The Video Game Project
A Closer Look At The Prototypes That Became Your Favourite Games!
Space Dungeon
At its time of release, Atari's port of a relatively unknown arcade shoot 'em up, that was both developed and published by Rex Battenberg for Taito, seemed like an odd choice. Sure it has gained a cult following over time but Space Dungeon just wasn't a popular arcade game and went relatively unnoticed and unplayed in the arcades. In fact Atari's 5200 port was the only contemporary "home version" of Space Dungeon in 1983.
The games arcade version used a pair of 8-directional joysticks: one for moving, one for shooting. This was something Atari felt would compliment their 5200 console and so sold the game cartridge prepackaged with a dual-controller holder, allowing players to snap two stock controllers in and play like in the arcade. Despite it's differences to the original version (it was much easier and object withing the game were noticeablly bigger) Space Dungeon received very positive reviews upon its release.
While this game was released in NTSC regions it never came out in the PAL territories as the Atari 5200 console wasn't released outside of Northern America. The fact that prototypes of games for PAL systems exist means there were obviously plans for the console to be released, but it just never came to be!
Proto - Front
