2015/1/18: Odyssey 2: K.C. Munchkin!, Demon Attack, Amok!

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Verm1
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2015/1/18: Odyssey 2: K.C. Munchkin!, Demon Attack, Amok!

Postby Verm1 » January 19th, 2015, 5:39 pm

[QUOTE=videogamecritic]With the voice module attached, whenever I hit the fire button it would reset the game.[/QUOTE]

Ah, thanks for the information.

My reason for asking was because I wondered if the final line was missing the word 'not'; currently it reads 'this game did function correctly when the voice module was installed'.

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2015/1/18: Odyssey 2: K.C. Munchkin!, Demon Attack, Amok!

Postby VideoGameCritic » January 19th, 2015, 7:16 pm

Yikes - sounds like a typo.

scotland171
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2015/1/18: Odyssey 2: K.C. Munchkin!, Demon Attack, Amok!

Postby scotland171 » January 23rd, 2015, 8:28 pm

[QUOTE=goldenband]Great to see more Odyssey 2 reviews. Conquest of the World
Great Wall Street Fortune Hunt
War of Nerves
I'd really love to see reviews of the other two board games since there's practically nothing on the web about them, although I can't offer much optimism.[/QUOTE]

It does seem like Dave reviewed Quest for the Rings having the complete boardgame and not from a multicart or loose cart. Its just a lovely game...it really is, and I mean aesthetically. It was made at a time when D&D and Tolkien and sword and sorcery was hot. Dave's review appreciates all that, but he focuses solely on the video game component and I think that is all he took into consideration for a grade.

So, you might have to be okay with him just rating a loose cart or multicart ROM for the other two given their rarity and cost and his review style. I do not have a complete Fortune Hunt, but Conquest was like RISK. The board game part is well made, but the video game is less than an afterthought.

You've played the video game part of Conquest. Its Armoured Encounter / Sub Hunt with fireworks. Oh, and it was made years later. I played this way too much, but dreck is the word that comes to mind. Dreck with a pyramid.

The thing is the complete package is a showpiece and an interesting game, but the video game part is the weakest element. Is it fair to rate just a piece of a whole?

Its like Skylanders/Infinity/Nintendo knockoffs. Do you rate them based only on the video game oart, or does the toy figurine matter?

For completeness I would like to see the reviews, but I would rather a review that graded the whole and not just a part.

As for War if Nerves, thats pretty cool. Being a giant makes you feel important. I think Dave has this, at least on a multicart.




jake34921
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2015/1/18: Odyssey 2: K.C. Munchkin!, Demon Attack, Amok!

Postby jake34921 » January 24th, 2015, 10:32 am

You have Conquest of the World upside down. I tried to play the board game as a kid and it was, as you say, dreck. Now, the video game part... basically combat, but with tanks and planes and submarines against each other, especially the way the subs would disappear under water then reemerge and become visible (and vulnerable) while the guided missile was on-screen? One of the hidden gems of the system imho...

scotland171
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2015/1/18: Odyssey 2: K.C. Munchkin!, Demon Attack, Amok!

Postby scotland171 » January 24th, 2015, 11:01 am

[QUOTE=jake3492]You have Conquest of the World upside down. I tried to play the board game as a kid and it was, as you say, dreck. Now, the video game part... basically combat, but with tanks and planes and submarines against each other, especially the way the subs would disappear under water then reemerge and become visible (and vulnerable) while the guided missile was on-screen? One of the hidden gems of the system imho...[/QUOTE]

Thanks Jake!

Its been two decades since I've played it, but I'll give it another whirl with your opinion in mind.  I had forgotten the invisible subs to be honest.  I remember playing this game a lot, but just thinking it was SubHunt Plus. That's what I like about Dave's forums...you might be right and I might be wrong, or we both have our different opinions, but its fun either way talking about the Odyssey or othe systems, hooking them up, giving them another go with a different perspective.  

I have little ones, so Conquest is a good game to play with the kids as well.   Even lowly Helicopter Rescue has a place when you have little kids, and we were laughing out loud in Aliens Invaders Plus when your nekkid little man is like a fly about to be pounced on by the spider (with homemade sound effects).    That's another game where opinions differ, so going to give that another go to find the fun.  

Just looking at Quest for the Rings again...talk about a lovely manual and map/game board.   Had they made it in 1979 maybe the history of the console would have been different.  Could have gone halfsies with Avalon Hill.

On the Odyssey 2 note, I see that Packrat is making the multicart on demand or in short supply.   I think (Jake may disagree) that this is one of the consoles that a multicart is great for.    Unlike other early systems, there are no overlays and since most games had only a few variations, you can get by without a manual most times.  The system itself seems pretty durable, and the controllers too.  There are a couple of homebrews on the muticart (and its a ROM cart), but its got most or all of the original releases and some partials.

 

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2015/1/18: Odyssey 2: K.C. Munchkin!, Demon Attack, Amok!

Postby VideoGameCritic » January 24th, 2015, 11:09 am

Glad the subject of the board games was raised.  I think I have Conquest somewhere but I've been intimidated by all the pieces.  Would it be reasonable to review it on the game portion alone, like I did with Quest for the Rings?

goldenband1
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2015/1/18: Odyssey 2: K.C. Munchkin!, Demon Attack, Amok!

Postby goldenband1 » January 24th, 2015, 12:38 pm

I'm glad you're glad! [biggrin] And thanks to scotland17 and jake3492 for sharing their thoughts. I agree, the excellent multicart is a great option for the Odyssey 2, but you'll often need manual scans to make sense of the games.

I think it'd be better to review Conquest of the World as a complete package. The board game seems really intimidating at first, but as my wife and I discovered, in reality it's quite shallow -- almost ridiculously so! It talks itself up to an irritating extent, with an introduction that cites geopolitics and statistics and makes it sound like a super-strategic Koei military sim, but it's all fake puffery.

Once you figure out what's empty verbiage and what's actually pertinent to the gameplay, it becomes clear that there's almost nothing to it. The designers did embarrassingly little to integrate the board game with the video game -- they could've done so much more, but what they did do is poorly thought-out and superficial. Given how beautifully crafted the packaging is, it's a real shame.

The video game part is unbalanced, but with a little fine-tuning it could've been one of the Odyssey 2's stronger 2-player games. IIRC the sub has a huge advantage because it's invisible until it strikes -- but the game's solution to that is to tell the player to manually surface every time the radar pings. Why not just have a bit of code to make that happen, rather than make the players police themselves?

As for The Great Wall Street Fortune Hunt, it seems practically unknown. Based on what I've seen, I can't imagine it'd be playable without the full package, so if you don't have the board game it's a no-go for now. But do try Loony Balloon, it's a trip!

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2015/1/18: Odyssey 2: K.C. Munchkin!, Demon Attack, Amok!

Postby scotland171 » January 24th, 2015, 2:11 pm

Sorry for all the posts, but I'm enjoying all the O2 talk.

See https://archive.org/stream/electronic-games-magazine-1982-03/Electronic_Games_Issue_02_Vol_01_02_1982_Mar#page/n7/mode/2up 

for a review of Quest for the Rings in 1982 Electronic Games Magazine.  The video game portion was done by Ed Averette, who did a number of games on the system.  This is why the game's visuals are so familiar to others.  The game portion is done by a completely different person, Steve Laner...the man who did the original Odyssey screen overlays of all things.

Great Wall Street Fortune Hunt won the same magazine's award for "Most Innovative" in the January 1983 issue. The video game element, unlike Conquest, would not stand on its own without the rest of the stock market simulation game.

Conquest supposedly won "Best Multiplayer Game" in that magazine in 1982, but I can't find a magazine scan to show it.  My guess is that its Averette doing the video gam, and Laner doing the board game again.   It is a more complicated version of RISK with lots of Cold War stuff and algebra.

So, what you have is something different.  It might be like a comic book website rating Yar's Revenge based on the included comic book ...

LS6501
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2015/1/18: Odyssey 2: K.C. Munchkin!, Demon Attack, Amok!

Postby LS6501 » January 24th, 2015, 4:49 pm

The O2/Videopac is really something of an unsung hero.  It's kind of a shame, as it sold in roughly the same quantity (2 million units) as the Colecovision, yet the CV has much more of a cult following.

That said, the O2 is very affordable.  You can pick up a complete working system in great shape, with a few commons, from eBay for $30 to $40.  You sure can't say that about Colecovision!  

If someone wants to get into retro collecting on the cheap, that's a system I would recommend.  It has some really great games (the two KC games, UFO!, Turtles, etc.)  and has a decent homebrew scene, with a handful of new cart releases every year recently.

goldenband1
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2015/1/18: Odyssey 2: K.C. Munchkin!, Demon Attack, Amok!

Postby goldenband1 » January 27th, 2015, 2:19 am

The O2's sound hardware is a big shortcoming, but The Voice goes some way towards addressing that. Playing Smithereens with The Voice is a must -- the commentary is hilarious.

The pre-defined character set is also a big limitation, but also a strength since it allows for more sprites onscreen than most other systems of the time. You can't really pull off Killer Bees on the Atari 2600 or Intellivision, from what I understand.

If I had to pick five Odyssey 2 games to keep around, they'd probably be Smithereens, Mr. Roboto, Killer Bees, Loony Balloon, and Pick Axe Pete. I'm also fond of Blockout/Breakdown, simply for the novelty of the gameplay.

OTOH the Odyssey 2 has some genuinely unplayable games like Hockey/Soccer, which may be the single worst console game of its era I've ever played. The teams just deadlock in horrible tangles, and the two players need to collaborate to extricate themselves from one another!


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