Demon Attack vs. Phoenix

[cvga]

I like Demon Attack better but Phoenix is a great game also. In fact, had Phoenix beaten Demon Attack to the market, I'd probably favor it instead.

[tillenterprises]

I won Demon Attack on eBay last Sunday for $1.29, and it arrived yesterday. My first play in over 20 years, last night, tells me one thing: the game is too easy!

 

I usually play game variation #5- try that one- it's alot faster!

[MegaManFan]

I think since they both exist. we ALL win.

[neotokeo2001]

I think since they both exist. we ALL win.

 

[SS]

I think since they both exist. we ALL win.

 

 

Yup. Well summed up!

[NovaXpress]

Also, I do not understand why Atari Company did sued Imagic, beacuse simlar to Phoenix??

 

Let's try to go for better answers than "because Atari was stupid." There's always a reason for these things, even if one disagrees with it.

 

Of course the real answer is that Atari did not sue over the 2600 original at all, but over the Intellivision version which came out a few months later. The Intellivision was the first to include the second screen with the mothership. The demons have that awful Intellivision monochrome look and look like crap, which takes away all the charm of the game. I felt it was pointless to sue over side-scrolling shooters because there were already so many that the pedigrees were hopelessly confused. Matte; could have bought the rights to an oldie like Ozma Wars (yes I just read that awesome SNK article as well) and sued Atari right back on general principle.

 

If you're going to sue over flying creatures and a mothership, you might as well sue over who owns the rights to the very concept of shooting games. Of course if video games wre inveted today, they would be able to squat on such patents. Which explains why the PC industry isn't where it shou;d be.

 

Demon attack was simply the coolest-looking game ever made for the home at the time it was released. Activision pushed the technology with their graphics, but they never bothered to use the graphics for visual impact, only for cuteness. Demon Attack was exciting to look at and that's why those of us who were there to see it debut in the stores feel so strongly about it. Imagic broke new ground with video game style and you cqan see this quality in many of their games. It's hard to understand the impact of a game like Microsurgeon as well unless you were there and remember that you NEVER saw graphics with such detail until that moment.

 

By the time Phoenix came out I was playing Zaxxon on the Colecovision and angry at Atari because I bought Earthworld. The 2600 version is slow, clumsy and dull. Lots of detail, but no magic to the gameplay. We deserved a 5200 version, I don't understand why Vanguard was ported but not Phoenix. Not that I have any complaints with Vanguard, that was a great port for both Atari systems.

[moycon]

Another vote for Phoenix, I liked the fact that there was a sense of accomplishment at the 5th wave, destroying the mother ship. If Demon Atatck had that screen (Live the INTV version) it might be a different story since the game is prettier than Phoenix, but that lack of a mother ship gives Phoenix the edge in my book.

 

Also I'd think Atari would have sued over the fact that some demons split in two just like some birds in Phoenix... in addition to the mother ship. Compare the DA with the the mother ship to Phoenix and both games are pretty similar.

[mos6507]

Phoenix is too easy for me. I can play it in my sleep.

 

It doesn't just start easy. It never gets very hard at all no matter how many times you cycle through the levels.

 

Demon Attack, on the other hand, gets hard enough to kill me off such that I can't say I've "mastered" the game.

 

So even though Phoenix has more variety, it isn't as good a game.

 

I think CBS' port of Gorf is a better game in Phoenix's multi-wave genre, and a more faithful game in relation to the coinop.

 

I would love to see a mothership wave added to Demon Attack, though.

[NovaXpress]

Demon Attack came along just when Atari was getting KC Muchkin happy, so Imagic couldn't have seen it coming. I don't recall how the Demon Attack lawsuit turned out, I presume Imagic settled for a few bucks.

 

Phoenix was never a challenge for me, on my very first game I turned it off after several motherships. Demon Attack was a challenge at first, but I soon discovered the evil "black screen of death" wave.

 

I think all home versions of Gorf blow rhino. I'd say the best 2600 games of this genre are Threshold and Megamania.

[Dino from Bula]

By the time Phoenix came out I was playing Zaxxon on the Colecovision and angry at Atari because I bought Earthworld. /quote]

 

Yes and, oh, lord, yes.

[NE146]

My vote definitely goes for Demon Attack although I don't know why the 2 games always get compared..

[Lord Helmet]

I agree. They are of the same genre, but not nearly the same game at all.

 

I guess it would be similar to comparing Space Invaders to Galaxian.

Edited July 26, 2006 by Lord Helmet

[BLarry71]

I like Phoenix more since there is more than one screen !!!

[Paranoid]

I've been playing the 8 bit version of Demon Attack a bunch via emulation recently... and to me, it comes down to this...

 

At the time that Demon Attack was released, it could have, with very small modification, been a highly successful arcade coin-op, IMO.

 

At the time Phoenix was released, it was a good port of a somewhat passe arcade coin-op that I would only drop quarters on if it were one of the only games around.

 

Which is a big difference. Comparing them side by side today really doesn't do justice to the impact Demon Attack had as an Atari 2600 title at the time it was released.

[jboypacman]

I own both of these games.I love them both.But if i had to pick one i would go with Demon Attack.So many fond memories of this game grow up.

[Jack Spencer Jr]

Personally, I found the mother ship to be boring. I was much more interested in getting to the next wave of demons to see the next demon design.

[pocketmego]

I've been playing the 8 bit version of Demon Attack a bunch via emulation recently... and to me, it comes down to this...

 

At the time that Demon Attack was released, it could have, with very small modification, been a highly successful arcade coin-op, IMO.

 

At the time Phoenix was released, it was a good port of a somewhat passe arcade coin-op that I would only drop quarters on if it were one of the only games around.

 

Which is a big difference. Comparing them side by side today really doesn't do justice to the impact Demon Attack had as an Atari 2600 title at the time it was released.

 

The Commodore 64 version of Deomon Attack (which I assume is similar to many versions on other 8 bit computers) is not so good. It would be perfect, except that the extra graphic muscle of the C64 was used to created this awful, cluttered and unnecessary space earth and Moon Background for the game. The earth actually gets in the way of the graphics and makes the demons hard to see. Then there is the boss fight which is pretty wank and as was proved on the 2600, totally unnecesary.

 

-Ray

[Paranoid]

The 8 bit version is REMARKABLY true to the original 2600 version.

 

I guess by the time the C=64 version hit the market, they were competing with titles like Phoenix.

 

Is there an 8 bit Phoenix? I'd like to see them side by side.

 

In all honesty, though, I've been playing 8 bit Demon attack on a 17" widescreen LCD notebook... and um... it is just dead-sexy gorgeous in that format. I might change my mind through RF modulation on my 21" TV upstairs on the real hardware.

[BrianC]

Is there an 8 bit Phoenix? I'd like to see them side by side.

 

Not officially, but there is an extremely good clone of Phoenix for the C64 named Eagle Empire.

[TimsterAA]

Can someone point me to the C=64 version of Demon Attack? I think I've played the game on the Vic-20, but I don't think I ever have for the 64. According to Wikipedia, DA was only released for the 2600, Inty, and O2. Does it go by a different name for the 8-bits? Just curious... let me know. Thanks!

 

--Timster--

[NovaXpress]

This thread has more lives than the damn Knight Rider incident.

 

For the record: Phoenix was released for Xmas 1982, six months after Demon Attack. Demon Attack was made for MANY systems and PCs. And Demon Attack is still the better game.

 

This debate still runs a distant second to the Battlezone-Robot Tank controversy. And aren't we due for another one of those arguments? I swear it's been almost eight days since the last one.

[Foxsolo2000]

This thread has more lives than the damn Knight Rider incident.

 

For the record: Phoenix was released for Xmas 1982, six months after Demon Attack. Demon Attack was made for MANY systems and PCs. And Demon Attack is still the better game.

 

This debate still runs a distant second to the Battlezone-Robot Tank controversy. And aren't we due for another one of those arguments? I swear it's been almost eight days since the last one.

 

 

So why does this bother you so much?

[NovaXpress]

Why do any of us get into debates about 25-year old games? Because for better or worse we're into this sort of thing.

 

What's up with the winking emoticon at the end of every post? Some of your comments come off with very strange connotations.

[Atariboy]

I think Phoenix is the better game.

[Foxsolo2000]

Why do any of us get into debates about 25-year old games? Because for better or worse we're into this sort of thing.

 

What's up with the winking emoticon at the end of every post? Some of your comments come off with very strange connotations.

 

 

Strange to some, but strangely satisfying to others of a perceptive mind. Wouldn't you agree Nova old boy? You seem more peceptive than most