Yars' Revenge

Atari 2600
Released 1981

Aaaah, saving the best for last. Good old Yars' Revenge. This, in my humble opinion, was one of, if not the best games on the Atari 2600. It's genuinely unique gameplay, exciting (for its time) visuals and sound, along with tight controls really make it one of the best on the system. There's no other game on the Atari quite like Yars' Revenge.

In case you're unfamiliar with this little gem, you control a small fly known as a Yar. The Yar can be moved all over the screen, and the fire button fires a single shot from the Yar. On the right side of the screen is a large base of blocks surrounding an enemy known as the Qotile (sic). In the middle of the screen is a field of static, which provides the Yar with immunity against the slowly moving enemy torpedo that tracks the Yar around the screen.

Your goal is to destroy the Qotile. You first must punch a hole in its shield by either shooting it with your gun, or nibbling at it. While you're nibbling or shooting, the small torpedo is trying to destroy you, and occasionally the Qotile itself will become a spinning blade and streak across the screen at the Yar in an attempt to destroy you. The static field in the middle can protect you from the torpedo, but not the Qotile.

Once you've punched a hole in the shield, you have to fly in and touch the Qotile. Once you do that, a "Zorlon Cannon" appears on the far left side of the screen directly in line with the Yar. Hitting the fire button will fire the cannon across the screen, hopefully hitting the Qotile, destroying it. Since the Qotile base is always in motion, good timing is required.

The game is definitely far more involving and complex than most games of its age, yet still manages to be playable, fun, and best of all, fair. It's only fitting that it's the last Atari game I review. It was my favorite, and honestly gives us a glimpse into how the game industry began to evolve and grow. As we step into the N.E.S. generation, fundamentally unique game concepts like Yars' Revenge start cropping up everywhere.
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Warlords

Atari 2600
Released 1981

I have to admit, Warlords is a pretty exciting concept, and would be a hell of a party game if it were revamped for today's consoles and released for digital download.

The manual explains some madness about how there were four crazy warlords who loved to kill each other, and now they are trapped in the game, and you have to help them kill each other with "lightning balls" or some nonsense. None of this matters.

There are 4 bases on screen. Each is surrounded by rows of blocks, and outside of those blocks is a shield the player controls. The goal is to strategically bounce a ball around the screen so that it gets past your opponents shield and smacks away at some blocks protecting the base. Once the base is hit by the ball, that player is out until the end of the round. Holding the button allows you to catch the ball and plan your next attack, otherwise the shield simply bounces the ball off of it. It's fundamentally similar to Breakout, but the simultaneous play makes it far more exciting.

It's theoretically a perfect game for 4 friends to sit down and play together. The AI that fills in when there are no other players varies radically from fiendishly hard, and mouth-breathing stupid, but after a few rounds, you can easily learn the weakness of each AI. Unfortunately it's also somewhat frustrating to try predicting the trajectory the ball will take when you let go. In fact, it's not uncommon to accidentally bounce the ball off your shield directly back into the blocks or base that you're trying to defend. It's definitely a game that's hampered by it's technology.

So here's a suggestion to any XBox Live Arcade, Playstation Network, or WiiWare developers. Get the rights to this game, give it some more realistic physics and a new coat of paint, and release it for $5. I, for one, would download a copy.

----EDIT----
It would appear that they did exactly what I suggested. Warlords can now be purchased on XBLA for 400ms points.

Woo!
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Video Pinball

Atari 2600
Released 1980

Not much can be said about Pinball. It's very basic in its design, but still manages to capture the addictive aspects of playing legitimate pinball machines.

The ball can fall back into the gap where the plunger is, allowing you to shoot again.

This happens rather often. Not much else I can say really.
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Venture

Atari 2600
Released 1982

(I couldn't find a good photo of the Venture cover art, so I just took a cue from Isaac and made my own.)

Venture is another standout in my limited collection of Atari games. It wasn't unique, but I remember playing it fairly often because of its simplicity.

According to the manual, you play as a powerful barbarian/native american, armed with a bow and arrow. His name, obviously, is Winky. Note: Despite the cover art, Winky does not actually possess a knife (or a body for that matter).

When you first pop in the cartridge, you have a map screen composed of several boxes, several enemy heads floating around and a tiny dot. Winky is represented by the single dot. Your first goal is to avoid all the enemies and enter one of the boxes through a small gap. Simple enough.

Once you enter one of the rooms, you get a detailed view of the room, including new enemies, treasure, and your noble Indian warrior, obviously represented by the giant pink smiley face. Your new goal is to use your arrows (read: dots) to kill the various enemies in the room, get the treasure and escape before the invincible Hallmonster shows up and murders you (just like the evil Dr. Otto from Berzerk).

The goal of the entire game is to continue doing this until you die, die, die. Also worth noting is that you cannot touch an enemies dead body, or it will kill you. I imagine Winky feels dead bodies are super gross.

The game isn't bad. It's just mostly forgettable.
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Solo

Yes, it appears I am the only one contributing to the site anymore.

I liked Isaac's idea of reviewing every game he owns, and I'm going to continue it, if only for my own satisfaction. I have a lot of fun re-playing these old carts, as it reminds of how far we've come. Grand Theft Auto 4 launched today, and I'm playing 1982's "Venture" before I sit down to violate Liberty City traffic laws.

I love my hobby.

Vanguard

Atari 2600
Released 1982

Vanguard was one of my favorites as a kid, and frankly, it's still kind of great. It's got a lot of the basic framework for modern day classics like R-type or Gradius. You play as a single ship flying down a corridor. Enemy ships are coming towards you, and you have to destroy them. The levels have a set length, and a few of them contain an invincibility power up.

There's a decent variety of enemies, such as the snake-like enemies that dock with you ship and give you bonus scores (up to 3 times in the level), and stationary guns trying to shoot your ship down. You also need to contend with a fuel gauge that can be slowly refilled with each enemy you destroy.

It's a really simple game, and I managed to get through about 6 stages before I ran out of ships. One thing I still think is kind of neat is that the game has a bit of a theme song that plays when you pick up the invincibility power-up. It's kind of catchy, in a 1982-geek sort of way.
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So Long...

Well, time for me to move on. Staring today, the 2600-360 series is going to be a daily feature on http://www.angry-gamer.net, which is a a totally groovy site. If you've enjoyed my stuff on The Triangle, you'll probably enjoy the stuff more talent writers have written at Angry Gamer.

It's been fun.

39. Star Raiders

Star Raiders

Atari 2600
1982

Star Raiders is one of the very earliest first person space dogfighting games, and the intriguing thing about it is that they came up with a novel gimmick of packaging it with a pad of buttons that you plug into the second controller slot. By today’s seventeen-button standard, this raft of additional buttons may not be much, but when you are used to nothing but games that only use one button, the Video Touch Pad is a orgy of button-pressing decadence.

This game sounds sooo cool in that I was in a Star Trek Fan Club in high school sort of way.   With the Video Touch Pad, not only can you can toggle your shields and targeting computer on and off, but you can enter hyperspace to outmaneuver the raiders you are fighting.  That an assload of button pressing!! Unfortunately, the 2600 lacks the horsepower to really do much with these concepts, and the gameplay ultimately lacks any real variety.  To compensate for these deficiencies, when I played it, I just pretended I was playing a good game!

But sadly, without the power of pretending, one is forced to admit that  the game is crap.  All the button-pressing just added a layer of annoyance on a shoddy game.  Still, the game was had a reach that dared exceed its grasp, and that’s why I kinda love it.

38. Spider Fighter

Spider Fighter
Atari 2600
1982

It is a frequently argued bit of science fiction philosophy that life is only made sweet by the foreknowledge that it must eventually end. While I’ve always found that line of thinking to be a load of horsecrap, I have to say that Spider Fighter makes a solid argument in favor of dying for the sake of better living.

The game is, on its face, pretty damn sweet. It is a pretty solid Space Invaders clone that moves at a face-rockingly fast clip. The action is frenetic and engagingly twitchy, and so it takes a while before you notice that the game doesn’t end.

I mean, it CAN end. If you play poorly enough you can run out of lives. However, assuming one is moderately skilled at video games, you will accumulate 1ups at a faster rate than you will die. This is damn shame, because playing the game endlessly means you aren’t playing toward a goal. Your score is meaningless because it can grow as high as you want.

This “play until you get bored” style of play curses Spider Fighter to the same fate as Laser Blast and the crappy Atari version of Asteroids. That’s darn tragic because it would be a wonderful game, one of the best available on the Atari, if only it would kill you properly.

37. Space Shuttle: A Journey Into Space

Space Shuttle: A Journey Into Space
Atari 2600

1983

Like a billion other video games before it, this game is about flying a space ship. However, unlike all those other games, this one attempts to semi-accurately recreate the act of piloting an honest-to-god Space Shuttle, making for a game quite unlike anything else on the Atari.  

Upon first consideration, the Atari 2600 doesn't seem the ideal system for a simulator game.  While I’ve never actually seen a real Space Shuttle piloted, if the films Armageddon and Space Cowboys can be believed, Shuttle operation requires more subtlety than can be provided with a single joystick and a single button.  However, while the Atari’s joystick famously only has one button, the console itself has an assload of extra switches. In addition to a power switch and a reset switch, there is a switch for mode select, a color/b&w toggle, and two difficulty switches, one for each player.  Steve Kitchen, the designer of the game, cleverly appropriates those switches for his own ends, turning them into a status toggle, a primary engine ignition, a secondary engine ignition, and cargo bay doors switch.

Utilizing your bank of switches and your flight stick, Space Shuttle takes you from countdown, to launch, to orbit, and back to Earth.  Each step of the way, you will need to carefully consult the instruction manual for directions on how to safely control the Shuttle on your mission to repair a damaged satellite.  Given the limitations of the system, the game does a marvelous job in providing a Space Shuttle Experience. 

Strictly speaking, this isn’t the funnest game ever made. Making minor adjustments to velocity doesn’t have the same zing as blasting invaders.  I don't care.  It is wonderful.  The point of this game is not to test your skills, but to get lost in the act of make-believe.  To pretend that you are actually an astronaut. Short of something involving dinosaurs, there is nothing I'd rather pretend.  

36. Space Invaders

Space Invaders
Atari 2600
1978

Oh sweet hell yes. After two hard months of playing games like Crystal Castles and Ghostbusters, games that make me want to hate the very concept of the "video game", this, at long last, is my payoff.

Space. Fuckin. Invaders.

The game is elegant in its simplicity:   Aliens want to invade Earth. You are the last line of defense. You have three cannons with which to destroy the invading army, one wave at a time. Although the Invaders are tactically retarded, they have an infinite number of troops to throw at the planet. All it takes is a single slip-up to damn mankind forever. Your mission is simple:  Hold off the Invaders for as long as you can.

The great thing about Space Invaders is that while it is a pretty easy game, you only have to screw up once to end the game.  And as you kill more Invaders, the surviving ones move faster and faster, so that a split-second's slip up will end the game.  The game has a constant  tension built into it, you can never autopilot through.  This tension is why, 30 years after its release, the game holds up perfectly.  

Oh dang, do I love every little detail about this game: I love the sound of the ever-quickening Invader's march.  I love shooting through your shields.  I love killing two Invaders with one shot on the bottom row.  I love that you can  cheat.  

I love the look of the game.  While the game isn’t exactly pretty looking, it sure has got graphical style. Just look at the Invaders: Bicycle Helmet Alien, Billy Crystal from Monsters Inc. Alien, Squiddy Alien, Jumping Jack Alien, Sorta Looks Like a Skull Alien, and Goofy Antennae Alien. They’re all awesome looking!  Also awesome looking: Your shields, your cannon, and the missiles.

And Intended or not, Space Invaders presents a strong artistic statement : The Invaders will never stop. There are no 1 ups. When you fail, and you will fail, the whole planet dies with you. All you can do is hold the monsters at bay for as long as possible before succumbing to inevitable death.  That sort of doomed romance is what I'm all about. 

Space Invaders is one of my very favorite video games, and I mean THIS one, the Atari version.  The game is an arcade port, but to me, it feels less like a port, and more like a full-remake. The graphics are more attractive and the gameplay has been sharpened. The end result is perfection. Without this game, there really isn’t sufficient reason to own an Atari. However, since this game exists, the Atari 2600 is a necessary component of any video gamer’s library.  This was the first perfect video game. 

35. Sky Jinks

Sky Jinks
Atari 2600
1982

Oh Christ!  It’s an overhead remake of Barnstorming!! NOOOOOO!

*SMASHITY SMASHITY SMASHITY*

I feel much better now. 

34. River Raid

River Raid
Atari 2600
1982

I don’t have any idea how a 2600 game this technically advanced can exist. I’ve played enough Atari games recently to know that you can’t have continuous scrolling on this system, and yet River Raid is a top-down vertical shooter in the vein of 1942 or Ikaruga. It is like somebody
stuck an N.E.S. game into an Atari cartridge. Black magic may have been involved.

This technical voodoo nearly hides the fact that this game's protagonist is clearly a bad guy.  You play a jet plane reigning fiery death upon planes, ships, helicopters and bridges.  As long as you fly true and continually steal fuel, you can continue bomb these poor bastards on your sick reign of terror.   All the targets in this game are unarmed, and presumably civilians.   River Raid is the most cruelly immoral mass market game this side of Manhunt.

33. Real Sports: Baseball

Real Sports: Baseball
Atari 2600
1982



Real Sports: Baseball is not a satisfying re-creation of the sport that it seeks to simulate.



Y’know, at this point, I feel I should point out that I’ve never actually gone out and purchased an Atari game. I was an infant during the Industry Crash of 1983, so all my Atari gaming has been secondhand.  Each of the six Ataris that I have owned have been inherited and each came with a box fulla cartridges. I’ve never had to go out shopping for Atari games.

But all of the games in those boxes were, long ago, purchased individually. Somebody, at some point, consciously chose to exchange cash money for each and every one of these games. I get that novelty was a big factor, but I can’t quite grasp why every collection of Atari games consist of such a random grab bag of crap.

Is there a rule written somewhere that dictates that every collection of Atari games must include Pac-Man, at least one unplayable sports game, at least one game you can’t figure out how to play, and two games you can’t figure out why you’d want to play? Was there a time when baseball fans would happily play Real Sports: Baseball because it was the closest simulation of the sport that they could get? And what about me? Why haven’t I thrown away any of these awful games? Furthermore, while I'm asking questions, why did Barnstorming get made?

So many questions, so few answers.

SwordQuest - Fireworld

Atari 2600
Released 1982

The SwordQuest series was a rather novel attempt to break the fourth wall in gaming back in the early 80's. The plan was to release four games, each with a mini-comic included. The entire point of the game was to crack a code that involved the aforementioned mini-comic. You run around a map, and on each screen, you can play a different type of minigame. If you win the game, you supposedly get a piece of the code that points you to specific pages, panels, words and letters within the comic. If you actually decipher the code, you write to Atari, and are registered into a competition to win some game-related jewels (Fireworld's reward was a golden jewel-encrusted chalice if I recall). The fouth and final game in the series would bring back the previous game's winners and have some medallion and sword up as a reward, but regrettably the contest was canceled after the first few games sucked miserably. Legend has it that the final reward is still out there, locked up in a safe somewhere in some former Atari exec's office.

It's essentially pointless to even try to play the game today, but I did anyway, due to my journalistic integrity.
It's bad.
The majority of the games seem to be some sort of "catch the falling crap" variation, and there's also a few "shoot crap" levels. The bizarre thing is, when I actually managed to win one of these minigames, the only thing I got was a small flashing block on the screen. Code my ass.

I suppose this game could be compared to Wario Ware titles today, in that they seem to be a random mash-up of strange half-games. However, Wario Ware at least gives you some idea about what it is you're supposed to do, and whether or not you've done it correctly. I'm still not even sure what causes me to lose most of the games in SQ:FW.
This game is definitely not fun.

Surround

Atari 2600
Released 1978

It also has a rudimentary drawing option.

Starmaster

Atari 2600
Released 1982

Okay, this may blow your mind, but StarMaster is practically the same exact game as Star Raiders. You have a galaxy map (toggled on and off with the B/W switch on the console), you warp to wear enemy squadrons are attacking your bases, then you try to destroy them using broken first person flight combat controls.
Honestly, the games play exactly the same way, and use the same idiotic number pad controller.
StarMaster = Star Raiders. The end.

Star Raiders

Atari 2600
Released 1982

This game is too complex for it's own good.
It requires you to use a secondary keypad controller with a plastic overlay, but most of the time you never actually make it to that point in the game.
It's apparently some sort of real-time strategy game mixed with space combat, but the 2600 was quite obviously incapable of pulling it off. From what I gather from the manual, you first must fight off a wave of enemies before you can access the star map. Fighting off enemies is a first person affair where you can slightly alter your flight path and try to get enemies into the cross-hairs. After you destroy the enemies, you computer will let you know that the area is clear, after which you need to bring up the star map and locate other enemy groups. The enemy groups will be trying to destroy your bases, and you must stop them by warping to them and entering the first person space combat game again.
The actual space combat is practically unplayable. I can only recall once as a child actually seeing the star map, and that was when an adult was playing. Even now, at 26, I couldn't get past the awful shooting stage.
This game is bad.

Space Invaders

Atari 2600
Released 1978 AD

There isn't much that can be said about this game. Did you know that Next Generation Magazine, back in the late 90s, called Space Invaders the most groundbreaking game of all time? They say it was the first legitimate game that allowed you to do something you couldn't normally do in reality. I'm not sure if that's actually a fact, but it's a piece of trivia that pops in my head any time I play this game.
Check out that sweet cover art though!

My high score when I played it for this review was a paltry 2460.

I always thought the explosions looked odd. Especially the one for your cannon/ship/pyramid thing.

32. Raiders of the Lost Ark

Raiders of the Lost Ark
Atari 2600 1982

Raiders of the Lost Ark is quite a bit more ambitious than your typical based-on-a-Spielberg movie Atari game. It includes such mechanics as multiple weapons, buying things, exploration, and an inventory system that you use a second controller to navigate. They really tried to make something cool with this game. Unfortunately, Raiders is cursed by the same problem that has plagued so many Atari games: It is an Atari game.

I tried to play this game several times and each playthroughl followed the same basic pattern. I started on the “whip” screen. I collected the whip and avoided a snake, before moving on to the next screen.  On this screen, the “random shit” screen, I wandered around causing things to appear in my inventory magically.  Because the manual told me that they had different functions, I used the other joystick to try equipping the various items I had collected. Perhaps some of them do things, but I couldn't achieve any positive results. While fiddling with the other controller, a snake appeared and killed me. 

In order to avoid further snake related deaths, I ventured onto the next screen. This is the “tree branch” screen, and you sort of fall through this one. Despite it being painfully obvious that I’m supposed to use the whip to snag the tree branch and swing into what I assume to be a cave, I think the programmers may have forgotten the part about making that possible to do.   I could not snag that branch.

So, I fall through that screen and land in the “get robbed, then killed” screen. On this screen some dude takes my stuff and then kills me. Consistently. In multiple attempts, I just can not kill this guy, despite landing on the screen with a pistol, a whip, and a hand grenade.  Maybe the programmers forgot to make him killable. 

To fulfill the obligations of the license, all this game needed was a screen of running from a goddamn big boulder and a screen of hitting Nazis with a whip. And maybe a screen with a monkey. Instead, the game designer chose to  make an overcomplicated, unplayable mess of a game.  I applaud the ambition, but not the game. 

Popeye

Atari 2600
Released 1983

This is an odd game that I remember playing a lot of when I was younger. It starts up with the classic Popeye theme, or the closest they could get to it with their cutting edge audio sampling. Then you control the spinach man himself as he tries to avoid the yellow jumping mess of pixels that I only assume is Bluto, along with the yellow bricks he, and the sides of the screen, throw at you. While doing this, a strange red mass walks around at the top of the screen. Since the Popeye franchise centered around Popeye, Bluto and Olive, I assume this is Olive. Olive occasionally pulls off pieces of herself and tosses them off the platform, and it's up to Popeye to catch them. You also have a flashing dot that shifts around and if you punch it, you become invulnerable and can destroy Bluto. Olive inexplicably refuses to throw any more pieces of herself during this time of invulnerability.
Once you collect 20 pieces of Olive, you move onto the next level
This is the most accurate recreation of the cartoon series around, if you ask me.

I was never able to pass the second level. I think I just played it for the music. I couldn't find the instructions for this, so I'm working entirely under assumptions of what is actually going on.
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31. Pitfall!

Pitfall!
(Pitfall Harry's Jungle Adventure)
Atari 2600
1982



Pitfall! is one of the true Atari classics. It was my first favorite video game, and it had been one of the small number of Atari games I had actually been eager to replay. It makes you jump on the heads of crocodiles!

It kinda sucks.

Pitfall! is a game of jungle exploration. As Pitfall Harry, you delve into a huge jungle setting, searching for 32 treasures hidden deep within. The game enabled this premise of exploration in ways never before seen on a console. First of all, it had a large, nonrandomized environment for you to explore. It also presented shortcut routes through this very large jungle, and then presented you with a tight time limit, spurring you to find the shortest route to the treasure possible. 

Pitfall! was like nothing else at the timeNot only is Pitfall! is the only console game I’ve ever played that encouraged a player to make their own map, but it is a sidescroller in every sense, save actually scrolling sideways. Pitfall! is an innovative game, mixing exploration, new run and jump gameplay, and a evocative environment. It is no wonder that this is a staple of every Atari collection ever and it is for these reasons that it is a bona fide classic. 

However, in the years since its design, developers have invented a new gaming technology.  A technology known as “Metroid.”   This “Metroid” technology, is an advanced, “non-suck” method of exploration found in games such as Metroid and Metroid III. While the details are complicated and difficult to explain to the layman, suffice to say it blows Pitfall!’s draw-your-own map approach out of the water. 

Compared to Metroid, to Castlevania, to Legend of Zelda, exploring in Pitfall seems more like running around in your back yard than finding your way through an exotic jungle.  What you are left with is a game with a very small number of obstacles, slightly remixed hundreds of times over. 

When released, this game was a marvel, a rejection of the previously understood limits of Atari cartridges. It was a game that pushed the boundaries of what video games could and should be. And even though Pitfall! sorely lacks timelessness, this game is still a damn classic. Just not one worth playing.

30. Pac-Man

Pac-Man
Atari 2600
1981



This is a shitty port. This port is so bad it is blamed as one of the key reasons for the video game industry’s 1983 total crash and burn. And as someone who has played it ever, I see their point. The real Pac-Man’s brilliance is based in an elegant simplicity, so you’d think the jerkholes porting the game wouldn’t be able to screw up the game as badly as they did. To have a game this bad named after something so good and pure should be a criminal act. 



How bad does this port suck? True Story: When I was seven I liked to play Trivial Pursuit with the grown-ups in my family. Since Trivial Pursuit questions are written for Baby Boomers and I was a seven-year in 1990, these games were pretty frustrating ordeals. God, being seven sucked. 

At any rate, though, one night my team got the big question: “How many points is a dot worth in Pac-Man?” This was my big seven year old moment. This was my chance to meaningfully contribute to the team. “one point!” I confidently declared. 

“Wrong,” I was told. “The correct answer is ten points.” The card wanted the point value from the real Pac-Man, not the still-birth of a port I played on my Atari. 

That’s how worthless this game is. Pac-Man 2600 sucks so bad it makes you lose other games.

29. Ms. Pac Man

Ms. Pac Man
Atari 2600
1982



For a while, shortly after high school, I’d spend most of my evenings with my best friend, Zac, at Peg’s Corner, our local greasy spoon. We would eat our fried food and drink our coffee and bullshit for hours, night after night. Film, politics, comic books, dipshit philosophy. Zac and I could entertain ourselves talking about nothing and everything indefinitely. 

Peg’s was a glorious hole in the wall,   where you’d see the same skuzzy, disreputable folks on a nightly basis. Most of those folks showed up after the bars closed, because Peg’s was open 24 hours, except for a few hours on Sundays, a detail we never failed to forget.  It was the sort of place where the waitresses wouldn’t even have to take your order, because your order never changed. (The "A Club" for Zac, the “Old Standby” for me.) There was a familial atmosphere to Peg’s.  It was perfectly fine for Elbow, the toothless guy who didn’t come back from Vietnam quite right, and a permanent Peg's fixture, to join your table, uninvited, to talk to about the value of talking cars. It was that sort of place.

Peg’s also had a Ms. Pac Man machine in the back. It was a “cocktail cabinet” which basically meant it was a table with a video game inside it. It had the dip switches set so that Ms. Pac Man moved as fast as possible, while the ghost moved as slowly, making the game much easier.  You could get a lot of mileage out of a single quarter on that machine.

Our sit-down, easy-mode Ms. Pac Man machine was the best arcade machine ever, and we played the hell out of it. Zac was only just slightly better than me, but consistently so. .It felt like OUR machine.  We had the high scores,  and we knew its quirks.  We knew which side had a better joystick, and how to compensate for the crappy one. 

Ms. Pac Man is the video game dearest to my heart because to me will it will always symbolize late-night coffee and teenage bullshit sessions.  A few years later, Peg’s is gone,  I no longer see Zac nearly as often as I should, and I have no idea what happened to that Ms. Pac Man machine. I miss the hell out of all three. 



Oh, the Atari port is pretty serviceable.