The Last of 1978 . . . again.
Entry posted by Mezrabad
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Okay, we've been here before.
Last time we were in 1978 was back in October of 2005 or so and I'd finished doing all the APF carts I had. I ended with Brickdown/Shooting Gallery. At the time my copy didn't work. Now it does.
Brickdown/Shooting Gallery (APF M1000, 1978)
Brickdown is a sideways version of Breakout. If I recall correctly, it's similar to the version The Woz did for the Apple II in terms of sideways.
The game play is fine, except for some anomalies. I don't know if they were intentional or not.
First anomaly: When the ball is returning from the bricks it will sometimes take out multiple bricks, wiping them out as if they weren't there.
(dead link of gameplay movie removed)
Second anomaly: Sometimes your paddle hits the ball, even if it doesn't touch it.
Third anomaly: Sometimes your paddle misses the ball, even if it has touched it.
Fourth anomaly: There's no field refresh after clearing the field. You could have 6 balls left and have downed all the bricks and the only thing left to do is use up your remaining balls and end the game. No more points to score, nothing to do really. It's creepy.
You can choose a field 8 bricks deep or 12 bricks deep and play either on fast or slow. That's it.
Not a bad game but I'm not crazy about using a squeaky joystick to play it. I'm a firm believer in paddling. (Especially if my partner is willing, but let's leave my personal life out of this.) Atari's version of Breakout is pretty superior to all the versions we've seen, including the Bally's though that also has a nice paddle control scheme.
Shooting Gallery is similar to the Shoot games from the UFO cart. Except that there is a section for each shooter. The target changes color, size and speed, like the previous Shoot game, after a successful hit. It doesn't suck in that the targets move smoothly and the graphics are clear, there just isn't a lot here to enjoy. You try to hit the target as many times with the amount of ammo you're given (three levels) and that's that.
(another dead link to a movie)
I'll get the pictures posted and write a summing up entry for the APF.
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