Having finally collected all of the Odyssey 2 titles released in North America during it's commercial run from the late 1970s through the early 1980s, I’ve turned my attention once again to the exploding homebrew scene. I have also started looking out for the famous Parker Brothers four - rare arcade adaptations of Qbert, Popeye, Frogger, and Super Cobra that were only released in Europe and Brazil for the Odyssey 2..
I had hit the Odyssey 2 homebrew scene back in the now-somehow-ancient 2000s, grabbing essentials like Kill the Attacking Aliens, Planet Lander!, and Mr. Roboto!, but stopped grabbing them for about a decade, since I had poor controllers.
A few years back I picked up K.C.'s Escape! as it was a limited release, complete with a full box and manual, and goodies inside including a plush K.C.! Now that I have good controllers again, it was time to start grabbing Odyssey 2 games. Here’s what I’ve added:
Amok!
First among Odyssey 2 homebrews, Amok! was created in 1998 by John Dondzila complete with a box and everything. That puts the gap between Power Lords, the last Odyssey 2 release, and Amok! at 15 years. This release ended the drought forever, and filled in an obvious gap in the Odyssey library which never got a Challenger Series-style translation of Berzerk!
That's right, Amok! is an Odyssey 2 version of the arcade classic Berzerk, or if your knowledge of computer games allows, Amok! is a port of the Commodore VIC 20 Berzerk knock-off of the same name. I actually had the sequel Super Amok for the VIC and loved it.
After John Dondzila stopped selling it, it was later re-released by a group called the 2600 Connection, which issued a "Rack Test" version of the game. At the top of the cartridge, under the traditional Odyssey 2 handle, is a small switch which allows for a slow but functional level selection. Toggle the switch left and press fire and the game rotates through its levels. When the player gets to the level they want (they are numbered) they toggle the switch back to the right and press fire to start on that level.
I am not sure why this was included, but whatever, arcade fanatics may find its inclusion a cool feature.
So how does it play? The character moves fast and shoots slow, and the indestructible Smileybot (the Amok version of Otto) shows up in seconds to chase the player. There is not time to meticulously clear the level of the robots, who move and shoot sporadically enough for the game to not be Robotron, but this game is hard.
I ordered Amok! from Ebay, and it comes in a nice slick plastic box with a manual. The seller, Tim Duerte, included a catalog of other Odyssey 2 homebrews he was selling, and my mind was blown by what I saw there. A few months later I ordered the next game.
Wildlife!
There was a screenshot in the catalog that I got with Amok, and the one I was looking at in stunned amazement was for Wildlife!, because it looked like the Atari VCS classic Pitfall, somehow on the Odyssey 2! The top half of the screen was the tree canopy and a campfire, the bottom half a tunnel clearly underwater. The character looked like the usual pre-built Odyssey 2 guy, but with the Indiana Jones fedora. This guy is called Josue' Jorge though, and he's looking for the Holy Grail.
Made in 2014 by Rafael Cardoso down in Brazil, Wildlife is really more like Adventure than Pitfall, but it is AN ACTUAL, COMPLETABLE ADVENTURE GAME on the Odyssey 2, something I thought cold never be done with the limits of the system. Like Marty said, "I gotta check this out, Doc."
There are only three screens in the jungle across the whole map, but below all that is a maze of water filled caverns to navigate to reach the treasure, that goes to a depth of three screens itself. This makes the entire map 12 screens, keeping in mind that each of the 9 screens underwater are mazes unto themselves. THIS IS AN ACTUAL, COMPLETABLE ADVENTURE GAME ON THE ODDYSSEY 2 AND I AM VERY HAPPY HENCE THE ALL CAPS.
Ok, let me calm down a bit and break this down. The player starts at the upper left corner of the map at the campfire screen, with a score of 5000 counting down. This campfire is annoying because timing the jump over it when it is low is very touchy. Should the player miss this jump, they are deposited back at the starting space west of the campfire with a loss of more points.
The next screen over is the opening to the underwater maze, guarded by 2 crabs. Touching them will send you back to the bad place on the other side of that annoying campfire, and a loss of points. The next and final screen to the right has a "wild native" guarding a key, but he is easy to jump past and back again. From the campfire and the wild native screens, the player can see treasure chests below.
After getting the key, it's time for a long swim in the underwater maze. Fortunately, there is no air meter, and Josue' Jorge can apparently hold his breath for nearly 5000 points. Dodging the crabs to get to the maze wasn't too hard either.
The nine screens that make up the underwater maze are mirrored down the middle. Taking the right side delivers the player to the chest under the wild native screen, to the left, under the campfire screen. So here is the twist: randomly, one of the two chests is a trap, so the player can loose a lot of time if they select the wrong one first and get teleported back to that super annoying campfire.
So what is in the maze? Clownfish cross the screen at a certain level and must be avoided, but that is easy. No, the real foe here is the walls. Touch one, and it's back to the campfire and the chest resets with the Grail in it. So, with only the time limit as pressure to hurry underwater, the player must be very very careful to avoid contact with any walls down there. I seem to remember Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the NES being like this.
Once they come back and pass the crabs and wild native again, the game is won. That is because Wildlife! is a AN COMPLETABLE ADVENTURE GAME ON THE ODYSSEY 2 AND I CAN'T BELIEVE I HAVE LIVED LONG ENOUGH TO SEE SUCH GLORY!!!!
Super Cobra
An Ebay gift card as a thoughtful gift from a friend led me take the plunge, and in spite of not speaking Portuguese, I purchased a complete Super Cobra for the Odyssey 2. You see, even though the Odyssey died in North America, in Brazil and Europe it held on longer. This brought Parker Brothers to release four of their licensed games, already adapted to Atari and others in the U.S.A, to the Odyssey 2 for those markets.
When I first read years ago that there was an adaption of the arcade classic Super Cobra for the Odyssey 2, I thought "There's no way they pulled off that game for the Odyssey 2." Why? Super Cobra is a side scrolling shooter, and the Odyssey cannot side scroll at all, as far as I know. It's good with single screens and that was all we ever saw back in the day.
Well, they did it.
The chopper scrolls left to right, and when the player reaches the right side of the screen, everything freezes, scrolls over one frame at a time while beeping out a pleasant tone, and then unfreezes with the chopper now back on the left. The enemies are numerous and the caverns challenging but they made it work.
Another technical hurdle the designers overcame was the Odyssey 2 controller only having one fire button, where in the arcade Super Cobra had a fire button and a bomb button. In this version, a quick tap fires and holding in the button for a few seconds and releasing causes a bomb to drop.
Throw in your multiple lives and the classic high score entry found in Challenger Series games, and Super Cobra is a fantastic translation of the arcade game. The packaging is a sturdy but weird plastic case that flips up to open. The manual is in Portuguese.
Nothing could have saved the Odyssey 2 from its demise, but if Parker Brothers had gotten this one out earlier in the console's life cycle, it would have been a hit.
