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Alright so I have another non-game for you all today. I’ve run into this game way too many times while skimming through my collection of ROM files it’s starting to get silly. As far as I can tell AstroWar was only ever released in Europe, and it never actually found its way over to the U.S. or even South America (Citation Needed). I would classify AstroWar as a non-game, but it’s just on the bleeding edge so it could go either way. In the simplest terms AstroWar is Astroblast on its side, except even more basic, if that was even possible. You just move your little ship around the left half of the screen and shoot objects that move towards you. There are two types of object, one is a basic asteroid (I think) that will kill you when touched but will otherwise do nothing. The second type of object will kill you when touched but will also kill you if it reaches the far side of the screen incentivizing you to destroy them as soon as possible. The graphics are incredibly bland; you shoot the same four things over and over again until you eventually keel over from either sensory deprivation or death. The sounds are almost good, the shooting sound very nice to listen to unfortunately the explosion noise is not quite as nice, it’s just a short *CHK*. Whenever the second object type is on screen you’ll hear a high pitched tone slowly or quickly depending on the objects speed lower in pitch, if there are two then the tones will play intermittently which is actually a cool effect. Now the game does ramp up in difficulty, unlike with walker, but despite that you still won’t have much trouble playing for extended periods of time. All that happens is the background changes color and the objects start to move faster, but apart from a second object moving way faster than could one could react to you’ll be able to play forever. I got bored and shut the game off at around 15,000 points with nine extra lives. I don’t know which European company actually programmed this game, it could have been SpaceVision or Fantastic Game/ Marpes, there was a Taiwan Cooper version as well. Even though this game is Europe exclusive it doesn’t mean there isn’t an NTSC version floating around out there, as far as I know Meteor Smasher from SnailSoft is the only NTSC version of this game out there, but it exists so that’s good enough for me. If you’re interested in playing Astrowar then you’re going to have to import one from Europe, and it isn’t going to be cheap, around 55 Euro for a loose copy. If you actually want to play it on an NTSC system and TV then your best bet is to just get an UNO cart or a Harmony cart and get the Snailsoft ROM. I would recommend that you stay away from this particular game. It’s Collector’s Zone for this bad boy, and considering the price needed to play it, it seemed a foregone conclusion from the beginning. Super Secret Message: Hello, what are you doing highlighting my stuff? are you planning on copy pasting it somewhere? ; ) Attached thumbnail(s) http://atariage.com/forums/blog/729/entry-15703-astrowar-spacevisiontaiwan-cooper/

The Friday tradition continues! http://atariage.com/forums/blog/3/entry-15705-mipha-unboxing-legend-of-zelda-amiibo-breath-of-the-wild/

Recent announcements from the Bubster... Attached thumbnail(s) http://atariage.com/forums/blog/234/entry-15701-cruisin-twitter-physical-release-announcement-april-2019/

My stupid computer has developed a habit of resetting itself when I'm trying to work on something. Last night, I was testing the game on MESS when it decided to restart itself. Luckily, I had the game saved, so I didn't have to redo anything, but I fear the day will come when I'm working feverishly and it decides to do that right in the middle of programming this game. I added the power meter, the guy positions himself at the ball when it stops moving, and, new for today, added a little song to play when the ball goes in the hole. Ideally, when the song is done playing it will go on to the next hole, but I haven't gotten that far yet. I still need to add water collision, the ball can go in the water and nothing happens. Not sure what to do when the ball goes in the water. Is it a one-stroke penalty and I place the ball on the water's edge? How come there's no water in the Atari/Odyssey 2 versions? Programming this game turned out to be easier than I thought it would be. Although in the end, I think it will need to be 4k. I've only got one hole almost done and I almost filled up 2k! I hope that all I'd need to do is design more holes and put them in once I get the game's "engine" finished. I need to add water collision and I also need to make it check to see if the ball has gone off the screen. For that, I plan to just have the ball stop no matter how much power is left on the meter. Yes, I know I said I'd take a vacation from this game, but like i said, it seems to be easier than I anticipated. I was asleep all night, a first for me. I'm trying to turn my life around so I'm awake during the day and asleep at night like a normal person. So in case you're wondering how, yes, I slept a ton yesterday. And I'm still sleepy. http://atariage.com/forums/blog/168/entry-15700-golf-version-6/

I need to show this system more love! http://atariage.com/forums/blog/3/entry-15699-genesis-does-virtua-racing/

Man... I sure hope I can come up with enough puns for the rest of the WRC season. Anyway, Tour De Corse (Rally Corsica) was last weekend, and the unpredictability of the World Rally Championship continued! This week's fastest driver was... Elfyn Evans?! Yep! The Ford M-Sport driver was dominant most of the weekend. Even though he lost the lead in the final Saturday stage, he roared right back on Sunday and took an 11 second lead from Thierry Neuville heading into the final power stage. And then got a puncture. Even the commentators were heartbroken. Everyone was hoping Evans would be able to take home the win, but in the end he fell to third. That handed the race to Neuville, who had done just enough all weekend to stay in the mix. And second? Sebastien Ogier, who struggled with his Citroën all weekend long, and looked absolutely wrung-out at the end of every stage. But that's why he's World Champion - he finds a way to get the points he needs. After battling Evans, Ott Tänak was knocked out by a puncture and ended up in sixth for the weekend. So where are we now? Okay - Neuville is now in the driver's championship lead, by just two points over Ogier. Tänak is only a further three points back in third. All three frontrunners are separated by one win in a power stage. Unreal. In the manufacturer's race, Hyundai's driver switcheroo accomplished what they wanted, and vaulted them into the top spot. Citroën is in second, with Toyota just behind. Here are part 1 and part 2 of the official recaps, and video highlights are available to watch here. Up next - back to this side of the pond in three weeks, with Rally Argentina! As an aside, although I've never bought one of the WRC video games yet (due to generally terrible reviews), WRC 8 is looking really good... http://atariage.com/forums/blog/118/entry-15695-on-corse-for-the-win/

Just thought that I would mention that my Youtube channel cessnaace is again active. Ok, so I've just uploaded one new video. I'm currently limited to the use of my Smart Phone, but it's a start. Thanks to all who have commented to my video so far. Oh, most of the old videos are still up, but I received a Copyright Strike some time back and so that video was deleted. I took the extra step of deleting all videos that had been flagged as being potential Copy Right offenders. There are still alot of videos still up though, and as I mentioned I'm back to making new ones. In this first new video I mention Atari Age and High Score, and my involvement with each. http://atariage.com/forums/blog/760/entry-15698-my-youtube-channel-is-active-again/

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Okay, no review today. I just have one request of all of you. Play Dino Run, please... Okay... goodbye http://atariage.com/forums/blog/729/entry-15697-running-running-running/

You're probably thinking, "Hey, what happened to version 2?" Well, I had some more extra time so I thought I'd put a score in. In version 2, I added a stream, the hole (which unfortunately has to be red), and hitting the ball. I thought I'd make another version of Golf after thinking about how I would go about doing this. So it will not be like the Atari 2600 and Odyssey 2 versions after all, but a new approach (no pun intended). What you do now is line up the club to the ball and press fire. Once fire is released, the ball will start moving, the shots taken counter will increase, and the guy is frozen while the ball is moving. When the ball stops moving, the guy will automatically be near the ball. In this version though, all you can do is watch the ball as it moves, it doesn't stop once you hit it. I am thinking that if you approach the ball from the right moving left, that will make the ball move left, approaching from the left moving right will hit the ball right, and so on. Sorry about the tiny ball and hole. I had to do it that way. A few more hours of coding this game was spent. Most of which was making sure the ball got hit only at the specified place and making the shot counter move up. The one digit number is the hole #. I decided to only have 9 holes in this game because I'm not a golf course designer. I guess you have to go to a special school to be able to design golf courses. I don't know. I also made it so the guy can't cross the stream. So the only way to get past it is to hit the ball past it. But now, a short few days' break because I got tired of this. Attached thumbnail(s) http://atariage.com/forums/blog/168/entry-15696-golf-version-3/

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Just me fooling around with Channel F programming. I wanted to make a game and thought "What can I make a game about that primarily uses the colors blue, red, green, and white?" Then it occurred to me: Golf. This is the result of a couple of hours: The guy can move anywhere on screen, but he can't hit the ball. I don't know if I can continue work on this or not. But I'll try. I tried to make an all-brand new file, but it wouldn't work, so I ended up changing another file that was working to this. If I can't make the hole black, I'll just make it red. Like the guy. This is going to be like the Atari 2600 version or Odyssey 2 version of Golf, only I want to have a complete 18-hole course instead of just 9. I'm going to put in water hazards. I don't think a red sandtrap would work seeing as how the guy (and possibly the hole) are red, so sandtraps are out. My SD card I had been using for a while now finally died. It's sad. And I completed issue 27 of the Celery comic book. You can read it online. I'm about to go to sleep soon. It's almost 7 a.m. Time for bed. Attached thumbnail(s) http://atariage.com/forums/blog/168/entry-15693-golf-on-the-channel-f/

What the hell is this!?! This game causes me great distress. This will not be a full review; it will just be me reacting to what has been put before me. Walker by Suntek is one of the weirdest and most nonsensical things I’ve ever had the displeasure of laying my eyes on. This is an incredibly basic platforming game where you are an extremely tall clown that jumps over Bobbies, British slang for police, while meandering through some of the strangest scenery I’ve ever seen. Screen one: This screen is fairly standard. You’re in a city, you can see several lanes of traffic going past, and beyond that is a strangely yellow metropolis on the bank of a river. The detail is nice and there is plenty of movement on the screen, there’s even a little yellow biplane flying around at the top of the screen. This would be a nice screen if your creepy clown demon wasn’t on it though. Screen two: This is where things take a turn for the worse. You are now somewhere in the Midwest United States, the grass is pink, the trees are blue and the native giraffe are frolicking through the purple meadows. I’ll admit that despite some of the inclusions being downright bizarre the overall layout is quite nice, there are several houses in the distance and the sun setting behind a scenic mountain range is very well done. I’m sure they’re supposed to be cows but those running creatures look extremely like short necked giraffes, but at least the gees at the top of the screen are done well. You’ll encounter your first obstacle on this screen, a single stationary Bobby, you simply jump over him, and it seems the programmers took a page from Lady in Wading specifically the one pertaining to jumping. Screen three: Thank goodness, we’re back to normalcy. You are now walking along the coastline; there are islands, sailboats, and whales in the distance. This is another well done screen; I especially like the hot-air balloon. There’s nothing much to say apart from the appearance of another stationary Bobby. Screen four: Oh god we’re back in the purple meadows. The grass is pink, the threes are distressing shades or red and blue and giant scorpions are on their annual pilgrimage to watch The Scorpion King at the only movie theatre that still shows it (the scorpions won’t let them stop). I’m running out of words to describe just how confusing this is all getting. This shit’s weird dude. Screen five: We’ve now come to a weird screen that is desperately attempting to be normal but is failing dramatically. There is a large snow capped peak that seems to have been cut in half by a turquoise line, there also appear to be gazelle or perhaps deer running about in the background as well. Finally the difficulty has been ramped up for the player, the Bobby now moves. It’s almost like we’re starting to get a real game on our hands, not a collection of random sprites the programmers had left over from previous games. Screen six: Instead of confusing the player with strange imagery the programmers have opted to use flashing lights instead. What appears to be a large red curtain rises up, very much like at the theatre, when you get to this screen. The top flashes between an assortment of colors which the player will find extremely distracting. This is the pinnacle of difficulty as there are now two Bobbies moving slowly toward you, you can avoid them easily. Once you get past screen six the game repeats all over again, there doesn’t seem to be any difficulty curve, it stays constant the whole time. You will eventually lose as there seems to be a time limit of some sort as well as a set of lives that you don’t see. A song plays as you move across the screens, I don’t know what it’s called if it even has a name but I’d classify it more as a dirge than a piece of music. I wish I could say that this game was never released, but it was. If you can find a copy of Schussel, der Polizistenschreck, roughly translated to either Schussel the Police Scare or Bowl, the Police Fright, it is the same game. If you want to go throught the hassle of getting one there are currently four copies of Schussel, der Polizistenschreck on ebay.de they are all around 10 Euro so this won’t be a cheap one. I would classify this as purely a novelty cartridge, only get it if you want to have a laugh with friends, otherwise this game goes straight to the Collector’s Zone, I don’t even know if this could be classified as a game… http://atariage.com/forums/blog/729/entry-15691-walkerschusselder-polizistenschreck-suntekquelle/

Not much added since my last entry, although I still have several Home Brew orders still being processed by Atari Age and Pack Rat Video Games, and a PAL standard 2-in-1 winging its way here from Germany. Here's what I've just added, and all are for the Atari 2600. All are purchases made via eBay: Bermuda Triangle (Data Age, 1982). Developed in-house at Data Age. Complete Boxed Copy. The Challenge of Nexar (Spectravision; 1982). This game was actually developed by Sirius Software and licensed by Spectravision for them to publish. Sirius also developed the first four games published by 20th Century-Fox, which includes Worm War I (see my review of Worm War I for further details. It's easy to spot the games Fox licensed from Serius, as they all have a red label. Tapeworm (Spectravision; 1982). This one was developed in-house at Spectravision. This is a Snake style game. The other 2 Snake style games that I own are both Home Brews. Worm for the 7800, and NESnake 2 for, well, the NES of course. There are two more Snake style games that O want and are Home Brews as well, and I've Wishlisted them. Serpentine for the 7800 and Warring Worms: The Worm (Re)Turns for the 2600. The latter is the follow-up to the original Home Brew Warring Worms games, which sadly I don't own. Interesting that all 3 games were released in 1982. The only game to require cleaning of the ROM pins to get to work was Tapeworm. Admittedly the seller listed it as 'untested.' It now works perfectly. TOTAL COST OF EACH GAME Bermuda Triangle $15 + $7.50 for Economy Shipping = $22.50 (also = over charged for shipping) The Challenge of Nexar $7.99 + $4.53 for Standard Shipping = $12.52 Tapeworm $10 + $3 for Expedited Shipping = $13 Was the full title of the original Warring Worms game Warring Worms: As the Worm Turns? if not I think that would make a good title for a third game in the series. http://atariage.com/forums/blog/760/entry-15692-feeding-my-atari-3/

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http://anthologyone.thecomicseries.com/comics/pl/982415 http://atariage.com/forums/blog/757/entry-15690-space-roanoke-26/

The year is 1986, you are a kid who just got his weekly allowance and you’re going to your local Kaybee Toys or Radio Shack to pick up a new game for your Atari 2600. The store is running a sale, 90% off all Atari 2600 games, the NES is taking the country by storm and stores want to dump their old stock, what a bargain! You walk up to a huge dump bin full of games; they’re all there, Imagic, U.S. Games, Parker Brothers, and a bunch of Atari. You start to dig around and at the bottom of the bin is a weird game, the box art is strange, it shows a bunch of people swimming down a river being picked up by a boat, and there are alligators! “Nah, that just looks stupid I’ll just buy Haunted House and Raiders of the Lost Ark instead”, you forever regretted the day you put down River Patrol because now you still have your Haunted House and Raiders nice and shiny in their boxes, but you now imagine what could have been. You sit in your chair, sigh, and regret. I’m sure we’ve all had experiences like that, whether it be for an obscure Atari game or something a bit more recent like with Earthbound or that stupid N64 bowling game, we’ve all passed on that one game. I’m sure very few people actually encountered River Patrol in the wild and I’m sure even fewer actually bought the game. For some reason Tigervision thought it was a good idea to release River Patrol in 1984, well after the crash, which would explain the extreme rarity. I assume it was a similar situation to Apollo’s where they just had to get the game out the door so they could finally shut down. Now believe it or not this is actually an arcade port of a little known game of the same name that was produced by Kersten in 1981, I’ve never heard of this game. I know that Tigervision can really knock these obscure arcade ports out of the park, just look at what they did with Polaris, so how do they treat River Patrol? Let’s start with the graphics. Holy crap, my eyes are bleeding, this game is covered in rainbows. This is not a pretty game, if anything I would classify it as butt ugly. All of the character and enemy sprites are monochrome and chunky, and in some cases don’t actually look like what they’re supposed to represent, especially the drowning people. As you scoot up the river you’ll encounter logs, whirlpools, alligators, other boats, and TNT, they all vaguely look like what they’re supposed to be but there aren’t any boundaries being pushed here. Seriously, what’s with the rainbows? If they’d stuck to greens and browns I wouldn’t have any major problems with how this game looks, but ugh. I need something to drive the afterimage of the graphics from my head, let’s move onto the sounds. OH GOD it’s even worse! A constant, annoying, agonizing, jolly tune plays the whole time! It’s not a bad composition it just that the pitch and instrumentation used causes the tune to harmonize in awful ways and it really becomes agony to listen to. The problem is that it plays almost constantly throughout the game and it gets more and more annoying as it plays again and again. You need to press that mute button; otherwise you’ll slowly go insane as the music burrows its way deep into your soul. So we’ve got eye watering graphics and soul breaking music, can the gameplay be any worse? Well no, but that really isn’t saying much when compared to the rest of the game. The premise is simple but the execution is highly flawed. You must boat up the river collecting drowning swimmers while avoiding obstacles; unfortunately it isn’t as simple as that. Moving is weird, I never thought I’d have to type that but here we are. You must hold down the button to accelerate, there is no automatically moving forward or sideways, ostensibly you have both all of the control and none of it at the same time, you really have to play the game to get the feel of it, and then you’ll probably understand better. Moving horizontally is an absolute pain as you move so slowly, you have to hold the button to move over a little bit then let go to drift backwards, then you hold the button again to move over a little bit more, this get’s quite repetitive and for an obstacle avoidance game such a control scheme is simply unacceptable. If they’d implemented a similar movement style like the one in Polaris then the game would be so much better as you’d actually be able to move around the screen with a semblance of control. The vertical scrolling feels choppy and jerky, which is odd since Polaris (again) managed to do this right the year prior. I suppose if you had complete control then the game would get too easy, but that doesn’t excuse the gaps that are sometimes the exact width of the boat that you have to get through while wrestling with the controls. I guess the game actually feels like you’re controlling a large leaky unresponsive barge going upstream. This game is a mess, an absolute mess. It feels like it was rushed out the door at the last minute before the programmer could actually fine tune and polish the game. If the river banks were green and brown and not rainbow, the game would look acceptable. If the music was lowered in pitch and changed instrumentation it would sound acceptable. If the boat controlled like either Polaris or something like River Raid, the game would be acceptable to play. If those major and minor things were changed the game would be acceptable, in its current state it is not. This game is expensive, loose copies have sold for a minimum of 250 dollars for a loose cartridge, and 230 for a manual. This game has sold for over 1000 dollars CIB, to my knowledge there hasn’t been a single copy found still factory sealed. Never buy this game, it is simply a novelty, something to display proudly on your shelf, or kept locked away in a safe. You all know where this one is going, straight to the Collector’s Zone for being too goddamn expensive. Attached thumbnail(s) http://atariage.com/forums/blog/729/entry-15685-river-patrol-tigervision/

I have an eyeache again. It's 3 a.m. I began work on my third MIDI, this time it's one of the 19-minute-long song "The Caves of Anamnesis" by a band called Spiral. I've never heard of them. And the only reason I have now is because of the long song list. I wanted to do a long song about the same length as the first two and put the three together in an "album" of sorts. So that's what I've been doing. I'd show the cover but it's 300kb large and I don't want to clutter up the AtariAge server with useless stuff. Finally got around to using the star field code RevEng came up with for one of my batari Basic games I've been working on for the past year or so. Not quite ready to reveal it yet. Spent most of yesterday asleep. Went to sleep at 7 a.m. and woke up at 5 p.m. That's why I'm up now at 3 a.m. The ants are still here. http://atariage.com/forums/blog/168/entry-15689-my-eye/

Game: Naughty List System: Atari 2600/VCS/Sears Video Arcade Publisher: Atari Age Programmer: Mike Saarna Cartridge Size: 32K w/SARA RAM Copyright: 2011 Genre: Action Controller: Joystick (Sega Game Pad Compatible) Players: 1 Rarity Rating: H (Home Brew) One of four games included on the Multi-cart "The Byte Before Christmas" Bell Hopper See Game Review #5 Christmas Adventure Naughty List Santa's Scabs GAME DESCRIPTION The Elf Union has gone on strike! In Naughty List you play as Santa. Your mission is to drop packages full of explosives onto the ugly union buildings, completely destroying them. Each package you drop needs to hit the building dead-center to cause destruction. Packages that miss the mark have no effect. Larger buildings will need multiple hits to reduce them to rubble. But your mission isn't as easy as it sounds. Your reindeer are tired from delivering presents, so as you fly over the block your deer will drop closer and closer to the buildings. If you smash into a building you'll lose a deer, and you only have three to spare! And take care not to drop packages onto innocent bystanders below! -From the manual GAME PLAY On many stages you will have to contend with construction equipment that will raise the buildings so that they meet Elf Union Height Requirements. Dropping packages onto the bulldozer has no effect on it. It's challenging enough when they work to raise buildings that were once tall and fully erect, but then they eventually start to elevate buildings to make them taller than they were to begin with. This bulldozer moves at a steady pace across the screen from left to right. This game is quite addictive. Between stages you will see large Christmas Trees in their natural habitat, a forest. There's no game play during these brief seconds, but it's still a nice touch. Holding down the Fire button (button B on a Sega Control Pad) will trigger auto-fire. As your reindeer descend lower with each pass, the auto-fire will increase in speed. It's tempting to use, especially when at high altitudes and when the row of buildings is long, but I have found that I do better when I fire, er drop, each package individually. GRAPHICS The graphics are quite good, although the buildings look very much like, 'um, male appendages. The dome atop the buildings brings this home. When the construction equipment moves in and the buildings start to rise in height, well some might make the same observation that I have. The Pixel Art is credited to Illya Wilson. Good job Illya. ATARI AGE PROMO VIDEO FOR THE BYTE BEFORE CHRISTMAS Naughty List starts at the 3:53 mark PACKAGING AND ARTWORK Both are outstanding! The Label and Manual Artwork is by Brian Ostrowski. It would look great under anyone's Christmas Tree. The Byte Before Christmas is still available here at Atari Age. The cartridge and full-color 16 page manual cost $30, with the box costing an additional $20. Those prices are assuming that you aren't a subscriber entitled to a discount. Boxes may not be reprinted once they run out. You can order this game for either the NTSC or PAL60 standards. The manual states that you can toggle to PAL50 using the TV Type switch. https://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1041 RANKING: 3 (out of 6) 1) Worm War I 2) Demolition Herby 3) Naughty List (Home Brew) 4) Bell Hopper (Home Brew) 5) Alligator People (Prototype) 6) Fire Fly http://atariage.com/forums/blog/760/entry-15688-game-review-6-naughty-list-2600/

Game: Naughty List System: Atari 2600/VCS/Sears Video Arcade Publisher: Atari Age Programmer: Mike Saarna Cartridge Size: 32K w/SARA RAM Copyright: 2011 Genre: Action Controller: Joystick (Sega Game Pad Compatible) Players: 1 Rarity Rating: H (Home Brew) One of four games included on the Multi-cart "The Byte Before Christmas" Bell Hopper See Game Review #5 Christmas Adventure Naughty List Santa's Scabs GAME DESCRIPTION The Elf Union has gone on strike! In Naughty List you play as Santa. Your mission is to drop packages full of explosives onto the ugly union buildings, completely destroying them. Each package you drop needs to hit the building dead-center to cause destruction. Packages that miss the mark have no effect. Larger buildings will need multiple hits to reduce them to rubble. But your mission isn't as easy as it sounds. Your reindeer are tired from delivering presents, so as you fly over the block your deer will drop closer and closer to the buildings. If you smash into a building you'll lose a deer, and you only have three to spare! And take care not to drop packages onto innocent bystanders below! -From the manual GAME PLAY On many stages you will have to contend with construction equipment that will raise the buildings so that they meet Elf Union Height Requirements. Dropping packages onto the bulldozer has no effect on it. It's challenging enough when they work to raise buildings that were once tall and fully erect, but then they eventually start to elevate buildings to make them taller than they were to begin with. This bulldozer moves at a steady pace across the screen from left to right. This game is quite addictive. Between stages you will see large Christmas Trees in their natural habitat, a forest. There's no game play during these brief seconds, but it's still a nice touch. Holding down the Fire button (button B on a Sega Control Pad) will trigger auto-fire. As your reindeer descend lower with each pass, the auto-fire will increase in speed. It's tempting to use, especially when at high altitudes and when the row of buildings is long, but I have found that I do better when I fire, er drop, each package individually. GRAPHICS The graphics are quite good, although the buildings look very much like, 'um, male appendages. The dome atop the buildings brings this home. When the construction equipment moves in and the buildings start to rise in height, well some might make the same observation that I have. The Pixel Art is credited to Illya Wilson. Good job Illya. ATARI AGE PROMO VIDEO FOR THE BYTE BEFORE CHRISTMAS Naughty List starts at the 3:53 mark PACKAGING AND ARTWORK Both are outstanding! The Label and Manual Artwork is by Brian Ostrowski. It would look great under anyone's Christmas Tree. The Byte Before Christmas is still available here at Atari Age. The cartridge and full-color 16 page manual cost $30, with the box costing an additional $20. Those prices are assuming that you aren't a subscriber entitled to a discount. Boxes may not be reprinted once they run out. You can order this game for either the NTSC or PAL60 standards. The manual states that you can toggle to PAL50 using the TV Type switch. https://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1041 RANKING: 3 (out of 6) 1) Worm War I 2) Demolition Herby 3) Naughty List (Home Brew) 4) Bell Hopper (Home Brew) 5) Alligator People (Prototype) 6) Fire Fly http://atariage.com/forums/blog/760/entry-15688-game-review-6-naughty-list/

The mother of all video games for an Atari 2600 owner and the first pack in game. My Atari game it came with my promotional release only Atari 2600 It had the box even. Though it had a red box and not the all black one so go fig. I was 8 years old controlling a MFing Tank. there were so many options invisible tanks bouncing shots etc. I was hooked The gameplay was awesome you could fight friends my brother or even the computer. It was an awesome game for an 8-year-old..but does it stand the ravages of time? Let's see. Graphically like all 260 games, they were poor, But who cares about graphics when you have the fun factor. I will say yes it stands the test of times I played it years ago with my nephew and he was excited even got mad when killed and wanted revenge it is addictive and fun. proving graphics are not everything. The play field is bland but engaging. You have to use strategy and can't just run and gun. With all its shortcomings it is still a great game with hours of replay even today I play it at least once a week. Sound well sadly since I was 8 I have gone partially deaf so the sound is not an issue with me. However, the sound is basic with nice explosion sound when shot but no background noise. It still has great sound effects simple but satisfying. My overall rating on a scale of 1 to 10 is an 8. it may be nostalgia talking but I will say its still a great game. Welcome any other thoughts. Omega Supreme. http://atariage.com/forums/blog/761/entry-15687-combat/

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Well, this is it, this is the final Apollo game I have any interest in covering. Apart from Lost Luggage I have one final game from the Apollo catalog that I have yet to review, it is their final and rarest game, Guardian. Guardian was shipped in incredibly limited numbers, mainly due to the fact that the moment the game made it into production the company was shut down by its creditors, there was only one batch made before the company was dissolved. It wasn’t a bad run, eleven games over the course of a year or so, that’s a step above Telesys and about on par with Spectravision. So what was Apollo’s final crowning jewel, their magnum opus? Their smooch to a middle finger to the gaming community at large? This is Guardian. It’s a generic space shooter… … Ugh, really? Well my expectations were low but holy crap I wasn’t expecting that. This game looks incredibly simple, but it has glimmers of excellence. The saucer at the top of the screen looks alright, the gradient is nice and it is animated. The little enemy things that the saucer spits out are simple in design but are very well animated, with two to three frames per enemy, and there are 5+ enemy designs which keep things from getting too monotonous looking. At the bottom of the screen you’ll see your little ship, it’s brown and basic looking and not worth talking about. Below your ship you’ll he a light brown line, which is the planetary shield a la GORF. Below the planetary shield are three detailed Earth-like planets, they look good no complaints here. Despite all of these little things having a good amount of detail thrown in there is one major complaint I have, this game looks boring, there is nothing that will really draw your gaze, the background is completely black and yes I really think this game could have used a starfield or just something to make the game more interesting. Well, the graphics are rather boring, do the sounds follow suit? Well, not really. There are elements here that I like, but most of it is either forgettable or, again, boring. The one noise that will be constantly playing is a soft white noise engine sound that we’ve all heard several hundred times in every other Atari game. Each enemy projectile has a unique sound; unfortunately you won’t be hearing them all too much since the 2600 has only two sound channels and since one is always playing the engine sound the other one is going to be filled with… The sound of you rapidly firing and explosion noises, neither of these are too bad to listen to, they’re adequately chunky and satisfying. Eventually the whole thing starts to melt into an indescribable blob of nothing punctuated only by the sounds of explosions. Nothing has really been grabbing my attention so far will the gameplay change that? No, it won’t. This is a basic bottom of the barrel move-around-the-bottom-of-the-screen-and-shoot-at-things game with elements of Kaboom! and GORF. The large blue saucer drops enemies and you have to destroy them before they reach the planetary shield, when the shield is hit a small hole will appear which the enemies will then try to get through so they can destroy the three planets. You move around using the Paddle controller which gives you good fluid movement, it would be nice though if the game would utilize that fluid movement. Unlike in Solar Storm where you could move back and forth firing at will in Guardian you are fixed in place when firing so moving the Paddle will only have you teleport when you let go of the firing button, this is annoying. You’ll often have to shimmy around an enemy firing on both sides before you can finally get the dial in just the right place, you can adjust to this but it will still happen and you’ll still be infuriated when it does. Even though the fluid movement of the Paddle is eradicated by the firing the game will still try to act like Kaboom! By the time you get to level six it will be a constant stream of tiny enemies flowing from the ship and since you can’t move while firing the game is basically over then and there. I almost forgot to mention that the shield is replenished every 10,000 points, so you’re not completely helpless. All in all I think this is one of the most lackluster and boring shooters on the 2600, I’d rather play Spacechase or Solar Storm. It does nothing new, it’s not original in any capacity, and it just borrows from better games. Here’s the real kicker though, you’re not likely to get this game for under 70 dollars. All of the current listings are 130$+. You’re only buying this game to round off your collection, not to play it only to show it off. Collector’s Zone for sure, the game simply doesn’t justify the price attatched. http://atariage.com/forums/blog/729/entry-15676-guardian-apollo/