RF Generation Message Board

It's a December shmup showdown, between 2 classic single-screen shooting games, for the Atari 2600! 2 of the most prolific 3rd party publishers, Imagic, and Activision, put their best foot forward, and deliver shooting games that build upon the success of previous titles, like Space Invaders, Phoenix, and Galaxian, and add their own spin on the genre. During the 1st and 2nd console generations, many games were released that took the form of the single-screen shoot-em-up, where you move your craft left and right at the bottom of the screen, and take on various enemy waves as they descend or hover above you. Some of these games barely managed to differentiate themselves from the Space Invaders formula, only changing things up slightly. This resulted in a lot of clones that didn't really stand apart from the originals.

Imagic and Activision were 2 publishers that created a number of unique and interesting games. As the basic shooting game template was evolving during the early 1980's, both companies injected their respective games with some new elements, in terms of audiovisual and mechanics, and created a couple interesting titles. Imagic made Demon Attack, which sees the player pitted against waves of flying "demons" that warp into the screen, and drop clusters of bombs down at the player, to try and take them out, slowly drifting down toward the player as they move back and forth. Activision made Spider Fighter, which gives the player a high speed hovercraft to move back and forth, to quickly fire at and destroy spiders and other bugs that move quickly and erratically, making them harder to target, while protecting the fruit at the top of the screen. Both games use the basic gameplay elements pioneered in the aforementioned games, but bring enough of their own elements into the mix to provide a new experience. Join the RF Generation Shmup Club as we dive into these 2 classics, and see which one the club members will crown as the best on the system. May the best game win!

PARTICIPANTS:
MetalFRO
Addicted
L0rdb0rb4
douglie007
louisG

High Scores:
Demon Attack

Spider Fighter

[/list][/list][/list]

I'm in as well, and i must say that i've NEVER played a Atari gamer, this will be a first!

Almos forgot, my vote goes to Demon Attack and it's quite unique setting  :speechless:

Welcome aboard! I will add you to the list. I’ll be curious to hear your impressions on these 2 games, given your lack of experience with Atari games!

I'll try to get some shumping done with golfing

Sounds great, welcome aboard!

Demon Attack! \o/ Are we playing regular mode with difficulty set to A? There's also tracer and advanced-- advanced is really fun IMO. Hmm, come to think of it, I don't think I've ever tried tracer mode.

OK, tracer just follows your ship like in almost every other 2600 shooter. And holy crap Advanced Mode is hard! It's really good, but I must've been playing a ton of Demon Attack because I remember thinking it was easy :O Oh, are we voting on these too? I'm new, sorry! I'm learning towards Demon Attack, but I'm looking forward to spending more time with Spider Fighter as I chase other peoples' scores. Maybe I'll find some depth I missed back when I first played it.

WOW, I'm genuinely blown away...
As i said, Demon Attack is my first atari game EVER that i've seen in person/played.
Is this supossed to be this smooth or is the emulator doing god's work? Just WOW.
I've downloaded the manual and cover art for a more authentic experience and i loved the overall feeling.It's gaming at it's purest form, i'm so glad that i finally took the time to enjoy an Atari game.
So here's my best score for this first day:
[img width=640 height=360]https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4843/31194031527_45d1c2edfe_z.jpg[/img]

Played on Stella defaults. Got to the orbs and died. Gotta try it on the real setup when I get back in.

Good initial scores, you two, and welcome aboard, louisG!

I managed to break the 10K mark late last night. I should mention, I'm playing the default mode, default difficulty. I haven't explored the other game modes yet, which I may do after I peruse the manual a bit. Also, I'm using a Sega Genesis 3-button pad, and playing via my Atari 7800, where the B button works to fire. One thing that I like about this game, that I had forgotten was a feature, was that it has auto-fire. There are times when you want to more directly control your rate of fire, but because enemies split into 2 after level 4, the screen can get pretty busy, and auto-fire helps for crowd control, and focusing on your movement to avoid enemy fire, rather than having to worry about aiming. This is especially helpful because the enemy patterns can be so erratic.

[img width=700 height=525]https://i.imgur.com/KVhXerS.jpg[/img]

I think we have almost the same TV! Here's my score from Sunday

Nice scores guys!
I've managed to increase mine a bit:
[img width=640 height=360]https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4845/45260990765_ee71026563_z.jpg[/img]

I got a little further last night in Demon Attack, and also started playing some Spider Fighter. By the time you get to the bananas, that game gets, uh, bananas. Really fast.

Here's my latest on Demon Attack. We also need to decide if we're playing on difficulty A (harder) or B (normal). I realized my Stella score was B (I think?) and my physical Atari score was on A. The manual lists A as "Aggressive Action" and B as "Basic Bombardment" :D

I think we could probably play on any difficulty, as long as you denote which game mode and difficulty you're playing on. When I get home from work tonight, I might look through the manual, since I have a boxed copy, and look at what it's doing. Right now, I'm literally just booting up the game and playing on the default game mode, and default difficulty, whatever that works out to be. Speaking of which...

[img width=700 height=525]https://i.imgur.com/qzG4sol.jpg[/img]

I got into the zone last night, and had a really good run! I didn't quite get close to this again, capping out around 22K another time, but whatever the default game mode and difficulty is, if you can get into a rhythm with it, it's possible to score a lot, because every 2 levels, the number of points increases for each enemy destroyed, and after a few levels, you get additional points because enemies split in two, and then you get additional points for destroying each of those 2 enemies, so the scoring goes up considerably after 5 or 6 levels.

Here's a link to a text version of the manual, via AtariAge:
https://atariage.com/manual_html_page.php?SoftwareLabelID=134

And here's a high quality scanned version, via Games Database:
http://www.gamesdatabase.org/Media/SYSTEM/Atari_2600/manual/Formated/Demon_Attack_-_1982_-_Imagic.pdf

I'm playing this on my Atari 7800, which doesn't have all the levers and switches, but has some ability to provide those functions. As to which mode is default, I think it's probably Game #1 (Demon Attack). I don't know whether or not it's A or B type, A being "Aggressive Action" and B being "Basic Bombardment" but it sure feels aggressive enough to me :D


To your point about Spider Fighter getting "bananas" (nice one), you're absolutely right. That game gets insanely fast fairly quickly, so it's partially a matter of luck, and also being really aggressive about making sure that you're taking out enemy spiders and bugs as quickly as possible when a wave starts, so you can avoid having to deal with being rained down upon by heavy fire, and also the possibility of losing fruit. It gets very fast and frantic.

Ack! I forgot that about the 7800. It looks like it's the switches are under each controller port, and left is normal, right is hard:
http://atariage.com/forums/topic/140099-7800-difficulty-switches/

I think I'll continue playing on hard because I'm really enjoying the challenge, and it's not a setting I've played a lot.

Yeah, I should bust out the 7800 again. I love that system. I thought it was a shame that it didn't enjoy much 3rd party support because it seems pretty capable! You must've seen those unreleased shmups for it, right? They reminded me of C64 shmups like Armalyte. The thing would've been a beast if it just had a better sound chip. Filling up the screen with sprites with no flicker? Yes please!

I love those difficulty descriptions haha

Breakthrough! Difficulty set to A still. Once you get through the orbs, the game loops, more or less. The enemy speed seems faster, but because the enemy type goes back to a simpler one, the game backs off a little in difficulty for several rounds. I wish past that stage they'd start mixing it up more. It would've been neat to see levels with multiple enemy types! But I think this game rocks pretty hard for a 1982 home console Space Invaders clone.

@louisG - wow, great score! I haven't managed to get that high on A type difficulty. And yes, I did verify that I was previously playing the B type, hence my much higher score. I plan to explore the other game modes as well, since games 3, 5, & 7 are all a little different. And you're absolutely right about the difficulty dropping off again after the orbs! That's one reason I was able to get so far on B type. If I can keep my lives at, or near, the max of 6 until reaching the orbs, I often blow through them quickly, but after that, you earn an extend for every level you complete without dying, so on the easier enemy types, you can use that to your advantage to quickly build back up your life stock.

@Dingo - you going to jump in this time, or are you just making an observation?  :slick:

I started playing Spider Fighter last night, and ended up on the "expert" difficulty, because I was playing Demon Attack the night before, and never changed the left difficulty switch back. Despite that, I got in the zone, and had a pretty spectacular game, coming up just shy of 100K points!
[img width=700 height=525]https://i.imgur.com/Gbnn8nr.jpg[/img]

Turns out, all it took was to earn 40K on the normal difficulty to earn the Activision "Spider Fighters" badge:
[img width=700 height=518]https://i.ebayimg.com/images/i/291945693562-0-1/s-l1000.jpg[/img]

Part of me is tempted to buy one from eBay, for the novelty value, but they're not exactly cheap :P

I'm on fire!141,980 points!!!
[img width=700 height=525]https://i.imgur.com/eFqGxHv.jpg[/img]

Again, this is on A or "Expert" difficulty, and the right difficulty switch is set to the left setting, which is "Straight Pellets" - that means when an enemy shoots a bullet, it doesn't track their movement, from what I understand.

Do I post may crappy scores or do I have to be better then the top scores?

It's up to you. I don't necessarily consider it a competition, as more just for bragging rights, or a way for you to help chart your own progress, and for us to help motivate one another.

I managed to get to nearly 30K on Demon Attack in the "A" difficulty:
[img width=700 height=525]https://i.imgur.com/IX5gGyL.jpg[/img]

29k! Very cool. I've been slacking (playing lots of Yoku's Island Express instead).. I gotta get back to Atari! :D

Anyone else going to challenge my scores on either game?

I'm givin all she's got! I just suck at shumps. Lol if anything I'll post a crappy score next time I play.

Don't worry about your score. That's a good rule when you're playing a game like this, until you master it. Posting scores in the thread can be a matter of bragging rights, but ultimately, it should be about charting your progress. With shmups, I find myself getting frustrated, because I have a mental block where I think I should be better at the games than I am. This leads me to getting upset when I die, or make huge mistakes, because my natural affinity to the genre should somehow intrinsically equate to being good at them. That's not the case, however. Just do the best you can, try to have fun while playing, and post whatever score you want, knowing that we're all coming in at different skill levels. I'm here to encourage you to play and get better, not to shame you for a low score, or make you think you shouldn't play, because you don't have the skill.

Yikes! That Demon Attack score is hard to topple :) Still working at it.

Re: not feeling like you're good enough to compete: I'd say just do it! Like MetalFRO said, it's about the fun of it. I'm generally someone who hates competitions, but I think here it's not ultra-competitive so we can just play and relax a bit, hang out, and share our experiences on the games.

On Demon Attack: I find on the later levels that it's crucial to move underneath the enemies when it's safe. Otherwise, they'll corner you. If you time it, you can move underneath them and get off a shot. It's one of the only ways to get them to stop moving for a split second, so it's great if you're finding them hard to hit. It's almost like in platformers where you're timing pistons so you don't get crushed by em.

Yes! I found this crucial with the "pulsating" enemies that change in size back and forth. Those are the most aggressive and unpredictable, I think, so dashing under them right after a volley and launching a shot is key to splitting them up. The resulting pair of single enemies are easier to deal with, because it's easier to dodge and avoid a single laser than a wide-ranging double laser.

Last week! I'm gonna do some Atari tonight. Spider Fighter is also growing on me.

Glad to hear it!  It's a fun game, and always good for a few rounds. Best of all, it's so pick up and play, it doesn't take much time, and you can get a few games in, without having to sit down for very long.

I haven't topped my last score yet, but with the orbs, I've found a better strategy: Get it into a position where it's firing at you and you're fleeing it. As soon as the beam passes, immediately reverse direction underneath it. Before, I would wait to try to get a sense of the timing between shots. But, I think there's always time to do this if you're close to its beam when it ends.

This was fun. Are people still playing, or is it time for a new game? Beamrider maybe? :D :D

Yes, I'm sorry if you didn't know, but we move on to a new game each month. January is Thunder Force IV / Lightening Force:
http://www.rfgeneration.com/forum/index.php?topic=18881.0

Beamrider is one I've recently acquired. I might have to play around with that a bit :)

Hate that I did not have to participate in this club event in December, but I was super busy.  Enjoying the show though and up to the Spider Fighter segment. Can't wait to hear which one each of you pick as your favorite.  I'll just say that one of these games is my favorite shooter on the 2600.

Thanks so much, Rich! That is gratifying to hear that you're enjoying the show.

New band name: Atari Fart Syndrome

 :slick:

I would so be in that band.