Tac-Scan by Sega for the Atari 2600

[NavesRegge]

When I was returning my copy of Test Drive Le Mans, which apparently was working but didn't work for me, I was looking through the Atari games they had at the store. I saw this odd looking cartridge that looks like a cross between the Frogger cartridge and Activision cartridges. It had a big Sega logo on the back of it. It's called Tac-Scan (or TagScan. I can't tell). I've never heard or seen or knew anything about this game. A Google search of the game revealed very little info on it.

The game itself is very interesting because it uses the second paddle controller in the right port to play with. It's a good shooter with interesting gameplay in which you fly 5 or 7 ships that all shoot one bullet. Once you lose one by running in to an enemy or it gets hit, you are able to retrieve it when you finish the level. You use the paddle controllers to controller the direction of where the ships move and shoot. This works surprisingly well since I expected this game to be awful which would explain why I never knew of it's existence.

Also, the design of the cartridge is very strange compared to other ones. It just barely fits in the Atari. The cartridge shows no sign that it was licensed by Atari or that Atari had anything to do with the game.

So, I'm curious. Why have I heard absolutely nothing of this game from any site or any place I've been to? Have I just been in the dark for a really long time? It's a good game and apparently also a port from what Wikipedia says. Do I hold in my hands now something extremely rare or just something common but very unheard of by most?

[Baloo]

http://www.atariage.com/common/rarity_key.html

Nope, not rare at all.

[NavesRegge]

^ Aww...

Atari Age did say it was scarce, but that doesn't look like it means much.

[Baloo]

Scarce is a 3 out of ten on the AA scale. Poor wording, yes.

[bohokii]

yea i had to buy it cause one day i had a real jag for paddle games its the sega cart same as the one on spy hunter

the tac-scan was a slightly popular arcade game it was a vector game so the graphics were sharp like star wars

those games dont translate well to the raster world of atari
but i thought it did as good or better than asteroids

[Nobi]

isnt there a version of that game on the ps2 genesis collection as an unlockable? or is it the psp? i cant remember

[Sega Gremlin]

isnt there a version of that game on the ps2 genesis collection as an unlockable? or is it the psp? i cant remember

Yes, the coin-op version was included as an unlockable on the PS2 Genesis collection. You need to enter the bonus round in the first level of Ristar to unlock it.

Do I hold in my hands now something extremely rare or just something common but very unheard of by most?

Not particularly rare, just not well known perhaps. Be that as it may, the Atari 2600 version of Tac-Scan is significant for the fact that it was the very first game title that Sega developed and published for the home consoles. (They had previously only made arcade games.) As such, it probably does deserve more notice from collectors, but I guess nobody knows or cares.

[chrisbid]

the 'grail' of pre master system sega titles would be the intellivision port of congo bongo. it was the only game sega published for the intellivision, and it is one of the rarest games on the system.

sega did some good work on the 2600, tac scan is a pretty good port considering the arcade original... plus i am a sucker for paddle games.

tapper and spy hunter are also surprisingly well done

[tz101]

^ Aww...

Atari Age did say it was scarce, but that doesn't look like it means much.

Atari Age's rarity guides are so full of errors they are not what anyone should consider as a reputable source of information on any games, much less Atari games.

I kid you not. They currently list the release date for Ms. Pac Man on the 2600 console as being 1982, yet various magazine ads and reviews from that period date Ms. Pac Man's 2600 release date as 1983. I argued with another know-it-all type on their forums about this, but Albert Yarusso (Atari Age's site administrator) stepped in and sided with the guys who were stating 1983, in spite of the fact it was in direct contradiction of his own rarity guide.

I guess that proves me wrong for believing the Atari Age rarity guide.

End result: Do not trust much you read there, it is mostly fiction.

[BrianC]

Atari Age's rarity guides are so full of errors they are not what anyone should consider as a reputable source of information on any games, much less Atari games.

I kid you not. They currently list the release date for Ms. Pac Man on the 2600 console as being 1982, yet various magazine ads and reviews from that period date Ms. Pac Man's 2600 release date as 1983. I argued with another know-it-all type on their forums about this, but Albert Yarusso (Atari Age's site administrator) stepped in and sided with the guys who were stating 1983, in spite of the fact it was in direct contradiction of his own rarity guide.

I guess that proves me wrong for believing the Atari Age rarity guide.

End result: Do not trust much you read there, it is mostly fiction.

To be fair, the copyright label on that game lies too. Another game I know with a deceptive date is pinball for the intellivision. It was a 1983 game, but has a copyright of 1981 on the title screen and a 1982 copyright on the box and labels.

[Sega Gremlin]

the 'grail' of pre master system sega titles would be the intellivision port of congo bongo. it was the only game sega published for the intellivision, and it is one of the rarest games on the system.

In strict monetary terms, the original Pachinko for the SG-1000 has it beat. There's only a few copies in existence, and it goes for some crazy amount. I wasn't alluding that Tac-Scan should be any kind of grail, just that it should probably get more attention than it does.

sega did some good work on the 2600, tac scan is a pretty good port considering the arcade original... plus i am a sucker for paddle games.

tapper and spy hunter are also surprisingly well done

Yes, I enjoy Thunderground as well.

[chrisbid]

In strict monetary terms, the original Pachinko for the SG-1000 has it beat. There's only a few copies in existence, and it goes for some crazy amount. I wasn't alluding that Tac-Scan should be any kind of grail, just that it should probably get more attention than it does.


Yes, I enjoy Thunderground as well.

i suppose thats fair, but i was thinking in terms of non-sega platforms in the US market.

and the AA database is about as good as it gets. it is by no means perfect, but until these databases and fansites are ever able to get accurate information on how many copies of game x were published/sold/returned/burried in the desert, then rarity can only be determined by a quick eye test.

[BrianC]

Yes, I enjoy Thunderground as well.

I wonder if Thunderground came from an attempt to port Borderline to the 2600. It looks similar to the digging sections in that game.

I like the port of Star Trek to the 2600. CV one is better, but 2600 one is still great fun.

[Sega Gremlin]

I wonder if Thunderground came from an attempt to port Borderline to the 2600. It looks similar to the digging sections in that game.

Yup, that's what it was.

I like the port of Star Trek to the 2600. CV one is better, but 2600 one is still great fun.

All the ports of Star Trek turned out pretty good, considering the hardware limitations of the home consoles and computers of the time. The VIC-20 version probably turned out the worst (missing the asteroid field and slowdown is aplenty) but it's still very playable. The ColecoVision version is nice, but damn it's hard (and hard to find).