A8scooter's Blog
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RX8084 - Hardball!
(c) 1987 Atari Corp.
[img width=383 height=461]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-034/gs/U-034-S-01000-A.jpg[/img][img width=565 height=304]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-034/ss/ts/U-034-S-01000-A.jpg[/img]
[img width=320 height=240]http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r221/atari83/photo_11_zpscf7d979f.jpg[/img][img width=320 height=240]http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r221/atari83/photo_21_zps6039771e.jpg[/img]
[img width=320 height=240]http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r221/atari83/photo_31_zps118530c2.jpg[/img][img width=320 height=240]http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r221/atari83/photo_4-1_zps320daa2e.jpg[/img]
When talking about baseball games that allow to control your team what do you think of ? Maybe MLB The Show? Perhaps the Triple Play for Genesis or Suepr Bases Loaded for SNES? How about VR Baseball or MLB for the Playstation series? Well which ever game you come to mind I bet they owe alot of their gaming ideas to the game Hardball!.
Made by Accolade in 1985 and released by Atari for the 8-Bit series in 1987 this game has it all. When you plug the cart in and start it up you have a basic black screen with white text and you might be thinking this is gonna be lack luster at best. Never judge a cart by its intro screen. Pressing start will open up a world of choices that will make your head spin. Before I dive into that first I need to say something about the music. Even on the Atari computers the music brings the sound of baseball into your living room, right down to the chanting music you would hear mid inning during a rally.
On to the choices you can make. Starting at the intro screen you select being the home or away team. Set if player 1 or 2 is which team ( red is player 1, blue is player 2 ). You can set up which team the computer will be in 1 player action. Hey if your an American league fan, why not add more fun and scroll down and play some DH baseball. Or you can play National League style and let the pitcher hit. Once you get this all sorted out your off to manage your team, you can replace hitters, change the batting order around some, change the position of your players. Your in control. Same for your pitchers pick who you want to start if you don't like the default setting. Check out the realistic stats , it will allow you to pick who will be your better choice for at the plate.
Controls are strait forwards each pitcher has 4 pitches from fastball! fastball curve ball off speed, slider. have fun thinking how to get the batter out. And on the batting end your directional arrows will allow you to pick how you want to swing to hit the ball away inside up or down in the zone.
Ever had a game where nothing is going right? You've burned through 90% of your pitching staff and your not getting the job done? Call in a 3rd basemen to pitch ( all his pitches say Fat Pitch) but heck you can be a positional player and pitch. ( Hey didn't the Yankees do that before a few times just for fun?? ).
This game brings it all to the gamer and still leaves room for more fun with any extra innings you might have to play. Personally Ive never had to play more than 21 innings in a game but it's good to know the game will just keep on going.
I know this has more pictures than in the past reviews but this game has so much going on and menus that are easy and almost fun to use that I wanted you to have the full experience before going out there and buying a copy for yourself.
Like always if there is an Atari 8-bit Computer cart game you would like to see featured on this Blog feel free to send me a message to my inbox or email me direct at Braves1545@aol.com.
RX8089 - Desert Falcon
(c) 1988 Atari Corp.
[img width=564 height=292]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-034/ss/ts/U-034-S-00630-A.jpg[/img]
Here is an interesting title from Atari Corp. in 1988 called Desert Falcon. Kinda an obvious name for what it is ( I was expecting something military air fighter game with a title like this, but I would be wrong). I'm not sure which desert this game is suppose to be set in but by the characters you fight in the game I would say Egypt would be a safe bet.
You are a bird flying around being shot at by other flying objects. You do have the ability to shoot back at the flying objects as you go along. Starting with 4 lives you take to the air to defeat obstacles in your way. If you recall my Blue Max write up you may remember comments about how it was impressive scrolling from southwest to northeast, and this game is similar in that respect ( even though not as a major degree).
As you play you can also land and walk around picking up objects along the way called "Hieros". For the game you are looking to find 3 of them. One of the interesting objects you need to shoot and defeat is a Spinx cat statue that comes alive. Even though your are taking on the Spinx the flying objects coming at you still comes in waves. After you defeat the Spinx, there is a bonus level that you can pick up items within a 20 second time limit between levels.
Overall this is an interesting game that might not be as graphically amazing as other titles but it holds its own in game play. The adding of walking around picking up objects brings something extra to the game that makes the whole game more challenging.
Here's a youtube video of the game play
When I think back to my childhood and playing video games The Atari XEGS comes to mind first since it was my first system ever. Being from a family on a limited budget we could only afford a handful of games for the system. If I recall properly 7 games total ( Pacman, Flight Simulator 2, Blue Max, Hardball, Bug Hunt, Real Sports Football and another title that is slipping my mind. Of these games I used to play one game stood out to be the most fun and graphically advanced in my view..... Blue Max.
As many would remember this game did come out on 5.25 disk way before it made it to the XE line of carts and crossed a few other systems ( C64 comes to mind). I can sit remembering playing it for hours trying to get to the final area bombing the 3 buildings before making my way back to the landing area and wonder things like what would happen if you bomb the side buildings in the final area. Now to this day its fuzzy in my head what does happen when you do that. I think they do look like any other building gets bombed but I dont think you get points for it. ( maybe you get 50 i dont remember).
I loved how the south west to north east scrolling with minimal 3D graphics ( by today's account) was worked into the programming of this game. It was something you really didnt see many games and when my friends would come over ( friends with NES SNES Genesis and such this would be one of the games that they would love to play. That I think says alot for how the game aged even on a older 8 bit unit when NES and Super NES ruled the streets.
Game play was pretty trait forward. You could do 2 things shoot and bomb. Dropping below 21 on the altitude level and you risk crashing or hitting trees, bridges, and buildings. If the bottom bar goes blue it means you can shoot the other planes down ( or they can shoot you or run into you , funny how we always forget that) .
Bombing things with [ + ] gave you extra points due to the fact that they were key buildings or bridges that you should take out.
But by far shooting was the most fun here. You can shoot out ( between 21-25 on the alt level) land to air missile launchers, shoot boats in the water ( you can bomb em too but shooting is so much more fun). You can shoot the little cars trucks tanks on the bridge or roadway. Little attention to detail things like that really makes it stand out that the programmers took the time to do it right for the gamer to enjoy.
When you go deep into the enemy lines you can shoot out cars and tanks still, bomb buildings but the cool fun part is trying to shoot out the hanger for the enemy ( which is harder to do that you would think) and the airplanes lined up in the runway. Its not required to do that and might risk you crashing but when your at war why not blow up more stuff than needed. Might as well do as much damage as you can.
Even today being 26 years later this game is as much fun and graphically holds up well than many other titles for the system. My gf gets intrigued by the game. Not that air plane shooters interests her much ( more a centipede pacman kinda gal) but just that its a refreshing looking game.
This Blue Max is a special part of my 8 Bit collection but this game brings me back to a day when Nintendo and the big name companies may have the hot new titles but kids appreciated games with cool looking graphics and interesting game play and didnt factor in who made it or is it the in thing to play. Good was just plain good.
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