Orbit is a clone of Spacewar!, the first digital computer game. Only now you're charged to play it. Hooray!
Unused Graphic#
Present in the same graphics ROM as the font is a leftover from an earlier Atari game, Sprint 2. This would suggest that Orbit was based off the same hardware, especially since Sprint 2 also had a two-player Versus mode.
Programmer Initials#
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Present in the same graphics ROM as the object graphics, these initials (L.R., O.R., L.Y., M.H., and P.M.) are those of people who worked on the game and were around in Atari's early arcade days:
- Lyle Rains
- Owen Rubin
- (unknown who L.Y. is)
- Morgan Hoff
- Paul Mancuso
According to Rubin, the initials would be displayed if a special sequence was entered on the game's number pad. Unfortunately, close examination of the game's code reveals that this sequence is not present. Given that Atari had a thing against crediting their game programmers/designers/etc., a practice seemingly enforced by parent company Warner and certainly by then-new Atari CEO Ray Kassar (which eventually resulted in some of said employees founding Activision), it's very possible that the special sequence was discovered and removed, with the initials left in on the grounds that there was absolutely no other way consumers would be able to see these.
Atari certainly showed them.
(Source: Digitpress)
References#
- Play Meter - Volume 4, Number 23 December 15th 1978 (600DPI), p. 16. "Atari introduced a space combat game of its own called Orbit."↩︎
- Play Meter - Volume 4, Number 21 November 15th 1978 (600DPI), p. 26. "Advance registration for this year’s A.M.O.A. Show indicates that attendance for the November 10-12 amusement industry exposition at the Conrad Hilton Hotel in Chicago will be very high again this year if it is not, in fact, another record setter."↩︎