I you want to go for some 2600 nostalgia, I recommend to visit this.
I played some of Berzerk. I enjoyed it, but I keep dying and I didn't even had the chance to see that infamous smiley enemy.
Video Games of My Life: Part Three - 1980-1983
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 On 02/08/2014 at 04:27 PM by KnightDriver See More From This User » |
Arcades and home consoles were hugely popular in this The Golden Age of video games. Arcades were everywhere. I played such games as: Berzerk, Tempest, Centipede, Defender, Missile Command, Battlezone, Pac-Man, Galaga, Ms. Pac-Man, Frogger, Donkey Kong, Venture, Pleiads, Xevious, Joust, Q*bert, Front Line, Donkey Kong Junior, Sinistar, Dig Dug, Time Pilot, Moon Patrol, Zaxxon, Spy Hunter, Crossbow, Dragon’s Lair, and Gyruss. My favorites were Xevious, Front Line, and Spy Hunter but I blew quite a few quarters beating Dragon’s Lair. Dragon’s Lair was basically a memory game and my friend and I challenged each other to see who would finish it first. Recently I’ve rediscovered Time Pilot and Gyruss in Xbox Live’s Game Room and now love these as well. All these arcade games were the cutting edge of what you could do in video games - the ultimate experience. Or so everyone thought.
On home consoles, you would see a marked difference from the arcade with much reduced quality of graphics and fewer levels, but some experiences were unique to the home systems such as Adventure, Superman, and Haunted House. The games I played back then were: Adventure, Space Invaders, Golf, Boxing, Fishing Derby, Skiing, Asteroids, Missile Command, Super Breakout, Video Pinball, Warlords, Laser Blast, Tennis, Kaboom!, Freeway, Stampede, Ice Hockey, Amidar, Star Raiders, Pac-Man, Frogger, Pitfall!, Chopper Command, Star Raiders, and River Patrol. Golf and Tennis were always consistently fun to play as was Kaboom!, Freeway, and Stampede. Stampede was a game I played a lot and still love today in Xbox Live’s Game Room. I discovered Yar’s Revenge in Game Room and wondered how I missed it. I still think Activision understood the Atari 2600 best and produced really fun and visually attractive games within the limits of the system. There were experiences there going beyond what the arcade had to offer even though graphical fidelity was less.
Across the neighborhood, I was able to experience the other consoles. I went to play Mattel’s Intellivsion next door. This system had the best sports games. I played: NHL Hockey, NFL Football, Horse Racing, Sea Battle, PGA Golf, Major League Baseball, and B-17 Bomber. The Intellivision’s controller had a key pad for selecting options and a circle pad for movement that allowed for lots of gameplay options and smooth control of on screen animations - perfect for sports games. My favorite though was strategy game Sea Battle, as I’ve always loved such board games such as Stratego, Risk, Sink The Bismarck, and Squad Leader. There was nothing like it on the other two systems. The Intellivoice Voice Synthesis Module was novel as well. It was the first time outside the arcade you could hear an approximation of a human voice in a game.
And a few houses down the street, there was the ColecoVision, which the rest of us in the neighborhood were in awe of because it had the best ports of arcade games. I went there to play such games as: Venture, Donkey Kong, Zaxxon, Donkey Kong Junior, and Front Line. My favorite was Front Line and couldn’t wait to visit my friend’s place to play it. I replayed the arcade version of that game recently on Taito Legends 2 on PS2 and it’s still a fun and challenging game. I played Donkey Kong Junior on Virtual Console as well, but it’s the NES version, which is not all that close to the arcade original. I’ve always loved DK Jrs. vine climbing in that game much more than Mario’s barrel jumping in Donkey Kong. Maze crawling, arrow shooting Venture was a favorite of mine as well since it recalled the action element of Dungeons & Dragons to my mind. All these games really needed the arcade perfect treatment to really enjoy at home and DK Jr. and Venture are still best played on the ColecoVision (mainly because they haven’t been ported anywhere as of yet).
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