Reviews by ddsilver

Basketball review

The “Launch 20” for the Atari 2600 contained 5 sports titles (6 if you consider Flag Capture a sport). 25% of the initial release catalog was dedicated to sports gaming. That’s not a surprising number here in 2004. We can go back to the…

ddsilver · November 1, 2004

Reader Atari 2600 HG exclusive

Air-Sea Battle review

Kicking off my series on the Atari 2600 “Launch 20”, we lead with Air-Sea Battle. Now, in order to be objective when reviewing Atari 2600 titles, you have to become somewhat of a time traveler. That is to say that it’s not fair to compare…

ddsilver · October 27, 2004

Reader Atari 2600

Math Gran Prix review

Atari made up for their edu-tainment disaster ''Basic Math'' with the excellent ''Math Grand Prix.'' This title takes the premise of ''Basic Math'''s quiz structure and applies it to an auto race. The auto race itself is a board game style…

ddsilver · October 26, 2004

Reader Atari 2600

Fast Eddie review

Delving down into the 2600 catalog, we chance upon ''Fast Eddie'', a sophomore effort from the somewhat impressive 20th Century Fox catalog. While Fox never had a ''Frogger'' or ''Donkey Kong'' blockbuster smash during their tenure as a…

ddsilver · October 26, 2004

Reader Atari 2600

Color Bar Generator review

Long ago, when dinosaurs ruled the earth and I was in elementary school, consumer electronics were not as reasonably priced as they are now. For example, my father bought a 19'' console color TV (''console'' means the whole unit was…

ddsilver · October 26, 2004

Reader Atari 2600

Bridge review

Activision had a wildly successful launch catalog for the Atari 2600. It is surprising that a company with such a keen understanding of the marketplace would release a game like ''Bridge''. The bridge playing crowd and the video game…

ddsilver · October 26, 2004

Reader Atari 2600 HG exclusive

Air Raiders review

I've written a great deal on the subject of M-Network games. It was a minor secret that M-Network was really an arm of Mattel that existed to port Intellivision hits over to the Atari 2600. However, there was one M-Network title that was…

ddsilver · October 26, 2004

Reader Atari 2600 HG exclusive

The A-Team review

There is nothing spectacular or remarkable about Atari's un-released prototype "A-Team". Nothing I can say about it that would recommend it as a superior game. In no way does it stand out or distinguish itself from countless other titles…

ddsilver · October 26, 2004

Reader Atari 2600

Battlezone review

Every reviewer has a different set of standards he or she applies to a game when giving it a rating and writing a critical evaluation. Graphics, sound, play control, and replayability are some of the criteria they use in deciding how to…

ddsilver · October 25, 2004

Reader Atari 2600

Basic Math review

During the development of the “Launch 20” for the Atari 2600, it seemed any programmer at Atari could get a project greenlighted. This was both a good and a bad thing. Some programmers came up with some innovative games in this era, like…

ddsilver · October 25, 2004

Reader Atari 2600

Base Attack review

The general concept behind ''Base Attack'' from Home-Vision is a reversal of the ''Atlantis'' formula from Imagic. Instead of defending the cities from an aerial attack, you're attacking the cities from the air. You control a ship that can…

ddsilver · June 27, 2004

Reader Atari 2600 HG exclusive

Acid Drop review

Today’s topic in the wide world of Atari 2600 reviewing is a true oddity. Salu’s 1992... yes 1992... release, Acid Drop. Apparently, the Atari 2600 still had a following in Europe in the early 90s, and Salu released several titles during…

ddsilver · January 1, 2004

Reader Atari 2600

Barnstorming review

Steve Cartwright, of Activision brings us the focus of our discussion today, Barnstorming. This was Cartwright's freshman effort for Activision, and it turned out pretty well for him. Steve Cartwright went on to have an incredible career…

ddsilver · January 1, 2004

Reader Atari 2600

Assault review

I'll admit, when I first powered up Bomb's Assault cartridge, I was prepared to hate it. After discovering that it has a quirky control system that required you to push the joystick up to shoot, I was prepared to really burn it in this…

ddsilver · December 25, 2003

Reader Atari 2600

Artillery Duel review

The creators of Artillery Duel, Xonox, were most noted for their gimmick of “double ender” cartridges. The “double ender” cartridge looked more or less like two Atari cartridges fused end to end, and you could insert one side or the other…

ddsilver · December 24, 2003

Reader Atari 2600

Armor Ambush review

M-Network, the not-so-secret identity of Mattel Electronics, makers of the Intellivision, brought several Intellivision ports over to the 2600. Today's subject was a port of Intellivision's answer to Atari's Combat, Armor Battle. Although…

ddsilver · December 23, 2003

Reader Atari 2600

3-D Tic-Tac-Toe review

I sat down to spend a little quality time with the games of yore on the venerable Atari 2600. First out of the box was 3-D Tic-Tac-Toe. This was one of the ''launch titles'' for the Atari 2600. However, when held up to such classics of…

ddsilver · December 23, 2003