Episode 406: The Oops! Edition

If you’re wondering what happened to Episode 405, it was recorded, but Jonah’s power supply self-destructed, and wasn’t available til Wednesday, and by then it was too late to post it. (It will be posted at some point in the near future.)

Instead, check out these week’s news:

  • Afro Samurai 2 removed from online stores, players get refunded, episodes 2 and 3 canceled
  • Activision apologizes for Nuk3town pre-order mix up
  • PlayStation 4 is getting PlayStation 2 emulation, Sony reveals
  • Electronic Arts doesn’t want to “nickel and dime” gamers with microtransactions

Question of the Week: Do you or have you pulled videogame all-nighters on weeknights?

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Retro FlashBack: DragonFire (Atari 2600)Retro FlashBack: DragonFire (Atari 2600)

Now here is another interesting video game for the Atari 2600, the game Dragon Fire consisted of two game screens, one which you ran across a bridge while fireballs were shot at you, you had to duck or jump over the fireball. This screen was a side-scroller style screen (although it doesn’t actually scroll), at the other end of the bridge was a castle door which you’d enter to get to the next screen.

The second screen was more classic “overhead but not really” screen where you ran around this black screen picking up treasures while a dragon at the bottom shot fire at you from below.

As the game increased in level jumping fireballs became more challenging (on the first screen) as you ran because they would come quicker, more often. The second screen would get very difficult very quickly as the dragon would increase in speed and fireball spitting. You could tell how hard the dragon would be as it would change colors from lighter to darker black as you progress stages.

When you finished collecting all the treasure an exit would pop up in the corner and you had to run to it without being burned by the fireballs, that dragon would turn from left to right nearly instantly too! Then, you’d jump into the exit and be back on the bridge again, but this time it was harder. You could die up to 7 times before the game was over (just to show you how hard it is, they gave you a bunch of lives).

The game was tough, frustrating, hard to replay because you were just so nervous and jittery from the last attempt. Graphics were “okay,” nothing to rave at but it was, after all, the 2600.

You can hear all we had to say about DragonFire for the Atari 2600 on Episode 79 of the TD Gaming Podcast!

Episode 224: October Xmas DecorationsEpisode 224: October Xmas Decorations

This week, we are running an outtakes episode, part of it long conversations that were cut from previous episodes, while others are just bloopers.

In fact, the first thirty-five minutes or so of the outtakes is Jonah and Jordan discussing news items waiting for Paul to login that didn’t make the cut for the podcast. Other interesting bits is Jonah and Paul talking about pen and paper RPGs and how badly the 4th edition of Dungeons & Dragons stinks, and Paul and Jordan berating stores that put up their Christmas decorations a few months early.

Next week, we’ll have a regular podcast, but this week, enjoy the outtakes.

Gaming Flashback: Lode RunnerGaming Flashback: Lode Runner

Lode Runner, a game many of us logged hundreds of hours upon. Lode Runner has a great deal of replay value thanks to its great map editor. The game was first published by Broderbund in 1983, but was first prototyped by Douglas Smith, an architecture student at the University of Washington.

The Lode Runner prototype was called Kong and was originally written for a Prime Computer 550 minicomputer on campus, but shortly after it was ported to the VAX minicomputer. Originally programmed in FORTRAN and utilized only ASCII character graphics (the most basic of characters).

In September of 1982 Smith was able to port it to the Apple II+ (in assembly language) and renamed it to Miner. In October of that same year he submitted a rough copy to Broderbund and he’s said to have received a one-line rejection letter, “Sorry, your game doesn’t fit into our product line; please feel free to submit future products.”

The original title had no joystick support and was developed in full black and white…not exactly exciting. So, Smith then borrowed money to purchase a color monitor and joystick and continued to improve the game. Around Christmas of 1982, he submitted the game, now renamed Lode Runner, to four publishers and quickly received offers from all four: Sierra, Sirius, Synergistic, and Brøderbund.

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