Bolo Again!

The infamous tank game lives on! Play online for free here at the Internet Archive. And of course, learn more about the game here on Wikipedia.

(a few days later) Success!  And yet... where's the followup Dinochrome Brigade game?  (searching on internet)  Should have known!

Okay, so level 1 is down.  But what about levels 2-9?  I hate to say it... okay, I don't hate it that much, but to me it feels like Gridrunner all over again.  I use Gridrunner as the example because I saw an ad about 40 years ago for it that declared something about how it's an unbeatable game.  Well, yeah!... if there's way too many enemies and you have a gun that's just not that powerful... oh!  There's the ad right there at the bottom of the Atarimania (TM)(R)(C) page!  Okay, I'll try level 9 with a maze density of 9... 5.

Mystery Game

Well, I GOTTA post this. This was on my Facebook (C)(TM)(R) feed. I'm thinking... Wizard of Wor (TM)(R)(C)? Of course, it's a game that's not exactly known for its booty... EASY! God's sake... hmm! I don't remember skulls either. Oh, I guess it's not. Never mind.

Oh... I'm Biting My Tongue

I should know better by now. Really, it's all about what you grew up with. Intellivision (TM)(R)(C), Atari (C)(TM)(R), Colecovision (R)(C)(TM)... that one with games on tape. But I tell you this... if that crippled Bugs Bunny is supposed to be an insult to Atari (TM)(R)(C) gamers, it's not. ANY gamer worth their weight in pixels is eventually going to look more like the maniac Bugs Bunny than his tea-sipping counterpart! I mean, take the farting spaceship of 2600 Space Invaders fame. Is there any Intellivision (C)(TM)(R) game that's half that good? I rest my case. I mean, besides the Activision (TM)(C)(R) games and the Imagic (R)(TM)(C) games. Personally, I think I'd get tired of that Intellivision (TM)(R)(C) number font. You know, the zero with a dot in it. Variety, damn it! That's what the gamer wants!

Zynga Poker 2024

Um... don't they all win?

Atari Emulator - Synapse Software's "Dimension X"

In this era of infinite games, like Zynga Poker (TM)(R)(C) and King's Candy Crush games (C)(R)(TM), sometimes it's nice to wax nostalgic for the games you played in your childhood... okay, my childhood. Sorry, Glennis Yeager, I tried... but we are a nostalgic species. I believe it was Howard Suber who said that memory is a powerful force... something like that. Sorry... mixing blogs again. For whatever reason, I never got into Battlezone, but I know it's got an important place in video game history. This, despite the fact that Assault clearly has way, way more features. My favourite was, of course, where you would leap real high into the air... didn't seem to help me much, though. Vindicators was fun, but I clearly didn't bring enough quarters. #harderthanstickshift Doom and Doom II should've had a vehicle for you to drive around in; alas, you are your own tank in that one. But let's try to get back to Dimension X already. It's a bit like Synapse's other 3D-ish effort, Encounter, but you only get one life in Dimension X. That's... not terribly dimensional! No, you get the added level of a ship in need of nearly constant repairs. Part of the reason why I don't like to play the tougher levels on some of these things. The Last Starfighter's like that too, as is Synapse's flight games Blue Max and Blue Max 2001... might as well include 'em both. Game map-wise, Encounter keeps things simple, as you go linearly from sector to sector. Dimension X is similar to Blasteroids or The E Factor with its two-dimensional game map. The glittering bad guys in Dimension X thankfully don't have as much variety as the baddies of Encounter fame... I still have nightmares about that red one. In between Dimension X's sectors is a game similar to a portion of the Atari (C)(TM)(R) Star Wars (TM)(R)(C) game where you have to dodge barriers at various altitudes. This is of course a serious strain on the 6502's capabilities, but programmer Steve Hales is up to the challenge, and gives all five of the player/missiles a workout. I won't give it a star rating, but it... it was worth a revisit, what the hell. 

Dimension X - Disk 47, Mushca Collection 

Dimension X at Atarimania.com

Atari Emulator --> Spy's Demise and Friends

...oh good! I don't have to try and solve that cryptogram myself! Ah, that takes me back to arcade action ever so briefly available at grade school... during business hours. Then there's that one with the bouncing spider you have to try and shoot (Apple II), but the real experts at that wouldn't give anyone else a chance. What's neat about Penguin Software's "Spy's Demise" is that the action starts out easy, then gets more difficult... then gets really difficult... then gets easier again! On the other hand, the game board shrinks in size ever so slightly when you complete a level. I can't handle that kind of excitement. Naturally, clones had to be spawned, like this one from Analog Computing (1985)... spoiler alert: turns out the pizza chef on the Simpsons is actually a Van Houten! I tend to think of this one called "Highrise" as part of the same family... I forget where it's from. Probably Compute! magazine, maybe Antic.

Spy's Demise - Mushca Disk 27, home at Atarimania.com

Elevator Repairman - Mushca Disk 32, home at Atarimania.com

Highrise - Mushca Disk 141, Atarimania.com home - it WAS Compute! magazine.  Miss that thing.

Donkey Kong's Triumphant Return