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.
@Microsoft Beginning Work on Xbox 720:
From the type of jobs listed there (lots of VLSI there), it looks like it will take a good couple of years before it is close to becoming a prototype.
@AAA Titles and Indie Games Matter:
… that’s so ambiguous. I don’t get the point here. As Derrick mentions, any ‘middle’ game can be turned into a AAA game. Some fail, but some succeed. Is it about marketing muscle?
Was Valve’s Portal a middle game?
@Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm Not Coming Til 2012:
I don’t get it, again. Maybe I’m dumb, but I think it’s about milking it, because:
– the units are there (see the multiplayer, which is already playable)
– some balancing is already done (again, see MP)
– normally, the script should be done already; we’ve seen a fragment of it in the first game, and, for the entire thing to be coherent, the script should be done.
– all remains is to make maps.
@Netflix Coming to 3DS This Summer:
Funny, I know a bank that issued a warning regarding the value of stock shares of Netflix, on account of Facebook trying to penetrate the video streaming market.
I guess expanding to other devices will give them a stronger foothold on other platforms Facebook is not yet threatening.
Yet.
@Question of the week:
Man, tough one! I’d go for Mission Impossible for NES. I couldn’t find how much it actually took to develop, unfortunately. My estimate is about one year.
@Microsoft Beginning Work on Xbox 720:
From the type of jobs listed there (lots of VLSI there), it looks like it will take a good couple of years before it is close to becoming a prototype.
@AAA Titles and Indie Games Matter:
… that’s so ambiguous. I don’t get the point here. As Derrick mentions, any ‘middle’ game can be turned into a AAA game. Some fail, but some succeed. Is it about marketing muscle?
Was Valve’s Portal a middle game?
@Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm Not Coming Til 2012:
I don’t get it, again. Maybe I’m dumb, but I think it’s about milking it, because:
– the units are there (see the multiplayer, which is already playable)
– some balancing is already done (again, see MP)
– normally, the script should be done already; we’ve seen a fragment of it in the first game, and, for the entire thing to be coherent, the script should be done.
– all remains is to make maps.
@Netflix Coming to 3DS This Summer:
Funny, I know a bank that issued a warning regarding the value of stock shares of Netflix, on account of Facebook trying to penetrate the video streaming market.
I guess expanding to other devices will give them a stronger foothold on other platforms Facebook is not yet threatening.
Yet.
@Question of the week:
Man, tough one! I’d go for Mission Impossible for NES. I couldn’t find how much it actually took to develop, unfortunately. My estimate is about one year.
Hey, one question: did you guys consider making a profile also on moddb or maybe indiedb? You could post the podcast there as well. Might get some extra listeners.
And if you need help maintaining the profiles there, I can lend you a hand.
Hey, one question: did you guys consider making a profile also on moddb or maybe indiedb? You could post the podcast there as well. Might get some extra listeners.
And if you need help maintaining the profiles there, I can lend you a hand.
@Microsoft beginning work on Xbox 720
Yeah, from the wording of those ads, it doesn’t sound like it’ll be ready anytime soon. I’d say 2013 at the earliest.
@CliffyB says only AAA and indie games matter
I disagree with good old Cliffy B. There’s games that would probably be considered middle of the road games that I love and that still make enough profit. An example is Sam and Max. You wouldn’t call that a AAA game, but it’s not an indie game either. It is still an awesome game, however, and was quite successful.
@Netflix coming to 3DS
Too bad Netflix isn’t in Australia. This was kind of expected though, since Netflix is on pretty much every other tech device.
Also, Nintendo making a loss on the 3DS? I find that very strange. Unless they’re just trying to smash the NGP straight off the bat, then put the price up with a revision later on once they’ve “beaten” the NGP. I dunno, how reliable are the sources of the rumour Jonah?
@Will Wright making a new game
As far as “game-making legends” go, Shigeru Miyamoto, Sid Meier and Will Wright seem to be the ones that everybody knows. Then there’s a heap of ‘lesser’ gaming legends, like Peter Molyneux, Gabe Newell, Hideo Kojima and good old Cliffy B
@QOTW
To be honest, I first started gaming on the SNES, so I didn’t really play any ‘old school’ games. Except some on MAME.
@Microsoft beginning work on Xbox 720
Yeah, from the wording of those ads, it doesn’t sound like it’ll be ready anytime soon. I’d say 2013 at the earliest.
@CliffyB says only AAA and indie games matter
I disagree with good old Cliffy B. There’s games that would probably be considered middle of the road games that I love and that still make enough profit. An example is Sam and Max. You wouldn’t call that a AAA game, but it’s not an indie game either. It is still an awesome game, however, and was quite successful.
@Netflix coming to 3DS
Too bad Netflix isn’t in Australia. This was kind of expected though, since Netflix is on pretty much every other tech device.
Also, Nintendo making a loss on the 3DS? I find that very strange. Unless they’re just trying to smash the NGP straight off the bat, then put the price up with a revision later on once they’ve “beaten” the NGP. I dunno, how reliable are the sources of the rumour Jonah?
@Will Wright making a new game
As far as “game-making legends” go, Shigeru Miyamoto, Sid Meier and Will Wright seem to be the ones that everybody knows. Then there’s a heap of ‘lesser’ gaming legends, like Peter Molyneux, Gabe Newell, Hideo Kojima and good old Cliffy B
@QOTW
To be honest, I first started gaming on the SNES, so I didn’t really play any ‘old school’ games. Except some on MAME.