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The genius of the ActionMax.

atari2600land

Entry posted by atari2600land

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While many people poo-pooh it and say it sucks, I have come up with a few reasons to like it.
#1 - the controls. You point the gun. You shoot it with the trigger. No millions of unreachable buttons and painful-to-use like an Intellivision controller. No millions of buttons like a Jaguar controller. After half an hour of playing an Intellivision II, my thumbs hurt because the fire buttons are square and the edges puncture my skin. And if you don't reach the target in time, you only have yourself to blame, not a dumb controller whose joystick decided to quit working temporarily at an inopportune time.
#2 - the graphics. The ActionMax has the best graphics of any console ever. Even better than the current PS4, X-Box 360 and Wii-U. Not bad for a system made in 1987. Why? it uses real-life graphics. The ActionMax employs someone working with a motion picture camera so the graphics look like it would if it was a real thing, because it IS a real landscape, or house, or what have you. Pops Ghostly is way better in the graphics department than Luigi's Mansion. That's because it was FILMED inside a real house. Which brings us to point #3:
#3 - programming. A stumbling block for most wanna-be homebrew developers is that you need to know a certain computer programming language. Not so with the ActionMax. All you need to know is the flickering of the targets are one frame off, one frame on, then repeat. If you want to make a "friendly" target, put the targets opposite the corner sensor thing. That's all you need to know. And you're not limited by a computer limitation because there's no way to program something. In fact, "programming" this thing is so easy, it makes me wonder how I am the first one to release a homebrew game for it 27 years after the last licensed game came out for it.
#4 - uniqueness. Let's not forget the novelty factor. Also like weird systems like the Virtual Boy, which its followers today seem mostly attracted to the console's novelty, or the DS, which tried a double-screen concept to make sales. The thing is just point and click sort of, only for a TV set. And back in the 1980s, a kid with an ActionMax console may have seemed like an outcast because nobody else on the block had one, but even so, the ActionMax has no two-player mode, so he could go and play that ActionMax all by himself. And have a great time doing so.

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Papa

My brother and I had an Action Max and several, uh..cassettes. I thought it was creative and fun! The Top Gun rip off was probably my favorite. I think we had all the games (only a handful, right?). Now what really was a total blast and was just like the Action Max only one step better was...CAPTAIN POWER! You shot at the screen, there were multiplayer modes (three vehicles with the ability to tag the screen), and you could fire the ships at each other without using tapes or a VCR!! After one ship got hit too many times the pilot would be forcibly ejected from the ship! Laser Tag with toy ships, so to speak!

 

Action Max Games (Wiki):

 

"In all, five VHS cassettes were released for the system: .38 Ambush Alley, a police target range; Blue Thunder, based on the eponymous; 1983 Motion Picture. Hydrosub: 2021, a futuristic underwater voyage; The Rescue of Pops Ghostly, a comic haunted-house adventure; and Sonic Fury, aerial combat, bundled with the system.

A planned sixth cassette, Fright Night, was unreleased at the time Action Max was discontinued."

 

Captain Power Games (Wiki):

 

"

  • Future Force Training

As you prepare for your flight training as one of the Soldiers Of The Future, Captain Jonathan Power himself takes you on a simulated flight mission aboard the PowerJet XT-7. This tape was included in some editions of the XT-7.

  • Bio-Dread Strike Mission

This is the real thing! Your target is a massive Bio-Dread military industrial complex—which is manufacturing robotic troopers. Corporal Jennifer "Pilot" Chase and Captain Jonathan Power will be flying with you. Human survivors are depending on you!

  • Raid On Volcania

Soaron is leading the attack, backed up by hundreds of Interlockers and Phantom Striker jets! Captain Jonathan Power, Major Matthew "Hawk" Masterson, Corporal Jennifer "Pilot" Chase—and you—seem to be hopelessly outnumbered. In desperation, the team targets the battle computers in Volcania. "

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