Warlords Action

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VideoGameCritic
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Warlords Action

Postby VideoGameCritic » September 3rd, 2018, 10:54 am

I was over my sister's house the other day entertaining her three kids, ages 9-16. I recently gave them one of my extra Atari 2600 consoles and some games. I talked them into playing four-player Warlords and they LOVED it. They instantly picked up on the gameplay, although at first they thought the object was to wipe out their opponent's blocks. I didn't realize I would need to explain that. They were impressed by the controls and the speed of the game.

I was kind of expecting some snide remarks about the graphics but in fact they came up with some extremely creative "interpretations" of the graphics. My niece (yellow) claimed she was protecting "the cheese". My nephew (green) said he was controlling a turtle on a skateboard - holding a fidget spinner no less! I asked my niece when the game was made and she said 1965. I told her it was 1977.

We had a blast playing this game, but we did stumble upon one infamous bug. Sometimes when a player is holding the fireball, it won't let go. Even re-plugging in the controls doesn't help. You need to reset. The kids were amused how an old game like this had a bug (they are used to bugs in new games). Time to re-review this game? So should this glitch count against the Warlord's grade? Does the bug icon belong in the review?

Naturally the Video Game Critic dominated every contest, although they each snuck in a win here and there and were particularly pleased to destroy me. It was a blast though, further confirming Warlords as the greatest multiplayer game of all time - transcending generational boundaries.

Cafeman
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Re: Warlords Action

Postby Cafeman » September 3rd, 2018, 11:53 am

I didn't know about the bug. How frequently does it happen?

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Re: Warlords Action

Postby VideoGameCritic » September 3rd, 2018, 3:42 pm

For me, I'd say about once every 10 or 12 games. Could it be a defective paddle controller? To be honest, I've never heard anyone report this bug before.

matmico399
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Re: Warlords Action

Postby matmico399 » September 4th, 2018, 1:36 pm

Great story Dave I enjoyed reading it.

Yeah if You are going to introduce a new gen to the 2600, Warlords is the game to do it. Transcends time. My son won't touch my 2600 except for Warlords and Berzerk which he's crazy about.

As far as the bug and letter grade I don't think it should affect the grade. And regarding the bug it seems maybe I slightly remember this as a kid but I'm not sure. Playing it over the last several years I have not encountered it. Maybe it is the controllers, but with that little evidence I don't think it deserves the bug icon.

GTS
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Re: Warlords Action

Postby GTS » September 4th, 2018, 5:28 pm

Hmmm, I don't recall that bug in the game. It could be the fire button sticking. I recommend surgery.

Here's a list of bugs:

http://www.digitpress.com/eastereggs/26warlords.htm

SpiceWare
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Re: Warlords Action

Postby SpiceWare » September 5th, 2018, 12:13 pm

Just realized all the images are gone from when I discovered and documented the "suicide trick". At the time I was creating a disassembly for Warlords as my original plan was to hack it to add multi-ball, but ended up writing Medieval Mayhem from scratch instead.

I've created new images and added them. Also added images which show it occurring with players 2-4.

Alucard1191
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Re: Warlords Action

Postby Alucard1191 » September 5th, 2018, 4:12 pm

Warlords is one of my favorite old games. I used to play it at Nickel City with all my friends many... many... many years ago now. Great story, I'm envious. Playing older games with young ones is something I've always wanted to experience. Probably not going to happen on this end though, wife doesn't want any kids and I can't just go kidnap some for vintage game time.

GTS
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Re: Warlords Action

Postby GTS » September 5th, 2018, 5:45 pm

Alucard1191 wrote:Warlords is one of my favorite old games. I used to play it at Nickel City with all my friends many... many... many years ago now. Great story, I'm envious. Playing older games with young ones is something I've always wanted to experience. Probably not going to happen on this end though, wife doesn't want any kids and I can't just go kidnap some for vintage game time.


I feel you. When I got married, we agreed we weren't going to have kids. Still, it would be nice to teach someone what I have learned in life.

Alucard1191
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Re: Warlords Action

Postby Alucard1191 » September 5th, 2018, 7:46 pm

GTS wrote:
Alucard1191 wrote:Warlords is one of my favorite old games. I used to play it at Nickel City with all my friends many... many... many years ago now. Great story, I'm envious. Playing older games with young ones is something I've always wanted to experience. Probably not going to happen on this end though, wife doesn't want any kids and I can't just go kidnap some for vintage game time.


I feel you. When I got married, we agreed we weren't going to have kids. Still, it would be nice to teach someone what I have learned in life.


This is odd, I was trying to explain this exact thing to my wife today and she just didn't really get it. I guess I should say she didn't see the importance of it.


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