Achieved at : 2024-11-10
Rank : 2
(3% worse)
Lups : 182
Approved :
Yes
Voting completed : 2024-12-02
| General Rules: |
Game must be played on the actual hardware. Play with default settings unless otherwise specified. No code modifications that give the player an advantage over other players. 1 credit. No continues. 1 player mode only. No use of trainers, cheats, auto-fire (when not default present in-game) , game saves, or cheat codes. Can be overruled by the Specific Rules. It is discouraged and may lead to voters not accepting your score to - excessively point farm - use glitches or other game exploits |
| Specific Rules: | Play the game in 1 player mode with default settings |
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TGP
Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration is an official compilation of emulation of Atari's history.
Caverns of Mars was released in 1981 for the Atari 400 / 800 computers with at least 16K of RAM. It was written by Greg Christensen and released initially via Atari's mail order program, the Atari Program Exchange. The APX released various software titles, accepting submissions from professionals and amateurs alike. Caverns of Mars was considered good enough to be transferred to an official Atari release.
The game takes some inspiration from Scramble, but here the author has turned it on its side (literally) and created a game that is more than just a clone with a twist. You have to descend your craft into a Martian base to reach a fusion bomb at its base. Land on the bomb and you will automatically arm it. Quickly make your way back to the surface and the base will be destroyed. Manage this and you get to try again, but at a faster speed.
Sounds easy enough, but the caverns are torturous in their design and require skilled flying to navigate. There are also objects in the cavern which you must shoot - especially the fuel dumps as these will refill your fuel which is constantly running down. A number of other craft, forcefields and mines can also be encountered.
There are four skill levels - Novice, Pilot, Warrior and Commander, each of which makes the Martian base deeper, with more levels. Despite being a simplified version of Scramble, this game is a classic game for the Atari home computers. Gameplay is good and quite addictive, with the skill levels allowing you an easy start to your playing career and increasing the challenge as you get better.
This run was played using the Steam version of Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration on PC. The date of play was the 10th November 2024.
Time stamps:
00:30 Loading Caverns of Mars for the Atari 800 in Atari 50.
00:35 Game loaded. Setting game options. Novice skill selected.
00:38 Game start.
01:10 First stage complete.
01:22 First life lost.
01:37 Second life lost.
01:43 Third life lost.
01:55 Fourth life lost.
02:29 Second stage complete.
02:42 Bomb set. Time to escape.
03:34 Surface reached, cavern destroyed. On to Cavern 2.
05:01 Bomb set.
05:23 Crash! Last life lost. Game Over! Final score 45,070 points.
Caverns of Mars was released in 1981 for the Atari 400 / 800 computers with at least 16K of RAM. It was written by Greg Christensen and released initially via Atari's mail order program, the Atari Program Exchange. The APX released various software titles, accepting submissions from professionals and amateurs alike. Caverns of Mars was considered good enough to be transferred to an official Atari release.
The game takes some inspiration from Scramble, but here the author has turned it on its side (literally) and created a game that is more than just a clone with a twist. You have to descend your craft into a Martian base to reach a fusion bomb at its base. Land on the bomb and you will automatically arm it. Quickly make your way back to the surface and the base will be destroyed. Manage this and you get to try again, but at a faster speed.
Sounds easy enough, but the caverns are torturous in their design and require skilled flying to navigate. There are also objects in the cavern which you must shoot - especially the fuel dumps as these will refill your fuel which is constantly running down. A number of other craft, forcefields and mines can also be encountered.
There are four skill levels - Novice, Pilot, Warrior and Commander, each of which makes the Martian base deeper, with more levels. Despite being a simplified version of Scramble, this game is a classic game for the Atari home computers. Gameplay is good and quite addictive, with the skill levels allowing you an easy start to your playing career and increasing the challenge as you get better.
This run was played using the Steam version of Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration on PC. The date of play was the 10th November 2024.
Time stamps:
00:30 Loading Caverns of Mars for the Atari 800 in Atari 50.
00:35 Game loaded. Setting game options. Novice skill selected.
00:38 Game start.
01:10 First stage complete.
01:22 First life lost.
01:37 Second life lost.
01:43 Third life lost.
01:55 Fourth life lost.
02:29 Second stage complete.
02:42 Bomb set. Time to escape.
03:34 Surface reached, cavern destroyed. On to Cavern 2.
05:01 Bomb set.
05:23 Crash! Last life lost. Game Over! Final score 45,070 points.