One of the first games I was introduced to on the 2600 was River Raid, back in 1982. I remember it vividly, as I was at my cousin David’s house, who was older than me, and he’d “baby sit” me so the adults could have some adult time hanging out in the dining room. We’d sit in the family room playing 2600, mainly River Raid.
This is an Activision game, and was later ported to Atari 5200, Atari 8-bit, C64, ColecoVision, IBM PCjr, Intellivision, ZX Spectrum, and MSX. The player controls an airplane in a top-down view over a river and gets points for shooting down enemy planes, helicopters, ships and balloons (for versions after the Atari 2600). By flying over fuel-stations, the plane’s tank can be refilled. The player can shift side to side and change the speed of the plane. Sections of the river are marked by bridges.
The game was highly acclaimed for its ability to stuff tons of map into small amounts of space. The map was huge and it fit on the disk because it’s randomly generated using a common starting seed, basically, imagine some of the Diablo dungeons…they’re randomly generated but the starting seed which starts the random process is also ‘random.’ (probably based on clock time which isn’t too uncommon). Atari, rather than try to make a random level each time used the level random generator to build a procedural based level rather than drawing it and saving it into the cart. GENIUS.
A more highly randomized number generation system was used for enemy AI to make the game less predictable.
Germany consider this game harmful to children, indexing it on their list of games “harmful for children” along with the game Speed Racer. It remained on their list until 2002 (since 1984) when developers petitioned it off the list before the PS2 launch of Activision Anthology (otherwise they’d not be able to put it in the game)
Some of the Germany reasons: Minors are intended to delve into the role of an uncompromising fighter and agent of annihilation (…). It provides children with a paramilitaristic education (…). With older minors, playing leads (…) to physical cramps, anger, aggressiveness, erratic thinking (…) and headaches (wikipedia)
All in all, a great game! To hear all the details on River Raid and our opinions, checkout TD Gaming Podcast Episode 78.
Hey guys,
I just finished reading ‘Racing the Beam’, a semi-technical, semi-historical book on the Atari VCS and I’m currently reading ‘The Ultimate History of Video Games’ so your Gaming History segment was timed perfectly. I never had the Atari VCS but I did have the Atari 800XL machine and I did play most of the classic games. It’s certainly one of the most important companies in the history of video gaming and it’s a really fun and interesting story to read and listen about.
@Kinect
I never used the Kinect but the PS4 also has the voice command support and I never use it. I feel silly talking to a machine when I know I can do most of the stuff faster and easier with the controller. I am not suprised that the Kinect has been unbundled from the XBone. Those who think they spent too much money will just as easily sell their Kinects to those who want them. I don’t think it’s an issue. Overall, it seems to me that motion controls are vastly underused but there’s probably a reason for it. Other than party games I don’t really find them that fun. Having said that, I played through Heavy Rain using the PS Move and it wasn’t all that bad. Still, it’s a unique game, which attempts to be as immersive as possible.
@Philips versus Nintendo
This is so bizarre I don’t even know where to start… Why the Wii U and not the Move or the Kinect, which seem to infringe on the patent even more? Does it have to do with the scanner you talked about or the nunchucks because that’s still not clear to me? Didn’t Philips sue Nintendo over a different patent many years ago? Something about CD-i?
@QOTW
I don’t believe I played that many educational games back in the day. I remember a math game featuring Disney characters and butterfly nets but I don’t even remember what platform that was on. Atari or Commodore… Need For Speed didn’t teach me how to drive, Killzone didn’t teach me how to kill and Spelunky didn’t teach me about exploring caves. I prefer games for their entertainment value although I will have to look into the education genres when I have my own kids…