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Canceled Xevious Atari 2600 Game Alive & Playable
A near-complete version of a canceled Atari 2600 port of the top-down arcade shooter Xevious has been found, and it's in great working order. Thanks to preservation organization The Digital Game Museum, you can even play this title at this weekend's California Extreme classic arcade expo.
The game is on a test cartridge dated January 1984, and the project itself was thought to be abandoned (along with a port for the Atari 5200) due to corporate restructuring at the time.
This port of Xevious is more complete than other known versions, containing elements like enemy waves and music.
You can play the game at The California Extreme show (July 18-19 in Santa Clara, Calif..), compare it with the arcade version, and look at other Xevious artifacts from fan Tom Bazzano's collection.
Our Take
As a big fan of the arcade version of Xevious and a 2600 owner back in the day, while the graphics are clearly don't compare between the two, the speed of play on the console is impressive. I would have been thrilled to play this on my 2600 at home.
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