I am at 15 Activision patches, Barmstorming and Sky Jinks are behind me

Tell all your friends, I am now at 15 Activision patches.

Sky Jinks 36.86, Activision patch #14

Because Space Shuttle is too damn hard, I made a run at the Sky Jinks patch score and beat it fairly easily. Sky Jinks is basically Skiing with an airplane. Same need to get through different doors, slightly correct trajectory etc.. It was relatively easy to beat, and I won't play it again as it was only so-so. You get the patch by beating 37 seconds at Game 1. You can beat that score even without a perfect run, which is I think the fun in the game, playing with friends I can see how you would compete for the best trajectory. Thinking about it, a game that ends in 37 seconds, that is not even enough for the editor logo to be shown these days. Not as crazy as Dragster, but still.

Acquisition Sky Jinks Patch

The second game I beat that evening was Barnstorming, and this was was harder, because you do need an almost perfect run, and I had cramps from crushing the joystick :)

Because of of this (me trying to crush the joystick for no reason), it took me a long time to beat the 33.3 time in game 1) in order to get the patch, but I did it. The game is particularly beautiful , the number of colors on the screen being quite incredible. In act, how the sunset is drawn was an entirely new technique that got reused in other games later on. The gameplay it self is just a racing game, except that instead of going right or left you go up or down. Not very interesting, besides the graphics.

Activision Patch #15, Barnstorming

33.17 s at Barnstorming

Seattle trip, Goodwill and RePC

Busy for work but with a couple of hours to kill, I stopped by the bug Goodwill on Dearborn, and found a lot of interesting things. Including Sony PVM monitors, and many consoles.

Goodwill Game Gear

Goodwill Atari Carts

More Goodwill  Atari Carts

Guitar Hero collection in box at Goodwill

Goodwill Ganesis

Goodwill Wii boards and DJ Hero, boxed

Shy Goodwill GameCubes, NES phaser

Goodwill NES

Goodwill Guitar Hero in box

Goodwill Sony Monitors

IBM PC Jr at Goodwill 

then I stopped at RePC, which besides from its museum is dead zone when it comes to classics (they sell on eBay), but they did have a wall (double pane at least) of Xbox and Xbox 360 for $5.

Xbox wall at RePC

In other news I passed Activision patch #12 (Ice Hockey) and #13 (Oink!)

Beating Ice Hockey patch score (beat the computer) was very easy, did it on my second try. Again I am really surprised how easy it is to get these patches, I am not bragging, I know I am not a god at these games, still I pass everyone of them, many times easily.

This game is a good example of the evolution between Pong and EA NHL games. You control sprites that actually look like real hockey players, and you have some control on the ball. I write some because I am not 100% certain that I was doing what I intended, but since I got better and better at "controlling" the puck, I assume it is just matter of time before someone get full control on the ice.

Really fun game, nicely done, but I don't think there is much replay value in a single player mode, seems way to easy.

Activision patch #12, Ice Hockey, Beat the computer 8-6

Next game on my list was a harder one, I spent a few evenings tying to beat it, most of the time it would hurt my hand from cramping due to stress, pure Atari fun. This game is OInk!, and it is not a very good one. I feel that while the first screen is very colorfull and could make your think the game will be brilliant, you actually see everything on the first screen. Nothing else happens, the wolf just moves faster. and you get tired.

To get the patch you must achieve 25000 points, which is not too hard after some time, but it took me a really long time to achieve the score. Now I feel that I can do it anytime, but I won't try because the game is super boring.

My new setup, Trinitron (c) 1985, Heavy Sixer

Activision patch #13, Oink! 35936 points

Oinkers Inc.

And I tried Space Shuttle, that game is incredible. Ingenious to use the color, level commands on the 2600 to control the space shuttle, makes it very realistic, but it is a hard game, I am not ready to  compete for the patch yet.

Game	Patch difficulty	Game Rating
Freeway	Medium	Nice game speedy cars, great colors. netter than Frogger
Dragster	Medium	Weird game, with 6 seconds gameplay. Super stressful
Laser Blast	Very easy	Boring and pointless
Skiing	Medium	Scrolling, colors, learning path, awesome game
Pitfall!	Very easy	Classic, so many screens, animations, colors, it has everything
Kaboom	Hard	Awesome, colors, paddle control, in the zone feeling.
Pitfall II	Easy	Huge map, so many screens, colors, sound, awesome
Chopper Command	Easy	Speed and colors, such a long road from Tank
Tennis	Easy	Colorfully boring
Megamania	Easy	Like 8 games in 1, great game
River Raid	Easy	My hands.....
Ice Hockey	Easy	Nice sprites.
Oink!	Hard	My hands.....

River Raid, a classic for my patch #11

I was waiting to play this one, but I had forgotten how painful it was for my hands.

I must be so stressed piloting that airplane that my hands get cramps and there is no way for me to make it more comfortable, perhaps some other joystick. I did manage to get to the 15 000 points necessary to get the patch, but even tough I like it I won't replay that game, it hurts too much. Once again, thinking that this is the same machine that delivered Combat at launch, what a journey it has been for programmers. Speaking of this, everyone should read Racing the Beam that I mentioned already.
I feel that there is much more for me to learn about this game, I rarely used the speed to avoid objects for example, and definitely did not use the gas and weapons to their full potential. Beating the patch score was not too hard (15 minutes?), so I did not have to learn how to optimize my game. And in the end while I recognize why this is a classic and a must have, I don't love this game, just because it hurts my hands so bad, I don't enjoy playing it,

River Raid Activision patch

River Raid 26250 points

Now the exciting part of the evening is that I am going to play Space Shuttle, and aim for the patch score, so I must follow the mission plan.

Game	Patch difficulty	Game Rating
Freeway	Medium	Nice game speedy cars, great colors. netter than Frogger
Dragster	Medium	Weird game, with 6 seconds gameplay. Super stressful
Laser Blast	Very easy	Boring and pointless
Skiing	Medium	Scrolling, colors, learning path, awesome game
Pitfall!	Very easy	Classic, so many screens, animations, colors, it has everything
Kaboom	Hard	Awesome, colors, paddle control, in the zone feeling.
Pitfall II	Easy	Huge map, so many screens, colors, sound, awesome
Chopper Command	Easy	Speed and colors, such a long road from Tank
Tennis	Easy	Colorfully boring
Megamania	Easy	Like 8 games in 1, great game
River Raid	Easy	My hands.....

I am at 10 !! Megamania, Activision patch #10

I never really heard of this game, and would have a bad impression about it, but it was recommended, and I have no other Activision game I could beat around, so I tried it. And my guts were totally wrong, Megamania is a crazy shoot them up that I really liked. Because each wave is so different in the shape of enemies  their attach pattern or tactics, it feels like it could have been 8 individual games combined into one. I really enjoyed it, even tough the patch score (45 000) was easy to reach. Also, another super colorful game, one of these I could not have enjoyed with the crappy 8 colors of the Secam games. Enemies are taken from regular household items (tires, dice, hamburgers, bow ties etc...). a little bit like what micro machines did 15+years later with driving game. Like for Kaboom!, there is a limited amount of lives you can get, so the tactic is the same, lose  life just before you are going to get a free one, this allows to continue for a little longer on an easier wave.

Megamania Atari 2600/

So I reached 10 Activision patches, and I still have Enduro to beat at home. I order some decathlon, Oink!, chopper command, River raid and others for my next games to beat. I really enjoy building this collection of Activision games in my retro game library, can't wait to see all the colorful boxes.

51410 points, that all you can see and that's enough for my patch #10

Game	Patch difficulty	Game Rating
Freeway	Medium	Nice game speedy cars, great colors. netter than Frogger
Dragster	Medium	Weird game, with 6 seconds gameplay. Super stressful
Laser Blast	Very easy	Boring and pointless
Skiing	Medium	Scrolling, colors, learning path, awesome game
Pitfall!	Very easy	Classic, so many screens, animations, colors, it has everything
Kaboom	Hard	Awesome, colors, paddle control, in the zone feeling.
Pitfall II	Easy	Huge map, so many screens, colors, sound, awesome
Chopper Command	Easy	Speed and colors, such a long road from Tank
Tennis	Easy	Colorfully boring
Megamania	Easy	Like 8 games in 1, great game

Activision tennis, Patch #9

Quick post to show my progress towards the 10 patches mark, I beat the tennis

score yesterday (beat the "computer", 1 set). The game looks good in comparison of Pong and other racket games from the early days of the console, but somehow I can not get hooked on it. I remember getting it as trade towards the end of my original console life, and back then I liked it, so I guess I was spoiled by the later tennis games. beating the computer is not super easy, because until you realize that (like in most tennis games) your only way of winning is to find impossible angles, you can play for hours in front of the computer that just returns the ball without really trying to beat you. So once you get a sens on how to hit the ball, how far away from the player, and on which side of him, then it is doable without too much trouble, but the game is still kind of boring, just waiting for the right angle, and sometimes it work sometimes it does not, seems random to me.

Activision Tennis patch, beat the computer 1 set.

I have a couple of other games to beat (like Enduro, this one is harder than I thought), and 2 copies of Decathlon that do not work on 2 different machines. I really want to beat that game, so I will look for one on eBay or CL soon. Also on my radar Space Shuttle with the super complex button system. I bought that game "back in the days" but somehow never understood one thing about it, I just abandoned it somewhere, I don't think I accomplished any of the XX required steps to launch and safely return the shuttle.

Game	Patch difficulty	Game Rating
Freeway	Medium	Nice game speedy cars, great colors. netter than Frogger
Dragster	Medium	Weird game, with 6 seconds gameplay. Super stressful
Laser Blast	Very easy	Boring and pointless
Skiing	Medium	Scrolling, colors, learning path, awesome game
Pitfall!	Very easy	Classic, so many screens, animations, colors, it has everything
Kaboom	Hard	Awesome, colors, paddle control, in the zone feeling.
Pitfall II	Easy	Huge map, so many screens, colors, sound, awesome
Chopper Command	Easy	Speed and colors, such a long road from Tank
Tennis	Easy	Colorfully boring

Chopper Command, I am a cadet!! Patch #8 11000 points

Another great Activision game, well described in RetroGaming Round up #75 that is actually based on Activision games, a good podcast for long drives. Somehow the game is familiar to me (and I am not talking about the obvious resemblance to D...R by Atari), but I don't recall buying it

as a kid, perhaps I did, perhaps someone traded it for the mini babybel wax figurine, anyhow it was easy, and it took me only 2 attempts to reach the patch score (10 000 points). I like the speed of the game, and the radar that allows for some tactical approach on enemies. On RetroGaming roundup they mention how this was unique, I don't recall if this was the first radar enabled game, but it certainly was one of the first, and it works great. Knowing a little bit how the 2600 works(read this, it is fascinating), I can't even start to imagine how you would make this work, with a background, 2 objects and 2 missiles sprites. With the amount of games to beat in front of me, I don't think I will necessarily come back, but if I had only a couple of games, I certainly would. I didn't even get to grasp the concept of protecting the trucks, I just shoot everything on the screen, so here must be some tactic to learn and master.

Chopper Command 11 000 points.

Game	Patch difficulty	Game Rating
Freeway	Medium	Nice game speedy cars, great colors. netter than Frogger
Dragster	Medium	Weird game, with 6 seconds gameplay. Super stressful
Laser Blast	Very easy	Boring and pointless
Skiing	Medium	Scrolling, colors, learning path, awesome game
Pitfall!	Very easy	Classic, so many screens, animations, colors, it has everything
Kaboom	Hard	Awesome, colors, paddle control, in the zone feeling.
Pitfall II	Easy	Huge map, so many screens, colors, sound, awesome
Chopper Command	Easy	Speed and colors, such a long road from Tank

Activision patch #7 Pitfall II, oh yeah...

I just got a bunch of carts from GW, and I actually beat 3 patch scores in one evening, so I have post material for the days to come.

Pitfall II Atari 2600

First one is Pitfall II. I remember this one when it came out,
I bought it, played it a lot,  kid of finished it, but I am not sure what finishing this game means as you seem to be able to continue for ever, albeit losing points. Again an amazing technical game on the VCS, colors, sound (using a special chip), unique feature like respawn places, and so many different enemies. I just don't like the box, not flashy enough, I guess they were trying to showcase the new maturity in their games, an I think it worked (for me) ack then, but I still prefer the colorful rainbows on the first Activision boxes. So beating the 100 000 mark was not too hard, but I did have practice from 25 years ago.  Beating this game and the 2 others that evening made me realize that I should capture the easiness of getting patches, and my initial impression of the game, so adding a table now.

100 000 points+ patch Pitfall II

110 877 points and counting

Game	Patch difficulty	Game Rating
Freeway	Medium	Nice game speedy cars, great colors. netter than Frogger
Dragster	Medium	Weird game, with 6 seconds gameplay. Super stressfull
Laser Blast	Very easy	Boring and pointless
Skiing	Medium	Scrolling, colors, learning path, awesome game
Pitfall!	Very easy	Classic, so many screens, animations, colors, it has everything
Kaboom	Hard	Awesome, colors, paddle control, in the zone feeling.
Pitfall II	Easy	Huge map, so many screens, colors, sound, awesome

Just 4 digits... 3443, IN YOUR FACE, KABOOM !!

Yep, that's right Activision patch #6 is mine, Kaboom you are out !! 2 weeks on that score, I am so bad at that game, but I still enjoy playing it. I keep seeing videos of 6 digits scores on YouTube, and I feel so disconnected from these ninjas.

Kaboom, 3443 points

Kaboom patch, Atari Activision

I just got this of eBay, so Boxing and Fishing Derby will be on my next runs,

Activision patch #5, Pitfall !! I am a natural

Yep, still no Kaboom .... Although I consistently hit 2000 + mark, I still can not get to the 3000 points.

So Pitfall.... First game in 30 years and I exploded the patch score (20 000 points), with a whopping 79840 points.
Not much to say about this attempt, as I wrote, first try, I was done after 4 minutes, the rest of the game (20 minutes total), I tried to go as far as possible. This really felt easy to do, I know that finishing the game is not easy on the other side, I did not try this. Finishing Pitfall! should be a topic for a
post series one day, how to complete Pitfall!, I already know that you have to go left and not right, like for any other platformer, and making a map of the tunnels is key.

I remember buying this game for Christmas, with my grandparents, and convincing them that waiting for Christmas day was silly, so I should play it right away. I also saw a Compumate that day, back when I thought that my Atari would one day become a computer of some sort (to do what, who know). The outcome of this is that I now only have Kaboom and Enduro to beat, then I will really need to win some eBay auctions to get games like Frostbite, Chopper Command, Megamania etc...

Compumate for Atari 2600

I remember Pitfall as a deep game with many levels that no 8 year old (in my mind) would ever finish, I discovered that it is also very nice, the colors are vibrant, a typical Activision theme. And the reason why I am a late bloomer to Activision colors is because I grew up with that F'ed up Secam color system, were the Atari 2600 could only produce 8 colors (!!!) as opposed to 128 in NTSC, it makes a big difference,
Darrel Spice made a great comparison on his site, see below. This is crazy, but I did not know better back then, you lucky bastards in America.

PAL 8 colors

NTSC 128 colors

So fifth patch, my collection is starting to look like something

Pitfall! patch Activision Atari