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.
Many game studios are being dropped following a bit of an economic downturn in the United States and globally. Activision has to
I wrote a comment to this podcast instead of playing GTA 5. I should probably get the VGRT reader’s award or something.
@EA CEO
I am in the camp who hates EA by default. I still bear a grudge for them ruining Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath and Marvel Nemesis. It will never change regardless of who runs it. But I do enjoy Battlefield and am looking forward to Battlefront so I am glad that some guy got replaced by another guy and I hope he will take the company in a bold new direction out of the shit pit it’s in.
@Sega buys Atlus
Never heard of Atlus. But I don’t expect Sega to get back in the console race. At the moment the competition is cutthroat in the market. Even an established brand like Nintendo can’t survive. Maybe Sega wants to expand it’s TV add on business. They release little boxes that have bunch of classic Sega games and are plugged into your TV. Either that or they want more MMOs.
@To mediocricity and below
Star Trek had a reboot and I didn’t even notice. I always thought Star Trek needed a reboot. It’s a very long running franchise. But I would prefer a condensed contemporary version of the original series. Not a movie where there is more shooting then actual trecking.
@Your daddie’s credit card can no longer beat Diablo
Just recently I started playing the second Diablo with a friend. I love it. Fast paced combat. Many locations. And loadsa loot. I also played the Xbox 360 demo and it was good. But not as good as 2. Combat was way to slow. On the account of auction house, I completely do not care if it is there or not. I am the type who can spend hours grinding monsters to get a good item (Monster Hunter eats my life)
@QOTW
I will answer last weeks question if it’s all the same. I live by the Russian rule of: “if it ain’t broke -don’t fix it”. I got a DSi because my original DS was falling apart. My Xbox 360 crashes evey 2 hours but I won’t get a new one as I don’t tend to play the same game for more than 2 hours anyway. I only get new hardware if i don’t already have it.
First I wanted to wish Jordan a speedy recovery from his hospital stay, I hope it wasn’t too serious.
It was nice to hear Dan on the show again!
@EA Change: Just googling to see the long history of game series ruined they have built a reputation that may be irreparable at this point. I know I’ll be getting Sims 4 for my wife and this change I hope does bring better games. The reputation is however a well earned one.
@Diablo Auction house: I think the more games that abandon the Pay to Win mechanic the better for quality games.
I’d like to end this with a question to you guys. I’m trying to figure out what is the best console for a family to play on and so far that does seem to be the Nintendo franchise. Xbox and PS seem very heavily focused on FPS and other 3D games. My wife get’s motion sickness from 3d gaming and can only play side scrollers and the like. Also I heard you saying how split screen is dead so I’m wondering what do you do when you have people that want to play the same game on the same console at the same tv?