During Christmas vacation, my brother and I pretty much ignored our family as we set upon an 8-bit adventure that lasted a week or two. Pat (my older brother) found a Raiders of the Lost Ark Atari 2600 cartridge under the Christmas tree back in 1982. At the time, this was the Holy Grail of Atari cartridges. It was usually brother vs. brother in my household, but to the disbelief of my parents we actually worked as a team in search of the Ark of the Covenant. Instead of a bullwhip our trusty weapon of choice was a joystick.
Feverishly we worked guiding Indiana Jones thru the many levels looking for clues and trying our best to stay away from danger. We were too stubborn to use the clues inside the instruction manual and kept on playing until we finally found the lost Ark. When we found the Ark it was a monumental moment and we found out we could actually work together making maps and taking turns to accomplish a goal.
Since the Ark was found, it didn’t take long to revert back to extreme competition. The new goal was an individual one. We were like Indy and Belloq. Instead of outwitting one another for artifacts, we tried for high score. Just like we did with all of our other Atari cartridges, fight for high score.
Check out Kirk's Raiders Atari map at his Secret Fun Blog.
From the second volume of How to Beat Home Video Games is this video on the Raiders Atari game uploaded by tr0d.
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ReplyDeleteThe greatest! I'm gonna be lazy and just copy/paste what I already said over at Kirk's house about this classic:
ReplyDeleteYeah, this brings back loads of memories... I can still remember the day I finally finished this game and how amazing I felt. It's probably the only game of it's kind that I actually ever completed to the very end.
Also, totally waiting for the Further Advs of Indy comic book post! I'm very glad you're sticking with the Indy theme Todd, we really need these more than ever to wash out the bitter taste of the Crystal Skull.
One of the more underrated Atari games!
ReplyDeleteSteve - Yeah, I wasn't able to put my fingers on my Indy comics. Sad but ture - I might've traded them off years ago. If I find 'em I'll be sure to post about them.
ReplyDeleteMike - Yeah, it was sure better than the E.T. game.
>One of the more underrated Atari games!
ReplyDeleteBetter than Atari Adventure too. You know, if Activision had played it smart and stuck a fedora on Pitfall Harry they would have had the best Indy game back then.