Video Game Review: Space Invaders for Atari 2600

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Fun game play with tons of variations

Cons: Still grows repetitive; need to be able to fire more

The Bottom Line: 

Simple, early game

Still fun yet repetitive

For classic gamers

Your Mission - Keep Earth Safe from the Space Invaders

Video Games of the 70’s and early 80’s were much simpler than the games of today.  You had a clear objective and did everything you needed to do via simple controls.  They tended to be repetitive.  And yet they are also highly addicting even today.  That’s almost true of the Atari 2600 version of the classic Space Invaders.

The game play is simple and straight forward.  You are in a ship at the bottom of the screen, and your job is to kill the wave of aliens trying to land on earth.  There are six rows in each wave, and they move left and right across the screen.  Each time they reach one side, they drop down a row and start back in the other direction.  As the number of aliens on the screen grows smaller, the remaining aliens speed up until the last one zooms across the screen.

Of course, they aren’t just standing there waiting for you to hit them.  They are dropping their own bombs at you.  Fortunately, you can get away fairly quickly since usually only the column or two right above your current position is actually dropping bombs.  You also have three shields that you can hide under, although those do slowly go away as they take damage from you or the alien’s shots.  And if the aliens drop too low, the shields disappear completely.

Simple game, simple controls.  You use the Atari joystick controller for this game.  All you need to do is more your ship left or right to aim your shots or dodge the alien’s shots.  You hit the red button to fire.

Actually, firing is my biggest complaint about this game.  You are only allowed to have one shot on the screen at a time.  That’s fine if you are in the groove and constantly hitting aliens.  However, if you miss (and there is some space between the columns), you have to wait forever for it to hit the top of the screen before you fire again.  This is especially hard when you get near the end.  If you don’t time your shot just right, the final alien will speed by and you’ll have to wait until your shot reaches the top, hoping that happens before he zooms back by you.

Like most games from the time period, the object here is to get the highest score possible.  The six rows of aliens range in value from 5 to 30 points.  The more you hit, the higher your score.  Every so often, the mother ship goes across the very top of the screen, and if you time your shot just right and hit it, you get a bonus of 200 points.  You have three lives to rack up as many points as you can.

This was the early ages of video games and home video games, so the graphics and sound are simple.  In fact, you might even call the graphic crude since all of the various aliens and your own ships are made up of blocks touching each other.  However, the graphics are good enough to get the point across, and they never interfere with game play.  The sounds are simple as well.  You get a sound when you fire and when the mother ship is flying across the screen.  And each time the aliens move, there is a clicking sound almost like a typewriter.  It gets higher in pitch as the aliens start to move faster, and it really increases the tension for those final moments of each round.

When you do clear a round of aliens, you immediately get a new one.  They start a little faster and a little lower to the ground, meaning you need to be quicker to defeat them.

So let’s talk game variations.  Atari games always had plenty of them, so you could change things up to make it more or less challenging depending on skill level and desire.  The first game is the classic, and is the easiest.  From there, you can change things up four different ways.  First, you can have the shields move.  This makes it harder to hide behind them or shoot around them.  Then you can have the shots from the aliens zigzag as they come down, making them harder to dodge.  Or, you can make the shots come down faster.  Finally, the aliens themselves become invisible – your only changes to get them are paying attention to where the shots come from or the brief flash you see when you hit one.  And you can mix and match so that you’ve got invisible aliens with fast bombs or moving shields with invisible aliens or fast moving zigzagging bombs or….  You get the idea.  There are a total of 16 game variations just on single player alone.

Then we get to the two player games.  Yes, there is the traditional two players alternating turns.  But you can play where both of you are on the screen firing at the same time, both of you are on the screen but must alternate firing, still trying to get more points than the other person.  Or you can cooperate and use two ships to kill all the aliens or share controls via the two joysticks of just one ship.  And, of course, all 16 of the original variations are in play for all these different ways to play two player.  All told, there are 112 different variations on this one cartridge.

And if all this still isn’t enough for you, you can flip the difficulty switch in the back from B to A and double the size of your ship, making it an easier target for the aliens to hit.  (Frankly, I’ve always found the fat ship funny.  It really does look like it just double in weight more than size and needs to go on a diet.)

Despite all that, my other complaint about the game is the repetitive nature.  Some games from the era have enough different things happening that, while repetitive, are still challenging and fun.  This game is actually a bit too straight forward.  If it weren’t for all the game variations, I wouldn’t have played this one as much as I did as a kid.  As an adult, after a round or two, I move on to a different mix of game variations, but after 20 minutes or so, I’m ready to play something else.  It’s still fun in small doses, but it’s not as fun as it could be.

So Space Invaders' simple game play doesn’t make it quite as addicting as its more challenging brethren.  But it is still fun to pull out every so often, and its status as a classic makes it a requirement of any serious Atari 2600 collection.

Video Game Review: Q*Bert for Atari 2600

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Good game play that will suck you in for hours

Cons: Dated look and sound (which you'd expect)

The Bottom Line: 

Jump from block to block

All just to change the color

Still so addictive

Q*Bert and the Ultimate Addicting Pyramid Scheme

The 80's were the golden age for creativity in video games.  While now you get lots of shooters or driving games, back then you got puzzlers that make no sense if you think about them but are addicting to play.  Q*Bert is a great example of that, and the Atari 2600 version of the game is still addicting to play.

You are playing as Q*Bert, an alien creature who has decided to change all the squares on a pyramid from one color to another.  Why?  Why not?  We're never given a reason to back story as far as I've heard, but then again, why is Pac-Man eating all those dots.  Because they are there.

Anyway, it's a six level pyramid, which means there are 21 blocks that Q*Bert must hit in order to advance to the next level.  All he has to do is jump on them.  Sounds easy enough, right?

Not so fast.  What kind of game would this be in all you had to do is jump from level to level?  You've got Coily, a snake that starts as a purple ball and becomes a snake when he hits the bottom of the pyramid.  As a ball, he just goes straight down, but as a snake, he follows you around the pyramid, trying to kill you.  Then there's Sam, another alien dude who changes the color of any square he lands on back to the original color.  Still not challenging enough?  The only game variation is with the game difficulty switches in the back of the Atari 2600 consul.  If you put the switch in A (always the more difficult position), you also get red balls that fall down on you and try to squash you.  They fall off the bottom of the pyramid, but they can make it easy for Coily to corner you.

Fortunately, you do have some ways to fight back.  There is a green ball that will freeze everyone for a few seconds, allowing you to get away if you watch it.  You can stop Sam in his tracks by landing on him.  And there are flying saucers on the edge of the pyramid that allow you to lure Coily off the pyramid (taking all the other characters with him) and deposit you back at the top.

Just when you think you've got the hang of things, they make it more complicated by giving you an intermediate color, so you have to hit every square twice.  Then, the squares don't stick with the final color but change every time you land on them.  That's when this game goes from being a fun challenge to a fast moving puzzle game.

You start with four lives, and the goal is to wrack up the highest level and point total you can before you lose them all.  And did I mention you can also lose a life by jumping off the pyramid?

Either way, it's highly addicting.  I sat down to play it to refresh my memory and wound up having to force myself to stop to get on with other things.  It's simple enough in concept that anyone will understand, but it's harder than it seems it should be.  Just one more round is an easy justification to make as you try to beat your last score/level total.

The game requires the basic Atari joystick.  The fire button only starts a new game.  The instructions recommend turning the joystick in your hand since you use nothing but the diagonal directions.  I did that, and I had absolutely no trouble controlling Q*Bert.  In fact, more often than not, my deaths were from my own stupidity.  They certainly weren't from the controls.

The graphics are decent enough for an Atari game.  They certainly aren't arcade quality or up to today's standards.  But you can follow who the various characters are and who to avoid.  That's all that really matters.

The colors are mostly okay.  The various characters are all distinct enough, which is important when it comes to recognizing the green ball versus the other balls.  A couple of times, the color you are turning blocks into is hard to tell from the color you are starting with.  In one case, you can only see the tops of the pyramid blocks.  I'm not sure why those color choices were made, but you can get through the levels even though they are harder than they need to be.

The sounds are pretty basic and repetitive.  You and Coily make noises every time you jump from block to block, and the various balls and Sam make noise as well.  There's some music when you finish and level and when you jump on the saucers.  Nothing exciting, but once you get concentrating on the game, you start to cue your movements off the noise without even thinking about it.  In fact, it was amazing to me how quickly I fell back into those habits even though I haven't played the game for years.

And I need to fix that because I've been reminded just how much fun this game is.  30 years out, and Q*Bert for the Atari 2600 is still an addicting game that is a blast to play.  This is one to definitely track down and add to your collection.

Video Game Review: Popeye for Atari 2600

Stars: 3 out of 5

Pros: Good graphics and some creative game play

Cons: Poor controls add to some frustrating game play

The Bottom Line: 

This game can be fun

But some limitations do

Add frustration, too

Simple Game but Frustrating Execution

While I never played the arcade version of Popeye more than once or twice, I just had to get it for my Atari 2600.  It wasn't a game I'd turn to often, but I do remember enjoying it.  I recently dusted it off and gave it another spin and found it more frustrating than I remembered.

The object of the game is simple.  You're playing at Popeye, and you have to win the love of Olive Oyl.  She is throwing out hearts, musical notes, or kisses (depending on the level), and it's your job to catch them before they fall in the water and sink.  Sounds easy, right?  Not so fast.  Brutus is after you as always, and if he catches you, you lose a life.  The unseen Sea Hag is also throwing bottles at you, so you have to dodge or punch those.  You can turns the tables briefly once a level buy picking up the cans of spinach floating around and throwing Brutus over board.

Each level of the game features multiple platforms you can stand on.  The higher up you catch that Olive is throwing, the more points you get.  On the very highest platform, Brutus can only jump at you from behind.  He moves slowly and stupidly, so if you can catch stuff up there, you are pretty golden.  Every time you catch something, the Sea Hag throws a bottle, but you can punch those.

The frustrating part comes when you miss something and have to go down a level or two.  If you are on the same level at Brutus, he just keeps throwing bottles at you.  It's almost impossible to escape because when you try to climb a ladder, you can't do it in time and get hit by a bottle and die.  And if the objects you are trying to catch get too low, it's almost impossible to catch back up and reach the highest platform again.  (If one sinks in the water, it also kills you.)

The graphics for this game are surprisingly good.  Yes, they are still Atari 2600 levels, but you can tell who each of the characters are and what it is Olive is throwing in each level.  The "bottles" are really just rectangles that come at you, but that's the worst thing graphics wise.

The second and third levels are red on a black background, which I remember being a huge issue when I first played this game on a black and white TV.  I had to adjust the contrast like crazy to see what I was doing.

The sound is fairly good as well.  There are the right cues when things happen, and the constant background music is decent.  When Popeye picks up his spinach, you hear the theme song, and it's a good version of it.

This is a one player only game, and unlike other Atari 2600 games, there are no game variations.  You get one version and level of play, and that's it.

The other issue with this game is the controls.  You use the joystick controller, and moving side to side is easy.  The fire button is how you punch either the bottle or the can of spinach.  The problem comes when you have to climb the stairs.  You have to get and keep the controller at just the right diagonal angle for that, and it's hard to find it and keep it.  That makes getting away from danger another challenge.

Having said all that, when I stuck this game in after years of not playing it, I still was able to make it to level 3 (of 3, the game starts over but harder after that) both times I played.  It's not impossible, but it's not as easy as it could be.

I played the arcade version so seldom, I'd be curious to see if these were problems with that or issues that came over with the port.  Popeye for the Atari 2600 isn't truly bad, but it is more frustrating than it has to be.

Video Game Review: Jr. Pac-Man for Atari 2600

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: It's still fun running from ghosts and eating pellets.

Cons: Twists might not make it required for all.

The Bottom Line: 

Fun for Pac-Man fans

But twists might not be enough

For all the players

Youngest Member of the Pac-Man Family Gets the Biggest Mazes

During the 80's, Pac-Man fever swept the nation, and they created as many sequels and rip-offs as they could.  (See, sequels are nothing new anywhere.)  I only remember seeing an arcade version of Jr. Pac-Man once or twice, but when I saw a version for the Atari 2600, I just had to have it.

Not surprisingly, the premise involves controlling the main character, in this case Jr. Pac-Man, as he eats his way around a maze full of dots.  There are four ghosts chasing him trying to stop him by eating him.  But you get six power pellets that make the ghosts vulnerable for a limited time so you can eat them.  Instead of fruit like in the original, this time there are toys that bounce around the maze and give you bonus points if you eat them.  They also make any regular pellet they touch into a bonus bigger size, which slow you down a bit more as you eat them but are also worth 50 points instead of the 10 everything else is.  However, if it hits a power pill, it destroys the pill and itself.

So far, it's sounding like pretty much standard fair for the franchise.  And, really, it is.  The twist is that the maze is super big.  It scrolls, so it's hard to tell for sure, but I'd say it's easily two and a half times the size of the screen.  Might even be three times as big.  That's a lot of dots to eat.  There are also no tunnels to get you from one side to the other quickly and easily.  Frankly, I miss those tunnels, and I find it is easier to get trapped than in the earlier games.  But you can also scroll your way out of danger fairly easily if you are near the edges.  Unless you flee quickly, the ghosts do stay in the same part of the maze as you, so it's very rare you run into one as you leave one section to work on another.

There are a total of seven different prizes you can get, and I believe each one comes with a different maze.  I know that each maze was different for a while, but eventually, I'd start to get repeats.

The fire button on the joystick controller starts the game, but other than that does nothing.  As you'd expect, you use the joystick to guide Jr. Pac-Man around the maze up, down, left, and right.

You can play with the traditional four ghosts, or simplify it down to one, two, or three ghosts.  You can also scroll through and find the maze you want to start on.

For an Atari 2600 game, the graphics are decent.  Then again, they don't have to be super impressive in this game.  You can easily tell what you need to eat, yourself, and the ghosts.  What else do you need?  Still, they do give Jr. Pac-Man a beanie, and you can tell that's what it is.

Likewise, the sound consists of the standard game cues, eating the dots or turning the ghosts.  Since you can't always see the floating prize, there is a noise when it is on screen as well.

If you have the others, you don't need to get this game unless you really love the Pac-Man franchise.  But for those like me who do, tracking down Jr. Pac-Man will be well worth it because its twists are fun.

Video Game Review: Millipede for Atari 2600

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Lots of variety of insects make for a fun but crazy game

Cons: Graphics and sound effects are only okay

The Bottom Line: 

Challenging mission

With average graphics, sound

Still good in short spurts

Millipede is a Million Times Crazier than the Original

Sequels quickly became the rule of video games, and when Centipede became a hit, it wasn't too long before it was followed by Millipede.  The game play is similar, but they've added many more creatures to make the game more challenging.

The point of this game is to shoot the insects that are attacking you.  Each level is determined by the millipede, which starts at the top of the screen and moves across until it hits the side or a mushroom and then it drops a row toward you.  You are at the bottom of the screen trying to shoot up and hit it.

If only it were that easy.  There are all kinds of other critters.  Spiders pop in from the sides; beetles crawl around you.  Mosquitoes, Bees, and Dragonflies attack from the top.  And inchworms and earwigs crawl across the screen creating havoc of their own.  Fortunately, you do have DDT bombs that will destroy any pest that touches the poison cloud when you set them off.  (Unfortunately, I usually seem to hit them by mistake.)

Of course, your main point of attack is the arrow you shoot up toward the top of the screen.  While you can hit the red button each time you want to fire, just holding the button down is also an option.  While you are only allow a certain number of arrows at a time, it saves your thumb, and usually I want to be firing at all times anyway.

And have I mentioned the mushrooms?  Every time you hit a segment of a millipede, it turns into a mushroom.  Other insects leave them behind.  Fortunately, spiders do take them away because the more crowded the screen with mushrooms, the quicker the millipedes advance to the bottom and really threaten you.  Also, mushrooms seem to pop up on their own between rounds at times.

If you get the feeling that a lot happens quickly in this game, you'd be correct.  It's hard to have much of a strategy since it seems like something new is always coming at you.  Your best bet is to dodge and fire.

Fortunately, the controls are very easy to master.  Point the joystick I in the direction you want to go, and you'll move there.  You can only move about a third of the way up the screen, and there is actually a line to show you where that is.  The arcade game used a trackball for the controller, and Atari sold an option trackball controller for their system.  I loved to play this game with that controller because it was even easier.

The only choice you have in the way of game variations is what level score you start with.  Obviously, it's harder the higher you start.  There is no two player option, and the difficulty switches don't do anything either.

Graphics on this game aren't the greatest.  You and the mushrooms are blocks (although that was the case for you in the arcade if I remember correctly).  The various creatures have squarish parts, although you can still pretty much tell what they are.  The only truly strange ones are the mosquitoes with are diagonal lines with two "wings" sticking off them.  It's hard to tell the dragonflies and bees apart, not that it really matters.

The insects make all kinds of sound effects when they are on screen.  It's to help you indentify which ones are out.  It's all electronic sounds that really don't mean much until you learn to tell them apart.  Even then, it's often hard to tell because multiple things are happening at the same time.  As I recall, the arcade version was like that as well.  It's not a bad thing, but it could have been better.

Because of the variety of the bugs, this game is much harder than Centipede.  I enjoyed this one for a challenge, but I enjoyed the first one because it was relaxing while still presenting a challenge.  (And yes, I have them both.)  I don't know that this game calls for more than half an hour at a time because of how repetitive it is, but it's still fun.

And that fun holds up today.  Dated graphics and potentially overwhelming sound don't really hamper Millipede at all.

Video Game Review: Super Breakout for Atari 2600

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Simple yet addictive game play.

Cons: The sounds when the ball hits the bricks

The Bottom Line:
Simple idea

Bounce the ball and hit the bricks

But addicting fun




Super Simple Yet Super Addicting Sequel to Breakout

By the time I bought my Atari 2600, they had released Super Breakout, a sequel to the game Breakout.  While I always intended to go back and get the original, I never did track it down until I was an adult.  But that hardly matters because this game was pretty addicting enough.

The concept is super simple.  You control a paddle at the bottom of the screen.  Your mission is to keep one or more balls in the air and knock out the bricks in the wall in front of you.  Any time you miss a ball, you lose a life, and you get five lives to rack up the highest score.

Yes, it's a variation on Pong, one of the first video games ever.  But darn it, it's still fun and addicting.  I stuck the game in again to refresh myself on it before writing this review, and I played for a good 30 minutes and didn't really want to stop.  Usually, it's because I just barely miss my last ball, and I know I can do better.

Of course, the game variations help, too.  You can play with just one paddle and one ball in the variation called Breakout.  There's a child's variation on Breakout where the ball never speeds up and the paddle size never shrinks, something that happens in all the others.  Double gives you a dual level paddle and two balls at the start of each turn, while Cavity sets two balls in the middle of the brick wall that you can use once you've freed them.  In all of these, if you hit all the brinks, you get a new playing field.  Finally, Progressive keeps the brinks coming toward you with new rows filling in behind in a never ending game.

Honestly, I hardly ever played the plain Breakout version.  I loved having multiple balls I was trying to control.  Not only does it multiply the points you get for hitting a brick, but it makes having one ball feeling boring.  The exception is the Progressive version.  The longer the ball is in play, the faster the field moves toward you.  You can wind up in some pretty sticky situations on that one very quickly.  Unfortunately, Progressive is the only version here with no two player version, something I've never understood since you always just took turns playing two players on the other games.

This game uses the paddle controllers, which were sold separately.  Basically, there was a knob on the controller you turned to move the paddle on the screen.  You used the button on the controller to release the ball at the beginning of your next turn.  The controls respond well and it's very easy to play.

The graphics are simple, but they don't need to be anything else.  The bricks form a solid line with rectangles disappearing as you hit them.  The paddle you control is also a rectangle.  The only thing that's odd is the ball, which is really a square.

When the ball hits the paddle or bounces off the sides of the playing area, it makes an appropriate noise.  What I don't get are the musical sounds that are made as you hits the bricks in the walls.  They sound like a cross between a piano note and a string being plucked.  It's a weird combination.  It can grow a little tiresome, but it's easy to tune it out, and if you do decide to mute the sound on the TV, you aren't missing much.

Super Breakout is further proof that simple can be quite fun and addicting.  If you've missed this Atari 2600 classic, add it to your collection today.

Video Game Review: Joust for Atari 2600

Stars: 3 out of 5

Pros: Fairly faithful recreation of the arcade game play...

Cons: ...except for the flying button and the floating eggs

The Bottom Line: 

Harder to control

Makes for frustrating game play

Of arcade classic

Hey Buzzard Bait, the Controls Will Drag You Down

While it was never quite as high on my list of classic 80's games as Donkey Kong or Pac-Man, I do remember loving Joust.  When I went on a buying binge after college, snapping up for games for my Atari 2600 that I had missed, this was one I picked up.  For some reason, I never played it as much as the rest, but I couldn't remember why.  That is until I stuck the game in my system again.

Like many games from the 80's, this is one of those games where you wonder how they even came up with the concept.  The game recreates the classic jousting of the middle ages with a few key twists.  Horses?  Gone!  They're replaced by ostriches.  (The manuel calls them buzzards, but we know better.)  Yep, you are flying around the screen as you try to unseat the rest of the field by being above them when you crash into them.  Adding to the danger are the lava pits that appear on the bottom sides after round two.  Oh yeah, and if you take too long on a round, a pterodactyl comes after you.

Like many games of the era, finishing a wave just means you face more and harder enemies in the next wave.  The entire point is to rack up the highest score you can.

The arcade game was created for one or two players at the same time, and that is preserved here.  Additionally, you can play in normal mode or easy mode, which means you only face one opponent at a time and never see a pterodactyl.

Joust itself is surprisingly addictive, especially the two player version where you are pitted against a friend on screen and racing to top each other's score and even kill each other in certain waves.

So what's my problem with the Atari 2600 version?  Is it the graphics?  While they certainly lose much of the detail of the arcade version, that's to be expected with the limited resources they had for this system.  You and your opponents are certainly acceptable, although the pterodactyl is laughable.

How about the sound?  It's fairly faithful to the arcade with flapping noises for your wings and bumps when you joust with someone.

No, the problem is the controls.  Controlling your bird should be fairly simple.  You press the red fire button to fly, stop pressing it to drop, and press left and right to fly in those directions.  The left and right work pretty much like they should.  I'm not going to complain too much about them.  It's the stupid flying control that makes this game a pain.  You press it two or three times and you barely fly.  Then suddenly you are shooting up and hitting the ledge above you and bouncing out of control.  Stop flapping your wings and you hovercrash with about that much pause before you start to really fall.  As a result, it's very hard to make sure you have the upper hand to win a joust.  I've never been super good at controlling my bird in this game, but this version makes it much, much worse. It feels like the screen is just too small to really get good flight control in.

Then there's the strange case of the flying eggs.  As in the arcade, when you unseat a computer controlled rider, it leaves behind an egg and will hatch if you don't go collect it quickly enough.  Unlike in the arcade, where the egg glides down and lands on a platform or falls into the lava, the eggs in this version float toward the top of the screen and never land.  That makes is much harder to catch them.  This is even true in the egg rounds, a round where you start with eggs and only have to battle opponents you allow to hatch.

Not too long after I bought this cartridge, I bought a Super Nintendo and wound up with Joust there - a version that not only has better graphics but is much easier to control.  Guess which one I played the most.

Joust is a fun game, but Joust for the Atari 2600 is too frustrating to control, especially when you have to catch the floating eggs.  I'm not saying to avoid this game, but there are games that are much more fun for this platform.

Video Game Review: Asteroids for Atari 2600

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Simple but highly addictive game play

Cons: Graphics dated, but it's a very minor issues

The Bottom Line:
Blasting asteroids

Shooting for a higher score

And watch time fly by

Blast Your Way Through a Field of Asteroids in the Atari 2600 Classic

It seems today that most video games have an end game or some mission you are trying to accomplish.  But in the early days of video games, most of them featured the same idea repeated in multiple levels of increasing difficulty with the real goal being getting the highest score possible before dying.  Does that make some of these game repetitive?  On the contrary, some of them are highly addictive, as Asteroids for the Atari 2600 proves.

The premise of the game is very simple - you are in a ship in space that has been surrounded by giant asteroids.  You have to blast them all out of the sky before they run into your ship.  Each level starts with a bunch of large asteroids.  When you hit those, you get two medium size asteroids.  Hitting those turns them into one small asteroid that disappears when you hit it.

As you can well imagine, those when the asteroids start multiplying, it can get chaotic quickly.  While you only start with four big asteroids in the first level, every one after that starts with nine.

This game was an import from an Atari arcade game.  I never played the arcade version much, but I loved this game.  It's easy to play for hours without even realizing it as you try to top your score.

Helping with the addiction are the game variations.  They claim there are 66, but the way I count, there are 33.  See, there are 33 one player game variations and another 33 two player game variations.  (For the two player version, players alternate turns.)  No matter how you count, there is lots of variety.

So what makes up the differences?  Well, there are four options for extra lives, at 5000, 10,000, 20,000, or never.  You can have the asteroids move on screen slow or fast.  More than anything, slow just means they always move on the screen from top to bottom.  The speed does pick up a little in fast, but the biggest change is that some of the smaller asteroids move diagonally, making the challenge more fun.

Finally, there are four different features that can be activated by pulling down on the joystick.  In the first one, you use hyperspace to disappear from your current location to one picked at random.  It never fails, but when I use this, I disappear from an oncoming asteroid only to appear in the path of another with no time to react.  The second option is a shield which you can use for two seconds before you explode.  Third, your ship flips 180 degrees, which is helpful if the asteroid that is about to kill you is coming from behind.  Finally, there is no special feature.

The difficulty switches in the back of the game are also used here.  In A (which is the harder setting), satellites and UFOs appear every so often, shooting in a random pattern.  They'll hit the asteroids and you, but you do get bonus points if you hit them.

And there's the super easy children's game variation.  It has slow asteroids and hyperspace.  Best I can tell what sets it apart from the regular game variation with these options is that the big asteroids only turn into one medium asteroid instead of two.

I already mentioned that you use the joystick controller with this game.  The controls are fairly self-explanatory.  When you move the joystick left, you spin counter clockwise.  Pressing right spins you clockwise.  And if you press up, your ship moves in the direction it is facing.  That is the only part of the controls that takes getting used to because your ship doesn't stop right away but slows down and eventually stops.  Eventually, you can get control of how far you'll move when you press up and hold it.  As I already mentioned, pressing down on the joystick activates the special feature if you have one.  Finally, the red fire button…wait for it…fires.  You can't hold it down and continuously fire, so your thumb will get quite the work out.

Most of the graphics for the Atari 2600 are laughable by today's standards, but the graphics here hold up reasonably well.  Of course, that's because the game is fairly simple.  Your ship is basically a triangle.  The asteroids are circles with jagged edges.  The most complicated things are the satellites and UFOs, and while they are basically bigger and smaller versions of the same thing, they look pretty good.  Yes, everything has a blocky appearance to it, but you can immediately tell what everything is.

The entire time you are playing, there's basic music in the background that reminds me of the theme from Jaws.  The rest of the sound is pretty basic, you get a sound when you fire and explosion sounds when the asteroids are hit or you die.  Additionally, the satellites and UFOs make noise when they appear.  Again, it's not outstanding, but it serves the game well.  You can always tell what is happening.

The arcade version of Asteroids was popular in the late 70's, and the Atari 2600 version appeared not too much later.  And even all these years later, it's fun to sit down and waste a few hours blowing those space rocks out of the sky and seeing just how high a score you can get.

Video Game Review: Adventure for Atari 2600

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Fun early quest game

Cons: Overall game is simple; standard Atari 2600 graphics

The Bottom Line:

A simple quest game

With chalices and dragons

Still provides some fun

Quest to Retrieve the Enchanted Chalice While Avoiding the Dragons

When it comes to video games, many popular games involve trying to find or rescue something.  That's something that started way back in the 70's with the first popular home video game system when Adventure was released for the Atari 2600.

As the story goes, an unseen evil magician has stolen an enchanted chalice and hidden it.  Your mission is to find it and return it to the Golden Castle.  There are a total of three castles in the game, and some mazes between them you have to navigate to find what you are looking for.  Stopping you are three dragons and a bat.  While the dragons will eat you, stopping the game, the bat will steal something you are holding and trade it for something he has.

The controls for the game are very easy.  You use the joystick and shove it in the direction you want to move.  To pick up an object, like a key to a castle or a the chalice, just run into it.  Since you can only carry one item at a time, hit the red button when you want to drop an item.

As with most early Atari 2600 games, the graphics are passable and that's about it.  You are just a rectangular block.  The dragons and bat are okay, although the bat is pretty laughable.  The magic sword you can use to kill the dragons looks more like an arrow.  Stuff like that.  But it's still fun.

There are three game variations.  The first is the easiest.  The world is small, with only two castles and dragons and no bat.  The second game introduces the bat and the third castle and dragon.  For those of these games, everything starts in the same place.  I'll use those to remind me of the game play if I haven't stuck this cartridge in for a while.  But the third is the most fun.  In this one, everything starts in a completely random spot, so you never quite know what you'll find where.  Occasionally, I've played this one and explored everywhere only to not find something I need to complete the quest, but most of the time the system seems smart enough to put things places where you can find what you need to finish the game.

The difficulty switches on the back are used, too.  In B, the dragons pause before eating you.  However, in A, they eat you much faster.

This is a one player game.

One thing I like about this game is that if you get eaten or wind up trapped in some other way, you can hit game reset.  That sends you back to the golden castle where you start, and you are alive again.  You can do this as many times as you want.  The downside is that every time you restart, any dragons you have killed come back to life as well.

Even on the third game variation, I can usually finish the game in 5 minutes, 10 minutes if I have a hard time with dragons in some part.  That gives you some idea of how big the game really is and how complicated they make things.  On the plus side, game 3 is different every time you play it.

Another frustration is that blasted bat.  He always appears at the worst possible moment and trades something you've spent a couple minutes trying to find for something you don't need and leaves again.  I know he makes it harder, but I'd love an option for the bigger world without him in it.

Even so, I enjoy pulling this game out every so often and beating it again.  It's simple and easy, but still something about it is remarkably fun.  I can easily get my fix in 20 to 30 minutes, but I really enjoy that time.

I can't deny that Adventure is simple and suffers from Atari 2600 graphics.  But it is fun and worth pulling out every so often to defeat the dragons and rescue the chalice all over again.

Video Game Review: Kangaroo for Atari 2600

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Fun game play on two stages

Cons: One very hard stage, Donkey Kong rip off

The Bottom Line:
This game can be fun

Once you figure out jumping

As you save baby

Help the Mother Kangaroo Rescue Her Baby in this Donkey Kong Clone

There are some arcade games I remember from the 80's that never really seemed to catch on.  While some of those puzzle me because I thought they were fun, others make perfect sense.  One of those is Kangaroo.  The premise is just too similar to Donkey Kong.

Having said that, this was one of the first games I got for my Atari 2600.  I bought the game system Christmas Eve, and my grandparents gave me this game on Christmas day.  And I remember hours of fun playing it.  Well, once I got the second stage figured out.

The premise of the game is that some evil monkeys have kidnapped a baby kangaroo.  You are controlling the mother as you try to make your way up to the top of the screen to rescue him.  The monkey's try to stop you by dropping apples on you from above or throwing them at your level.  You can either jump over the apples, duck under them, or punch them, depending on how high they are thrown.  There is also bonus fruit to pick up along the way.  I didn't pick up on it as a kid, but as an adult, it seemed like a rip off of Donkey Kong.  You are trying to get to the top of a level to rescue someone you love.

The controls are fairly straight forward.  You use the joystick, and up makes you jump or climb while down makes you duck or climb down a ladder.  The red button throws punches for you, and you can punch monkeys and apples.  There is also a bonus timer at the bottom.  You get whatever is left added to your score at the end of each level, but if it runs out, you die.

There are a total of three stages.  The first is pretty basic.  You have to climb ladders to three different levels.  It's the second stage where things get hard.  There are almost no ladders, and instead you need to leap from ledge to ledge, usually at a diagonal.  The Atari 2600 joystick wasn't designed to do this easily, and it is very frustrating because you have to time each jump just right or you fall off and die.  But I seem to remember getting this figured out as a kid, so you can learn to do it if you invest the time.  Plus you've still got apples coming at you from above and the side.  The final stage uses a combination for ledges and ladders, but I find these ledges much easier to navigate.  Seems like they should have switched stages if you ask me.  I think I may have played the arcade version once, but I don't know for sure, so I can't comment on how these stages compare to the original.

What I can comment on are the graphics here.  The apples are just squares.  When you see the kangaroo and the monkey from the sides, they look okay for an Atari 2600 character.  However, whenever they are climbing, they look laughable.  It's hard to recognize them at all.

Every time you move, there's a bit of an annoying bumbump noise, and you get another noise for jumping and climbing.  There are a few musical cues when you clear a level or die.  It's basic, but it works.

And there are game variations.  In novice, you start out with monkeys that throw apples at you on two levels and they throw apples once per trip onto the screen.  Once you have beaten all three stages, the monkey's throw two apples per trip and at three different levels.  This is how they behave if you chose the advanced game variation to start.  You can play by yourself or with two people alternating turns as the other dies.

I can remember being frustrated with this game until I got the controls figured out, but then I had lots of fun racking up points and fruit going round and round the stages.  Kangaroo isn't a classic, but once you get the movement down, it's fun.

Video Game Review: Ms. Pac-Man for Atari 2600

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Addictive game play, just like the arcade

Cons: Graphics, but they are good for an Atari 2600 game

The Bottom Line:
Close to the arcade

If you can ignore graphics

You'll be addicted




Ms. Pac-Man Proves You Can Get a Good Arcade Import for the Atari 2600

After the disaster that was Pac-Man for the Atari 2600, I'm sure many video gamers were hesitant about buying Ms. Pac-Man when it was released for that home video game system.  The great news is that it is a huge improvement from the original even if not quite the arcade.

Just like the arcade, the premise is the same, you are playing as Ms. Pac-Man (Pac-Man with a bow on her head) and your goal is to clear the maze of all the dots.  Trying to stop you are four ghosts who will eat you.  You can temporary turn them blue by eating a power pill and then eat them, and they return to their home base to regenerate.  There are also food prizes that will bounce through the maze every so often, and eating them gives you bonus points.  There are two tunnels in the mazes (expect for one maze that just has one tunnel) that will zip you from left to right or the other way around.

Unlike Pac-Man, which used the same maze over and over, this arcade game had multiple mazes, and every few levels you got to a new maze.  This cartridge does the same thing.  There are four total mazes, and you get a new one every two levels you clear until you've reached level 8.  Then you switch back and forth between the last two mazes.  I will admit I was never good enough at the arcade to get beyond the second maze, so I can't tell you how these compare.  My impression is they are pretty different, but I don't care.  The mazes we get are fun, and that's all that matters.

The graphics are pretty good for an Atari 2600 game.  True, they are still dated by today's standards.  Ms. Pac-Man actually looks fairly round and the ghosts don't look so square.  Some of the fruit is laughable, but most of it looks pretty good. Yeah, there are obvious square pieces make up some of the characters, but it's not too bad.

Another huge improvement is the use of color.  Unlike the home version of Pac-Man, this one actually makes the ghosts four different colors.  Okay, so it's hard to tell exactly what color some of them are (Brown or orange? Is another green?), but they are distinct from one another.  And when you eat a power pill, they actually turn blue and flash blue and white before turning normal again.  Sometimes, it is the little things that make me smile, and this is one of them.

The sound is also enjoyable.  Yes, the sound of eating the dots is repetitive, and if you aren't eating anything, it doesn't make any sound.  But when the game first starts, you die, or the ghosts are blue, the sounds are very close to the arcade if not perfectly identical.

You use the joystick for this game.  The fire button only starts a new game.  Ms. Pac-Man responds very well to the controller.

While the difficulty switches aren't used for this game, there are four game variations.  You can play with anywhere from one to four ghosts chasing you.  Speeds are the same in all games, and pretty much stay the same no matter how far you go, although the length the ghosts stay blue when you eat a power bill gets shorter the further you go until it's basically nothing, just like the arcade.  There's no two person version, so you would have to pass the controller around after you've lost your last life.

The big thing this version is missing from the arcade version of this game are the animation between some levels that show Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man meeting, although they do recreate the between games animation of the ghosts circling around Ms. Pac-Man.  I remember being disappointed about this lack for about 5 minutes as a kid, and I certainly don't miss it as an adult.

I can also remember playing this by the hour as a kid.  True, there's no ultimate goal other than seeing how high a score you could get.  But there is something completely addicting about the game.  Even now, I find it fun.  My only real complaint is the graphics, which I am able to ignore because the game is almost 30 years old.

So if you are looking for a game in this classic franchise for you old system, I highly recommend Ms. Pac-Man for the Atari 2600.  Even all these years later, it's just about perfect.

Video Game Review: Pac-Man for Atari 2600

Stars: 2 out of 5

Pros: Still fun

Cons: Too many pointless changes from the arcade version

The Bottom Line: 

They got basics right

But there are so many flaws

It's best just to skip

Fun but Too Many Unforced Errors

By the time I bought my Atari 2600 in 1984, Pac-Man had become the default game they bundled with the machine.  That was fine with me.  As with most anyone around at the time, I was a Pac-Man addict, and I wanted to get the game.  I'm not sure if they were including it because they knew everyone would want it or if it was because it was such a poor version of the arcade classic that no one was buying it.

Now don't misunderstand me.  The basics of the game are the same as always.  You are the always hungry Pac-Man and you have to eat all the pellets in the maze while avoiding the ghosts who are out to eat you.  You get four power pills per level that, for a limited time, make the ghosts vulnerable so you can eat them.  Every time you clear a maze, you get a new one and an extra life, and the ghosts speed up a little.  There's even still a bonus item, only a vitamin pill, which appears for a little while.

Atari was famous for the game variations that were included with many of the cartridges.  In this case, you can change the ghost speed from very slow to fast.  Pac-Man has a choice of two speeds, slow or fast.  In both cases, it is a subtle different at the beginning, but it seems to become greater the more levels you clear.  Additionally, you can use the "difficulty switches" on the back of the machine to determine how long the ghosts stay vulnerable after eating a power pill.

You can play the game by yourself or with a friend.  Just like the arcade, you take turns.

So far, it sounds pretty good, right?  So where's the problem?

Is it with the graphics?  Well, they are certainly less than the arcade, but in keeping with the graphics on other Atari 2600 games.  The pellets and maze look fine, although the smaller squares making the ghosts and Pac-Man leave a little to be desired.

How about the sound?  A few of the sounds are similar to the arcade version, and some of them aren't.  The "plink" sound that comes from eating a pellet is almost laughable.  Again, it's not great but it's not the main issues.

The controls then?  Absolutely not.  The joystick works fabulously and the game responses quickly, moving you in all four directions.  The button does nothing during the game, although you can use it to start the new game.

No, the problems come from things that could have easily been avoided.  I get the feeling that they rushed this game through without giving it any thought to how fans of the arcade game would react.  For starters, the maze is completely different.  Plus the tunnels are at the top and bottom, not the sides.  The box that the ghosts start in and regenerate from has its opening on the side and not the top.

While Pac-Man moves in all four directions and eats any pellet he touches, he only faces right or left.  And when he eats a ghost, he always stops for a second and faces to the right.

The ghosts aren't four different colors.  They are all one basic color.  And they get a little dimmer when you eat a power pill.  In fact, if it weren't for the music, it would be hard to tell when they go back to normal.

The entire game is pretty monochromatic.  As a kid, I thought it was because I was playing this on a black and white TV, but it hardly changed when I was finally able to upgrade to color.

You die when you come close to a ghost, meaning those last minute turns that work in the arcade don't work here.  On the plus side, you also eat a ghost if you get to close to him.

I would be willing to excuse this as weaknesses of the Atari 2600 platform itself, but when they released Ms. Pac-Man, they took the time to correct many of these issues, so it was just laziness.

Don't get me wrong, the game is still fun.  But Pac-Man is much less than it should have been.  I suggest skipping this one and tracking down the much better Ms. Pac-Man cartridge instead.

Video Game Review: Donkey Kong for Atari 2600

Stars: 3 out of 5

Pros: Two fun levels similar to the arcade game

Cons: Too simple to hold your attention for long

The Bottom Line:
A few fun moments

Missing too much from arcade

So just average




Help Mario Rescue His New Girlfriend from Donkey Kong

It's funny how characters evolve.  When we first met Mario and Donkey Kong, they were enemies, and Mario was trying to rescue a girl from the giant ape.  (Shades of King Kong anyone?)  In modern Nintendo games, the two characters seem to be friends and good guys.  But if you want to relive their first adventure, you can pull out Donkey Kong for the Atari 2600.

Back in the 80's, any popular arcade game made its way to the only video game system anyone had.  Okay, there were others, but almost everyone had the Atari 2600.  The Atari didn't have very good graphics and the sound was only okay.  But I still spent hours playing this system.

Now, there are variations on the story behind the characters in Donkey Kong.  When the game first came out, the main character was simply called "JumpingMan."  And I've heard that he is supposed to be rescuing his daughter.  But according to the booklet with this cartridge, his name is Mario and he is after his new girlfriend.  (I guess that part hasn't changed.  Even today, Mario is trying to rescue a girl.)

While there were several different levels in the arcade version, only two of them made it to the Atari version.  The first level is the classic everyone associates with this game.  In it, Mario has to run up ramps and climb ladders, all the time dodging barrels that Donkey Kong is throwing down on him.  Okay, so Donkey Kong and the girl never move.  Just use your imagination and memories from the arcade.  Mario can jump over the barrels fairly easily, the biggest challenge is making sure a barrel doesn't decide to come down the ladder you are climbing, but that's just a matter of timing.

The second level involves loosing rivets in a metal structure.  There are eight of them, two on each level.  All you have to do is run over them.  The challenge is to dodge the fireballs.  There is one on each level, and they don't climb on the ladders.  You can jump them, although they require just a bit more timing than the barrels in level one.  The fireballs can't move over an open rivet, and you have to jump over them yourself.  As soon as you release that last rivet, the game freezes and then you are back to level one with slightly faster barrels.

Like in the arcade version, there is a hammer that Mario can use to protect himself from the barrels and fireballs.  There's only one on each level.  It can be fun in the first level since you might hit two or three barrels, but it's pointless in level two.  You can only get one fireball since they don't climb ladders and you can't with the hammer.

You start the game with three lives; you never have the option of earning extra lives.  But that's okay because you just repeat these two levels endlessly.  You are playing for points, and the biggest point gain is for beating the level.  You have a bonus clock counting down from 5000.

There are no game variations and no two player mode.  Even the difficulty switches in the back don't do anything.  There is one way to play and one way only.

I already hinted that the graphics aren't the best, but that's not surprising if you are at all familiar with the Atari 2600.  Basically, even thing was done with blocks, so anything round has squarish edges.  You can tell what is happening, but it's so crude compared to what we have today.

Likewise, the sound is pretty poor.  You get one sound when Mario is walking and another when he jumps.  A little fanfare sounds when you complete a level.  Pretty much, that's it.

Since I hadn't played for a while, I wasn't sure how I'd do when I stuck this game in for a refresher.  I found it very easy.  I easily made it through three sets of both levels on my first game, only dying thanks to stupid mistakes on my part.  While I wouldn't swear I found this game that easy as a kid, I don't remember playing it for more than 10 minutes at a time - just enough to scratch the Donkey Kong itch.

Ultimately, that just makes this particular game average.  I realize that, given the limitations of the Atari 2600 system, this is probably the best they could do.  And I do have fun when I play it.  But I usually gravitate to some of the other games I have over this one when I sit down to play, and I have for years.  This isn't a classic version of the classic arcade game.

These days, there are better versions of this classic arcade game out there.  I'd recommend tracking down one of those and giving the Atari 2600 version of Donkey Kong a pass unless you really want this version.  It's amusing for a little while, but it's too simple and easy to hold anyone's interest for very long.

Video Game Review: The Empire Strikes Back for Atari 2600

Stars: 3 out of 5

Pros: Easy, addictive game play

Cons: Very dated; repetitive

The Bottom Line: 

Graphics are dated

Game play is repetitive

But the game's still fun

Defend Hoth from the Imperial Walkers in this Star Wars Game for the Atari 2600

Video Games based on popular movies are hardly anything new.  Just take this cartridge for the Atari 2600.  Originally released in 1982, it tied into one of the scenes from the beginning of the still popular Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.

The game is inspired by the first battle in the movie.  The Empire has found the rebel base on the ice planet Hoth, and they are sending the Imperial Walkers to destroy it.  Your job is to get in a Snowspeeder and destroy to Imperial Walkers.

You get five Snowspeeders.  The Imperial Walkers march from left to right five at a time trying to reach the rebel base.  You can fly in a continuous line; when you reach the right side, you'll pop up on the left hand side.  There is a radar band along the bottom to show you where you are in relation to the Walkers.

Each Walker takes 48 hits to be destroyed.  It starts out black and slowly changes blueish, pink, and red before finally turning yellow and being destroyed (or going from black and fading to grey if you are playing on a black and white TV like I did growing up.)  Occasionally, a gun port will open (represented by a flashing square on the Walker).  If you hit that, the Walker will be destroyed immediately.

Of course, the Walkers are shooting at you as well.  It takes about five hits for you to be destroyed.  You do change color as well, although the variations are harder to tell with you.  You can land in any of the valleys under the playing field and be repaired twice, and if you stay alive for two minutes, The Force is with you and you are invincible for two minutes.

One of my frustrations with the game was that there is no way to win.  As soon as you destroy one Imperial Walker, another enters stage left.  There are almost always five on at the same time.  But, the longer you live and the more you destroy, the faster they walk, meaning you have to destroy them even faster so they don't reach the base.

Since this was an Atari 2600 game, you have to have lots of game variations.  You can play the way I've described above, or you can make it harder by adding smart bombs (which follow you instead of going in a straight line) or solid Imperial Walkers that you can damage by hitting them, but they will also kill you.  (Believe me, that's a tough challenge when you are used to being able to fly through them.)  Or, for a real challenge, you can play with smart bombs and solid Walkers.  Each of these variations also has four levels of speed you can start with just in case things aren't challenging enough.

This game works for one player or two players taking alternative terms.  All sixteen game variations are available for two players.  The only difference is that when you die in one player mode, the Imperial Walkers start in the same level of hurt and the same location for your next life.  With two player, they start up again at full strength and at their first positions.

Now if you aren't familiar with the Atari 2600, this was the first popular home video game system.  It was released in the late 70's and popular in the 80's.  The graphics and sound are crude at best.  Everything is block shaped from your fighter to the Imperial Walkers and even the mountains and valleys in the background.  It's realistic enough that you do know what you are and what you are shooing at, but it is certainly laughable almost 30 years later.  The sound does fair better, mainly because it is simple.  Most of the time you get the sound of the Imperial Walkers' feet marching (helpful for knowing how fast they are moving) and the two of you firing at each other.  When The Force is with you, you do get the Star Wars theme, and it sounds rather tinny.  I remember thinking how cool this all looked and sounded when I played it as a kid, so it was impressive back then.

And the controls are very simple.  You've got one joystick, and you can move up down, right, and left.  The one button fires for you.  Pretty easy to remember, right?

Because of the continual game play, this was never a favorite game.  I always preferred those where I thought I was getting somewhere.  True, every game just kept getting harder until all your lives were lost, but I felt better dying on level 4 than on the same level one.

Having said that, I still do remember playing it for several hours at a time when I was in the mood.  It may not have been a favorite, but it was fun.  And I got hooked rather quickly when I pulled it out to refresh my memory to write this review.  It may be simple, but it can be very addicting.

The graphics and simple game play certainly age any game for the Atari 2600, and that's true of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.  But if you want a movie tie in with a flash of 80's gaming nostalgia, this will certainly satisfy.