Gremlins (1986) - Testing my patience on the Atari 5200

Описание: Gremlins was a 1984 sci-fi movie that inspired a couple of Atari games, both for the 2600 and the 5200. The games are underrated IMO, being more technically superior than a majority of games in both catalogs, but not often being mentioned as such in popular discourse.

However, the 5200 version suffers from a highly frustrating game mechanic: collision detection reminiscent of Atari's infamous Pac-Man port to the 2600. There were a lot of problems with that game, but its bad collision detection is arguably its most enduring.

In Gremlins for the 5200, you as the player control Billy, a kid who has to gather all his Mogwai into a pen before time runs out. Get as many into the pen before they turn to Gremlins, some of which are already attempting to sabotage your efforts. As the protagonist, you have a sword you can wield against the Gremlins, but there are two problems:

1. You have the reach of a toddler
2. Vertical collision detection is nonsensical

The net effect is that to kill a Gremlin, you're best to come at them laterally, because with your minimal reach, coming at them from above or below requires you get so close as to be a death wish. This aspect of gameplay is extremely annoying, and feels more like a programming oversight than a deliberate mechanic. It's annoying enough in fact that this video was roughly the 10th time I've casually attempted recording my gameplay over a period of months. It took me that many times of coming back to it before I could manage a long enough game to justify uploading it, owed entirely to that infernal collision detection.

Fun fact: Gremlins for the 5200 was almost never released, thanks to the unfortunate timing of its production. It technically ended up being the console's LAST release ever, two years after the console itself had ceased production (and two years after the game itself had been completed). For more on that story, see the below profile at Atari Protos.

Enjoy!

Atari Protos: https://www.atariprotos.com/5200/soft...

Original game manual: gremlins.pdf https://www.ataricompendium.com/archi...