Living the High Life

Video Game Diary:

Tonight Jordan, Evan, Matt, Tillman and myself went to Scott's for some classic gaming magic. We played more Moon Patrol, Mappy, Vanguard, and another fantastic resident of the arcade: Super Sprint, a great racing game with two steering wheels and pedals for competitive play. The game has great control and a variety of tracks which are seen from a bird's-eye view. We then commenced with the Bally Videocade.

The Bally video game system legacy

1977: "Bally Home Library Computer" available only through mail order from JS&A. Keyboard add-on was promised to buyers in catalogues.

1978: Distribution increases, sold through electronics stores as the "Bally Professional Arcade" but still not sold at major retailers.

1980: Withdrawn from stores due to "stiff competition" (Atari VCS, Fairchild Channel F, Intellivision and others had arrived).

1981: Re-released as the "Bally Computer System" by fans who had seen the potential of the machine through its Basic cartridge and purchased the console from Bally. Every system sold came with the Basic Programming cart for free.

1982: Re-labeled the "Bally Astrocade" after the group became Astrovision.

1985 (approximation): Sales trickle to a halt, the system's legacy ends.

Facts:

Game cartridges are about the size and shape of an audio cassette. Around 34 carts were released during the system's lifespan.

The controller is a pistol grip shaped handle complete with a trigger. From the top of this controller extends a dial that can be moved in eight directions like a joystick. The dial can also be rotated left and right like a paddle controller.

Programs can be typed in using the keypad and can be saved or loaded with a tape deck. Many users created software ranging from games to money management programs which can still be collected, downloaded, or typed-in today.

Here are some of the great games we played on 12.17.06...



The Incredible Wizard

In incredible wizard the first thing you see is a full screen message...GET READY...GO! set to the theme to dragnet and the sound effects are spectacular -this game has character. Players navigate a maze looking for creatures to shoot while dodging their fire and some demons can become invisible (*hint* use the radar). At the end of some levels the Worluk appears and if shot before it slips out one of the side doors a bonus is awarded. The Wizard appears too on fewer occasions. During two-player simultanious play, you can shoot each other and scores are kept seperate. If you have this system I highly recommend this game and would even call it a must have.

This is a game that we play every single time we hook up the Astrocade. It has great gameplay and a lot of personality. I couldn't believe it when Scott told me, but its true, Wizard of Wor the Bally arcade hit was a port of this game, not the other way around. Wizard of Wor was released in arcades in 1981. The enhancements include voice synthesis and improved graphics but there were surprisingly little changed. A true testament to the quality of The Incredible Wizard!



Gunfight
A trend that I was sad to see disappear over the years along with pack-in games (Wii brought those back!-ed) was games built into console hardware. Lots of systems had this feature even as recent as the 8-bit generation. The Sega Master System came with Safari Hunt, a light gun game, and Hang On!, a great port of the arcade motorcycle racing game. A later version of the SMS contained an Alex Kidd game. In Gunfight the player controls a cowboy stationed on the left side of the screen. Control consists of rotating the arm of the manly cattleman up and down with the dial, moving in eight directions with the stick, and firing your gun by pulling the trigger. Bullets can be banked off the edges of the screen to avoid the on-screen cacti, trees and stagecoaches. We played ths game several times and I honestly don't know if there is a one-player mode or not but we had fun with it (Player two is on the left side). The other games included in the Arcadia are seen in the screenshot to the right. We played around with Scribbling in which you simply draw on your TV. Different sized pens and colors can be selected and the precise control required for drawing was fair using the stick.



Grand Prix/Demolition Derby

Tillman and Scott played this one and both said it was extremely difficult to control. Grand Prix has users race on a simple track. The stick controls steering and the trigger is the accelerator. The game is for two players. In Demolition Derby the play consists of wrecking into each other. The graphics look like early Atari 2600 games and may remind you of many classic race games. This racing game perspective was the standard until Pole position came about. Gameplay using the overhead view evolved and was excellent in games like Super Sprint and Off-Road.



Dog Patch

You are a redneck, blasting cans back and forth in an old timey shootin' contest. Move the shotgun up and down with the stick and pull the trigger to fire. The player is immobile and positioned at a lower corner of the screen. The object is to keep the can aloft by shooting it back at your opponent and not letting it get past you (like Pong). Everytime the can is shot its value is multiplied so scoring depends on your skill in keeping the can going. Gravity is simulated as well. Dog Patch has a funny theme and sets the mood well.



Bally Pin

The table is mishapen in this video pinball cartridge but ball physics are ok. You can look at the screenshot and easily imagine how the gameplay goes. Read this exerpt from the instructions, it reveals the cool control style... "Each player uses both hand controls to play the ball. When his turn ends, the current player passes both hand controls to the next player, and the game continues until each person has played five balls... As the ball hits the various objects, sounds are heard as it rebounds at different speeds and angles. The flippers are used to keep the ball in the playing field. The ball reacts as a "real" ball would when struck by a flipper. When the end or corner of the flipper strikes the ball, it results in steeper angles and faster action than if the middle of the flipper strikes the ball".


Star Battle

One of the first things about Star Battle that you will notice (unless you're blind) is it's blatant resemblance to Star Wars. So, making it easier on myself and you, I will hereafter describe the game using Star Wars terms. The gameplay in this cartridge feels strange. The stick controls an X-wing fighter flying through a channel of the Death Star just like the famous Star Wars arcade game. Unlike that game however, the player has a hard time shooting at the tie fighter on screen -a frustrating challenge because it's so hard to line him up in your sights. Also, the game doesn't change this screen, there is not much more to it than that. The package and graphics are designed to draw in the Star Wars nerds and is a great example of how different the scene was in the early eighties. Any game developer's legal department would never let such a thing make it past the drawing board these days. Just look at the box art! This type of thing exists for the same reason that there were so many pong systems featuring the same games sold by different companies -and adapters for Colecovision and Intellivision that played Atari 2600 games: The industry in its infancy had no rules and no laws, and consumers were better off every step of the way. Damn, I wish I had a time machine.


Scott opened this creature from its nearly 30 year old shrinkwrap just for us. It was released in 1981 and is a port of the 1976 arcade game by Amstar touted as one of the first 3D video games. The car on the screen was a decal in the stand-up version which also had a gear shifter and a steering wheel. The 280 in the title comes from a hot new car from the era, the Datsun 280. This may be the first time a real vehicle name/likeness was used in a video game but it's unclear whether the Datsun was officially licensed or the creators used it simply because they thought it was a sweet ride and weren't worried about repercussions.


Dodgem
I really appreciate the fact that the graphics on this game is such a change from 280Zzzap because I feel they gave us a lot more for our money. You can quickly see that most cart's variations reuse the same graphics. It is probably a port of the arcade game manufactured by Zaccaria in the year 1979 but I don't know for sure. In this overhead view racer you steer and dodgem! It didn't keep our attention too long, so I can't give any more accurate details. I can however make stuff up like Ziff-Davis video game publications -Zing!


Tennis

We played this first and as you can see -it is pong, or the Fairchild's interperetation of it. Tennis is built into the system and I imagine was the first impression by gamers back then of the Channel F. It's interesting to note that the pong explosion was nearly killed by the Fairchild and other systems allowing interchangable programmable cartridges. Retailer's pong systems were thrown into bargain bins countrywide by the time Atari's VCS came about. The dive pong games took is considered the first great video game crash.


Spitfire

The gang had a fruitful time with Spitfire, a good time! The play is similar to the classic: Combat, but only the flying levels. The playfield shows a side view of two planes with a single radio tower between the two. Players rotate their planes with the stick and the fun is simple. Laughs abounded in our basement corner as we played this game while shouting imaginary death yells and radio chatter for nearly an hour. From the instructions: "The Red Baron meets the Blue Max in an aerial dogfight all over the screen. You can take an opponent in a 2-player dogfight, or more exciting yet, it's you against the computer in a 1-player battle".


Galactic Space Wars/Lunar Lander

Galactic Space wars has players move the starfield around a stationary ship in the center of the screen in an attempt to fire upon enemies before they do unto you. I'm not sure why the second game isn't boldly featured on the cartridge label since it obviously is derived from an arcade product. Lunar Lander is extremely difficult, even moreso than the arcade game of the same name. Pushing the joystick up controls your thrusters as you attempt to steer your ship onto a landing pad while fighting gravity and conserving enough fuel to survive the touchdown. Don't collect this game and expect the standup Lunar Lander experience however. The Lunar Lander arcade game is one of my favorite arcade games and featured a unique control lever for controlling the thrust. note: Lunar Lander was the first vector game which came about due to the discoveries made while Atari was developing its unreleased Cosmos system. It was nowhere near as successful as Atari's second vector game... Asteroids!


Hockey

This was the second of two games built into the Fairchild hardware. I really like this game because it gives more control than other pong hockey games by using up and down to move the paddle north and south while using the twist function of the joystick (similar to the Astrocade's stick) to rotate the paddle. It takes a little getting used to but gives the play more depth than plain old pong or hockey. This was the final game of the night. All good things must come to an end, but not for too long...