Thunderball! (Odyssey^2, 1979)
Thunderball! is a video pinball game in the tradition of APF Pinball (1978) or Atari Video Pinball (1977). However, what served as flippers in those games was really just a barrier which you could turn on and off to prevent the ball from exiting the bottom (or sides) of the screen. In Thunderball! we are given what actually could pass for flippers and it goes a long way towards giving this attempt at pinball a much more authentic flavor.
I
Moving on to the cartridges available for the Fairchild VES in 1976.
Carts 1, 2 and 3. That's "it", I think.
I am not certain as to when these carts became available. They have a 1976 copyright on them so I'm assuming they came out that year. Since the Fairchild VES came out in August (according to Phoenix: The Fall and Rise of Videogames.) I'm going to have to say the following blogs take place during and between August 1976 and December 1976.
Videocart-1
I won't do this all of
Math-a-Magic! / Echo! Odyssey^2, 1978
Okay, this should be short and sweet.
Because of the Odyssey^2 keyboard, Math-a-Magic is fairly usable as far as Math edutainment goes, however, it really doesn't count as a game. Yes, there's a timer, so you can see how many problems you can do in a certain amount of time, and yes, a "music noise" is played every time you've answered 10 more problems correctly, but it's just not a game. You can pick from four operations (addition, su
Elementary Math / Speed Math / Bingo Math
Lettermatch / Spell n Score / Crosswords
Bally Professional Arcade, 1978
I can't honestly say anything about these titles other than that MESS, which does a great job of emulating the Fairchild Channel F, doesn't support the Bally Professional Arcade as well, at least in my experience.
I can't get my PSX controller to interact with MESS in the Bally emulation (like I can in the Channel F emulation) and the analog knob of
Videocart-3
NOTE: I hope I'm not risking the ruining of an illusion for some of you, but I'm not, actually, playing each of these games on the day that I write about them. In some cases, like for most of the Fairchild and RCA Studio II games coming up, I played them at the very beginning of the summer. So long ago, in fact, that I had even forgotten that I had taken notes after we had played them. I found the notes today and realized that in some instances they won't offer me much help. Here
Pinball, Dungeon Hunt, Blockout (APF MP1000, 1978)
Oh, how sad.
I'll start with my disappointment rather than with my surprise fun.
Dungeon Hunt is essentially Battleship! except without the stimulating use of a coordinate system.
The playfield is 70 tiles representing 70 places one can look in the "dungeon." Up to four players may each take a turn typing in the number under which they'd like to search. This action eliminates the number and e
US Ski Team Skiing (Intellivision, 1980)
Okay, prior to Skiing on the Intellivision we've thrice seen videogame versions of the real life, not-so-cheap thrill of strapping wood to one's feet and sliding down a mountain while standing up. The first came with the Magnavox Odyssey, called Ski, and I think I compared it to a lava lamp in its ability to provide a nice quiet Zen trance if you were open to relaxing and enjoying it.
The second version came bundled as a variation in an Atari VCS
Flag Capture, Atari VCS 1978 aka Capture
I dreaded replaying this game. I don't remember having a bad time with it as a kid, I just didn't thrill to the prospect of playing it again.
Two players on a 7 by 9 grid of squares. Hidden in one of the squares is a flag. Hidden in the 62 other squares are clues to help you find the flag or bombs to blow you back to where you started. So, if you don't blow yourself up and you don't find the flag, you're going to find an arrow clue
Tele-Games Electronic Games Motocross Sports Center IV (Atari, 1977)
I kinda "get it" now but back in the late 70s I had no clue what was going on between Atari and Sears. It seemed like Atari stuff in other department stores was labeled "Atari" but Sears was a parallel universe where every Atari item was called something else. Combat was called Tank Plus; Air-Sea Battle was called Target Fun. The Atari Video Computer System was called the Sears Video Arcade, etc.
Suspicions of conspirac
Red Baron / Panzer Attack, Bally Professional Arcade, 1978
Bally's machine continues to thwart me at every turn. I opened a sealed, slightly smooshed copy of Bally game #2003, Red Baron / Panzer Attack and upon inserting the cartridge into the machine and turning it on, I was greeted with no change in the default menu of the Bally. My "sealed" cart is unfunctioning, still-born out of its factory-provided protective film. Broken it is, and broken it shall remain, given my dearth of el
Tornado Baseball, Hockey, Handball, Tennis - Bally Pro Arcade, 1978
These must be popular sports. Let me just point something out here.
Magnavox Odyssey 1972
Baseball
Hockey
Handball
Tennis
Fairchild Channel F 1976
Tennis (built in)
Hockey (built in)
Baseball (1977)
RCA Studio II 1977
Baseball
Tennis / Squash (Handball by another name)
Atari VCS 1978
Home Run (Baseball)
Video Olympi
Y'know, I'm certain there's a way that I'm supposed to be listing the title of the game. I'm sure that, for my humble intentions at least, the way I'm doing it now is just fine and dandy for all those involved. I'm taking a technical writing course this session and I'm beginning to think that for everything that I've already written, there's a "better" more "appropriate" way of stating it. Of course, if I wrote these entries as "technical writings" then this would be less of a blog and more of a
Do you remember Biorhythms back in the 70s or early 80s?
I remember eating at a place called Ollie's in Clifton Heights, PA on Baltimore Pike. They had a Biorhythm machine. You put in your birthday and the day for which you wanted your Biorhythm reading. It would spit out a little card with graphs on it detailing how your life would be on that day. (It would also beep while doing so, for that "I'm computing" effect.)
Rubbish, of course, but it was fun with a group of other kids high on c
Okay, for those of you who didn't read my last entry (and who could blame you?) this blog is about pretending it isn't 2005. We're using our imaginations and pretending that it is 1973.
This isn't a historical blog. I won't bore you with relevant facts. I'm going to bore you with blow by blow descriptions of really old videogames. Before I do that, I'm going to bore you by talking about the Odyssey and how it may not have had anything to do with people loving video games nor was it ever mean
APF MP1000 circa 1978
In case you're wondering APF stands for Al & Phil Freedman, the two brothers who founded the company.
The most excellent page out there on the APF family of expandable consoles:http://www.tcp.com/~lgreenf/apfpage.htm (EDIT in 2021: This page is no longer there. I didn't search for a new one.) (Nelio found it, here it is: http://www.nausicaa.net/~lgreenf/apfpage.htm )
That's got pictures of the carts and the console, but, alas, n
Dick and Jane (above, on the box cover) still can't bring themselves to touch this infernal contraption.
They continue to sit there, unmoving, staring in disbelief at the atrocities that were committed in the name of Consumer Electronics.
This is no worse a game of Blackjack then that found on the Fairchild VES, except for the part where the black and white graphics make you appreciate the fact that the real world is polychromatic.
An interesting thing about this Blackjack, in the conte
Catena, APF, 1978
Something to notice about the menu screen:
This machine is considered to be a "TV Micro-Computer" by its makers. Well, yeah, all videogame consoles are, technically, "computers", just not what we usually call "computers" anymore, thanks to the great Computer/Console Distinction riots of the early 1980s. But I digress from the chronology . . .
First of all, lets just deal with the title. I originally confused it with the word cant
Las Vegas Roulette (Intellivision, 1980)
The first step to getting people to stop bothering your about your gambling problem is to admit that you have a gambling problem, even if you don't really believe you have one. This might get those well meaning, but annoying, dis-enablers off your back for a little while. This is actually a fairly useful step in most forms of addiction, but if you use it too often people will eventually realize you're just as full of excrement as you've ever been and
Playing Football on Odyssey, for me and my son, is worse than staring at a blank wall.
We're not into football. We don't watch football. We don't even own a football. (well, we have a Nerf™ somewhere.) Beyond our lack of interest, I honestly think that if two football fans played this back in 72/73 they would have tried it for 15 minutes and said "Screw this, let's go outside and throw a football around."
Football is more of a "football abstraction". It's as if the game is asking you to
Okay, not a chronogaming entry per se, but the gallery contains the promised pictures of the machines we saw at the awesome HAAG Expo from 8 weeks ago so that should be good for a look-see.
That's all for now.
EDIT: Oh, I noticed that linking to a Gallery in an entry puts pictures in the entry. Here's the link to the Game Shows gallery. (Just click on the HAAG 2007 link)
Gaming Expos HAAG 2007 Gallery
And if you like pretty lights and getting motion-sickness...
HAAG 2007 Fly-
Hangman/Tic-Tac-Toe/Doodle, APF, 1978
I'm sure you are all aware by now, that I consider an electronically conducted game of Hangman to be one of the most formative highlights of any child's upbringing. To see a child realize that the simple failure to correctly guess a random word could lead to a virtual yet grisly death . . . well, it's just amazing. I love to see their face light up as they begin to abuse their power. They'll start to punch in guesses like "Z" and "Q"
There's already a list of all the games that came out in 1978 in this entry here. Rather than rehash that list with the only change in it being the addition of smilies or frownies, I think the electrons would be better spent on picking out a few of the standout titles from 1978, by system, while giving each system a general rating.
APF MP1000 -- Not Nearly As Fun-Free as I Thought It Would Be
This system really seemed to have some potential, but it was wasted on unimaginative games. Still i
Hey! Where are Dick and Jane? Ah, I understand. They are -in- the moonships.
I have included an "as requested" screenshot with a special subliminal bonus of ME in my UNDERWEAR! (caught by my reflection on the TV) I'll expect a lot more female comments after this entry. *nudge-nudge**wink-wink*.
Moonship Battle uses the graphics you see above, in a special advanced shot of the screen. (who coined the phrase "screenshot" and when?) Players battle each other using "moonships" that look li
Lots of pictures, thought I'd make it its own entry.
Here are the participants that took, what, 6 months to play through?
They seem like such tiny piles . . .
Here we have the 1978 Atari VCS family with their enlightened 7800-only cousin from the future and the underused but kinda cool keyboard controllers. The Cuttle Cart 2, for those who don't know, is used to play games on Atari hardware for which I no longer have the original carts.
Brickdown / Shooting Gallery, APF, 1978 - only NOT
My copy of this cart wouldn't work. Grr. This is a lesson that reminds me I need to test these things as soon as I get them. The seller on ebay had said it worked. I'm thinking he made a mistake, like he did when he said that photocopies of the instructions were included. Grr.
If anyone can lend/rent me theirs, I'll pay shipping both ways, take really good care of it and have it back to you within a day or tw
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