Frostbite (Atari VCS/2600)

I always wanted Frostbite back when I owned an Atari... it always seemed like, if you'll excuse the turn of phrase, a cool game. Never did end up with it, though. Of course, in this day and age it's easy to play the old games, classics or otherwise, either by emulation or other means. I happen to have bought this on Microsoft's Game Room... as well as the Activision Anthology a few years ago.

And I'm glad that I did. Frostbite is a fun little game... what's important is that it's got the qualities that were essential in making a VCS game successful. It's fast paced, it's cute, and games don't usually last too long, making it an ideal arcade-style game.


Nip, nip! Those crabs might be almost underwater, but they'll still get ya.

The object of Frostbite is to build an igloo before the temperature drops so low that it freezes you to death. This being the arctic, that's easier said that done. You have to jump on ice blocks as they float past... each time you turn the ice blue, a block is added to your igloo. Later levels see the ice crack apart causing further complications, but you can reverse the flow for your own means.

Hang on though... that sounds simple! Naturally there's more to it than just that... there would have to be, or it wouldn't be much of a game. Polar critters roam around, getting in your way. If it wasn't bad enough that Arctic crabs, snow geese and clams shove you off the ice into the bitterly cold water, once your igloo is complete there's a polar bear patrolling the ice around your home! Well, if you will choose to live there...


Clams and crabs and bears, oh my!

So, was it worth the almost thirty year wait to play this? I'd have to say yes, it was. Sure, I'd probably have appreciated it a lot more at the time, and likely as not would have played it until I'd earned my sew-on patch. Nowadays it's unlikely you'd play it for more than fifteen minutes at a time, but from my point of view I'm likely to play it for fifteen minutes now and again for quite a while to come. Frostbite is cute, it's fun and it's a great example of just how good Activision could be in those days.

Unsung Classics. Number 10: Plaque Attack (Atari VCS/2600)

Anyone remember Silica Shop? It was awesome, especially when you were a kid. They were a mail order outlet based in the faraway town of Sidcup (I'm sure they had an actual, real shop there), and they sold Atari cartridges miles cheaper than you'd find them in the shops. I can't even remember where I got their catalogues from, but it was always with some excitement that I pored their pink pages.


Does this ring any bells for you? If not, you probably paid too much for Atari games...

I know I bought a few games from there, for the princely sum of £5.95. That was an amazing price, given that I bought Activision's Grand Prix for £38 from a shop in town. StarMaster was one of my Silica purchases... I loved that game! I spent untold hours with that one. Another game that I played to death, again courtesy of Silica Shop, was Plaque Attack.

If you asked what prompted me to buy Plaque Attack, I wouldn't be able to tell you. I honestly have no idea. I even remember that I hated its bright pink box. And yet, it found itself nestling in my box of cartridges.


Mmmmm, hot dogs. Lemme at 'em! World record's 62, I think...

Maybe it was the weird premise that attracted me. You have to defend a mouthful of teeth from the scourge of dentistry... junk foods and sugary foods. You do this by blasting attackers with your tube of toothpaste. If it sounds a bit mental, you'd be right. But it's joyously so, as were so many games from the late Seventies and early Eighties. When it came to game concepts, it was pretty much anything goes.

Plaque Attack is, I guess, the unofficial sequel to Megamania. Steve Cartwright was responsible for both games, but whereas the earlier Megamania was a straight forward shoot 'em up, Plaque Attack plays with the concept, refines it and adds extra elements to make it a much, much better game.


Mmmmmm, donuts! Lemme at 'em! Lovely pink icing.. yesssss.

Imagine, if you will, the arcade classic Missile Command. Plaque Attack takes the city defending aspect of that game and applies it to the teeth. Of course, the average mouth has teeth at the top and bottom, so you've got to defend above and below. Although early enemies move slowly and don't present much of a problem, they soon speed up and start to move differently, making it much more difficult and meaning you've really got to be on your game.

Those crazy "enemies" do raise a smile... you start off fighting burgers, hot dogs and chips, and move on to fruits, donuts, candy canes and ice creams. And this is where you discover the other game mechanic that makes this more interesting. If you've ever brushed your teeth (and I hope to hell you have!), you'll know that a common problem with toothpaste is that it runs out. And that happens in this game. You have a limited supply of toothpaste for each level, so you have to pick your shots somewhat carefully... if you run out of toothpaste, any remaining teeth are completely at the mercy of those evil foodstuffs.


Erm... I'm feeling a bit sick now, actually.

The limited-shot aspect, combined with the tooth-defending, make for a surprisingly fraught and quite tense shooter. Luckily the game doesn't stay entirely true-to-life... every time you score a certain number of points, you'll earn an extra tooth. Early on this means you've got a huge gobful, but as you get into the game you'll be thankful to end a level with an extra tooth, just to top up your seriously decayed reserves.

Plaque Attack actually holds up pretty well, even today. It can be a bit frustrating... those crazy attack patterns don't always lend themselves to a fun gaming experience. But you can't help but enjoy the concept and there's plenty of blasting action to be had. With Microsoft's Game Room still up and running and with Activision's Atari games having a strong presence there, Plaque Attack must be a prime candidate for release there soon. Keep your eyes peeled for it... mine will be.

Man Goes Down (Atari 2600)

I read about Man Goes Down ages ago, and it's another game that was lost in the back of my mind somewhere. Christ knows what else I'll find there if I dig about!

Anyway, it's an indie game, and it was posted on the AtariAge forums by its author, Alex Herbert, back in 2004.

The best Atari games were usually very simple, as they had to be when the programmers had so little room to work with. Man Goes Down is kind of the opposite of PapiJump+,which I played almost a year ago. Or is it the other way You're a little fella falling down a world of platforms and gaps. If you fall off the bottom of the screen, it's game over. If you get stuck and the screen scrolls down without you, it's game over. So you have to stay in a controlled spell of falling to stay in the game.


No, the man in the game is not called Roderick...

Thankfully, you can have some help in the game, in the form of bonus pick-up items. A helicopter backpack will keep you from the drop (while it lasts), as will a bubble, and a skateboard will speed you across the platforms in time to avoid getting squashed at the top of the screen. Stop signs, umm, stop the scrolling, and arrows increase its speed. Fruits increase your scoring multiplier, although if you miss one the multiplier resets. And there are magic mushrooms, which can have more than one effect...

Man Goes Down is a really nice little game. It looks great for a 2600 game, plays really well and has that important "just one more go" factor. Sadly, though, it's not finished. The author (who also wrote the much-loved homebrew Protector on the Vectrex) posted in May 2005 that he had been unwell, and doesn't seem to have said anything after August 2005. We can only hope he's doing OK... I certainly wish him all the best.

Enduro (Atari VCS/2600)

God, I loved my Atari. I used to drive my mother mental, playing Circus Atari for ages at a time. The bouncing and bursting noises were enough to make sure she's never liked video games (although my dad got her a DS for Christmas and she can be found playing Brain Training or Puzzler World... truly unbelievable!).

I also new people with an Atari. My cousin owned one, and so did a friend down the street. We used to swap games around... I had Activision's Grand Prix and Plaque Attack, my friend had Phoenix and Chopper Command, my cousin had Super Cobra and, umm, E.T.... but hey, I even enjoyed that back then. And as cartridges were far too expensive for ten-year-olds (at least, until I discovered Silica Shop), swapping was a good way to be sure of playing more games than we otherwise could.

One game I always wanted, but never played (or even saw to buy) was Enduro. From the pictures I'd seen in catalogues, it looked like a revolution in racing games - rather than the overhead view, sideways scrolling Grand Prix, this was viewed from behind, with you driving into the screen. I'd only seen the like in the arcades, with Sega's Turbo, or maybe on the Atari with Night Driver. But whereas Night Driver looked cack, Enduro had colour, it looked vibrant. Shame I never got the chance to play it...


Yes, that's colour. It's snow! In this shot, I'm off to stock up on bread and milk.

But now I have played it. And OK, it's the Atari VCS and I shouldn't have my hoped especially high, but I was a bit disappointed with it. It did feel a bit like Turbo, to be fair, which was a bit of a plus. Other than that, though, it lied up to its name, with me just holding down the fire button for as long as possible and dodging "cars" whenever possible. I say "cars"... it feels more like you're racing multi-coloured spiders. A strange effect. Overtaking them is more by luck than skill... it depends where you are on the track at certain points.


Only 8 cars left to pass! Or so I thought...

This is only difficult at times because of the speed at which the game moves. This is another plus, I suppose... the game really does move at quite a lick, which is what you want from a racing game. And it does have a couple of good ideas... sometimes you'll be driving at night, and you can only see the rear lights of the cars in front. Or it might get foggy, at which point not only can you only see the rear lights, but visibility is lessened, which really tests your reflexes.

And that's what Enduro really is... a test of both endurance and reflexes, rather than a racing game. It's hard to say what I would have thought 30 or so years ago, but I suspect I might have been a touch disappointed and lent it out for another go on Chopper Command... I was awesome at that game...