Cracking little known Atari title...

Guys, briefly mentioned this the other day, that I had chanced upon a nifty little UK A8 budget title that I feel is worthy of consideration as a game to test your agility and response timing and would definitely make a good competition title - if anyone was still up for that kind of malarkey?

Now this program is nowhere near as well-known as say Arkanoid or Breakout but for me, has its own arcade appeal and is arguably more playable and novel with some of its "special power-ups" that frequently fall from blocks hit by the ball.

So, this game Baz, Crack Up, what does it look like?





Here goes - and as ever, comments please.



Has anyone else ever played it - does anyone else here own it?

Is anyone here up for a rumble on it and want to make it our first software comp on Atari Owner or would you like to nominate something else a little classier/classic for the A8 classic?

Whatever... I don't mind - it's just a conversation starter cos I'm CRACKing UP here... geddit?!

Now then, where's me paddle gone?!

 

I don't know if I've played this one or not. I can't say if it looks familiar, because one thing the Atari has a TON of is Arkanoid clones, all looking very similar, and most of them are good too, but I only play the ones with paddle compatibility.

Just look through the 3 pages of Arkanoid/Breakout/Pong clones Atarimania has, from Arkanoid to Unicum. and I'm sure they don't have all the Arkanoid clones I've tried on the Atari here! I count at least 21 direct Breakout/Arkanoid clones on those three pages.

http://www.atarimania.com/list_games_atari-400-800-xl-xe-p_total-page-step-genre_65-1-25-17_8_G.html

Below is an attached zip with all (all that Atarimania has, I believe there are some much more recent ones not here) the clones closest to Arkanoid (more than Breakout). So @Andy Barr , if there are some here that you haven't tried yet, you may want to make sure there aren't other clones you feel are even more worthy, before we decide on a tournament. Does Crack-Up use paddles?

I tried other archival sites, but none have the search option by genre like Atarimania. So if anyone knows others not linked or in the zip file here, please share. Let's make sure Andy really wants what Andy wants and then I'm up for a high score comp. of an Arkanoid clone, and Crack-up is fine with me, if that IS what he sticks with, as long as it accepts paddles as an input! Sorry, but I do not play joystick only controlled Arkanoid clones when there are plenty good ones that allow paddles, it's so much better with paddles. I do not remember, out of the titles I uploaded, which can use paddles, I know a few do, including Arkanoid and sequels.

 

Now then, Matt.

I'm thinking Crack Up ONLY uses joysticks so as you say, a paddle option game for the comp is probably the way to go as it is the most natural, obvious choice.

Mind, some may prefer to use the keyboard option on whatever title we eventually opt for - and why not - go for it.

If we get demand for such a comp, I will come up with say the top 3 Arkanoid/Breakout clones and we can perhaps take it from there - or play all three and see who tops the top of the tops when it comes to...

- Cracking up.

It's a cracker!

Link for the Crack Up software here - apols, I forgot to link it last night:

http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-crack-up_1371.html

A visitor's comment:

Of all the versions of this game, this one looks the nicest.
Joystick control is a bit dodgy as always. Anyway, I put an emulator cheat on my blog
akkroidsactionreplayresource.wordpress.com
Akkroid - 25/08/2019

 

Cool! And Crack-up is included in the Zip I posted, I think Atarimania games are in both ATR and XEX formats though and I didn't look to see what games in the zip were what. I just downloaded them in zip format and zipped them all in a zip. Zippity-do-da, Zippity-aye, my-oh-my-what-a-wonderful-day...

I know there is a newer home-brew that is brilliant, that was made a few years back for one of the programming compos or something, I forget what it's called, but I don't think it's included with the clones from Atarimania. I'd have to go searching for it on my PC and without remembering the name I won't know it until I come across it, maybe, it's a unique name, if I recall. Anyone know what I'm referring too? It was done by guys in Atari community that are still very active today. Anywhere from a year or two old up to possibly a decade is my time frame guess of it's release.

I'm trying to get all my software organized in folders and sub-folders based on program genre and sub-genres but it's a lot of work and I'm about 10% through it all. after years of mostly tossing all my downloads into one general "Atari 8-bit" folder, a few sub-folders and after that sometimes stuff was put in sub-folder, or sometimes I just dragged and dropped to the main folder. I also ended up with duplicate folders in some sub-folders, but not completely identical because more was added to one and not the other, so it's a nightmare I'm tired of dealing with to find something in my "archives."

I am attempting to slowly re-organize a set of folders and sub-folders where everything has a proper, easy to navigate, through folder and spot in a folder and it will be an identical set of folders across my MyIDE II HDD, Incognito HDD, The!Cart, SDrive-MAX and on my PC.

 

Brilliant, Matt.
C'mon, folks, get yer thinking caps on and whilst yer at it, here's a nice pic of some paddles for you to virtually twiddle with...

 

Argh, pong games, later rebadged as Arkanoid games but still Pong games to me. Had a little play of this game and its good fun but as Matt and Mark both say, there's a dearth of these games out there of varying quality where you really try and avoid the one's written in BASIC

I suppose the Arkanoids rules the roost, instantly playable, nice power ups (especially the lazer) and challenging game play, when that bastard sends the ball at breakneck speed on a diagonal that really separates the men from the boys (or girls from the women or non gendered from gendered or binary from, oh boll*cks to all that stuff) its should just say, the players from the new recruits.

Will give that little game more time, thank you Andy for bringing it to our attention, a good game is always welcome!

I just looked at the posted one and could not get it to work, I'd gone to my own archive initially, any way incase anyone else is having issues here's an xex

Edit: Just listened to the tape and I think there's some junk before it gets to the actual code so I think it needs a trim.

And here's a now proper version from the preservation team. Release tape version.

 

Hi, Paul.

Thanks for checking that .cas file of mine... as you say, it's a DUD!

Cheers for attaching working replacements - I really do think it's a little cracker and I've never come across it before. It looks like one of those late to be released budget titles (by Atlantis?) that I somehow missed 1st time around.

As you say, Pong or Breakout games from the 70s and early 80s then morphed into Arkanoid types by the mid-80s and these days I guess we call em whatever we most fondly remember them as, from "back in the day".

I do remember my cousin, with his 1st ever wage packet, going into an arcade and BLOWING the lot on slot machines and BREAKOUT and his mam, my aunt, went berserk when he had no rent to pay her and threatened him that if he ever pulled a stunt like that again he was OUTTA THERE!

Thanks again for your preservation team copy, Paul and whatever you do - don't blow all your cash folks as, as the old saying goes, hell hath no fury like a woman's (cash) scorned - or spent on retro computing!

 

One thing I was noticing was that while Arkanoid and sequels use an Antic graphic mode, except for the ball sprite on Crack Up, it's using a GTIA graphic mode. It really is a pretty decent Arkanoid clone, it's just such a shame it's joystick only control. I'm going to look through all the ones I posted in the zip file this evening, and figure out which support Atari paddles. Hopefully none of them require more than 48K since I'm still limited to my 800 for the time being.

I didn't want to have both my computers down at the same time, but if I don't figure out my 1200XL's problem this weekend, I think I'm going ahead with the Incognito and other upgrades on the 800, upgrades are always easier than trouble-shooting a circuit board problem.

 

If you're paddles all have the terrible jitters, open them up, squirt a little WD-40 through the pot housing seams and just turn the paddles back and forth until the WD-40 dissolves the tarnish, which is what makes them jitter, and they should start working good as new after a bit. Of course the best way it to open the pots up and clean them out, but this will do it in a pinch. Paddles go bad from non-use and sitting and the best thing for them is use to keep the tarnish at bay. Be liberal with the WD-40, you need to make sure it gets to the connections inside, and too much won't hurt, you'll just have to let it drip out onto a paper-towel and wipe excess off.

 

Bought some BEST paddles that don't have any jitter. They are better than the standard paddles (or the other pair of paddles I have with a lot of jitter). So, if you are playing games with paddles often, give the Best paddles a try. Let's wait and see how good the Best paddles still are in 30 years... ;-)

Baker, I guess the name of the Breakout clone you forgot is PAD or Pad 1.84 available as separate NTSC and PAL versions. Besides Arkanoid and Super Breakout I often play Unicum, Unicum II, Crack Up, Break it, Brick Bat, Pad 1.8x, Exploding Wall, Technoid, Sqoid, Sqoid II, Superball 1-4 and Ataroid. These are more than enough Breakout clones I think... ;-)