CREEPINGNET'S WORLD
ROBOT TANK (ACTIVISION)
Another early genre that comes and goes is the Tank Simulator genre, spwaned and made popular by the vector graphics, 3D, twin-stick, arcade hit, Battlezone. And of course, a good chunk of the game companies of the early 80's had to take a crack at a home adaptation, this one is Activision's.

In Robot Tank, you drive a tank around a battlefield in a first-person view. And of course, being a later Activision 2600 title, it looks bloody gorgeous. You have the venetian blinds horizon trick whcih they used in just about every later game from Keystone Capers, to Crackpots, to Pitfall II, to this one. You also ohave the day/night/weather mechanics of Enduro in this game, quite impressive, and the radar works pretty well as well.


Battlezone, But Better Than the Home Version - My Experiences
I saw this on Video Game Advantage 2000 website sometime back in the 90's and always wanted it, then our local game shop in recent years got it and of course I bought it as I seem to be the only guy there who buys 2600 games still.

My general rule of thumb is if it's a 2600 game, and I get really into it within a couple minutes of playing it, it's worth my time to purchase a cartridge copy of it. This helps weed out all the bad games, boring old titles geared at only 2 players, cheap cash-ins, horrid clones, and kookiness of the 2600 library.


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