| Game | System | Ranking |
| Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom | Atari 5200 |  |
| Burger Drop | Atari 5200 | |
| BurgerTime | Arcade | |
| BurgerTime | Atari 2600 | |
| BurgerTime Deluxe | GameBoy | |
| Darkwing Duck | GameBoy | |
| Eggomania | Atari 2600 | |
| E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial | Atari 2600 | |
| Gremlins | Atari 5200 | |
| Lady Bug | Atari 2600 | |
| Mario Bros. | Atari 5200 | |
| Midnight Magic | Atari 2600 | |
| Missle Command | Atari 5200 | |
| Moon Patrol | Atari 5200 | |
| Pole Position | Atari 5200 | |
| Qix | Atari 5200 | |
| River Raid | Atari 5200 | |
| River Raid | Atari 2600 | |
| Skiing | Atari 2600 | |
| Yar's Revenge | Atari 2600 | |
| Zaxxon | Atari 5200 | |
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Retro Game Reviews
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Retro Game Review -- Gremlins (Atari 5200)
Game: Gremlins
System: Atari 5200
Publisher: Atari
Year: 1986
Ranking: Two Quarters
Three simple rules:
- Never expose the Mogwai to bright light,
- Never get the Mogwai wet, and
- Never, ever feed the Mogwai after midnight.
What could possibly go wrong?
The Gremlins video game was the last official release for the short-lived Atari 5200 SuperSystem. The game was originally programmed in 1984 and was intended to coincide with the movie's release. Unfortunately, the floor had fallen out from underneath the video game market the year before, and Atari decided to double down on their computer business. This shift in focus lead to the delay and abandonment of many popular and high-profile titles. This included the unfortunately timed Gremlins tie-in. At one point in the long period of time after programming and before official release, Steven Spielberg, executive producer of the Gremlins movie, offered to pay Atari to release the game. His offer was rejected. Fortunately, Gremlins for the Atari 5200 was eventually saved. The reason for it's eventual release in 1986, long after the movie's premiere and the "heyday" of the 5200, remain a mystery.
Unlike many movie inspired console games of the era (i.e, Superman, ET, etc.), Gremlins is remarkably true to the movie. The story opens on Night One. You play the boy of the film, Billy Peltzer, and have just stumbled into a room to find your adorable Gizmo has multiplied and some of his buds have been munching after midnight. The room is littered with leftovers, and, even more concerning, puddles of water. Your goal is to round up the cuddly Mogwai and kill the vicious Gremlins. Thankfully, you have walked into the room with a backpack to carry the Mogwai and an ancient samurai sword to kill the Gremlins. Once everyone is taken care of or the sun come up, whichever comes first, the game moves on to the next night.
Gremlins is a pretty straightforward game. Save Mogwai, and kill Gremlins. Difficulty increases slowly, but grows with novel additions. For example, one night a popcorn machine appears and the Gremlins start popping popcorn, making just about every fuzzy friend turn into a foul fiend. Another night a refrigerator appears and starts spewing ice cubes that melt into puddles of water. These novel features add to the depth of the game, but fail to increase the challenge. With its cartoon graphics and campy music, Gremlins struck me more as a children's game. The primary challenge comes from not accidentally walking into a Gremlin. This mistake is an all too common occurrence given the rather short sword and mushy joystick. The upside? You are rewarded with an epic death. You instantly turn into a skeleton and collapse into dust on the floor.
Gremlins is a fun game. I wonder what would have happened if this, and other games like this, were released earlier for the 5200. Would Atari have been better positioned to retain some of the home market after Nintendo entered the scene, or would Atari have always been hampered by its early success?
Unlike many movie inspired console games of the era (i.e, Superman, ET, etc.), Gremlins is remarkably true to the movie. The story opens on Night One. You play the boy of the film, Billy Peltzer, and have just stumbled into a room to find your adorable Gizmo has multiplied and some of his buds have been munching after midnight. The room is littered with leftovers, and, even more concerning, puddles of water. Your goal is to round up the cuddly Mogwai and kill the vicious Gremlins. Thankfully, you have walked into the room with a backpack to carry the Mogwai and an ancient samurai sword to kill the Gremlins. Once everyone is taken care of or the sun come up, whichever comes first, the game moves on to the next night.
Gremlins is a pretty straightforward game. Save Mogwai, and kill Gremlins. Difficulty increases slowly, but grows with novel additions. For example, one night a popcorn machine appears and the Gremlins start popping popcorn, making just about every fuzzy friend turn into a foul fiend. Another night a refrigerator appears and starts spewing ice cubes that melt into puddles of water. These novel features add to the depth of the game, but fail to increase the challenge. With its cartoon graphics and campy music, Gremlins struck me more as a children's game. The primary challenge comes from not accidentally walking into a Gremlin. This mistake is an all too common occurrence given the rather short sword and mushy joystick. The upside? You are rewarded with an epic death. You instantly turn into a skeleton and collapse into dust on the floor.
Gremlins is a fun game. I wonder what would have happened if this, and other games like this, were released earlier for the 5200. Would Atari have been better positioned to retain some of the home market after Nintendo entered the scene, or would Atari have always been hampered by its early success?
 |
| Title screen for the Atari 5200 version of Gremlins. |
 |
| Gremlins for the Atari 5200. Picture was taken using Jum52, an Atari 5200 emulator for MacOS. I'm not sure why the main character is blue in this image. In the original equipment version of the game he doesn't look like a giant smurf in brown overalls. |
Retro Game Rankings: No Quarters to Four Quarters. It should be noted, that although the going price of an arcade game was a single quarter when many of these games first came out, I feel that true retro game fans would be willing to pay a little bit more to capture the glory of playing some of the truly great ones one more time.
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Retro Game Review -- Zaxxon (Atari 5200)
Game: Zaxxon
System: Atari 5200
Publisher: Sega
Year: 1984
Ranking: Two Quarters
Sega's arcade classic Zaxxon (1982) is often attributed as the first major video game to use isometric graphics. Rather than view a player's character from directly above or to the side, the player's ship in Zaxxon was viewed at an oblique angle above the ship. This created a unique three-dimensional perspective that pulled players deeper into the action than they had ever been before. Isometric projections are a subset of axonometric projections. Zaxxon claims it's name from AXXON, a bastardized abbreviation of axonometric projection. I'm pretty sure the "Z" was added because Z's make everything sound more exciting. Motivated early arcade scholars can go check out the Wikipedia articles on isometric and axonometric projections before continuing on to the rest of the review below.
Zaxxon's first of its kind perspective, challenging game play, and bright graphics made it popular game. Home consoles at the time clamored to create Zaxxon clones. Unfortunately, the memory and computational requirements were beyond the reach of many home systems, and some truly horrid ports were made. Check out the Let's Compare (Zaxxon) video at Gaming History Source for a look at some of the more appalling versions. The Atari 2600 version is particularly noteworthy since it does not even attempt to reproduce the isometric perspective, opting instead for a computationally simpler 3rd person, behind the person perspective. Zaxxon for the Atari 2600 is Zaxxon in name only.
The Atari 5200 version, like many of its contemporaries, falls short of the arcade version on a few fronts. First, the 5200 version lacks the added danger of vertical and heat seeking missiles. Second, the playing field seems a little empty compared to the arcade version, like there is too much room and not enough enemies. Finally, the fighter plane level is simplified to a 2D level rather than the more complex 3D level seen in the arcade. Despite these shortcomings, I think that the Atari 5200 version is as close to the arcade version as any home console version of the era. The 5200 version captures the essence of the arcade. You control the ship in three dimensions through the Death Star like channel. You blast fuel tanks to refuel. You weave around brick walls and electric force fields to navigate to your ultimate goal, the evil, rocket-slinging, death-robot Zaxxon.
Sadly, I just don't think that Zaxxon for the Atari 5200 is a great game. First, the soundtrack is white noise. When the game starts, you'll be wondering if your speakers have blown out. I'd like to think the white noise was a design decision. Rather than having space be silent, a la Battlestar Galactica, the designers opted for a musical interpretation of the cosmic background radiation. Only when your fighter beings to dip and dive do you realize that the white noise is suppose to be the roar of your rockets. Second, after a few rounds of Zaxxon with the 5200 stock controller, you'll need to book an appointment with your friendly ergonomist to start treatment on your developing carpal tunnel. You constantly need to mash the soft, unresponsive fire button in order to maintain enough firepower to survive each level. Chronic injury is not worth it for any video game. Finally, and most importantly, the 3D graphics subtract from the gameplay. I will admit it; the perspective is a refreshing touch. Unfortunately, I hardly ever have any idea where I am. The height bar is useless and thanks to the constraints of the isometric perspective your ship never changes size. Thankfully, Sega updated the spaceship level in the 5200 version to be 2D; otherwise, I would have never hit any of the enemy fighters.
Zaxxon is a seminal game, and I'm glad to have it in my Atari 5200 collection. However, if I'm looking for an isometric perspective, I'd rather hop on over to Q*bert!
Retro Game Rankings: No Quarters to Four Quarters. It should be noted, that although the going price of an arcade game was a single quarter when many of these games first came out, I feel that true retro game fans would be willing to pay a little bit more to capture the glory of playing some of the truly great ones one more time.
Sega's arcade classic Zaxxon (1982) is often attributed as the first major video game to use isometric graphics. Rather than view a player's character from directly above or to the side, the player's ship in Zaxxon was viewed at an oblique angle above the ship. This created a unique three-dimensional perspective that pulled players deeper into the action than they had ever been before. Isometric projections are a subset of axonometric projections. Zaxxon claims it's name from AXXON, a bastardized abbreviation of axonometric projection. I'm pretty sure the "Z" was added because Z's make everything sound more exciting. Motivated early arcade scholars can go check out the Wikipedia articles on isometric and axonometric projections before continuing on to the rest of the review below.
Zaxxon's first of its kind perspective, challenging game play, and bright graphics made it popular game. Home consoles at the time clamored to create Zaxxon clones. Unfortunately, the memory and computational requirements were beyond the reach of many home systems, and some truly horrid ports were made. Check out the Let's Compare (Zaxxon) video at Gaming History Source for a look at some of the more appalling versions. The Atari 2600 version is particularly noteworthy since it does not even attempt to reproduce the isometric perspective, opting instead for a computationally simpler 3rd person, behind the person perspective. Zaxxon for the Atari 2600 is Zaxxon in name only.
The Atari 5200 version, like many of its contemporaries, falls short of the arcade version on a few fronts. First, the 5200 version lacks the added danger of vertical and heat seeking missiles. Second, the playing field seems a little empty compared to the arcade version, like there is too much room and not enough enemies. Finally, the fighter plane level is simplified to a 2D level rather than the more complex 3D level seen in the arcade. Despite these shortcomings, I think that the Atari 5200 version is as close to the arcade version as any home console version of the era. The 5200 version captures the essence of the arcade. You control the ship in three dimensions through the Death Star like channel. You blast fuel tanks to refuel. You weave around brick walls and electric force fields to navigate to your ultimate goal, the evil, rocket-slinging, death-robot Zaxxon.
Sadly, I just don't think that Zaxxon for the Atari 5200 is a great game. First, the soundtrack is white noise. When the game starts, you'll be wondering if your speakers have blown out. I'd like to think the white noise was a design decision. Rather than having space be silent, a la Battlestar Galactica, the designers opted for a musical interpretation of the cosmic background radiation. Only when your fighter beings to dip and dive do you realize that the white noise is suppose to be the roar of your rockets. Second, after a few rounds of Zaxxon with the 5200 stock controller, you'll need to book an appointment with your friendly ergonomist to start treatment on your developing carpal tunnel. You constantly need to mash the soft, unresponsive fire button in order to maintain enough firepower to survive each level. Chronic injury is not worth it for any video game. Finally, and most importantly, the 3D graphics subtract from the gameplay. I will admit it; the perspective is a refreshing touch. Unfortunately, I hardly ever have any idea where I am. The height bar is useless and thanks to the constraints of the isometric perspective your ship never changes size. Thankfully, Sega updated the spaceship level in the 5200 version to be 2D; otherwise, I would have never hit any of the enemy fighters.
Zaxxon is a seminal game, and I'm glad to have it in my Atari 5200 collection. However, if I'm looking for an isometric perspective, I'd rather hop on over to Q*bert!
+ScreenShot.png "Zaxxon: Arcade Version") |
| Zaxxon: Arcade Version |
+ScreenShot.png "Zaxxon: Atari 5200 Version") |
| Zaxxon: Atari 5200 Version |
Retro Game Rankings: No Quarters to Four Quarters. It should be noted, that although the going price of an arcade game was a single quarter when many of these games first came out, I feel that true retro game fans would be willing to pay a little bit more to capture the glory of playing some of the truly great ones one more time.
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Retro Game Review -- River Raid
Game: River Raid
System: Atari 2600
Publisher: Activision
Year: 1982
Ranking: Four Quarters
River Raid is one of my all-time favorite Atari games. I'm happy to report that after a little over thirty years, it holds up quite nicely. River Raid is still fun to play after all these years because it works on several different levels.
First, there is the shooting aspect of the game: blow-up anything and everything on the screen. You blow-up lumbering battleships, darting helicopters and volatile fuel depots. You complete a "level" by blasting through a formidable bridge at the end of each river segment. The top-down, top-to-bottom scrolling action provides an exciting, varied view as you shoot your way up the River of No Return.
Shooting games are fun, but what separates River Raid from many of its contemporaries is the added complexity of resource management. As you progress deeper into the suburban jungles, precious jet fuel is used up. Conveniently located fuel depots provide you the opportunity to fill-up, but they are also worth massive amounts of points. A successful River Raider needs to balance the desire to blow up the fuel depot with the necessity of acquiring more fuel for the plane. Luckily, astute pilots can do both: filling-up during the initial approach and then blasting away as departing for further annihilation.
Third, River Raid has impressive graphics. Activision made it's name on vibrant, colorful graphics, and River Raid does not disappoint However, while the colors were outstanding, what truly sets River Raid apart from other games of its time is the varied and detailed river maps. Atari 2600 ROMs are, in general, limited to 4K of RAM. That's less memory than this blog entry. Storing all the map permutations on a single ROM would have been impossible. Carol Shaw, the first female video game designer, used a procedural algorithm to draw the morphologically complex river deterministically. Rather than have a single game screen, as seen in Pac-Man or Q*bert, the game board in River Raid is ever changing. This adds significantly to the level of excitement.
Finally, because there is both a point and embryonic level system, players can choose how they want to play the game. Players can opt to shoot for a high score, or they can try to see how deep they can make it into enemy territory. I generally played for distance because I just had to know what was beyond the next river bend.
The Atari 5200 version of the game, like many of Activision's ports to this system, is essentially the same as the 2600 version. There are some enhancement to the graphics, but they are mostly superficial. Activision did add hot air balloons, tanks, and additional helicopters to the enemy forces. In fact, the additional tanks and helicopters also have the ability to fire at the player to enhance the challenge. The reason the 5200 version succeeds so well is because it was based so closely on the fantastic 2600 version.
The one question that has always nagged me about River Raid is why can't the jet just fly over the pastoral, enemy-free fields lining the river? Is the pilot petrified of flying over land? Are the river banks infinitely tall? Has Evil Otto or one of the other evil Atari villains erected a force field around the river? Did Pitfall Harry retire to one of the houses along the rivers and does he forbid fly-overs? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
First, there is the shooting aspect of the game: blow-up anything and everything on the screen. You blow-up lumbering battleships, darting helicopters and volatile fuel depots. You complete a "level" by blasting through a formidable bridge at the end of each river segment. The top-down, top-to-bottom scrolling action provides an exciting, varied view as you shoot your way up the River of No Return.
Shooting games are fun, but what separates River Raid from many of its contemporaries is the added complexity of resource management. As you progress deeper into the suburban jungles, precious jet fuel is used up. Conveniently located fuel depots provide you the opportunity to fill-up, but they are also worth massive amounts of points. A successful River Raider needs to balance the desire to blow up the fuel depot with the necessity of acquiring more fuel for the plane. Luckily, astute pilots can do both: filling-up during the initial approach and then blasting away as departing for further annihilation.
Third, River Raid has impressive graphics. Activision made it's name on vibrant, colorful graphics, and River Raid does not disappoint However, while the colors were outstanding, what truly sets River Raid apart from other games of its time is the varied and detailed river maps. Atari 2600 ROMs are, in general, limited to 4K of RAM. That's less memory than this blog entry. Storing all the map permutations on a single ROM would have been impossible. Carol Shaw, the first female video game designer, used a procedural algorithm to draw the morphologically complex river deterministically. Rather than have a single game screen, as seen in Pac-Man or Q*bert, the game board in River Raid is ever changing. This adds significantly to the level of excitement.
Finally, because there is both a point and embryonic level system, players can choose how they want to play the game. Players can opt to shoot for a high score, or they can try to see how deep they can make it into enemy territory. I generally played for distance because I just had to know what was beyond the next river bend.
The Atari 5200 version of the game, like many of Activision's ports to this system, is essentially the same as the 2600 version. There are some enhancement to the graphics, but they are mostly superficial. Activision did add hot air balloons, tanks, and additional helicopters to the enemy forces. In fact, the additional tanks and helicopters also have the ability to fire at the player to enhance the challenge. The reason the 5200 version succeeds so well is because it was based so closely on the fantastic 2600 version.
The one question that has always nagged me about River Raid is why can't the jet just fly over the pastoral, enemy-free fields lining the river? Is the pilot petrified of flying over land? Are the river banks infinitely tall? Has Evil Otto or one of the other evil Atari villains erected a force field around the river? Did Pitfall Harry retire to one of the houses along the rivers and does he forbid fly-overs? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
 |
| River Raid -- Atari 2600 |
 |
| River Raid -- Atari 5200 |
Retro Game Rankings: No Quarters to Four Quarters. It should be noted, that although the going price of an arcade game was a single quarter when many of these games first came out, I feel that the true retro game fans would be willing to pay a little bit more to capture the glory of playing some of the truly great ones one more time.
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