Tutankham

Title screen with points

Fun note:  It's called Tutankham because the full name, Tutankhamun, was too long for the marquee.  So they renamed the game instead.

Tutankham was released in arcades in 1982 with an Atari 2600 port following in 1983.  I never actually played the arcade version but I played the Atari version extensively.  The Atari version is much simpler but gets the main idea right.  The arcade version has much better graphics and sound and a bit more complicated gameplay.  It's a maze-shooter game where you have try to find the treasure at the end of each level, hopefully finding the keys along the way to unlock the gates blocking the exit.  Both versions have 4 different levels and then repeat them at a harder difficulty.  I decided that "beating the game" this time would be finishing each level up to the point where they start repeating (level 5).  Also, I wouldn't be able to skip any of the treasures along the way.  At first I was only going to do the Atari version, but that turned out to be a bit too easy so I decided to give the arcade version a try as well.

Day One:

I started the up the Atari version and was immediately taken back to 1983.  It took a while to get back up to speed which meant repeating the early levels quite a few times.  After a couple of hours, I managed to complete my goals and got to level 6, which is the same as level 2, but harder.  Since I beat it so easily, I decided to try out the arcade version next.

The four levels of the Atari 2600 version

Day Two:

I started the arcade version of the game.  My emulator warns of incomplete graphics emulation so let's hope it isn't game-breaking.  Wow!  This version is far harder than the Atari version.  Where the console version seems limited to one or two enemies on the screen this one throws as many enemies as possible at you.  You'll hear them spawning wave after wave then they all head toward you.  I managed level one pretty quickly but level 2 was a challenge.  Unlike the console port which is fairly linear, the arcade version sometimes requires you to grab a key, unlock a door, then backtrack to find another key to unlock the next door.  You cannot carry more than one at a time, so you'll be going back and forth a bit.  It definitely increases the challenge as the areas between the keys and the locked doors are very difficult and you'll have to traverse them multiple times.

Dead again!

Day Three:

Finally completed level 2 and started level 3.  Wow again!  So many enemies...  I've become overwhelmed a few times and had to use my "flash bomb" to wipe out all the enemies on-screen.  This nuke is handy, but you don't get many and, so far, I've found that I could use a few more.  I'd use the nuke to get through an area, but then I have to come back to get the next key where I'd get swamped again.  I tried a lot of times, but I'm hitting a wall.  I'll give it another try tomorrow, maybe we'll get lucky.  I'm getting better at the first couple levels now and can make it to level 3 without dying about 50% of the time, even gaining an extra man at 30,000 points along the way.  Level 3 is brutal though and I end up dying there a lot.

Treasure!

Day Four:

Still hard as nails!  I've been able to beat level 3 a few times but end up dying on level 4.  Level 4 seems a bit easier than level 3, but I get there with so few lives, etc. that I just can't make it.  I'll probably just have to get lucky and get here with more lives.

So many enemies!

Day Five:

I did it!!!  I finally managed to get to level 4 with 2 lives left.  I then used my flash bomb early and made it to the first lock.  Then I died on my way back to the second key.  Fortunately, it spawned me back in a little further back than I had managed to get so I got the key and worked my way back to the last lock.  It was pretty intense getting back through the most difficult parts, but I managed some lucky runs and opened the last gate.  Level 5 was just like level 1, except it had two gates and two keys.  I lost my final life on this level and called it quits.

Mission Complete!

Conclusion:

I'm really glad I played the arcade version of this game.  I had only played the Atari port before and it was very much simplified from the original.  The addition of multiple keys and locks to pass levels and the hugely greater number of enemies on-screen made this game much, much harder.  The graphics, etc are not too bad, it looks to me like 8-bit graphics, but I'm not completely sure.  Most of what the game does could probably be done on an NES but it might be a stretch.  Either way, if you like frantic action and potentially very frustrating gameplay, this game is for you.  It's difficult enough to make completion very satisfying, but not so hard that it seems impossible.  I think this might have climbed to become one of my favorite old arcade games, along with Jungle Hunt and Elevator Action.

Deathsplosion!

As another side-note: there are several elements of this game that seem directly lifted from Defender.  The "laser" that you use as your primary weapon is exactly like the one shot from the ship in Defender.  The death animation is also the same, where you explode radially outward, pushing the other pixels with you.  Finally, it seems that the radar might also be the same, though it's considerably less useful than in Defender.  I couldn't find out much about it, but I'd be interested in how that came about.

Elevator Action

Title screen makes it look like a Western.

Introduced in 1983 by Taito, the next game in my playthroughs is Elevator Action.  As with many of the games I've been playing, I have a long history with this one.  When I was a kid, my allowance was 50¢ a week and, when I'd receive my 2 quarters, I would head to the corner market to spend them on a couple of arcade games near the front.  I got pretty good at this particular game and it even got me in trouble once when I was out too long.  As I headed to the market, my Dad told me to come right back when I was done.  Over an hour later, he showed up looking for me because I hadn't returned and was still in the middle of my second game.  Thanks a lot, Taito!

Rappelling to the roof.

The basic idea of the game is that you are a spy infiltrating an enemy building.  Inside are enemy agents and an increasingly complex system of elevators.  You make your way from top to bottom, avoiding or eliminating spies, collecting secret documents from the red doorways, eventually reaching the garage level where you jump into your car and escape.  It's sort of a side-scroller on it's end (a vertical-scroller?).  Once you complete the level, the color palette shifts and you do it again with faster, more agile enemy spies.

The different stages of each level.

The first section is a simple elevator down the center.  The second makes to exit the elevator to use escalators on the sides of the screen.  The third is a section with no lights but the final section is where the real elevator action begins.  There are 5 separate elevators to use with some tied together vertically.  The enemies can also use the elevators and will shoot at you whenever they see you.  You can dispose of them by shooting them, jump-kicking them in the head, shooting a light out above them (which them falls on them) or, more rarely, squashing them under an elevator.  If you miss one of the red doorways on the way down, you'll perform an jumping animation with "!!" marks then teleport to the door you missed.  You must then travel back down the tower to the bottom.

The escape!

On my first play I did fairly well, getting to level 3 and around 38,000 points.  I decided that beating level 4 and getting at least 50,000 would be a good stopping point.  While doing this, however, I discovered that level 5 had the same colors as level 1 so I wondered if that was the point where it repeated.  After a few (a lot) more tries, I managed to get to level 6 (same as level 2) and, finally, level 7.  Yep, it was the same as level 3.  Good enough for me!  Game complete!

Levels 2, 3, 4 and 5.

There's no real end, I assume, so you could just play it until you're tired of it, but the action is enjoyable and the music is catchy.  There's a satisfying thud when you jump-kick the baddies and the escape at the bottom of each level is fun.  I also enjoyed the extra challenge of trying to kill enemy spies with the light drops and squashing them with the elevators.

My unfortunate demise.

Overall, I still enjoyed the game after all this time.  I was able to get fairly good at it again after a short time and I could definitely see myself coming back occasionally to play it.  It's easy to pick up and play for short periods of time (unless you play for an hour and your Dad gets upset).  The repetition is the biggest problem with the game since it's the same building, level after level.  It feels different since the enemies get smarter and faster, but you don't see anything new once the colors cycle.  Still not sure about a number score for these playthroughs, but let's go for a 7.  Play it... it's good.

Jungle Hunt

Released in 1982, I played the hell out of this game and it remains one of my all-time favorites.  It was often one of the loudest games in any given arcade and I still have fond memories of both the music and the sound effects.

The main game consists of 4 stages.  In the first, you swing from vine to vine across a jungle like set of screens, 10 vines in all.  You have to judge the timing of the vines correctly or fall to your death on the jungle floor below.  The second stage has you fighting crocodiles in a river armed with only a knife.  The crocodiles open their mouths randomly making avoiding them often a better strategy than fighting them.  In addition, you have to manage your air supply as well as avoid sets of bubbles that rise from the river floor which will incapacitate you, pull you to the surface and make you a sitting duck for crocodiles.  On the third stage you're climbing up a hill while boulders fall toward you, bouncing erratically, forcing you to jump over or duck under them.  On the final stage you face two native bushmen who have captured your girl and have her suspended over a boiling cauldron.  Once you finish all four stages you get the one-screen ending of the girl giving the adventurer a much-deserved kiss.  Then you get to start over with each stage palette-shifted and slightly faster.

The four stages of level 1.

In addition, to the new colors and increased speed, the next couple of levels start adding extra features to make things more difficult.  Starting on level 2 you will face a couple of baboons on stage one who will knock you off the vines and kill you.  On level 3 you will have to dodge multiple rocks on stage 3 falling simultaneously and an additional bushman on stage 4 throwing spears at you from the trees.  Level 4 has all of these things and makes you weaker and unable to jump a high or far.  After this point, the game just gets harder and harder, faster and faster until you die.

Level 2, with baboons.

Level 3, with multiple rocks and new bushman in tree.

For my play-through, I decided that I wanted to try to beat every stage through, at least, level 4.  It took about a week of playing about an hour a day to accomplish this goal.  One of the biggest frustrations is having to start from the beginning after each failed attempt.  I got very good at level 1 and level 2 and slowly progressed through level 3.  Level 4 took forever to complete, especially the falling rock stage; get hit by a couple of rocks and it's back to the beginning. Once I figured out the patterns, however, I was finally able to get through level 4 and started stage 1 of level 5 only to die on about the third vine.  Oh well, mission complete.

Level 4, hard as hell.

The only stage I got to in level 5.

One of the things that I wanted to talk about here is the concept of home version letdown.  Consoles of this era were dramatically underpowered compared to arcade machines.  What this usually meant was that a console version of any given arcade game was quite a bit simpler than it's arcade counterpart.  I had the Atari 2600 version of Jungle Hunt in my home and played it quite a bit, but it's a far cry from the arcade version.  Stage one was ridiculously easy, barely requiring you to time the vine swings at all.  Stage two had crocodiles but no bubbles which, in the arcade version make additional hazards to avoid.  Stage three had rocks rolling on level ground without the erratic bounces that make the arcade version so hard.  Stage four has native bushmen, but you face them one at a time without the spear throwing version on later stages.  There is also little to no music on any stage.  I do prefer the home version ending, however, as it has both characters sort of dancing around instead of the big graphic of the girl kissing the old man.

Still fun, but much simpler.

I still love this game and had a blast playing through the arcade version of the game.  I played the Atari version as well, just for completeness but it hardly compares.  If you can get MAME running on your computer, I would highly recommend giving this game a try.  It's got some great, catchy music and some decent graphics for the age.