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Battlezone (Atari)

DoctorSpuds

Entry posted by DoctorSpuds ·

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Battlezone is one of my absolute favorite arcade games, and as we all know when it comes to the 2600 arcade conversions can be rather hit or miss. Battlezone 2600, fortunately, hits it outta the park, it is seriously an amazing conversion. The graphics on display are, at least in my opinion, better than the arcade’s sparse vector lines, it just so full of color and detail that it’s a treat to the eyes. I think Atari borrowed from Activision a bit though since that sunset seems a little bit familiar. Everything from the tanks to the landscape, and even the sprite scaling are done superbly. The game is so complex that it will even shows enemy shots whizzing past you in a convincing display of 3D. The movement has been altered from the arcade, which had the twin sticks that independently controlled either tread, to both treads being controlled by a single stick, it works fine but it lacks that fluid sense of control from the arcade. The sounds are rather sparse with only the sounds of your engine and gun accompanying you for most of the game. When you start you’ll hear a very brief excerpt from the 1812 Overture and when you get hit the screen will scramble and fill with the sound of static, which is also an amazing graphical effect. The difficulty scales pretty well though I feel around the 30,000 mark the enemies are a bit too quick on the draw while you cannot move fast enough to avoid their shots effectively. This is a very common cartridge thankfully so loose copies will only cost you about $10 while boxed copies are currently being sold for 10-20 dollars which if you ask me is pretty cheap. This is one of the few games that I would tell you to go get CIB it is most definitely worth it.

 

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Nathan Strum

Battlezone is my all-time favorite arcade game. It's firmly been at the top of the list since I first played it in 1980. Probably in part because it was the only arcade game I got good at. (Out of curiosity - do you recall your high score?)

 

I'll admit to being disappointed in the 2600 version at the time it came out, because although technically impressive, I wanted something that played exactly like the arcade game. I wanted the barriers, one enemy at a time, less-blobby looking tanks, etc. Also, I thought Activision's Robot Tank was more interesting, because of the changing weather and time of day.

 

Over time though, I've come to like 2600 Battlezone. It still pales next to the original, but taken as it's own game it's really good. And besides, now I have MAME when I need an arcade Battlezone fix. :D

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DoctorSpuds

(Out of curiosity - do you recall your high score?)

 

Sadly I don't, it's been a very long time since I've had the privilege of playing on the actual arcade machine. From what I recall I could make it to the flying enemies fairly easily.

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