*Well, let’s kick off 1980 with yet another Atari arcade game, but this is one that has a lot going on in terms of innovations.
*In Battlezone, the player controls a tank in first person perspective and maneuvers the tank on a fully three-dimensional battlefield destroying enemy tanks.
*First let me talk about the arcade cabinet, which is, again, super cool. I was, again, not able to find an arcade cabinet to try, so I played it on an iPad with Atari Arcade. Not ideal.
*Because the cabinet was one of those that tried to very accurately represent the experience of controlling a tank. The player maneuvered using two levers; each of them controlled one of the tank’s “treads,” so you could use them in tandem to move forward or back or use them in opposition in order to rotate one direction or the other.
*This finally kind of unlocked the whole idea behind tank controls for me. Like, in this mode, I get it. I get what tank controls are trying to do.
*But that’s not where the immersion stops. The player views the screen by looking through a periscope viewer on the front of the arcade cabinet. The cabinet featured side windows so people could watch the gameplay while others played. So, it’s a pretty unique and eye-catching design, but apparently arcade owners felt that it discouraged onlookers, so cabinets were later manufactured that had the levers, but did not have the periscope build.
*Since the player is supposed to basically put their face into this periscope type thing and have the gameplay take up their entire field of vision, some people like to get cute and call this the first VR game. I mean, I don’t really think that qualifies, but whatever.
*If it’s not exactly VR, what it is . . . is super-cool looking. This is another case where I think that the definitive experience is absolutely playing it on an arcade cabinet with the periscope built on the front. That looks super-fun and playing this game any other way will definitely not be quite the same.
*Though I have to say, while it looks fun, I don’t know that I would be able to overcome the fact that the basic gameplay mechanic here involves rubbing your face on a surface in a video game arcade, which, as we all know, is one of the scuzziest places known to mankind.
*If I ever find an arcade that has this, I will totally go in with like bleach wipes and disinfect that thing to within an inch of its life.
*Anyway, while I’m talking about the realistic controls and set-up, it’s worth saying that the US Army actually contacted Atari and asked them to build a modified version of this game for actual Army training purposes.
*Ed Rotberg was one of the main programmers on this game and he initially refused to do so out of a moral objection to working for the military. Atari told him that if he did it, he would never have to do anything for the military again and so he did do it, but I find his initial objection kind of interesting.
*And thus was created The Bradley Trainer, used by the military to train soldiers in using the Bradley Military Vehicle. It was modified apparently from the lever controls to mimic the Bradley’s gunner yoke.
*Two Bradley Trainer cabinets were created. Only one of them still survives. Some dude literally found it next to a dumpster a few years ago apparently.
*Anyway, let’s get on to my thoughts on the experience of playing the game. Again, as stated above, I played it on Atari Arcade. This is obviously a different experience to playing it on the machine and obviously impacts my experience/opinion.
*That said, I liked playing it on the Atari Arcade app instead of playing any other home ports because the app is set up so that you operate the treads separately with two sliders, thus replicating, more or less, the mechanic of the two levers. I prefer this to the more widespread Tank Controls control scheme. It does feel pretty cool to get the tactile feeling of rotating by using one tread instead of both. I liked that.
*I have to admit that I am kind of getting tired of vector graphics. Even when at their most minimal, I think I just like pixel graphics better. But I also just played Lunar Lander, which was vector graphics and also pretty awful, so that’s probably why actually.
*But the big innovation that is really cool is that this game is the first that I feel comfortable calling 3-D. Boot Hill, if you’ll recall, had a bit of forced perspective that KIND of created a 3-D environment, but it was nothing like this, of course. The ability to see a tank directly ahead of you and drive straight at it or to have a tank coming at you and to duck behind an obstacle and then circle around it . . . I mean, it feels unbelievably revolutionary compared to the previous games I’ve played.
*Except for Space Invaders and Galaxian. Even though those are 2-D games, they still feel more visceral and exciting than this, I’d say.
*Also, one of the best thing about this game is the mini-map. It actually has a radar display at the top of the screen that shows you where the enemy tanks are. This also really helps sell the idea that you’re in a 3-D environment because when a tank pops up behind you, you see it and you can’t always just rotate and attack. Sometimes you have to like book it forward it a bit and then turn. Or maybe, and this was so much fun, you need to back up and rotate. So you can slam it in reverse with both treads and then, at a certain point, stop using one tread so that you then rotate. I’m not entirely sure what it was, but that particular maneuver was. So. Much. Fun.
*I can only imagine how much fun this would be on the arcade cabinet. I mean, I imagine just slamming those levers around, like WHAM into reverse and then WHAM one tread out and you’re lining up. Man. This is, I think, the game I’m most bummed about not getting to play on an arcade cabinet. I guess that’s because I feel like it loses the most of any game so far when you jump down to playing it some other way.
*That said. I still really enjoyed this game. The tread control scheme is unique at this point in my journey, so it felt pretty fun and very responsive. This isn’t a game I see myself returning to for fun at any point really, but it is a game that I could see myself playing for a long time on the arcade cabinet.
*So, a little mixed on this one, but I’m pretty sure it’s because the arcade cabinet mechanics are so integral to the experience of the game.
*Next time, we’ll stick with Atari and check out another arcade game. I dunno that the book has the year right on this. Was it 1980 or 1981 when Centipede came out? Oh, who cares? Join me next time for Centipede!