Entry posted by SpiceWare
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2005 Minigame Multicart,
5/5
The 2005 MiniGame MultiCart is a collection of 7 games from the 2005 MiniGame competition. All these games are 1K, with the exception of M-4 which clocks in at 4K. As such, these games are an exercise in minimalism and reminded me a lot of the BASIC games I wrote on my VIC 20(3.5K RAM free!) back in the early 80s.
You're presented with a nice game selection screen with some music and a "light show" when you power up the Atari. Move up/down to select the game then hit FIRE to start it. The selected game is highlighted in a dark gray - if you have trouble seeing it you may need to adjust your TV's contrast. There's also a menu option to view on screen manuals for each game. A really nice feature is that instead of having to power cycle the Atari, you can return to the main menu from any game by hitting SELECT(must also hit FIRE in Marble Jumper to due SELECT letting you choose puzzle variations).
Marble Jumper, by Zach Matley
Marble Jumper is a puzzle game that we've all seen at one time or another, be it with marbles, golf tees, or other objects. Your task is to remove marbles from the board by jumping them with other marbles, and to leave the last marble in the center square. Controls and graphics are well done, and there's even 24 puzzles squeezed into 1K! The only sound is a congratulatory tune for solving a puzzle.
Hunchy, by Chris Walton
Hunchy's based on an the arcade game Hunch Back. Your goal is to guide Quasimodo through 16 screens to rescue Esmeralda. The screens start out easy, but get quite difficult at the end. You have infinite lives, so if you care to devote the time you can complete all 16 screens. Sadly, you don't actually get to see Esmeralda at the end - instead you arrive back at the 1st screen. Fun game none-the-less, I liked it so much I bought the sequel, Hunchy II! The sound effects are fairly decent.
Jetman, by Chris Walton
In Jetman you're a gas station attendant in outer space, and it's not self serve. Fly around collecting the fuel canisters to fill the 16 rockets. It's not as easy as it sounds as somebody's shooting at you! First few levels are fairly easy, difficulty ramps up pretty good after that. The graphics may be primitive, but the challenge is not. Sound effects are adequate.
Nightrider, by Chris Walton
No, this is not the Hasselhoff Experience. You're on a motorcycle fleeing for your life while an enemy helicopter tries to drop bombs on you. Controls and graphics are quite good, as are the sound effects. There's even a score! It's common for 1K mini games to leave off a score as there's no built in character set on the Atari, so valuable ROM space must be used to store the shapes of the digits.
Zirconium, by Fred Quimby
Zirconium is a 2 stage space game. First you must fly your spaceship through a minefield, then you must destroy every block that comprises the mothership. Each round follows the same format, but with more mines and an even larger mothership. Graphics are nothing to write home about, but I did like the sound effects. The game starts out quite easy, but quickly becomes quite challenging.
Rocket Commander, by Fred Quimby
Take command of your rockets and destroy the invaders from the Earth's core! You've got a stack of rockets on the left side of the screen and must destroy the invaders as they try to flee past you on the right. Sounds easy, but it's not. The invaders travel at different speeds and you have minimal control of your rocket once it's been released. Points are scored based on how far the invader is, with even more points awarded for the occasion super speedy invader. Score enough points in the round to advance to the next, else it's game over. The upper rockets are challenging, but the lower rockets are just luck-of-the-draw as to wether or not you hit the invader, and that kind of sucks as you lose points for missing an invader. For me the lost points often meant I didn't make it to the next round. Graphics and sound were both decent.
M-4, by Bob Montgomery
As the only 4K game of the bunch, M-4 should be expected to delivery more than the other games - and it does! There's a hi-res title screen, demo mode and 72 game variation. On top of that, each variation can be 1 or 2 players. In M-4 you're in control of a tank in either a 30 or 90 second round. In order to hit the enemy tank you must first shoot chunks out of a brick wall. The wall can be stationary, scrolling, unbreakable(preexisting gaps to shoot through), regenerating or even non-existent. By default you have to periodically reload your tank, though variations exist with unlimited ammo. I imagine the game's a lot of fun with 2 players, but if you can't find a buddy the AI tank does just fine. The graphics are well done, and include multiple sprites w/out any flicker! That's a very impressive accomplishment as I've often seen 3 sprites lined up in a row(remember, the Atari's limited to just 2 sprites). The only thing I didn't like was that SELECT didn't work to select a game variation - it returned to the main menu. I'd have preferred it if it worked like Marble Jumper.
Go Fish!, by Bob Montgomery
Nope, you haven't miscounted - there's really 8 games in the cartridge, making a great bargain even better! This is the original version of Go Fish!(an expanded version is available in the AtariAge store) which has been included as an Easter Egg. In Go Fish! you start out life as a small fish and can only eat fish the same size as you or smaller. Eventually you'll grow in size and can take on the larger fish. As you get larger you'll move slower, making it more difficult to avoid the bigger fish and the sharks. The inertial of the fish is very well done. Sound effects are pretty sparse, just an odd noise when you eat other fish. Only problem with Go Fish! is there's no instructions, so you have to figure out how to play on your own. Not having them in the manual is understandable, but they should have shown up in the on-screen instructions once the Easter Egg was triggered. Go Fish! is my favorite of the 1K mini games. If you've not found the Easter Egg just do an Atari Age forum search on keyword "fish" for all posts by "SpiceWare".
Next up, Crazy Balloon. I'm going have company in town this week, so it'll be at least a week before this review is up.
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