CREEPINGNET'S WORLD
SEAQUUEST (ACTIVISION)
Another tried and true generic genre for the Atari 2600 is those estrange, single-screen games where you shoot for a high score in some fashion. This one takes a unique turn in that you are in a submarine, rescuing divers, and shooting various watercraft and sea creatures for high score, all the while needing to return up for air. Another good Activision title that's fun to play. Not much else to say here. It's not a massive hit like Pitfall, nor a boring liminal space to the point of becoming a backroom like Golf, nor a complete anti-P.C. garbage dump like Custer's Revenge.

This Submarine Will Self Destruct in Fifteen Seconds - My Experiences
So I discovered this one on the Activision Classics pack for Playstation on my old $20 Playstation I had back in my "suthun'" days, and it was a good one but not one I gave a whole lot of thought to. That said, I remembered that the comedic timing in this game was absolutley perfect.

See, in the game, first off, you have a submarine. Okay, fair enough. But you're rescuing divers? What, is there some kind of "water lock" in the Sub that sucks o ut the water when you pick these people up to save them? Or is that why you need to return for air? Then there's the whole idea of a shark eating a submarine. You mean to tell me Jaws is going to take out a military submergable andd make it explode? Sounds like some faulty engineering there. Or is this Willy Wonka's personal watercraft (It's the Wonkamarine! It runs on Everlasting gobstoppers, and instead of polluting the ocean, it turns the ocean into soda pop!) - somebody cue up those Oompa Loompa's right now!! We have swimmers floating over the horizon to outer space (oh gawd!). Flying Sharks! Were going to get a Sharknado out here! (clears throat)...

Anyway, getting back on track, so you have the most dramatic death sequence I've seen in awhile, basically your submarine blinks and makes noise like one of those super spy documents that self-destructs in 15 seconds (boopboopboopboopboopboop**KAPOW**). Which makes is almost impossible to take the entire act of in game death seriously. In Atari, it's either anti-climatic and straightforward, rinky dink and hilarious, or so over-played it seems like a feeble attempt at Shakesperian Tradgedy. This picks options two and three.