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.
Halo: ODST Reviews are in
…. Oh yeah my answer to ur question is below 8}
Well a lot of major game developers are where they are today because of making great original games and software. But much like the kernel, he’s gonna keep selling chicken till no wants it no more. Investors don’t like risk. In a financial prospective its probably wiser for a successful developer for example bungie and Activision to keep developing in games they know will sell like Halo and call of duty and leave there next innovative idea for a raining day. Maybe they wanna keep bleeding the well dry til the next generation of consoles. I hope the passion and pace of making new and better games in the industry doesn’t slow down cuz I think the history of gaming since the 80s is amazing. Btw Could you 3 make a time line presentation of what you think were the most epic stages/changes in gaming history.
Thanks for casting
cheers
Our answers to the scary question were in the forum – and you didn’t read mine.
As soon as I heard you saying the dog ate Krud’s post, it occurred to be that none of the posts that were put up in response BEFORE you made the scary game question of the week in a new post.
If you search for the original post by me you should see the responses.
-About the Question of the Week
Short answer, yes. Although, in their defense if it isn’t broke why fix it? Nintendo is living off it’s 20 year old IPs, Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Mario Kart, ect. It seems that Mario continues to bring new elements to the table, but c’mon I’m gonna call a spade a spade; it’s a platformer as it has been from day one.
I do think the nail has been hit squarely on the head though; games are a business just as much as they are art, so when the investors start clamoring new IPs will be developed
—-
Not about the question of the week
What does everyone think about the price cut of the wii, and rumors ( i think they’re rumors) about the upgraded Wii in 2011?
Unreal Tournament, the original 1999 game. I loved it 🙂
http://gamingpodcast.net/forum/suggestions/gaming-flashback-unreal-tournament/#p801