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Quantum |
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Manufacturer:
Atari Year: 1982 Class: Prototype Genre: Skill Type: Videogame Monitor:
Number of Simultaneous Players: 1 Maximum number of Players: 2 Gameplay: Alternating Control Panel Layout: Single Player Controls:
Sound: Amplified Mono (one channel) |
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DescriptionEnter a subatomic world. Using the trackball, capture particles by circling them with your probes tail. Player surpassing the high score gets to "draw" his name with the trackball.Know anything more about this game? Cabinet InformationThe game was released as a dedicated upright cabinet only. The machine is notable for its use of front-panel artwork, surrounding the coin slots. The side art is silk-screened.Although there have been occasional rumors that a cocktail prototype exists, the findings may reveal that this is just a converted Tempest cocktail. Cheats, Tricks and BugsIt is possible, usually only at the beginning of a new screen, for even a moderately skilled player to quickly circle around the entire screen and move to the next level immediately.Game IntroductionUsing only a trackball, capture and destroy particles (Electrons, Nuclei, Photons, Positrons, Pulsars, Splitters and Triphons) by fully encircling them with your probe's tail. The number and speed of particles increases and the length of the probes tail decreases with each passing wave, increasing the difficulty of the task. Colliding with a particle destroys your probe. Circling multiple particles scores double points. On higher levels, the Nuclei join together forming bonds, lethal to your probe when red. A choice of starting levels (based on the previous level attained) is available at game start. A level is selected by circling it with the trackball. Quantum is unique for allowing the highest scoring player to "sign" his name freehand using the trackball. To achieve visually pleasing results requires considerable practice.Game PlayIn each stage, you move your probe with the trackball. As you move, you leave a tail behind. As the attract-mode demo explains, the idea is to circle around and cross your tail to complete a loop. Any particles caught in a closed loop are destroyed. A level is completed by destroying all the nuclei (solid circular particles).You must avoid contact with any of the particles (except electrons, they are safe) as well as active (red) particle bonds. Otherwise, the scene collapses and destroys your probe. Besides the nuclei, other deadly particles may appear from time to time. Scarcity in collections (VAPS.org)Common - There are 33 known instances of this game owned by one of our 900 members. Of these, 30 of them are original dedicated machines, 0 of them are conversions in which game circuit boards have been placed in another game cabinet, and 3 of them are only circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired.Of the 42,694 video games (3,154 unique) tracked by the Video Game Preservation Society, this game ranks a 28 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most commonly seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on ownership records. Wanted - There are 5 VAPS members currently looking for this game. Rarity is NOT necessarily an indication of value. Some common games show up as very rare here because collectors don't want them (they are common because arcade operatos might be sitting on tons of them in warehouses), while some fairly scarce games are grabbed by collectors every time they show up. Additionally, some games made in the last 5 years are still making money for operators and are thus not yet affordable to the typical collector. For a clue to value, compare how many people have this game vs. how many people want this game and then click on the eBay links to help determine an accurate price range. TechnicalUsed the Amplifone XY display (mounted vertically). The game manual refers to a Wells Gardner equipped version, but due to the limited production run, this may not be correct. Boardset is similar in form to other Atari color XY games, though Quantum was Atari's first use of the Motorola 68000 CPU (previous XY games used one or more 6502s). Vector generation circuitry is capable of drawing solid objects.TriviaThis was one of two games designed for Atari by General Computer Corp. (the other being Food Fight). The agreement was the result of a legal settlement between Atari and GCC. The production run for this game is rumored to be around 500. The game did poorly in the arcades and rumor has it that some disgruntled operators returned the game to Atari. Many unsold/returned units were sold to the public and Atari employees.eBay ListingsClick here to automatically search eBay's Arcade, Jukebox, and Pinball categories for the Quantum Videogame machine and items related to it.Click here to automatically search eBay's Arcade, Jukebox, and Pinball categories for machines and parts made by Atari. Alternatively, check out the IAM/KLOV custom report of the hottest coin-op machines on eBay, powered by Ace.com (updated throughoutthe day).
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