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)