Welcome to the 1980s! This is probably the most influential era in video game history. In the 1990s video games became more like cartoons and books; in the 2000s and 2010s they became more like movies but in the 1980s games were kind of doing their own thing. For instance, if you came across Battle Zone back when it was new you'd probably be forgiven if your jaw hit the floor.
Battle Zone is an FPS. One of the first, in fact. You control a tank and use it to battle other tanks in a first-person three-dimensional environment full of debris that you can use as cover. While I might not have felt all that inspired by some of the classic games from the 1970s, I really understood why Battle Zone is on the list once I started playing it. This is a game that was ahead of its time - back when games were largely about the wonder of controlling a little man on a screen, this game gave you an entire virtual world to roam around in.
Incidentally, Battle Zone had a pretty sweet remake for the PC in 1998 that was more of an RTS/FPS hybrid. It was very cool and certainly worth a look if you're into retro PC gaming.
The version of Battle Zone I played was Flash-based and is available for free on Atari's website. I was unable to get this game to work properly in MAME, but insofar as I can tell the two versions are identical in gameplay.
Showing posts with label atari. Show all posts
Showing posts with label atari. Show all posts
Thursday, January 26, 2012
#10: Lunar Lander (1979, Atari)
PHYSICS! It's truly a miracle. Today physics is integrated into pretty much every game you can think of. Hell, what would Half-Life 2 be without ridiculous puzzles involving using floating plastic barrels to set up ramps? ...probably a little more enjoyable, really.
But that's not the game we're talking about today. No, today we're talking about Lunar Lander, quite possibly the first physics game. Lunar Lander has you trying to land the titular vehicle on the surface of the moon. In the fictional universe of the game NASA apparently decided to make all its spacecraft out of fine china because unless you land as delicately as possible the lander will explode into a fine mist. Physics!
Similar mechanics to Lunar Lander can be seen in a vast variety of games. One of the most notable is Rare's Solar Jetman, which takes the physics concept and makes a whole adventure game out of it.
The version of Lunar Lander I played was emulated in MAME. If for whatever reason you feel like playing this yourself then it's readily available online - at the Chrome Web Store, for instance, or in HTML5 if you're feeling cutting-edge.
Oh, one more thing - this is the last game on The List from the 1970s! In the next entry we're moving on to the glorious '80s.
But that's not the game we're talking about today. No, today we're talking about Lunar Lander, quite possibly the first physics game. Lunar Lander has you trying to land the titular vehicle on the surface of the moon. In the fictional universe of the game NASA apparently decided to make all its spacecraft out of fine china because unless you land as delicately as possible the lander will explode into a fine mist. Physics!
Similar mechanics to Lunar Lander can be seen in a vast variety of games. One of the most notable is Rare's Solar Jetman, which takes the physics concept and makes a whole adventure game out of it.
The version of Lunar Lander I played was emulated in MAME. If for whatever reason you feel like playing this yourself then it's readily available online - at the Chrome Web Store, for instance, or in HTML5 if you're feeling cutting-edge.
Oh, one more thing - this is the last game on The List from the 1970s! In the next entry we're moving on to the glorious '80s.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
#8: Asteroids (1979, Atari)
In case you hadn't noticed by now, Atari kind of had a chokehold on the games industry toward the end of the '70s and in the early '80s. It's kind of comparable to what we'll see with Nintendo when we get to the late '80s - they basically ran the show. It wasn't just business clout that did it, though. Great games like Asteroids helped keep Atari on top.
Asteroids follows the standard early games "easy to learn, hard to master" formula. You're a triangle. There's rocks. You need to clear the screen of rocks armed only with a peashooter. If you blast a rock it splits into several smaller rocks, which split again if you blast them and so on until they're gone. It's a metaphor for life, really. See, if you're the triangle, then the rocks are problems! And if you try to solve the problems with violence, they just become more problems! Until, uh, you use violence to make them into tiny problems which you can easily crush and...okay, the metaphor kind of falls apart after awhile.
As usual with early games there have been plenty of remakes of and sequels to Asteroids over the years. One of the most beloved is Blasteroids, also by Atari, which featured power-ups and a morphing ship. Asteroids also led to other classic games like Sinistar.
The version of Asteroids I played was the revision 4 chipset and was emulated in MAME.
Asteroids follows the standard early games "easy to learn, hard to master" formula. You're a triangle. There's rocks. You need to clear the screen of rocks armed only with a peashooter. If you blast a rock it splits into several smaller rocks, which split again if you blast them and so on until they're gone. It's a metaphor for life, really. See, if you're the triangle, then the rocks are problems! And if you try to solve the problems with violence, they just become more problems! Until, uh, you use violence to make them into tiny problems which you can easily crush and...okay, the metaphor kind of falls apart after awhile.
As usual with early games there have been plenty of remakes of and sequels to Asteroids over the years. One of the most beloved is Blasteroids, also by Atari, which featured power-ups and a morphing ship. Asteroids also led to other classic games like Sinistar.
The version of Asteroids I played was the revision 4 chipset and was emulated in MAME.
#7: Adventure (1979, Atari)
We're almost to the 1980s, folks, and that means we're running into a greater variety of games! What we've got here in Adventure is one of the first graphical adventure games. Text adventures had been around for awhile and Adventure didn't kill them off - we'll encounter one fairly soon, in fact - but it did a lot to redefine what an adventure game could be.
This is my first time playing this game, so what I know about it is limited to what's available in the book and online. Adventure is a port of a text adventure called Colossal Cave Adventure made by Will Crowther. It's only around 4k and apparently contains a sneaky, sneaky easter egg - one of the first in gaming!
The version of Adventure I played was emulated using Stella. I've got a semi-rule about not using walkthroughs or manuals for these games except where necessary, so I'm terribly sorry if this entry doesn't make a lot of sense. Because, to be honest, the game really didn't make much sense.
This is my first time playing this game, so what I know about it is limited to what's available in the book and online. Adventure is a port of a text adventure called Colossal Cave Adventure made by Will Crowther. It's only around 4k and apparently contains a sneaky, sneaky easter egg - one of the first in gaming!
The version of Adventure I played was emulated using Stella. I've got a semi-rule about not using walkthroughs or manuals for these games except where necessary, so I'm terribly sorry if this entry doesn't make a lot of sense. Because, to be honest, the game really didn't make much sense.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
#5: Combat (1977, Atari)
Today we encounter the first game on The List that I actually ran into problems playing properly: Combat, a multiplayer-only shooter for the Atari 2600 VCS. Here's the problem: the version of Combat I played was emulated in Stella. Stella doesn't have netplay. I also think it might be a bit rude to call someone up and go "Hey, come over immediately! It's time to get crunk and play some ATARI! It's for my fantastic new blog!"
So what we end up finding out about Combat comes from the paltry singleplayer experience. I say paltry because it's nonexistent. Combat lacks any sort of AI, so it's two players or bust and in this case we had to go with bust. This isn't a very complex game, though. Basically you're a tank or a plane and you drive around a little map blasting away at another tank or plane. Whoever manages to hit the other guy wins.
So what we end up finding out about Combat comes from the paltry singleplayer experience. I say paltry because it's nonexistent. Combat lacks any sort of AI, so it's two players or bust and in this case we had to go with bust. This isn't a very complex game, though. Basically you're a tank or a plane and you drive around a little map blasting away at another tank or plane. Whoever manages to hit the other guy wins.
Monday, January 23, 2012
#3: Breakout (1976, Atari)
Steve Jobs was a man who did a lot to revolutionize technology. He turned Apple into a multinational juggernaut, crushing all comers with its line of sleek, stylish iDevices. The modern view of tech as an integral part of modern life is in no small part thanks to Jobs' work. Frankly, the world as we know it owes Jobs quite a bit.
One of Jobs' accomplishments that isn't as well known as the iRevolution did quite a bit to change the face of gaming as well. In 1975 Cyan Engineering hired Jobs to produce the prototype for Breakout, a game conceived as Pong for a single player. Long story short, Pong went on to inspire all manner of other games. Notably, Taito's Arkanoid, which we'll be covering later once we reach the 1980s, owes its existence to Breakout. In the modern era the most well known variation of the game is Sidhe Interactive's Shatter, which takes the concept into the modern era with HD graphics and sound and updated gameplay (we'll also be covering Shatter...sometime in 2015 at this rate.)
For this entry I used MAME to emulate Super Breakout, which is identical to the original game but uses a traditional microprocessor setup instead of an archaic discrete logic system.
One of Jobs' accomplishments that isn't as well known as the iRevolution did quite a bit to change the face of gaming as well. In 1975 Cyan Engineering hired Jobs to produce the prototype for Breakout, a game conceived as Pong for a single player. Long story short, Pong went on to inspire all manner of other games. Notably, Taito's Arkanoid, which we'll be covering later once we reach the 1980s, owes its existence to Breakout. In the modern era the most well known variation of the game is Sidhe Interactive's Shatter, which takes the concept into the modern era with HD graphics and sound and updated gameplay (we'll also be covering Shatter...sometime in 2015 at this rate.)
For this entry I used MAME to emulate Super Breakout, which is identical to the original game but uses a traditional microprocessor setup instead of an archaic discrete logic system.
#2: Pong (1972, Atari)
It's Pong. What is there to say about it? It's gaming in the raw. You've got a paddle, the other player's got a paddle, you bounce a steadily accelerating ball back and forth and whoever wins gets the girl and saves the day. I could go on and on about how significant Pong was to gaming history, but the book does a fantastic job of that.
The version of Pong I played for this post is part of the Discrete Integrated Circuit Emulator, or DICE. It's the most accurate version you're going to get short of finding a Pong machine which would probably take a bit of work. I know I said I wasn't going to be strict over accuracy when it came to these entries but it turns out you can't get Pong in MAME anymore. Either way, there's not much to say about it because, well, it's Pong.
If you really want to play some Pong, there's no shortage of options. If you just want straight Pong, that's easy enough to find. But maybe you've got a flair for the exotic. Maybe vanilla Pong isn't enough for you and you want a Pong-based fighting game with fatalities. Pong Kombat's got you covered there. Maybe you want Pong in 3D; try Pong: The Next Level on PC or PSX. And maybe you want Pong that you can play by yourself. A version where, I don't know, you use the ball to break bricks or something like that. We'll get there. For now, we just want Pong.
The version of Pong I played for this post is part of the Discrete Integrated Circuit Emulator, or DICE. It's the most accurate version you're going to get short of finding a Pong machine which would probably take a bit of work. I know I said I wasn't going to be strict over accuracy when it came to these entries but it turns out you can't get Pong in MAME anymore. Either way, there's not much to say about it because, well, it's Pong.
If you really want to play some Pong, there's no shortage of options. If you just want straight Pong, that's easy enough to find. But maybe you've got a flair for the exotic. Maybe vanilla Pong isn't enough for you and you want a Pong-based fighting game with fatalities. Pong Kombat's got you covered there. Maybe you want Pong in 3D; try Pong: The Next Level on PC or PSX. And maybe you want Pong that you can play by yourself. A version where, I don't know, you use the ball to break bricks or something like that. We'll get there. For now, we just want Pong.
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