General gaming

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• Interview: Jordan Mechner on The Last Express
• Solaris: The Last (Atari 2600) Starfighter
• Defending the Worst of 2600
• Guest Column: My Father the Gamer
• Guest Column: How The Atari 2600 Shaped Pop Culture
• Guest Column: Memories of an Atari Baby

Interview: Jordan Mechner on The Last Express Posted: 27 Sep 2012 03:55 PM PDT Feature Share it: Tweet Interview: Jordan Mechner on The Last Express The creator of Prince of Persia talks about his sole adventure game. By: Bob Mackey September 27, 2012 The original release of The Last Express stands as one of the worst cases of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. By the late 90s, classic PC adventure games had lost the traction they'd built up over nearly two decades, causing the genre to sputter and die as gamers sought out experiences that offered the same amount of story without skimping on the action. Too bad for them -- as adventure games go, The Last Express may be the most ambitious one in existence. Though Mechner's masterpiece limits your environment to a single six-car train, the game features a (semi) real-time clock and a hefty cast of characters, each with their own schedules, agendas, and secrets. The Last Express saw nothing but praise from press at the time due to its advanced mechanics and fully realized world, but the market's growing disinterest in the genre combined with some particularly terrible publisher problems caused the game to quickly fade from retail shelves. 15 years later, and Mechner's lost classic has reemerged on the iOS marketplace, giving those who missed The Last Express the first time around to see what they missed -- and in a very friendly format, at that. On this momentous occasion -- for adventure game fans, anyway -- I had the chance to catch up with Mechner himself for some behind-the-scenes information about his very unique game.

Solaris: The Last (Atari 2600) Starfighter Posted: 27 Sep 2012 03:17 PM PDT Feature Share it: Tweet 1UP COVER STORY 1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 24 | 35 YEARS OF ATARI 2600 Solaris: The Last (Atari 2600) Starfighter Cover Story: Though it had the misfortune of being born on the ailing Atari 2600, Solaris was a remarkably deep game for its time. W hen Nintendo pulled the North American video game market out of its mud puddle in 1985, early adopters immediately noticed two massive differences between the old market and the new one. First, Nintendo's sober grey box did away with the faux wood paneling that defined game consoles in the '70s. Second, and more importantly (unless you're really fussy about interior decorating), the NES's definitive game, Super Mario Bros., was a well-structured adventure with a story and a clear goal. Compared to Atari 2600 games that merely challenged players to grab a high score, being instructed to travel across eight worlds to rescue a princess felt like playing through a storybook. Crash or no crash, Did the 2600's primitive two-color sprites ever have a chance against the NES's sophisticated, multi-screened games? Technically, yes -- but it would have required more 2600 games to be at the technical level of Solaris, a 1986 third-person space shooter put together by game designer Douglas Neubauer. Solaris utilized the 2600's hardware in clever ways to deliver a surprisingly deep adventure that challenged players to explore hostile planets, navigate dangerous territory, and change up their fighting strategy according to the nature of the enemy that was trying to murder them. Maybe most importantly, Solaris gave players an end goal -- a definite conclusion they could work towards, one of the traits that made NES and PC games so special at the time.

Defending the Worst of 2600 Posted: 27 Sep 2012 01:44 PM PDT Feature Share it: Tweet 1UP COVER STORY 1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 24 | 35 YEARS OF ATARI 2600 Defending the Worst of 2600 Cover Story: We go to the mats to explain why three infamous Atari games aren't as bad as you think. I n 1980, I was 6 years old and I wanted two things for Christmas: A Tyco electric race car track and an Atari 2600. I received both, and although the race track has since been scrapped, my Atari 2600 sits in my man-cave in decent working condition. No console system in my life has had the same impact that my Atari did. I spent many days and nights playing Combat, Adventure, Kaboom! and other great titles... but as much as I'd like to go on about the greats, this article isn't about those; it's about the not-so-great ones. The ones that make gamers cringe, roll their eyes, and lash out in anger. The ones that suck.

Guest Column: My Father the Gamer Posted: 27 Sep 2012 12:42 PM PDT Feature Share it: Tweet 1UP COVER STORY 1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 24 | 35 YEARS OF ATARI 2600 Guest Column: My Father the Gamer Cover Story: The Escapist's Susan Arendt looks back at lessons learned gaming with family on Atari 2600. T he fact that both of our names was on the box informed me that this Christmas gift was a Really Big Deal. My mom was very careful about making sure that my brother and I came out pretty much equal at Christmastime, so if a gift was meant for both of us, it was probably really expensive ... which meant it was also something really, really amazing. We waited while she poised the Kodak, flashbulb at the ready, then greedily ripped through the paper to discover the pinnacle of high-tech coolness (at least as far as the late '70s were concerned), an Atari 2600. What I didn't realize until much, much later was that my brother and I were just a handy excuse my dad could use to get an Atari into the house. It was far too expensive a toy for him to pick up just because he thought it was neat, but if he couched the purchase as a way for him to spend more time with us, she could hardly turn him down. As an adult, I can now appreciate his blatant manipulation of the situation, but as a kid, all I knew was that were video games in the house.

Guest Column: How The Atari 2600 Shaped Pop Culture Posted: 26 Sep 2012 04:04 PM PDT Feature Share it: Tweet 1UP COVER STORY 1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 24 | 35 YEARS OF ATARI 2600 Guest Column: How The Atari 2600 Shaped Pop Culture Cover Story: Atari's classic home console has affected our lives in ways we never anticipated all those years ago. T he Atari 2600 certainly exerted its influence on the games industry. Released in October of 1977, the console was also called the VCS, or "Video Computer System," as seen on its original packaging. It was the first home video game system from the young Atari company, who to that point had only produced a few arcade titles. While the 2600 was not the first device to bring video games into the home, it would soon become the first to break through to mainstream success and begin permeating pop culture at large. Just as the VCR had done for movies, and television would ultimately do for sporting events, the Atari 2600 finally presented the public with a device that could pose the same entertainment value as the arcades in the comfort of one's own home. Dazzling colors, signature sound, iconic gameplay, and even an arcade-style joystick were available for players. The possibilities seemed limitless, and the Atari 2600 caught on as millions upon millions of game cartridges flew off the shelves.

Guest Column: Memories of an Atari Baby Posted: 25 Sep 2012 05:15 PM PDT Feature Share it: Tweet 1UP COVER STORY 1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 24 | 35 YEARS OF ATARI 2600 Guest Column: Memories of an Atari Baby Cover Story: How the 2600 shaped the life of one gamer before he could even pick up a controller. I  may not have entirely understood what was going on when I first held an Atari controller in my hand back in 1983. I imagined I put it in my mouth first or shortly thereafter. While I quickly learned it wasn't for consumption, it would be much later that I realized the impact the console would have on me and how I interacted with my family. I was too young to notice the couch was falling apart or I was half naked. The connection with the Atari 2600 was deep and real. The electronic beeps and boops were alive, reacting to whomever was controlling them. Though looking back, maybe it was those hypnotic effects that brought my family together. I was thrilled to watch and learn about the games my six siblings liked, which in turn, taught me a bit about my siblings, too.

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