Wanted: Feedback For Crack'ed & Dark Chambers

[nosweargamer]

I'm looking for feedback for the next episode of the Atari 7800 Game By Game Podcast (you can find it on iTunes, Stitcher, YouTube or use this feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/78gbg )

What are your memories and/or thoughts on Crack'ed & Dark Chambers on the 7800?

Also, how would you rate them? I use a system of 4 choices (From Best to Worst):

Hall of Fame Game (Top 5 game on the system)

Solid Game

"Meh" Game

Trash Game (Bottom 5 game on the system)

These games will be covered on Episode 15.

You can also e-mail text or audio to atari7800podcast@aol.com

Just keep it family friendly

You can also send feedback on previously covered games or the system itself. Thanks!

[Nutsy Doodleheimer]

Cracked: Could be a solid game or even a Hall of Fame game if you had light gun support. It is a meh game. It's frustrating with the joystick and it plagues the fun out of the game which actually seems to be a pretty fun one.

 

Dark Chambers: Also a meh game. It is a fun game don't get me wrong. It's pretty tedious. And requires a lot of backtracking and even drawing maps. If your character moves a bit faster it would be less boring. Not too much of a challenge either.Gauntlet is the much better and superior game between the two.

[Ska_music_fan83]

Cracked: Besides the round with the rooster that is extremely difficult, the rest of the game I found to be enjoyable. I give it a solid rating.

 

Dark Chambers: Its fine for a few levels but then it gets boring and tedious after a while. I give it a meh rating.

Edited July 31, 2015 by Ska_music_fan83

[BydoEmpire]

Dark Chambers: Meh. I tried. I really tried. It has so much promise, but it's so tedious and completely lacking in fun. I wouldn't say bottom 5 of the system, but pretty close due to how far it was from my expectations.

[DracIsBack]

I'd give both a "meh". Crack'ed a "low meh" and Dark Chambers a "high meh".

 

On Crack'ed. It's just too hard to play, IMO. I'd consider it trash if there weren't games I hated a lot more though. If it was a light gun game, it might be different. And I hate the bonus levels. I will say, some of the screens are really nice in it graphically, just don't find it much fun.

 

On Dark Chambers, it was one of the first "NES like" big games on the 7800. It's got 26 multi-way scrolling levels; a neat "resurrect your friend" feature as well as 2-player action; a cool title screen and intro music, and it shows off the 7800's ability to move a lot of objects around the screen.

 

My biggest gripe with it is that I find it repetitive. It's just not interesting enough for me to play regularly. I hate actually beaten the game, only to have it repeat. Boo!

 

History remembers it as a "Gauntlet rip off", but reality is both it and Gauntlet are derivatives of Dandy Dungeon.

Edited July 31, 2015 by DracIsBack

[gambler172]

Both are solid games for me

[AtariTexas]

Both games to me are just meh. Neither really holds my interest.....dark chambers holds it just a tad more but that tad is thimble sized

[oyamafamily]

Dark Chambers - HALL OF FAME for me. It's my TOP FAVORITE game on 7800 system.

Crack'ed - MEH for me.

[Lynxpro]

Crack'ed should be a Trak-Ball game had an actual 2-button 7800 Trak-Ball controller been released, or had there been an easy way to mod the CX-22 or CX-80 for second fire buttons.

 

Dark Chambers would make an excellent base for skinning into Gauntlet. I'm surprised it hasn't been done yet.

[Bakasama]

 

Crack'ed should be a Trak-Ball game had an actual 2-button 7800 Trak-Ball controller been released, or had there been an easy way to mod the CX-22 or CX-80 for second fire buttons.

 

Dark Chambers would make an excellent base for skinning into Gauntlet. I'm surprised it hasn't been done yet.

 

 

Considering Dark Chambers is based on game Dandy which also inspired Gauntlet, yeah, I think that can be done.

[atari-dna]

Cracke'd holds a warm nostalgia for me, although the gameplay is crippled by lack of actual light gun support. As is, "Meh". If retrofitted for the light gun, it could be in serious contention for "Solid". Opportunity wasted.

 

Dark Chambers is a neat concept but doesn't hold my attention very long. As a Gauntlet clone most of the core elements are there, but without the thrill of stretching quarters the thrill is somewhat muted. Without the ghostly narrator egging you on or the dynamics of contending with other players (stealing potions and food, backstabbers!!) this game doesn't live up to its potential either. "Meh"

[DracIsBack]

As a Gauntlet clone most of the core elements are there

 

It's not a Gauntlet clone. :-) Fascinating history with that game. Gauntlet is a variant of Dandy; and Dark Chambers is a remake of Dandy.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dandy_(video_game)

 

http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/50

Edited August 7, 2015 by DracIsBack

[Lynxpro]

 

It's not a Gauntlet clone. :-) Fascinating history with that game. Gauntlet is a variant of Dandy; and Dark Chambers is a remake of Dandy.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dandy_(video_game)

 

http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/50

 

 

Dark Chambers is a Gauntlet'ified update/re-imagining of Dandy.

 

It's kinda like how Star Wars was made because George Lucas couldn't get King Features to license him Flash Gordon and then with the success of Star Wars, a Flash Gordon movie was made which took into consideration elements from Star Wars.

 

What's even more mind boggling is John Palevich worked on the AMY sound chip during his employment at Atari Advanced Research. Had Atari Inc survived, it would've been finished - or at least could be understood to work which the later Atari Corp couldn't get it to work without the original staff - and then Atari Coin/Games would've used it in their arcade games instead of Yamaha's YM2151. Gauntlet the arcade game ended up with a YM2151 when it probably would've had an AMY had John & Co. finished it. That would've been interesting…an internal dispute between Atari Advanced Research & Atari Coin over Gauntlet.

 

Dude…the 7800 needs a homebrew adaptation of Flash Gordon - The Movie in its library. Hell, the 7800 needs a homebrew game of Brian Blessed punching out polar bears as he's done in real life.

Edited August 10, 2015 by Lynxpro

[+frankodragon]

Crack'ed could of used Alien Brigade's controls but instead, it felt awkward so it's a "meh" game.

 

 

Dark Chambers is also in the "meh" category. Maybe if it had more speed and less putting players to sleep, it could be a good game.

[+save2600]

Dark Chambers is a solid 7800 game IMO. A meh game if say, it were available for other systems of the time though. Poor mans Gauntlet for sure.

 

Crack'ed receives a "meh" from me.

[ave1]

Crack'ed can be played with a two button trackball made by Sega (the U.S. version "Sega Sportspad") when plugged into an Edladdin Seagull78 adapter.

 

The trackball offers proper directional movement of the gun-site/cursor but only moves around at a single speed- thus it is not at all analog. You can get some accuracy with this trackball, but the lack of fast-speed aiming of the gun-site makes it not such a great experience. Some may not dislike it, but it's definitely an acquired taste.

Edited August 24, 2015 by ave1

[Lynxpro]

Crack'ed can be played with a two button trackball made by Sega (the U.S. version "Sega Sportspad") when plugged into an Edladdin Seagull78 adapter.

 

The trackball offers proper directional movement of the gun-site/cursor but only moves around at a single speed- thus it is not at all analog. You can get some accuracy with this trackball, but the lack of fast-speed aiming of the gun-site makes it not such a great experience. Some may not dislike it, but it's definitely an acquired taste.

 

And this is because the Sega Sports Pad is emulating the joystick. The upside is it has 2-button support whereas if you use an unmodified Atari CX-22 or CX-80, even if native Trak-Ball mode was included, you'd only have 1-fire button support and not true Trak-Ball support.

 

See, that's the thing about Crack'ed…even if you modded it for light gun support, you'd be missing the 2nd fire button. You'd have to do a button mod on the light gun. The upside would be you could operate it like Taito's arcade original version of Operation Wolf where there was a button to the side of the Uzi that was used to throw hand grenades.

 

 

Continuing, I guess you could rewire the CX-22 or CX-80 to have a second fire button or do it like Video 61 who sells a fake "7800 Trak-Ball" where they've modded a CX-80 to use the left button as Fire 1 and the right as Fire 2 but that is awkward and you'd still have the Trak-Ball emulating the joystick until someone hacked the game to support it properly. Or you could mod the controller further and add more fire buttons to it like Arcade USA - the YouTube channel - did with a CX-22 to ultimately play A8 3 Base Missile Command if it's ever released.

Edited August 28, 2015 by Lynxpro

[BydoEmpire]

Listening to this episode makes me want to pick up Crack'ed and give it a shot... and give Dark Chambers another chance... I'm hesitant to do the latter, though, I will likely only be let down again.

[BydoEmpire]

I played Dark Chambers a bit this morning and it was actually better than I remembered. Novice still sucks, but Standard and Advanced levels were reasonably fun. Still somewhere on the border between "meh" and "solid" for me, but it's definitely not a bad game. I was also playing with the 7800 pad, and that helps a lot. I probably used the PainLines last time I played it.