Warlords (game)
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Warlords is a video game released by Atari for the Atari 2600 console in 1981. It features the use of paddle controllers instead of joysticks. The game resembles a combination of Breakout and Quadrapong (an early Atari arcade game) in the sense that not only could up to 4 players play the game at the same time, but also the "forts" in the four corners of the screen were brick walls that could be broken with a ball, or "mugget". Warlords use dual paddle controllers to allow up to four players to play a game at once.
[edit] Gameplay
There are four forts (one in each corner of the screen), distinguished by the four colors orange, light green, turquoise blue, and purple. Each player has a "platform" that deflects the mugget that bounces off all four sides of the video screen. The goal is to break through the other three players' walls and hit the target contained inside the fort (presumably the king or warlord). The last player left without having their flag hit gets 1 point. The number of computer players and points per game varies and can be selected with the console's "Game Select" option.
On game modes 1 through 10 (but not 11 through 23), a player's platform can "catch" the ball by holding down the button on the paddle controller, and "shoot" the ball in the direction that the platform faces by releasing the button. This is unlike most Pong and Breakout style games, where the ball can only be ricocheted. Also, when a player is defeated (computer or human), a "ghost" of his platform still exists on the field and will alter the trajectory of a direct shot off another player's platform. Thus, even when a player is defeated he can still have an effect on the outcome of the game. This ghost will briefly appear whenever a brick is destroyed.
Warlords is often cited as one of the more popular Atari 2600 titles by classic video gamers, and was voted the 25th greatest video game in the 100th issue of Game Informer (Aug. 2001 issue).[1]
[edit] Other versions
An arcade version of this game was also popular in 1980; it came in both an upright version and a cocktail version. The upright version uses a black and white monitor, and reflects the game image onto a mirror, with a backdrop of castles, giving the game a 3D feel. The upright version only supports up to two simultaneous players, which move through the levels as a team. The cocktail version is in color, and supported 1-4 players. 3-4 player games are free-for-alls, and the game would end as soon as one player wins. 1-2 player games play identical to the upright version. According to the Atari video game production numbers, 1014 uprights were made, and 1253 cocktails were produced.
In 2004, Bryan Edewaard developed and published a homebrew version of Warlords for the Atari 5200 and Atari 8bit computers named Castle Crisis.[2]
The video game Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete contains a hidden minigame called Lords of Lunar based on the concept of Warlords.
The game will be ported to the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade; a release date has not yet been announced.
