1001 VG Book #05 - "Combat" - (1977)

commentary about the book article for:

#5 = Combat (1977)
- by GM (Gary Penn)
- Atari 2600 (or Atari VCS at the time)

  - This was a great review - and it IS so true that with great play mechanics and a well-matched opponent the graphics fade into the background. 

  - I don't particularly like cartridges being described as "slammed" into the Atari. I was always careful. Were you a slammer?  Nor do I like "thumbed away at rubberized joysticks" -- because I for one just grabbed the joystick with the full hand, and base in the other, thumb on the fire button.  Using your thumb to work the joystick seems weird.

-- There were both tanks and planes… a lot of variations on planes and jets and other sky combat games. So to be fair, the cartridge had quite a bit more variety than hinted at…

 
- I hate the word seminal - I won’t use it. It's perfectly legitimate, I just think there are far better words that mean the same thing.  Look it up.

  - It is mentioned Combat was a pack-in game... and that's true, Pac-Man finally replaced it as the pack-in game in 1982. So, kudos to the article mentioning "for five years" which was indeed the time it was the bundled game for the 2600 from 1977-1982.

  - However… originally there was both an "Atari VCS" as well as a "Sears Tele-Games" console -- same internals, different brand & marketing paths.  Of note, though, is that the pack-in title was different on the Sears Tele-Games!  So, not everyone who bought a consle in those first five years automatically “slammed in” the Combat cartridge. But... it was a popular cartridge... so I'm sure the vast majority of people probably had it or bought it.

  - Roughly 4 million combined console sales by end of 1981… both Atari & Sears branded console sales in total.

MY QUICK REVIEW:
The Combat cartridge for the Atari 2600 boasts 27 video games.  This was a time when gameplay variations were counted as unique "games" but in this case can really be broken down into a few major categories:
Tank (14 variations)
Biplane (6 variations)
Jet-Fighter (7 variations)

This was only a few years after the initial release of a Tank video game in the arcades, and so from a technical perspective it's quite an achievement. I feel like Atari was really focused on giving the player as much as they could on a single cartridge along this style of game play... head-to-head battle with vehicles.  

With only 2Kb storage capacity, there might not have been any room leftover for a computer-programmed opponent. Therefore, Combat is best experienced with a real-life person, sitting just feet away with you, on that 2nd controller. Somebody who teases, yells, and threatens retaliation for the beat-down delivered with grinning satisfaction.  Ah yes!  The smooth gameplay allows you to forget about the pixelated graphics and to be absorbed in the age-old fight for bragging rights.  

VIDEO:

(Atari 2600 game - Combat gameplay footage)

1001 VG Book #04 - "Boot Hill" - (1977)

commentary about the book article for:

#4 = Boot Hill (1977)
- by JRu (Justin Russell)
- Arcade

  -  The review suggests this as "Pong redesigned by a John Wayne fan?"  Laughable. It doesn't even feel like a pong game, its a totally different genre, with vastly different rules. This kind of inaccurate portrayal makes me feel like these reviewers are not concerned with the actual games, but in writing up some kind of fan fiction. Sorry, but it just bugs a historian like me.

  - The article fails to mention the addition of computer-controlled opponent!  That's a big change. Also, article says you lack certain realities without the actual arcade cabinet -- but the graveyard is definitely emulated.  True, it is hard to replicate the dual-stick joystick setup though. Left for movement, and an analog grip-handle on the right for aiming & shooting.  That's a fun setup to play on a real machine.

  - "Bang, bang, you're really dead." Ugh, I hate that line. There is no "really dead" since this is all a video game. I'm sure this is in reference to the game's animation of shuttling off the dead cowboy to the graveyard and a tombstone is erected on the spot... but this is all good simulated fun. 

MY QUICK REVIEW:
Boot Hill is the 2nd game, an "upgrade" of sorts from the 1975 game Gun Fight. They added the reflective glass to give it this feeling of depth.  So I looked up who was the first to use this "projected mirror trick".  Apparently in 1976, Midway introduced a few games using this setup:  280-Zzap, Sea-Wolf and Tornado Baseball.

In any case, gameplay is much like Gun Fight, two cowboys face off in a duel... loaded with just six bullets each "round" to shoot down the opponent.  Various cactus are randomly generated on each side, which provide some obstacles and/or cover, but can be partially destroyed with a single bullet.

The biggest change from the previous game, in my opinion, is that there is now a computer controlled opponent. There is just a 70-second time limit on a quarter, so there is no such thing as a single-player "game" or campaign... but at least you can play a fun game by yourself.

There are probably other games that could've made this list... as Boot Hill only ranked 11th in 1977 and 20th in 1978 (according to RePlay magazine).  In fact, I think one of the omitted games on the 1001 list could certainly have been Sea-Wolf by Midway, which was a very popular game and introduced a number of things itself.  Boot Hill does have a nice style & presentation and is a good example of early head-to-head fighting type of game. So it's a nice inclusion on the 1001 list.

VIDEO:

(Boot Hill - simulated original gameplay)