2009/9/8: Atari 2600: Dumbo's Flying Circus (Prototype), Gangster Alley, Video Chess

[Crimefighter]

Just a question...the Froggo version of Gangster Alley "Task Force" got an F...are there any gameplay differences between the Froggo version and the Spectra version?

[thrust261]

The "cheating" you describe is a programming bug. Since it only happens on the highest difficulty level, I suppose some data gets overwritten accidentally by looking to far ahead.

Also you should consider that back then, lots of people played chess against each other via snail mail! Then even 10h seem really fast.

Technically a reasonable Chess engine within just 128 bytes of RAM is close to a miracle.

[Lucky Man]

[QUOTE=Crimefighter]Just a question...the Froggo version of Gangster Alley "Task Force" got an F...are there any gameplay differences between the Froggo version and the Spectra version?
[/QUOTE]

Yes, Gangster Alley is more challenging. The Froggo version doesn't have the woman and child that you need to avoid shooting, just some of the criminals have guns and some don't. So even on the hardest difficulty you can play the game forever.

[Zenzerotron]

I *think* they removed "Eddie" from Task Force, making the game way too easy. But honestly, Eddie was a crappy design-decision to make the game challenging.

Both Task Force and Gangster Alley are examples on an Atari 2600 game that make a great impression the first 30 seconds you play it, but then reality sets in and you turn off the game and never touch it again.

[VideoGameCritic]

To be fair to Video Chess, I added something in there about it being a technical marvel for its time.

[thrust261]

It's not a technical marvel as a whole but the quite good AI within the given extreme restrictions is.

[DamZero77]

Ok, I see it was mentioned that future Activision programmer Bob Whithead did Video Chess for Atari... that's covered now LOL!

I know you gave Tutankham a terrible grade, but I have fond memories of the game... all my friends had it and I wanted it so bad! I know you cant shoot up and down (but after years of practice you can kind of move the enemies around to where they line up on the horizontal plane) and I have completed the game numerous time without using a flash bomb (the only place you really need it is to get the 80 pt fan on level 4 since its on the vertical with a monster generator nearby).... eventually I got used to the subpar controls with a good third party joystick and careful memorization and just knowing where to shoot LOL

That being said, perhaps a D- was too much. I'd go with a C. But that's just because I spent a lot of TIME with the game. Someone in this day and age who never saw it would probably think it was D material! I must agree with the "junior programming" comment, however! Plus, I don't think it would have been too hard to do 4-way shooting and a horizontal scroll like the arcade version!!!

[crimefighter]

For some oddball reason, the price of a loose Gangster Alley cartridge I saw today was going for $40. Why?