Joust

I tend to enjoy vintage video games, from my Atari VCS 2600 to the NES, SNES, and Sega Genisis. But Joust holds a special place in my heart as one of the greatest games of all time.

Atari 2600, meet HD tv.

Today, I am back to discuss the difficulties of hooking up an Atari 2600 to a modern TV.

There are half a dozen or so different ways this can be accomplished, ranging from beginner to expert, from cheap to expensive, and from likely to work to likely to destroy your Atari.

Proceed with caution.

Atari 2600 Review - HERO

HERO, Sometimes referred to as H.E.R.O. (standing for: "Helicopter-Equipped Rescue Operation" or "Human Extraction and Rescue Operation") is one of my all-time favorite video games, and a big part of the reason that I own an Atari.

The graphics, though they don't look like much, were far beyond anything else available at the time.

The Atari 2600 had a lot of limitations. The system is only capable and aware of two sprites (the graphics for characters) at a time, and each sprite is only one color. (The three sprites and multiple colors seen in this picture are evident of how people pushed the system beyond what it was designed to do.)

Graphics aside, the beauty of this game lies in the game play. The concept is simple enough: Man enters mine shaft to rescue miner, but that alone would not make a good game. In order to insure that the game is interesting the rescuer is equipped with various amenities:

• A backpack ( With integrated helicopter) allows him to fly (and surprisingly enough, he has to fight gravity to do it.)
  
• A Laser cannon allows him to kill bats, spiders, snakes, and other bad things that stand between himself and the miner.
  
• A healthy supply of bombs, to break through walls (though the laser cannon can do this as well, slowly.)
• A battery (shown as a power gauge at the bottom of the screen) which serves to limit the amount of laser-beam-shooting/flying you can do per level (and add to your score).

You fly around a bit, shoot at things, rescue people. The first few maps are rather generic and, to be honest, after playing through them nearly 10,000 times, boring. But they quickly give way to more interesting and confusing arrangements. (I don't think I've ever gotten passed level 6, and I still love this game.)

All in all, HERO is a great example of what a good Atari game should look like, and if you haven't played it, I suggest you do. (If you're not keen on buying an Atari, there is all ways the windows remake, it was also included on the Activation Classics disk for the PS1.)

Of course there is always emulation, yet however much I disagree with current copyright laws, I do not wish to attract legal action, so I must discourage you from emulating the game.
(Though it runs well in most emulators, including StellaDS for the Nintendo DS).