As I noted on my piece on Retrounite today, my little Anbernic handheld is getting a lot of use, simply because it provides such easy access to so many games I love.
This evening I've been playing Enduro for Atari 2600, which is one of my favourite games on the platform. Since I didn't have a 2600 growing up, I discovered this game relatively late. I did play its successor The Great American Cross-Country Road Race, though, but I actually think I prefer Enduro.
For the unfamiliar, Enduro is a racer where your aim is to overtake a set number of cars over the course of a series of virtual days. If you meet your quota by sunrise the following day, you keep going and get a new quota; fail and your race is over. Your final score is how many "miles" you managed to cover during the race.
At heart, Enduro is very simple. Opponent cars only appear in one of three lanes on the road, so it's mostly about dodging them. Where things get interesting is how the environment changes as each "day" passes. You start in the daytime, then things get bizarrely, suddenly snowy, then the sun sets, then you drive through the night, then the morning fog, and finally the dawn.
It's a great example of Activision at its best, pushing the 2600 further than anyone out there and producing games that played great as well as being technically impressive. Now what are they known for? Uh, probably best not to get into that right now, huh…
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