River Raid

True classics live forever.

Oh, swell memories from my childhood! Hours spent playing around my lovely Atari 2600 console did pay me some interesting technology wisdom. How could I forget my dad & I playing our very favorite Atari game of those days: River Raid, a true classic with innovative gameplay and certified entertainment. Back in the day, I had to do my chores before going to spend some quality time with the console du' jour. So, after I was done with studying my dad granted me the key to open the doors of future entertairnment. I even remember when our joysticks got so fucked up we couldn't fix them anymore, until my dad came up with the idea of customizing the sticks with actual wooden sticks made by himself. They did work and entertainment lasted until our good old Atari was packed, stored and replaced by a cool Nintendo Entertainment System, AKA, Nes. 

So, yeah years went by and both my dad and I never heard of River Raid again.  I moved on with my life and of course continued to enjoy the marvels of modern videogame consoles. However, hidden deep inside my brain in a giant storage facility of useless stuff that seems to continue expanding as  I gather more and more information for such a category.

I know nobody gives a shit about what I think and about how many lame personal life experiences I'd like to share here with you, but I just couldn't think of a better introduction for today's entry.

Activision knew fun came before high quality graphics.

Fill it up pal!

Here comes the yellow plane.

So, anyways what made me remember the great amounts of fun I gotten from the River Raid classic was the iOS edition for both the iPhone & the iPad. Airfox is the name and Activision is not in any way involved with the project. Why? I don't know, but I'm sure they'll regret it.

Airfox isn't technically 100% a bootleg game, since River Raid has long become an abandonware game. I for one, would definitely say Airfox is  a tribute game (is there any category for that?) The game comes in two editions, but before that let me tell you about the original 1982 River Raid:

River Raid is a scrolling shooter videogame and was released in 1982 by Activision for the Atari 2600, and later the Atari 5200, Atari 8-bit, C64, ColecoVision, IBM PCjr, Intellivision, ZX Spectrum, and MSX. The player controls an airplane in a top-down view over a river and gets points for shooting down enemy planes, helicopters, ships and balloons (for versions after the Atari 2600). By flying over fuel-stations, the plane's tank can be refilled. The player can shift side to side and change the speed of the plane. Sections of the river are marked by bridges. The game was programmed by Carol Shaw, one of the Activision programmers who had previously worked at Atari and then Tandem Computers.

Airfox title screen.

Airfox gameplay.

The touch controls are the next best thing dudes.

I so want one of these.

Although Atari released its Atari Greatest  iOS app that allowed to buy the 100 greatest Atari games, the app only came with games made by Atari itself, so chances of seeing other Atari classics seemed impossible, at least for that app. However with the rise in popularity of the iPhones and iPads many game developers got really interested in making games exclusively for the Apple gadgets, so began the retro fever of hundreds of bootleg games emulating old school classics, and a hundred more of original retro games being re-released for the growing iOS market.

Airfox, looks like, sounds like and feels like playing the real thing, besides,  having the chance of carrying such a classic in your iPhone wherever you go, is priceless. But, playing it on an iPad, really enhances the experience. I wish Activision gets the iOs gaming fever as many other classic videogame companies have (Namco, Capcom and Sega just to name a few)

Carol Shaw, River Raid's creator.

 Here River Raid's gameplay:

And here Airfox gameplay:

And one more special message: fuck your HD console if it ain't entertaining, HD graphics won't make any  difference.