r_type2600

Hey, I don't want to play it to the bones now. Want to preserve that excitement for when I have the physical cartridge release! I gave the game several more runs on the emulator, yet with all the points you raised, I still can't really find any notable weaknesses. Menu, controls - work great Sound effects - seem to be spot on, as far as the 2600 allows. Gameplay - smooth and fast. Difficulty levels, ramp up, replay value - 3 levels seem to be sufficient, but ok, I sure would not complain if there were a couple more to warrant longevity. Scoring, Score recording, Bonus lives - seem to follow the arcade original point for point. Don't see what more one should ask for. Differences to the arcade version - I noted the missing stars background. Would be nice, but attributing this to the VCS limitations, I can very well live without it. New features - Scramble is THE classic horizontal shooter, the game that invented the genre, and a well-rounded game experience anyway. Adding features would just detract from the joy of having such a faithful translation of an essential arcade classic on the VCS . If one wants to expand on it (and consequently change it) then give us "Super Scramble". But leave this game experience as pure as it is now. If John can be tempted to work on a follow-up game (such as Sea Dragon or Tail of Beta Lyrae known from the 400/800 or the obscure arcade game Scorpion from zaccaria), that would be the opportunity to suggest new features/ideas/levels and expand on the original game

Funtastic ! So great to see ChampGames back, and with a side-scroller on the VCS, no less! Really unexpected and impressing achievement, would not have expected the gameplay of a classic sidescrolling shooter being so perfectly translated to the 2600. Everything else topnotch as well - graphics, sound, presentation. Can't really see any possible improvements - game appears perfect to me, and am looking forward to its release on the AA store.

Amazing stuff, so cool that you've injected a new dimension into those games. Other Trak-ball games? Hmm, how about the good old classic Basketball? - the arcade version used them. I guess the big challenge would be to implement simultaneous two players trakball control...

Ianoid !!

Even if indirectly, it's ironic that he's referring to a site called "mogelpower" (=cheating power) to boost his credibility.

I hear you. Same for 2600 Incredible Hulk. Just another take on Pong, IMO.

Having just discovered another cool space shooter in development for the 2600 - Point Zero - it reminded me of this other very promising homebrew, of which we have not heard of for a while. Looks like the author has been taken up by RL meanwhile, but I hope he will resume work on this game sooner or later, it has so much potential and what's there is already very appealing!

Thanks for resurrecting this thread, had completely missed it initially, glad to have discovered this little gem now :-) Great game, feels and plays a lot like an Imagic game, and is very fun and captivating too! Particularly taken by the novel (at least for a 2600 game) power-up elements, shades of Galaga here. And how often have we seen a challenging boss level on a 2600 game? The game might still need a bit of polishing here and there (for instance the Game Over face is a nice idea, but not fitting for such a space shooter game, IMO. Also the game should revert back to the title screen after a while) Really hope this gets the deserved cartridge release, surely belongs into any well-sorted 2600 homebrew library.

That's one great little game, full of gameplay and with a well rounded-up feel to it. Very nice !!! A couple of (cosmetic) suggestions: - for diversity in the long run, it would be neat to have varying background color patterns, say every 10 rooms (think Missile Command, etc.) Should be simple enough to implement. - for variety on the title screen, I thought it would be cool to feature the ninja on it, continuously bouncing off the various sides of the screen and the game logo. You would have to change the color of the background then (since the ninja's also black) - like dark blue for example. - ok, that one may be too much for your targeted 4K, but let me just drop the suggestion anyway. It's always nice to include some kind of Bonus gameplay incentive, which adds another layer to a game. How about some bonus "lampoon" occasionally appearing on a wall that the player can (but doesn't have to) grab for some reward against the risk of delaying his progress/ being caught by the death beam. Not sure what that reward could be for the current version of this game though (the standard would be a score bonus, but since your game doesn't have one...)

I think at this point it is overdue to nominate airgames for the 2600 Collectors Hall of Fame.

Yoda = Hulk dopo "vaffanculo"

November is the new April.

Thanks for the inspiring review (as always), sounds like one movie to check out. Talking about positively weird scifi films - ever heard of "The Quiet Earth"? Stumbled across this by chance, and it really left a lasting impression on me. A New Zealand post-apocalyptic film that carries that typical early 80es vibe and has aged rather well.

Me too prefers the old font (and colors). Great game in any case, and I love how recently 2600 programmers are treating us not only with a steady flow of highly enjoyable homebrews, but also multiple versions/variations (Star Caste, DK, 2048/Three.s) Thomas, if Mondrian's on your mind currently, you might want to check out the following game for the iOS: http://toucharcade.com/2010/01/05/mondrian-a-challenging-puzzler-that-you-didnt-know-you-wanted/

Me too !

Frankly, I was not seeing the point of an updated Circus Atari, but am all converted now - Circus AtariAge promises to become another deeply addicting and immediately absorbing new homebrew for the 2600, joining the likes of Lady Bug, Toyshop Trouble or Lead, to name a few. Really impressed by the love to detail - for example the "living" letters in the "provisional" title screen are a great touch. Of course looking forward how the indicated real title screen can eventually topple this one. But it would be a pity if the demo title screen gets scrapped and lost. Suggestion - how about keeping it as the basis for a series of intermissions, whenever a new gameplay element is being introduced? For variation, the little stickmen could then go through different animations for each succeeding intermission (maybe in two phases: first a celebration, followed by a little sketch introducing the next element)

78 for me please

I would make exactly the same ranking. There are other poorly ported games, but those three are really depressing spots in the 2600 library as the original versions are gems with captivating gameplay and lots of atmosphere - the ports look like early works of Cecilia Gimenez. They really scream for getting the proper treatment on the VCS. Zaxxon sure is a travesty of the arcade version, but it's never really been a fun game anyway IMO, so why bother....

Bumping this extremely promising kickstarter project. Give it a look and also check the abundant updates to ascertain yourself this book author takes his project as well as his supporters very seriously.

Bump for a superb Blog. Anybody interested in Arcade history ought to check up the many great in-depth articles, in particular on the smaller manufacturers. Thanks Keith for a profoundly researched, well written, very entertaining and informative read !

It definitely has an ending, if not several - it's been a long time since I've played that one through (it takes quite a while), but IIRC the end is graphically slightly different depending on the character you play (similar to Zarlor Mercenary).

Originated from atarigames.com Cool to hear that Franz Lanzinger was involved with this. He really had a golden hand for whimsical yet addictive games. Crystal Castles of course (a pity he never got to do a true sequel to this), but also the Tengen update to Ms Pac Man - pure game fun at its best with its dozens of clever new mazes and subtle gameplay additions...

"Moi" please...

Really awesome!!! I love the originality of the backgrounds It's always nice to see conversions of classics on our retro-systems, but what really injects new life to them are games with an original edge And with these very cool Atari related locations, the game already got all the marks Gives them a touch of that typical Lynx / Jaguar oddity ... Will be definitely great if you can pack in quite a few more original scenes. (how about a couple of locations revisiting some Lynx games for example) Hope you will also get to animate the background characters to some extent. A superb effort in any case

So does this mean we can hope that the "release version" will be pumped up with all the great improvements you have planned ? What's there looks very promising and is already quite entertaining, it would be most desirable to see this clever game raised to its full potential - e.g. another exciting and addicting homebrew based on an all original concept. This game could become another modern classic for the 2600, just as Toyshop Trouble, Lead, and hopefully one day Man goes down (to name a few).