The Empire Strikes Back: Atari Archive Episode 73

[@play_history]

Thanks for the shout-outs! There was more in that interview than I realized. A real VCS classic, this one. Well worth playing.

[@BClarkOMP]

I have a weird amount of nostalgia for this game despite not having played it a TON. I'm grateful for the explanation because god knows when I was young, I had NO idea about how ANY of the mechanics worked!

[@jpbishi]

This is it! Hold on to your butts! Super nostalgia for this one. While I never owned this, my grandfather had Empire on betamax and my 84 summer vacation in California was visiting him and watching Empire over and over then going to my cousins and playing this game.

[@shawncarter7188]

Great memory

[@Freejack1971]

After 40 years, this is the first time that I learned about the smart bombs! When I saw them in this video, I thought that you were playing a hack of the game. I never owned this myself, so I never read the manual. And I always enjoyed playing game 1 lol.

[@johnbiles419]

I have this game and I ludicrously love it.

[@ErikNilsen1337]

You could have called this game “Bird vs. Camel,” and _no one_ would have argued with you.

[@slightlyevolved]

Now I need to go listen to that. I am not upset by this result.

[@The_Real_DCT]

Funny enough there's a clone of this game for the c64 called Attack of the mutant camels where the AT-AT are replaced with giant Camels.

[@mymomsaysimcool9650]

I remember my friend getting this on his birthday and we had a sleepover at his house based entirely around this game. Same happened when I got Star Wars Arcade on Colecovision at Christmas. PB SW games were awesome. I love JonTron calling it Bird vs. Camel. 😂

[@vidarlystadjohansen9829]

love getting more insight about these old games

[@jeremiahthomas8140]

Finally, the first Parker Brothers game. Parker Brothers might be my favorite third-party publisher, yes, even above Activision. I had this as a kid, and I played it a bunch. I never had the manual, so I just played the first variation every time.

[@sandal_thong]

I also liked Q-Bert, which I was still interested in playing this past winter (along with Frogger and Empire). Apparently it didn't sell 1M, though it got a sequel. Their other games I have, like Spider-Man, Tutankham, Reactor, etc. stay in the box.

[@Austin-gj7zj]

@@sandal_thong that Q*Bert port is incredibly competent. I lost many lazy afternoons to it.

[@cbake76]

I think I'm right there with you on PB being my favorite third-party publisher. They were definitely the first to fully understand the value of licensed games. Really wish the industry had allowed for their other Star Wars games, Incredible Hulk, and Lord of the Rings...

[@JaimeSalcedoA_72]

¡Excelente estuvo este pequeño documental sobre el magnífico juego The Empire Strikes Back! Todavía lo conservo con su caja y manual en buenas condiciones, desde que me lo regalaron para mi cumpleaños en 1982... ¡Saludos cordiales!

[@shawncarter7188]

Thank you as always for tbe great videos ...i could listen to these all day

[@absolutezeronow7928]

Parker Brothers was definitely a good 1980s video game publisher, which would have good VCS games, and would later be a publisher on NES and the Master System. Empire Strikes Back is good for what it is, and it does capture the feeling of the Battle of Hoth, even if it's missing elements due to cartridge space.

[@sandal_thong]

Looking at the third-party publishers that also published board games, Milton Bradley was late to the party in 1983 releasing only a couple games, and Avalon Hill was too, releasing three in 1983, and a couple in 1984. But I think they weren't board game adaptations with A.I. but lame action games.

[@Heike--]

Always loved the auto-fire on this game.

[@unj]

When i was initially looking up old Atari games to research on my own (clarificaiton: i was born in the mid-80s, so Atari is before my time), I always gravitated towards the more original games rather than ones that seemed to be variations on popular arcade games. This game is pretty neat and its a real treat to know for once that there is a plethora of information about a game (and early game company) than the usual big nothing. Excited for the Demons to Diamonds video! That's definitely not a favourite game, but there's so little about I know about it, I'm curious what the comments and you will have to say. I'm sure it has some people who love it, but I haven't met any. ;)

[@Trialwolf]

Wow, I actually just picked this game up last week, label was not attached but that was an easy fix. It is an overall solid game and fun for a quick play.

[@sandal_thong]

I got my copy as either a hand-me-down or at the thrift store on the cheap in the 1990s. I was really an Empire Strikes Back fan in 1980-1, but less so in 1982-3. I wanted the soundtrack for the movie (I think now it must have been a double album since it's about as long or longer than the movie!), but instead Mom got me a record that had one clip of Meco's disco Empire Strikes Back.

[@2dskillz]

Great information! Thanks for such a well presented video.

[@sandal_thong]

Ditto. I didn't expect this much information. But since it was the first Parker Bros. game for the VCS it deserves it.

[@davy_K]

It didn't have longevity ( though cranking the difficulty up helped) but I really liked this game back in the day. This seems to have inspired Jeff Minter quite a bit with his camel game series.

[@anactualmotherbear]

I don't care about Star Wars, but I care about this series, and it's a good episode.

[@cbake76]

I was waiting for you to get to this one! Excellent work, as always. I'm curious -- have you seen the Parker Brothers Toy Fair 1982 video here on KZbin? I was a little surprised you didn't include some of it, but there's plenty of other good stuff to make for that. Also, some fun trivia I learned from a Heritage Auctions marketing email, of all things: Empire and Frogger were together the first video games ever advertised in comic books.

[@AtariArchive]

I missed that video!

[@cbake76]

@@AtariArchive It's fun to watch -- just search "parker brothers toy fair 1982" and it'll come right up. There's also a fun "how to win at video games" kind of video out there that covers the game.

[@Phediuk]

Another great episode.

[@hajali1369]

please make a video about the history of River Raid, i'm looking forward to watching it.

[@AtariArchive]

That one came out in December 82 so we’ve got a bit!

[@hajali1369]

@AtariArchive It's one of my favourite games of all time , so I've adapted it to make my first game. It's one of my dreams to make a game for Atari

[@TheHylianBatman]

The Atari version definitely looks faster-paced. I imagine I'd prefer that one.

[@PaulSoth]

Digital Eclipse's Lammasoft collection has a video segment that details how Jeff Minter was inspired to make Attack of the Mutant Camels after playing this in a shop and reading a magazine article that made the camel comparison. Also found out that Video Review magazine had a review of the game written by none other than Harlan Ellison. It's about as cantankerous, combative and cynical as one would expect from that grumpy old bastard.

[@jamesmoss3424]

The Atari 2600 version of The Empire Strikes Back looks impressive. 😀👍🎮

[@sandal_thong]

I got the SNES version of Super Empire Strikes Back, played it on my brother's console for some time; and after I won it and my siblings weren't interested I traded it for another game. I probably could have gone back to play it with a different character(s), but wasn't that in to it. (Your comment reminds me that when you go up against Darth Vader, I think he says "Impressive".)

[@nymalous3428]

I've tried twice now to watch this video and both times it gets stuck loading at 0:55. All other youtube videos play fine. Just thought you should know.

[@shawncarter7188]

Works for me

[@swk38]

its like chopper command

[@beanburritos6393]

You could have called this game Bird vs. Camel and NO ONE would have argued with you.

[@BeyondTheScanlines]

What a great start for a publisher, but damn, I'm not going to enjoy seeing the story of their hubris playing out over the next few years. ESB is a simple enough concept that it strikes that classic maxim of being easy to play, but tough to master. The little details of the design do impress - and make for some tactics I'll have to try next time I give it a bash.

[@schnitzelhorsen1105]

*You could've called this game...*

[@yattibanks]

Bird vs. Camel