OK so this is the first of a few posts on some of the old Atari 2600 games as I have recently been able to download an Atari emulator program for my PC, Stella Atari and use it to play some of the old classic Atari games. I won't necessarily do these posts in succession so I might come back to do another one later at some point and then maybe another sometime after that.
Anyway the game I have chosen to look at first is one of my favourite classic games for the Atari 2600 console, which came out back in 1983: Frostbite (by Activision) an action platform game. I played this game at the time of its release so I must have been around 8 years old at that point (yes I am old!) so after 33 years how does hold up??? Well let's take a look.....
GAMEPLAY
Well for once no real story is involved so there aren't any spoilers to worry about (which makes a welcome change!) but instead I'll say a bit about the premise of the game, which simply involves the playable character, Frostbite Bailey building igloos by jumping on floating blocks of ice. However it isn't so simple as it sounds as Bailey has to avoid a number of dangers that include flocks of geese, clams, crabs and of course a big Polar bear! Bailey also has to watch the temperature which drops rapidly in the game as it starts from 45 degrees (pretty warm for the Antarctic!) and drops to 0 and if it does Bailey will freeze to death.
The gameplay is fairly simplistic but it does involve alot of quick timing and fast reactions as you progress through the levels, the blocks of ice move faster and faster as do your native hazards as the geese, crabs and clams can push Bailey into the water, which instantly kills him and the polar bear chases him off the screen.
There are four separate rows of ice blocks for Bailey to jump on from top to bottom but you can also at times control the flow of the ice block you are on by clicking the fire button on your controller (or rather the Space button even on your keyboard) which can change the direction of the ice. The downside to doing this however is that any ice you have collected to create your igloo will disappear block by block every time you change the direction of the ice itself.
And once Bailey has all the blocks of ice he needs to create his igloo he must then go inside the igloo itself to complete the level where the player will be awarded so many points based on what the remaining temperature guage is. Bailey also can get additional lives every 5000 points and he can gain extra points by eating fish that swim in the sea while Bailey goes between blocks.
GRAPHICS AND CONTROLS
The graphics for their time are actually pretty good and the animations even though they are mighty primitive by today's standards they are not at all bad. The game also has a nice use of colour and the fact that levels alternate between day and night is also a nice touch as the background graphics go from blue for daytime to a dark grey for night.
The control system is also another big bonus of the game as the controls are very fluid and it is very easy to control Bailey and he actually has the surprising ability to jump quite far between blocks at times. However you need to be careful when controlling Bailey more often than not it is easy to be careless and accidentally send him jumping into the water to drown or just miss the edge of a floating ice block or worse yet jump into the path of the angry polar bear! But the controls are great for the game and the fast reaction timing required is part of the fun.
SOUNDS
The games sounds are pretty typical of most Atari games in that they are pretty simple sounding electronic bleeps but they are very much also part of the Atari charm. There are simple bleep sounds for Bailey bouncing between blocks, or when he eats fish, or when he drowns its "going down the drain" type noise and for when Bailey jumps into his igloo we get a counter "ding ding ding!" noise (I'm amazed that I'm even describing this!) or there is a sharp bitey sound for when the polar bear chases Bailey off the screen. So all in all the sounds for the game are simple but great fun to listen to.
FLAWS
As for Frostbite's flaws....yeah OK the game has one or two small issues for starters I think one of the problems is that the game itself has no end, it just keeps going and going as the game's levels move faster and faster so ultimately if you could survive the mega fast speed of the levels as they progress you could just play forever! So in that respect there doesn't seem to be much of an end goal to the game itself given that it has real story at all. However I think this was typical of alot fo Atari games of the time that they had no real end to them it was just a case of keep playing till you lose.
I also felt there were times were Bailey's moves were so fast and fluid at times it was too easy to make him fall into the water and drown. Not only that the movement of the geese, crabs and clams also make Bailey moving around a bit of a pain in the arse, as he can easily land on the edge of a floating ice block only to have a flock of geese on the same block who then push you off! This of course will get more frustrating as the ice blocks move faster and faster as do your enemies.
The start of the game can also be a bit slow as the ice blocks start off moving at such as a slow pace that it takes a few levels before things start to speed up. And because of this the game is a bit of a slow burner as it needs to pick up the pace before it really starts being fun but it certainly is fun once the ice blocks and the hazards starts moving faster as you really have to watch your timing when jumping between blocks and it becomes more challenging.
And lastly aother issue I found is when you change the direction of the ice blocks it doesn't change them in a logical sequence, it changes them out of sequence and it ends up making the sequence of the blocks a bit wonky. This can also make things a bit difficult for if Bailey needs to try and make his way from the bottom row of blocks to the top as he most likely could drown before he get's there.
Anyway that's just about it flaws wise.
SUM UP
So to sum up even after 33 years, Frostbite is still a hugely enjoyable game, its very addictive, alot of fun and its fast paced platform action makes it blast to play. The concept of the game in itself is also pretty original as you can't really imagine too many other games like it of its time, sure there were plenty of platform games but none where an Eskimo is looking to build an igloo and having to dodge some hazards at the same time!
So even after all this time its a game I still highly recommend if you are able to get the Stella Atari emulator (well getting it is easy but configuring it to work with your keyboard isn't!) or even if you have an old Atari 2600, I'd also recommend you get hold of an old copy of it (but the emulator is of course cheaper as its free).
Anyway so that's it for now and I will continue the Atari reviews another time soon but I may do a review of something else other than an Atari game next.
So until the next un, its bye for now!
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