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.
Portable Xbox Device Coming?
The break points for me tend to be
40.00 or under new. I has to be on a console I own already or for PC. It has to have a rating among gamers of 8 or better. By gamers I mean people who really play the game and wrote about it on their blog or tell me about it somehow. People who got it because it interested them not people who write for Game Marketing sites and get free copies or one that is passed around the office.
I’ve been a PC gamer all my life – when I bought the Xbox, it was a $600 bundle – and the reason I bought it was twofold:
1. it had a hard drive
2. Halo
I bought the 360 because of my Live account.
Now, I first got back into console gaming with the Dreamcast, when it was being sold for $60. The funny thing is, software was still being made for it, so I was buying stuff like NBA 2K1 and NBA 2K2, and playing it even though I had an Xbox.
Hey I’m from Cooktown, australia and love listening to ur podcast, when i’m working in excel. I used to be a real PS2 fan boy and i used to always say i’ll neva go to microsoft… But then PS3 and the 360 came out and i didnt know what to do, so i kept my ps2 4 a while pretending that the epic age of ps2 wasnt over. But after getting caught onto halo at my friends and seeing such a community on xbox live … i got converted =/ (final fantasy going to 360 played a big role) but i still wanted the ps3, but when i saved enuf dough 4 the ps3 what did i do….. i got a 81cm samsung LCD. Sony disappoints me with there system i just dont think its worth the price
=[. P.S say hi to me in ya next podcast =p
Depends on what desire lvl of the game is at. if its on the “LIST” i just buy it even if its $120 but if its a game i’m interested in, but dont wanna spend $99+ on i’d say $50 (making me a sucker for 49.95 deals =p)
The market for gaming is sick! But if you compare to my generation the NES days, prices are pretty comparable if not even better for what your getting. Anyone remember the turbo graphics 16…lol