Zone X: Level 1, Zone 2

Well, THIS one's certainly a bit nicer! The universe of items has practically doubled in this next one: more safety zones, one-use gates, one spring-loaded trap door to release more baddies. Also, the baddies look decidedly different! You still got slow ones and fast ones, and perhaps by now you've figured out their movement patterns. Not quite as sophisticated as, say, Boulder Dash, but they still gitcha quite a bit, if you're a big dummy like me. Other new items: these clock thingies. As it turns out... SPOILER ALERT... the time you get to carry the radioactive 'X's to a depository doesn't renew unless you die. And by that, I mean in the video game. Well, the various social movements haven't come for video game 'deaths' yet, but I'll grant you that they are a peculiar idea. Once you get used to it, it's kinda fun! Ever notice how in Pac-Man you score more points with your first life than with the others? Oh, did I point that out already elsewhere? Probably. Besides, it's got a sliver... silver lining to it! Even in something semi-dreary like "Zone X." For instance, if you complete a level... or a zone... I forget which is which. Anyway, if you complete one without dying, you get an extra life! Just like in... I forget which. Well, similar concept in "Bubble Bobble." In that one, if you make it to level 20 without dying, you get one of those sweet, sweet cave bonuses. Next one's at level 30... then 50? At 50, you get to skip to 75, which is good! For some reason, those "Drunks" are really good bottle throwers. Also, I do like the fact that "Zone X" doesn't have a general countdown clock... for one thing, seeing as how slow your AVATAR is!!!!!!!

Zone X - Level 1, Zone 1

Whelp, it took some doing, but here's the first level.  Not that I don't love finding out later that there's a finite number of keys for a larger number of doors.  Some levels of Dandy are like that, if memory serves.

Atari Emulator ---> Zone X

I'm back!  Didja miss me?  That's okay... I tell you, inconsistent is inconsiderate.  That should be my official slogan, and I should sell t-shirts.  But that's what happens when you try and follow someone who paints themselves into a corner like I do.  I mean, how are you supposed to keep blogging about Rainbow Walker and Boulder Dash all the time?  You gotta reach out and try new things.  For instance, many moons ago I went to all the trouble to download the then 266 .zip files of Mushca fame.  So many more to get now.  Then, you have to unzip them to get to the files that the Atari Emulator can actually use.  And I haven't even unzipped them all!  But I did get to a new one in search of my newest obsession.  It took a while... but here it is.  A little bit of Tutankham, Shamus, Boulder Dash and probably some others, all rolled into one.  Include Pastfinder if only for the radioactivity angle.  Make it a little less exciting, and what do you get?  Mushca Disk 51's Zone X by Derek Johnston, a game even James Lovelock might have liked ... if he didn't pass on in July.  How many levels could this thing possibly have?  Perhaps it's time to find out!

Mushca Disk 51 - Zone X

Zone X's official home at Atarimania.com

The Fault In Our Stars

 I'll try going back to "Compose" view for this one.  Whelp, 'tis been a while since I really geeked out about the Atari.  I know... sad, isn't it?  People usually think I'm a Vic-20 kind of guy.  Anyway, I made the mistake of trying to finish Gordon Eastman's other classic game, Star Maze.  I only dabbled in it a little bit, but I remembered my training.  If you're in between two walls that have the same pattern, you're headed for a dead end.  At least in Star Maze, you can bounce your spaceship off the walls!  C'est La Vie is a little harsher; damn near constant trips to the hospital because of the walls, the constant robberies, the Tax Man.  Oh well.  At least he tries to be consistent, right?  Decent gameplay if you want to work on your memory.  As you may recall, there's more or less a map in C'est La Vie, but in Star Maze... no map!  How will you remember where home base is?  And how will you get those crucifix-shaped "jewels" back there to get more fuel?  So you can go back out and get more jewels?  What a vicious cycle.  One interesting facet of gameplay is the enemies.  Kinda clunky, but I won't complain.  There's the asteroids to contend with.  Probably better not to shoot them at all.  In fact, you learn pretty quickly that there are some enemies you shouldn't shoot, especially those... the "Wall Clingers," for lack of a better / more official term.  There's no manual for the game at Atarimania, alas.  No painting by "Ross."  Thankfully, I was able to collect all the jewels before the high score board filled up.  Spoiler Alert: I think my efforts to do this were worth way way more than 500 points, but whatever.  Still not as fun as Bolo, but hey.  We're Atari gamers.  We're used to disappointment!

And then, there's Defender's skankier cousin Stargate.  Very popular in the arcades, if memory serves.  It's been a while since I've dreamt about the arcade!  As with most attempts to translate, or "port" arcade games to the Atari 8-bit family of computers, its limitations are inevitably too much.  They just can't recreate something like Crystal Castles, or something even more reliant on fast processors and large memory chips like Marble Madness, though it doesn't stop people from trying!  Which is why the translation of Stargate, for me personally, is more disappointing than Defender.  Less is more.  Stargate is more colorful, I'll give you that.  I like the spinning saw blades!

And finally, a game even lamer than Harvey Wallbanger is simply called Stars... oh, Harvey Wallbanger is from ANALOG Computing?  I stand corrected then.  Their games are of an even higher quality than Antic!  And Antic! was pretty damn good.  Compute?... eh.  I think ANALOG was the only magazine that didn't have the exclamation point.  Brave!  Well, Stars can't be found at Atarimania... but Froggie can!  And for bonus points, its demented cousin, Princess and (the) Frog.  Good ol' Romox; a bit of a lummox.  Awful game, but everyone somehow ended up with a copy of it.  Quick to play if you have it in cassette format!  But Stars does ask an interesting mathematical question.  Let's say you have a version of the game where you score points merely for standing still, as the "stars" bounce around around you.  Is there anywhere on the game "board" where you can stand and be safe all the time?  There doesn't seem to be!  That nasty programmer thought of everything.  If memory serves, there are six stars, and they all seem to be placed so that no corner, place near the walls, or nice spots for a picnic in the middle remain long untouched by the stars' "orbits."  Sure, you could cheat and hack into the game and erase your avatar, but what on Earth is the fun of that?  Or maybe make it smaller!  So that the question can be answered: what's the minimum size of an avatar that can stay in one spot and remain untouched?  I'll leave that to finer minds than mine to figure out.  I need to get to bed, and you probably do too.

(later on) I should probably give a shout-out... sorry, Shout-Out (TM)(C)(R) to the Atari Star Trek video game.  They at least tried to get the font right on the title screen.  Actually, it's a pretty decent actioner!  It has the decimal level structure of Buck Rogers; level 1.1, 1.2, like that.  Rare for any game as far as I know.  The game makers don't realize how nerdy us gamers can get, you see.  It's a 3-D shoot 'em up game, even though the 3D window's pretty small, but I think that's part of the charm.  I do like the  bonus enemy ship that mimics your movement, what can I say?  I'd have to get into it some more, but the point structure is almost exponential, and I came damn close to a million points once upon a time.  Ah, the illusion of a high score; what the gamer lives for.  Plattermania also has exponential points... sorry, PlatterMania.  But who wants to play PlatterMania?  Actually, PlatterMania a good lesson for all of youse out there who still want to be in showbiz.  Like any other job, it's a lot of boring tasks, mostly unpaid for people you used to envy, to get to the big payoff... an Oscar (C)(R)(TM)?

Gordon Eastman's "Star Maze" - Mushca Disk 154, Atarimania, Wikipedia Page

Williams' Stargate - Mushca Disk 172, Atarimania

Star Trek (TM)(R)(C) - Mushca Disk 58, Atarimania

Mushca Disk 118 - Lots of 'Star' titles

Jim Nangano's Flip and Flop (Atari Emulator)

Didn't I do a post for this one?  Okay, so it's just a fancy variation on Q*Bert in the final analysis, but it's from First Star Software (TM)(R)(C), another one of those software companies like Activision (C)(R)(TM) or Imagic (R)(TM)(C) who programmed games for the Atari better even than the in-house Atari programmers themselves!  I mean, what happened, guys?  Complacency?  Not enough stock in the company?  Boy, those were the days, before Microsoft changed everything, stock-wise.  These days, of course, stock prices are all out of the common man's reach.  $400 for one share?  No thanks... think I got off topic there.  One of the many things I like about Flip and Flop is, once you get up to about level 13, the danger is constant, and always about 1.5 steps behind you.  You can outrun the zookeeper a little, but that fat boy moves his purple ass!  Also, there seems to be only two "patterns" maximum, even though the game implies there could be up to 99.  Now THAT would be something, but as it is, the 256-character four-color font used to create the mazes was stretched to the maximum already. 

I only bring this one up because, for me, it's gained a little currency in the SmartPhone (TM)(R)(C) Era... sorry, Epoch.  Where I work, some of these phones make a noise that sounds like the celebratory counting of the left-over time when you beat a level... actually, it's in Drelbs as well.

Mushca Disk 30 and 264 (Title version)

Atarimania - Flip and Flop

Latest and Greatest

Another "beautiful" video game. God, I hate those. Frankly, those trees in the background are a little problematic...

Another Boulder Dash Variation

My God... has it been four months since I was flagellating myself over Bounty Bob Strikes Back?  Clearly it's time for something different.  How about going back to Boulder Dash?  Well, I am a creature of habit, after all.  This time, we've got a variation on Mushca Disk #387... man!  Where does the time go?  Didn't there used to be only 266 of these things?  Well, this particular variation of Boulder Dash is based on the 1986 version of Boulder Dash which featured a level editor, and it was called... wait for it... Boulder Dash Construction Kit... hmm!  Maybe I'll try that one again; couldn't get it to work last time.  But this other version on Disk 387 is called BSM Boulder Dash.  It has 40 levels, some of which were from the original Construction Kit.  Most of these levels, however, have a certain... sameness to them.  The same color, the same goals: you have to get 99 diamonds, and they're worth 99 points apiece.  For those of you familiar with Boulder Dash, sounds like fun, right?  Or is it just blatant excess?

Mushca Disk 387