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Boxing (Activision, Atari VCS, 1980) We've seen a Boxing game once before! 1978 on the APF-1000MP. I'd actually recorded that play session on a VHS tape which now will not load anything because my VCR won't work. Well, the mechanical bits won't work. The electronic bits still work as a conduit to serve my old consoles. All hail the conduit! Oooh, boy... boxing... I don't get boxing as a sport. I get that it takes skill, that it's a discipline similar to any skill that involves using the brain and body. I just don't like that competitive boxing's goal seems to be to punch someone until they're unconscious. Other sports might have greater risk for more serious injuries, it just seems odd to me that boxing still happens as a spectator sport. Enough about my bleh-ness on the subject. Boxing is one of six titles (Six? I don't know why I've always thought there were just four.) in 1980 to be released by a third-party. I'm never totally sure about who the first two parties are. I assume that one would be you, the consumer. The other party would be... the company that manufactures the console itself, in this case, Atari. But which one of those counts as the "first-party" and which is the "second-party". I'm going to guess that Atari would be the first and the consumer would be the second and then out of NOWHERE, comes the third-party, only doing stuff because the first and second parties have done something first. So, Activision. You know that something named Activision has something to do with the game because they spend precious screen-space to emblazon a logo on the screen to read "Activision". Without squinting, I could tell what the screen was supposed to be: two boxers facing each other in a boxing ring. I always thought it was a pretty fair representation of the sport. No need to complicate things by adding the rest of the body. The point is to knock each other out and the head is the best way to do that. Bob Whitehead, the designer and programmer had said that he decided to make the rounds two minutes, instead of however long they are in boxing, because... and all he says is "You'll see." I think what he was saying was "Because your button-thumb can't take much more than two minutes if it can even survive that." This is a tough game for your button-thumb. This is an Atari VCS game I recommend playing with an anachronistic (( Genesis )) controller if at all possible. I thought it was just my old hands complaining, but my son said that he definitely started to feel it after just two games, too. My son thought it was fun in a very simple way - like most games from this era. Not quite the strategy of the games he's into now (DOTA2), but it was short so no biggie. We both particularly liked the animation of the punch landing on the face of the other player and how it collapsed into the rest of his head. We were slightly disappointed that there was nothing to celebrate a KO other than the score changing to show "KO" but we weren't really surprised either. The game has difficulty options which control the speed you move. A difficulty and you're moving slower, B difficulty and you're moving faster. If you want to give your boxing opponent an advantage, set your difficulty to A and theirs to B. If you want a fairly tough game, put yours at A and play the computer on B. You'll likely manage to win, but your thumb will be sore so who's really the winner? I decided to see what the computer would do if you just let your player sit there and do nothing. The reactions varied. Sometimes the computer would come over and immediately start beating on the uncontrolled player-boxer and other times it would pause a few moments before starting the beating. Regardless, about "halfway to KO" the computer would step back a bit, as if to give the player a break, but still dancing around as if to say "So... you gonna fight or what?" and then continue beating the snot out of the uncontrolled boxer-player. Quick video here of the computer (console player?) player beating the uncontrolled boxer-player. No, it's totally not exciting but I posted it anyway. http://youtu.be/WSyW3lKDsSE Anyway, it was fun to see Boxing again. If I had to pick a way to compare it to the Atari games that had come out before it, and I'd say it seemed more "solid" and the graphics seem better defined with no blinking. (( Warning: Anachronistic Reference I asked my son "Who's that Pokemon?" and he immediately said "oh, ha. Geodude." )) Annnnd, next time... let's try Fishing Derby, a game I don't think I've ever played!

I've been reading some topics in the Atari 7800 forum and I've found great arguments about why Atari 7800 fans don't like Fight Night. I came to the conclusion that I needed to share my opinion with the community: I like the game, even if it gets bad ratings for good reasons... First of all, I don't think this boxing game is underrated: it is bad, but not unplayable. The first time I played it, I was so upset: the characters looked great, but the controls were horrible and the gameplay was confusing and frustrating. My second experience with the game was better: I knew how to make the "super punch" and got used to the controls. But once I discovered how to survived longer and won the Main Event, I started to appreciate Fight Night. I'm not saying that it's the best of its kind(the animation is choppy and the controls are terrible and somewhat unresponsive), but I find it quite enjoyable. It has a neat tournament mode, as well as sparring matches. I've played the XE version of this game but not the Commodore 64 port (which looks superior in many ways, but I haven't tried it yet, so it wouldn't be fair if I compared them). The boxer construction set is a pretty interesting feature, but I didn't like this port because I thought it was too slow. I have a theory that could explain why they didn't include it in the Atari 7800 version: the games in the Tramiel's era (or, at least, in 1987/88) were made with tight budgets and the XEGS was considered the "premium" game system by Atari at the time (situation that probably doomed the 7800 port of Karateka), so the programmers tried to compensate the lack of the construction set by creating six custom characters using parts and colors of the original characters and making them "new" selectable characters. Anyway, even with the quality of the game, I still think it's fun. So, in my opinion, Fight Night could get a 5/10.

The only boxing game for the Atari 7800 is Fight Fight. Your mileage may vary as to whether or not that's a good game. What I'm proposing is somehow adapting a Punch-Out style boxing game to the Atari 7800. It could be a first person perspective, either a transparent frame boxer (like Punch Out arcade) or a small fighter against a big opponent (like NES Punch Out). Granted the 7800 doesn't have the power of the NES or an arcade machine...still, could a Punch-Out style game be pulled off for the 7800?