Encyclopedia Atari

[Encyclopedia Atari]

I'd like to see a hard-copy book that thoroughly documents the Atari 2600 phenomenon. Among other things it would contain:

 

- screenshots of hundreds of the most common games

- complete reprints of all the Atari Age magazines

- reprints of some of the game catalogs

- Activision and Imagic info

- a complete list of all games made for the system

 

I can dream...

[Too lazy to change controllers?]

Did anyone else ever experience the phenomenon of "controller laziness"? What happens is you end up playing only joystick games because you're too lazy to switch to paddles (or some other controller). I remember as a kid I'd go weeks without playing any of the paddle games for this reason.

 

If you only have a handful of paddle games, it doesn't seem worth it to switch controllers when you know you're going to want to switch back to the joystick in a matter of minutes.

[Overrated and Underrated Atari Games]

There sure is a lot of variety in the opinions in this thread. I guess favorite games is a very personal thing. I, for one, found Night Driver to be perhaps the most boring game of them all. I don't think I ever played it again after the first couple of weeks or so. But I could play Adventure until the cows (or dragons) came home.

[Cheating at Video Chess]

Just wondering if anyone else's video chess games went the way most of mine did. When the computer took my Queen early in the game I'd get ticked off and give myself 10 Queens. I'd then polish off that rotten computer rapidly. Not a very satisfying way to win but it did vent my frustration.

[Your greatest game-playing triumphs and worst defeats]

...My greatest triumph was coming back from being down 11-1 and winning a game of Combat (tank battle) in front of 20 or so people at a party.

 

My most humiliating defeat was when my fancy new Wico joystick was outperformed by my friend and his ordinary joystick in a game of Decathlon.

[How did Atari ever let Swordquest get out the door?]

...I mean, I understand with Pac Man they were rushing to get the game out and make loads of cash. But Swordquest had no such deadline to meet. Why didn't somebody at atari look at it and say "this is crap, don't release it?"

 

I consider Swordquest the worst 2600 cartridge ever sold. And I'm including Froggo products.

[I've been playing Home Run]

I've long been a proponent of Home Run on these boards. It's the only video baseball game that gives me the feeling that I can direct the ball with the bat. I like the pitching, too.

[Which game is the "Joystick-Killer " #1 ?]

Decathlon, hands down. It seems to have been created to destroy joysticks.

 

Side note: Once I was showing off my new Wico joystick to my friends. Imagine my shame as they kicked my butt in Decathlon using ordinary joyticks. The regular Atari joystick was far superior to the Wico stick for Decathlon purposes (although less durable).

[Overrated and Underrated Atari Games]

Name some games that you personally think are overrated and underrated.

 

Here are my choices:

 

Overrated: Pitfall. It's good, maybe even very good. But it's not a top-10 game.

 

Underrated: Home Run. It's fun in spite of itself.

[Summarize an Atari game in 10 words or less]

For example, Asteroids could be:

 

"shooting fragmenting rocks and fighting space ships in zero gravity".

 

And we want real descriptions of the game (i.e. "it sucks" won't work).

 

Would someone care to summarize Sky Diver, Slot Racers, Adventure, etc.?

 

I see this as a way to quickly learn what a LOT of Atari games are like without having to read the manuals.

[Let's talk COMBAT]

I've heard there's a 2 player version of Combat in the works.

 

oops - I mean a one player version...

[Let's talk COMBAT]

I've heard there's a 2 player version of Combat in the works.

[Let's talk COMBAT]

...It's the game EVERYBODY has and that until recently we all took for granted.

 

I'd like to hear some COMBAT stories of great battles with relatives and friends, and COMBAT strategies for victory - particularly the tank battle variations.

 

COMBAT ROCKS!

[How many games did you have before you started "collect]

...My guess is that most people on these boards (not all) got their games as follows: As a child or adolescent, you received most of your games as gifts and perhaps bought a few with your own money. Then a long period elapsed when you no longer played atari, or at least no longer were getting more games. Then in later years you started collecting.

 

My question is, how many games did you have at the end of your "childhood" phase? For me the answer is 45. I'm wondering what the average will be.

[Why is the chess board in Video Chess distorted?]

...why is the board stretched vertically? And why are the pieces constructed of little dashes instead of having each piece be a solid sprite?

[Renting videogames in the 80s]

Did anyone else find places back in the early to mid-80s that rented videogames? I used to go to this small electronics store to rent games - for $10 you got two weeks. I remember renting Ms. Pac Man, Mouse Trap, Dolphin, Spider Fighter and Realsports Baseball. Only problem was you never got the instructions. So I never knew that in Dolphin the seagull gave you the power to knock out the squid, and I could never figure out Realsports Baseball at all.

 

Mouse Trap was my fave of that bunch, and a couple of months ago I picked it up off e-bay. Pretty primitive yet somehow addictive to play for score.

[Yar's Revenge Victory Dance]

I prefer to zigzag downward.

[Donkey Kong]

Pac Man remains the mother of all disappointments.

[Yar's Revenge Victory Dance]

...you know that when you blow up the Quotile you do a victory dance with the Yar on screen. How does your Yar dance?

[What was the first "platform" game?]

By a platform game, I mean a game in which your character climbs ladders from platform to platform, such as in the original Donkey Kong or Pitfall.

 

There used to be a game called "Apple Panic" for home computers (I assume apple). Perhaps it pre-dated Donkey Kong and Pitfall?

 

I believe Donkey Kong came out prior to Pitfall, did it not?

[help destroy sinistar]

Sinistar is unique because the namesake villain is actually faster than your ship. That means when he's on your tail, you either blow him up with sinibombs or get consumed right there - there's no escaping like in most other videogames.

 

I've always had one complaint about Sinistar. The scream he emits when he eats you is the same one he emits when you destroy him. I wish the scream when he's destroyed sounded different so I could feel more triumphant hearing it (Sinistar creates a huge desire to kick his butt).

 

Who's the psychopath that recorded that voice? "Be-ware! I live"...

[Which games had the biggest impact on Atari 2600 history?]

Adventure is my all-time favorite Atari game, but I don't think it had a big impact on the fortunes of the VCS/2600. People didn't buy a VCS to play Adventure the way they did to play Space Invaders.

 

In fact, I've always been frustrated that there weren't more games like Adventure made afterwards, even up to this day. Even fabulous modern-day games like Legend of Zelda don't give me the feeling that Adventure did - that Rhindle is out there, somewhere, waiting for me...

[Which games had the biggest impact on Atari 2600 history?]

I know at least 3 games that had huge impacts on atari history:

 

Space Invaders - "launched" the system into stratospheric sales.

Pac Man - disillusioned a generation of videogame fans.

E.T. - disgusted a large number of young fans.

 

I think Space Invaders might actually be the all-time biggest "impact" game in atari history, followed by Pac Man. One had positive impact, the other, well, we know how that ended up...

 

MM

[Favorite Atari 2600 Game]

One Word: Adventure

 

I second that - Adventure is king.

[Who can make the longest Atari chain?]

Next challenge:

 

To create an "Atari Square" by connecting four games as follows:

 

Space Invaders to Missile Command

Missile Command to Warlords

Warlords to Yar's Revenge

Yar's Revenge back to Space Invaders

 

The four games named above can only be used once each in this Square chain. That is to say, you can't go from Missile Command back to Space invaders then to Warlords - you have to go directly to Warlords from Missile command without stopping at Space Invaders (or Yar's Revenge for that matter).