Ready for Xmas? This collection was sort of my gift to myself this year. There are 15 5200 games total. I played all but the 2-player ones. The following five I have something to say about.
Final Legacy: On first glance, I thought it was Sea Battle from Intellivision because of the overview of a set of islands and coastlines, and I think it is somewhat similar in gameplay. I don’t know what to do on the overview map though. I imagine you are being attacked by various forces and have to select an area to go to battle. Then you switch to first-person view from a ship and can attack other ships or planes (I think planes. I only shot at ships this time). I needed to read the manual, “what?”, and figure out what I’m doing, but I think it’s a pretty cool game. I need something like Sea Battle from this era that’s not strictly a 2-player game.
Micro-gammon: This is straight up Backgammon. I couldn’t quite figure out the controls right away so I moved on, but maybe I’ll come back to it. I need to read the manual again, darn it.
Realsports Tennis: I loved this game on 2600. Here the controls are a little bit more complex. I figured out how to serve, but I couldn’t figure out how to direct the ball on volleys. Again, I’ll have to check out the manual. Argh!
Star Raiders: Not too long ago I figured out how to play this game on 2600. I was hoping it would all come back to me right away, but it didn’t. This game is a mystery unless you read the manual. Gosh, who wants to read manuals anymore? These old games.
Super Breakout: I really wanted to play this again, but I remembered the controls for the 2600 version and passed. It’s designed for a spinner or paddle, and analog sticks don’t cut it at all. I tried to change the controls, but nothing was satisfactory. You can be very accurate with a paddle controller.
The others are:
Centipede
Countermeasure
Millipede
Miniature Golf
Missile Command
Realsports Baseball
Realsports Basketball
Realsports Football
Realsports Volleyball
Xari Arena
Those last four are all 2-player games.
Final Legacy seems like some hardcore shit!
Yea, and it was therefore impossible to just figure out without going to the manual. I'll read it sometime. I got a lot out of Star Raiders a year or so ago when I finally read the manual and figured out what to do.
The 5200 was technically my first gaming console. Sure I played the 2600 and others at friends' and families' houses, but the 5200 was the first one I owned. I got it for Crhistmas one year and I didn't even ask for it, so it was a total surprise. Before then I played games on our Apple 2+ computer, which I was OK with since the games were better on that than the 2600 anyway. The 5200 staved my desire to own a NES for about a year, as I was perfectly happy playing games like Pengo on it during the crash and games were cheap on it.
I had a 2600, but when the 5200 came out, my parents got an Apple IIc. After that, us kids were getting ready for college, and so I never got another gaming console. I had a Mac Plus on my way to school a few years later. I played some games on that, and I still went to the arcades. I returned to console gaming probably around '95 when the Playstation came out.
I love game manuals and miss them ... but the ones from the NES/SNES era, so maybe this is different.
I really wanted the manual from Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen for SNES when I played it. It was not easy to figure it out without one.
I like manuals too, and get all excited if one comes in a new game today, but I've been trained by modern games to expect an in-game tutorial and not have to read anything. Some of these old games really need a manual to help you figure it all out. The graphics are sometimes so abstract, you can't readily tell what to do.
