Air Lock (Data Age)

Entry posted by DoctorSpuds September 21, 2018

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CRAP I did it again... I go to edit the review and then I accidentally put in draft. Oh well... now I just feel dumb

Airlock is one of those games that you forget exist, until one day you look at your shelf and you see it there, you think to yourself "how bad could it be?". You play it and then you remember... This is one of the stupidest, shallowest, and unnecessary games ever crapped out onto the 2600. Data Age really outdid themselves here, this has got to be, in my opinion, the worst game they ever made. Yes it's even worse than Warplock, this game has zero originality and zero replay value. Why do E.T. and Pac-Man get all the crap for the crash, this should be the face of the crash of '83 and '84, all the garbage shoved out by Data Age, and Mythicon gets swept under the rug while a handful of mediocre games get all the blame. So without further ado... let's tear into this stinker.

Graphics are standard to awful. The title screen and game over screens are nice, but that seems to be where all the creativity was funneled to, since the rest of the graphics are just bad. The little dude you control is a stick figure in it's purest form.. and those runaway torpedoes? well they are just the top half of the little dude you control. The screen is split up into multiple levels. All of the levels have the same layout, there is no variation in level design, and I just have to ask.. Why are the walls and floors purple? this is one of the few occasions where having the whole level be grey is completely acceptable... You are on a flooding submarine after all.

Sounds are just completely awful. The sonar pings on the title screen sound nothing like sonar, play Polaris if you want some good sonar. But the worst thin about the sounds are the walking sound effects. It's just a constant, chk-chk-chk-chk noise... It's murder on the ears, I would prefer silence. MUTE BUTTON PLEASE!!!

The gameplay, OH the gameplay. This has got to be one of the most disposable games I've ever played. You see those lines dangling from the ceiling, you have to run over to them and jump up to grab them. When you've grabbed both of the keys you run to the far side of the screen and ride up the elevator, and do the exact same thing on the second floor, and the third, and the fourth. Sometimes the torpedoes will move slightly faster on some floors, but it will do little to hinder your progress. Once you get past the first floor the game is basically over, because you've experienced all the game has to offer.

This game goes to the Collector's Zone, in fact I'm tempted to toss every game made by Data Age in there right now, but they're not all bad,some have redeeming qualities. This game though... well, it's bottom of the barrel garbage, I receive no enjoyment out of this game whatsoever. I deserves to rot in the Collector's Zone for all eternity.

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BassGuitari 4,081

Posted July 17, 2018

This is one of those games I know is basically bad but I nevertheless have kind of a soft spot for. Airlock found its way into my collection very, very early on when I started collecting Atari games. It was fun messing around with it and "discovering" it, along with the couple of other games I'd gotten that day. I didn't think it was a terrible game (although certainly not a great one, either), but was disappointed that there's literally only one level and one game mode, and that once you get the hang of it, the game can be finished in less than a minute.

This could have been a pretty okay game if there was only a little more to it.