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.
In an interview, Nintendo of America prez Reggie Fils-Aime stated:
Hi guys
Thanks as Always 🙂
I did Not Play that much Games besides hundreds hours of Parh of Exile 2 and I started Ender Lillie. Yesterday the new WWE 2K25 arrived and I will dive into that the next days. I still try to finish Hogwarts Legacy
Regarding your topics: I like the awards, because I think that are all great games, even if I don’t play Rainbow six or Metaphor Refantasia (?). I watched as much as possible, and it’s interesting to see all the games.
Next Xbox: let’s see what Xbox only titles will be released. I don’t get all the games done I already own and want to play, so I have to think twice to pick up another console 🙂
Switch 2: I am more looking forward for this than the new Xbox (even if there are possible 2 years between). I like most of the Nintendo games, because they are easier, shorter and in my opinion most of their games are more casual and you can play for an hour and put it away for some days without forgetting everything.
I played around a lot with my 3D printer, but I think that’s not gaming as meant in this podcast 🙂
So keep the good work going!
Stay healthy and I am looking forward to the next episode!
Greetings.
Ralf