Adventure II and Scramble Discussion

[Lord Thag]

It's been a great week to be into Atari. My NUC+ showed up a couple of days ago, and yesterday, after a very trying day at work, I get home to find my long-delayed birthday gift from the wife had arrived... and that turned out to be Adventure II and Scramble on cart. Way to go wife! That just made my day.

I have to say as well, the production quality on these is through the roof. Box, manual, cart etc look like something I purchased at a big box store. The cart uses a smoky gray translucent plastic with a high quality sticker. They look nicer than any of the original carts from back in the day. This oft-delayed order was definitely worth the wait.

For those who haven't ordered these two games yet, here some thoughts:

Scramble: I have a ton of home ports of this game, on a ton of consoles, both original and homebrew, and this one is probably my favorite of them all. It has a ton of options to change challenge level, ship size, level vertical size, and several other options to tweak the game to your liking or make it more kid friendly (<--- spousal selling point for those that need one lol). The game plays wonderfully well, and will take advantage of a second button if you're rocking genesis stick like I am. Control is tight, graphics are sharp, and the entire package feels very arcade-like. If you like scramble, this one is a must by. If you are not a scramble fan, this one may not win you over. Personally, I feel this is near the top of the list of arcade ports, up there with Bosconian and Donkey Kong. 

 

Adventure II: Where to start. I love this game, let me get that out of the way. I played the hell out of this on my old 5200, and this one is by far the superior version. For those that haven't played it, it's basically a direct sequel to the 2600 game, but with Zelda graphics, a much bigger map (absolutely huge on the very large map modes), and dozens of variations of varying difficulty. If you at all like the old 2600 titles and hacks, you'll love this. The 5200 one did have some bugs, suffered from a lack of randomness, and a few other things. The 8-bit port fixes all of that. There are 22 different game modes, multiple characters to chose from (the square, a couple of knights, a crab, the bat etc), multiple difficulties ranging from beginner to advanced, and a much welcome 'super random' setting you can enable that will ensure you end up having to use your noggin to win, including taking advantage of the troll (this games version of the bat, only with some extra behavior logic that can make him occasionally useful), and other tricks to win. There are three 'bat eggs' (like the hidden easter egg dot in the old adventure) that can give you extra powers, along with a couple of other power ups you can get by completing in game things. There are three dragons, a minotaur and a troll, and on the right mode, the dragons can resurrect into a much tougher variant. There are more castles, more mazes (and some of these can change in game by getting caught by the Minotaur), more secrets and frankly, more fun than the original. The small map modes are good for a quick pre-dinner game. The largest modes on super random can take you hours to beat. New to this version is the fact that the different characters actually have their own special abilities: the knights are fatter and hard to maneuver around tight obstacles, but take more hits from dragons. The crab can slowly climb over walls, and the bat can fly. The super random mode is fantastic, and greatly increases the long term replayability. Basically, this is now one of the 8-bit's 'desert island' games. Can't recommend this enough.

tl/dr version: both of these are absolutely worth the price. Adventure rivals many modern console roguelikes in terms of fun and replayability. Get them, if you can swing it.

Edited July 9, 2021 by Lord Thag
Spelling due to pre coffee posting

[Albert]

Awesome, glad the games arrived safely and you're enjoying them!  If you'd like, it would be very cool to have these reviews added to both games in the store. 

 

 ..Al

 

 

[Lord Thag]

5 minutes ago, Albert said:

Awesome, glad the games arrived safely and you're enjoying them!  If you'd like, it would be very cool to have these reviews added to both games in the store. 

 

 ..Al

 

 

Sure thing, I'll try and cross post them there in a bit.

[Albert]

Just now, Lord Thag said:

Sure thing, I'll try and cross post them there in a bit.

Great, thank you! 

 

 ..Al

[+videofx]

OK, what did I miss? What cart are we talking about and where do you get it?

[Lord Thag]

Just now, videofx said:

OK, what did I miss? What cart are we talking about and where do you get it?

Both carts are available on the 8-bit section of the Atariage store:

 

Atariage Store

 

[Albert]

2 minutes ago, videofx said:

OK, what did I miss? What cart are we talking about and where do you get it?

Here are links in the AtariAge Store to both games:

 

Adventure II XE - Atari 400/800/XL/XE

Scramble Scramble - Atari 400/800/XL/XE

 

 ..Al

[+videofx]

Thanks! The one thing the review did not mention is, is it possible to save a game?

[Lord Thag]

10 minutes ago, videofx said:

Thanks! The one thing the review did not mention is, is it possible to save a game?

No, but that really isn't necessary. It's basically a roguelike: you play a game in a single setting and beat it, and the next time you play, it's totally different. You'll occasionally run into a particularly tough game on a very large map set to very random that could take you a couple of hours or so, but generally, you are not playing that if you don't have the time.

[+Cafeman]

@Lord Thag  Thanks for the review and for posting it in the AA store for posterity.     Feedback is great to read! Especially positive feedback!  

 

[Lord Thag]

5 hours ago, Cafeman said:

@Lord Thag  Thanks for the review and for posting it in the AA store for posterity.     Feedback is great to read! Especially positive feedback!  

 

It’s well earned. This really is one of the most fun homebrew games I’ve played, and one of the only ones that’s a sequel to a true classic that betters it in every way. 
 

Thanks for finishing it. So many of these projects just fade away, never to be seen again. Really glad this wasn’t one. 

[nadir]

15 hours ago, Lord Thag said:

It’s well earned. This really is one of the most fun homebrew games I’ve played, and one of the only ones that’s a sequel to a true classic that betters it in every way. 
 

Thanks for finishing it. So many of these projects just fade away, never to be seen again. Really glad this wasn’t one. 

100%  As I've mentioned elsewhere, I bought an Atari 8-bit computer specifically to run Adventure II.  I was not disappointed.  It's an amazing "upgrade" to a classic!

[tjlazer]

Wish Scramble was able to drop the bomb with the joystick instead of the space bar.  Like Super Cobra, press button and move the joystick down.