Alfred Challenge (Atari 2600)

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VideoGameCritic
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Alfred Challenge (Atari 2600)

Postby VideoGameCritic » July 25th, 2021, 7:51 pm

This is one of those games I feel deserves another look. After all, it is among my very oldest reviews, dated 6/17/1999!

Alfred Challenge was a French-made homebrew released at a time when homebrews were kind of a new thing. I think the main idea behind the game was that since most 2600 were fairly easy, this was going to focus on the challenge. And yeah - I remember it being super hard, but with good control and smooth animation.

When I just put it in my 2600 I saw the screen scrolling up and down, a side effect of this being a PAL cartridge. So I thought, how in the hell did I ever review this? On a hunch I tried it in my Atari 7800, and it worked!

Just getting past the first stage is like a monumental task. The screen is pretty simple with a bunch of platforms and crab-like creatures moving side to side. It looks so easy, but there are things that make it difficult. For one, there are different types of ladders. So are up only, so are down only. So cause you to "slide" down, unable to stop mid-way. And they there are disappearing platforms that blink with alarming frequency.

I think my original review was pretty much correct but I'm going to run this by a few friends to see what they think. Anybody else played this one? I wonder if it's still available?

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LuckyMan
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Re: Alfred Challenge (Atari 2600)

Postby LuckyMan » July 26th, 2021, 11:17 pm

This cartridge works in PAL and NTSC. You must have had your difficulty switches set differently on your 7800. For NTSC, you should set the left on B and the right on A. The manual for the game incorrectly states to set the right difficulty on B for NTSC.

Your original review sounds about right, although I just noticed that your recommended settings are backwards for NTSC operation. Maybe that was part of your problem getting this running. This is still available in the AtariAge store.

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Re: Alfred Challenge (Atari 2600)

Postby VideoGameCritic » July 27th, 2021, 4:15 pm

Thanks for clarifying LuckyMan. These forums are always so informative.


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