Comments on: Review: Atom Smash 2.0

Breakout is one of the classic video games and it continues to live on in many variations on its original theme. Earlier this week, Red-Mercury announced an updated version of their Breakout clone, Atom Smash. Perpetual gamer Pepper says it looks great and gives its main rival, Ababall, a run for its money.

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why so much coverage?

kisrael @ 9/14/2001 10:53:42 AM #

Why does this game get so much coverage here? Is it that spectacular or does it just have a great PR firm? I mean there are tons of interesting palm games out there, an Arkanoid clone doesn't seem all that inspired...

RE: why so much coverage?

I.M. Anonymous @ 9/14/2001 11:02:50 AM #

AtomSmash 2.0 is the most innovative arcade game ever. Watch out, Nintendo.

RE: why so much coverage?

I.M. Anonymous @ 9/14/2001 11:09:25 AM #

Innovative or not, it's still not a new game or genre...

RE: why so much coverage?

dwarchbold @ 9/14/2001 11:49:48 AM #

It gets a lot of coverage because it is a good game. Especially on the Clie 710/610 with their hi-res displays.

That, and the fact that Red Mercury is has a large fan base I think. While they only have a few games out and some consider them pricey, they are all of high quality. Red Mercury also provides other "in-depth" information on their web site regarding battery life, hi-res abilities of the Clie, etc. This makes them more of a "community" member than a company.

So, great games, great company, great press. :)

RE: why so much coverage?

I.M. Anonymous @ 9/14/2001 4:41:52 PM #

Watch out Nintendo? I'm sorry, but even the new Clies aren't going to beat out Nintendo. Can you imagine 6-year olds buying $400 palm pilots to play a glorified version of Hardball? It's a great game, don't get me wrong, but really.

RE: why so much coverage?

I.M. Anonymous @ 9/14/2001 6:10:46 PM #

I bought the previous version of Atom Smash for my Handspring Prism. I thought it was fair but not great, but immediately regretted my purchase when, after playing though numerous levels for a couple hours, it crashed and forgot all I had done. I was disgusted, and put it aside ever since -- chalked it up as a waste of money.

Now I see 2.0 is out. I'd be willing to give it another try but certainly hope there's a free upgrade for registered users. Does anybody know if there is?

RE: why so much coverage?

ImpReza @ 9/14/2001 9:14:08 PM #

Yes, it is free for registered users. Anyway, AS 2 is great fun, though I wished they added some more unique powerups to make seem a little more useful, but it's more than adequate as it is right now. Though I completely agree that AS doesnt light a candle compared to Nintendo. I really like to see the day when I can play Mario Kart Advance on a color PDA. Maybe itll come sooner than I think...

I agree...

I.M. Anonymous @ 9/15/2001 2:42:23 AM #

Reviews like this are kinda silly on PalmInfocenter.
Big deal.

RE: why so much coverage?

I.M. Anonymous @ 9/16/2001 11:44:48 AM #

yes there is a free upgrade, im bought it a few months ago. and i thought i would just have to re-enter the regitration code i recieved... or get a copy sent to me. but they were both wrong. i deleted my old copy of atom smash(not the data) and installed the newer demo form palmgear and it showed up as already registered.

hi-res & jog

fuzzy @ 9/14/2001 11:15:53 AM #

does as2.0 also support the qvga and the jog dial on the h330?

thx,
fuzz

RE: hi-res & jog

Ed @ 9/14/2001 12:07:30 PM #

I spoke with my contact at Red-Mercury about this, who said:

For a somewhat technical description of what we think was going on, when we were double-buffering the screen, the operating system had to continuously redraw the soft graffiti area, causing massive slow-down. Running in a hardware-direct mode was unacceptable, as that would eliminate the graffiti area entirely, not a comforting idea. Running in a compatible
non-double-buffered mode at high resolution is slow. We finally got good performance at 160x160 non-scaled - that is what we are doing now.

The fact that we could get Atom Smash running at 60FPS, 320x320 pixels, 8-bit color on the CLIE, and we could NOT get it running at 50FPS, 240x240 pixels, 2-bit color on the Handera demonstrates how different these hardware platforms really are - and it demonstrates our lack of experience with the 330.

As for Handera-specific Jog Dial support, strangely enough, that never came up in the beta test - had someone mentioned it, we would have added it in 5 minutes flat. We had testers with 330's, but we all overlooked that one.

In a nutshell, we have certainly put the work in to 330 support, but we've had troubles with it. This is our failing - but until we find better ways to use the 330 as a game device, we'll offer 160x160 support on these units. We certainly understand if Handera users choose to support other game developers as a result of this... hey, we tried.

---
News Editor

RE: hi-res & jog

I.M. Anonymous @ 9/17/2001 1:52:49 AM #

Well,

Thanks for the effort and hopefully you guys will come up with something soon.

I've had my Handera for a while now and I'm desperate to find some games that are compatible with it..

Though other than this fact the thing still kicks butt ;)

PalmGamePad

lorenzszabo @ 9/14/2001 1:10:26 PM #

What about PalmGamePad support? This is one really cool feature of Ababall.

(Although, I already have Ababall, I'm very interested in Atom Smash, too.)

What about Impactor??

Luka @ 9/14/2001 5:58:35 PM #

About 2 years ago I registered the Arkanoid clone Impactor.
It's not colour or hi-res, but it remains the most faithful version there is! AND it has a level editor too, plus aliens and all that.
AND it's still the smallest, and the cheapest, and the best :-) AND NOW IT'S FORGOTTEN, IN THE WAKE OF BLOATED; OVER "GAMEBOYED" OVERPRICED APPS!

http://www.palmgear.com/software/showsoftware.cfm?sid=63325720010914103531&prodID=1418

Whatever happened to real Palm Apps? It wasn't too long ago that 100k was a big program... Now it's almost standard :-(

RE: What about Impactor??

I.M. Anonymous @ 9/14/2001 6:15:25 PM #

I always wanted to try that game, but it wont run properly on color devices. You cant get the game to run at all. :(

and i also remember when a 100k program took up more then a tenth of my palm's memory. but, with bigger palms comes bigger programs.

but i still appreciate the classic games like SFcave and dope wars. they just dont make them like they used to

-Pepper

Nobody here tried Ababall?

I.M. Anonymous @ 9/16/2001 4:01:05 PM #

Man, Ababall plays soo much better, has more varied levels, more power-ups and MUCH better graphics!

www.ababall.com

(Nope, don't work for them, and haven't even registered the product, but it's still a great game!)

What about Ababall?

ImpReza @ 9/16/2001 5:14:19 PM #

Ababall might have the upper hand in graphics, but for the sheer fun and gameplay, Atom Smash cant be beat. For one thing, Ababall uses up 400k, and that is just for the grayscale version!- all because of its graphics, but it only comes with 32 levels with no opportunity to create your own or download others. Suddenly, the replay value of ababall seems to be dropping. While Atom Smash only uses up about 100k or so, and you can add your own levels or download others. Atom Smash is much simpler and easier to start playing than Ababall as well. Atom Smash's power-ups are comparable to Ababall, but I too hope that Red-Mercury adds some more in the future. But in the end, its Atom Smash that wins because of its long replay value, great gameplay and its overall simplicity (I'd rather have those over great graphics anyday.)