ET phone Retro Gamer

[Dudley]

That's a fair point Dudley. I'll certainly give it a bit more thought next time.

It's Dark Castle next (the MegaDrive version). No one has any problems with us rippin' on that surely?

Absolutely none. Look up some speed runs on the web, you can actually complete the thing in about 2 minutes.

[merman]

That's a fair point Dudley. I'll certainly give it a bit more thought next time.

It's Dark Castle next (the MegaDrive version). No one has any problems with us rippin' on that surely?

Absolutely none. Look up some speed runs on the web, you can actually complete the thing in about 2 minutes.

At least you can play the Megadrive game in 2 minutes. The multiload on the C64 is horrendous...

[Dudley]

Less time spent playing Dark Castle is time well spent.

[mikeb]

Dark Castle? Change the bulbs then.

[paranoid marvin]

ET really wasnt that bad a gane - if you want bad , then just look at some ZX81 games

Didn't know it was written by the same guy who did Raiders , but I guess that makes sense when comparing the games

[mikeb]

Well it was written in only five weeks instead of the normal six months causing much hair-pulling and frustration for the poor programmer. Atari's fault in setting such a ridiculous deadline for Howard.

There are far worse games on the VCS.

Take this for example, another film license.



Looks like some kind of oddly fetishistic gardening simulator. But no, it's actually The Texas Chainsaw Massacre by Wizard Video Games.

Actually about as scary as a wet weekend in Eastbourne.

[TMR]

i think part of the notoriety is due to the ridiculous way Atari were acting; they planned to sell it almost totally on the back of the licence, churning out cartridges at a rate that any sane company would've balked at, especially since there was less than two months given to development...

A large chunk of the backlash against E.T. is, possibly, down to at least some of Atari's upper management being a bunch of arrogant wazzocks and Pacman suffers from that too i reckon...

[Stuart@retrogamer]

Well it was written in only five weeks instead of the normal six months causing much hair-pulling and frustration for the poor programmer. Atari's fault in setting such a ridiculous deadline for Howard.

There are far worse games on the VCS.

Take this for example, another film license.



Looks like some kind of oddly fetishistic gardening simulator. But no, it's actually The Texas Chainsaw Massacre by Wizard Video Games.

Actually about as scary as a wet weekend in Eastbourne.

Mike, that looks garbage. Leatherface's body looks like a strange novelty front door key. Has anyone played Wizard's Halloween? It looks a lot like this only less green and no wheelchair.

[Steve Halfpenny]

Mike, that looks garbage. Leatherface's body looks like a strange novelty front door key. Has anyone played Wizard's Halloween? It looks a lot like this only less green and no wheelchair.

I quite like Halloween even though there isn't much to it (like a lot of 2600 games). The atmosphere is actually really good and the recreation of the main theme is superb for the old VCS. Texas Chainsaw is garbage however.

Still, there are far worse games on that format. Play the 'adult' games. And no, I'm not talking about Custer's Revenge. There's worse than that!

[MC1]

Probably sounds dumb, but...

Was Pac-Man really that bad on 2600?

I remember getting that free with the console when my brother won one when they first came out. I thought it was great at the time. To be fair though I havnt played in since the early 80's!

[TMR]

Probably sounds dumb, but...

Was Pac-Man really that bad on 2600?

I remember getting that free with the console when my brother won one when they first came out. I thought it was great at the time. To be fair though I havnt played in since the early 80's!

Well, it's another case of Atari pushing things along, trying to cut corners and relying more on the name to shift something than the actual product... as a game it's a bit flickery due to hardware limitations, but it's still playable... there's an entry into this years' minigame competition that does it better, though. =-)

[merman]

As Howard Scott Warshaw points out in the latest issue of gamesTM (Retro section), ET still sold a million copies...

[felgekarp]

As Howard Scott Warshaw points out in the latest issue of gamesTM (Retro section), ET still sold a million copies...

How many got returned though?

[Mayhem]

Was Pac-Man really that bad on 2600?

Todd Frye has stated at the time he got praise from many people for his conversion of Pac-man. Really the only people who complained are people like us, who wanted it to be actually far more close to the arcade. He had wanted 8k for it, but Atari would only allow 4k. Now if he had known all the programming stuff that the guys today know...

And yes the entry in the mini-game comp is very good!

[yethboth]

Olifiers,

No worries. The feature is new, it was introduced last issue with a short explanation, so if you missed it then this E.T piece would have certainly seemed peculiar.

We're testing out a few new light feature ideas to break up the mag a little and the Retro Shamer article is one example. If we find that a lot of people dislike it, we'll of course remove it from the mag or rethink its tone.

Anyways, hope you’re enjoying the rest of the mag, welcome to the forum

I personally think Retro Shamer should stay.