3 GflfTlES FOR ATRRI COfTlPUTGRS Computer Games- Videogames -Stand- Alone Games Arcades Visit our little island if you dare. Yes, there is hidden treasure here. But there is also unspeakable terror. Listen! A voice within you is whispering that your life is in danger. Can you turn the clues you will find on this forbidding Carib- bean island into the tools you need to grab the treasure and get away alive? Death In The Caribbean is a game for the brain. All you have is your wits and the treasure map we supply. It will take all the courage you can muster to cross the bot- tomless cravasse. Get through the quicksand. Avoid the man-eating Death In The Caribbean— the exotic new island treasure hunt with high-res color graphics ants. Conquer the crocodile-infested swamp. Escape the deadly voodoo cave, menacing pirate ghosts, and all the other lethal traps and pitfalls that stand between you and fabulous wealth. jmm So visit our little island if I you dare. But heed this warning. If ~-^-A»*^'~f iHi y° u seek ar, d fail - y° u mav De iP j [dl *ivt doomed to play the game forever! U*:' micro Fun © MicroLab 1963. MicroFun and Death in the Caribbean are registered trademarks of MicroLab. Inc. 2699 Skokie Valley Road. Highland Park, IL 60035 3 2/4;3-7F50 1 Can you save the Doomed Dinos and escape the Dino Mom's stomp? Warped into a prehistoric world you've con- taminated the dinosaurs. You must climb nine deadly cliffs, find the dtno eggs and carry them back to the 21st century. Dodge the radioactive snakes and spiders when you climb, leap and jump over the challenging cliffs to iocate the eggs. As you fight your way up the nine levels your skills must increase if you are to survive the deadly IfflTffll . . . the fun goes on forever MitfoFy n " and Dino Eggs '" are registered trademarks oi MicroLab, Inc. ApplB II & lie, IBM PC. Atari BOO. Commadore 64 and ColecoVision are registered trademarks oi Apple Computer, Inc.. ISM Corp.. Atari, Inc., Commodore Electronrcs. Ltd., and Coleco-lndusiries, Inc., respectively. E 1983 MicroLab, Inc. 2699 Skokie Valley Road, Highland Park, IL 60035 312/433-75S0 Fire is the only weapon you have to keep the Dino Mom from putting her foot down and crushing YOU! Can you escape the Dino Mom's stomp, avoid the crawling, clawing creatures, find the eggs and save the dinosaurs from extinction? Only you can face the challenges of survival in the prehistoric time warp of DINO EGGS'" from MicroFun. Inc. ...the fun goes on forever. Available for: Apple II "& lie- Atari 800" IBMPC" ColecoVision" Commodore 64" CONTENTS Commodore Sof tware- The Best Game in Town. VryiprdHTT 1 . . .Take on the world, toughen up your trigger finger and fire away. . Commodore is the best computer value in town . . .at home, at school and at work . . . with our exciting, easy to use. inexpensive VIC 20 and C64 computers. We re fast becoming the best game in town when it comes to entertainment for the whole family. . . and at afford- able prices THE BEST ARCADE IN TOWN can be in your own home with our exciting, faithful reproductions of the best of Bally Midway arcade games. Our Kickman, (which just received a coveted "Electronic Games" award for an arcade translation) lets you steer the unicycle to catch the falling objects, as they fall quicker and quicker! 1 Gorf, Lazarian, and Omega Race give you the best in classic space action against the one-eyed ieviathon. the drotds or the evil Empire. In The Wizard Of Woryou attempt to defeat the Wizard and the Warriors, fighting your way through to the end. With the new Commodore "MAGIC VOICE ... It talks back to you too! ' You commandeer the fleet at sea with our version of Seawolf.and become the master tactician as you battle "it out" with enemy fleet- Clowns and Blueprint round out our arcade entertainment package to keep your fingers nimble and your G COMPUTERS First In Quality Software See your local dealer now . . . He's got the best game in town , . . |ust for you. It's Crystal Ball Time! It took me nearly an hour to hunt up my crystal ball. The swami turban and video tarot cards were a snap to find by comparison. I just couldn't recall where I'd put the orb after writing my pre- dictions in last January's in- stallment of "Switch On!" I finally found the ball tucked away in a carton full of cartridges from Games by Apollo. Now, it's temporarily set up on my desk and ready to do its stuff. But first, it only seems fair to see how I did last year. My guess that manufacturers would sell eight million videogame systems and 80 million cartridges proved slightly conservative, but not that bad. My estimate that computer ownership would double in 1983 also turned out to be short of the mark (tripled would be closer). I was right about games com- ing to players over the phone and about at least two systems biting the dust (Fairchild and Astrocade), but I apparently jumped the gun when it came to the appearance of the first full- time pro arcader. Maybe next year. Equally erroneous was my guess that hand- held programmables would By ARNIE KATZ make their debut in 1983. That's another good predic- tion for 1984, probably. Thatduty discharged, let's move on to my prognostica- tions for 1984. . . •Manufacturers will sell more than 100 million videogame cartridges, but hardware will prob- ably move out of the stores slightly slower than in 1983, perhaps eight million video- game systems. 'Home computer sales, spurred by price cuts, will exceed 10 million units. 'By the end of the year, there will only be two videogame systems in active production as gamers flock to com- puters for their home arcadmg. 'Though stand-alones will be less numerous thart a couple of years ago, the technology will continue to improve. This year should see the first stand-alone featur- ng ts own miniature raster-screen. "Laser-disc games, now starting to hit it big in com-op game parlors, will reach the home market from at least three different manu- facturers. At least one firm will offer games that are true hybrids of computer and video- disc technology. *The most popular genre of action games in 1984 will be the color-chang- ing contests such as CTBert And I would like to close with one final prediction: a year of health and happi - ness for all EG readers. Happy New Year! G Adverting Director , t Mi a ji a , * m . -- V # ATARI 600XL EVERTONE HASTHEIROWN SYSTEM FOR PLAYING POPEYEI Atari.® Intellivision* ColecoVision." T.I.™ Now you can play t POPEYE, one of the most fun and challenging arcade games yet, XI on any one of them. Run through three screens of non-stop action, sSwKwii r where you try to capture Olive Oyl's heart while avoiding untold / dangers, including Brutus and the Sea Hag. Run down to your local store for Popeye today And while you're there, check out TUTANKHAM,'" FROGGER,'" Q*bert™ and SUPER COBRA," x^clidwcd i also from Parker Brothers' Arcade Action Series. JtOTUNS, PILOT THE VIDEO SPACE SHUTTLE By now, the only people who believe the Atari 2600 is a toy are those who haven't seen Activision's Space Shut- tle: A Journey into Space. Re leased last November, Space Shuttle is the most innovative VCS. While the gamer pilots a shuttle from launch — through docking maneuvers — to land- ing, he must check various readings and make adjust- ments with the VCS's toggle switches. Designer Steve Kitchen, who researched the real shut- tle with NASA's help, repro- grammed the console becomes a flight co panel. {For example, the righl difficulty switch opens closes cargo bay doors and lowers landing gear,) Kitchen also included a demo mode, a training flight and a mission flight, as well as some out- standmgaudio/visual effects. Move over NASA, here come the Activision astro- 71 99/4A MARKETS "GAMEPORT" Owners of the Texas In- struments' 99/4A will be pleased to learn that the Romox "GamePort" accepts all ROM cartridges, according to Romox Prexy, Paul Terrell. It announced earlier this year that it would modify its computer to accept only those cartridges programmed in Tl's patented "GROM" for- mat. This limits third-party software manufacturers from producing games unless they license their product toTI, and means users can't play any "non-GROM" titles. According to Terrell, the "GamePort" offers interested parties an alternative. By plugging the new device into the computer port and acces- sing the 9900 CPU directly, it can play any standard ROM Check your local retail out- lets for this one folks. Padre Steve Carvey getting ready to hit one out of the park. PADRES ARE TRAINING WITH GAMES Thanks to Sega's Cham- pion Baseball, The San Diego Padres are sharpening up their batting averages. By playing electronic games such at this, the ball- players c The San Diego-based coin- op manufacturer donated a number of the coin-op machines to the Pad clubhouse, where the guys immediately began hitting them hot and heavy No one knows the advantages of such thing is certain: pensuin software the graphics people The Next Generation Is Here! At Penguin, we don't rely on the same old game formulas, adding to the mish-mash of look-alike games already on the market. We look for creativity, originality, and innovation. Games like Minit Man, challenging you with two types of arcade action simultaneously; Coveted Mirror, an adventure with animation and arcade games throughout; The Spy Strikes Back, an arcade game with strategy and a touch of adventure; Pensate and Tactic 9, games that make you think; and Expedition Amazon, an intriguing and humorous fantasy game. And Each Is Only $19.95! More Fun For Your Money From Penguin Software Write for a free catalog JO Fourth Avenue, Box 311 Dept. M Geneva. IL 60134 For information - Call (312) 232-1984 Dealer orders only - Call (800) 323-0116 COMPUTERIZED LIMOS! Air Brook Limousine Ser- vice, in our nation's capital, now offers "computa-cars" — limos that come equipped with a computer and word processor! Execs can use the equip- ment to call up Congressional voting records, legislative his- tories, biographies of various Congressmen, and any other vital data they need. Air Brook even calls up res- taurants, grouped according to price and culinary type. COMPUTERS TEACH TOTS Early reports indicate that kids who play an educational game on computers test sig- nificantly higher than other children from the same age group who receive no com- puter experience The test included 20 youngsters who were divided BOOKS FOR into two groups. Where both groups took pre- and post- tests, the control group had no exposure at all to com- puters. The other group spent 10 one-hour sessions with the computer. At the end of this one-month experiment, the findings showed that the chil- dren who played on comput- ers scored a total of 47 per- cent higher on a battery of standardized tests. The experiment was hosted by Program Design, Incorpor- ated, manufacturer of such popular arcade games as Moonbase lo and Clipper: Around the Horn in 1850. Sir-Tech's Wizardry s< SIR-TECH DISPLAYS HIGH-RES Sir Tech Software has pro- duced a brand new high- resolution display manager for the Apple II. and will test it in the marketplace in the third , gam* of the Wizardry series. The latest adventure is Leg- acy of Llylgamyn, the third scenario in the Wizardry fan- tasy 'Oie-playing program, wrtten py Andrew Greenberg and Robert Woodhead. It continues the storyline through the use of a new graphic technique called "Windo-Wizardry". It allows programmers to manipulate rectangular windows of any size, which sometimes over- lap to enable more informa- tion to be put on-screen at the Softsync and Brady Books (a division of Prentice-Hall) have published a book of computer games exclusively targeted for owners of the Timex 1000, 1500 and 2000 computer systems. "Brain Games", by Cana- dian professor John Stephen- son, contains 26 different program listings. Each comes with a mind game as well as a few helpful shortcuts to assist younger programmers in de- signing their own fun as they learn mathematics and logic through games! Dr. Stephenson explains, "For 20 years, I have been teaching mathematics. I be- lieve it is possible to teach math and logic through the use of games. This also makes it a lot of fun for everyone." "Brain Games" retails for $9.95 and can be found in most local bookstores. Soft- sync, in addition, also plans versions of the book for the VIC-20 and Commodore 64. Besides the upright model, Sega also make< a cockpit version of Star Trek. PBS RAISES CASH WITH COIN-OP Sega Electronics generously donated a Star Trek coin- operated videogame to the Public Broadcasting System, located in San Diego, for their annual fund-raising auction. Every year, PBS holds an auction to generate the necessary monies used to maintain equipment and staff, and to purchase pro- gramming. Telecast over several eve- nings, the auction features hundreds of items or services donated by viewers who strongly want to do their part to keep PBS alive. AUCTION "We feel proud to help support the outstanding job KPBS is doing for the San Diego area," said Sega's chief operating officer, Frank Fogelman. He also went on to say that Sega expects to par- ticipate in next year's upcom- ing auction as well. k ^s*' ' M \. Family Software, all 3 games 2/aibble in finer computer St. everywhere. Or call toll-free 2-800-852 5000. Dept AC-17 itdty™ . joock down buildings to your wrecker while dodging bricks, rocks, cans and tomatoes. 10 rounds. Poster, stickers, user's manual vinyl binder Included. Ages 8 and up. Only $39 95 Oldlr Thrilling 2 player naval battle) Use the wind, cannons compass to outwit rival ship. Detallecf graphics recreate true sailing ex- perience. Poster, log book, vinyl binder Included. Ages 8 and up. Only $3995. The days of yore are recalled in this unique combination of board- game and computer game Rescue the king by playing 20 animated games of skill — (ousting, sword- play, etc 1 to 4 players. Sturdy, colorful gameboard playing "Make note of that name, Electronic Arts. It may well set the standard for sophisticated entertainment software in the 80s." —Creative Computing. ELECTRONIC ARTS COMES TO THE COMMODORE. ARCHON™ by Free Fall Associates No review could possiblv do than hint at the mar,:?. J excellence of Archon. It is truly a landmark in the devel- opment of computerized strategy games." -Video ". . .you're bound to fall for it. Imagineachessga you can cast spells. —Creative Computing ".. theofficesofA.N.A.L.O.G. echo with the searing roar of dragon-fire and shouted obscenities from angry players. Archon turns friend against friend and inspires grudges that can last for days. What better compliment can you give to a -A.NA.LO.G. *** M.UL.E, fry Ozark Sofscapc "A must-have." — Electronic Fun "May well become the Monopoly of computer games." — Personal Soli'.v.in "Graphics, sound and humor -Creative Computing "Recommendation? Buy it." — Softline MURDER ON THE ZINDERNEUF 1 " by Free Fall Associates "Whodunit fans, drop your Agatha Christie and come running.This is your game! The graphics are among the most colorful and attractive I have seen in any game." — Antic am 70 PINBALL *^ CONSTRUCTION SET t "The besr program ev for an 8-bit machine.' -Steve Worn iak "A fully integrated graphics-oriented design tool that lets you create your own video pinball games, required study for all software authors." -A.N.A.LO.G. "A tour de force." —Creative Computing Electronic Arts Home Software for the Commodore 64 mlTHETKSSI-.HACT ST If you've been putting a lot of time in on your disk drive, you just may be able to give it a good spring cleaning — no matter what the season! "Headmaster", by SSK En- terprises, effectively cleans the read/write head(s) of floppy disk drives, as well as packaging two disks good for up to 16 cleanings each, with all the necessary fluid. SSK thinks that periodic use of the "Headmaster" redi s while protecting ATARI GOES CLUB MED First we had kids learning computers at computer camps; now adult vacationers can do the same at the Club Med facility in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. Visitors are getting hands-on experi- ence with one of the 57 Atari computers in its workshop. You may even forget about all the "other." vacation activities such as surfing, water skiing, eating, etc. Computers at the fun spot can help revelers locate a ten- nis partner, list special daily events, or work as message centers for vacationers at the resort. DATASOFT'S READY TO ROLL 'EM OUT DataSoft is releasing Dallas Quest under licen Lorimar Productions (creators of the popular TV series). In TIGER BUYS Tigervrsion has just inked a deal to license four of the very latest top Japanese coin -ops from Orca. the Tokyo play- for-pay innovators. Home editions of the games, expected to hit Amer- ican arcades by mid-1984, in- clude Espial, Japan's 6th ranked game in recent sur- veys. This one's been de- scribed as a state-of-the-art high resolution graphics space attack game, in which the arcader must destroy a scroll- ing spy space station. Other favorites include Sky Lancer, a futuristic space bat- tle, and Super Crush, which places the gamer in an auto demolition derby. The ulti- mate maze game is Changes, featuring multiple patterns and pretty graphics combined with scrolling action. The gamey Illinois firm holds worldwide rights on these titles for home videogames, computer games and stand-alone elec- tronic games. Tigervision is the software firm that brought such games as Miner 2049er, Polaris, Springer, and River Patrol to the videogame screen. If the Japanese coin-ops are anything as good as those then 1984 is certain to be a good year. ■WHAT'S HOT- Look, up in the sky! It's a bird, it's a plane, it's.. .a Zep- pelin? Yes, it is. The closest most folks come to an airship in real life is a glimpse of the Goodyear blimp, but those grand gasbags are starring in three hot new games for various computer systems. Zeppelin {Synapse Soft- ware) is here to entertain Atari owners, Zeppelin Rescue (Computer Software Associ- ates) gives Commodore 64'ers the chance to save Los Angeles, and Murder on the Zinderneuf (Infocom) chal- lenges all computerists to catch a killer aboard a luxury dirigible. We haven't seen this many balloons on a videogame screen since Circus Atari. Or was it F Troop? fW^{V|l ^K. fl " : *"^J ?_ **'..* Ml""". 3 """ this one, gamers must out- smart the villainousJ.R. Ewing in a search for a lost map that leads to a jungle oil field. The "really scary" portions of the game come from the savage environs, as well as from the notoriously bad J.R., who, as you may have already guessed, is busy wheeling and dealing as he tries to jeopar- dize the mission. DataSoft's other home game offering, Pooyan, is based on the original Konami coin-op version. Gamers will find wolves clinging to hot-air balloons, traveling over a forest. Just use the bow-and- arrow to burst their bubbles, and don't forget to protect the little piggies wandering through the forest. Dallas Quest and Pooyan are available through Radio Shack for the Atari, Apple and Commodore computers. BY RADIO "The Screen Fiend" is a syndicated radio show exclu- sively tailored to the vid- eogaming community. Au- dio Inventions (P.O. Box 240, Mt. Ephraim, NJ 08059) will provide a qualified radio sta- tion with five 60-second shows free of charge. Each show incorporates the latest news and views about the industry's most recent games, home video systems, accessories and newly- That's Zeppelin Rescue on the left, and Murder on the Zinderneuf on the right. TTieENDo/DINKETY- DINKDINK. A announcing the. first computer music program that actually sounds like music. LET'S FACE IT. Up till now, music programs for your home computer have all sounded, well, pretty lame. There were the ones that resembled little electronic music boxes, remem- ber? And then there were those that sounded like so many burps. Enter Music Construction Set. It's the first music program that really makes use of the power of that ma- chine you've got. If you're a serious student, this means you'll be able to work with an intricacy and range of sound quality you've never heard be- fore on a computer. And if you know nothing about music, you'll find some- thing even more important. Namely, that this thing is simple enough to be a lot of fun. Take a good look at this screen because it, you, and a joystick are the whole story here. That's you at the right end of the staff ot notes — the little hand. Move the joystick, and you move the hand. Use it to carry notes up to the staff. Lay in rests, signatures, clefs, then point to the little piano in the lower right arid listen, because you'll hear the whole thing played back. Move those little scales in the mid- dle up and down to vary the music's speed, sound quality, and volume. Use the scissors to cutout whole measures, then use the glue pot to paste them in somewhere else. Got a printer? Great. Print the score out and show it off to your friends. But what if you're not up to writing your own stuff yet? No problem. There are twelve pieces of music al- ready in here, from rock 'n roll to baroque. They 're fun to listen to, and even more fun to change. (Apologies to Mozart.) The point is, the possibilities are endless. But if you're still skeptical, visit your nearest Electronic Arts dealer and do the one thing guaranteed to send you home with a Music Con- struction Set in tow. Boot one up. Point to the piano. And listen. ELECTRONIC ARTS BELIEVE IT OR NOT, IT'S A CAME! Roklan Corporation and Ri- pley's International have agreed to enter into a joint venture to create video and computer games based upon the "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" series. Marketing at Roklan, the games "will tie in with the Ripley's cartoon characters and will be an extension of the popular ABC television Editions of "Believe It Or Not" for the Atari VCS, Intelli- vision, and ColecoVision are already underway, while computer versions for the Atari, Commodore 64 and Apple computers aren't too far behind. They should be here this winter. "POWER PLAY'S" A WINNER OF AN ARCADE We all know that Jay Simon's fantastic Power Play Arcade, located just a few minutes from Disney World, has lots of little extras to keep gamers coming back for more and more. But that's not all. . . This natural showman also has other talents, video-re- lated of course, including having a laser/holography expert fly a 3-D red, white and blue Phoenix down a highway and then onto his parking lot. Jay Simon is best-known for staging some pretty wild and exciting events in his Flor- ida game palace. Just to give | you a little taste of Jay's kind of fun, you can expect, on any given night, to get flooded by a smoke machine that fills the game room. For Halloween, Jay had a gigantic Flash Gor- don-style spaceship land smack in the center of his arcade, complete with a laser light show and a special cos- tume party, in which every- one got to wear their fave , game-playing attire. Ready for some more? Jay has even brought costumed videogame characters to visit the children's wards in hospi- tals and then to the local schools to brief the kids on this incredibly surging tech- nology. MmtMm SOFTWARE BERT SoftSync's Dancing Feats, designed by Christopher Chance, turns Atari and Com- modore 64 computers into music synthesizers. Joystick jockeys sound like virtuosos | base against hordes of alien bandits trying to steal the goodies... Coleco plans a super ver- I sion of War Games (based 01 DANCING FEATS (SOFTSYNO when they create melodies and on-screen light displays using the program's selection of bass, beats, styles and rhythms. While you play, the notes and chords are display- ed on the bottom of the DANCING FEATS (SOFTSYNC) screen, and the program also lets you record and playback your compositions... Bandits, the shoot-em-up from Sirius Software, is now available for the Commodore 64 in addition to the Apple, Atari and VIC-20 computers. Players guard a lunar supply the MCM/UA movie by the same name) for the Adam computer, later this year... Epyx has released a home version of the Exidy hit educa- tional game. Fax, for play on the Apple or Commodore 64 computers, Fax is a video quiz with about 900 questions in each of four categories: sports, trivia, history and en- tertainment, with three levels of difficulty. Gamers gain additional points for quick answers to questions that are enhanced by clever graphics, and wrong answers get humorous warnings from the computer, such as "Put your mind in gear" and "Do your homework!".., Randamn, from Magnum Software, turns your Apple into a mystic slot machine, but with a payoff you won't find in Las Vegas. When the spin- I ning stops, it selects an oppo- nent for you to defeat. At stage one of the game, there's only one baddie to overcome. , but at stage seven, there are I seven. And, since everything in this game is random, the j villains might be all alike, all different, or any combination, I so the gamer's strategies have ! to keep changing to match , the results of each spin of the slot machine. Survive all seven RANDAMN (MAGNUM) stages, which range from Stonehenge, to outerspace, or even the Satan's domain, and the player becomes the Demi-god Randamn, lord of random events... RANDAMN (MAGNUM) Infocom's Enchanter is the first game in a new series of fantasies that guide players through a world of magical powers. Authors Marc Blank and Dave Lebling (who pre- viously wrote the Zork titles forlnfocom) designed a world that's under the thumb of an evil warlock who has to be banished, in a text adventure that takes gamers through an abandoned castle filled with magic. Enchanter is available for all computer systems, and features an important new element in adventures, the passing of time. Players have to eat, drink and sleep in the enchanted world or they'll lose their powers, just like gamers in the real world... The Sirius adventure hit, Blade of Blackpoole, is now available for the Commodore 64, in addition to the Apple and Atari computers. This single-player adventure makes gamers solve puzzles as they fry to locate objects. Software artists? TO MAKE THE FIRST BASKET- BALL PROGRAM that feels like the real thing, it helps to start with two guys who know what the real thin" Uvl> like Enter Larry Bird and Julius Erving. Bird — the hustler, the strong man, deadly from outside. Erving —The Doctor, maybe the most explosive player in the history of the game. We talked to them, photographed them in action, studied their moves and their stats and their styles. Then we set out to create on computer disc an event which may never happen in real life. We put the rwo of them together on a dream court ot light, for an elec- tronic afternoon of one-on-one. It wasn't easy. When they talked, we listened. When they criticized, we made big changes. When they gave sug- gestions, we took them. And it shows. This thing is absolutely un- canny. You actually take on all the skills and characteristics of Bin or The Doctor -their own particular moves, shooting abili strength and speed. You'll meet with fatigue factors, hot and cold streaks, turn- around jump shots, and 360-degree slam dunks. But there's some whimsy in here, too— a funny referee, a shattering ) ickboard, even instant replay. It's called Julius Erving and Larry Bird Go One- on- One." You're Bird. Or you're The Doctor. And that's the last deci- sion you'll have plenty of time to make. How we got this year's hottest sports game out of two rather inexperienced designers. SPECTRA VIDEO PICKS SPOKESMAN World-famous TV/film star, Roger Moore (more popularly known as James Bond, 007), has inked a deal with SpectraVideo, Incorpor- ated. Moore will be appearing for the corporation in its ad-cam- paigns as spokesman for the firm's line, as well as making a number of personal appear- ances on behalf of the manu- facturer. Mr. Moore, who was brought to the public's eye by his role as Simon Templer in "The Saint" on TV, hasn't really done any actual espio- nage work for SpectraVideo, but he should be popping up on the tube when you least EX-EMPLOYEES SUE ATARI Atari was slapped with a class-action suit by two of its I former employees, charging | the firm didn't give proper advance notice when laying I off over 600 workers last February. According to the protes- ters, Atari continued to prom- ise its staff that their jobs were I secure. Contradictorily, the firm supposedly told the National Labor Relations Board that plans to move manufacturing operations to the Far East began as early as 1981. The current suit seeks dam- ages totally $3.6 million in back pay for all the ex-Atari- employees who are still un- employed, as well as $10 mil- lion in punitive damages. Coleco has entered into a joint venture with American Telephone and Telegraph, to develop a $1 00 modem so the Adam can communicate with other computers over tele- phone wires. The modem will also permit videogames and other software to be down- loaded by phone into a variety of home computer or videogame systems. Other projects on the Coleco draw- ing board include an expan- sion unit to boost the resident 80,000 character memory of the Adam by 64,000 charac- ters. The company has also announced plans to market an Adam-compatible video- disc machine to go with the home version of Dragon's Lair, and other laserdisc coin- -HARDWARE BEAT- CoiecoVision owners can get a kick from the Amiga Joyboard The foot-controller was previously available only for the Atari 2600 and home computers... Now even teeny-tiny bat- teries can be recharged. CE just introduced their AAA rechargeable battery for use in the new slim-line electronic products that take this size batteries. They'll sell for $7.99 a pair, or $9.99 for a pair of batteries with the recharging module... Fluctuating power has your computer in a tizzy? Maybe what you need is The HAWK, an AC power monitor and protector that protects electronic devices from voltage surges while filtering out electronic noises. The device, manu- factured by Elec tronic Protection Devices, Inc., plugs into any wall outlet, then monitors and corrects line fluctuations, giving an audible alarm if a 1 5% power surge or sag occurs. It sells for $195, and comes with a Lloyds of London insurance policy that guarantees the product's per- formance... ROMSCANNER (MARJAO fridges off the floor, and orga- nized for a better play session I The RomScanner holds 10 cartridges, then lets the gam- er switch from one to another just by pushing a button. An Atari 2600 fits right in the machine with the ten games, doing away with the clutter of carts on the floor. The manu- facturer, MarJac Technology, Glendale, Wise, promises similar devices to be intro- duced soon for other videogame and computer The world's smallest pro- grammable videogame is the Palmtex Portable Videogame System, a pocket-sized giant that uses plug-in game car- tridges that operate on a color graphic-enhanced Liquid ■Crystal Display mini-screen. Games are to be released at the rate of two per month. These instructions could save your life. _SD\RTR<EK_ Read this page very carefully before you play Star Trek Strategic Operations Simulator, the home video game thafs so fast, so challenging, it comes with its own Combat Control Pane). This is Star Trek as you've never played it before. Born in the arcade. Tested under fire. Then made even better. More challenging. You fight Klingons and alien saucers throughout the galaxy. Maneuver through fields of space mines. And confront the ultimate enemy, Nomad. An enemy so powerful you'll need full phasers, warp speed and your Combat Control Panel to defeat him. Star Trek. With the exclusive Star Trek Combat Control Panel. Don't leave Earth without it. _§Ii4 The Arcade Winners. IBM 'PEANUT' DEBUTS! By now, the once-secret IBM "Peanut" should be out from under wraps. The new machine will retail for approx- imately $700, including the console and disk drive. A fully integrated system that comes equipped with a printer will sell for around $1300. The "Peanut" consists of a console with built-in disk drive and keyboard, as well as a cartridge slot for software programs. Operable with either a monitor or TV, the "Peanut" will supposedly be able to run software designed for the IBM -PC computer. Best of all, "Peanut" sports increased graphics and im- proved color capacity that should make all computer gamers happy! let's already, IBM! ak it < COMPUTER WEEKEND HITS CHICAGO! Over 1,000 computerists, ranging from tots to over the the hillers, gathered to see de- mos, hear speeches and look at exhibits which stressed the entertainment and educa- tional aspects of home com- puting, at the Chicago Hyatt Regency Woodfield Hotel. Arnie Katz, editor of Elec- tronic Games magazine, and Joyce Worley, editor of EG Hotline, were two of the major speakers at the fun-filled "Computer Weekend" extravanganza. "All electronic games are educational to some degree," asserted Joyce Worley in her talk on the gaming industry. She also went on to explain that the mind and body chal- lenges, posed by even the most straightforward shoot- ing game, teach the gamer habits of the mind which progressively prepare him or her for subsequent learning experiences. Katz' talk mainly focused on the future of electronic gaming, Aiso seated on the panel was animator Frank Steinberg. Steinberg predicts that continued increase in the memory size of home com- puters will lead to games of a scope and complexity that would be unthinkable now. E.G. READER5 PICK T/IOR FWORfTE QAME5 Most Popular Videogame Cartridges Month Month Lhrt Came System Manufactui Donkey Kong, Jr. ColecoVision Coleco River Raid Atari 2600 Activision Miner 2049er ColecoVision MicroFun Pitfall Atari 2600 Activision Pac-Man Atari 5200 Atari ColecoVision Coleco Lady Bug ColecoVision Robot Tank Atari 2600 Activision Donkey Kong ColecoVision Coleco Ms. Pac-Man Atari 2600 Centipede Atari 5200 Frogger Atari 2600 Parker Bros. Keystone Kapers Atari 2600 Activision Enduro Atari 2600 Activision Miner 2049er Atari 5200 Big Five Most Popular Computer Games Month Month List Came 1 1 8 Miner 2049er 2 2 21 Star Raiders 3 6 19 Pac-Man 4 New New Donkey Kong 5 3 14 Centipede 6 5 11 Choplifter 7 4 6 Astro Chase 8 New New Aztec 9—2 Shamus 10 New New Kick-Man Atari/Apple AT 4-8-1200 AT 4-8-1200 AT computers AT 4-8-1200 Atari/Apple, VIC-20 Atari Apple II AT computers Commodore 64 Big Five/Micro Fun Atari Atari Atari Atari Broderbund Creative Software Parker Bros. Data Most Synapse Commodore Most Popular Coin-Op Videogames Dragon's Lair Cinematronics Star Wars Atari Pole Position Atari Q'bert Mylstar Burgertime Bally Midway/Data East Donkey Kong Nintendo Williams Popeye Nintendo Front Line Taito Readers Choose Top Games Since mere quantity of play doesn't necessarily equal actual popularity, Electronic Games bases its standings on the votes of its readers. These lists of most popular games are based upon more than 1000 Reader Polls. We update the "picked hits" lists in every issue of Electronic Games. So send in your votes! r-TM9£ST WDCO GAME AROUND— , JUST GOT BETTER. The hottest video game to come down the pike in a hound's age. Miner 3M9er. is now out in a nev second edition. Three thrilling nev screens challenge Bounty Bob in ways only Bill Hogue. the game's creator, could dream up. One falsi move and Bob's in big trouble. If he's not about to be gobbled up by a pool of radioactive waste, he's probably a whisker away from being crushed by an enormous jackhammer. Needless to say, if you plan on get- ting Bob through in one piece, you're every ounce of skill and ability yon Miner 2049er, Volume I, put you to the test. Miner 2049er, Volume II, however, goes a step further. It puts you over the edge. POR USE WITH THE ATARI VCI WOO TiGc nvmon. '1111 IrJpl — i ^K V x ^ " c ^ »5 ^ £«£ Joseph Barbera of Hanna-Barbera fame was the force behind the creation of the Pac-Family (shown below). MEET PAC-MANS VIDEO GODFATHER Joe Barbera Talks about T.V.'s 'Pac-Man' Show By GABE ESSOE Since the days of P.T. Barrmm, it has become a well-established fact that a celebrity in any field of en- deavor can become a show business personality. Look at Buffalo Bill Cody, a frontiersman whose flai and long blond locks turned hi into a top Wild West Show attraction. Others like Hoot Gibson, a rodeo champ who could master a Hollywood agent as well as he did a Brahman bull, became mat- inee heroes. Johnny Weis- mueller, an Olympic swim- ming star, became king of the cinema jungle. Even Babe Ruth, the Sultan of Swat, took a swing at the movies. Yet, who would have thought that Pac-Man, the gallant gobbler of the videogame world, could chomp his way into a new career on television as the star of his own Saturday morning cartoon series? It takes some kind of creative genius, or an unabashed carny show- man, to dream that up. it helps to be both. Well, the culprits responsible for turning Pac-Man into a television star do combine both qualities plus, they are as much a cornerstone of their in- dustry as Pac-Man is in the ar- cade business. The culprits, of course, are Joe Barbera and Bill Hanna of Hanna- Barbera fame, the pioneers and titans of Saturday morn- ing television. They are the 'only guys who have ever given Walt Disney sustained, hard- edged competition in animation. JUMPMAN'S A GREAT GAME. BUT YOU'VE GOT TO WATCH YOUR STEP. Meet the Alienators. A fiend- ish bunch who've planted bombs I throughout your Jupiter Command | Headquarters. Your job? Use your lightning speed to scale ladders, scurry I across girders, climb ropes and race through 30 levels to defuse the bombs before they go off. That's the kind of hot, non-stop action we've packed into the award-winningfbest-sellingjumpmanr and into Jumpman Jr'our new cartridge version with 12 all-new, different and exciting screens. Both games force you to make tough choices. Should you avoid that Alienator, climb to the top and try to work your way down, or try to hurdle him and defuse the bombs closest to you before they go off? If you move fast you'll earn extra lives. But if you're not careful, it's a long way down. So jump to it. And find out why jumpman and Jumpman Jr. are on a level all their own. One to four players; 8 speeds; joystick control. Jumpman has 30 screens. Jumpman Jr. has 12 screens. \EG*& SmmGYGMUS HOt THt ACTIOM-GAM f PIA YtR. Looking back three decades, when soaring costs of theatrical cartoons forced the closing of most animation studios in Hollywood, Hanna and Bar- bera, who had won seven Oscars for their "Tom and Jerry" cartoons at MGM, developed a less expensive product for TV. Their new, limited animation, stressed plot and action, abandoning much of the time- consuming and expensive details of movement and backgrounds. They ushered in a new era of children's car- toon programming. Their roomful of Emmys have been won with such clever and ground- breaking characters as Ruff and Red- dy, Huckleberry Hound, the Flint- stones (which was the first animated series in prime-time) and Scooby Doo (which, after 12 years of new epi- sodes, is the longest running cartoon series in network history). More Emmys were garnered with specials that mixed live-action and animation, like "The New Adventures of Huck- leberry Finn" and "Jack and the Beanstalk. Hanna-Barbera's latest char acter is Pac-Man. But how exactly do you turn a videogame into a hit cartoon series? The "Pac-Mai; show, airing on Saturday morning on ABC-TV, appears de- ceivingly simple, but getting it there was anything but easy. Keeping it on the air is a whole other ballgame. "The name of the game in entertainment is to not only keep up with the kids, but to stay ahead of them," explains Joe Barbera, an easy-going perceptive mar who, unlike George Lucas, the creator of "Star Wars' is comfortable with his success. "Kids to- day are a whole new breed from when I wasi growing up. The kids today are into electronics ^ • and computer tech- ~jc nology. From four- /-C^ years-old on up, they have a veneer of acumen and a sophistication that makes it ridiculous PAC-MAN to do shows like we've done in the past. I hear top executives in our in- dustry saying that something is too sophisticated, and I have to say, 'Wait a minute Would you mind going out and talking to the kids?' They're so sharp and so aware, that they won't go for the old cat and mouse chases that we've always done. "The electronic revolution has turned our lives upside down, and has changed the face of entertainment forever. Plus, it develops what I call a short attention span in kids. The kids today have so much to choose from, that you have to give them something new and exciting all the time. Some- thing different, something that's hap- pening right now." Enter Pac-Man. At an ABC network meeting two years ago, the idea was brought up to do a cartoon show based on an arcade game. "Pac-Man was the biggest thing in the world," reflects Barbera "And when it came up, the network said, 'Yeah, we'd be interested. Can you get the rights?' And I said, 'Let's go do it.' " Hanna-Barbera immediately be- gan the long months of negotiating with Bally/Midway Manufacturing Co., the owners of Pac-Man, for the rights. Once convinced that Hanna- Barbera was the right outfit for the job, Bally/Midway wanted to know what they were going to do with the character. And that is when the obstacles started cropping up like the ghosts on the Pac-Man arcade game. "Here's a videogame with comput- er graphics and electronic sound effects, and you have to take it out of that arena and create a totally dif- ferent arena. Creatively, the owners .wanted Pac-Man to be done exactly as in the arcade game, using the same characters that you see painted on the sides of the machine. We said that they wouldn't work, that they were :oo limiting and old-fashioned and they snorted, How dare you say that?' We argued that we had to translate and adapt the charac- ters so that they would work in a continuing series, so that they would work for us and for the network, and also for the owners. We had to please everybody." Once the rights were ob- tained, the first major stumb- ling block came from the F.C.C., that sometimes benign but often ty- nical ruler of the com- mercial air waves. The C.C. rules are very strict about television shows based on a product in ithe marketplace. If the ser- s is too much like the ori- ginal, the F.C.C. deems it PITSTOR You'll never make I Grand Prix champion just I driving in circles. You've got to stop I sometime. The question is I when. Right now you're I in the lead. But the faster you go, the more gas you consume. And the quicker your tires wear down. If you do pull into the pits, though, you lose precious seconds. So it's up to you to make sure the pit crew is quick with those tires. And careful with that gas. Otherwise, poof! you're out of the race. So what'll it be, Mario? Think your tires will hold up for another lap? Or should you play it safe and go get some new ones? Think it over. Because Pitstop" is the one and only road race game where winning is more than just driving. It's the pits. Goggles not included. One or two players; 6 racecourses, joystick control. \Eim STBATtGYGAMiS FOR THt ACTIOHGAMi PIAYER ith PAC-MAN tst, o o o o o o{_^> o o o o o The Pac- Family does what they know best. advertising. And that is a humungous no-no. Barbera remembers it all with a chuckle. "Once it was clear we were going to do Pac-Man, the first thing we had to do was to not do Pac-Man. The problem we faced was creating the same show as the game, but radi- cally different from the actual arcade game, so that it wouldn't be consid- ered advertising. We had to get com- pletely away from even the hint of commerciality. That's where we started. "We couldn't use the sound effects that everyone who plays Pac-Man has engrained in their brains. We had to simulate it to avoid advertising the game. See how easy they made it for us?" But it wasn't just the F.C.C. and the owners who laid down creative obsta- cles. The ABC network had their own stringent guidelines. "Next came Network's Programs and Practices," continues Barbera good naturedly, "and they said we can't show the eating of the characters on-screen. It's too violent. So, how do you do that when it's the central ac- tion of the game? We had to invent a new way of doing it so there is no pain, gore or violence. We did it with a little magic, where little bubbles pop up whenever they do that, and then they're immediately restored. They're not really human, you see." The actual creation of the show be- gan with the characters. "First of all you design the charac- ters themselves, the way they are going to look on-screen. We designed Mr. Pac-Man, a Ms. Pac-Man, and we created a Baby Pac, a Baby Pop-Pac, a Kitty Pac and all that stuff. "We then had to create a new Pac- Man world, with buildings and trees. We designed round buildings with round doorways because the charac- ters are round. We had to design what Mezmaron puts an evil spell on the Pacs. they eat and some kind of stress factor to keep the show moving. We used the ghosts from the game, who in our show are sent there by the heavy, who we created. What they want is simply to get the power pellets that Pac-Man ■ eats and give him his power. Now when you take the arcade game, there are these little electronic gimmicks going around. We took it out of that realm and created an entertaining piece of television without losing the ambiance of the game, and still made it work." The key to making any show work is personality. But how do you instill per- Inky, Btinky 8. Company to beat up to the ole Cobbler. WELCOME TO APSHAI. YOU'RE JUST IN TIME FOR LUNCH. Boy, have you taken a wrong turn. One moment you're gathering treasure and the next you're being eyed like a side of beef. You're in the Gateway to Apshaii" The new cart- ridge version of the Computer Game of the Year * Temple of Apshai.™ Gateway has eight levels. And over 400 dark, nasty chambers to explore. And because it's joy- stick controlled, you'll have to move faster than ever. But first you'll have to consider your strategy. Is it treasure you're after? Or glory? You'll live longer if you're greedy, but slaying mon- sters racks up a higher score. The Apshai series is the standard by which all other adventure games are judged. And novices will not survive. They'll be eaten. One player; Temple of Apshai, disk/cassette; Gateway to Apshai, cartridge, joystick control. wim smater&uasfw wf Anton-ami pimw sonality into a round, yellow, elec- tronic-eating graphic? "Once you've designed the charac- ters, you bring in all kinds of people to test their voices," reveals Barbera. "And you keep testing voices until you find the one that works. The voice for Mr. Pac-Man is, of course, Marty Ing- els, who's done a lot of work for us in the past. "The key to a voice is, if you're listening to it and it makes you smile, and it's kind of funny, it works. Some- times when we're casting voices, and we have the network people there, I'll just play a tape with a lot of voice tests, without any identification as to who they are. When we went by Marty's voice, everybody asked about it but, we kept going, and after we were done, someone said, 'Let's go back to that particular one. ' I knew that if I had told them the voice belonged to Marty Ingles, they'd immediately get a pic- ture of Marty in their minds, and that's who they'd be thinking of when they heard the voice. Now, Marty has a gravelly quality to his voice that's very funny. And that voice is what supplies character and personality to Mr. Pac- Man. Half of your success with any cartoon character is selecting the right The first season of the Pac-Man car- PAC-MAN toon series was a hit for ABC. And for Hanna-Barbera. The Pac-Man videogame didn't fair quite as well in the video marketplace. In an arena which has been glutted by hundreds of new videogames, all marketed in fiercely competitive ways, Pac-Man sales took a nose dive. "I don't know why it wasn't ex- pected," surmises Barbera sagely. "It's like I've said, the attention span of kids doesn't hold. What Pac-Man has going for it, is that it was one of the first to take off. It's solid, a corner- stone, but they've come up with all kinds of new games to grab the kids. I've seen a lot of the new ones, and I can't even describe them, but Pac- Man you know and understand ." Barbera admits that he subscribes to Electronic Games, in an attempt to keep up. "But when you go down a whole row of machines at the arcade, they're really all the same. So the problem is, with the arcade games, as with the cartoon show, how ao you sustain your audience?" ABC has ordered new Pac-Man epi- sodes for the 1983-'84 season, and Hanna-Barbera is geared up to deliver a second season. "The minute they do that, you know that they have confi- dence in you and you were successful. If they don't order new shows, the merchandising people disappear and all that marketing support that is so necessary to survival is gone. If you don't have that these days, you're in trouble. "Our problem now is how to keep the audience we've built up. We've recently introduced a Super-Pac char- acter and a smart aleck nephew, not exactly a Fonzie character, but smart and cool like all teenagers want to be. What you have to do, like with any television show, is keep evolving and creating new elements. You have to let the show grow with your audience. Our super hero Pac-Man character is the kind of guy who shows up to res- cue somebody and forgets why he's there. So we infuse a little comedy. You can't do that with the arcade game. They're limited by the virtue of their technology. We're not. So actually, we have an advantage." And if you judge the future success of the Pac-Man series by Hanna- Barbera's past success, it's possible that Pac-Man will enjoy a long run as a television star. G Barbera feels the cartoon progr grow with the times ai GIVE YOUR KIDS A LESSON THEY'LL NEVER FORGET. When kids have fun and learn at the same time, they're more likely to remember more of what they've learned. What's more, when they associate the two together— learning becomes an enjoyable activity. So they'll do more of it. That's the basic principle behind the Learning Fun Series from EPYX. FUN WITH MUSIC. PARENTS TAKE NOTE. Fun with Music'" is designed to appeal to both you and your children. It comes with a songbook and has two modes of play. In the first mode, you can enter songs from the songbook — or compose your own. Then play the songs back, adding or removing notes and changing tempo or key. Your com- puter is like a musical instrument with memory, and you see every note of it dis- played on your screen. The second mode lets you play your song in a fun-filled action game. You control a drum I major trying to touch the j notes before a small but pesky poodle catches up to him and slows down the parade. Either way, Fun with Music gives you and your whole family the perfect mix of learning and play FUN WITH ART. JUST PICTURE IT. Creating art on the video screen is one of the newest forms of "high-tech" play for kids. And adults, for that matter. Plus there's nothing to clean up afterwards. Fun with Art™ uses the computer and joystick to transform your TV screen into an artist's canvas with astonishing results. 128 colors, numerous brush strokes, all kinds of geometric shapes, and special fill-in and magnifying options are some of the 24 different modes and features available to create works of art never before possible. Fun with Art brings out the artist in you, no matter what your age! MORE LEARNING FUN ON THE WAY. These two are the first of an extensive series of Learning Fun games we have planned. Look for these, as well as other EPYX titles, wherever computer software is sold. LEARNING FUH SERIES. 5200 VS COLECOVISION: A GAMER'S OPINION In your opinion, which one is better: the ColecoVision or the 5200? I think ColecoVision has terrible, cheaply- built controllers. They're much harder to use than I ntelli vision keypads. Col- ecoVision has another fault, too. If three objects are on the same Y-axis, one of the objects either flickers or almost disappears. For a third-wave system, I think ColecoVision is a joke. Ashok Penmatcha Taylor Ridge, IL Ed: Well, your opinion is obvious, anyway! As far as which system is bet- ter, it's purely a matter of opinion. Stay tuned for an upcoming feature, in which we'll evaluate the ColecoVi- sion against the 5200. . .one year after their releases. THE VCS AN ATARI PLOT? Please give us subscribers our money's worth by giving every VCS MYOUR X MAS GIFT CENTER QnlfNlMW (800)221-1977 ,=^^^^5 = 5=5 = === FOB INFORMATION CALL (212) 33J-5687 w& COMPUTERS S5*™ CALL ■;::■','. ipr* n I PLEASE CALL F< ::*£&, Pflfiafcoriic Shsip Woffl Pr«(twf frmt H.iach, , F^h-v UK- CjrtrK , B , C*nww kK ^ CORDLESS . T„ M4 f ! ''!:'■;''" A "° w^ljL 5409.95*" %£. W, :0» WANTED! USED VIDEO GAME CARTRIDGES (for Atari 2600™ , Colecovision & Atari 5200' C.O.D. Pnone Orders Accepted Dealer Inquiries Invited JOIN OUR GAME CLUB Prices Quoted On Phone You MUST Send A Self Addressed Stamped Envelope To Receive Our Current Buying & Selling Price List Print Clearly. (212) 897-6100 E0 GAME CARTRIDGES INC Dept. E. 63-56 108th Sir game a bad review. Everyone knows that behind every good review is Atari Incorporated and a load of money. In- tellivision and Coleco are more deserv- ing of better coverage. Anonymous Warner Robins, GA Ed: Intellivision and ColecoVision are systems with higher resident memories, but that doesn 't mean the VCS is a bad game playing machine. As long as our Reader Polls keep showing a strong interest in VCS game reviews, we'll keep printing them. If you'd rather hear about other game or computer systems, fill out the Reader Poll and let us know. GETTING IT STRAIGHT On page 50 of your September issue, you mistakenly showed Imagic's Dracula for the ColecoVision instead of the Intellivision version. Also, on page 103, you mixed up Space Dungeon and Kangaroo for the Atari 5200. John Slupski Address unknown PANS INTELLIVISION JOYSTICK Thanks for the attention you've given to gourmet joysticks. One stick you didn't cover was the Mattel Tron joystick. I wish you had. My friend bought one because it looks good. It looks good, but that's all. The joystick just isn't responsive enough on many games like Adventures of Tron and Deadly Discs. Keith Cooke Stafford, VA COIN-OP STRATEGY HINTS In Atari's Star Wars, concentrate on hitting the Tie Fighters' bullets before going for the spaceships themselves. Try to stay in the inside lane as much as possible when playing Pole Posi- tion. This gives you more time to cross the finish line. Brent Busboom Reno, NV G SCORE :0057El* A A SCORE :0319S7 STB^> »«*«»«» ■cua-o-oO'Oo-O'O-o-'O- ■£ =3HB= ^Mu^-^BH^l-^MI O." ^ V 1 "'^ s N V\0^ ^ lOjp^BP'^p^ -&-" *■■- -•- , ' " — "m" SCORE :097354 pi ir-i ■— — m— SCORE:S37415 FUEL P Ul_l_ .^ ■W r ▼" ▼» v ♦ k flHy JflB iy.MHi.rii EjBfl HdL-Jhrv jtfh_JLl apft Hb^C *m~^ .. w w ^^ The Mother Ship can ricochet your own proton cannons against you. Buck Rogers, Planet of Zoom. Your one chance to defeat the toughest enemy of all. Time. f you've played Buck Rogers, Planet of Zoom in the arcades, you've had a taste of what space chase action is all about. Now maybe you're ready for something even better A home game that takes the arcade version and makes it even faster, more challenging, more fun. You'll battle your way through 3-D space. Maneuver through bullet-firing magnetic poles and alien saucers. Shoot it out with hopping droids and enemy fighters until you face the ultimate challenge, the mother ship. But time is not on your side. You have to be fast to destroy the mother ship. If you're too slow, kiss mother goodbye. Look tor Buck Rogers at your local store. But hurry. This is one game thafs realty moving fast. .sua The Arcade Winners. COLOR TV I OR MONITOR 1 ATARI 850 - INTERFACE ■ By HENRY B. COHEN! This project began life as the "Ulti- mate Atari 400". It has grown into the ultimate computer game station. Although EG has previously designed equipment for gamers to drool over, (See "The Ultimate Gaming Gift", De- cember, 1982) it is the first time we enlisted the aid of a major manufac- turer to help create a totally new prod- uct. Lastly, we planned to feature this design concept in the December 1982 issue but alas, as we kept on improv- ing, time was disapproving. Instead of compromising, we opted to reveal all in this month, instead. The station is the first computer center that is both compact enough to fit almost anywhere and is completely self-contained. Within its boundaries lies an extremely powerful (80K) color computer, a color TV, high-capacity dual disk drives, two speech synthesiz- ers, a light pen, a modem and tele- phone, a complete printer station, storage areas for 50 cartridges and 60 disks, built-in lighting and a power- strip. The rolling cube, primarily de- signed for seating, is hinged at the top to provide 4 cu. ft. of additional stor- age. Amazingly, the entire unit is bare- ly 31 -in. wide. Now, before someone dies of curiosity, let's look at the com- ponents that made it all possible. The station is centered on an Atari 400 outfitted with a Mosaic Select 64 RAM cram, an Inhome Software B Key 400 keyboard and a Microbits Peripheral Products Printer Interface. We selected these products, and all others, based on the criteria of price and performance. The Mosaic board provides the computer with a true user-addressable 64K of RAM. To Here it is in all its glory — the ultimate computer game station. Note how every major component is in easy reach for printing. achieve this, the unit features the trad- itional hard-wired 48K of memory and 16K of additional memory stored in four, 4K RAM banks. A simple poke command accesses these banks so that a total of 64K is available. The operating and I/O systems are left intact, and if added to the RAM provided by the Select unit, produce the 80K configuration, Installation is simple and straightforward. Often, it will be solderless, but some owners will have to solder depending on how closely Atari has trimmed the leads eminating from the motherboards. In- stallation of the B Key 400 keyboard is a straight Remove and Replace opera- tion although the ribbon connector used is troublesome to seat properly. A short circuit condition arose after several days of use when a jumper cable employed in the keyboard frayed its insulation. There won't be any problem if all jumpers used are well-insulated or clear the board by a fraction of an inch. A simple chip re- placement has the printer interface up and running within minutes. The Atari 400 was selected, because many of EG's readers currently own one, and the cost of the unit has be- come insignificant. If, however, you don't own an Atari computer and want to purchase one, we recommend the 800 as the place to start. It comes equipped with a reasonable keyboard and with 48K of on-board RAM, doesn't require retrofitting to provide countless hours of gaming and pro- gramming power and pleasure. At its current street price of $200.00, it is unquestionably the best buy in home computers. The Microbits Printer In- terface eliminates the need for the rel- atively expensive Atari 850 Interface but if you own an 850, forget we even mentioned it. The current cost of our modified 400 is $240.00 without the Microbits product, and about $320.00 with it. With 800's priced so low, the choice is tough as the pure Atari prod- uct provides a better keyboard and a monitor output for less money, while the EG Atari 400 gives 16K of addi- tional memory but only an RF (TV) output. Either Atari computer, or most other small home computers, for that matter, will comfortably fit in the cabinetry, however, so if your interests THE ULTIMATE GAMING GIFT EG Engineers A State-of -the- Art Computer Gaming Station THE ULTIMATE lie elsewhere, don't leave us yet. With all that power available, there's no current Atari game that can't be played on this system. But to get those games up and running you really need a disk drive. Having au- ditioned several drives, including Atar- i's own 810, we selected the superb Percom RFD 44-S2. This is a dual drive, double side, double density sys- tem for the price-is-no-object crowd GAMING GIFT By now it must be obvious that EG intended to create a model system capable of performing virtually any task in the world of home computing. Given the high cost of many of these components, however, we are also providing many options along the way. You can get by with less RAM although 48K is the minimum EG recommends. The power of 700K of mass storage is unnecessary unless In this shot, note the paper shelves. With just a push and a flip they vanish. as the unit retails at discount for about $1000.00. Obviously you needn't go that far to play games, but if you are a programmer or crave convenience, this is the drive system of choice. We expect that Percom's other drives will prove just as desirable although we can't say for sure without hands-on experience. The unit comes with the OS/A+ operating system, a DOS de- signed for the almost 700K capacity of the dual drives. One particularly note- worthy feature of this new DOS is that it allows software configuration of the drives. The drives may also be set by a rear mounted DIP switch. you plan to program. The minimum requirement is a single sided, single density drive. And if you own an 850 interface, the Microbits Printer Interface is un- necessary. However, if you're starting from scratch, as we did, you might want to check out this unit and one other Microbit creation. Their MPP- 1000 modem connects directly to joystick port #4 and does not require an 850 either. We could not actually test this unit because the modem must be inserted in the telephone line be- tween the body of the phone and the receiver. All our phones are of non-Bell origin and so we had to content ourselves with running the software only. Judging from the menu, it looks extremely powerful. Microbits has created communications software that emulates a great many functions of a "smart" modem. It simplifies up and down loading and contains nine buffers and a built-in editor to keep things humming along. By the time you read this, the company should be marketing a modem that connects directly to the phone jack. The only reservation we have about MPP products is the relatively high ($200.00) list price of the modem. For that kind of money, a Hayes Smart- modem is within range. Unless you can get an MPP-1000 at a substantial discount, the value is questionable. But if you don't own an 850 interface, this is the only modem we know of that operates without one. To furnish the station with a work- ing modem, and to get a crack at the lowest cost unit around, Anchor Auto- mation supplied us with its latest product — Volksmodem. This is a super-low-cost device (retailing for about $65.00) that can service almost any computer. The trick lies in its oper- ating simplicity and the use of custo- mized cables. Two slide switches on the modem are user-operable. One selects half or full duplex operation, while the other is a voice/data switch. Tones generated by the modem aid in revealing operational status as the unit automatically selects the originate or answer mode. In use, the modem seems to work well and is simplicity itself to operate. It does not come with software and so the total cost of the package is variable. Still it is cheap, compact, and guaranteed for life. The Tech-Sketch LP-15 precision light pen is a miniature marvel and comes supplied with software. Just load the program, plug the pen into joystick port #4 and away you go. The program is the only weak link as it is written in BASIC and so is therefore slightly slow to respond. We prefer machine language programs which we are told are on the way. As of this writing the company has announced a line of improved software packages but even in their absence, we can totally recommend this unit. It isn't cheap since it lists at $139.95, but it When you play Congo Bongo ill die laughing. A funny thing happens when you play Congo Bongo, the new home game from Sega. In fact, a lot of funny things happen. You have to get to Congo, the mighty ape, before the jungle beasts get to you. Dodge falling coconuts as you scale Monkey Mountain. Shake the monkey from your back and chase Congo onto the lagoon screen. Then cross the water on the backs of hippos, lily pads and hunter-eattng fish. And do it all before Congo makes a monkey out of you. But watch your step - one slip and ifs off to hunter heaven. Congo Bongo. Straight from the arcade and into your home. Ifs more fun than a barrel of, well, monkeys. and VIC-ZO; Texas Instruments 99/4A " Intelllvislon- THE ULTIMATE GAMING GIFT Bl ■Uf II is extremely good and worth the cost. As mentioned earlier, the unit has two speech synthesizers. Why two? Our favorite for the Atari computer is the Voice Box II from The Alien Croup. This is a seemingly simple little black box (retail is about $100.00) that thinks it's a printer. It plugs into the Atari serial port and talks through your TV's loudspeaker. It comes with two disks full of programs and can enter- tain for hours. Games, simple text to speech, and a wonderful moving face and singing program round out the package. The ease of running the unit will delight novices while program- mers will have a field day inputting all manner of craziness. Games that talk, faces that sing, and if you're good enough, perhaps a real test-to-speech program. But if you require the latter, the Echo Speech Synthesizer at $300.00 is for you. The unit contains its own amplifier and speaker and is easily connected to the 850 interface device. We prefer the Echo to its com- petition because it sounds a bit more human and is more easily understood. When it comes to printers, the best price/value combination on the mar- ket is the Gorilla Banana from Leading Edge, The unit is currently street priced at $200.00 and it works. Print quality, while not up to the standards of the best dot matrix units, is more than satisfactory. Built by Seikosha, a divi- sion of Seiko, it is a high quality unit throughout, If you crave an 80- column printer and can live with a moderately fast 50 CPS printing speed, buy the Banana. You may have noticed, in the illus- trations, a compact color monitor sit- ting in the cabinet. Well it isn't a moni- tor, it's a portable AC/DC 9-in. color TV marketed by Magnavox, We opted for this unit based on size, perfor- mance, appearance and price, The set now sells for about $270.00. That's higher than some "real" monitors, but it can be taken and played anywhere. Double duty is the key. Picture quality is particularly good and, with the 400's RF output, exemplary. The only draw- back to the set is relatively low bright- ness, but when you're staring at a screen all day, this may become a ben- efit. We recommend you try the set with a computer attached — its broadcast reception is ex eel lent — and then you can judge for yourself. Lastly, only a touch of modesty pre- vents screaming from the rooftops "we did it!" but the cabinet that makes the whole system work is no- thing short of stupendous. Engineered and built for this magazine by Wood- Rack Technologies, the yet unnamed EG Computer Station is a brilliant ex- ample of compactness, versatility and convenience. Wood-Rack is well known for its heavy duty construction and lack of visible hardware. Moreov- er the unit assembles without tools. It is simply fitted together. The result is a cabinet strong enough to endure any- thing even the youngest gamers can conjure up. This thing is a tank. More important, it's fitted with a sliding drawer for the printer, a folding table for paper reception, hidden wiring compartments for neatness, special storage racks for disks, and a fully pro- tected compartment for cartridges. Other touches you may miss include a blackened compartment for the monitor, a white roofed compartment for the printer and keyboard, wire storage units on the rear of the cabinet, optional casters for rolling the unit about and a spacious storage bench. There's even a turntable to facilitate adjusting the TV for max- imum picture quality. Actually the list goes on but you get the idea. While a firm price for the cabinet has not been established, it is expected to retail for $350.00, perhaps $50.00 more for the bench. While the unit is designed to house the specific equipment contained, it is also set up for maximum versatility. Most home computers will fit in with- out any problem, as will many small printers. The disk bay will hold two horizontal units or a cassette recorder, The paper shelf is strong enough to support additional disk drives or another computer, etc. So that's the 1984 edition of the ultimate computer station. Sugges- tions and comments are welcomed as we would like to continue this project until nothing conceivable can be added. If you are interested in the cabinet, contact Wood-Rack Tech- nologies at: (212) 768-3835 or 768- 3861 and no, EG has no vested in- terest in this project other than the desire to better the breed, G • Pole Position II is engineered and -nanuteckired under license by Atar " ademark and © Namco 1982, ESMES1ISC What's Next for Games on Videodisc? By LES PAUL ROBLEY and BILL KUNKEL The dust kicked up by Don Bluth/ Cinematronics' coin-op smash, Dragon's Lair, hasn't even begun to settle — more likely, it is continuing to rise — and it's already time to start looking at what's coming next. Dragon's Lair was a curious success, right from the beginning. Certainly, heading into 1983, few industry insid- ers would have figured the "Next Big Arcade Came" to come from the bankrupt Cinematronics. The El Cajon coin-op company has been an invisi- ble, if revolutionary, entity in terms of industry recognition for almost a decade. Actually, Cinematronics introduced vector graphics to arcades with the seminal space shoot-out Star Hawk, and produced the cult favorite Space Castle. Alas, vector graphics were per- ceived as a "fad" among arcade taste- makers when games such as Zaxxon were taking the traditional rasterscan graphics to the limits. Cinematronics was left with a lot of vector monitors, however, and dog- gedly bucked the tide with a con- tinuing trickle of largely-ignored videogames. The wind-up seemed im- minent when Cinematronics went Chapter 11. Don Bluth, a former Disney anima- tor, was sitting around during all of this, buried in the ashes of his own major failure. Bluth and a few other Disney creative people left Uncle Walt's wing to try and fly on their own with the enchanting "The Secret of NIHM". The result, at the box office, was disastrous. So, of course, these two forces man- aged to intersect long enough to make videogame history. What else? In many ways, however, this seemingly haphazard fate is a lot more prosaic than it first appears. Who else but a company such as Cinematronics, on the ropes, slipping toward the can- vas with Mr. T waiting above just in case it did get up, dare produce a laser- disc-technology based coin-op? It is in the nature of laserdisc videogames that they will be "conver- tible", that is, the arcade owner will be able to buy a new disc, change the signs around, and, voilai, he's got a brand new machine. Convertible coin-ops have been pretty much an anathema amongst the coin-op giants. "It's the nature of our industry," explains a spokesman for Bally-Midway, "that we need to make every videogame a new machine. Aesthetically, we can create each new cabinet so that it offers uni- que lathework and, technologically, we can make the post state-of-the-art breakthroughs in sound and graphics, only by taking in major revenue for each new coin-op. These convertible coin-ops are generic videogames, they show mediocre graphics and warmed- over game ideas. That is not what this field needs." Yet Dragon's Lair is a whole new ballgame, In early showings, accord- ing to Replay magazine, arcades Cinematronics' Dragon's Lair was the first of the laserdisc games, but it has strong competiti boasting the then-hard to get Drag- on's Lair were up an average of $30 per night on all videogames. The in- dustry has been virtually without a dominant title since Pac-Man. A look at the top 1 earners makes an arcader feel like he has wandered into the past — Calaga, Ms. Pac-Man and Mil- lipede represent some of the younger blood on the list! In the summer of '83, only Atari's Star Wars was in the same lair as our dragon, with the first animated videogame drawing attention in vir- tually every medium. It was an explo- sion a long time in detonation. Five years earlier, a designer named Rick Dyer had his AMS crew working on a concept for telling a story using a home videogame process with players making decisions that affected the outcome of the story. AMS completed several prototype storyboards on scrolls, which they took to Bluth. "A computer selected the correct scene on the scrolls," explains Bluth. "It was a very crude approach, and when I look at the process today it reminds me of a Rube Goldberg machine of the '80s. Nevertheless, we thought it a splendid idea in terms of marrying art with science, one which would not only help the sliding videogame market, but benefit the floundering animation industry as well." ESMESOH DISC It worked. Utilizing an industrial Pioneer Laserdisc (which Cinematro- nics had to wheedle from the ware- houses in which they remained, un- sold) the game offered rapid search, using a laser beam in lieu of an actual needle, allowing the beam to scan the entire record in order to bring up the scene that is the logical result of the player's action commands. There is still, of course, a slight time lag, but it is not an insoluble problem, and future games may circumvent it entirely. Ah, yes, future games. Bluth already has several projects under development. Space Ace in- volves a super hero who is reduced to an infant named Dexter by the evil "Infanto Ray" (shades of Flash Cor- don). In his child form, Dexter boards a spaceship and pursues the evil alien villain, a creature called Borf who has kidnapped his girlfriend and threatens to reduce all of earth to screaming infants. If the player, as Dexter, makes all the right moves, he gains points. Earn enough points and the screen will glow reddish, beeps will sound, and letters will say "energize." If the player opts to energize, he will turn back into Space Ace with only 1 2 seconds to use that form. Like Pac-Man, Space Ace can now meet even greater dangers, earning higher points. Or the player can remain as Dexter, pursuing a safer route and consequently earning fewer points. "Unlike Dragon's Lair, Space Ace will have a branching capability whereby players decide how they want to go through the game," announced Bluth. The branching ele- ment gives them the opportunity of becoming two different personalities. Again, the new game will feature a joystick plus an action button. "We tried to keep it simple this way," added Bluth. "If you make con- trols too complicated, the game loses its fun. Players should concentrate mainly on what they see on the screen." New techniques will also be em- ployed in the animation process. More multiplanes will be used (trucking shots present no problems with laser- disc), as well as actual miniatures for backgrounds a la Max and Dave Fleis- Which player is winging his way to victory? ATARI cher. Using a periscope camera in front of the model and dollying lateral- ly will impart an added 3-dimensional realism to the backgrounds. "We found we needed that kind of look to help players know when to react and size up what the danger is," added Gary Goldman, Don Bluth's animation director (Bluth's own studio is manufacturing the models.) Bluth foresees future breakthroughs with laserdisc interactives, some of which should appear in two year's time. One will be the ability to place the animation on any background de- sired, not unlike the travelling matte processes used on motion pictures. The backgrounds might be on a sepa- rate laserdisc and put together via computer, without the need for ex- pensive matting. We may even come across games whereby a move to the right would invite a totally different EMS OK DISC upfront for the license, with plans to couple their ColecoVision game con- sole to a home laserdisc player. Coleco is supposedly on the brink of develop- ing a disc player attachment that will hook into their unit for approximately $1 50 or less. It should utilize the same digital joystick controller and action buttons featured on the keypad. According to Goldman, the home version will contain the same anima- tion graphics used in the present arcade format, since no picture in- formation or memory losses occur in disc translation. The actual disc player, though, may be stylus rather than las- er to reduce cost. The game won't be available until next year — the main reason — so it doesn't compete with arcade owners trying to recoup invest- ments made on the coin -op. Coleco has also purchased first right of refusal for future Bluth games produced adventure. Or, the ability will exist to move the figure regardless of the ac- tion or threat. This would obviously increase the illusion that the player has total control of the animated char- acter. "There can never be total control with laserdisc," cautioned Goldman, "or any videogame that's out there now. It's only the illusion of total con- trol which we hope to increase in the future over the present game. In Dragon's Lair, our basic approach was to entertain, to capture an audience's imagination. By being the first one out there and possessing the quality of graphics it has, I think Dragon's Lair has excited that audience. It's also forced game manufacturers to look a fittle differently at the future of elec- tronic gaming. "What we offer is a 'window of the future', a means by which gamers can In Bally Midway's Astron Belt, gam- ers will find an interesting blend of videogame graphics and film footage. play movies. Down the road, I think we'll see more film companies approach videogames via their own film productions. Rather than take the character from a film and create a game around it, they will take the movie and at the same time produce a game based on the actual live-action or animation from the film." A home version of the current Drag- on's Lair is underway at Coleco In- dustries. The top selling game manu- facturer paid an incredible $2 million under the Starcom banner. Success in the homes once again depends on the consumer's investment in videodisc hardware. Naturally, a sequel to Lair is already in the works, this one using a motif, in which the player battles the knight, Dirk the Daring, by manipulat- ing the various menaces he confronts. Bluth and Cinematronics aren't the only ones involved in laserdisc coin- ops, and the home rights to same. Bal- ly/Midway recently jumped into the fray by acquiring Sega Enterprises and their laserdisc game — Astron Belt. After many changes, Astron Belt, a multiple-scenario shoot- 'em-up, fea- tures actual miniature film footage. In this fast-paced game, the arcader's spaceship battles the bad guys in outer space, within space station tunnels, and between canyon walls, as well as strafes ground targets. With the new joy-sensor™ controller and JOY«SENSOR for Colecovision the action \ ^ 1 ■ TOUCH OF SU( JOVSEnSOR Available at sears," Service Merchandise and other fine stores According to Jim Jarocki, of Bally, there are some basic differences be- tween Astron Belt and Dragon's Lair. For one thing, the gamer will have complete control of the ship through- out the game. Because the computer doesn't branch to other scenarios ev- ery few seconds, there aren't any blackout screens. Another difference has to do with the first seconds of play. "In Drag- on's Lair, you can get wiped out in a couple of seconds," Jarocki says. "In Astron Belt, we added a timer — you can think of it as a 'protect-your-life' feature. For the first 40 to 60 seconds, the gamer's spaceship is automatically replaced if it's destroyed. It's sort of like playing with an infinite amount of ships." The ultimate evolution of laserdisc games, as alluded to earlier, may well be in the home. With the restrictions of coin-op games being so great, espe- cially in terms of maximum time, think how much more freedom the home medium would provide. The average filmmaker shoots much more actual footage than is ever seen on the screen. How easy it would be to shoot alternate plot develop- ments as a film is in process — players could actually be Luke Skywalker or Indiana Jones, and film companies will have yet another format in which to sell their wares. Whatever may lie ahead for the in- teractive videodisc game, it is certainly all smiles right now. Dragon's Lair has the interesting distinction of being the only coin-op ever to be set, standard, at 50 cents per play, and still hit big. With arcades alive again with the sound of tokens, tinkling merrily into coin boxes, gamers can get ready for a CMS OH DEC Among the over 40 laserdisc screens in Bega's Battle is this cityseape. Note the superimposed graphics, deluge of videodisc coin-ops from some of the smaller companies. Obviously working on the philoso- phy that "when you ain't got nothin', you ain't got nothin' to lose", Exidy has jumped back into the videogame business with Crossbow, a less car- toonish adventure utilizing a mass solid state memory system with no moving parts. Crossbow utilizes greater player- game interaction, according to Exidy's promotional releases, than a game such as Dragon's Lair which offers joystick directed movement and a single button to inaugurate particular action — such as letting fly with a salvo of arrows. Exidy promises eight scenarios for Crossbow, with no "dead spots" while the laser searches for the correct position. Data East, meanwhile, kings of the generic videogame and the creators of both BurgerTime and Bump 'N' Jump, are also entering the laserdisc sweepstakes with a new coin-op dub- bed Bega's Battle. Utilizing over 40 interactive, disc-generated screens for background and P. C. -created charac- ters as foreground player/object sur- rogates, this title pits the arcader, as the powerful Bega, in a battle against those ever-popular "dark forces" in- tent upon ravaging and subduing mankind. The future for videodisc games is, obviously, now. A major battle is being waged on the arcade floors, and neither side can be called "dark for- ces". Will the laserdisc prove a fad, a flash-in-the-pan, yesterday's papers tomorrow? Or might they, instead, overwhelm and dominate the coin-op universe with their breadth of poten- tial subjects, forevertoppling the com- puter-generated image from its perch at the top of the hill. More likely, however, is the fact that laserdisc-technology will become part of the overall videogame matrix. Already, in the home market, laser- disc's such as "Murder, Anyone?" and "Many Roads to Murder" can be play- ed simply through digitized access to numerous scenarios, sans computer. More than any other industry, videogames have displayed a tremendous willingness to evolve with the introduction of new, augmented technology. Q Bega's Battle, by Data East, pits the gamer (as the powerful Bega) against the evil powers intent on destroying mankind. sfp5%^ ' V b/75i5S^ / 1 wo new 'frfij 1 video game 1 adventures l TJSp^niPa j**^ atroiii mici|jiiddc! ^ A great games- withaf faurshi Enemv A great visual concept in video games-play by yourself or team with a friend to brinp home to earth tour ships loaded with vital supplies. Enemy aliens have blockaded your route, so you must flash through a mine-filled asteroid belt to avoid detection. You steer and shoot from your ship's nose-cone command post as the universe rushes past your eyes! One or two players compete to guide Sewer Sam through myriad mazes of danger-filled tunnels searching for. . . beep, beep beep . . . three enemy submarines that have invaded the city's sewer system. But watcti out for subterranean dangers, as Sam dodges and shoots snakes, crocodiles, bats, rats, web- spinning spiders, and more! Enough to make even the stout-hearted shudder. . . as Sam searches through wet and dry tunnels for the ultimate showdown! INTERPHASE ACTION PACKED VIDEO GAMES ARE NOW AVAILABLE FOR COLECOVISION ADAM. COMMODORE 64, ATARI, MSX, AND INTELLIVISION1 €GGOQ, By LISA HONDEN & BILL KUNKEL Pity the poor European electronic gaming enthusiast!!! While North American arcaders wrestle with problems no more serious than a temporary shortage of Col- ecoVision cartridges or Commodore 64 software, our game-loving cousins across the Atlantic must hurdle much serious — and basic — obstacles that stand in the way of their enjoy- ment of the world's fastest-growing hobby. The information gap between the U.S. and the Continent is the main trouble. Most Europe-based electronic gamers lack access to the majority of the hardware, software, peripherals and accessories which we take for granted. EEESiH KSaXttBSEK.'SES: (DNTIH Those who are lucky enough to own home systems paid through the nose to get one. The 450,000 West German families who own Atari 2600s shell- ed out an average of 400 Marks (roughly $200) for their machines. The software situation isn't much brighter. In-store game demonstra- tions are virtually unknown in the large department stores which do most of the home arcade retailing. Strong networks and user groups have sprung up to fill this data vacuum. It isn't unusual for a gamer to demon- strate an entire collection to a fellow enthusiast. Needless to say, word-of- mouth is the quickest route to popular- ity for a new title. Not only can't gam- ers see what they're buying in the big stores, but a prospective customer must know the title's stock number before walking in the door! (And if you think home arcading is rugged on the pocketbook, German coin-ops top out at a world-high average of $1 per playl) Here is a rough breakdown of game and computer system ownership in Germany, a fair index of how things are* progressing in at least one videogame-entranced European nation: There are approximately 1 00,000 VIC-20s (Commodore has al- ways sold well in Europe, even when it was failing in the U.S. a few years back), 100,000 Intellivisions and the previously-mentioned 450,000 Atari 2600s. As of this writing, not one German gamer has a ColecoVision wired to his TV. And you think you've got it rough. Ha! A major fly in the arcading ointment "over there" is the format for Euro- pean television broadcasting. Since TV viewing hours begin at 5 p.m. and end at 1 a.m., family members can be found fighting for either the switch box or channel changer in a true death struggle for video supremacy. Videogames are cutting into the typi- cal European family's long-established pattern of enjoying purely passive en- tertainment at certain, proscribed periods. What do German, French, Italian, or Scandanavian arcaders who want to know what's going on do? Well, one beacon in the mirk has been the licens- ing of Electronic Games magazine in several European markets by a variety of publishers. France, for example, has Tilt!, an interesting look at the gaming scene in that country. Germany, however, has what is probably the finest European gaming publication, Tele-Match. STRATEGIE UNDTAKTIK VonFUANKTETROja This is Germany's "Strategy Session". Tele-Match has modelled its struc- ture very closely on EG's modular approach, using as many translated articles as fits that market place's readership, and gobs of the same gorgeous artwork EG readers enjoy each month. T-M is published month- ly and presently uses about 10 full- time staff writers. The differences between EG and its European cousins are often more en- lightening than the similarities. Some use rather risque pin-ups, ads are styled for the native culture and Tele- Match finds that cartoon characters work better than the established videogame characters such as Pac- Man and Q'Bert. Even more licensing deals will be announced soon. It is not impossible that before long EG will be appearing in every language known to man. Or, as we like to say: wherever e" ' gaming goes, can EG be far behind? G €hlfl own to man. ur, erever electronic A Europe Joins the Game World •- COMPUTER GRininc 50 ■ SOFTWARE SHOWCASE 58 ■ ARTICLES OF WAR 62 ■ PASSPORT TO ADVENTURE 63 ■ THINK TANK 64 ■ ELECTRONIC PRESSBOX SOFTWARE SHOWCASE ORC ATTACK Thorn EMU Atari/cartridge Some highly unusual mechanics spice this contest in which the player must defend the ramparts of a castle against a host of ravening ores and their various supernatural allies. The besieging force has decided to go all- out in its assault, and the harried de- fender will have to use the three main weapons — rocks, swords and burn- ing oil — quickly and effectively to keep the subhuman warriors from rac- ing up their scaling ladders to over- whelm the imposing stone fortress that fills the entire play screen. The well-drawn defender zips back and forth across the top of the screen on the battlements in response to the joystick. He moves at a fairly rapid pace, however, so that it is necessary to press and hold the action button to slow him down enough to make accu- rate aiming of missiles directed at the s possible. Before the player's on- screen character can do anythir deter the advancing army, he must g a weapon by visiting the caches lo- cated at the extreme left and right edges of the display. Once armed with a rock — the usual weapon — he can drop it on the ladder-climbing ores be- low, slowing their progress up the wall. Since there are many ores and only one defender, the player must rush hither and yon, making split- second strategic decisions on the fly and not forgetting to watch out for sneaky ninja ores which don't even need ladders to climb the wall. If the ores do get a ladder built that carries one to the battlements, the program automatically gives the de- fender a sword instead of a rock the next time he rearms. As the ore tries to stab the defender with a dagger, the player's man can swipe at the loath- some creature with the swod. Pulling the handle straight toward the arcader causes the defender to make an espe- cially strong cut with the blade. Too many of these tiring strokes weaken your man, so they must be used with some restraint. The burning oil is a clever device used to end each wave of attack. When an oil flash appears, dropping it on the attackers causes them to burn up entirely, clearing the way for another assault at a more challenging level of difficulty. And when even those crossbow-firing savages fail to strike terror in the player's heart, look out for the spell-casting wizard, repul- sive stone warts, and the demon trolls which appear in a tower of flame. Ore Attack's greatest strengths are its clever graphics, distinctive play- action and entertaining premise. It can also be a tiring game, one that most home arcaders will not want to test their mettle against too many times in a row. It's great fun to play as a change-of-pace from other, more standard action games, though, and strongly recommended to Atari com- puter-owners for that reason. (Steve Davidson) TROAAPERS Avant-Carde Creations/ Apple ll/48Kdiik I Pity poor Arnold Strump. Life is, at | best, a dog-eat-dog affair for the man from the animal pound, and now he's got a knee-shaking problem in Trom- pers. Mr. Strump's shortwave radio hobby has gotten out of hand; his gear : is sending out an intergalactic wel- come that has residents of the planet Tromp streaming toward our little I world. 1 The computerist uses the joystick to I move Arnold Strump (rendered in clean linework) back and forth across the bottom of the screen. One-crea- ture flying saucers enter the display near the upper left corner and skim across the screen to leave by the oppo- I site edge. At some point, the cute little I tromper inside will abandon ship and IWASA MIDWESTERN YOUTH TELLS BROUGHT HIM BACK FROM A LIVING DEATH. "IT GOT SO I COULDN'T LET GO," con- fesses John Carlson of Hickory Falls, Iowa. "My hands were welded to my joystick 24 hours a day. Blisters covered both my thumbs, my wrists ached, my eyes throbbed . . ." It had started as mindless play for young Johnny. But now it was turning his ■ mind to green jelly. :i mF Finally, concerned \ ••♦^'k IB relatives decided to MHSfqdB ^P seek help. Johnny JT W ^ H remembers: "I'd passed out after 63 million points— I forget which game. When I came to, I saw a personal com- puter in my room, with an Infocom game in the disk drive. I just sat there, numb, staring at the words on the screen." Then— the revelation. "There was like this voice inside the computer, talking to my imagi- nation. Suddenly, I was inside the story. I'd never experienced anything like it— challenging puzzles, realistic people, true dangers. Infocom had plugged into my mind, and shot me into a whole new dimension." "Sure, I still play video games. But now I know there's more to life than joysticks." Johnny's folks agree. "We've got our boy back," says Mrs. Carlson, "thanks to Infocom." We can't save all the Johnnies. But many can still be reached through the remarkable prose of such Infocom games as ZORK* DEADLINE, 1 " The WITNESS,™' INFIDEL™ PLANET- FALL 1 ;" and ENCHANTER.™' So please- before its too late— step up to Infocom. All words. No pictures. The secret regions of your mind are beckoning. A new dimension is in there waiting for you. (For more information on Infocom games, contact: Infocom, Inc., P.O. Box 85;>. Garden City, NY 11530.) inFocom The next dimension. try to land on the surface. Arnold must catch these space visitors with his net, either on the fly or after one or more bounces. The trompers arrive in waves of in- creasing .size, first three, then five, seven and nine. Wiping out an entire wave earns the player an extra life up to a maximum of nine. Getting through a complete round — that would mean catching a total of 24 creatures — starts a fresh series- This isn't a very challenging game, even when person-holes are added (on level #3). It's hard to see how Trompers could hold many terrors for electronic gamers weaned on the likes of Repton and Shamus. On the other hand, its undeniable charm and straightforward simplicity make Trompers one of the best kideo disks on the market. It's too bad that Avant- Garde's packaging, further undercut by skimpy documentation, doesn't call this aspect of the game to the atten- tion of prospective buyers. While adults are apt to find Trompers slightly tricky rather than genuinely mind- stretching, it appears to be a psycho- logically sound choice as a vehicle for introducing youngsters to the pleasure of home arcading. Pre-teeners will like the theme with its humorous overtones, and their folks will probably appreciate the de- emphasis on violence and shooting, Give the publisher a gold star for addressing the needs of the youngest gamers, with a couple of demerits for not making sure the gaming public would get the message. (Arnie Katz) ARCHON Electronic Arts/Atari/48K disk The forces of Light and Darkness square off in mortal combat in a quest campuTER GRminti to control an ever-changing playfield in this fascinating contest that borrows elements from sorcery, mythology, and chess. The ultimate object of Archon is to place a game icon (a character repre- senting either the Dark or Light side) on each of the five power points sym- metrically placed on a checkerboard- like playfield. The army of Light, under the guidance of the wizened old Izard, consists of knights, amazon irchers, unicorns, valkyries, golems, a phoenix, and a djinni. The Sorceress commands the Dark Forces, an intimi- dating crew made up of goblins, ban- shees, trolls, manticores, basilisks, a shapeshifter, and a dragon. Each side is slightly different, but with equal might. The innate skills of the individual "soldier" influences the way each icon moves across the black, white, or gray squares (banshees can fly over occu- pied squares, while goblins are more earth-bound). The particular charac- ter's abilities influence how far it can move, which direction it moves in, and the sort of attack mode it uses when challenged for the rights to a square. Unlike chess, having the "domi- nant" piece does not automatically guarantee possession of a square. The idea behind Archon is that even the lowliest of character types can win a battle, given a little luck and a lot of skill. In this game, whenever one char- acter challenges another for squatting rights to a square, the territory in dis- pute enlarges to encompass the entire playing screen, and the two "game pieces" pit their unique abilities against each other in a fight to the finish. The survivor keeps possession of the square — for the time being, anyway. An example of the types of attack modes the characters use is the evil, wailing Banshee. To damage an opponent, the spirit must get close enough to catch her enemy in a pierc- ing cloud of sound. The virtuous Knights depend on theirtrusty swords, while the unicorns hurl small missile weapons. An important factor influences the actions of Light and Dark alike — the ever-shifting color of the squares be- neath the armies' feet. While some of the black or white squares remain fixed in theiroriginal shades, many key squares cycle through hues of black, white and gray in a predictable, fixed pattern. The color of the square an icon stands on influences the outcome of any combat it engages in. If a character stands on a square of its own color (Dark on dark or Light on light), the icon draws extra strength from the territory and has a longer lifeline in battle situations (the lifelines of respective combatants are shown at the sides of the screen during the battle sequence; the longer the life- line, the more injury a character can sustain without dying). Characters forced to do battle for a square of the opposite hue have a distinct disadvan- tage. Gray squares offer varying de- grees of protection. The color-shifting squares cycle slightly with each turn, a strategic challenge considering that ARCHON {ELECTRONIC ARTS) three of the five power points are lo- cated on unstable territory. The Wizard and the Sorceress begin each game standing on power points that match their own color (well, almost. . .the forces of Light are actually yellow, while the Dark side is blue). Each mage has the ability to cast up to seven different spells, each affecting the game in a different way. For example, magic can be used to "heal" a wounded icon, "revive" a dead one, or "teleport" a character to a different square. Each spell can be used only once per game. In its two-player variation, Archon is one of the most satisfying, innovative, mentally stimulating games available for the Atari computer. Its one-player option, which pits the gamer against a computer opponent, is a bit too hare for the average player, though. In this option, the only way to win is to con- vince the computer that you're an idiot by making stupid moves at the start of the game. Then, when it lets down its defenses, go in for the kill. To beat the computer, players have to learn to shoot diagonally'. Archon is a beautifully crafted game that pleases both the mind and the body. To win, both its strategy and its action elements must be mastered. The graphics and animation are good, as are the sound effects that accom- pany each character's movement. And, as with all of Electronic Arts' re- leases, it's attractively packaged in a record album-box, with detailed, well- written instructions. Chalk up another winner for Electronic Arts — and Freefall Associates. (Trade Forman) CLIPPER: AROUND THE HORN IN 1850 PDI/ Atari /32K disk Every so often a software manufac- turer releases a new title that makes a wave in the endless stream of look- alike shoot-'em-ups and cute maze- chases. Program Design, Inc., the company that produced the Arcade Award winner Moonbase lo, has done just that with Clipper: Around the Horn in 1850, its new offering for the Atari computers. What makes Clipper so noteworthy is its overall concept and design — a narrated game simula- tion with three screens that is not only entertaining, but also an education in sailing and its history. At the outset of the program, the gamer chooses one of 10 available I 19th Century clipper ships to captain and sail from New York to San Francis- co via Cape Horn. Because each vessel has its own characteristics, the gamer must outfit each voyage differently. Even in the same ship, a different man- ifest may be required because of fluc- tuations in the cost of provisions and the amount of money on hand in the treasury. The gamer outfits his clipper by en- tering the number of crew members he or she wishes to hire and the amount of cargo and provisions the ship intends to take on. All the in- formation is entered using the joystick and the fire button. (That's "user- friendly".) Once the gamer has outfit- ted the vessel, the race around the tip of South America begins. Don't get the idea, though, that it's clear sailing. Sail Around Cape Horn, but Watch out for The Reefs, the Icebergs, and The Crew! Two screens display the ship's log- book and a map of the western hemi- sphere. However, most of the time the player will use the main screen, which shows the bridge of the clipper and provides four important readings. Proper usage of these readings is absolutely essential if the gamer doesn't wish to run aground or get lost at sea. (If either happens, a news clip- ping relates the sighting of the ship- wreck and the loss of all hands.) The readings, from left to right, are: the percentage of unfurled sail, the clip- per's position in longitude and lati- tude, the vessel's heading and speed, and the wind's direction and speed. CLIPPER (PDI) Fortunately for us landlubbers, the game designer, John Bayes, provides a build-it-yourself compass with the program . Perhaps not so fortunately, he has also filled the oceans with uncharted reefs and maverick icebergs — oh, the sound of splintering wood! In addition to those dangers, the crew may be- come ill or decide to mutiny. If they do mutiny, the captain has the option of putting some or all of them in chains. There are also other dangers calcu- lated to convince gamers that sailing the Seven Seas is a little tougher than floating a rubber ducky in the bathtub. As if the program itself weren't enough to satisfy most gamers, PDI added an optional voice cassette to the simulation. If the gamer elects to use it, it entertains with traditional sea chanties, gives advice from an ex-cap- tain, and threatens with a crusty pirate. All in all, Clipper is an entertaining simulation . But don 't allow the lapping waves to dull your judgement be- cause that sound and the sound of seagulls usually means there's a reef right ahead. Hard to port! Lower that sail! (Vincent Puglia) TUBEWAY Datamost/ Apple II/48K disk It isn't always easy to fathom the actions of the governments of Earth's nation states, so it isn't altogether sur- prising that aliens from another uni- verse go about things in a somewhat different fashion than we do. As the pilot of a space scout, you encounter hard evidence of the truth of this observation in the form of the Tube- way, a vast construction hanging in the void. Some force locks your craft to the rim of the vast geometric form as an invasion fleet swarms out of the hyperspace warp located at its center. Although this perimeter shooting game is playable with keyboard con- trols, it reaches its true potential when the gamer employs a paddle. Use the knob to make your shooter skim along the edge of each of 32 progressively more difficult geometric playfields. You can shoot at the four different types of aliens by hitting the paddle's action button. Needless to say, they're firing back, too. There is also a fierce creature known only as the Destroyer which inhabits the square cage found in the lower left-hand corner of the display. When the shortening vertical line on the right side of the screen disappears, the Destroyer breaks out of its cage and sails over to the Tube- way. The player's shooter is complete- ly vulnerable to the Destroyer and must avoid all physical contact with the ameboid attacker. The only defense against the De- stroyer — and the only way of elim- inating attacking aliens who man- age to gain a perch on the tubeway's rim — is to take advantage of the Super Zapper. When the timing line indicates that it is active, the Super Zapper starts to travel around the tubeway, one small segment at a time. If the player fires the shooter when it is on top of the lit segment, everything on the rim, including the Destroyer, goes poof! In fact, one type of attack- er, dubbed the "Five", is worth 500 points when kayo'd by the Super Zap- Award-Winning Hits for your Commodore ■Bimyrr ma \i ' - > ■, ' i : with a Free Software Bonus. per, but only five points if eliminated by a blast from the shooter. When you totally eliminate all the aliens on one screen, a new geometric figure takes its place. The gamer starts with a supply of three shooters and receives a reinforcement every time he tallies 20,000 points. Attaining this plateau also sets off some visual pyrotechnics on the screen. David Arthur Van Brink, creator of this magnificent target contest, went a bit overboard here, possibly in reaction to the scant notice most other games take of such mighty achievements. The graphic fireworks play such tricks with the screen that it is very, very hard to concentrate on the business at hand — blasting aliens. More than one home arcader will immediately lose that hard-won extra ship. Completing a playfield without loss of a shooter earns a bonus. It's worth 500 on the first level, 1 ,000 points on TOBEWAY (DATAMOST) the second, ana then rises by incre- ments of 500 points until it tops out at 2,000. The similarities between Tubeway and Atari's coin-op Tempest are ob- vious and undeniable. Yet Tubeway is not a mere clone of the quarter- snatcher. For instance, the attackers do not just advance toward the rim up the narrow channels, they actually ro- tate from pathway to pathway during flight, keeping the situation from get- ting too predictable. The presence of the Destroyer and Super Zapper also add an extra dimension to play, and put a great premium on finishing off each playfield as rapidly as possible. Think of Tubeway as being in the same gaming genre as Tempest rather than an outright copy and you'll have the general idea. The graphics are surprisingly good, especially in light of the limitations of COMPUTER GRminG rasterscan television technology. (Re- member, Atari used a vector graphics monitor with Tempest.) Each field flashes a rainbow of colors when it first appears, but it then reverts to a pur- plish monochrome. Well, at least the one-color design is a tad easier on the eyes during the heat of play, which can get mighty frenetic once you've conquered the first few, relatively easy, levels of play. Tubeway is a fine game that pre- sents a play mechanic that has not been used much in the videogame and computer game arenas as of yet. It is therefore bound to be of particularly great interest to fans of action arcade programs who want to test their abili- ties is an unusal setting. Highly rec- ommended. (Arnie Katz) SAMMY LIGHTFOOT Sierra On-Line/ Apple II/48K disk Before jaded members of the joy- stick jury start groaning about "another (expletive deleted) climbing game", it must be said that Sammy Lightfoot is both beautifully program- med (by Warren Schwader) and sur- prisingly different from the other climbing and jumping extravaganzas that have caught game-dom's fancy over the last 18 months. Sammy Lightfoot is a circus acrobat whom the player must guide through a three-screen obstacle course using the joystick. There are 12 skill levels for each scenario. If Sammy survives the gauntlet with a whole skin, the pro- gram automatically jumps to the next hardest setting. Displaying a touch of subtlety that's missing from too many disks these days, Schwader increases the challenge at each level without falling back on the simple expedient of just upping the speed of events. In Sammy Lightfoot, most of the added difficulty comes from additional nui- sance obstacles and added complica- tions in some of the tasks the acrobat must perform in order to pass his audition. Holding down the action button lets Sammy bounce higher and higher on the trampolines in the first scenario. Similarly, holding down the button makes him grab one of the trapezes which are so useful for getting over chasms between the platforms that are too wide for Sammy to jump. (2ND SCREEN) Swinging up to the platform where a pumpkin in sunglasses sits waiting ends the first scenario and sends Sam- my on to the next. This time, he must run under a row of plungers while making sure to avoid falling by step- ping on one of the disappearing plat- forms found below when it briefly winks out of existence. After crossing back by leaping from the top of one plungerto the next, Sammy steps onto a magic carpet for yet another cross- screen trip. Staying on the carpet is easy at skill level one, but its flightpath takes some strange dips and turns when the going gets tougher. Scenario three suffers slightly from its similarity to the second stanza. This time, the on-screen character must avoid hammers and puff balls, ride the elevator up the left side of the display and then use the trapeze to cross a flaming pit to land on a platform tenanted by another pumpkin in shades. The graphics, done with the aid of Courtney Smith, are irresistibly charm- ing. The playfields have very little FIRST, THE GOOD NEWS. ■W [** ^ First Star Has4#PNew Games. Fernando Herrera, the designer of ASTRO CHASE (1984 Superior graphics, real-time animations™, multiple screens, Science Fiction / Fantasy Computer Game of the Year* ) and intermissions, arcade-quality sound, innovative gaming, our design team again define "State of the Art." challenge and excitement— we deliver it all! THE BAD NEWS? You cant play them all at once. r mm L - Ik] * rj BOING! BRISTLES™ FLIP and FLOP™ PANIC BUTTON m»m AtirlVCS 2600 - Atari Home Computers - Commodore by Adam Bellin tx. Commodore Computers "Electronic Games Magazine 1984 Game Of The Tear Award background detail, but the significant objects are all well-drawn in a thin- line, cartoony style, that goes well with the circus atmosphere. Still, a few more trimmings might've helped rein- force the "Big Top" atmosphere. The instructions are a definite weak point, and that's a bit unusual for an On-Line disk. Oh, you can get a fair idea of the mechanics of play, but the rules don't really set much of a goal for the player. (It turns out that there's no grand design for Sammy beyond just getting through the audition in one piece). For instance, the countdown bonus clock is mentioned, but the au- thor of the rules folder doesn't really explain how difficulty adjustments affect the timing. This bit of know- ledge is not, admittedly, vital, but it's something most players like to know. This vagueness is particularly la- mentable because Sammy Lightfoot sports a large roster of pre-game options. At the push of the "return" key, you can choose the number of players (one or two), set the type of control {keyboard or stick) for each individually, turn the sound effects and opening tunes off and on, pick skill levels {one-six are selectable) for each participant and reset high scores. Once adjusted, these options can be saved for future reuse by pressing the "return" key at the appropriate time. Of course, we play the game, not the rulebook. And Sammy Lightfoot is a pleasant, if somewhat lightweight, are randomly firing cannons which travel up and down the various levels but do not jump across a hole created by the character. The third screen includes up and down elevators, unconnected girders and the usual complement of cannons and cannonballs. In the last two screens, hammers are provided so that the gamer can bop a cannon to pieces. There are a few nice touches in the programming: the "Johnny Comes Marching Home" theme song, the function button that shuts it off, the joystick-controlled screen level option, the pause option, and the cute campuTERGHminG game. A fully professional job of code-juggling by Warren Schwader has produced a cute change-of-pace contest. (Amie Katz) CANNONBALL BLITZ Sierra On-Line/VIC-20/cartridge This three-screen climbing game jm ,. g has the Revolutionary War as its motif. ^H " 1_ _ But, the theme has very little to do I I li with the graphics and nothing at all to E ^^ I V I 1 do with the play-mechanic. Cannon- I Wm I ' j J ball Blitz — with some major m- jptHJU l d* £ I provements — could have just as easi- BBSI M flj 1 I ly been calied Donkey Kong or ^5JB ' P-^ " Jumpman. In the first screen, the gamer's char- cannonball blitz (sierra on-une) acter must climb a hill (which more (but extremely bare) graphics. (The than anything resembles a zigzag only color on-screen is used for the girder construct) in order to capture enemy and his flag. Everything else is the enemy's glag. Along his path are white!) However, it seems to this re- trap doors, "catapults" (seesaws or viewer that Sierra On-Line could have teetertotters to the rest of the world) better spent its time developing a and rolling cannonballs. There is also a game closer to the state of the art, or balloon to help the player skip a level, (even better) a game that would have The object of the second screen is to added something new to computer bring the structure down on the Red- gaming. coat by walking over the trap doors. Until someone produces a Don- When all of the doors have been key Kong or a Jumpman for the VIC, turned into holes, the girder structure Cannonball Blitz is the way to go. collapses. Adding some excitement (Vincent Puglia) ARTICLES OF WAR DELTA SQUADRON Nexa/Appk II/64K disk Picture a huge, terrifying space sta- tion about the size of a small moon. The outside of the station is studded with laser turrets and guarded by swarms of small — but deadly — fighters. The station itself is the ultimate expression of a decadent galactic empire's planet-busting powers. If left -By NEIL SHAPIRO alone, this evil empire will extend its control throughout the galaxy. An alliance of rebellious worlds is making one final effort to destroy the station by taking advantage of its one weakness. These rebel ships must fly down a narrow trench-shaped depression in the station's exterior in order to drop their photon bombs directly atop one small, almost untargetable main pow- We Bring Atari 400/800 Sports Games Alive. WE BRING SPORTS ALIVE. This Christmas, Atari and Commodore owners will go out of their minds. " «,'■'■ ji off Cummo games ever™ thSe S ToT™/wortd! pal^" " '^ -v.lhilu- jo out of your We'll Torment You Right From Our Mil c Will Have You He. r sounded so The tension begins building you boot the game. Becau ht. Music. Origina Music. Through- game's objective, scenario, cha Our Graphics Will Have You Seeing ^Mfe^l out what planet you'r •f^i Why you're involv iSafllnS nand ESSE, obliterated. So get r the Bygett bunkers, over them. Jfe^ SSHKE. ssssss; . PASSPORT TORDVeflTURE r^i D cEssSSSET ELECTRONIC PRESSBOX ■ ■ :'1£,£^£%, Montana Is Scrambling LET 'EM KNOW YOU PLAY TO WIN! UESDAY MORNING For His Life! " Jl " The Bomb? : 3a':V:V'-v;: :: "'rvHS ETWABrJ-MS! " ■ " *p™i«"nd°mj"'; ■fj L^Lr ^^^^B V ..... ^H ■ i . a ^jB ■' .h™^* willtad THE ' ' . :': '.v;::'"":'.' ' . '. electronic ',.<:'," «, p j;t'z'! dTrlnTfcwt™/'- GnmEs 1 ssisrc , TSP" ■■■■■h <H^r ==< only $7.95 each Get more out of your Commodore. CREATIVE O F T W A R E ■ Here Are the Year's Greatest Games! ■ ANALYSIS OF ELECTRONIC CAME mm. - ^^^^ ..••.«<.« FICTION/FANTASY X»-*jr*T* CAUTION:THE FIRST ACTIVISION GAMES FOR YOUR ATARI 5200 OW YOU AWAY. Extend your survival against alien invaders. Po iNTMEcsreR- FICTION-FANTASY 9 M CO ADVENTURE sarSE-SsSi 83 ACTION CAME rn p ;,M, Do you hove what it takes race in the Grand Prix? Or catch about trying the Rubik's Cube? Chills and challenges await you in Hayden's world of thrilling ad- ventures, exciting chases, fast- V J Hayden 7 I COMPUTER COMMAND CONTROL II- ARCADE GAME «i Contenders for Next Year's Arkies JsBsL More Great Home Arcade Games ^"XS7v.t ' ' ' Announcing The First ELECTRONIC OLYMPIAD . fe DECATHLON CONTEST^*/ Sponsored by Championship Electro/ncs ^^^m _ ... (*! THE PLAYERS GUIDE TO ATARI COMPUTER SOFTWARE THE TOP COMPUTER ARCADE GAME BARRIER ■ ^dT t,:.-^ «,.,.. ...n- rt ,„•.., ^ "S'.T^b""."!'..! * ^-XiNf i/%^ YOU SPELL "ACTION" ATARI ATARI GAMES THE THINKERS PLAY ^ ANDSLY ■ TALES OF KING SPORTS SPECTACULARS FOR THE ATARI ID B ^^ ' <^W COMPUTER 1 V*Kfr SOFTWARE/ KIDEO: Even Five- Year-Olds Get Videogame-mania! t GAMES FOR THE YOUMGER SET I KIDEO CONTROL ¥ ^MAKE * BIG MONEY SELL VIDEO GAME CARTRIDGES » ■l :. f- — J l" Miner 2049er • ATART • ALS0: THESE UNES A--° RE ! PARKER BROTHERS MAXARON HOME ENTERTAINMENT 22932 VAN DYKE, WARREN, Ml 48089 (313) 758-7884 ""pen? days'" Climb to the Top of Crisis Mountain! irarniiM Get Hopping with Q'bert! MINER 2049er. 'S'&ax. HELP US FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE Don't Smoke WE'RE FIGHTING FOR YOUR LIFE YMi WE RENT ATARI GfflfMfflm™ ■^^—^ ase TURN YOUR HOME INTO THE HOTTEST ARCADE IN TOWN Dat%ofi Sfflwmois™ s se&h bqw Gyruss Calls from Deepest wk"~ Q J -JOYSTICK llti '/ V /// ©ij ► © w FIRE BUTTONS^ SLllKUNIJELI ■—GAMES LIBRARY '^T^^TW ££*£*: The Block Bouncer Busts Loose! 3 §^ rim ii i f M gj 1 %SS!5siss;: pul eel M4| 1 H°rr puter ■ How man, hours pe, week do ,ou spend placing various electronic games: ■ D Less than 2 hours □ 2-5 tours Q 6-10 hours Q More than 10 hours pel How much do you spend pe, week on electronic games: ■ D Under $2 QC-S ^ S6-10 QO.erSlO €) J M,.„od,.„dlZ.!c.lZare: ^^ JCJ ■ «,,„o„ m pu te r„ | .„„„: NOW YOUR COMPUTER FITS THE ORIGINAL ARCADE HITS. P=7 ^ £1 * /V IfflSBNOGUK. Ha KygJ INTO SPACE, .: f B-\ AclMsioN