I've always assumed one reason the Atari 2600 remains one of the most popular retrogaming machines, aside from the nostalgic thrill of playing E.T., is seeing how much programmers squeeze out of it.

It's amazing how "two player sprites and a ball" somehow gave us Jr. Pac-Man, Defender II, Pitfall II, Solaris and various other favorites. Homebrewers are still pushing the envelope - a port of Megaman was posted online right before this issue's deadline - keeping the "wow" factor alive due to their graphics, depth or whatever, even when the projects as a whole aren't stellar games.

This is an argument I'll use when trying to come up with a rational reason for my love of inferior computers and video game consoles, whose programmers were constantly trying to keep up in a race while dragging anchors of various size. It was a source of pride when something for my TRS-80 Color Computer, for instance, was comparable to the Atari and Commodore 64 versions - or at least not so awful I'd be embarrassed to have owners of other machines play it. One of the biggest moments in that machine's history came when programmers figured out how to generate four colors on what was technically a black-and-white high-resolution screen.

So after someone figured out how to get music out of a Sinclair ZX81, a machine with no sound-generating capability, maybe I should have had more faith people would overcome its other limitation as well.

The big hang-up from a gamer's perspective, other than the miniscule flat membrane keyboard, was the black-and-white 64X48 pixel screen. Most games use letters, numbers and other ASCII characters because they're more distinguishable than the block graphics (a period makes a nice cannon shot; an inverse quote looks reasonably like a Pac-Man ghost). Such characters, on a 32X24 screen, were defined in an eight-by-eight grid of pixels - divide that and you've got a resolution of 256X192, the same as the Sinclair ZX Spectrum and above-mentioned CoCo. Since the display information was burned into ROM, with no user-defining capability, addressing those pixels was a seeming impossibility.

But some persistent folks pulled it off by, as best I can tell, getting the computer to bypass all of the built-in display code and somehow putting one of their own up. Keeping in mind they apparently managed to refresh that screen 60 times a second, and have the time and memory to run a program on one of the slowest machines ever, it easily ranks among the best tweaking of the 2600's display.

Technical blabber aside, it means I missed out on some really great games when I owned a ZX81 back as a teenager.

This month I'm reviewing a few favorite modern-day "finds" among the collection of titles in the browser-based emulator I've been using recently to rate ZX81 games (online at www.zx81stuff.org.uk). Not every favorite is here since that would deprive future columns of gems worth digging out, but all pack a wallop of some sort even when they may not be among those I consider most fun to play.

As always, grades are relative to the ZX81, so the one title getting a top grade here wouldn't be the envy of a C64 owner. But they'd probably have enough fun playing it they'd stop making fun of the size of my silicon for a few minutes.

Black Crystal (B) The instructions for this Ultima-like RPG kept me entertained longer than a lot of titles I've plodded through over the years. As for the game itself, the grade is strictly based on potential because I can't seem to last long before getting killed. But it looks, oh, so promising I keep firing it up trying to figure out how the hell I actually become a competent adventurer. The player is either a warrior, elf or wizard, and has to get through six quests that load sequentially on cassette. Graphics and sound were never a big thing on those old "tile map" games, so not a lot is lost by having a soundless landscape populated largely by ASCII characters. One thing that totally sucks about online emulation and keeps me from getting further into the game: the save option doesn't work. Best option for that is an emulator with a "snapshot" feature.

City Of Xon (C) From the grade it's obvious I'm not all that high on this Zaxxon derivative, but boot it up once and take a look at it anyhow just to see what some people did with the ZX81''s block graphics. This has all the elements of an "A-plus" game: speedy, challenging, surprisingly effective 3D scrolling and a host of extras that require you to do more than move and shoot. You have two different types of weapons, plus grappling hooks for capturing fuel or the mighty Xon enemy. Shields can be toggled on and off, points swapped for fuel, and your crew repairs various types of damage. The instructions also provide various technical programming details, including various ways to customize the game. With all that, there's two massive problems that make you pull your hair and scream (OK, mutter) "what were they thinking?" First, you only get one ship and, while not every hit is fatal (some damage shields, fuel tanks, etc.), some are and the result is a lot of games lasting mere seconds - not to mention the agony of a single mistake during an otherwise well-played game. Second and far worse, the controls are as bad as anything I've ever seen. You're supposed to use the nightmarish 5-8 arrow keys with you right hand and a row of six more adjacent keys that do various other functions with your left. I can't manage it on a regular keyboard, so I'm guessing the miniscule flat keys of a real ZX81 may literally be impossible. That makes problem number one all the more infuriating, because a lot of miscues aren't going to be the player's fault. Oh, well...makes for a pretty screenshot and statement of the machine's potential.

Fortress Of Zorlac (B) There's actually nothing remarkable about this game, but my personal fondness of Phoenix/Star Castle games puts this higher among my preferred titles than indicated by what I hope is an objective grade. The player controls a tank on the left side of the screen responsible for wiping out the alien inside a ship on the right. The ship has a triple-wall hull that rotates in alternate directions, plus four cannons returning fire. It also slowly moves toward you, making things more and more hazardous (elements of the cone stage in Tron). You can move in four directions, getting more points the closer you are to the ship. It's the little touches that keep me playing it: five user-defined skill levels, flexible keyboard controls and an appropriate learning curve. It's a little monotonous, but then so is Yars' Revenge (another game this reminds me a little of) and it's always been one of the better 2600 titles despite its simplicity.

Forty Niner (A) A few jaws probably dropped when this cousin of Dig Dug came out in 1982, the first of four landmark efforts by Software Farm, with people probably so mesmerized by the hi-res graphics the gameplay was a minor consideration. Luckily, there's a remarkably clever and complex theme at work, along with user-friendly touches including user-definable keys and five skill levels. The player burrows through the dirt to reach gold nuggets while avoiding rats that pass through the earth until they get to the tunnels you dig and start chasing you. You can stall them by knocking out supports that leave a trail of dirt behind, or kill them by touching a nest that releases a snake and destroys everything in its path (including you if you're careless) as it wiggles to the surface. Collect all the nuggets and you exit to the next level through a mine shaft that appears at the bottom of the screen. That's a lot to keep track of, but we're not done yet. There's also a gremlin roaming back and forth across the top of the screen, eating away at a pile of dirt on the surface (picture a twisted Breakout monster come to life). If it eats everything and manages to get to the mine entrance at the top left of the screen, it's buh-bye unless you exit awfully quick. To slow him down you'll need to surface after digging enough dirt to fill the gaps (a "pile" icon indicates how much dirt you've collected). Nice as everything looks, the graphics are a little confusing at first, which keeps this from getting a top grade. But the only game that beats it in this emulator is Software Farm's follow-up title, Rocket Man, detailed below. A third game in the emulator, Z-Xtricator, crashes when I try to play it on my Mac; Windows users may have better luck. It's a Defender-like game, but reviews back then weren't as high as the company's first titles. The company's final game, Booster, came too late in the ZX81's lifespan (1985) to get anything resembling a real release. Those wanting more information about the games, plus files to play on offline emulators, can visit the Software Farm Tribute Page at www.pictureviewerpro.com/hosting/zx81/softwarefarm.htm.
Protector (B) This side-scroller seems like one of many stripped-down Scramble clones, but play it for a bit and some surprising things (i.e. a mushroom cloud) start popping up. Yeah, you gotta shoot the waves of attacking aliens, but it turns out they're running up a separately kept score taking out stuff on the ground. You don't have quite the maneuverability of Scramble (up, down, and an accelerate option that speeds the scrolling while keeping you at the left of the screen), nor do you get bombs for ground targets. You can go wild rapid firing your laser at enemies and targets, but it's a good way to get into trouble fast because you have limited ammo. Restocking requires landing on a launch pad momentarily, meaning you're a sitting duck for the rainstorm of enemies. There's also something called a "Damacles missile" which, as the previously mentioned mushroom cloud might indicate, is bad news - think of it as essentially a smart bomb that's in the possession of the enemy instead of you. About all you have going for you is a decent set of simple controls and six selectable speeds. OK, maybe it's not a trophy game, but back when I was wasting money in a futile search for a playable Scramble game this would have halted the spending spree.
Rocket Man (A) Booting up a hi-res game is an awesome rush, but after the initial few minutes some of them are just a teeth-gnashing bout of slow and unresponsive flickery futility. Not this platformer, which presents a formidable and ever-increasing challenge where all of your screw-up's are definitely your fault. Your goal is to guide a man (who actually looks like a man) around a five-level ladder-and-platform thing on the right side of the screen collecting fuel boxes (one appears at a time, popping up in a new location each time you touch the current one) until a meter at the bottom of the screen indicates you have enough to power the jetpack on the top level. You then need to maneuver the jet pack to one of five diamonds on narrow platforms at the far left of the screen. The fuel doesn't last long, so you need to be quick. You also need to beat the bonus timer. Oh, yeah. There's an enemy out there. A bubble chases you around the screen, not too brightly at first, and touching it is fatal. So is falling into the water at the bottom of the screen. But one of the really great things about this game is the level of control you have over your miner. He has a Super Mario-like ability to change direction in mid-jump, he can jump on and off ladders while airborne, and he can survive a fall of any length as long as he doesn't touch bottom. Flying, of course, is a whole new challenge. Finally, once you get through three levels of this, with the bubble getting hyper aggressive, a key aspect of the game changes. Now you're picking up legs of lamb until your guy has enough energy to basically flap across the diamonds in a Joust-like manner. The action is quick and animation smooth thanks to the minimum of moving elements, but the game hardly feels sparse. The icing on the cake: it's one of the rare games where the default keys are easy to use and you can change them if you don't like them. The only drawback, in fact, is you have to redefine the keys at the start of every game since it doesn't remember them. There's a very high chance this is the game I'd have used to impress friends, if I had any, back in those nerdy teenage years.

At first I was going to reprint an article from 1983 about the summer CES show, as it's the summer and the CES was the first thing that came to mind. However, while I was searching for a CES recap, I stumbled upon an article about an 11 year old boy that was making a name for himself in the publishing industry by writing articles for Universal Press Syndicate. To consider all that he accomplished back then, before the days of YouTube and other internet sites that have made many youngsters famous, drove me to use this article for the August Videological Dig. It's a very fun read to say the least! I wonder what he's doing now? You know what...I'm going to try and track him down and see if he might be interested in writing articles for Retrogaming Times Monthly. It would be fun to hear about his adventures back then. Therefore, I hope this Videological Dig turns into an introduction for someone that we will be hearing more personal stories from in this magazine in the near future! Wish me luck on my quest to find him and enjoy the below article, as it's my favorite "dig" to date!

The New York Times

June 8, 1983, Wednesday, Late City Final Edition

Youth's Column Makes Him Popular with Top Minds in Video Games

From the neck up, Rawson Stovall looks like Dennis the Menace, his favorite cartoon character, blond with bright eyes and an impish smile. From the neck down, however, he looks every bit the professional that he is, dressed in a navy blazer, gray slacks, a tie and tassel loafers, with note pad and pen in hand.

Rawson, a columnist with Universal Press Syndicate, is 11 years old. His weekly column, "The Vid Kid," appears in 11 newspapers, and he is aiming for 100 by the end of the year.

The subject of the column is primarily home video games, and Rawson has developed quite a reputation in the video industry in his first year as a columnist, as evidenced by the respect and attention he garnered at the sprawling Consumer Electronics Show here this week.

Prominent game company presidents and designers, including Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari, and David Crane, a designer with ActiVision, solicited Mr. Stovall's opinions on the quality of their products and granted him long and thoughtful interviews. Although Rawson sometimes groped grammatically, his questions showed him to be better versed on the subject than many of his 2,000 colleagues in the news media who converged on the convention.

Getting Some Respect

Some adults unfamiliar with the young columnist's work smirked patronizingly at the child striding purposefully through one of the nation's largest trade shows, until he shook their hands firmly, produced a business card and asked to sample their latest wares.

Universal Press Syndicate began distributing "The Vid Kid" in April. "They approached me," Rawson said in an interview. "Before that, I got 10 newspapers on my own."

The first was his hometown paper, The Abilene (Tex.) Reporter-News. Last July he approached the executive editor, Dick Tarply, with four sample columns and an outline for a year's worth of pieces. "He really liked them, and called me back the next day to meet the other editors," Rawson said.

A few weeks later, Rawson was driving through Odessa, Tex., with his family, and ventured into the offices of The Odessa American. "I went in dead cold, without an appointment, and presented the editor with some articles," he said. "He loved it, and snatched it right up. But he made me promise I wouldn't go to the Midland paper."

Barred by a Guard

The young writer has had his share of rejections, as well. The Houston Post turned down the column, he said, and "the guard wouldn't let me in at The San Francisco Chronicle."

"They were evil there!'" he added. "So we went to the Examiner, but they wouldn't take it either." The San Jose (Calif.) Mercury picked up the column and coined the name.

"I write for all ages" Rawson said. "My best feedback has been mostly from boys in junior high. But I've gotten a lot of response from grandmothers, too. They don't always know what I'm talking about, but they like to read it. So I included a recipe for Pac-Man cookies in the column."

A straight-A student who usually finishes his homework at school, Rawson has received and reviewed more than 200 sample video cartridges to date. He writes his columns longhand a few weeks ahead of time, and his mother and personal secretary, Kay Law Stovall, types them up on a leased typewriter.

Rawson first became interested in arcade video games in 1978. However, when he asked his father, a program manager for the Texas State Health Department, for a home video game setup, he was rebuffed.

Worked to Get Video Game

Rawson, then in fourth grade, turned instead to the pecan trees in his backyard, harvesting, shelling, halving and selling $175 worth of nuts, enough to pay for an Atari video computer system.

The same year Mrs. Stovall suggested to her son that he write an article on video games. "The way I thought, an article couldn't hold it all," Rawson said. "Mom came up with the idea for a column. Movies have reviews; why not games?"

Rawson's resume is already two and a half pages long. Asked what he expects to be doing in 10 years, when he is all of 21, he replied, "I'd like to be designing games, be president of a game company, in P.R. or advertising, a columnist, and that's it."