Atomic Point

Atomic Point
Title screen.
Hack of	Flash Point
Publisher	Philko
Developer	Philko
Original developer	Sega
Console	Arcade
Date	1990
Engine	Flash Point

Atomic Point is a puzzle game made for Arcade machines, developed by Philko and released in 1990.

Overview

The game is just a Tetris clone with an option of "Flash Tetris", with the objective to eliminate one or more certain flashing blocks in the screen. However, it could be switched by "Normal Tetris" by setting one of various Dip Switches of the machine (requires reset).

Trivia

The game is just a weaker clone of an existent, but official, Tetris variant called Flash Point, made by Sega in 1989 for Arcade machines in Japan (although a Sega Mega Drive release was planned to be released, if Nintendo and BPS has not acquired an exclusive license of Tetris for home consoles). The original game runs on Sega System 16B board, and features cameos from other Sega games, such as Flicky, Opa-Opa from Fantasy Zone, Alex Kidd from Alex Kidd in Miracle World and the Princess from Sega Ninja. The arcade board has the infamous suicide battery fate found in Capcom's CP System II and CP System III, meaning that is impossible to novice bootleggers make copies of the game without decrypting the security system, which is inside on the Main CPU.

In comparison with the original game hardware, Atomic Point has weaker hardware because:

• It has no Z80.
• Soundchip is a YM2413 instead of YM2151.
• It lack the encryption keys found in original game.

By doing this, Philko also recycled music from other games, such as the Pinch theme, which was taken from Genpei Toumaden by Namco.

In legal terms, the hardware used in Atomic Point still closer to Sega System 16B, leaving Sega to sue Philko and forcing Philko to pay any damages by this.