Combat

Combat for the Atari 2600 was the most highly regarded and eminently playable pack-in game of the pre-Nintendo era. Super Mario Brothers, which usurped its crown, can't claim to offer the same visceral excitement that a solid round of bouncing bullets and invisible walls, or the dreaded three-on-one air battle, can bring to a party.

Combat is one of the most enduring head-to-head vehicular combat games of all time. But it's no Hard Truck Apocalypse.

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It's No Hard Truck Apocalypse Review

Really, it's not, it's just a "pre-review."

Spy Hunter

Perhaps the ultimate in top-down vehicular combat (unless you're a Bump 'n Jump fan), Spy Hunter introduced a generation to the U-shaped combat steering wheel, high-speed danger, and oil slicks. You the player take the wheel of a dangerous and heavily modifiable vehicle, sent out to drive the endless mean streets in search of deadly spies. Take them out with your front-mounted machine guns, or drive into the Weapons Van (available occasionally) to earn an upgrade to smoke screens, oil slicks, and even surface-to-air missiles to down pesky helicopters. The car even converts to a hovercraft for waterborne sequences.

The variety and sheer deadliness of Spy Hunter's enemies makes the game extremely engaging, as does the attention to detail. Enemies with side-mounted switchblades can be partially disabled by slamming other cars into them, breaking the blades. Collisions at higher speeds are deadly. And the wheel (in a properly maintained cabinet, anyway) is extremely responsive.

Spy Hunter, despite atrociously high difficulty in the arcade version (its computer counterparts were somewhat more forgiving) is an iconic action-fest. But it's no Hard Truck Apocalypse.

Delta

This horizontally scrolling shoot-em-up for the C64 was remarkable for it's brilliant graphics and long, atmospheric soundtrack. The quality of the gameplay was somewhat controversial, because rather than primarily relying on fast reflexes, it required the player to memorize the sequence of aliens and obstacles through repeated failure. In many cases, the player simply isn't given enough time to react once an obstacle has appeared on screen - you have to know it's coming, and move ahead of time.

Those who don't mind this trial and error approach will find a surprisingly immersive game. But it's no Hard Truck Apocalypse.

Blasteroids

Blasteroids was an unapologetic reinvention of the classic Asteroids arcade game. In the arcade Blasteroids offered crisp graphics and a spinner ship control superior to the old Asteroids turning buttons, along with armor, power-ups, and three distinct ship modes (a balanced fighter, a fast but weak scout, and a lumbering but heavily protected battleship.) On home computers such as the C64, a surprising amount of the arcade gameplay was preserved and many quarters were saved.

But it's no Hard Truck Apocalypse.

Wasteland

Before Fallout, there was Wasteland. Four disk sides full of mutant-blasting, RPG-firing, android-reconstructing action. The gameworld stretched across the radiation-scarred American Southwest. In the role of the player party, up to seven characters could take on the latest threat to humanity, read lots of text paragraphs, and uncover the secrets of broken toasters.

A great game. But it's no Hard Truck Apocalypse.