Gangster Alley

Does the following ever happen to you? You play an Atari 2600 game, decide it's terrible, and forget it ever existed. Years later, you grant the game another try, and discover the awful game is actually not so utterly awful. The game, it turns out, is merely okay. Okay, then!

Upon playing Gangster Alley today, I found not some regrettable shovelware title, as I recalled, but something charming and fun . . . to a degree.

The gameplay is point-and-shoot with a crosshair reticle. Fortunately, the targets are big and easy enough to hit, unlike in other such games (Crossbow for 2600).

The targets in Gangster Alley? A crew of crooks, displayed in an opening screen under "WANTED." Nice! During play, they rise behind the windows of a building. One crook looks like a frog, one looks like Murdoc from Gorillaz, and another looks like his face was attacked with pixels (it's a scar).

Don't shoot the woman, who looks like, well, I don't know what she looks like, but hardly a woman. Also avoid shooting the child, who is easy to spot with his smiley face. You want to keep your points to earn extra "bullet-proof vests" (lives).

Above, a Kaboom-style bomber, decked in black and white stripes, will occasionally lift a bomb. Shoot him before he throws it, or everything blows, and it's game over. Then he laughs at you with a delightful scaling animation.

The screen sometimes flips to a more challenging nighttime view, in which most all is dark, and you can only see for a short while after you fire. This variation in the gameplay is tense and welcome.

Pros: Decent gameplay; targets easy to hit; some challenge with avoiding civilians; night scene adds variety; a unique, if blocky, cast of characters; the constant threat of a potential bomb adds suspense; the opening "Wanted" scene and closing "Ha!" scene are charming.

Cons: The gameplay is fun, but only for awhile. It's easy to miss the bomber lifting the bomb, which means instant game over . . . I wish there was an audio cue. Was there? Speaking of audio, I had to turn it up and reset the game before I got sound, every time I turned it on. Whatever. And that building with windows? It's just a flat green field with random rectangles and squares. Those are some wacky windows.

Conclusion: If you've got a stack of underappreciated Atari carts, try one every now and again. Make a holiday of it: "Play Bad Games Day." Throw in some NES, Genesis, etc. (Most Odyssey 2 games qualify, in my opinion.) Discover which games are totally merely okay!

Final Review, Gangster Alley for Atari 2600:

If you've been playing and collecting Atari games for decades, this silver Spectravision cart is easy to overlook. Gangster Alley may just prove to be perfectly okay and a bit charming for you, too, at least for ten minutes.

I recommend Gangster Alley for Atari nerds and collectors.

Life game . . .

If you read this blog, thank you! I'm happy if anyone enjoys reading about Atari games as much as I do (that is the nerdiest thing I've ever said, I think). But, if you do read this blog, you may have noticed I've been gone for, like, I don't know, a year, maybe?

The website renewed for another year recently, which reminded me of one important fact: if I'm going to pay for this blog, I better follow through! Time for more posts.

Naturally, I have been playing Atari for the last year. I got deep into Montezuma's Revenge. Lately, I've hooked up the Supercharger, and given Dragonstomper the attention it deserves. I rounded up all the paddle games I own, and found some real winners. All of these entries require more time and detail than Gangster Alley, and I'm looking forward to writing them.

So why haven't I touched this blog for so long? I got caught up writing a novel, which now needs serious revision. I also got distracted with the creation of a fun activity book. And, as always, there are kids, and work, and a thousand other daily diversions, like, um, all the indie games and retro RPGs on my Switch.

Still, my epic Atari journey continues. Will I ever own and play and review 365 cartridges? Let's find out! Thank you for joining me on this silly, amazing quest.