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Nerd Lunch Episode 77: Atari 2600 VCS retrospective

Posted in Activision, Atari, pop culture, video games with tags Activision, Atari, Cavalcade Arcade, Nerd Lunch Podcast, podcast, pop culture, video games on March 19, 2013 by Paxton

This week on the show CT abandons us so Jeeg and I invite The Retroist back for his second appearance and he brings along Vic Sage, one of the head writers on The Retroist blog, for his first appearance on the show. We bring in these retro experts to help us discuss one of the greatest gaming systems of all time, the Atari 2600 VCS.

We each talk about our own history with the system, then we discuss a bunch of our favorite and least favorite games. Yes, we even discuss our own views on the extremely controversial E.T. game. Also discussed in this episode are the Activision Master Gamer Badges, the Atari port of Pac-Man as well as the bootleg Atari Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween video games.

Download this episode from iTunes or listen to it on Feedburner.

Or listen to it online here.

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Were You An Activision Gamer? Part IV

Posted in 80s, Activision, Atari, pop culture, video games with tags Activision, Atari, Cavalcade Arcade, pop culture, video games on September 10, 2010 by Paxton

Here it is, the final part of this look back at the Activision Master Gamer program from the early 80s. Did you miss the other parts of this article? Here they are: Part I, Part II, Part III.

Here is the final group of badges that I’m going to cover.

Activision Robot Tank Master Badges – With a totally badass name and very cool box art, Robot Tank is Activision’s version of Atari’s classic tank game Battlezone. The Master Badges were awarded based on “enemy kills”. The Medal of Merit on the left was given for 48 kills. The Cross of Excellence was given for 60 kills. The Star of Honor on the right was given for 72 kills.

Activision Decathlon Badges -Activision’s Decathlon had the trademark fast paced Activision gameplay and cool game mechanics that were later used in games like Track & Field. For instance, you moved the joystick from right to left as fast as you can to run and used the red button to jump or throw. You competed in 10 events including the 100 meter dash, hurdles, long jump and shot put. If you scored 8,600 points you earned the bronze patch on the left. If you scored 9,000 points you earned the silver patch and if you scored over 10,000 points you earned the gold badge on the right.

Activision Chopper Commandos Master Badge – Chopper Command was another favorite of mine. It played very similar to Atari’s port of Defender. Except instead of space and aliens, you flew a helicopter and defended trucks and soldiers from enemy planes and bombers. Despite its similarity to Defender, it was much, much harder. If you could score over 10,000 points you would be inducted into the Chopper Commandos. And believe me, that is not an easy task.

Activision River Raiders Master Badge – River Raid was a classic game for the Atari. I. LOVED. THIS. GAME. You flew your F-14 fighter over the ominously named River of No Return and blew up enemy planes and tankers. You have to watch out for your fuel levels as well as the sides of the river because they can both cause you to crash. If you could score 15,000 or more points you could join the River Raiders. Like Pitfall!, River Raid received an overlooked sequel called, not surprisingly, River Raid II. However, there was no Master Badge offered for the sequel.

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Were you an Activision Master Gamer? Part III

Posted in 80s, Activision, Atari, pop culture, video games with tags Activision, Atari, Cavalcade Arcade, nostalgia, pop culture, video games on September 9, 2010 by Paxton

Here we are, Part III of this look back at the Activision Master Gamer program from the early 80s. Did you miss the first two parts of this article? Check out Part I here and Part II here.

Now that’s out of the way, let’s look at five more of the Activision Master Gamer badges.

Activision Explorer’s Club Master Badge – This badge was for the ever popular game, Pitfall! Everyone knows how Pitfall! is played, so in order to earn this badge you had to score 20,000 points. Many people don’t realize that Pitfall received a sequel. And it was also a part of the Activision Master Program. The sequel is…

Cliffhangers badge
Activision Cliff Hangers Master Badge – Pitfall II: The Lost Caverns. This sequel upped the quality of the graphics, music and game play. As Pitfall Harry, you roam a large collection of caverns collecting gold as you search for your niece, a diamond and a cat named Quickclaw. You got unlimited lives, but when you were killed you were sent back to the last checkpoint you crossed (while losing points). However, since this was released towards the end of the Atari’s dominance, it became lost in the shuffle. If you could score 99,000 points in this game, you earned the Activision Cliff Hangers Badge.

Frostbite box
Frostbite Bailey’s Arctic Architects Master Badge – For the game Frostbite. I never actually played this game, but I think it was one of Activision’s best sellers. Frostbite plays very similar to Freeway or Frogger. You play as Frostbite Bailey. You jump across a frozen river changing ice blocks from white to blue. With each color change, you add blocks to your igloo. If you could score over 40,000 points, you could send away to become an Arctic Architect.

Activision Crackpots Master Badge – For the game Crackpots. As Potsy the gardener, you must protect your apartment building from mutant bugs by dropping flower pots on them. If too many bugs enter through the windows, you will lose. To achieve this badge you had to score at least 75,000 points.

Tennis Master Badge – For the game Tennis. I loved this game. It was hard, but a lot of fun. If you could win a set against the computer (which is a lot tougher than you’d think) you were eligible to receive this badge.

So there are your next five. Come back tomorrow and I’ll finish this these badges off with 5 or 6 more.

UPDATE – See Part IV of this article here

Were you an Activision Master Gamer? Part II

Posted in 80s, Activision, Atari, pop culture, video games with tags Activision, Atari, Cavalcade Arcade, nostalgia, pop culture on September 8, 2010 by Paxton

Yesterday I began my look at Activision’s Master Gamer Program. I looked at the Activision newsletter and talked about the genesis of the Master Gamer badges. I also showed you five of those Master Gamer Badges. Click on this link to go back and read Part I of this article if you missed it and see badges for the games Dragster, Barnstorming and Freeway.

Now, without further ado, here are five more of the Activision Master Gamer Badges.

You can click the images to make them bigger and thanks again to Atari Age for the game box scans.

Grand Prix Driving Team Master Badge – For the game Grand Prix. This was a typical racing game where you drove to be the first across the finish line while swerving in and out of other drivers and avoiding hazards like oil spills. This was one of the first games to start awarding these Master Gamer patches. If you ran your race in 1:00 for Game 1, 1:30 for Game 2 and 2:30 for Game 3, then you became a member of the Activision Grand Prix driving team.

Activision Bucket Brigade Master Badge – For one of my favorite Atari 2600 games of all time, Kaboom! In this game, you use the paddle controllers to control buckets on the bottom of the screen to catch bombs that are dropped by the bandit at the top of the screen. It’s much harder than you think it is. My grandmother gave me this game for Christmas one year and I’d never heard of it. It quickly became one of my “go-to” games that I would play for hours. To earn this badge you have to score at least 3,000 points.

Commander in the Federation of Laser Blasters Master Badge – For the game Laser Blast. This was a space shoot-em-up in the vein of Missile Command. If you could score over 100,000 points, you earned this commander badge. Additionally, the on screen display could only accommodate 6 numbers. So if you scored over 999,999 points, your score would flip to all exclamation points. If you could do this, there was an extra 1,000,000 point patch you could earn.

Activision Ski Team Master Badge – For the game Skiing, one of the few games featuring the winter sport of skiing for the Atari 2600. This game offered several different downhill races you could do, all timed and the goal was to beat your times. If you could beat the time of 28.2 seconds on the slalom, you would earn the Activision Ski Team badge.

Activision Sub Club Master Badge – For the game Seaquest. This game worked very similar to the Atari port of Defender. It was a shoot-em-up. You pilot a submarine shooting sharks and enemy subs while simultaneously saving friendly divers. If you could score 50,000 points then you earned the Sub Club badge.

Those are your five badges for today. I have five more badges for you tomorrow. Stop back tomorrow to see what other Atari games are represented.

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Were you an Activision Master Gamer?

Posted in 80s, Activision, Atari, pop culture, video games with tags Activision, Atari, Cavalcade Arcade, nostalgia, pop culture, video games on September 7, 2010 by Paxton

In the early ’80s, the Atari 2600 was king. Nearly every kid had one, and if they didn’t, they had a friend with one that they would spend every waking moment with. The Atari 2600 was the center of most kids’ universes. At least, it was to me and my friends.
I received my Atari 2600 one weekend when I was in about third grade. I was sick that weekend and my dad just up and decided to get us the Atari 2600 and a VCR. He is, to this day, my hero. Since the Atari 2600 wasn’t a powerhouse graphics machine, the games had to rely on being creative, thereby making game play addicting. There were many awesome, awesome games for the 2600 console and, like today, there were many different companies besides Atari making games for the console. One of the best, if not THE best, third party developer was Activision Games.

Activision was founded in 1979 by a former record executive and staffed by a bunch of former Atari programmers who broke off and started their own company. These developers were upset that Atari’s policy at the time included not giving credit to game developers in the game manuals. Activision changed all that. An entire page in Activision’s game manuals was devoted to the people who developed the games.

Being former Atari developers, the Activision team knew the best way to develop for the console’s hardware. How best to get that extra “umph” from the graphics and the best way to make games fun and addictive. They also knew how to cater to their fanbase. Activision started a newsletter for their users that previewed upcoming games, reviewed current releases and shared achievements and high scores from readers who would write in their personal bests. The newsletter was called the Activision Fun Club News (later renamed Activisions). Below is the Summer 1984 issue of the newsletter.

With all of these reader score submissions coming in, Activision realized that they could use this enthusiasm and build a demand for their games. So, Activision created the Master Gamer program. The program would include a list of Activision games and what achievement you had to perform in order to earn the title of Master Gamer within that particular game. The program started off small, with only a few of the Activision catalog games participating. Here’s an info sheet from within the Activision newletter explaining the concept of the Master Gamer and how to achieve and then apply for the status.

Activision even had patches (or, “badges”) made that they would send to gamers who proved that they achieved the status. In this info sheet you can see the badges for the games Laser Blast, Freeway, Skiing, Stampede, Kaboom! and Dragster.

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