CREEPINGNET'S WORLD
STAMPEDE (ACTIVISION)
Stampede was one of those minor 2600 Titles from Activision that does not get as much notice as the others. I feel it kind of grew out of the whole country-fads of the early 1980's as 4x4 trucks, cowboy boots, and country culture in general sort of latched onto everything somewhat back then in some capacity. This game had you roping steer like it's some kind of contest, but it is HARD as heck.

Basically put, in Stampede, theres around, uh, 7-8 variations of roping steer. You're the yellow man on a yellow horse with a lariat, and you're going after black decoy steer/staled steer, slow moving dark yellow steer, faster light yellow steer, really slow dark brown steer. It's basically a resource management game - a fast moving one - where you need to bump the slower steer forward while roping up what you can, and making sure not to hit any of the skulls on the ground, or miss the black stalled/decoys. If 3 steer or decoys (or a mix thereof) pass your horse without being roped, it's game over.

Basically, it's a really good VERY short term game. So if you want to kill a few minutes with the Atari, this is a good one to pick. But unless you are really good, which is really hard to be, you probably won't run any very long campaigns with it. Some would argue the slow controls vs. the fast moving and slow moving characters makes it a "Bad" game, but to me it's not "bad", it's designed as a short-form of entertainment. If you want long, go play Adventure or Pitfall II, or even Starmaster, but if you want short-form, 15-minute, short spurt fun, then this game could be a good one.


Foster & Smith Ruin the Whole Experience - My Experiences
Stampede was a game my oldest sister preferred, she's a large animal vet, so I guess that has something to do with it. Anyway, I SUCK at this game, but it's still enjoyable. maybe with a better joystick that does not hurt my hands when trying to commit to fast action would I actually enjoy this one more, but it's there for nostalgia because it's an odd mix of enjoying the game for what it is while knowing I'm terrible at it that makes it somewhat intriguing.
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