ubersaurus Posted July 3, 2018 Author Share Posted July 3, 2018 It's my longest one of these videos yet, and for good reason: Space War's history stretches back to 1962, and it would be unfair to look at the game without talking about its lengthy history and its legacy. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Love Cowboy Posted July 3, 2018 Share Posted July 3, 2018 Star Voyager is *thisclose* to being my favorite of the lot, but its weapons system ruins it for me--I feel like it punishes you for playing the game the way it wants to be played (that is, with the lasers, and not those stupid torpedoes that never hit anything). I know this is off-topic, but as a huge Star Voyager fan I felt the need to chime in here... I think you're confusing challenge with punishment. Star Voyager would be too easy if the phasers didn't take so much energy. I like the strategic element of knowing when to switch to torpedoes to conserve energy, or the challenge of just trying to make it through the whole game with phasers. (yes, the torpedoes are stupid, but it's not THAT hard to hit the enemies with them. It's at least similar difficulty to hitting anything at all in Star Raiders) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassGuitari Posted July 3, 2018 Share Posted July 3, 2018 Star Voyager would be too easy if the phasers didn't take so much energy. As it is, sure. But it seems like an arbitrary handicap to mask a somewhat compromised (IMO) game design. Star Voyager could have presented more enemies (and simultaneously, even with flicker) that deal greater amounts of damage, thus necessitating high volumes of fast, accurate phaser fire, but it doesn't. Instead of committing to being either an arcade game or an action-strategy game, Star Voyager sort of tries to do both and is just lukewarm for me as a result. I think it's a decent enough title but there are others I prefer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubersaurus Posted August 1, 2018 Author Share Posted August 1, 2018 Updated the youtube with the newest video. It's, well, Hangman. Thankfully it's all relatively good or interesting stuff for a while from here! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubersaurus Posted September 21, 2018 Author Share Posted September 21, 2018 After taking a quick break to produce a video about the RCA Studio II, I'm back on my VCS series with Home Run. Even got to talk to Bob Whitehead about this (and all his other games), and tried to include some of his thoughts in this video. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassGuitari Posted September 21, 2018 Share Posted September 21, 2018 Home Run is my favorite "baseball" game for Atari. If I actually cared about baseball, I'm sure I'd hate it, but I think it's a fun, arcadey, briskly-paced take on the sport. It's definitely best with a second player, though, as all of these early games tend to be. Otherwise you really have to handicap yourself for this game to be remotely challenging. And setting your difficulty switch to A can actually make it easier in some cases since you can hit reeeally slow moving "pop-flies" and load the bases while the pitcher/2nd baseman just stands there. The variation with the three spread out outfielders seems like it should be the hardest (best field coverage, right?), but it's actually the easiest since you can hit between them while the L/R fielder gets stuck on the wall and the others can't move in--they're essentially one big sprite with a couple of huge gaps in it. I give Home Run a lot of credit for having something kinda sorta resembling a proper CPU opponent when so many of its contemporaries didn't--brain-damaged as it was. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubersaurus Posted September 21, 2018 Author Share Posted September 21, 2018 It is definitely fun with a second person, though I still feel that the Astrocade and Channel F baseball games are actually more fun in that scenario (though Home Run is okay). Fast fielder speed plus two or three players that aren't spread out basically makes it near impossible to get any decent runs. I was having trouble finding good video footage of it, but Atari's Fly Ball arcade game used the same sort of pitcher/fielder setup as Whitehead did with Home Run. It sounds like that was a case of convergent evolution, since Bob said he hadn't seen any of the arcade baseball games. I do find all the different, iterative approaches to doing baseball with such limited capabilities really fascinating, even if it's not a sport I've ever really wanted to play in video game form! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubersaurus Posted October 22, 2018 Author Share Posted October 22, 2018 Newest Atari Archive is now public: Slot Racers! The first game from Warren Robinett, who would go on to make the influential game Adventure in the months following this title. It's a pretty decent game - not a classic, but better than perhaps it gets credit for. The 1970s Atari 2600 library tend to be overlooked when people talk about the platform, but this is one that's worth revisiting. Just don't look at the incredibly slow gametype 1 as a sign of how good this game can play. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassGuitari Posted October 24, 2018 Share Posted October 24, 2018 I never understood why Atari called the game Slot Racers. Even the box art conjures more of a Deathrace kind of vibe than anything else. (I can't even venture a guess as to the Sears artwork with the Texas Oil Tycoon guy...or why they called it Maze... ) This game, though...ugh. I would like this cartridge WAY more if it had A) more intuitive controls and B) a single-player game/s. As it is, it's almost unplayable for me, although I at least appreciate what Robinett was going for with the acceleration/steering controls. Also, when you steer your car, it looks like male genitalia. Just saying. There's a great proof of concept here, but it doesn't get there for me as a finished game. [/opinion] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubersaurus Posted October 25, 2018 Author Share Posted October 25, 2018 I do like the game at its higher speed settings well enough, but it definitely it feels like it's missing something. If he had been able to include the police cars that might have been what it needs - maybe someone can hack those into it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubersaurus Posted November 27, 2018 Author Share Posted November 27, 2018 New video! It is Outlaw's time to shine, which some touching upon its arcade origins with Western Gun and Gun Fight. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5x7 Posted November 29, 2018 Share Posted November 29, 2018 That was great, well worth the wait. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubersaurus Posted December 26, 2018 Author Share Posted December 26, 2018 It's Boxing Day, which seems like the perfect excuse to post up the video on Flag Capture, wherein you're crawling over boxes searching for the flag! I actually really dug this game after never playing it before this project, so I hope this video gets some people to give it another look. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassGuitari Posted December 26, 2018 Share Posted December 26, 2018 (edited) It's Boxing Day, which seems like the perfect excuse to post up the video on Flag Capture, wherein you're crawling over boxes searching for the flag! I actually really dug this game after never playing it before this project, so I hope this video gets some people to give it another look. I kinda liked this one, too. The single-player games are pretty cool, and for someone like me who grew up in the '90s, conjure comparisons to games like Minesweeper. I think two-player is where this game (like so many other games of late '70s vintage) really shines, though. Too bad it's so rare to play with a willing competitor four decades later! (It's one of the main reasons I think early games like this are underappreciated or misunderstood--they're rarely played the way they were meant to be played anymore. But that's another topic!) Edited December 26, 2018 by BassGuitari Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubersaurus Posted January 23, 2019 Author Share Posted January 23, 2019 New video is complete, looking at the history of Breakout! Big surprises: just how murky the arcade game's development history is, and just how many clones of the game were on American consoles of the era. Basically everything but the Studio II had a version! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5x7 Posted January 24, 2019 Share Posted January 24, 2019 New video is complete, looking at the history of Breakout! Big surprises: just how murky the arcade game's development history is, and just how many clones of the game were on American consoles of the era. Basically everything but the Studio II had a version! That was excellent, really look forward to these! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubersaurus Posted February 25, 2019 Author Share Posted February 25, 2019 We've made it to Basketball, and happily enough this is the first video I've been able to do following accessing the Library of Congress's newspaper archive database! I think that does a lot to help flesh out the story of the game, so hopefully you enjoy and find it as interesting as I did researching it. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubersaurus Posted April 12, 2019 Author Share Posted April 12, 2019 Closing in on the last few games of 1978 with Brain Games, the first of the three keypad controller games! Larry Kaplan told me he was really just sort of mashing together any ideas he could find (either from other sources like books or from his own brain) to put this one together. The highlight is certainly the conversion of Touch Me, Atari's obscure 1974 arcade machine. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+jeremiahjt Posted April 12, 2019 Share Posted April 12, 2019 Excellent video and more importantly I am sorry for your loss. I hope making these videos can give you some kind of temporary relief or as a way to help you cope. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5x7 Posted April 15, 2019 Share Posted April 15, 2019 Thank you for doing these, I look forward to each one, they are a treasure. I am also so sorry for your loss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubersaurus Posted April 16, 2019 Author Share Posted April 16, 2019 Thanks - it's been rough (and certainly production on this video had a few struggle moments) but the research and the work that goes into these does help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atarifan88 Posted April 17, 2019 Share Posted April 17, 2019 I look forward to seeing a new video each month. I know it takes time to produce these. Wish there was a way to do 2 a month as your videos are the equivalent to the Atari 2600 Game By Game Podcast. Thanks for all your hard work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubersaurus Posted April 19, 2019 Author Share Posted April 19, 2019 Thanks! I've been wanting to try and get two a month going, but it's hard to make the time these days. My goal is to line up either Space Invaders or Adventure with their 40th anniversary next March, so I'll have to try and get a few out a little quicker if I'm to achieve that! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubersaurus Posted May 1, 2019 Author Share Posted May 1, 2019 New video is up! This one is about Codebreaker, the Atari rendition of Nim and Bulls and Cows. Nothing else on the system is quite like these logic games, and while they're visually uninteresting they are both still kind of fun if you're into those. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5x7 Posted May 1, 2019 Share Posted May 1, 2019 Excellent video as usual, the info on the source games and competing systems makes your videos unique, and valuable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.