Laser Blast --- Am I missing something?

[bjk7382]

You cannot call Laser Blast an early game.  It was released in 1981 which was the fifth year of the VCS:2600!  Space Invaders and Adventure came out one year before in 1980 for heavens sake!

Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

 

Noone said it was an early release game. They said it was an early/one of the first released ACTIVISION games.

 

Yeah, there may have been other better games out by other companies, but activision had a few stinkers before they started making good games. I really don't care for Freeway, Skiing, or laser blast, but they had a pretty good one with Ice Hokey, I played that one a lot.

[+Random Terrain]

I don't like the early Activision games that much, but I do like this ad which includes Laser Blast:

 

http://www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-me...ew-excuses.html

 

No one can play Laser Blast at noon.

Edited May 9, 2007 by Random Terrain

[foxglove9]

Laser Blast wasn't exactly a favorite of mine, but for the time I'd much rather play that than say Activisions Bridge, or even Checkers or Dragster.

[D.Yancey]

It seems everyone dislikes Laser Blast. It was the first shooter where the enemy was on the ground shooting up at the player. "A" for originallity"! And were it not for Laser Blast, we may never have had the great Pitfall! Consider that the lasers in Laser Blast were the conception of the vines in Pitfall! It's not bad for a non-bank switching game.

[cimerians]

I dunno. Maybe if they had made the game a little more meaningfull.  

After you kill 12 of those tanks you get a little mark that lets you know you did it (similar to Robot tank) and the enemy changes from tanks to Jeeps...Or hell just changes color.... changes to ANYTHING!!!! Maybe start off with some big ass semi's you have to hit and every 12 kills the enemy changes and gets a tad bit smaller and harder to hit. Really anything you did to add variety would spice it up some.... Still it would take a bit to mold it into a must have game.

 

 

Exactly my thoughts. The least they could have done was change colors!!

[RCmodeler]

PLAY GAME # 4 AND TELL ME THIS GAME IS EASY.

 

Wow... I just tried it and I was dead in about 2 minutes.

[Vic George 2K3]

It seems everyone dislikes Laser Blast.  It was the first shooter where the enemy was on the ground shooting up at the player. "A" for originallity"!  And were it not for Laser Blast, we may never have had the great Pitfall!  Consider that the lasers in Laser Blast were the conception of the vines in Pitfall! It's not bad for a non-bank switching game.

 

I didn't say I disliked it.

[Brad2600]

I played Lamer Blast when I was baked one night. It was fun for a few minutes but then I quickly became bored.

 

You can't even enjoy it while baked.

[bjk7382]

I played Lamer Blast when I was baked one night. It was fun for a few minutes but then I quickly became bored.

 

You can't even enjoy it while baked.

 

Is it 4:20 yet?

 

I usually play fun games after doing that

[Csonicgo]

laser blast needs to be a little faster..... perhaps a HACK is in order?

 

:gets out axe:

 

now let's see how fast it'll go.

[Buck]

PLAY GAME # 4 AND TELL ME THIS GAME IS EASY.

 

Wow... I just tried it and I was dead in about 2 minutes.

 

Hmmm...

I havent bothered with the variations. I'll have to give it a spin later.

 

Buck

[bjk7382]

PLAY GAME # 4 AND TELL ME THIS GAME IS EASY.

 

Wow... I just tried it and I was dead in about 2 minutes.

 

Hmmm...

I havent bothered with the variations. I'll have to give it a spin later.

 

Buck

 

Same with Yars' Revenge for me. It took me forever until I found out here were 8 different variations.

[D.Yancey]

Game variation 4 is the fastest. #4 is the game on which the patch is supposed to be earned(it's stated in the manual!) Any other level is for babies. #4 is not quite so easy, though it is still the same repettitive game just speeded up. It will keep you on your toes. Game 3 reaches the same difficulty with a couple of slower levels tossed in at the beginning for a warmup.

[+Nathan Strum]

PLAY GAME # 4 AND TELL ME THIS GAME IS EASY.

 

Okay. (Time passes...)

 

This game is easy.

 

Game 4 basically just starts you out where the other levels get to eventually. So if you get the pattern down, game 4 is just as easy as the others.

 

Actually, I like Laser Blast. Sure, it's dead-simple, but that's part of the appeal of it for me. It's a great time-killer, especially on the GBA anthology.

 

I bought it back in the day because I'd played it at Sears a couple of times, and was floored by the graphics. (The laser beams still look and sound cool.) I mentioned to a friend at work I was planning to buy it and he told me not to, since it wasn't a very good game once you'd played it awhile. I didn't know what he meant, until I got it home and played it for, oh, maybe an hour or less. Then I figured out the pattern, and could play the game as long as I cared to. I never bothered playing all the way to 999,999. I didn't see the point.

 

I think Laser Blast could've been improved by being able to move left and right over the terrain - like Chopper Command. Clearing out waves of enemy bases before they took over a given area of the planet. Sort of like Defender, but strictly an air to ground attack game.

[Poached Roach]

Laser Blast is a good game if you have the attention span for it. One of those games you play just for the colorful explosions and lasers in that magical 4-bit style.

[Goochman]

Laser Blast was a 'pun intended' Blast to play when it came out - I secured my patch (only game I did for ACtivision) one looooong night. Though think about being a young lad trying to get your dads 35mm SLR camera to take a picture of the screen knowing TV's dont photo well and you cant verify the result until after the pictures were developed......I took 2 pictures and luckily 1 came out OK

[D.Yancey]

PLAY GAME # 4 AND TELL ME THIS GAME IS EASY.

 

Okay. (Time passes...)

 

This game is easy.

 

Game 4 basically just starts you out where the other levels get to eventually. So if you get the pattern down, game 4 is just as easy as the others.....

 

I think Laser Blast could've been improved by being able to move left and right over the terrain - like Chopper Command. Clearing out waves of enemy bases before they took over a given area of the planet. Sort of like Defender, but strictly an air to ground attack game.

 

Only games 3 and 4 reach the max speed difficulty. Games 1 and 2 remain pretty slow. You are correct that the pattern remains the same.

 

You concept of making Laser Blast like Chopper Command where you can roam around and attack at will is really interesting. I would love to play a version like that! Great idea!!