PixlBit

Onward with more gameplay footage and thoughts about games from the second generation of video gaming that takes place from Star Wars: A New Hope to Predator. Or more specifically, my notes as I continue to read Brett Weiss' book The 100 Greatest Console Video Games: 1977-1987.

Jawbreaker for Atari 2600. Never heard of this game. Let me see it in action. . . Oo, Classic Game Room reviewed it! Here it is.

                  

It's a Pac-Man clone and a good one, but still a Pac-Man clone. I'm not huge on the maze games. I thought of Matt Snee's music and videos in the last twenty seconds of this video where the jawbreaker is just spinning to some funky beat. Check it out Snee-man!

The more I hear about the Odyssey 2 console, the more curious I get. Here's James Rolfe (aka Angry Video Game Nerd) and Mike Matei playing the system.

                    

I was interested in KC's Crazy Chase! and its shown at minute 6:30. It's another Pac-Man clone, but perhaps an even better one than Jawbreaker. It's still a maze game though, so meh.

Here's Gamester81's look at the Odyssey 2 (or Odyssey Squared, the 2 is printed on the box like you would for a squared number). He shows some accessories for the system.

                    

He shows the boxes for Conquest of the World and Quest for the Rings, both of which I'd like to play someday. They are also board games? Wha?! KC's Crazy Chase is at minute 6:40.

But I still want to see gameplay for Killer Bees for Odyssey 2 mentioned in this Brett Weiss book.

                   

You are the Killer Bees trying to eliminate the Beebots that come after you. Hover over them long enough and they turn into gravestones. The voice modulator add-one to the system is clearly being used in this video above. It's kind of an original and interesting game. 

I thought it was funny that Princess Zelda from The Legend of Zelda was named after American author F. Scott Fitzgerald's wife. It's a funny coincidence since I was just reading The Great Gatsby and there are letters by Fitzgerald at the end of the audio book in which he mentions his wife Zelda. If I didn't know already, I would've wondered whether Miyamoto got the name from her since I don't know anyone else by that name. The answer would've been, "yes, he did".

Also, an interesting fact. Mega Man was know as Rockman in Japan. That's not the interesting part though, since everyone already knows that. What I didn't know, and maybe you didn't either, is that the "rock" in Rockman was not supposed to refer to the mineral, but to Rock 'n' Roll. Proof of this comes from an interview with Keiji Inafune and further proof comes from the fact that there is a female character in the Japanese game named Roll; Rock Man meets Roll Woman. Together they are rock 'n' roll people. Ha! Point is, Inafune was thinking of music a lot when he concieved the game and it makes sense since the music has really influenced a lot of developers.

I think that's a good place to end this page 6 of my notes. More to come.