2015/5/27: Atari 2600: Video Olympics, Mines of Minos, Death Trap

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VideoGameCritic
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2015/5/27: Atari 2600: Video Olympics, Mines of Minos, Death Trap

Postby VideoGameCritic » May 27th, 2015, 5:53 pm

That's the smell of fresh Atari 2600 reviews. Video Olympics finally gets a proper review - 16 years later!
Comments are encouraged.

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scotland
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Re: 2015/5/27: Atari 2600: Video Olympics, Mines of Minos, Death Trap

Postby scotland » May 27th, 2015, 6:23 pm

Nice improvement for Video Olympics. Did you try variations with controllable ball? Its fun.

Also, pong machines in the 70s were often billed as various 'sports', so a collection of sports as 'olympics' was not unusual.

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BlasteroidAli
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Re: 2015/5/27: Atari 2600: Video Olympics, Mines of Minos, Death Trap

Postby BlasteroidAli » May 28th, 2015, 2:49 am

Umcredible!!!! I want to play all of them.

Seriously the Video Olympics could have been updated and called Idarb on the 1. Well worth a play.

Sut
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Re: 2015/5/27: Atari 2600: Video Olympics, Mines of Minos, Death Trap

Postby Sut » May 28th, 2015, 6:59 am

Mines of Minos sounds great I'll have to check that out (on an emulator unfortunately).

In the Death Trap review do you mean 'Fire and Forget' rather than 'First and Forget' ?

Teddybear
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Re: 2015/5/27: Atari 2600: Video Olympics, Mines of Minos, Death Trap

Postby Teddybear » May 28th, 2015, 7:01 am

This is one of the beauties of this website......I had never heard of Mines on Minos and now I want it!!! Thanks Critic!

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Re: 2015/5/27: Atari 2600: Video Olympics, Mines of Minos, Death Trap

Postby goldenband » May 28th, 2015, 12:04 pm

Very pleased to see these! I haven't played Mines of Minos much if at all, but I can attest that the other two are fair and accurate reviews. I can however attest that Death Trap is far from "impossible" on higher difficulties, having beaten all three settings. :mrgreen:

The trick is to time your shot so it makes contact when the rotating shield is in the same place, so that new shield pieces are built on top of (or right next to) old ones and the shield expands as little as possible. I would actually count aloud to get the timing down -- I'd watch for when the shield piece would disappear off the left side of the screen. The better you do in this phase, the better your odds are for the final battle, when things get really hairy.

Pretty satisfying when I finally beat it! The first line of the Mines of Minos review -- "I can't recall the last time I wanted to beat an Atari game as badly as Mines of Minos" -- is exactly how I felt about Death Trap. Medium is tough and Hard is extremely difficult because you're under constant fire, but if you're meticulous about the placement of your shots, it can be done.

Great to see lesser-known Atari 2600 games get some coverage. I hope it continues!

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Rev
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Re: 2015/5/27: Atari 2600: Video Olympics, Mines of Minos, Death Trap

Postby Rev » May 28th, 2015, 6:16 pm

Great reviews, Mines of MInos sounds like it would be a lot of fun. It sounded a lot more complicated then most games on the 2600. Great find.

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Re: 2015/5/27: Atari 2600: Video Olympics, Mines of Minos, Death Trap

Postby VideoGameCritic » May 28th, 2015, 8:26 pm

goldenband wrote:
Pretty satisfying when I finally beat it! The first line of the Mines of Minos review -- "I can't recall the last time I wanted to beat an Atari game as badly as Mines of Minos" -- is exactly how I felt about Death Trap. Medium is tough and Hard is extremely difficult because you're under constant fire, but if you're meticulous about the placement of your shots, it can be done.

Great to see lesser-known Atari 2600 games get some coverage. I hope it continues!


Funny you should mention this - I actually wanted to use that line for both reviews (Death Trap and Mines of Minos), but obviously I had to pick one or it wouldn't have made any sense. Both are hard as nails and keep you wanting to play more.

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scotland
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Re: 2015/5/27: Atari 2600: Video Olympics, Mines of Minos, Death Trap

Postby scotland » June 17th, 2015, 7:45 pm

Video Olympics is the first ever 'complilations' cartridge. It was like those old compilations records on TV from K-Tel , bringing you 20 original Pong super hits by the 20 original Pong artists. Get on board the Pooooooooong Train.

They should've called it "Hooked on Pong"


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