Jump to content
IGNORED

3 + 3 Thoughts on Atari 50


kisrael

Recommended Posts

I finished "Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration" - I'm glad the podcast "Get Played" covered it, and reminded me to treat it as a museum exhibit, rather than a collection of games that happened to include a proper version of "Food Fight".

Some things I learned or was reminded of about Atari:

1. The arcade game "Crystal Castles" has a cool feature where the current high score initials are turned into structures behind the first level. That's pretty dope!
maxresdefault_560.jpg

2. The bat in 2600 "Adventure" is one of the best NPCs ever. I used to lock him away by stuffing him in the golden castle, but playing a round of Version 2 and letting him add his chaotic element to the game... it's brilliant, he just flaps around, carrying random items doing inscrutable bat things - you just catch these glimpses, then he gets interested in whatever you're carrying and swoop into steal it... but often you can grab him at the same time, so you and him and the item move around in lock step and you try to get done what you needed the item for before he wriggles free... just pure genius.
hqdefault.jpg

3. The comic book that came with Yar's Revenge goes hard, like a Moebius comic. (Well... completely stupid story but the art is really cool.)
yarsrevengecomic03_560.jpg

And three criticisms:

1. They really failed in covering 3rd party games (Activision, Imagic, etc) and even big licenses (Star Wars the arcade game, the Indiana Jones games, or even the infamous E.T.) I could understand if the ROMs would be hard to license, but as a historical reference they could have made SOME kind of referencing or cataloging.

2. I think they shortplayed the whole Atari BASIC scene (and maybe the magazines, like Antic and Analog). Not to mention stuff like the Atari Program eXchange APX - the first big attempt to make a shareware community happen, like a "Steam" store for the 80s... But also the BASIC was good for sound and simple graphics, but it barely gets mentioned, except indirectly via ads from the era.

3. Ernest "Ready Player One". Cline. Ugh. Such an overrated work, its tongue bath of the 80s pop culture is embarrassing even to a Gen-Xer like me who sometimes swims in the 80s retro. (Yeah I do have a grudge, having consulted on a much better novel centered on video games, "Constellation Games")

  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Cebus Capucinis said:

I'm one of the minority who wholeheartedly agrees with your #3. I couldn't even read Ready Player One past the first couple chapters because it just felt like everything was this hamfisted Family Guy-esque forced "Hey guys, REMEMBER THIS?!!!"

The book was mostly-tolerable in that regard, but the movie cranked it up to 111.  It's one of those films where I'm glad we Redboxed it instead of actually buying tickets for it, because at even 1.99 for the rental that was still about $3 more than sitting through it was worth.  The incessant - and obnoxious - nostalgia-bombing became old really effing quick.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Cebus Capucinis said:

I'm one of the minority who wholeheartedly agrees with your #3. I couldn't even read Ready Player One past the first couple chapters because it just felt like everything was this hamfisted Family Guy-esque forced "Hey guys, REMEMBER THIS?!!!"

Yeah, and combined with the "Marty Stu" protagonist and weak sauce world building... i remember liking the giant robot fight aspect but overall, bleh - especially since I know there are much more thoughtful works playing with games conceptually.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 hours ago, kisrael said:

2. The bat in 2600 "Adventure" is one of the best NPCs ever. I used to lock him away by stuffing him in the golden castle, but playing a round of Version 2 and letting him add his chaotic element to the game... it's brilliant, he just flaps around, carrying random items doing inscrutable bat things - you just catch these glimpses, then he gets interested in whatever you're carrying and swoop into steal it... but often you can grab him at the same time, so you and him and the item move around in lock step and you try to get done what you needed the item for before he wriggles free... just pure genius.

Yeah the bat added lots of extra challenges.   Sometimes you get swallowed by a dragon,  the bat grabs the dragon, and you can grab the bat and guide it around the kingdom even though you're technically dead :)

 

Other fun we've had with the bat:  sometimes you find the bat frozen in place.   It will stay frozen until it spots an item or dragon.   We'd try to play the entire game without unfreezing the bat,  maybe try to move it to the yellow castle so it's out of the way

 

Similarly sometimes I find the bat when it wasn't carrying an item.   Once it grabs an item it will always have one,  so we'd try to prevent the bat from grabbing anything by hiding all the items

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, zzip said:

Yeah the bat added lots of extra challenges.   Sometimes you get swallowed by a dragon,  the bat grabs the dragon, and you can grab the bat and guide it around the kingdom even though you're technically dead :)

 

Other fun we've had with the bat:  sometimes you find the bat frozen in place.   It will stay frozen until it spots an item or dragon.   We'd try to play the entire game without unfreezing the bat,  maybe try to move it to the yellow castle so it's out of the way

 

Similarly sometimes I find the bat when it wasn't carrying an item.   Once it grabs an item it will always have one,  so we'd try to prevent the bat from grabbing anything by hiding all the items

 

Yeah it gets funny with the bat at times... When it has my sword that I need to slay the dragons, I end up holding the bat that's holding the sword.

 

In my mind's eye, I'm weilding the two handed Bat Sword! 😆

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, MrMaddog said:

 

Yeah it gets funny with the bat at times... When it has my sword that I need to slay the dragons, I end up holding the bat that's holding the sword.

 

In my mind's eye, I'm weilding the two handed Bat Sword! 😆

And sometimes you can release the sword-holding bat and it will slay the dragon for you (and then cleans up the carcass )  :)

 

  • Like 2
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just got the steelbook edition for my Switch, love it so far. Was born right after Tramiel Atari went under so my interest is more in Gaming History than nostalgia. The lack of any licensed games was disappointing, not just ET and Star Wars and Pac-Man but even the later Atari Games arcade titles now owned by WarnerDiscovery. But I am biased in favor of Rampart and Gauntlet. (Also not getting the home ports of Donkey Kong on the Switch version was a missed opportunity) I'll have to play Crystal Castles to check out that feature. Loved the mix of games and history segments. All seem to play pretty well so far, and the Reimagined titles are interesting. Neo Breakout is good, Haunted House seemed a big boring but I didn't grow up with the original.

On 12/18/2022 at 1:37 PM, kisrael said:

2. I think they shortplayed the whole Atari BASIC scene (and maybe the magazines, like Antic and Analog). Not to mention stuff like the Atari Program eXchange APX - the first big attempt to make a shareware community happen, like a "Steam" store for the 80s... But also the BASIC was good for sound and simple graphics, but it barely gets mentioned, except indirectly via ads from the era.

Leapfrogging on that, the community and scene around Atari is what made me interested about it. They largely left out all the interesting stuff, except for Yoomp and a small section on 2600 homebrew. Like the cult following and second life is personally what makes the Jaguar so interesting, but they skipped straight from its discontinuation to the Atari VCS.

(also they left out all of Atari Games/Tengen, and basically everything between the discontinuation of the Jaguar and Wade Rosen coming on as CEO, so some of the gaps in the history mode were quite glaring)

 

Overall, a really well-made and high-quality collection. A lot of love in this collection, even if I think corporate issues hold it back somewhat.

The game I was looking forward to most, Tempest 2000, is great and what I hoped for.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 12/18/2022 at 2:32 PM, x=usr(1536) said:

The book was mostly-tolerable in that regard, but the movie cranked it up to 111.  It's one of those films where I'm glad we Redboxed it instead of actually buying tickets for it, because at even 1.99 for the rental that was still about $3 more than sitting through it was worth.  The incessant - and obnoxious - nostalgia-bombing became old really effing quick.

I read the book, still refuse to see the movie.  Granted most of that is because after Spielberg did War of the Worlds, I banned his creations from my eyes.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

54 minutes ago, leech said:

I read the [Ready Player One] book, still refuse to see the movie.  Granted most of that is because after Spielberg did War of the Worlds, I banned his creations from my eyes.

 

I feel the same, book was very good but the movie was just a 90 minute ad for all the Warner Media IP...same with Space Jam 2 :P

  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
On 1/3/2023 at 7:50 AM, zzip said:

But were the bats in Pitfall treasure-stealing but otherwise non-harmful?   That's what made the bats in Adventure and Mountain King unique

Good point!  The bats in Pitfall II are just bastards.  That's right, I said it.  They are BASTARDS!

  • Like 1
  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, leech said:

Good point!  The bats in Pitfall II are just bastards.  That's right, I said it.  They are BASTARDS!

Play mountain king.... once you get the crown they spontaniously start appearing from the left and right, and in the 2600 version where you are slow as heck (due to the frame-rate and how the game works, it seems slower than you really are. The 5200 version has the animation way too fast making that version seem faster, when it's not quite that fast), the bats are not, making it impossible to run away. And knowing wether you need to duck or jump is hard to tell sometimes in that version. You get caught? Guess what- you basically start over. There's no checkpoints. 

Edited by Ecernosoft
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Ecernosoft said:

Play mountain king.... once you get the crown they spontaniously start appearing from the left and right, and in the 2600 version where you are slow as heck (due to the frame-rate and how the game works, it seems slower than you really are. The 5200 version has the animation way too fast making that version seem faster, when it's not quite that fast), the bats are not, making it impossible to run away. And knowing wether you need to duck or jump is hard to tell sometimes in that version. You get caught? Guess what- you basically start over. There's no checkpoints. 

I played it on the Atari 800xl many many years ago.  I think I recall only once figuring out how to get the crown.  But it is a very foggy memory :P

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...