Classic Game Room HD - RIVER RAID for Atari 2600 review

[nviso209]

River RaidEN 1945 Strikers II... Silvergaruga!

[AnimeGameshow]

That's the first game that was banned in Germany.

[uzi9millimetuh]

Most overrated 2600 game ever. Good, but not nearly as great as everyone says it is.

[glitchedgamer]

@uzi9millimetuh Seriously? I popped this game into my Atari today and had a blast. I keeps my attention much longer than most Atari games.

[jalkor87]

Back when Activision made good games.

[ignaciojork]

five people never played atari in their little lifes.

[Luigi84289]

It's impossible to put this game down.

[fanoultimatev3]

I just bought an Atari Flashback 2 and it comes with this game :D

[sublimenese]

@fanoultimatev3 lucky i have an atari flashback 2 plus and i guess in the plus version they got rid of all the activision games such as this and pitfall its not much of a "plus" considering this game is one of the reasons i bought the flashback

[fanoultimatev3]

@sublimenese really? that sucks...

[sublimenese]

@fanoultimatev3 i know right!

[winterhell2002]

this review is awesome

[Lupucillo]

Absolute classic. Played this when I was 6 years old.

[ubulunikum]

4 dollars per gallon! That's bloody cheap; we pay 2.15 dollars per litre so a gallon of our petrolium would cost about 8 dollars, it isn't all that odd though, with our 175% petrolium taxs and our sosialist goverment needs money to NOT build roads and keep in mind that we are the 3rd or 4th largest petrolium exporter in the world.

[JBOPatrick]

@ubulunikum Not to mention half of your population lives in Oslo. In the USA, the average commute to work is 1 hour, with many traveling 2-3 hours each way ever day. It would be impossible to sustain our economy with gas prices that high, unless the majority of people worked within their own city, like they do in your country. I had a job once where it was not uncommon to drive 4 hours to a job and 4 hours home.

[ubulunikum]

@JBOPatrick - I don't live in Oslo, 80% our population doesn't live there neither. A friend of mine travels for 3h to reach work with 3 more hours back. I am going to admit that we likely don't commute as much as you do, but our goverment has a 22% surplus iin their budget and are talking about raising petrolium taxes to save the environment. Saving it is fine, but what has to be transpored has to be so and it will only drive companies bankrupt rather than save the environment.

[mdcowboy15]

WyreWizard, if you want to fly over the river banks and battleships play River Raid 2 or Zaxxon. both of these games let you fly higher and lower to go over objects, although if you're playing on the 2600 River Raid 2 is better because Zaxxon's isometric view point looks wonky.

Also, Fantastic Voyage is another awesome vertical shooter that is ALWAYS over looked. If you agree Fantastic Voyage deserves more attention (I mean it takes place inside a bloodstream!), vote this comment up

[SCBianchi]

@mdcowboy15 You already know...

[WyreWizard]

Yah, I remember this game,. It was one of my favorites on the 2600. I know it came out on a lot of other consoles and I would have loved to have tried them. But a couple things bother. 1 is how can a battleship crash into a flying jet? Another is why cant the jet fly over the river banks? Another is why only the enemy jets can fly over the river banks?

[nomadikk]

Really? Not a single mention of Carol Shaw, the programmer of River Raid? She was the first female video game designer in history. And this is probably the best game on Atari.

[uofm97]

My favorite line is from 5:17 to 5:27. Brilliant! :)

[Mongol20]

Well this is the first game i ever played :P beautifull times , so simple and so playable :)

[AndarilhoMarco]

What you described is what US do with other countries such Afghanistan. xD

[TheVirtualGames]

LoL i found flash version of this game... type: "hot games river raid" on google

[Obviously]

Thumbs up for referencing the Susquehanna my PA brethren.

If any river is deserving of a raid, it's that one.

[nviso209]

Wonder what the hi-score is on TG.com is BTW?

[nviso209]

TOP 3 2600 SHOOTER TITLES = RIVER RAID, CHOPPER COMMAND, PITFALL ALL ACTIVISION OF COURSE... FUNNY HOW THINGS CHANGE AFTER 30 YRS! WEEEEEE

[nviso209]

Screw multiplayer... Forget the trophies, achievements, and DLC this IS WHERE ITS AT!!!! AND IT WAS DESIGNED AND PROGRAMMED BY A WOMAN!

[Machinimastone]

@nviso209 GET BACK IN THE FUCKING KITCHEN! The United States of America does NOT support women's rights!

[TheFreelancer2236]

Hands down River Raid is still my all time favorite videogame ever!

[HoboBob24]

The Ohio River? No way, man. That's way to blue for the Ohio. Try brown.

[xRIVERRAIDx]

my xbox live gamertag is named after this game. first and fave game ever played.

[fudg33ms]

lol apocolypse now redux is a great movie

[alak58]

this game was the first video game I ever played.

[CervantesXV]

I love how when you blow up the bridge the river turns red. It's the BLOOD of your fallen enemies. River Raid is awesome.

[EastCoastDude99]

Well we know its not the Delaware River because there arn't any nice homes in Camden.

[config2000]

Now that's how to do a game review!

Entertaining. Thumbs up

[maccas411]

Apocalypse Now references <3

[LCDragonrats]

lol, I grew up in Lancaster County, PA and totally agree with ya on the bridges, if they took out the Walnut Street bridge in Downtown Harrisburg they would need 6 years or more like the pedistrian bridge that got washed away at the early part of this century, lol.

[RRVCrinale]

I have a version of this on the iPod Touch called River Striker. Just like this except faster. Pretty fun, actually.

[metalmouth1229]

@RRVCrinale i loaded the app and i had no idea until i watched this video i thought it was so funni

[55carr55]

i have the original users manual and game catalog also the 1 year warranty. i think it expired :(.

says here if you make 15,000 pts or more your a eligible to become an official River Rader. the max score on this game is one million with exclamation points and if you get that is says you are one of the worlds greatest video game competitors

[nooblet911]

could atari 2600 do smooth scaling only up and down and not form side to side?

[nooblet911]

sorry, scrolling

[whiteechidna]

@nooblet911 it can do it from side to side, but it's much easier to program it going up and down than side to side.

[aliciadom]

i had the record for this game and took a picture. sent it in and received a river raid patch

[Gossage54]

My memories of my 2600 can't be replaced. Watching all these old clips brings back such memories God. Activision had the best games for the 2600, the Atari produced games were just so primitive by comarison they were awful. I have to find the review for Chopper Command, that along with River Raid were some of my most played games on the old Atari.

[bazfanv2]

A lot of companys went under becos they couldnt handle the transition from 2d to 3d.

[123kissfan]

Without River Raid there is no Guitar Hero due to Activision making both.

[GibboPAL]

@123kissfan Actually Harmonix 'made' Guitar Hero, Activision just bought it out and ruined it.

[123kissfan]

@GibboPAL Oh i didnt know harmonix made it. Thx for the info but river raid is my fav atari 2600 game and ms pacman

[johnwx777]

Classic shooter and one of the first games that was programmed by a woman,Carol Shaw.

[lasarousi]

@johnwx777 random details much? haha

[THEsquirrel3d]

You must live in or near maryland.....

[jchase1970]

this was a great game, I played it, I think, more then any other game. Trying to get all the activision patches was great.

[GisherJohn24]

The 5200 version is far superior. Too bad not many people got to play that version...

[madmax2069]

This was one of my favorite games on the 2600.

[AustrianFilmGeek]

what a fun review! Way to stimulate the economy! :)

[23house23]

One of my favourite games of all time, among the greatest. Absolutely classic, so goddamn fun. Great review!

[sscott1000]

One of the first female programmers to make a game also - Carol Shaw.

[ignaciojork]

@twinturbocrusher me 2 man... me 2...

[gorance2000]

best game ever

[andrewsamantha]

Your funny man!!!

[zanuha]

Since when has space not been part of the real world?

[chaos120]

i remember this game

[bazfanv2]

Forget Atari the pioneers of video games, are you insane?, if not for Atari - there be nothing.

[Xegethra]

@bazfanv2 well...thered be something, it would just be a different company and a different set of games taking place instead as games were being developed before atari existed....

had it not been for the original cathode ray tube amusement device there might not be nothing....or like i said, something different, developed at a different time...well whatever alternate realities there could have been for games, this one happened and i like the old stuff a lot, still to this day i love retro games

[bazfanv2]

Mark is ultimate

[q1w2e3sefkan]

WTF is this!!! man! were in 2010 please forget atari!!!

[wiihome]

sir you have just said the gayest thing on the universe

[thisnameisflaged]

this was uploaded in 2008 not 2010 and if there was no atari there would be no xbox ps2 ps3 xbox 360 or any of that

[luuupin]

@q1w2e3sefkan say something like this is like say to me "man.. we're in 2010, please forget beatles..."

wth?

[Xegethra]

@q1w2e3sefkan no atari is still alive for one thing

also, these old games had more soul to them....your not a mindless samey mc samerson space marine in these games

[Xegethra]

@Xegethra and it doesnt matter when it was made....if you like it, stick with it

by your logic we shouldnt be wearing clothes, watching tv, or listening to music, or driving cars, living in cities, using tools to do stuff as all those things were developed years and years ago....yeah think before you say anything

[Xegethra]

@Xegethra its history, without hiastory, we cant develope further...we should never forget the past. if we do, we would come to a stand still. as the past, references what changes have been made...what works and what doesnt work, so we dont repeat the same mistakes because we didnt remember....we need the past. the oast had some good ideas that should not be forgotten. old ideas can be made a new...some old ideas work better than ones..another reason not to forget

[Xegethra]

@Xegethra we will always make mistakes, but we will make LESS mistakes by remembering the past. we need to remember so we can progress and not be stuck in an endless circle never progressing because we have no idea how to...we do have an idea how to, by what we have already done, and not done....

ok ill stop now.....

[Xegethra]

@Xegethra *new

[Xegethra]

@Xegethra *by your logic we should forget about those things, rather

[ignaciojork]

I'm 36 years old and played it till my fingers harden or break several joysticks. I had a great time with my childhood friends swapping cartridges on Saturday afternoons

[NufffRespect]

Nice review and awesome commentary! Brings back memories!

[Broadcast1255]

its not HD!

its HQ

[TheRealDoctorJest]

This was an EXCELLENT atari game... I love playing it on the Activision compilation on my PS2/PSP.... I played this game entirely too much when I was a tyke. :)

[XxJ0b3xX]

This can be honnestly called a good atari game.I loved it.

It had sollid gameplay,good graphics and great sound.

[Mrpantymelt]

Haha check out the River Raid ending vid on here, I thought the game looped but I was wrong. I did finish it once , ssssoooooooooooo hard!!! lol

[Mrpantymelt]

theres no purpose it just loops over and over. I wrapped this game once

[DeltaPhi79]

What is the name of the song again? I know the song but I forgot what it was...

[bcing75]

Ride of the Valkyries, from the opera "Die Walküre," by Richard Wagner.

[1PSPfan89]

This is a bit hard with my PSP

[MrNintendofan1985]

river raid was my first atari activision game

[cmarshall1018]

hey i live in ohio

[PhilRyanBob]

LOL nice comment at the end of the video about pendot. I Geuss you live in P.A. and know how bad they are at road repair, and most recently bridge repair...but what are you gonna do? anyway great video I'm trying to get into the Atari 2600 even though I'm 16, I feel like I missed out.

[jlpfinley]

OMG!!! This brings back so many memories. I loved this game. I was a kid when it came out. Wow,,,,what a great review too!! It looks so corny now, but at the time...the graphics were considered "cool"...Awesome video.

[laxplayaaa]

k so im only 12 and i nevery even new what a sega was tell not to long ago and i first saw these old gaming consoles and it kind of made me think. i said wow these are really cool and now im a huge fan of atari sega ninted.ect. so id like to say thanks to angry video game nerd check him out, and classic game good. thanks guys

[FootballPro97]

man you're reviews on the atari actually make me want to go play it again :D

[owensed01]

its why hes AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!

so dont go ahead and sell ur atari for chump change let it live on

[Frogster7]

@FootballPro97 you should

[TheEvalButterfree]

@FootballPro97 i grew up with pokemon emerald and halo ce...and i want to play this game

[alex76gr]

River Raid rocks my world since the first day i played it !

[ZILOGz80VIDEOS]

look for the manual on AtariAge that's how i got my StarMaster manual

[ZILOGz80VIDEOS]

when are you gonna review SpaceMaster... i bet you could achieve the supreme order of the space master

[alnaga991]

the best game in my alife

i was about to cry when i saw this video

[303bassline]

River Raid=Economic Stimulus Package neatly wrapped in an Atari cartridge! Genius!

[gutterguy720]

I used to play this when I was 3 or 4.

The water was purple on my tv.

I guess it was the Mississippi river.

[livingshadow29]

God damn it,I love this game!I just discovered it and I didn't expect to have fun playing an Atari game,because I never actually liked that generation of games.Viva River Raid!

[jordan178v]

broke a few joysticks playing this game

[nibelung34343]

broke a few RECORDS playing this game

[duffman13045]

wow now this brings back some serious nostalgia. as i was watching i started to remeber the patterns of what was coming up next, like when you had to slow down alot to be able to hit the ship infront of the bridge at a sharp angle. God i hate being old. id give anyting to go back to that time

[nooblet911]

thats some retro shooter right there

[harleykman]

Dear reviewer:

This is not an Atari game - it's Activision. And Cosmic Ark is not Activision - it's Imagic.

Story:

Your mission is to score as many points as possible on the "River of No Return", according to the game programmer Carol Shaw. She also adds that you should blow-up the fuel depots as you refuel, so you'll get maximum points.

[Atari2600Gamer]

Activision works for Atari

[Akantrex]

As I first saw this game, i just thought WTF? An activision 2600 game cartridge without a rainbow?!? But this is one of my favorite games, it´s just fuckin awesome :)

[harleykman]

The rainbow did not arrive until 1983.

Don't believe? Just compare Pitfall (1982) without a rainbow and Pitfall 2 (1984) that has the rainbow. Basically they changed their logo.

[Akantrex]

Ohh... I just have the rainbow in mind everytime I hear activision :D Damn, Activision was great on the 2600... :)

[TheoldNintendo]

@Akantrex sadly most of the games with the rainbow were ball cheese, I liked the older Activision

[kpa000]

these are withtout a doubt some of the best and funniest reviews on the web. nice.

it has to say something when i watch 5 minutes of looking at a light phaser just to hear you comment about it.

[1996jrb]

One of the best on atari 2600

[Reigam4]

this is my dad's favourite game ^^

[GemmaTCat]

viva river raid...

[dfortae]

Haha!  Hilarious commentary.

[Tailsown]

wow some one who brought back my favorite atari game in good memorys thx Classic Game Room HD. ur show is cool. u have a new fan=D

[thepingsound]

I LOVE THIS GAME!

[sandmanxo]

This is one of the 3 or 4 games from the 2600 that I really miss playing on a genuine atari. I think I might have to pick one up since my mom gave mnie away when I was 15 for reasons still unknown to me.

[RetroGameRoom]

i turned my comp into a genesis. if anyone wants the theme, pm me!

[JTX5]

If Activision would of made their own console with the games that they made, we would of never even seen the 5200

[gnarly79]

LOL that would have been a good thing! 7800 and 2600 were the best. 5200 had controller problems.

[Vkmies]

it had s few other little problems too. AVGN reviews it. check it out.

[basementaddix]

This game is classic...#2 to Ms. Pacman...nice one to pick

[Lemmykoopa54]

Do you see those little black and brown ships? I'm not sure if this is deliberate, but they look sorta like atari 2600's:D

[J0uzze]

You are so patriotic! :'( snif snif

[youknewwho]

that's THE game !

[D3STRUKT0R99]

I like the effect of the plane tipping when you move side to side. Very nice detail for an atari game

[hiPlasma]

great review!

[james1471]

I had had the game. You are flying in a canyon, and I always imagined it to be that some foreign force had invaded the grand canyon (why there would station all their troops there I wasn't sure and was too young to think about the why )

[allekks]

i used to play it without thinking for example why should the plane only fly over the water, it's a plane right?

and i hated that boing boing sound when you ran out of gas

[bazfanv2]

River raid deserves a place in the hall of fame.

[postmormon]

I could not agree more. Out of the 50 or so Atari games I had this was by far my favorite and I don't quite know why.

[BettyBlowtorchRocks]

great review river raid is probebly my favorite 2600 game

[notyoursavior78]

Awesome game. I never got to play this one as much as I wanted to back in the day. I didn't own it.

[Webins]

Wow, you're just soo much cooler than us older gamers, arent you?

Please amaze us some more with tales of your XBox, which I assume was developed by you, and not by people who grew up playing the Atari.

[Swedoman]

No what im saying is that well i grew up with atari and it was a break through with Gaming but when you think about it if you got to choose between Xbox360 or atari your going to have to pick Xbox

[Webins]

I'd choose Atari, if I wanted to go back and play old Atari games.

I'd pick the XBox if I wanted to play XBox games.

Younger people, never having played the old classics would not want to play them in the first place.

Older gamers, having payed them, would.

[Swedoman]

Yeah i see where your coming from well i'll just say this..I will never live out Atari or sega..Alex the kid was the greatest of it's time..but i still love Xbox and Thats it.Depends what floats you boat

[nooblet911]

thats true, its rare to find young players who like old games. playstation generation, what can you do.

[Frogster7]

@nooblet911 im 14 and adore old games, my collection only recently started. i got an atari 2600 snes my atair gots like 10 games and the snes got 6. i love that atari of mine. i bought it from edward mckays and they refurbished it and cleamed it when the person who sold it to em walked in, mine looks like its brand new

[nooblet911]

well then you're special, ha ha

[GiantMoth]

@Swedoman I would definitely choose Atari, although a 7800. Now THAT is a classic.

[oakleez]

haha, great review. love the rant at the end. spot on.

[popculturehero]

river raid takes place in the great nation of planebomya.

[boomstick545]

classic atari classic game room

[synthem]

Mark, we coulda used ya in 'Nam, boy. where were ya?

[AcousticDave94]

lmfao hat was asfunny as the old episodes, yo should've used the natinal anthem for that economy rant XD

[IronFury]

So River Raid is the answer on how to fix our current economy...I never would have thought of that.

[squishylikesmetal]

fantasic game and fantastic reveiw