to do with Space Invaders. Perhaps you meant Missile Command?

[@JB-js4xi]

I had Cosmic Ark as a kid when it came out and it's still a favorite. I prefer playing it on OG hardware because it really needs the stick the further along you get. In my top 30 games of all time.

[@ajsingh4545]

Watched most of your vids, one of the best channels on here tbh.

[@pojr]

I appreciate that, thank you!

[@ajsingh4545]

@@pojr wishing you big success

[@aaronmilic5916]

I used to love Atlantis on the Intellivision II. I'd play so much I'd have those square hole marks on my thumbs. Didn't realize it was 3rd party.

[@pojr]

Never tried the Intellivision version, but would like to. I noticed that Imagic made some intellevision games and was surprised.

[@aaronmilic5916]

@@pojr was definitely a top three for me.

[@blakegriplingph]

Idk if you're interested in making videos about controversial Atari games like _Custer's Revenge_ or incredibly rare and unfinished ones like the aborted _Snow White_ project for Disney.

[@pojr]

I'm considering it. The adult 2600 games would be hard to cover though because I would have to censor a lot of moving footage. The adult NES games were easier to cover because there wasn't much I had to censor. I'm definitely considering it though.

[@jasonz7788]

Thankyou ! Great video!

[@jwdurbin]

a third party game company before Activision was Zircon, they made a handful of games for The Fairchild Channel F in 1977/1980 and they were pretty decent.

[@BigHushAffiliate]

Love ya man❤❤❤ keep going strong!🎉

[@used39]

Oh god - KZbin froze when the video started, so it was just frozen on the picture of David Crane with no sound and I thought he died.

[@ThriftLife]

Mailing in a picture of the high score screen to win a free game.... imagine that today.

[@Patrick2480]

You should do a vid on Absolute/Imagineering and Accolade, both from from from Atari/Activision programmers, after Activision David Crane went on to work with Absolute/Imagineering along with former Atari/Activision programmer Garry Kitchen who founded the company. Imagineer was the in house programming group they made games for other publishers Acclaim, Activision like The Simpsons Bart vs the Space mutants. Garry chose the name Absolute cause it was before Activision, lol Accolade was from the same founders of Activision, choose their name alphabetically before Activision as well.

[@visitperaiagreece]

Great video!

[@rustymixer2886]

Great video

[@pojr]

Thank you!

[@FeralInferno]

Great video Pojr! There are a few 2600 games here I haven't tried before.

[@pojr]

Thank you! There's some underrated 2600 games out there.

[@rustymixer2886]

Demon attack has to have the best cover art ever its timeless cool funny etc

[@JeremyLeePotocki]

Demon Attack was a good game, but it was way better on the other systems due to the 2600 version being gimped for copyright reasons (a true shame really). However Activison always being successful after the crash is a "yes, but not really". After that 83/84 N.A. crash they really did struggle badly. If it were not for their computer games division (thanks to the 8-bit micros in Europe) to piggy back off of as well as licensing out their IP to others companies (like Pitfall to SEGA) they could have met the same fate as Imagic & Apollo. Even during the early to mid NES days they survived thru just publishing 3rd party developers like Pony Canyon (Super Pitfall), and Pack-In-Video (Predator). Heck even David Crane's Ghostbusters was not done in house, but instead done (rather poorly) by Tokuma Shoten. It took some time before Activision regained most of it's former glory..... until it started failing again. Then rise, and fall. Rinse & repeat even up to today with their new owners. Today they're just a shell (or should we say "skin") of their former self like RCA, Phillips, etc.... Their two glory days were the 2600 days, and the PS1 thru PS2 days.

[@ThriftLife]

Wow one of those Lochjaw games recently sold for $3000y Wish that was my Ebay account lol

[@pojr]

Wow lol. I checked eBay for lochjaw carts but didn't find any. Didn't think to find ones that were already sold though.

[@arc-sd8sk]

love ur vids man

[@pojr]

Thank you!

[@nahumgardner]

Keep your intro, it gives the channel character.

[@alfonsedente9679]

I see the point of catching the bombs in the buckets of water. But... whats the motivation for the guy to catch flying luggage?

[@OrganizedRemains]

Pojr I just picked up a copy of The Earth Dies Screaming for the 2600, and I'm having a blast with it. Have you played it?

[@intel386DX]

Actually Sega and Konami made a couple of games for atari, even Nintendo did that :D😅

[@jimbox114]

Imagic made the best Intellivision games.

[@gaeshows1938]

Too bad Microsoft owns activision now

[@pojr]

Yeah they're not the same company they were in the 80's.

[@lizardspock4746]

Please change the “comin’ atcha with another video” intro. You do such a great job with the writing of your videos, you should either skip the intro entirely, or do something more professional that matches the rest of the video.

[@darkcoeficient]

But how else would we know the handsome devil made the video?

[@RetroTechChris]

Nah. It's his trademark!

[@catsaregovernmentspies]

It's his thing, along with that cheesy smile. 😁

[@RetroTechChris]

@@catsaregovernmentspies yes!!! It's part of the brand. I think it's great.

[@thetechn1que518]

No way. The awkward smile at the end is my favorite part.

[@oneinchbiceps]

I'd like to see a video on Wizard Video Games for the Atari 2600 like this one. Great video!

[@captaincid6488]

Love the Todd Rogers reference...he might sue you over that!

[@pojr]

Haha thank you, I was proud of that reference. I figured I wouldn't be sued because it's not the other guy lol.

[@captaincid6488]

@@pojr It's funny that I even know that you're referencing Billy. I've been down the retro games rabbit hole for too long. You know Todd picked Dragster to claim a high score on because nobody else plays that game.

[@cf105cp]

Todd Togers will screw up his case jist like he did the last one. I wouldn't worry.

[@BURRITO44]

Awesome video