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7800 Pro Gamer

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  1. 7800 Pro Gamer

    GOSUB for the Atari 7800 Review!

    By 7800 Pro Gamer,


    7800 Game Reviews
    I want to start off by saying I love GOSUB on the 7800!  It was a fantastic experience, simple to pick up and a lot of fun to learn.  It's a solid play for an evening or afternoon, and it's a bit cheaper than other games I've purchased off of other websites.  I got it from 2600connection, but I couldn't find it listed anywhere on his Facebook or Website.  I had to send him an email and ask him if he had any left, PayPal him the money, and it came pretty quick.  It's hard to track down unless you really want to find it, and he has a lot of other games and versions of GOSUB for other platforms.  Yes, I love GOSUB for the 7800, but should you go to the trouble of tracking it down for yourself?  Maybe not actually...

    The graphics are very simple.  You have the blue background that represents water, along with the deadly seaweed outline that traps your yellow submarine and makes traveling difficult.  Then there's an octopus that will track you relentlessly, and later there are even larger enemies and tiny sharks that are surprisingly detailed!  Each level had a simple key and treasure chest and the last few levels have portals that look just as simple.  Everything  in the game looks uniform with the rest  of the game and the coloring is all fine.  Honestly, it's a boring game graphically.  The title screen looks okay, the ending screen looks okay, and the game over screens look... you guessed it... okay.  Overall the graphics may be a bit too simple really, but they work for this game.

    Please Excuse The Screenshots, their not uniform yet.

    If you sit at the title screen you will hear the sonar of your submarine beep every few seconds.  It made my wife ask "what is that beeping, it's driving me crazy".  So don't let it sit at the title while you write a review.  But other than that the song that plays is nice and catchy and the sound effects are fine too.  Again, these things are simple and on their own I don't think their anything impressive at all, similar to the graphics.  But when you add them to the gameplay of this game you get something fantastic.  So, although it might be cliche, GOSUB is greater than the sum of it's parts.  Easily.

    And the gameplay is really the main thing to talk about here.  It's a maze game where you must push a direction to make your sub move.  It will continue in that direction until you push another direction and it will start to move that way.  So once you start moving, you will always be moving.  It can be difficult not to touch the sides of the seaweed maze sometimes, but the octopus that will chase you relentlessly is what really adds to the challenge.  You can only fire in the direction your moving in and you can only have one bullet on the screen at a time.  So if you shoot at an octopus that's coming at you and miss, then you need to have room to evade until your next shot is ready.  It actually can get pretty intense and fun!
    You also have 2 lives per level which is nice for progression.  If you use all your lives on level 5 for instance, than you don't have to worry about having no lives for level 6.  You'll automatically start out with 2 more lives for your attempts of that level.  Later levels you'll encounter an invincible shark that will move randomly and you most avoid, and portals that allow you to get to other ends of the maze.  Not to mention the mid and final boss that requires quite a few shots to get past.  You don't technically kill him, but you do chase him off.  At the end of each maze you'll find a treasure chest that may or may not require a key and that's essentially the game.

    Screenshot from WIP

    It all plays and works well together, but I do have a complaint.  This game is SHORT!  Too short.  I was able to beat it in about 2 hours of playing.  When I first turned GOSUB on it was too easy because I didn't see any octopus enemies, but the difficulty switches fix that.  So there is a "kids" mode I would say, or one without enemies.  But the 21 levels left me wanting so much more.  I was satisfied with the game, but I don't see myself pulling it down again anytime soon.  The want to replay the same levels just isn't there for me.  I don't think I would get anything more from repeated playthroughs of the game I guess.  I would buy another cart if he doubled the levels though, but that's just me.

    GOSUB did provide a fun afternoon for me (well 2 now: one when I got it and one to prepare for this review) but I really don't have the want to continue beating it.  It feels fantastic, and there are bonus levels along with the boss battles to break up the maze based gameplay.  It all works fantastic, its just a shame that it didn't last longer.  I believe I paid 30 dollars, maybe under 35 with shipping for this one from 2600connection (google it, because the website I had led to somewhere else now) and I've spent more on a single evening before.  You could have dinner, see a movie, or play GOSUB and have some good old fashion enjoyment.  Plus the cartridge looks nice.  But if you want something with a little more meat on it, then you may want to look elsewhere.

    The Cartridge and Manual Look Nice.  Shame there's no box...

    Graphics: 5 out of 10
    The graphics aren't really bad, but they are simple.  Given the simplicity of what's needed you could've really went all out with details.  But it works in context of the rest of the game
     
    Sound: 6 out of 10
    I really like the songs composition and it sounds good.  The only sound effect I didn't care for was that beeping at the title screen, but I guess it's my fault for letting it sit.
     
    Gameplay: 7 out of 10
    This game plays fantastic.  Don't touch the edges, avoid the enemies, and grab the treasure!  It's simple but it works!
     
    Fun: 8 out of 10
    I loved it while it lasted.  I felt like we were just getting started with the sharks and portals when I got to the end, so it feels like it finishes abruptly.  But I really liked the experience up until then.
    Value: 3 out of 10
    I hate to give this such a low score on value, but it only lasts a few hours with little reason to go back to it.  I may play it once every few years and that's it.  This is truly the low point of this game.
    Overall: 6 out of 10 GOOD!
    I bounced back and forth between a 5 and 6 for this one.  I do recommend it for those that are okay with paying 35 bucks for an evening of fun.  Everybody else should steer clear, but I do want to say that I'm glad I experienced this game and don't regret the purchase.
     
  2. 7800 Pro Gamer

    Atari 7800 Double Dragon Review!

    By 7800 Pro Gamer,


    7800 Game Reviews
    When it came to reviewing Double Dragon for the 7800, I had to make a serious decision of what I'm doing here. Am I relaying my experience with a game and giving a grade based on that, or am I recommending games to my audience of probably 4 guys who already play and own the games I'm talking about. Okay well I guess I'm assuming these will each an audience of literally dozens one day. Think big, why not. Anyway, am I recommending games for you or relaying my personal experience? Because my grade for Double Dragon will be vastly different depending upon that answer.

    This Box Looks Awesome on a Shelf!
    When it comes down to it, I already know how I feel about most of these games and nobody care what I think. People read this stuff because they've already made a decision and their curious what others think, or they are deciding if it's something they want to experience. I'm going to grade this game on whether or not the latter should pick this one up. I'll make notes about why my experience is different from my recommendation when its appropriate. So the decision is made moving forward, all thanks to a port of a popular arcade game, on an unpopular (at the time) console. Let's move on and look at Double Dragon.
    There was a time when Double Dragon was massively popular. It had a few successful arcade games, a whole bunch of home ports, a Saturday morning cartoon show, and I'm sure there are landfills full of all kinds of child's items with Bimmy and Jimmy Lee's faces on them. But now a days you'd be hard pressed to find somebody under 30 that knows what a Double Dragon is. Still, it was massively exciting to me as a child to have Double Dragon on my 7800 in the late 80's. Today it's an uncommon cartridge to find, and can sell for a lot of money when you do find it. So should you spend that money on it?

    I like the look of the Title Screen too...
    Graphically the game is a mixed bag. The character sprites look okay, but most of the enemies look similar to each other. It makes it hard to tell if your fighting a Williams or some other chump. Abobo stands out nicely as the massive brute of the enemy gang and I do like his sprite. But the rest are mostly misses in my book, especially when compare to the arcade or even the NES port. The colors feel a little off to. I think most of the levels have nice details and look pretty decent, but instead of using a color pallet to reflect the gritty, greasy feel of a corrupted city they choose to go with some brighter tones. Maybe to make things pop more? I really don't know, but the odd coloring choice becomes even more apparent if you mess around with some of the graphical hacks out there for this game.
     
    The animations are mostly passable, but I find it strange to pick up a baseball bat and see your character overhead swing it with one hand! Why doesn't he wind back and follow through like, you know, the way real people do!? I do think this graphics get the job done and are passable, but I think it should've been better all the way around. I do find some of the levels intriguing and there is nice variety in the scenery. That said, the sprites and colors are hit or miss in my eyes.

    Abobo looks pretty good, and so does that car!
    Like graphics, the sound design has its up and downs as you play. I do like the familiar songs that play in the background. The music has that Double Dragon feel, which is really impressive since they used the stock TIA chip. But when you knock out an opponent and they start to blink out of reality, somebody revs up a car motor motor somewhere. What? No....no way! Okay I'm being told that's not a car motor, but the scream that Abobo makes when you defeat him. It's bad, but given the hardware they were working with, I'm okay with giving them a pass here. After all, it may be a mixed bag of audio but at least the bad stuff sounds humorous rather than obnoxious. I'd take that any day of the week.
     
    I grew up with this version of Double Dragon, and I know how to play it. Beyond that, I know how to beat it and what works and doesn't work against the enemy gang. But if I put myself in somebodies shoes who was picking this up for the first time in 2022, I'm not sure they would have the patience or understanding to enjoy this one. And it's a game you have to work at to get the most out of it. I've given other games a pass for their trial and error mentality, but that's because I could see a natural progression in difficulty. That is, I could see how if somebody gave those games a real chance, they had a rewarding feeling to it. But Double Dragon is hard to learn, and when you find the winning strategy, it's just repetitive. It doesn't feel like you learned the game and become a martial arts expert. Rather, you found a way to exploit the AI and that's not rewarding.

    Right about here the bottom of the screen becomes less safe...
    All of our hero's moves from other versions are present, but the controls take a while to get used to. And you don't get much of an opportunity to see what works and what doesn't. Your opponents have 2 modes essentially. They have a mode where they wonder around the screen to position themselves for their next attack. They almost never fight back when in this state. Then they have the attack mode, where if you get within their reach they will pound your face in. It can be hard to tell which is which at first, but even when you learn that it's just half the battle. But at the start it feels like the enemies will pound your face in without letting you have a chance to counter them. It's frustratingly tough and most people will walk away from it there I think.
     
    But if you stay with it then you'll start to see what does work, and unfortunately it's not a lot. You can really only land kicks and punches on enemies who are wondering about the screen. For the opponents ready to engage, you really have to rely on the jumping back kick. And that's the move you have to abuse to get anywhere in this game. Initially it's easy to pull off because you can keep yourself at the bottom of the screen to better work the controls to pull off the move. But in later levels the bottom of the screen is a straight drop to your death. And with only 3 lives and no continues, you can't afford to give any up to falling off the screen. Since the jumping back kick is needed for about 80% of the enemies, I could see people being turned off by the repetition even if they learn how to play.

    Machine Gun Willy is a BS boss to fight!  I hate him!
    But despite the odd color choices, and the bad sound effects, despite the aggressive enemy AI and extreme learning curve, and despite the fact that there are much better ports out there, I still love Double Dragon for the 7800. I'm not going to give it a passing score, because if I look at it objectively then it could've been done much better. I do want you all to know that it is possible to enjoy this game, or any “bad” game really. Reviews are opinion pieces after all. Sure we back up our scores and findings with facts, but something I love may be something a lot of other people hate. And that's okay. But I do want to give scores that are realistic, and scores that I think will reflect the experience that the majority are going to have. With that, I can't recommend Double Dragon for the Atari 7800, especially for the price it goes for today on eBay. But load it up into an emulator anyway, and you might be surprised at how much fun Bimmy and Jimmy Lee still have to give in 2022.
     
    Graphics: 5 out of 10
    You can recognize locals from the arcade and tell what everything is supposed to be. But we've seen that it could've been done so much better, and given that I can't excuse the graphics.
     
    Sound: 6 out of 10
    Even though I couldn't excuse the graphics, I can give the audio a pass. Yes it is 2600 TIA sound, but I feel they did a much better job here than most other developers did.
     
    Gameplay: 4 out of 10
    The gameplay here just isn't good unfortunately. The enemy AI is tough to overcome, and the only way to win is through repetition. There are a lot of moves to use, but almost all of them are useless.
     
    Value: 6 out of 10
    One thing I'll say is your going to be playing this game a long time before you complete it. You'll have to learn how to play, then master the controls, and even then you'll have to play until you get a good run. So I do feel there is a lot of gameplay value for the money.
     
    Fun: 3 out of 10
    I had a lot of fun with Double Dragon. Personally the fun is like an 8 for me. But I think most people will find it to be a 4 or lower. That means that they probably won't enjoy themselves unfortunately.
     
    Overall: 4 out of 10  Bad!
    It pains me to give a game that I grew up with and enjoyed a score of 4 out of 10, but I think that's how most people are going to perceive it. But again, I want people to give it a try for themselves, because if your reading this then your interested in the 7800. And if your interested in the Atari 7800, you might be surprised at how much you enjoy this one. Everybody else can steer clear.
  3. 7800 Pro Gamer
    I want to take an opportunity to add some basic information to my blog about how I grade games. I've been using a 10 point scale, but I feel that explaining the scale helps people understand my thoughts better. Other websites or reviewers might use a similar numeric grade but it means something different to them. So here's the scores and what they mean:
    10 Perfection!  If a game or an element of a game gets this, than I found absolutely nothing to complain about. It's top tier for the 7800!
    9-8 Great! Usually this grade means that it's done well. I might have nit picks, but when it comes down to it the game (or game element) is done well. 
    7-6 Good!  This usually means that a few flaws are present, but it doesn't hinder the game at all. You can find enjoyment here!
    5-4 Bad! This is the other side of the good coin. There are a few flaws present but they hinder the game from reaching it's potential. Some people my be able to look past these flaws, but most wont. 
    3-2 Awful!  This mean that there is something really wrong here. Hardly anybody will find enjoyment with this and it should be avoided except by collectors who need everything. 
    1 Literally Broken!  I reserve this score for something that literally doesn't work. The NTSC version of Impossible Mission being unbeatable due to a glitch is an example of something broken. 
    So those are the grades but what are they applied to?  Well I look at five main aspects of a game and then give an overall score. In general I find the average, but every category doesn't have the same weight. Let's explain more as we break down each category:
    Graphics: This is what you look at. Some games look good and some don't. But this category doesn't carry a lot of weight for me in overall score. Looks isn't everything after all.
    Sound: Obviously what you hear. The music and sound effects are here. The 7800 is known for having terrible sound, and this can easily be fixed by muting the TV (usually).  So this carries the same weight as graphics. 
    Gameplay: This is how the game plays. It factors in how the controls feel, how responsive they are, how the levels are designed, and how equipped you are for the challenge. This is petty important to me.
    Value: To me, this means whether or not your getting your money's worth. If a game holds my attention for a long time and it has a lot to do, then that's good value to me. If it makes me want to replay it a lot, well that counts too. This is just as important as gameplay.
    Fun: Fun trump's everything to me. This carries the most weight. In my opinion, a game can look and sound great, play great and have a lot to do. But if it's not fun then what is the point?  
    Hopefully this helps explain why my scores are the way they are. I thought it would be important to have a grade key available, so I'll point to this entry in the future.  So I might give a game low scores for graphics and sound, middling scores for gameplay and / or value, but a high score in fun and give it a good overall. This is usually due to the weight of each grade, but they are split out so you can see what's important to you and adjust accordingly. Well that's it for now!
    Thanks everybody!
  4. 7800 Pro Gamer

    Venture for the Atari 7800 Review

    By 7800 Pro Gamer,


    7800 Game Reviews
    Before I begin the review I will note that I posted this to the Atari IO 7800 forum first. I've essentially copied and paste it here so it doesn't follow the same formatting exactly as my other reviews. But I feel that it reflects my thoughts well and I don't want to rewrite it to say the same things.
    Also, I'm attempting to take my own screenshots instead of using Google image search.  I plan on going back and replacing all the other screenshots eventually. But since I play on real hardware and a CRT no less, it's difficult. So bear with me, and if you have advice please let me know!
    So please keep that in mind, and without further delay, the review!
    _-----_------_------_
    Some say the strength of the 7800s library is in its strong conversions of early arcade classics.  Games like Ms Pac Man, Food Fight, and Asteroids we're considered the best ports of their time, and some even prefer them to this day.  Others refer to the fantastical and crazy later releases like Ninja Golf, Basketbrawl, or Midnight Mutants being the true highlights of the library. But the truth may live somewhere in the middle, and there you'll find Venture for the 7800.
    Venture is the latest release from Peter Meyer and Video61, and I believe it to be their best yet. I went back and played the 2600 version as I waited for my game to come in the mail, and I took notes of what I would like to see improvement on. Of course their was graphics and sound, but I also felt that the player was too slow and ill equiped to meet the games challenge. I also wanted to see more variety in gameplay by using additional rooms or modes. But I could understand if adhering exclusively to the arcades visions was the intent. So how did they do?

    Graphically I feel that they did a fantastic job, with a slight caveat.  It may sound silly but the title card and the options menu looks really good!  There's something about it that conveys quality to my eyes. After you make your selections your shown what is essentially the interlude screen that plays before and after each map and lost life. Our hero Winky (yes that's his name) and usually a hallway monster run across the bottom of the screen with the treasure both collected and yet to be presented above. This all looks great. 
    And the rooms themselves look great with an improved Winky sprite from the 2600 version, with bow equiped and all. The monsters are varied and easily identifiable. Everything looks great but I want to bring up the map screen. Here the rooms you have yet to enter have clearly marked doorways and are outlined. Rooms you've conquered turn solid, which is nice, and the hallway monsters look good. But Winky is represented with a dot. Simple but effective to me, but I could see some wondering why a smaller smiling face wasn't used here. Again, this is a small nit-pick but I thought I'd mention it. 

    The sound rests solely on the back of the TIA chip and they did well with it. I like all the music and tunes that play. I also like the sound effects but a few have the tendency to play in fast repetition and I'm sure some people wont enjoy that as much. It becomes a little annoying after a while when hearing it play over ad over, but in my opinion it's really not that bad. But repeating sound effects aside, I really appreciate the music.  I have to say it feels great to nab a treasure and barely escape a room with that familiar tune playing you out, like you Indiana Jones or something. 
    In my opinion, gameplay is where the biggest improvement over the 2600 version needed to be, and they mostly nailed it.  You have 3 difficulty options before you start, and 2 control options of how you shoot. You can either move freely and shoot wherever you happen to be facing, or you can lock the direction your facing by holding down the shoot button and then spin freely when you release the button. Both methods work fine and it should just come down to your preference. I prefer the free move and shoot where you happen to be looking mode myself. 

    You can also choose between arcade mode that includes the 3 maps and 12 rooms I expected, the XL XE challenger mode with 4 maps and 16 rooms, or the exclusive 7800 challenger mode with 5 maps and 20 rooms!  I would recommend the 7800 option myself, as there is enough variety that even playing deep into the game and at high level loops it still feels fresh. But the XL XE map is by far my favorite, and the new 7800 map pales in comparison. That's not to say it's bad, but the bar was set very high with the XL XE map.  
    Winky's movement is responsive and shooting works great. Sometimes shooting at angles resulted in situations where I felt I should've got a hit or a bullet was blocked that I didn't think should've been, but never to the point where I felt frustrated or wanted to call bullshit. The gameplay is solid and there is a good challenge in each room, with each having their own identity. In later loops of the game, the maps have more enemies and traps added, and the hazards move quicker. It results in a solid and fair challenge...most of the time. 
    I do have to say that I did get frustrated and have to call bullshit when I enter a room just to have a monster spawn almost on top of me. That I didn't like. It seemed to happen the most in he Vampire room of the new 7800 map, And I didn't like it.  But that's really my only gameplay complaint. And it didn't happen all the time.  That aside, I feel that you get a lot of game in this package and it plays great!

    So the 7800 version of Venture made all the improvements I wanted to see from the 2600 version. Graphics and sound?  Check. Faster and better gameplay?  Check. More maps and rooms to add to the replayability?  Check. I see this as an easy recommendation, and Peter and Video61 should be proud of Venture. It retails for 39.99 and I think it's well worth the asking price. Great job guys!
    Graphics 7/10
    Sound 6/10
    Gameplay 8/10
    Fun 7/10
    Value 9/10
    Overall 8/10 Great!
  5. 7800 Pro Gamer
    In between my reviews I want to do something a little different. When it comes to retro gaming today, we have more options than ever to play our favorite old school games. The ever present Raspberry Pi.  The "mini" consoles that was all the rage a few years back.  Emulators and roms on our computers or modded consoles.  But there's one way to play retro games that may be more convenient to most people than any of the prior mentions: Handhelds!
    With a handheld you aren't tethered to a television or monitor.  You can throw it in your pocket or bag and have your favorite games with you wherever you go. The Evercade is a great example of a legitimate way to do this.  But what if you want something without cartridges, something unofficial and capable of doing more?  Well I have some options for you from the world of Chinese retro handhelds!
    These used to be junky, throw away things that you got out of curiosity once in a while but they never lived up to expectations. Not anymore, thanks to brands like Anbernic and Pow Kiddy!  And I've actually tried a lot of these, so I'm going to give you some recommendations now to get you started. So let's start with...
    Honorable Mentions
    - The Game Chicken, Ali Express

    Okay so this is really just a novelty, but c'mon!  It's a game chicken handheld!  Why?  Who knows?  Who cares!  It's extremely small and is not comfortable to play at all, but I think it's intended to be a fun and quirky statement more so than anything. So I recommend it if you want something that you could play for 5 minutes while waiting on a bus or Uber, but are looking for more of a reaction from friends than anything else.
    - Games Power Thin Handheld, EBay

    If you just want to play essential 8 bit NES and Famicom games, then this affordable and very small handheld is for you!  It plays well and is credit card size, and very thin too!  The screen is nice and colorful and the volume is adjustable to 3 levels via button press. This is another one that is stylish and serves a niche well. 
    - Family Pocket FC3000, Multiple sites

    There are many Handhelds that look just like this one, but make sure you get the FC3000 model. The other ones are not recommended!  When you first boot this up it looks like another NES handheld emulator. But slide the back off (mine is extremely hard to move) and remove the cartridge and you'll find a menu of NES, mega drive (genesis), Gameboy, pc-engine (TurboGrafx), and more!  Why would they hide the good stuff?  The screen and sound are decent but the games play very well!  I should mention that you can not add and delete roms on any of these that I'm mentioning today to my knowledge!
    And finally, the last for today...
    -Trimui Model S, Amazon

    This little thing is the same style as those Oregon Trail and Tetris credit card size handhelds, except this one does it all!  You can play NES, SNES, master system, genesis (mega drive), TurboGrafx (pc-engine), Gameboy, Gameboy advance, game gear, and playstation(!?). I don't recommend the PS1 emulation but the rest are great. It's the most costly on this list, but it does the most too.
    And that's it for today. Our theme for this week was small, pocket sized handhelds that were cheap and covered mostly specific niches. Next time we will look at some of the top tier handhelds that I have tried and recommend. We will get into the weeds on those a little more than I did with these honorable mentions.  None of the handhelds from today could play my beloved 7800, but the next ones will play 7800 and a lot more. And they are usually customizable in roms!  So stay tuned!
    Also I welcome any and all feedback!  I'm am going to do 7800 game reviews as my main focus but each week I'll have an off topic article. If you like, or don't like this idea, the let me know!
  6. 7800 Pro Gamer
    Crystal Quest Featuring Bentley Bear is a platforming game similar in feel and style to Adventure Island or Wonder Boy.  The Atari 7800 has desperately needed platformers in the vein of Super Mario Bros since 1986, and even with this glaring hole in the library, homebrew developers have been slow to fill it.  I don't blame anybody but Atari for the under representation of this genre, but it does feel a little odd that nothing was really released until 2014 to fill the gap.  So, does Crystal Quest do more than fill a gap in the 7800 library?  Lets dig in and find out!

    I think the best place to start is with the graphics, and these are fairly impressive for the 7800 Prosystem.  The title screen looks fantastic, and most of the level design and backgrounds look pretty good as well.  I do find the color choices a little bland later in the game, and I think the 5th world is kind of an odd style choice, but overall the graphics satisfy and excels!  Bentley Bear is a nice rotund little hero similar to a plumber we all know and love, and he animates well.  All the enemies have a distinctive look and may be familiar to those of use who enjoyed the various releases of Crystal Castles in the past.  And the end level bosses are nice and large, and appropriately intimidating to look at!  I would've liked some more variety in the end world bosses, but I do like what we get.

    NOOOO THEIR SLOWLY GOING TO WALK INTO ME! HELP!

    It's so nice to hear a 7800 game that sounds as good as it looks.  This game is filled with classical tunes and they all sound well thanks to the provided Pokey sound chip.  I enjoy booting up the first world and hearing the familiar "hello mother...hello father" tune that you may (or may not) be familiar with.  Most Prosystem games have a short melody or tune that plays during key moments, or maybe a song or two that plays through out the entire game.  But Crystal Quest has many full songs, sound effects, and yes even the familiar jingles from picking up power ups.  This game has to be a 10 out of 10 in the sounds department, especially when compared to most other 7800 games not named Ballblazer or Rikki & Vikki!

    Graphics are nice and varied, and the sound is top notch, so lets find out if Bentley drops the ball in the gameplay department.  In short, the answer is no, the game plays pretty good.  To get more in depth, this game shares a lot from Adventure Island and not so much with Super Mario Bros.  I've had a handful of people describe this game as the 7800s Mario, so I thought I should make this distinction here.  You do not have mushroom style power ups or rings to act as a safety net.  It's almost always one hit kills through the entire adventure.  You can pick up a party hat for a few seconds of invincibility, but that's about the only saving grace you will get.  But your not totally defenseless!  At the beginning of the game and after you loose a life you can pick up a white crystal for rapid fire shooting against your enemies.  Some will die from a single hit, others from multiple.  You can later pick up red crystals that are equal to 2 hits, and green crystals that double your current crystal power until your death.  Upgrading your crystals help a ton and are a must for defeating the bosses!

    THIS IS ONE TOUGH WITCH!

    But before we get to the bosses, lets go over the rest of gameplay.  The enemies start out mindlessly walking towards you, or walking towards you and jumping over obstacles.  But its not long before some hover out of reach, flying down when directly overhead to catch you off guard, or dart towards you from the edge of the screen.  The enemies are done pretty well, with my only complaint being that the floating heads and floating balls can occasionally feel cheap when they float out of nowhere to steal a life.  But that doesn't happen too often.  The platforming never reaches truly difficult levels, but I'll go over that a little more towards the end.  The boss battles are definitely going to rob you of a lot of lives to start, but by the second boss you should learn how to cheese this witch.  She still manages to stay difficult by firing projectiles and eventually breaking herself into smaller versions.  If it wasn't for the difficult and varied boss battles, I would've said that this game is almost TOO easy!

    So does this game have flaws at all?  Well yes, and there are a few head scratchers for me.  As I said before, the later levels start to look a little bland in my opinion and the design of the final world is a let down.  Each world also contains an odd level where a few platforms scroll with the background.  This caught me off guard at first and feels out of place to me.  I'm not sure what the programmer was going for here, but I can't help but to feel he missed the mark.  Luckily you'll encounter only 5 or so of these levels out of the 40 levels in the game.  My only other complaint is the occasional cheap death from an enemy flying onto the screen out of nowhere.  But none of this spoils the experience and can be excused given how good the rest of the experience is.

    So Crystal Quest featuring Bentley Bear is a great Adventure Island or Wonder Boy style platformer for the Atari 7800 Prosystem.  It's not perfect, but it is more than enough to dethrone Scrapyard Dog from the 7800 platformer throne.  To be fair, it sat on the throne by default, but Crystal Quest earns its place at the top of the library.  If you own your 7800 strictly for the fantastic arcade ports, than this one might not be up your alley.  But for the rest of us who love the console and want to see great games released on it, than this is going to be a must own.  AtariAge is currently out of stock, but I got word from Albert that he has a Pokey chip alternative tested and ready to go, and a new batch of cartridges should hit the store in a few months.  So save your cash and pick this one up as soon as it comes back into the store!
     

    CRYSTAL QUEST FEATURING BENTLEY BEAR IS A SOLID GAME!

    Graphics: 8 out of 10
    Four of the Five worlds look great, and only a handful of levels lean towards the bland end of the color spectrum.  The animations and characters all look fantastic!
    Sound: 10 out of 10
    When you compare this to the rest of the 7800 library, then I would have to say that only Rikki & Vikki have it topped.  Great work!
    Gameplay: 8 out of 10
    Even though it leans a bit on the easy end, there is still good level design, enemies, and challenges here.  A few of the levels fall flat for me, but they are far and few.
    Fun: 9 out of 10
    I played through this game twice for this review, and I had a lot of fun both times.  I got frustrated maybe once or twice, but I had some discovery moments on my second time through.
    Value: 7 out of 10
    As I said, this one is easy and I beat it all the way through my first time loading it up.  But even so, there is some good replay value in discovering everything this game has to offer.
    Overall:8.5 out of 10 GREAT!
    I think most of us 7800 kids would've died for a game like this back in the day, and I'm glad it came out.  Get your copy as soon as you can!

  7. 7800 Pro Gamer

    Atari 7800 Scrapyard Dog Review!

    By 7800 Pro Gamer,


    7800 Game Reviews
    Scrapyard Dog for the Atari 7800 Prosystem Review!
    I've heard a lot of people complain about the momentum in Scrapyard Dog. They say that the character gains too much speed and runs head first into obstacles with little reaction time for the player. And while this is true, I really think these people don't give Scrapyard Dog a fair chance. It's a flawed game, but one that I really ended up enjoying! It could've never competed with the likes of Super Mario or even Sonic the Hedgehog when he came about, but I think Scrapyard Dog is a better game than most people would give it credit for. It's not for everybody, so lets see if its a game you might enjoy.

    There are Piano mini games, hidden rooms, and stores ran by this fine looking gentleman to visit in Scrapyard Dog!
    The graphics are just plain unappealing. The main character is silly looking at best and just plain ugly at worst. The levels suffer much of the same fate, which is a shame. None of the graphics are really bad, but having a game take place in junkyards, alleyways and sewers, especially while Nintendo is taking players to magical Mushroom Kingdoms and fairy tale lands makes Scrapyard Dog even more unappealing. It would've been nice to see our hero move on from the initial dirty real world environments and find himself on a larger than life adventure. But all we get are the same 3 level designs over and over. It's really a shame when you get to the last junkyard that feels like it takes place high in the sky, and the warehouse level, because that's when you start to see what Scrapyard Dog really could've been.
     
    The sound doesn't fair any better than the graphics in my honest opinion. The same song plays through the adventure and it's not the best tune you've ever heard. It can even get a bit on the annoying side, and the only time you'll hear something different is when our hero dies. The sound effects themselves are generic and suffer the same complaints that I have with the music. If this game was trying to be the hit platformer that the 7800 desperately needed at the time, then they really should've invested in a Pokey chip for the cartridge.

    I hope you like the look of these backgrounds, because your going to be staring at them a lot!
    The gameplay gets the most criticism from my peers, and this is where I disagree with them. When you first start playing you'll want to take your character and rush him head first through the level as fast as you can. But you can't really do that when your just beginning. You have to take your time through the levels and give yourself time to react to enemies. Yes, its true that the controls initially seem to be all wrong for that style of game, but once you get to the sewer levels you'll start to see why the momentum is needed. There are some skilled platforming and a few leaps of faith that the game expects of you. And after a lot of trial and error I actually found myself successfully flying through early levels and making long jumps in rapid succession. The game felt rewarding and fun to control after I invested the time to learn it! It's a trial and error type of game, and while people are less likely to forgive it today, back in its time this wasn't so unheard of. Playing a game and making it a little further each time was how we got good. Still, they should've probably let you hold down a button to run faster and gain momentum so that you had better control over your character.
     
    So the first few levels aren't a good indication of what the game is truly like, but I found myself having a lot of fun here once I took the time to understand the game. I do feel that there should've been some bosses at the end of each world, and the final boss is more than just a let down, but there is still a good game here. There are bonus rooms, a piano mini game and stores that you venture into, but these can usually be safely ignored. You have to be willing to learn how Scrapyard Dog controls and how the enemies act and react to you. Once you have that down, you might be surprised at how much fun can be had here. It's a flawed genius that is oh so familiar on the Prosystem!

    The title screen wouldn't look bad because the dog is actually pretty cute.  But this guy has one ugly mug!
    I make it a policy that I don't post reviews until I have completed the game at least once (if the game can be completed that is), until I have a solid grasp on the gameplay,, and until I feel I've seen all there is to see. Because of that policy I think I've gotten more from this game than other critics did. But it's not for everybody. You have to be willing to play by Scrapyard Dogs rules. If you do, you'll find that the momentum has a purpose and it actually works well for what they were going for. For how much fun I had with Scrapyard Dog, it made it all the worse that it sounds and looks so bland. With that said, if you don't want to give Scarpyard Dog the time to grow and expand its world to you, then I would just skip this one.

    The Ugly Box Art!
    Graphics: 5 out of 10
    You can tell what everything is supposed to be but the game just looks bland and unappealing. The same 3 environments repeat over and over which was a mistake.
     
    Sound: 4 out of 10
    They really dropped the ball with the sound design. I think this game deserved the Pokey treatment, especially if it was to compete with Super Mario.
     
    Gameplay: 6 out of 10
    It takes some time to get the hang of, but I find the gameplay to not only be rewarding, but I think it works well. Less leaps of faith would've been nice though.  And you can skip the piano mini games and extra stuff without really losing any of the experience.
     
    Fun: 8 out of 10
    I ended up having a lot of fun with this one once it got going. While it won't be for everybody, I think those who do give it a shot will be surprised at how much fun they can have.
     
    Value: 7 out of 10
    One thing is for sure, you will get a lot of play time out of this one! I've played it quite a bit, and I didn't mind repeating early levels to get further once I learned how to play.  You get a free continue for each world, but after that you'll need a lot of cash to keep the game going.
     
    Overall: 6 out of 10 GOOD!
    It gets a low good for me, but it will easily slip down to a 5 out of 10 (Bad) score for others. It is not a poorly programmed game and they did put thought into utilizing the momentum that your character builds. It probably would've worked better if you held down a button to run and gain momentum, but it still works for what it is.  But some people won't be able to look past the trial and error gameplay present here.
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