Friday, October 2, 2009

Part 2: Greatest Atari Games EVAR

So I promised today I would continue the saga of recommended oldies and we march mercilessly on from DOS land to Atari!

Ah the Atari, in all its pixelated goodness. I remember having such good times with thee... no not like that ewww gross.. Anyways I am scrambling my brain here trying to even remember all our old Atari games I played back in the 80's. Air Sea Battle, Crash Em', Pitfall, and I'm trying to think what the very best ones were. Well Here's some of the best of the old classics:

1. Pitfall 2! This game was remarkably big for an Atari game. AND the monsters remembered where they were if you came back to their rooms. AND you could accidentally skip the item the beat the game and end up back at the beginning and have to run through the entire game again, thus going insane. How cool is that? A better review is here:
"The original Pitfall established a new standard for adventure games, but Pitfall II pushed the envelope even further. Heck, Pitfall 2 cartridges even include their own chip set! The result is expansive levels with varying scenery, high-resolution graphics, and first-rate audio. An incredibly catchy soundtrack plays throughout the game - probably the best music ever composed for the 2600. Pitfall II takes place mainly in deep, multi-tiered underground caverns, and there's a pool of water at the bottom which Pitfall Harry can actually swim though. A whole new collection of hazards includes monkeys, rats, frogs, bats, birds, scorpions, and electric eels. Unlike the first Pitfall, there are no "lives" and no timer - in fact, the game never really ends. Instead, there are scattered checkpoints, and losing a life sends you back to the last one (after deducting some points). Developer David Crane pulled out all the stops with this one. I only wish he had incorporated a much-needed "duck" move to avoid those pesky bats. Still, Pitfall II is a well-conceived adventure and a technical marvel. © Copyright 2005 The Video Game Critic."

courtesy of http://videogamecritic.net

My favorite was the Andean Condors which swooped in occasionally and the crocodiles of course that you can walk on parts of.

2. Combat/TANKS! Incidentally There was recently a recreation of this game only with way better graphics on WiiPlay. So if you bought Wii play you have it already. Try it out if you haven't yet. My favorite thing to do in this game was to inexplicably move the trajectory of your bullet after you fire it by turning your cannon. Ahh the memories of blasting each other to pieces....



3. Air/Sea Battle: The most varied fun you can get on Atari IMO. I loved this game. You could attack planes of all shapes, sizes and speeds, or be a turret, or a depth charge dropper against submarines, or whatever. Tons of different modes to play. I wish modern games offered this kind of value proposition for fun. (Oh wait.. some do)

4. Have you noticed how colorful those Atari games are? Gotta love it! Next up is Crash Em! Man this game drove me nuts. The whole point is to avoid smashing your car into the bots and pick up dots for points. If you get all the dots you move to the next level. There is no end to the game. Period.



5. Frogger + Space Invaders (I can't choose, they're both great) Both of these games are legends, and both of them are insanely frustrating after a little while. I'll go with Frogger for the picture because Space Invaders was really a Arcade Port just like Pac Man, Galaga, etc...

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