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From: [email protected] (Eric Sheppard)
Newsgroups: rec.games.video
Subject: Williams/Atari (Was Re: No More Bally Tables?)
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Date: 21 Mar 91 05:33:35 GMT
Sender: [email protected]
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology
Lines: 43

(This article piece came through rec.games.pinball, and I wanted to 
add to that, but I forgot to cross it here.)

[email protected] (Steve Baumgarten) writes:

>They've had a few bombs, of course, but back when video games were
>being cranked out by the dozen -- most decidedly mediocre -- Williams
>games always stood out.  The attention to every detail -- from sound
>to graphics to game play -- showed, and the arrival of a new Williams
>video game usually meant that you had to start getting to the arcade
>early to get any playing time.  

>Williams games are, above all, players' games, just the way their pins
>are players' pins.

  You state exactly Atari's position today, IMHO.  In these days of 
chop-socky/scrolling-blastemups, I always look forward to finding a new
Atari video, because I know they go the extra mile to bring innovation
into our otherwise dull lives... (eh! dramatic, corny pause)

  I could forgive them for "Pit Fighter", though I can't see why they
would sully their mounting reputation with this muddled chop-socky 
derivative. Easy bucks, I guess. Couldn't they at least have digitized the
characters more carefully, and animated them more smoothly? But I digress.

  Rattle through the list of recent Atari vids. Crystal Caverns, Marble
Madness, Packrat, Indy & Temple of Doom, Road Runner, Paperboy, 720, 
Night Stocker, Rolling Thunder, (?forget name)/Badlands, Xybots, Toobin, 
Gauntlet, APB, Klax, Hard/Race Drivin', S.T.U.N. Runner, Cyberball, Rampart.  
Each truly in a class by itself; I've seen other companies try to copy them 
and fail miserably. (Remember that horrid SNK ripoff of Rolling Thunder? 
That one lasted only two months.) Some were disappointing, most were
terrific, but each had at least one extremely well developed aspect.  
Some take an old idea and apply a new concept (Cyberball, Hard Drivin'),
but many are totally unique (Marble Madness, Paperboy, Toobin, Klax, etc.)

  Let the other companies continue to spit out the ninjadrek shootanythings,
but the only vids that get my quarters come from Atari.

Eric

One last thing.  I hope this 'digitized people' thing passes quickly; 
Williams' new football game looks sloppy, with all those blitting images. 

Someone send this man a prize.  (I like the way he thinks!)
Then tell him to get all his friends back into the arcade.
Meanwhile, introduce him to a teenager.  (Sigh...)
(But how could he be so wrong about digitizing?)