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.
@California videogame law ruled unconstitutional
Well, the lawyers need to make a living …
@LulzSec ends its hacking spree:
Yep, I also think that the authorities (with the help of other hackers) got too close to them.
Now, if LulzSec are script kiddies, then that says a lot about the the level of responsibility of the owners of the attacked sites.
@We didn’t have enough time for Fable 3
Loved Paul’s comment.
@Duke Nukem will continue
Interesting point, Jonah. It might bring better games out there rather than a second DNF.
@ Xbox 360 halfway through lifecycle:
Isn’t XBox a DX9 piece a hardware? If so, just an update: Microsoft already released DX11. Heck, even I upgraded my 6-7 years old DX9 video card to a newer one.
@What kind of food and drink to you eat while gaming?
I’m not from US, so this is not for the contest.
I try not to eat while at the computer, but, when I do that I usually go for dark chocolate.
Alternatively, crackers.
I also try not to snack too much because my metabolism has recently started to catch up with me, but I’ve recently found myself indulging in this particular snack and drink combination while gaming: A micro-brew (preferably a porter) and pretzel m&m’s.
Lulzsec – They didn’t personally affect me but I’m glad its done, there is no reason for doing what they did. Pretty much all the info was useless to most. Probably just did it for publicity.
Duke Nukem – I’m glad that they will continue the series, they shouldn’t just leave the game on such a bad note. I haven’t played it yet, but from the enormous amounts of hate that the game got it almost makes me want to buy it. Almost.
Xbox Life – I can see the Xbox360 lasting that long, which is actually surprising. I don’t really know what Microsoft would add if they were to make a new console, I guess just upgrade the machine as a whole, but I’m not too big about graphics so I don’t really care. Going to be interesting to see if it does actually last that long even with the new Wii console. But that will probably only last for a year and then become another piece of hardware that collects dust.
QOTW – I usually just go with anything I can get. Soda is always a nice choice, but I don’t really like to eat while playing. I hate it when my gaming equipment (if you could call it that), gets dirty or sticky.
You know you can play most PC games with a 360 pad or any regular gamepad? just like consoles if you hook it up to your TV via HDMI/VGA (only with way better graphics/performance)