Writing about Lego Star Wars made me think more about how much I used to love videogames and how so many of today’s games don’t bring out the same excitement and wonder that some of the games did when I was growing up. I dug through some old papers and found this brochure from Activision from 1983. Rather than focus on what it says about me that I have saved this artifact all these years, I prefer to spend a few moments remembering how videogames (and software in general) used to make me feel.

They put me in the game. :)

I thought I remembered every single machine from this era, but I honestly have no collection of the apparently white labeled Sears Tele-Games Video Arcade. River Raid is so cool. It felt to me like there were more objects moving on the screen than I had seen in other video games. Also, this may have been the first game with that trademark Activision rainbow/gradient horizon. I always thought it was a nice touch.

I love how the game designers/programmers are part of the pitch on each game. They were turning these folks into stars. Neat. Also, Keystone Kapers looked really cool. Donkey Kong cloneness aside, I liked these type of platform games, and the burglar theme was novel. Being the bad guy was always a promise I thought only videogames could provide. I don’t think i ever actually got to play it.

I don’t remember Megamania or Starfighter, but Pitfall is a classic of course. I loved the cool shadows under the baloons in Sky Jinks.

I don’t remember if Chopper Command had that great helicopter movement that the later Choplifter had. This might have been more straight defender type “physics”. I liked Freeway, but it seems like it should hardly be getting an honorable mention from the folks at Arcade Alley given that Frogger came out in 1981. (BTW, the only mention of the 1982 Arcade Alley Awards on the net is here. I wonder if there were awards in 1983? I also find it interesting that something from 1982 could be so absent from the internet.) Kaboom while a Pong variation I thought was truly innovative with the multiple baskets at the bottom, not to mention pretty stressful to play. (I had the paddles of course.) Stampede was cool in that while the sprites were sillhouettes, they felt more detailed in terms of the shapes of the animals and the protaganist. I felt the tradeoff of color for detail was the right one. The game felt fresh.

Again, there’s that trademark rainbow horizon in Barnstorming. I liked looking at this game. I thought the graphics were advanced for the day.

The first tennis game I remembered having the addictive and finger numbing physics that all tennis games have had since was Tennis for the Atari 5200. I’m not sure if this game had the physics or was more pong like. I do remember the Skiing game, especially the whoosh/swish sounds the skier made as you would gently nudge him (or her?) in one direction or another.

Grand Prix was cool because of the oil slicks (and if I remember correctly, that’s actually ice in the image, which made the car harder to control). Does anyone have copies of “Activisions”?

Intellivision was always the holy grail for me. Promoted by the George Plimpton (the John Hodgman of the day) the graphics seemed unbelievable realistic compared to my 2600. These screen shots (or possibly screen reproductions I suppose) look identical to the 2600 ones in terms of graphics detail. Though they are different images are the objects in each game are in different spots.

I can’t remember if I ever got any of these badges. I think I got one or two but if so, where are they? I know I wanted them badly. I especially wanted to be a member of the “Save the Chicken Foundation”. I also think the angled graphic for the “Activision Sky Stars” is original and hot.

Our goal here is to make software that people await as eagerly as I awaited that Barnstorming catridge.

P.S. Needless to say, in browsing around after putting this post together I found that between wikipedia and the archive at Atari Age I’m so behind the times in terms of archiving this part of my childhood. That said, it’s still fun to peruse.