Great Escape (Atari 2600)

Last updated
Great Escape
Front cover of Great Escape game.jpg
Developer(s) Onbase Co.
Publisher(s) Bomb
Platform(s) Atari 2600
Release
Genre(s) Multidirectional shooter
Mode(s) Single-player

Great Escape is a multidirectional shooter published for the Atari 2600 in 1983. [1] It was produced by Bomb, a line of video games from developer Onbase Co. based out of Asia. [2] It received mixed-to-negative reviews from critics, with reviewers making comparisons with Defender [3] and Asteroids . [2]

Contents

Gameplay

The player controls a spaceship that can move in the four cardinal directions and destroy enemy ships and asteroids. A radar screen shows where adversaries may be located, and a "super-alien" will destroy the player if it appears on the same screen as the player's ship. The game is single-player only. [4] [5]

Reception

TV Gamer magazine criticised the graphics, compared it negatively to other games from Bomb such as Assault , [6] and described it as "without a doubt, one to avoid". [7] Videogaming Illustrated compared it to Asteroids. [2] German magazine TeleMatch gave it 3/6 overall, with 2/6 for gameplay but 4/6 for sound (6 being "worst"). [4]

Related Research Articles

<i>Berzerk</i> (video game) 1980 video game

Berzerk is a multidirectional shooter designed by Alan McNeil and released for arcades in 1980 by Stern Electronics of Chicago. Following Taito's Stratovox, it is one of the first arcade video games with speech synthesis. Berzerk places the player in a series of top-down, maze-like rooms containing armed robots. Home ports were published for the Atari 2600, Atari 5200, and Vectrex.

<i>Dragonstomper</i> 1982 video game

Dragonstomper is a video game developed by Stephen Landrum for the Atari Video Computer System and released by Starpath. The game follows the adventures of a dragon hunter who is given a quest by the king to defeat a dragon and reclaim a magical amulet that was stolen. The player makes their way over the countryside, vanquishing various adversaries and gaining gold and experience. After achieving enough strength, the player can enter a shop in an oppressed village where equipment can be purchased, soldiers hired, and special scrolls obtained to defeat the dragon in its lair.

<i>Skeet Shoot</i> 1981 Atari video game

Skeet Shoot is a skeet shooting video game for the Atari 2600 and the first game released by Games by Apollo in December 1981. Players assume the role of a skeet shooter shooting clay pigeons. There is a two-player mode where the players alternate.

<i>Towering Inferno</i> (video game) 1982 video game

Towering Inferno is an Atari 2600 game designed by Jeff Corsiglia and programmed by Paul Allen Newell and released by US Games in 1982. The player controls a fireman going through a burning skyscraper to save victims and put out the fires. The game was produced under a licence obtained from 20th Century Fox by Quaker Oats, the parent company of US Games, for the video game rights to the movie of the same name.

<i>Cosmic Avenger</i> 1981 video game

Cosmic Avenger is a scrolling shooter developed by Universal and released as an arcade video game in July 1981. It is part of the first wave shooters with forced horizontal scrolling which followed Konami's Scramble and Super Cobra from earlier in the year. It was released the same month as Vanguard. The final installment in Universal's Cosmic series, players take control of the Avenger space fighter and, as in Scramble, use bullets and bombs against enemy air and ground forces. The world is one continuous level made up of different areas.

<i>Assault</i> (1983 video game) 1983 video game

Assault is a 1983 fixed shooter video game developed and published by Bomb for the Atari 2600. Controlling a spaceship fixated at the bottom of the screen, gameplay involves the player shooting projectiles towards an enemy mothership that deploys smaller ships to attack the player. The player must also prevent enough projectiles from touching the bottom of the screen.

<i>Z-Tack</i> 1983 video game

Z-Tack is a shoot 'em up for the Atari 2600 from Asia-based developer Onbase Co. and published under its Bomb label in 1983. The player controls an alien ship flying above a city with a goal of destroying bases nestled in the buildings. There are six different city-landscapes. The game received mixed reviews from critics and was described as an inverted version of Imagic's Atlantis.

<i>Wall-Defender</i> 1983 video game

Wall-Defender is a 1983 shoot 'em up for the Atari 2600. It was produced by Bomb, a label of developer Onbase Co. based out of Asia.

<i>Fire Fighter</i> (video game) 1982 video game

Fire Fighter is a video game written by Brad Stewart for the Atari 2600 published by Imagic in 1982. The player uses fire fighting equipment in an attempt to extinguish the fire in a tall building and rescue the occupants.

<i>Fireball</i> (video game) 1983 video game

Fireball is a Breakout clone video game developed by Arcadia for the Atari 2600. The game was released on cassette tape and required the Starpath Supercharger add-on to play.

<i>Human Cannonball</i> (video game) 1979 video game

Human Cannonball is a non-military variant of an artillery video game released in 1979 by Atari, Inc. for the Atari VCS. The goal is to launch a performer from a cannon so they land in container of water supported by a tower. The game was in the first wave of Atari VCS games after the original nine launch titles. It was also among the first games for the console to be discontinued by Atari.

<i>Backgammon</i> (1979 video game) 1979 video game

Backgammon is a video game adaptation of the board-game backgammon developed by Atari, Inc. for the Atari Video Computer System and released in 1979. The game was one of the earliest electronic versions of Backgammon.

<i>Codebreaker</i> (video game) 1978 video game

Codebreaker is a video game released in 1978 by Atari, Inc. for the Atari VCS. It was in the first wave of Atari VCS games to follow the original nine launch titles. It was one of three cartridges to accompany the introduction of the Atari keyboard controller, an add-on launched in response to claims of false advertising that the VCS is a "computer".

<i>Flag Capture</i> 1978 video game

Flag Capture is a video game published in 1978 by Atari, Inc. for the Atari Video Computer System. It is based on the traditional game Capture the flag. The game was designed and programmed by Jim Huether. The cover art for the game is by John Enright.

<i>Hangman</i> (video game) 1978 video game

Hangman is a video game based on the pen-and-paper game of the same name released in 1978 by Atari, Inc. for the Atari VCS.

<i>Pigs in Space</i> (video game) 1983 video game

Pigs in Space is a three-in-one 1983 video game developed and published by Atari, Inc. for the Atari 2600. It is based on the "Pigs in Space" sketch series on the then-popular television series The Muppet Show. The game is the last in a series of children-friendly games developed by Atari for the Atari 2600. Atari marketed the games as being good for the development of hand-to-eye coordination.

<i>RealSports Baseball</i> 1982 baseball game for Atari 2600, 5200, and 7800

RealSports Baseball is a 1982 sports video game developed and published by Atari, Inc. originally for the Atari 2600. It was also launched on the Atari 5200 and 7800 machines. A version for the Atari 8-bit family of home computers was also in development, but it was cancelled.

<i>Sentinel</i> (1990 video game) 1990 video game

Sentinel is a 1990 video game developed by Imagineering and published by Atari for the Atari 2600. It is the only light gun game ever released for the Atari 2600 platform. It was re-released with improved graphics for the Atari 7800 in 1991.

<i>Beany Bopper</i> 1982 video game

Beany Bopper is a shoot 'em up for the Atari 2600 from California-based developer Sirius Software and published by 20th Century Fox Games in 1982.

References

  1. Hawken, Kieren (2018). The A-Z of Atari 2600 Games: Volume 1. Andrews UK Limited. ISBN   978-1785386428 . Retrieved 10 August 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 "It's Bomb!". Videogaming Illustrated: 38. September 1983. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
  3. Weiss, Brett (2011). Classic Home Video Games, 1972-1984: A Complete Reference Guide. McFarland. p. 66. ISBN   978-0786487554 . Retrieved 10 August 2019.
  4. 1 2 "Great Escape Review". TeleMatch: 30–31. August–September 1983. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
  5. Weiss, Brett (2011). Classic Home Video Games, 1972-1984: A Complete Reference Guide. McFarland. p. 66. ISBN   978-0786487554 . Retrieved 10 August 2019.
  6. "Great Escape: New!" (PDF). TV Gamer: 20. Autumn 1983. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
  7. "Great Escape: New!" (PDF). TV Gamer: 28. Autumn 1983. Retrieved 10 August 2019.