Every time I go to a retro gaming event there’s always one video game (or pinball table) which I like to call ‘the show game’. It’s that one game that becomes synonymous with an event due to the amount of times it’ll keep going back to it throughout the day (‘damn game won’t beat me’ will usually being muttered along the way 🙂 ) Said game will probably be an oldie I’ve not actually sat down to play before or sometimes it’s a title from my own gaming past that I’m rediscover all over again. Played solo or shared with friends, it’s that one fun game that becomes simply becomes – the show game.
Anyone else have these?
Last months Retro Revival 2014 was no different and my show game for the event was a title I found at random whilst browsing for something else to play on an Atari XEGS after a button bashing warm up session on Satan’s Hollow. Which so happened to be my ‘show game’ from Retro Derby that was held back in July.
Retro Derby, the second meetup organised by Chris Snowdon (the first can be found here – https://stiggyblog.wordpress.com/2012/11/17/retro-gaming-weekend-at-derby-saturday/ and https://stiggyblog.wordpress.com/2012/11/19/retro-gaming-weekend-at-derby-sunday/ )and despite the sweltering heat on one of the hottest days of the year, was bags of fun and my first introduction to the Atari XEGS and the Atari 8-bit version of Satan’s Hollow – which grew on me very quickly and to be honest, I think I prefer playing this version instead of the arcade original.
Oh and that mini arcade cabinet on the left, yup so cool isn’t it. http://www.turnarcades.com/ did a great job on this.
Any-ho, so back to Retro Revival and Keiren had brought along his XEGS setup again and I was casually looking through this games list on his Atari Max flash cart. I played a few well known games, like Donkey Kong and Beam Rider but when I found and started playing Sea Chase, I was instantly hooked…heck, it’s got a submarine in it….subs are cool!
Sea Chase by Eric Fries – later I’m informed of his association with Microsoft, Xbox, Ouya and author of Halo 2600. Talented guy!
First highscore.
At first I wasn’t sure exactly what to do, but as a seasoned pixel submariner, I hazarded a guess that the depth charges released from the ship above and the floating mines might not be very good for my periscope. In addition, something ought to be done about that slowly depleting fuel supply.
As you navigate around the deadly obstacles whilst fighting inertia, treasure items will appear for collecting. After you’ve bagged ten items a torpedo will appears somewhere on screen. Once you’ve collected it, line up for a shot, flood tubes one and….well just one really and light up that pesky ship above. You’ll get one shot only so if you miss you’ll have to redo the level again.
Scoring is achieved by shooting the depth charges before they explode (avoid the brief shrapnel cloud), blowing away the fast moving enemy subs and finally torpedoing the ship. There’s also a time bonus for skilled drivers that can complete the level before the timer runs out.
Sea Chase might look a little basic and if like myself you’ve not played it before, it’s well worth checking out. A fun little twitch shooter I’m sure you’ll return to again just to top that previous score.
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