Picture of Intellivision Wing War

[Tempest]

I posted this on AA, but I think the large majority of Intelli fans are on DP, so I figured I'd post this here as well. This link is to a episode of some kids show in which they toured Imagic's facilities. There's some interesting behind the scenes stuff, but during one part of the video you can see an Intellivision playing Wing War. To the best of my knowledge no one has found actual pictures of Wing War for the Intellivision (just a mock up).

It's hard to see because it's in the background, but about 3/4ths of the way into the video they go to the play testing area where everyone is playing Wing War. If you look quickly you can see the Intellivision version. From what I can see it looked pretty nice. There might be something else hidden in here that the sharp eye can find (looks like they're also debugging the Intellivision version of Atlantis in one scene).

http://www.atarimania.com/detail_soft.php?MENU=8&VERSION_ID=5777

Tempest

[hellfire]

wow, the video is really interesting

[slapdash]

Yeah, nice. Thanks for pointing this one out!

[Superman]

Great video! Thanks! I always enjoy watching retro videos.

I thought it was interesting to see how the dragon was created.

[Steve W]

You know, playtesting on Imagic games back in the early '80s would basically be my absolutely best dream job. To get paid to play games like that would be an incredible gig. Of course, I was nowhere near California back then, and was a little too young to be employed in that time period anyway. Still, a man can dream.

[PingvinBlueJeans]

Looks like Patrick Ransil (program) and Matthew Sarconi (graphics) were the ones working on it. A bit odd that video mentions Pat as having worked on Safecracker...that game is credited to Marvin Mednick.

[alex.pace]

Men, I am the one who first discovered that video:)

It is not true that it is the only graphics about it, I have published 3 images of the game in my Intellivision lost games guide (which M. Becker gave me), they're not real photos but very near to them as Becker used to stick a transparent paper on the monitor copying the real graphics by hand.

I am interested about the programmers. Who told you about Ransil and Sarconi?
I talked to Ransil, he doesn't remember anything about it. Patrick Schmitz remembers working on it, my best theory is that Alan Smith completed it but i couldn't find him to ask him.

We could exchange informations.

[Tempest]

Wow, those look nice. I hope this prototype surfaces some day.

Tempest

[alex.pace]

If they're the same 3 below (and I'm guessing they are), you can thank me since I'm the one who archived Becker's materials :)
]

Yes they're the same! He sent me them too:) I had never seen them before anyway.

I talked with Sarconi, he confirmed his work at Wing War even if he's not sure for which platform.

About the prototype, unfortunately I asked about all old Imagic staff without results; most of them were skeptical about the existance of the game (i.e. De Frisco), but Brian Dougherty firmly remembered the prototype and that they went around to show it (with Moonsweeper too, also completed).
Then the video surfaced and I had the certain proof.

One who could have the prototype is Alan Smith, but "Alan Smith" in US is just like "Mario Rossi" in Italy, there're thousands of them, it is impossibile to find him without help. I know he's also very elusive and doesn't want to be interviewed. :(

Also another person who could know something about it is Karen Elliot whom I haven't found yet.

To my experience, it is more possibile that some anonimous former employee kept prototypes rather than programmers; Imagic had 400 employees, but how can I find them today?

Any suggestions?

Alessandro Pace

[alex.pace]

Meanwhile I and Oliver rebuilt the original prototype box, as you surely know:)

http://www.beeslife.com/intvgames/boxes/boxes.php

[TheRedEye]

To my experience, it is more possibile that some anonimous former employee kept prototypes rather than programmers; Imagic had 400 employees, but how can I find them today?

Michael Becker has a LinkedIn profile, have you spoken to him?

[alex.pace]

I've already spoken with Becker, he confirmed the existance of the complete (or almost complete) prototype, but couldn't remember who programmed it.
I asked to Wilfredo Aguilar too (who made the dragon model used in the box), but neither he did.

My "Alan Smith" hypotesis is by exclusion, as I interviewed about all other Imagic - intellivision programmers.

It is the most logical conclusion too, as Smith was a very skilled intellivision programmer (he did Dracula and Dragonfire) and made the Colecovision version of the game.

If anyone knows where he's, please tell!