Stunt Cycle
Platform: Atari 2600
Region: Prototype (USA)
Media: Cartridge
Controller: Paddles
Genre: Racing
Gametype: Prototype
Release Year: 1980
Developer: Atari
Publisher: Unreleased
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Stunt Cycle was one of Atari's first "Non-Pong" standalone consoles, and was based off the Atari coin-op of the same name.  The console consisted of a set of handlebar grips, which you could use to make your cycle move faster or slower and a fire button used to make you jump.  The gameplay revolves around making your "Stunt Cycle" jump over cars (ala Evil Knievel) and land safely on the other side without flying off the end of the screen.  Your cycle starts at the top of the screen, where you are given two "rows" of screen space to build up speed before hitting the ramp at the bottom.  The "trick" to the game is to build up enough speed to jump over the cars, but not too much that you go crashing off the edge of the screen.  If you successfully make the jump the row of cars gets wider and you have to go back and jump it again.

Sometime in 1980 Atari decided that Stunt Cycle would make a great 2600 game, so Bob Polaro was tapped to do the conversion.  Using the paddle controllers to simulate the original consoles bike grips, Bob made a perfect port of the standalone console.  One change that was made to the game was the addition of color.  Since the original coin-op and home console were from 1976, the graphics were in Black and White (which was standard at the time).  Since Atari 2600 games had to have the option of color or B&W, some color was added to the game (although not much) to spruce it up.  After a few months of programming, Stunt Cycle was finished and ready to go.

It was around this time that marketing had "brilliant" idea; why not make Stunt Cycle into a Dukes of Hazzard game?  So Bob went back to work retooling the graphics to fit the new Dukes of Hazzard theme.  The cycle was changed into the General Lee, while the row of cars was changed into a lake.  Some Dukes of Hazzard theme music was also added to the game to complete the illusion. 

So after a few more months of tinkering, the new Dukes of Hazzard version of Stunt Cycle was good to go, but there was a problem.  Cleaver playtesters soon realized that you could change the speed on the car in mid-air!  This means you could go full blast at the ramp and then slow down suddenly after you've made the jump, but before you've landed.  This basically took the challenge out of the whole game, making it fairly boring.  After Dukes of Hazzard was shelved, programmer Mark Hahn was then tapped to do a totally new Dukes of Hazzard game from scratch (which was never released either). 

Did Atari make the right decision in canceling Stunt Cycle?  This is a hard question to answer since it's unknown what Atari's original motives were.  Had Stunt Cycle been released in 1980 as a color port of the coin-op it probably would have been very successful since people who bought it would have known what they were getting, and wouldn't mind the blocky graphics, which were standard for that time.  Had Atari released it as Dukes of Hazzard a year later, people would have probably felt gypped as it wouldn't be long before they realized that the game was nothing more than Stunt Cycle with new graphics.  Atari made the right decision in not releasing the updated Dukes of Hazzard version, but screwed up by not releasing the original Stunt Cycle version.  Chalk this one up to another act of Atari mismanagement.

Strangely Stunt Cycle was never mentioned in any Atari catalogs, and was never assigned a product number. 

http://www.atariprotos.com/2600/software/stuntcycle/stuntcycle.htm
