| Commando 1986, ACTIVISION |
 
Commando was an arcade game released released in JApan as Senjo no Okaumi in 1985 by Capcom. The game went on to have many ports to many different computers and systems following it's US Release in the arcades as "Commando" (no relation to the movie with Arnold Schwartzenegger, the game came out first). The ports included the Commodore 64, NES, PC, Apple II, Intellivision, and of course...the Atari 2600, just to name a few.
In Commando you play Super Joe - a military officer basically, deployed into the "Jungle" (looks more like the desert in the Middle East on the ATari 2600 port to be honest, given the sand and palm trees everywhere), to single handedly battle enemy combatants for survival. There's only two variations, one and two player, making this one of the most modern 2600 games by style in the original 1977-1992 run of the system. Commando was a late release for the system during it's true decline from 1986 to 1992. It's considered scarce though I did not really find it too terribly difficult to find a copy at a reasonable price (I had a harder time finding Pitfall II TBH). It seems to have high regard in some circles and largeley forgotten otherwise.My Experiences IN late 2024, sick and tired of dragging my Sears Telegames Light Sixer back and fourth between our 4K TV and my iMAC to record YouTube videos of Atari 2600 games on actual hardware, I decided instead to take on a small restoration project - a 1978 Taiwan-assembled "Heavy Sixer". With said Heavy SIxer came a PILE of manuals for it, and included among them, for games I did not already own, was the manual for this game: Commando. So I spent a few months digging around on e-bay for a USED copy. I like worn copies of games because I'm going to play them,not stick them in plastic and brag about my "investment". I'm like that with everything. So one of the ways I found new games to try out, was to dig through the randomesque stuff that came with the Heavy Sixer, and buy it if I wanted to try it out. This game was probably the top one I wanted to try. I just got it home yesterday, and the video will come out in May because I've got quite the backlog of 2600 games in my schedule already uploaded (I'm still waiting on Boulderdash from Atari Age's last-chance sale, I need to e-mail Albert about that one, I ordered it in December). My first impressions is this game is surprisingly good. The Music, though a bit sparce and filled with what sounds like a Military snare regiment, is decent considering the 2 voice Atari RIOT chip, and the controls are far better than I was especting (especially after a brief flirt with the Ikari Warriors port in Z26 years ago....yuck). It is HARD though. Very hard. I kept getting shot down left and right by enemy soldiers to the point my first score was only 500. But I started getting better. I find I have finer control with a CX-78+ gamepad than I do with the Joystick. Furthest I got on my first day was past the first wall to the bunkers of tossers throwing bombs at me en-masse. So it looks like so far, this one will be a permanant resident in the collection. I like it enough to keep playing it. Still need to try it out with the wireless gamepad on the Sears though, all my initial gaming was through Open Broadcaster STudio on my iMAC on the Heavy Sixer (which seemed very happy playing this one).Videos Walkthroughs/Manuals/Reviews |
