Cloak and Dagger (prototype) for the Atari 8-bit family

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Highretrogamelord

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Published on November 4, 2012 2:39:39 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvInnXMmaEQ

Game:

Prototype (2009)

Duration: 2:11

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Game description:

You control Agent X (Jack Flack), who must infiltrate the hideout of the evil Dr. Boom and recover the secret plans he has stolen. Agent X must progress through a series of 32 floors to find Dr. Boom's hidden lair and destroy his underground bomb factory.

Each floor of the hideout contains a series of conveyer belts. Riding along the conveyer belts are bombs, which come in two colors, green and red. Green bombs are not active and can be picked up for points, however red active bombs are deadly to the touch. Green bombs turn into red bombs after they pass though the bomb-arming device, so Agent X must be careful near these. Also on the conveyer belts are mystery boxes and map pieces. Mystery boxes have a random power up in them (bonus points, speed up, slow down, or an extra life), while map pieces (one each level) show Agent X the way through the land mine field.

Every four levels Agent X will come to a mine field. Mine fields look like large empty rooms, except that they are filled with invisible land mines. The land mines are only reveled when Agent X is standing right next to them. There are only a few safe paths through the mine field, and one will be shown if Agent X has collected all the pieces of the map on the previous three levels. If a piece of the map was missed, the path through the mine field will only be partially shown.

And now to the prototype itself:

The Prototype

After the success of the arcade game and movie, Atari ordered a home port of Cloak & Dagger to be created. Programmer Dave Comstock was assigned to write the game, first for the Atari 8-bit computer line, then for the Atari 5200 (this was a common practice). Working closely with Rusty Dawes (programmer of the arcade version), Dave fired up his modified Atari 800 and started programming.

However after working on the project for a few weeks it became apparent to Dave that in order to make the game as close to the arcade version as possible, the game would have to be larger than 16K (which was the standard at the time). After appealing to Atari's management, Cloak & Dagger was authorized to become the first 32K home game in Atari's history. Having an extra 16K of memory to work with allowed Dave to add more of the arcade game's features to the home version. There were going to be no compromises made with this version!

Unfortunately for Dave, after completing roughly 50% of the game the great game market crash of 1984 hit. Staggering from huge losses, Atari laid off most of the home computer division and cancelled the game. Sensing the end was near, Dave wisely took home the latest version of his game, saving it from almost certain loss. After the layoffs Dave, being the dedicated programmer that he was, kept working on Cloak & Dagger, adding new features and cleaning up various bugs. However after a few months Dave got a new job, the game was put into storage, and the world moved on...

Although Cloak & Dagger was around 50% complete when work was stopped, the game is far from playable. The level layouts are done and Agent X can move around each level, but that's about it. There are no enemies, no forklifts, and Agent X can not shoot or light bombs. The famous elevator sequences are also missing from this prototype, although Dave did plan to add them in. Also missing from this prototype is the status display that would be displayed at the top of the screen, this makes the screen look oddly squished. One compromise that Dave did have to make is that he was forced to remove the diagonal conveyer belts due to technical reasons. This doesn't harm the gameplay, but it does make some of the boards look a little strange.

So what can you do in this prototype? Agent X can walk from one side of the screen to the other, moving from level to level. If Agent X touches something that would normally kill him he will turn black, but he will not die. Once Agent X makes it to the 32 level, the game wraps around and starts at level 1 again. The conveyer belts complete with bombs are fully functional, although there are some slight graphical glitches now and then. The bubbling acid pits, mine fields, and box compressors are also present in this version.


What I think:

Too bad the only really finished version is the Arcade one.

This could've been a nice addition to the Atari 8-bit library.

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