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.
Black Wii? That’s been out in UK since November 2009!
Guess it took 6 months to change the power lead?
(It also came bundled with Wii Sports / Sports Resort and black Wii Motion Plus connector)
Had a bit of a thought on last week’s QotW – Tetris. The game that came with the original Game Boy, as well as various flash based websites these days. I certainly spent many an hour on that.
As for being a gamer parent, yes we will be different. I remember being 14 and getting my mum to buy me Doom 2 (18-rated due to the violence, which is nothing compared to these days), as she was clueless about gore and such. Mortal Kombat was also blood and guts galore, but it flew off shelves because of it.
Now as games have been graphically more intense and realistic, the obvious difference between real world and virtual is getting closer. Parents KNOW that we play GTA to pick up prostitutes, take them for a ride, then run them over to get our cash back.
We know that games like Left 4 Dead and Resident Evil will teach you its ok to chainsaw a zombie in half, or fire a sawn-off shot-gun at point blank range.
Yes, we have grown up with this games, and can make that distinction. It might not mean that we stop our kids playing these games, but we’re certainly AWARE OF THE CONTENT, which is what all the “video games cause violence” arguments stem from. Parents never used to take the time to assess what the kids were playing.
@Red Hot Chilli Peppers:
I think Jennifer is right, I think they use this kind of release schedule to keep interest.
COD and Halo are different stories. I mean they’re both shooters, but it’s also different universes.
And Derrick, they’re not going to eventually burn out. Try NOW instead of eventually.
@Next Call of Duty will be Black Ops:
It’ll be Vietnam, as far as I know. It’ll have plenty of shooting, so if you expect stealth, well, careful with your expectations.
@Bungie:
Bungie did Halo, but I don’t think they own the IP. As for their new franchise, we’ll see.
I personally didn’t like Halo, I found the enemies to be … dorky? I mean they didn’t inspire any fear.
So, dunno about the next Bungie game.
@black console:
“You know, I have one simple request, and that is to have a console with frickin’ laser beams attached to it”
Don, for a moment I heared the Dr. Evil inside you.
Now, why would anyone want the console market dead? I’m a PC gamer and I don’t get it.
@3.5″ floppy: I still have some of them. Used one to flash the bios of the motherboard.
I remember that in order to get various drivers from the school computer I had to copy them on several floppies, just to have some redundancy.
In 2003 I bought my first 64MB flash drive. Man, that was a giant leap forward, in terms of both size AND portability. That flash drive still works, by the way.
@Question of the week:
I’m pretty sure they’ll do fine. I already mentioned the dad and daughter that play the same computer game, and the fact that they seem to have a pretty strong connection.
I think that parents that played games will take better decisions when it comes to managing the impact games have on their kids. I mean this is something they know quite a lot about, so their decisions as parents will be good.
Microsoft owns the rights to Halo, and 343 Industries, which runs the brand, is headed by Frank O’Conner and other ex-Bungie developers. Bungie’s big IPs in the past include, aside from Marathon, the Myth series and Oni.
Activision better not be expecting another game on the level of Halo. It just isn’t happening. Halo was a shooter in the right place and the right time for the right console.
Hey Jenadonrick great cast ICC10 quote was lol.
@ GH – Sounds like if they made a game: Red Hot Chili Peppers vs Green Day, Listening to you guys (& girls) the game would be a hit!
@ Bungie – As everyone knows I’m a fan of the Bungie, so it’s really exciting to see if they have to skills to pull off a successful game other then HALO. My friends & I were joking about this. That maybe the next COD will have AC130’s shooting down needlers & a Gravity hammer in the game. Also Do you know why no other developers have mimicked halo’s forge & theatre features? because they are too features the extended the life of halo 3 so successfully.
In Regards to Don talking about Consoles being easier.
I agree with his opinion, Quite recently I decided I would take a trip to memory lane & download BF2 off steam; I had a lot of stuffing around to simply play that game. After every 30sec into a game I was getting kicked from Punk buster. I had to spend hours searching through forums, In the end it was my program MSI Afterburner which I use to monitor my FPS, Temps & alter my fan speeds/Overclocks. So after uninstalling MSI I was good to go but PC gaming can be annoying @ least I know that if I buy a game for the 360 all I have to worry about is getting up & inserting the disc. The PC gaming market is an expensive market to be in, if your want to be playing the top end graphics all the time for the newest games. You need the Bis graphics card/processor which can be anywhere around $300-1200ea Which in 6 months will be Out of date. The great thing about consoles is that you are almost guaranteed 3-4 years without upgrading.
As for the QOTW
I’m not planning on having ankle biters anytime soon but I believe in moderation games can be a good source of learning & a good bonding exercise. Parent have to take on the responsibility of regulating how much they play & monitor which games they are playing. If you have minors playing GTA it’s mainly the parents fault for rather not caring or monitoring what they are playing.
@ Chess
I have heaps of mates that I play chess with. If you don’t know how to play ur not a MAN. =p
BTW I had a spelling fail last episode. Remembering Hackers can’t spell 😉 proving I’m a hacker.
(I don’t believe this is true because isn’t it important to have correct syntax?)