1001 VG Book #06 - "Space Invaders" - (1978)

commentary about the book article for:

#6 = Space Invaders (1978)
- by CD (Chris Dahlen)
- Arcade

- Good article, however there aren't a "handful of methods for predicting the appearance of the UFO." The writer got confused... the UFO appears at regular time intervals, and the "methods" he's thinking of are simply in knowing how to get 300 pts every time you hit the UFO. It has to do with counting your shots.. and hitting the UFO with a very specific # shot.

- Also, this naturally mentions the oft-repeated fallacy of Space Invaders causing a coin shortage in Japan.  We now know that there wasn't extra coin production due to Space Invaders... but it's one of those stories that is legend, even if truth has been stretched.

- The other glaring error is they called Galaga a "clone" of Space Invaders. That's like saying Eminem is a clone of Sir-Mix-A-Lot because they are in the same genre. Sure, there are some genre similarities -- but a clone in the videogame world is a bad thing... a duplicate. Same game, different name.  Galaga is clearly not a clone!  It's a true original - an all-time classic with many of its own innovations!

MY QUICK REVIEW:
Space Invaders is one of the big daddy games of video game history. Whereas Pong might've been the first big hit for video arcade games... Space Invaders was the revolution that moved the entire industry from a small entertainment avenue towards a major global juggernaut. It effectively launched a massive increase in awareness and growth for video arcade games.

Furthermore, when it was licensed and brought over to the Atari 2600 platform in 1980, it also created demand for that console equating to millions of units and a march towards market dominance.

But why? The modern player might find it rather repetitive and boring. It's just 5 rows of 11 invaders that move monotonously, dropping steadily closer... for wave after wave until you fail. Well, maybe a few reasons:

1. High-score games were nothing new, but this was not a timed game... you really could rack up a decent score the better you got at it, lasting longer on a quarter and sensing accomplishment. The high score was saved for all to see at the very top of the screen.

2. This wasn't trying to simulate real life... it was something entirely new. It wasn't a driving game, dogfighting, sports or a shooting gallery... those are things people either saw or possibly could do in real life. But shooting down waves of aliens set on destroying the Earth was novel (at the time). Might be old hat now, but captured the imagination.

3. Well-balanced play, built-in tension, and the bug that became a feature - the gradual speeding up of the marching aliens. Never underestimate how important gameplay is.  Is it fun?  With it's tension-inducing, four-descending note soundscape (doo, doo, doo, doo...), the mother-ship popping out with its own wild sounds, and the difficulty moving from fairly easy right on up to beyond-reflex hard...heck yeah it was fun!

Did I mention it looked really cool? A painted backdrop depicting the defending moon landscape, with an angled-mirror reflecting the actual B&W screen hiding below. It had depth, sounds, gameplay, tension, presentation... and novelty! Deserves to be remembered. Still playable today.

VIDEO:

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)