BOSS Homebrew review for Atari 2600
Back in late 2016 There was an Indiegogo campaign to raise money for a new homebrew Atari 2600 game being developed which goes by the tit
le of “BOSS”. It raised $1210 with the help of 30 backers. I purchased the collectors set which included a signed copy of the games manual and the digital package.
There was a stretch goal to create Super Boss for PC had the amount of $1500 been reached.
Brought to us from the makers of Conjoined and “dead of knight”.
Reading from the Indiegogo website:
BOSS is a single-player shoot em up that is cut from a slightly different cloth. You pilot your ship against one massively powerful boss ship at a time. These enemies vary in size and behavior and get stronger as you go.
The one constant is that they’re tough! It’s a constant battle of attrition that tests your reflexes, patience, and planning. Before you know it, these titans are filling the screen with their shots, and mixing up their patterns. It’s the equivalent of a bullet-hell shmup on the classic Atari!
I don’t think anybody expected to be blown away by this game, but what they did expect was for it to be delivered on time. I just received my copy of the game in late January 2018, when it was originally promised the be delivered on December 15th, 2016.
I believe most of the backers having played other gemintronic games pretty much knew what to expect from this homebrew. I like the title screen and the Giant scrolling word “BOSS” which scrolls across the screen from right to left in the beginning and in between levels.
The “ship” you are piloting looks nothing like a ship as depicted in the manual. Instead, it resembles a waddling penguin that can shoot bullets out of its beak. It also sort of resembles someone wearing a hoodie. The “BOSS” that you fight against shoots down some kind of blocky lines which are not explained and SLOWLY make their way down the screen, must be avoided, and eventually disappear. Also, there are random torpedoes that are shot down toward you and also must be actively avoided.
These torpedoes unfortunately are slightly phallic in shape and color, and contain what looks the like letters “HOR”. I don’t think this was intentional and I might just be seeing what unintentionally looked like letters as part of the missile. I was unable to draw any connection to what those letters could represent. Each time you fire and strike the “Boss” you are awarded 10 points to your score. You have a red health meter on the bottom left portion of the screen. Your health starts out strong then depletes, and from what I experienced, can never be replenished. The “Boss” also has a red health meter, bottom right. When you destroy a “Boss” you are rewarded with the opportunity to destroy a new “Boss”. Wash, rinse, repeat. That is Boss in a nutshell. This game is about avoiding all objects on the screen at all times and trying to see how long you can last until you run out of energy. The game’s manual offers little in actually explaining any gameplay, instead preferring to stick to the game’s lore. From what I can tell there are no game variations and the difficulty switches are not used. There is no explanation as to who the person displayed on the title screen is supposed to represent. Are you playing as him? Who knows.
On a positive note the Box, Cartridge, and Manual are all nicely done. I like how the manual was printed to look like a manila folder. The artwork is nice and grabs your attention.
There is some fun to be had playing “Boss”. Dodging all the objects on the screen can be quite challenging and might take a bit of strategy to last a long time. I would have liked for there to have been few more different types of screens or gameplay variations thrown, in once and a while to mix it up.
The game was published by Gemintronic.com and I don’t believe it’s still for sale,
www.gemintronic.com
Youtube Original Post Date: 02/03/2018
