Jolt Country

We tend to keep the gators in the bathtub, next to the caymans. The Nile monitors have the sun room.

Vitriola wrote:We tend to keep the gators in the bathtub, next to the caymans.

Are there vines?

Bruce

Rope swings, yes. No leaves, though.

Vitriola wrote:Rope swings, yes. No leaves, though.

That's fine. Pitfall Harry needs no leaves.

Bruce

What room is the cheesy 8-bit music kept in?


THE
QUICKSAND ROOM
AARDVARK

AArdvark wrote:What room is the cheesy 8-bit music kept in?

The ballroom of my heart.

Bruce

bruce wrote:

AArdvark wrote:What room is the cheesy 8-bit music kept in?

The ballroom of my heart.

Raiders of the Lost Ark for the Atari 2600 requires two joysticks, one for movement and killing people and one for inventory control. Ergo, it is not possible to play this on the GP2X gaming device.

That being said, I learned today that Pitfall II, the one that takes you back to the Swiss-flag icon when you die, actually does have an ending. So I'm going to try to solve it. It also has more enemies in four boards than the whole of the original Pitfall!, which is good.

You will become bored unto death before you win that game. Once you master the basic swing over stuff and jump over stuff it quickly becomes an excercise in hum-drums. Good Luck, tho. I could never get very far with it.


THE
GO OUTSIDE
AARDVARK

I don't know how anyone can hate Pitfall 2. Well, I can imagine how someone could, but for me, when I start up that game, I still remember the expansive feel the game had for me when I played it back then- the swimming, those crazy balloons- all that combined with the catchy music made it just about the Indiana Jones-esque adventure game possible for the 2600.

Also, it's a terrible game, but one of my favorite 2600 games is "Riddle of the Sphynx." The game is weird as fuck, you go around picking up treasure and washing people's feet. At the time, I figured there was something more to the game, that if you picked up the treasures in a special order or something, there would be more to the game, so even though the game pretty much sucks, it pretty much defined what is great about gaming for me- trick the player into thinking there is more to the game and make him want to work to find it.

Roody_Yogurt wrote:Also, it's a terrible game, but one of my favorite 2600 games is "Riddle of the Sphynx." The game is weird as fuck, you go around picking up treasure and washing people's feet. At the time, I figured there was something more to the game, that if you picked up the treasures in a special order or something, there would be more to the game, so even though the game pretty much sucks, it pretty much defined what is great about gaming for me- trick the player into thinking there is more to the game and make him want to work to find it.

Especially the way as scorpions or whatever beat the fuck out of you, you wouldn't die. You'd just go slower and slower and slower.

It's exactly this conceit behind _Lucky Wander Boy_ which is one of the best stories about growing up when we did being the kinds of nerds we are, ever.

The fact that the main character is named Adam and is my age is a bit of a bonus for me too.

Bruce

I dimly remember playing Raiders of the Lost Block Pixel on the 2600. My friend controlled the movements whilst I did the inventory stuff. It was kind of a gay thing, looking back.

THE
DIDN'T REALLY HAPPEN
AARDVARK

I agree with you, bruce, about "Lucky Wander Boy." I know there's a thread around here somewhere where we talked about the book so I'm not going to say much more about it again since I'm pretty sure I'd only repeat every sentiment I already shared.

Roody_Yogurt wrote:I don't know how anyone can hate Pitfall 2.

Actually, I should probably clarify that at least sixty per cent of my posts in the last year involve me making an indefensible statement in the hopes that a lurker would join the community to tell me that I was completely full of shit, but also have a good enough time to keep contributing.

Instead, I have come off like an asshole to you, my friend Roody. This isn't how things were supposed to go. It's like we hired a hooker to come over and she died of alcohol poisoning through diabetic shock because we used up all the orange juice to make screwdrivers. One of us suggests filtration through cheese cloth, but that suggestion is quickly shot down with disapproving looks, because what even is that?

Also, it's a terrible game, but one of my favorite 2600 games is "Riddle of the Sphynx." The game is weird as fuck, you go around picking up treasure and washing people's feet.

Hahah, what is this? How have I never heard of this game?

At the time, I figured there was something more to the game

As well you should! This is the first I've heard of it, and that being all there is is PREPOSTEROUS. In fact, this sequence ought to be the new Turning Test to determine sentience in AI. You make the robot waggle a joystick around in RotS and when they encounter the first foot-washing scene, if they just humbly accept it and search for more goddamn pixelated feet you shake your head sagely to the programmer and tell him he can re-submit his prototype in six weeks.

The funny thing is I still consider RotS better than a shitload of other Atari games (you know, of the ET variety). I mean, there are those handful of super well executed games on the Atari where it almost seems like magic that they got something close to the arcade experience in Atari form, but you have to have a generous soul to appreciate the qualities of the rest.

Anyhow, other games I'd recommend if only because I remember them best (some may have already been mentioned near the beginning of the thread... NO GOING BACK NOW!!) :

Keystone Capers
River Raid
Krull (the only real interesting thing about this was that it's based on the 80s movie and is easier than the arcade version)
Barnstorming, of course, has that sort of zen appeal to it

Um, I'll add more if I think of them.

Apart for others already mentioned (Raider's, Yar's Revenge, Keystone Kops, Pitfall II, Riddle of the Sphinx), I vote for (based both on childhood fun and later experiments with emulators):

Adventure
The first action-adventure game and the first game with an easter egg! Plus you get dragons that look like ducks (it's very pleasing to kill them with your arrow sword to boot), and objects like a bridge that allows you to pass through walls and a magnet that attracts other objects. Navigating the mazes in this game is hard-wired into my system. Game selection 1 is somewhat lame, but game 2 adds more mazes and locales, and game 3 adds randomized locations for the objects to add to replayability.

Starmaster - friggin great game, but it requires use of either one of the difficulty switches or the blacknwhite/color switch to flip between the galactic map and the first-person cockpit view, so I don't know if it'll work on your handheld.

Solaris - similar to Starmaster but somewhat more arcadey and has pretty nice graphics for the 2600.

Atlantis, H.E.R.O., Warlords (requires paddles, tho), Snoopy and the Red Baron, Centipede, Millipede, Vanguard

Now, like the narrator of Lucky Wander Boy (yes, I love that book too) I'm also interested in video game oddities, so:

SwordQuest series -- Earthworld, Fireworld, Waterworld -- these SUCK as games, but are interesting for their bizarre surreal puzzle gameplay (they're almost Lucky Wander Boy-ish in their seemingly pointless strangeness) and the huge contest Atari built around them

Space Shuttle -- Activision shoved a realistic (well, realistic for the 2600, let's just say it's not Moonraker) shuttle simulation into a cart. Intriguing, but requires patience and the manual. I remember cursing a lot trying to get the orbit part right.

Stellar Track -- this is a 2600 version of that hoary "Star Trek" game that exists in a million versions from the dawn of computing time -- you know, turn-based pick the next quandrant to go to, warp, scan for kligons, set direction for phasers, etc.

And after all that, you could create you own game rom with Batari Basic (but try out ACK first, dammit ;) ).

I also forgot to mention Empire Strikes Back. Even though there isn't much to it, I'd still say it's one of the better Star Wars games in general.

screenshots?





THE
VISUALLY ORIENTED
AARDVARK

taken

bruce wrote:Pitfall!

Best. Video. Game. EVAR.

Also, Kaboom!

And Adventure.

Bruce

Goddammit, you posted all of the ones I was going to.