Combat (Atari 2600)

My, my, my! I must have died and gone to heaven. I sure as heck haven't seen vintage Atari games up for review on Epinions, and I'm sure as heck glad there are some here. The Atari 2600, after all, will always hold a special place in my heart. That's another story entirely, however. Right now, I figure on taking a look at Combat, the "pack-in" game that came with Atari for years and one that many fans of "classic" or "vintage" gaming remember fondly.

The first -- and maybe most important -- thing to remember about Combat is that it was crammed in about two kilobytes of RAM. Quite a feat, really, when you consider the memory-hogging games made today. For a tiny little program, Atari's Combat really delivers the goods.

Combat, of course, is for two players only. I guess one person could play the thing if truly bored, but this is a game that was designed for one thing -- let two people blast the absolute fool out of each other.

Combat includes a number of variations that allow players to fight it out in tanks, jets or bi-planes. The great thing about this little cartridge is that there are so many variations involved. Want to fight with tanks? Go for an open playing field, one with barriers or one with barriers that deflect the bullets at set angles (the "tank pong" variations). You've even got some modes in there for invisibility of tanks and barriers. Fight it out with jets or bi-planes, too. I love the airplane screens -- most of them have huge clouds right in the middle of the playfield.

The great thing about Combat is that it's very easy to learn and appeals to the competitive creep in all of us. I can't tell you how many times I've snickered while blasting the fool out of a friend at combat. The games are very simple to learn and control, but there's something just nifty about beating the heck out of a human being playing a game with you.

There are two drawbacks to this little game, sadly. First of all, the graphics are very primitive. Sure, it's easy to keep up with your tank and such, but everything looks very blocky (especially the aforementioned clouds).

Second, the sound effects aren't great -- engine drone in airplane games and a little "crashing" bit that plays whenever a player gets hit by an opposing bullet.

Anyone who owned an Atari 2600 knows all about Combat. I hope that most people familiar with the game, however, agree that Combat is a fantastic multiplayer game that's easy enough for anyone to pick up and play.