Atari's Last XYGame - TomCat

[iamjimmi]

Ok, so I am about 16 years behind the times, but I just stumbled across a really interesting article tonight about an Atari vector game called TomCat.

No doubt a lot of folk are familiar with this, but it's the first time that I have heard of it, so thought I would share.

In summary, it was a development game written after Star Wars. It looks like the plan was to link two machines together for simultaneous play and it was designed to run on a moving simulator!

The full story is here http://jmargolin.com/tomcat/tomcat.htm

There are two versions in Mame - the first prototype running on Star Wars hardware (this still has the Star Wars attract screen) and the more advanced prototype on custom hardware.

iamjimmi2016-04-03 01:26:33

 

[Battlezone]

That's an amazing bit of vector history that I hadn't come
across before. I'll have to check TomCat out on Mame.

Apologies in advance for the shameless aside:

Interesting to see that after all that exposure to TI DSPs

on TomCat he went on to be part of the Hard Drivin' team.

That game was the one time that my day job intersected

with the video game industry. As well as DSPs that game

also used the first in a range of TI graphics processors (TMS34010)

designed in little-old-Bedford-England and was the first chip

I helped design. We even used to have a Hard Drivin'

machine in the US office to show off the DSP and graphics hardware

to visitors (I wonder what happened to it).

 

[Alpha1]

John that is AWESOME! Wow.

If you want bat sh*t crazy check out the cancelled game on I, Robot hardware, I can't remember the name of it - Air something I seem to remember

 

[iamjimmi]

As well as DSPs that game also used the first in a range of TI graphics processors (TMS34010)designed in little-old-Bedford-England and was the first chip I helped design.

Nice claim to fame!

Some folks on this board have amazing stories to tell...

 

[Alpha1]

I lied, a precursor to STUN Runner and Hard Drivin', not IR hardware.

Apparently the same boardset as Atari's cancelled The Last Starfighter game

[tube]TvYLCsmNKfE[/tube]

 

[Battlezone]

Air Race maybe Oli? I'll take a look.

http://arcadeheroes.com/2012/06/15/atari-prototypes-over-the-years-mega-post/
Battlezone2016-04-03 11:45:59

 

[Hurray Banana]

John you've just become a legend

 

[iamjimmi]

I lied, a precursor to STUN Runner and Hard Drivin', not IR hardware

Very cool... I am collating a list of games that should work with an Atari Yoke (that's how I stumbled across TomCat). I did try Air Race but didn't appreciate its significance. As it looked to be such an early prototype I had dropped it from my list. It's back on now!