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.
EA Committed
@Wii U priced at $300 for basic, $350 for deluxe
I heard a lot of criticism towards the console after the pricing was announced. This doesn’t look good.
@Obsidian unveils Kickstarter title Project Eternity, raise $1M in 24 hours
I don’t get it, Dr. Evil … Studios going to Kickstarter for money instead of going to producers? I take it they no longer want to cope with the pressure of the producer?
Thing is, “One million dollars” doesn’t keep a studio running for too long, so what’s going on there?
@“no disc based games” next-gen
That’s quite some bandwidth required right there. For this reason alone (and the fact that I’m using a 3G modem) I say that CD/DVD is good, me likes them 🙂
@QOTW:
Not much. I played Shadowrun for SNES during my Internet-less vacation, and I found that game to be surprisingly entertaining.
@Wii U
Not sure. I also think having 2 versions is stupid, considering the Deluxe version is way superior to Basic. The price is not so bad. But in the current economic situation I don’t expect it to sell out like the Wii. Personally, I will play it safe and get it early next year. I will wait for reviews, new title announcements and to see how popular it will get. Don’t need another Nintendo branded brick on my hands.
Especially if it mostly plays Xbox 360 games
@Guild Wars 2
I kind off fell out of the whole MMO world. Level grinding is just not my thing. Usually I get to LvL 20 and loose interest. That’s why I play F2P stuff. Not sure if I should invest into Guild Wars. It has no subscription but does it provide enough content to make me play it long enough? MMOs are just to repetitive these days.
@QOTW
Just finished Yakuza on PS2. Currently playing Witcher. It’s funny. Jonah says he is playing Mass Effect and completing all the quests. I have done that on my first playthrough. Then I did it for the second time as an asshole. I usually play games very thoroughly. I only reached chapter 3 on Witcher but already played over 30 hours. I prefer to do everything on the first attempt. Although, in an RPG that means that I max level half way the game and then kill the final boss with a backhand slap.
@Wii U priced at $300 for basic, $350 for deluxe
good job on the guess guys! i think this price is ok for a console of that caliber, it might be “a couple of wiis taped together” but it will fufill the gamer’s needs for a few years without a doubt (i hope)
@Obsidian unveils Kickstarter title Project Eternity, raise $1M in 24 hours
well, they really do have a history with good games! they deserve it!
@QOTW
mostly Borderlands 2 and Battlefield 3: armored kill. as of now, i am a lvl 19 assassin focused fully on the melee tree… oh god, the carnage! :3
now time for my question: wich classes and wich builds are you guys doing on BL2? and wich you made for BL1? i made mordekai as a kick ass sniper, also 100% focused on the sniper tree.