Okie Dokie - Atari 2600

This game is challenging and unique, a must have if your a serious game collector.

If you like puzzles and you own a 26007800, then you need okiedokie. I don\'t know of a better puzzle game for the platform... WARNING, may cause hair loss... it is that challenging.

I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Colbert in person this year, and getting to know such a class-A individual only made me want a copy of his game even MORE than I had before. Unfortunately, in the rare cases when one of the limited run first 100 come up on eBay, they tend to fetch extrordinary prices -- the last one I saw went for over $150! That\'s why when I saw AtariAge had this game for sale I was not only stunned by how nice the new label looked but by the low price this classic puzzle game could be had for. It\'s simple really - if you\'re a fan of brain games like "Lights Out" and "Boxxle" you\'re going to love Okie Dokie. It\'s not fast paced or flashy, but it\'s as solid as they come. Don\'t miss your chance to get this classic homebrew game at an exceptionally affordable price. Bye bye eBay! :)

Okie Dokie is a deceptively simple puzzle game, where you have to make all of the symbols in a pattern disappear. You move a cursor around the screen, and when you press the fire button, the symbol your cursor is under and four adjacent symbols will "flip" their current state - visible ones will disappear, and invisible ones will reappear. By carefully planning out which symbols you flip on and off, you can eventually clear off all of the symbols. There are 30 pre-set patterns, and an option that chooses from over four-hundred patterns at random.Even as one of the first 2600 homebrews, Okie Dokie is a solid game with excellent gameplay and good graphics. Sound is minimal, but adequate. A few minor quibbles: you can\'t start a new game with the fire button; whenever you press Select, it resets back to the first puzzle instead of letting you pick up at the most recent puzzle you were at; there\'s no indication of the minimum number of moves a puzzle requires to solve; the manual neglects to mention that the PAL/NTSC mode is toggled with the left difficulty switch (causing the screen to roll on "B/Novice"); and the "You Win" screen is blinding. Still, the game itself is what matters, and Okie Dokie delivers for puzzle enthusiasts. It can become maddeningly addictive at times, as you get oh-so-close to solving a puzzle, only to get stuck and have to backtrack to figure out where you went wrong. And while not relevant to this review, Okie Dokie also features the longest Easter Egg message I\'ve ever seen.

Not for me. And I love puzzle games. But I have never been a fan of "Lights Out" style games.

For me, this game is extremely hard and in several years of owning it, I have only successfully completed about 3 of the puzzles. More often than not, I find myself with a small number of icons to eliminate and no viable way of doing so. This demands a lot of backtracking and ultimately leads to a point of "oh why should I bother." The end result is the game going back on the shelf and not coming out for a long time.

That said, the game is masterfully produced and looks great. I am going to assume the real fault of this game lies with the player (me) and not with it (the game).

If you like puzzle games, particularly "Lights Out" style games, and are not easily frustrated, then give Okie Dokie a try. Otherwise, go elsewhere.