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Tenth Degree; a cancelled prototype 3D fighting game from the last days of Atari

VGEsoterica

Member
Well the old, ACTUAL Atari. Not whatever the hell they have become these days. Same name...diff company!

Supposedly made by ex-Capcom devs, you can feel the Street Fighter EX vibes coming off this one. Hard to say whether or not it would have been a good game because it's never possible to tell what jank is because it was unfinished vs what jank was a bad design decision. Definitely didn't seem destined to have the same success as SF Rush from Atari...but always sad to see a game not come to fruition.

Short of Thrill Kill I don't have many other examples of cancelled 3D fighting games but GAF usually gives me some solid suggestions...so what do you have?

 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
Reminds me of Fighting Vipers and that list of arena style fighting games. Is this from Japanese developers? I think it’s uncommon to find this style in the west. Atari had a presence in Japan, but from what I remember they didn’t do so well. Companies like Namco/Taito dominated the arcade scene. Wouldn’t this be more about Atari being the publisher or was this done in house?
 

VGEsoterica

Member
Reminds me of Fighting Vipers and that list of arena style fighting games. Is this from Japanese developers? I think it’s uncommon to find this style in the west. Atari had a presence in Japan, but from what I remember they didn’t do so well. Companies like Namco/Taito dominated the arcade scene. Wouldn’t this be more about Atari being the publisher or was this done in house?
It seems to mostly be American developed but info is sparse
 

Havoc2049

Member
Very interesting as I would never associate Atari and fighting games.

Has any group or organization had a more humiliating existence than Atari?
I think you might be confusing Atari Corp (computer and console consumer division) and Atari Games (Arcade division and Tengen). The company split up in 1984 after the video game crash of '83/'84.

Atari Games did make Primal Rage, Pit Fighter, Mace: The Dark Age and a few other arcade fighting games and brawlers.

Tenth Degree looks pretty cool and it might have been a fun game if finished.
 
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wondermega

Member
Has any group or organization had a more humiliating existence than Atari?

I dunno, Sega? Jokes aside, not sure if you were a gamer in the 80s/90s (going by your avatar, I will assume so) but although Atari's legacy has certainly been dragged through the ringer some amount, I'd say it is easy to still consider both a massive innovator in gaming (for obvious reasons - 2600 and the immediate followups) and then they were also a powerhouse arcade developer in the late 80s and 90s. Although they didn't match the steady output of some of their contemporaries (Taito, Sega, Capcom, etc) nearly every arcade machine they put out during that time period was at the very least remarkable/novel and fun. Rampart, Roadblasters, Hard Drivin', Stun Runner, Xybots, Cyberball, plenty others.

And although it was a initially product of Epyx (and Amiga creators), the Lynx was really a fascinating handheld - though it got pretty significantly spanked by the Gameboy, its tech was wonderful and the game lineup was also really unique and pretty solid. It never matched GB beat-for-beat, but kind of did its own thing and I loved the Lynx for that, there is still a fairly dedicated community of gamers who still appreciate & enjoy it all these years later.

As for what went down following all of that - well yes, I will admit the Jaguar was a pretty big disappointment and anything following those days was just sort of sputtering out into nothingness, which is a tragedy, but honestly it was a period of major change across the board in the industry. Lots of similar big deal companies who had much success in the previous generations just didn't do well with the changes happening in the gaming industry, a list too long to mention (of the top of my head, companies like Sunsoft, 3DO, Technos, even SNK to degrees years later). Sure maybe none of them came from such heights, historically, as Atari, but it makes it a little easier not to just single them out as being so fantastically neutered compared to a lot of their colleagues.

And with everything that has happened in the past, uh, decades.. well, they have managed to stay relevant, and people still talk about and play old Atari games, and we do see upgrades/remasters now and again. Nowhere near on the same level of success as the more adept companies who are on top of their game, but for the most part I think they are doing a good enough job of keeping their catalog in circulation and not just releasing only cash-in garbage (although some may argue with this, I still think it is true). I dig my Atari Flashback, the little tiny desktop thing (OK it's basically a toy, but still) is cool, I have some collections for the last couple of gens of systems. They are nice for what they are, and I will always pay attention to see what else is coming down the pipe (but yes admittedly it does become diminishing returns as these decades pile on, so I will give you that one).

Anyway apologies for the lengthy rant, I did wanna at least make the case that Atari is still interesting to a lot of people and deservedly so. The future could certainly have been a lot different and it is what it is, but I appreciate their history and I don't feel like they just went completely to shit like some of their contemporaries.
 

VGEsoterica

Member
I dunno, Sega? Jokes aside, not sure if you were a gamer in the 80s/90s (going by your avatar, I will assume so) but although Atari's legacy has certainly been dragged through the ringer some amount, I'd say it is easy to still consider both a massive innovator in gaming (for obvious reasons - 2600 and the immediate followups) and then they were also a powerhouse arcade developer in the late 80s and 90s. Although they didn't match the steady output of some of their contemporaries (Taito, Sega, Capcom, etc) nearly every arcade machine they put out during that time period was at the very least remarkable/novel and fun. Rampart, Roadblasters, Hard Drivin', Stun Runner, Xybots, Cyberball, plenty others.

And although it was a initially product of Epyx (and Amiga creators), the Lynx was really a fascinating handheld - though it got pretty significantly spanked by the Gameboy, its tech was wonderful and the game lineup was also really unique and pretty solid. It never matched GB beat-for-beat, but kind of did its own thing and I loved the Lynx for that, there is still a fairly dedicated community of gamers who still appreciate & enjoy it all these years later.

As for what went down following all of that - well yes, I will admit the Jaguar was a pretty big disappointment and anything following those days was just sort of sputtering out into nothingness, which is a tragedy, but honestly it was a period of major change across the board in the industry. Lots of similar big deal companies who had much success in the previous generations just didn't do well with the changes happening in the gaming industry, a list too long to mention (of the top of my head, companies like Sunsoft, 3DO, Technos, even SNK to degrees years later). Sure maybe none of them came from such heights, historically, as Atari, but it makes it a little easier not to just single them out as being so fantastically neutered compared to a lot of their colleagues.

And with everything that has happened in the past, uh, decades.. well, they have managed to stay relevant, and people still talk about and play old Atari games, and we do see upgrades/remasters now and again. Nowhere near on the same level of success as the more adept companies who are on top of their game, but for the most part I think they are doing a good enough job of keeping their catalog in circulation and not just releasing only cash-in garbage (although some may argue with this, I still think it is true). I dig my Atari Flashback, the little tiny desktop thing (OK it's basically a toy, but still) is cool, I have some collections for the last couple of gens of systems. They are nice for what they are, and I will always pay attention to see what else is coming down the pipe (but yes admittedly it does become diminishing returns as these decades pile on, so I will give you that one).

Anyway apologies for the lengthy rant, I did wanna at least make the case that Atari is still interesting to a lot of people and deservedly so. The future could certainly have been a lot different and it is what it is, but I appreciate their history and I don't feel like they just went completely to shit like some of their contemporaries.
But Sega today is leaps and beyond’s in reputation compared to Atari
 
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