{"id":7590,"date":"2014-12-23T12:49:32","date_gmt":"2014-12-23T19:49:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/?p=7590"},"modified":"2014-12-30T20:39:49","modified_gmt":"2014-12-31T03:39:49","slug":"quizicality-02-atari-2600","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/?p=7590","title":{"rendered":"Quizicality 02 \u2014 Atari 2600"},"content":{"rendered":"

Among the Atari 2600’s<\/a> vast and vastly inconsistent library of games are a couple that qualify as quiz games.\u00a0 And yes, they are both math quiz games.\u00a0 We’re not going to see anything so astoundingly complex as words just yet.<\/p>\n

Basic Math (1977)<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Basic<\/a><\/p>\n

This launch title for the 2600 (when it was still known as the Atari VCS) predates the “Math Quiz” games on the Channel F by a few months.<\/p>\n

\"Basic<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s nicer to look at and a hell of a lot easier and more intuitive to control.\u00a0 Under the hood though, it’s pretty much exactly the same as those two games.<\/p>\n

\"Basic<\/a><\/p>\n

To begin, press Reset<\/strong>.\u00a0 You’ll see this screen, and you can actually enter a number up top there.\u00a0 More about that below.\u00a0 Press Select<\/strong> to cycle through addition…<\/p>\n

\"Basic<\/a><\/p>\n

subtraction…<\/p>\n

\"Basic<\/a><\/p>\n

multiplication…<\/p>\n

\"Basic<\/a><\/p>\n

and division.<\/p>\n

\"Basic<\/a><\/p>\n

When you’re ready to start, press Reset<\/strong> again.\u00a0 The line below the equation blinks slowly like a cursor, and the joystick controls what will appear there.<\/p>\n

\"Basic<\/a><\/p>\n

Up and down cycle through the digits from 0 to 9.<\/p>\n

\"Basic<\/a><\/p>\n

Left and right change places.<\/p>\n

\"Basic<\/a><\/p>\n

Come on, Channel F, this is how it should have been done.\u00a0 And for the record, I answered this one without the aid of a calculator.<\/p>\n

\"Basic<\/a><\/p>\n

Getting the question right will get you a jaunty little tune played, and you will advance to a new question.\u00a0 If you get the question wrong, the game will replace your answer with the correct one, and play the exact same tune before advancing to the next question.<\/p>\n

\"Basic<\/a><\/p>\n

To change game modes, press Reset<\/strong> again.\u00a0 Press Select<\/strong> to cycle through the four available types, and Reset<\/strong> to start that mode.<\/p>\n

\"Basic<\/a><\/p>\n

As you can see, the game changes text and background colours with each new mode, and sometimes these don’t really match up well contrast-wise.<\/p>\n

\"Basic<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s an interesting one.\u00a0 I was wondering how it would handle a decimal answer.<\/p>\n

\"Basic<\/a><\/p>\n

It doesn’t.\u00a0 It accepts integers and remainders for answers.<\/p>\n

\"Basic<\/a><\/p>\n

Now back to the way the game starts off.\u00a0 You can choose a single integer for the numerator here, and when you press the button, the game will randomize the denominator.\u00a0 That way, you can customize this question, but after that, the game plays out normally like above.\u00a0 You can also use Select<\/strong> to change modes, and customize the numerator of subtraction, multiplication, and division questions this way.\u00a0 Only the first question of each round will be like this though.<\/p>\n

Like I said in the previous review, there’s not much replay value in this unless you really<\/em> like math quizzes.\u00a0 But if you do, this one is very well made and very easy to control.<\/p>\n

Math Gran Prix 1982<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Math<\/a><\/p>\n

Would you believe that this game was very briefly a contender for my Video Carnage<\/a> reviews?<\/p>\n

\"Math<\/a><\/p>\n

This is the same kind of game as these math quiz games, only with a graphical and gameplay twist.\u00a0 You play the role of a race car driver, and every math question you get right advances you on the track.<\/p>\n

\"Math<\/a><\/p>\n

You’re racing against the blue car, and before you answer the actual question, you must choose whether it will advance you 2 or 3 spaces.\u00a0 Joystick left + button answer 2, right + button answers 3.\u00a0 Most of the time you will want to advance 3 spaces, but there are certain spots on the track that you will want to end up on, like those “x” spots.\u00a0 Those give you a free turn, so if you’re two spaces away, choose 2.<\/p>\n

\"Math<\/a><\/p>\n

When you get the math question, you answer it in the same way as in “Basic Math”.\u00a0 Joystick up+down to change digits, left+right to change places, and the button to enter.<\/p>\n

\"Math<\/a><\/p>\n

Your rival will advance with you.<\/p>\n

\"Math<\/a><\/p>\n

You must try to keep ahead of him, and this means not getting any questions wrong.<\/p>\n

\"Math<\/a><\/p>\n

All of the questions here are trivially easy, and appear to be only addition and subtraction.<\/p>\n

\"Math<\/a><\/p>\n

There are some constrictions in the road, and the two cars on the track can crash into each other.<\/p>\n

\"Math<\/a><\/p>\n

This can make the game either challenging or frustrating, depending on how you want to look at it.<\/p>\n

\"Math<\/a><\/p>\n

When you get to the home stretch you need to keep in mind that you can only advance in 2 or 3 step moves.<\/p>\n

\"Math<\/a><\/p>\n

And you can still lose like I did if you answer all the questions right, get all the free turns, and just keep getting crashed into by your opponent.<\/p>\n

This was actually the first time I played a round of this game to completion.\u00a0 It will be the last.\u00a0 There are quiz games that incorporate elements of action into the gameplay to spice things up a bit, and they pull it off much better than “Math Gran Prix” did.\u00a0 I can’t for the life of me figure out why this game exists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Among the Atari 2600’s vast and vastly inconsistent library of games are a couple that qualify as quiz games.\u00a0 And yes, they are both math quiz games.\u00a0 We’re not going to see anything so astoundingly complex as words just yet. Basic Math (1977) This launch title for the 2600 (when it was still known as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[510,474,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","category-video-game-consoles","category-video-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7590"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7735,"href":"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7590\/revisions\/7735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}