Off the Wall=Breakout and Sprintmaster=Indy 500?

[Room 34]

I have recently been expanding my red label Atari 2600 collection, and I was somewhat surprised at two of my recent acquisitions and their similarity to very early Atari games. The only real differences I see are enhanced graphics and use of the joystick controller.

 

Off the Wall is, of course, just a rehash of Breakout, albeit with more interesting graphics and a few twists. This came out around the same time as 7800 Ninja Golf, if I remember correctly. What's the deal with late-'80s Atari and its drug-induced martial arts game concepts? Anyway, this is not as awkward with a joystick as I would have imagined. (Put it this way -- I find it easier to play than Gremlins.) A fairly fun game, and nice use of some Breakout-like sounds as well!

 

I was really amazed at how much Sprintmaster is like Indy 500. (Then again, so is the arcade game.) But I must say, using the joystick for a game like this seems very awkward. This leads me to my main point here.

 

It seems to me that Atari had two intentions in creating these rehash games in the late '80s:

 

[*]Update "classic" Atari ideas with better graphics and slightly enhanced gameplay to appeal to a late-'80s audience

[*]Make these "classic"-style games use the joystick, since by this point the joystick was the only controller they were selling

[Ze_ro]

I think they were just attempts at making better versions of the games. However, Off The Wall was actually an arcade game seperate from Breakout. It's completely different from what the 2600 version is for some reason though...

 

I'm not sure why they didn't make these games use the paddle/driving controllers... they could have just put it in as an option, like, put the right difficulty switch to B to use driving controllers or something. I guess they figured not enough people had them for some reason.

 

--Zero

[Room 34]

Are you sure Atari 2600 "Off the Wall" had anything to do with the arcade version(s)?

 

I did a search and found two completely different arcade coin-ops called "Off the Wall":

 

Bally-Sente 1984

This one looks like some kind of bizarre volleyball/tennis/racquetball type game.

 

Atari 1991

Since this is made by Atari you might expect it to be related. But this actually came out a couple of years after the 2600 game. It looks a bit like Arkanoid to me. Both are obvious derivatives of "Breakout" but obviously going in different directions conceptually.

[davidbrit2]

Take a look at this hack:

http://www.atariage.com/hack_page.html?Sys...ftwareHackID=44

I'll bet the control is amazing. Oh, how I wish I had a Cuttle Cart to try it out.

[Room 34]

Very cool hack! (Nice work Thomas!)

 

I too wish I had a Cuttle Cart!

 

And a second driving controller.

[Rob Mitchell]

Take a look at this hack:

http://www.atariage.com/hack_page.html?Sys...ftwareHackID=44

I'll bet the control is amazing. Oh, how I wish I had a Cuttle Cart to try it out.

 

Well I did try out Thomas' hack .. and it does use the driving controller .. but the game still suffers because there are fewer angles of orientation of the car (as opposed to 16 angles of orientation of Indy 500 car). If Thomas could hack in more angles of car orientation into Sprintmaster .. then it could be a much better game. Heck .. just completely replace the Sprintmaster cars with Indy 500 cars!

 

Thomas .. Looks like off the wall needs to have a paddle hack!

and Beamrider needs a Driving Controller hack!

 

Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

[somePUNK]

hey i'm a huge fan a grimlems as we all know and it rocks the whole game!

 

I have no clue whats going on with these carts though why a paddle control that sounds aful

[Room 34]

hey i'm a huge fan a grimlems as we all know and it rocks the whole game!

 

I didn't say Gremlins was a bad game. I just said I find Off the Wall easier to play. But now that I rethink it (and having played a few games of Off the Wall again last night), I'm not so sure. Off the Wall is pretty @!#?@! hard!

 

I have no clue whats going on with these carts though why a paddle control that sounds aful

 

Have you played Off the Wall? It is basically the same as Breakout, but with a joystick you're stuck with a fixed maximum speed you can move, unlike with paddles, where you can move as fast as you can turn the paddle. Try playing Astroblast with the joystick and then with the paddle and you'll see what I mean.