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.
@Pachter predicts $349 for PS4, $399 for Xbox One
Interesting. I don’t see this happening though, the hardware behind them is basically identical. And for the same stuff, Sony has a history of running higher prices.
@World of Warcraft movie
*sigh* … why the hell not … I’ve seen Mario, Prince of Persia, so why the heck not. I mean it’ll have a ton of CGI, so does it really matter the origins of the story/script? For all it’s worth being “made after WoW” will most likely be used as a marketing tool to get more people in the cinema.
@Robert Bowling’s Robotoki raided by LAPD, mistake COD figure as armed intruder
… really? I blame the dev who pressed the panic button.
Jonah, Ghost is wielding an M4 with an M203 under-barrel grenade launcher and a red dot reflex sight. Not sure what to make out of the sound suppressor though.
@Documentary seeks to unearth 3.5M E.T. cartridges from landfill
… waste of time if you ask me. But hey, they have money to spend, the contractor has people to pay.
@Oculus Rift developer Andrew Scott Reisse, 33, killed as bystander in police chase
Manslaughter. That’ll be the verdict.
As for Andrew Scott Reisse, R.I.P.
@Shadow of the Eternals Kickstarter fundraising struggling
So I remember that at one point we were wondering when we’ll get the first failure on kickstarter. Now if I remember correctly, what we wanted was a project to meet the goals, but then to not deliver. This one doesn’t quite meet the requirements but still, it is the first project that could fail while still being under the spotlight.
@EEE
Didn’t watch any conferences. They were all at some awkward time; 12pm pdt is the worst time to have any conference. It’s middle of the night in Japan and workday in US and UK. Only suitable for Chinese where consoles are banned. Regardless, the news was all right. It’s surprising to see the console battle so one sided. PS4 definitely plowed Microsoft. I am genuinely surprised to say this but Sony seems to have learned from it’s mistakes and is doing what the gamers want. As opposed to Microsoft, whose vision of the living room seems to be inconsistent with our own. That said, I will probably be getting a PS4 on release. That and Battlefield. Glad to see that some very good MMOs are coming to consoles.
@Xbox 180
Composed the post above a week ago. So much has changed. I have never seen Microsoft so humbled in its entire existence. Bill Gates is rotating in his grave. And he ain’t even dead yet. From one side they slapped themselves in the face hard by going back on their “vision of the living room”. On the other hand, it speaks volumes that they take PS4 as a serious threat and a more appealing console. Which means they still have time to turn things around. Still, I am set on the PS4 but will eventually get an Xbox. Once the price is right.
@WiiU
I am currently taking bets on if the WiiU collapses before the core Nintendo titles come out. Since my Lovefilm subscription ran out I haven’t even touched the thing. And not really planing on doing it any time soon. I am tired of Nintendo feeding me promises.
PS: I love the fact that Microsoft is ripping of Playstation plus, but considering that the first 2 games available are Halo 3 and Assasin’s Creed 2 are a joke. Here in UK Halo 3 costs a pound and practically every person who owns an Xbox has it.