Atari games at Taco Bell!

[Jboypacman]

Looks like Taco Bell is offering classic Atari games for the Mac and PC for only a $1 with meal purchase!

http://kotaku.com/5483278/think-outside ... tari-games

[Zap!]

Looks like Taco Bell is offering classic Atari games for the Mac and PC for only a $1 with meal purchase!

http://kotaku.com/5483278/think-outside ... tari-games

Wow, that's cool. I'm gonna head down tonight or tomorrow to see if my local Taco Bell is participating.

[Darryl B.]

Hah! Damn you jboy, I had the link all copied and pasted from my e-mail, ready to post this on here!

Yeah, let us know how those are; about the only one I'm interested in is the Lunar Lander one. Nice promo though, even if they're butchered!

[Jboypacman]

lol sorry about that Darryl but i thought it was pretty cool they were having some classic gaming goodness at Taco Bell i had to post about it.

[Darryl B.]

Ha ha, no biggie of course

Well, I'm going to call my nearby Taco Bell this evening to see if they have them, then hop onto the bus tonight to get 'em if they do

[Darryl B.]

I changed my mind earlier in my original post about saying I was planning on only getting Lunar Lander at Taco Bell, but I thought about it and ended up getting all of them except for Centipede. Nothing against that one, I'd just rather have Millipede if I had a choice. And I've got Centipede for my Atari 7800 anyway. I'm just not a hardcore, 'have to have every version of ___' possible-type of person.

Anyway, stories from Taco Bells around the nation have been varied: some aren't carrying the games period (although this promotion wasn't supposed to be starting until April anyway), one person said they had to buy two kid's meals (?) before they could buy these, another person said they were given to them absolutely free. Kind of odd...it says on the display poster inside my local one they're either available with kids' meals or sold separately, so I would say just to make a stink about it if they don't sell them separately that it says in writing they're separate, but then, they could just say that restrictions apply.

Anyway, I've only just installed and played Asteroids just now. Due to the video on YouTube I had watched earlier, it was cool how retro speech synthesis was added to the game menu, sounding somewhat like Gorf as you choose what play level to start out with. There's a neat arcade bezel around the screen border, which mine takes up full screen; for some reason in the video and on a post on Atari Age someone had said that the screen was really small. Dunno what the deal is with that, mine's fullscreen.

So the beginner skill level was so easy I quit before playing an entire game; it seemed that the asteroids would split into two medium-sized ones, then two more medium-sized ones...no small ones.

Um, no...the next skill level did that too, it just added U. F. O.s to the mix.

Say WHAT? Again, too easy, as I quit my game at 20,000 without losing any ships.

Then I tried the Ace level...same nonsense, but with the asteroid speeds cranked up (to the later arcade levels) and the small U. F. O.s will kill you in no time flat. I got killed by one, my next ship came up, the U. F. O. came out already and killed me again before I had a chance to do anything.

This isn't Asteroids at all, really. Hyperspace is instant too, and there's no way to die using it, it seems.

BIG disappointment, and everyone on Atari Age giving kudos to the programmers either didn't play them or they hardly played them at all, as most have admitted, or else they would have noticed the differences.

For collectors only, NOT for those of us who grew up on these games and want the originals.

I haven't tried the 'evolved' version yet, with the butt-ugly graphics (the asteroids look like pies, of all things!), but I don't think the gameplay will be any different.

I'll get to the others later.

For collectors or those hoping to resell these for big bucks years later on e-bay ONLY. I guess you can't go wrong for only a dollar but if you want the original you'll be disappointed. 5, maybe 6 out of 10 for having several skill levels and the Evolved version

[Darryl B.]

Nope, not a 6, lets say a 5.5 (I've played it, it doesn't help the game any!), unless you don't mind that you're not getting the original gameplay.

Anyway, let me make a correction first before getting to Super Breakout: as it turned out as I mentioned earlier, the person who had posted about the small screen was in regards to Breakout, NOT Asteroids. Breakout fares kind of like the tall vertical screen on the Vectrex. So yeah, the playfield size on that game is a bit small after all, Asteroids is full screen, not including the edge with the arcade bezel artwork.

Anyway, onto Super Breakout: it's just Breakout, not Super Breakout actually. As most of us probably already know, technically Breakout can't be emulated, and personally I haven't played the arcade original since I was a kid. So I can't say how close this one is to the original, although my guess is that it fares better than Asteroids does. One thing that's cute though is that it has those imitation colored strips on the playfield like the original did (what was that called, celophane?). However that gets kind of distracting, if you ask me.

I couldn't imagine playing this on the hardest level, intermediate seems the best, and is still a bit challenging. The Evolved version has a flashier-looking ball, a techno soundtrack, and kind of a 'Tron' look for the side art. However those of us spoiled by Arkanoid and the REAL Super Breakout, along with tons of other imitations over the years will probably get bored with this quickly...again, it's pretty much a collector's item. Oh well, still kind of neat though, having the original arcade artwork (I think) around the screen edges.

I'll give Lunar Lander a tryout tomorrow.