Page 24 - OSG Presents Classic Gamer Magazine #1

and-right movement pattern, reduc- not due to memory limitations, but needed fuel stops becoming more
ing the great fun of narrowly avoid- due to legal constraints. Atari had scarce along the way. One may
ing an alien's swooping attack already grabbed the licensing be good at blowing things up, but
while moving down and to the left. rights to Galaxian by this time, so with poor planning, the jet may run
As a result, the 2600 cartridge to avoid copyright infringement, out of fuel and crash.
of Gorf plays CBS omitted The objective of the game is to
very flat. How- this screen fly up a river, destroying the en-
ever, CBS did from the emy's bridges and fuel supplies.
duplicate some home ver- While the enemy may have ships,
of the manic feel sion. planes and helicopters along the
of the arcade Oddly, if route, the bridges and fuel supplies
game in the vari- you play Gal- are the most valuable, and thus,
ety of the axian (aka carry the highest point value.
screens. The Galactic In- Overall, the game’s graphics
first screen is es- vasion) for are nice. It is easy to discern not
sentially a re- the Bally As- only what each target is, but also
make of Space trocade, it any obstacles around the fighter.
Invaders with a plays and The colors are simple; blue for wa-
much smaller Gorf sounds ex- ter, green for land, and the ships
army of aliens and plays virtu- actly like the missing and planes are obvious. The
ally identical to the groundbreaking Gorf - Galaxian wave. I guess player is never left wondering,
classic. The second screen fea- that's one way to have a complete "What the heck is THAT?" In fact, I
tures a tiny group of attackers with Gorf! was always impressed by the clean
one laser cannon. But what a can- look of the graphics.
non it is! It fires a long, solid bolt of River Raid One drawback with this game,
energy towards the player's ship as with most of its generation, is
and remains onscreen for a consid- Activision/Atari VCS (2600) maneuverability. Control is limited
erable amount of time. Once this Designed by Carol Shaw to the very simple forward, right
force is destroyed, we are trans- Reviewed by Chris Lion and left, leaving the player with a

ported to the blackhole screen, Overall Rating: B+ feeling of very little "real" control.
wherein spaceships spiral from a Often, when I would veer off to
central point at varying speeds and One of the more unique charac- avoid an object the plane seemed
angles to attack the player. This teristics River Raid has compared to keep drifting until I pulled back
screen is rather unique as the to other hard.
player does not have to destroy all video- There are
the aliens to progress. If an alien is games is treats in this game
not destroyed, it flies out into the that it is that make it really
depths of space never to be seen designed fun. The fuel
again. The player simply has to by a tanks are quite
survive until the end of the round. woman. I unique. If one
On the fourth and final round, the must ad- blows up the tank,
player is asked to defeat the Gor- mit when I they are destroy-
fian mothership. This monstrosity first ing their ability to
flies across the top of the screen, agreed to refuel their plane.
dropping yellow bombs. The only review If one leaves the
catch is that the ship’s vulnerable this game fuel, it is left for
point is a tiny vent on the underside my sexist side came out the enemy to supply themselves.
River Raid
of the ship. It takes quite a bit of and I worried that there was some A great trick is what I dubbed the
skill to aim at such a small target, sort of voice chip installed. I half "gas and blast" - fueling up and
but when accomplished, the space- expected to find the game ques- then blowing up the tank. I got my
ship shimmers with different colors tioning my moves, wondering why I much needed fuel, earned extra
to indicate its destruction. didn't refuel and telling me to JUST points and denied my enemy of
All things considered, CBS' Gorf ASK FOR DIRECTIONS. I am fuel. It's a great trick, although it
for the VCS is not a bad version of pleased to report that no such chip takes some practice to master.
the game, but then again, without exists. Overall, I give River Raid a B+.
the voice and the four way direc- The skills required by River It's a fun game with a clear objec-
tion, it's not exactly Gorf. Raid do not just entail the typical tive and solid graphics. It plays
Interesting side trivia: The ar- hand/eye coordination, but tactical well in a single player mode or
cade game's third screen is a re- skills as well. The player navigates against an adversary.
make of Galaxian. This screen a jet plane over a constantly
was not included in the 2600 cart,
changing riverscape with much

Classic Gamer Magazine Fall 1999 24