Games that blow your mind

[Tickled_Pink]

Years ago I started looking at the 2600 from a programmer's perspective and when I understood the limitations, there were games I thought were great at the time but which then blew my mind once I understood how the 2600 worked.

 

Some of the tricks they pulled off were impressive. Galaxian is a beautifully put together version of the game. No flicker until they swoop, because of those limitations. Even then the flicker doesn't detract from the game.

 

But the first game I bought was Berzerk. Later, I started to wonder how it worked. Too many individual objects on screen, so couldn't be sprites, could they? But the resolution was too high so couldn't be playfield. And it was just a standard ROM.

 

Just now, I had an epiphany. Only taken me 40 years. Just really clever programming to get around the limitations. There's only one enemy per scan line at any one time. An enemy might walk vertically for a bit but when it looks like it might cross into a line "occupied" by another enemy, it'll stop or start walking horizontally.

 

I'm sure many of you already have this figured out but ... mind ... blown.

[LatchKeyKid]

I frankly didn't have any real respect for the 2600 or its games/programmers as a kid as I missed the heyday and got into the NES after it came out as my first real console experience.  It wasn't until just a few years ago that I got into the retro games scene and, for some reason, focused on the consoles that I had no experience or nostalgia for personally (namely the 2600 but to a lesser extent the Coleco/Intelli-visions).   If there was one game that blew my expectations out of the water during that initial reintroduction, it was seeing a video of Solaris.   I didn't believe that the console was powerful enough to produce something so far beyond games that I remembered like Video Olympics (the only Atari game I actually ever played in the 80s) and Combat.

[4ever2600]

Pre Nes Atari years meaning before the late 80s atari resurgence,  I was amazed by all the Starpath Supercharger titles, CBS titles, Tunnel Runner, Mountain King, omega race etc. Most silver label atari titles, Activision and Imgic titles.  Once I got older, notice I didn't say grew up?, I started looking at code from 4k and up and it still blows my mind today.

[Pitfall Harry]

Basic Programming.  How anyone could write a functional (so to speak) BASIC interpreter to work with the VCS's measly 128 bytes of RAM is so far beyond belief, I have to hand the grand "Mind Has Been Blown" trophy to Warren Robinett.

 

 

-Ben

[YexxenBlaster]

Solaris. Released in 1986, this game is a masterclass of Atari engineering. Too bad it came out way after the NES had overtaken Atari in popularity.

 

JUST LOOK AT THAT.

[+x=usr(1536)]

Dennis Debro's Pac-Man 4K.  What he accomplished within the same hardware constraints as the Tod Frye original is just astounding.

[Maztr_0n]

On 5/18/2024 at 7:25 AM, Tickled_Pink said:

Years ago I started looking at the 2600 from a programmer's perspective and when I understood the limitations, there were games I thought were great at the time but which then blew my mind once I understood how the 2600 worked.

 

Some of the tricks they pulled off were impressive. Galaxian is a beautifully put together version of the game. No flicker until they swoop, because of those limitations. Even then the flicker doesn't detract from the game.

 

But the first game I bought was Berzerk. Later, I started to wonder how it worked. Too many individual objects on screen, so couldn't be sprites, could they? But the resolution was too high so couldn't be playfield. And it was just a standard ROM.

 

Just now, I had an epiphany. Only taken me 40 years. Just really clever programming to get around the limitations. There's only one enemy per scan line at any one time. An enemy might walk vertically for a bit but when it looks like it might cross into a line "occupied" by another enemy, it'll stop or start walking horizontally.

 

I'm sure many of you already have this figured out but ... mind ... blown.

i'm one of the oddballs who had nostalgia for atari as a kid through those plug and plays, and god, somehow i was into Froggo Karate!

but i cant remember if it was a game i had or more likely something i saw on the internet but i think i saw Radar Lock pictures and i thought they looked as good as "some of those NES games that the AVGN would play!" it nearly blew air raiders out of the water for me... even if i could've just gone to the other TV to play Xbox 360 I WAS STILL ENTHRAWLED, especially after learning the basics of how the system works in laymans terms and of course i found out about more titles like Tomcat 2600, but Radar Lock was my first peek into something past the typical early 80s atari 2600 game!

[Maztr_0n]

15 hours ago, YexxenBlaster said:

Solaris. Released in 1986, this game is a masterclass of Atari engineering. Too bad it came out way after the NES had overtaken Atari in popularity.

 

JUST LOOK AT THAT.

actually it coulda been solaris too who knows? I should i'm too young to forget things...

[+Living Room Arcade]

On 5/18/2024 at 8:25 AM, Tickled_Pink said:

Years ago I started looking at the 2600 from a programmer's perspective and when I understood the limitations, there were games I thought were great at the time but which then blew my mind once I understood how the 2600 worked.

 

Some of the tricks they pulled off were impressive. Galaxian is a beautifully put together version of the game. No flicker until they swoop, because of those limitations. Even then the flicker doesn't detract from the game.

 

But the first game I bought was Berzerk. Later, I started to wonder how it worked. Too many individual objects on screen, so couldn't be sprites, could they? But the resolution was too high so couldn't be playfield. And it was just a standard ROM.

 

Just now, I had an epiphany. Only taken me 40 years. Just really clever programming to get around the limitations. There's only one enemy per scan line at any one time. An enemy might walk vertically for a bit but when it looks like it might cross into a line "occupied" by another enemy, it'll stop or start walking horizontally.

 

I'm sure many of you already have this figured out but ... mind ... blown.

Wow, I never noticed but you're right, the robots in Berzerk never line up horizontally, do they?  Thanks for sharing that! 

 

I just recently learned how to turn on the Stella color debugger to look at Atari 2600 games to see how the graphics were made.  Anybody want to see what Berzerk looks like in Color Debugger mode?  If so, open the spoiler to see!  

 

Spoiler

Anybody can do this.  Just open the ROM in Stella, press the  key to the left of 1 and then click on the TIA tab and tick the Debug Colors box, then finally click   Run to start the game.  

 

Here, red is player 1 (P0) and yellow is player 2 (P1).  We see that all of the robots are yellow, meaning player 2, just as @Tickled_Pink said!  Cool!  

Edited May 23 by Living Room Arcade