Help!

Phooey.  I'll NEVER find it now!  I'm looking for this awful game I played a little bit.  It's always the bad ones that sorta stick with you.  Shoulda taken care of it last night.  It's like Tempest but with a spider in a web.  I thought it was under "E" or "X"... I thought it was Exterminator... I'll keep looking.

Atari Emulator - Yar's "Strike"

Decent 8-bit emulation of Yar's Revenge.

At Mushca

Atari Emulator--> Drelbs

Okay, I think I'm getting the hang of this, slowly but surely.  As long as I leave it in "Compose" mode instead of HTML, I don't have to add in all those <br />'s myself.  Kinda nice!  Well, it's about time to reboot my computer for good measure, so why not take an all-too-brief look at Drelbs.  As I get older and my reflexes slower, this might be a good game to frustrate me.  It took me a while to figure out the unique rhythms of the game, but it finally clicked.  I'm terribly slow that way, but I prefer to think that I'm still not totally jaded yet.  I also tend to walk into bullets an awful lot during the bonus round.  This game hypnotizes me, I tells ya.  But really, when you get right down to it, aren't all relationships like this?  He's a walking eyeball trying to get through doors, and she's a princess trapped in a cube, fiercely guarded by green monsters, so you gotta be careful and sneak in a kiss while you can.  The kiss sound is better on the Atari, not on the Atari emulator.  Sounds like static!  But then again, aren't all kisses?

Atari Emulator --> Parallax

From the makers of the far-superior Hot Lips comes Parallax.  Basically, a variation of Pac-Man with less dots, no power-pills, and the "ghosts" are missiles that come from the four missile shooters located on every side of the Parallax square.  Kinda dull game play, but what do you expect for 16K?  They coulda done it in 8, frankly.

Atari Emulator -----> Dog Daze Deluxe

Late for the gym again, so why not take some time to reexamine Dog Daze Deluxe?  I'm only doing it because I just finished up Gauntlet.  But I guess I should explain why I kinda like Dog Daze Deluxe.  Well, what else would you expect from the programmer behind Claim Jumper?  Basically the same game, but instead of the Old West, it's dogs and hydrants.  Both involve simulations of organic systems, broadly speaking.  Dog Daze, however, is kinda like one of those worm in a room games, but with improved game play.  In the worm in a room games, touching the wall once usually means instant game over.  Here, if you touch the opposing dog's fire hydrant, you're temporarily stunned... and frankly, who wouldn't be?  Orange urine, puh-leeze!  And then, to occasionally cleanse the board, a car drives through, squashing all hydrants in its path.  If a dog gets hit, however, the game's really over, with sad music to boot.  Symbiosis.  Everything in balance.  Adapt or die.  Carpe diem.  A stitch in time saves nine.  Penny wise, pound foolish.
Plus, the computerized opponent's pretty good!  As you can see from my screen snap, it didn't go down without a fight.

Atari emulator --> Gauntlet

I don't like the new Blogger format... oh well, I'll get used to it, then begin to wonder how I ever did without? Yeah, it's times like this when you're up way WAY past your bedtime, the Tetris Battle energy's completely empty, and you slowly begin to realize that your Master's Degree isn't worth the paper it's printed upon................. it's time to play some video games. The heavy drinking will just have to wait, so why not revisit another old Atari classic? Some think of Gauntlet as that cool multi-player game where you shoot stuff, eat stuff and collect stuff... not me. I think fondly of Donald Lebeau's 1984 shoot-em-up classic also called Gauntlet. You shoot stuff, and collect by doing a good job and not getting your spaceship all damaged 'n sh.. stuff! I tend to slack off on the ship damage in the 40+ levels, as you can see from the pic. Well, when you're near the end, you gotta let something slide... wait, that can't be right.

Atari Emulator ---> Arex

Another evening of Zynga beatings. No one's growing double grain on their farms anymore... that's what I'm down to now, the high-hanging fruit, the things made of maple syrup and double grain. Getting beaten at Zynga poker, especially when I meet an interesting person. She spoke French and I felt compelled to chat her up a bit, even though my French is 20 years old... they still eat baguettes and drink wine? Checked in with Tetris Battle again, and the old Atari classic Arex. Love that font, and love that game. Good music, too. Short, but catchy. This is how much I used to play this game: one time my Mom and brother burst into my room, singing the Arex theme song. Message received!
And finally! I must be doing something right, because my emulator's starting to scroll things at 60 jiffies per second like the good old days. But look at those anemic scores! Sheesh. Pathetic. Alas, I don't have time to roll the score, or the levels. By the time you get to level 100, you've rolled the score twice, if memory serves.