Orbit

Orbit is a clone of Spacewar!, the first digital computer game. Only now you're charged to play it. Hooray!

Unused Graphic


Present in the same graphics ROM as the font is a leftover from an earlier Atari game, Sprint 2. This would suggest that Orbit was based off the same hardware, especially since Sprint 2 also had a two-player Versus mode.

Programmer Initials
Present in the same graphics ROM as the object graphics, these initials (L.R., O.R., L.Y., M.H., and P.M.) are those of people who worked on the game and were around in Atari's early arcade days:


 * Lyle Rains
 * Owen Rubin
 * (unknown who L.Y. is)
 * Morgan Hoff
 * Paul Mancuso

According to Rubin, the initials would be displayed if a special sequence was entered on the game's number pad. Unfortunately, close examination of the game's code reveals that this sequence is no longer present. Given that Atari had a thing against crediting their game programmers/designers/etc., it's very possible they discovered the code and removed it rather than erase the initials, figuring that there would be absolutely no other way consumers would be able to see these.

Atari certainly showed them.