How many Atari games allowed you to select levels or bonuses to start? LAME!

blkdog7

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How many Atari games allowed you to select levels or bonuses to start? LAME!

I have to say, the fact that a few games that I own allow me to start with a bonus, potential bonus, or a particular level, really have almost ruined these games for me. What's crazy??? They are all Atari!! Why not let me start on an easy level and work my way to the harder levels? Why give me a bonus if I start at a harder level? All this does is make me ignore the lower levels. Which, I think, sucks! Why make me skip part of the game. I hate that. How about you??

The three games I own that ruin this for me are:

1) Black Widow - You can start at a harder level with a HUGE potential bonus. Why wouldn't you take the chance? Screw the lower levels!

2) Millipede - You can start with a 30,000 point bonus right off the bat just by choosing and starting with a harder level. It makes the lower levels completely irrelevant. LAME. This simple but lame bonus selection makes me think that Centipede is a better and purer game.

3) Paperboy - This game ALMOST gets away with it. Easy Street is actually a bitch. But, it still leaves those carrot's dangling for the harder levels and the potential bonuses.

So, what other Atari games did they ruin with their level and bonus selection??
 
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Indiana Jones
Star Wars
Empire Strikes Back


BTW - Paperboy works because it has 3 separate high score lists... AND a total combined high score list...
 
Crystal Castles has warps to higher levels that give you bonuses.

I don't really get why you think this ruins the games. If you don't want to skip the lower levels, then don't. The game is not forcing you to do anything. Are you such a slave to trying to get high scores that you're willing to sacrifice fun? I couldn't care less about scores.

And let's face it, your high scores are not really high at all. No matter how much you bust your tiny little balls trying for high scores, you will never manage even a tiny fraction of what some of these mutants can pull off. Just have fun.
 
even in tempest, though, if you start at a higher level, that doesn't mean you're gonna make it real far. it's still easy to die in the higher levels.
 
Crystal Castles has warps to higher levels that give you bonuses.

I don't really get why you think this ruins the games. If you don't want to skip the lower levels, then don't. The game is not forcing you to do anything. Are you such a slave to trying to get high scores that you're willing to sacrifice fun? I couldn't care less about scores.

And let's face it, your high scores are not really high at all. No matter how much you bust your tiny little balls trying for high scores, you will never manage even a tiny fraction of what some of these mutants can pull off. Just have fun.

Millipede is what really ruins it for me. It's too tempting to start with the bonus, it really makes the lower levels irrelevant. Black Widow is even worse. You would be a fool to play those lower levels, you just can't place otherwise!

I really think Atari screwed us future gamers with these options.
 
Thats alot of atari games named.. Star wars is one.
 
Millipede is what really ruins it for me. It's too tempting to start with the bonus, it really makes the lower levels irrelevant. Black Widow is even worse. You would be a fool to play those lower levels, you just can't place otherwise!

I really think Atari screwed us future gamers with these options.

I really think you just need to show some self-restraint and just play from the starting levels and earn your way up the ladder. That, or just sell all your Atari titles. ;)
 
another thing i didn't mention, though, is that if you can already get to the higher levels easy, it does make it nice to just jump over the early ones if you're working on a score...
 
I really think you just need to show some self-restraint and just play from the starting levels and earn your way up the ladder. That, or just sell all your Atari titles. ;)

Dude, I got people coming over to my place and putting high-scores on my machines. The only way possible to beat them is to skip those lower levels and get the bonuses Atari dishes out. That just makes me mad! WTF!?!? It's like all those lower levels just don't exist. I have no choice but to skip them if I want to get on my leaderboards. :(
 
Millipede is what really ruins it for me. It's too tempting to start with the bonus, it really makes the lower levels irrelevant. Black Widow is even worse. You would be a fool to play those lower levels, you just can't place otherwise!

I really think Atari screwed us future gamers with these options.

Why does it matter if you place? Who cares?

I don't get how options are a bad thing. The more options the better.

If scores are so important to you, why don't you keep track of your scores with and without bonuses separately on a chalk board in your gameroom. Then you have some incentive to play the games both ways. And I know you like to go both ways.
 
Assault has an advanced level select. Gaplus/Galaga is supposed to have one but I haven't tried it. For some reason, I was thinking Tron had a dip switch setting that would allow you level advancements. But then again, maybe not. Doesn't Excite Bike give the option of beginner, intermittent, and advanced. Probably some other VS games as well.
 
heres the question though, is it hard to hit that bonus score if you actually do the lower levels?

I can see it being stupid if skipping levels 1-5 nets you 30,000 points whereas playing perfect nets slightly above

compared to

Take the 30,000 point bonus, but you could maximize around 50,000 points in those early levels.

make sense?
 
Dude, I got people coming over to my place and putting high-scores on my machines. The only way possible to beat them is to skip those lower levels and get the bonuses Atari dishes out. That just makes me mad! WTF!?!? It's like all those lower levels just don't exist. I have no choice but to skip them if I want to get on my leaderboards. :(

You really seem to take this shit way too seriously. I guess I just don't get it. I'm not really competitive though. I don't give a fuck.
 
heres the question though, is it hard to hit that bonus score if you actually do the lower levels?

I can see it being stupid if skipping levels 1-5 nets you 30,000 points whereas playing perfect nets slightly above

compared to

Take the 30,000 point bonus, but you could maximize around 50,000 points in those early levels.

make sense?

Yes... it's impossible to hit the same score if you start at beginner by the time you hit the level you'd start at if you start on advanced.

BTW - VS Excitebike is the same... if you start at advanced, you get a bigger "bonus" than if you were to start at beginner and get 1st through all the races to the race you start at when you start on advanced.

Now, if you think about it... Atari/Nintendo/Etc... don't give a shit about your high score. They wanted you to plunk down quarters. What better way to get more quarters in an hour than to tempt you to go "advanced" there by shortening your game to get more people in the same amount of time.
 
Dude, I got people coming over to my place and putting high-scores on my machines. The only way possible to beat them is to skip those lower levels and get the bonuses Atari dishes out. That just makes me mad! WTF!?!? It's like all those lower levels just don't exist. I have no choice but to skip them if I want to get on my leaderboards. :(

Just go reset the high score tables in self-test, and then invite those same people back over and have them go ahead and set their best score, but starting from level 1, or the TG-allowable starting point.

I use TG tourney rules (and settings) when gauging how truly good I am at a respective title (e.g. for Tempest, you can start from Wave 1 to no higher than Wave 9: Tempest; for Millipede, you can't select 15,000 or 30,000 from a fresh start; you must start on level 1: Millipede, etc.). Those TG tourney dip switch settings are brutal though so be forewarned. The marathon settings are much more friendlier (and usually the factory default for most titles).
 
Dude, I got people coming over to my place and putting high-scores on my machines. The only way possible to beat them is to skip those lower levels and get the bonuses Atari dishes out. That just makes me mad! WTF!?!? It's like all those lower levels just don't exist. I have no choice but to skip them if I want to get on my leaderboards. :(

I'm not trying to be an ass, I like your site and I like the videos you post. I enjoy watching them.

If your pissed that people are coming over and beating you at your games, maybe you should get better at playing them. It's understandable that you want to be #1 or 2 or 3 at games that you own. Sometimes that isn't the case and you need to buck up and get over it.

I suck ass at my measly 4 game collection. My kids regularly give me an ass beating. It's the time that I spend with them that makes up for the pride that I lose...regularly.
 
I agree with the poster above, you have to think about it from Atari's perspective. Anything that made the games make more money, made them more money because they'd sell more games to ops.

It's actually pretty damn smart of them, they have an easy couple of levels for those who like it easy, and then they let you select if you want a harder level, teasing you with a free 30,000 points knowing that you were going to lose your quarter quicker.
 
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