Barnstorming & Grand Prix - Atari Archive Episode 67

[@jeffkaczmarek3577]

We had Grand Prix when I was a kid. It had the best graphics of any game we owned but 4 year old me never really got into the game play. Thank you for another great video.

[@BanditTheCat2017]

Back when getting a patch for a game meant something totally different

[@sandal_thong]

LOL. I think the first time I heard of a something like a patch was 1992-3 for _Quest for Glory 3_ as my version couldn't load my paladin character from the previous game, but someone else had a later version that could. But then I couldn't save his game and load it on mine. That was the end for several years of buying computer games, instead I picked up several games for my brother's SNES in 1993.

[@jeromeellsworth1320]

Thanks for talking about the development hardware! I'm always curious about that

[@3vi1J]

Agreed. It's always super interesting to hear about the constraints they had at the time. It's amazing what they were still able to accomplish everything they did without being able to instantly see how little changes affect the output like we can today.

[@thejunkman]

11:29 Notice Todd Rogers (Rodd Togers) having the Grand Prix record, but we now know that is probably a lie or fake based on his Dragster record.

[@EveryDooDarnDiddlyDay]

You must beat Rodd's Todger to claim the high score.

[@3vi1J]

Another great nostalgic look back as some classics. Thanks!

[@Phediuk]

Great work once again; these are by far the most informative videos for 2600 games on KZbin.

[@TheHylianBatman]

Crash Watch is a cool new segment! I dig it! And hearing about the dev kit they had is cool, too! These games certainly seem to hold up, if you compare them to something like early NES, it'd blend right in!

[@IntoTheVerticalBlank]

Another amazing episode! These are two of the games I HAD to have based on their graphics. back then.

[@sandal_thong]

I played both at other kids' home. They were beautiful compared to those 1970s games he showed: _Air-Sea Battle, Canyon Bomber_ and _Street Racer._ All of those should have been retired by Atari in 1982 as they made the system look bad, especially on the J.C. Penney display machine where you could play game variation 1. However, I didn't think the Activision games were good enough to buy for myself, maybe because they were memorization games and didn't have the game variations I'd come to expect. I got _Barnstorming_ on the cheap years later, and finally _Gran Prix_ on eBay a few years ago.

[@anactualmotherbear]

Another great episode. Barnstorming is one of my favorites.

[@absolutezeronow7928]

Activision definitely knew how to make good looking games. Interesting how Barnstorming and Grand Prix complement each other. Crash Watch is an interesting new feature.

[@Hologhoul]

Excellent video as usual! I was curious about Barnstorming back in the day, but only played it recently via emulation. I was surprised how addictive it is. A well balanced, nicely gauged game, really good fun.

[@SoulforSale]

The Atari joystick bears nearly full responsibility for the success of all the 2600 success. None of these would have been possible on the intellivison and hardly on the Colecovision.

[@ArttuTheCat]

I still have the Atari 2600 games for my PlayStation 2 with a compilation called ACTIVISION ANTHOLOGY 😺👍. And the main reasons, for having that disc, are PITFALL, PITFALL II LOST CAVERNS and H.E.R.O.. 😺👍🕹️

[@BanditTheCat2017]

Give oressure cooker a chance

[@billkendrick1]

In all these decades, I have NEVER noticed lane markings on the left. Whatthe!? I'm sure they'll be obvious on the big UHDTV I've got my 7800 hook up to these days. But the old Zenith(?) woodgrain beast in my childhood living room? Musta been off in overscanville. 😂

[@sandal_thong]

I remember back in the day adjusting vertical and/or horizontal hold when using my game or computer on a B&W TV.

[@Jolt7800]

I have had Grand Prix since I was a kid. I just recently acquired Barn Storming.

[@metronome8471]

Microsoft should add barnstorming as a mode in their flight simulator.

[@donnierussellii4659]

Barnstorming's button to accelerate might be inverted to press to "brake", but I'm not sure that would really work well in practice. When I got my C64, I made a Grand Prix lookalike using a sprite movement library I found in Compute! magazine. I've always loved racing games, and strangely I'm pretty sure that's the only racing game I've ever worked on.

[@sandal_thong]

One thing interesting about 1982 is Activision did TV advertisements for those games individually, (as he showed some clips) and soon Imagic would do the same with _Demon Attack._ In 1981, Atari and Intellivision had ads saying their games (plural) were better or more enjoyable so buy their respective consoles.

[@Dnky27]

I loved collecting the patches and had the Barnstorming one. Sadly they all disappeared during a variety of house moves when I was a kid.

[@sandal_thong]

_Grand Prix, Night Driver, Pole Position, Turbo, Enduro,_ etc. aren't really "racing" games (as mentioned) but rather "passing-traffic" games. (If someone came up with a better name than that, I don't remember it.) The only racing games I can think of are _Indy 500,_ and _Dragster_ for Atari, _Auto Racing_ for Intellivision and _Spin-Out_ for Odyssey². It looks like M-Network didn't port _Auto Racing_ to Atari in 1982-3 as they did others. As for the former, because it used special controllers that didn't come with the system, they didn't make a sequel or any other game like _Tempest_ that could use it. That might have been a good idea for a mail-order cartridge exclusively through their Atari Age club, like _Crazy Climber._

[@cootmaster]

barn storming and sky jinx are kind same but going left right

[@EveryDooDarnDiddlyDay]

Yes, but can you beat Rodd's Todger?