I wasn’t even alive when this game was first released into arcades - but being a massive fan of the movie I thought I’d give it a whirl upon its re-release or Xbox Live Arcade.
Isn’t is funny how, sometimes, things just aren’t as good as you’d hope they would be? Watch the show for my verdict and some trip-tastic visuals.
I just finished playing some old-school Amiga games. w00t!
-K
400MS points?! Are they nuts?
I’ll put out that for say, Streets of Rage or SFII and the like, because they’re (to me anyway) classics and best enjoyed with a pad, but anything pre 90s is (almost always) massively pointless. Say what you want about the 8-bit era being the home of innovative gameplay, but age is not kind to kinds and only the very, very best stand up to more than about five minutes of playing.
I liked Pyjamara and Dizzy and Pro Powerboat, but there’s no way that some 20 years later I am going to actually pay money to play them again. You’d maybe get me to shell out for a 50 pack ‘Best Of’ multi-platform doohickey with slightly better graphics, but stuff like this goes beyond flogging a dead horse.
Agreed on the Tron game, I’ve played it on Mame32 (Multi Machine Arcade Emulator..extremely recommended) The controls where to put it short crap but since mame can play all Arcade games there are some gems to find and have warm fuzzy feelings over the old ones you used to play (TMNT and Simpsons where a great laugh) Also for the Amiga fans out there try UAE Amiga Emulator. But I like just to add you can only play ROM games (Mame,Snes & Megadrive) for 24 hours unless you have the original game yourself because they are still subject to copyright laws also for the Amiga you will need an image of the bios chips that run the amiga (there is a way to do this with your old Amiga but I found it long winded and complicated, so if you have an Amiga I would just look on the net for the Bios….Long live Workbench 3.5)
Keep up the great reviews 
Ahh…you love the game, really.
Armagetron Advanced FTW!
http://www.armagetronad.net/
Best review script yet… too many great lines to quote them all…
omg this was a classic the voice emulator was one of the 1st and sent chills down my spine when i was 6 years old in the arcade called oasis on morecambe prom but then again i think you hit the nail on the head with this review it wasnt very good at all and cost me to many 10 pences to play.Thank the lord that the pc release of tron a few years back was better but only a little lol the film was gr8 shame about the games.This is one of them proven facts that if the movie is realy good the game will suck if the movie is bad the game seems to be better .The only film that realy did a good job of a game was starwars thumbs up for Mr lucas.
Thanks guys It’s good to know something came out of that experience! I couldn’t believe they wanted a whole 400…
Aiden - it’s like we’re thinking in synch! The show I’ve recorded for Friday is on amiga emulation, showing how to set up WinUAE and looking at a couple of my favourite games. Quite right about ROMS being licensed - you need to own the cartridges, delete after 24 hours, or buy a licensed version. There’ll be a whole bevvy of links on the site with that episode to help you get everything you need. I’m in the middle of downloading some SNES stuff right now, and will also be doing a show on MAME.
Jack - you got me! Actually I adore this game, I just gave it a bad review cause I wanted to keep it all to myself! mwahahaha 
Oh dear, all this talk of old games and emulation has caused a bit of a relapse. I started off with a bit of Sunset Riders earlier this morning and it’s spiralled out of control somewhat. You see, I’ve found an emulator for the Sega model2 hardware. This means only one thing : Daytona. Sweet, sweet Daytona on my laptop in work. Alas, controlling it with a keyboard is virtually impossible, so I’ll have to wait ’till I get home to hook up the 360 pad to the PC and try it then.
It gets worse though, I’ve just round something that emulates Ridge Racer. Oh dear. I just consider myself lucky that there’s no networking in it or I’d be phoning my friends and loudly demanding rematches.
On a totally un-related note, have you given any thought to reviewing mods? There are finally some decent ones coming out for Source and it might help cover those gaps between major releases. .
Well let’s see, you have a slightly advanced version of Battle in one game (which was a whole game then), the Light Cycle game which for its time was very fun, and then two slightly less exciting games. I’m not going to say it was the greatest thing ever. But for a game made in 1982, which featured a Rotary dial and 8 way joystick (which is where the fun came in honestly) not to mention it got Coin-Operated Game of the Year. The only thing that shocks me here is that they didn’t try to fix the controls any, that’s a bit sloppy. As far as a good game from movie, apparently no one remembers the Butcher bay game which got good reviews and based on the Pitch Black property.
lol i do like this review just came back again for a second look K is so funny and correct about this port.
Yay! I look forward to the Amiga show
Moral wow you know your stuff yes we oldschool had good fun on the old machines Astroids ehheerm was a clasic dont flame me lol
‘A blindfolded chimpanzee with a broken controller and wanker’s cramp.’ Effing brilliant.
Katharine you were brutal on a treasured game of my childhood. Kids these days!!
The worse thing about porting the game to any other console is that the Trigger Controller and the Dial can’t be ported (since they are physical elements to the game).
But as usual you were tough, honest, and fair. I love the reviews.
A whole star? Was it really THAT good?
Good review as always!