2022/5/15: Atari 2600: Tron Deadly Discs, Venture, Sinistar

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VideoGameCritic
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2022/5/15: Atari 2600: Tron Deadly Discs, Venture, Sinistar

Postby VideoGameCritic » May 15th, 2022, 9:45 am

Posted a fresh set of Atari 2600 for your reading pleasure.

Tron Deadly Discs is a re-review, upgraded from D+ to C.

Venture is a re-review, upgraded from D- to C-.

Sinistar is new. It's a prototype sent to me by a reader. Not a great game but interesting from an historical perspective.

ThePixelatedGenocide
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Re: 2022/5/15: Atari 2600: Tron Deadly Discs, Venture, Sinistar

Postby ThePixelatedGenocide » May 15th, 2022, 11:56 am

Thanks for these reviews.

Two of them, I never got around to actually playing.

Tron Deadly Discs always seemed like a wasted opportunity to me.

Just look at the screenshot for Taz on the same page - it's got a better grasp on the Tron aesthetic than the actual Tron game. Seriously, the one thing that should have been easy for the 2600 is an electric blue character on a dark background. Imagic could have worked wonders with this license.

And without the boss fights?

Anyways, I'll have to give Sinistar a try. I've been hooked since I discovered the game on compilations. It may not be a classic, but I've always enjoyed killing him off at least once, before the loop starts repeating.

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noah98
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Re: 2022/5/15: Atari 2600: Tron Deadly Discs, Venture, Sinistar

Postby noah98 » May 15th, 2022, 11:58 am

Sinistar is hard to port due to the original having a 49 way joystick. I imagine that doesn't translate well to a 2600 joystick!

Teddybear
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Re: 2022/5/15: Atari 2600: Tron Deadly Discs, Venture, Sinistar

Postby Teddybear » May 15th, 2022, 12:53 pm

I nominate the Tron joystick as the all-time greatest 1980's video game pack-in item (sorry M.A.S.H. green t-shirt and very wasted Star Raiders touch pad)......that joystick just looks so cool!

I never had one and was a little disappointed to find out that it doesn't light up. And I suspect that it isn't very comfortable to use for a long gaming session. But it is off the charts awesome to look at!

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ASalvaro
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Re: 2022/5/15: Atari 2600: Tron Deadly Discs, Venture, Sinistar

Postby ASalvaro » May 15th, 2022, 3:29 pm

eeesh Tron Deadly Discs without the boss sounds very boring..heck even with the boss on the Intellivison version i never cared for the game

matmico399
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Re: 2022/5/15: Atari 2600: Tron Deadly Discs, Venture, Sinistar

Postby matmico399 » May 15th, 2022, 7:37 pm

I enjoyed your review of Venture. I remember reading your original review of it and you had the D minus. I thought that was way too harsh. I remember buying it back in the day at a place called Turtles Records And Tapes which was very big in Atlanta in those days. I got it and couldn't wait to get it home, reading the box and instructions as much as I could on my way there. I plugged it into the 2600, and I could tell some things were missing, but for Pete's sake it was Venture. I played The living daylights out of that thing for several years. Probably one of my top 15 most played cartridges. It was always a classic to me.

icepeople
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Re: 2022/5/15: Atari 2600: Tron Deadly Discs, Venture, Sinistar

Postby icepeople » May 16th, 2022, 2:54 am

I'd split the difference on your reviews of Venture, which I have a strangely strong fondness of. The biggest fault is the 2600 port is missing the surprises in many rooms after the first level, such as monsters that suddenly appear when you touch the treasure. And in general it feels like a lower-average tier port, closer to Zaxxon than Berserk.

For an obvious comparison, exceeding the Colecovision version I thought was good, check out Champ Games' 2600 port of Venture which, like Galaga, Scramble, etc., is remarkably close to the coin-op.

SpiceWare
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Re: 2022/5/15: Atari 2600: Tron Deadly Discs, Venture, Sinistar

Postby SpiceWare » May 17th, 2022, 1:55 pm

You might like to check out Venture Reloaded. It's a massive hack of Venture that does many improvements, including:
  • Treasure screen
  • 3rd dungeon
  • rooms expand/shrink when entered/exited
  • completed rooms filled on the dungeon overview
  • etc.

AtariAge topic with ROM

AtariAge cartridge

YouTube video

831717084_TreasureScreen.png.f5551a673e4fe5b5cf7c322632656d2f.png
831717084_TreasureScreen.png.f5551a673e4fe5b5cf7c322632656d2f.png (2 KiB) Viewed 457 times


1606080583_Level3.png.544cb3d9c1f5eb32fdd45aaafbcb474e.png
1606080583_Level3.png.544cb3d9c1f5eb32fdd45aaafbcb474e.png (1.21 KiB) Viewed 457 times

Tron
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Re: 2022/5/15: Atari 2600: Tron Deadly Discs, Venture, Sinistar

Postby Tron » May 21st, 2022, 8:37 pm

Didn’t even know there was a Deadly Discs on the Atari. I only played Intellevison. Was it a rare game on Atari? This is the first I’ve heard of it. I also loved Venture on Collecovision, but don’t remember an Atari version. Dare say that was a beginning for rpgs.

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Re: 2022/5/15: Atari 2600: Tron Deadly Discs, Venture, Sinistar

Postby VideoGameCritic » May 27th, 2022, 5:57 pm

Apparently there was a promising 8-bit edition of Sinistar programmed but not completed.
http://www.atariprotos.com/8bit/softwar ... nistar.htm

Perhaps it will be resurrected one day. It looks great!


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