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.
Good show guys but I’m missing Paul and Dan.
I heard you mention your playing Shadowrun Returns Jonah, how are you liking the game? I’ve gotten it myself and it seems to have a short campaign seeming to rely on the community to create campaigns themselves like with the Neverwinter games.
Speaking of Sierra Online and Kickstarter, Hero-U being made by the Coreys was mentioning the various other creative leads also kickstarting their old franchises as well. Although changed since they don’t own the original IP like (Space Quest = Space Venture).
As for what I’m playing I’m playing Civ V BNW, Minecraft and Jade Empire. It’s my first time playing JE and I got it off GoG and I can see why it got the reviews it did, it is a well deserved reputation. Good atmosphere and challenge in the fights, at least for me since I’m not a great action game player.
@Getting old
Happy Birthday Jonah. Congratulations on getting one year closer to death. On the bright side, your mid-life crisis is just about over. Roll on arthritis, weak knees and a man-sized diaper.
@Phil Fish is no longer aPHILiated with FISHy gaming business (damn I’m punny)
Man. That sounds so childish. But it would have a better effect if FEZ would be Halo or Mass Effect. Personally, I never heard of FEZ until he started making all that racket. In fact , this could have a good post-mortem marketing effect.
@Shadow of the Eternals back from the dead (again)
It’s funny how the game is already f**king with you. And it’s not even out yet. I really want to see it released. It will be a nice £5 title, considering that It will sell next to no copies on the Wii U. Although I am afraid that this project will not see the light of day regardless of how many times they put it on Kickstarter. Not until Silicone Knights sell off the IP
@Neil Gaiman making games
That sounds terrific. Neil Gaiman is a talented writer, so the story is bound to be good. Lets hope the game can keep up with him. I read a number of his books. Enjoyed all of them. Looking forward to this game.
@The worldwide Internet sensation
I played WoW for the first time a few month ago and was very disappointed. It did not live up to my expectations. But that is most likely because I played a lot of WoW clones for the past few years and I am fed up with the genre. I found WoW to be very basic compared to its clones. I am sure it is a good game, but I just have to much of a life to waste my time on this.
Ps: I haven’t played Walking Dead past episode 1 yet, so I didn’t listen to the last podcast discussion to avoid spoilers. Thought I was successful, but did not expect Jordan’s stealthy revelation about Lee. For the future, it would be nice if you could maybe mention that spoilers will follow or put it in the podcast description, that would be nice.