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.
@GameStop vs. Deus Ex
Paul, Deus Ex are two separate words.
As for the news item itself, well, we talked already in the forums. Just one thing I want to say: they should have pulled the game from the shelves right at the beginning, instead of taking out the coupon.
That’s tampering with a product, so I agree with Paul.
@Origin EULA:
Jonah pointed it clearly, the new formulation says absolutely nothing of what they will or will not do.
If this is not an excuse for pirates, then I don’t know what is …
Paul, the question is, once you have the power to access a lot of customer information, what will enforce a corporation to only do “the good thing”?
Yes Jordan, you can call me Mr. Alien.
And Jonah, the reason my sister liked UT is because of the flak cannon: she loved shredding enemies to pieces with it.
@Are you interested in Epic Mickey 2?
No. Sorry, just can’t see myself jumping from STALKER/Doom 3 and the likes to Epic Mickey 1, 2, 3 or 999.
Paul, Jonah doesn’t dismiss your opinions. He dismisses any opinion that doesn’t fit with his. So yeah, he’s a bit of a bully.
Still, while he doesn’t agree with some of the stuff that I write, he still gives voice to my comments (although now it seems to be Jordan).
Jordan was right, this kind of conflicts do give the show some charm.
@ Flop vs. Failure:
The two terms are interchangeable when it comes to the subject at hand. Heck, one of Miriam-Websters’ definitions of flop is “To fail completely.”
@ Who has one console?
If you count current-gen consoles, I only have one. If not, then I still only have two, the other being a PS2. The Wii never managed to grab my interest outside of its initial scavenger hunt craze to find one. (Which I didn’t.) The PS3 was out of my price range long enough for me to skip over it, and the bulk of the people I play with are either mainly or only 360 owners, as well.
@ Episode 227’s Question:
I used to dream of DDR, and still see stepcharts in my head while listening to music daily. Now that I’ve been watching some MLG videos, I’m dreaming about being there and wondering what the heck I’m doing.
@ Epic Mickey 2:
Possibly, as the first seemed to have interesting concepts, but I never got to play it, as I don’t own a Wii. I would think about picking up a sequel if it comes out for the platform I own.
(And, yes, I know that askewed isn’t a proper conjugation of the word, that’s kind of the point.)
Is this where I send my hate mail for VGRT?
haha.
not sure what that was about…
Paul sounded like he was PMS-ing pretty bad…
get that guy a Midol! stat!
funny show, with lots of good info, and, though
I hate to admit it, the arguing makes it even more entertaining…
He’s like your Bababooey or something.
anyway, thanks for the info & laughs!