Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'Game Review'.
-
One my reasons for getting an Atari 5200 console in the first place was to see how a home console, contemporary with the arcade machines I played very early, performed. So, Pengo, Star Wars Arcade, Pole Position and Robotron 2084 were Arcades I remembered to have played from the period 1982-84. So: Pengo... I played it both with a refurbished orginal controller and an moderated Neo-Geo joystick (which works on many, but not all games). Pengo have you playing the Penguin Pengo in randomly generated mazes of ice-blocks. It is on one screen at a time. You view it from birds-perspective (a bit of a pun there I guess). You can move Pengo in four directions, up, down, left and right, and if you walk to the ice-blocks making up the maze and push the firebutton while moving against the ice-block, you send it across the screen. You are hunted by some strange, but kind of cute´n cartoony creatures called Snow-bees. If they touch you, you are knocked out, and loses a life. You must take out the Snow-bees by pushing the ice-blocks on them, which takes them out. Also if they move along the edge of the game-area, and you also happen to be there, you can turn toward these walls and push them, making the walls occilate and knock out a Snow-be for a few seconds. Move over it, and you wipe it out. Every level has more Snow bees to get of rid. Every time you get rid of all Snow bees on a level (displayed on the top of the screen), you get to another round, new level. You can also push tree diamond-blocks - distributed randomly on levels - in a horizontal or vertical line - to have all Snow-bees on screen knowked out for some seconds; move Pengo over them to wipe them out and get bonus-score. So how is the game? In my my view: awesome!! Multicoloured sprites makes it look very nice. Pengo is cute. The Snow-bees are done really well. It retains the basic feel of the arcade. The music is different than the arcade which had «popcorn». Now, I never liked «popcorn» so I think its a bonus to have original Pengo music for the Atari 5200. Playing it with a third party arcade-stick/joystick (like Wico etc) is the best way, but its not unplayable with the orginal stick; just make sure you really have the stick overtly moved up/down/left/right, not just a little, but all the way, in a firm way, till it touches the edge, etc. But if you have a third-party joystick or an adapter that enables you to use a normal joypad, do that. Unfortunately, I don´t think you can complete the game; not sure, but I think it goes on and on until you spend all your lives. I´d rather prefer like 50 or 100 levels, then a «you made it» comment. I may be rong here, and please comment. So here is my score. (I use 1-10, including 1,5...3,5 ... etc) Graphics: 9 Sound: 8 Playability: Joystick 8,5 / Original Controller 6,5 Lastability: 8 Amusementability: 9 Overall: 8,5 Pengo is awesome, a classic and must-have for the Atari 5200. By: Giles N — Please let me know what you think.
-
Game: Tapeworm System: Atari 2600/VCS/Sears Video Arcade Publisher: Spectravision Catalog Number: SA-205 Programmer: ? Cartridge Size: ? Copyright: 1982 I like to credit the programmer when I do a review, but I couldn't find out who it was through my research. Genre: Snake Controller: Joystick (Sega Game Pad Compatible) Players: 1; 2 (alternating) Rarity Rating: 3 FROM THE MANUAL Please welcome to your T.V. set our hero "SLINKY" the SPECTRA-WORM. Good OL' SLINKY loves fruit, and knows where to get it. The Trouble is, that before SLINKY can get to the fruit, he has got to eat all those fattening beans first. Every time SLINKY eats one of those beans he gets longer and longer, making it awfully tough to get around. Especially since he has got to stay in the bean patch all the time. Some time poor "SLINKY" gets all tangled up which is no good at all! And then these two villains "SPANKY" and "BEEKY" are always trying to make a meal out of "SLINKY". So, SLINKY wants you! To get your bean and fruit finding joystick of yours and help him out. "SLINKY'S" DIET Bean Apple Orange Grape Stawberry Banana BEEKY'S AND SPANKY'S DIET IS SLINKY !!! I didn't change a single word or punctuation mark. I typed every word of the above from the manual scan at Atari Mania. Every time that I typed "Slinky" all that I could think of was the TV commercial for the Slinky toy (which I had as a child. To this day I drive people crazy singing it). It’s Slinky; it’s Slinky. For fun it’s a wonderful toy. What walks down stairs, alone or in pairs, and makes a slinkety sound? A spring, a spring, a marvelous thing! Everyone knows it’s Slinky. It’s Slinky; it’s Slinky. For fun it’s a wonderful toy. It’s fun for a girl and a boy. But what I remember is the :30 TV Commercial. The song is even longer. FULL :60 TV COMMERCIAL FOR SLINKY Anywho, back to the task at hand, and my review of Sl..., er Tapeworm. This game isn't bad, but it does make sounds that hurt my ears. I'm talking about whenever Beeky or Spanky are on-screen. OK, I admit it. Whenever I type Spanky I think of the ancient "Our Gang" comedies, aka, "The Little Rascals." I'm old so that explains that, I think. There are 5 patches that Slinky must make his way through, eating the beans one at a time until the fruit can be reached. When he eats a bean the next one will appear. If he fails to reach the bean before the Beetle at the bottom of the screen reaches the fruit displayed on the bottom-right of the screen, more beans will appear. It's tempting to delay reaching the fruit by traveling in a circle, and if the game rewarded you by giving you bonus points for the length of his wormness once he has eaten the last bean and makes it to the fruit, it might be worth it. But it doesn't. So it isn't. Patch 3 is in the dark. The screen will light briefly (about :02 seconds) after Slinky eats a bean. If you hit the Fire button that will also light the screen for the same length of time. It's tempting to hit the Fire button repeatedly. Don't! Each time you use this feature you lose one of the beans that you've collected. Loose them all and you lose a life. SCORING The Patches appear in the following order: Apple Patch. Each bean is worth 5 points. Fruit 50 points. Orange Patch. Each bean is worth 10 points. Fruit 100 points. Grape Patch (Night). Each bean is worth 15 points. Fruit 150 points. Strawberry Patch. Each bean is worth 20 points. Fruit 200 points. Banana Patch. Each bean is worth 25 points. Fruit 250 points. With the Difficulty Switch set for A your worm is on a diet. I score fewer points this way (A Position). If it's in the manual I missed it. A bonus worm is awarded every 1,000 points, but you can only have 4 at a time. The game will allow a maximum of 30 beans per patch. Maximum Score: 9,995 points. YOUTUBE TAPEWORM PLAY VIDEO HOW TO PLAY HOME VIDEO GAMES, VOL. 2: THE HOT NEW GAMES: TAPEWORM SEGMENT (1982) I really struggled as to where to place Tapeworm in the ranking. I moved a few games in the end from how I was originally going to rank them. I originally ranked Tapeworm 7th, but figured with the sound turned way down it should rank higher. Don't get me wrong here, I like every game that I've reviewed so far to some degree, with the exception of Fire Fly. RANKING: 5 out of 8 Worm War I Demolition Herby Allia Quest (Home Brew) Naughty List (Home Brew) Tapeworm (with the sound turned down low) Bell Hopper (Home Brew) Alligator People (Prototype) Fire Fly REVIEWED GAMES IN THE DATABASE AT HIGH SCORE http://highscore.com Allia Quest Bell Hopper Demolition Herby Fire Fly Naughty List Tapeworm Worm War I OTHER GAMES PUBLISHED BY SPECTRAVISION Rarity only listed if above 5. P = Prototype Bumber Bash - Rarity 9 Challenge of Nexar (Own) Chase the Chuck Wagon - Rarity 8 China Syndrome Cross Force Gangster Alley Gas Hog - Rarity 8 Kreuzer - P Mangia - Rarity 10 Master Builder - Rarity 8 Planet Patrol (Own) Super Baumeister - Rarity P Please Like, Follow and Comment. I spent 5 hours on this thing, including the new lyrics to the tune of the Slinky jingle that I wrote as a review of Tapeworm. Be thankful I decided to not include it, although that was an hour wasted.
-
- 1
-
- Tapeworm
- Atari 2600
-
(and 4 more)
Tagged with:
-
Game: Allia Quest System: Atari 2600/VCS/Sears Video Arcade Publisher: Atari Age Original Publisher: ebivision Programmer: Igor Barzilai Cartridge Size: 4K Copyright: 2001 Genre: Shooter (Vertical) Controller: Joystick (Sega Game Pad Compatible) Players: 1 Rarity Rating: H (Home Brew) In this review I will be borrowing heavily from my review of Allia Quest that I posted to the Atari Age Store Page. Full disclosure - I rated it 5.0 out of 5.0. FROM THE MANUAL It was a simple enough mission, return the ceremonial pants that the Prince of the Agrob system had left behind on his latest diplomatic mission to your home world. The journey to planet G45 was a pretty boring affair. Or so you thought! Not far into your mission, a squadron of ships appears on your radar, but it's not a welcoming committee! After the surprise of shots echoing against your hull, you scramble to get the ship into combat mode, knowing that your simple delivery mission has now turned into a fight for your life! This is a highly addictive vertical shooter originally published by ebivision. This was their second game following the disappointing Alfred Challenge. There are 8 alien races that you must battle in the game. They come in waves. This game takes time and patience to get use to the different varieties of alien ships and the formation and movement patterns of each. I have my own name of each of them, based on how they look, such as Eyeballs, Flying Carpets, Klingon Battle Cruisers, Lanterns, etc. The game has different names for them of course. Each enemy formation must be destroyed completely before the next formation of enemies will appear. Remember, each enemy has its own pattern as far as how it moves in formation. But the formation an enemy uses will stay the same from one level to the next. Once you have destroyed the last ship in the last formation you will hear a bleep tone. That not only indicates that you are moving on to the next level, but have also earned an extra ship. You have to keep track of how many ships you have in your head, because it's not displayed. An interesting feature of this game is that if you move to the left or right of center far enough you will see another formation mirroring the one in the center. They can take you out as well, but then you can destroy them as well. As you advance each level these 'mirror' formations will move closer to the one in the center, forcing you to thread the needle so to speak. This is a very good game considering that it's only 4K in size. Actually, this is a good game. Period. STRATEGY: After you learn the formation patterns (the way the ships move), you must learn the art of 'the dance.' You must weave as they weave, learning their rhythms as you go. I generally let the first wave go, so that I can get a clean shot of their under-bellies as they appear from the top of the screen. I will only shoot 4 in one pass. 5 is pushing it. There are times that I feel that I have reached the highest score that I am ever going to be capable of, but then go and top it, so never give up! CONTROLLER OF CHOICE: Sega Genesis 3-button game pad. Not only is it more responsive than the standard 2600 Joystick, but it's much more comfortable during long sessions. ATARI AGE ALLIA QUEST PROMOTIONAL VIDEO KNOWN ALLIA QUEST HIGH SCORES: 77,800 Achieved by Scott Stilphen / Atari Compedium http://www.ataricompendium.com/game_library/high_scores/high_scores.html 56,000 Achieved by Mark (MSH) / High Score This would be me. Score achieved with both Difficulty Switches set for A. http://highscore.com/scores/Atari2600/AlliaQuest/79967 52,000 Achieved by Mark (MSH) /High Score This would be me (again). Score achieved with both Difficulty Switches set for b. http://highscore.com/scores/Atari2600/AlliaQuest/80001 RANKING: 3 (out of 7) 1) Worm War I 2) Demolition Herby 3) Allia Quest (Home Brew) 4) Naughty List (Home Brew) 5) Bell Hopper (Home Brew) 6) Alligator People (Prototype) 7) Fire Fly OTHER GAMES PROGRAMMED BY IGOR BARZILAI Merlin's Walls (ebivision) https://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=302 Pac-Man (ebivision; w/Eric Bacher) Power Off (ebivision; w/Eric Bacher) https://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=299 EBIVISION GAMES OFFERED BY ATARI AGE Alfred Challenge (own) Allia Quest (own, obviously) Merlin's Wall Pesco Power Off! (own; Boxed) Thanks to Nathan Strum for informing me of Pesco, a game I didn't remember as an ebivision title.
- 4 comments
-
- 1
-
- Allia Quest
- Igor Barzilai
- (and 5 more)
-
Hi guys, Here I will post videos from the channel and future projects to discuss. If you have any ideas for videos or would like to contribute in some way feel free to post here. Anyways let's get started with some NES board games. I have to say Anticipation is much better than just playing monopoly on the NES. What are some of your favorite board games ported to the NES or other consoles?
- 13 replies
-
- 2
-
Sorry if I post in the wrong forum I just posted a review of my first Atari homebrew game at Atariage Dungeon for the 2600 I hope you enjoy:) Cheers Edit fixed the link sorry about that ( thanks nanochess for your help)
- 13 replies
-
- 2
-
- Dungeon
- homebrew review
-
(and 2 more)
Tagged with: