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Blackjack, Odyssey^2, 1978

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Las Vegas Blackjack! Odyssey^2, 1978

 

Another system, another inevitable release of the game the crowds must've been howling for back in the 70s. Blackjack.

 

This time its official title is: Las Vegas Blackjack! (Hmm, what's up with the exclamation point? Seems the last cartridge had one for each title, too. Maybe part of a marketing decision? We'll see if they keep it up.)

 

I dragged my feet to play this title. I really didn't want to. I've never been able to enjoy a videogame of Blackjack before, why should this be any different?Well, maybe my attitude had just sucked, because today I actually played the game rather than just looked at the graphics and read the instructions.

 

blog-1571-1139262262_thumb.jpg

 

Okay, as graphics/presentation go . . . An odd addition to this version is the fact that it takes place over TWO screens. A blue screen (see below), for betting, and a green screen (see above) for the dealing of cards. Numbers, letters and either red or black colors for the suits are all we get for graphics (with the exception of the white rectangles for the cards.) Firmly placing this version behind the APF deck (1st place) and behind the Fairchild's (2nd place) for its curvy presentation of the table's edge. That would make it tied for third with the Atari. The RCA Studio II's Blackjack is currently ranked 7th, out of five. :twisted: Okay, I'm not saying I've been struck down by the gods of gambling and now actually look forward to the next videogame of Blackjack that I force myself to play, but I did enjoy playing it today. I think that I liked it because I found a bug!

 

Features in this Blackjack: You can buy insurance, if the dealer has an Ace showing. You can double your bet if you have a starting hand totaling 9 or 10. (which I found odd, shouldn't it be 10 or 11?). You play with a straight 52 card deck. I didn't notice at what point in the deck did the dealer reshuffle. Oh, I also noticed that if the dealer gets 5 cards without going over 21, it wins, regardless of your hand. If I remember correctly, I had 21 and the dealer only had 20, but had 5 cards. I hope I'm remembering that right.

 

The bug, though, is when you bet everything you have, take the opportunity to double your bet should it arise, and then lose. You're losing twice as much as you have, right? Well, here's what happened to me:

 

blog-1571-1139262712_thumb.jpg

 

Check out that score! This has something to do with allocated memory and what happens when you go below zero in a memory slot reserved for an unsigned integer. When you go below zero it wraps around to the highest possible number (or thereabouts) for that slot. But look at the size of that thing. I would never have guessed it to allow for numbers that high! I continued playing from there and, of course, warped it right back around to the other side of zero again after winning another hand. From there I managed to reach a high score of 72,000 and hit "reset" instead of "enter" on my next bet.

 

I must admit, I actually felt regret and disappointment when I accidentally hit reset, meaning, I must've been enjoying myself while I played the game. I'm just saying, so you know that I'm not afraid to admit I had a good time, even when I didn't think I would.

 

Okay, that's it for yet another Blackjack. Next time is Cosmic Conflict!

 

EDIT: Wait that's not IT! I forgot to mention. This Blackjack doesn't use either of the joystick controllers! It only uses the keyboard. This is the second game (Crypto-Logic was also keyboard exclusive) to do that. In Blackjack's case, it asks for your bet, which you input using the numbers on the keyboard. During the hand, it asks if you want a hit or if you want to double down to which you respond by hitting either the Yes or No button. I would have done it a little differently. To enter the bet, you have to hit the numbers and then hit enter. Enter is too close to the reset key as my mistake clearly indicates. I would have put an enter key (which would presumably get used a lot) a little further away from a button which reboots the whole frackin' machine.Okay, now I'm done. END EDIT

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supercat

There's nothing technically difficult about managing numbers that high, though I think to date this is the first game you've encountered which used a four-byte BCD number to hold scores. Not sure if any Atari 2600 games have EVER allowed scores that big; most of them will use six-digit scores but I don't think you've yet encountered any even that big.

 

Come to think it, has the Atari 2600 yet shown any scores, for any game, higher than Blackjack's limit of 999?

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Mezrabad

hmm, no. The only one that comes to mind is Breakout and I think that stays under 999. (I think the highest possible for that is in the 700s.)

 

I did forget to mention something else interesting about this Blackjack, though. Adding it now.

 

EDIT: Codebreaker used four digit numbers, which, presumably could go up to 9999, but that certainly isn't a score.

 

Dodge It on the Fairchild had a score which ran up the longer you played. I don't recall how high it could get. I'll have to take a look at it..

 

EDIT: Confirmed, the score is four digits, though my high score is only 0670 so I've yet to see if that fourth digit is even functional, heh.

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thegoldenband

My girlfriend and I busted out the O^2 for the first time in ages last night, and played this game (along with Smitheerens and a solo game of UFO). It's no Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack (we missed that shifty-eyed dealer!), but at least it moves along at a decent enough clip.

 

I may have to get her to play it again so I can blow her mind with the double down bug! I wonder if it works with insurance too?

 

Looking forward to your return to active blogging! Reading your entries really adds a lot to my experience of a game like LVB!, which hasn't had a lot of ink spilled about it...it makes gaming seem more like a communal/community experience, which is nice.

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Nelio
The RCA Studio II's Blackjack is currently ranked 7th, out of five.

 

HAHAHA

 

Cool game, although not much can be said about it, right? I with the game didn't have two separate screens. They could have used the green background to place bets as well. Artists... (LOL)

 

a button which reboots the whole frackin' machine

 

Funny that you said that - my wife and I have started watching the whole Battlestar Galactica series just recently! Yeah, what kind of geek am I that only now I'm watching it...

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Mezrabad
On 11/18/2012 at 6:33 PM, Nelio said:

I have started watching the whole Battlestar Galactica series just recently! Yeah, what kind of geek am I that only now I'm watching it...

 

There's no shame in getting to something late! Obviously, 8.5 years after you mentioned it, I'm getting back to you about it. BG was a good series and I think I'd enjoy it again.

 

On 8/11/2010 at 1:38 PM, thegoldenband said:

My girlfriend and I busted out the O^2 for the first time in ages last night, and played this game (along with Smitheerens and a solo game of UFO). It's no Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack (we missed that shifty-eyed dealer!), but at least it moves along at a decent enough clip.

 

I may have to get her to play it again so I can blow her mind with the double down bug! I wonder if it works with insurance too?

 

Looking forward to your return to active blogging! Reading your entries really adds a lot to my experience of a game like LVB!, which hasn't had a lot of ink spilled about it...it makes gaming seem more like a communal/community experience, which is nice.

 

Sooo many times I thought I'd be coming back, so I'm hesitant to say that I am. This time, at the very least, I'm going to fix all of the formatting on the entries.

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