Every few summers, things get so busy that I need a list to remind myself how focus on the things that help me relax. This is that list. Is it a big list? Yes. Will I finish everything on it? No. But it gives me something to shoot for … and something to focus on. … Read more
Battlezone is a first-person tank game released by Atari in 1980. Like Star Wars Arcade, it uses vector graphics to create a three-dimensional representation of its gaming world. It helps inform the visuals of Ready Player One. Quote On the surface, Archaide looked exactly like the environment of the 1981 game Battlezone, another vector-graphic classic from Atari. In … Read more
Starmaster is Activision’s take on the emerging first-person, star-fighter genre. Released in 1982 and written by Alan Miller, it features gameplay similar to Atari’s Star Raiders (without the complexity of the “Video Touch Pad Controller” add-on hardware). It plays a minor role in Ready Player One, appearing in a single line. Quote Beside the Atari was a shoebox containing … Read more
On this episode of Radio Active, I talk about returning to model rocketry, one of my all-time favorite hobbies, and then run down some of the great sci-fi shows I’m watching. The bulk of the show is dedicated to my trials and tribulations with getting enough sleep. It’s always been hard for me, but it got so much harder during the pandemic.
Atari released Star Raiders for the 2600 in 1980. Somehow, someway … I never played it, yet based on Wikipedia’s accounting, it inspired many of the games I love including Wing Commander, and Star Wars: X-Wing. In the novel Ready Player One, it gets a single mention alongside such 2600 classics as Yar’s Revenge and The Empire Strike’s Back as well as the … Read more
Parker Bros.’s The Empire Strikes Back Atari 2600 game is – according to Wikipedia – the first-ever Star Wars licensed video game. It takes place on the ice planet of Hoth, with the player on a doomed mission to destroy imperial AT-ATs (aka imperial walkers) before they can reach the rebel base. It plays a minor role … Read more
Activision’s bomb-dropping Kaboom! plays a minor role in the Ready Player One novel, appearing on a single line with classic Atari 2600 games like Combat, Space Invaders, and Yar’s Revenge. In the real world, it was released in 1982 and sold over a million cartridges by 1983. Me? Despite its documented fame, I didn’t play Kaboom until I started the Ready Player One … Read more
Released in 1982 by Activation, Pitfall features the adventures of Pitfall Harry as he runs, jumps, and swings his way through an alligator and scorpion-filled jungle in order to recover a variety of treasures. Pitfall sold over four million copies. It plays a minor role in Ready Player One as one of the Atori 2600 games found … Read more
Developed by Tomohiro Nishikado and released in 1978 by Taito in Japan and Bally (via their Midway division) in the US, Space Invaders is one of the quintessential 1980s video games. And, if I’m being honest, a little misunderstood (at least by me). I rarely played the game in the arcade; my exposure was always through the … Read more
Dungeons of Daggorath is one of the most important games in Ready Player One (Amazon). Located in one of 256 recreations of James Halliday’s hometown (and childhood home/bedroom) on the planet Middletown, TSR-80 version of the game provided to be the gateway to one of the keys associated with dead programmer’s Easter Egg hunt. Quote “Daggorath” (with … Read more