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XybotsPosted on Mon, February 11 2008, by Darryl Brundage |  |
 | You know, this is one of Ed Logg's games, so I'm more than a bit biased towards it. (You know Ed. He's the guy who created Asteroids, Centipede, Millipede, Gauntlet and countless other Atari classics.) But let's see if Darryl is biased too. The genre of the first person shooter goes back a lot longer than most people might think. Many will associate it's popularity being elevated as to when one of my all time favorites of the genre, Doom was released, but of course Castle Wolfenstein came out earlier than that, Doom just took it to a whole new level and made it a very popular game genre then. However, there was also MIDI Maze, and even before then some have surmised that o... [Read More] Make the first comment! |
Wizard of WorPosted on Mon, February 04 2008, by Horrible Robot Steve |  |
 | In the realm of excellent arcade to 2600 conversions the games usually mentioned are Tapper, Defender II, Road Runner, Frogger for Supercharger, Ms. Pac-Man, or Track & Field. Some feel that Wizard of Wor also needs inclusion in this short list. Let me just preface this by saying that I'm very surprised no one else has yet reviewed this game. I can't think of another game from back in "the day" that I played, or enjoyed, more, than Wizard of Wor. Granted, until I was 12, I thought the word "war" was spelled with an O, but that's all by-the-by. Wizard of Wor is a game where you control a tiny little man(s) with some sort of plasma rifle, proton pack, or what have you. The goal, accord... [Read More] Make the first comment! |
BlasteroidsPosted on Mon, January 28 2008, by Darryl Brundage | |
 | Take Asteroids, Asteroids Deluxe, Space Duel, the Tempest spinner, and modern technology and game tastes and what do you get? The first raster based arcade Asteroids clone! Or should I say sequel? Even though video games are still considered a fairly "new" industry (not even 40 years old yet, at the time of this writing), it's amazing the severe ups and downs have occurred in so short a time. I don't know how well the arcade industry was doing in general during it's first few years once Pong came out, jump-starting it then, but I DO know it became a big force to be reckoned with once Space Invaders was released, instantly dominating t... [Read More] 1 Comment |
Ocean DepthsPosted on Mon, January 21 2008, by JagChris |  |
 | Coincidentally, there's a Nintendo Wii game that just came out about the serenity of the ocean... But I bet that disc didn't come with two other game/demos! Here's another look at the Jaguar homebrew about the deep ocean. Before actually seeing this title in action for myself, my impression, for reasons I can't explain was that it was an animated 'Aquarium' show. Much like you see in the recent PC screensavers these days. Well I was warned right before I bought it that that wasn't the case. And it of course proved true. Ocean Depths is a slideshow of still Oceanic images, mostly centering around Dolphins. The only part of it that's animated is the opening intro s... [Read More] 1 Comment |
Past PixelsPosted on Mon, January 14 2008, by Jess LaFleur |  |
 | Young punks getting you down with their lack of respect for the history of video games? You're not the only one. Check out Jess's pixel graphics smackdown. As far as history suggests, succeeding the sprite was not the three dimensional "voxel" sprite, but the now dominant polygon. While it had been fairly obvious even in the late 1980s that the polygon would eventually arrive for the home user, Atari, Sega, and perhaps even Sony didn't seem to be so sure judging on the broadly advertised specifications in regards to their sprite generation capabilities of t... [Read More] 3 Comments |
Peter PackratPosted on Mon, January 07 2008, by Darryl Brundage | |
 | Looking around my office here, it looks like Peter Packrat lives with me. But truth be told, I barely even remembered this lost Atari game. Must be that Darryl is a packrat too! Even though Atari created (or just marketed) many unique games, and Packrat (what I'm going to call it from now on) was no exception, it has since become unique due to being obscure and not exactly the biggest of hits. Heck, I could be mistaken, but this one wasn't even ported anywhere that I know of, maybe not even to the always popular PC platform. Granted, rats don't exactly have the best public relations platform out there, due to being looked ... [Read More] Make the first comment! |
DragonstomperPosted on Tue, January 01 2008, by Darryl Brundage | |
 | We're back baby! As promised, TAT will now resume posting new articles. (Hey, we needed to recharge the coffers!) Darryl is back to give a more fleshed out review of a classic Supercharger game that many know and love, Dragonstomper. Which is one of the few actual RPGs on the 2600! Here’s a bit of a different one from myself: a rare double review (meaning that a Dragonstomper review has already been done). I really didn’t feel that Lee and Lori Krueger got into the gameplay enough (although I don’t mean for this to sound like I’m ragging on them though, at least they did a review of it!), so I figured I’d elaborate a bit more on it (/go on for too long, although I’ll *try* to keep it brief.) ... [Read More] 2 Comments |
MoonsweeperPosted on Wed, October 03 2007, by Rob Adair | |
 | Time for more outer space action! Although a large part of this game is on planets... Hey, if you can't find a copy of Solaris, give Moonsweeper a shot! OK, bad puns aside, Moonsweeper is actually a very interesting game for the Atari 2600. It seems like standard shooter fare from Imagic, but it's actually two different gameplay styles in one. Your mission is to rescue stranded miners off the many moons of Jupiter- (Apparently in the future, adding roots to existing planet names is how they distinguish them!) You start out in space, dodging solar flares and enemy attacks, while trying to find a moon to land ... [Read More] Make the first comment! |
Montezuma's RevengePosted on Mon, September 24 2007, by Rob Adair | |
 | If adventure has a name, it must be called Indiana Jo... Oh I mean, "Panama" Joe! Meet the original Tomb Raider in one of Parker Brothers few original games for the 2600! Ask someone about a video game involving archeology, and odds are they'll refer you to Lara Croft, the now-famous Tomb Raider of all time. A beautiful woman who does amazing stunts without a double, explores various ancient ruins in hopes of finding treasures, and proves that women are as capable of exploring these types of places as men are. But flash back to the 1980s, and if you were to ask someone about that, you'd probably be told about Montezuma's Revenge. And thankfully, ... [Read More] 3 Comments |
Air RaidersPosted on Mon, September 10 2007, by Rob Adair | |
 | Looking back on the venerable Atari 2600, do you really think that a pseudo flight simulator is a game you'd enjoy? Ok, it's less of a flight sim and more of a "shoot 'em up" but it's a nice one. Check it out! When you think of a flight combat simulator game, one of the last places you'd think to look is on the Atari 2600. Many would say that doing something like that would be next to impossible. But like they say, nothing is truly impossible. In fact, there was a high-quality game released called Tomcat: The F-14 Fighter Simulator, released during the last few days of the Atari 2600. The game was high quality, but also very complicated in that you had to use ev... [Read More] 1 Comment |