Most people familiar with
Atari had heard of the Atari Cosmos holographic video game system that
Atari had shown at the New York Toy Fair in 1981 and was readying for a
Christmas 81' release. However, Atari's management pulled the
plug on Cosmos and closed the Holoptics labs and
it was never seen again. Originally The Atari Cosmos had several tentative names, Spector was one
of them. After market testing, Spector, Cosmos and Future Vision
were the top 3 names favored. So after Cosmos was chosen,
another Holoptic game system was given the possible name Spector.
The Atari Spector had some unique ideas. Unlike the Atari
Cosmos, the Atari Spector would have a drop in holoptic cylinder which
would go into the center chamber of the game and spin around to produce
a hologram playfield. In the center of the cylinder would be
the LED array that would have the players and opponents.
Up to 3 players could play and when an opponent fired past a players shields,
the LED trace would go from the center cylinder, down the control arm to
the player, if deflected that player would continue, if it made it
past the shields or ship then the player lost one life and the opponent
would gain points.
