RTFM Games - Games that you realise are actually fun after you take the time to, you know, RTFM

[Maztr_0n]

On 5/5/2024 at 2:42 PM, MrChickenz said:

Air Raiders could qualify for RTFM. For someone playing without RTFM might not ever know you can land your plane refuel and take off again!

In order to land you have to at least have shot down 10 enemy aircraft be at an altitude of 00 for 4 seconds and a runway will appear. Try to get as many hits as possible so use your ammo sparingly!

 

One of my favorite games from way back!

 

 

NGL i'm shocked as a kid that Air Raiders was like one of my all-time favorites when i didn't even know that you could land, or needed to land...

I'd just shoot 'em up over and over and over and over and over again til i went back on my 3DS to play Tomodachi as i usually did as a kid...



I have landed the plane as of a few days ago.

Edited May 29 by Maztr_0n

[MrChickenz]

8 hours ago, Maztr_0n said:

NGL i'm shocked as a kid that Air Raiders was like one of my all-time favorites when i didn't even know that you could land, or needed to land...

I'd just shoot 'em up over and over and over and over and over again til i went back on my 3DS to play Tomodachi as i usually did as a kid...



I have landed the plane as of a few days ago.

That’s Awesome! You are an ACE Pilot now! 
 

There is so much I’ve learned also on AtariAge. People on these forums are great!

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Tac-Scan

 

Without reading the manual you might be missing some really useful tips for high scores.

 

https://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-tac-scan_7653.html

[JetmanUK]

30 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Tac-Scan

 

Without reading the manual you might be missing some really useful tips for high scores.

 

https://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-tac-scan_7653.html

I play Tac-Scan and enjoy it. I've never RTFM, so I will check it out now. 👍🏻

[MrChickenz]

5 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Tac-Scan

 

Without reading the manual you might be missing some really useful tips for high scores.

 

https://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-tac-scan_7653.html

One thing I noticed about TacScan if you fire your missiles too rapidly they might not reach their target. As rapid fire is short range.

A slightly less rapid fire is longer range.

 

And this was a cool tidbit from the manual that I highlighted.

 

 

[JetmanUK]

Today’s RTFM game is Cosmic Swarm.

 

I must admit that I have a real soft spot for Commavid’s games. I own Room of Doom, Mines of Minos and Cosmic Swarm, all three very different. All three contain gameplay mechanics which are not seen in other games of their era and although I would say that CS is the worst of the three, I find it the easiest to pick up and play, when you know what you are doing it is quite simple and fun.

 

I have seen lots of negative comments about this game, and yeah, it’s the control scheme. What you have to realise is that this is not a run (well fly) and gun game, you must fly, stop, gun. If you try to shoot whilst moving you actually rotate the spaceship, which is where I think many people get infuriated with this one.

 

Your ship was clearly last seen in Asteroids, got lost on its way home and ended up in Centipede’s cousins game.

 

(Space) Termites which are carrying nest blocks descend the screen. If left alone they drop the block, which once dropped they turn green in colour and are invincible and just like the termites they are deadly to the touch. Whilst still being carried you must shoot the bottom of the block (the end closest to the bottom of the screen). This kills the termite and the block. If you hit anywhere else then you kill the termite only and the block is deposited right where it was shot, in it’s green state. If you do successfully hit the bottom of the block then all blocks on the screen turn red and can then be shot. As soon as you hit a termite they all go back to green.

 

On my first few goes I either ignored or shot a ship that scrolls down the edge of the screen. Game Over. Huh? Well it turns out that this is your ally and you must touch it to refuel. It gives you plenty of time to do this, but miss it or shoot it and you are done.

 

The game also has a very unique bonus system, which you can't discover by RTFM. I found out here in a post on Atari Age:

 

https://forums.atariage.com/topic/302235-cosmic-swarm-a-piece-of-garbage/?do=findComment&comment=4972799

 

 

Knowing this will definitely get your high score up as this game really deals in small numbers, look at this from the manual:

 

I recommend Cosmic Swarm, and unlike other Commavid games, although it’s not cheap it’s not usually crazy money.

Anyway, all this aside I currently only own a PAL version, guess what is in the post to me right now.

 

 

Cosmic Swarm Atari 2600.pdf

Edited May 30 by JetmanUK

[+Intellivision Master]

14 minutes ago, JetmanUK said:

Today’s RTFM game is Cosmic Storm.

Did you mean Cosmic Swarm?  Although Cosmic Storm sounds better.  Anyway, here's a website that reviewed the game.

 http://www.8-bitcentral.com/reviews/2600cosmicSwarm.html

[JetmanUK]

Just now, Intellivision Master said:

Did you mean Cosmic Swarm?  Although Cosmic Storm sounds better.  Anyway, here's a website that reviewed the game.

 http://www.8-bitcentral.com/reviews/2600cosmicSwarm.html

Doh, there was a typo right at the top and spell check had changed it to 'Storm'.

 

Storm does sound better, perhaps a sequel could use the name, I won't charge for it.

[+Intellivision Master]

20 minutes ago, JetmanUK said:

 

(Space) Termites which are carrying nest blocks descend the screen.

I had to, lol.  They're scenes from the movie Galaxy Quest.  It's a good sci-fi flick.  

[JetmanUK]

1 minute ago, Intellivision Master said:

I had to, lol.  They're scenes from the movie Galaxy Quest.  It's a good sci-fi flick.  

It sounds like a Sega game.

I have not seen this, I will check it out.

[+Intellivision Master]

1 minute ago, JetmanUK said:

It sounds like a Sega game.

I have not seen this, I will check it out.

It does sound like a video game title.  You'd like the movie.  I have it on VHS.  It's like a spoof of Star Trek.

[Alex_813]

11 hours ago, Intellivision Master said:

It does sound like a video game title.  You'd like the movie.  I have it on VHS.  It's like a spoof of Star Trek.

Definitely a must watch, especially for any Trek fans. Love this movie.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

17 hours ago, MrChickenz said:

One thing I noticed about TacScan if you fire your missiles too rapidly they might not reach their target. As rapid fire is short range.

A slightly less rapid fire is longer range.

 

And this was a cool tidbit from the manual that I highlighted.

 

 

Attached is a Stella saved state (create with lots of rewinds) which starts the game at level 15. The difficulty is really insane then.

 

BTW: If you manage to beat this one, the game continues with level 16.

Tac-Scan (1983) (SEGA).st0

[MrChickenz]

7 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Attached is a Stella saved state (create with lots of rewinds) which starts the game at level 15. The difficulty is really insane then.

 

BTW: If you manage to beat this one, the game continues with level 16.

Tac-Scan (1983) (SEGA).st0 1.21 kB · 0 downloads

Thank You! That’s awesome! I will definitely be trying this!

Edited May 31 by MrChickenz

[MrChickenz]

On 5/31/2024 at 3:45 AM, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Attached is a Stella saved state (create with lots of rewinds) which starts the game at level 15. The difficulty is really insane then.

 

BTW: If you manage to beat this one, the game continues with level 16.

Tac-Scan (1983) (SEGA).st0 1.21 kB · 3 downloads

Little help please? And Thank You! I tried this with the Retron 77 but realized it’s a different file ext. I’m not sure where the latest version of Stella Windows stores this file.

Is it saved to the Rom folder or a database file? And does the *.st0 file have to match the Rom file name?
I’ve searched for answers and I even RTFM for Stella. I swear! 😁 

Edited June 1 by MrChickenz

[MrChickenz]

On 5/31/2024 at 3:45 AM, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Attached is a Stella saved state (create with lots of rewinds) which starts the game at level 15. The difficulty is really insane then.

 

BTW: If you manage to beat this one, the game continues with level 16.

Tac-Scan (1983) (SEGA).st0 1.21 kB · 5 downloads

I figured it out Thank You! This is insane! Lol! Oh Yeah!

Edited June 1 by MrChickenz

[JetmanUK]

On 6/1/2024 at 11:02 PM, MrChickenz said:

I figured it out Thank You! This is insane! Lol! Oh Yeah!

This is insane!

[MrChickenz]

8 minutes ago, JetmanUK said:

This is insane!

What emulation are you using  PC?

[JetmanUK]

24 minutes ago, MrChickenz said:

What emulation are you using  PC?

I meant getting that far. I have no idea how to use save states in Stella, I have never used them.

[MrChickenz]

19 minutes ago, JetmanUK said:

I meant getting that far. I have no idea how to use save states in Stella, I have never used them.

Ok, my mistake. I knew how on my Retron 77 but wasn’t sure on my PC until just recently when I printed the Keyboard Layout.

I had to actually RTFKL 😂😁🤣

 

F9 saves current state 

F11 loads current state 

 

I also had to find where Stella stores the save states. Which I eventually found.

 

 

Edited June 12 by MrChickenz

[MrChickenz]

Dodge’em!

 

After playing Dodge’em I believe this is a RTFM game. I only recently started playing this again. There’s not a lot of instruction just a few important ones to know. And also after playing a bit my skills started coming back from years ago. You have to start switching lanes in advance, if you wait until your at the intersections it’s to late.

Also this makes a great two player game. I know a lot of people ask what’s a good two player game for the 2600.

When first starting out it’s a good idea to set Left difficulty to B for slower cars and Right difficulty to B so the computer car starts in the same location. This is included in the 2600+ multi cart but since instructions aren’t included it could otherwise seem a bit frustrating and difficult to get the hang of it.

 

A great game, I don’t think it gets enough credit for being a classic Atari game.

 

 

Edited June 29 by MrChickenz

[JetmanUK]

34 minutes ago, MrChickenz said:

Dodge’em!

 

After playing Dodge’em I believe this is a RTFM game. I only recently started playing this again. There’s not a lot of instruction just a few important ones to know. And also after playing a bit my skills started coming back from years ago. You have to start switching lanes in advance, if you wait until your at the intersections it’s to late.

Also this makes a great two player game. I know a lot of people ask what’s a good two player game for the 2600.

When first starting out it’s a good idea to set Left difficulty to B for slower cars and Right difficulty to B so the computer car starts in the same location. This is included in the 2600+ multi cart but since instructions aren’t included it could otherwise seem a bit frustrating and difficult to get the hang of it.

 

A great game, I don’t think it gets enough credit for being a classic Atari game.

 

 

Ah nice!

Coincidentally I just purchased this and it should arrive early next week. I saw a good deal on an NTSC copy from the UK, so cheap postage too. I was buying a couple of other games so it seemed a no brainer to have an original copy of this game. 

 

I thought it was possible candidate for an RTFM as when I have played the ROM I have died very quickly. Looking forward to playing it properly. I'll definitely set it to difficulty B!

[MrChickenz]

BARNSTORMING

 

I have to post this to RTFM. 
 

I sat down to play this for a bit. I thought, let me check the manual. Either I never read it back in the day or I completely forgot.

I knew the course extended with each game select but what I didn’t remember is 1-3 are fixed courses 4 changes every time you press reset.

Also the Right difficulty adds more geese which I knew, but Left difficulty lowers the clearance height of the barns which I don’t remember. 
Anyone else remember this? I did not.

 

 

[JetmanUK]

Steve Cartwright states that 'it is possible to fly the course at full speed with no collisions'. Erm OK.

Clearly I need to practice!

[MrChickenz]

double post

Edited July 2 by MrChickenz