4/10/2005
At first glance, Tac-Scan looks really intense. You man a five-ship squadron at the bottom of the screen, using paddle controllers to aim their shots up, left, or right. But you can only aim at three lousy angles! Doesn't that defeat the purpose of using a precise analog controller? Each "round" requires you to destroy 10 enemy ships that drop from the top of the screen. Although your firepower is considerable, your closely-packed formation makes you a large target, so it's hard to avoid incoming projectiles. Not to worry however, as ships are replenished at the end of each round in a short sequence where you guide bonus ships into formation. For the first few rounds, Tac-Scan is fun, if only because you have five freakin' ships firing at once. You just don't see that in Atari 2600 games. But as the rounds progress and the action speeds up, the visuals become more and more choppy. Eventually you're forced to just shoot like a madman and hope for the best. The instruction manual claims no one at Sega could survive the seventh round, but I suspect that's because Tac-Scan becomes unplayable by that point. I also love how the manual boasts about how there are "no options to fool with". Yeah, thanks Sega for sparing us the ordeal of customizing the game to our tastes. I've seen the Tac-Scan arcade game, and its cool scaling vector graphics are a far cry from this insipid title. Tac-Scan for the 2600 is a mind-numbing experience at best.1 player
Check for Tac-Scan on Ebay
Despite its silly name, Tanks But No Tanks is no joke. What other Atari 2600 game lets you take on an army of 20 tanks? Okay, only five appear on the screen at a time, and they flicker terribly, but work with me here! The action is pretty intense as tanks emerge from the top of the screen and approach your base at the bottom. Your tank looks different, and its moving treads are very cool. Too bad you can only fire one missile at a time, and it's so friggin' SLOW. The pink enemy tanks flicker badly, and their movements are unpredictable. They only shoot one shot at a time, but they can ram you. The first stage is set in a maze, the second stage is more sparse, and the third stage is completely wide open. The graphics are blocky but make good use of color. Tanks But No Tanks is a fun little game. It combines the elements of a maze game and a shooter very nicely.
This one looks a heck of a lot like Surround, that lame old Atari game where you move around a block with a growing tail. But Tape Worm adds enough original elements to make its gameplay interesting. In each level, your "worm" must collect a certain number of "beans" (gray squares), and the beans appear one at a time in random parts of the screen. You have to eat each bean before a bug at the bottom of the screen reaches the fruit on the right hand side. If you run into a wall or a wandering spider, you lose a life. Be sure to play the advanced variations (3&4) because the beginner variations are slow as molasses! The game requires some good reflexes, and you'll need a responsive joystick. The control is tricky because you move much faster vertically than horizontally. Tape Worm's control and graphics could be better, but its interesting gameplay makes it worth a try.
Since my initial review of this game, I've acquired a full-sized Tapper arcade machine. Has that changed my opinion of this scaled-down adaptation? Not much. Obviously, the graphics take quite a hit when you downgrade to the 2600, but Tapper's original, frantic gameplay remains largely intact. The arcade game licensed Budweiser beer, but this version substitutes the kid-friendly Mountain Dew. Gameplay involves running a bartender between four bars, sliding drinks toward approaching customers to keep them at bay. You lose a life should you toss an extra beer, allow the patrons to reach the end of a bar, or drop an empty. Tapper's graphics are pretty darn good as Atari 2600 titles go. The patrons are single-colored and blocky, but the bartender, drinks, and kegs are multi-colored and finely detailed. The bonus stage (with the Hamburglar-looking dude shaking up the cans) looks particularly impressive. A harmonized soundtrack plays throughout the game, but it's slightly off-key and does get on your nerves after a while. Unlike the arcade version, there are no tips to grab, but the dancing girls do make an appearance between stages. Tapper would be a must-have 2600 title if not for one major flaw - you can only throw two beers at a time. To compensate, the game "remembers" when you try to throw a third, and automatically tosses it at the next opportunity (unless you move your bartender first). This is a reasonable compromise, but it can throw off your rhythm. You'll get used to it, but it does put a damper on the action. The one thing that truly impressed me is how all four stages are reproduced here - including the space cantina! All in all, this is a very respectable version of the fun arcade hit.
This is the Sears brand version of Air-Sea Battle. It's exactly the same game.
This is yet another sorry excuse for a game from Froggo. The graphics aren't bad, but where is the challenge? I can play this thing indefinitely on the hardest mode! Task Force looks and plays just like Gangster Alley. You want to shoot people who pop up in windows of a building - but only the ones with guns! You move around a crown-shaped crosshair. The multi-colored people look good, but the collision detection is awful. Some of my "hits" weren't even close! Task Force's gameplay is monotonous and entirely too easy.
How much fun can a game about taxes be? Not much! Tax Avoiders is an odd little game about accumulating as much money as possible over the course of a year. Each day is about 2 seconds long, and the gameplay alternates between two screens of platform action. In the first, you collect dollar signs while avoiding the red snakes (oh, that's supposed to be red tape). In the second screen, you run around in circles avoiding an IRS agent in a trench coat. Tax Avoider's graphics aren't too bad - they remind me of Porky's - but the gameplay is easy and repetitive. Control could be better too.
If you want to see some nice graphics on the Atari 2600, check out the Tasmanian Devil on the title screen of this game. Pretty sweet! Take a good look, because in the game itself he just looks like a little tornado. You zoom him around a multi-level platform while objects fly sideways across the screen. You want to catch delicious goodies like hamburgers, root beers, ice cream cones, and Popsicles, while avoiding the dynamite sticks. The simplistic gameplay might have been tolerable if the game wasn't so easy. And there's only one lousy skill level for Pete's sake! Taz is one of those games where you intentionally start acting recklessly just to offset the boredom that sets in. After about ten minutes of mind-numbing gameplay, you finally reach the challenging "Crazed Stage". This frantic level forces you to concentrate just as much on avoiding dynamite as grabbing food. This is what the whole game should have been like! Kids might enjoy this..png)
Could the Atari 2600 handle a game like Tempest? If this prototype is any indication, the answer is a resounding NO! Tempest was a shooter known for its flashy, 3D vector graphics, but this prototype features a single stage with extremely blocky lines. The blob-like aliens don't scale well at all, and actually appear to change shape as they emerge. Neither your missiles nor the aliens can manage to stay within the lines, and the result is an ugly mess. Add in bad collision detection, and you can easily see why this project was shelved.
This first tennis game for the 2600 doesn't have the fancy graphics of Realsports Tennis (Atari), but it may be a bit more playable. Although the court looks rather plain, the players are nicely animated and the gameplay is simple. Players swing their rackets automatically, letting you concentrate on positioning your player, and the ball never goes out-of-bounds. You can't adjust the power of your shots, but you do have some control over the angles. By hitting the ball near the tip of your racket, you can hit the ball at a sharper angle. Of course, this also puts you at risk of missing the ball completely, but that's the beauty of the design. The CPU is a respectable opponent, but volleys tend to go on for too long in the two-player game, and things can get really monotonous if both players are good. Another feature that was a big deal in 1981 (and not such a big deal now) is that the game keeps score just like real tennis, with deuces, ad-ins, and all that good stuff. In terms of gameplay, this was one of the best tennis games for a long time, but recent entries like Virtual Tennis (Dreamcast) and Mario Tennis (N64) make this oldie look pretty modest in comparison.
Wizard scored a hit with Halloween, but this video game adaptation is a complete debacle. Texas Chainsaw Massacre is as unpleasant as the movie it's based on. My wife and I saw the 1974 film on video a few years back, and it scared the living [expletive] out of us! Anyway, this is one of the first video games to let you control the "bad guy". You are Leatherface, a chainsaw-wielding masked psycho out to filet as many innocent people as possible before running out of gasoline. The screen scrolls sideways as you search for helpless victims and avoid obstacles including wheelchairs and cow skulls. The gameplay is a complete nightmare. Victims inexplicably disappear before you can touch them, and you're constantly getting hung up on the scenery. Even the graphics are lousy. Leatherface doesn't even resemble the movie character, and the running women look like Fisher Price toys. Their "screaming" is conveyed by ear-piecing tones, which will force all non-deaf gamers to immediately hit the mute button. When you do kill someone, they transform into an indiscernible blob. Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a novelty item with minimal play value. Its pathetic ending shows a person kicking Leatherface in the butt! Please tell me when it's over!
Here's a fairly new lunar-lander type game with outstanding graphics. After ejecting from the mother ship at the top of the screen, you must avoid asteroids and rescue the little guys on the planet below. The graphics are about as good as they get on the 2600: colorful, vibrant, and high in resolution. Control is decent, but it's a bit too easy to accidentally crush the little guys you're trying to save. Progressing through the game, the asteroids begin to transform into aggressive aliens. This is a challenging game that requires patience and precise control.
This bare-bones shooter "borrows" elements from so many other Atari 2600 games that I almost lost count. First of all, your ship looks like a tank from Worm War I. The shooting style is 100% Gorf, where you can move around freely and abort any shot by just firing again. The first wave of "aliens" is very bird-like. They might remind you of Phoenix or Demon Attack, if only they didn't look so BAD. These single-colored, chunky graphics are a mess! Subsequent rounds feature other uninteresting aliens, like circles that move in their own distinct patterns. That's when I finally realized this was just a really bad version of Megamania. If Threshold does one thing well, it makes you realize how much better these other games really are.
Thrust is a far cry from the simplistic shooters so common on the 2600, and it's actually a conversion of an old Commodore 64 game. In addition to providing some great arcade-style shooting action, Thrust also has surprising depth. Like Gravitar, you guide a triangle-shaped ship through winding underground caverns, destroying cannons and picking up fuel. Shooting nuclear reactors will temporarily disable the cannons, but too much damage can cause a meltdown. In later stages, there are switches on the walls that open new areas. Controlling your ship takes skill, because you must constantly thrust to counteract the effects of gravity. Pushing the joystick up thrusts, and pulling back activates a protective shield. Your ultimate goal is to pick up a pod at the bottom of each cavern and transport it out safely. When you finally locate it, the real challenge begins! It attaches to your ship via a cord, and swings precariously as you attempt to transport it through the narrow caverns without smashing it against a wall. It's a balancing act that requires excellent technique, and completing each mission is very satisfying. The crude graphics are large and blocky, but the animation is smooth and the control is flawless. The 24-level challenge is immense but rarely frustrating. There are even five levels of difficulty. Don't miss the best game to come along for the 2600 in a long time!
Here's a marginal game with blocky graphics and dull colors. You control a tank on the bottom of the screen that eats away at dirt in a Dig-Dug-like fashion. Two tanks pursue you as you clear away the dirt between you and your targets. The main problem with Thunderground is that it takes too long before the challenge kicks in. The enemy tanks initially move like snails, and their shots aren't much faster. You can methodically shoot your way through the first few rounds with little resistance. Occasionally you uncover a pixilated object in the dirt that's worth extra points. It's not until around stage nine that things start to get interesting, and you might have to start taking some evasive maneuvers. But you shouldn't have to play through eight rounds to get to the fun!
This rendition of the popular arcade game is fair but lacks a few key elements from the original game. Time Pilot is a fly-anywhere shooter where you to shoot down aircraft from various historical periods. The stages begin with biplanes from World War I and progress all the way to flying saucers in the year 2001 (man, they were way off!). The arcade version was known for its rapid-fire shooting action, but in this version you can only fire two slow shots at a time. The "boss" aircraft only requires one hit to destroy, and there are no bonus paratroopers to rescue. Still, the graphics aren't half bad (especially the helicopters in the 1970 stage), and the game is challenging enough. Fans of the arcade game will be understandably disappointed, but those who take the game for what it is might enjoy it.
Title Match is a good looking wresting game, but its gameplay is badly outdated. With four distinct wrestlers to select from, you can play against the CPU or another player. Moreover, the matches can be tag team or one-on-one. The number of moves is impressive, and can be chained together to perform everything from elbow drops to body slams to airplane spins. Heck, you can even dive from the ropes! Unfortunately, once you start actually playing the game, the carefully-designed control scheme goes out the window. The computer opponent is impossible to defeat, and he'll have you pinned in a heartbeat. On the other hand, when playing against a friend it's extremely hard to pin him, and the bouts go on long after the wrestlers have exhausted their strength. Still, I did have a good laugh watching the stiff-looking fighters toss each other around the ring. Title Match is an ambitious game, but it's not very fun to play.
Here's a game so rare I couldn't even find any instructions on-line! Fortunately Tomarc wasn't very hard to figure out. The game has one unique feature, and that is the ability to switch between two characters by pulling back on the joystick. These characters include a barbarian and a caged woman; you'll need to maintain both their health level. Mainly, you control the barbarian, searching for a magic sword (or is it a key?) to free the girl. Jumping between contiguous screens, you must avoid rats that scamper over the floors. This brings up a host of issues. First off, the stiff jumping controls are dreadful. Trying to jump through the narrow holes in the walls (and ceilings) is a royal pain, and your barbarian often pauses for no apparent reason (aside from poor programming of course). Why is a muscular barbarian afraid of a few puny rats anyway? Periodically a warning buzzer indicates that a bat is approaching the girl. Fortunately, she's armed (with what, I don't know) and switching to her screen lets you shoot down that nasty thing. Once Tomarc secures the sword (key, whatever) he just needs to reach her screen to automatically free her and rack up bonus points. I like the dual-character idea, but Tomarc the Barbarian's lack of polish prevents it from being anything special.
For 2600 fans looking for something more substantial, I'd recommend this incredibly realistic jet fighter simulator. With its sophisticated gameplay and intense air combat action, Tomcat is a very unusual but impressive effort. Technically, Tomcat gets the most out of the system. You begin on an aircraft carrier platform, with a deck officer prompting you to throttle your engine. After launch, you immediately need to pull up on the joystick to avoid crashing into the water. Once you attain an altitude of 5000 feet, the combat portion of the game begins. Your plane is equipped with machine guns and three types of missiles. You'll not only need to jockey for position with the bogeys, but also shake off guided missiles. Your cockpit is loaded with indicators and displays to monitor enemy fighters, weapons, fuel, wing position, and flight paths. The visuals are superb. Enemy bogeys scale nicely into view, you can see ripples in the water below, and the sky color cycles from blue to red to black as day turns to night. If you run low on fuel or supplies, you can execute a landing sequence back on the carrier. I have to warn you - there's a serious learning curve required to play, but Tomcat is undoubtedly the most realistic game I've ever played on my 2600. My only complaint is the clumsy control scheme, which uses one joystick, the select switch, and reset switch to cycle through displays and options. I think Absolute could have simplified things by utilizing the difficulty and black/white switches, and maybe a second joystick. Still, Tomcat F14 is too good to be ruined by clumsy controls.
Although more playable than Imagic's Firefighter, Towering Inferno suffers from poor graphics. Each stage begins with a helicopter flying from the top of a building. Initially, the building is completely engulfed in flames, but the fire disappears as you gradually conquer each floor. Each level is a blocky maze full of flickering W's that you extinguish with your endless water supply. Your goal is to reach the white "door" at the top of the screen, and then escape out the bottom. That takes you back to the building screen, where the helicopter lands and "releases" the rescued people. Actually, it looks more like the helicopter is shooting blocks. In general, the graphics really suck. Your firefighter looks like a static blob and the blocky stages look like crap. The jumping, flickering flames look more like a graphical glitch, but at least they tend to be unpredictable. Your water cannon looks more like a trickle with three blue dots! Control is good, and dousing the flames is fairly satisfying. The best aspect of Towering Inferno is how it encourages you to take chances. Should you extinguish those last few flames, or just try to dart across the room? Aggressive play is rewarded with more points, but can also get you burned (pun intended). When you complete a whole building, all you're treated to is a simple flashing screen - weak! In terms of difficulty, Towering Inferno is on the easy side. It's a sloppy game but definitely unique.
As the only pool game that I know of for the Atari 2600, this is actually very entertaining. The graphics are blocky but functional. A rack only has three balls, but the physics is surprisingly realistic. Not only can you control the power of the shot, but you can even add "English" (spin). To aim, you move a little dot around your ball. You only have a limited number of angles, but you can use the English to compensate. There are several modes of play including trick shot mode, pool, practice, and English billiards. The trick shot mode keeps score, so it's good for solo play. The pool mode is good for two-player competition, and the English billiards is a more complicated variation. Trick Shot is a winner all the way.
Obviously inspired by the movie Tron, Deadly Discs puts you in a wide-open room pursued by three disc-hurling warriors. You can throw your own disc at these guys to kill them, but they constantly regenerate. Once you aim and throw, you can either "call" your disc back by pressing the fire button or wait for it to bounce off a wall. I was really digging the controls until I realized the disc is NOT harmful to enemies on its return trip! I have no idea what the developers had in mind, but I think they missed a golden opportunity. Your character can also enter openings on one side of the room and emerge on the other, but I never found this to be useful or necessary. You can sustain several hits before your game comes to an end. I find it odd how enemy discs are deadly to the touch, and yet you can run clear through the enemies themselves and suffer no damage! Unlike the Intellivision version, this version of Tron Deadly Discs features smooth graphics and comfortable controls. Unfortunately, one major element - the large, menacing boss - has been completely omitted from this version. As a result, this edition feels second-rate. In addition, an astute reader noted that it takes far too long for the serious challenge to kick in. With no variety in the stages, Deadly Disc's gameplay quickly becomes monotonous.
Although technically impressive, Tunnel Runner's simplistic gameplay won't win over many gamers. Older games that rely on fancy 3D effects don't tend to age well. Like a first-person Pac-man, Tunnel Runner's challenge is to escape from a maze while avoiding wandering heads with huge fangs. The illusion of movement is smooth and convincing, and navigating hallways is surprisingly quick and easy. The "heads" are impressively large and scale nicely. Sound cues indicate when they are approaching, which adds a bit of suspense. Unfortunately, having to constantly check your position on the map screen (by holding the button) is a real chore. The first few four stages are easy, but once you reach the "blind" mazes, the difficulty goes through the roof. Tunnel Runner may have gotten by on sheer novelty value in 1983, but in retrospect, its shallow gameplay is not very fun.
Here's a game few people have heard about, but those who have will tell you it's one of the best games for the system. I would describe Turmoil as a 2D Tempest. Your ship moves up and down in the center of the screen between seven rows, and can shoot left or right. A variety of colorful aliens move across these rows, trying to ram your ship. Fortunately, you have rapid-fire capability, and you can flood the rows with missiles. Some enemies however, like tanks, are invincible and must be avoided altogether. One particular type of alien sits and waits at the end of a row, and if you nab it before it starts moving, you'll score big points. With nine skill levels, Turmoil is a well-designed game that requires quick thinking to keep up with its frantic action. 
It astounds me how bad Tutankham turned out for the 2600. King Tut would be rolling around in his sarcophagus if he ever laid his eyes on this choppy mess. Your mission is to traverse four mazes while gathering treasures and exterminating wandering monsters. Evidentally Parker Bros put a junior programmer to work on this project, because technically it's very sloppy. The minimal graphics include a nice variety of treasures and monsters, but they are so tiny that it's hard to discern what they're supposed to be. Your little explorer looks like a static stick figure, and he's a nightmare to control. Not only are his movements incredibly jerky, but he can't move diagonally, even in wide open spaces. Shooting is unnecessarily difficult, since you can only fire sideways and only while pushing the joystick. When creatures are shot, they turn into asterisks, and it looks awful. Terrible collision detection adds to this game's woes. Trying to dodge creatures coming from below is nearly impossible, but at least the game provides you with a few smart bombs. In terms of audio, there's practically no sound effects or music to speak of. This game is an embarrassment. For a far more respectable version, try the Colecovision edition.
Despite the ho-hum name, this was one of my arcade favorites way back in "the day". The object is to navigate your "buggy" (which looks like a Volkswagen Bug) down some single-lane, zigzagging streets, collecting flags and avoiding collisions by jumping over (or onto) other cars. I was really looking forward to reliving the thrills of my youth through this 2600 cartridge. Imagine my dismay when I turned this thing on and saw some of the most horrific graphics I've ever seen. The blocky, jagged roads look more like steps, and those cars are pixelated blobs! Vehicles and flags flicker badly and often disappear completely. This is one of the worst looking games I've ever seen on the Atari 2600, and that's saying something. After the initial shock, I started warming up to this game. The controls aren't bad; you can easily change speeds, and I soon remembered that jumping is not only for squashing cars, but also for leaping from one road to the next. Once you collect all the flags, you're off to a totally different course. The roads are poorly rendered, but you start to learn where the bridges and hills are by the color scheme. The game is seriously challenging and undeniably fun. I really couldn't put it down once I started playing it. The background music is annoying, but at least it's faithful to the original game. When all is said and done, I like Up 'N Down. If you can stomach the graphics you're in for a good time.
Vanguard can be fun if you have a reliable arcade-style joystick. This shooter introduced several original concepts to the world of arcade games, including stages that scroll in different directions, the ability to shoot in four directions at once (!), and invincibility power-ups. But perhaps its most significant innovation was the "continue" feature, which let you pay another quarter and pick up where you left off. Like it or hate it, the continue feature caught on in a big way. This Atari 2600 edition of Vanguard attempts to incorporate the same features but comes up a bit short. For one thing, it doesn't do a good job of simulating the dual joysticks of the arcade game. In this version, pushing the joystick in any direction not only fires in that direction but moves your ship slightly. Holding down the fire button lets you move quickly but halts your firing. Typically players will rotate the joystick rapidly to maximize their firepower but gradually meander around the screen. It really hurts your arm after prolonged play. Atari half-heartedly addressed this problem by supplying the option of automatic forward fire, but that makes the game entirely too easy. Vanguard isn't much to look at, and even the rainbow colors can hide the horrid blockiness of backgrounds. Vanguard does have a nice variety of stages, each of which brings its own unique style of play. The zones scroll horizontally or vertically but not diagonally. The "stripe zone" is the most interesting, with two different paths and two sets of adversaries. The "bleak zone" features floating snakes that you can "dock" with for big points. The trick is to shoot the snakes just before docking, so you can collect the points for killing them (you can only do this three times). Vanguard's most disappointing stage is the "gond" (remember the commercial? "Luther kills the gond!"). This blocky rainbow snowman is supposed to be the "boss", but all you do is shoot him in the face. It's hardly a challenge and definitely anti-climactic. The second level features the same set of stages, only harder and in a different order. Vanguard isn't a great shooter, but it's certainly original, and it'll give your arm one heck of a workout.
This bare-bones adventure game involves entering rooms, shooting monsters, and grabbing treasure. I've enjoyed Venture on several other systems (notably the Intellivision), but this version waters down an already minimal game to practically nothing. The arcade version was simplistic enough, but this translation strips it down to an unacceptable level. The blocky monsters are mere static images, and shooting them results in a pixelated mess. Your so-called "arrows" are single pixels! Your smiley-face character is easy to control, but he moves like a snail! This is a serious problem considering the impatient hall monsters tend to invade your room before you've even had a chance to snag the treasure. When you do "conquer" a room, it doesn't even fill in on the map screen, so you have to remember which rooms you've finished (lame). Lastly, the game only offers two sets of rooms for a grand total of eight! And I thought the twelve rooms in the other versions was lame! Venture for the Atari 2600 is a weak effort, reflecting poorly on a very fun arcade title.
Tim Snider has brought new life to the venerable adventure game, creating new monsters, treasures, and more complex dungeons. The dungeon layouts are basically the same, but now the rooms have extra walls. This is a double-edged sword. Although the rooms are more interesting and allow for more strategy, they can also cause frustration as you easily get hung up on them. I found the new monsters to be pretty interesting and original. This time you'll encounter floating swords, swarms of bugs, and octopus among others. Venture II is a nice effort, but it still has the flaws of the original game.
Checkers isn't the most exciting concept for a video game to begin with, and this particular version has other problems to boot. An awkward control scheme forces you to move the joystick diagonally, which is painful if you're using a standard 2600 joystick. In addition, although the computer response is fast during the easy levels, the wait can be unbearable (up to eight minutes!) in the advanced ones. You'll just have to stare at a black screen while the computer decides what to do next. There are 19 game variations, but it's overkill. Check out the artwork on this game - that looks like Luke Skywalker!
This is the type of game that does not age well. The pieces are small and difficult to discern, and the computer can take up to a few minutes to make a single move. The computer AI is not bad, but I heard it's been known to cheat (absolutely true!). Intermediate players might find some challenge in Video Chess, but there's really no point in putting up with the slowness and bad graphics.
Don't be fooled by the fancy name and cover illustration, this is a glorified pong game with tons of different variations. The best are the four player foosball-type games, which are undeniably fun. Other variations, such as the volleyball and basketball games, are ill-conceived and have little or no play value.
Here's a game that succeeds in spite of itself. Video Pinball has square bumpers, rollovers, and spinners (which usually slow the ball down). Like any good pinball game, it has an addictive quality that keeps you coming back, trying to top your high score. You control two flippers, and can activate them together or independently. The movement of the ball can be affected by "nudging" it, but if you get carried away a "tilt" occurs, ending your game. I remember playing Video Pinball with my childhood friend Billy, and he could keep one ball going forever (much to my chagrin). The best part is clearing the diamonds at the top of the screen, which increases the bumper values. The rollovers are pretty cheap because they are situated directly over the bumpers. By using the nudge you can continuously bounce the ball over them, racking up some huge scores. Maybe this game isn't as good as I remembered, but I still like it.
I found this colorful shooter surprisingly fun to play - for the first minute or so. After that, it's all downhill. Wabbit features a good-looking carrot patch with five rabbit holes along each side. Several white bunnies scurry out of the holes at a time, snatching carrots and hightailing it back to their holes. Controlling a woman on the bottom of the screen, you toss rotten eggs at the rabbits to protect your garden. The game ends when 100 carrots are stolen, although clearing each round reduces the "carrot count" by 25 as a reward. The early levels are fun because the rabbits move at a reasonable speed and can be picked off with good timing. Unfortunately, although the rabbits appear to speed up exponentially as the rounds progress, your eggs remain dirt slow. Before long it's impossible to "aim", and you're reduced to tapping the button incessantly. It's a shame that the gameplay falls apart as it does, because Wabbit's bright visuals are refreshing. The cute white rabbits are nicely animated, and an attractive sunset can be seen beyond the white picket fence in the distance. Too bad the nice graphics can't hide the sorry gameplay.
This paddle-controlled game is absolutely phenomenal with four players - perhaps the best multi-player video game of all time! The screen is arranged with an oddly-shaped "knight" in each corner, protected by a layered brick wall and a shield that moves around the perimeter. A "fireball" caroms around the screen, knocking chunks out of the walls. Players can either catch or deflect the fireball with their moving shields, and caught fireballs can be redirected and hurled with great force. As the walls weaken and holes appear, the action becomes more intense. The last knight remaining wins the round, and the first player to win five rounds is the victor. Warlords is far more than the sum of its parts. Alliances form dynamically to prevent any player from getting too far ahead, and at least when it comes to my friends, the trash talking never stops. Even when a player is eliminated from a round, he can still affect the outcome. By positioning his "ghost" shield, he can still deflect the ball and expose new angles for the remaining players. As far as I know, the whole "ghost" thing may just be a bug in the game, but it really adds a new dimension. Although Warlords has 23 variations, only games 1 and 2 are outstanding. Idiotic computer-controlled players take the fun out of the one and two player contests, usually doing more damage to themselves than anyone else! The graphics are pretty modest, but those who've experienced Warlord's four-player action know this game is numero uno when it comes to multi-player mayhem.
This space shooter has sloppy graphics, unimaginative gameplay, and irritating sound effects. It's amazing that I actually enjoyed playing it! Using the paddle controllers, you move a cannon across the screen, shooting blocky invaders that bounce around and occasionally drop bombs. The graphics are minimal, and the constant beeping is annoying as hell. The control is good however, and Warplock does provide s a decent challenge. Unlike most games, you only have one life. You score one point per each hit, and it's actually tough to score above 25. For some reason, shooting one invader in a group automatically kills the rest. It's a weak effort, but Warplock manages to be fun in spite of itself.
I showed this game to a friend recently, and he gasped "THIS is the ATARI 2600??" It looks that good! The graphics are smooth and colorful, and the characters are detailed and nicely animated. Winter Games begins with a nice rendition of the Olympic theme, and up to eight players (!) can choose countries to represent. Each of the seven events requires its own technique, and all provide challenge without requiring you to abuse your controller (*cough*Summer Games*cough*). The action gets underway with a nice-looking but difficult Slalom event. The second event, Bobsled, provides an overhead view of a smoothly twisting track. The Ski Jump is yet another tough event that features a picture-in-picture close-up of your skier, whose body position needs to be carefully maintained. The Biathlon looks like the Slalom, but you need to synchronize your joystick with a heartbeat in order to make good time. This event also presents periodic "shooting range" screens that test your reflexes. Speed-skating requires rhythmically moving the joystick, and it's the only event that lets two people compete head-to-head. Hot Dog is a ski acrobatics event where you perform combinations of ten different tricks. The final event, the Luge, is similar to the Bobsled, but allows the player to control his speed by braking. At the end of the game, the top three players are listed, but there's little fanfare. Overall, Winter Games is fun, challenging, and a fine showcase of 2600 graphics. I've seen this game on many systems, but this may be the most impressive.
Oh yeah - this is THE GAME right here! Say what you want about the flickering graphics and the blocky, goofy-looking monsters - Wizard of Wor delivers some serious maze-shooting action. You can even play simultaneously with a friend! The object is to exterminate all the monsters in each dungeon. The maze changes in terms of layout and color as you progress, and a scanner on the bottom of the screen helps you track invisible monsters! There can be up to six creatures crawling around the dungeon at a time and some can even shoot at you! There are two escape doors on either side of the screen, like Pac-Man. After clearing out the normal monsters, a winged beast called a "Worluk" flies towards an escape door, and you can blast him for bonus points. Next you engage the Wizard of Wor himself. This guy teleports all over the place, usually vanishing before you get a chance to pump lead into him. Sometimes it takes a lucky shot to nail him, so keep shooting. Wizard of Wor plays much better than it looks. For best results, set the difficulty to A, and don't forget to use the right joystick for the single-player game.
Despite a name that would suggest a lame educational title (ugh!), Word Zapper could have amounted to something more than the piece of crap it is. You control a free-moving cannon, blasting letters that rapidly scroll across the top of the screen. Before each round, you're presented with a word or random letters you must "spell" by correctly shooting the letters in order. The scrolling letters can be set at three speeds, and on "fast" it's downright dizzying! Complicating matters are meteors that knock you around and throw off your aim. I found Word Zapper's basic gameplay respectable, but for the life of me I could NOT find ONE satisfying skill level among the 24 variations! Memorizing random letters is too much work, so that eliminates half of the variations right off the bat. The hardest "word" variation is no pushover, but it abruptly ends after just three rounds. What's up with that? Word Zapper was well programmed but very poorly designed.
I remember back in 1982 when my friend Nicky brought Worm War I over to my house. I was not impressed at all with its blocky graphics and simplistic gameplay. Even back then, those "pagoda gas stations" looked like total crap. In retrospect however, I didn't give the game a fair chance. Underneath the ugly graphics lies some challenging gameplay, rapid-fire shooting controls, and excellent two-player simultaneous modes. You move a little tank across the bottom of the screen, adjusting your speed as worms, blocks, and gas stations scroll into view. The worms quickly slink back and forth across the screen and splatter nicely when shot. The game ends when you run out of fuel, so keep an eye out for gas stations to replenish your supply. Worm War I's graphics are simple but colorful, and the sound effects are surprisingly high quality. You can hold down the fire button to shoot rapidly, but that makes it easy to accidentally blow up those precious gas stations. I like Worm War I. It's a low budget shooter that works..png)
It's hard to judge a prototype game, but it's still interesting to see how these titles were shaping up before they got the axe. In the arcade, Xevious was one of the most challenging and addictive shooters of the early 80's. With its overhead view, vertical configuration, and pseudo-3D graphics, you could shoot UFOs in the air while bombing tanks and installations on the ground. This 2600 version does a fine job of emulating the distinct gameplay, and with a little more work this could have been a winner. The fire button shoots missiles and drops bombs at the same time. The circular UFOs look great, as do the flying rotating walls. The scenery below is blocky, but I do like the large bird pattern on the ground. The only ground targets programmed in are a few pathetic-looking tanks that don't even fire. The horizontal dashes that represent your bombs and bombsight were probably just placeholders for better graphics to be added later (at least I hope they were). As it stands, Xevious is a playable prototype, but it's far too easy due to the lack of ground fire. I'd really like to see somebody finish this one.
For Atari 2600 fans, this is a perennial favorite. Named after Atari CEO Ray Kassar and programmed by the man who brought you E.T., Yars' Revenge is a real gem. Controlling an intergalactic flying insect, you battle a deadly machine (the "Qotile") protected by a shield on the right side of the screen. Periodically the Qotile will lash out at you in the form of a fiery swirl. The Quotile can only be destroyed by your Zorlon Cannon, which you arm and aim from the left side of the screen. You can also shoot and nibble away at the Qotile's shield, but a pesky "destroyer missile" chases you around, constantly keeping you on the run. Your only sanctuary is the colorful "neutral zone" near the center of the screen. Programmer Howard Scott Warshaw employed a number of nifty visual effects including rotating shields, a semi-translucent neutral zone, and screen-sized explosions. The ominous pulsating background "music" is simply brilliant. But what gamers truly appreciate about Yars' Revenge is its high level of difficulty. It seems easy enough at first, but soon you're dealing with a speedy destroyer missile and a swirl that behaves like a heat-seeking missile. Thank goodness you can fly off the top or bottom of the screen to escape to the other side, or else you'd have no chance at all. Yars' Revenge provides a level of strategy and challenge you don't see in many Atari 2600 games. It should be noted that a sequel appeared on the Gameboy many years later.
I've changed my mind about this Atari 2600 version of Zaxxon. Formerly I considered it an ill-advised attempt to shoehorn a complex 3D shooter into the 2600, but it deserves more credit than that. Despite its many problems, the game does retain the same general gameplay of the original arcade hit. The main problem lies in the graphics. Instead of a "gee-whiz" 3D isometric view, you get a top-down view with jagged walls. It's not pretty, but if you use you imagination, you can distinguish walls of different heights. It helps if you've already played the real Zaxxon as a point of reference. Unfortunately, the scaling objects also look rough, and their heights are hard to judge. As a result, a lot of trial and error is required to blast them. Still, I'm pleasantly surprised at the inclusion of the force field elements and boss stage. Zaxxon was never meant to be played on the 2600, but Coleco did the best with what they had. Flawed but playable, there's really not another game like this on the 2600.