Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Atari HELP!!!

There is this game Dan and I used to play on Atari, and for the life of me, I cannot remember what it was called. I've tried to explain it before to other people, but I just get these looks like I'm crazy. And maybe I am. But not on this! I have vivid memories of playing it, and it was really fun.

Here's what I remember:

It was a black background with stars twinkling that made you feel like you were in space.
There were bars like this, but thicker, almost like gold scaffolding:
___________ ___________ _____

__________ ______________ _______ ______

So, varying lengths of bars abound.
Your character is a rudimentary gold stick figure.
At some point (probably the beginning of the game, heh), a timer starts going, and your goal is to get to the bottom of the screen, wherever the bars may end. You keep going down, down, down as fast as you can, and it's your choice what bars to take as you go down.
I sort of remember that maybe you were trying to rescue someone trapped at the bottom, but if time ran out, the game was over. Also, as the time got closer to running out, the music got faster and louder, as if your 5-year-old self weren't freaked out enough already.

Did anyone play this game ever????? Obviously, this thing is hard to explain in this format.
It's one of those things I just can't remember, and it's really bugging me!

7 comments:

Ker said...

oops, heh. Looks like I need to change the settings on my ScribeFire account. It says Braden posted this, but it was me. Obviously, since what were Braden and Dan doing playing Atari back in 1983?

Ker said...

Also, the bars were supposed to be further apart than how they actually appear in my post.

Braden said...

Hey! Dan and I go way back!

dan said...

Yeah I was wondering what Braden and I were doing back in the dizz-ay

Annnnnnnnnnnyway.... I believe you are referring to "Mountain King"

It played the music from Peer Gynt (Hall of the Mountain King), though of course we didn't know that at the time.

The music definitely sped up as time was running out and lo, it did get the adrenaline up and runnin

Sooooooo am I right?!?!?!

dan said...

See also this YouTube

Ker said...

Dan, lo, you are the MAN. That is in fact the game of old school coolness! And once I watched the YouTube video and got to the point where the music started speeding up, it brought back all these memories! Good times!

It's funny how you remember things a certain way, and then it ends up being something different. For example, I guess the "stars" I remembered are actually diamonds, because you're underground in a diamond mine. And I guess you go down to get the crown and then have to go back up, but I only remember trying to get down as quickly as possible. But that was because of the death timer. Haha, I guess my 5-year-old self stank at this, because I always remember dying before I got to the bottom, and that's probably why I don't remember having to go to the top. :)

I asked you about this once before, Dan, and you gave me a crazy look! Why weren't you the man then?? :) I must not have explained it as well.

dan said...

Yeah I don't remember you having asked me about this before.

I didn't get to watch the YouTube because I'm at work but I plan on checking it out when I get home