Page 52 - OSG Presents Classic Gamer Magazine #4

n the early 1980s, the Defender and
video games were Berzerk cartridges and
had little to do with the
I everywhere as every- CVG 101
one was trying to cash in games.
on the booming video The third pack-in
game business. This in- came with Star Raiders
cluded the comic book and was more directly
both DC and Marvel, two of The Comic Book Connection related to the game.
companies. First of all,
Issue number four,
the largest publishers at the which came with Phoe-
time, were licensing their nix, was something of
characters for use in video an oddity. Whereas the previous is-
games; the primary exam- sues weighed in at 48 pages,
ples being the Superman this one was only 16
and Spider-Man Atari pages long. And Atari
2600 games. (For more Force only played a minor
examples, just flip through role. This story also ap-
the previous issue of peared as a bonus feature
CGM.) When it came to in New Teen Titans #27
linking video games and and DC Comics Presents
comics, DC may have had #53. There were several
an edge because both it differences between the
and Atari were, for a time, pack-in and the bonus fea-
owned by Warner Communi- ture; the biggest being that
cations. Atari included several in the bonus feature, the
small, DC-produced comic ship was called the Libera-
books, called "pack-ins" or "in- tor instead of the Phoenix. Atari
packs," with their Atari 2600 actually went on to create a coin-
games. What I believe was the first op game called Liberator, which
one, however, was apparently pro- was based on the story and has
duced without the help of DC. been called a reverse Missile Com-
Yars' Revenge: The Qotile Ultima- -By Lee K. Seitz- mand. It even featured the Atari Force
tum was a short, eight page comic that logo on the marquee!
served as a prolog to Howard Scott Finally, the fifth pack-in came with
Warshaw's first Atari 2600 game. It bad first effort, but apparently Atari's Galaxian and featured the story of Atari
explained the origin of the Yars, the new parent, Warner Communications, Force finally finding a new planet to
reason (more or less) they were fight- decided it would be more expedient to colonize. According to articles that ap-
ing the Qotile, and even how to play have another Warner company, DC, peared in Atari Age magazine (the
the game. If it had included the game handle the pack-ins from then on. magazine of the official Atari Club),
version matrix, it could have almost (This is conjecture on my part as Yars' there were actually more stories
been substituted for the instruction Revenge and Defender, the first game planned. It would appear that some-
manual. The story, by Hope Shafer, to include an Atari Force comic, were one decided to cut the pack-ins short in
was rather simplistic, but the art by both released in 1982, so I'm not 100% order to prepare for the debut of the
Frank Cirocco, Ray Garst, and Hiro certain which came first.) full-sized Atari Force comic.
Kimura was well done. It was not a DC pack-ins debuted with a series This series debuted on newsstands
of comics about a science fiction team
named Atari Force. The use of the
name "Atari" was explained as stand-
ing for "Advanced Technology And Re-
search Institute." The series opened in
2005 on an Earth recovering from the
Five Day War; this war irreparably
damaged the Earth's ecosystem. As a
result, ATARI sent a group of five inter-
national adventurers out in Scanner
One, a starship that could travel to par-
allel universes, where they searched
for a new planet to which Earth's popu-
lation would be moved. As you might
guess, these comics were more in-
volved than the one from Yars' Re-
venge and featured the talents of
known comic book creators. The writ-
ers were Gerry Conway and Roy Tho-
mas, while the art was handled by
Ross Andru or Gil Kane, and Dick
Giordano.
The first two issues, which intro-
duced the team members, came with

Classic Gamer Magazine Summer 2000 52