At first glance, Subterranea, makes you think that perhaps Imagic dropped the ball or got lazy, but like many games for the Atari 2600, you have to play for a little bit before all of the charms of the game are full revealed. I received Subterranea as a birthday gift from my Grandmother way back in 1984 and was not exactly thrilled. I had not really heard of the title, although I knew that Imagic usually meant quality, and when I fired up it appeared to me to be yet another Defender style clone. This would not have bothered me that much, but I had gone through a heavy Defender phase the summer before and was ready to move on. Still it was a new game, so I sat down to play it, and I am glad I did. The game is somewhat like Defender, it has you move back and forth on a horizontal screen shooting things, but this game has a twist. You need to move deeper underground as you play, and the enemies you will encounter will change as you go down each level.
Subterranea for the Atari 2600
Subterranea for the Atari 2600
Subterranea for the Atari 2600
At first glance, Subterranea, makes you think that perhaps Imagic dropped the ball or got lazy, but like many games for the Atari 2600, you have to play for a little bit before all of the charms of the game are full revealed. I received Subterranea as a birthday gift from my Grandmother way back in 1984 and was not exactly thrilled. I had not really heard of the title, although I knew that Imagic usually meant quality, and when I fired up it appeared to me to be yet another Defender style clone. This would not have bothered me that much, but I had gone through a heavy Defender phase the summer before and was ready to move on. Still it was a new game, so I sat down to play it, and I am glad I did. The game is somewhat like Defender, it has you move back and forth on a horizontal screen shooting things, but this game has a twist. You need to move deeper underground as you play, and the enemies you will encounter will change as you go down each level.