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A modern-day Asteroids could combine space and survival
With Atari back from the brink of extinction once again, the publisher has shifted its focus from a game maker to a license holder that finds development partners to create modern-day interpretations of its library of classic franchises. In an interview during PAX Prime 2014, Atari CEO Fred Chesnais explored his ideas for a modern-day Asteroids experience, saying it could combine the franchise's classic gameplay with survival concepts found in popular titles like Day Z. "So for Asteroids, the initial game was – you remember the game – you get crushed by the asteroids. So what happens now? You land on the asteroid. And then what you have to do is you have to survive on the asteroid. So you can have an Asteroids game, which is basically a survival game in space," Chesnais tells Joystiq.
New Alone in the Dark, Haunted House games in Atari's horror revival
Despite recent strife, Atari's 2014 offensive continues with upcoming reveals of new Alone in the Dark and Haunted House games. Both games are coming to PC this fall, and Atari plans to reveal them behind closed doors at next week's PAX Prime conference in Seattle. Alone in the Dark: Illumination marks the first entry in the horror series since the 2008 release, which failed to set the world alight despite its hi-tech fire physics. Illumination is in development at Pure FPS, a Californian studio with little info to go on except it holds the trademark to Rekoil, a game made by Plastic Piranha. Consider one of our eyebrows raised.
RollerCoaster Tycoon World screaming onto PC in 2015
When Rollercoaster Tycoon 4 was announced as a mobile game, people were ... a bit unhappy that the previously PC-centric series had shifted platforms. However, Atari promised a Rollercoaster Tycoon experience for PC was coming, and now that experience has been revealed as Rollercoaster Tycoon World. According to a press release, Rollercoaster Tycoon World will allow players to visit other user-created parks, share ride blueprints and change the landscape upon which your death-defying loop-de-loops will be placed. The game will feature both a single-player mode as well as a connected mode where up to four players can collaborate to create one massive amusement park. Unlike its mobile counterpart, the game will be released with no microtransactions. You can look forward to sending amusement park patrons to their death via unsafe rollercoaster designs (it's okay, we do it too) sometime in 2015. [Image: Atari]
Arena shooter Minimum's Early Access price minimized
Updates are to be expected when a game is on Early Access, but patches that also halve a game's price are a little more rare. The latest addition to Minimum, Atari and Prey developer Human Head's third-person arena shooter, is among those rarities, dropping the price of Minimum's Early Access admission from $19.99 to $9.99. Those that have already enlisted as blocky, gun-wielding soldiers on Minimum's minimalistic battlefields still have something to enjoy from the update: Path of Lanterns supplies a new zone to sprint through in the 5 vs. 5, assist-your-team's-base-stomping-robot Titan Mode, with Zen Garden serving as a fresh Team Deathmatch locale. The update expands Minimum's arsenal, too: Proximity mines and sticky grenades can now be set or lobbed to thwart opponents. It's a given that sticky grenades cling to anything your accuracy allows, but Minimum weapon designer TJ notes "your teammates" as a possible host for proxy mines, so don't limit your placement strategies to immobile objects. If you'd rather hone your technique before wildly hurling explosives, the update also adds AI bots, which are just as capable of crafting armor and gathering powerups as human players. [Image: Atari]
Weekends with Engadget: Bose sues Beats, OS X Yosemite preview and more!
This week, we looked at the top 12 tablets available, watched Bose sue Beats, took the OS X Yosemite public beta for a test drive and reviewed the Oppo Find 7. Read on for Engadget's news highlights from the last seven days. Oh, and be sure to subscribe to our Flipboard magazine!
Microsoft flashes its 'Halo 2' remake and Atari documentary at Comic-Con
What do Halo: The Master Chief Collection and the Atari landfill-dig have to do with comic books? Not much, really, but that doesn't mean that Microsoft isn't at this year's San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) trotting them out to those in attendance. Let's start with Master Chief. The big green galoot has a boxed set of the games he starred in coming out this November, Redmond has seen fit to drop a trailer for the collection's gorgeously overhauled Halo 2 cinematics and we've embedded it below. What's more, MCC's developer Certain Affinity announced that the map that introduced the world to Halo 2's multiplayer, "Zanzibar," is getting the remake treatment alongside "Lockout," "Ivory Tower," "Coagulation" and "Ascension." The final of the six remastered maps will be revealed at Gamescom in Germany next month. If that isn't enough Halo news, we've also embedded video from the Halo: Nightfall panel that recently took place at SDCC.
Trailer for Xbox's Atari E.T. documentary phones home
Remember when a bunch of people hung out in a landfill for a weekend and it didn't end in total disappointment? In April, the devoted among us choked on dust in Alamogordo, New Mexico while Xbox Entertainment Studios and Lightbox Entertainment dug for an answer to the E.T. Atari cartridge legend. The rest of us slackers didn't get to witness the pivotal moment of the lot's unearthing, so we'll just have to find a way to live with Atari: Game Over, the incoming documentary you can preview with the above trailer. Game Over is part of the Signal to Noise documentary series, one of the few projects to survive Xbox Entertainment Studios' recent closure, joined by the Ridley Scott-produced Halo: Nightfall. Xbox Entertainment Studios was announced to the public in 2013 and focused on creating television programming, which could have included shows related to the Gears of War or Fable series. Its closure was announced just over a week ago beside 18,000 layoffs, which involved Xbox's European division as well as Microsoft's Nokia Devices and Services division. [Image: Xbox]
Engadget Daily: NVIDIA's Shield Tablet, Atari's 'Pridefest' and more!
Today, we take a look at NVIDIA's new Shield Tablet, investigate Atari's future with the LGBT community, ponder an Apple smartwatch patent and learn about a potential HIV breakthrough. Read on for Engadget's news highlights from the last 24 hours.
Atari's betting its future on gays and gamblers
"If I had a hole in New Mexico, maybe that one [the Project Runway game] would have made it there." Todd Shallbetter, Atari's chief operating officer, is just joking of course. He's referencing the company's infamous 1983 move to bury countless amounts of unsold gaming hardware and E.T. game cartridges under a slab of cement in the desert. Shallbetter doesn't deny his company's rocky legacy. On the contrary, he embraces it, using its failures as a counterpoint for a new version of Atari he's helping to build. To push the company past the €31.7 million (about $42 million) in revenues it earned in the 2011-2012 fiscal year (PDF), Shallbetter is targeting markets that most companies would rather ignore; markets that represent hundreds of billions of dollars. Atari is going after gays and gamblers.
Microsoft's Atari doc remains on track despite studio closure
The news that Microsoft is shuttering Xbox Entertainment Studios won't have an effect on its Signal to Noise series, the first episode of which focuses on the rise and fall of former gaming giant Atari. Fuel Entertainment's (one of the production houses behind the episode) director of communications Nick Iannitti tells us that everything was still proceeding on schedule despite the closure, and that nothing has changed for his team. Its behind-the-scenes panel about Atari scheduled for the upcoming San Diego Comic-Con is still happening, and production for the show is still under way. What's more, he says that he learned of Xbox Entertainment Studios' shuttering at "about" the same time as everyone else. If you couldn't make it to New Mexico earlier this spring, it sounds like you'll still be able to check out the infamous video-game landfill at some point in the future, regardless of Microsoft's new plans.
Pridefest is the gay pride parade simulator from Atari
Pridefest is the new social-sim game from Atari where players create and launch their very own gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender pride parade. This is the "first" of LGBT-themed games from Atari. "We will continue offering a variety of games that are inclusive for all Atari fans and Pridefest is another example of how we are doing that," said Atari Chief Operating Officer Todd Shallbetter. The game will allow players to design and customize floats, solve challenges to unlock new festival and parade supplies and "each building has a fun capacity and once it is filled, the building upgrades and draws even more city-folk to the party." We have no images, examples of gameplay or release date. Let your imagination run wild.
Engadget Daily: Samsung's NX mini, the world's first video arcade machine and more!
Today, we review the Samsung NX mini, go hands-on with the world's first video arcade machine, take a look at Acton's RocketSkates and learn about visual effects techniques used in the Game of Thrones. Read on for Engadget's news highlights from the last 24 hours.
Denny's reveals Atari-themed menu, remixed mobile games
Denny's (yes, the family restaurant chain) has released a trio of reskinned Atari classics for mobile platforms to promote its new "Greatest Hits Remixed" menu. Featured games include the vector-based Hashteroids (a remixed Asteroids), frantic shoot-'em-up Centipup (Centipede), and brick-breaking action game Take-Out (Breakout). All games have had their graphics swapped out with breakfast-appropriate aesthetics, and all feature inexplicable and surreal storylines. Here's the synopsis for Centipup, for example: "Once upon a time, a young boy named Danny came across a bottle of syrup and with just a slight squeeze the bottle's sticky contents had the power to turn anyone or anything into a fried egg." Dang. All three games are available via the free Denny's app for iOS and Android devices. [Image: Denny's]
'Breakout,' 'Centipede' and 'Asteroids,' now in your Denny's app
Denny's -- or as Denny's and no one else calls it, "America's Diner" -- has partnered with Atari to create...interesting versions of classic games Breakout, Centipede and Asteroids. The games are free, and available now in both iOS and Android app stores via the Denny's app. Whether you can stomach what they've become in the transition -- from classic games to a "retro, remixed promotion" for a trio of new dishes at a chain of diners -- is the question you'll have to ask yourself. Breakout becomes "Take-out"; Asteroids becomes "Hashteroids"; and Centipede becomes "Centipup." There's a trailer too that's only slightly soul-crushing.
Mythical Primal Rage 2 cabinet appears, playable to all
Remember that footage of Primal Rage 2 that showed up on YouTube about a year and a half ago? You know, the one that broke our inner 12-year-old heart because we knew we'd never get to play it? Well, if you can make it to the Galloping Ghost Arcade in Brookfield, Illinois, a functional arcade cabinet containing the game is waiting just for you. Not sure what all the fuss is about? Here's the skinny: released in 1994 by Atari, Primal Rage was a fighting game where players controlled gods who took on the form of giant prehistoric creatures. Besides being ported from arcade to several home consoles, it was also adapted into a toy line and comic series, and was basically just one of the most '90s things ever. Development began on a sequel that replaced the monstrous fighters with human avatars, but only a handful of prototypes were reportedly ever made. Those that were produced have only been spotted a handful of times more often than Bigfoot. Seriously, there's not a lot of information out there about Primal Rage 2, and most of it is unverifiable. Hence, the addition of the game to an arcade where any visitor can play it without having to pass a velvet rope is pretty surprising. So, who wants to take a road trip to Illinois? [Thanks, Aaron!] [Image: Galloping Ghost Arcade]
Gadget Rewind 2006: Nintendo Wii
Nintendo planned a "Revolution" for your TV. When it arrived in 2006, it was a lot more fun than the confrontational term might imply. Revolution turned out to be the code name for the company's new console, and just before E3 that year Nintendo ditched the subterfuge and unveiled its official title: Nintendo Wii. It was revolutionary, using motion-tracking remotes to get players off the couch and involved in the action. The Wii rapidly became the centerpiece at parties, stepping into the arena with classics like Pictionary and charades. The console's popularity was also a welcome turnabout for Nintendo, which had been languishing over its latest console's missteps.
E.T. and other Atari games rescued from New Mexico landfill to be sold
At this point some 1,377 game cartridges for the Atari 2600 have been rescued from the New Mexico landfill where they were unceremoniously dumped over 30 years ago. Of those, 700 will be appraised, certified and eventually sold, some of which will pass through the New Mexico Museum of Space History. While many carts will go to the film's producers and museums like the Smithsonian, some will be sold to the public along with a certificate of authenticity. The details are still being worked out by city officials, but you could soon own a piece of gaming garbage history. The carts that will be commanding the most money will clearly be the 171 copies of E.T. that were unearthed, but titles like Centipede, Missile Command and Asteroids have also been dug up. There are still over 700,000 games buried the in landfill outside of Alamogordo, NM, but they'll stay there... for now. The hole has been refilled, and the cartridges going on sale will be priced to reflect their rarity. Of course, if the city decides it needs more cash, that could always change.
Atari's item-crafting MOBA Minimum makes Early Access debut
Atari and Human Head's stylized third-person shooter Minimum is out now on Steam Early Access, giving players an early look at the project's current state as development progresses over the coming months. Created by the now-shuttered TimeGate Studios, Minimum was picked up by Atari last month, with Prey studio Human Head taking over development duties. Minimum features five-on-five strategic gameplay bolstered by a blueprint crafting system that allows players to build and customize their own unique armor and weapon loadouts. The Early Access version of Minimum is priced at $19.99. [Video: Atari]
Weekends with Engadget: Apple vs. Samsung round two, the new Engadget and more!
Welcome to Weekends with Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines from the past seven days -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. For even more action, subscribe to our Flipboard magazine!
Engadget Podcast 395 - 5.2.14
Urban legend confirmed. Atari did dump a pile of its E.T. game cartridges into a landfill in New Mexico and it's thanks to Microsoft's recent documentary efforts that we've gotten some closure. This leads your hosts to ponder the situation that led up to the cast off games and what it meant for Atari at the time. Inevitably, Terrence recalls his own Atari experiences as a youth, sitting down with a second-hand console and blasting away the hours with Yars Revenge. Ben is perfectly fine to sit back and listen -- he was a Nintendo kid, after all. But soon enough, he sets his gaming-honed gray matter in motion and delivers a cogent explanation about mobile privacy rights. It's all packed into this one episode, so head on down to the streaming links and feed your brain with the Engadget Podcast. It's delicious! Hosts: Terrence O'Brien, Ben Gilbert Producer: Jon Turi Hear the podcast:
