Tron

On the other side of the screen, it all looks so easy...

I know for a fact I've not played Tron, but ever since catching the later parts of the film on TV a long time ago (and then subsequently watching it all, a few times, along with behind the scenes stuff, and the sequel), I think we've all wanted to be Kevin Flynn in some fashion. 

Thirty-three years on, thanks to the wonderful whizz kids at Disney, I'm able to play Tron as it was meant to be played - in a Flash game on a website with optional mouse support. There is a God.

I kid, but it's the only way I can play, so I'll take it. And it's faithful too. Unlike some of the flash versions of Atari games I've played so far, for example, this isn't a tarted up reskin or reimagining. Beyond a change in menus and a pop up set of instructions for each minigame, it seems to be a straight port of the arcade classic.

Time to hop into a Light Cycle and scram.

Sokoban

Who is even in charge of this warehouse?

Source // YouTube

Sokoban just sounds like a space shooter, doesn't it? It's futuristic, it's foreign, and seeing as it's the 1980s, there's a high chance of that all being true. Except of course that it isn't the case at all, and Sokoban is actually about moving boxes around a warehouse.

Why wouldn't it be?

Xevious

I don't think I am devious enough, no...

Source // Wikipedia

A scrolling shooter from Namco? Boy, I'm really excited for yet anothe-ooh, I see some ground there. Not set in space, eh? Let's see what we've got here. We're still space themed in Xevious, but not obviously so. I've got something to look at other than the vast emptiness of space this time around. Trees, and grasslands, and road networks, and floating saucer things and pyramid turrets. Yeah. Plenty of simple looking shapes of one colour or another. What more do you want? Gameplay?

Q*bert

I couldn't have said it better myself, Q*bert...

Q*bert? Yeah I know Q*bert. Who doesn't know Q*bert? Played it? Nah, never.

Something about blocks, jumping on blocks, bound to be some avoiding things thrown in. Funny looking walking nose or something. Yeah, Q*bert. Simple little game, piece of cake.

Mr. Do!

Mr. Do is indeed very active...

What the hell is Mr. Do! all about? How do you even pronounce it? What is going on? All these questions and more flood my brain upon first checking out the title. Mr. Do is a clown, I gather, with a particularly lethal ball and a fascination with cherries. Obsession, perhaps. Can't get enough of them as you navigate the ball bouncing, dinosaur bashing buffoon around the stage, picking up points from all manner of places.

Oh, and it looks and plays like Dig Dug too.

Moon Patrol

Who knew the Moon could be this hostile?

Source // Wikipedia

Moon Patrol sounds pretty spacey, but at the same time somewhat mundane. Patrols become routine, they turn repetitive, whether you're on a different celestial body to your native world or not. Will Moon Patrol be similarly simple and samey?

Will it hell, it's got aliens and missiles and explosions and stuff.

Miner 2049er

2049 - the year in which I might proceed to 'git gud'

First Dig Dug and now Miner 2049er? Can we really have two such games come along at once? No, because Miner 2049er doesn't appear to have a whole lot to do with mining. I can't say for sure if it's got the 2049 side of things down though, so we'll give it that.

In stark contrast to Dig Dug, what we're presented with here is a platformer - with a meaty ten levels of platforming - centered around the clean up duties of what I'm told is a Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman called Bounty Bob.

It sounds different. Definitely different.

Cleaning up involves merely running over the floor and avoiding or otherwise dealing with any and all stage hazards. How hard can it be?

Dig Dug

Is manual labour even this hazardous?

Source // Wikipedia

Ah, Dig Dug, I know Dig Dug. Have I ever actually dug anything in Dig Dug? I don't think I've ever played it. Perhaps a version of it, or a clone or spiritual successor somewhere, but the original Dig Dug passed me by, to the best of my recollection.

If I kept wanting to not be in space when I played arcade games, Dig Dug appears to be answering my pleas by heading in the opposite direction, underground (deep underground, near the Earth's core, where it's still warm), and how colourful it is too. Simple, but it does the job, doesn't it? Looks like something you'd find in a text book. I wonder what we'll learn from this classic...

Robotron 2084

The ultimate conflict between man and machine and a keyboard control scheme?

Source // Wikipedia

It's not space but it is the distant future; 102 years further into time than the arcade home of Robotron 2084. Man versus Machine makes for a bit of variety across the arcade cabinets, but it still appears to be a simple game of shoot these, avoid that. Can't go wrong with that, so where does it improve over its competition?

Dum dee dum, cybernetic revolt, blah blah blah, waves of robots, dooby doo, twin stick shooter.

What. Twin stick shooter? Available on the Internet Archive? Oh hell yes, count me in.

Choplifter

When piloted by yours truly, you don't want to get to this chopper...

Source // Wikipedia

With a title like Choplifter, there can't be too many things that I'll be tasked with, in what I assume will be my helicopter. For a simple concept though, I'm a little bit surprised to see it ported to so many home consoles after its initial release on the Apple II. I don't know why I am surprised though, because simple concepts do well seemingly anywhere.

It is a good job Choplifter was a success too, because I've got to dive into those ports to play it. The Apple II version looks like helicopters in space, which kind of defeats the point of using helicopters, rather than spaceships. The gameplay however is like Lunar Lander meets Defender, which is something I can get behind - providing the ports hold up against the original.