New: Pictures of the Cockpit (22. Nov. 2008) Information
missing: Any info about a Cabaret (Mini). Pls. contact me, if
you can help.
Game
Info Overview -
Red Baron was developed by Atari in 1980 and came out about one year
after Battlezone. It is a b/w vector game and also the first
first-person-perspective flight simulator. It features a single analog
joystick housing a fire button. Goal
is to
shoot down enemy biplanes, blimps and ground targets during a WWI
dogfight and survive the hostile fire..
Description
From Original manual:
"Atari's Red Baron (TM) game is
a
one-player game with an X-Y or vector-generator monitor. The game
depicts a first-person's view from a World War I biplane cockpit. The
player's goal is to destroy as many biplanes, blimps, tanks, pillboxes,
pyramids and buildings as possible." "Players can maneuver their
airplanes with the joystick control. Moving the joystick in its four
directions creates a sensation of diving, climbing, or banking to the
left or right."
The name "Red Baron" is derived from the nickname of the german WW1
flying ace "Manfred von Richthofen" who's preferred plane was a red
Fokker Triplane. Obviously the game's artwork is derived from that era
too using the colors and the iron cross sign. The surrounding monitor
bezel shows two machine guns with their fire aligning with the centre
of the monitor. The Red Baron upright cabinet production units is in
fact the same as a Battlezone and many Battlezone were converted into
Red Barons in the factory with the Battlezone artwork still under the
Red Baron artwork. A limited amount was also built in a Cockpit and a
Cabaret (Mini) version (Cabaret to be confirmed). As opposed to the
Battlezone monitor mount using a dual way mirror to mix a background
picture with the monitor's, in the Red Baron the player looked directly
into the vertically mounted 19" G05-802 Electrohome Monitor.
Cabinet
Types »
Red Baron
Upright - June 1981 - Production: 1,500 units -
price $1,995 - measures/weight? » Red
Baron
Sitdown (Cockpit)
- May 1981 - Production: 504 units - price $2,795 - measures/weight? »Battlezone Cabaret
- does it exist?
PCB(s)
The game consists of three PCB's, a Power Supply and the XY b/w
Monitor..
1. The AVGPCB (Analog Vector
Generator) has a
6502A CPU running at 1.5Mhz with 16k of ROM for the actual game. The
ROM features extensive selftests for troubleshooting and alignment. The
6502 CPU is supported by a VSM (Vector State Machine) on the same AVG
PCB. The VSM takes care of the vector graphics display by reading the
graphics information, deposited by the 6502 CPU into the Vector
RAM, out of this shared memory. 2. For the more complex 3D
computations an AUX
(..iliary) PCB
contains
four 2901 bit slice processors forming a "MathBox CPU". Where the AVG
PCB can easily be converted from Battlezone to Red Baron, the the AUX
PCB can't as it is much differently. The third PCB is the AR2PCB
(Audio Regulator 2) which regulates the DC Voltages and amplifies the
sound fron the AVG. Sound is generated by a POKEY chip with four
independent voices for music and sound effects. The chip handled
Input/Output lines as well and was an Atari development, also used in a
variety of home computer systems from Atari. A new feature was the
adaptive game difficulty depending on the average game playing time of
the last 32 games. This was to avoid excessive game playing times of
the skilled players and at the same time to enlarge the time for
beginners. An onboard NVRAM (Non-Volatile Ram) stores game settings,
three top scores and average game playing times.
Monitor G05-802 b/w vector monitor
from
Electrohome was originally used. Also the Wells Gardner 19V2000 can be
installed.
Clones/Bootlegs
- not
known
Prototypes
Cited from the newsgroup: rec.games.video.arcade.collecting (Matty-T):
"There were a handful of proto's
released
in dedicated cabs. I had the opportunity to work on S# 13 I believe it
was. The cabinet was significantly smaller. It has a few details
different from the BZ conversion as well. The inset graphics behind the
bezel were scaled down in comparison to the conversion kit. The bezel
was as well IIRC. The marquee may have been the same, and the
control panel was definatly the same size, appearance, etc. The rest of
the cab was much shorter in height, and some custom wood lay right
underneath the bezel IIRC. It was nothing special, but definitely
original. Some day I'll get some pics up. As I recall all the
electronics are the same, etc. it was really just a shorter, more
attractive cab. Why they tooled up for a dedicated run, then decided to
go conversion is probably a matter of field test results and cost. I
would imagine at the time that operators earnings were dropping on BZ,
and releasing it as a kit to convert the cabs was more attractive to
operators then Atari asking them to buy a whole new game....."
The ownerof the Red Baron prototype answered:
"I present here my Red Baron
prototype. Fixed by Matt, as a matt-er of
fact...
This is the game he is speaking of. Serial # 3, not for sale. They do
exist..."
For a picture of the prototype see the "pictures"
section below.O
Other Info
Sources »
Red Baron on
K.L.O.V.
( The "Killer" List of Video Games) - www.klov.com »
» Red Baron
Upright- [ link ] »
Red Baron
Cockpit- [ link ] »
Red Baron
Cabaret (Mini)- [ link ] »
Red Baron
Upright Prototype Serial #3 (owner: "ed" www.ataboy.com) - Pic 1 - Pic 2 - Pic 3 »NEW!
Red Baron
Upright Prototype Serial unknown (owner: Francis Mariani at Ataricade)
- Pic 1 - Report on Rotheblog » PCBs
&
other pics - [ link ] »
Monitor Electrohome G05-802 - [ link ]
Spares -
General - have a look
at the "Link Collection"
section to
find sources. I can help out with single items, if you don't find them
elsewhere. A
non conclusive List is in the "Electronics
/ Parts"
section.
Cabinet
Types
