Retro Game Guy

It's the 1980's again!

Monthly Archives: August 2013


by Leave a comment

Crazy Otto…

Today, the postman brought some video game history…he brought Crazy Otto for the Atari 7800…

In 1981, MIT classmates Kevin Curran, Doug Macrae, and John Tylko got together and formed General Computer Corporation (GCC).  Their first project was to develop an enhancement kit for the arcade version of Missile Command that they called ‘Super Missile Attack’.  As players got good at arcade games, they were able to play the games longer and, thus, spent less money.  The enhancement kit would add complexity to the game, helping restore the order of balance for the arcade owners.  Atari was not at all pleased and sued GCC.  Ultimately, the suit was settled with GCC actually developing games for Atari, such as Food Fight.  In the settlement, GCC agreed not to sell any more arcade enhancement kits without the game developers permission.

Prior to the suit by Atari, GCC had also developed an enhancement kit for Pac-man called Crazy Otto.  The enhancements included new and varying mazes, moving fruits, a Pac-man like character with legs (Crazy Otto) and ghosts that had morphed into cute little creatures with antenna’s.  After settling the suit with Atari, GCC approached Midway with Crazy Otto.  Midway was still waiting on Namco to release the follow on to Pac-man and loved the work that GCC had done.  In a stroke of marketing genius, Midway took the Crazy Otto enhancements and turned them into Ms. Pac-man.  Ms. Pac-man was a monster hit for Midway, selling over 100,000 arcade units.

Crazy Otto for the 7800

Crazy Otto for the 7800

Very few people have had the opportunity to play Crazy Otto as it was never officially released back in 1981 (since Midway had turned it into Ms. Pac-man).  In 2010, through persistent efforts of the gaming community, Crazy Otto surfaced at the Pax-East conference in Boston.  It also surfaced on the AtariAge forum through the efforts of Bob ‘PacManPlus’ DeCrescenzo.  Although Bob shared his work with the community, the only way to play Crazy Otto was if you had a Cuttle Cart 2 (multi-cart for the 7800) or via emulation.  Finally, after more than a three year wait, AtariAge has made copies of Crazy Otto available on cartridges.  Last week, when they went up for sale, I wasted no time in ordering a copy for my collection.

Like most of you, I had never seen Crazy Otto running on a real arcade machine, but a couple of ‘poor quality’ videos are posted on the internet.  Comparing these videos to the 7800 version shows that, once again, Bob has done his usual great work.  The game play, graphics, and sounds are spot on.  He even modified the intermission graphics to match those of Crazy Otto.

If you like Pac-man games or just want to hold some video game history in your hands, you need to head over to AtariAge and get yourself a copy of Crazy Otto!

Wild for Crazy Otto!

Wild for Crazy Otto!

@Atarigameguy

Advertisement


by 1 Comment

BurgerTime…

BurgerTime is a 1982 video game developed by Data East and distributed by Bally-Midway in the US.  The game was originally called Hamburger, but was re-named before being released in the US.  BurgerTime was a major hit for Data East and it was offered as both an upright cabinet and as a cocktail table.  The BurgerTime arcade units were powered by a 6502 CPU, had mono sound, and used a standard 19” CRT.

Gameplay…

BurgerTime is a maze game where the object is to complete hamburgers by walking on them and causing them to ‘drop’ one or more levels.  The main character in the game is chef ‘Peter Pepper’ and he must avoid being ‘killed’ while making hamburgers and maneuvering around the four different mazes.   Peter has to deal with three antagonists:

  • Mr. Hotdog:  the red guy that chases Peter
  • Mr. Pickle:  the green guy that chases Peter
  • Mr. Egg:  the white guy that chases Peter

Peter must avoid these antagonists to keep from losing a life.  He can either out maneuver them, cause them to drop, drop hamburger ingredients on them, or spray them with pepper which ‘freezes’ them for a few seconds.  Peter has a limited number of pepper sprays but, periodically, a bonus food will appear on the maze, allowing Peter to earn an ‘extra’ pepper spray.   BurgerTime was ported to a number of home consoles of the era including the Atari 2600, the Colecovision, the Intellivision, and the NES.

2600 Version…

The 2600 version of BurgerTime was released by the M-Network (Mattel) in 1982.  As with most 2600 games of the era, the graphics are dramatically simplified with all of the sprites being mono-colored.  In fact, the graphics are pretty horrible as the hotdog, pickle, and egg are just flickering colored squares and it is hard to judge exactly where they are at and, therefore, it is hard to ‘drop’ them.  Control with the standard CX40 joystick is pretty bad and BurgerTime for the 2600 is not really much fun to play.  I paid a $1 for a copy of BurgerTime and that was about 99 cents too much.  Unless you are a die hard 2600 and BurgerTime fan, don’t waste your time or money on this horrible port.  Hopefully, in the not too distant future, someone in the homebrew community will develop an updated and improved 2600 version of BurgerTime.

5200 Version…

An official 5200 version of BurgerTime was never developed, probably due to the video game crash of 1983 and Atari’s cancelling of the 5200 in 1984.  Fortunately, in 2004, Ken Siders developed a BurgerTime clone for the 5200 that he named ‘Beef Drop’.  Ken started this as an April Fool’s joke on the AtariAge forum, initially claiming that he had found a lost prototype.  In fact, Ken was planning to develop Beef Drop for the 5200 and posted an early version of his work as a tease.  Ken’s 5200 version has all of the arcade elements and the graphics, while simplified, are pretty awesome for a 5200 game.   Ken includes all four arcade screens and took full advantage of the 5200’s pokey sound chip to replicate the arcade sounds.  Control with a standard 5200 joystick is good and the game does not suffer from analog control like many other ports for the 5200.  If you are a fan of the 5200, I can highly recommend that you obtain a copy of Beef Drop for your collection!

7800 Version…

An official 7800 version of BurgerTime was also never developed, so for many years 7800 owners had to make do with the horrible 2600 version.  In 2006, Ken Sliders came to the rescue with his version which he also called ‘Beef Drop’.  Ken’s 7800 version looks and plays like the arcade and includes a cool intro screen.  Since only one button is required for this game, you can use a standard CX40 joystick.  Two versions of Beef Drop were developed for the 7800.  The initial carts that Ken made available had a Pokey chip for arcade quality sound.  My copy is the standard copy without the Pokey chip, but Ken still did a great job with the sounds for the standard Atari TIA chip.  There is absolutely nothing bad that I can say about Beef Drop for the 7800…Ken has made this game almost arcade perfect!  If you have a 7800, you need to go straight to the AtariAge store and order yourself a copy of this great game!!!

Beef Drop for the 7800

Beef Drop for the 7800

Overall thoughts…

Before doing the research for this post, I didn’t really know too much about BurgerTime.  I had purchased Beef Drop for my 7800 about a year ago, but had played some of my other classic games more often and, like b*nQ, it was just taking up space in my collection.  In the past couple of weeks, as I prepared for this post, I have really enjoyed learning about BurgerTime and playing Ken’s awesome versions for the 5200 and 7800.  Although I recommend skipping Mattel’s 2600 version, you can’t go wrong with Beef Drop for either your 5200 or 7800.   If you have multiple systems, Ken’s 7800 version is almost arcade perfect and a must have!

One final note is that Ken also as developed an 8-bit version of Beef Drop for the XEGS and Atari 8-bit computers.  This too is available from AtariAge.

@Atarigameguy


by Leave a comment

Q*bert…

Q*bert is a 1982 video game developed by Gottlieb.  Warren Davis and Jeff Lee co-developed Q*bert and gave him a long nose so that he could shoot projectiles.  Fortunately, the shooting aspect of the game was dropped and Q*bert became the lovable character that we all know.  In fact, Q*bert was the third most merchandised game, after Donkey Kong and Pac-man.  Q*bert was a major hit for Gottlieb with more than 25,000 arcade units sold.  It was offered as both an upright cabinet and a cocktail table.  The cocktail table units are fairly rare as only a few hundred were manufactured.  The Q*bert arcade units were powered by an Intel 8086 cpu and had mono sound and used a standard 19” CRT.  Q*bert was ported to a number of home consoles of the era including the Atari 2600, & 5200, the Colecovision, the Intellivision, and the NES.

Gameplay…

Q*bert is an isometric 2D platform game that fools you into thinking that it is 3D.  Q*bert must jump diagonally from cube to cube and change the colors to the target color.  In advanced stages, Q*bert must change the cube colors multiple times to reach the target color.  Q*bert has to deal with several antagonists including:

  • Coily the snake:  The purple snake that hatches and chases Q*bert
  • Ugg and wrong way:  the purple guys that move along the side of the cubes
  • Sam: the green guy that changes the cube colors back
  • -Red balls will appear at the top of the pyramid and bounce down and off the cubes

Q*bert must avoid any of the red or purple advisories to keep from losing a life.  To avoid Coily, Q*bert can jump onto one of the color disks besides the pyramid of cubes and be whisked away to the top.  If Coily is close enough, he will follow and jump off the cubes.  Occasionally, a green ball will appear.  If Q*bert contacts this ball, time will stand still, allowing Q*bert to change cube colors unimpeded.  When all of the cube colors have been changed to the target color, Q*bert advances to the next level.  If Q*bert loses a life, he will say something like…@#?&!

2600 Version…

The 2600 version of Q*bert was released by Parker Brothers 1983.  Later on Atari released Q*bert under their own label, so you may run across this version.  Both versions are exactly the same.  The 2600 incarnation of Q*bert is typically highly rated and definitely plays like that arcade.  As with most 2600 games of the era, the graphics are dramatically simplified with all of the sprites being mono-colored.  There is no intro screen and, sometimes, it is hard to tell what level you are at.  Control with the standard CX40 joystick is good and Q*bert is fun to play.  With today’s technology such as the Melody board, I am wondering if someone will take advantage of 32K of memory and the ARM cpu to develop an updated 2600 version of Q*bert.  This game just screams for an update…any 2600 homebrew developers listening?

5200 Version…

The 5200 version of Q*bert was also released by Parker Brothers in 1983 and, compared to the graphics of the 2600, it looks much better.  The 5200 is capable of some pretty good graphics, so I wonder if the developers at Parker Brothers just settled for ‘good enough’?  The game has mono-color sprites and no intro screens, but the cubes look pretty good .  It also suffers from the 5200’s analog, non-self-centering joystick.  The game designers tried to compensate by having you hold down the fire button in addition to moving the joystick in the direction that you want to move Q*bert.   Even using a refurbished 2nd generation gold Best Electronics joystick, it was hard to control the movements and I found my Q*bert periodically committing suicide by jumping off the pyramid.  If the 5200 is your only system, I am sure that you will adapt as the control isn’t impossible, just more challenging than in the 2600 version.  All in all, Q*bert  is easy to come by, inexpensive, and worth having in your 5200 collection.

7800 Version…

Parker Brothers never developed a 7800 version of Q*bert, so for years 7800 owners had to make do with the 2600 version.  In 2007, Ken Sliders came to the rescue with his version which he has called b*nQ.  B*nQ is looks and plays like the arcade version and includes intro screens and to help the player know which level they are on and what the target color is.  Since only one button is required for this game, you can use a standard CX40 joystick.  The 7800 version doesn’t suffer any of the control problems of the 5200 version and is a blast to play!  There is absolutely nothing bad to say about b*nQ for the 7800…Ken has made this game almost arcade perfect!  If you have a 7800, you need to go straight to the AtariAge store and order yourself a copy of this great game!!!

Overall thoughts…

Before doing the research for this post, I hadn’t really played Q*bert very much.  I had purchased b*nQ about a year ago, but had played some of my other classic games more often and b*nQ was just taking up space in my collection.  In the past couple of weeks, as I prepared for this post, I have almost become addicted to this game.  No matter which Atari system you have, you should definitely have a copy of Q*bert in your collection.  If you have multiple systems, Ken’s b*nQ is amazing and blows the others out of the water!

b*nQ for the 7800

b*nQ for the 7800

@Atarigameguy


by 1 Comment

Joust…

Joust is a 1982 video game developed by Williams Electronics.  John Newcomer was the primary developer of Joust and his goal was to develop a two player arcade flying game totally different than the multitude of space themed games of the era.   Joust was definitely a unique concept for the time and was a good seller for Williams with more than 26,000 arcade units sold.  It was offered as both an upright cabinet and a cocktail table.  The cocktail table units were unique in that both players sat on the same side.  This allowed Williams to use the same ROM in both types of arcade units.  The cocktail units are pretty rare as only a few hundred were manufactured.

Gameplay…

In Joust, you must ride your ostrich and compete against enemy knights riding buzzards.  You can ‘kill’ an enemy knight in a joust by ramming him by being at a slightly higher flying level.  When you kill an enemy knight, he will turn into an egg that you must then capture before it hatches.  If the egg hatches, the knight will become the next more-challenging nemesis (a Bounder will become a Hunter, a Hunter will become a Shadow Lord and so on). After the egg hatches, a buzzard will fly out to pick up the new enemy knight.

In the first two waves, the platforms at the bottom of the screen allow you to walk over the lava pits, but in later waves, the platforms will be burned away.  Also, in later waves, flames will start to burn in the lava pits.  Sometimes, a pterodactyl will show up, in later waves, and try to fiercely charge at you.  The only way you can ‘kill’ the pterodactyl is to ram him in the mouth to disintegrate him.

If you fly too close to either of the lava pits, a lava troll can reach out and grab your mount by the legs and pull you both into the lava. If this happens, you must have your mount repeatedly flap really hard to escape.  Also, in later waves, the platforms will collapse and disintegrate. Occasionally, there will be an egg wave where you must collect all the enemy eggs before they hatch.

2600 Version…

Released in 1983, the 2600 version of Joust has dramatically simplified graphics, mono-color sprites, and no fire pits.  Additionally, the eggs will bounce around, rather than remaining stationary.   As far as the game play goes, the 2600 version is one of the better arcade ports of the era.  Control with the standard CX40 joystick is good and it is fun to play.  With today’s technology such as the Melody board, I am wondering if someone will take advantage of 32K of memory and the ARM cpu to develop an updated 2600 version of Joust.  Even if this doesn’t happen, Joust for the 2600 is a solid port and worth having in your collection.

5200 Version…

The 5200 version of Joust was also released in 1983 and, compared to the graphics of the 2600, it really looks awesome!  With the exception of the simplified, mostly mono-color sprites, it is, graphically, almost a perfect arcade port.  The 5200 version looks and sounds great and belongs in every 5200 collection.  I will say that the game play does suffer from the 5200’s analog joystick.  Even using a refurbished 2nd generation gold Best Electronics joystick, it was hard to control the movements of my ostrich.  If the 5200 is your only system, I am sure that you will adapt as the control isn’t impossible, just more challenging than in the 2600 version.  All in all, Joust is easy to come by and inexpensive and belongs in every 5200 collection.  BTW, there is an almost identical version available for the Atari 8-bit computer line.

7800 Version…

The 7800 version of Joust was developed for the 1984 release of the console.  As one of the early releases, millions of copies were manufactured and it is still possible to find sealed copies for less than $10.  If you have a 7800, this game positively  belongs in your collection.  It is even closer to the arcade version than the 5200 version and the control is much better with a digital joystick.  In fact, since only one button is required for this game, I prefer to use a standard CX40 joystick.  There is absolutely nothing bad to say about Joust for the 7800…Joust, in fact, demonstrates that the 7800 was definitely a most capable home arcade system!

Joust for the 7800

Joust for the 7800

Overall thoughts…

Before doing the research for this post, I really didn’t know that much about Joust.  Obviously, I was aware of the game, but can’t remember playing it in the arcade and I didn’t have a copy of the 2600 version back in the 80’s.  All I can say is that I really missed out on a classic game that definitely differentiated itself from all of the space shooters of the early 80’s.  No matter which Atari system you have, you should definitely have a copy of Joust in your collection.  If you have multiple systems, the 7800 version is the hands down winner!

@Atarigameguy