Quote:
Originally Posted by malko
While browsing for something else, found this. Maybe of any interest for someone.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DrBong
Here's a more interesting EA advert for the question we're trying to answer. EA actually announcing the availability of their first 7 Amiga software products (DPaint, Skyfox, One on One, ArcticFox, Financial Cookbook, Seven Cities of Gold, Archon) for purchase in early 1986.
https://archive.org/details/amiga-wo...86-03/page/n11 |
Quote:
Originally Posted by Amigajay
That’s no more evidence in favour or not depending on your point of view
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I simply made the observation that it was a more interesting EA advert than what malko came across in his travels. Nothing more, nothing less. Read on and find out why IMHO it's a more interesting advert, if you're at all curious.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Amigajay
EA had several similar ads over a good 6 months with most of the same games, doesn’t confirm which games made it out when.
The only ‘real’ dates we have to go on is the 1st Dec 85 release dates for 3 of their games on a retailer advert
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You're off the mark on both counts, for mine. I've been sorting out this stuff for HOL for over 15 years now and have probably done more hours/months/years of detective work and "bugfixing" on the info. side of games than any other team member, so trust me when I say.......retailer adverts - usually way more unreliable than date stamps on main execs or (c) dates on game disks/packaging - often mean diddly squat when it comes to the release date of a game (or sometimes even release year).
One
retailer advert in
Amiga World, for instance, listed
Return to Atlantis and a bunch of other games from EA + others as being available on Dec 1, 1985. Yet
Return to Atlantis ended up being released in 1988 and quite a few other games in that advert didn't make an appearance until well into 1986.
In the case of EA's ads in
Amiga World, EA changed their advert in the first few issues (i.e.
this advert that ran from Sept '85 to Jan/Feb '86) from one where they showcased 8 software products that were
in development to a
different advert in the Mar/Apr '86 issue in which they announced the availability for
immediate purchase of 7 software products (a few of them not even seen in the previous ad). At the end of this advert, it says very clearly in a forthright manner:
'These Electronic Arts products are available NOW, so you can stop waiting for the high-quality software that will let you get the most from your Amiga.
Frankly, I would've expected this advert to have ran in the Jan/Feb '86 issue of
Amiga World if any or all of them had been released before Christmas '85.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Amigajay
The only ‘real’ dates we have to go on is the 1st Dec 85 release dates for 3 of their games on a retailer advert, what we want to know is did Monkey Business get sent to customers before this date or not!? From the only evidence so far of one of the Monkey Business game files of 25th Nov (i think it was) then i have my doubts it was, it may have been a week or two into December for all we know, but they still sent a copy to Amiga World, whilst the other companies waited until the new year, the evidence is too misty to have a definite answer, but its intriguing to know!
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As before, the appearance of
Dec 1, 1985 as a release date next to EA games listed in a retailer ad means very, very little in the scheme of things. Retailers were running the same ads over and over in the first few issues of
Amiga World, as was par for the course many retailers across mags back in the day.
Amusingly, some retailers used to advertise release dates for games for months upon end.....and sometimes wouldn't even pick up on the fact that publishers had already canned them until well after the advertised release date had well and truly passed. You wouldn't really want to bet a bunch of money on a retailer ad providing reliable evidence for the release date of a 30+ year-old game now, would ya?!
As Desiv has perceptively pointed out (either that or he's a freakish mind reader!), memory is a funny thing and even the recollection of developers/publishers concerning something that happened over 30 years ago now can be decidedly hazy or unreliable. That's not to say we shouldn't try to contact the coder
Ron Fortier and get his version of events, but the best form of evidence at the end of the day may well be receipts from early purchases of Amiga games back in '85!
Somehow we probably shouldn't hold our breath on that one.....or carbon dating!!!
