Near-complete Xevious Atari Prototype Discovered

SANTA CLARA, Calif. - July 14, 2015 - PRLog -- Santa Clara, CA, June 29, 2015– The discovery of a polished, playable test cartridge dated January 1984 is exciting news for video game historians and enthusiasts. Until now Xevious for the Atari 2600 was believed to have been abandoned in a mostly unfinished state in the wake of corporate restructuring at Atari in the early 1980s. The Digital Game Museum is pleased to present this previously unknown version of the game for public play at California Extreme, July 18-19, in Santa Clara, California.

In 1984, adaptations of the arcade game Xevious were canceled for the Atari 5200 and 2600 home consoles. Prototypes of the Atari 2600 version which contain partial development progress from late 1983 were known to exist but these versions lacked a title screen, final sprites, enemy waves, and music. The newly discovered cartridge features all these additions and represents a far more playable game than the previous known version.

“This discovery provides an interesting window into the inner workings of Atari at the time and gives us a chance to see what such a landmark arcade game would have looked like running on the 2600,” said Digital Game Museum Director Judith Haemmerle. “We’re excited to be able to provide an opportunity for people to play it on original hardware”

Digital Game Museum is proud to be partnering with California Extreme to provide the public with a chance to play this newly discovered version of Xevious on original Atari 2600 hardware for the first time. Attendees will be able to compare the Atari 2600 prototype with the original 1983 arcade version of Xevious courtesy of collector Tom Bazzano and view other original Xevious artifacts.

“This version of Xevious is one of the most faithful arcade ports I’ve ever played on the Atari 2600,” said Dave Beaudoin, Digital Game Museum Board Member. ”The speed and responsiveness combined with the graphics and audio are jaw dropping. It’s amazing they were able to get this kind of performance out of the 2600.”

California Extreme runs from July 18th through the 19th at the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara. For more information on the show see the California Extreme website at: http://www.caextreme.org/

Screenshots and cartridge pictures are available at: http://digigames.org/items/show/2080
Xevious Prototype game footage is available at http://youtu.be/1qO_LirfrLE



About the Digital Game Museum

The Digital Game Museum is California’s premier professionally managed museum dedicated to the preservation of digital game history and artifacts. The collection represents games and memorabilia spanning from the early days of the arcades to the modern home consoles and PC titles. The Digital Game Museum preserves both artifacts that were publically available as well as internal corporate memorabilia that contextualizes the creation of memorable game experiences. Learn more at digitalgamemuseum.org. (http://digitalgamemuseum.org)

If you would like more information about this topic, please contact Judith Haemmerle at (408)610-1444 or email at judith@digitalgamemuseum.org.