Blue Max Review (for The Atari 800)


T

TelcoLou

Guest
I have foggy memories of the '80s. Luckily, one of the brighter moments of clarity surrounds the game Blue Max, published in 1983 by Synapse, written by Bob Polin for the Atari 800 computer. This game is a simply presented, well-exectued example of great gameplay, and is a refreshing break from today's more complex, graphically-intensive games.

bluemaxwz7.png


You pilot a WWI-styled bi-plane in a scrolling, randomly-generated isometric landscape armed with machine guns and a limited supply of bombs. Your goal is to shoot down enemy planes, bomb bridges, roads, buildings, anti-aircraft guns, boats and tanks en route to the enemy's base camp ... which you need to blow up as well.

Controls are simple and intuative; left and right move appropriately, up and down changes altitude, up+right moves toward the top of the screen, down+left moves toward the bottom of the screen. Pressing the game's only action button (Big Red, as he is affectionately referred to :p) fires the machine gun, when pressed while pushing down on the stick releases bombs.

Gameplay is basic, and perfect for short sessions on a handheld; shoot and bomb everything for points. You start off with a full tank of fuel on your runway; after your plane starts its takeoff, you need to watch the speedometer ... after it reaches 100mph, you can take flight by moving up (which you need to do or else you'll crash at the end of the runway :lol:) Keeping your plane at an altitude of 21-24 feet allows you to destroy ground objects with your machine guns, but be careful ... go too low (20 feet or under) and you'll crash.
Bombs can be used at any altitude, and are needed to destroy larger objects like buildings, bridges and boats.

bluemaxsea1.jpg


Your HUD (On the bottom of the screen .. technically making it a HDD, but I digress...) shows info about remaining fuel, remaining bombs, airspeed, altitude, wind direction, incoming enemy plane alerts, landing strip alert and damage taken. Damage effects the functionality of your plane in several ways; fuel leakage, loss of machine guns, bombs or manuverability. Luckily, at regular intervals, you approach a friendly airstrip which you can land on to repair/refuel. Simply press fire when the "L" alert appears, then move down as you approach the landing strip. After refueling/repairing it's off to fight once again.

This repeats until you arrive at the enemy's base ... destroy all the buildings and you win the war! You even get a nice ranking to show off to your friends ... who will promptly brag how they could beat that score/ranking with their hands tied behind thier backs, and they give it a go ... couple this with several beers & some weed and you have a blast of a weekend.

How the hell did he cram all that fun into ~64k? Give this game a try; you'll have fun ... and that's what gaming is about. Word. B)
 
Nice review TelcoLou.
I never had an Atari machine when I was younger, but played this game to death on the C64.
Your right about this kind of game being perfect for short sessions on a handheld. Imagine an updated remake of this with it's own level editor.. :eek:
I dare anyone to try out this game & not enjoy it :)
 
Great review TelcoLou!
This reminds me of a similar game I used to play on the ZX spectrum.
I'm buggered if I can remember what it was called, but I always used to die trying to fly under bridges :D
I'll defintely check this out later, are there any other Atari 800 games you would recommend?
 
Macleod posted on Sep 8 2006 at 07:10 AM said:
I'll defintely check this out later, are there any other Atari 800 games you would recommend?

Plenty! :D

Montezuma's Revenge
Jumpman
Jumpman Jr.
Ghostbusters

... and if you don't mind the lack of a real keyboard, try all those great text adventures.
 
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TelcoLou said:
Macleod said:
I'll defintely check this out later, are there any other Atari 800 games you would recommend?
Plenty! :D

Montezuma's Revenge
Jumpman
Jumpman Jr.
Ghostbusters

... and if you don't mind the lack of a real keyboard, try all those great text adventures.


The Atari 800 was a great system, I'd like to add:

Archon
Beachhead 1 + 2
Boulderdash 1-6
Bruce Lee
Dropzone
Eidolon
Encounter (one of the first 3D shooters)
Fort Apocalypse
Great American Cross Country Road Race
Loderunner
M.U.L.E.
New York City - The Big Apple
Rescue on Fractalus
Seven Cities of Gold
Trailblazer
World Championship Karate

Most of them came out for the C64 as well and some for NES, but I prefer the Atari 800 versions.
 
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And not forgetting...

Bristles (http://www.atarimania.com/detail_soft.php?MENU=8&VERSION_ID=794)
Buried Bucks (http://www.atarimania.com/detail_soft.php?MENU=8&VERSION_ID=844)

and

Miner 2049'er (http://www.atarimania.com/detail_soft.php?MENU=8&VERSION_ID=3410)

Cheers,
Andy
 
Trere was a WWI plane simulator on DOS so-called "Blue Max". Even with split-screen multiplayer.
 
I was recently playing Blue Max on my Atari 800XL - it's a great little game. Very much one more go kind of gaming. The first few games resulted in my little biplane going SPLAT on the run way. Despite it's arcade look there are some simulator aspects to it including height and speed.

One of my all time favorite games for the Atari home computer is Missile Command. It's really good and utterly superb with a Trakball. This makes it really hard to emulate on an F100 but could be possible with a touchscreen F200? Anyway, I don't think there is any denying that this is one of those games that is simply best played on the real hardware. (Unless you can connect a USB trakball to the GP2X.)
 
slaanesh said:
I was recently playing Blue Max on my Atari 800XL - it's a great little game. Very much one more go kind of gaming. The first few games resulted in my little biplane going SPLAT on the run way. Despite it's arcade look there are some simulator aspects to it including height and speed.

One of my all time favorite games for the Atari home computer is Missile Command. It's really good and utterly superb with a Trakball. This makes it really hard to emulate on an F100 but could be possible with a touchscreen F200? Anyway, I don't think there is any denying that this is one of those games that is simply best played on the real hardware. (Unless you can connect a USB trakball to the GP2X.)
If you like Missile Command on the Atari 8 bit you would probably *really* like the original arcade version. As you said though it really needs to be played with a trackball, and in this case, the 3 "volcano" buttons for each base.

Missile Command is one of the few games I enjoy just about every version of it. I even like the Atari 2600 version.

~telengard
 
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telengard said:
If you like Missile Command on the Atari 8 bit you would probably *really* like the original arcade version. As you said though it really needs to be played with a trackball, and in this case, the 3 "volcano" buttons for each base.

Missile Command is one of the few games I enjoy just about every version of it. I even like the Atari 2600 version.
Yes, I like the Atari 2600 version as well. It works surprisingly well on Stella with a regular controller.
There is a hacked version which makes use of a trackball controller too, though I have no way of creating a 2600 cartridge to try this.

I've only played Missile Command on MAME alas without trackball. I've never seen a real arcade machine!
It's okay on MAME, but you really need that analogue trackball controller to quickly whiz around the screen.
I guess a mouse would provide a similar feel and should be better than conventional digital controls so I could play in on my Mac. I'll give it a go I think!

Back to Atari games, there is a hacked version of Missile Command called (of course) Missile Command+ which features 3 fully controllable missile bases just like the arcade version with the 10 missile limit in each. My default it shoots which ever third of the screen your aiming cursor is in. ie the left third would fire a missile from the left most base, etc. You can over ride this using keys on the keyboard to fire. It's really an awesome version!

It's a bummer that Missile Command is the only game that uses the analogue mode of the trackball to it's full extent.
 
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