Homebreviews - part 15
Entry posted by Nathan Strum
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Not homebrews this time... but more unreleased prototype reproductions (like the UA Limited games).
I've noticed my reviews keep getting longer and longer. So after these two, I'm going to try to write shorter ones again.
3D Rubik's Cube
2/5
This unreleased and long-lost prototype is an accurate simulation of a Rubik's Cube, even extending to the ability to rotate it in apparent 3D space. Unfortunately, it's even more maddening to solve than the real thing.
While a visually impressive feat of programming (ugly color scheme notwithstanding), 3D Rubik's Cube has a couple of big knocks against it. First - the cursor that you control is agonizingly sluggish. It seems to fight you the entire time that you're trying to select a different face to rotate. Second - it's far too easy to accidentally rotate the cube in a way you didn't intend to and get completely disoriented. Admittedly, this may not be a problem for those people who can solve a Rubik's Cube behind their backs, but for the rest of us, it simply sucks any fun there might have been right out of this game. Just as you think you're making progress, you're suddenly looking at the wrong end of the cube, and you have to figure out how to get it back to a recognizable state. A better control scheme was desperately needed for this game.
And that brings up another point - it's not really a game. It's a puzzle simulator. There's no scoring. No time limits. Nothing but you, and a pseudo-3D representation of yet-another unsolved Rubik's Cube, just like the real one that's probably sitting on a bookshelf somewhere, mocking you.
If 3D Rubik's Cube only had some point to it - like being able to teach you practical moves to solve a real cube - then it might have seen the light of day. As it is, there's a good reason it was shelved: it's not really any fun, and there's no benefit in playing this over having a real Rubik's Cube.
As a point of comparison, I played Atari Video Cube after playing 3D Rubik's Cube. Even though Video Cube really has nothing to do with Rubik's Cubes, it actually makes for a much better video game, and it's a decent puzzle game when judged purely on its own merits. On the other hand, 3D Rubik's Cube is merely a collector's item. It came with a great-looking box and manual, but the game itself is just a historical curiosity and an interesting exercise in programming.
Saboteur
4/5
Howard Scott Warshaw is probably best known for the original Atari 2600 game Yars' Revenge. Later, he programmed Raiders of the Lost Ark and the infamous E.T - The Extra Terrestrial. Saboteur was his last game for Atari, and one that saw HSW return to what he does best - original action games.
Unfortunately, Saboteur never got released because at the time it was created, Atari was only interested in games that were based on licensed properties. Whether arcade games, movie and TV show tie-ins, cartoon characters or Muppets, Atari had long since lost faith in its programmers' abilities to come up with successful, original concepts. Atari assumed that consumers were so narrow-minded and short-sighted, we wouldn't buy anything not related to some hit property. Saboteur was re-tooled into an A-Team themed game, but it had nothing at all to do with the show, and was never released.
It's a shame this game never saw the light of day, because it has the makings of a really excellent action game, including top-notch graphics and sound. There are three screens you must battle through. The first places you in the middle row of the screen, and you have to shoot (or avoid shooting) aliens and robots running back and forth above and below you. The goal is to prevent the bad guys from constructing a rocket that will be used to destroy your home planet. The action gets fast and furious, and actually reminds me a little bit of Robotron: 2084. You don't have the same freedom of movement, but you do have eight-way rapid-fire, and plenty of enemies to contend with.
The second screen is in some ways very reminiscent of Yars' Revenge, in that you aren't firing directly at your targets, but you're shooting at them indirectly - in this case, by ricocheting your shots off of an enemy robot. It's a clever idea, and more than a little difficult to get the hang of (especially with enemy drones chasing you around). But as with any challenging game, once you start to get the hang of it, it's eminently satisfying.
The final stage has you simply firing at the completed warhead to destroy it. It's not nearly as challenging as the other stages, and seems almost tacked on as an afterthought. The warhead is only the size of your character, so it's not very intimidating. Having to destroy a much larger warhead (like the one in the title screen) by shooting pieces out of it would have been a lot more fun, and more in keeping with the rest of the game. When you do destroy the warhead, nothing much happens except you start at the first screen again, but at a higher difficulty. It would have been nice if there had been something a little more impressive at the end of the stage, like the Qotile explosion in Yars' Revenge. As it is, it's all very anticlimactic, and rather disappointing given the rest of the game.
Saboteur was released in a limited run with a professionally printed box (including silver ink - something even Quadrun didn't have), and a very nice manual. It's well-worth getting if you can find a copy, and if you can't, the game was also included on Atari's Flashback 2 console.
Next up... games that begin with an "E".
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