+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted July 28, 2022 Author Share Posted July 28, 2022 EVERY Atari 2600 Game released in 1982 (Part 1)! The Atari 2600's 45th Anniversary Countdown continues tonight with the first part all the classic 2600 games released to the public in 1982 such as Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Defender, Yars' Revenge and Demon Attack! What is your favourite game from the first part of 1982? (list below) Wed Jul 27, 2022 @ (LIVE @ 8PM PT | 7PM ET | 3AM GMT+1DAY WATCH LIVE: https://twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/ WATCH LATER: https://youtube.com/zeropagehomebrew/ (WATCH AT 1080P60 FOR BEST QUALITY) Spoiler Air Raid Jan 1, 1982 Cubicolor Jan 1, 1982 Eli's Ladder Jan 1, 1982 Exocet Missile Jan 1, 1982 Phantom Tank Jan 1, 1982 Robot Commando Raid Jan 1, 1982 Seamonster Jan 1, 1982 Tax Avoiders Jan 1, 1982 Haunted House Jan 31, 1982 Spacechase Feb 6, 1982 Space Jockey Feb 9, 1982 Barnstorming Mar 7, 1982 Grand Prix Mar 7, 1982 Pac-Man Mar 16, 1982 Demon Attack Mar 28, 1982 Star Voyager Mar 28, 1982 Trick Shot Mar 28, 1982 Yars' Revenge Apr 21, 1982 Space Cavern May 13, 1982 Defender Jun 3, 1982 Chopper Command Jun 6, 1982 Lochjaw Jun 6, 1982 Racquetball Jun 6, 1982 Starmaster Jun 6, 1982 Lost Luggage Jun 13, 1982 Gangster Alley Jul 1, 1982 Planet Patrol Jul 1, 1982 Demons to Diamonds Jul 4, 1982 Math Gran Prix Jul 4, 1982 Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back Jul 8, 1982 Atlantis Jul 18, 1982 Cosmic Ark Jul 18, 1982 Donkey Kong Jul 21, 1982 Frogger Jul 21, 1982 Astroblast Jul 24, 1982 Space Attack Jul 24, 1982 Super Challenge Baseball Jul 24, 1982 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+johnnywc Posted July 28, 2022 Share Posted July 28, 2022 Wow - lots of good ones in that list! My favorites are Defender, Yars' Revenge, Haunted House, Frogger, Demon Attack and Barnstorming. Top one is tough to choose, but I'll have to go with Yar's Revenge. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Cafeman Posted July 28, 2022 Share Posted July 28, 2022 I got my 2600 in May 1982 and there were lots of games to pick from that year. Haunted House, Pac-man and Defender were my first carts. I remember playing them during the days of summer vacation that we werent away camping. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted July 28, 2022 Share Posted July 28, 2022 1 hour ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said: The Atari 2600's 45th Anniversary Countdown continues tonight with the first part all the classic 2600 games released to the public in 1982 such as Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Defender, Yars' Revenge and Demon Attack! What is your favourite game from the first part of 1982? (list below) Let the glut begin! I remember eagerly waiting for Chopper Command and Starmaster, since our local video store (Video Hut) had pre-release flyers for them (and I think Electronic Games may have run ads prior to their release too). Both very impressive games - Starmaster absolutely destroyed the recently-released Star Voyager and I also remember thinking "If Activision can make Chopper Command, why does Atari's Defender suck so bad?" Speaking of Atari games that suck, I was able to try out most games before buying them at Video Hut. That still didn't stop me from buying Pac-Man though, because I hoped it would somehow be better when I got it home. It wasn't. I returned it (the store was very reluctant to take it back, but they knew I was going to turn around and immediately plunk down the money on something else). Atari really fell out of favor with me during this stretch. I don't think I bought Yars' Revenge until after the crash. Even then - not my favorite. I bought Grand Prix because I loved racing games and it had amazing graphics. The gameplay was incredibly disappointing though. I hated the merciless collision detection. I may be one of the few people who genuinely like Spacechase. Still do. Keep in mind that at the time, this was one of the earliest third-party games for the system, and the scrolling planet looked very cool (and with the right game variation, it actually plays pretty well). As big of a Star Wars nerd as I am, truth be told - The Empire Strikes Back (as a 2600 game) was tedious and boring. One game, and I've pretty-much had enough of it. Atlantis and Cosmic Ark were visually two of the most impressive games to come out at the time. But I don't particularly care for either one. I was never very good at either - the difficulty topped out too fast for me. I have to give a shoutout to Super Challenge Baseball. It's still a really good baseball game, but really hurt by a lack of a single-player option. So from this list, one game stands out as something I still enjoy playing to this day: Demon Attack. That's my favorite. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orange808 Posted July 28, 2022 Share Posted July 28, 2022 Yeah. Defender was very disappointing. Using a sprite instead of the playfield to draw the Defender ship's lasers was an odd design choice. The invisibility and invincibility when the player shoots completely changes the game. It doesn't really feel like Defender. Still better than Pac Man, though. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwentySixHundred Posted July 28, 2022 Share Posted July 28, 2022 Defender was a big one for me, really enjoyed that game and is a top pick when i feel like playing some 2600. I can excuse it's flaws as back then i never knew of any other version. Planet Patrol i played a lot aswell although these days i get bored as there just isn't much to the game. I can't wait for the StarMaster by activision review as i feel that's an underrated gem on the system. As a kid it really felt like i was on an galactic journey saving the universe 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted July 28, 2022 Share Posted July 28, 2022 Definitely Starmaster for me (with Cosmic Ark in 2nd place). For me it was the first game with strategic depth. That was very unique. And especially on Starmaster level, you need a lot of strategy (and skill) to rescue all four stations. I owned only four carts back then (they were really expensive) and Starmaster was the most expensive one. But we swapped carts, so I played a few other games too. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted July 28, 2022 Share Posted July 28, 2022 (edited) Just started watching the latest show. Air Raid is from the US, info can be found here. And the game uses Space Jockey code. Edited July 28, 2022 by Thomas Jentzsch 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted July 28, 2022 Author Share Posted July 28, 2022 2 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said: Just started watching the latest show. Air Raid is from the US, info can be found here. And the game uses Space Jockey code. You're right, I think I was thinking of Extra Terrestrials, that's the rare Canadian game. I've make a note to correct that information in the next episode. - James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted July 28, 2022 Share Posted July 28, 2022 Tip for Demon Attack: The bottom enemy does not move over your gun. Which can be used to your advantage. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted July 31, 2022 Author Share Posted July 31, 2022 EVERY Atari 2600 Game released in 1982 (Part 2)! The Atari 2600's 45th Anniversary Countdown continues tomorrow morning with the second part of all the classic 2600 games released to the public in 1982 such as MegaMania, Pitfall!, Berzerk, The Riddle of the Sphinx and Mouse Trap! What is your favourite game from the second part of 1982? (list below) Sun Jul 31, 2022 @ (LIVE @ 10AM PT | 1PM ET | 5PM GMT) WATCH LIVE: https://twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/ WATCH LATER: https://youtube.com/zeropagehomebrew/ Spoiler Super Challenge Football Jul 24, 1982 Sneak 'N Peek Aug 1, 1982 Word Zapper Aug 1, 1982 Berzerk Aug 8, 1982 Riddle of the Sphinx Aug 8, 1982 King Kong Aug 12, 1982 Lock 'n' Chase Aug 19, 1982 Cosmic Swarm Aug 20, 1982 Room of Doom Aug 20, 1982 Fire Fighter Aug 22, 1982 Star Raiders Aug 22, 1982 Threshold Aug 26, 1982 Infiltrate Aug 29, 1982 Pitfall! Sep 2, 1982 Communist Mutants from Space (cassette) Sep 3, 1982 Fireball (cassette) Sep 3, 1982 Phaser Patrol (cassette) Sep 3, 1982 Suicide Mission (cassette) Sep 3, 1982 Submarine Commander Sep 5, 1982 Venture Sep 5, 1982 Armor Ambush Sep 16, 1982 Beany Bopper Sep 16, 1982 Frogs and Flies Sep 16, 1982 Megamania Sep 26, 1982 Mouse Trap Oct 3, 1982 RealSports Baseball Oct 3, 1982 RealSports Volleyball Oct 6, 1982 Deadly Duck Oct 7, 1982 Fast Eddie Oct 7, 1982 Jawbreaker Oct 7, 1982 Worm War I Oct 7, 1982 Commando Raid Oct 9, 1982 Towering Inferno Oct 13, 1982 Swordquest: Earthworld Oct 17, 1982 Airlock Oct 21, 1982 Bugs Oct 21, 1982 Encounter at L-5 Oct 21, 1982 Sssnake Oct 21, 1982 Warplock Oct 21, 1982 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted July 31, 2022 Share Posted July 31, 2022 5 hours ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said: What is your favourite game from the second part of 1982? (list below) Berzerk really impressed me as Atari's closest-yet arcade port on the 2600, and Megamania was a great shooter... but I'm giving it to Pitfall! The buzz around Pitfall! was huge when it came out, and I put it on my Christmas list that year. My parents bought it for me, and I remember being so blown away by that. Not just the game (which I spent hours upon hours playing and mapping out), but that my parents, who really didn't know anything about video games, braved going into a store somewhere (probably Sears) during the holiday shopping madness, and dealing with salespeople trying to sell them a kajillion other games, or other systems, or other games for other systems, wading through all of the confusion and craziness, and making sure they got the exact game I wanted. The right game, for the right system. Not being cajoled or duped into buying something else. That impressed me then, and I'm still deeply nostalgic for Pitfall! because of that. And I had a lot of fun playing it, too. Favorite Christmas present ever. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwentySixHundred Posted July 31, 2022 Share Posted July 31, 2022 Couple of good ones i had on the system BITD. I was lucky as my first 2600 was the JR in 87 so my mothers boyfriend gave me like 30 games in a plastic bag as hand-me-downs. Bezerk was one from the list. Great fun "exploring" from room to room blasting robots trying to get a PB. Megamania another i cherished and remember i used to think it was an Space Invaders type shooter on steroids. My mothers boyfriend had all these made up names for the enemies of each stage i found really funny. The game was solid and had decent enemy variety. Mousetrap i liked the concept as you could save the bones and activate when near the cats rather than the mechanics Pac Man had. Lastly Venture was another i really enjoyed exploring and collecting all the treasures. Only part i didn't like was there is only two stages so it left me wanting more variety. As for Pitfall i always was jealous of a friend that had it. Sadly i never owned those till in the 90's when picking them up in a thrift store. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vitoco Posted July 31, 2022 Share Posted July 31, 2022 I think that the only games I played by those years were Star Raiders and Berzerk, and I had fun with both. BTW, the time converter link for today's show is wrong. Also, instead of PT time, the link should use GMT time to avoid international daylight savings confussions. So, the next show will be at this time. I hope to join at some point. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orange808 Posted July 31, 2022 Share Posted July 31, 2022 Lock 'n' Chase is a really good one. Berzerk is great, too. It's still fun to "dodge" bullets by letting them pass through the player's neck. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveM Posted July 31, 2022 Share Posted July 31, 2022 I think you showed the wrong game today. You played Swordquest Fireworld instead of Swordquest Earthworld. They both suck. ? 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orange808 Posted July 31, 2022 Share Posted July 31, 2022 1 hour ago, DaveM said: I think you showed the wrong game today. You played Swordquest Fireworld instead of Swordquest Earthworld. They both suck. ? Agreed. I do see a grain of inspiration in there. It's just not realized. Needs to be revisited. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted July 31, 2022 Author Share Posted July 31, 2022 6 hours ago, DaveM said: I think you showed the wrong game today. You played Swordquest Fireworld instead of Swordquest Earthworld. They both suck. ? You're right, I grabbed the wrong terrible game! I'll make a correction in the next stream and we'll play EarthWorld right at the top. Fireworld isn't due until the beginning of 1983's games. So bad... so very very bad. - James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted July 31, 2022 Author Share Posted July 31, 2022 9 hours ago, vitoco said: BTW, the time converter link for today's show is wrong. Also, instead of PT time, the link should use GMT time to avoid international daylight savings confussions. So, the next show will be at this time. I hope to join at some point. I've now changed all the times in the schedule to be in GMT since it doesn't have daylight savings time, thank you so much for the suggestion! - James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+johnnywc Posted August 1, 2022 Share Posted August 1, 2022 Got some pretty good ones in that batch. Berzerk, Megamania and Pitfall are classics. I remember renting Towering Inferno and Venture for a dollar each I think - both were lots of fun! RS Volleyball was the best of the RS series IMO, and Worm War I and Commando Raid were favorites also. Tops out of the bunch would have to be Berzerk though... nothing better than shooting robots and running away from Evil Otto! ? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+GoldLeader Posted August 1, 2022 Share Posted August 1, 2022 9 minutes ago, johnnywc said: Got some pretty good ones in that batch. Berzerk, Megamania and Pitfall are classics. I remember renting Towering Inferno and Venture for a dollar each I think - both were lots of fun! RS Volleyball was the best of the RS series IMO, and Worm War I and Commando Raid were favorites also. Tops out of the bunch would have to be Berzerk though... nothing better than shooting robots and running away from Evil Otto! ? Whoa! You could rent Atari games? That's Awesome! That never happened around here...Until the NES...I bought Towering Inferno one day on a whim (and nothing else on the shelves I wanted) and was glad I did! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted August 1, 2022 Author Share Posted August 1, 2022 45 minutes ago, GoldLeader said: Whoa! You could rent Atari games? That's Awesome! That never happened around here...Until the NES...I bought Towering Inferno one day on a whim (and nothing else on the shelves I wanted) and was glad I did! Ah, you have triggered a memory for me! I remember my parents renting an Atari 2600 and some games for my 10th birthday party in 1983. I can only remember renting Stampede amongst the games, not sure what the other ones were. That's too bad I didn't remember this story for the stream while we were playing Stampede! - James 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted August 1, 2022 Author Share Posted August 1, 2022 58 minutes ago, johnnywc said: Got some pretty good ones in that batch. Berzerk, Megamania and Pitfall are classics. I remember renting Towering Inferno and Venture for a dollar each I think - both were lots of fun! RS Volleyball was the best of the RS series IMO, and Worm War I and Commando Raid were favorites also. Tops out of the bunch would have to be Berzerk though... nothing better than shooting robots and running away from Evil Otto! ? Some very good games in the batch today (and some VERY bad ones). RS Volleyball was a great surprise! It had a very "realistic" feel to it, probably the only thing missing was diving for the ball! Berzerk is always excellent and I *love* Megamania such a great shooter. Communist Mutants from Space was probably a big standout for me today, some great things going on in that game! - James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveM Posted August 1, 2022 Share Posted August 1, 2022 3 hours ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said: 5 hours ago, DaveM said: I think you showed the wrong game today. You played Swordquest Fireworld instead of Swordquest Earthworld. They both suck. ? You're right, I grabbed the wrong terrible game! I'll make a correction in the next stream and we'll play EarthWorld right at the top. Fireworld isn't due to the beginning of 1983's games. So bad... so very very bad. Just please don't blame me for having to play 5 minutes of Earthworld. It is better than Fireworld, but that's not saying much. Quick Fireworld story - When our family went shopping as a kid, I always bugged my mom to get me an Atari game, and most of the time, the answer was no. But, I saw Fireworld, and I knew it had a contest connected to it, so I told my mom I could win $25,000 by playing the game, so she plunked down the $30 or whatever it cost and bought me the game. I was so excited - I finally got my mom to buy me a game! I got home, immediately stuck the cartridge in, started playing, and what a piece of crap it was. Despite that, I must've played for hours. Never got one clue to appear on screen. I then went through the manual and the comic book looking for help. I then had a look at the contest rules. The deadline for the contest had passed 3 months prior. ? I had never been so mad in my life. FINALLY got my mom to buy me a game, and not only is it a piece of crap, but the contest had expired. ? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted August 1, 2022 Share Posted August 1, 2022 1 hour ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said: Some very good games in the batch today (and some VERY bad ones). Yeah... get used to that. 1 hour ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said: RS Volleyball was a great surprise! It had a very "realistic" feel to it, probably the only thing missing was diving for the ball! I've always enjoyed that game. If you wait long enough, the sun sets and a shark swims by. 1 hour ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said: Berzerk is always excellent and I *love* Megamania such a great shooter. Communist Mutants from Space was probably a big standout for me today, some great things going on in that game! The one thing that bugged me about Megamania (and does to this day) is that when you die, everything just stops. No explosion. No debris. No nothing. Just *stop* and fade-out. It's very un-satisfying. Especially after the spectacular player-ship explosion in Demon Attack. Not a fan of Communist Mutants at all. I felt it was a massive step back, in that you were just shooting blocks that looked like they were from Breakout, and the aliens looked no better than 2600 Space Invaders had two years earlier. Where was all this vaunted graphics power the SuperCharger was supposed to bring? Completely underwhelmed. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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