The Advocate-Messenger from Danville, Kentucky • Page 22

6 THE ADVOCATE MESSENGER WEEKEND SECTION, Friday, January 28, 1983 1 Imagic Activision: originality is the key Atari 2600, Atari 400 and 800 computers. Commodore's VIC-20, NAP's Odyssey Two, CotecoVision and the Texas Instruments model 994A home computer. In fact, while Activision is still largely a purveyor of Atari-compatible fare, Imagic seems to be gravitating toward tike more sophisticated hardware formats, particularly Mattel's Intellivision. For the first half of this year, Imagic plans to unveil eight cartridges for use with Intellivision, including Dragonfire, which is available as of this writing. In February, Ice Trek, a game staged in the frozen tundra will make its debut.

In the fantasy-adventure category, Imagic offers Swords and Serpents, which is also scheduled for February release. Many of Imagic's new games have story lines based on real life situations. Two players race their rigs across the United States in Truckin', the player gets a rough ride down a roaring river in White Water, and armchair crooks can practice up with Safecracker. All of these titles will be available by May. Activision's Jim Levy recently buttressed his commitment to original, innovative software with his announcement that the Activision design team will be expanded to 31 members.

This group will design game software for a number of systems, including the Atari 2600, Mattel's Intellivision and Atari home computers. The computer software will be available later this year. Information regarding titles will be released in the spring. Meanwhile, Activision displayed nine new games at the Consumer Electronics Show, one of which, Happy Trails, will be issued By MICHAEL BLANCH ET While most late entrants into the home video game software market feel licensed, high visibility titles will be the key to survival, two established firms Imagic and Activision are standing by their commitment to develop original, innovative products. And both are, to varying degrees, expanding their line to include games for systems other than the Atari 2600.

Imagic President William F.X. Grubb commented: "(Imagic is) determined to design games which will stretch the capability of the game hardware to the limit." In the past, Imagic introduced products for use with the Atari 2600 only. But by year's end, Imagic games will be compatible with seven different hardware formats, including Mattel's Intellivision, the for use with Mattel's Intellivision. The remaining titles will be compatible with the Atari 3600. Later this month, the Centipede-like Spider Fighter will become available.

Sea Quest will hit the Shelves in February, followed by Oink, due out in late March. In April, Activision will unveil Gary Kitchen's Keystone Capers. An accomplished game designer. Kitchen adapted Donkey Kong to the Atari 2600 for Coleco and designed Space Jockey for U.S. games.

Dolphin, the premier effort from designer Matt Hubbard, is also scheduled for April release. Hubbard, an accomplished singer, songwriter and synthesizer player, has made sound an integral part of game play in Dolphin without the aid of a voice synthesis module or sound effects generator. 1W3 By Tribune Co. Syndicate. Will high-tech mean better home games? the Supercharger with 8K game cartridges.

Wings and Tunnel Runner from CBS and The Pink Panther from U.S. Games are all stored on an 8K game chip that greatly increases the computing power and graphic capabilities of the Atari 2600. Wings, a flight simulation game, puts the player in the cockpit of a jet fighter. The object is to protect your airspace from enemy cruise missiles, while minding a realistic array of standard aircraft instruments. In comparison with other first-person games that simulate flight.

Wings is on a par with Jumbo Jet Pilot by Thorn EMI and Phaser patrol, Starpath's flagship game. Tunnel Runner, another first person game, drops the player inside a maze. To check bearings, an overhead view of the playfield can be brought on screen at any time. The object is to navigate five maze levels, avoiding obvious, and not so obvious, hazards along the way. Tunnel Runner By MICHAEL BLANCHET It is estimated that 200 to 300 new games will be released this year.

The quantity of available titles is staggering, but are quality and technical finesse keeping pace? Companies such as CBS Games, U.S. Games and Coleco are plugging new technologies in hopes of boosting consumer enjoyment of video games. At last summer's Consumer Electronics Show, Starpath introduced the Supercharger a hardware add-on that increases the computing power of the Atari 2600 50-fold. The Supercharger, an oversized game cartridge, requires the services of a cassette tape player to operate. Supercharger games are stored on audio cassettes and loaded into the Supercharger via an audio cable.

Hence, the limitations of the Atari 2600, long thought insurmountable, were broken. Now both U.S. Games and CBS Games have indirectly followed in the footsteps of game characters is altered by how far and how long the joystick is held away from the center position. A rocker switch on the unit's housing will serve as a remote screen selector for upcoming U.S. Games software.

This is the most accurate and versatile controller I have yet used. To insure its position as' an industry innovator, Coleco has enlisted the talents of John Dykstra, president of Apogee Inc. Dykstra's organization, noted for its work in movie and film special effects, will collaborate with Coleco engineers on the design of video games and computer software. Apogee's most recent work was seen in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" and "Firefox." Dykstra won an academy award for his special effects in Star Wars and an Emmy for his work on the TV series "Battlestar Galactica (C) 19X3 By Tribune Co. Syadkale.

lac. enjoys one distinction over other maze games. Preset, memorized patterns are of no use. Each time the game is reset, a new set of mazes are generated. Both Tunnel Runner and Wings will cost about $35, which is fair pricing considering their sophistication.

Price-wise though, the Supercharger, with its cost-efficient cassette storage system, is the better value. At press time, U.S. Games' Pink Panther was still in prototype stage, but graphically it is the best recreation of any licensed property thus far. The lanky step and the devilish grin have been captured. Delivery of this 8K game is slated for May in an Atari-compatible format.

ColecoVision and Intellivision versions will follow in the second half of the year. U.S. Games will also market an advanced joystick controller for use with the Atari 2600. Housed in a pistol grip handle, the controller features self-centering action, as well as variable speed control. The speed of i T-- -i- iw -Vrtiirw if-1 nT-ir -iifnTii -t i i-f it tin nn ndi mr fr-ntfn 1 Newhart, alias 'Mr.

Nice Guy', is a notorious worrier telephone syndrome: He was afraid it might stop ringing. He accepted CBS's long standing offer to return for a pilot. Barry Kemp, late of "Taxi," devised the situation of Bob as a former comedy writer who operates a New England inn. "Newhart" is one of the few ratings hits among new series of the 1982-83 season. Between rehearsals at CBS Studio Center, the 53-year-old Newhart reflects on his career.

"Am I shy? Yeah, I guessrou could say that," he says. "I see myself in my son, Tiramy, who is 15. Rob, my older boy, is 19, and be is a normal, outgoing teen-ager. But Tim my is quiet, the way 1 was growing up. I used to be able to amuse myself.

I'd sit alone and think of things that would make me laugh." He admitted it was tough when he switched from accounting to entertaining, and says that during the first two years, he did his routines "staring into space." "Then I started peeking through the curtain to check the audience and figure out whom I could play to." be said. A Catholic from Chicago, he seems to have an Everyman appeal that Americans connect with. His album of monologues, which reflected the average citizen's befuddlement from life's outrages, made him-a star in 1960. He had his own variety show on television, drew top salaries in Las Vegas and concerts and appeared in movies. He began "The Bob Newhart Show" in 1972.

It is remembered as one of the classic sitcoms of television history. It ended in 1978. Why? "Because Bob Newhart didn't want to do it anymore." he says. "I said so the previous year, but nobody believed me. I'd had it I felt burned out.

It was more mental than anything. I kept saying, 'Didn't we do the same show in the second So Newhart quit. He made two movies. "First Family" and "Little Miss Marker," which he says "weren't really released they went directly to airplanes." A television movie, "Marathon," also fell short of his expectations. Still, he continued to make money from concerts and clubs, but he suffered the By BOB THOMAS Associated Press Writer HOLLYWOOD (AP) Bob Newhart recently refused an interview request by a scandal tabloid, and now he's expecting to read the headline: "TV'S MR.

NICE GUV IS NOT THAT NICE." A notorious worrier, Newhart muses over what the paper might dredge up. "I support my parents in Chicago so they can print 'STAR'S FAMILY LIVE IN I talk to my sisters. I have no kids on drugs. I haven't had a 502 (drunk driving arrest)," he says. "I've had the same wife for 20 years, and I don't fool around I wouldn't dare.

Ginny has told me if she ever catches me, it won't be just a knock to the temple, it will be a slow lingering death something like what they did to the medieval court clowns to assure the virginity of the maids-in-waiting, only with a dull knife." Newhart is a self-confessed anomaly. He is a star whose personal life is as normal as an accountant's, which he once was. He is also a comedian who doesn't fit the normal pattern. Bob Newhart: doesa't fit a pattern.