AtariAge at 2005 Philly vgXpo

Strat-O-Gems is a new Atari 2600 game by John Payson, originally created for the 2005 Minigame Competition. In Strat-O-Gems, colored gems fall from the top of the screen in groups of three. Any time three or more adjacent gems of the same color line up vertically, horizontally, or diagonally they will disappear. Any gems above them will then fall down; if these create new groups of three or more gems, those too will disappear, leading to chain reactions. Your job is to score as many reactions and chain reactions as possible before the gems reach the foul line. If any gems remain over the foul line after all reactions are complete, the game will end.

Four-Play is a new Atari 2600 board game by Zach Matley, which will be familiar to those who have played the popular game Connect Four. In Four-Play, two players take turns dropping marbles into an upright board. The first player to get four of their marbles in a row horizontally, vertically, or diagonally wins. A one-player version with computer A.I. is planned.

The game is played by moving your marble left or right with the joystick, and then pushing down to drop the marble. Pressing Reset will clear the board and start a new game. We anticipate Four-Play will be available soon after the Philly vgXpo.

Reflex is a new game for the Atari 2600 by Lee Fastenau. It delivers breakout-style action for one or two players in three exciting modes of play! However, unlike other breakout-style games, you control two paddles that move around the playfield opposite each other. This new twist will certainly put your reflexes to the test!

Features include:

• One-player, competitive two-player, and cooperative two-player modes
• Over 20 unique level designs
• Level selection
• Joystick and driving controller support
• Difficulty switch support for increasing the challenge
• NTSC/PAL60/PAL50 support (separate SECAM version available)
• Convenient video mode selection during power-on

Atari 2600 programmer Andrew Davie (author of Qb for the Atari 2600 and 8-bit computers) has been hard at work developing a sophisticated graphics engine for the 2600, which he has been using as the basis for a Boulder Dash port to the 2600. Boulder Dash was a popular game on the Atari 8-bit computers created by First Star Software, who created several other notable titles on the 8-bit such as Astrochase, Flip and Flop, and Bristles. Boulder Dash found its way to many other platforms over the years (even an arcade game), but never to the Atari 2600 or any other Atari game consoles. In Boulder Dash you play the role of Rockford, who must collect diamonds in 16 dangerous caves, while avoiding falling boulders, dangerous butterflies, and other obstacles along the way. Once Rockford collects a minimum number of diamonds (different in each level), a gateway to the next level appears.

If you'd like to learn more about Andrew's Atari 2600 version of Boulder Dash (which he has been developing with the blessing of First Star Software), you can read this thread in our Homebrew Discussion Forum. Andrew has posted many movies and pictures from the game which should whet your appetite if you're a Boulder Dash fan.

Here's a movie that shows gameplay from every level in the game:

• Atari 2600 Boulder Dash Gameplay Movie

Man Goes Down - no it's not rude, just an accurate description of the gameplay. You see, you control this little guy, negotiating platforms that continuously scroll up the screen. Get pushed off the top or fall off the bottom and it's game over. There's fruit and other goodies to collect along the way to help you on your journey down. There are 12 different items to collect in all! While simple in premise, this homebrew will have you quickly addicted as you try progress further and further!

AtariAge sponsored a Man Goes Down Label Contest to design an original label to be used for the game. One of Nathan Strum's many submissions was selected as the winning entry! You can view all the wonderful contest submissions here.

Man Goes Down includes built-in support for Richard Hutchinson's AtariVox. Man Goes Down uses the AtariVox to play speech during the game, to store the top five scores (with the players' initials!) and even remembers the preferred TV mode (NTSC/PAL/PAL60). You can listen to following audio samples from the AtariVox:

• Man Goes Down Title
• In Game Speech