Reflections on Games Past --> Marvin's Maze

Not to be confused with Falken's Maze.
God bless the Internet! I never thought I'd be able to remember this in a million years, as the expression goes. But even before I became a middle-aged old fart, I seem to be blessed with the occasional memory-related nagging... what was that game that I played at an arcade once? I actually did! Old-timer bonafides... or maybe it was that little mini-arcade next to the gas station. I think I only played it once, and somehow it didn't enchant me at the time. Not like Bubble Bobble or even Ms. Pac-Man. But I did remember the pneumatic tubes that take you from the bottom level to the top level, and vice versa. Kinda hard to get one of the search engines to make that distinction. It is more than a little bit like Pac-Man (TM)(C)(R), but you don't have to eat as many dots. They must've figured out in beta-testing that it was a little too difficult for players to play one of the mazes when it was completely covered in dots. Sadly, poor ol' Marvin didn't spawn a sequel, or even an animated Saturday morning cartoon series, the ultimate level of a video game's impact on the culture.

Marvin's Maze entry at Wikipedia... dang, Wikipedia. No pictures?

Marvin's Maze entry at something called the Killer List of Video Games

Marvin's Maze walkthrough on YouTube (TM)(C)(R)... hmm! Seems to be in Invincible Mode. Niiiiice...

Atari Emulator ---> Pathfinder

Now, THIS is what I've needed! Brainless action! Horizontal and vertical scrolling! A ten-digit score! Thank God and Randy Jongens for the 1982 classic Pathfinder. Some guys only got one game in 'em; they can't all be Sid Meier, right? For a second I thought it might be Pastfinder in disguise, but no such luck. I really shouldn't be going back, anyway.
Maybe I'm getting superstitious in my old age, but one feature I don't like about this game is that your lives are included in the list of bad guys you've got to get. Sympathy for those devils? Hey, if it weren't for me, they'd have nothing to do! I will confess that I did have to consult the manual on this one. As much as I like to go in to these games a blank slate, I still need help every now and again. Must be why I miss the old days with my Atari 1200XL in particular... and my childhood in general. Old age's not so different, really; just more pain pills to take. Also, you have less time for video games, and more time to focus on getting your affairs in order before the big final check out. Must be why I like Level 15, because you get 99 lives. On the other hand, you end up spending all your time and energy fighting fires. Not so fun... oopsie! Spoiler Alert. This game reminded me of that other Gebelli classic, Andromeda. That one seems a little more fun... maybe just more whimsical. Maybe it's just the opening music, who knows. I was also reminded of Citadel Warrior, but less sleek and more forgiving.
(later on) Okay, on Level 15 I was finally able to destroy ... I believe it's called a "nuke." Strange, they seem so timid on the easier levels. It took me 20 lives to destroy one, so... 1,980 more to go!

Pathfinder at Atarimania.com

Gebelli Software in general at Atarimania.com

Pathfinder on Mushca Disk 135

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