AIR SEA BATTLE/TARGET FUN A-
The very first videogame I ever played at home AND abroad was TANK, the main game in Atari's 2600 pak-in, COMBAT. I played "kee games" (just a fake company made up by atari) TANK in a bar while my older sister drank. It was the cocktail table version, and two player of course. Sis was too inebriated to play so I just manuevered the white tank around for a few minutes, shooting the black tank. "pretty boring" I surmised (due to severe memory rstrictions most 70's games were 2-player)...until my mom brought home a Coleco TANK BATTLE dedicated TV game from a lawn sale. I was stoked! Didn't matter it was two player, I had fun just CONTROLLING AN OBJECT ON TV!!! That was INCREDIBLE...I know now what people who first rode a "horseless carriage" felt like!-
my OWN TV world to play with!
Fast forward a year, I have worked summer jobs and saved enough to get a game system. After deciding against O2 (no good games) and INTV (too expensive) I decidec to get Atari...only thing is, ATARI's 2600 VCS came with combat which was STILL for 2 players only! The graphics were in color and there was more variety then TANK...different mazes, "tank-pong", where the ball rebounds, and the airplane games (though BIPLANES and JET did not seem much different from TANK in the sky).
What to do? I didn't have much money and I wanted a pack-in I could PLAY-ALONE (I was a lone wolf).
Saved by Sears TELE-GAMES! This 2600 look-alike came not with Combat but TARGET FUN (Called Air/Sea battle by Atari)...it also by that time included PAC MAN as a bonus but I already knew PM was nothing like the coin-op. A-S battle won me over! It contained dozens of games that were REALLY different and a soloist could make a "game" out of any variation! True, there were always 2 guns, ships, subs or whatever but a single player could play BOMBER, SUB BATTLE, ANTI-AIRCRAFT etc... in most ground based games the idea is to shoot down as many targets as you can! And the targets were tricky! Some, like aircraft carriers moved slowly while high-point speedy PT boats zoomed by teasing you to try 'n hit 'em! I loved SHOOTING GALLERY, where the military theme was replaced with a carnival atmosphere, clown faes, ducks and bunnies. The games ended when you hit 99 points or went over 2 minutes 16 seconds (anyone know why 2' 16" was a standard time limit?) -eventually I got good enough to win all the target games before time ran out.
Ten there were the "plane vs. ship/sub" games where you had to control a plane or water vehicle, speeding up or slowing down, trying to hit the other target. In all games, there were variations like moveable gun turrents and anti-aircraft baloons or sea mines that got in the way of shots.
Sound and graphics were better than most early VCS games. Objects were identifiable, the baloons even had little "A"'s on them. Best of all was the Color, done in smooth shades of rainbow bright blues! Sound was great, good explosions and weird "whoop!" sounds from your guns.
Kids who grew up on Super Mario or Halo will not be impressed, but in 1981 this was a GREAT game-so was COMBAT if you had two people! As the wise ZEN once said, you love what you have, ad for months I had only A-S battle, pac-man and Spae Invaders, with Air Sea getting the majority of playtime!
If you collect 2600 games-you need TF/AS in your collection; and of course Combat if only for its historical signifigance.
Ah...remember when WAR was so much SIMPLER?!
