Kaboom!: Atari Archive Episode 57
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- Опубликовано: 16 сен 2024
- Larry Kaplan's final VCS release is another absolute classic for a year that's full of them. Kaboom! takes the formula laid out in Atari's 1978 arcade game Avalanche and produces a speedy game of reflexes, timing, and rank management. This was one of the high water marks for Activision, paddle games and the VCS as a whole, and as we'll see here, everyone knew it even then.
Sources:
Larry Kaplan, correspondence with the author, 2017-2022
Larry Kaplan, interview with Scott Stilphen, 2006
David Crane, correspondence with the author, 2017
Mike White, correspondence with the author, 2020
Merchandising, June 1981
Electronic Gaming Monthly, 1994 Preview
Electronic Games, Winter 1981, March 1982, August 1982
Video, January 1982
APX Catalog, Summer 1981
Dennis Koble, interview with Scott Stilphen, 2017
ANTIC, June 1984
Joystik, December 1982
TV Gamer, April 1984
Electronic Fun with Computers and Games, March 1983
Leisure Time Electronics, Spring 1981, Summer 1981
Video Games, August 1982
The Morning News, December 6 1981
The Paducah Sun, August 2 1981
Vid Kid's Book of Home Video Games, Rawson Stovall, 1984
An episode I've been eagerly waiting years for! Thanks for the content as always, you provide a great service to those interested in the history of the old VCS.
I remember when this game came out for the 2600. This was when Activision was new and on top of their game.
Excellent work once again. What I find interesting about Kaboom is how quickly it hypnotizes the player; you can't focus on anything but the game when you're playing it.
Great video. I was never aware of the Avalanche game. I played this a lot as a kid and it is still fun to play with friends, to see who gets the highest score. Richie Knucklez Arcade in New Jersey has a converted Kaboom cabinet, which is impressive.
I really enjoy your videos. It’s so interesting to learn so much about some of my childhood favorites and memories. Thanks for all the time and effort you put into these videos.
Kaboom is to me the best VCS game, and one of the best games of all time. The zen simplicity of it and the way you achieve a flow state so quickly make it feel like almost a psychedelic experience.
Great video and great channel, really full of informations.
Keep up your good work, Sir!
Cheers from Italy
Kaboom / SuperBreakout are games that is inspiring me to a series of purchases. I'm buying either a iCode or 2600-Daptor. I'm buying a pair of paddles & new potentiometer from Best Electronics.
Emulator Stella2014 is especially tailored for better paddle emulation on PC / Raspberry Pi.
Love this channel.
The very first Activision cartridge I ever saw and played. I remember visiting my childhood friend(s), Russell and his brother Kurt at his family's house and was absolutely, positively blown away by the graphics, the gameplay, the strategy required to play and everything. I knew then, as I do now, was experiencing a magical moment in electronic gaming!
Impressive amount of screens on the tank one, and that scrolling driving game looked ace!
Another superb episode!
Kaboom's one I've not spent enough time with (partially as I didn't have Paddles for the longest time, and the set I do have really need some maintenance), but it's certainly one which I feel lives up to the old "Easy to Learn, Hard to Master" maxim rather well.
Always is a surprise to see some crafty 2600 trickery in even the most unassuming of places too, I guess it's why I appreciate the old woodgrained best so much, just for seeing what little surprises can occur.
Radio Shack sold Popcorn for the TRS-80 Color Computer which was an Avalanche clone, though at the time I thought it was a Kaboom clone. I didn’t learn about Avalanche until decades later.
A game I took for granted until you showed me the arcade original, and explained how the color bleed hid what was really going on.
It really drives home how you can't trust a pure ROM image to represent the artist's original intentions. (As if the Sega Genesis library wasn't evidence enough.)
It also helps to know that the difficulty is theoretically manageable at all times, at least on a CRT with paddle controls. By the time I owned a 2600 in the late 80's, these graphics weren't enough to sell the simple gameplay. Not with 'Kung Fu Master', 'Solaris', 'Atlantis', 'Jungle Hunt', etc around.
And the gameplay really was simple. Compared to all the alternatives, this game suffered from many of the same problems as 'Bloody Human Freeway: Are You Chicken?!' Edition. After this episode, I'm really looking forward to learning something about that game, besides "It's one hell of a tech demo/programming feat." (Assuming there's anything else to learn?)
Thank you for providing the missing context so many other channels miss. You're on my list of the top retrogaming historians.
Would be fun to see if Microsoft feels like reviving the Kaboom IP once that acquisition is finalized. I forget if I played Freeway or Frogger before I got an NES. Looking forward to that next time.
That smile…
That bomber’s smile…
You mention games that bite this one's style, but no mention of Beat 'Em and Eat 'Em? Curious. 😂
I want to quarantine that one as long as possible