Fishing Derby |
Atari 2600 |
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Review by Joe Santulli |
Activision/Atari |
Action |
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Graphics: ? |
Sound: ? |
Gameplay: ? |
Overall: ? |
If any programmer pushed the Atari 2600 to it’s limits, it would have to have been David Crane. Crane was one of the key designers with Activision from the time of its inception to its final days producing software for the system. Crane designed Dragster, Fishing Derby, Laser Blast, Freeway, Grand Prix, Decathlon, Pitfall!, Pitfall II, and Ghostbusters while at Activision, as well as Canyon Bomber, Slot Machine, and Outlaw in the "pre-third-party" era. You might find this strange, but my favorite David Crane game is Fishing Derby, one of his first for Activision. In the game, you go head-to-head against another fisherman as you try to reel in 99 points worth of smelly fish. Spoiling the day is a shark who patrols the water near the surface and will gobble up fish on your hook if he touches it. The fish range in point values, with higher points awarded the deeper you catch them. The game appears tranquil enough, and certainly the sport isn’t going to produce any athletes (except maybe in the 12-oz arm bend competition), but the Atari 2600 version of fishing is absolutely frantic. The fish move about randomly and it takes some practice to get the hang of catching them. Once you do, you have the other player to contend with. The computer is an adequate player, but get someone in there who knows how to play the game and you’ll find this Fishing Derby to be as fast-paced and furious as any video game can get.
The game has brilliant graphics, the background is a fairly believable arena setting, complete with crowd and lighting towers. There’s even an opening ceremony. The downside to the game is that all of the events require a building-up of speed by jamming your joystick left and right as rapidly as possible. We lost a few joysticks to this game as a result, but the feeling of competition we got while playing made it all seem worth losing a $10 stick.
Ah, the days of the Atari 2600. When done right, magic was made. |