1983 Roklan Corporation / Probe 2000
Platforms: Atari 800 and Commodore Vic 20
One of the holy grail titles for the Atari 2600, Pursuit Of The Pink Panther was also due for release on the Atari 800 and the Commodore Vic 20. Being converted by Roklan Corporation at the time.
Preservationist and collector Ken Van Mersbergen (known to many as Dutchman2000) found a very early prototype of the Vic 20 title within the archive of a retired programmer who used to work for Roklan. Ken released the title late last year in 2019 on the AtariAge forums after dumping the eproms.
Before you get too excited, the prototype is extremely early, and just showcases a one screen demo. It sadly isn’t playable and nothing moves, and just seems to be testing out the graphic display at this stage. A shame, as the Atari game was an interesting looking title that could have translated well. At this stage, we are not sure if the game ever progressed any further than the demo you can see here.
However, it is yet another important piece of gaming history preserved, and wonderful to see a Vic 20 title added to the site as well. Below is a short gallery, showing the game and prototype cartridge (thanks to Ken) and also a download too.
We’ve also added an extra scan, thanks to Karl Kuras – which gives a bit more detail about the Atari 2600 game and confirms about the game being taken over by Probe 2000. We assume they would have been releasing the VIC 20 edition
Hopefully some day we will learn more about the development and from those behind it.
With thanks to Ken Van Mersbergen for the preservation work and Karl Kuras for the additional scan highlight (via archive.org).
Download link:
Gallery
